Missing in Action

Yes I know, Ive been missing in action...

When I first started this blog I thought It was going to be a walk in the park... just rant or rave about something and surely people would come and read. Its been over a year since I started this blog and I guess it wasnt as easy as I thought it would be. Work and personal matters have kept me pretty much pre-occupied this past few months, aside from negative energy here and there from some readers, which explains why I havent posted in a while.

I've actually been around quite a bit which would have been great posts for this blog (Boracay & Bangkok in the past few months) but somehow I lost the drive. Now after watching "Julie & Julia", I think Ive been inspired a bit to somehow carry on with what Ive started. Especially that Food is indeed my first love aside from music.

Anyway, I hope to be back soon. Get on the with the groove of food blogging, film and flight plus fitness which I may have to strike out sooner than later haha.

Peace everyone.
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Marche Restaurant, Vivo City

I've always been intrigued with Marche especially with the long queue during peak hours so I finally decided to check the place out. Zach has been transferred to their Alexandra branch office due to a H1N1 case in their original office so we have been going to Vivo City quite often lately.

Quite surprisingly, they don't have a website. For an establishment, or any form of business, not to have a website in techy and modern Singapore is almost unbelievable. Anyway, I found out thru the web their original branch was (or still is) in Orchard.

I love love love the interior! I love the open marketplace concept where the food is laid out or cooked in front of you. The floor area was a bit too tight though, I can just imagine how squeezy it can be when there's a lot of diners.


Marche is a Swiss Restaurant (which I only found out when we were already done eating) with a homey & country kind of ambiance.


Sorry about the blurry pics, again I forgot my digicam - the supposed 8 megapixel camera on my mobile phone is no good. Above pic is Chicken Parmesan Cheese Pasta with veggies. It was pretty good. Not overly creamy, cheesy or salty. Plus the veggies gave it a fresh taste that didn't make you feel too guilty.


Salmom Rosti on the above pic. I never knew salmon and sour cream would go well with hashed potato. The hashed potato in itself was a bit bland but I guess it was meant to be like that.


I didn't quite like the batter of the Calamares. A bit too bready. It was crispy but I prefer the breaded coating of Calamares in Fish & Co.


And now for dessert!! Bread pudding with vanilla cream sauce. Delectably sinful! Our favorite!

Strawberry Cheesecake was terrible. Cheesecakes at Starbucks or CB&TL are way better. The crust was too tough plus the gelatin-based cheesecake was too watery.

This 3rd piece of cake was Zach's fault, I think he got too excited with all the cakes on display. This Apple Crumble was equally, if not more terrible than the strawberry cheesecake.

Dinner came up to around $56 for both of us. Quite pricey but we did eat a lot after all. Again. I'm sure you are all shaking your head saying how the hell am I going to lose weight with this kind of diet... Ok, guilty as charged! =P

No rating for Marche since it was a fastfood type of restaurant, though a classier one.

Vivo City, Centre Walk
1 Harbourfront #03-14
098585 Singapore
Phone +65 6376 8226

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Sunday BBQ at Costa Sands Resort, Downtown East

One Lazy Sunday afternoon we decided to barbecue the day away. Zach's colleague had actually booked the place but couldn't make it the last minute so we happily took over (and for $20 bucks at that because of company benefits).

I decided to check out the room while Zach was getting the grill ready and I must say not bad. Pretty decent for a chalet room.

The bathroom was also decent. Not your typical 5-star bathroom but it was neat and clean.

My only issue was the walls were so thin you could very well hear the ruffling next door (or maybe because of the connecting door to the room beside us). Plus the top portion of one of the walls in the bathroom had a window-like opening covered with screen only, not even glass or window panes. Cheap form of ventilation.

Anyway, we didn't sleep there as it was too troublesome as we had work the next day.

See the yummy barbecue on top?! I am so proud to say it was the first time I marinated chicken for barbecue yet it was sooo damn good!!! hehehe.

I never knew you could cook sweet potato on the grill. I was wondering why Zach started wrapping them in foil and throwing them on the charcoal. All along I thought you had to wrap them in sort of like a pouch to steam. I was pleasantly surprised to taste them as they were indeed cooked with a smokey taste. YUM!

We also had shrimp, chicken cocktail sausages and fish balls - on top of the 2 kilos of chicken.

And Yes, we ate them all!!!!! ;P

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Modesto's, Vivo City

I LOOOvvveeeEEE Modestos!!! I so love Modesto's that I will just let the pictures speak for themselves! (in short, I'm in a lazy blogger mood hehehe)

(from their website - outside daytime view)

My Rating for Modestos:
Ambiance - 5.0
Food - 5.0
Presentation - 3.5 (the chili came in cheap plastic hawker-style yellow saucers)
Service - 4.5 (5.0 if not only for the pasta that took so long)
Price - 4.0
OVERALL - 4.4

http://www.modestos.com.sg/
1 HarbourFront Walk
#01-166/167 VivoCity
Singapore 098585
Open daily from 12:00pm - 10:00pm
For reservations and enquiries, please call: 6376 9808

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

With the help of the Autobots, the soldiers of NEST, and an old adversary-turned-ally, Sam and Mikaela must uncover the secret history of the Transformers presence on earth, and the sacrifices that have to be made to save it from an ancient threat sworn on returning here for revenge... an ancient Decepticon named THE FALLEN.
(http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809943432/details)



I am so not into 'transformers' that I zoned out an hour into the movie. I'm just really not into fantasy or sci-fi films. I do admit though the graphics and digital effects in the movie were superb but I just couldn't get the storyline. Or maybe I was just not paying attention.

My rating for Transformers is 2.0/5.0
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Fitness Blog #7

Ok. I Admit it. The fitness part in my blog has gone nowhere. It's been mostly food, I might as well strike-out the fitness part. It's been more than a year since I started this blog (wow can u believe it?!) and I've lost 0 pounds. Nada, None, Zilch.

So anyway, here I am again trying..... Read on

Last June 28, we joined this 12-week weight loss challenge (wlcsg.blogspot.com) sponsored by Herbalife (which I eventually found out during the 1st meeting). Basically, how it works is everyone chips in $30. Every week for 12 weeks there is a weigh-in and the challenge is based on fat percentage loss, to be fair to everyone. If u gain weight, you pay $2. At the end of 12 weeks, the top3 men and women who've lost the most body fat percentage take the pot money!! Not bad eh?!

So anyway, today (July 19), is supposed to be the 3rd weekly weigh-in but I couldn't make it because I had to help my cousin wrap her wedding giveaways (her wedding is a few days from now). Please disregard the date of this post, it will actually show the date that you created the post and not when you posted it.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with my progress so far. Slow but better than none. Every week, they teach us some lessons about weight management and healthy eating thru videos and lectures (and of course push their herbalife products on the side).

Here is my progress so far:

June 28, 2009 - 122.9kg (270lbs); 36.9% Body Fat
July 5, 2009 - 121.3 (266lbs); 36.5% Body Fat
July 12, 2009 - 120.8 (265lbs); 36.5% Body Fat
July 19, 2009 - Absent

Yes I know I'm so damn heavy!! But not bad, 5 lbs in 3 weeks. If I keep it up for 12 weeks, I should lose at least 20lbs. Basically, I eat one brown rice meal a day (lunch only with veggies and tofu) then I eat tuna in olive oil with 3 hi-fibre crackers for dinner. I'm trying my best to cut down on snacking by replacing it with almonds or yogurt. Plus, I have been trying to go to the gym at least 2x a week doing at least 1hr of cardio (at least 700 calories burned).

Darn, why is it so hard to lose weight??!! :P Read more on "Fitness Blog #7"!

Coffee Club, Orchard Road

After watching "Transformers" a few weeks ago, we had a late night snack at Coffee Club in Orchard. We were going to join this 12-week weight loss challenge the next day (refer to Fitness Blog #7) so we wanted to have our "last good meal" haha, excuses excuses.


We were pleasantly surprised to find out the place is actually 24 hours open and boy were they packed.

Calorie-laden vanilla milkshake to kickstart an even more caloric meal haha :P

Jhun had this salad as he didn't want to join in on the pig-out.. What a party pooper haha.

My supposed "really huge" chicken sandwich. This is probably one of the worst sandwiches I've ever tasted. The chicken was so processed it didn't taste like chicken anymore, it was like a huge chicken ball shaped like a patty. Terrible. The chicken nuggets at McDonalds is better.

Rudz had the Alfredo Pasta. I just had a taste of this and it was just ok.

Vish had the Spaghetti Bolognese. I think this was the most decent out of all the dishes though it wasn't anything special.

(From L-R, Aihz, Vish, Mark, Rudz, Jhun and Moses)

Coffee Club was very disappointing. Aside from the fact the wait staff could barely speak english. I don't think I'm ever coming back, unless I'm going to have coffee and dessert. I guess they should really just stick to serving coffee as what their name implies.

My rating for Coffee Club-

Ambiance - 4.0
Food - 2.0
Service - 2.5
Presentation - 3.5
Price- 2.0

OVERALL - 2.8

323 Orchard Road

Singapore 238892

(65) 6736 2081

Open 24 Hours

http://www.coffeeclubworld.com/

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Loving Durian at Geylang

Up until I got here in Singapore, I never really liked Durian. I didn't hate it but I just didn't like it. I didn't mind its notorious smell but I just thought the texture and flavour were a bit odd. Lately though, for some strange twist of fate, I developed this fondness for durian. I think it started last year when I got to taste durian-flavoured moon cake. And as they say, the rest is history (lol).

According to Wikipedia, a typical durian tree can bear fruit after 4 or 5 years. Wow, that sure is a long wait! No wonder, this fruit is expensive.


We headed to Geylang one saturday night to satisfy our durian cravings. I always love the idea of open markets especially at night where you can freely wander around sans the heat of the scorching sun.


Geylang is the perfect place in Singapore (if not the only place) to sample durian as it is literally everywhere. We actually had a difficult time choosing which stall to eat at.


Durian comes in different variants and we tried "D24 - around $8 a piece" and "XO - around $15 a piece". I was introduced to "XO" by my flatmate, Al, sometime ago and I remember liking its strong taste that leaves this hint of alcoholic flavour. Zach doesn't like it though he finds it too bitter.



I remember watching Anthony Bourdain's feature about Durians and he said, "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother." That's hilarious but I think a bit exaggerated. Ironically though, some people find its smell aromatic while some (or most) find it repulsive.

We also bought some watermelon and pears to take home since the display of fruits were too irresistable, plus they were a tad cheaper.

So that was our durian experience! :)

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