April 7, 2011
It may be grammatically incorrect, but this “Its Happened To Be A Closet cafe” located at Emporium in Soi 24 serves up one of the most power punch coffee in town!
When we first came by it a few years ago, we were quite appalled and even irked at the fact that an apostrophe has gone missing and even if it was there, the sentence is just not right. Top that with quite a mouthful of a name for a cafe, and a rather rip-off prices for coffee, it is just bizarre! I have always wondered what the name of the cafe has got to do with coffee.
While I can safely say that we have been coming to this coffee place at least a couple of times per month in the last few years, we have never, all this while, actually ventured INTO the cafe itself, preferring to just sit right outside where the tables and chairs are.
Only recently did we find out that the insides of the cafe is actually quite quirky. Not really strange quirky but cool quirky where it literally looks like a closet in there — hanging clothes, magazines and what nots, with tables and chairs right smack in between those things (They did not allow me to take any pictures, so use your imagination)
I guess I can now see the link of the concept to the name…literally a world of its own.
One of the more distinctive feature which struck me (apart from pricey coffee) is the impeccable service level. The staff are very friendly, always smiling and never fail to amuse Spud and make her smile when we are there! Never mind the closet concept, that to me, is enough to keep me coming back.
April 5, 2011
Just a few months ago, an article on Singapore’s founding father made headlines and caused quite an uproar with the local communities.
Today, I saw a post on Facebook referring to an article on a quote by the Senior Prime Minister. He said this of people in the less developed country: “Because they don’t know what life is, they’re quite happy. They wake up, they brush their teeth, then they’ll farm, and then they’ll sleep. But do you want it that way?”
First it was the gardener. Now the farmer. Who are they going to pick on next?! It sounds to me like it was an extremely baseless assumption to generalise that farmers do not know what life is. With quotes like this, I can’t help but lose all sense of respect for the senior folks that make up the Singapore’s cabinet. Such perspectives can only come from people with small minds.
I’d like to think that he is missing the point. Perhaps, THAT is life. Perhaps, it is just better to be simple and happy than be an evil corporate slave who is just too power hungry to have any compassion for fellow human beings.
I am humbly ashamed by the people who claimed they are running my country.
April 3, 2011
It turned out that I have forgotten about a Hokkien Mee recipe tucked somewhere in one of the folders on a word document, and I have recently stumbled upon it again while I was trying to find something else. For the life of me, I can’t quite remember where I found it to give due credit as it was quite a while ago, but I must say, making Hokkien Mee is really one of the easiest meal I have ever tempted so far.
This was my second attempt at making it for dinner. All in, it took me less than 20 minutes to get it done. Very palatable and definitely a must-have recipe to include in a busy mom’s repertoire.
Count on the recipe being bastardised by yours truly and modified to the way I like it!
Hokkien (Char) Mee
2015-07-14 16:59:35
- 2 packets of yellow egg noodles
- Some bak choys or spinach
- A handful of bbeansprouts
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 300 grams of beef or chicken , sliced
- 3 tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
- 2 pieces of chilli padi (bird’s eye chilli)
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 2 tspn brown sugar
- 1 and half cube non-msg chicken stock cubes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 1 tbsp dried Italian basil
- Marinate (boiled) beef or chicken in soy sauce and half a (pounded) garlic set aside
- Pound the remaining garlic together with ginger and chilli padi and set aside
- Heat up oil, and when hot enough, fry the pounded ingredients till it turns slightly brown
- Add in the meat and stir for a minute of two
- Add in the sauces, stock cubes and the vegetables
- Add about 2-3 cups of water
- After about 5 minutes, add in the noodles, the rest of the seasonings and mix them altogether
- Simmer for a minute or two before serving
- If leave in for a bit longer, the noodles will absorb all the liquid (I don’t really mind it)
- If using beef, I will usually boil the beef first for about 20 minutes to tenderise it and set aside.
- The original version of the recipe just uses garlic and no ginger, bird’s eye chilli and dried basil. The method is just to press the garlic and saute it in a hot wok, skipping Method #1 & #2 altogether
Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/
Enjoy and have fun trying!
