Papa Palheta, Pluck

Thought we might get a chance at getting the whole day off, but in the end it turned out to be still not escaping from the angiejolie presentation in the am (no questions asked abt list and no icu folks to present too), before heading to an extremely light reg clinic (where i only saw one cervical ln) then fetched the girls over to sgh, passing by the gorgeous scenery in the glorious sunlight on the way to the accreditation. Sadly all the cold cut trios went to all the important people and I was left with the egg mayos ;( tastes exactly like the bengawan solo sandwiches.

Pretty impressive, popped up mostly during the interview and the only thinking qn was what we would change abt it, went round the table with jl concurring with myself haha. D just killed us all with funds, but otherwise cross our fingers we don't have to go thru it again!!

Lingered till another round happened with the faculty and to the mo room where W counselled us on our first month insecurities (you're really the man....) we persuaded pek to forgo a bilat hernia to join us at Papa Palheta (140 Bukit Timah Road), where caffeine happiness lies. Gosh its soooo difficult to locate this place! Enter by Hooper Road, and its NOT facing the main road. Its the back lane. And when you enter it feels like trespassing into someone's backyard. Kitchen in the backyard. Very limited bar-window seats in air con comfort, but cos it was a cloudy rainy day it was also quite pleasant to hang out outside.

And the first greeting was, Hi there there's no menu and you girls look like you do ice coffee.

Yes sir. Any milk based ones?

Yeah...latte, cappucino, flat white

Yay flat white for me please, followed by Latte for Wans and Cappucino for short. Only gripe is that there is no food (food is everything to me, and I was craving for a cake). Drinking coffee here seems to be as strict as eating sushi under the eyes of a strict watchful japanese chef. No sugar allowed okay. But fair enough, the steamed milk gives this natural sweetness none of us needed to add the sugar after. We all LOVED the coffee. (though I'd love love soy latte, which they said upfront they don't do) Here all payment is in the form of tips but the guiding price is $4 each..Quite a bold concept to have here, where the tipping culture is not in vogue.

The trio of us wanna aspire to be the watch shopping trio one of these days, and halt all questions on why this. Concurring on the rawness of the juniors and the seemingly apologetic self for being in this programme is the most frustrating. Nonetheless this marks the end of the first month and having survived the culture shock of the different ball game.

Abintan came to join us midway, with a very sleepy post night. Amused greatly by the marathons and the agony. Short and him left for dinner with frens whilst Pek was MOST tempted to follow me down to Haji Lane (with utmost difficulty in parking) and I happily loaded on accessories (necklace, ring were mini joys) and we spent a good two hours there. We dropped by Pluck (Haji Lane) to have ice-cream - Nuts and Honey ( Walnuts in Honey icecream) and Butter Pecan. I chose the former while Pek chose the later and I really am a fan of the former. Reminds me of the ice cream at KPO. Butter Pecan on the other hand makes me miss Gelare! The one at holland v and citylink mall has closed so...where're you now?

Pek's stamina to shop and to bother to try all the dresses (though getting nothing) amazes me. Must check out her Pickering Street shop soon. Miss you woman.

Lobster Place

Post very shack call of 21/with zilch sleep and reg clerking side by side thru the night (2 majors and 2 butts) and cos boss needed to attend a pta, we rounded 630 and by the time we were finally done it was still running around to settle ercps and a faux pas of a scan. Didnt start off well when someone muttered fantastic luck and at that very moment the text of a TA arrived. Oh well. Boss took us out to Lobster Place (and my breakfast was just nicely settled in my stomach, just an hour ago). It is at ITE East, at a conference room converted to a restaurant. Marvellous view of landing planes, though.

My face lighted up when I saw the 6 lobsters nicely soaked in its broth. They showcased the raw ones too, prior to this. Lobster porridge is awesome possum.

Lobster Porridge - but somehow I kept thinking of the Keisuke Tokyo prawn ramen. Thats like noodles soaked in lobster bisque. I'm distracted.

Vegetable and abalone mushroom, when boss asked if I minded the mushrooms - I don't like abalone, I clarified.

Mango prawns, full of soggy salty mango chunks.

After the first round, boss ordered more - since i thought i was full at the start of lunch, the more i ate, paradoxically the more hungry i seemed ;( we wanted to try the mongolian chicken but there was no more ! So we had the prawn omelette instead. So fluffy it looked like my daily egg thosai.

Roast chicken, instead of mongolian chicken. Esp since I saw many tables ordering this (we saw many students!!). Not bad, the skin was thin and crisp. Sigh, my weakness is fried chicken. When's my next bonchon/arnold's.

We attended to the face/b after we came back, and guzzled milos non stop at exits at p, and was celebrating the cancellation of a lap chol (which turned out to have ca h f!) and off we were to dinner at vivo and ted baker. That is worthy of an entire entry in itself, it was rather insane, even given my standards of volume.

Tippling Terrace

A second day in a row sitting in the spankin new clinic f is quite enough. Piles muchos, and thereafter at least did a coolbeans pilomatrixoma and off to the tp to check out the turbulence ++. Met the mountains post itacho at Tippling Terrace (Dempsey), the cocktail offshot of Tippling Club. It felt like expat wonderland (one of which has the bottega I'm eyeing too haha)

Very cute Apple pie drink. Its actually a rectangular glass encased in this apple pie box - beware the cool fillings ;) would be great if they had pie flakes and apple chunks instead of ice chunks, but alas it was apple liquer and cinnamon.

Bar snacks are the drawing factor for me, and this truffle fries was quite a shocker when it came. Why does it look like the fries counterpart of the Iggy's burger :( it was more like potato sticks then fries! And after the apple pie I couldnt taste no truffle :(

On the other hand the Dempsey Hill looked like such a pretty landscape. Gorgeouslicious, the soil base was filled with pisatchio, white and dark chocolate sponge bits, and the branches a delicate dark chocolate biscuit with mint leaves. A delicate art piece it was.

Aston's Express, Tampines

Post very gd 8/call boss took us out to lunch. Night was free (and esp gd, starting off with arnold's fried goodness for dinner tks to mr s who remembered!) except for a 5 hour r/hemi which i was spared from, so actually still had the stamina to make it out. Headed to Aston's Express near Tampines Round Market, with everyone in toll. Meat tastes especially good after a (shiok) call.

We shared garlic bread and a sausage platter (which I was too slow to capture).

Lamb chops with sides of onion rings and fries.

I was quite pleased cos for once the lamb was not anorexic. The indulgent oil bomb marks the end of a fantastic call, blessed with post call re-arrangement of otm and another volunteering to scrub for a bilat hernia repair thence, home stat. Meat bliss.

Canopy Garden Dining and Bar

The night before we met, J was dying to try Canopy Garden Dining and Bar at Bishan Park - cos her dear was never free enough for weekend brunch. So off we were the next day, getting picked up in my new darling ;) to the place itself, albeit in threatening weather (which cheered J cos she thought her dear would have a chance at going for her mom's) but when we reached our destination it was cloudy duddy perfect weather for tea. All confusing that am after my stitching course and J getting caught up with family resulted in tea instead (but better than never!). Thank goodness it was not spoilt by a fine, something we remembered too late more than halfway into tea. Shall try to keep my darling taint free !

The place itself reminded us very much of Botanics, but a miniature version. Even the restaurant itself is a miniature version of the likes of Halia and Casa Verde (ooh, that 4 cheese pizza....). How to hold a wedding here?? Pretty place indeed, pretty small too.

Y and J chose blueberry smoothie and avocado-soy (not gao enough) but I tried the Mojito with Earl grey tea. I guess after Artistique at Mandarin I've been raring to try more alcoholic teas but I think.....alcohol goes better with icecream!

This Eggs Royale I liked cos the muffin beneath was still crisp. Quite difficult to have cos it always gets sogged out by the Hollandaise sauce. But then again, a dearth of Hollandaise sauce is also a cardinal sin. A balance yet again.

When the pancakes arrived I first thought of hotcakes, but this was a much sweeter version. Butter x 3 more please.

Qian also ordered her fries - which is the favouritest of them all really. Crisp and thick, they were awesome possum. I kinda liked dipping them into the maple syrup. Haha. Reminds me of the youtiao dipped into the sweet tauhuay sauce the night before ;)

And desserts definitely looked prettier in pictures than were displayed! So none for us yet. I guess I'd wanna try the trio of burgers (chicken satay, cod and wagyu beef in mantou (which seemed fried)) if I do return..

After the tea and sending J off to get her cake Q and I went to City hall, where I picked up the mini Clinique, and in a hunt for shoes I picked up 2 tops instead. Always in excess, but never enough for those that I need.

Oriole Lunch

Met up with Jo and Jills on Jills bd (happy bd!! hope you like the sketchbook of heels ;)). Re arranged for lunch to be earlier. I was quite indignant I didnt get to try the brunch cos we met on a Saturday, and they only served brunch on Public holiday (which was yesterday) and Sunday (which is tomorrow). Bummer. But anyways was happy enough to meet the girls and to get the office jacket from Jills. Thanks loads!!

So here we are at Oriole (Pan Pacific Suite) ,my favourite hangout in town for great coffee. Citrus Sin and Chilli Chocolate Mocha are by far my favourite too. After a while, they kinda tasted similar. Haha. I must have been distracted by conversation.

Calamari was really good and dusted with good stuff. Spice and nice.

Squid ink pasta with crabmeat - this was delicious too. We wanted to relive the squid ink days of Ma Maison so here we were trying squid ink out again. Tangy with the tomatoes and indulging in chunks of crabmeat.

Philly cheesesteak was a favourite too, heavenly between toasted buns. This makes me miss the steak sandwiches from Morton's.

Desserts - of which Honey crumble Affogato's still the all time favourite.

We walked to Uniqlo where Jills has already decided on her prison garb, whilst was at HMV trying to source for cheap ear phones but of cos couldnt find any. Jills had to go back to change to head to attica to continue her bd fun whilst Jo was also heading back so I was back shopping again. Bliss is team2 ;)

House, Acid Bar

Got the weekend off for the pledge taking - dad gave me a lift to m/w and then after headed down but was almost late, so had to cab from holland v. Still ended up lingering around the foyer with kels before we headed in. A little strange to be in the same pledge taking as many foreign (and familiar) regs/even acs (our dear vir lady haha). It was like grad ceremony again, worse still cos many in the crowd werent that familiar. Even the panel up on stage too.

When it was all over, we remained in our seats to capture our last moment collectively as a class, then we broke off for a catered lunch, but shortly after our cg headed out - and all in J's van - Wm and I ended up being very very squashed behind in the boot. It was rather traumatic cos we kept imagining the boot will give way and we'll roll out, all ready to be rolled over by the incoming traffic. But we survived !! Made it to the destination, House (Dempsey). In time to find 2 other groups (Pek's, and Ian's cliques).

Over the dinner, D recounted his horror stories while M was all ready to play punk with him soon to test the waters. The tale of fooling the operator got D in stitches but everyone'd love to witness the him at work. Haha. It was nice getting everyone tog, as Daryl almost couldnt make it.

My favourite ever sweet potato nibblets, and also the truffle fries which never saw my camera lens before it disappeared. Kels where are you lets go and try the PS's truffle fries on M's blog.

I was never a fan of Skinny Pizza until I tried this Fig and Cheese one. Its really fruity with the plump fresh figs. On the other hand the Veal one tasted very much like atas rendang.

If i ever do land up here again I'd wanna try the Truffle mushroom one.

Chocolate toffee cake was a favourite of Marc's. I guess I never looked at choc cakes the same way again after PS's. Size-wise.

Strawberry short cake was also popular, and I like it that the cake was warm - not after we drowned it in sauce though.
Jeremy requested for the carrot cake, and D asked for the Salted caramel cake (not pictured cos I had it with Kels before). My favourite remains the latter. Such interesting take on textures.
J kindly dropped us at DFS (where it was a hidden excuse to shop more!) , and we headed to Ion to see the blue B.V. bag that never was (sigh, regrets are left in HK) and hungry us headed to Hu-Hu Udon (B4, Ion Orchard). I had the cold Udon. My favourite cold one is still the one mei and i had at a Kyoto train station. Best ever. Doused in tasty light sauce with plenty of seaweed. The closest here would be Tetsu in Tanglin Mall.
Kel's curry beef udon. Tasted pretty much like my usual maggi mee kinda curry flavour.
Soon after we headed to Acid Bar. Recollection of Chong's the first time we were here. Fries and Calamari combi, along with Sangria is, well, bliss. Esp with the right company!
I was happy enough they played my all time favourite Under the Bridge, as requested. I never tire of that song, accousitic, though its been a long time since Z.

Met Chongs that night too ;) great full stop to the goodbye.