Tea Break At Colbar

After a late breakfast on Saturday, I opted not to go home despite the drowsy rainy weather. Instead, we drove to Colbar for tea break.

This is the cover of their rather flimsy menu.

Colbar, or Colonial Bar, is located in the middle of nowhere, aka Wessex Village, next to a bunch of new buildings that had sprung up over the past few years.

Despite the encroaching urban sprawl, Colbar remains relatively green and still retains much of its rustic nature. My dad's been coming here since the 70's and he reports that it still holds some of its olden day charm. That's pretty rare for any place in Singapore.

We sat by the little garden which was flooded from the rain and watched the water drip from the plants.

The main seating area is nice and spacious with high ceilings.

Within a few minutes of sitting down, I had gotten two mosquito bites. Yerrrkk!

I think part of the reason why this place is frequented more by foreigners and less by locals is that, what you see in the photo above- a plain cheese sandwich and a small cup of hot Milo, costs $6.50.

In a regular kopitiam (coffeeshop) elsewhere, this should only cost about $2.50 max.

I told Jerry that after all, we're really paying for rental, not the food...

Another thing my dad once told me- old houses in Singapore used to have windows and window grills that looked like this. His own bedroom used to have window grills like this too. It must be very nostalgic for him despite the steep price hike in teh tarik here.

Altogether, we had a nice time just relaxing outdoors in the cool weather. 

Shirley's Birthday & Wet Market Shopping

Today is Shirley's birthday, but Helena and I surprised her yesterday evening. I had asked Shirley out for dinner but didn't tell her that I also told Helena we were meeting. And since Helena was planning to surprise her later that night anyway, we decided to "join forces".

It was pretty funny watching Shirley's reaction when Helena appeared with the cake at McDonald's. 

At first, Shirley was staring in the opposite direction, wondering aloud if the people at the other table were talking about insurance. While she was being distracted, Helena came in from the back and when Shirley turned around, there she was! :D Success.

We spent the rest of the evening strolling around Ang Mo Kio central and finally ended up in the Zone-X upstairs. There's Shirley, the two-time Wangan Midnight champion, playing her last boring game with just one hand on the wheel. We ended the night with some PIU (Korean DDR) then split to go home. 

Today's Friday, which means that my mother-in-law will most likely not be using the kitchen. That gives me a chance to whip up a small dinner later. Jerry said fried rice and chicken potato soup sounds good, so I quickly went down to the wet market to buy some ingredients before the stalls close.

I bought: 

One large potato ($0.90), two ears of corn ($1.50), a handful of char siew or barbecued pork ($2), two medium carrots and four string beans ($0.70) and two whole chicken wings ($1.50).

For some reason, I always feel like wet market people are out to cheat my money... Maybe it's the absence of price tags which makes me nervous. Or my early childhood memories of my grandma haggling in the market. Either way, I never ever feel like I got a good deal at the market other than the food being fresh.

What do you think, was I overcharged or not?

:/

Update: 

Chicken soup

And fried rice for dinner ;) 

Birthday Party

My birthday party took place almost a week ago; yet here I am, blogging about it like the major procrastinator I've become. 

On that day I was panicking a little because I wasn't sure if there was going to be enough food. I expected almost fifty people to show up in the evening. 

Thank God Shirley was able to help me during the day. We did SO much work just shopping and later, chopping all the ingredients. I couldn't have done it without her and my mom! (And my little bros whom I tricked into helping me haha)

Four straight hours of cooking. Phew!

I was late to my own party. People were dialing my cell but I had it on Do Not Disturb mode. I was just in such a hectic rush to get all the food, drinks, etc. ready!

Eventually, I got some time to settle down. People arrived and mingled together like I hoped they would.

Poor Shirley also finally got to sit and relax. I'm not sure if she enjoyed the food though. It's kind of hard to really enjoy food you spent so much time cooking!

My salsa was a success and I wished there were leftovers that I could keep in the fridge or something.

Ah yee surprised me with a major delivery of pink and red balloons! 

I look happy here but actually I'm feeling rather bittersweet about turning twenty-four.

Mango cake from Bengawan Solo. Just like my eighth birthday. 

Surprise surprise. Tricia (whom I know through the arcade) and Michelle (whom I know through rollerblading) were actually schoolmates! 

The world is totally small. 

My new aggressive skates arrived the day before, just in time for my birthday! And the big pink bag next to it is filled with presents from disobedient friends who disregarded my note about NOT buying me presents!

Still, most of them followed my "guidelines" and I was quite touched at how many people decided to get me stuff after all. 

I feel that after 21, you don't really need to be receiving presents. The greater gift is always the opportunity to give to others instead of receiving. That is when I am the happiest. But a few presents don't hurt that's for sure :)

I think this will be my last birthday party in a long while. I THINK.

This last one was tiring enough and I feel really weird celebrating my own birthday these days. I don't know, it just seems kind of lame celebrating your own birthday. Maybe I'll just throw random "we don't need no reason to celebrate" parties in the future. I love having people over and organising such fun events. 

So that's all for a little summary and maybe I'll have some energy left over to blog about other stuff tomorrow. 

Till then!

Lazy Saturday At Kampong Bahru & Sembawang

A few Saturdays ago, Hani and I went to check out this cafe called Stranger's Reunion along Kampong Bahru.

Yeseul told me about this cafe which she wanted to try, but can't because she's in Seoul now. 

We finally arrived along Kampong Bahru after getting lost in the maze of exits at Outram MRT.

The air was so hot, I was melting under my umbrella. 

Walked down a lovely corridor towards our destination.

And we made it!

It's too bad that I'm not a coffee drinker. Reading this sign actually kind of made me feel like I came to the wrong place.

Going to Stranger's Reunion on a Saturday afternoon was an entirely bad idea... 

The small cafe was filled to the brim and Hani and I weren't thrilled with the idea of having to share a small coffee table with two other people, especially since the table and chairs were really low, making for an uncomfortable seat.

Quietly, we escaped into the back alley. 

It was like a secret world back there. 

After some wandering around, we finally decided on the first cafe we had spotted on the way in.

It looked relatively empty, which made me suspicious. Still, the promise of air-conditioning proved more enticing than the idea of walking around for another fifteen minutes.

Yes! An empty cafe!

We found out later that the reason for OKP being so empty as compared to Stranger's Reunion, is that the place just opened for business in February.

Much of their lunch menu is already pre-made, so we weren't able to get any food "fresh" from the kitchen.

Cafe by day, bar by night.

Hani ordered a salmon omelette sandwich. She said it wasn't bad.

My interesting concoction of clam chowder, tomato and corn soup arrived in a a paper cup. 

It was actually a lot more delicious than I expected. The tomato soup goes well with clam chowder. Idea for home cooked meals!

I ordered a chorizo omelette sandwich and it was an utter letdown. I don't know how you can actually mess up an omelette, but they did. It was overcooked in the way my 7 year old brother would overcook an omelette on his second try.

From Kampong Bahru, we cabbed to one my favourite corners in Singapore.

It's my favourite because the area is very secluded and therefore accessible only on wheels or an untiring pair of legs.

Saw this interesting table inside the bar. I thought it looked really familiar. Then I realised they're the same ones we used in D&T classes!

Soooo hipster it's ridiculous.

Handlebar is called Handlebar, because it's themed as a bar for motorbike riders/lovers. It's usually frequented by foreigners who love this sort of thing.

We sat under one of the big shelters outside.

Handlebar sits right on the edge of Singapore. Sometimes my phone connection gets a bit wonky since Malaysia is right on the opposite side.

Next to Handlebar is the Sembawang PCN. 

You'll find Chinese and Thai people clamming here when the tide is low.

I can't believe Hani and I actually walked the entire PCN back to civilisation. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken me about fifteen minutes to skate out to the main road.

Thankfully, the sun was already setting as we made our way out along the canal.

I had a beautiful time. Won't mind repeating this again someday!

Noryangjin Fish Market

Every morning, my family would walk down to the SCT Mall to have breakfast at Paris Baguette. Sometimes I joined them, sometimes I didn't.

When I did join them however, it's always great fun with Alex and Max around. 

On one of the mornings, we met another Singaporean family there. My mom hit it off with them fairly well.

After breakfast, we took the subway from Seoul Station to Noryangjin Station.

Noryangjin Station really reminded me of the North Wales train station in Pennsylvania.

There were many old people loitering around the area. 

We had to cross an overhead bridge to the fish market.

Peering down from a ledge, we get our first glimpse of the market.

There is live seafood of every kind, including baby octopuses.

The boys seemed to find it all really interesting.

There was so much variety, my mouth started to water. I didn't even know what I wanted to eat!

Will you check out those monstrous prawns/shrimp?!! 

Gosh, they'd be so good on a barbecue right now.

The inside of Noryangjin fish market wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was just like any other wet market around the world. The nice thing about this market though, as compared to the wet markets in Singapore, is that it gets cold during fall, winter and spring. That means, it smells nicer. 

Wonder how much sashimi would that giant octopus tentacle render...

Probably enough sashimi for ten persons?

Ahh a bunch of ahjummas huddling by a stove, cooking seafood stew. 

Here's us filching a bit of heat from someone's coal bucket.

I'm not sure if all that blood was meant to look appetising.

Seoul, being the tech-savvy city that it is, has its senior citizens enthralled by handheld devices even at work.

Love that the ahjummas usually look classy even while doing "dirty" work. Check out her pearl earrings, makeup and all. I think it's probably easier for them too since the weather isn't as humid as in Singapore. Your makeup won't be running down the sweaty sides of your neck in an hour.

A fish's nightmare.

At Noryangjin, the norm is to buy your seafood at a stall downstairs, then bring them upstairs to a restaurant where they will cook it for you.

My mom chose this solefish for Max. It cost about 13,000 won if I'm not wrong.

I had a feeling that it would be cheaper if we weren't tourists :/

The prawns were big, but nothing special. They were simply sprinkled with salt and then grilled. 

We had other food as well, including a mackerel stew, but I neglected to take a photo of it.

Their favourite Korean man on a poster right outside the restaurant.