food review

In search of bikini babes: Fun at Siloso Beach (Part 2)

- Sheylara 19 Comments

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(Continued…)

After taking the sky ride up the hill, we went down it in style!

Like our new hats?

Haha.

The Sentosa LUGE RIDE!!

That was so fun!! The luge staff all wore t-shirts proclaiming that “Once is not enough” and they’re right! But I didn’t do it again cos I didn’t want to take the sky ride up again and I didn’t fancy ascending the hill by foot (although it’s possible if you enjoy walking).

Sunset was approaching and we needed to get back to the beach to find more bikini babes!

But, first, we took some photos at the popular Siloso Beach colourful icon.

There are a few trams that travel up and down Siloso Beach, so you can hop onto one of these (free-of-charge) if you’re lazy to walk.

We went back to Cafe del Mar. We decided that’s where all the babes would be because that’s where the party was!

Unfortunately, the outside seating was all filled so we had to sit indoors. It’s pretty cool indoors, though. I mean literally! The air-con was cold! Just nice after a hot day at the beach!

We had to enjoy the outdoors vicariously.

And then the party started and the dancing babes came out.

My stupid camera can capture juice dripping out a lemon but it can’t do dancing babes without blurring.

Well, that’s what videos are for. You’ve already seen the video, so… next!

Camwhore!

But I want to talk about dinner now.

Dinner at Ami’s Restaurant!

This is also on Siloso Beach, just beside the Beach Station, which you should stop at if you’re taking the Sentosa Express from VivoCity.

Soup of the day:

I can’t remember what soup it is already. Haha. But it’s good. Really.

Satay:

Is not as good because the meat is a bit tough.

Chilli soft shell crab:

Is good!!! The sauce tastes like a cross between chilli crab sauce and sweet and sour sauce. The crab is fried in batter and tastes just divine. But you have to eat it fast before the batter turns soggy.

Potato salad:

Give it a miss unless you like hard potato. The salad dressing is nice but I like my potato very mushy!

Spicy crab pasta:

It’s not spicy at all lah. But I like! The sauce is a bit like the chilli soft shell crab sauce. This was my main course and I really enjoyed it, although I wish they had heaped on more sauce. And more crab meat.

Pepper steak:

I wish I had ordered this! It’s really tender and juicy and just nicely done. Yum.

Dessert:

This is a sago with gula melaka and coconut milk dessert. It’s really divine. But I couldn’t finish it because the dinner had made me so full!

Geez, I need to go back to Ami’s again.

The Goonfather joined us later in the night because he had class till 6 pm and after that had to collect Makkuro from the hospital. (In case you haven’t been following my blog, Makkuro’s engine busted a few weeks before. Makkuro is the Goonfather’s car.)

We went to watch Song of the Sea, a musical extravaganza that incorporates live actors, fireworks, laser effects, musical fountain and fire!

It’s a night show and there are two shows daily. It’s really popular! The queue was amazing. A ticket costs only $8 (adults) and it’s free seating.

It was about 15 minutes before showtime. We were trying to find the end of the queue and I almost fainted when I saw this. (It snakes all the way to the extreme left of the photo.)

We thought that was the end but when we got there, there was ANOTHER QUEUE HIDDEN BEHIND THE FIRST QUEUE.

OMG.

But it didn’t take too long, fortunately.

This is the stage:

It’s the whole freaking beach!

Check out the crowd.

Attap houses in the sea form the backdrop for the stage.

The 20-minute show is about a young man trying to break an evil spell to wake a beautiful princess. Hmm, okay, I prefer the cool effects. I love the musical fountain and the fire show. If you sit near enough, you can actually feel the heat from the fire and a bit of the water spray.

Nothing like fireworks to end a spectacular day!

If I hadn’t been invited to hang out at Sentosa for a day, I wouldn’t have known that there are so many fun things to do there, especially on Siloso Beach, which is for the cool and the happening!

(Yah lah, I know I’m very sua ku and I know many people do hang out at Sentosa regularly lah.)

It’s also surprisingly easy to get there. You wouldn’t even think that you were travelling to an island because it’s so near the city. I took the Sentosa Express, which you can take from VivoCity (on level 3), and it’s like taking an MRT.

The Goonfather usually drives in. It takes a few minutes to drive across and there’s a huge underground carpark near the beach where you can always get a parking lot.

No wonder he likes going there so much. I’m sure it’s not entirely due to the bikini babes, either!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this.

There will be a New Year countdown party at Siloso Beach this year, just like last year!

Called the Siloso Beach Party, it is Asia’s grooviest beach party, where you can expect the coolest DJs, music and performances!

On Dec 31, from 8 pm onwards, there will be nonstop music and partying. And the best part is that you don’t need to dress up because, duh, it’s at the beach! Just pop a bikini on! Hehe! Okay, for guys, just go topless with sexy trunks or surfer shorts!

Having a New Year Countdown party on the beach means that you will be able to witness the first dawn of 2009 right on the shores of Singapore’s hippest beach!

There will be pyrotechnics, too! OMG. Er, that means fireworks in case you don’t know. (Pyrotechnics is the term they use in the microsite.) I LOVE FIREWORKS, pyrotechnics, whatever. Can you imagine dancing beneath fireworks?

Throughout the night, there will be a Battle of the DJs, where duo DJs will be spinning at the same time at any given time. A total of eight DJs (including both International and local names) will entertain the crowd with their “mashed-up” music. That’s like mixing all kinds of music together. Haha! Sounds crazy! =)

Other fringe activities: Games (free to play), entertainment acts (like stilt-walking), snacks, booze, foam and plenty of bikini babes!!

The party is gonna be soooooooo coool.

Tickets are on sale at SISTIC. There’s an age limit of 18 years old.

So, who’s game to witness the first dawn of 2009?

[Read Part 1]

In search of bikini babes: Fun at Siloso Beach (Part 1)

- Sheylara 17 Comments

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The Goonfather often goes to Siloso Beach in Sentosa to check out bikini chicks during weekends when I’m not free to accompany him.

Idiot.

So, when I had the opportunity to enjoy some of Sentosa’s adventures on the house, I picked a Saturday when he wasn’t free. Wahahahaha.

No lah, I’m not so mean.

The date was picked for me, actually. And I wish the Goonfather had gone because I could have used him to entertain the babes while I took photos of them.

But, anyway, he had class that day, so I took Morte and Wang Wang with me.

Bikini babes later. Lunch first!

We ate at COASTES, at Morte’s recommendation. (We had many beach bars and eateries to choose from, so it was good to have a guide, even if the guide was Morte.)

Morte is the Goonfather’s babe-watching companion and is quite a regular at Sentosa’s Siloso Beach.

COASTES is one of the alfresco beach pub-restaurants along Siloso Beach.

They have wireless Internet access, they say.

But I don’t need free wireless access in Singapore. My SingNet mobile broadband gives me 50GB bandwidth a month. I think I only use up 5% of that each month. What a waste.

In any case, I didn’t bring my laptop out that day.

I was sooooo hungry.

But I had time to camwhore!

One of the creeds they make you memorise in Camwhore School: “There is always time to camwhore.”

Well, we had to wait for the food to arrive wat!

Fooooooood!

Morte copied me and ordered the Nürnberger sausages. He claimed that I copied him, though. Some people can get so argumentative over trivials.

I LOVE NÜRNBERGER SAUSAGES!!! But I wish the Europeans would do away with funny symbols on their vowels. They make life so complicated!

The Nürnbergers at COASTES aren’t as good as they look in the photo. I think they should change brands! Not that they’re very bad lah. Morte liked them very much. I just have high standards. Haha.

Wang Wang had fish and chips. She’s very boring. She only eats fish and chicken.

She loved her fish and chips.

I can’t believe my cheap $290 camera managed to capture this juicy action! (And it wasn’t planned or rehearsed.)

Lunching by the beach is really awesome. Although it’s a little warm, which is why all girls should wear a bikini to the beach (except me because I don’t look good in one), it still feels great. It’s relaxing and serene and you have a great view of the sea and half naked men.

After lunch, we went babe hunting.

I’m not, like, a perv or gay or anything. It’s just human nature to enjoy looking at beautiful things and girls in bikinis are beautiful (mostly).

We dropped in at the Bikini Bar, beside COASTES, where the waitresses are dressed in bikini tops.

This waitress turned her back on me when she noticed my camera. Haha.

We decided to walk further down the beach. Along the way, we came across two little girls playing at one of those ground fountains that would periodically shoot water at them, to their delight.

Adults can apparently have fun with the fountain, too.

There are two giant pavilions along Siloso Beach, which is great for events, or just hanging out under shelter.

Some time ago, my friends and I planned a beach picnic outing at Sentosa. We assigned everyone to prepare a specific food item but we all forgot to assign someone to bring picnic mats!

Lucky we had the pavilions, so we had a pavilion picnic instead of a beach picnic. It was cool and shady and we still had a nice view of the beach.

Siloso Beach is like almost synonymous with beach volleyball. There are four official volleyball courts which are free-to-use on a first-come first-served basis but you can see volleyball enthusiasts just playing anywhere and everywhere along the beach.

I can’t play beach volleyball for nuts. I don’t know how to bounce the ball off my wrists properly and always end up bruising myself.

I guess the only thing I’m good at is camwhoring.

Sigh.

Behind me. They even play volleyball in the pavilion, under shelter!

Moving along. I’ve been hearing good things about Cafe del Mar a lot, so I was quite excited to check it out.

And, what do you know, on the very day I was there, the happening beach pub was hosting its first massive beach party called The Water Parade! How lucky!

I showed you a video of that party the last time. Here it is again if you missed it.

This time, I will show you peektures!

I love this. It makes the place look like a resort.

Some of the guys behind the party:

Early birds:

Well, it was really early and the party hadn’t actually started (they were just getting ready), so we went in search of other adventures, planning to come back later.

We saw this dog having fun with its owner. So cute! It’s a really good swimmer.

The weather was quite nice and windy. I had a lot of trouble keeping my hair off my face. Feel like chopping off my hair again.

We found the official volleyball courts after strolling further down the beach.

There was a tournament (the Sentosa-MOE Beach Volleyball Challenge 2008) going on that day.

We didn’t hang around too long, though. We had tons of things to do!

I was really tempted to try out the swinging trapeze, which is just beside the beach volleyball courts. But it looks damn scary!!!

OMGGGGGGG!

Kids can be so brave!

This is how tall it is.

Okay, it’s not crazily high up like in the circus, but it still looks scary!

Being the scaredy cats that we are, the three of us wimped out and went for a milder alternative.

The sky ride!

This is childsplay compared to the swinging trapeze but, still, I hate heights. :(

Of course, I pretended to enjoy myself because that’s the only way to manage paranoia. The ride was only a few minutes but it felt like an eternity.

To distract myself from fear, I snapped photos nonstop. Haha. I took about 50 photos while on the ride.

I didn’t dare move my feet at all cos I was afraid my slippers would fall off!!

Some photos I took while up in the air:

Reaching a scary height:

Top down view:

Morte was the one who alerted me to the nice sea view. I wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t told me because I was totally focused on not freaking out:

Being neighbours with treetrops isn’t something I quite fancy:

Let’s camwhore and not look at treetrops:

What goes up must come down, right?

Come back tomorrow to find out how we descended in style!

[Read Part 2]

Flattened chicken but delicious

- Sheylara 25 Comments

At the risk of receiving death threats and suffering grievous bodily harm, I am going to write another food post.

Well, a girl’s gotta eat, despite what any of you will say.

Justyn used to accuse me of eating rabbit food. (The first time I was at a photoshoot with him, I brought granola bars for snacking on, so I became known as the Disgustingly Stick-Thin Model Who Eats Only Rabbit Food.)

Now, he accuses me of being a disgustingly stick-thin model who eats all the most disgustingly sinful food in the world (and gloats over it publicly).

I wish he’d make up his mind.

Anyway. Today’s disgustingly sinful food item is one which doesn’t sound at all appealing. In English, it’s called Flattened Chicken. In its original language (Malay, or Indonesian, I don’t know), it’s called Ayam Penyet.

Where's the ayam?

I’m sure Singaporeans (or Malaysians, or Indonesians) don’t need any introduction to this dish, but I discovered this new place a couple months back at Parklane Shopping Centre and the ayam penyet is good and cheap (little over $5 or something like that).

The name of the shop is Ayam Bakar Selegie, ayam bakar meaning grilled chicken. I didn’t try the bakar. (I’ve been there twice and gone for the penyet twice.)

There were eight of us that night and only two people ordered the ayam bakar. I didn’t hear any complaints, although I think the chicken looks a bit small.

Chicken looks small

If you do eat there, remember to ask for the sweet sauce to go with your food. They have it in a bottle sitting on the tables but not all tables have a bottle. So if your table doesn’t have one, go grab one. It’s yummy!

This is the gado gado:

Looks better than it tastes

Don’t order it. It’s not nice. Haha. It looks better than it tastes.

But the ayam penyet is a must-try. It tastes better than it looks (especially after you add the sweet sauce). Ask for thigh meat if you prefer your chicken tender and juicy.

It’s a really small outlet situated at the spot which used to be the Chinese chicken rice place called Meat You There.

The after-dinner entertainment was quite fascinating

Well, that wraps up today’s food post. It’s almost dinner time! If you’ll excuse me, I have to go search for more disgustingly sinful food.

Looks great but tastes okay only

- Sheylara 29 Comments

There are only two reasons people should blog about food.

1. The food is really great and you want to gloat.

2. The food is really bad and you want to spread the misery.

But some people subscribe to a third reason:

3. The food is only okay but you took lots of pictures so you must put them all in your blog to show people that you took lots of pictures, never mind if the pictures are bland and uninspiring and the food is only okay.

I think food blogs should never be done for the third reason but people will do what people do, so who am I to stop them?

In retaliation, I’m coming up with a fourth reason, which I feel has more validity:

4. The food is only okay but the photos are great.

I’m not much of a photographer myself, so I made Erwin take the photos this time since he just picked up photography and he’s got a fancy camera.

Everyone in the group had to endure the torture of seeing their food get cold while Erwin spends five minutes setting up each shot because the lack of light made it very difficult to get a good shot.

“Can I eat my food yet?” whined someone.

“Wait lah. Almost done.”

“Can’t you do mine first?” whined another someone.

“Wait lah. Go and bug QY because she’s the one instigating all this.”

After putting everyone through this, I cannot not post the pictures up.

But at least they look good, the photos, which is amazing because there was hardly any light because we were in one of those alfresco candlelight settings.

I’ll show you how dim the place was.

The restaurant was really dim
Photo taken by me, with my camera.

Now I’ll show you a picture that Erwin took with his camera, without flash:

Looks great but tastes only okay

I don’t know how the heck that’s even possible, but he did it.

That’s the veal, by the way. I ate that. It looks great but tastes only okay. It’s not even consistent. There were two slices. One slice was tender and juicy. The other slice was tough and dry.

Next picture:

You can't see it but there are prawns in the tin

This is sauteed prawns with grilled mango. Looks really good. You can’t see the prawns because they’re hidden inside the tin. Too bad for you.

The menu says that it’s “to die for”.

So I asked Johnson, who ordered it, “How are the prawns?”

“Not bad.”

“Is it to die for?”

“Not really.”

Bad menu! Didn’t your mommy teach you not to lie?

Menu tries to change the subject.

Menu says, “Oh, look! Soup!”

Some soup with a too-long name

Okay, let me try to recall the name of this soup.

It’s…

Cream of white asparagus with minced tuna soup.

It’s the soup of the day so the name is not in the menu. The waitress told me the name. Nobody else could hear it so I had to repeat it twice to different sides of the table.

Isaiah had a hearing problem that day.

I said to the table, “Cream of white asparagus with minced tuna soup!”

Erwin said, “Sounds good! I’ll have one.”

Isaiah said, “What?? Please avoid asparagus in the hoola hoop?

Morte said, “Wahaha. Nice name. I’ll have one, too.”

Morte is a… poultry of the male gender. (Insider joke.)

Moving on!

This is a plate of food

I’m not sure what this one is. You have to remember the whole place was so dark I had trouble seeing my own food, much less other people’s food. Maybe it’s the tenderloin pork. I remember Erwin ordering that and orgasming with his first bite.

“Oh, gosh, the fats,” he said, “Damn shiok, man! Wah lau, it’s damn tender!”

Erwin enjoyed his main course so much that when the waitress came by at the end of our meal to ask cheerily, “How was the food?” Erwin answered, “Not bad.”

I admonished him. “I thought you said your pork is damn shiok? Why didn’t you tell the waitress that??”

“Oh, yar hor! I forgot!”

I don’t know if that means that Erwin (like Morte) is also a… male poultry, or that the food at this restaurant is so unremarkable that even when it’s good, it’s forgettable.

Fish and chips:

Fish and chips

Siya said she ordered it because it looked like the safest thing on the menu.

When I asked her how she liked the taste of it, she said, “Okay lah.”

I realise that Singaporeans are really, really fond of saying “okay lah” and “not bad” when asked for opinions.

It makes reporters’ jobs really, really hard.

Glasses clinked as they toasted to friendship under the star-lit sky. Pairs of rustic candlelight gave off a soft glow, accentuating the romance of alfresco dining. The friends enjoyed the company, the sweet red wine and the promise of an exquisite feast that was to come.

The first course was Soup a la Fragrant Rose Petals Cascading in Delectable Waterfall of Cream.

“Not bad,” was the resounding consensus, accompanied by thoughtful nods of approval.

How would Jane describe the taste? this reporter asked.

“Okay lah.”

Next!!

I think this is the lamb chop

This must be the lamb chop because there are cute little leafy thingabobs on it.

I wish I had ordered that because Minou said that it’s “not bad”.

Well, my veal’s also “not bad”, but I think Minou’s lamb is a better “not bad”.

After being in Singapore for some time, you learn to differentiate one “not bad” from another.

There are signs. Subtle, but there are signs. Like how there is a cheerful lilt in a Level 3 Not Bad, while a Level 5 Not Bad comes with a slight widening of the eyes.

For example, the following dish is a Level 4 Not Bad.

Corn on the Cob Drowned in Creamy Stuff

The delivery of a Level 4 Not Bad is accompanied by a tiny hint of a smile, some teeth showing. Teeth which are most useful for biting into the succulent grilled corn on the cob.

It’s tasty and juicy on its own so I don’t know why it’s sitting in mayonnaise.

That’s the last picture of the lot.

The meal happened at Barracks at Dempsey Hill, where we went to celebrate Johnson’s birthday.

It’s a good place to chill out for the ambience… if you don’t mind spending 20-30 bucks on a main course that is rated between a Level 2 and a Level 5 Not Bad, and… if you don’t mind cockroaches (Minou has the story).

That's Us

On the whole, it was Okay Lah (Level 3).

A picture paints a thousand calories

- Sheylara 32 Comments

So, I’m going to be mean today and show you some of the calories I collected from my weekend KL trip.

1. Seafood Curry Noodles

Located in a quiet alley in the town of Segambut, this noodle outlet enjoys a thriving business selling seafood noodles in three flavours: curry, tom yam and clear.

Curry is the hot favourite and that’s what we’ve been craving to eat since our last triip there. It’s really the best curry noodles I’ve eaten. Not that I’ve eaten much to begin with. Haha.

Each bowl is so chock full of seafood (mussels, clams, big prawns and squid) that I wanted to donate some to the goonfather. But I didn’t because it was so delicious I had to finish the bowl even if I exploded doing it.

The curry soup is literally to die for!!!

2. Fried Chicken Claw

We had this as part of our dinner in a dirty street filled with small hawker stalls lining both sides.

The chicken claw is mostly a novelty, although it does taste quite good. I enjoyed the regular chicken parts more. The stall was quite popular, too, judging from the neverending queue.

3. Satay

The taste and quality of this satay is about on par with the best satay in Singapore but there are a few special things to add.

There’s a bigger variety. Besides chicken, beef and mutton, there’s also rabbit and venison. And beef tripe. And chicken heart and liver — my favourite!

A chilli oil sauce is available for adding to the regular peanut sauce (you can mix and match the quantity) to spice up the taste. It’s very spicy but very good.

The price is ridiculously low for such good food. It’s RM$0.60 per stick!! That’s like 25 Singapore cents, half the price of an average Singapore satay! The rabbit and venison are priced higher, at RM$1.20 and RM$1.30, respectively, but that’s still cheap!

The stall is located in a rest stop along the Kesas Highway and we have to drive a great distance to get there and back but it’s so worth it we do it every time we go to KL.

This time round, we ordered 60 sticks for three of us and almost died trying to finish it. I only managed to eat 15 sticks! Guess how many the Goonfather ate! Haha!

4. McDonald’s Grilled Chicken Foldover

We drove up to Genting Highlands to eat this. I know it’s crazy, but the Genting version tastes so much better than the Singapore version because the bread is more crispy and there are more vegetables. And the patty is juicier. Like how KFC tastes better in Malaysia than in Singapore. Sometimes we drive to Malaysia just to eat KFC.

5. Hong Kong Milk Tea

This isn’t food and I don’t really want to talk about the tea, except to say that it’s really good.

I actually want to highlight the ice. This was at a Hong Kong style cafe called Prince Cafe in Mid Valley City.

Each glass of iced milk tea comes with a giant chunk of frozen milk tea to keep your drink cold without diluting it. How I love that because I hate my drinks getting diluted by melting ice cubes.

It was a huge chunk, too. By the time I finished my meal and my drink, the chunk still hadn’t totally melted.

I think all cold drinks in the world should be served like that!

I hope you enjoyed helping me count my calories as much as I enjoyed consuming them. =)