Travels, Travels and Travels

I have been so caught up with my 'activities' in Singapore lately and hanging out with 'da gang' back in KL that I've got no time to blog. ** more like the lazy bug strikes**

I've been pretty excited the last couple of days mainly due to a few reasons:

1) 9 days more till ... (let's keep this a mystery for now, k!). After all the hiccups and what is, what not, my wait's finally paying offffff!!!

2) a last minute self-invite brings me on a family trip to Tokyo in October. Yippieee I'm estatic but going to be very broke after that. Been sorting out the air flights, my hotels etc. A colleague recommended this http://www.31op.com/iruma/foreign/index_en.html over the Gotemba outlets. Planning a trip to the hot springs in Hakone too! Wauw!!!

3) Got round to confirming the dates and countries for our biggest trip so far - to Europe (out of Asia we go), with the YellowChimp of course. 2011!!! All that Enrich frequent flyer miles expiring in 2011 will come in to good use finally!

4) Someone's also getting married in Bali in June 2011! And I'm invited....ha ha. Bloody awesome! Giving me an excuse to go on a short trip.

No more bags, no more shoes, well, less clothes for the remaining of the year.

Adios! Just 3 more days and back to KL for the long weekend! And 9 more days till I'm finally back in KL and enough of Singapore!

Kazu @ Cuppage Plaza, Singapore

Met up with more Uni mates last Sunday for Japanese - Kazu Sumi-Yaki Restaurant in Cuppage Plaza for dinner. Was told there are 2 seatings due to the small layout of the resuarant and never ending crowd. We opted for the 7pm one.

This place came highly recommended by Jules and a few other friends...

Starter off with cabbages with some miso sauce (on the house) as appetizers.

The lady recommended us to try their Kodai - i think it's sea-bream sashimi. Very fresh and the portion, a wee bit too little comparing the size of the fish. SGD 38.

Garlic Rice - sort of a must have in most Japanese meals.

This must have been one of my favourites for the night. A whopping SGD35 for this HUGE oysters to be shared between the 3 of us. Raw oysters topped with a tangy like sauce. Very appetizing indeed! The oyster must have been about the size of my palm or even bigger!

We had 3 sticks of Enoki Wagyu - yum yum. The Wagyu was grilled just right - not too tough, not too raw and definitely not stingy on the enoki.

Almost everything tasted just about right in the place. Here's the bacon wrapped with oysters. Now, this is something I've barely seen in KL.

Then we had the standard stuff people normally order in Japanese grills, pork slices wrapped with Asparagus but nevertheless, yummylicious!

Something which I would strongly recommend if you are not put off by the thought of having a cow's tongue in your mouth! Crunchy, lightly salted and grilled exactly to my liking.

Remember our Kodai sashimi from earlier on. Now here's what they did with the bones. Deep fried it till golden brown and you can then savour the whole damn fish!

We saw many tables ordering this and being the gluttony us, we had to have it too! It's a sort of meat and vege minced into a ball. Nothing special or maybe by this time I was already stuffed to my throat!

This, I think it's called Kamo Nasu Tori - brinjal topped with minced meat & gravy. I like eggplants, especially those grilled ones with the miso sauce in Jap restaurants, so this definitely was something I enjoyed a lot as well.

Ta-dah and of course the highlight of the night, something Jules raved about from the start of the meal till the end, the Foie Gras. Slightly crisp on the outside and very very juicy once you bite into it. Just awesome stuff- but not something everyone would enjoy, especially if you can't stand the smell of duck/ goose.

Bill came up to about SGD180. I guess considering our foie gras and wagyu, it's not too bad.

Here are my ratings for Kazu at 5, Koek Rd #04-05 Cuppage Plaza (+65 6734 2492)

Food: 8/10

Service: 6.5/10

Ambience: 6/10

Price: 7/10

Will I go back there again..definitely ..need some change from my staple beer and wings at Ice Cold Beer yeah!

Universal Studios - Singapore

I had no plans whatsoever to visit Universal Studios in Singapore mainly because of the bad reviews they have been getting from my friends and their friends.

And of course I also felt that with the major attractions such as the Bettlestar Galatica Cylon and Human closed, SGD72 was not worth the money for a weekend. Nevertheless, last Sunday, I was still suckered to go there. Tickets were fully booked when I checked online, but thank god for awesome clients, they managed to secure 3 tickets for us.

I must say that Universal Studios Singapore is rather small - but many people have asked...compared to HK Disneyland? I really don't know -never been there. They have The Lost World, Far Far Away, Madagascar, Ancient Egypt, Sci-Fi Tour, New York, and Hollywood.

This is a picture in Far Far Away...


And my fav. character of all time...SHREKKKIIIEEEEE...the 4D show was pretty awesome. Totally worth to go expereince it!

Muhammad saw the picture below and said somehow I look like one of the penguins with my clothes and all.....!!!!

And here's one in Hollywood.

We went on most of the opened and more thrilling rides as well as managed to catch some shows...not those kiddies onesss.

Waited till 1pm for the Waterworld show. Pretty impressive I must say and rather action packed. At 2, we managed to catch a musical in Hollywood - with all the Universal Studio Monsters like Dracula and all that...

Although it is relatively small, I must say that they've done a pretty good job with it so far....and no complaints about that although few of the rides were not opened. My fav must have been the 'Revenge of the Mummy', where we had to queue for about 25 minutes. Roller coaster plunging into the darkness...reads the description on the brochure...

They give you a SGD5 retail voucher and SGD 5 meal voucher in the ticket package but trust me SGD 5 retail voucher almost buys you nothing. We had some burgers in 'Hollywood' - nothing to shout about but not crap either!

Overall the 4 1/2 hrs was well spent but once would definitely be enough for anyone cintemplating visiting US at this time....

To end the post, here's a picture of the 'people of universal studios'..

Till my next post folks!!

Tawandang Microbrewery @ Dempsey

Did some research on food + beer places on Dempsey and decided to head to Tawandang
microbrewery with 2 others. Read from blogs and their website, that it is a Thai-German microbrewery with modern Thai food.

Got there around 8 and it was already packed for a Thursday night. Thank god we made a booking.


They had a pretty good life band I must admit - and it being a microbrewery, people get 'high' and 'drunk' fast and before 9, people were already dancing to songs like YMCA.

Always start off Thai food with fish cakes, one of my favourites and must haves in Thai restaurants. Not too bad for a starter.

Then, you always order Tom Yum Seafood Soup. It came in a rather large serving and 3 of us had 2 bowls each and big fresh juicy prawns + other seafood in our soup. Taste was just nice with a generous amount of seafood.

Next came the crab omelette. Nicely done and not too dry, topped with also a generous serving of crab meat.

Another very common Thai dish - pineapple fried rice. Did not really fancy it - somehow, just felt they overdid on some spice in the dish.

For some strange reasons, I have forgotten to take pictures of our Green Curry Chicken and Basil Leaves Beef. Wouldn't rate their tastes as spectacular but nevertheless pretty appetising.

I did come across many tables of customers having chilli crab, perhaps something worth considering if you're there next time!

Minus the beer tower we had (SGD45), food alone came up to about SGD40 pp including tax and all.

Service was a weeeee bit disappointing, either because we were seated in a sad corner of the restaurant or they were really short handed. Food came really quickly, but if u wanted other services - it'd take forever to flag the waitresses down.

Just love places with their own microbrewery - not sure what beer David ordered but it wasnt bad tasting.

Food wise - 7/10

Value for money - 6/10

Service - 5/10

Ambience - 7.5/10

p/s: last night, had dinner with uni mates, Lana and Jules at an awesome little Japanese restaurant famous for their grilled stuff, tucked away in a little corner in Cuppage Plaza. More pics on that too.

Right now..it's time for a good rest after a day under the sun at Universal Studios Singapore.

Address for Tawandang: Block 26, Dempsey Road, #01-01 Singapore 249686

Phone No: 6476 6742

PS Cafe in Dempsey

Last Saturday, went to this little gem in Dempsey for dinner. I've ever only been to Dempsey once in the afternoon for Indian.

Liked the setting very much, very romantic, but 'sadly' (he he) I was with a friend from uni days so kinda defeats the purpose to be at such a romantic place for dinner yea! ha ha

Took out my LX3, ready to take some good shots after we were seated at our table when Eddie mentioned that it's a good camera and he used to have on, to which I said really loudly, 'But isn't it more of a girly camera.....'. Next thing I knew, guy next table whipped up his LX3 from his bag and showed me his, laughing at my remark. DAMN!!!!

Anyway, the menu did not have any risotto, usually my first preference in a restaurant like this, so I opted for their daily specials, steak with foie gras. Medium please!!!.

The dish came topped with mash potatoes and gravy. The taste was exactly to my liking and beef was very tender!

Eddie's super huge steak burger. Loved the sauce for the fries. Tasted something like mayo with a hint of thai spicy sauce. Wauw!!! Did not try the burger though..

2 glasses of water, 2 main courses and 1 latte later, bill came up to about SGD 100 or less - can't really remember. Not exactly cheap but food, I'd give it a 7.5/10, service 8/10 and ambience 8/10! Average dish costs about SGD25 for a main.

Good experience and would definitely go back there again. Gonna try Tawandang on Dempsey with the colleagues tonight. Wait for next post folks!

p/s...can't wait for universal studios on Sunday wah la la!!!

Paramount Hotel

They say beggars can't be choosers. And that's exactly the type of shit you'll get when staying in a hotel that looks like 'something from the 60s or 70s': quote Daniel Chee -with a connecting mall that is lined up with dodgy bars at the G floor and GROs lined up outside smoking, at 7 ish in the evening.

So I was happily charging my BlackBerry, waiting for 'his-truly' to text and watching the last few episode of my TVB series on my laptop (running on batteries) when the switch tripped and my whole room was in darkness for a good 15 minutes. When I called the Operator, I guess she sounded just as shocked. 15 minutes later, Mr-Maintenance comes up, hear his ladder at the corridors and poof the lights came back on.

Heard a knock on my door...opened it. 'It's ok right now? What were you doing in the room?'

WTF...what was I doing?

Haha, I am amazed at the number of unfortunate events when I stay in Singapore Hotels. Why is this so?

p/s: went to a nice little restuarant on Dempsey on Saturday night. Will blog more about it when I am not too lazy. Can't believe that Universal Studio tickets are FULLY SOLD OUT for the next 2 weekends. Any other options what we can be doing apart from the Casinos and contributing to SG's economy by spending money at the Great Singapore Sales?

Singapore - Here I come!

View of Tanah Lot from our hotel - Pan Pacific in Bali. Yes, that's where we stayed for 4 nights for our workshop from 26-30 June. An hours drive away from Kuta. Thank God for World Cup!!!

.. for a month - for work. No not for the Singapore sales. Trying to save up for a small trip before the end of this year. Any ideas?

How very 'exciting'!

Leaving a day earlier to join the boys at the casino, mabbe.

Gonna be craving for my wings!!!