Honeymoon: Exploring Tuileries Garden

Romantic Morning Walk in Paris 

Picnic in Tuileries Garden

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We are often caught up in the rat race and neglected the time to rest and relax. People always lament that the weekends are too short & in fact, I find myself even busier during weekends than weekdays. There are 1001 things that I aim to achieve within 2 days - be it cleaning the house, working on entries on this blog, sorting out pictures, visiting parents, cafe-hopping or just catching up on sleep.

Looking back at these travel pictures, I kinda missed the carefree times we had in Paris :) Wanderlust bug is slowly creeping out, once again, haha! After our mini picnic, we decided to sit by the fountain and just watch the world goes by. 

Every other visitor was engaged in their own activities in their self-contained bubble ~ watching the ducks wadding in the fountain, feeding the birds with their leftovers or just simply deep in thoughts/staring into space.

 

 We spent almost an hour just sitting at the fountain; sometimes chatting about our lives and other times, our minds just wandered off. Coupled with the fine weather, I could literally dozed off in my chair.

I took this pic with my iphone. While I was sorting out our pics (from both camera + phones), I came across this pic

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HAHA! Is that what you call telepathy?

Time to pack up and head back to the hotel for check out :) We'll be moving accommodation for this day, to a service apartment that I managed to find from the web. It helped us to save some $$ which translates into more shopping fund, heh!

 

#Selfies along the way.

Condusive environment to read a book. 

Hmm, I think Leecher has a special liking towards my Hello Kitty phone, lol!

Strolling in the park. Leecher claimed that his 背影 resembled that of a 诗人 (^^) If we pretended that the phone is a scroll, adding a long pigtail & with some imagination .... OK, can pass off, haha!

 

Playing with our shadows since the sun is out :)

We wished we had more time to explore the garden. I even wished I had brought along my jogging shoes for a jog around the place :) Nevertheless, it was time to head back to the hotel for last min pack up! 

Restaurant Week, 2013 edition: Violet Oon's Kitchen

It was Restaurant Week once again in Oct. Even though I had my priority booking, I wasn't keen to try out any restaurants. Then itchy fingers me decided to try my luck when booking was made available to the public. I wasn't looking for anything in particular - more of browsing and if anything fits my slot, then it must be fate! Before I knew it, I had made reservations for 3 restaurants, oops! 

Our first stop was Violet Oon's Kitchen. Nestled along Bukit Timah Road, locating this place was a breeze (all thanks to my trusty google map on iphone!). We arrived earlier, but were promptly ushered into the restaurant with a smile.

 Violet Oon was known as a food columnist before being appointed as a food ambassador by Singapore Tourism Board. Through her travels, she brought home a rich knowledge of cuisines discovered aboard and married those gems with her beloved native Singaporean cuisine. 

While I was expecting a more traditional Peranakan decor, I was surprised to be greeted with a clean black and white decor instead.

Drinks selection, which we didn't try :( The Ka Gua sure looked  interesting :)

I love it when there is fresh flower on every table! I have always contemplated on getting fresh flowers for the house, but never got around to doing it. Haiz, must procrastinate less so I can get more things done heh.

Leecher with the ala carte menu, when we are ordering from the set menu - extra leh! 

Say hello to the new Mrs Lim - his new Samsung Note 3. I think he was more excited over getting a new phone than marrying the REAL Mrs Lim, lol! Kept showing me the new functions while I just rolled my eyes as I find it extremely difficult to use.

We started with Vietnamese Prawn Summer Rolls served with Chilli & Hoisin sauce. The skin was chewy BUT beansprouts tasted raw. I was expecting spicy chilli, but it tasted mild in reality.

Leecher ordered Kuay Pie Tee ($18) from their ala carte menu. My my, these were extremely good! Julienne of bamboo shoot and turnip poached in a rich prawn bisque served in a deep fried "top hat" patty, topped with prawn. This was quite a different rendition from the usual kuay pie tee that are sold outside. Recommended!

 There were 3 options to choose for main course - we settled for Buah Keluak Pasta & Beef Rendang. Buah Keluak Pasta was fried with garlic and chilli tossed in spaghetti. This was da-domb! I'm still not a fan of Buah Keluak, but the spiciness was a tad overwhelming for me. This was the kind of spiciness I was looking for :) Leecher was debating b/w having Beef Rendang or Kerabu Fish, but eventually settled for beef rendang. Beef was soft and tender that it simply melts in your mouth - nothing spectacular though.

With newly crowned Mrs Lim again once we finished our main course. 

 

Testing out Leecher's camera on the new phone. 

Ended the meal with desserts - kuay beng kah (tapioca cake) and bubor cha cha panna cotta.

The sky turned dark by the time we left the place. I would love to be back for their brunch menu if time permits :) 

Violet Oon's Kitchen

881 Bukit Timah Road

Singapore 279893

Tel: 6468 5430

Opening Hours: 11.30am till 10pm, closed on Monday.

Fukuichi Japanese Restaurant

 Tier-1-friend-Boss-Khim "mandated" us to head out for a dinner session, so we were coerced to meet for dinner @ Orchard. Yaozu kindly made reservations at Fukuichi Japanese Restaurant, located at TripleOne Somerset. I seldom go to Orchard nowadays, so I tend to get a bit confused with TripleOne/313/Orchard Central. At times, I would mixed them up and ended up walking in circles just to locate the shop.  

 Reservation booked for 8pm, but as usual ... you'll only spot 3 early birds

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Leecher & Yaozu plus me behind the camera. If we were to have a fine for latecomers, I'm pretty sure we know who are the biggest contributors, heh.

The restaurant has a 150 seating capacity that encompasses a Sushi Bar, Tatami Room, VIP Room and a Sake Wine Bar nestled in an outdoor terrace overlooking a tree-lined boulevard. We went for al fresco dining as we couldn't get a table inside.

Kenneth dear finally arrived! 

Before his buttocks even touched the seat, he ordered us to order sake, heh! Alcoholic at heart - the large bottle that Boss EK insisted to order, claiming that it will only take us awhile to finish. Thankfully, this bottle lasted us the whole dinner.

We started with sashimi & salmon sushi. Thick slices of salmon that simply melts in your mouth, yummy! 

 Tomorokoshi Kakiage ($15), my fave since I love anything that comes with corn. Almond Ebi Tempura ($22) was coated full of almond and fried to perfection. The only grouse - tempura was too tiny! Fugu Mirin Boshi ($15) is actually blowfish seasoned with sweet sake - this tasted just like cuttle-fish. Add in a dip of mayonnaise for the added taste.  

With Priscilla :) Meiqin had to work, so she couldn't make it for dinner. 

From clock-wise: Hotate Garlic Yaki ($32) - Scallop with butter and garlic, Gyuniku Fagura Sauce ($35) - Grilled Beef with Foie Gras Sauce, Ebi Shitake Tempura ($12) - fried shitake mushrooms (my personal fave!) and Gyuniku Hoba Yaki ($38) - beef served on a "hoba" leaf.

EK has developed the habit of photo-bombing nowadays, lol! 

 We were pretty full by the time we finished dinner.

I wanted to take a selfie outside the restaurant, then these 2 guys insisted on squeezing into the pic with me, haha. 

Not to be outdone, Pris & Leecher had their "couple" shot across the corridor. 

We then adjourned to Mac @ Scape, for I was still craving for french fries and a cuppa of hot tea. Meiqin came over to join us after closing shop. We lingered for a while more to chit chat & the usual parting pics :) 

Fukuichi Japanese Dining

111 Somerset Road

TripleOne Somerset #02-11/12

Singapore 238164

Tel: 6271 5586