Pages

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Singapore Dec 2011-2


DSC_9563_1024x678
Orchard Rd was busy and merry as usual. Two new malls have sprung up since my last visit. Ion and 313@Somerset. I found Ion more pleasant. A couple of restaurants looked really tempting. One of them, Ippudo Ramen, had people queuing even at 3 pm.

DSC_9574_1024x678
This was the end of the queue at Starbucks in one of the Orchard malls and we were incredulous that Singaporeans were so crazy about Starbucks coffee. A couple from Finland stood near us and wondered at the same thing too. Starbucks is kaput in Australia I heard but Singaporeans can't get enough of it.

DSC_9565_1024x678
I was with a friend in the Isetan Supermarket when she spotted this pretty young thing and made me take a photo with her. Turned out that she's Fiona Xie, a Singaporean actress. I was so unnerved I forgot to take a shot of her mile-long legs. Remember AngelaBaby whom I saw in Hong Kong?

DSC_9710_1024x678

DSC_9711_1024x678
A resting place for tired shoppers somewhere in Gallery Mandarin. Apparently tired shoppers not only eat and nap, they pet too. 

DSC_9720_1024x678
Abercrombie & Fitch had a week-long promotion of their about-to-open store on Orchard
Rd and flew in some dishy hunks who stood outside the store half-naked. The women bystanders went crazy, their bfs or hubs fidgeting and sucking their bellies in. Someone pushed me forward and I ended up looking stupid with a bunch of hunks half my age. 


DSC_9732_1024x678
These boys kept their shirts on but I bet they have abs too.

DSC_9693_1024x678
The cakes at Antoinette looked SO good but we just had a big lunch and my guys didn't want any dessert. I tell myself that next time, I will make a trip to Singapore with my girlfriends and we will sit down for tea.

DSC_9571_1024x678
At Tangs, I met up with my son Ming who had flown in from Melbourne via KL and Hub who had flown in from Penang and the first thing Ming ate was chicken rice and choy sum. This was in one of the food courts on Orchard and Ming said it was 6/10.

DSC_9756_509x768

DSC_9591_1024x678
If you've never been to Marina Bay Sands the casino, go. From far the buildings look
ridiculous, like a ship is marooned on top of two buildings but close up the grandeur of the whole project is just awing. The casino is HUGE and classy and there are lots of restaurants and shops if gambling is not your thing. 


We were wearing jeans, so we chose to eat dinner at Mario Batali's Osteria Mozza (2 Bayfront Ave, Tel: 65.6688.8522). The dang thing about the place is you have to decide whether you want pizza or pasta at the entrance. Pizza diners go right, pasta lovers go left. You can't have both, isn't that silly. Hard decision but I chose pizza.

DSC_9577_1024x678
House salad, about S$10++. Boring and the dressing was pH 4 maybe, so acidic I couldn't finish it.

DSC_9578_1024x678
An appetiser of calamari with beans, S$10++. Not a bit impressive. 

DSC_9586_1024x678
The main course of the day was braised lamb shank, S$36++. It was good, tender yet still attached to the bone. Yum with the thin pieces of crisp bread.

DSC_9579_1024x678
This was worth the wait (they said 45 minutes but this came in 20 minutes). Fennel and sausage pizza, about S$28++ I think. I've never tasted a similar pizza, not even in Italy. The crust was thin, puffed and crisp and the fennel and sausage were so good together.  I  would surmise that the oven temperature was over 400 C? Awesome.

DSC_9580_1024x678
3-mushroom pizza, another awesome creation.

DSC_9582_1024x678
The pizza crust was made even more crispy by a coating of semolina.

DSC_9587_1024x678
The caramel ice cream with peanuts, about S$15++, was a disappointment because it was too sweet and ordinary. Really those pizzas were a hard act to follow. I wished I had ordered the ice cream with olive oil. Next time.

We stepped out of the building and faced the Louis Vuitton store with the Singapore river and city skyline as back drop. People were dining al fresco and the cool night air blew through giant palms, making the place seem so laid back and beautiful. This part of Singapore reminded me of Sydney Harbour but Sydney Harbor seems so tired and old in comparison. 

8 comments:

  1. One of the alfresco dining Restaurant BAZIN in MBS serves great buffalo wings. Or maybe not, oh well..probably I've been staying here for too long and that taste of buffalo wings in this restaurant are the closest I remembered from NY. For your next trip to Singapore, do try out Level 33 for lunch. You will be rewarded for fantastic view if you go there for dinner, but I doubt you will like to fight spaces with the after-office hour crowd. Have fun and God bless. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. eh, your son is studying in melbourne too?

    i usually spot some celebrities each time i go to hk and they are usually walking in quite close distance from me or sitting behind me.

    my dad will force me to ask for an autograph but i never did. :P

    i've been to abercrombie and fitch in new york and it was embarassing cos the guys are half naked *palms face*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fiona! Love to watch her for Coffee Talk, she can really eat, charming lass. Those pizzas you had making me hungry, oh yes, and those young hunks, many aunties will drool over them HAHAHAHAH!! I saw it on my friend's Facebook wall, so many aunties went Oooos and Ahs. Talking about mee Siam, I haven't been cooking that, yes alot of work. Am glad you had a good time in Singapore. Merry Christmas Terri!
    MG

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're so lucky to see Fiona. She doesn't live here or act anymore and honestly I have never met any of these people around!

    Oh, I wish Ming had picked a better chicken rice stall. I guess the standard at all foodcourts are pretty similar.

    Next time you're here, do hook up with some of us loyal readers and we can go for tea!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow, that singaporean actress, all "thinking ahead" of attracting attention! she's all prepared, all dressed up, and all ready to be "spotted" in a shopping complex, to be invited to be photographed! We have a donout store in KL Pavillion also, when it was opening back few years ago, also plenty of people (it seems it is a marketing technique, paid to queue), no, hardly any flies to queue, the store still around! Singaporeans always kia shu, when Malaysian bought two sub-marines, (see, we have place to park), they also bought two recently, but, just wonder where do they park the sub-marines? hehehe, Singaporeans, no offence please.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Okay, thanks for helping me decide where to go eat when we go to Singapore next month - Mozza at MBS.

    Good Italian food is near impossible to find here in Kuching. I haven't had any since eating at Little Italy in KK (really good, btw).

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so out of touch with Singapore but I'll make a note of all the amazing eateries you've featured. Ah yes, the celebrities. I have no idea who they are either.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Terri, you don't need to travel with the "girls" next time, just give me a ring will do :p

    ReplyDelete