The Dempsey BRAsserie

  

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BFF RACHEL MILEY SUSILO CHIANG SNOW WHITE! She suffers from delusional tendencies and a mild case of personality disorder, but I love her anyway. Its her birthday today, but I'm off to Barcelona tonight which I am so excited for, and we celebrated early at the Dempsey Brasserie. Names like these just invite a mocking of the word Brasserie, and when everyone asked me "what do they sell (as in, what kind of food)?", of course the answers would be BRAS. Yes, I know, HAR HAR lame joke, grow up! But honestly it is an amazing place to just have a cocktail and enjoy good food and hang out with people you love. The amazing high ceiling, the island bar area and the rough, unfinished feel of brick walls combines a rather gritty atmosphere with something that could have been too sophisticated for the Dempsey enclave, resulting in the perfect combination that is the Dempsey BRAsserie. We shared mussels, a caesar salad, creamy mushrooms with brioche, bangers and mash a charcuterie board of cut meats, and a tiger prawn pasta. The last two dishes weren't anything impressive, but everything else was so delicious the plates were clean before you could sing the Snow White theme song. The service staff was great as well, all of them came out bearing a chocolate fondant cake with candles and broke out into song to surprise our special birthday girl! I bought her some balloons and an XL sized Snow White balloon from Holland V which she had to stuff into her car boot so she could drive home safe haha watching her, zee and candice attempt to shove it in the boot without bursting it made my week! Happy Birthday Snow White, here's to more birthdays and more bras together.

On the Other Side

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend saw my Seattle kids, as I affectionately call them since I apparently fuss over them like a mother hen all the time, head back to uni for another year of grey clouds and constant rain. They've just left and I miss them already. For once I'm the one left behind while my friends leave Singapore, and honestly this feeling really sucks. If my friends have ever felt this sad when I was the one flying to and fro Sydney for uni and other countries for all my various holidays, I'm not only very grateful for you but also very apologetic. I met up with my Seattle kids quite intensively last week, heading to Timbre for Nicky T's birthday shindig (welcome to the 22 klub!) and then having lunch at Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck in Paragon, which of course is always super. We very childishly played KartRider Rush on their iphones/my ipad after lunch, and it is so much fun to play multiplayer! (Its a free app so please download it!) We also saw a very tall Force India F1 racing team driver being interviewed while we were playing KartRider, so that was funny. But I digress. To my Nicky T, Vicky T, Colin K and the soon-to-depart-for-Rome-for-Study-Abroad Tiffy L, I can't wait to see you again ♡

French Food Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of my week last week was when I spent the whole day eating. Met Jan for tea and we went to Antoinette at Penhas Road. One of those raved about places by EVERYBODY, and I mean everybody, from newspaper reviews and food bloggers. On the way there Jan and I were grumbling that if the food and service sucks, Antoinette is going dooowwwwn just cause it is so far away from everything! But we kinda had to swallow our words when we got there. Not is it only extremely well decorated despite the area (situated like a white tea room amongst the drab industrial feel of the area, and the cheap tackiness of a chain hotel famous for its 'by the hour' rates), but it made me feel like I had been transported out of Singapore. It actually reminds me very much of Adriano Zumbo and Baroque in Sydney, two of my favourite cafes/patisseries. Upon entry there is an impressive display of tempting sweets and cakes, macaroons included. The tables and chairs are eclectically mixed up but have a common theme of velvety luxury. I had the french toast with salted caramel and chantilly cream, which was excellent, although the salted caramel was neither salty nor caramelly. The texture and fluffiness of the brioche bread was perfect, and the chantilly cream added more lightness to the dish. Jan had the brie and french butter baguette, which too was amazing, all crisp bread and soft goodness. But seriously, they can afford to be a bit more generous with their salt. Unsalted butter, really?!! I had their Antoinette Earl Grey tea- aromatic and full bodied, plus points for the fact that they willingly top up with hot water for a second round when you're done with the first brew, unlike TWG (suck on that TWG!!!!)

After that was dinner in Holland V's Chip Bee Gardens to celebrate Ratri and Lysia's birthdays with my beautiful girls! I was so stuffed but I never say no to french food, since we were headed to Bistro Petit Salut. Honestly the food was kind of disappointing for me. Not bad but not great either, not as good as it used to be anyway. But the good thing was they arranged a complimentary mini molten chocolate lava cake for my friends, so good on ya mateys! Dessert was pretty decent, but their profiteroles are always a treat. Choux buns became shoe buns and souffle became shuffle, oh french words how tongue twisting you are.

Good Rainy Days

So its pouring as usual in Monsoon-Season-Singapore, and I'm home after coming back from lunch with my momma. I'm reading one of the books I had to read for an South East Asian Politics class back when I was on exchange in the UW. I only read the required chapters when I was taking the class but I figured its a pretty good book to finish reading from cover to cover. My mother is downstairs playing Canon in D on the piano even though nobody has played the piano in a really long time, and I can hear her fumbling with some notes but she plays right through anyway. She stopped 3 minutes ago, and my phone vibrated. She bbm-ed me from downstairs to remind me that I have to email her something, and then when I replied "ok" she starts playing again. Then I am told there is the pink variety pomelo that has already been peeled for me in the fridge, and I run down and gobble it up in the kitchen. I end up playing the piano for an hour, practicing only two songs that I can read and remember-- Ballad pour Adeline and Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Its been over 5 years since I last played a complete song, and my weak wrists hurt when I finally close the baby grand. Today is a good rainy day.

The Lemon Is In The Oven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The days pass in such a blur that if I don't take photos or don't tweet about anything I never remember what I did or who I met or even what I ate. Clearly, I possess the short term memory of a goldfish swimming around and around in fishbowl. I do remember that on the 30th of August I had some of my girlfriends come over and we had a rather chaotic baking session, where we made absolutely perfect cupcakes (even though I forgot to buy baking powder and our cupcakes were flat). Who can say no to chocolate and hazelnut goodness or resist the zest of lemon cupcakes? Not us that's for sure. We were constantly swiping at the rims of the mixing bowls for a sneak taste.

A couple of days after that Nickolas and I went for Jon's surprise farewell party that Mel organized for him! Vicky T and I had alot of fun with the props of the day (geek glasses and party hats!) and Nicky T was clearly too cool for school. Tonight I'm off to see Hossan Leong's new stand up comedy with my family, let's just hope there isn't an overuse of 'double confirm'. Peace out x

There and back again

I am a fickle person. If a rolling stone gathers no moss, then I am clearly a rolling stone. Doing almost absolutely nothing (oh the joys of unemployment) has led to yet another phase in my life where I feel like blogging on a constant basis again, so we shall see where this leads me. Maybe I'll be Singapore's next big blogger (one can always dream or entertain delusional tendencies) or maybe I'll get bored again in 3 months as I always do with everything and shut this down. Whatever may be may be, the future's not ours to see. HELLO nonexistent readers, my name is Jiayi, some friends call me Charli some friends call me Betty, and this is my new pet project.