Au Chocolat@Marina Bay Sands

In between the exhibitions at ArtScience Museum (check out Marina Bay. Marina Bay), we had dinner at Au Chocolat. Wanted to check this place out after the intern bought a piece of pretty tart which was nice! And it was YK's treat, so why not? :P




French food again! Went to Poulet just last week :P



There are two sections to Au Chocolat - the Bistro at the and the sweet confectionery. Both were very pretty and packed with people...

Love the colour combination of menu and table - so chocolate!



Inside the bistro...



Up in the bistro - Fresco!



Truffle oil fries - smell and taste so good....Yummy! Like its presentation too :)



Duck Confit. Crispy and tender at the same time. The pear went well with the duck. Very savoury though, especially at the end of the meal when you run out of mash potato, carrot and pear :P 




House salad - is it Au Chocolat? It's ok. Like the way this picture turned out though :)

We returned later for desert at the confectionery - no pictures though as our phone run out of battery. Not as nice as we thought they will be. Perhaps we ordered too much - the original cheesecake was nice, the mint brownie so so, smoothies were ok :) Here are some pictures we took earlier when we were waiting for our seats at the Bistro - pretty, isn't it? :)

Now I know I can go to Au Chocolat if I need to grab a sweet gift. May you have a sweet week ahead, everyone :)

Brick & Mummy

Was at the ArtScience Museum on Vesak Day with YK! Wanted to see The Art of the Brick exhibition. The combo tickets for both on-going shows (the other was Mummy Secrets of the Tomb) was $20 (for Singapore citizens), we decided to go for both and had fun :)

 

This was taken at the entrance as no pictures allowed in the exhibition built around a priest - his authentic mummy was also on display. Not as intensive (and scary :P) as some of the mummy exhibitions I have seen. A bit scientific, in fact. Interesting nonetheless.

Wanted to see this exhibition for a long time but never got down to it.

 

Dare to bare your heart? Yellow - One of the most well-known Lego artwork of Nathan Sawaya.



Love how the artwork interacts with being :)



Cannot remember the title of this piece. I remember it is about diversity.



Writer.

 

Grasp : No matter where your heart wants to lead you, there will be hands that try to hold you back. Life's challenge is to find the strength to break free. I created this sculpture in response to so many people telling me 'No' in my life. I wanted to break free of those people - 2007



Mask. Nathan Sawaya has this uncanny ability to use Lego to reflect life. I also like how his captions captured the essence of his artwork and life :)



Dinosaur.



ArtScience Museum in LEGOLAND :)

  

My Lego Portrait - like the uncanny resemble :)

The Art of the Brick ends today while Mummy Secrets of the Tomb will be on until November. 

Marina Bay. Marina Bay.

I spot myself in the Marin Bay area for the last 2 weekends. Nothing wrong with it, I guess - just funny how I keep popping up in the same places these days :)

 

Was at the DBS Marina Regatta last Sunday - such a hot and bright day! The picture (see below)  I posted in Instagram got me an invite to the DBS Marina Regatta Story 2013 Awards. A pity I could not attend but still HAPPY :) I only started on Instagram lately and it has been fun so far! Follow me @ ILOVELONGVACATION and see the other pictures that I posted on the DBS Marina Regatta and of course the occasional stories of my life!

 

Focused. On. The. Race

Also visited the Blueprint Emporium at Pit Building on the same day :) Happen to read about it in the newspaper last Saturday so I decided to pop by since I'm in the area. Always like attending such events to see what the designers in the region are up to and try to get something special :) 

Always like attending events at the Pit Building...Can feel the vibe in the air :)

 

Food is a kind of fashion these days too. Nice to see Tiong Bahru Bakery setting up shop here. Reminds me of the weekend markets in Sydney :) 

 

Excited beings heading to the fitting room to try the stuff they eyed on...



Pop-up stores  in their own ways!

 

My take-away :) A pair of crafted earrings from Tulola Jewelery (designed and made in Bali) and a ring of the same series...The ring is still on the way from Bali via DHL as my ring size was 5.5 and they had to tailor-craft it for me (and it was free, a privilege extended to all Blueprint Emporium customers :)

I must say that was a HAPPY Sunday! :)

American movie and French food

Finally watched The Great Gatsby yesterday at GV Vivo City! Been waiting for it to screen since last year after reading the book. There is this retro/indie streak in me, so I enjoyed the movie. More than the book whose prose were more challenging, I think. But then this seems to be often the case for most books-turned-movies... and I like Tobey Maguire :)

Vivo City has changed so much and it has only been over a month since I last visited! Gosh!

We had dinner at Poulet which serves casual French food.


Onion soup - nice and tangy (if you know what I mean?) :P I was expecting a puff pastry to go with the soup though...



 

The shop is named after this dish - Poulet :P Roast Chicken which was tender. The creamy sauce was just nice, not too heavy on the palate.



Braised Duck Leg - tender too. Portion was small though. I like the carrot!



Salad de Paris - a refreshing balance that went well with the meat. 

As the portions were small, we decided to add on order of a mushroom appetiser and baguette but they never arrived and we cancelled the order. Warm water (at $0.50 each) only came after we asked and asked and asked... Food was ok, not as value for money as I thought it would be.

Poulet is new to Vivo City, so I reckon that was why the service is slow and not up to speed (yet), I hope. But I'm glad we have more French food options now. If you remember, I had French food at Saveur a few months ago and I found the service better and the food more delicate. All these French food reminds me of my trip to Paris in 2011 and food for thought - maybe I should go search for some of the food pictures and compare notes one day (soon), I hope.

So this summed up my American movie and French food Saturday night ;-)

 

Ka-Soh@2 College Road

We read about Ka-Soh in The Sunday Times and decided to go there last Sunday (mother's day!). Not sure if it is a Singaporean thing - many of us would go out for dinner to celebrate mother's day. Perhaps to give our mummies a break from cooking?

 

We went to the outlet near Singapore General Hospital, a walking distance from our house. I know of another outlet in Amoy Street where I first discovered Ka-Soh because I sometimes go there with my ex-colleagues. That's where you want to go for a nicer ambiance :)

 

Ka-Soh was located at the alumni association and was not very posh ( a bit Malaysia style, I thought). Its focus is really on the food, not the frills :P

 

Highly recommended was the Fish Head/Fillet and Fish Meat Bee Hoon 鱼头米粉. Huge portion - a big pot of fishness. Some may find it a tat too fishy though. 



Homely flavours.
Top: Claypot Tofu 砂锅豆腐. Were surprised to find fish slices in this dish too! :)
Bottom: Stir-fried Kailan with garlic 蒜炒概览

 

Could taste the 'wokness' in these two dishes -  I must say the chef have controlled the heat well when cooking them up!
Top: Ginger frog legs 姜葱田鸡
Bottom: Fish Hor Fan 三捞和分

 

虾酱鸡 Prawn Paste Chicken - crispy. Chef was a bit heavy-handed on the salt though. Just nice if you have it with some chili sauce though :)



麦片虾 Oat-fried Prawns was very nice! Fresh prawns + a generous dose of oat = Heavenly combination!

Was a fishy feast for fish-lovers, I say. Happy (belated) Mother's Day! :)

Sydney in a Dropbox

Went to Sydney with the girls in April. As usual, tons of photos were taken. Usually we will share the pictures by:
1) Saving them into a thumb drive each
2) Meeting up
3) Transfer them to a laptop
4) Re-transferring to the thumb drive again.

This time, we decided to use the Dropbox which I must say is more efficient. Each of us just upload the pictures into Dropbox and then download the pictures we want - from 4 steps to 2 steps! The only drawback is probably space not enough as all of us are given 2GB free for a start.

If you have not gotten Dropbox and want to try, click here! If you join and install Dropbox from this link, both you and I will get 500MB of bonus space! :)

Enough said about Dropbox :P Although here's a group photo of us taken at Sydney Tower Eye that I just downloaded from Dropbox...

Us and fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge! :)

I must say Sydney is really good at creating experiences and making money at the same time. Haha. At the entrance of major attractions, there was a photo stop where a crew member took a photo of us and then superimposed it onto beautiful backgrounds which were almost impossible for us to take on our own. At the end of our visit, we were asked if we wanted to buy the photos which were put into a nice album of the attraction. Being the laid back Australians, they were never pushy and yet we ended up buying 2 albums - one at Sydney Tower (see above - nice, right?) and another at the Sydney Opera House (see below :))

We took the essential tour! Sydney Opera House is gorgeous, I must say. Will definitely be dedicating a post to share my thoughts about it :)

I really like this fireworks picture. It kind of reminded me of our dinner at Cockle Bay Wharf where we also enjoyed a splendid display of fireworks which I captured in a video. Visit ilovelongvacation to watch it :)

Any plans for the weekend? Looking forward to it - I'm going to watch The Great Gatsby today (Saturday) and off to the Marina Regatta on Sunday!

Tamoya@Liang Court

Happy Saturday! :)

Was at Liang Court again today (was there for dinner after UT Pop-Up Singapore, remember? haha).

Funny how sometimes we keep going to a particular place at a particular time of our life.



Lunch at Tamoya today - popular for its udon.





Packed! A sign of a higher probability that it serves good food! :) Family friendly too - spot the baby chairs and corner dedicated for prams?



Top: Kama-age
Bottom: Kamatama - udon with raw egg



Pork Udon. Salty-sweet pork.

 

Looking delish after the garnishing! 

 

Tempura to go with udon. From left: Chikuwa Tempura, Prawn Tempura, Potato Croquette, Sweet potato Tempura. Verdict? I like the vegetarian ones better, especially the sweet potato!

At your service! Here's how it works? Queue to order udon and select the tempuras. Either get the udon on the spot or have to wait for 5-10 minutes. Proceed to pay at the casher. After that, you proceed to a counter with all the garnishes and sauces to create your very 'own' bowl. Haha.

Tamoya is definitely value for money - we paid less than $10 per person! Tip: Order the tempuras after your udon is ready so they will not turn cold...

 



Liang Court was bustling with activities today! Some Japanese fair going on! Hi kiddo! :)

Pretty origami decorations too! With wishes penned on them too!

There were performances too! Wow!

 

I believe I can fly! 

 

For a Here's a peep of a choir (of Japanese ladies) and their rendition.
Also updated in youtube at http://youtu.be/6qbuIpoqSFY   

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