luke's

one of the loveliest things about having foodie friends is how sharing is caring, to quote ashley. and share she did with this review about luke's. as with most other times, there were a few abortive attempts before we finally made it to luke's and being the cheap date i am, i was very happy to have made it in time for the 4pm-7pm special*.

great deal aside, what impressed me the mostest mostest about luke's was the impeccable service. singers is infamous for awful service** and while tipping stresses me out***, i do think that it serves to motivate waitstaff. the moment we were seated at the bar counter, out came two steaming hot towels. ohmyword! while i'm too finicky to put "public" towels on my face but having it on my hands was deliriously refreshing. it was just like being on singaporeair :)

mad props to the bartender, who was was supremely attentive without being intrusive. he sort of hovered in the background but was ever ready with the top ups. the complimentary cornbread plate was also a very nice touch. plus, he pre-empted our every request, which i felt was noteworthy and pretty darn amazing. the only other place where i've had this level of service in singers is gunther's. 

mindful that we were headed for a lovingly prepared steamboat dinner right after, we stopped at half a dozen washed down with beer each. ok tell a lie, he had my beer and i got an additional charddy :) when we were done, we got another glorious hot towel each. so simple, yet such a good idea.

luke's was a series of good touches, from the music to the hot towel and comp-ed cornbread, with the attentive service being icing on the cake. can't wait to return for a blow out dinner next time. thanks ash for the recommendation, and thanks long-suffering manfriend for tea.

*half dozen oysters and draft beer (stella or hoegarden) for $25 from 4pm to 7pm

** something to be said about the mandatory 10% service charge, eh?

*** thank god i'm going out with someone who can count

moutai moments 2

so i posted about one of the best friday nights in awhile last week but the professional photos just came in. without a doubt, they blew my far from professional shots out of the water. which is just fine because i am continuously bowled over by dr. koo chiehshen's photos. he takes the best photos and i shamelessly rip them off because he's sucha sweetie. it's no coincidence that my reserve of photos (i.e. the good stuff that never makes it to facebook or the blog) predominantly originates from him. somehow he manages to make everything look so perfect, so styled, and so put together when in fact it's just me and my supreme chapalang-ness. 

case in point: dusting me 'misu, and the table, with cocoa....

and he's pretty dishy, isn't he!

teehee.

moutai moments

leaving xj to pursue her more happening friday night plans, i was ready to roll to friends' for dinner, only to find that our long anticipated catch up had been child (as opposed to rain) checked. their baby girl was suddenly unwell so with the hosts out of commission, the motley crew needed a plan B.  had whisked up a tiramisu for dessert, but that quickly evolved to an appetiser, washed down with some bubbly before we decided to take a chance on ps at ann siang.

 

thankfully, the gamble paid off in spades.

and we retired for the rest of the tiramisu, this time washed down by some duty free burmese whiskey and bona fide moutai.

which led to suicide chess. which led to "upskirt" photos. which led to embarrassing stories that will remain within the smoke circle.

oh how i love my chimney friends.

wandering hunter valley

and quite liking the spoils of vineyard living. 

bought more bottles than we could legally bring back but that happy problem solved itself with constant drinking for that perpetual buzz. 

part of me is tempted to compare hunter valley with tuscany and bordeaux, both fantastic wine country in their own right. but life would be sad if new experiences were always compared with existing memories. plus the added element of romanticising something that's past. having next to no expectations for hunter valley meant that i did end up appreciating the hunter for what it was worth. 

and for that i am grateful :)

thus concludes the sydney and hunter valley series folks! thanks for reading.

can't get enough sydney

the harbour bridge and opera house are, naturally, recurring themes in this sydney album and the last. there's such a magnetism about these two structures and i'm inexplicably drawn to them every opportunity. love how they look so different at night :)

plus there was some pretty yummy cider on tap at the al fresco bar just by the opera house...

tbc

breakfast

one of the (many) upsides of calling a tropical isle home is being able to spend a leisurely saturday morning at an awesome place like this. 

was admittedly more than a little slow on the uptake, but so glad to have finally visited. christian was sucha sweetie and gave us a tour of the place :) have now done the singaporean thing and locked in a booking for three weeks time to return with some friends, both canine and human, in tow. and, of course, the luxury of a leisurely weekday lunch is not lost on me and i'm going to make that happen very very soon.

MOF

 

one of the things i really like about the firm is the work hard play hard culture. sure, that's how most places like to sell themselves but this one really puts it money where its mouth is. 

another really nice thing is how inclusive they are - everyone's invited from the directors to the interns. in fact, i remember receiving the invites while during the bar course, before i even started pupilling at the firm. this friday's event was no exception. gotta love the firm tab, which translated to the liberty to order "one of everything" for the table. it's such a bonus to work with (for?) people who are genuinely good and people who are more friends than colleagues. needless to say, the view was amazing and i never tire of oggling mbs from across the bay. had heard many good things about kinki and was glad to finally check it out in person.

yay for the ministry of fun!

next up, pupils' bash. DUNDUNDUNNNN. a time-honoured tradition with every pupil going down. defo mixed feelings of anticipation and apprehension! looking forward to finishing pupillage on a high note, although not literally, and just might have to defensive detox this last month in the run up to the bash.

we're here for holiday

and not to get alcohol poisoning..."

famous last words.

take 2 at ta.ke

moved the party from floor kitchen to ta.ke and was pleasantly surprised by the find. it's tucked away next to the pool at the m hotel and unusually tranquil for somewhere in the heart of the mohamad sultan area. it's breezy, laid back with sofas you can sink into. the drink list was creative - wasabi in your cocktail, anyone? and while it was relatively empty on a friday night, it just meant that you didn't have to yell over a din to be heard. oh, and my inner noob was itching to try the choya tea. definitely on my to-drink list for the next visit.

also, not a ketel one fan but thought this was a nifty coaster and effective advertisement.

13wives

that sure caught my attention! the first thing that came to mind was, 'ohmyword! what harem is this?!' and then i read a little into the back story about how the boss man mixes 13 drinks, named after 13 women. aside: maybe women isn't the right term. girls? chickies? females? can never get the nomenclature right but 'ladies' might be a stretch because being elegantly wasted is such an art, isn't it. anyhoos, my favourite couple is moving to beijing (or "BJ" as they cheekily refer to it) and we met to drink to their imminent adventure. suggested 13wives because i'd been to loysel's toy for coffee one lazy sunday and learnt that the loysel's toy kitchen doubles up as a bar after hours. however, because aforementioned favourite couple got there first, they promptly went up to floor kitchen instead.

so there we were on the spartan second floor, bopping away like it was a house party, drinking G&Ts out of titchy plastic cups and eyeing the eclectic crowd it seemed to attract. hey, there was even a guy in a gladiator outfit but no costume party in sight! when it all got too much, we decided to graduate to more grown up fun. thus it was only when we left that i realised floor kitchen wasn't in any way connected to 13wives! we'd been punked :( 

however on the way out, i did manage to surreptitiously snap these shots to make it look like we'd been there, done that at 13wives. teehee :)

next time!

bar bar black sheep

was decidedly slow on the uptake but finally caved and went hipsta'. unfortunately, having gotten myself hooked on just how snazzy these photos look, there's no going back to plain vanilla iphone snaps :/ so let me start by apologising to all the purists out there for selling out, and for the probable dearth of 'regular' photos on this space henceforth. 

swung by bar bar one night. in fact, bar bar's my go-to watering hole on nostalgic nights when i miss being an undergrad. have many happy memories of nights whiled away while precariously perched on their bar stools, hovering above the open monsoon drain and accidentally littering one too many paper serviettes into singapore's waterways. the indian food is solid (always always have the butter chicken), there are waffles with ice cream, and pipsqueak cider - my poison of choice.

think the last time i was there was with a bunch of exchange students right after my very last lawsch class just about a year ago. figured it'd be fun to show the visitors some local culture - although bar bar is as expat a magnet as it gets. anyhoos, popping over late that night was a blast from the past, now that i'm all grown up and have long shed my undergrad skin. but the company's the same. my drink's the same. and all was right with the world :)

check back for more finds over the next week. not being able to take leave  (and skip the country) means i've no choice but to get my kicks locally, and hey, singers aint too shabby!

first goan sunset baga goa

had a glimpse of baga beach across the water and was sufficiently scared not to venture across the bridge on my first day. it seemed like such an explosion of sights and sounds. crowded like crazy and there i was a little smug to have escaped the throngs in mumbai. 

from the safety of sunset bar (across the distributary), that first sunset i nursed my drink and unsuccessfully tried to muster up sufficient courage to go to the other side. didn't work! and on my way back to the apartment, i chanced upon J&A, a lovely little italian joint. was still full from tea so made a booking indian-style for a fashionably late dinner. 

somehow i didn't fall asleep before dinner time and had the first of many excellent meals. the pizza was wood-fired to perfection. surprise surprise :)

the ivy

was charmingly chichi and a very nice place for drinks, minus the weird ruling where the waitress poured our unfinished drinks into plastic cups at 11pm. apparently it's some new law to avoid gang fights with shards of glass, but it was weird to drink a cocktail out of a plastic glass that smelled of plastic. eeyur.

met with gaurav at the conference. i need to start meeting him in singapore, as the last time we caught up it was in hoi ann at the nam hai, and this time we bumped in sydney. good as my word, i did go see blackbird on the last day, and he was very kind to make some time for me post-production, before the final run that night.

i hate being late for people, something years of scgs training has drilled into me where i still have nightmares of dear rozzy telling us that if we're late, we better be running. but hey, it was a cool night in early spring, perfect for a little steam, sauna and soak in the outdoor tub, no? plus it was late and the kfc chimney next to their building had ceased spewing its awful exhaust into the airspace over the pool. dana shared that the residents had wanted to buy out the colonel, for there is sadly a price for fresh air, but ol' sanders sat tight on his bucket-sized plot of prime real estate. pity there's a lingering smell of deep fried chicken by the pool, because it made me hungry when i should've been swimming :(

fryer whiffs aside, establishment is also a nice bar, run by the same group so if you're ever in sydney and want to chill in a fancy schmancy bar, these two are safe bets :) the pool etc is private though, so i'm sorry i can't also recommend the pre-ivy steam and sauna haha but the clue is the resilient kfc right next door ;)