Why are you looking at me like this??

My first wisdom tooth extraction six months ago was a breeze. No pain whatsoever. Not even after the surgery, which includes the drilling, digging and jerking.

Why then does it hurt so much this time? Why does it have to swell?! Pain, I can deal with. But a huge sweet potato for a face?!

I'm listening to Man in the Mirror, by MJ, James Morrison, Wang Lee Hom. I like them all. :D

A love story which had ended.

Mini pumpkin pie

I have ended my three month love story with a certain patisserie. It ended sweetly, tearless, wordless. However in love I may be, I was due for a break up. I was so tired, I was past tired. I was living in a timeless routine. And I got sick of it.

I am grateful, however, to be able to meet the beautiful people whom I worked with. Apart from technical skills, more importantly, I learnt life lessons. To work together, to laugh, to appreciate, to love.

I enjoy the times when we would rush the morning together, relying on the teamwork, the trust we built to deliver beautiful cakes into the display cases in record time. I enjoy Sunday lunches taken together in the kitchen. I love conversations without spoken words, only hand signs, eye contact, head shakes. I love conversation with spoken words, a myriad of broken languages- English, Japanese, Chinese, Hokkien, to form a language that we could all understand. When I receive a rare nod or a praise from my soft-spoken chef, especially when I had worked hard for it, I could be happy for days.

Therefore as a form of closure, during my last week of work, I made Glace's famous marron pie. Slightly modified to a pumpkin pie.

People always have this impression that the marron pie is a muffin/ cupcake. It is not. Other than the shape, I don't see any similarities between the two. Just imagine, a layer of puff pastry base, filled with the most buttery frangipane. In the frangipane, there's a generous bit of baked pumpkin (in my case). Lastly, a crunchy almond crust. Yumm. Plus, I made it mini cupcake size. Gone in two bites. Beautiful thing really.

My food philosophy #1

What is food? What should food be?

Everyday I'm awake, I make breakfast;

everyday I go to work, in a big commercial kitchen;

everytime I read a cookbook, and come across a presentation of a recipe;
I ask myself.

Should food be served in a spotlessly clean glass, eaten with a straw? Should it involve complex equations and high tech machinery? Fanciful, and usually wasteful, decorations? Anyone?

I think food should be like this.

Heartwarming, inviting, to the point.

Bistro One Zero Three

A comfortable place with comfortable food for comfortable company- Bistro One Zero Three.

The first time I was brought to Bistro, it was closed. That was a Tuesday. The second time was a pleasant surprise; both to my tastebuds and eyes. Third was a bit of a difficulty for I lost my way getting there, still food and service was great. The forth and last time, it was closed as I had forgotten it was a Tuesday.

Warm mushroom salad. Mushrooms form the warm part of the salad, which rests on a bed of fresh greens with a lovely sweet balsamic dressing. I like this dish.

For some reason I cannot remember this dish. I think it is fried... umm tofu?

Memory is failing as I write. I think this is osso bucco? haha. And it was not bad I remember... Weiloon had this.

Kurobuta pork neck. Mine. I like it! It's really tender, which surprised me. I had expected it to be tougher. Thick fries, thumbs up. Caramelised onions, two thumbs up!

Crabmeat, salmon tomato-based spaghetti. Grace had it the first time, I went back for it the second time. It is strangely comforting with its slight sweetness and subtle tangyness.

Coffee was disappointing though. I guess I should have gone for the wine instead.

Dark eye circles are fast becoming a permanent feature. Not that I mind much since it gives the smoky-eyed effect. Then again, the time will soon come when I will be able to sleep as freely as I want. Goodbye dark eye circles.

To say goodbye is still the hardest.

Santaro @ Amara

A food post! It has been a long long time since I wrote about food. It's not that I have got no time to try out new places, it's just that to write it all down, with pictures and all can be quite time-consuming. And time is not a luxury that I now possess since there is work and play time. It kind of shows how I prioritize my time. Work comes first, then play, lastly blog. Sorry guys.

A long time ago, my mother and I (together with my brother) decided we shall try this Japanese restaurant that we heard so much about. Chef at work really recommend this place though he hasn't tried. My mother read about it on the newspaper that morning. Therefore we try.

For start, we had japanese ginko nuts, very quickly dipped in hot oil. It is my first time seeing green ginko nuts and I thought they would taste really green and raw (is that how I should describe it?) but it turned out quite alright. Bittersweet.

Sashimi. Uni, salmon belly and chutoro. Top grade! Thick slices and generous portion.We were told that fresh cargo comes every Tuesday and Friday. Very sadly there was no otoro...

Softshell crab uramaki and anago sushi.

Fish essence. This is actually a condensed version of fish soup, or so the serving lady said. This soup is wow. It is like drinking chicken essence, it goes straight to your stomach and warms it up, only better. Another thing I like about this dish is the refreshing scent that lemongrass gives.

Chawanmushi. Smooth.

Wagyu sauteed with garlic, teriyaki style.

Grilled wagyu. Between the two, i like this best. Seriously, for such good beef, to add other flavours to it would be to spoil it. Wagyu should be eaten grilled with a little salt and pepper, medium rare.

A very sesame ice-cream. Imagine pumpkin ice-cream with huge chunks of pumpkin in it. A tiny scoop is enough for me, too much sesame.

Amara hotel, level 2.