The World's Cheapest Michelin-starred Restaurant

There's one place I want to check out when I fly up to visit the husband next week.

Will it be worth the queue?

We'll see.

Designer Inspired Furniture

Thanks to recommendations from friends, we checked out Gnee Hong Furniture and Comfort Design when we were looking for chairs for our study area. Both are in the same vicinity and good places to check out if you're looking for designer inspired replica furniture.

If you're after pocket friendly prices, head to Gnee Hong. If you prefer variety and don't mind paying slightly more for better quality, check out Comfort. We bought our Panton inspired replica chairs from Comfort because the quality seemed better than the ones we saw at Gnee Hong, although I'm not sure whether we were swayed because Comfort has a much nicer showroom.

I didn't manage to snap shots of Gnee Hong's showroom, but here's what you can expect when you check out Comfort Design. I don't think I've ever seen so many chairs under the same roof!

Our Little Modern Resort

The husband and I love beach holidays.

Our first holiday as a couple was to Perhentian Island (the less commercialized cousin of Redang Island), we chose to go to the Maldives for our honeymoon and there will definitely be more beach vacays to come in the years ahead.

So really, it’s no surprise that we both wanted a resort-inspired theme for our home.

We worked with Elton and Zoey from Plus Interior Design (coincidentally also Miss Ene’s ID!) and considering how we didn’t have a large budget to work with, we’re pleased with the results.

Our best buy for the house is this teakwood one-seater bench from Wihardja, which we only paid $39 for. Great place to check out if you're sourcing for affordable resort-inspired furniture. And yes, in case you're wondering, that's our built in shoe cabinet, which provides sufficient space. For now.

It's not obvious in this photo but we placed a pot of white orchids beside the TV console. We're still looking around for items to fill up the space below the painting but now that Barang Barang's no longer what it used to be, it's hard to find resort-inspired furniture and decor. Maybe we should go on a sourcing trip to Bali :)

Inspired by the interior decor of our water villa at Cocoa Island, we chose white organza day curtains for the living room, to let more light in. Our sofa, cushions and coffee table are from Ikea. Now, if only we had a seaview.

Our dining table. I love the landscape picture of the Flatiron building, which reminds me of our days in NYC.

  

Our study area, constructed over our bay window to maximise space. Our Panton inspired chairs are from Comfort Design, which I'll write more about in a separate entry.

 

Our built in bookshelf. The wooden letters were recycled from our wedding :)

Our WIW together with our full length mirror, which gives the illusion of space (and more clothes).

Our Master Bedroom bay windows. We saw a photo of the inclined lounge area in an issue of Home and Decor and got our ID to recreate it.

The jar of sand with seashells was another idea we adapted from Cocoa Island. The sand's brought back from Maldives by the way!

Our customised bedframe comes with drawers for storing bedsheets and side drawers at the bedhead, for our knick knacks. White bed linen was deliberately chosen to recreate a hotel resort feel.

Going The Distance

It's always been our dream to experience working overseas.

Well, luck is definitely on his side because he recently got offered an opportunity to work in the HK office for almost 3 months. I'm so envious!

It all happened so quickly that we were shocked when he was given less than a month's notice to start his short term stint there. I contemplated asking my boss if I could work from my company's HK office, but didn't try as I knew the proposal would only get rejected.

Well, he's leaving this Sunday and it still feels surreal. We've never gone through a long distance phase in our relationship so I don't know what to expect. I like to think that I'm a relatively independent partner but I'm sure I'll miss him. The Shire will feel emptier and I know there'll be days where it'll get lonely. Who's gonna listen to my work rants, kill the insects in the house and help me with the household chores? :(

But looking on the bright side, I look forward to catch up sesssions with girlfriends (if they have time for me!) and solitude time. It helps too that HK is in the same time zone as Singapore and he'll just be a Skype call away. Thanks to promo fares and redemption of miles, I'll also be flying up to visit him every three weeks, so it's not that bad, right?

Chai Tow Kway (Fried Raddish Cake)

Over the weekend, I made Chai Tow Kway from scratch (fried radish cake or fried carrot cake as we know it locally in Singapore) for the husband who loves this hawker staple and never fails to order it, even after finishing a plate of chicken rice or Chap Cai Peng (mixed rice).

I followed this recipe from Rasa Malaysia but cut down slightly on the amount of water, based on The Pleasure Monger's advice because I didn't want my Chai Tow Kway to turn out too sticky.

Making the dish wasn't rocket science, but boy did I work up a sweat grating the radish!

And because I couldn't fit all the radish pieces into my frying pan, I split them into half and fried them differently, as you can see below. Those who frequently eat this local dish will know what I mean :)

Cooking Mama

Now that I've got my own kitchen, where I can call the shots mess things up, I've been trying to cook whenever I can find the time, after work and on weekends.

Here's what I've cooked so far in my tiny kitchen.

 

There's plenty of room for improvement (especially in the food styling aspect) but I can't wait to be my own Master Chef ;)

P.S I'm looking for more 30 minute meal recipes because it's simply too exhausting to cook a 3 course Chinese meal on weeknights. Any suggestions?

The Wedding Venue

The husband and I knew from the very start of our wedding planning journey that we wanted a small wedding. Just close family and friends. No distant relatives whom you never knew existed or people you invite to make up the numbers.

We also wanted the wedding to be in Sentosa although it was a little inconvenient because we loved the idea of it being away from the city.

Based on these considerations, our final three choices were Amara Sanctuary, Sentosa Resort and Spa and Suburbia. We struck out Sentosa Resort and Spa after a site recce because the lawn area was too small and we didn’t want to hold the dinner reception in a function room.

It was down to Amara Sanctuary and Suburbia.

We went down to Amara Sanctuary first and were quite pleased. I liked the Glasshouse and could almost envision having our dinner reception at Shutters, the hotel’s buffet restaurant.

But it was Suburbia that stole our hearts.

Coincidentally, there was an ongoing wedding and the couple had an outdoor solemnization at the lawn in front of the restaurant. The evening sun had cast warm golden light, the bridesmaids were dressed in yellow and complimented the greenery perfectly. (That was also one of the reasons why I chose yellow for my bridesmaids).

It was beautiful.

We loved the small cosy garden, the high ceiling of the first level dining area, the Western setting with long tables, the peacocks roaming in the vicinity, and the restaurant’s quaint heritage – the building which houses Suburbia used to be a monorail station. We were worried intially that it could get rather humid and uncomfortable for guests because the first level is not air conditioned. But we loved the venue so much that we were prepared to deal with that. And so, we contacted the wedding coordinator and the rest as they say, was history.

And kudos to the Suburbia team, especially Belinda, who has been very accommodating to our requests and a real pleasure to deal with from start to end.

No prizes for guessing where we will be having our first anniversary dinner :)

Here are some photos of our venue and lovely decor (made with love by our best men/bridesmaids) from Ead.

We developed photos from our seven years together, to be hung on a tree at the garden but because it rained, our decor i/c improvised and hung them at a glass panel near the entrance, as a photo wall.

Our flowers were from Sing See Soon, who are pretty well known among the wedding forums. Gracelyn really knows her stuff and made the whole process so easy and fun.