Eat, Pray, Love @ the Earthling's Haven
Sunday, February 26, 2006 A suddenly craving for Ramen, anyone wanna go Marina Square for Ramen?



I love Sunday mornings at home. You know you can laze in bed without feelings of guilt, the smell of breakfast seeping through the door. (Yes, I only have time for proper breakfast at home on Sundays) Real breakfast consisting of pastries, soyabean milk, kueh and on a really good day, Char Kueh!!!! (the best char kueh is found at the Blk 538 hawker centre near my house)
Today, I have the most fantastic steamed yam cake and fresh soyabean milk for the first meal of the day. Went on to my unfinished work, feverishly waiting for 1pm to arrive so that I can get my weekly dosage of Japan Hour. Yes.....if I have to go out on a Sunday, it has to be after 2pm unless I have the time to catch the show on Sat evening. Anyway, Japan Hour was featuring the best ramen in all parts of Japan today. They have an amazing array of stocks for their ramen, fish, miso, soya sauces and of course the best types are the pork bone based stocks. The porkbones are simmered till the collagen from the bones seeped into the stock, which explains the milky white colour of the soup. According to my sis, Ms Charsiew, who juz recently adopted a pig named Samsoon, ramen stocks in many restaurants are not the authentic 100% pork bone based types we saw on Japan Hour. The best ramen can be found at Marina Square Level 3. Ms Charsiew has forgotten the actual name of the ramen place, but anyway the restaurant shouldn't be difficult to locate.
One of the nicest ramen I have tried is from a restaurant named Temptations at Maxwell Food Alley. (Correct me if I got the name wrong, PerPer and Alien Ying) The soup is addictive, better than the Ajisen ones.

Posted by hellocozette :: 7:16 PM :: 5 comments

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Thursday, February 16, 2006 The Fat Earthling can finally take a "short" break (really pathetically short)

PHEW! I finally finished my project at work. Rewarded myself with a new coin pouch, new shoes and new dress. Seems like the reward system is getting to me. Shopping has become a therapeutic but expensive habit over these years as I started my first official job. Not a healthy way to destress, as one friend gently put across to me one year ago, that I need to get those nitty gritty nasty work completed instead of putting them off and escaping from them like a terrified rabbit. ( Indeed, I have experienced sleepless nights last year because of work and the idiots I have to unfortunately work with.)
I succeeded as I found myself to be surprisingly efficient in my tasks this year. ( 3 cheers for the fat earthling, hip hip hurray!) However, with my increased efficiency in work, my tolerance for irresponsible bummers decreased at an alarming rate. Raising my voice at these irritants seems like a habit that have slowly became part of me. (Hey! The Fat Earthling is supposed to be a "sweet tempered and gentle lady"! LIKE REAL! But that's how one lecturer described me only to have me widening my eyes in horror at my "informal" testimonial that she had so painstaking collated and written for eveyone in the class . That was supposed to be some kinda "boost your confidence" session during this Caregroup activity)
Well, Being "gentle and sweet-tempered" doesn't boost my confidence one bit. It sounds like a more subtle and gentle version of "She's a pushover, an easy target, timid....blah blah blah" WTH!
I decided to take a few days to detox both my body and my mind. Going to read the book that Ris have lent me since sometime last year-The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkeys"

Posted by hellocozette :: 8:00 PM :: 1 comments

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Wednesday, February 08, 2006 Minature food models : My not-so secret obesession

Bak zhang, Wanton Mee, Har kow and fruit gateau. (drool......)



This is my 'mini' collection of food models that I have accumulated since last year. I fell in love with these when I saw them one fateful afternoon at a pushcart at Century Square. Be posting more of these if I do not have any 'real food' pics to upload.

Posted by hellocozette :: 5:13 PM :: 0 comments

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Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Dim Sum Dollies!


Those who sat near to me in the staffroom will know that I have this sweet looking miniature of a bamboo basket of har gow (Shrimp dumplings) on my desk. I have always love dim sum, coz they are so pretty to look at and so heavenly to taste! My weakness for pretty food turned into an obsession when I started collecting minatures of these beauties. I saw sushi miniatures online and was about to hit the purchase button when I realised the entire set would have set me back by a whopping S$70. I have to seek comfort in my sushi wallpaper on my PC for that week, but that made me hungry at weird hours of the day so I decided to switch back to Bobo the dog's wallpaper. (I decided to make an appointment with a psychiatrist if that wallpaper made me hungry as well.)
Anyway, back to the HK beauties.....The 3 of us were beaming with excitement when we discovered this restaurant. Suprisingly, we were not able to find a proper restaurant selling dim sum for breakfast despite walking though all the alleys at Mongkok and tshimshasui area. so u can imagine our excitement when we finally saw this place along the main rd of tshimshasui.
I was practically drooling from excitement and hunger because Jerrie our unofficial, long-legged, ever accomodating tour guide was leading us on an early morning walk to look for dim sum. My short legs almost gave way after an hour of trying to keep up with them.

Posted by hellocozette :: 8:56 PM :: 1 comments

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A little bit of coffee a little bit of tea


We finally get to drink authentic Hong Kong yuan yang!!!! I tried the TCC and Crystal Jade's version in S'pore but those fell sadly behind the Authentic One. I tried making my own version at home with disastrous results. Was tempted to request for special order at our local coffee shop, but dun think they can ever match up to this. I drank a cuppa of this everyday without fail when I was in HK.

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WANTON MEE!!!! Generous servings of wanton and thick slabs of fish cakes. The dry version is eaten with some kinda sweet oyster sauce and the texture of the noodle was simply outta this world. No distinct taste of the yellow 'gee' that is often found in S'pore's yellow noodles. We were in wanton mee heaven for an hour...... Posted by Picasa

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This is what most Hongkongers will usually have for breakfast. I was really disappointed...taste like mee hoon in chicken soup with egg, ham and chicken wing. Was expecting people to serve porridge and char bee hoon at the chan ting. Posted by Picasa

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Chocolates from Japan. lovely.packaging and shapes......have to restrain myself from taking more than 3 pieces Posted by Picasa

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Meat balls - the Asian version


Meat balls ! Reminds me of the meatball head character sailormoon....A simple but tasty dish where minced pork is mixed with generous amount of water chesnuts, carrot and coriander. Best eaten straight from the wok! Posted by Picasa

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Pig stomach soup with gingko nuts and szechuan vege


Pig Stomach with gingko nuts and szechuan vegetable soup. I love this soup, a must-have every new year lunch at my cousin's house. Tedious to prepare though. Have to wash the stomach a few times by boiling and draining away excess water. I remember gagging at the smell whenever my mum washed the stuff. Posted by Picasa

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The Fat Earthling enjoys herself tremendously during the New Year break

I felt depressed today when I dragged myself to work. As usual, the holidays were never sufficient. Had a good time gorging myself with food over the 4 days.

Cereal prawns - the homemade version. I had reunion lunch at my cousin's house on the 1st day of lunar new year. I prefer this to the previous one I had at Ang Mo Kio. This is the curry leave stir-fried one, where the cereal and curry leaves were fried till slightly crisp before adding the cooked prawns. I used to think that Cereal prawns were supposed to be coated with cereals like the way we coat fish fillets with breadcrumbs. This would taste great with fried chilli padis and coriander leaves too! Had that version at a friend's school's dinner.


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