Food and Photography
Tingkat Cruise @ Singapore
Jul 22nd
Last weekend, mum and I were down in Singapore for a 3-day working “holiday”. Many thanks to Singapore Tourism Board, I had a blast at Singapore. Well, it wasn’t all play and no work. My work is my game. A photographer, you see. 
Anyway, one of the things we did there was the Tingkat Cruise. Tingkat as in the tiffin carrier not the number of levels the cruise has.
The Tingkat Cruise was a 45-minute dinner cruise along the Singapore River. Priced at S$35 per person, the cruise started at the Merlion Park from as early as 4pm, with six cruises a day for the 10-day duration of the Singapore Food Festival from July 16-25.
The boat, a bumboat, was quite small and places were limited to about 30 customers maximum. The boat finally arrived and we gingerly stepped on board. The braver ones decided to take a chance and sit at the open space in the back of the boat to enjoy the fresh air (and possible rain) while the rest of us preferred the air-conditioned and more comfortable seating inside.
As we enjoyed our lovely late dinner, the guide on board gave a running commentary on the scenery on both sides of the river and a short story connected to each landmark.
The food was not exactly the stuff to write home about though. Similar items on sale at the Clarke Quay Food Street were far more tastier. I didn’t mind the chicken rice, fried noodles and the soon kueh but the carrot cake tasted more like an omelette and the sweet broth was quite bland.
Still, the whole experience did add up to a rather exotic adventure for the younger generation and for foreign tourists.
The Singapore Food Festival 2010 focused on the foods of the five mainstream Chinese dialect communities and apart from the Tingkat Cruise and Clarke Quay Food Street, included events such as Chinese Dialect Street Snacks, Heritage Feast, River market and Culinary Master Classes with cooking games and cooking demonstrations.
You get to sit by the window if you like. Watching the gorgeous Singapore landscape.
On each table were four bright red tingkat with pretty flowers prints on the sides of each of the three tiers.
I thought that putting the food into the tinfoil trays kind of deflated the experience of eating out of a tingkat but later, I realized that this was to keep the tingkat reasonably clean for the customers to take them home after the dinner cruise.
As for the tingkat, in the topmost tier were two tinfoil trays containing Teochew carrot cake and fried Hokkien noodles.
The middle tier had a piece of Hakka soon kueh and Hainanese chicken rice while the bottom tier held dessert – a plastic tub of Cantonese beancurd skin and barley broth with a quail egg.
Italian Fine Dine @ Il Lido, KL
Jul 11th
Last night, I went to Il Lido for dinner with my mum. Sad that Christopher or Beng couldn’t come. Anyway, going to Il Lido is like going to some top secret agent building under cover as a restaurant. Hehe. It’s on the first floor, so you gotta take the lift. 2nd floor would be their outdoor bar. Customised chairs and comfy sofas with a bar that has almost everything. You could even watch the KL tower if you are deeply interested. Sad thing about this is that it’s open air. So when it rains.. Not many can go up there. Anyway, back to the main floor – 1st floor. It’s dark with only the tables lit. It’s cold, so you’d better remember to bring along a jacket. It has steps, so watch your step! (: If you don’t see any steps, the waiters would notify you. Don’t you worry. (: Speaking of waiters, they all are so well trained. They are alert, they are observant and attends to you as soon as possible. Ooh, best part of the interior of the restaurant is that they provide a special place to put your belongings/handbags so you don’t have to share your chair with them.
They have 2 private rooms. This is the bigger one. Don’t be fooled by the plastic chairs. It’s one of the most comfortable chairs on Earth. I am dead serious. They ain’t cheap!
The lamp above the private room table. I could stare at it all day long. It’s really quite pretty.
The waiters dress in brown and they are really friendly and attentive people! (:
Focaccia Bread. A little too oily, and too oily to even dip into the olive oil and vinegar. And it takes ages to reach the vinegar.
Crab Salad with Avocado and Bisque Jelly (RM39)
From degustation menu.
Pan Fried Goose Liver with Saba Wine Must and Sweet Potatoe Galette (RM59)
This is from the degustation menu. I *heart* foies gras.
Rigatoni with Lamb Ragout, Fava Beans and Pecorino Cheese (RM39)
Lots of cheese. Bite size lamb which is chewable unlike the lamb shanks. Love-a-ly. Love-a-ly. *MWAH (I think I’m trying too hard to sound like an Italian.)
Tagliolini with Lobster and Spicy ‘Calabria’ Salami (RM59)
They say that the spicy-ness comes only from the special salami they imported but the salami slices would not be visible for some odd reason. The lobster’s nice and so is the tagliolini. This is from the degustation menu so it looks a little smaller in size.
Gorgonzola Cheese and Radicchio Risotto with Hazlenut Sauce (RM39)
I’m not really a fan of risotto but this is OK. They have another champagne risotto with LOTS of truffle. That is quite good as well I heard.
Sardinian Roasted Suckling Pig with Plum Sauce (RM85)
Another from the degustation menu. It would be 3 slices if ala carte. You could hear so clearly how crispy it is when you cut it. YUM.
Duck Leg Confit with Truffle Salad and Caramelized Shallots (RM75)
A little too dry for my liking. Like a lamb shank. Not something I’d want to order. ):
Ricotta Cheese Cake with Orange and Pistacchio (RM29)
What? What’s that on top? GOLD? Yeah. They are real gold flakes. I didn’t really enjoy this though. Imagine a cheesecake which is almost like cream. x10 the dry-ness. And add in the orange and pistacchio pieces in it.
Degustation Menu (RM180)
Il Lido
Jalan Mayang,
Off Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603 2161 2291
http://www.il-lido.com.my
Nang it!
The Picture Company
Jul 8th
Do you take constantly try to snap your own photographs of your kids, little nephews, cousins etc? Isn’t it hard?They just don’t seem to be able to keep still.
No? I don’t have a really stunning photograph of kids. Never. They move too much. ):
Well, I ain’t here to talk about how to photograph kids.
I’m talking to you about The Picture Company! Your ultimate hangout spot to photograph your kids and mark the milestones of their growing up.
Currently, there are 2 outlets. One in One Utama and one in The Gardens.
Well, last Sunday, mum and I decided to check it out cause we had a complimentary ticket for a picture… Might as well. We’d never done this sort of thing and we were like so, so nervous.
We didn’t know what to expect either. Would they do our make-up? Do they have costumes we could borrow?
Anyway, just to play safe, we decided to bring some of our own.
When we arrived at The Picture Company in The Gardens Mall, we found a bright, colourful and happy atmosphere. And that included the staff.
They had many album samples of photographs that were taken by them.
There were 2 staff there when we arrived (on reservation) – Zen and Reza. As you can see, they are happy, cheerful types who put customers at ease.
They were really friendly happy people. They greeted and attended us immediately. Really.
Well, they thought it would be fun we did a few shots with a white background for fun shots and black background for more formal shots. Zen was our photographer.
We had loads of pictures taken, but I’ll only show you two. They are really lovely photographs.
She really captured the moments and made us feel so comfy and not awkward at all.
Here’s some of their baby photographs.
Well, The Picture Company specializes in baby and family photographs, but they do photography of all types, good photographs of couples and groups too!
The Picture Company
Tel: 03-77251918 (One Utama)
03-22841918 (Gardens)
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