Life

Sunday, April 29, 2007
The V Tea Room

My second visit to The V Tea Room, with my parents. Cos was an early treat for mummy for mother's day. The 1st visit was exactly a month ago, with Suet Ming.

Well I knew about this place long ago, but looked pretty classy so I assumed that I couldn't afford it then. But before CNY, mom's ex-colleague bought her a tin of cookies from V Tea Room. So last month when Suet and I were at the Esplanade for Phantom of the Opera, we went there for tea after the show. I was totally mesmerized and captivated by this tea boutique. Like Suet said, it's the kind of place where Jo likes. Yesh, yesh....

This Victorian-inspired decorated tea boutique had a warm, inviting and cozy atmosphere. Simply a place where I could spend a whole afternoon there. Parquet flooring, red wallpaper, high-cushioned chairs and marbled tabletops. Victorian book-binds, masquerade masks.. Very detailed decor.

The service was really excellent. The waitresses were all really friendly and they made me feel like royalty. Feels great to have someone waiting on u. Haha.. They are all well-equipped with the knowledge of all the items in store.

On my 1st visit, Suet and I had a double pot of Turkish Apple Tea. It's real apple bits. Sweet aroma and refreshing. Fantastic. We also had a chocolate melt-cake with mixed berried. It was very delicious, with a very unique texture We were told that the melt-cake was their own concoction. It's a half-baked cake, with equal parts of firm and gooey cake. It was a good combination. Though it was a half-bake

d cake, it didn't taste undercooked at all. The gooey part tasted more like a yoghurt.

Today, we had a pot of Turkish Apple tea and a pot of Tropical Green Passion. It's actually passionfruit green tea. This one had a strong fragrant aroma of passionfruit. But the taste is a little bitter. As for sweeteners, they offered cubes of white cane sugar, brown sugar, rock sugar and candied longans. I would prefer rock sugar though.

We had the warm apple cake and chrysanthemum honey lime sorbert. The cake was just butter cake with apple bits. The apple fragrance aint as strong as the apple tea, but the texture was quite good. The sorbert was simply mind-blowing. A taste which I've never tried. Very special and really light and refreshing. We cleaned the bowl in minut

es.

There was a wide range of cakes. Actually the specialty of the store is liqueur cakes, but due to my low tolerance level for alcohol. I gave that a miss. There are 2 cakes shelves in the boutique where one can pick the cakes he wants. Then the waitresses will warm the cake and decorate the cake before serving for the baked cakes. As for the refrigerated cake shelf, there are many beautifully decorated cupcakes.

According to the waitress, the tea boutique is going through a revamp soon as half of the boutique will be changed into a cookie museum. The cookies are all freshly baked in-store. The cookie museum offers many ranges of cookies. All ingredients are imported from overseas. The cookies are eggless. Great for those allergic to eggs. There are the floral range, fruit and nuts range, chocolate range and the savoury range.
Floral range:

Madagascar Orchid: Madagascar vanilla pod with orchid. Taste very creamy.
Madelein Rose: pure rose. Very floral.
French Butterflies: Rose with ginger bits. Sweeter than Madelein Rose. I personally love it.
Lavender: Pure lavendar. Ehh.. Like eating essential oil.

Fruits and Nuts:

Berry lite: With organic blueberry and macadamia nuts. Best-seller
Orchard AppleCran: Apple and Cranberry. Well, I simply love the apple.
Bird of Paradise: Cranberry and sunflower seeds. Light flavored and crunchy.
John Lemon: Cranberry and lemon. I love it too.

Chocolate:

Girls are Cheeky: Candied cherries and chocolate chucks. Reminds me of the cherry gracia ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. The cherries are like jelly beans, specially imported from Italy.
Boys are smelly: It's not smelly. Chocolate chucks and nuts. Taste minty.
Othello Chips: White and dark chocolates
White Truffle: White chocolate. It's butter-free. Melts in the mouth.

Savoury:

Hae Bee Hiam: Chilli Dried Shrimp. Very spicy.
Ikan Bilis: Mini dried fish. Huh.. Taste ikan la.
Parmesan Napoleon: Obviously parmesan cheese.. but it just tastes like the milder version of Hae Bee Hiam.
3 Piggy: Pork floss. Like keropok. Haha..

Well cos last month, I bought AppleCran and Girls are cheeky and I was invited to be on the list of special invites, as the cookie museum has a special flavour of the month and only bake a limit number of tins of 50. Flavour of the month was cheese and vegetarian bacon. Ingredients are all hand-carried back from Venice. The cookie is called American Breakfast. Taste like buttered prawn. I'm completely overwhelmed by it. Cant stop thinking of it. I bought 2 tins cos for every 2 tins of American Breakfast purchased, there's a free gift. It's a glass-beaded necklace from the Glass City, Murano in Italy. And because of the tea vouchers, I bought another 3 tins of cookies. Madelein Rose(cos my folks love it), John Lemon and Berry lite(Cos mom loves it. It's our 2nd tin of it too.) So all in all, 5 tins of cookies today. The cookies can last for 6 months. Each tin of cookies range from S$25-32.

Some may find the cookies too pricey, but honestly, I think it's worth it cos of all the imported ingredients and the packaging. Classy..

This is definitely a lovely place. Once in a while, it's worth pampering yourself. Indulge in the high quality of life. I love it.

The V TeaRoom
#01-02 Esplanade Mall (Main Entrance facing Marina Square)
6333 1965
http://www.thevtearoom.com
Opened 1pm to 10pm Sundays to Thursdays, 1pm to 11pm Fridays and Saturdays

Labels: foodie, Top class life

OH, i'm so in love with victorian at {/9:09 PM}

Monday, April 02, 2007
Pret A Manger

Frequenting Raffles Place and taking up yoga classes kinda added some spices into my life. If not for taking up yoga classes, I wont even frequent Raffles Place, and I wont have the chance to discover many special eateries and cafe.

Wanna share with all my new love recently. Pret A Manger. Found the sign quite some time ago when dad drove down Robinson Road, just before Lau Pa Sat. I always think that it was so far away from Ocean Tower, where I go for my yoga classes. But I came across an article in a magazine, featuring the sandwiches, when I was highlighting my hair, I knew I've gotta give it a chance, so the food they offer is so "ME". It's my kind of food. And if I never walk down, I'll never know that it's actually quite near.

Located at The Ogilvy Centre, it's just a 5-10 mins walk from Raffles Place, next to Lau Pa Sat.

This British sandwich shop caught my attention and now I'm kinda hooked to it. Every time after I visit the shop and eat the sandwich or drink, I simply couldn't help not to think about it.

Perhaps let me explain what I meant earlier by "my kind of food". It has gotta to be elegant, sophisticated, unique, interesting and best of all, in some forms of hybrid of all the stuff I like.

My first visit, I tried the recommended crayfish and rocket leaf sandwich, hummus and corn sandwich and chicken leek and potato soup. Sounds a lot? Not really cos their sandwiches are all half sandwiches.

Crayfish and Rocket leaf sandwich.

I'm a seafood lover and crayfish... yum. The flesh was succulent and together with the leaves and light mayo, awesomely refreshing.

Hummus and Corn sandwich

Since I returned from Israel, I've acquired a loving for Mediterranean food. Hummus is basically blended chickpea in creamy texture. Hybrid of hummus and my fave corn, wonderful. Suitable for vegan cos there's no meat. The hummus was like tuna mayo in vege form.

Chicken leek and potato soup

Too rich. Personally I'm ok with it. Not fantastic as it's just too creamy.

Other discoveries I strongly recommend:

Raspberry and Blueberry Smoothie

What comes to ur mind when u see the word "Smoothie"? Milk? Yoghurt? Cream? Well, these u'll nv find in Pret's smoothie. It's made of only fruits and yes fruits. "No water, sugar or anything weird" as stated on the bottle. It's 100% natural, blended with orange, apple, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry and banana. U must be thinking what's with all the berries. Well, the fact is I'm obsessed about berries. Refreshing and soothing. Great to complete with a sandwich.

Avocado and Parmesan Sandwich

Honestly I was quite apprehensive when I picked it up from the refrigerator cos I wasn't really sure of the basil and pinenuts in the sandwich. I was proved to be overly paranoid. I think it's another of my fave now and since I ate it last week, I've been thinking of it everyday. Cheese shavings with slices of avocado, perfect match cos they just melt in the mouth. The pinenuts and salad leaves gave the sandwich its crunchiness and the basil leaf enhanced the favour of the sandwich. Most of all, dunno why I recently love green creamy stuff like avocado and wasabi.

Must try k.

Pret a Manger

35 Robinson Road#01-02/06 The Ogilvy Centre Singapore 068876

Labels: foodie

OH, i'm so in love with victorian at {/1:42 PM}

Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Phantom of the Opera

Went for the long awaited musical, The Phantom of the Opera, ytd with Suet. This was indeed a long wait. I bought the tixs last Nov, for a show on 31st March. 5 months of long wait. Nonetheless, it's all worthwhile.

Remember that this was the 1st musical I watched. My dad brought me to it 12 years ago, when I was still in primary. Then we had the best seats, costing $350 per tix, at the National Theatre.

This time, at Esplanade, I paid $97 bucks for seats in circle 3. View wasn't too bad for the price range. But seriously, I think it's the 1st time I'm watching a show which I couldn't see the actors' facial expressions clearly cos we were too far from the stage. Suet agrees with it. But that's ok. It's the whole experience and atmosphere that matter.

The stage was really magnificent. Better than that 12 years ago. Haha.. Oops.. But I just couldn't help not to compare. Intricate cravings on the mounted pillars at the both sides of the stage. Triple wows to the beautiful set.

Fully mesmerized by the melodious and fantastic voices of the cast. Rounds of applause to that. Bravo!!!

Think I've poisoned by this musical 12 years ago when I first watched it. Haha.. I was such a "Phantom Of the Opera"(POO) freak since then. We have a few sets of the complete musical album at home. From the regular one to the highlights, and limited golden edition. I even have the music score book and the programme. After the last POO musical, I bought the storybook, which was a Penguin reader version. Hee.. I remember there was once during pri school days when I was supposed to meet my frens to do project at the library. After which I had to wait for Dad to pick me up, so I borrowed the POO video. The movie was in black and white version. That was really really long ago.

Then in 2004, out came the movie. Went to watch it with Ris. Then I bought the soundtrack and DVD. Seriously and honestly, my family never buy movie DVDs, let alone original ones. But yes, I bought the original movie DVD once it was out. Madness I guess. Haha..

Ytd, there were so many POO items on sale. If I could, I would have bought every item available on sale. Too bad that everything only on cash payment. I only bought the souvenir programme, a silver necklace of the mask and an enamel keychain. I really wanted to buy the POO bear, but bluah.. I dun have enuf cash with me. Suet said she could lend me, but I din want to borrow. I was also fascinated by the coffee mug. Got a pic of the mask in black on a black mug, but once u pour in hot water, the mask will turn white. So cool.. Yes I know it's cheap thrill cos there is sth like that out in the market, but the biggie about it is that it's POO. Haha...

The programme was the most ex which I've ever bought. $25. Those which I bought ranged from $5-20. Never mind. If I dun buy the programme, then that's not having gonna for the show.

I'm now considering if I should go for the show again. Was thinking of treating my parents to it, with the better seats. But that's gonna be lots of money and my building fund still haven clear. Pls God, rain down money in cash terms, so that I can treat my parents to the show.

Labels: Top class life

OH, i'm so in love with victorian at {/11:19 PM}