finally met up with carol and arch after they're back in town for some time. we went for dinner at timbre since none of us has eaten there before. apart from the itchy price to pay for the alfresco ambience, the food was GREAT i'd go back again to try the other dishes! we stayed long enough to enjoy after-dinner margaritas and girl talk, but not long enough to see the live band in action as most of us are reminded of the dreadful reality of work the next day :(

a bunch of self-absorbed people.

i shall attempt to be a food critic for a day. it's hard to find somewhere nice to eat at these days; it's always the usual fish&co, sakae yada yada which gets boring after a while. either that or the restaurants are above what a poor intern like me can afford :\ last week, i managed to try out the relatively new crystal jade hong kong cafe located at one of the alleys opp parco and the inaccessible but much raved about pasta de waraku at central.

hungrygowhere.com gave this restaurant very bad ratings which i only found out after i ate there. i was there with serene last thurs. it was rather empty when we went around dinner time at almost 7pm. the eatery offers set dinner menus which are quite value for money. the set we ordered came with a side of crispy fried chicken or golden tofu cubes, noodles with egg and pork chop or some other similar noodle dish and choice of papaya milkshake or avocado milkshake for the drink. the tofu cubes were yummy; lightly fried diced tofu topped with seasoning akin to that of the shilin chicken. ser liked the fried radish bits that came with it. the other side dish - chicken wing deep fried in a thick breaded batter was very crispy but had a rather unique taste of spices. reviewers on hungrygowhere.com complained about the noodles being like maggie mee which i won't deny but i thought that was the authentic hk cafe style. maybe the lack of food choice at my work area has numbed my taste buds (lol!) but i was rather contented with the simple fare of sunny side up, luncheon meat and fried pork ribs. i don't know what to say abt the avocado milkshake since i have no basis for comparison. i thought it tasted somewhat like a healthier and blander version of the old school pontong ice cream. serene's papaya milkshake turned out more like papaya juice. the crowd started coming in at around 7 plus but the place was still comfortable enough to hold a conversation. i wouldn't mind going back again; i think it'll be a pretty nice place to sit and talk on weekday afternoons when it's not packed with people. with that said, i'll give crystal jade hong kong cafe 3 out of 5 stars.


now for the next food review. after hearing much raves about waraku pasta, fionne and i decided to give it a try. we opted for the set menu which comes with a choice of pasta in mini version, default mini prawn gratin, corn soup and salad. i liked the corn soup which was really rich in flavour. the salad was good too. dressed in a vinegar and soy sauce concoction (i think), it was a healthy yet delectable appetiser. my carbonara waraku style pasta came looking real savoury with a runny egg yolk in the middle; fionne's potato and bacon carbonara looked delicious too, except for the few unexpected asaparagus stalks. although the cream base was thick, both of us found the flavour a lil bland so we ended up sprinkling a considerable amount of parmesan cheese. on the contrary, the prawn gratin turned out really creamy, with a tinge of sweetness, which i liked. the prawns tasted fresh too. even though the set dinner may seem like a lot initially, the portions turned out just right for me and the variety was much appreciated. i thought the service there could be further improved on though. we were given a small table for 2 and considering the slow eaters we were, the table was barely big enough for all the dishes (their service was fast!) we requested for a switch to a bigger table and the waitress gave us a black face. i do understand the space constraint during dinner time but i'd have expected a better attitude from her. ohwells waitressing is not an easy job so i shan't complain. i'll rate waraku pasta 3.5 out of 5; they should consider opening another outlet at somewhere more accessible like bugis or orchard.

okay i think i don't make the cut to be a food critic but who cares?

i spent the past few days fussing over my laptop; the os was down with some unfathomable disease which disabled most of the functions. just a warning to avg users out there, please think twice about downloading the newest v8.0! i figured that could be one of the reasons my laptop screwed up because that was the only thing i remember downloading before the com became cranky and ping also encountered the same problem as me. otherwise, it could be the incompatibility of the upgraded ram hard drive which i tried to install unsuccessfully, or a coincidental trigger of some virus long hidden in the system? anyway after much hassle, the laptop's reformatted and working fine now.

i think i've grown to become rather lazy to update on a regular basis. i remember i wanted to stop blogging about frivolous everyday stuff some time ago but i've gone back to doing it again unknowingly. i guess this is probably a good way to express myself, while at the same time, update people whom i don't meet up or talk to often about what i've been up to lately.

last week marked the 10th week of internship for me; the 2 interns who started with me ended their stints while i'm still stuck with 6 more weeks to go :\ work has definitely gotten better over the weeks, though it can get much better but i shant complain.

last week was also one of the busier weeks for me. with what, i can hardly remember. i think my memory seems to be failing me gradually; i can barely remember the things i did some time ago without some deliberate recollection. so just a rough sum up of the more exciting things happening at work:


yay it's sports thursday tmr!