Me and my bread

My relationship with food hasn't changed much. I can eat many delicacies, but bread is still the top of my favourite food list. Especially Peanut butter bread which still remains my favourite, and never fails to cheer me up everytime I eat it.

Today, I had a good tasting session at Gunther's with two journalists. I had the following dishes, all tasting portions of course:

1. Carppaccio of Langoustine with Caviar
2. Sea Bass with Pilaf Rice
3. Oyster (It was fresh, big and juicy, everything an oyster lover would have appreciated but it just made me want to puke. Thankfully it was at least warm, and I manfully swallowed it whole...gagg, but fighting hard to maintain a neutral face)
3. Wagyu Beef with egg confit and cep mushroom (my favourite as I love anything with egg and mushrooms)
4. Angel Hair Pasta with Lobster
5. Gunther's famous suckling pig ( yummilicious....hear the "kruk kruk" sound with every bite)
6. Orange Mille Feuille(The lightest puff pastry oozing with cream, and the tart orange saved it from being too rich. A most delicious way to end the meal and needless to say my favourite)


The lunch, as delicious and expensive as it was, however still could not take the top spot in my heart...

......

Peanut Butter Thick Toast

After a long and tiring day, I badly needed some comfort food. I didn't even mind eating it alone, slowly savouring the oozy peanut butter atop the bread that managed to be both soft and crispy all at once. The before and after look on my face was very noticeable. Or maybe it was because I was grumpy and hungry at 8pm


A close second would be this....

Scrambled egg with toast

And just to be irrelevant, a Brownie a la mode from Coffee Club. I love the Chocolate Swirls. Someone must have taken great pains to decorate it :)

Some pics

Me, Fritz and Lydia

Getting ready for event. Check out my new gold shoes that are soo comfy

Shaved Alba White truffles with hand-made noodles..yumm

Wagyu Beef Cheek with Gorgonzola Risotto.

Best part is, I got to eat all these and more for free...heh. I love my job

Oktoberfest fiasco

This week passed very fast. Mainly because I took MC on wed, and I was in pain throughout the week, suffering from something that basically caused me great pain and discomfort at ALL times. I especially had problem walking and sitting, and had to settle for waddling around like a pregnant woman which is extremely mortifying, not to mention agonizingly painful.

But actually the main rant of my entry is against journalists. Yes, I know my job requires me to make friends with them. But I am just very against them at the moment, or one journalist in particular.

To cut the story short, this particular journalist from a particular newspaper (whom we all know and 'love') wrote an article on Oktoberfest, among which one of my restaurants was listed. This fellow went on to quote the price of our sausage platter and pork knuckles being $6. The correct pricing of it was actually 6 coupons during the Oktoberfest period, 1 coupon being $5.

To us, it is a big deal as we can't have everyone coming up to us and requesting for a $6 pork knuckles. So I rang up the newspaper. The journalist who wrote the article happened to be out of town, so someone else followed up on his behalf and wrote a retraction article the following day. A brief one, right at the end of the page, hidden in one small litle corner few would spot, apologizing for their error. Ok fine. Matter forgiven as we want to maintain the good relationship yeah?

Then today, I received an email from the journalist in question, back from his holiday, accusing us of not mentioning that prices were in coupons, and accusing us of changing the menu that was in the website which differed from the one I later sent. Therefore he had gotten the 'incorrect' menu, and therefore it was not his fault. It was ours. In other words, he was pushing the blame back to us. Whoa, that really raised my hackles, i can tell you. If one is incompetent, fine. But the last straw is when an incompetent person can't even own up to his mistakes.

Firsly, which idiot would believe that a damn pork knuckles cost only $6 when it would at least cost $20 in Zi char places not to mention restaurants. And for that matter, shouldn't a journalist check his sources and his facts before publishing his article if he is unclear? And thirdly, he accused us unfairly of changing the menu when all along it was the same damn menu that we used for that Oktoberfest period.

Worst of all, I can't send an email back to this inept fellow telling him point blank what I think of him because that would strain the pleasant relationships we want to maintain. And I don't think he can swallow the truth when it is thrown back at him. Sheesh my blood is still boiling when I think about it. I will have to think up an email that is suitably polite while subtly hinting at his incompetence. I believe that will give me slight pleasure in doing so, since I cant give him a piece of my mind, I would have to settle for this.

On a happier note, I might be posting some pictures later on when I feel like it..heh. So glad it is friday tmr...ahhh

5 weeks into my new job at Garibaldi Group. I can safely say I love it. Though it was not always so. So many things have happened since my 5 week absence from blogging. The first two weeks were nightmarish as it was a huge change from my previous office at Weber Shandwick. There was no pantry to begin with, just a small little corner with a kettle. That was it. The office was small and rather dinghy, a far cry from my old office. And of course there weren't my fellow interns to banter with. It didn't help that my then manager, who was leaving the company in two weeks, was very disparaging about everything. Her pessimistic view on things, and the people in the office took its toll on my and I began to feel very discouraged. I went home everyday drained and exhausted, and wondering if I had made the wrong decision.

2 weeks later, as my manager left, and I had to take over her duties as well as my own until the new marketing manager came in the folllowing week, the world surprisingly didn't collapse on me. Amazingly, I found I could cope, and I actually started interacting with the rest of my colleagues who were actually nice people, and not the nasty backstabbing people my old manager had led me to believe. Suddenly, I was happy again.

Actually, there were more reasons to be happy. I got to dine at Gunther's, the new French restaurant that is all the rage right now. I got to eat delicacies that I would never have eaten in my life such as Oscietra Caviar, Wagyu beef, Foie gras etcetera and many other expensive delicacies. Obviously, there was also a price to pay for all these luxurious, such as dining with editors of magazine. For a greenhorn like me, it was an extremely stress inducing experience. I was stressed over what to say, and what not to say. I was conscious of my inability to make interesting conversation, and for my perceived lack of knowledge.Things have of course improved since then.

I got the chance to know great chefs like Gunther, of Les Amis fame and find out that he is a nice person despite his fiery temper (I was at the receiving end once), and a few other chefs who are very charming though too flirtatious for my liking. I got to drink my favourite Affogato or Hot Chocolate at Menotti during business meetings foc.

Never mind that my mother is not supportive of this job, she never is anyway. I am just glad I found something that I truly like. Life is not a bed of roses though, and I too have my fair share of problems, and there is of course the common office politics which we can never run away from. What matters most is that I like what I am doing, and it is something I am truly passionate about. People who know me knows that I light up at the mention of food.

As for Stephen, I guess we are both quite blessed. Despite having graduated and spending less time together, we are still as close as ever. There if of course the occasional tiffs which usually blows away pretty fast. His late working hours make us treasure the time spent together on weekends more. There are days when I can get unreasonable and plain pms-y, I am just glad he puts up with me and never fail to jolly me out of my bleak mood.

I guess it might be quite a while until my next blog post. These days, the last thing I want to do it write and use my brain since I do so much of both at work already. But it has been a good time of reflection...

It's official. This will be my last week at WS as i have been offered the position of marketing executive/pr at Garibaldi group. Its amazing really how smooth the path to it was. I feel it was literally a "god send". From the time I sent in my resume on a whim (there was no job opening then), to the two interviews that went so smoothly. I wasn't prepared for the interview. I felt like I knew nothing at all, and it was the end of a particularly challenging week, and I was feeling weary and tired. Yet my new boss liked me, and wanted me to start as soon as possible.

I am very excited about the new job. There are many things to be learnt and to do, so differeny from anything I have never done. Things will be totally different from what I am used to know, thats why I am feeling a little apprehensive also. But I believe that with the right attitude, I can definitely conquer my fears. Plus Roberto is a good boss. In my two meetings with him, I like him already, for his humbleness, his good humour and his willingness to teach.

Now that it is my last week at WS, I feel a tinge of sadness to be leaving. Everyone was happy for me that I am moving on. After all, I can't be an intern forever right. And if they are not going to offer me a job, someone else will. But I am glad to be leaving with the last batch of interns, life would be so different without them indeed.

Looking back, I think it has been a great three months. Three months of learning many new things, being exposed to new people, facing challenges, overcoming challenges, stress, and finding my own quiet confidence in the things I do. I am glad for this opportuinity to work in a PR company. And nowadays, I don't even count down the hours to lunch time, or to end of work, because time just flies past so fast because of the sheer amount of work I have to do. They are trying to get the most out of me before I leave..hah.

Sometimes I swear that the interns at WS are the only things that keep me going at work. I look forward to deciding where to go for lunch, waiting for people to arrive, and the random emails that we somethings send out when we have nothing better to do at work, emails that can suddenly brighten up your mundane day and leave you smiling at your comp or laughing out loud. Or when we pass by corridors or meet in the pantry and gossip or complain about each other's day at work.

Vic, Jayne, Fang Ting, Shao Ru and Nat have been really special people. Good things don't last that long. Vic was the first to leave, and for the few days after she left, I really missed her. Her blurness and chirpyness somehow grew on me. And she was from my team, so we could bitch to each other about people. Not anymore. Jayne and Shao Ru would be leaving this Fri, followed by Nat and Fang Ting next Fri. And things would never be the same again. The new interns who came in somehow didn't fit into our clique, the bond that had formed within the last 2 months or so. Maybe, just maybe, I would be leaving too. Since I don't envision staying for long anyway.

But I guess the time here has taught me many things, and at least next time I can say I have had the experience of work at the top PR firm in Singapore before, but it's no big deal really. One thing I have to say is they really know how to take care of the welfare of our stomachs - all the good food at staff meetings, team lunches etcetera. But who knows what life might bring next...

It has been a very tough week so far. I am trying hard to be strong and independent, but it isn't easy at all. I just feel so emotional and unappreciated.

I can't wait for the weekends to come, where at least there is one less stress, and I can just rest my tired brain and weary soul...

I really can't anymore

A rough day

It was a rough day today, to say the least. It was deceptively slow in the morning, then everything came wham-bam around mid-morning, catching me unawares and causing me a great deal of stress. Add to that some other factors, and I was near tears as I stared furiously at the screen, willing my eyes and hands to move fast.

The interns went for lunch together. I went alone. Headed for my comfort food- Chicken avocado sandwich. Only it wasn't as nice today. Maybe it was just my mood. The chicken was rather tough, and it took me ages to finish it. I got full after eating half a sandwich.

I wish the monster somewhere in me would stop rising up and make me turn into an angry and unhappy person. Today as I was crossing the road, I almost wished I would get knocked down by a car. Isn't that morbid? The phone call just made me more miserable. And then the tears started again.

Right now, I am not going to think so much and just escape into my fictional world of novels. It's kind of mindless to come home and just surf foodblogs and read books. But at least it takes my mind away from things, and in a sense, give me some purpose.

Maybe it's just today. But God, let me have a good day tmr. Give me the strength to last through the week. And make me a nicer person that I am.

Beating the monday blues

It was great finally pushing my lazy butt to the gym after work for a heart pumping, perspiration flowing, fats zapping workout. It felt so good after that, all the angst, lethargy melting away. I do have to start a regular exercise routine soon. My colleagues all admire that I can eat so much at lunch and still eat so much snacks and still stay 'skinny'. But I know that it won't last.

At least I had a healthy lunch today, so healthy that it made the guilt of snacking on Loackers Vanilla Wafer(my new favourite) in the afternoon go away. Today was a slow moving monday. And I am glad, after the stress of last week, I deserve a rest. Anyway, I digress. Here it is, introducing Rosemary Chicken Sandwich from the Bratwurst Shop: It tasted so good that I felt it would be my new staple for lunch. Its the best sandwick around, apart from Cedele, I think. All that succulent chicken, cheese, healthy veggies in a foccacia bun and toasted in a panini press. Thats my idea of a good lunch. Of course they do sell a variety of other sandwiches and the juicest and tastiest hotdog buns, but that's for another day.

So yes, a healthy lunch, a non-so healthy afternoon snack and an exercise to beat the Monday blues

I get real work finally

It was quite a good day today because I finally got real work to do today, in the form of writing articles for a client. I got to talk to big boss herself. I find her very intimidating and also awe-inspiring. I wouldn't deny that I was quaking in my sandals prior to meeting her because I was so nervous. And no, she didn't eat me up. But I sure wouldn't find to find out the consequences of screwing up what she tells me to do. Thus, I face great stress indeed.

We had lunch at QQ Noodle House at Park Mall. The QQ specialty noodles is indeed rave-worthy. The noodles were springy and each strand was coated with their special seaoning and shallot oil, which is probably what makes it so unforgettable. It is not very waist-friendly though, I suppose. One major complain is the $3 portion is too small. Mine was gone in a matter of minutes. I really do regret that I don't have any pictures to post. But somehow I seem to have lost the habit of taking pictures of my food. That is probably because I get very self-conscious of taking pictures of my food nowadays.

For the next three days, I predict I would be kept busy, very busy indeed. I am not sure whether I like that.

I love weekends

The weekend flew past as usual this week, and I am having Monday blues once again. At least I packed a whole lot of things into my weekend to make the full use of it. I find it interesting how I face the same whole pattern of dreading Mondays, a whole long week of dreariness to come. Then on Tues, I would be glad that Monday is over. On wed, I would be happy that midweek has come. On Thurs, yay, its is past midweek. And of Fri, triple hooray, weekend has come. I ought to throw myself into work with more zest and enthusiasm. Sadly, I have been unable to thus far. It makes me worry and wonder about my future, just what I like to do. In this so very competitive society, do I have what it takes? It is something I can ponder about for the next few months while I can still afford to.

This has been a really enjoyable weekend, to eating delicious ramen at Tampopo, to finally going to the much acclaimed chocolate factory. It certainly did not let me down. The Vienna's hot chocolate I had blew me away with the intensity of chocolate and the sheer richness of the cream. Just thinking about it makes me smile. And there was the chocolate tart, which was every bit smooth, rich and delectable and sent me straight on chocolate's high. The black forest cake was just quite ordinary. I would be back again, for the flour less chocolate cake. And just the pure pleasure of soaking in the atmosphere, with chocolate in the air.

Today was just a great day of chilling out with mb, from eating my favourite piping hot kueh tutu at Clementi, to the famous Ah Balling rice balls..What a great way to spend the weekend!

The company lunch that beat Monday blues

My Monday blues are over. The day passed so quickly without me realizing it. I spent the better part of the morning uprooting from the room I have been occupying for a month, to another place where I had problems accessing the network drive, then back to my old room, then to another workstation whose occupant is on leave for one week. Two hours was wasted just like that.

It was the Senior VP M's birthday and she treated us all to "pub grub" at Stumps at The Cricket Club. It was quite a nice and atas place, full of seemingly leisurely men lounging around. Lucky M who was on leave that day had countless glasses of frozen magaritas while the rest of us who had to go back to work could only look on enviously while sipping our juices. We shared casear salad for starters, and the table of 12 women all ordered beer battered fish & chips, except for one who ordered chicken. The portion of it was HUGE and the fish was very fresh, though it was nothing to rave about. I feel that Fish & Co's fish and chips are undisputedly the best I have ever tasted. That being said, there are many other restaurants I have not tried, Greenwood Fish market & bistro being one of which, thus I shall reserve my comments.

Then came desserts. M was very generous, and ordered one of everything. Everyone was very full by then, and I was one of the few who gamely went for more. Three hours was gone by the time we headed back to office. A very satisfying lunch indeed.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a whirl and I was kept so busy that by the time I left work, I was very stoned. And so the cycle continues...

I am making a last ditch effort to save my blog by changing the frilly pink skin and and changing it to a minimalist look. I kind of like it, and as lease it has the comments options where you guys can leave comments instead of my flooble constantly expiring on my because its underused. In time I would probably add more stuff to it, but for now, this would suffice.

Its been exactly 1 month since I started internship at a PR company. Lets just call is WS for now. Its been 4 weeks of great changes, of great stress, of learning many things, and of course making friends. There are other interns from NTU, SMU and poly there, so lunchtime is always quite a jolly affair. I am supposed to intern at this company for 6months, which is an awfully long time to survive on an intern's pay, especially when I have to start paying off loans and such. I suppose I will find a way around it.

I have not beeng blogging for quite a couple of reasons. Firstly is because after a long and tiring day at work, the last thing I want to do when I come home is to involve my brain in anyway. Secondly, I am afraid of sounding boring. I don't want to sound like a run-of-the mill kind of blogger who just talks about her everyday life and bores the shit out of everyone. Third, I might be tempted to blog about work, and that is risky, considering what a big company I am working for.

Well, we shall see how it goes. Its another long week ahead..argghh.. I hate Mondays

Interesting Food for thoughts:

“If a man is called a streets sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of Heaven and Earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great streets sweeper who did his job well.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.



Life
Do more than exist, live.
Do more than touch, feel.
Do more than look, observe.
Do more than read, absorb.
Do more than listen, understand.
Do more than think, ponder.
Do more than talk, say something.
- John Ho. Rhoades

Somehow everytime after I blog, I feel slightly happier. That my pent up emotions are gone..
Or it could be attributed to something called Indofood: Taste of Asia Instant noodles. I am not a big fan of instant noodles, in fact I avoid it whenever I can. But today's Life section had a two page article on 5o ways to cook instant noodles. After reading through and looking at all the delectable pictures, I had an instant craving for it.

So off I went to Great World City to buy the Indofood instant noodles, chicken terriyaki flavour ( i wanted to get salted-fish as it was supposedly rated the best), but somehow I got the wrong one. But anyway, I cooked it as soon as I got home, together with a fried egg. There were so many sauces to add to the noodles, and after I mixed it all up, it looked and smelled and tasted unlike any other instant noodles I have tried. And it was for the better of course. It was so fragrant because of the shallot oil, and the flavours all exploded on my tastebuds.

I was hooked. Immediately. As it was a big packet, I had doubted my abililty to finish it. But somehow, I managed, and there was even a little tongue action at the end to clean it all up. Yum. In my haste to eat it, I forgot to take a picture of it. But there would always be other time yeah.

Now I am feeling stuffed. And greedy. But happy. Burp.

It's been little more than a month since I last posted, and time has just flown past. This semester is the busiest and most challenging ever, and I am starting to sound like a broken track record. I hardly see my friends and I hardly ever go out. Good news is that I have overcome the impossible, coming up with two brochures wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be. It was just pure frustration at times when the programme fails you. So coming up with a website in maybe four days should be achievable. (It had better be)

But I am glad because I have learnt so many new things this semester. I have always wanted to learnt Photosho during the holidays, but did not due to inertia. And now I know InDesign, a little of Illustrator and hopefully Dreamweaver(for the website to come). There is nothing like deadlines to push one to do stuff beyond what you think you can achieve.

Good thing is that it would all be over in two weeks. Bad thing is the new things to come, the Big Unknown. Being an 'S' type personality, I hate changes and love security. That explains why my daily breakfast of peanut butter sandwich has remained constant throughout the years, almost.

But well, I learnt that I shouldn't box myself up. The big word right now is to "think out of the box". I suspect I have always been an "in the box" person, but hopefully that can change. My self-confidence has taken a severe beating and is at an all-time low. Sometimes I just feel like I am not good at anything. Writing- sucks. Communications - sometimes words fail me, at important moments. Baking? I am just an amateur baker at best. Like my dad always tell me, I am a "half-filled bucket", in literal translation from the chinese phrase meaning not good in everything I do.

It scares me, to be mediore when I really want to be excellent. But this entry is not about self-pity or me whining. Its just a reflection of how I feel and maybe then can improve.

I guess this is a journey where I have to find myself.

I've posted so many unhappy post that I had better post something happy for a change. Today, I baked my first ever successful cranberry-almond biscotti which didn't crumble upon being sliced. I was quite alarmed at the stickiness of the dough and could hardly shape them into two logs. The dough was stickier than glue I reckon, and kept sticking onto my fingers such that everything was a big goey mess, so I just dumped it onto the pan and prayed that it would turn out alright. When it was done, and cooled for 10mins, I sliced the log into thinner slices to be baked again until dry, and the dough held up quite well, so my biscotti retained its shape..yayy. But it could also be because I chopped up the almonds instead of using them whole. Anyway 1 hour later, I had the whole kitchen smelling happenly. I was cleaning up the kitchen when my mother came back. I got a big scolding of course, whats new. She scolded me for wasting her electricity and water to bake for other people. Generous woman, my mother. But oh well, I love biscotti, especially when dunking them into hot coffee or milo.

I had a fantastic reunion dinner with my family yesterday. Everybody was gathered at my aunt's place, and she cooked up quite a feast. There was yu sheng, super huge jumbo prawns, mushrooms, sotong, fishcake, tau pok, fish etcera. But what was nicest was the company, everybody gathered around,chattering, kids running around the place. There was at 6 naughty kids and 2 babies there, they were a joy to watch, though they were also a handful. Makes you think twice about having your own kids next time, really. They were wrecking havoc in my cousins room, jumping on his bed, examining his stuff and banging on his keyboard. But it was a really good reunion, with all warmth and laugher spilling around.

Oh, and I simply must share about Da Paolo Gastronomia at Chip Bee Gardens. Its this gourmet shop selling many kinds of takeaway stuff: pizza, pasta, cakes, cookies, antipasti. For their cakes alone, there are so many different kinds that it is hard-pressed to make a choice. But I must simply recomment their flourless dark chocolate cake if you are a chocolate lover like me, it is so rich and sinful and fudgy and totally melt-in-the-mouth yummilicious. There is also the blackforest cheesecake that is very yummy without being overly rich. The tiramisu is also another dessert I would recommend, its is just simply divine. I want to try their Valronha chocolate cake soon.There is also the pizza which I have always wanted to try, but never got around to doing so. And when I did, it simply blew me away. At the price of $6, it is arguably steep for a slice of pizza. But..it is a huge slice, big enough for two not very hungry souls. I had the salmon and pesto pizza. The crust was crispy,neither too thick nor too thin to the point of floppiness and was firm enough for me to eat on the go without anything falling out. The proportion of the ingredients were all just right. The tanginess of the tomato base, the rich mozarella cheese, the basil and the salmon which lifted the flavour of the pizza. Oh man, this is one pizza that I would go back for more. Do go try it out if you are at Holland village and feeling hungry

If I had my way, this entry would be filled with lots of the eff word, but I shall exercise restrain since this is a public space. I am just fillling so very pissed-off right now. I don't know how many times I have been pissed off this week already. I have tried to be as understanding as I can, but there is a limit to how far I can go. I feel pretty fucked up right now. Things with my mum so bad. So many deadlines and assignments looming up soon. So many projects and endless project meetings. Feeling at a loss how to go about doing my assignments. So many things weighing me down. I would be glad to see the end of march. I just wish it is here sooner. The least you can do is really keep your comments to yourself if you don't have any words of comfort. Because condemnation is the last thing I need..

There's this emotional turmoil within me. I am tired of being depressed and listless. For the past 3 days, I have been feeling so weepy, and its more than just stress of work or even my mum. We have been having another cold war which I should be used to by now. I am selfish, prideful and stubborn i know, but I can't help the way I am..maybe sometimes its just nice to isolate myself and not talk to anyone, not feeling very sociable somehow, this fake happy mask I put on sometimes in front of friends or family, guess I am not very good at sharing my feelings,especially unhappy feelings. I wish I can escape from this world now, go to another world made up of chocolates and candies like in Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

On a brighter note, my computer is repaired and fully functioning now, but still kind of slow. I got a new N73, a brand new ipod video, but unfortunately no songs to put inside . And I got treated to dinner by HP to Aerin's at Raffles City yesterday which I have been dying to try for ages, but the prices are too steep for me to venture in without parental sponsors..heh. We shared a leek and potato soup($7) which was nice and creamy, and I had a Aerin's Tagliette($20), which is a creamy pasta dish with mushrooms, smoked salmon and some salmon roes. I loved its creamy without being overly rich texture and the generous amount of mushrooms inside..yummy. And I also had a punchless pina colada($6) which was a great thirst quncher. Unfortunately I didnt manage to take any pictures because I felt that HP would not like it..oh well. I would love to try their high tea one day, priced at $25 for 2 which consists of canapes, cakes, scones and tea/coffee.

And now, I still have two assignments due and a test next week..blah

Sigh, I didn't manage to post any pictures yesterday cos my computer crashed. Sigh..feeling so super down now. All my photos,recipes, music, documents are all gone, there is just this sense of deep loss for things that are unrecoverable. So I don't think I would be blogging much for now..