I’ve to admit that I’ve been pretty slack in the past month, and this blog post is actually meant to be up two weeks ago.. But since it’s the festive period, I have an excuse I guess?
This December has been a pretty busy one for me, and I’ve been working almost every day: teaching for the first three weeks and working in a desk-bound position at IDA for the following three. (Ps: It actually started during the last week of November 2011 and ended at the first week of Jan 2012.)
Lucky me, when I went back to IDA, it’s the time of Christmas and New Year, and it shamelessly gave me the opportunity to join in at the Christmas cum New Year feast!
This is Raymond, the head of games team… He is a lot friendlier than he looks and he sure is a damn brilliant guy. Before entering IDA, I used to think that government only hire scholars who can think, but only in a bubble, but my stint at IDA proved to me that the government sector actually attracts smarter folks than I’ve seen in the private sector; or maybe it’s just IDA’s industry development group.
This is our awesome view of the ocean from our office…
This is the place where we will be having our end of the year departmental dinner. L,
Laisha – our new colleague who’s taking care of the digital advertising sector – with Raymond.
Raymond vs. Chef… *fight fight fight*
they were just discussing the menu. Blah!
As we reached a little earlier than the rest, we decided to sit at the “square” at China Square to blow wind. We not so relax all the time, just this occasional event.
Look how many presents Laikuen has? All that present is hers alone from colleagues!!!
Spotted this pretty nice bar opposite Hinoki, which I thought is a very nice place to chill…
Ain’t it weird to see people walking their dog in the middle of town? yes, this cute and friendly girl was walking her dog. She was a little shy to pose for a photo, but she allowed me to snap anyways.
The luscious spot that we sat to relax while waiting for boss to come…
While waiting, Laisha brought me to this place whose bread had won high accolades from her
I prefer the fruits actually. Hahaha…
Doesn’t this look very “good old days”? Actually I prefer this to the new and complex architecture we see today.
Decided to buy some bak-kwa to munch while waiting for the rest… yes, I know cny is around the corner!
Our ultra long table… That’s Raymond, Laikuen and Joyce.
I thought I was the only camera crazy dude, only to learn that actually almost everyone brought their camera.
Our cute little bottles of flavored Sake
Robert (the boss) and victor examining their cameras
Joyce and Laikuen…
Everyone’s here, yay! We can start eating. Woops… Oh yeah, I forgot to say which department I’m from. We’re actually from the consumer Infocomm department where we have three separate teams, one focusing on games, media ICT (that’s my team) and startups.
Eww. Doesn’t it look like…. You dirty minded folks know what I am talking about. But this is actually the peach Sake.
And lime sake…
Dried scallops as starters
Some flat fish, and the dark brown one is actually puffer fish. The puffer fish is really nice…
Look at this Sashimi.. *drools*
The scallops is really nice…
This is the homemade wasabi. It really tastes different from the ones I am used to eating at other joints, it just melts with the soy sauce…
See…. even the fish glows.. You can tell how fresh fit is!
Grilled with head with truffles sauce.
Omg…. Look at this Chawamushi…. So rich, but yummy!
This is the thing to die for…. Heard that many Japanese come here just to eat this!
Prawn head soup, Japanese style. Omg! It’s just so yummy!! Got refill? NO! 
By this dish, everyone was already very stuffed. But the sushi is just too good to resist. The only sushi that I didn’t like was the salmon-egg one. Just too salty for my liking.
Cinamon deserts after main dishes to clean our taste buds ahead of the deserts…
The earlier sake is just a starter, this is the real thing… See so big!!!
Hinoki has this really pretty Sake flask to serve the Sake bit-by-bit to keep it cool..
Our Sake actually has gold-flakes in it… OMG!!!
My cup had only one small flake… =(
Look at how many gold flakes Laisha’s cup has???
We had this secret Santa gift exchange and big-man Victor is explaining the rules of the game.
Pick a number dude!
See, all the presents? The most beautifully wrapped is mine! Guess which one.. Hahaha…
Chef Gary dropping by to say Hi to us after he is done with his other commitments
Just in case you want to contact him. I’m sure he will not blame me for posting his namecard here.
The first serving of Sorbet.
Chef Gary is very nice to offer us more… On the house. This is the mocha with Red-beans. It is damn nice…
Joyce’s grape ice-cream. The damage for the night for each of us is SGD 100+. But I’ve to say it’s worth every bit of it!
Christmas has evolved from celebrating the birth of Christ (yes I’m still religious) to being something very commercial where retailers exhaust all means to squeeze that extra dollar out of consumers.
No surprises, I’m a victim too, and Christmas shopping for me is always last minute. Went down to Orchard before reunion dinner to search for presents for family members; and until today, I still am short of 3 more presents. 
Thank god I don’t plan my life like how I plan present buying; else I’d be so screwed.
While shopping along orchard, I saw this very cute tri-shaw outside Takashimaya.
Look at the backdrop… See that long queue… It’s Abercrombie and Fitch… Free men inside? 
Somehow my mom loves this Paradise Inn place and she chose this place for Christmas Dinner; and since I had member-card. We got the same table as the last time, with very nice view.
Finally I got a shot of the Menu. I have to say that they spend quite a lot of effort in the deco; making it look classy.
Various flower tea, but didn’t get any this time round since I’m going to get Gong-Cha later anyways.
No, that’s not our soup, but this looks really yummy. Shall try it the next time!
Home made peanuts as usual. I like the one here because it’s very soft and tasty.
This restaurant is a soup place, and they will always place a “soup spoon” at each table.
I really love this wall feature. I want this in my future home!!
Ambient light which felt like fusion oriental.
Ok. I was bored, because the food took some time to come, and I decided to test my “tou pai” (secret photography) skills on this couple sitting at the bench below.
At first I thought this was pig brains… Doesn’t it look like???
After asking the staff, I’m pleased that it is not.
It’s actually some clam.. Phew! I don’t eat disgusting things like pig organs… 
Christmas has always been a good time for me to reconnect with friends and this Christmas alone, I sent over 500 SMSes to all the contacts; past and present, people I like and don’t.
Somehow the SMS I borrowed from some internet site spelled Merry Christmas as “Marry Christmas” and three of my observant friends actually corrected me, with one asking if I would “marry her” (you know who you are). Of course I knew she was joking… 
I’m happy to share that I will be meeting a couple of my long lost friends in the coming year!! Seems like I will not be having dinner at home till end of January mom!
End of the year is a time when I get very broke for three simple reasons: Sis’s Birthday, Mom’s Birthday and Christmas; but I’m not complaining. There are times that I wonder, how life will be like without my lovely family, and it is this thought that reminds me of treasuring them even more.
Since I’ve been blessed with exams on Mom’s birthday, we decided to celebrate it early instead.
Mom concentrating on what to order for the night
The food and service here is really good; and there was this cute girl sitting on the table next to mine. *grins*
Unlike other joins that serves canned peanuts, Paradise Inn’s tasted like they made it themselves.
That’s my tea, which I eventually shared with my family. It is sooo pretty…
By the way, if you go to Paradise Inn, one of the key reasons is the soup. This is some chicken and pork-rib soup that kept mom really happy…
Yummy… All good things come in a line…
White rice… But the serving here for rice is actually quite small. So for big eaters, you might want to order two bowls.
Salted egg yolk prawns and tofu. These are my favorite dishes for the night
Egg plant with salted fish, sis’s favorite. Honestly, I still prefer the one at the new veg-rice stall @Kopitiam-SMU
Another of mom’s favorite, fried prawns roll
Tomorrow’s my sister’s birthday and we’re celebrating it for her today… No idea why she chose this dim-sum place at Sims Avenue even after I’ve offered Hotel Rendezvous’s Sunday brunch.
This is some specially chilli sauce that tastes really yummy!!!
It’s strange how they serve all their drinks in these pastic containers, but it actually tastes quite good.
One spoon for the regular dim-sum and one for the porridge
This paper wrap chicken tastes very different from those you get outside, and it’s really yummy! Just a bit oily.. 
And the galore of dim-sum! After I took picture of this, I began digging in and didn’t take picture of the rest… woops…
Ok… Back to rushing assignment to be completed by tonight… 
PS: I will find out what’s the name of this place and update this post soon.
It seemed Déjà vu when my sis organized this years mother’s day lunch at the Si Chuan Dou Hua restraunt at Plaza by the Park; we had Si Chuan food at Swissotel last year and The Plaza was my first every office back in 2007.
The famous 8-treasure tea!!!
Waiting for the “8 treasures” to infuse…
Very unique “snack-bits”
A very spicy and sour bowl of Suan La tang. I still prefer the one my mom makes.
Braised shark’s fin soup… There was really alot of sharks fin in this bowl… Yummy!
First set of dishes, Sichuan Ma Po Dou Fu, Gong Bao Ji Ding, Prawn Salad & Soft shell Crab
Sea Bass cooked in Sichuan style
Fresh scallops with jalapeno, wild mushrooms and veg!
Siu Mai!
Seaweed Dim Sum!
Sichuan prawns… So oily we only at the prawns..
Look at the fresh pepper…
Roasted Chicken.. By the time of this dish, I was really stuffed and didn’t have the determination to continue snapping… I recalled we had another prawn dish, couple more dim-sum dishes and desert (Their silken dou-hua was really good!)
