Pistachio

Middle Eastern and Mediterranean place that is always filled with foreigners so I think it must be authentic.

Starters are under $10, light mains are $10 to $20 and main dishes are $30+.

Baba Ghannoush dip with pita bread, the dip was cold and the bread was piping hot. It tastes great but I would have liked it both to be lukewarm, you know somewhere in the middle.

Sambousk Jebanh or samosas filled with mint feta, served over a fresh salad with garlic tzatziki sauce. Totally worth the trip here and I am gonna take my time to try out the other menu items.

 

The famous chicken shawarma, yummy!

Hummus and cheesey garlic naan.

Villiger Premium Cigar

Cigars are not common in Singapore, so when I saw a small display stand (<10) at NTUC Fairprice I was like "what". It's only Villager in 2 sizes Lancero (6.1" x 35) or Cigarillo (3.7" x 23) at around $10 a piece. The price is really high and I think its because of the tobacco tax in Singapore. Villiger recommended retail price is only $17 per 5 pack. You can get a much heftier cigar @ Fumee for $10 and up.

The one I have here is #3 Sumatra, I didn't notice it before coz its just a sticker and the different numbers indicate different types. The description says tangy, I associate it with seafood - a little sourish even seaweed-y and incredibly spicy. I have a feeling it would be great as a blend rather than the 100% pure filling here. Definitely an air freshener as the secondary smoke is creamy chocolately and even interesting. The actual smoke is not.

Reminds me of joss sticks used for praying, nobody smokes that coz it tastes terrible.

Nanbantei Japanese Restaurant

Yakitori place and nothing goes better with it than jap alcohol, ume sake. I liked mine with ice, it waters the sake down to a drinkable level.

My sis ordered the 2 main yakitori platters for us to share as well as 2 of the bentos shown on the menu cover and 2 pork belly bentos for the kids.

It's really nice with signature miso sauce. The rice reminds me of taiwanese mui fan.

Some small plates of sashimi and freshly made mochi for everyone at the table.

Suntec City East Wing

Suntec City has re-opened for business and I find accessing the East Wing (via Promenade MRT) to be much easier than entering via the West Wing (via Raffles City MRT and walking through Citylink).

Brand new Prize Stage Arcade, super sized space.

I bought pastries from Marche to bring home, their bread selection is very popular but I am not a bread person. Muffins and coffee from Jamaica Blue for my mid-afternoon teabreak, the berries used are really fresh and wholesome.

There is a specialty piano shop, cigar shop and even Brick World (lego). Keep walking through B1 or L2 and you will reach Citylink.

Durian Party

Family gatherings at home, I love eating special occasion food like my mom's fried dumplings 鍋貼.

There was this massive pizza from Peperoni Pizza, when the sauce soaks through that thin crispy crust, its salty yummy.

It came with pasta that we all liked. See...it got eaten up real quick.

Salted Egg Crispy Fish Skin, Prawn Paste Chicken Wings, Seafood Tofu

Durians for dessert, there were a few varieties all prepacked in Styrofoam boxes.

Popping Corn

My mom brought home this bag of corn kernels and told me I should give it a go. Popping corn is really easy and makes for a low calorie snack.

1 cup of oil to 2 cups of corn kernels. The moment I turned on the stove, it started popping. In about 6 minutes it was done, pouffy white popcorn.

I made some seasonings:

Butter + Emmental + Old Bay Seasoning

Butter + Cheddar + Cajun Seasoning

Reese Peanut Butter & Chocolate + Honey + Chocolate Biscuits (crushed)

Mix it all up and leave to cool. Fits into 3 Glad deep dish containers exactly.

Family Dinner @ Soup Restaurant

We've been doing a lot of these lately, sunday dinner with the family ;)

Choose between Coconut Black Chicken Soup or Dried Scallop Black Chicken Soup.

Cold specialty Samsui Ginger Chicken, eaten as ssam.

Soup Restaurant offers a-la-carte buffet at Toa Payoh & Hougang Branch, you get to try many menu items in one visit. Lunch $21.90++ Dinner $26.90++. Bring as many people as possible as the specialties are limited to how big your party is.

Singapore Garden Festival

This year's Garden Festival, held at Gardens by the Bay.

These larger than life installations using natural plants are found along the walkways, interspersed by exhibition kiosks. I think these are my fave exhibits at the show this year, orchids are soo common its not really exciting.

The Secret Garden is an enclave with wood peat path that is really nice to walk on, bouncy cushioning for your feet.

Its soo Alice in Wonderland, with sculptures and a cathedral structure over a patio set.

The Giant Chairs structures are really seating areas for people to rest and enjoy the view of MBS, the lake, Singapore Flyer, Supertrees.

Nice shot huh, I am entering this in the photo contest.

The Penjing Tent features Chinese Bonsai for show and for sale. I haven't seen this standard of bonsai since I was a little kid.

Floral arrangement Bentos!

The next tent features competition floral dining concepts, wouldn't you love to have a dinner party in one of these setups.

More competition large-scale floral sculptures.

Couple of freebies along the way, from entering contests at the booths.

This one is a contender for Trick Eye Museum.

This jungle landscape is covered by a painted silk screen, you can only see through when the lights are on, like a lightbox. I thought the fairy lights are exceptionally magical, its artistically draped.

Nice piece of furniture.

We took the shuttle back to starting point, instead of finishing the walk through the marketplace (shopping) and Satay by the Bay (eating). It was pouring rain.

The Garden Festival tickets also allowed us into the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. We only went into the Flower Dome because of the orchid exhibits.

There were loads of award winning orchids and this is my fave, Vanda Norgard GEM

I was mainly interested in different pink tones but the yellow and pink orchids are really special. Also noticed quite a few leopard orchids.

Sidetracked by these gorgeous lantern flowers. The buds hang downwards and look like chinese lanterns.