Yoshimaru Ramen, The Big Shot & Lower East Side Tacqueria

Bit of a ramen craving this weekend so found my way to the other side of the city where expats play - holland village. 

Yoshimaru Ramen Bar serves up Hakata style ramen. IE - a rich and creamy (yes, that's right CREAMY), pork-bone broth with straight-ish chewy noodles. I don't believe I've actually ever had broth this thick before while eating ramen - it was almost as thick as gravy. J & I were properly stuffed after. She had the black sesame broth and I had the peanut paste & chili oil broth. YUM. 

We made our way to back to the city, first to Funan to hunt for a new lens, then walked the busy streets of Little India to look for a quiet coffee place to pass the sweltering afternoon. There was an article that came out a few weeks back about Jalan Besar being the new jaunt for hipsters coffee enthusiasts so wanted to see what place we could find. 

The Big Shot was the cafe we ended up in. Ordinary interiors with a standard selection of cakes - the place wasn't trying too hard, hence wasn't crawling with people looking to get in on a new "it" place. In other words, it was perfect. The Greek frappe  (espresso shot mixed with with brown sugar then poured into cold milk) I had was yums so I was happy to find afternoon refuge here.

Lower East Side Taqueria was where I jumped to next - for a weekly sisterly catchup. A relatively new tex-mex joint in Katong where R & I wanted to check out a few weeks back. The waiter who was serving us was a little in over his head so that was rather amusing but it was a lovely evening none-the-less. No frills, tasty food for a decent price. I finally got my hands on some horchata - which I've been craving since I first tried it in Chicago years ago. 

Ending my Sunday with a bit of a powerwalk around the neighborhood. To clear the mind and gear up for a busy two weeks. 

Cooks & Queens

Remotely coordinating a bridal shower and bachelorette required juggling time,  unnecessary irritations and expectations (mine & those I was working with).

No matter what it would take, my personal goal was to make sure M would have a memorable time. Suffice, to say, I believe we achieved just that!

We dubbed the event: Cooks & Queens.

Cooks was M's bridal shower. 

We wanted a Martha-Stewartesque theme as M does love cooking and all things related to the home. Ingredients to this part of the day included:

• Cooking class with all of M's girlfriends. We did this at The Cookery in BGC - a cute little place that is perfect for this sort of thing. Their kitchen is a lot of fun, and there is a space wherein you can enjoy what you eat after. This worked out perfectly for us as it doubled as a venue to do the more traditional part of a bridal shower - gift giving and games.  
• We jazzed up the place a bit with lots of personal touches - a special vintage-looking apron for the bride, placemats / serviettes / serving dishes in the appropriate colours, speciality popcorn for pica-pica, big 'ol coffee cans stuffed with bright flowers, baking bowls filled with equally cheerful fruit, bunting on the wall, give-aways also in the right theme (large box graters filled with delicious chocolates from kuwait and a set of ref-magnets we printed with kitchen themed life quotes)
• Another special give away from the bride -  book which we filled with "recipes" from all other women in Maica's life
• Gift-giving and Games - what bridal shower is complete without this? The most fun ones I feel are the ones that are slightly more personalized - hence a trivia game about M. Hehe. We had gifts as well that were kitchen-themed. 

Queens was M's bachelorette.

We took it beyond strippers and R-rated games and went instead to a drag club! This was done at Club Mwah on Boni Ave. The venue looked like versace-exploded inside with its large gold lamps and zebra-print carpet. But the show? My goodness, the show was brilliant! Talent-filled, varied and 200% entertainment. 

• M of course needed to spend the evening in the usual crown & sash
• We brought the groom with us! Well, more like masks which we gave everyone to wear. 
• Alcohol (need I clarify this further?) 
• The venue was in on it as well!  Towards the end of the evening, one of the male dancers dressed in a white wedding tux and a mask with the groom's face came to dance with her bride-to-be. 

Few other things that helped stitch the whole day together:

• A personalised invitation to all attendees which covered all the details for the day
• A hotel room near the cooking venue - so we could quickly get ready for the evening, and then retire to at the end of the night

Chocolates & kitchen life-quote ref magnets in grater boxes

Flowers in coffee cans, placemats, popcorn and serving dishes

The Cookery's lovely set up in BGC

Ingredients for one of many things we made that day

All ready to go! Now to surprise the bride to be

More of The Cookery details

Taking notes as we listened to the chef

Demonstration

Mediterranean chicken on 3-garlic pasta

Each of the team's lemon & parsley gougeres - lol from decent to fail! all tasted delicious regardless 

Apple pie - without a bottom crust. Hehehe

Amazing talent at Club Mwah

Zebra!

Domestic Diaries: Kitchen Adventures

When people ask me if I can cook, my ready answer is no. To be fair - I think at the back of my mind I always knew if I HAD to, I probably wouldn't be too bad at it.

I definitely enjoy the AFTER of cooking - I mean, who doesn't love food now a day? It has truly become an art in itself. But the actual cooking? I've never had a burning desire to experiment and whip up any culinary creations.

With my new living situation though, it made sense to try throwing something together other than salad leaves with boiled egg. I could at least cook without filling my entire studio with smoke (just my living room now.. hehe) and would be feeding more than just myself. I find groceries to be rather expensive here, but for the most part, think it comes out much cheaper than eating out every day. If not cheaper, than at least healthier.

So trying is what we've been doing!

We have a very no-frills kitchen - oven toaster, microwave and induction cooker with just enough counter space left to rotate between dish drying and chopping stuff up on our little chopping board.

But we've made do!

My prerequisite for recipes is minimum prep and cooking time with maximum taste - which will explain all the pastas and sandwiches (ok.. sandwiches technically aren't things you "cook".. but you get what I mean). I know this is a no-no for lots of serious cooks, but I am so glad there are lots of "short-cuts" available at the grocery store to help a girl out!

It's been lots of fun actually! And I know both roomie and myself look forward to slowly but steadily increasing our repertoires

Anyone have any simple recipes to share?

Wheat penne with tuna, tomatoes, mushrooms & freshly grated parmigiano regianno

More penne (my favourite if you haven't guessed yet!) - this time as a lamb sausage aglio oglio

Wheat spaghetti with spanish sardines & sundried tomato pesto

Focaccia with goat cheese, grilled eggplant, tomato and arugula 

Turkey on wheat with dijon, arugula and tomtatoes

Penne (yes - my favourite if your haven't noticed by now!) with parsley, lemon and sautéed chicken in garlic

More of the same eggplant sandwich - this time wrapping it up so we could bring it to work

Rica's chicken curry 

Rosemary chicken breasts with gouda, stewed tomatoes, mushroom and eggplant

Domestic Diaries: on Flatmates & Family

It's been 4 months since my baby sister moved to singapore, 4 months since I gained both a new flat and flat mate. 

Our deal was to live together as equally as we could, not holding the older/younger sister role over each others heads. 

Ya'll curious to know how we've been faring? Lol. Sorry to disappoint all you drama-seekers out there, but we are managing quite well!  Just the right amount of curiosity and interest in each others lives, complete trust that we both will act as the responsible and compassionate persons we were raised to be. We never forget we are family, but we also don't forget we are also individuals trying to carve our own legacies in this lifetime. 

I'd be lying though if I said it's been a COMPLETE cake walk. As someone who considers her personal space incredibly sacred, living with someone whose living/neatness standards are ehm.. more relaxed than mine has been a challenge. 

I've tried (trying!) all sorts of tactics to get us in the same frame of mind - written rules, reminders stuck on walls, nagging, reminding nicely, sarcasm, honest conversations.. and one of my latest (not so) genius idea - be a complete and total slob in hopes the mess would get so disturbing she'd clean up after the both of us. 

How we keep (or don't keep! hee hee) our bed and bathrooms is really our own business. But shared spaces like our little living area has become somewhat of a battlefield.. for me at least. 

One would think leading and living by example would enough. But keeping my own bedroom neat seems to have a different effect - makes her forget about the clutter outside, and just draws her more into my own room! Truth be told, when I'm not in need of my recharging and alone time, having her hangout at my room is a great joy and comfort. BUT making room for her in my room also means making room for her laptop, laptop desk, her glass of water, her coffee mug, an assortment of cables and chargers, and other random bits and bobs of what not. And though she will eventually leave my room, SHE DOESN'T TAKE ANY OF HER ITEMS BACK WITH HER. 

To be utterly fair though, there has been slow and steady progress.  Maybe another few rounds of combining all above tactics and she'll be hounding me to clean up? When that day comes, it will definitely warrant a follow up post!

But other than that, and beyond having a new roomie, having my baby sister around has been great. We're definitely learning lots from each other in more ways than we know it, and her energy and enthusiasm is a great balance to my steady demeanor.  Comfort, support and security really don't come in any better package than family. 

And she arrives!

Our firs dinner together - some yummy beef hor fun from our neighborhood kopitiam

Settling into her new room

Domestic duties

Celebrating her first day as a member of the rat race ;-)

Her addiction: milk tea

Dinner with family (and some crazy butter crab!)

Sistership Sunday - going out for some "pinoy" food and dessert

Sistership Saturday: Katong's famous laksa for dinner then writing / reading / class preparing at a coffeesho

Dinner with visiting relatives

Bumming 

Brunch.. for lunch

AMR Invasion!

Woah, I just realized I HAVEN'T BLOGGED ABOUT MY MOST RECENT VISITORS!!!! Considering I've been wanting these guys to visit the minute I moved here, you would've thunk I'd remember to document this momentous occasion the minute they left! 

But anyway yes... so a few days after arriving from Thailand, I cleaned up, stocked up the fridge and turned my loft into a big bedroom in preparation for AMR's arrival.

A&M only stayed for a few days; so in those few days we packed in the itinerary. They wandered about on their own during the weekdays and we would meet up in the evening. I brought them to many of the restaurants places I've been wanting to share with them since I first experienced them, as well as explored some new places together for the first time. 

The pace slowed down a little with only R around. She extended for a bit wherein she bummed and explored on her own as well as with friends. She got to do a lot of soul searching and well.. it seems to have serendipitously opened up some doors for her in the process. 

It was ridiculously awesome having them come and step into my every day reality. Sooner or later (sooner for some!) though, we'll all get to live in the same reality again and it will be brilliant! 

Can't wait! 

Credit to M for many of the photos in this post! 

Mozza Pizzeria never fails me

Jurong Bird Park for the first time! It was.. full of birds

Last pic before M & A flew back to Manila

With my family... ran into other visiting family! 

Silly silly

Dindin with family

Making our way to the Night Safari!

Another favorite

You can't leave SG without having some of this

Dindin with my friends

Class A sandwiches with M around! 

Got to bring them to my favorite Indian resto!

Bugis walking

Joanna + Joanno 

Indo with old JKT friends

Margaritas & Mexican with R