- Posts tagged singapore
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Osia in Singapore
This one promised to be different with its use of distinctly Australian ingredients, like acacia tree seeds, bush berries, and quandongs- type of desert peach. Trendy was the word, and Osia's smart setting, gorgeous show kitchen, and hip clientel all reflected its innovative dishes.
I went last night with my roommate, thank god she's also a foodie. Had a cocktail at the bar overlooking the kitchen first while waiting for our table. Lots of action, made for a couple beautiful shots. I ordered a bellini made of lilipili, a type of Australian bush berry. Lovely flavour, subtle, sweet, tart, almost like tiny chinese wax berries.
*please excuse the shitty photos, lighting was craaaap, only had my lumix, and you won't believe the amount of photoshop it took to get them at least presentable.
We started with some flatbread. They have a few kinds, but I love olive. It came with evoo, butter, and get this. eggplant paste in a tube. Rad. It was so good my atkins-loving anti-carb roommate bent and ate half.
Next up was polenta crumbled foie gras, served on daikon, with fruit chutney and mirin soy glaze. Its foie gras. There's no finding fault with this dish.
We got some sides, truffle seaweed salt fries and creamed spinach. They were fine.
Highlight for me was my main. Tasmanian milk fed lamb short loin and shank. Apricot jam, puffed (crunchy) wild rice, butternut hazlenut puree, and garlic jus. Cooked perfectly, the lamb wasn't overwhelmed by the other elements, rather complemented. Done two ways, I appreciated the added variety. I usually find vegetables and seafood preparation more interesting than meat, but this was one dish that was stimulating to eat throughout. You could really taste the quality of milk fed lamb.
Another signature main at the restaurant is the Black Angus beef tenderloin. this was paired with mushroom and bacon, a wonderful blueberry risotto and bone marrow sauce. Again, quality of ingredients really shone through. Can't go wrong with black angus.
For dessert we had the Valrhona hot chocolate soup, which came highly recommended. as well as the macademia tart.
The soup was good, but was not unlike any molten chocolate lava cake I've had, except with less cake and more lava. No denying it is heavenly though. Macademia tart was the only dissapointment, flavourless and dry, could have done without.
3 course dinner for 2 with a glass of wine each was about 300 SGD.
On the expensive side, so I'd recommend going for lunch, when set menus start at only 28 SGD for two courses.
Osia 02-140/141 Crockfords Tower (FestiveWalk), 8 Sentosa Gateway, tel +65 6577 8899
Kinki in Singapore: fusion japanese w/ new age twist
hip japanese fusion with a stunning rooftop view of the marina. pricey but fresh and creative. exploding flavours- esp in deceptively simple garlic fried rice.
70 Collyer Quay #02-02 Customs House, Singapore http://www.kinki.com.sg/
1. Chris Garver (Miami Ink) created wall mural
2. Sake
3. Prawn and spicy tuna maki
4. Garlic fried rice
5. Pomegranate miso black cod
6. Unagi and hokkaido scallop maki
you me and the bourgeoisie
Stop the press. I chewed gum in Singapore. Whoops, totally forgot where I was, so don't tell on me please. After four days on the island I'm convinced Singapore is the ideal society. I mean, the city is aesthetically perfect. Even chinatown smells good. For a city known for its urban sprawl it has an astounding array of nature reserves and parks all manicured to a tee. They've thought of everything, no joke. There is a massive food court in every mall. There is a giant mall to your immediate left, and right. Its like you don't go shopping, shopping comes to you. The outdoor parks have free outdoor elliptical machines. What? There is no traffic on roads because pedestrians cross on over and underpasses. You can't even delay train traffic if you wanted to jump on the tracks. They've encased the platform in a glass cage. There are no homeless people, unless they're hiding in a tree shrub on me, cus I've been looking. It's also the only country I've been in outside of Canada where such a diverse group of inhabitants live in evident respect and harmony. Perhaps I've only brushed the surface and there exist many layered complexities, as with any country. But I.am.impressed. especially after just arriving from the polar opposite nation in wealth, standard of living, and human rights. On the topic of societal juxtaposition. My mind has been on overload the last while, looking back in retrospect on my time in Nepal. Several people have asked me for a takeaway, and truthfully I was looking for some peace and familiarity in surrounding to be able to place my perspective again. I wrote the first couple of days at Chetana Children's Center that I felt almost a guilt, a self-serving fulfillment, in being there. At night on my hard wooden crate, I dreamed of my warm bed in Canada, the laptop with wi-fi I craved. It was all mine. A few months and a cross-continental flight away. But I was sobered by the transient nature of the kids' experiences with volunteers. We come and go, but what are we REALLY doing for these kids? Are we really helping them or are we just buying goodwill with a two thousand dollar plane ticket? I suspected the latter, I wanted to 'make a difference', but it was the feeling of self-righteousness that I sought in the reflection of the apathetic western world. Some of you wrote that its better that some good is done than no good done at all, and I'd have to agree. But at the end of my stay, just as I suspected, I learned more from the kids than they ever learned from me. I looked at them and knew that some would never see the world beyond the peaks of the Himalayas. They will be happy within the safety of what they know, but will never brave to leap beyond the progress of their nation. Change only happens with perspective and this doesn't doesn't come easy. My aim at the begining of this journey was to gain perspective, a vague goal, but one that left retrospective clarity open to interpretation. Nepal is a country strife with political and socio-economic problems that locals don't think will dissipate overnight. With a hierarchical caste-system and failing government, promise of reform is a change noone can belive in. I compare the lack of basic rights to life in Canada, where everyone regardless of creed or status in life has access to free education and indirectly, an opportunity at advancement. CCC, as it turns out, is not an orphanage in the strictest sense of the word. Ramji, Sabina's late husband wanted to create a center of opportunity for promising children. A secondary school principal himself, he was moved by the sight of a child labouring in a restaurant one night. He handpicked each of the current six children based on aptitude and poverty. I did notice on the first day how smart they all were. I worry that Sabina will close the center, as she has often thought about after her husband's death. There are too many expenses and not enough money. I worry that the kids will have to forego university after they graduate CCC because their families can't afford it. I told them that I will do everything I can to be an enabler when the time comes. I realize that my comforts and familiarities are not rights, but gifts. That somehow, against the odds, I made it out of the millions to land in the lap of luxury while members of my own family live in poverty in rural China. What does this mean to me? Among many things, that opening one's eyes to the world through travel is not only a privilege but a duty. To live in blissful ignorance and sheltered comfort is sacreligious when there are those who can't afford to dream up a plane ticket, even if they get passed the first barrier of fantasizing basic human rights. Travelling makes you realize how interconnected everything is. Nation to nation, nation to human, human to environment. I know most eyes are on the Gaza strip right now. As the Palestinian death toll tops 1000, you think of what tears apart this connection in our social fabric. Its fragility shows in racial tensions, blame games, bloodshed and impasse. Does Marius Grinius deserve criticism for our lone vote on the UN Human Rights council? Was it a decision of "sound judgement"? Based on the wording of the motion's language, maybe. Was it an act of "integrity"? It's harder to say. A ride-or-die friend emailed me two days ago with an epiphanous view of the business world today. First day of business school
Prof: what does the number 50 billion mean to you now in this terrifying state that the world economy is in? You all read the news, what was 50 billion?
Me: err the worst ever opening guess on the Price is Right?
Prof: No, this is very serious given current economic blah blah blah don't make light of it blah blah Madoff scandal blahhhhhI also managed to infuriate Sarah when I suggested it was mildly hilarious that Bank of America can fire 35 000 people, that's a fucking municipality of people, a village. She didn't see eye to eye with me...mostly because she is short I guess. All in all, a lot of comparatively rich people lost money, not a real tragedy, it's not like everyone in Africa suddenly died from fucking Spanish Flu. That would be a tragedy, and semi-ironic. The only downside is it's hitting ppl below poverty lines in developing nations now. Epiphany? I think so...cash moneys just ain't that important in the grand scheme of things. It's a poisonous mind set that business school implants.
That's some true mind-reading, NPC, ride-or-die, no-holds-barred insight right there. Mad props.Anyway, this talk about our ignorance of the social fabric's fragility holds special interest to me in the context of art. I, along with the rest of the art world, have been obsessing over Chinese contemporary artists for a long time now. They have sprouted up post-repression style and blossomed to international acclaim. The beauty of these artists lies in that their subject matter is so fresh from recent liberation and social conscience weaves heavily throughout the canvas. One in particular that I've noticed is Deng Cheng Wen and his Blind Walking series, as seen below.
His work highlights ideas critical to understanding modern China. That urbanization and westernization is leading traditional culture down the path of destruction, and that the young generation is oblivious to the adverse effects of these detrimental changes. These pieces illustrate the paradoxical nature of China's socio-environment. The country maintains that progress is only possible if there is stability, and stability is achieved when there is limited dissent. However the collective mentality of people moving in the same direction can be negative and multiplies the effect of obliviousness the individual has to his surroundings, leading to the age-old idiom , "the blind leading the blind". The great thinkers of our time have said that our narrow vision can only be restored by removing our socio-cultural blinders, and it is up to this generation to do so. See more of his work here:
http://www.hongart.net/?option=art&collectionid=27
Prof: what does the number 50 billion mean to you now in this terrifying state that the world economy is in? You all read the news, what was 50 billion?
Me: err the worst ever opening guess on the Price is Right?
Prof: No, this is very serious given current economic blah blah blah don't make light of it blah blah Madoff scandal blahhhhhI also managed to infuriate Sarah when I suggested it was mildly hilarious that Bank of America can fire 35 000 people, that's a fucking municipality of people, a village. She didn't see eye to eye with me...mostly because she is short I guess. All in all, a lot of comparatively rich people lost money, not a real tragedy, it's not like everyone in Africa suddenly died from fucking Spanish Flu. That would be a tragedy, and semi-ironic. The only downside is it's hitting ppl below poverty lines in developing nations now. Epiphany? I think so...cash moneys just ain't that important in the grand scheme of things. It's a poisonous mind set that business school implants.
That's some true mind-reading, NPC, ride-or-die, no-holds-barred insight right there. Mad props.Anyway, this talk about our ignorance of the social fabric's fragility holds special interest to me in the context of art. I, along with the rest of the art world, have been obsessing over Chinese contemporary artists for a long time now. They have sprouted up post-repression style and blossomed to international acclaim. The beauty of these artists lies in that their subject matter is so fresh from recent liberation and social conscience weaves heavily throughout the canvas. One in particular that I've noticed is Deng Cheng Wen and his Blind Walking series, as seen below.
http://www.hongart.net/?option=art&collectionid=27
fresh laundry et al
I'm not exactly the poster child for stringent personal hygiene, being known to rely on antibacterial Fabreeze to air out my sheets in college because I a) was too lazy to walk down three flights of stairs to the coin slot washing machines and b) could think of a better use for three dollars. But even I found my lack of hygiene over the last month if not disturbing, slightly err disconcerting. I brought some ratty clothes knowing I was going to be bumming around, and they saw some heavy rotations. And just because I know you, dear reader, seek juicy uncensored front-line detail, the orphanage had no hot water and I did not take a shower proper for two weeks save for select body parts that I braved the cold water for periodically. You laugh now in appalled admiration but honest to god that's the Nepali way! I couldn't chince out if I wanted to live like a local now could I. Surprisingly when I left the city and went trekking in remote mountain villages, every guest house had solar operated hot showers. Soap and shampoo were my gods and I showered religiously. I learned never to take hot water for granted again. I am now in Singapore! Touched down last night and spent some quality time with the famalam. Its been six months since I last saw them and you could say that distance makes the heart grow fonder. I think they'd sufficiently forgotten all my flaws in the meantime and for now I'm like the prodigal son who's come home. I LOVE BEING AT HOME. I havn't felt so relaxed in god knows how long. Being alone for so long now, I'm always looking over my shoulder, but at home its like someone's always got your back. My mom offered to do my laundry. HUMANA HUMANA. And I got a mindboggling variety of home cooked food for dinner. Actually, I just raided their fridge and took a bite of everything as per my rat nibbler style. Caught in the act of gluttony with my filthy clothes I looked like one of those malnourished kids in a third world infomercial, minus the cuteness. Since I last left you, SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED.
Chitwan was a great spur of moment decision. To think I was almost going to miss it. I took an eight hour bus the morning after my last post and arrived at the bus terminal exhausted from being cramped in a seat pushed so far into the front window I had to hug my legs the entire ride. When we got there, all the tourists got MAULED, I mean STAMPEDED on by taxi drivers pushing their affiliated resort fliers into our faces. I can usually handle high level stress but that was too much. I eventually learned the trick is to say you already booked a hotel, and then they couldn't scatter away faster. I eventually made it to town, and was set on shoestringing by the next two days after having done all my research. But the stress got to me and my legs still ached from the trek, and when a hotel manager presented me with a packaged tour that promised to take care of everything, I decided to screw it all and splurge. It ended up being a great time, and not worrying and planning was a bonus. I went on a canoe ride, a jungle walk, an ELEPHANT SAFARI, watched Tharu culture dancing, and got VIP treatment as one of like two guests at this huge, gorgeous resort since its low season. The only negative thing I can think of the entire trip was my walking guide, who I swear got more and more crazy as the tour went on. It started with him repeatedly asking me questions about the exact date of my supposed impending wedding and what nationality the groom will be. Mind you there's nothing wrong with that, as Nepali, along with many other cultures, are very concerned with marriage. Almost everyone I've met has asked me for my take on marriage in some form. But he engaged in quite obnoxious discussion about the virtues of a male dominated society and Nepal's superiority to the developed world. Repeating each point like a broken record. I started suspecting something may be off when he would ask the same question for the fifth time when my answers were pretty clear, oh and when he started walking funny and talking to himself in Nepali, shaking his head and waving his hands in a way that screamed craaaaazy. I tried to get out of the jungle as fast as possible.The elephant safari was incredible though. Not exactly a comfortable ride, but it was awesome to see so far into the jungle. We saw the endangered rhino, spotted dear, peacocks, and crocodiles, all in the most natural habitat I've ever seen. The national park almost looked untouched by man. The land on all four sides was vast expanses of flat plains. After being holed up in the shadow of the highest mountains in the world, this was quite refreshing. I'm amazed in a country as small as Nepal that the terrain can differ so drastically from alpine to tropical in little more than 150 km distance. Pictures to follow.On friday I returned to Kathmandu, and went to the office of The Last Resort, a company that specializes in bungee jumping and canyoning in Nepal. I was experiencing a serious lapse of sanity, and wanted to pay them 100 Euro to jump off a bridge 200m high and canyon- something I didn't even know the meaning of. The next morning I got up at 5 to be bussed three hours away to a resort close to the Tibet border. The first thing we all had to do was walk across the bridge of death to the resort itself. That is where I realized the severity of the situation. You, want me, to jump off this, into... that. All I could see was mountain, canyon, cliff, jagged rocks, and roaring rivers crashing into them. I also realized how high two hundred meters was. This is no funny business, at the world's third highest bungee jump. I died a little right there. But first was canyoning. There were five of us, three Aussies, an English girl and me. There was a Nepali man at first too, but he proceeded to drop out from cold feet before we got to the first waterfall. Always a good sign. We put on wet suits and climbed up to our first waterfall. I still had no idea what we were doing. Two others had canyoned before, and the other two I think at least knew what abseiling was. But not I. English as a second language people, I didn't get where I am today learning extreme sport vocabulary in school. When I realized that what we were doing was actually WALKING down seven waterfalls at a 90 degree angle to the cliff face, there was no turning back. We were harnessed and basically let ourselves down the waterfall by releasing rope in much the same way as lowering oneself from rock climbing, except you're getting a nice cold shower too. It was slippery and more work than I imagined, especially on the last waterfall that was 45m high. But it was great fun and exercise to boot. The highlight of the day would have to be the bungee jump. Everyone in the world needs to do a bungee jump. It was the single most face ripping brain exploding thing in my life so far. I wisely chose to eat lunch right before the jump, that was a sarcastic statement, but don't worry there is no fertilzation story to be told here. There were only two of us doing the bungee jump and our fellow canyoners patted us on the back and watched from afar in admiration of our blind fearlessness. More like blind stupidity. They closed off the bridge and we waited with an eerie silence in the canyon. But of course every time I snapped out of my delirious state I couldn't ignore the perilous depth below and the rocks that I imagined chopping my flesh and offering it to the eagles. They say sky diving is a million times easier because the sea of clouds looks almost surreal and you have less apprehension about jumping out. But there's no way I could ignore the natural weapons of human destruction all around me. I was so out of it I didn't even notice the guy strapping and harnessing my ankles. They could have led me out on the platform with nothing on and I wouldn't have known any better. They instructed me to propell myself off the platform and do a swimmer's dive head first into the mountain air. I'm like dude I'm afraid of diving into a 10 ft pool. You will not be getting any artistry from me. After two failed attempts to jump, I realized I had no choice. There was no way I could walk off this bridge as that would be against my principles. I am no coward! So I feebly stretched out my arms and. Dropped. I am not going to describe what the next few seconds were like, because there are simply no words. You'll just have to try it and see for yourself. I'll just say that if you are like me and have had the somewhat sadistic and self-deprecating curiosity of what jumping off a 50 storey building is like, you will be quite satisfied. Minus the inconvenient death part. I was so shook it still plays in my mind sometimes. My only regret is my pansy jump. They told me what I did was a bungee fall, and that's quite embarassing. lol if there is a next time, I promise to do a Michael Phelps worthy flip and dive fo sho.Tomorrow I will begin a major catchup series of photos from Nepal, followed by Singapore, which I'm really quite fascinated by.
Chitwan was a great spur of moment decision. To think I was almost going to miss it. I took an eight hour bus the morning after my last post and arrived at the bus terminal exhausted from being cramped in a seat pushed so far into the front window I had to hug my legs the entire ride. When we got there, all the tourists got MAULED, I mean STAMPEDED on by taxi drivers pushing their affiliated resort fliers into our faces. I can usually handle high level stress but that was too much. I eventually learned the trick is to say you already booked a hotel, and then they couldn't scatter away faster. I eventually made it to town, and was set on shoestringing by the next two days after having done all my research. But the stress got to me and my legs still ached from the trek, and when a hotel manager presented me with a packaged tour that promised to take care of everything, I decided to screw it all and splurge. It ended up being a great time, and not worrying and planning was a bonus. I went on a canoe ride, a jungle walk, an ELEPHANT SAFARI, watched Tharu culture dancing, and got VIP treatment as one of like two guests at this huge, gorgeous resort since its low season. The only negative thing I can think of the entire trip was my walking guide, who I swear got more and more crazy as the tour went on. It started with him repeatedly asking me questions about the exact date of my supposed impending wedding and what nationality the groom will be. Mind you there's nothing wrong with that, as Nepali, along with many other cultures, are very concerned with marriage. Almost everyone I've met has asked me for my take on marriage in some form. But he engaged in quite obnoxious discussion about the virtues of a male dominated society and Nepal's superiority to the developed world. Repeating each point like a broken record. I started suspecting something may be off when he would ask the same question for the fifth time when my answers were pretty clear, oh and when he started walking funny and talking to himself in Nepali, shaking his head and waving his hands in a way that screamed craaaaazy. I tried to get out of the jungle as fast as possible.The elephant safari was incredible though. Not exactly a comfortable ride, but it was awesome to see so far into the jungle. We saw the endangered rhino, spotted dear, peacocks, and crocodiles, all in the most natural habitat I've ever seen. The national park almost looked untouched by man. The land on all four sides was vast expanses of flat plains. After being holed up in the shadow of the highest mountains in the world, this was quite refreshing. I'm amazed in a country as small as Nepal that the terrain can differ so drastically from alpine to tropical in little more than 150 km distance. Pictures to follow.On friday I returned to Kathmandu, and went to the office of The Last Resort, a company that specializes in bungee jumping and canyoning in Nepal. I was experiencing a serious lapse of sanity, and wanted to pay them 100 Euro to jump off a bridge 200m high and canyon- something I didn't even know the meaning of. The next morning I got up at 5 to be bussed three hours away to a resort close to the Tibet border. The first thing we all had to do was walk across the bridge of death to the resort itself. That is where I realized the severity of the situation. You, want me, to jump off this, into... that. All I could see was mountain, canyon, cliff, jagged rocks, and roaring rivers crashing into them. I also realized how high two hundred meters was. This is no funny business, at the world's third highest bungee jump. I died a little right there. But first was canyoning. There were five of us, three Aussies, an English girl and me. There was a Nepali man at first too, but he proceeded to drop out from cold feet before we got to the first waterfall. Always a good sign. We put on wet suits and climbed up to our first waterfall. I still had no idea what we were doing. Two others had canyoned before, and the other two I think at least knew what abseiling was. But not I. English as a second language people, I didn't get where I am today learning extreme sport vocabulary in school. When I realized that what we were doing was actually WALKING down seven waterfalls at a 90 degree angle to the cliff face, there was no turning back. We were harnessed and basically let ourselves down the waterfall by releasing rope in much the same way as lowering oneself from rock climbing, except you're getting a nice cold shower too. It was slippery and more work than I imagined, especially on the last waterfall that was 45m high. But it was great fun and exercise to boot. The highlight of the day would have to be the bungee jump. Everyone in the world needs to do a bungee jump. It was the single most face ripping brain exploding thing in my life so far. I wisely chose to eat lunch right before the jump, that was a sarcastic statement, but don't worry there is no fertilzation story to be told here. There were only two of us doing the bungee jump and our fellow canyoners patted us on the back and watched from afar in admiration of our blind fearlessness. More like blind stupidity. They closed off the bridge and we waited with an eerie silence in the canyon. But of course every time I snapped out of my delirious state I couldn't ignore the perilous depth below and the rocks that I imagined chopping my flesh and offering it to the eagles. They say sky diving is a million times easier because the sea of clouds looks almost surreal and you have less apprehension about jumping out. But there's no way I could ignore the natural weapons of human destruction all around me. I was so out of it I didn't even notice the guy strapping and harnessing my ankles. They could have led me out on the platform with nothing on and I wouldn't have known any better. They instructed me to propell myself off the platform and do a swimmer's dive head first into the mountain air. I'm like dude I'm afraid of diving into a 10 ft pool. You will not be getting any artistry from me. After two failed attempts to jump, I realized I had no choice. There was no way I could walk off this bridge as that would be against my principles. I am no coward! So I feebly stretched out my arms and. Dropped. I am not going to describe what the next few seconds were like, because there are simply no words. You'll just have to try it and see for yourself. I'll just say that if you are like me and have had the somewhat sadistic and self-deprecating curiosity of what jumping off a 50 storey building is like, you will be quite satisfied. Minus the inconvenient death part. I was so shook it still plays in my mind sometimes. My only regret is my pansy jump. They told me what I did was a bungee fall, and that's quite embarassing. lol if there is a next time, I promise to do a Michael Phelps worthy flip and dive fo sho.Tomorrow I will begin a major catchup series of photos from Nepal, followed by Singapore, which I'm really quite fascinated by.
