The day the club ate and ate...but still felt hungry.

So our Singapore Airlines frequent flier girl finally touches down.

Juliana, whom I have not seen for the last 20 years, and I finally got to catch up on what's been happening in the last 2 decades. Apparently we, together with Joan, formed the "Brownie Kitting (sic) Club" back in Primary 3. It was supposed to be 'knitting' but as you can tell, Juliana had awesome spelling skills back then. :p We had our own membership cards and all, and even admitted other members if they wanted to join our very 'exclusive' club. I don't remember what exactly we did in the club although Juliana said we apparently crocheted. Ah well...

We decided to hook up at Mimolette aka Bimbolette because it is known for the sheer amount of modelesque bimbo wannabes who frequent this joint on Friday and Saturday nights. We decided since it was a Monday afternoon and a public holiday at that, we wouldn't be shoulder to shoulder with any of the 'usual patrons' and we were right.

Nestled amongst lush greenery and horse stables at the old Turf Club is a rustic meets Hampton's style charming little cottage. White wrought iron garden benches and bird cages decorate the exterior, giving it a enchanting European atmosphere. Fluttering on the patio in the mid afternoon wind are white oversized round paper latterns and paper umbrellas turned upside down. Magnificent horses trot peacefully in the surrounding fields and munch grass in an idyllic country setting. This is not the Singapore we're all used to.

There were mostly families and intimate parties of 2 or 3 inside the restaurant and most unfortunately for them, our boisterous group was anything but quiet. We were seated right beside an unfriendly, uncommunicative couple who were...guess what they were doing...reading. Yup, reading, not to each other but reading to themselves. What great company, huh? I mean, ok, reading in a cafe, fine, but reading in a freakin' restaurant. Have they exhausted all conversation that they're resorted to ignoring each other and just fuckin' read? Don't get me wrong, I love reading but how pretentious is it to break out a book each and start reading in a nice, ritzy restaurant? Lucky for us, they left right after we arrived, not before giving us the evil eye. Ah well...

Horse that stood right in front of us and did...nothing.

The interior was tastefully decorated with comfy chairs and huge bouquets of silk hydrangeas...I love fresh hydrangeas, they're so classy and smell so good. No, these have no smell. :(

Our "Brownie Kitting (sic) Club". These handmade membership cards have been kept for more than 20 years and are still in such great condition, kudos to Juliana! That Tokyo Disneyland paper belonged to me, I actually remember it.

The original 'leders'(sic) of our club.

David had the Eggs Florentine and it was really good. The spinach inside the english muffin was fresh and not the frozen kind and was very well cooked to compliment the hollandaise sauce. I was quite impressed with it. The salad had a very yummy balsamic vinaigrette reduction as well. I'm not much of an eggs florentine fan but this was heavenly....

I didn't feel like anything savoury so went for the Cranberries and Pecan Scone. The fear that I have whenever I have a scone is that it is too dry and too hard. I must say Mimolette makes it well. It was infused with the tartness of cranberries and the pastry was moist and flavourful. The bitter sweetness of the orange marmalade and blueberry preserves complimented the scone wonderfully. I'm not much of a whipped cream fan so hardly had any but the berries were yummy! I miss having berries so readily available while I was in Canada. There are waaaay too expensive here.

Juliana got adventurous and got the Duck Salad with oranges and I thought it was really delish but both she and Joan thought it tasted a bit too 'ducky'. Loved the juicy plump tomatoes and the citrus dressing.

Joan had the Crepe Du Jour and although I didn't try it, how can anyone go wrong with nutella, bananas and mixed berries?!

Juliana was still hungry after her 'ducky' salad, well, who could blame her?? Look at how bloody skinny she is and it was afterall, a salad! So she caved and ordered the Banana & Toffee Hotcakes and it was apparently really heavenly as well. I only tried that toffee sauce eventhough I hate toffee. I think it was cooked with Grand Marnier coz it had an orange liquorice taste and it didn't have that annoying sticky texture.

Overall, the dining experience was beyond our expectations. The food had a french undertone to it and I think we would go back, for a lazy brunch. The service could be improved though...Juliana's 'free' mash potatoes never showed up.

Janice joined us later, late as usual! But at least she made it!

Outside Mimolette sat 2 rabbits.

We didn't know what to do after Mimolette so decided to check out House at Dempsy Hill. House houses a cafe, bar and spa but we've only been to the cafe in this once British army barracks convert. The place has got a comforting casual and cozy canteen feel, with bare concrete floors, overhanging naked light bulbs, minimalist metal tables and retro inspired chairs. Their menus are presented in a newsletter form with clever and kitschy graphics and ads.

On this day, it turned out that House had a flea market. When we got there, all the stores were just winding down so we didn't really get a chance to check out the wares, seemed like mostly blogshops, my future competitors. I wish I had known about it, I would've loved to check them out, great chic location for a flea market.

Ah well, we sat down and guess what, more food. Although it felt like we ate all day, we weren't full coz we just ate snacks, no real food. So we ordered their supposedly legendary truffle fries and their metre long sausage. The fries were disappointing to say the least. I thought I tasted a hint of the truffle oil and since I don't eat fast food, it tasted pretty good to me. Juliana said they tasted like Mickey Dee fries, all in all, everyone agreed it wasn't worth $9 for a small tiffin of fries. As for their signature sausage, I thought they tasted better last time, so nothing special there. Their cheese platter was awesome though. Came with 3 types of cheeses, didn't get their names but loved them all. Great platter filled with salted nuts, fresh berries and dried fruit, only thing was they gave waaaay too few crackers and when we asked for more, they wouldn't give us more, which I thought was a really dumb restaurant strategy since crackers cost next to nothing.

The flea market was just wrapping up when we came in.

The old school motif on the plates, kinda quaint.

The so so truffle fries.

We were still hungry so we ordered the ratatouille thin crust pizza. Not what I expected but still tasty nonetheless. It had huge chunks of grilled peppers, zucchini, egg plant and mushrooms on it, plus a high pile of arugula leaves. I think all pizzas should be thin crust and topped with arugula leaves, I just love arugula and can eat it with anything! Thing is, they're so bloody expensive in Singapore too...:(

Juliana and Edwin, who joined us at House. Not sure if she'll bring him anywhere after this...lol...

Jan brought a friend, KJ, along.

Funny thing I gotta bring up, Jan actually confided in me and said she thought all Caucasians were full of shit until she met David. Like awwww....how sweet is that? My friends love you, Da Bi! :D

Mimolette

T. 6467 7748

55 Fairways Drive

Singapore 285864

Tue-Fri 12-3pm, 6-11pm

Fri Night Supperclub 10-3am (by invite/guestlist only)

Sat 10-3pm, 6-11pm

Sun 10-6pm

House

T.6476 6050

8D Dempsy Road

Singapore 249672

Mon-Fri 11-2.30pm, 2.30-10.30pm

Sat & Sun 11-9.30pm

Can't wait to catch up with more old friends...

Lady Partay.

Pad thai, anyone?

Who doesn't love the Land of Smiles? If you can't go to it, the Land of Smiles comes to you. From Sept 3-7, the elaborate Thai embassy on Orchard Road was open to the public as it staged its 8th annual Thai festival.

This is what I miss about being in Canada. Celebrating different ethnic festivals and honouring diversity. In cosmopolitan Singapore, there isn't very much of that happening which is kinda sad, at least not what I've seen. People largely keep to themselves and hold deep seated racial and cultural prejudices against people different from them.

Overheard a Singaporean Chinese talking to his colleague, an Indian national at the traffic office while trying to get my license converted.

Singaporean Chinese: You know why the line is so long and the process so slow?

Indian national: heee...(obviously didn't understand the question so didn't give appropriate comment)

Singaporean Chinese: You know why or not? (clearly exasperated)

Indian national shakes his head and smiles like a good natured man.

Singaporean Chinese: Because everyone behind that counter is Malay and they're slow and lazy. (He chuckles like he just told the best fucking joke the world's ever heard.)

Indian national clearly didn't understand him but laughs along.

I wonder what the Chinese man says to his Chinese friends about poor blue collar Indian bloke here.

I find it very disturbing when people make comments like that. Maybe it's coz I've always been accepting of different races, cultures and traditions, ever since I was a kid. Then while in Canada, I was exposed to a fairly good mix of people and that has definitely opened my eyes. Of course it reinforced some stereotypes but it also helped dispelled others. It was a good lesson but more importantly it taught me to not judge people so quickly based on their skin colour or cultural background. To me, a person is human, first and foremost, respect and equality are expected.

Anyways, I think these cultural festivals are a great way to bring together people of the same ethnic groups and also to engage others to understand the different cultures and traditions other than their own. It helps to break down barriers when people are open to being exposed to differences, because if fear is in the unknown, then wouldn't it open up some eyes if that fear was dispelled?

So when I heard that the Thai festival was gonna be in town, I told Da Bi we GOTTA check it out. There were stalls selling Thai handicrafts, textiles, apparel and knick knacks. There were also dance performances which were so beautiful to watch. The Thais and Caucasians came out in droves, but sadly, not many Singaporeans.

The best part of the festival was the food station!! It was Thai feast galore!! The trip was sooo worth it as we stuffed our faces full of yummy pad thai, mango salad, sweet potato fries, pineapple fried rice, thai ice tea.....mouthwatering!

Colourful banners outside the Thai Embassy.

Got myself a fresh Thai coconut and it was sooo sweet and good!

Hot Thai ladies performing royal dances. They were so elegant and graceful. I don't know where these demure women came from, they were unearthly. They looked like they glided while the rest of us stomped. Sorry about the pic, don't know what happened there, but who cares, their pretty faces make up for it.

A very pretty cultural candle dance.

At the end of the performances, the audience was invited to come onstage and take pics with the dancers. No one wanted to go up so I jumped at the opportunity and ran up there! Then a line followed after that! Heee...

Da Bi wanted his chance with the hot ladies too....and a man...oh well.

Our Thai mango salad maker. She made it sooooo spicy and soooo good, we went back and bought seconds to bring home.

Shredded green mangoes, ingredients for the mango salad.

Huge urn used for mixing papaya salads.

No, these are not deep friend maggots or cockroaches. Those 'delicacies' you can only find in Thailand. The chicken wings looked soooo yummy but we resisted coz it was too 'heaty' for my sick body. It felt like we were being stalked by chicken wings though, everywhere we turned, we saw them. It was torturous not having them!

Sweet potato fries! These were sooo yummy, we finished the whole box. They're coated very lightly with some flour mixture and were oh-so-good.

We were so happy when we left the festival coz our bellies were full of good and cheap Thai food. Only disappointment was that there was nothing on Muy Thai, the national sport of Thailand.

Ah well...we still had a blast and I hope to see more cultural festivals in Singapore in the future.

Speaking of food, my tummy is growling now...time for a snack!

Lady P.

Ice Cream Flavours

metrosexual (noun)

- An urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle.
- A normally straight male who possesses qualities of a gay male without being attracted to men.

A metro often appreciates the finer things in life and enjoys making himself look good; be it through styling his hair or wearing fashionable clothes.

Mauve is not a colour...it's a word that means nothing 2 guys... tell them light purple or something. That would create a better visual for them, unless you're married to a metrosexual like David.

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I got up one morning back in 2006 and decided to go for an autumnal palate so I paired my chocolate brown shirt with a beige vest and brown textured skirt, with chocolate tights and .......these really cute shoes.....

I was standing in the elevator and looked down at my cute shoes and wondered out loud to David if there were too many different browns on me...my shoes were camel...

Me: Are they camel? Or are they more caramel?
Da Bi: They look caramel..
Me: Are they? I think they're more camel
Da Bi: You're right, they are more camel...caramel is lighter...actually they're more like butterscotch..
Me: oh my god, you're so right, they are butterscotch! Oh dear, this is scary, you just described a colour as butterscotch! Is there something I should know about? Men don't describe colours as butterscotch...what are you, gay or something? :) This would be an interesting topic to blog about...
Da Bi: This would be interesting!

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David and I can discuss clothes, fashion and beautiful people and he would totally understand what I'm talking about..looks like years of fashion school has indeed done some good! Need a button sewed back on? Look no further.

I have a problem if a man spends more time grooming himself more than his woman. I mean that only means hogging the bathroom, the mirror and wardrobe space. Which woman wants that, right? However, anyone can appreciate a man who takes care of himself. Nothing beats a clean shaven, masculine smelling, well dressed dude with no mud on his shoes. Who wants a man who is unkempt, scruffy or messy looking, unless he's Slash, then you'll have countless women who wanna have babies with him anyways. Fucking gross...ok fine, he's a musical genius but seriously, does anyone want that sweaty, dirty mop hanging over their naked breasts??! *shudder*

I think I will try some butterscotch ice cream later tonight. Is it chewy like toffee? Coz I hate toffee.

In search of good ice cream, I don't even particularly enjoy ice cream.
Lady Partay.