Beer Basket @Kovan

 SINGAPORE - Just a short walk from Yaowarat is a beer garden called Beer Basket that serves unique beers.

Clifford, Willy and myself

Our unique beers

The left beer is Tai Wai brand 'Rose and Zhongshan Puer' beer - The dark lager is inventively brewed with Rose & Zhengshan Pu'er with light bodied yet malty flavour. Characterised with long-lasting tea bitterness after taste, it is such a fine craft work that perfectly combines the unique flavour of tea and beer.   

The center beer is Gwei Lo 'Hazy Ipa' beer.  Gweilo Hazy IPA has a wheat forward base with the use of NEIPA yeast to give this beer a juicy mouthfeel.

The right beer is Tai Wai brand 'Amber Ale Earl Grey beer.  This beer has the English ale with flavorful roasted malts and aromatic hops. Well-balanced of bergamot and malt flavors with a delicate bitterness from our selected earl grey loose tea.

Truffle French fries

Yaowarat Thai Kway Chap

 SINGAPORE - Prior to New Year eve, I met up with Clifford and Willy for dinner at Yaowarat Thai Kway Chai along Upper Serangoon Road at Kovan estate.   Yaowarat is a town in Bangkok city famous as Bangkok Chinatown.   This restaurant has 4 branches in Singapore and is a famous Thai Teochew restaurant here.

Thai Kway Chap

The Thai kway chap is very different from Singapore style kway chap and it is composed of curled up rolls of kway with braised meats and veggies, kway chap is typically served clear pepper based soup.

Deep fried Pork belly and braised Tau Pok

The deep fried pork belly is thinly cut and cruchy and it is served with a dark sweet sauce with garlic and a bit spicy.   Just perfect for my taste buds. 

Braised cabbage

Fried Large intestines

It was so delicious and it was from the pig’s large intestines with the crispy outer layer and inner soft texture that is so savoury.

 

Thai iced tea and iced lemon grass drink

I enjoyed the food very much and it was not crowded today.  

My first time to Haidilao hotpot

SINGAPORE - I went on this day with a group of ex-colleagues to Haidilao at Bugis+ for a Haidilao hotpot.   I heard so much about this restaurant and what's so great with this hotpot restaurant.   The hotpot culture has been in Singapore for decades; and what's striking is the Haidilao service culture that stood out and it can be a bit overwhelming as the waiter is always hawking over you - refilling your drink, cleaning  your plates.  

Zhang Yong founded Haidilao, in March 1994 because he wanted to serve his guests excellent service which was lacking in China.   Haidilao is not based on the flavor and excellence of the food, but rather, the competitive advantage that the chain holds is based on their customer service

Clifford, Anthony, Lydia and myself

I think we ordered quite a lot for our dinner and it was a very satisfying meal.   It was really good to catch up on the good old days and hear interesting stories.   

The hot pot soup is divided into 2 and we chose one side to be spicy and the other without hot spices and started placing the meat and vegetables to get them cooked.

Thank you for the company and the meal - great fun and great time.

Long Phung - Vietnamese restaurant @ 159 Joo Chiat Road

 SINGAPORE - Joo Chiat has many Vietnamese restaurant and there is restaurant stands out as one of the best along this road.   It was so popular that queue starting to form during our meals - they don't take reservation so we had to come early to chope.   

Each one of us will choose a cuisine or restaurant the next time we met and this time was mine, as I had a strong hankering for Vietnamese food.

Anthony, Glen, Clifford, Willy and myself

Singapore government regulations stipulate only 5 per table due to Covid restrictions of social distancing.   In spite of the restrictions, we did enjoy ourselves and the food was delicious and authentic.    

Muthu Curry @ race coast road

 SINGAPORE -  It has been a very long time since I have eaten at an Indian restaurant in Singapore. This Muthu's curry restaurant was located at race coast road, Little India and was a quiet day when we dined that day.   Maybe due to the fact that Covid restriction just relaxed.

The five of us just had to get out and meet.

 

It was a good time and best dish was the mutton curry on nann.  

iFly Singapore - my teambuilding event

 SINGAPORE - I booked the iFly for my staff team building and it was a fun and excited day event.   We assembled at iFly lobby at around 11:30 - half an hour prior to 'take off'.   The half an hour is for temperature taking, safe entry, and registration.   At 12 noon 'take off' - we had to watch a short video on safety.  After which our instructor introduced himself and taught us the hand signals as the iFly take off area is loud.    

We suited up and get ready for 'take off'.   

Ready for take off

Ronald - that's me

We all had 2 rounds of flying and it was exhilarating - for the 2nd round, the instructor flew alongside and up to the top, then back down - repeated 3 times and it was over.   

Well worth the day event.   

Lesley, back in Singapore - Dinner @ Knuckles Bistro

SINGAPORE - Since Lesley left in March 2020 over the weekend to see his family - then Covid struck and lock-down began.   It was good to see him again after so long.  Our dinner was at Kuckles Bistro at Hougang (near Heartland Mall).   We had a good time catching on old times.

Pork Knucles pasta

The Pork knuckles was dry and tough - the worst pork knuckles I have ever had. 

Ceasar Salad

Crafune - Leather making team building

 Singapore - my team went for a leather making team building for 3hr - starting at 2pm and ended around 5pm with 3 leather products made.   

We were taught :the basic knowledge of leather, types of basic leather crafting tools, scoring, cutting and gluing of leather, Saddle stitching, edge finishing & burnishing. 

The types of leather available include full grain, top grain, genuine, bicast, and bonded. 

Leather finishes include aniline, semi-aniline, brush-colored, degrained, die-cut, embossed, embroidered, handworked, metallic, nappa, nubuck, oily, patent, pigmented, printed, split, suede, and waxy.

The leather that we used were vegetable-tanned genuine leather. Genuine leather means it is the lowest quality of all products made out of real leather. Basically, you should read it as: "At least it's genuine leather."

busy leather crafting

leather name card holder

We learn how to saddle stitch which last much longer. In addition to using thicker thread with hand stitching, each stitch is made up of two strong, independent, stitches. Unlike the lock stitch which will completely unravel, if a thread does break, the saddle stitch will still hold together.

Key chain, name card holder and coin purse

Positano Rito @ 66 Bussorah Street

 Singapore - We had our lunch group gathering at this Italian restaurant along Bussorah Street, and the dishes were sizeable portioned and remarkable delicious.   The seafood was fresh. 

Lunch gathering

Arancini Balls

Delicious arancini balls served golden brown, stuffed with melted mozzarella.

Wild Mushroom soup

My mushroom soup was creamy, served hot and it was very good.  The blending of the mushroom was authentic.

Squid Ink seafood spaghetti

I selected mildly spicy and the level was just nice.  The seafood was fresh and the portion was perfect.  The spaghetti was cooked well and tossed skillfully.

Eggplant Parmigiana

This dish looks like a pizza but in fact is based on eggplant baked and topped  with melted mozzarella and parsley and their homemade tomato sauce.

Calzone

According to the owner, this is their speciality to served it pizza style looking like a star.  

A wonderful lunch served at a secondary school classmate's restaurant 

AirSoft game @ Khatib TeamNS

Singapore - Today we had a tactical game of Airsoft.  Airsoft is a competitive team shooting sport in which participants eliminate opposing players by tagging them out of play with spherical plastic projectiles launched via replica air weapons called airsoft guns.  

The airsoft game scenario is Urban warfare - Fighting In Built Up Area (FIBUA) - navigate a 400sq ft area and win your opponents.  The Airsoft game is booked for 1hr and is broken up into security briefing, watching a short security video, wearing of vest and helmet, then to draw the weapon and 3 magazines.  

There are a number of scenarios - Team death match, capture the flag, etc but we just played 3 rounds of team death match.   Each round is 15 mins and it was very tiring and lots of bullet marks on your hand and body - even though I wore long sleeve and pants.

My colleagues and team after Airsoft PvP