We’ve been putting off going to Hatched for a couple of weeks already, so we decided that we should head there, rain or shine. As I always say, be careful for what you wish for, because it did indeed rain on us, and quite heavily too.

Headed to Westmall in the early afternoon as I had to purchase a phone for my mom. Finally ended up with a Nokia E63 thanks to a guy who opened the box and decided that he didn’t want the phone. We then headed to purchase Soul Calibur for Stella’s PS3 so that we could play it in the evening.

It began raining heavily so we were forced to take a cab into Evans Road, where Hatched was located. Ended up there almost an hour from the reservation time. The place was relatively empty save for a couple of aunties who spent the time bitching about their daughter in laws.

Halloween Hatched and the view from inside. I kinda liked the chairs. They were pretty comfortable:

Us:

My chicken-killer in crime, with the blackboard behind her showing the various specials for the day. The place used a pretty rustic decor which made it feel really cosy. Loved the half lit bulbs as well.

Root beer! Man, it’s been a while since we’ve had A&W rootbeer. Still one of the better ones as compared to Dr. Pepper and even Bundaberg imo.

I ordered the Vegetable Melt. A muffin topped with cheese, mushrooms, caramelized onions and avocado. Stella loved the mash, which was topped by a blended mushroom sauce. Lovely.
For those who do not yet know, Hatched is a concept cafe serving all sorts of dishes that have to do with eggs. They do have non-egg related dishes there, as in my vegetable melt above, but the main bulk of the menu items use eggs. Stella had the cheese omelete on toast. This was okay, and I loved the thickness of the toast.

Potatoes stuffed with scrambled eggs and roe. Frankly, for 10 bucks, this was a little blah for the both of us. I frankly thought I was getting large potato skins, not these baby ones. Disappointing indeed.
Finally, we had pancakes as a ‘dessert’. This was really good. Simple fluffy pancakes topped with strawberries and caster sugar. Stella had been wanting to have pancakes for some time already, and this really satisfied her – and I as well.

As it was getting late, we headed to Shinjuku for a quick meal. Again, we were surrounded by Japanese men who spoke about things which we had no idea about. Again, we were seated in the same small corner by the back door. Somehow that gave the whole eating experience a nice sort of familiarity. I had the ramen while Stella had the miso Saba set and both were delicious. I really should try the saba set the next time.

After taking a long bus ride back to CCK, we picked up Overlord 2 from Lot 1 and headed home to play our games. First, we drew up a 500 point army for Stella’s Black Templars. After that was done, Stella promptly proceeded to trounce my ass in every single match in Soul Calibur, and we switched over to Overlord 2 after a while. I probably can say now that I am better at rolling dice than button mashing. Sadly, I got one of those terrible giddiness once again from playing Overlord, and I had to sit aside for a bit while the girlfriend continued with the game. We then ended the night with supper with Stella and her mom at Al Hazar.

And here concludes one of our ‘Bao Ka Liao’ days, and it was really fun just doing all the things that we always liked doing. Although it was in small chunks, it didn’t make it any less enjoyable. Great way to end the week, and the semester.

Gonna be another great weekend – spending some time with Stella watching shows, playing 40k, and just having some relaxed fun. This is really how I envision my weekends in days, months, and years to come – just being with the person who matters to you most. Time is short.

Now that the marking of group project scripts for the 1101E babies are over, I can finally get back into the flow of things. Will want to work on my thesis, and read a little. Bought a book called A History of Political Thought at Borders the other day, and will be reading through it soon.

Also, I’m planning to enforce upon myself an ‘hour per day painting’ rule. Gotta finish painting the Hordes minis, and if I don’t do it soon, Stella and I will never get down to playing it. So starting tomorrow, I will dedicate one hour (and one hour only) to painting, and I hope that I’ll get something done in due time.

This Friday, we decided to spend the afternoon at Casual Poet. This was a place that Stella discovered while surfing some time back, and the last time we came, it was in the evening and we stayed for a little while. Since we both thought that it was a nice place to chill, Casual Poet was our choice of venue.

Tucked into an innocuous corner ( or should I say – stairwell) of Chinatown, Casual Poet is an independent establishment that allows you to forget everything and just enter a reality where only you and your dreams come alive. The shop stocks rustic charm, and carries an eclectic mix of products as well as furnishings. Somehow that all adds together with the ‘dreamstate’ feeling that the place gives you. It eerily reminds me of the cafe in Time of Eve.

Couches to chill and a random blackboard for you to draw on. The wall is covered with various photographs, probably submissions for some kind of competition.

Stella dreaming about her dreams :

A mix of CDs from various independent artistes:

We ordered some fries and milkshakes. The fries were pretty pricey in my opinion, but the milkshake was really good.

Since I brought along Dungeon Twister, we had a game. This is a picture of me sorting out the cards in preparation for the game.

The dungeon board. Stella won by a large margin. I wasn’t watching my flank and her guys totally outran me. Great game and I really enjoyed it. Will be writing a review on it soon on the new blog once we’ve gotten a few more games in.

We then decided to lounge on the sofas and just read for a bit. Ended up chatting about what we would like in our place and how our gaming/hobby space would look like in future. Told you this was a place to dream about dreams.

Really like this pic – Stella with some gig stuff in the background:

Us:

Unfortunately, there was some private party at 6pm so we had to leave. We headed down to the steamboat place just below Casual Poet for dinner. Frankly, I was impressed by the cleanliness of the place. The food was clean and fresh, and there was decent air conditioning as well.

Our heaven and hell steamboat. We came up with that name ourselves, of course. Man, the ma la soup base was really quite lip numbing. But yeah, it was a fantastic soup base for the food that was there. The herbal soup base was great also, and despite being a little bitter, it had just the right amount of kick to it.

Ate our fill of shrooms and vegetables :

Haiiiyah! Okay I think I look hilarious here:

The very spicy hot soup (doesn’t that red just look dangerous?) with my equally very spicy hot girlfriend (she’s not dangerous though). haha.

After eating our fill, we walked around for a bit, before heading to Clarke Quay for desserts. Our intention was to eat at Nectarie. A nice quaint little dessert bar located at the Cannery. We really loved the dessert.

Had the brandy chocolate infused cake:

Some macaroons,

Some peony tea, which was really good for washing down all the sugar.

And the highlight for the night – the redwine pear strudel. This was quite fucking delicious. The custard was smooth and light, and the pastry was fantastic too. Damn. I could have finished one all by myself.

I thought of heading down to The Pump Room after to listen to Jive Talkin’, but it was way too early so we decided to walk around for a bit. Unfortunately that was a mistake. We came back around 1030 to find a queue outside AND a cover charge of $20. Damn. Well lesson learnt. The next time we’ll be there early. Nevertheless, we had a smashing great time listening to the band, and if not for the fact that we had bags with us and no where to stash it, we would have a great time dancing to the music too.

We headed back home at around midnight, tired but happy – by doing everything that we like doing together.

Had a wonderful day with Stella last night doing everything we liked doing – reading at a cafe, having steamboat for dinner, playing a boardgame, and dancing to the tunes of a great band at the Pump Room. What a great night.

Stella and I have decided that it was time to embark on another project together. Since boardgames is a key point in our relationship and a common hobby that we enjoy very much together, we have decided that we would start a separate blog together, centered on board game reviews. The address and actual specifics of the new blog have not been properly fleshed out, but check this space for more details soon.

Stella and I headed to Don Quijote nearby my place for lunch on Friday. We’ve been talking about Spanish food for some time, and we thought that it would be nice to try out this place for a change. After all, there has been some decent reviews about the place and we were both craving for some paella.

Toasted bread with herb butter. This came as one of the complimentary starters.

The interior of the place. Pretty nice bar counter. I’m sure that it would look much nicer in the evenings.

We ordered the pumpkin and leek soup. Pretty good. Had a bit of the sweet nutty flavour from the pumpkin, and it was just the right consistency for me. Stella felt it was not thick enough, but the flavour was certainly there.

Berenjenas al Horo (or Oven-baked Eggplant) . This was a bit of a surprise. I think I expected it to be -well- an oven grilled eggplant. So I wasn’t expecting it when it came in a pot, in some kind of vegetable stew. That’s not to say that it didn’t taste good, because it did. I loved the stock base and drank lots of it. I think the soup was some kind of white wine soup with celery and tomatoes, something like what clams/mussels would be cooked in. Damned delicious.

And finally, what we were waiting for – the paella. This was GOOD. We had a choice over wet and dry versions of the paella and we chose the wet one. I suspect dry just means that they leave it in the oven for a longer period of time. Some may like it drier so that they can scrape the burnt rice off the bottom of the pan after. I know I like to do that. However, I loved the wet version and definitely would prefer it to the dry one. The clams and mussels were fresh too, so this was really good. I would definitely come back just for this.

I think after trying a couple of Spanish places in Singapore (Tapas Tree, Esmerelda), this has to rank as the current top choice of the lot for me. I hope to return to try out the other kinds of tapas with Stella in the next trip. I don’t know why they were so empty during the lunch hour – perhaps not many people have found this place, or it could be due to the location. Well it just means more space for us then.

Us, full and happy after our little Spanish feast.

Friday was the day for our Joochiat adventure! Although we were supposed to head there last week for one of our regular food hunts, we put it off. This week, we decided to head down for some durians and to explore some of the stuff that people have said were famous there.

Before all that, we headed down to Borders to get some stuff. I bought a copy of the PHB 2, and Stella got herself To Kill A Mockingbird. Headed to the Borders Bistro after for a drink and a snack before meeting up with Keane and Serene for dimsum dinner at Victor’s Kitchen.

Stella the happy camper:
The fateful smoothie. It was great stuff. Unfortunately the glass that we got had pieces of paper/sticker in it. I was constantly sucking out pieces of it, and finally I took it up to the manager who replaced the glass of drink for me. I suspect it was one of those brand stickers on the fruits that got into the blender. Whatever it is, that was fine – we actually got a free glass of smoothie out of it.
Tuna and cheese melt. Thought it was really value for money for about 12 bucks.
Next up, we headed down to Bugis for some shopping, before meeting up with Keane and Serene at Victor’s Kitchen at Sunshine Plaza. This was a place that Stacey’s friend recommended to us some time back, and it has sat pretty high in terms of its ‘dodgyness factor’ as well as the quality of the food.
When we left Bugis, it was around 9. We took a train down to Aljunied and the first stop were the durians. It was just a street down from the MRT station, and we had to make our choice over another stall which we first encountered. We skipped that when we observed not many people eating there. Turns out that the entire row of fruit stalls were owned by the same people. Doh. Had the Mao Shan Wang durians, for something like $18 per kg. This one was a 2kg durian, and we promptly set about demolishing it. Great stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much durian in my life before.
Stella looking very happy with her durians:
Next up, we headed down for some beancurd with youtiao (deep fried dough fritters). Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much from this because I’ve more or less tasted both before. I mean, beancurd? done that. Youtiao? done that too obviously. But man, this shit was good! Somehow or another, the combination of flavours (read: oil) were just right there. Totally hit the spot on that one.

Rochor Beancurd – the place where we had the good stuff:

Stage 2 – complete!
For the final leg of the food hunt, we walked down a little to the place they call 126, or wan tok sek. Supposedly it means something like ‘found a place to eat’ in Cantonese. We heard that the establishment was good for its dim sum, so we headed in for some. The general crowd eating outside was quite a good indicator that we had reached the right place. Sat outside for a bit before heading in – good decision since there was air conditioning inside (I wonder why non of those people outside realised that).

Had the paper wrapped chicken:
A smallish crab steamed with garlic:

Final verdict : wellll…. I didn’t think that it was that fantastic, really. It was cheap, truly, but it wasn’t something I would travel all the way to Geylang for. I think Stella feels the same about this place too. We would head back to Victor’s anytime for dimsum. The redeeming factor would probably be the fact that 126 has a pretty extensive menu, so there’s lots to try.

We then headed back home by bus. The crawlers of the night were just about to emerge, and Geylang started to unveil itself for what it was most famous for. Both of us were tired, but really happy that we managed to explore someplace new this week. We’ll be back to look for some of the other dishes that we missed out this round. We chatted and joked on the bus as we rounded off the night and the week in the best possible way – just a quiet time with the best company one can have in the whole world.

Day before my birthday, we met up with the guys for drinks at Walas. Although The UneXpected wasn’t playing that night, we still had a good time just chilling out and listening to the replacement band for the night. They weren’t half bad. Apparently they were some 60s old men rockers, and they could really play the stuff we requested from them.

It was nice just hanging out together, and Stella and I enjoyed their company for the night.

Some pictures for the night. Had to put the 4 person one in the centre as Hong was too “broad”:

All of us:

The following day, we had a gathering at my place. Stella had previously arranged for Andy and Keane to come back on the 20th to celebrate my birthday. Was really touched that she went through all that effort to get all the gaming people in one place. Also, this was special to me because it was my first birthday party ever. I don’t think I’ve ever organised a party for my own birthday before and it was something different for a change.

Prepared some food courtesy of Stella’s mom, and had some other food that my mom prepared earlier in the day. I booked the function room downstairs and prepared for the gathering.

Us before the party:

Waiting on the couch for the guests to arrive:

Keane and Serene who flew in from Wellington:

Stella, Serene and Tin:Me with Keane, Serene, Elton and Sheena:

Shang arranging the cards. Andy and Jon hanging around:

Sheena and Elton, Keane and Serene. Learning the game.

Me and the beloved organiser of this party :

Everyone pooled in money to buy me my very own copy of Space Hulk! Been hearing all sorts of good stuff about it but was hesitant about spending the money on it since it was a whopping 149 bucks for a single game. Stella jumped on the opportunity when she heard me mention it to her a couple of months back, and she made a pre-order for it from PI. Thanks baby! Truly a geeky present, and I really liked it very much. Thanks everyone!

The guys:

The girls:

Early on the 19th, I recieved a card from Stella. She had stayed up almost all night to make it. Written on it was a funky message for me.It was a really nice pop up card complete with our pictures and a nice little message with it. Despite her claims that her art isn’t good, I really liked it a lot. Thanks dear!
After hanging around, we headed out for dinner. Dinner was at a nice little Japanese place called Chako, located around the Hong Leong Gardens area. I really loved the place. Stepping inside, it was almost as if I were transported to 70s Japan (although I’ve never been to Japan). This was complete with old Japanese music playing through the cassette player in the background.
Inside with the counter behind me :

Black Tea :
The sake has eyes. They stared at us all night.
Sishamo:
Sashimi Platter. Really good, although it really filled us even before the main courses came. Really great stuff anyway.
We had to wait for quite a bit for the main courses to come (apparently this was the warning when we checked out reviews online), but the food was really great. Stella had the pike mackerel set, and I had the unagi set.

Stella looking cool and funky with her food:

Really delicious. I’m a fan of grilled unagi, but this one was broiled with egg and sesame oil. The flavour was not overpowering but it was so freaking fragrant. Really awesome stuff man. I would gladly come back for this anytime. One thing about Japanese food that I appreciate is its simplicity.

The both of us:
Next, we headed down to Rochester for some desserts. Funnily enough, the band that we’ve been looking for all this while were playing there. Drawn in by their voice, we ended up at One Rochester for a beer and some dessert. Was nice just listening to music and enjoying each other’s company.

What a great night =)