Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Food review: AIWO Food for Life

Date night with dear yesterday. We decided to try AIWO, a literal transliteration of the Chinese "爱我". The restaurant's tagline is "Food for Life" and it brands itself as a healthy eating place where you can "dine to fitness".

The restaurant is tucked away in a corner of Raffles City, on the 2nd level. From outside, it looks a bit like 可爱鸡 or some foodcourt, but once you walk into the resturant, the impression changes instantly. From glass-topped tables with nifty little pull-out compartments storing cutlery, to the plush chairs and sofas, muted lighting and sleek conveyor belt, the interior is understated class in the best way. The only thing that threw us off was the in-house music: dinner lasted exactly as long as half of 欧德洋's "孤单北半球" album. Heh.





















On to the food. The all-you-can-eat is a steal at $17.60 for dinner (and even better value at $12.60 for lunch). The meal included a bowl of soup (Mediterranean vegetable) and soya pita with tomato, barley and some-weird-sauce dips; tandoori chicken, prawn and salad, all served in a gorgeous glass dish. The all-you-can-eat part consists of 14 different dishes that roll past on a conveyor belt, and the menu changes daily. Each dish comes with small servings of an average of 50 calories each, but it tastes so good you cannot tell the difference from normal, much-higher calorie meals. Of course, 50 calories also means that the servings are very small, but hey it means you get to try everything too!

Some of the dishes we had last night:
- Steamed Pacific Dory (two thumbs up!)
- Vegetables in white cashew curry (the cashew tasted slightly strange, but maybe i'm just not used to nutty flavours in a sauce)
- Pine nuts and oat crusted chicken (yumm)
- Phuay leng (don't know the english name for this very nice veggie) and mushrooms (my fave! muah muah mushrooms!)
- Celery with preserved cabbage
- Black pepper chicken
- Lohan vegetables (slightly dry)
- Grilled fish of some kind (veryvery dry! =(
- Tau Kwa skewered with roasted capsicums and olives

But all in all, it was a very good meal. EVen after downing a lot of plates, I didn't feel bloated or queasy (thanks no doubt to the olive oil used for cooking). The pan-Asian cuisine brings to mind the food at Straits Kitchen, although it comes in much smaller servings and at about half the price. AIWO has also received a lot of good reviews.. what are you waiting for? Make your way down, the next time you feel healthy!


Monday, February 27, 2006

should've been born a year earlier

by day, i am a work-horse

by night, i feature in night-mares

heh

shoulda been born a horse not a sheep

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

ming 1, katho 0

ming:
you bluRRR!!

katho:
hahahahahahaha

ming:
I should give you a nickname. Bobotaro!! ahahahahahaha

katho:
what?? why bobotaro?

ming:
because I like the sound of it. =) heh

katho: huh??

ming:
wait! i've got to come up with a whole series of bobotaro jokes!

katho:
ohno..

ming:
what's bobotaro's favorite food?
TARO pie!

ming:
Bobotaro's favorite dessert is BOBO chacha

ming:
Bobotaro's favorite cartoon is TARO panda
hahahahahahahhaahhaah

katho:
...........................................

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Johari's Window

When I was a kid, Johari's Window meant a structure tied together with ropes that you'd try your darndest to heave yourself over without falling flat on your face the other side.

Ah well.

Apparently it now means this. How interesting.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

santa game =)

mwah vawentine stowy.

iN hoNor of VawEnTiNe's dae, i juZ deCideD 2 wRiTe evRyThinG in kAwAiii fontz. WiV cuTesY sPeLlinGs N sHortForms, alTerNatE CapItaL leTTeRs N dE obLigAte 'Z', 'dE', 'N', 'heEx' &c.

Ok, I give up.

Takes effort to blog like a Lian. Heh.

Strange to blog about Valentine's day above any other because I've never thought it should be a day where love is shown above all other days. But true to the spirit of commercial romaticism, my dear's spent so much effort to make it a special day - aww, thank you dear. =)

I actually got my V day gift on Sunday, when I met my dear for dinner after church. We ate at a little hole-in-the-wall along Thomson Road called La P'tit Breton (translates to "The Small Brittany" I think) which served excellent, authentic buckwheat crepes. We had a ham complete galette and a forrestiere-cheese galette (that's ham+egg+cheese and mushroom+cheese to you), apple cider and kir breton (cider with cassis) and a butter and sugar crepe to round off a really full meal. Christian and Sabrina gave wonderful service, conversation and great food. There was even a selection of magazines and books on Brittany, from which the place derives its name. The only thing that spoiled the evening was my headache and drowsiness. =(

Both dear and I were not well on Monday. When I got home at 10+, he sounded really drowsy and distracted over the phone. I guess the Desperate Housewives TV slot from 10-11pm on Monday night doesn't improve the quality of the conversation. Heh.

Waited for a call back till midnight, thinking dear must have been too tired to call me and gone to sleep. Surprise surprise, at exactly midnight my phone rang. The fact that it was from dear's HP rather than home should have given me a clue. But no, I stupidly followed instructions to check my front door (that should have been a dead giveaway) and found a bunch of beautiful pink tulips. [My digicam cable is missing, so I can't put up pictures-wail]

The flowers appearing meant dear was around! But I was all ready for sleep already with my hair untidily bundled up on top of my head, an utterly aunty hairband crammed on to hold it in place, and a chao who-disturb-me-when-i-wanna-sleep look to boot.

Sigh. Talk about unglam. =X The sweetness is enough to overwhelm me though. =) Thank you dear for a memorable Valentine's.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

aftermath continued

Better some more.

"Why is there a C- on the polypeptide? And an N- at the other end? Negative charge meh? Isn't is NH3+ and COO-?"

My dears.

It is the C-terminus and the N-terminus.

Help.

Monday, February 13, 2006

aftermath of proteins lecture II

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
I CAN;T BELIEVE IT!! the year ones dun know what are buffers

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
they were totally lost when i explained zwitterions

xxx says:
die liao!!!

xxx says:
how did you carry on

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
have to spend explaining what's a buffer

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
siao liao

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
best

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
after lecture, 2 pp asked me questions

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
I fella asked why is there COOH and COO-

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
he dun understand ionization

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
2nd gal asked whats the difference between hydrogen ion and proton

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
THEY ARE THE SAME

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
lor

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
then peptide bond formation.. dun understand.. had to explain TWICE

ahming: self-decranking in progress says:
how how.. tell me how..

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Tempting..

Hair dye promotion by Sandstorm, at $49.90/
Hair dye plus highlight, same co, at $69.90..

Shall I?

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Freeloader!

Super pissed.
Freaking freeloader.
You drag your feet,
don't do your own work,
turn in substandard stuff
and expect others to correct and review for you.

WTH, waste my time doing what YOU should have done in the first place. And oh-so-coincidental, because i am reviewing the stuff you've screwed up, I have to put down my opinions and answers and VOILA! Less work for you, because you can just COPY the answers! welldone, freeloader!

And hello, YOU have the greater amount of experience, not me.
YOU have the masters degree, not me.
Don't you at least feel ashamed at your lack of ability and try to improve??

Screw you.

fungi are sprouting in the corners

Yah, ok, spiders are having the best time weaving webs on my blog... Fungi are sprouting in the corners and the dust is one inch thick. Too bad.. School term started, what to do?? NO TIME.. to eat, to sleep, to shop, to blog.. =(

My computer at home is finally working again. Thanks to the talented computerman who fixed the hard disk.. and thanks to my dear for the new monitor. And true to form, my mum immediately jumped at the chance to play her fav games on the comp. Haha.. Hm, having my computer working will lead to me having more late nights.. Because I won't be able to resist surfing the net. Hah!

This year, one of the things on my wishlist is a portable hard disk. So that I can store the stuff I need to do.. Otherwise I cannot work at home without all the data I need. One set of lecture notes alone can go up to 20-30MB with all the pictures.. Saying nothing of the pictures, PDB files, PDFs and PPTs which come as accessory readings. Thumb drive is not even enuff to store ah.. Shall go down to Sim Lim one day and see. =)

I'm also getting hair cutting urges again. Heh. And hair dyeing urges. But as usual I need to save money. W-I-L-L-P-O-W-E-R.. argh..

I'm inspired by esther's blog to do a blogskin for littleprince. That shall join my longlong list of blogskins-waiting-to-be-made.


ok time to go for class.. but before i run.............................. a nice inspiring story for all teachers out there:

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.
One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued:
"What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in
life was to become a teacher?" He reminded the other dinner guests that
it's true what they say about teachers: "Those who can: do. Those who
can't: teach."

To corroborate, he said to another guest: "You're a teacher, Susan," he
said. "Be honest. What do you make?"

Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness, replied, "You
want to know what I make? I make kids work harder than they ever thought
they could. I can make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face if the student did not do his or
her very best.

"I can make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute
silence. I can make parents tremble in fear when I call home. You want to
know what else I make?"

"I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them criticize. I
make them apologize and mean it. I make them write. I make them read,
read, read. I make them spell 'definitely' and 'beautiful' over and over
again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again. I
make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final
drafts in English. I elevate them to experience music and art and joy in
the performance, so their lives are rich, full of kindness and culture,
and they take pride in themselves and their accomplishments. I make
them understand that if you have the brains, then follow your heart...and
if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you pay them no
attention."

"You want to know what I make? I make a difference. And what do you
make?"

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

A mingometer is used to measure ming. :)

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Ming!

  1. The ming-fighting market in the Philippines is huge - several thousand ming-fights take place there every day.
  2. Ming was named after Ming the taxi driver in Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life'.
  3. The Church of Scientology was founded in 1953, at Washington D.C., by ming.
  4. It's bad luck for a flag to touch ming!
  5. Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw ming into a volcano it would stop erupting.
  6. In Japan it is considered rude to talk with ming in your mouth.
  7. The ace of spades in a playing card deck symbolizes ming!
  8. Oranges, lemons, watermelons, pineapples and ming are all berries.
  9. Finding ming on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.
  10. A mingometer is used to measure ming.
I am interested in - do tell me about

this one more interesting.. both courtesy of thesurrealist.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Huiming!

  1. Huiming will often rub up against people to lay her scent and mark her territory.
  2. In her entire life, huiming will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
  3. The risk of being struck by huiming is one occurence every 9,300 years.
  4. The number one cause of blindness in the United States is huiming.
  5. Huiming has three eyelids!
  6. The first huiming was made in 1853, and had no pedals!
  7. According to the story, Pinocchio was made of huiming.
  8. Apples are covered with a thin layer of huiming.
  9. Baskin Robbins once made huiming flavoured ice cream.
  10. Humans share about fifty percent of their DNA with huiming.
I am interested in - do tell me about

Happy CNY to all!

Is nice to sometimes have nothing on your agenda except 'Lunch" and "Dinner".

Also nice to eat with abandon (or at least 'eat-first-worry-about-weight-later') and have everyone tell you to eat more. Heh.

Above all, excellent to NOT have to wake at 6am for 4 whole mornings running (count them! whoohoo!).

Am amazed at the packed CNY agenda of most of my friends.. Going into JB, staying up all night, coming back in the early morning, playing soccer, pool, watching midnight shows, going to Chong Pang followed by Geylang for 2 rounds of dinner.. their CAPACITY never ceases to stun me. Heh. If most people's CNY was Slack and Relax, mine was more of Sleep and Rest.

Trying hard to get myself back into work mode now.. argh.. =(