A big Thank you

Among the mundane life in the office, what really makes your day is your fellow colleagues around you. And for today, I want to say a big thank you to him for treating us to a Sakura International Buffet. Yes, thank you once again, your kindness will always be remembered.
.
Lunch for today was settled at SAKURA International Buffet Restaurant at the Admiralty Park Branch. A pity that I did not bring my camera along, so there are no pictures to show for this entry. *oops* To give a rough review of the food in this restaurant buffet, I will be breaking down the entry into a few sections below:
.
Japanese Sushi Section
The sushi served are those cheap and average kind that you can get for $0.50 a piece on the market, so there is nothing great about them. For their raw fish section, I only tried their salmon and cheese oyster. For the salmon, the chef is either unskilled or it is not his day today. The salmon slices are so fat such that they are almost 5mm in thickness! In addition, the salmon slices are unevenly cut and I certainty don't enjoy myself eating them. For their cheese oyster, they attempted a weird combination of cheese with tomato pasta sauce. The oyster are neither soft nor freshly baked. After just trying 1 piece, I practically left this whole section alone for the rest of the meal.
.
Grill Section
All is not lost for this Sakura restaurant yet. I tried 2 dishes in this section, namely the grilled squid and the grilled unagi. The unagi seems to be the choice of everyone here as it always have quite a queue on the stand and the eaters are right. Freshly grilled, the unagi is soft and flavourful, and it keeps you highly addicted to the dish till you finish the whole slice of unagi up. However, I would not say the same of the grilled squid. It is still quite raw as the squid feels soft and rubbery when eaten. I certainly do not enjoyed myself eating a piece of rubber.
.
Pizza Section
Japanese with American pizzas? No....Give this section a skip!
.
Hot Plate Section
This is the first time that I have seen them setting up a hotplate section, so I decided to give the chicken teriyaki a try. Mixed with seasoning, onions and mushroom, this dish is not too good, but not too bad either. The chicken pieces after leaving them to sizzle on the hotplate came out quite tough, but they are still acceptable when eaten with all the side ingredients on the dish.
.
Chinese dimsum Section
Give this section a skip, they do not know how a proper siew mai should be made.
.
Dessert Section

This section is probably the saviour of the whole place. Their ice cream are simply fantastic! Try the coffee, orange, chocolate and mango flavor, you will simply love it. They have also set up a mochi mini section. The red bean flavor is not bad, but you can give the green tea and black sesame flavor a skip.

.

Overall, quite a good time spent there chatting over a meal.

Seah Street Deli for Serene 22

A little sense of Deja Vu as I entered this beautifully decorated restaurant. Have I came here before? Nevertheless, the little gathering on Sunday was meant to be a early surprise for Serene as she is turning 22. I have notice that people has changed, for BC, he has grown hair on his once clean shaven head and he looked more fierce than before, while for me, I think I need to get a hair cut real soon.
.
Seah Street Deli is an American western restaurant trying to portray the American culture where all the food served are typically twice the serving of what you usually get locally. With a nice decoration, and soothing music coming out of the jukebox in one corner, you can get yourself settle in pretty fast.

Texas Burger
.

Unable to resist the temptation of a 250g beef patty doubled up with BBQ Smoked Bacon, I decided to go ahead and give this burger from "Texas" a try. The serving came with a generous (and I mean generous, they think that the potatoes are free) serving of fries. The size of the burger initially gives me a shock as it is easily about 15cm tall in height and about 150% of the diameter compared to McDonald's Big Mac burger!

.

Overall, the burger was pretty average. Their sauces and side ingredients did manage to whip up a good taste and eating sensation for the burger, but, I find that the main focus of the dish (250g beef patty) was a letdown. The patty cooked was a bit too dry and this caused me not to fully enjoy eating my whole burger. If you tell me is it worth the price to pay for the burger, my answer would be a straight No. Nevertheless, this restaurant did managed to provide a good ambiance and atmosphere for a group to gather and catch up over a meal.

.

It really feels good to see everyone of you again after such a long time.

Paris 36

Synopsis: In the spring of 1936, Paris is in a state of uncertainty while the rise of the Third Reich in Germany worries many. A leftist union-oriented candidate, Leon Blum, has been voted into power and organised labour is feeling its new power by standing up to the management. While such matters normally seem unimportant to Germain Pigoil, who runs a small vaudeville house in the Faubourg district, the chaos of the city seems to be impacting his life and his work - his wife, Viviane has run off with her lover, she demands custody of their son, Jojo, and unscrupulous local entrepreneur Galapiat threatens to put Germain's theater out of business. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

.

If you have love watching Moulin Rouge, then you will most probably fall in love with this Paris 36. The movie opens the viewers to the world of the french culture and I am indeed surprised that the French can have such nice songs. Based on the hard times in Paris 1936, the movie has given each individual actors ample time to develop their character on screen, be it with romance, each own beliefs and thoughts, or their desire and determination to bring their theatre back to its glamorous past; these wonderful cast have truly delivered. Wonderful musical, coupled with good direction totally blows me away. A five star recommendation, so just sit back, relax and enjoy the french musical.

.

Rate: 5/5

The Ugly Truth

Synopsis: A romantically-challenged morning show producer (Katherine Heigl) is embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent to prove his theories on relationships and help her find love. His clever ploys, however, lead to an unexpected result. Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

.

Sometimes, truth are indeed ugly. A great film for all couples and single, as the film makes them re-think again what make the opposite sex ticks. You may agree or disagree with some of the points the movie presented, but overall, you cannot deny that you will walk out the cinema with an increase in knowledge about the other sex. A great direction by the film makers to present the points in such a comical and light-hearted way. So...what exactly makes you love the other one? =)

.

Rate: 4/5

A Price to Pay

Everything in this world has a price to pay, and it seems like a cheap deal is really "cheap" for a reason. As my other colleague is not around today to lunch with me, and with me getting sick of all the hawker food around my workplace, I decided to head in and try the much advertised Pizza Hut new pasta additions. After looking around the menu on offer for their $6.90 set lunch, I finally decided on the Chicken Neapolitan as it has the most unique combinations (Spaghetti with roasted chicken and button mushrooms in tangy Neapolitan sauce) as compared with the other three available.

.

As I comfortably set down to flip my newspaper, my soup of the day (chicken cream soup) and drink were quickly served. In my opinion, the chicken cream soup was just average, tasting like the kind where you can get from the Campbell can soup, with the exception that they add in fresh chicken meat chunks. After quickly finishing the soup, while waiting eagerly for the arrival of my pasta, little did I know that the staffs has something up their sleeves. They have decided to keep me waiting and starving for another 45 horrible minutes, without even bothering to tell me why is my order taking so long!!! This is totally unacceptable, when in fact, the whole restaurant is less than half full at any point in time. Worse of all, customers who were after me got their orders first, and this totally wipe off any impression I had of this Pizza Hut Woodland branch.

.

Coming to my order of the Chicken Neapolitan, I admit that it does have its unique favour and style. Unlike those conventional tomato paste, the chef has decided to add in a bit of honey to bring in a little sweetness to tingle with your taste buds. The mushroom served are fresh and chewy, while their chicken shreds gives off a strong roasted taste. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the meal and of course the price. But if not for their below-par service, I would have give this a high recommendation. Seriously, keeping me waiting without any explanation for 45 minutes is totally unacceptable!

Appreciation Dinner @ Swensen

This appreciation dinner for the committee members really came as a total surprise. For their hard work throughout the year, we were treated to a dinner at Swensen. Breaking new ground, this was a first, according to the old bird in the company, and I hope that this tradition will still continue even after the change of command on october 20. =p

.

As we get to choose our own main course, I decided on the Beef Stroganoff Baked Rice for 3 reasons below:

1. I am sick and tired of the popular Fish and Chips from Swensen.
2. From my experience, the steaks they offer are small in portion and not filling, plus they are not that good tasting anyway.
3. The Beef Stroganoff are the latest addition on their menu and from the pictures, they look appealing. =p (ok, this sounds that I am forced to choose this as I am left with no other choice)

Well, to be truthful, the beef itself are good. They have almost everything you wish for: soft and tender, juicy, and with each chew, there is a faint stint of BBQ taste. The let down for this dish, in my opinion, lies in their baked rice. The cheese they put was plentiful, and I have no issue with that, but serving just plain white rice under the cheese, I think they could do better. The least they could do is to put some seasoning to the rice to make them smoother, and one suggestion from me could be black pepper (idea copied from NYDC). =)

Filling not very satisfied, and since there is still cash to spare in the budget, the organizer decided to order the Swensen Earthquake to share for each table. This must be the best invention by Swensen thus far and I simply love their earthquake. Be it fulfilling to your taste bud (ice-cream) or visual (seeing the dry ice flowing out of the container like a volcano erupting), they have it all. With the excellent blending of their caramel and sticky chocolate syrup, together with the nice, tasty and smooth ice-cream, eating it can really send your emotion sky high!

This is what you get the moment the Earthquake is laid onto the table~ =p

The Time Traveller's Wife

Synopsis: Based on Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling novel "The Time Traveler's Wife", it tells the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana), a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams), an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

.

How would you feel if you can see the future: how well you will be doing, what are the Toto winning numbers, who is the lucky girl that will be the One in your life, or even... how you are going to die? It can be really scary, waiting for something to happen that you know you can't avoid or do anything to stop it. This is really a sad romantic film that tells the story of Henry, who is suffering from some gene defects that allows him to travel through different time, witnessing events that will be significant in his life. Though it can be quite funny at times, for example the girl marrying a future Henry that is some 10 years older because the present Henry has gone "time travelling", but knowing and witnessing your death, and waiting for that time to arrive, can be quite devastating. A good film with a great plot that explore the character development to the fullest.

.

Rate: 4/5

MDS First (and last) Inaugural D & D 2009

This is so ironical. We are here supposing to celebrate my company very first D&D, thanking all the employees for their whole year of hard work, but at the back of my mind, I could not help but think that this is going to be our very first, and at the same time our very last D&D. Come October 20, when the acquisition has been given the green light by the shareholders, MDS AT will officially go into history (uncertainty for me again).Thank you for the recreation committee for all their hard work in organizing this event at Shangari-la. It has been a fun filled night, really. The MC was pretty funny and kept the atmosphere lively. The down side would probably be the food. The dishes served were just average, while their fried rice were simply disastrous.

A photo of my "supposedly" table before being whisked away to join the RC table

Ans show casing about 60% of our top management.