Look what having a bun in the oven has done to me – I’ve gone a-baking.

Somehow, I took a liking to apple pie/tart/crumble paired with vanilla ice cream. And to think I’ve never liked it.

I even ordered it as in-room dining supper on Nday!

Inspired by my colleague’s demo of how easy (kinda) it is to bake apple crumble I thought of giving it a try, using this recipe.

Paired with Movenpick vanilla (the smallest tub available), it wasn’t too bad!

Well, there’s still that bag of flour leftover…what else to try? Banana pancake maybe?

We had a really good chillax time in Bali with friends. There was nothing much on our agenda, other than food. We kinda planned our day around food and chilling (or trying 101 ways of jumping into the pool) by the pool in the villa.

By night, we sat and chatted by the pool and looked at stars. Beautiful. We even spotted shooting stars! (Yes, by last count, I wished for 3 Birkins!Hahah).

It felt as if we were back in the good old days of “chalet-ing” with friends…It’s our first trip with friends in a long while and we are really thankful for eye_deas and bw and their partners for accommodating us and a toddler who could get abit cranky at times. Really appreciated them entertaining Nat.

And I loved that I had some time out to read! There was no Internet connection, or rather, we didn’t pay for it. And so, we just did what we do before Internet came along – watch movies, play ipad games, chill by the pool with music and drinks etc etc.

And yes, my appetite really did get back in time! It started from a pre-flight meal of pizza hut, then a $10 chicken sandwich on board Jetstar…And went on to…

:: On our night of arrival, the rest decided to head out in search for supper and found a gem of a place – Teh tarik and prata shop (murtabak!) located near our villa. It was so good, we went back again and again, packed back to villa every day for supper and tea.

:: We chilled at Cafe Wayan after Ibu Oka Babi Guling. And we chilled for a good 2 hours, with drinks and dessert. “This is life”, I proclaimed!

:: Metis (the foie gras!) was absolutely yummilicious and worth every IDR we spent. It was our first dinner and it was a high benchmark to match. In fact, we were joking about booking the next cheap flight out, just to eat the foie gras!;)

:: Though we had breakfast in-villa, we opted to venture out for food. Kopi-Pot was a great discovery, introduced by our friendly driver (highly recommended!). I am still thinking of the banana pancakes! *slurp* Our next breakfast haunt – Klapa – was great in terms of view, but low in terms of food (by the last day, we had many many good food liao!)

:: We came to a conclusion that places with good view doesn’t necessarily equate good food. La Lucciola was one such place. But then again, we were benchmarking against Metis. But hey, Nat enjoyed his fish&chips, & that’s all that matters to me!

:; Before our night flight, we managed to head down to Seminyak for dinner at Ultimo. It was a good choice! The food was great and certainly very value-for-money. Definitely a good foodie note to end the trip.

And with this, I shall let the photos tell the story…

I love one-pot dish. And for some reason, I didn’t realise I was a fan of fishhead claypot, till greentea mum made it and I realised I do like it, in fact.

Only homemade ones though. Hah.

I bought some frozen red snapper fillets, so I tried making it yesterday,with some slight variations using this recipe. Namely, sans claypot. Hah.

Instead of Chinese mushrooms, I used enoki mushrooms. I didn’t put in any tofu, and I added pumpkin and cauliflower. I also used chicken stock.

It tasted yummy, if I may say so myself. Of course not the same standard as what greentea mum made.

.

Unfortunately, Nat didn’t quite like it. So, I supposed it’s a failed dish…

Today for lunch, I made alphabet pasta to go with the leftovers and it was a hit with him!

We started the long weekend with a walk at the Woodlands waterfront with tehfamily.

Mummy and son were well equipped for the hot weather. Still, it was too much for us all.

What’s there to see? In tehpeng’s words : Johor. Haha.

We then headed off to greentea’s place for the manyue lunch, in celebration of our 表niece.It was a feast, tablefull of all our favourite foods. Seriously, greentea mum will always cook our favourites.

Greentea’s place is also known to us as yakult haven. The fridge is always surely stocked with them. I let Nat have one whole bottle to himself.

A good way to start the long weekend, with family and food.

Preamble::  Im still a pyscho-mummy in the sense I kinda still restrict Nat’s diet – homecooked and less salt (minimal) and nothing fried if possible. And no sweets as yet. Fruits is the choice of the day. Macdonald’s Happy Meal? Not for him. I just want to provide him with nutritious food at this age and I believe he will eventually start on junk food anyway. He’s still a darling in the sense he is still compliant to mummy food-rules. If we do go out to eat, I try to order nat-friendly food (no seafood, non-fried etc etc) so he can pick from my plate. Again, I try to feed him his proper meal before heading out so whatever he takes in are small portion. Yes, I’ve already said I’m psycho this way.

Yesterday, after a morning of work, I felt like brunch-ing and after a quick call to Dada, we decided to head out to PS Cafe Palais.

I’m happy with my PS Breakfast Stack

while Nat was happier that the plate of truffle fries was placed in front of him. He kept going at them.

With a small round table and having ordered a main each and having to choose the fries or the hot chicken soup with alphabets (sounds totally suitable for Nat!) to be placed nearer to Nat, it was a tough decision. At which point did we stop him? Well, I swopped the plate with the soup (when it was colder) and he was just as happy having the soup (mummy has to feed him of course) and telling me which alphabet pasta he wants. Yes, he did protest mildly but was quickly placated if he has a fry in hand.

I like the place. The food is not bad  and it’s a good way to kickstart the weekend.

Happy siigh. Now I feel like having afternoon tea!

Nat loves fish and fishballs. And this is one thing he always asks from my mum – po po, fish ball.

Which my mum will try to oblige. And no factory-made fishball for her grandson. Actually, my mum has always been a believer of everything and anything non-processed, as far as possible for us.  Since young, I’ve been ’spoilt’ by fishcake made by the fresh 西刀鱼肉 bought from Chinatown. And for this reason, fishballs or fishcake from stalls outside seldom satisfy my tastebud.

And so, I was really happy when tehdad brought us to Ah Koong fishball restaurant when we headed across the straits for a weekend to celebrate tehmum’s birthday. The place touts 西刀鱼肉 fishball made without preservatives.

Well, the fishballs aside, the noodles were yummy too! And the fishcake was so good, we had 3 plates of them!

This will be my must-eat, if we go across again. Tehpeng says it’s rather near and we can zip in for brekkie during the weekend if we want. Without the causeway jam, maybe…

I have to admit. I’ve never flown a kite, nor went kite-flying. So, when I knew that shutterbug was getting really good at it, I had to arrange an outing.

On Good Friday evening, we, together with ms clover, silver_crv & family as well as DCboy & family, convened at Marina Barrage. And it seemed like like half of Singapore had the same idea as us. Not that many open spaces, I guess.

We managed to find a spot for us all and set up shop. I rolled out the mat and all the ladies in the house sat down to enjoy the breeze while the men get to work trying to get the kites flying. Nat and Edgar had a good time with frisbee-throwing while DCboy was kinda content eating his dinner and taking in everything.

When the kite was up, I had to get my hands on it!

So, here’s me flying the kite. Or rather, holding onto the flying kite. Heehee.

Nat took a break from frisbee-tossing to point at the kite….

Soon after, we had to quickly pack up as it was getting dark (late as well as threatening weather). And we all trooped to GardenSlug for a hearty meal and chats.

It was good fun. We should do it again!