Monthly Archives: June 2012

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

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We celebrated my birthday on Monday with Japanese BBQ at Gyu-Kaku. I was considering several other restaurants but decided that what I really wanted was some MEAT!

in our bibs

the strange couple we were dining with

We ordered a Warai set for 2 and a Fuku set for 2. The Warai set comes with kim chi, Korean style cucumber pickles, assorted sausages and bacon, wagyu tongue, wagyu nakaochi, wagyu rump cap, lamb chop, pork belly, prawns and ishiyaki bibimbab.

The Fuku set comes with kim chi, aburi bacon, assorted mushrooms, wagyu fillet steak, wagyu short rib, wagyu rump cap, kurobuta pork collar, duck breast, black cod in miso and ishiyaki mentaiko. Both sets come with a choice of salad and dessert.

The horenso salad is delicious! The spinach leaves in sesame dressing and bacon is definitely not a healthy salad but a very tasty one. The ice-cream and milk pudding with black sugar syrup and powdered soy bean are both very yummy as well.

horenso salad

the Fuku set

sanchu wrap

assorted sausages and bacon

the Warai set

Debs in action

server with our bibimbab

dessert

strange couple fighting over dessert

It was a really good dinner and I satisfied my craving for meat. Our dining companions were a little strange but the food made up for it!

Tawandang Microbrewery

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We had a Father’s Day and birthday dinner at Tawandang Microbrewery on Sunday evening. Good beer, tasty food but pricey!

prawn cakes

cockles

pineapple rice

spicy tom yum soup with coconut milk

some non-spicy soup

grilled squid with spicy garlic seafood sauce

deep fried pork knuckle with spicy sauce

Adam trying to get some rice

Anya watching the live band

sabai sabai…

us

Tawandang Microbrewery is at Blk 26 Dempsey Rd #01-01.

Carpenter and Cook

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We made our way down to Carpenter and Cook on Sunday morning for some light bites. It’s just a 5-minute drive from our place and it’s such a whimsical little cafe!

I love the retro lights and tiles, the mismatched furniture, the bunting and all the quirky vintage knick-knacks. Carpenter and Cook is also a home store and the furniture and decor items are for sale.

Carpenter & Cook

love the filing cabinet in the corner

cute weighing scales and vintage biscuit tins

cash register

We sat at a table with creaky spin-out chairs near the entrance and had a great view of all the freshly-baked yummy food on the counter.

We tried a few items and they were all pretty decent. I really like the tarts, especially the lemon cream tart. Carpenter and Cook makes a good crust!

iced chocolate

latte and cute sugar container

bacon and mushroom quiche

brioche with bacon and mushroom (we love bacon)

orange-drizzled poppy seed loaf cake and frangipane tart

I saw a familiar face behind the counter while we were there and although we were only in the same school in Primary 1 and 2, I remembered her name! Eunice is one of the three ladies behind Carpenter and Cook.

While it is a bit pricey, I do like some of their items very much and the proximity is a definite bonus. It gets very crowded on weekends though so I’ll probably keep my visits to the weekdays.

think some retro high chairs would look better

sharing the brioche

the 3As looking at each other

love the take-out packaging

tweedle dee (or dum?) and friend

Carpenter and Cook is at 19 Lorong Kilat, #01-06, Singapore 598120. Opening hours: Tue-Fri, 12-10pm; Sat 10am-10pm & Sun 10am-7pm.

Green Living Workshop: How To Detoxify Your Toddler’s Menu

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I attended a Green Living workshop on ‘How to Detoxify Your Toddler’s Menu’ with Sharon on Saturday. I’ve been looking forward to this workshop ever since I attend the one on ‘How to Create a Non-Toxic Home’ back in March. The workshop was held at Bettr Barista Coffee Academy.

a good cuppa to start us off

We started off with some doom and gloom. Delphinia of Four Cow Farm took us through the scary things that we can find in the food we eat every day. She talked about GM food, the use of antibiotics in livestock, hormones, pesticides and other scary things about how our food is grown and raised. Then, we looked at some of the items that we commonly find in our kitchens and the fat, sugar and additives that are found in them.

I was quite shocked to discover that a small pack of low-fat chocolate milk contains about 5 teaspoons of sugar when the recommended daily allowance for a typical toddler is only 3 teaspoons of sugar!

It was all very informative but also highly depressing! Fortunately, Militzia of Our Little Green Dot was there to save the day and give us some hope.

what my kitchen should look like

what my kitchen actually looks like

Del giving us the bad news

Militzia showing us how to prepare healthier meals

Militzia showed us what we should stock up in our kitchens and shared some tricks to make the preparation of healthier meals that much easier. Little steps like portioning out and freezing herbs and vegetables can go a long way.

We looked at some ways to create healthy versions of snacks and meals that toddlers love which are usually laden with sugar and fat. I was particularly interested in this part of the workshop because Anya eats so much junk!

unexpectedly delicious kale chips

some healthier options and wholemeal & almond meal pancakes

the homemade nut butter has 95% nuts, the commercial option has 13%

After listening to Del and Militzia, we were given a chance to make some healthy snacks of our own to take home with us.

We made a pancake mix from wholemeal and almond meal flour and a mango lime fizz drink. I’m thinking of making a few bottles of the latter to leave in my parents’ fridge because my dad’s always buying sweet drinks for Anya!

Sharon preparing her pancake mix

finished products

glad we came!

I’m really glad I attended this workshop and I can’t wait to try out the many tips and recipes that Del and Militzia prepared for us. I would definitely recommend this workshop to any mother hoping to prepare healthier meals!

There will be a repeat of the Green Living workshop on ‘How to Create a Non-Toxic Home’ this Thursday so check out their Facebook page for more information.

Building a Loving SG

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We didn’t manage to get tickets for the 47th National Day Celebrations this year. But we’ll be represented by LEGO versions of ourselves on a Marina Bay Floating Platform replica made from 200,000 LEGO bricks and LEGO figures!

With a minimum donation of $5, you get to customise a pair of LEGO figures. One will be placed on the seating gallery of the Building a Loving SG structure, while the other is a keepsake. All proceeds will go to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

making her donation

I brought Anya to JCube on Friday evening to create our LEGO family. She chose all the heads and the outfits for the figures. If you look at our LEGO family, you’ll see that she picked the same face for herself and her Daddy which is very fitting since they look so alike! She also chose a cap for her brother instead of hair because he’s clearly lacking in that particular department.

choosing the various bits and pieces

assembly required

our LEGO family

I wanted to put our LEGO family in the front row of the seating gallery so that they’d be easier to spot but she had other plans and insisted on placing them in the middle of nowhere. She actually wanted to put our keepsake set of LEGO figures on the stands as well so I quickly sneaked them into my bag when she wasn’t looking.

putting the figures on the stands

looking rather pleased with herself

come join us!

The Building a Loving SG roadshows are being held at Funan DigitaLife Mall, Tampines Mall, Bugis Junction and JCube until 9pm today (24 June). We won’t be attending the National Day Parade in the flesh but we will be there in spirit!

Island Adventures at the National Museum of Singapore

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We embarked on Island Adventures at the National Museum of Singapore on Wednesday and it was so much fun! This is part of Children’s Season 2012 and is on till 22 July.

at the museum

We started at the last stop first because it’s impossible for Anya to walk by a colouring station without sitting down and taking part. She picked a picture of the National Museum to colour and then spent some time sticking magnetic pictures of historical buildings onto the wall.

While she was doing that, I stood around and read about some of the featured buildings that are no longer around, such as Van Kleef Aquarium, National Theatre and the old National Library building. It’s sad that Anya won’t be able to go to the same library that I went to as a kid!

colouring historical buildings

Then it was Ahoy! All Aboard! as we went onto a ship to learn about the travellers that visited Singapore in the 19th Century, the things they brought along with them and the obstacles they had to overcome to get to Singapore.

This section was quite interactive: children could spin threads, turn a turbine to generate electricity, try spelling out words on a telegraph, play with gears and excavate coal and precious stones.

There was a small room with a map to show where the travellers came from and how they sailed to Singapore and then some peep holes to see the challenges that were faced by the travellers.

checking out some colourful dyes

learning about spinning

looking for coal and precious stones

trying to find me some diamonds

looking at a ship on fire

getting hold of a sailing vessel

After disembarking, we arrived at the Port City to experience life in the early days of Singapore’s growth and development.

Anya tried building a little kampong house, caught a lot of fish as a fisherman, mended shoes as a cobbler, cooked noodles as a roadside hawker, carried things up and down the ship as a coolie and wrote some gibberish as a letter writer. Then she did everything again. And again. She could have stayed in there forever!

what’s in box number one?

building a kampong house

catching enough fish for the whole kampong

mending broken shoes

cooking noodles

coolie unloading a ship

writing letters

Anya had a great time and she’s asked me to bring her again and I just might since there’s still about a month to go before it ends!

Entrance to Island Adventures is $5 but there’s free admission today and tomorrow (23 & 24 June) and on 21 & 22 July. There will also be roving acts with mysterious characters to meet, craft activities and storytelling sessions on these days.