.: asylum for the sane :.

I broke fast at home yesterday, for the first time this year. It’s always nice to be breaking fast at home, even though it was just me and my grandma yesterday.

As always the radio was on before, during and after we broke fast. There was the evergreen arabic song that has been around for years and years – I bet nobody even knows the name of the song, lol. And then there was an advertisement.

The advertisement revolved around a short skit between a mother and her grown-up children. They were breaking fast (how apt!). So the son was going thru the process of breaking fast. He ate a date, and then guzzled down a cup of Coca Cola.

The feel of the whole ad is as if Coke is the only drink one should have when breaking fast.

I don’t know how I feel about this. I have nothing against Coke (my favourite is Vanilla Coke, which I can’t seem to find anywhere right now) – but I don’t think I’ve ever associated Coke as a beverage for breaking fast. Coke and any gassy drinks, that is. Simply because it will cause a major tummy upset.

In my household (and I believe in most households), we hardly break fast with gassy drinks. It’s always “mild” drinks like coffee, tea, syrup drinks, air kathira, bandung, soya bean, milk – anything but gassy, carbonated drinks.

Gassy drinks are often (if at all) consumed later on during the evening, when the tummy has been satiated and at no risk of acting up.

I don’t think it’s the right angle to market the product. I mean seriously, it just seems off. I’d rather hear about where to get the best air kathira during the fasting month because honestly, that’s more relevant and more interesting.

Come on Coca Cola, you are already too well-known to be stooping to such a niche market. Well since you are at it, I’d rather you do a promotion for Hari Raya. Gassy drinks and Hari Raya – now that makes sense!

I’ve always loved food photography. I believe an appealing photo of a dish is not easily attained, but I do try anyway every time I dine out – with my humble point-and-shoot camera. Nothing professional of course, but I try to capture the very essence of the colour and presentation of the dishes.

Now bring FP into the picture (pun seriously not intended), with his dedication, photography skills, creativity and all his truckload of photography gadgets and you’ll get food photos so wonderfully captured, you’d become hungry just by looking at the photos.

As some of you might have known, FP got into a terrible traffic accident almost 2 months back (saving this story for another post) and he’s still in recovery right now. Because he’s in a much, much better state than he had been when it first happened, we’ve been doing photoshoots – just to spur our creativity and also, just for the fun of it.

We started with our normal photoshoots, but we somehow ventured into taking photos of food. When I say “we”, I meant: he takes the photo, while I assist in other ways to get the shot, hehe. It certainly doesn’t hurt that we both love food; exotic beautiful food. With both our quirky minds at work, it didn’t take much to create masterpieces such as these:

Click to see his write up for this photo

This was the first food-related photo he took. We’ve both been craving for hot chocolate for quite awhile, so I bought some hot chocolate and pastries for us to munch on (also to take photos of) and we ended up with this. That is a yummy cinnamon scone, and it’s even yummier when dipped in the hot chocolate. Gosh, you have no idea

Click to see his write up for this photo

This was a plate of delicious Pad Thai from Magic Wok. We also had Belacan Fried Rice and Mango Salad that day, but the Pad Thai became the star of the day. I was the one holding the fork up, just so you know haha

Click to see his write up for this photo

This is truly one of my favourites. Okay, so I’m biased because salmon sashimi is one of my favourite foods. Just look at this one. So fresh, you can see the “pores” of the meat. Yum, looking at it makes me want to have it all over again. Anything with sushi and sashimi (sushimi for short), you can always count on me to enjoy it. We so gotta go to Japan one day!

Click to see his write up for this photo

Another of my favourites because 1) I love macaroons and 2) I love that we used fairy lights for this shoot to achieve the Bokeh effect. This was actually a test shot that turned out nice and lively. I like how the Bokeh colours turned out so nice and makes it look like a real party scene. Macaroons were from De Paolo Gastronomia. This quaint little shop provides the best picnic all-Italian food!

This little food project we’re doing has opened my eyes to the world of actual food photography beyond my little pink point-and-shoot camera. It’s not that easy, with all the lighting stuff and post production but it is so rewarding when he has attained such nice photos.

I may be getting my very own DSLR soon. No idea how to use it, but I’ll learn from the best

This is a plate of half a dozen of level 30 buffalo wings.

Which may seem to be just another name of a dish to you, but let me tell you that it isn’t. This is super mad spicy chicken, that is almost lethal – I am not exaggerating.

You do know of course that I’ve tried buffalo wings levels 3 and 4 and those were by itself epic experiences already, even for a seasoned chili padi lover like me.

So if levels 3 and 4 were already so torturous (at that time), you can only imagine what level 30 would be like. 10 times the pain. 10 times the spiciness. Talk about torturous eating.

However this time round, when we went there, I only had the level 3 spicy wings (even though I wanted to try level 5 pretty badly). It was the boys who jumped straight to level 30, hohoho!

And how they suffered.

But, it was hard to resist temptation when it is right in front of you. I was curious to know what this coveted level 30 chicken tasted like. I just had to have it. But in an attempt not to kill myself (after seeing the pains the boys are experiencing), I only took one bite.

And this bite, my friends, is enough.

Sorry for the quality of the photo, but it was pretty dark where we were seated and my hands were quite shaky from wanting to try the damn chicken.

So I finally placed this fairly regular sized bite of level 30 buffalo wings into my mouth and..

Holy shit. It was like having a mini bon fire inside your mouth. The spicy taste of the chicken creeps on to you slowly, and when it finally has you around its dried chili hell, it’s too late for anything. The heat and spiciness totally engulfs you.

Totally, totally. It left me speechless. And I was so close to tears, but I couldn’t cry because compared to what the two guys were going thru (3 whole chicken wings each), my little suffering was close to nothingness.

It is something that I will not try again (and I think everyone who went on this trip will agree with me on this), but I will continue trying the other levels from where I left off. But never level 30 again. One bite is sufficient, thank you very much.

FP got thru the entire ordeal pretty well, just an upset and unstable tummy the next day, but Kawan E’s brother had it real bad

But they are both rewarded with certificates of accomplishment! This is FP’s cert, hehehe. We haven’t gotten round to laminating it!

Yes we will come back again, but not ever for level 30. I am so looking forward to level 5 though!

I finally went to Fig & Olive a few weeks back, after years of wanting to try it out.

There’s always a small fear that the something new that you are trying out will not be to your liking, and so I deferred trying out this restaurant for the longest time.

But I’m glad I finally came around. Now I wish I had tried it long ago!

This was FP’s Maghribi Chicken with yellow rice (this is not the exact name – i only remember the Maghribi part) It was delicious, tho I only had a bite off it. Yummy Yummy!

We also ordered a smoked salmon salad (also not exact name. the exact name is deep blue something). Interesting how the smoked salmon here is not salty like the one at coffee club.

Also interesting to note was that there were figs AND olives in the salad! Ah how apt! I found it so amusing – we were eating figs and olives at figs and olives. okay, nevermind.

Too bad I dont eat figs. Not like that anyway.

This salad was delicious too, with little or no dressing. Healthy and yummy, whats not to like?

And this was my marinara (who has pasta at a Mediterranean restaurant? only me.)

What I liked about it: the generous servings of seafood inside the marina, which made it a delight to have.

What I don’t like about it: it was too tomato-ey. ease up on the tomato sauce pple! i’d rather have it spicy than tomato-ey, even tho tomatoes are one of my favourite vegetable-fruit.

Just that I eat my tomatoes RAW.

Also, I don’t like it that this dish isn’t really photogenic like the other two, lol.

There was a dessert in the menu that I wanted to try. Something called Apricot Turkish Delight. As some of you may know, I’m a big fan of Turkish Delight – the candy and confection from Turkey (lol). I almost hyperventilate when I tried REAL Turkish Delight that my boss brought back from Turkey.

So back to topic. I wanted to try it because I thought its turkish delight mashed up with apricot, mixed with ice cream. But the waitress told us it was apricot + ice cream (or something like that). So I didn’t try it.

Mainly because we were still unsure of the quality of the food. Now that we know that it is absolutely yummy, I’m going back there to try the Apricot Turkish Delight.

Fig and Olive is a wonderful restaurant which I will recommend to everyone to try. Go to the one at Vivocity in the evening, pick out the seats outside facing the sea

Yesterday I turned 26. This was how I spent my day

I took leave for yesterday, just as I do every year on my birthday. As much as I have been accused (gasp!) of being a workaholic, I simply wouldn’t do it on my special day. This has been my practice since I started my work life, after graduation.

So anyway let’s continue with our story.

FP presented me with this box (okay previously it was in a longish paper holder thingy), and inside it was this:

A lovely charm bracelet from Thomas Sabo! He has chosen three charms for me: a pink flower, a shooting star and a witch.

Why a witch? Because I like Harry Potter, apparently.

Why a shooting star and a pink flower? Because they just look nice

Fair enough, hehe.

Then we went to Ion Orchard for Swenson’s ice cream buffet! Kawan L, Kawan E & Kawan C were initially supposed to join us. But they didn’t

So anyway it was just FP and myself, having access to all the ice cream one could have!

So for my first combination, I took – banana split, frosted chocolate malt and strawberry flavoured ice cream, with strawberries and marshmallow for topping! I really do love fresh strawberries and marshmallows. In fact, I am a marshmallow – just ask FP.

His first bowl of ice cream, on the other hand, looks like this:

It consisted of sticky chewy chocolate, cookies and cream and butterscotch flavoured ice cream with chocolate malt balls, marshmallow (copy!), lychees and chocolate sticks as toppings. yum yum

For my second round, I chose very fruity selections. Actually, I’ve always preferred fruity ice cream flavours as compared to rich and creamy ones – so this was pure heaven to me.

This concoction comprises: mango-peach, rock melon and calamansi flavoured ice cream, topped with strawberries (again), lychees and longans. A very refreshing concoction – just as how I intended it The mango-peach flavoured scoop was extremely delightful and exceptionally refreshing, whereas the rock melon one was simply divine. I love!

FP’s next bowl:

Such a vast difference in how the ice cream and toppings are presented, lol. My bowls look way, way better I can be a food arranger on top of a food photographer next time, lol.

This bowl holds a scoop of black sesame, chocolate and strawberry flavoured ice cream each apart from the atap seeds, he also poured marshmallow sauce over the three flavours.

By this time we were both so bloated and pretty sick of ice cream. Actually in between bites of ice creams, we ordered fries and deep-fried mushroom, so that we won’t feel so overwhelmed with ice cream. It kinda worked.

I didn’t know this photo was taken until I was going through my camera just now. Looks like FP too can be a food photographer. /run

Then of course there was the episode of many many children singing Happy Birthday to me. I will not go too much into that, but of course he did plan for it. We’ll keep it at that

But it was very sweet, thank you FP

And finally, the birthday cake:

This was my chocolate truffle cake from The Royals

Small and sweet, just like me. hahahaha!

Candle was blown and wishes were made (though not entirely because I was being egged on to blow the candle) and that’s the end of my day.

It was a special day with sweet surprises. I love it, and thank you FP for the wonderful day.

And thank you all of you who wished me in Facebook (flooded my wall), twitter, via SMS (these had the nicest bday msges I’ve received), by phone (love ya Kavz!) and in person (xoxo FP).

It was really nice being remembered and loved on a special day like your birthday, so thank you.

Here’s to number twenty six, and let’s live it to the fullest. And then feel emo again when number twenty seven comes along.

One of the things I look forward to during each fasting month is Air Kathirah.

To drink it when breaking fast is like pure heaven. Not only is it sweet, but it is also thirst quenching after such a long day.

For the uninitiated, air kathirah is a like a milk beverage that is sweet and yummy. There are these ingredients in it that I don’t quite know what they are – probably sago seeds? These sago seeds are equivalent to the pearls in bubble tea, just 1/100 the size of a pearl. I’ve tried looking for a photo of this drink but to no avail.

I can’t believe nobody has taken a photo of Air Kathirah. Maybe I will, haha.

But anyways, Air Kathirah is the best thing ever.

So my story about Air Kathirah today adds on to my long history of bimbo tales.

So there I was with FP walking through the Pasar Malam looking for food, drinks and possibly Malay or Indo DVDs. But my main mission was of course to find my beloved Air Kathirah. It has become a personal custom for me to have it every Ramadhan. So we searched and searched.

First there was this stall that sold Air Kathirah in so many flavours that a bubble tea shop will cringe in shame. Blueberry Kathirah, Strawberry Kathirah and so on. I was like.. “WOW, interesting but NO. I must have the original”.

So we walked on.

Then directly across from where I was standing, I saw a sign saying AIR KATHIRAH + CHENDOL.

So I pointed the sign to FP, to which he says, “Chendol sounds good! Let’s go!”

Now here’s where things get complicated all because of Air Kathirah.

When I saw the sign, I honestly thought that it meant that Chendol is mixed with Air Kathirah and therefore a new drink has been created. That was my logic because that is truly the literal meaning of the sign. (I’m a simple girl, you know?)

FP on the other hand, caught the real meaning of the sign – which simply says that they sold both Air Kathirah and Chendol at the stall. Not mixed. They just have both available.

So bearing these opposing thoughts in mind, let me tell you what happened when we got to the stall.

So this is the conversation that occurred between me and the stall aunty:

Me: Can I have one kathirah, and one kathirah + chendol

Aunty: Ok, one kathirah, one chendol

Me: No, one kathirah, one Kathirah + Chendol! (thinking why doesn’t she understand when she has a sign saying kathirah + chendol up! At these moment FP was nudging me saying stuff. I ignored him)

Aunty: (begins putting one packet of Kathirah in a plastic bag)

Me: Um, can I have that in a cup? (to which FP nudged me again saying, “Nevermind.. we can just drink from the plastic”)

Aunty: Sorry we don’t have any more cups. (she then takes one packet Chendol and put it in the plastic also)

Me: Oh ok.. (notices that the Chendol does not seem to be mixed with kathirah) Aunty, is this already mixed with Kathirah?

At this point of time, the aunty did look annoyed. She looked incredibly tired and did I tell you that we can break fast at any minute? And still she had to deal with nonsense from a certain innocent bimbo.

Aunty: We don’t have mixed ones. It’s either Kathirah or Chendol. No mixed! So you still want or don’t want??

Me: Oh (blush blush) yes yes ok

Aunty: So with Chendol or no Chendol?

Me: With. So one Kathirah one Chendol.

After which, FP laughed at me nonstop. But to my defense:

a) The sign was misleading
b) Prior to this stall, I saw air kathirah in so many flavours
c) Who knows, air kathirah mixed with chendol might be yummy after all!

So perhaps we should try mixing eh, Kawan E?

My little slice of heaven – Sour Sally yogurt with plenty of mochi and longans as toppings.

A spoonful of it can make your troubles fade away just like that. Before you know it, you’ve finished a large cup of it, problems forgotten.

Isn’t it amazing how something so simple can make one feel so happy?

Despite having 2 big cups of it with plenty of wonderful toppings during my second trip to Jakarta, I found myself craving for it again. But too bad it isn’t found in Singapore.

But come to thing of it, perhaps it is a good thing that it isn’t found here.

Too much of a good thing can turn out to be an overkill. Right now, because it is out of my reach – it will always be a novelty. A simple pleasure that will make me happy. Oh I’m easily pleased with simple pleasures, don’t you know?

Besides, any nice brand that comes to Singapore will ultimately be ruined by stupid Singaporeans.

Speaking of which, do you know that Dunkin Donuts is back in Singapore? It’s at Ion Orchard. When I wanted to get it, I found a long, long queue at the shop. I changed my mind right there, and made my way home. Killjoy. Whee!

Seriously man, this is why I said Singaporeans will just kill the mood of something novel and new. It’s just donuts. I understand you miss Dunkin Donuts and that’s why you even bother to be in the queue. But at the end of the day, it is just DONUTS. And donut shops are everywhere.

But this is not a post to rant about Singaporeans. That can be in another post, trust me.

So anyway, this is how the design of a large Sour Sally cup looks like:

Cute and cheery, isn’t it? Exactly how I like my stuff. I wanted to keep the cup (I collect rubbish, remember?) but I accidentally threw it away. Pfft.

Can someone get me some Sour Sally already? With strawberry and melon mochi and longans please. No nuts or raisins.

Just felt like posting this photo up.

This was something I had as a side for dinner last night:

Classic Caesar Salad with Smoked Salmon, and it was served in a supposedly home made cheese (cracker) bowl.

Of course I ordered it because of the salmon. I’ve only had raw salmon so smoked was something new.

And the verdict? I prefer my salmon raw! Nothing more and nothing less. Because any lesser, I might need to cut the slices myself!

This salad bowl had so much potential to be nice. The veges were lovely as veges will always be. But the salmon was extremely, extremely SALTY – and that made me really thirsty. Not good. A salad is supposed to be refreshing. I wish they had used raw salmon.

And the “homemade cheese bowl”? According to FP, it tasted like keropok that has been exposed too much. Quite airy. Pfft.

For a restaurant that I have REALLY grown to like, this was quite a disappointment

Oh well. Maybe I’d request for fresh salmon next time. They should have it right?

I had quite a great Sunday. And because there are too many focal points, and I am really too tired, let’s do this post in pictures (with minimal words for explanations).

It’s going to be one long crazy week, so might as well start it off with happy, simple things.

This is the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever tasted. And having such a unique container helps too. As you might have known, I collect rubbish. So after the ice cream is long gone, the box is cleaned up and is now on my desk at home. Like I said, rubbish collector.

Doesn’t it always make you happier when you have something colourful like this in your hands? I had my favourite combination (medium peach yogurt with rainbow thingys and strawberries). Double yum.

This is called a spork. Half spoon, half fork and a tiny bit of knife. I was so excited to see it that I bought it. It was from an outdoor store. Yes, I do get very easily pleased with silly things like this.

Of course, I had to get it in pink.

Hehehehehe. Look what I’ve got! An Angels & Demons illustrated movie companion (Oh I haven’t blogged abt the movie!) that explores the sets and behind the scenes stuff about the movie. Me loves! I also got Deception Point. Wanted to get Digital Fortress, but it was sold out.

Best part abt this?

I got a free Angels & Demons keychain.

I did buy Angels & Demons (the novel) on Friday to read it a second time. But haven’t had the time to start reading it. Oh well, the Pope can wait I guess

Can anybody guess what this is?

Nope it’s not a box of waffles silly! It’s a..

.. Nike waffles hoodie, as modelled by Patrick Starfish in the photo above. A novelty purchase, but it looks nice on me. I realise quirky things look nice on me. Like my purple and white oakleys that looks like a toy but is indeed a special edition pair. And now this waffles hoodie. LOL.

My boyfriend has great taste when it comes to dressing me up. Hahaha.

A couple more photos of the hoodie:

This is on the left sleeve (near the cuffs)

This is on the left side, on the chest.

Hehehe.

We went for a nature walk in the morning. I’m not really going by time sequence here, am I? We saw monkeys and squirrels but of course none of us can forget the monkeys.

It was like watching National Geographic live *giggle*

Let’s just say that we watched a group of monkeys fighting, and then one more came to the scene and lifted the tail of one of the monkeys, sniffed it and…

and.. um.. poked him from the back. *covers mouth*

This discovery channel experience lasted for like two seconds and life went back to normal. Hahahahaha!

And no, it’s not the above monkey. this was taken much later, Deeper into the forest.

And guess who were crazy enough to go to the remote location and this time tried level 4 spicy wings?

Let’s just say the experience was hot. In so many levels. I teared without crying, and felt numb. My entire body felt numb and also felt as if it were on fire. My brain got fried a little too by the spiciness as I could hardly think last night when I got home. Hence that is why this blog post got typed out only today.

So that’s how my Sunday went, albeit in photos. Forgive me, I am really suffering from exhaustion.

How did your Sunday go?

Now, I wonder how level 30 is like.

I’m pretty sick right now with flu and everything that comes with flu.

But I will still complete this post because this was meant to be typed and published a few days back. So to even out the momentum, I shall keep typing until this post is finished and then I can concuss till the break of day.

(And then start on a brand new work day, which will be a typically crazy fast paced day. It’s been a tad more crazy and twice the speed this entire week!)

Okay so last weekend, we went to have spicy chicken wings at a remote location (don’t I just enjoy being secretive?)

Apparently, this place serves chicken wings with 10 levels of spiciness. I’ve read somewhere that anything after level 3 is too hot too handle, so we decided to have level 3.

So here are the level 3 spicy wings:

They don’t look too harmful, do they? Well, don’t judge a book by its cover! It was spicy! 

At first it tasted okay, and I was pretty confident that I was able to take it because I am the daughter of a woman who eats chili padi like nothing and inherited that “gift”.

But… it was really crazy hot. And most of the effects came after you have finished eating. The entire area around the mouth burned. It’s like someone smeared chili seed all around my mouth area and it really, really burned.

I kinda like this photo despite the eyebags and all. It was a tiring day for me, having to wake up early and go on a nature walk with FP. We walked for 5 km, but that’s another story. Hope that didn’t scare you off, but there will be nicer photos of me later on in this post. Plus an unglam video *covers face* Plus, this was taken having the chicken and just tasting the spiciness. You try looking pretty while eating crazily spicy chicken.

There.. a nicer photo. Thanks Kawan E for taking this nice photo! <3

Apparently, Kawan E enjoys taking photos of Sha eating. She says it’s the many faces of Kodok Fairy.

That was me, eating soup. LOL. And the soup was yummy! Two thumbs up for the garlic bread!

So before I reveal the video that is embarrassing as it is unglamorous, let me put up a few more photos.

(this is called trying to stall for time)

So, this is Kawan E and Kawan C. (LOL Kawan C!) This was the only photo in this entire blog post taken by me. The fingers belong to FP

FP never ever ever wants to smile nicely for the camera! I guess I’m smiling pretty enough for the both of us, right?

RIGHT?

So I guess I can’t delay the video any further. I’ve uploaded the video in two sources. One is a embedded video from youtube. The other is uploaded up to this domain in case youtube doesn’t (or cannot) load. Thanks to Kawan E, Kawan C and FP for spreading this video across Facebook.

I don’t know where to put my face now. but anyway. Since they’ve created such good publicity for me, I should also promote my own video, as taken by Kawan E.

Option 1. Click this link here to watch Sha and Her Spicy Wings. This will open up your Quicktime player.

Option 2. You can watch it below:

Okay now I’m going to hide under the bed now. LOL. This is so totally unglam! *hides face*

p/s: I ate two full chicken wings, FP and Kawan C had 1.5 chicken wings and Kawan E only had one. Guess who had to rush to the toilet (without hardly any notice)? Everybody who had more than 1 chicken wing. And the discomfort lasted till the next day. Oh my. Can you imagine level 10 wings? hohoho!!