Pretty Lapis

I was just surfing around my food blogs randomly today and I saw THIS:




I swear I've never seen a prettier lapis cake. If I could ever make something like this, I'll take about a billion pictures and frame it up. The cake I mean.

Credits: http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/

Birthday Cake

Sometimes I think baking is a very fulfilling hobby. Despite the sweat and stress, it brings so much joy to everyone. And food is the best expression of love.

Samuel works very hard. He tries his very best, because he has a special someone who means a lot to him. I hope she knows that she is a very lucky girl. And I hope my dear friend will stay as happy as he is now.

So after many hours of hard work, 17 happy bd to the lucky one!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day with beloved MR01. Hot date with Hot guys and Hot girls. Get jealous!

While waiting for Darius, who was busy preaching his sermon and hence was late...

After waiting for Jin Chek/Amos to come back from the toilet...



So you see, MR01 waits a lot. And we waste that time away camwhoring.

The house captain like you've never seen him before.

Their first Valentine's Day present to a girl and they give it to Cheryl and me. Feeling touched don't even come close!

Thank you Daniel and Siyuan, you guys are the best!

I know it sounds impossible, but yes, we are THAT cute.

Ah, what a heartwarming valentine's day. Thank you Clan for all the flowers, notes and sweets. Thank you 10SO3I for all the notes and gifts even though we barely know each other. Thank you MR01 for just being so amazing and fun. Thank you to everyone who made me smile this year. And here ends the mushyness--

Pound Cake

On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I knew what I wanted to do the moment I woke up. It had after all been something I've been planning to do for the past year. After I stuffed down my breakfast, I immediately set to task and prepared myself for the difficult hours ahead.

Alright, no. I woke up and lazed around until I felt meaningless and so decided to peep into my baking supplies before deciding to make a pound cake for breakfast tomorrow. And it took me only an hour to do this, excluding baking time.

I am proud to say that it was successful and absolutely delicious! Warm, moist and it only cracked a bit at the top. I did half a recipe because my tin was lousy and small (Got it from Daiso a long time back on impulse), and my mum scolded me because she said it wasn't enough.

But then again, good food will never be enough!

Caution: Fionainthekitchen will not be responsible for any damage to keyboards resulting from excessive drooling.

Phin's Steakhouse/Ah Chew Desserts/Botak Jones

The day begun with Phin's steakhouse, located next to Bugis Junction along the street of steamboats.

Olivia and I had a set lunch each, which includes garlic bread, drinks, salad and seafood soup. The seafood soup was pretty good, with generous servings of ingredients in it. I liked the serving size, which I thought was pretty proportional and appropriate.

My main course: Sirloin steak with mozarella cheese and mushroom. I thought cheese was a rather weird choice to go with steak, but then again, there are no boundaries in the world of food.

I had my steak as medium well and it tasted pretty good, even though I don't think it tops Jack's place's steaks. This meal costed $11.90++, which was quite cheap and worth it.

Olivia's main course: Dory and Chicken. You smell it before you taste it and the chicken was really good. Tender and fragrant and not too oily. $9.90++

I have to add that the ambience there was good, because it was rather empty when we stepped in. Alright, we were the only ones but then again, it was early. The waiters there were very polite and I was impressed when they served us water at the end of our meal. The food came quite fast too, which was apt for the bottomless pits we have for stomachs.

And if not for Olivia, I would've walked out without paying once more.

Next stop: Ah Chew's Desserts, located near Phin's steakhouse, alongside many other dessert shops. We decided on this because it was the most crowded. (Singaporean mentality is our trademark.)

And there were TWO of them.

Aloe Vera with Honey, Lime and Strawberry. $3.80. Quite expensive but with a generous helping of honey. Refreshing and delicious. Exactly the thing to pamper yourself on a hot day.

Black sesame paste for $2. It was such a large serving that we couldn't finish it in the end. Could've been sweeter but I have to give credit for it's smoothness. There was practically no lumps in it and it slides down your throat like water.

Prices are reasonable and I love the fact that they put the menu underneath the table glass. How smart.



And finally, Botak Jones! My first meal with my first RJC friends. This particular one was located across Cineleisure, at the Youth park area.

Black pepper chicken

Cajun Chicken with cheese

Fish and Chips

I think Botak Jones is among one of my favourite hangout places. The service was excellent, with the staff coming up to us to ask how the food was halfway through the meal. That really impressed me a lot. The fries are so good, probably the best one I've ever had. Their motto really rings true: DAMN GOOD FOOD FOR A DAMN GOOD PRICE!

I enjoyed this meal particularly because on top of the good food, I had awesome company. Thank you Cheryl, Daniel and Siyuan, we really should've taken a group shot!

Thank you Olivia, my fellow bottomless pit!

The magic ingredient to the perfect meal is the laughter shared throughout.

Hainan Kor

Hainan Kor
Located at Block 95 Lorong 4, Toa Payoh #01-48

It was an after school lunch and this was introduced to me by Deborah Yuen. Since she lives in Toa Payoh, she has a fairly good grasp of the good food there and it's such a relief to escape from Junction 8.



This stall swears by home-styled recipes and even though the food was not bad, I think the "homely" element is not really there. It doesn't remind you of Grandma's/Mum's cooking, which we all know is the best food out there.

We had one of the quick meals which is the cheapest. The price there is fairly steep nonetheless. My chicken rice with chap chye (mixed vegetables) costs $4 in total. This is the cheapest food they have there. Excluding service charge and GST I think.

This is what they are popular for, Beef stew. The beef is tender, not overcooked so it was pretty tasty. The stew could have been a bit thicker but it was still good because you don't get sick of it after a few mouthfuls.

I would say this was a rather healthy restaurant with emphasis on vegetables. I personally thought the chap chye was quite well-assorted and it didn't have an oily feel to it. It was fragrant and the vegetables were cooked so that it was soft but not soggy.

Toa Payoh has a lot of good food. It's so good to know that Deborah Yuen doesn't just eat air, I'm really glad she's a healthy eater.

The funny thing was, we were so engrossed in the food and our conversation that we left without paying. And nobody came after us with Parangs.