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Labels: Food, Friends, Images, Inspirations, Local, Photography, RICOH GrD, WPN Photogs

Posted by ShutterBug at 01:27 | Permalink | Comments 9

Wow...

I didn't realised that my last post was more than a month ago..... October and November have been just crazy with lotsa assignments coming in from all directions and in addition to that, we were also going away for our much-anticipated (and this time round, a very much needed) vacation to Japan for a good part of November for the 3rd year consecutive.

The appeal of Japan in Autumn will always be our mainstay as we can't think of any other places that we wanna spend autumn in - we had our 1st foray into Japan to celebrate our engagement in 07', took our PreWedding photos there in '08 and in our 3rd visit, we just chill (literally) and celebrate the joy of togetherness with each other. Clearly the joy were all over our faces and showed in the photos we took :)

Anyway.. lotsa post will be coming up I promised. TO start it off, here's some of the places we went to for makan after coming back to Singapore:

Labels: Food, Friends, Greetings, Images, Inspirations, Local, Photography, Ranting, RICOH GrD, Thoughts

Posted by ShutterBug at 01:11 | Permalink | Comments 3

Some of you may have found out from Facebook or Twitter that Ms. Clover and I took a short weekend trip to K.L, just to relax and get away from things for a while. It has been a stressful period for the both of us and so with a long weekend coming up, it makes perfect excuse to go up North :)

Cheap air fares from budget airlines made traveling in the region so much easier: just click and go basically. Armed with our passports and 1 set of clothes, we headed off to explore KLCC. Not very adventurous this time coz' we just want to go away from our sunny island... only to land in rainy KL for the evening.

Trader's Hotel was our top choice due to its concept liken to G-Hotel Penang but Trader's, being more of a business hotel, lack the cosyness and funkiness of G-Hotel and the spa can't really compared to Danai Spa also.

Okie. I'm being biased here. Its a great hotel to stay in: 4 minutes to KLCC's Suria Mall, 7 mins to Pavilion KL, lovely view of the Petronas tower day and night, lovely view of the garden park in the golden triangle, the staff are professional and warm, love the interior decor of the business centre, executive lounge and the cafes... etc.

Here's some pics from the Ricoh GrD v.1 to share:

Labels: BnW, Clover, Food, Hotel Interiors, Images, Inspirations, Photography, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Travel, Us, vacation

Posted by ShutterBug at 20:58 | Permalink | Comments 5

A short update from the Land of Smiles as we made our escape to Bangkok this morning. Nothing much to our itinerary (in fact, there's no plans at all!) - just go where our feet and eyes take us :)

We decided to check out a new hotel in the Sukhumvit area called DREAM Bangkok which didn't really impress us that much as from the website but the interiors are starkly decorated with nice clean lines, very nice services, good room pricing and pretty near the BTS/ MRT station. Apart from that, it's a little like the boutique hotel, Cosmos, in HongKong.

I didn't take any interiors of the room coz we crashed almost immediately upon reaching the hotel... Too little sleep the night before and too short of a flight to sleep on the plane which was exceptionally uncomfortable with a bunch of overly excited youths and their b*tching about some classmates' plight.... but the place is comfortable overall, room service food was good and best of all, ample space to even include a L-shaped sofa as seen on their website. Shot the following with the Canon 5Dmk2 to test out the high ISO response... so far, Loving It!

Anyway, here's some pics to share:

Labels: Bangkok, BnW, Canon 5Dmk2, Clover, Food, Hotel Interiors, Images, Photography, Travel, vacation

Posted by ShutterBug at 02:55 | Permalink | Comments 2

A pleasant surprise was hatched in a shroud of secrecy complete with radio silence, secret code names and a whole bunch of people whom have come together to give this ole' bug a wonderful surprise @ Pasta Inc tonight :D

Labels: Celebrations, Clover, Food, Friends, Occasions, Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug at 02:59 | Permalink | Comments 11

We are an odd pair... :)

When Ms Clover wanted to do a salad for dinner to bring to work (she is on shift tonight), I decided to pitch in but we have very different ideas of how the salad should turn out and so, we decided to make it a competition using the same main ingredients and do a Salad-2 ways.

The main ingredients consist of Baby Spinach, pan-seared chicken breast & Yellow bell peppers. No time limit and we can use any spices or methods to achieve the end results.

Ms Clover did a warm salad using a Bacon + Sherry vinaigrette toss while I went for the healthier Mediterranean-style salad that uses flavoured olive oil and sauteed bell peppers with spices.





No winners yet coz I liked them both :D

For anyone who's interested, here's my recipe for the Mediterranean-style salad:

Ingredients -

~ Baby Spinach leaves
~ 1/2 to 1x Middle size Bell pepper (yellow or red), de-seed & cut to thin strips
~ 1 piece of Chicken breast, sliced to bite size
~ Fresh basil leaves (about 3 will do), chopped finely
~ French Sea salt + freshly grinded Pepper to taste
~ Basil & Sundried tomato flavoured Olive Oil
~ Lemon juice (adjust to taste)
~ Lemon zest
~ pinch of thyme (dried or fresh is fine)

Cooking -

~ season chicken pieces with a bit of shoyu (soya sauce) or teriyaki sauce, sugar & freshly grind pepper
~ Saute the bell pepper strips with a bit of sea salt and sugar without oil and then add a pinch of Thyme.
~ Pan sear the chicken pieces after seasoning. You can have it a little charred on the surface if you like. No need for oil, just a good non-stick pan will do fine.

Combine the Bell pepper strips, Baby spinach, chopped Basil leaves into salad bowl. Drizzle the flavoured Olive oil over them and toss the combination till even. Squeeze lemon juice over (adjust to your liking) and add sea salt and pepper to taste. Toss the combi one more time to even out the dressing.
You can also add the chicken in at this stage or leave till later.

Serving:

Just before serving, you can add the chicken pieces on top and grate some lemon zest over :)

Labels: Clover, Food, Home, Images, Inspirations, Recipes, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug at 19:53 | Permalink | Comments 2

...left us both gasping for more... ^.^ from the moment we stepped into the restaurant, the familiar smell of being in Japan hit our nostalgia glands and instantly, we were transported back to the delicious eateries in Osaka and Tokyo... apart from the mix of Japanese/ English spoken by the staff, we were mesmerised totally by the magic of this place.

I have always wanted to come try the food here after reading Imp's gastronomical accounts of the delicious authentic Japanese food here... and decided to bring Ms Clover for a little Omakase meal on Saturday evening. The presentation of the food, the freshness of the sashimi (okie, it's still not as fresh as we expected coz we had super fresh sashimi from Tsuikiji Market before but this is really the closest we can get to getting top-notch Japanese food) and the service quality of the staff.

I'll just let the pics from the Ricoh GrD whet your appetite a bit:




The experience left us wanting more and of coz, a much lighter wallet but I must say, it's all worth the experience! We will definitely return for the lunch bentos as well!

* got an sms from Tatsuya (Ronnie) this morning on thanking us for patronising them... wonderful service this is!

Labels: Celebrations, Clover, Food, Images, Local, RICOH GrD, Thoughts, Us

Posted by ShutterBug at 23:17 | Permalink | Comments 8

We had a grand time last night @ Lian Rong Pau's B'day celebration @ Sharky's Pub (Telok Kurau Rd). With the main conspirator non other than Char Siu Pau, we deviced a series of 'white lies' to lure her to Sharky's for a drink which turned out to be a surprise party for her :D

The evening was great with the Lychee Martini Birthday Cake from Chip Bee Gardens, finger food and desserts from Garden Slug and lotsa lotsa booze from Sharky's. Service from the pub was most excellent and efficient with Ron (Pub Manager) and Lewis (Pub Hand) catering to our requests :) Friends and family gathered to wish our birthday gal a wonderful celebration of her presence in their lives, old and new acquaintances were made and we ended the night with a promise that 3 years later, it will be a grand-scale surprise for Lian Rong Pau again! :p


Well, will post more photos later but here's 3 for the time being:

Labels: Celebrations, Food, Friends, Images, Inspirations, Thoughts

Posted by ShutterBug at 11:34 | Permalink | Comments 2