Round 2 of Fried Fish Soup & TCC

This calls for a celebration.

For almost 2 years in the SMU City Campus, of which most of the time was spent doing projects and munching away at Pick & Bite, today marks the 1st time I stepped into TCC, nicely located at one corner just beneath the ever crowded library (all thanks to the yr 1s).

Desmond suggested TCC and I thought it might be good since I hv nv stepped in. For some reason, we decided to order some dishes despite the costs. And here goes another satisfied meal and a good conversation which preceeded soon after.

As you can see, lunch was a simple dish of salad & "Summer Fresh Salad" was it! Awesome, either we were really hungry or the salad simply tasted great. Value for money? I would think so.

Desmond had his "berry" item and we found out our common interest in berries. I almost wanted to find a job at TCC for a month just to learn how they tossed the salad to such fine quality.

Verdict: Affordable & definitely worth a try after a hard day's work at project and trying to vie for class participation.

Gambette TCC! One day, SMU students will spot you hiding at the obscure corner and start to patronize you, just like I did today after 2 years. =]

You can see his satisfied and happy face. And of course, the new cap. =] I must say it was an enjoyable 2 hrs in TCC. Comfy cushion seats and an environment quiet enough for anyone to catch up. Well, it might be simply due to the fact that no one really patronize it and thus, the enjoyable silence in it and not to mention the prices of other dishes. For a good drink and time of fun, yes. For a meal, no go. Shiok la.

30th March also marks the day of another convert to Fried Fish Soup. Here goes...

He is one of the accomplice. We could smell the soup even before our taste buds got close to it. If I could record down the words of G.Tan, you would be convinced of how much XO was being poured into the soup base. For $5, it was well spent. Well, but I must confess that it's too much for the tummy that's trying to shrink. IPPT is coming up real soon and something has to be done prior to the date. With all that chunks of fishes and soup, it is small wonder that reservists continue to get silver or merely a pass in their IPPT scoring.

To show you how much we enjoyed the meal... here's a peek into one of our bowls...

I have had fried fish soup over the past few days. Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday. I feel fishy about the whole incident...as though I'm going to meet a fish that will tell me about how they plan to take over the world and I'm supposed to assist since I have eaten so many of their comrades.

Gosh, first TCC, then came the all foodelicious fried fish soup. What a way to settle meals. If we were to chew upon God's Word, shouldn't we, too, treat it with such great expectations and praises like we would for physical food? A friend of mine spoke about craving for solid food. Taste and see that It is good. Chew upon it, take your time, savour all of it.

Food is good, Nourishing to the body. Spiritual food is even better, Nourishing for the soul.

Here's a special from the man who don't eat pork: That's 'siew mai' fyi..

Foodelicious!

I declare weight-loss season. I think it's time to get a gold for Ippt once more. That $400 should cover expenses such as accomodation and food while travelling.

To the team...to know my answer, just look at the picture:

Firstly, Vietnam is getting fairly commercialized. Yes, I still wanna visit Dalat but 6 days just ain't enough for all of us. Secondly, the 5-6 days can be better spent "buying things, eating food" in Chinese. A HKoliday is what we all want. Hong Kong Street? The real one can only be found at its origin.

But of course, there needs to be a space for consideration when thoughts like this come. Would that 6 days be better spent doing other things? The answer is quite obvious to those whose priorities are already set in place.

Well, enough said. Let's move on to the recommendations of Food. In my previous posts, I mentioned about Hong Kong Street and the Fried Fish Soup across Deyi Secondary School. This time round, I decided to make a 2nd trip to affirm my impression of that dish. I brought along a fellow accomplice in weight gaining. He is none other than Mr. Kok Weeeeee, the guy who seems like he can run a million miles. Here goes:

Fried Fish Soup - Chunks of Fried Fish soaked in XO soup and various ingredients which I chose not to find out. What can I say...? Best of the best, even better in HK. The "teh peng" there is nothing more than average. So just go for the FFS. Tim sum? I offer you the same answer, HK. =] Thumbs up!

Tonight was yet another spree. For some reason, we decided to head for Swensens'. Now here's the funny part: Alex & myself were arguing over whether to order Frosty Chocolate Malt or Sticky Chewy Chocolate. And so, after remembering that I still owe him a treat, this one was on me but I get to choose. And so Sticky Chewy Chocolate was it and an additional $1 for 6 malteasers. -_-

That's not it. Our co-accomplice, A.Lan ordered a dish which looked like IceCream on top of fried tofu which stated "Serves 2". And we're all wondering who's the other person. Apparently all the walking and cutting down of rice intake wasn't really gonna help afterall! But hey, he DID walked home at the end of the day. Here's a good look at our satisfying dessert session:

Shiokanathan la. You can easily tell the satisfied look on me. (Oh, check out A.Lan's pic.)

Following that was a trip to the ever convenient NTUC FairPrice to shop for G.Ho's yogurt drink. But here's what we spotted:

Lemon Lime & Bitters. Call them old-fashioned but nothing beats them when it comes to a G'ol lemon lime drink which is naturally brewed. We needed ice. And so we proceeded to Macdonald's. It's amazing how 'Open numbers' can bring someone to do an activity which no one else wants to do. End of story.

Conclusion la conclusion: food is good. Exercising is also good. Walking home is... no comments.

The Boys' outing to West Coast Park was pretty refreshing for me. I believe it was the same for them as well. Out of the 50 Boys, 35 turned up. A good 70% attendance despite having a separate school event on that day.

The theme of that day is pretty much of responsibility, as least for group DXX. I have no idea how they came up with such a group name but they sure liked it...for some reasons still unknown to me. Kids are like that, the reasons embedding the actions they do can be really out of the world, illogical even.

Well, a handful didn't manage to submit their consent on wednesday even though they have been reminded many times. A few more didn't hand in even on friday. And we received guest appearance of Boys who haven't been around for the last month's meetings. Haha, it's amazing how a camp/outing can draw them back. This group was pretty interesting, somehow they were grouped together like this. Nicholas is one of the smallest in build while Hong Jie is kinda an overgrown for a P4 Boy. In this picture, they seemed happy. As though they felt carefree and have climbed to the top of a mountain. Haha, or so it seems. In another picture, HJ had to carry Nic just to make sure he gets into the frame of the picture. That's nice.

Many of these Boys come from families that are less than desirable. For a good 25% of the population, they live in a foreign land with a few friends and a single parent who has to work most of the time just to make the meals everyday.

I tried to put myself in their shoes, it seems the same. At this age, they need a masculine adult figure in their lives whom they can look up to and even relate. Should they fail to find that in their close proximity, they will search for friends who seem to fit the bill. I realised I didn't have to try very hard. They just need someone to be there and show that they are available for them to approach. Some of them are actually lonely. Well, I got to be their friend first.

The West Coast Park outing had 2 volunteers from WAM. Whoopii! Haven't seen a member volunteer for ages and it sure was encouraging to have them help out especially at an outing. I vividly recall the Parents' Nite during the March Camp proved that we are in need and shortage of manpower. We needed a cameraman, or at least someone to snap pictures of all the happenings and how parents would participate in assisting their seemingly helpless Child in getting the water to boil just for a packet of noodles. It would also have been great if we could capture the expressions of the parents as they see their Child in action through the video presentation. If only there were more hands...

Lord, I'm sure You will provide or at least move the hearts of men to serve You. I wait in anticipation.

3 men team. Maybe less, maybe more. =]

Toilet affair & food - shiokanathan

This will be a fairly lengthy post since I have not updated for quite some time since the last one. a! Let's begin with the unforgetable experience in the toilet..

After watching the performance by students from Bhakti Luhur, I took the liberty to hitch on the refreshments provided. Not much though, until Uncle Alan introduced me to one of the Indonesian dessert which is green in colour with coconut fillings in it. Shiok la. That was merely the lead up to the exhilarating experience in the toilet beside Book-Link. Here's what happened in chronological order:

I entered the toilet and met the cleaner

Aunt: "Do it slow..."

Elgin: "Huh??"

Aunt: "Take your time, do it clean... (*smiles*)"

Elgin: "ok aunty, I will aim."

That made me burst out in laughter while I proceeded on. It just didn't make much sense to me how she could have said those words to me! I have a couple of conclusions...

1. She's too tired from all that cleaning and must have felt exasperated. The only option left was to educate the users.

2. She's too disillusioned as a cleaner.

3. I'm on candid camera.

That left me with a smile as I went on in the day.

Then came the food factor today! I must say it was satisfying. Ever since I tried the Fried Fish Soup in Potong Pasir 2 wks back, I have been looking out for such a standard wherever I go. Finally, the search has ended. Introducing the Fried Fish Bee Hoon from Hong Kong Street! -TaDa-

This is a picture of satisfaction with tim sum, carrot cake, teh peng and my eating buddy, uncle glen rawks. This picture, of course, includes the search for Fried Fish Soup except that this one comes with Bee Hoon. Awesome, $5 only, cheapcheapchip. Today's dish made me feel like they poured too much XO. But my eating buddy said it was great. And I agreed. Thank u for the time, I know you're busy. But hey, we all got to eat right...

Satisfaction no.1

Then came Alele and Bro Lan. Lately we've been eating. Although Bro Lan has cut his rice intake by almost half, he succumbed to dinner at Vines and then the French toast at Hong Kong Cafe. All thanks to the recommendation of Alele, we each had a sumptous dinner... whoopi! Too bad G wasn't there...

I haven't done this in a long time... not with people like them, and I enjoyed it! =]

Satisfaction no.2

Here's the best part, Satisfaction no.3.

Toast. French toast with banana and ice cream - Yummy. Ice Teh Peng, but it's called "Si Mud Tea" and it's highly recommended in Hong Kong Cafe. Well, I have also been on a lookout for nice teh pengs in Singapore. One of which is located at the kopitiam beside AMK Courts. Now, found in HK Cafe.

Mannn....talk about slimming down, I can drop that idea with all my eating buddies surrounding me. Surely the people we surround ourselves with will influence us in one way or another. Therefore, pls choose wisely. "To each his own"... but that might not always be right. I beg to differ because we are often too short sighted and easily bought over by peer pressure.

So how then can we make decisions that are right and honouring to the calling given us? I don't know. But do you know that you can seek out the answers?

I bought a new bible and I'm so happy. That's all.

Tribute to "Tiger Teng"

So much for a pair of court shoes for a die hard fan of Asics. It has been faithfully abiding to the size 9.5 fat foot over the last 3 years. It has been through the thick and thin, the wet and dry weather conditions and of course, the abusive use by the owner.

Should I break it down in terms of value, it has a depreciation rate of 33.3%/annum at approximately $2.06/month for 3 yrs...
Today, on the contrary, it is worth of High of $225/=. Due to its journey so far, the value has gone up tremendously! It's going @$225 for non-members, and @$10 for avid vintage item collectors! Grab it while stocks last!
*Disclaimer: This pair is unique, unlike the ones which Gh, Gw, Dt, AL and VL have in church.

Monday:
The hours leading up to playing badminton in the evening was really exciting. The thought of reaching home early thrilled my mind. The sight of the sky still bright while I set foot into Castle Green soothes the overworked mind. Shiok* is the word. And so, I almost skipped my way to the badminton court after having put on the good old trustworthy "tiger" court shoes.
"Whoopiiii...!" First proper game in months... 8months? I felt the loose grip it gave me but still went onto the court like a yorkshire because of my excitement. Well, you can tell from my left knee and right elbow what this pair of shoes gave me =]

*Bung, ouch* was heard seconds after the shuttle came over to my side. Elgin was seen on the floor. I saw the shuttle fly straight at me, but tiger shoes just couldn't bring me there. Pain & paiseh-ed. End of story.

Gd bye tiger teng, 3 yrs were good. =] Rest well in the dustbin.