Avigayil Damm

Well, apparently it doesn’t really take much time to find an excuse to call in the guys from Amigos to deliver their cheeseburger. We like it obviously because it tastes good, the burger patties are very juicy so it’s not as dry as any regular burger from other places (well except Burger King)

Usually they serve it with garden salad and slices of water melon but they haven’t done so in a long time. Now they serve it with onion rings and coleslaw. We skipped the coleslaw but I enjoyed the onion rings.

The second day of our stay in Singapore, we went out to the tourist attractions first before anything else. First stop was the Merlion. But on the way there, we took a few pictures with nice backgrounds, one of them was the Fullerton hotel.

After a few quick stops for pictures, we continued to the Merlion and again took pictures there. Of course the other side of the view was also nice, so we also took pictures there. The picture on the right is a view of the Singapore Flyer, the football stadium and our hotel.

Afterwards, we stopped by at the Fullerton’s hotel, just to see how it is on the inside. It was of course very posh and impressive. After cooling down a bit in there, we continued our walk up north towards the Funan Digital Life mall. Again, my hubby was looking at all the interesting (gaming) laptops, but they did not have the Asus W90 that he was after. It turns out our trip to Singapore was just two weeks too early, they said.

Anyways, I did get to buy a portable speaker for my iPod, something I have been looking for but have never gotten around to buy in Jakarta. The price was reasonable, there was not much difference with what the price would have been at home.

We had our lunch at that mall, but it was nothing special. It was at Swensen’s and I had a very disappointing chicken salad. My hubby, however, ordered soup which I think he liked, and we ordered dumplings to share. The dumplings were very nice actually. No pictures available (and I am almost sure they would probably be not so happy if I did take some).

Continuing our little adventure, we walked further north towards the place to do what you have to do before you die (or so they say): have a Singapore Sling at the Raffles hotel’s Long Bar. We both had a Singapore Sling and we have these pictures to prove it!

After finishing our drinks, we continued to look around in the hotel, and ventured into the hotel’s museum which had a lot of interesting stuff, including pictures of when Sophia Loren and Queen Elizabeth had visited the hotel. It had all sorts of memorabilia from various times, you just have to go see it yourself, if you’re into its history.

Tired from all the walk, we finally headed back to the hotel. This sentence is something that I can rarely say during my life in Indonesia, because here in Jakarta we don’t have sidewalks where pedestrians can walk safely, so once I set foot in a place where walking was possible, I didn’t mind walking at all (which was actually quite a surprise for me – and a slight annoyance for my hubby it seems because he was really sweating due to his dark choice of clothing).

Arriving in a cool hotel room, we decided it was just too nice in the hotel to bother going out again to find dinner. So we went up to the club, and checked out what kind of ‘refreshments’ they offered. Since we came early, they still had a lot of warm food. I only managed to take pictures of the very small bites (that’s why they call it ‘refreshments’ because they didn’t intend to fill yourself up to a point where you didn’t need any more food).

The picture on the left shows my hubby with a ‘starter’ which is crab meat (if I’m not mistaken) mixed with some vegetable (it seems) and topped with a few red drops which looks like fish eggs (but maybe I’m wrong). The right picture is of my hubby with his dessert, strawberry pie. Everything we had there was delicious although small bite sized. But actually the small bites in the end worked well for me, because that way I could try out almost all that they offered without over indulging myself.

Since today was Earth’s Day, the hotel participated in the energy saving movement, so from 20.30 to 21.30 they turned off all lights and lit a lot of candles. While in the dark, it was easier to take picture of the city view.

We ended our evening with some coffee and cognac (speaking for my hubby), as well as some sweets (assortments of chocolate). After the lights went on, we headed up to our room. A nice long hot bath was how I wound down from the tiring walk (and my legs surely appreciated it) while looking out into the city skyline.

All in all, it was a very nice weekend away, and since our flight back to Jakarta was quite early the next day, this city skyline is the last nice memory I have of Singapore.

Thursday 26 March was Seclusion day, which is a holiday in Indonesia. I took Friday off because my hubby had planned a surprise getaway for me. Well, it was somewhat a surprise, because he booked the hotel room without me knowing, but then once the booking was confirmed I had to arrange the transportation. But it was a really nice surprise because we didn’t really plan it, and we didn’t even talk about it. He only remembered me saying that I have never been to Singapore before. So that is where he had booked us accommodation.

We had a quite early flight from Jakarta, but because of the time difference we didn’t get to Singapore until a little after noon. After a smooth arrival and check in, we immediately hit the streets. We first went up north from where we were staying, to a mall specializing in all electronics and gadgets, Sim Lim square. My hubby had his eye on the Asus W90, but unfortunately wherever we checked, they didn’t have it yet.

So we continued our walk further north into Little India, just to see what it is. My boss also asked me to look out for a special brand of incense, so another reason to go there. It was not really as I had expected. There were plenty of Indian stores and restaurants of course, but the atmosphere was just normal Singaporean city streets. They didn’t have the incense either so we continued our little exploration. Since it was nearing dinner time, we decided to walk south towards Clarke Quay, where it would be easy for us to find something to eat. The picture above shows the colourful area.

Surely enough, there were plenty of restaurants to choose from, but we chose the one that was located on a boat. Unfortunately I don’t remember what the name of the restaurant was. Anyway, travelling like this, tasting a local dish is a must for me. So my choice of menu was Singapore laksa. I have tasted the Malaysian version of laksa, and although I do like it, I still favour the Indonesian version of the dish. The Singapore laksa was similar to the Malaysian version. It’s very spicy and has a rich flavour thanks to the coconut milk. My hubby, however, chose a more safe menu, BBQ pork ribs, with which he seemed quite satisfied.

After finishing our dinner, we strolled around the area, and when we passed the mall nearby, I caught a glimpse of a shoe shop. Being in hunt for high heeled white sandals, I immediately ran in to the mall and checked out their collection. As luck would have it, I found just the right one! It was so nice to have it over and done with, so the next few days I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.

Having walked for a very long time and a very long stretch, we decided to call it a night and hailed ourselves a cab back to our hotel. We went straight up to our room on the 29th floor, which I may add, has a great view into the city.

After a few days of no serious cooking, I am back. Just a recap, on Sunday, after my visiting friend left, my hubby and I just heated some paprika meatballs which we stored in the freezer, so that was an easy dinner. On Monday, we anticipated coming back from work late, and being lazy to cook anything so we ordered in our favorite cheese burger from Amigos. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of those, but will do it next time and post it. On Tuesday, my hubby went to the field, so I was alone at home. I had some leftover lasagna in the freezer so that was my dinner that night, and on Wednesday I asked our guard to buy me some chicken from the street kitchen nearby. No pictures of those either, but will add them on later.

Anyways, today I whipped out the recipe which we did not get to cook last week because we came home late from the office and ended up eating something very easy. This recipe is one of our favorites because it’s fast, easy and tastes good. The usual prerequisites for a recipe to be repeated in this household. It’s peppered paprika beef. And the surprising part is, that it’s all made in the microwave!

All you have to do is prepare some thinly sliced meat, approximately 700 grams, mix in some corn flour, half a cup of water, 3 tbsp of soya sauce, 2 tbsp of sesame oil, salt and pepper. Mix these well before adding in chopped onions and chopped green and red paprika. Cook covered for 10 minutes, stirring twice, and then cook uncovered for about 5 minutes on medium. Voila! The dish is ready to be served, with any choice of side dish. We opted for Basmati rice.

My visiting friend and I went out today for a successful shopping spree at Melawai and Pasaraya, and we arrived home rather late in the afternoon. Having anticipated arriving late from the shopping, we decided on a simple menu: wagyu steak – simple to make but tasting very good.

We bought the steak at Gourmet Garage, the only place we know so far that sells good steaks. This wagyu steak, as my hubby claims, is the best meat we could have, and it’s so juicy and tender, that asking for it to be cooked ‘well-done’ would be the crime of the century. The carbohydrate source choice of tonight was boiled potatoes. We also caramelized some onion rings for additional taste. As for the sauce, we opted for our own home-made béarnaise sauce.

The steak, caramelized onion and boiled potatoes are of course easy to make, nothing that I can share with you. But the béarnaise sauce recipe may be of interest.

Ingredients:

• 150 gr butter, melt separately and let cool
• 6 egg yolks
• 150 ml beef bouillon (or use 1 cube beef stock in 150 ml water)
• 3 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp dried tarragon

In a medium heavy sauce pan, I mixed the egg yolks with the beef bouillon, white wine vinegar, lemon juice and dried tarragon. Once the butter has cooled down, I added it into the sauce pan and started to cook it at very low heat, stirring.

Now, in the original recipe the butter is melted in the sauce pan and then the egg mixture is added in it, but one time I accidentally discovered that my way (as above) is much better. It’s important that the butter is cooled down first, because not only does it help avoid heating up the egg yolk too quickly so that it becomes scrambled eggs, but it will also allow you to heat the sauce slowly, giving enough time to allow the sauce to thicken. Once the sauce starts to thicken, turn off the stove to stop the heat, as the heat from the sauce pan will be enough to keep it ‘cooking’. I have come to ‘master’ this sauce and my hubby has voted it as his favourite. Try it out and tell me what you think!