After a busy day at work, I just want to stone amidst lush greenary and enjoy a simple dinner. I’ve been visiting this place quite often these days. Ever been to a garden in a cafe somewhere in China Square Central? Gotta thank 24seven for the tasting session which brought me to Eden Sanctuary. You can find blog entries about our exclusive Rainbow Cuisine tasting over at Diana, Amanda, Calvin, Justin and Veron‘s blog. I gotta miss that entry because Chuck screwed up again. Oh Chuck. Why.
Forget Chuck. Since I’m fast becoming a regular here, it is more appropriate for me to share on some of the staple dishes here which you can find on the menu! Unlike other conventional cafes, stepping into Eden Sanctuary really really feels like home. Everyone is well taken of at Chef Clement’s cosy dining room.
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Dinner last night started with the Tomato Basil Tartlet ($7.90). Though it looked like a typical canapé, it actually tasted better than what I had at Restaurant Week. Love the crispy savoury crust filled with a tomato based sauce on the inside. Magic of this finger delight is the fresh basil leave hidden beneath the layer of cheese.
These savoury tartlets are such delicate sweethearts. Complementary flavours of tomato, cheese, fennel, herbs and especially the refreshing tones of a lucky basil leave perked me up for what’s coming up!
Creamless Homestyle Pumpkin Soup ($4.00)
I wish mom was here. She always complains about cooking pumpkins. Well, I’ve tried creamy pumpkin soups and it wasn’t spectacular. So I’m particularly pleased with Eden Sanctuary’s clear broth version with herbs. I enjoyed every spoonful of pumpkin bumps, shreds or chucks. The texture is so inconsistently attractive, I’m hating how I am polishing off the bowl in just 5 minutes. Argh. It’s hard to flirt with a bowl of soup. They don’t last very long.
Fan of Shakespeare? I am especially when it come to his timeless tales of love and human fallacy. Remember Sir Andrew in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night who tried desperate to flirt with a maiden by the name of Maria and failed terrible? It is he who said “I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit”. Well, he’s a meathead if he has never tried Balsamic Strawberry Beef ($9.90). Look at that chunk of wonderment.
Oops Sir Andrew, pardon me. Nay you wouldn’t enjoy this if you don’t fancy an unconventional twist to your meat. I had mine at medium with a slight tarty. sourish pinch on the tongue. It was lovely. Accompanied with a drizzle of savoury sauce, the strawberries set off a fruity refinement to an otherwise typical piece of meat.
I’m sorry sweethearts. When I get started on literature, I can’t stop. So in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare takes a amusing approach to expose the ways humans fall prey to pride, vanity and self-deception. So we are all fools of our own deception. I felt like a simpleton fool just like Sir Andrew more often than not. Fools that are easily pleased, easily contented, easily amused. So tell me. Is that good or bad?
Nevertheless, perhaps there’s really nothing to hide especially after savouring the next dish at Eden Sanctuary. I could smell it as Chef Clement was on his way to my table. Ginger Leek Peanut Butter Fish ($6.90). Odd combination isn’t it? But trust me. You should really try this. There’s just something graceful and clever about this down-to-earth dish that screams simplicity.
Each mouthful is a blast of flavours from the distinct taste of ginger, leek and peanut butter. Yet surprisingly with such powerful elements, I could still taste the flaky fishy fish tucked under the brownish garb! No wonder Chef Clement said that a fish should taste like a fish no matter how it is prepared. You get that? Say bye bye to tasteless meat!
By the way, it’s a must to get a pot of floral tea to accompany these delicate creations. It goes perfectly well with the food here. All in all, Eden Sanctuary offers simple, natural and light on the tummy meals. A week ago I was here for lunch and the Creamless Carbonara Pasta was awesome! Yup CREAMLESS! I could successfully finish a slice of cheese cake after that! Ah ah ah, nothing to be guilty about because Chef Clement made sure that it’s a balanced, healthy meal. I’m just a simply fool at Eden Sanctuary waiting for the next serving of his witty creation.
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Eden Sanctuary Floral Cafe
18 Cross Street #01-16
China Square Central
Tel : 6224 2298
Remember to call for reservations!
Darlings! I had a really good time at the exclusive backstage tour with fellow bloggers and naval officers at the Navy Open House! These people have such stout spirits.
With so much excitement in the air, it didn’t felt like a frigid navy open house at all. It was more like some sort of a family carnival for everyone to participate and have some fun. Haha.
Look at that warship. AWESOME. But it didn’t looked ferocious enough over that beautiful background.
In fact, the entire place had a fun, carnival feel to it until some PIRATES came and terrorized everyone! hahahaa. They just suddenly came out of no where! And with MACHINE GUNS. Woah I was on a live movie set!
The mean gang snatched a hostage from the audience and that poor guy was man-handled all the way to this rectangular cut-off of a building that was supposed to be a pirate boat. I’m not going to share more until the event is over. Don’t want to be a spoiler.
But honestly, I was so entertained by this showcase! Military strategy was employed from the sky, into the sea and onto land. VERY EXCITING. This show is 100000x better than the last movie I watched – The Last Song. Yucks. Miley Cyrus. Ew.
Of course. That poor guy was rescued in the end. Pss by the way, the pirates are actually elite Naval Divers! Such great acting skills! Especially the diver that looked like a Taliban terrorist.
Well if you really want to know what happened during the show. Ok ok. Here’s Diana‘s take. Erm this awesome Naval Sea Display is only available twice a day. So take note of the timings:
22 May: 10am and 3.30pm
23 May: 11.30am and 3.30pm
Yeah. You can’t expect elite Naval Divers to do this over and over again the entire day right? Lolx.
Hey remember the other time when I went on a clipper ride and got myself a super ugly tan? This time, I boarded a MACHO-ER vessel! A Frigate! And it has a name! Steadfast! My adorable Chuck was feeling a little shy to make friends with Steadfast because he feels extremely small next to this humongous vessel. But they got along fine eventually. Steadfast is very friendly and told Chuck stories of his high seas adventures. Then Pete got jealous. OK I don’t want to go into this so never mind.
Before we went on Steadfast, Diana and I took a magic pill.
She’s so pretty isn’t she? She’s damn cool and horny. I like.
Back to the warship. Humble as he is, Steadfast is actually a Formidable-class frigate. Ok Frigates are highly capable warships equipped with state-of-art combat systems that allow him to perform a wife spectrum of missions and deal with a range to threats in all dimensions of naval warfare. In short, he is very fierce. Haha.
Steadfast is armed with lots of vicious war tools. I got up close and personal with cold, hard harpoons and saw malicious missiles and torpedoes murdered deserving pirate vessels. Check out Diana’s blog for more pictures shots. I brought Pete’s 50mm girlfriend along and failed miserably to take good pictures inside.
Only good picture I got was this.
Major Tan Yong Chye, a hunky ex-CLEO bachelor told me pirates are a menace because they will steal from merchant ships! Can you imagine those evil pirates taking away a whole container of stuff you like without paying a single cent? Totally UNFAIR. Not like we can be pirates too right? So don’t you agree that they should be killed by torpedoes or missiles. Haha. Kidding. My priest would probably kill me if he saw what I just typed. I’m sorry Father. Was just thinking out loud.
Anyway the tour was awesome and very informative. If you are curious about the inside of Frigates, Landing Ships Tank, Missile Corvettes, Patrol Vessels and Mine Countermeasure Vessels, you can’t miss this event. But you need to ballot for a guided tour, ya? Just ballot for the tour at any information booth. If your ballot is successful, you will be notified by phone to collect the tickets.
You know, the tour reminded me of the tour I had up on an oil rig. But instead of engineers and riggers, I had the company of charming naval officers! Ok here’s one of them.
Name: Major Noel
Age: 30
Favourite colour: red, pink, pastel yellow, magenta, purple
Past time: buying kinky sunglasses and checking blogs owned by beauties like Clara, Diana and Feliza!
Background: He served at the Caribbean Gulf. Oops. I meant the Arabian Gulf.
Nice guy. Ok I made up all the facts above except for the name, age and background. Any questions from you? Just email me. I’ll pass you his contact. Hehe.
Moving on, the highlight of my frigate tour was the Combat Information Center. CIC for short. Sorry! Didn’t took any pictures here because it is super dark like a dark photography room. It was kinda romantic though. You should make your way here and witness the stimulation of a evil attack of a merchant ship by treacherous pirates!
I liked how technology and automation plays such crucial role in the navy. Wonder if Malaysia’s navy is as cool as this. Walking into the bridge of the ship is just like walking into the set of Starwars. Buttons and odd-looking objects were all over the place. Well the bridge of the ship actually controls everything and is usually the first area to be targeted when under attack. Scaryyy but isn’t that thrilling?
OH check out this high-tech microwave!
Well, the Navy Open House is only happening this weekend! So make time for this event if you want to check out what’s behind-the-scenes of Singapore’s modern maritime force, explore macho vessels or even try being a sailor for a day.
Had to rushed off early for an important work event or I would have tried the rides on the small crafts! So if I were you, I’ll hop on the Fast Craft Utility from the welldocks of the Landing Ships Tank and check out the Navy’s ?Duck Tours? from the North Wharf.
Have an incredible outing and remember to put on sunblock! I hope you get to spot the mysterious Submarine that may make an appearance in the waters of the base. Bah I know my weekend is gonna be super busy. Hope I have time to sort out all those lovely pictures from Perth and share some interesting places.
I got all jittery at the National Museum of Singapore as the moment to meet my idol, Ian Wright drew close! I thought he would turn up wearing that amusing Siberian wrestler outfit!
Nah he didn’t wore that. But I still love him!
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The event was graced by the attendance of VIPS from Starhub and Discovery Travel & Living. Was glad that Catherine, Walter and Jayden were here as well to savor this tasteful dinner! You guys were great company. Thanks Belinda and Audrey for the invite. I had so much fun and it’s a brilliant idea to showcase a tailor-made menu in relation to Ian recent travel adventure. I couldn’t agree more that travel and food goes hand-in-hand together.
While we chow down these variations of exotic cuisine, Ian shared snippets of Okinawa, Siberia, Cuba, Venezuela and Sri Lanka. I think the highlight of the day was him proudly stripping off his shirt to reveal a peachy sun burn he acquired in Bali prior to his visit to Singapore. How lovely.
He caught everyone’s attention. Mine especially.
Right, lets move on. Ah since the dishes meant to mimic the cuisine of places Ian features in his latest show Out of Bounds, I anticipated something out-of-the-ordinary. The dishes by Novus were decent but I presume that authentic exotic ingredients were unavailable and thus, everything served tasted like fusion cuisine with a dash of Singapore lurking in it somewhere.
First up was a variation of Pelmeni, Siberian meat dumplings.
These wanton-look-alikes were average but I could grasp the idea of remoteness and the unforgiving environment in Siberia via the edgy combination of sour cream, dicey minced chicken and smooth broth with chives. But if that harsh environment could not deter Ian from trekking across the wastelands of one of the world’s most isolated regions, I could not be bothered too. After all, this was the country what put the ‘cold’ into Cold War. Can’t wait to catch Ian on his epic journey to Siberia where he learns the art of throat-singing from young Tuvans, takes on their dads in a wrestling match, and spends the weekend with Yurt-dwelling sheepherders. I am so jealous.
Kakuluwo. Blue crab curry with coconut and rice.
A fusion dish with influence from a country that has just ended a thirty-year civil war which left thousands dead, the chunks of crab meat with aromatic spicy curry brought to mind of a violently attractive place. Imagine spots herds of elephants roaming wild in the jungles, awesome giant Buddhas or castles that float on the top of giant rocks. Well, here’s where Ian indulges in some of the most delicious food in the world, and hangs out with the spooky Devil Dancers of Kandy. Trust me. You wouldn’t want to miss that episode.
Mojito. This mocktail was enthused by Ian’s visit to Cuba! A refreshing concoction of lime, brown sugar and mint, the last thing that came to my mind when I tasted this Cuban drink was cigars.
Blame me for over-generalising this beautiful island that lies just 90 miles off the Florida coast. But for 50 years, Cuba has been a no-go zone. Boycotts, blockades and Bolsheviks have meant that most people harbour a fear and mistrust towards this country. You too? Not anymore I guess after Ian swore to change all these negativity. Expect to see him venture into the heartland of Cuba on a journey that takes him from the bubbling metropolis of Havana via Fidel Castro’s secret mountain hideout to Cuba’s buzzing music capital, Santiago Di Cuba. I’m looking forward to watch him go wacky with cowboys, boxers, dancers, musicians and a 90 year-old coconut collector who showed him how to climb a palm tree! Sigh. What a remarkable journey. I wish I’m Ian. AGAIN.
Then there was the Lamb Shwarma, a Syria inspired lamb dish. I could smell the grilled lamb before it was served.
Accompanied by pita bread with yoghurt and hummus, the essence of this dish was strong and dry. Pretty much sums up the ancient city of Damascus that has been consistently welcoming visitors for thousands of years but has parched and become a symbol of repression and aloofness today. I was told that Ian took part in an ancient Christian festival in Melula, and finally takes a train to Alleppo where he discovers the secrets of Islam’s Whirling Dervishes. Mythical and mysterious. That’s Syria in a nutshell.
Last dish inspired by Ian travels was Quesillo, a Venezuelan dessert.
The idea of serving Venezuelan caramel flan with fresh berries offered a double-edged take towards Venezuela’s provocative character. I mean the dish was pretty just like how Miss Venezuela always shines at Miss World Universe pageants but the mix of all these subtle sweet flavours just burst over the seams; intriguing me even more. Thus it is not surprising that this is where Ian did more extraordinary stuff ie. witnessed one of South America’s biggest Christian festivals, journeys down river to meet indigenous tribes, hunts for a children’s ghetto orchestra, and finally ends up on Margarita Island – one of the world’s most notorious cocaine smuggling haunts.
Sounds like an awful load of work was put into filming this travel series.
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Food aside, I actually quite worried that I would utter gibberish when he was going to pop by our table, and hence, I decided to shut up. My gawd. He was always in TV. How on earth did I manage to even stand next to him? This is the guy who travelled everywhere and now he is just millimeters away from me. I thought I was dreaming again.
My dream turned in fantasy when he kindly obliged to give me a kiss! He’s such a good sport! I’m so glad that I managed to calm my nerves and boldly requested for a tiny little peck on my cheek.
That’s not all! I was given the chance to go on stage and play Pictionary with Ian! I was on his team! Awesome! Ian’s exuberant personality is so contagious.
The euphoria following this event gave me the motivation to keep on sharing my experiences with friends via this humble blog of mine. And come to think about it, my love affair with Ian started way back when dad signed up for cable TV and I hungrily pestered him to subscribe to Discovery Travel & Living. My rational was that if I can’t travel extensively at that point, might as well start doing research and join wacky travel hosts on their adventures. Never did I know, years later, Discovery Travel & Living would be a source of inspiration for my blog which have evolved over time to what it is today.
AND honestly if you are still reading this super long post, I can assume that you are either a hardcore Ian Wright fan or you are really keen to catch a breather yet still stuck in your apartment.
If I’m right, feel free to join Ian at Discovery Travel & Living. Simply catch his latest show Out of Bounds that is premiering on 20 May, 9pm!
He never disappoints!
Ooh one last thing before I forget. If you are on Twitter, you can follow @travelnliving for updates AND watch this space because I’m so gonna rave about my trip down under right after this.
I can’t believe it. I’m actually going on a dinner date with Ian Wright, the witty, humourous, brilliant, campy, versatile, discerning, entertaining Globe Trekker host!! Thanks Aud! I LOVE YOU!
I’m super EXCITED!! *JUMPS AROUND IN GLEE*
After watching on him doing crazy stuff with people all over the world right in my living room for years, I’m actually meeting the person who’s job is doing exactly what I want to do before I turn 40! Travelling here, there, everywhere! Difference is, he gets paid for doing that.
Back in high school, most of my lazy weekend afternoons were spent watching the Discovery Travel & Living Channel with mom and each time when Ian comes on screen trying out wacky stuff in foreign lands, I would solemnly advise mom to be prepared for the worst because in the near future, her daughter will be ‘missing’ for months doing stuff like that minus the on-screen telecast of course. I did promised to send her pictures, postcards and call whenever I can but you know moms, they get paranoid when daughters have zany plans of travelling alone. It’s worst when she don’t understand Facebook.
And that was like 5 years ago? I’ve tried to explore as far as I can but with time and moolah constraints, I’m still nowhere near a female version of Ian Wright. Well let’s see. 40? Another 16 more years to go. Loads of time left. Erm.. just need to figure out how to earn a huge long break and lots of moolah!
:S
Now take a deep breathe before I continue with utmost envy for what this man has done with his life which I totally wish to at least experience half of it.
In a span of 15 years, Ian practically travalled all over the world! I am like jumping up the wall now because I’m being reminded again that his adventures are all fully paid for! Can you imagine living that kind of life? He spent three months in Egypt, seven months traveling around India and Nepal, and six months traveling around Europe including Poland and Romania. I’m so jealous!! Check out the long list of countries he featured!
Jaws-dropping? Hold it.
I proudly announce that Ian’s latest show, Ian Wright: Out of Bounds is gonna premiere this May 20 on Discovery Travel & Living every Thursday at 9:00 pm! Goodness! With no new places to explore, Ian now turns his attention to the world’s most remote, unusual and least visited places in the world!
Let’s see. Okinawa, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Sri Lanka and Siberia. What? SIBERiA? Gosh. With this new TV series bringing him further than he’s ever been before, NO places are out of bounds for this lucky dude.
Did you just screamed awesomeness? I shrieked outrageous!
Haha. Here’s a sneak peek at Ian messing around in Siberia.
I can’t wait for Tuesday to come.
I’m not just full of envy for him. I also like his spirit. I admire his sincere take on bringing travel explorations to a deeper level by going beyond introducing glamourous attractions to simply doing exactly what the Romans do in Rome. For real. No kidding. This guy thrives on getting his hands dirty.
Ian had me at hello when he said:
“ Comforts don’t interest me. The sort of trips I go on are all about living cheap and getting dirty which is how I like it.”
I’m sold. Getting dirty never sounded sexier. That quote from him basically sums up my travel philosophy. Sure, comfort is great but nothing beats going off track to check out real conditions on the ground where I can mess around with real people with stories to share.
Ian had my utmost respect when he questioned the effects of tourism on underdeveloped countries in an interview with Time Asia. I remember discussing this social concern during a sociology class in uni. It’s tough to force people to ignore tourism dollars when it comes knocking. So the best way to highlight this issue is through influential TV personalities like Ian. Rock on, Ian! You’re my favourite travel icon.
I love you!
You know, I’m actually going to tell him that personally over dinner.
*giggles*
Can someone please tell me that I’m not dreaming? I still can’t believe how I got myself invited to this exclusive event! I’m having dinner with Ian Wright on Tuesday! I’m dreaming! Am I?
Last Saturday morning was not put to waste as I went under the sunny weather and got a healthy dose of Vitamin D. Good thing we did not chanced upon any ox-eye/a cloud or other weather phenomenon that may be indicative of an upcoming storm. Marina at Keppel Bay is a very pretty place. Was here exactly a month ago for the NYE yacht party.
Huge red Keppel logo on the clipper as it was the main sponsor of the Uniquely Singapore yacht in the 09-10 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race! Very amusing how I keep running into stuff affiliated with this company. First, it was Ken. We were quite into Keppel Nights for a period of time. Then there’s the very interesting oil rig tour. And now I’m going sailing! Woo hoo!
It was blazing hot! Wanted to get a healthy tan but freaked out during breakfast. Don’t want to look like Ken. He went sun tan and became an ugly brownie after peeling for a week. So bought the mini Mentholatum Sunplay SPF130 sun block from Guardian. $1.95 only! Woah good stuff. It worked like magic.
The crew on board were very friendly and I got a feel of their enthusiasm to be sailing around the world! Singapore is actually the 4th leg of the race and up next is Qing Dao, China. Would you want to be an ocean racer too?
Fyi The Clipper Race is the only round the world yacht race for non-professional sailors and takes place every two years. This means people from all walks of life can sign up to be ocean racers! Apparently many of those who took part had no sailing experience before they began their pre-race Clipper Training. But be prepared to leave everything behind for at least a year to pursue this extraordinary aspiration.
Uniquely Singapore is helmed by Singapore-born Skipper Jim Dobie, whose present crew includes female Keppel Ambassador Karan Teo as well as Nicole Ho, who is circumnavigating round the world. In just ten months, the race will see the international Clipper Race fleet cross five continents and visit 14 ports, including Brazil, Qingdao and California. So cool! Around the world! I also wanna go! But on second thoughts.. maybe not. I don’t want to end up looking like a sun-dried tomato.
Despite the scorching UV-rays, I enjoyed the breeze and awesome sea view as the Uniquely Singapore Clipper sailed across the waves. It was generally a smooth ride.
Briefly pondered if I am up to the challenge of becoming an ocean racer but my hopes were dashed shortly. Though the Uniquely Singapore Clipper was easily sailed and maneuvered, I freaked out minutes after I steered the clipper when it tilted precariously to one side! SCARY. I think the girls screamed in horror or maybe it was just me.
Ben attempted to do some tacking/zig-zagging so as to sail directly towards the wind. Not bad. Lester and Lionel was pretty good at steering too. As you can see, the clipper is quite narrow. It’s an amazing feat for such a compact vessel to house a team of ocean racers.
Didn’t really dared to move around the clipper. But my fear of falling overboard gave way to photo opportunities! Haha. Stole Vic’s bright yellow sunnies.
Big thank you to Ben and Lionel of Singapore Tourism Board for the invite to be onboard the Uniquely Singapore Clipper! Though we were all pooped after sailing across the wind for 3 hours, this outing was extremely enjoyable! Most of us went home with uneven tan but Victor acquired a really strange tan because he only smeared a streak of sunblock on his arm. Lol.
Last but not least, wanna thank Huishan for the lovely pictures! Lucky girl! No sun block but unly her eyelids were burnt! Can you believe it? Anyway the rest of the pictures were taken by me using Hipstamatic for iPhone. Nice?
If you noticed, the few italic words in this post are all commonly used nautical terms. More at wiki.
