Maison Ikkoku

Weekend mommy and bro went to China, woke up early Sun morning just to jagga the house, so I ran before that, came home to practise my cello before my lesson after. Lesson was pretty good cos I practised the easy cello pieces plus got the xmas songs to play for the weeks ahead (cos B is going away...happy hols!). Picked up oranges for home then headed to meet Ws for coffee at Maison Ikkoku, a new artisanal Japanese bar at 20 Kandahar street. Round and round looking for parking before I managed to find a spot at the public carpark. Went to the place first (cos the post call babe overslept!) and reserved a spot, only to find myself rained out at Bali lane while i got my ribbon earrings. Bummer. Had to ask her dad to round to pick me up and drop us...almost wanted out to an indoor place but Im glad we still came by ;)

Flat white x 2 (cos they mixed the orders). Pretty balanced coffee.

Eggs Benedict with salmon. This was good cos again it was very balanced, toast was not too thick, and eggs were fluffy much. Only jibe was the overtly salty smoked salmon. Though I love my salt, so didnt mind all that much - just neutralise with the asparagus.

Stayed on till the place closed at 7pm and there was no one else left. The cafe was pretty packed when we first got in but they kindly held a place for me which I thought was quite a nice gesture. Would wanna check out the furniture and apparel section on the second floor when Im here again. (I guess i would pop by if im around the area - after checking out that date icecream place).

Drove us to town for me to check out my runners and we ended up at the stand talking till she managed a cab for gran's. Am glad to buy 2cellos and IQ84 as company for the week! IQ 84 has gotten me chapter after chapter, esp during the fantastic SPS call.

Open door policy

With no list at DSOT, Cheang joined me at MOT, only to be overutilised at the adrenalect. I started off with jc's, then hopped over to the LAP pancreatic (ugh, lap), and a pyolomyotomy (one of two that week!!) -thought there were 3 regs scrubbed then, with 2 doing the spreader...... then to cheang's. But she escaped and found us at bean flat out trying to resus ourselves in my first icecream since med days. Double booked us both, at the same time at 715pm. Hehe. Dropped them off and instructed to meet at Books actually. Really looked forward to Open door policy ( Yong Siak Street). Surprisingly there was space still, even with double booking.

We started off with the steak tartare with speared toasted (till burnt though) bread. Missed that shot (i thought i didnt!). Liked the truffle chips. Preferred Kilo's red wine drowned steak tartare though.

Halloumi cheese - blobs of semi hard cheese. Like a hard tofu/cottage cheese (reminiscent of Krith's place's)

Lamb confit, puff pastry - its presented like a pizza, lotsa salad atop the puff pastry. Difficult to share and keep in place though, the tender strips of lamb kept falling off.

Wild mushroom truffle risotto. Comfort food, period. Loved the greenish mushrooms.

Was fun naming syncope and hearing the arguments. So glad to have cheang in the dsot downstairs - the only hightlight of the day being our lunch of (stale) OT food. Trying to meet more for breakfast time now. And for now, the ERP at SCGS is OFF for the holidays!! Yes best news for my coming after 8 now. Haha! No more incentive to rush anymore.

I'll be back to check out orange thimble and dripz. And of cos, a day dedicated to Books Actually. When im done with IQ 84.

Thurs dinner

Refused to take a chance with the quinoa yet again. So using the tomato lemon cous cous left in the cupboard, we topped up with the beef and chicken sausages, mushrooms, pecans and cranberries. I thought it too watery but eventually it dried out and hun thought it was just nice, and better than the other flavour. Think cant really go wrong with this Waitrose Cous Cous so i really recommend it. Though i think we should get a measuring cylinder soon. And perhaps trying the other brands to see if indeed cous cous is really fool proof.

Big Fish

Had to choose somewhere nearby cos ching was on call (otherwise brewerkz would be the way to go!!). With a light OT day, we gathered the HOs to head out - they were slightly delayed with the Geri referral (cos BB got bounced from pt/ot after the home visit). Took TW's car with the HOs out to Big Fish. The whole reason for choosing this place is so that we can have udders after actually....about half had the set lunch, some the fish and chips - I took the salmon and requested for a side of fries. Loved the crisp fries! Salmon also marinated well..headed back real quick; early day but on call is almost the worse feeling to have, offset by the wonderful lunch and company. (except for sitting at the head of the table)...

Dempsey Brasserie

Post call with ching - a pdu/pyloric channel, perf appendix, another pdu in the am which I scrubbed (no drain/wash/biopsy, plus double overlay). Lots going on in eot - bleeding gda, adhesio/sb resec, right hemi, the last 2 of which belonged to J. Passed lunch and headed to the grouponz place (feels really estranged, us!), then headed to send in the phone (mighty long transferring the data) then to Dempsey brasserie for tea. Too late for the food so had the Elderflower Sprite instead.

Bought the cheese - Mimolette from Jones (on a hunt for the orangest cheese), Walnut bread and spinach leaves from Culina. Left over turkey from before, and i realised the leaves tasted fantastic with the pseudo bacon bits. Soup was mild, to say the least. Need a chunky chowder soon.

Soho Coffee, Food for thought

Post take, post post call = tired, lunch was assembled from the night before's spinach leaves, thousand island dressings. I had to finish the tub of Thick and creamy yoghurt (expired!) which he refused to help. haha. Only had 10 min left before zooming down to cello...

Post cello headed to lil india before pick up at PS..decided to head to Armenian St for Soho Coffee- crossing our toes that this place would be (!) open on a Sunday, and it was close to 6 at that time. Parked at the Fort Canning car park, tried to enter the Peranakan Musuem (no more free entry for Singaporeans....only NUS.. hiak hiak) Walked by an interesting casual eatery we hoped to catch open the next time we were here. Also Peek! a fantastic photography shop - loved the fish camera. Funky colour, funky views. Thinking of it loads.

Happily walked into Soho Coffee (Armenian St) - its off that street, belonging to a white building (cant remember the name) so its a tad difficult to find. It faces a furniture shop (which was open and we checked out!). Coffee here is overwhelmed by the milk though! Mighty wasted. Food ran out - J wanted the eggs benedict. I bought the culinary book by SMU for ideas around the idea. Love the read. Decided for Torte/Food for thought. Plenty of interesting sights on the way to Queen's/Waterloo. Old churches. Interesting Tel Co building with splashes of red.

Interesting advert though mighty ridiculously mocking the value of health. Attention grabbing it was.

Underhand means. Musuem looking so bare naked without the shadows (we loved the night musuem!)

Singaporean murals. Reminds us of the car blocking the titanic mural...sigh!

Along the way here browsed at an overtly overpriced camping store.

Almost settled for a Mexican place, couldnt find Torte, and we ended up in Food for Thought (Queen's Street). Cheese, and something like a squash. Favourite of his.

My salmon with tomato risotto. I liked the risotto muchos cos it was very smokey and tasty.

But he enjoyed his creamy Salmon risotto much, though saying much too bare. I prefer my vegeterian smokey one ;)

Love the items they were selling on the shelves; singa plastic/shopping bag, interesting kueh tutu eraser. And the decor of the 540/740 (?) pasta bottles overhanging, some of which had the hand written wishes of the children. Amazing. Love the thought put into the interiors of this lovely, warm place. Surprisingly not too crowded for a Sunday (minus the group of girls celebrating a bd)... Wanna try the gula melaka pancakes with K...come home soon!

Post sunday call

So happy to see wee in its new home. Amidst all the wee twigs.

This particular call was particularly...empty. No ops, one post op nstem, one to sign out..thats it. 1-6am = zzz. minimal 4+4 scopes in the am too. cant ask for more..(included skipping tb) snoozed, lapped, simple dinner of fresh figs (biggie xoxo, smallie me), Breemer cheese XO (fantastic smokey taste, vaguely tasting of wine), cherries, lao - hong crackers, pecans, cranberries. Tasted best with pecans. Love the personally assembled mono cheese platter.