Chye Seng Huat Hardware - For coffee?



Learnt about CSHH a while back in a friend's Facebook update and got to visit it recently.

 

The location is quite off the beaten track at 150 Tyrwhitt Road, and that kind of added to its charm :) In a nutshell, C and I took Bus 33 from Tiong Bahru Plaza, changed to Bus 145 at Victoria Street, got off a few stops after Lavender MRT Station when we saw Pek Chuan Building and walked... Was really hot the day we went and in the heat of it all, I forgot to take a picture of the CSHH but I do think it is unlikely you will miss it, thanks to the constant movement of people in and out of it.

 

I went for cold again. Phew. The only ice coffee available is the cold brew which came in a bottle with syrup and milk which you can add to, depending on your preference. C said that it looked like cough syrup or something along that line :P Quite special, not the usual cappuccino or latte :)
By the way, we chose to sit indoors (no surprise right?). It was free seating and full so we sat at the bar counter first. Interesting how the counter is an island, unlike most cafés, so we could see the service staff moving around their chores.



We shared a Ham Omelet which was nice and moist, and went well with the toast :) Despite the hot weather, it was nice to have sunlight streaking into the cafe - so sunshine, and perfect for an omelet. Haha.



Chicken Patties was nice and moist too. Lucky we shared though - 6 would be too much! The story behind this order went this way: we were undecided between sausages and chicken patties and asked the service staff who said he personally preferred the latter and so we ordered it. Thanks!

If I am not wrong, I think this is Raspberry Madeleine. C ordered it for desserts after our main course. OK. Guess my marginal utility was falling after a good lunch :P

The ambiance was quite nice (in spite of the noise). Food was also good at a reasonable price. I say 再成發五金 is quite a cool place to hang out - location so near town, yet feel so far...

Make your own Japanese Curry

Do you have the habit of clipping articles? Well I kept a recipe to make Japanese curry for many years. If I remember right, it originated from the Straits Times contributed by Ms Kuniko Shimada.

 

In early April, I went to Liang Court which I have not visited for a long time, spent some time in the MEIDI-YA Supermarket and was inspired to make Japanese curry which I have not cooked for a while. Here is the recipe - ingredients to serve four and the method.



Bought the curry roux brick from the supermarket. There are many different sauce mix you can choose from.
Ingredients:
60g curry roux brick, mild
60g curry roux brick, hot



Ingredients:
2 medium onions, diced
2 medium potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, cubed
 



Dicing onions is hard work. But I love the layers of colours and patterns! :)

 

Ingredients:
250g chicken, pork, beef, cubed
0.5 Tbs olive oil
700ml water

 

Method:
1) To a heated pot, add olive oil and fry the onions for about 2 minutes until they are fragrant.
2) Add the potatoes, carrots and meat and continue stir-frying for about 5 minutes until the meat is cooked.
 

3) Add water and bring the mixture to a boil before cooking it on medium heat for 20 minutes until the meat is tender.
4) Remove the pot from the flame, add the curry roux bricks and stir until the curry is well mixed.

5) Stew the curry over low heat for another 20 minutes until it thickens.

Yummy Japanese curry rice :)

It's a really simple and delicious recipe. If I can do it, so can you! :P

At the close of a long vacation...

By the time you read this, I will be in Sydney where I will spend the last week or so of my long vacation. Come to think of it, I am glad that the first and last leg of this vacation is a trip overseas :)

I have not figured out how to mobile-blog on blogger yet and I will try to update my wordpress blog ilovelongvacation, twitter (@ilovelongvacatn) and instagram (@ilovelongvcation), so do check them if you like to know how I am sydneyING :P Meanwhile, I might schedule and post some long overdue posts of the last few weeks.

While it is a cliche to say that time flies, it is true that 6 months have raced past for me, especially in the last few weeks or so - I felt an urgency to do more as I count down to the final days and also look forward to new career challenges very soon.

By then, this long vacation would have lasted exactly 191 days (yes I decided to do a count :p). I know I am lucky to have been able to take a break of more than half a year, a 'luxury' that excludes many because this is LIFE - the life they wanted, the life they think they should live, the life they have to live. Such is life.

While I do not have much to show for my professional life for the last few months, I would like to think that I have more to show for my personal life.

• Travelled to Scandinavia (partly solo, partly with my brother) and visited Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), Oslo (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Reykjavik (Iceland). Glad I have travelled alone more than once in my life! So agree with Huff Post Travel post: Why Every Woman Should Travel Alone (At Least Once in Her Life)  :)

At Unesco site, Suomenlinna in Helsinki, Finland. Read more at Suomenlinna Story.

• Blogged more. In this blog, the total number of views was 4746 and last month alone saw 568 views! In the other blog, the number of followers have grown from under 10 since it started in late 2011 to over 50 today! Happy to share my stories and thoughts with more people.

• Learnt more about social media and became more active! I twittered more @ilovelongvacatn @chan5013 and joined Pinterest @ilovelongvacatn and Instagram @ilovelongvcation.

• Reaffirmed what I want to do professionally. Communications is still close to my heart. I really want to use my strength/experience in this area to make a bigger difference. Taking various courses and talking to career coaches have definitely given me a clearer direction. I have also learnt from people I met in the course of it all.

• Explored the backyard and learnt to enjoy life more at home. There are so many places in Singapore I have not been to for a long time - it was good to revisit them. There are so many places in Singapore I have never been to - it was good to discover them. There are so many new and interesting places to chill out - it was nice to be able to continue to FIKA(coffee/tea break in Sweden) after coming back from Stockholm.

I cycled from East Coast Park to Changi Beach Park. Read about my Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in My Life l Cycle.

• Jogged more. Walked more. Swam more.

Rediscovered swimming - it is a luxury to swim at the public pool on weekdays (I am going to miss doing so :( ).

• Volunteered again. Not sure about the cause I am truly passionate about yet but I am definitely going to try to find that cause in the days to come.

• Bonded more with my brother (in Scandinavia) and my sister (in Singapore) Need I say more?

My brother and I in Þingvellir National Park, Iceland. Read more about Þingvellir!

And many more that are difficult to put into words. For example, I had more time to reflect more and meet more new people. Somehow I wished I had done more e.g. read more, travel more... However I know I only had so much time and I wanted to follow my heart. So this was the life I chose to live in this long vacation. While I felt uncertain at times, I tell myself to enjoy it while I can because I really don't know when will be the next one...

I want to close this vacation with an extract from the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button that has been inspiring:
Benjamin Button: [Voice over; letter to his daughter] For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.