2a.m

Think most people would have already read about this place somewhere. It’s been covered pretty much in most of the papers. 2AM Dessert Bar is a dessert place at the very end (or very start, depending on which way you count the front) of Holland Village. And the chef is a very young, and very accomplished (Studied in Le Cordon Bleu) young lady, so more power to her.
Aside: For the longest time, after I interned in TBWA under the Martell account, I thought Cordon Bleu was exclusively a name for the cognac.

Back to topic, I had a huge dinner with CJ at Holland Village, and instead of going to our usual Haagen Dazs for  our usual (a three scoop Divine with mandarin orange and chocolate rice), we decided to check out 2AM.

I loved the decor, it takes what The Balcony tries to do, and makes it 10 times better. (The sofa seats at The Balcony always looked a bit… dirty) The wide sofa seats here are very comfortable and it gives the place a great atmosphere.  (The photos are quite dark though. I didn’t turn on the flash)

The view of the back is just the Holland Village car park, but when it’s all lighted up at night it is quite beautiful.

Because we are quite stuffed, we only ordered one dessert – the Tiramisu.

The coffee ice cream topping is lethal! It is the best and the richest I’ve tasted. I still crave it, just thinking about it! Wished there was more of it. The rest of the tiramisu was okay. But the ice cream was sensational.

The next time I go there I want to try out the lychee dessert. That particular one looks beautiful AND delish at the same time. Wonder if I can bring myself to eat something so pretty.

In general, I didn’t eat enough to give a full review. But what I ate was great, and oh the coffee ice cream… *crave*

SATC!

I am very very excited about the SATC movie coming soon and you can bet on me being the first to grab tickets, join contests to grab whatever goodie bags / watch premier (which I got to do for 2046) etc etc.

But I’m most excited about THE WARDROBE! (I grabbed this picture off popsugar.com. It’s an insanely addictive site, I have to visit it everyday)

I am loving Charlotte’s and Miranda’s dress. Carrie’s wardrobe – I don’t have to say anything. You know I crave anything that Carrie wears. Lucky SJP.

I know some spoilers about the movie so if you want to know just highlight the space between the brackets. [Charlotte gets pregnant! And she also adopted a Chinese baby, so 2 kids?]
Btw in other exciting chick lit news – The Secret World of a Shopaholic is being made into a movie. Isla Fisher plays Becky Bloomwood. Yay!! I wonder who plays Luke, who in my mind is a Mark Darcy played by Colin Firth kind of character.

Movies + Coming Soon

Rush Hour 3 – with Lovey. It was all right. Very typical Rush Hour type movie, very typical Jackie Chan over acting, very typical Chris Rock comedy routine. It’s getting tired, and may as well… it’s the third one already. That said, at least with typical, it isn’t bad. It is entertaining, just nothing out of the ordinary. Favourite part was the comedy routine with ‘Yu’ and ‘Mi’. Ha.

The Bourne Ultimatum – with Lovey. I did not catch Bourne 1&2 (I am sensing a pattern here! I did not watch any of the Spiderman, Ocean’s 11, Harry Potter series… until I met CJ!) so I was a little slow on the uptake, and needed CJ to fill me in on the plot here and there. I liked it. The way they choreograph Matt Damon’s plan as he moved around was flawless – especially in the train station. I loved it!

Fido - with Lovey. Ingredients for a cult movie… except I’m not sure if it will be one! The premise of the story was interesting enough and a little macabre as well. It makes me uncomfortable. Like I don’t know if I should be terrified or amused. I guess that makes it interesting?

Ratatouille – with Lovey. Cute! Remy is adorable! Disney spent a lot of money promoting this film and rightly so, because it is really good. I won’t say it is my favourite Pixar movie – Cars or Finding Nemo takes the spot – but it is quite entertaining. Except I find it difficult to like Linguini’s character. He isn’t offensive, but he does not seem to have any strength at all! Love Remy, especially the scene of him in the bottle. Rats are cute! And Gasteau is adorable too … (/buddyvoice)’But… I’m just a figment of your imagination!’

Evan Almighty – with Lovey. A lot of people are giving bad reviews about this movie… but I liked it! I guess I have a soft spot of Steve Carrell (He was so funny in Anchorman!) Anyway, comparisons to Bruce Almighty would definitely be part of the critique. I liked Bruce Almighty better, but this movie is good on it’s own too. A few criticisms stated how Evan Almighty had no central theme… *rolls eyes* come on… sometimes you just want to watch a movie for fun! Looking forward to Steve Carrell’s next role — Dan in Real Life?

Hairspray – with Sam. Love!!!!! Especially Link! I’m sure I’m not the first female to gush over Zac Efron. He looks so good as Link! Now, I don’t like him much in Highschool Musical. I didn’t watch it, just don’t like him as a blonde. But with black hair… his blue eyes are beautiful! I loved ‘The Nicest Kids in Town’

Especially the roll call! James Marsden as Corny Collins is fantastic. Nikki Blonsky is very enthusiastic. John Travolta… I can’t find a word that captures how I feel which is basically ‘man-this-is-so-weird-but-i-can’t-look-away’. First time I’ve seen Christopher Walken in a role like this. Queen Latifah… fabulous! Michelle Pfeifer is so beautiful… I loved her in Dangerous Minds. Amanda Bynes is adorable. Elijah Kelly is smooooth .

++

Zen Shindo Art

We had dinner at this restaurant called Zen Shindo Art at East Coast Park today. CJ knows the chef, so we went down to visit. Anyway, the food is really good! I was just reading a review and the chef previously served in Burj Al Arab and was head chef at M Hotel, which of course impressed me a lot. Burj Al Arab! I want to go there one day to see what it is like in real life.

So… the food!

Our appetizer was the Mango and Prawn roll

Very very nice, and the prawns are really fresh and juicy and goes very well with the mango.

I love the presentation of this dish. CJ had this… I can’t recall the name, but it tastes like Kobe beef. The beef is wonderful and cooked just right, very tender and juicy. Together with the sauce it is really yummy.

I had the soft shell crab mee sua. It is so yummy! The crab meat was so fresh and the mee sua was a nice dish to set the soft shell crab on. I find the mee sua not too overpowering such that I am not able to taste the crab meat. And the serving is huge!

I liked Zen, and the standard of cooking was the tops. Seriously, you can tell that the food is prepared carefully, with thought and effort and not churned out mindlessly. And the best thing is the prices are very reasonable for the quality of food. And the waitresses are very attentive. I liked it and I am excited about trying the rest! Except the restaurant is in East Coast and quite inconvenient for me to get to. Ha.

Botak Jones

I heard about Botak Jones from my friend at TP, who told me about the ‘really nice burger covered in cheese’. I am normally not a big fan of burgers but ‘covered in cheese’ got me.

Fries in the foreground and burger (covered in cheese) in the background!

This photo does not accurately show how generous the burger was. The patty was really fresh and juicy. I like! It comes alone, and you could add other sides. We added jalapeno, sauteed mushrooms and sauteed onions. I love the mushrooms, it was really good!

CJ, Alex and I went to the branch at Toa Payoh beside SPH. There was a line, but it wasn’t really too crowded and we got served in about 10-15 minutes. Which I thought was reasonable because they do not precook their orders.

Anyway, the owner was really nice to pose for a photo with us. We really liked his tshirt.

Tee hee

Under the stars

Under the Banyan Tree: Open Air Cinema

The National Museum, riding high on its new makeover, did a great job with this public movie screening! I never got to go to the Stella Artois Starlight Cinema, but I guess is much better. The location, on the grounds of the National Musuem is beautiful. On one side you have your stately National Musuem, on the other, greenery and the rather nostalgic Banyan Tree (which I did not take a photograph of!). CJ had this really sweet story about the Banyan Tree thinking that all of us moviegoers actually came to look at it, and feeling less lonely.

CJ and I were there on Friday night, the opening night when they played Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Audrey Hepburn classic. I love love love Audrey. Sure, the only movie I’ve watched was Roman Holiday (Gregory Peck!!!) where I thought she was absolutely beautiful and quirky and the love story between her and Gregory Peck is so so innocent and sweet, and made me wish I was a princess and I fell in love with a common man but I cannot be with him and it will be heartbreaking and romantic and I will remember this for the rest of my life. Erm… I lost track. Oh, I did not watch a lot of her movies but I do have a lot of photos! Ha.

The thing is – I have never heard of anybody saying anything bad about Audrey or not liking her. And do you know she once said she never thought she was pretty, and that she thought she had a weird face.

Weird face!

This photograph might be the world’s most beautiful picture ever – Grace Kelly with Audrey Hepburn!

(Btw I saw a photo of she-who-shall-not-be-named-on-my-blog Hilton posing as Audrey and I threw up a bit in my mouth)

I was slightly disappointed that I did not win the Border’s voucher. If they had asked who designed the black dress she wore in the opening (and I feel that is a very important question!) I’m sure I would have won. Ha! Cause I don’t think anyone else in the audience would know. *arrogant*. (It’s Givenchy.)

Anyway, it was fun! The movie was good (although CJ and I thought Holly would eventually dump Paul because he is just not exciting enough (me) / she is a screwed up character (CJ)). The ending wasn’t that great, I thought they should have stuck to the book’s original ending which was so much more thought provoking.

CJ brought a (bed)sheet which was waterproof … and a pillow! We thought we’d win for most well prepared moviegoers but the group in front of us had 2 bottles of wine, wine glasses, pâté, sushi and even a whole bag of ice for the wine. They win. But I think we win for most comfortable seating! Haha. We had enough space to lie down with pillows! So I think we win x2. Haha!

And he was wearing my favourite shirt of his

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE!!!

Da da da da da da daaaa da

We watched it! We loved it!

(No spoilers in this post, but I will reveal some amusing parts of the music)

Right from the beginning – Wiggum comes out and sings the 20th Century Fox theme music, to the blatant advertising – ‘Remember to watch XXX on Fox 8, yes, we advertise in movies now!’, to the music – ‘Spiderpig, spider pig, does whatever spiderpig does’, to the moving – Marge taping the goodbye message over her wedding video, to celebrity cameos – Tom Hanks! and Arnold S.

It was great! Every moment of it. Especially the ending, please stay a bit and watch the credits until you see the important message Maggie says.

I was a bit disappointed there were so few of Homer’s usual utterance ‘Mmmmm… (insert random edible item here)’. There was only 1, I think? ‘Mmmm… floor popcorn’. Hahaha!

Btw, stroke of genius from the folks on Harper’s Bazaar… Simpsons in Couture! Together with Linda E.!

You can find more, just google Simpsons and Harper’s

Madness

I dug up this old post that I have not published, and added on to it, new movies I have watched (mostly with CJ)

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen for your fortnightly dose of movie reviews, based on what ChrisssC has watched. Contingent also on whether she remembers watching it.

Borat

Enough said.

Snowcake was moving, but not maudlin. Reminds me of Transamerica but more… gritty? I’m not sure what the correct word is. Alan Rickman was excellent, but I thought Sigourney Weaver was the real standout. CJ and I really liked ‘Notteru Ondo’ which was played in the movie, but it is so hard to find! And I’m not even talking about illegal downloads – it’s by The Drifters but I can’t find it on any of their CDs!

IndianMovie – CJ thought it would be fun to catch an indian movie. We were quite excited (actually I was like ‘are you serious?!’) until we went to the counter and when CJ asked her ‘Are there subtitles?’, she said ‘No’. Still. She recommended us a movie, and we could follow the plot quite competently And do you know they have intervals, like in plays? That was really cool.

Charlotte’s Web – Okay, Dakota Fanning is adorable! I think there is always something quite magical about watching a movie adaptation of a book you read when you were a child. Though to be honest, I didn’t feel like it was a special as when you read it as a kid. The movie is alright, entertaining at least.

Stranger Than Fiction – Love this movie! Waited so long for it to come out in Asia. And even then the distribution was limited. It is about this author who is writing a book about this character, and it turns out that there is acutally this character in real life! So she is actually writing about his life. And what she narrates, it will happen in his life. Emma Thompson was great as the author, very interesting and complex character. Ending was a bit dragged out I think.

Eragon – Bah.

The Pursuit of Happyness – The trailers were good, but after watching the movie, I found it a little harder to have sympathy for Will Smith’s character. And more sympathy for Thandie Newton’s character. He was less of a father, than a character who strives really hard to achieve his dreams. The writing could be better.

Death Note 2 – Nice, but a bit too long. A lot of twists at the end, so much so I kinda lost it. But it was an interesting take on how power corrupts.

Night at the Museum – Love this movie! I love anything with Ben Stiller in it (Zoolander, Dodgeball, Meet the Parents) and this was no difference. This is just the feel good type of movie impossible for anyone to find fault with, I guess.

200 Pounds Beauty – Already blogged about it

The Illusionist – Alright. Actually I think Jessica Biel is overated. Edward Norton is excellent. But forgettable film, really. Nice twist at the end.

Epic Movie – I can’t remember anything about it actually. After searching it on IMDB, I realised it was because it was based on Narnia, and I didn’t watch it.

Music and Lyrics – Was great! I thought the chemistry between them was so good and I always liked Drew Barrymore. The comedic timing between the both of them was really good, and I thought the Autopsy song was hilarious. However, do you know that actually Hugh Grant was quite unfriendly on the set?? Huh. Kind of spoils the mood of the movie.

Ghost Rider – Blah. Have I mentioned I think Eva Mendes is overrated? Poor plot also. Great company.

Wild Hogs – Loved this movie! Especially the scene in the forest when the 4 guys woke up in the morning and they encounter the gay policeman. It was hilarious! I want to watch it over and over again!! Also, I expected to find John Travolta annoying, but he wasn’t! And Martin Lawerence was so funny.

300 – Already blogged about it

TMNT – Cute, I liked it. Kind of like a darker version of what we watched during childhood days. Could be better, but overall very safe and likeable film. Didn’t make as big of a splash as I thought it would. My favourite turtle is still Michaelangelo! Pizza!

Blades of Glory – We waited and waited for this movie! CJ and I saw it on Apple Trailers and it looked so good. Napolean Dynamite guy was so funny, especially his peacock moves. Hehe. I thought the movie was great, and if I bought the dvd I would fast forward through the korean video scenes. That was really scary.

Next – Blah. Have I stated how I think Jessical Biel is… oh wait I have? She’s hot but why the sudden love affair with her? Okay. I know Nicolas Cage can do better he just has to stop acting in so so movies!! (I liked Con Air) The ending was weak.

Spider-man 3 – Okay. My first Spider-man film actually. Very sad when James Franco died cause he was so cute! I liked it when I watch movie adaptations of comic books and CJ tells me of the background of the characters – like erm… you know, some people have motivations behind the things they do, and what are the background of the other characters and what happens to them in the end (ie Gwen Stacy)

Shrek the Third -Not bad. I only especially enjoyed the part where all the princesses gathered and you could find out who’s who. Haha! A pushy Snow White was hilarious.

Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End – I kinda lost interest in POTC since the 2nd series. Liked the first, but that’s about it. The third was a tad too long and draggy. And was I the only one who found it annoying every cinema was harping on Chow Yun Fatt’s ‘Welcome to Singapore’? Please la, it’s only one sentence. I don’t really know what year it’s supposed to be set in but the whole oriental + slavery bit was overkill.

Fantastic 4 : Rise of the Silver Surfer – Like I’ve said, I loved movies which are adaptations from comics. The history of the Silver Surfer, his motivations, and who eventually takes his place – was it Frankie Raye?.

I keep having an idea that Galactus was this Michelin Man type character -

But found out he was more like

Which doesn’t make any sense because if he devours worlds, won’t he be rounder?

Transformers – Already blogged about it

Ocean’s Thirteen – Great! I want to watch Ocean’s 11 and 12 now. I heard compared to 11 and 12, 13 wasn’t as good. I loved O13, loved how the infiltrated the place and how the whole operation went down. And oh, well, George Clooney… *eyes glazes over*

Live Free Die Hard 4.0 – I liked it better than I thought I would. CJ told me about the rest of the Die Hard plots and I think they should be quite good as well! Always had a crush on Bruce Willis (since Armageddon… you know, the whole ‘let me sacrifice myself’ thing is so hot). I thought several stunts in the movie was so cool! Especially the one where he uses the car to hit the helicopter.

Harry Potter : Order of the Phoenix – It’s alright. First Potter movie and never read the book. I wasn’t expecting much. It was okay, I told CJ I didn’t want to watch it as I thought it would be a waste of money as I won’t enjoy it. It wasn’t half bad. I liked watching the kids practice spells.

Coming up… The Simpsons Movie!!! I can’t wait.

Transformers

I loved Transformers!

I can’t believe I gave CJ such a hard time about wanting to watch it day after it opens, in a crowded location, at 645.

Because it was good!!

My favourite (and probably everybody else’s)

Bumblebee!

I found it funny that it is released a week later in the States than in Asia, but I am not complaining.

Don’t know what all the critics were grumbling about in their reviews – ‘too noisy’, ‘too loud’, ‘no meaning to the movie’ etc.

It’s ridiculous! Sometimes people just want to watch a movie to have fun and be entertained, not be blown away by the message or moral to learn from the movie.

As to it being ‘too noisy’, erm… so they were expecting something quiet and serene and calm about a movie called ‘Transformers’, about robot machines fighting a war?

I can understand the fanatics of Transformers when they complain about the new machines not being classic, like the cartoon. The robots in the movie were very sleek, so different from the blocky, colourful cartoon Transformers.

But as a defense, it is always difficult to translate something from cartoon to real life. Of course the movie makers will change the robots and lose its awkwardness that is evident in the cartoon, because in real life, it is weird if they move around awkwardly. So its not going to match.

I liked the movie and would watch it again. I don’t think people should listen too much to those haughty movie critics.

Miss Clarity Cafe

There was a lot of buzz about this cafe, and after N’s suggestion, we made our way down to check out the food.

Snap verdict – It’s surprisingly cheap for the quality and presentation of food.

There are so much to choose from! And all dishes here are under 10 bucks (except the seafood vol-au-vont which is about 11?)

I was torn between the lamb chops (mint sauce! lamb with mint sauce is my friend) and pork chops. In the end I got pork chops because of the ‘caramelized onions’. Yum.

It’s huge! There are three large slices of pork chop on a bed of roasted potatoes and brocolli. I couldn’t get enough of the caramalized onions. It was the best.

The dory was something I wanted to try as well. While it looks delicious, it does not seem to be as ‘value for money’ as mine. Behold -

Like written in David Sedaris’ book ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’, it was like (I paraphrase) the chef has just rented a small plot of real estate for the food, and the rest of the plate was sublet for a possible parking lot.

We had escagots!

Instead of all prepared and laid out in little plates, the escargots are still in their shells. ML said ‘there is a bit of grass taste’. Haha.

It rests on a bed of sea salt. Now, I may be an amateur when it comes to fine dining and sea salt issues… but isn’t sea salt quite expensive? Once I went to Spain2Dream at Vivo and stopped by this place selling nice brightly coloured sand (I didn’t know what it was) in glass jars. The sales person was really friendly, so I went over to talk to her about the sand thingy. It turns out it was sea salt from the Mediterranean or something and it costs like 20 bucks! So I wonder it this is the same. Do they actually reuse the salt? It’s not like anyone is going to eat it.

The escargot not bad, but I still prefer the one at SAFRA that CJ brought me to.

Seafood vol-au-vont. Looks really nice in real life. Like the mussels are flowing out of the pastry. In this picture it looks a bit sticky though.

Can’t see clearly, but this is soft shell crab pasta. Huge piece of crab on cream based pasta. Not bad.

The dessert was good too! The chocolate cheese cake in particular. Marvellous! The juxtaposition (what a word to use) between the sweet and the sour/salty (cheese taste la, in short) is wonderful.

Can’t wait to go back!