Must Drink Friday August 2012

It was another round of free flow drinks by Hot FM 91.3's Must Drink Friday held at Lucky 13. All thanks to the invitation from GF, who had once again won the exclusive invites. Lucky girl. Thank you.

Must Drink Friday

Upon registration at the door, the ladies were given a Clinique goodie bag. It consists of three HOT FM 91.3 car decal, a Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion (for very dry to dry combination), a Clinique Liquid Facial Soap Mild (for dry combination), a Clinique Clarifying Lotion (for dry combination), a Clinique Moisture Surge (for all skin types) and a flyer to redeem a travel size mascara when presented at a Clinique counter.

The Clinique goodie bag

To redeem a Clinique travel size mascara

Lucky 13,  a Miami styled diner/bar/club, is a relatively small place, as compared to the other venues the previous MDFs were held in. As we arrived pretty late, the place was already packed with listeners and guests. We settled ourselves at the bar, that was already very crowded, and treated ourselves to the free flow beer, whisky and vodka. Charmaine, the host for this session MDF, appeared and did the usual introduction of their station's DJs. There were a few new additions whom I was not familiar with. They played a game, and the winner walks away with $500 worth of Clinique products. The three selected participants have to dance to the current hottest song, Gangnam Style (by PSY), and the winner is judged with the loudest applause. The makeshift stage area was too crowded and I had only managed to catch a bit of the excitement.

Must Drink Friday is a monthly event held by HOT FM 91.3 on every last Friday of the month. To get the exclusive invites, listeners will have to send in SMS in a certain format, and when selected, the lucky listener can bring another three friends to the event. Every MDF will have a theme, and this time, it's Stripes in Style.


HOT FM 91.3
www.radio913.com

Lucky 13
www.lucky13.sg 
#01-02 TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Road

Singapore Chinese Opera Museum - Bian’s Cafe

Today's lunch was at Bian's Cafe at Sultan Plaza. On serveral previous occasions, we wanted to get our lunch at the Bian's Cafe located on the Kandahar Street, but it was closed. Instead, we saw the cafe in Sultan Plaza and my guess was that they had moved.

The place was nicely decorated with chinese opera related photos, decorations and props. It was a cosy little place. We were seated and wanted to look at their menu, but the only menu they had was the one on the wall, over at their counter. So we had to leave our seats and return to the entrance to order.

The food were not fantastic. Normal or some below average. We also ordered drinks. Colleague says the Latte is the best among all the stuff we had ordered. The food came very slowly as there was only one cook and many orders. I could see other tables who were seated much later than us already had their food served while our table was only half served. Seems like they are unable to handle well during busy period.

Almost after lunch time, most of the patrons left, and they started setting up the place, moving tables and chairs to one side. The lady said that they were going to have a class.

The bill came up to about $56.00 for the five of us. I would not go back for the food, but maybe only for the friendliness and quiet, cosy ambience.

One of the wall is filled up with framed photos of the chinese opera singers

More chinese opera items and the history on the wall

The hot drinks are served in this mug. 

Dumplings
Nothing fanciful.

French Fries
Nothing fanciful. Oily.

Three Mushrooms Chicken with Rice
Comments were that it tastes nice, but not salty enough.
Even though the person eating pour in lots of soya sauce, it is still too bland

Pork Ribs Noodles
Comment was that the noodles is normal, and nothing fantastic.

Chicken Chop Noodles
This is my order. And sad to say, they threw in a free plastic wrap (See top right)
They forgot to remove the wrap for the chicken! Gosh. They changed a new bowl for me.
But it looks like the same bowl. Overall, does not taste nice.

Curry Chicken with Bread
Comments were that the curry tastes like it is from a canned or prepack seasoning.
But the bread, yum, Crispy! Bite in and you can hear how crispy it is.
This is the only dish that passes.

Singapore Chinese Opera Museum
http://www.singopera.com.sg/
100 Sultan Plaza #01-27

Java Detour

Due to the disappointing chicken cordon bleu sandwich from last friday, I met up with gf to satisfy my appetite with a delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu and Egg Salad.

The egg salad was a little tasteless. Not really recommended. The chicken sandwich is definitely my favourite.

The service standard was the same as the previous visit. Slow. They like to prepare an item at a time then call out when done. We had to walk at least three trips to the counter to collect our food. Two fruitless trips: once, we heard the wrong item and next, they made the wrong order. But they were friendly. We did not manage to order any cakes as our little tummies are already full from the egg salad and sandwich.

Egg Salad $9.00

Chicken Cordon Bleu $14.00
Crispy Chicken, Honey Baked Ham, Melted Cheddar, Lettuce & Tomato on wholemeal bread

Java Detour
Marina Bay Sands Resort #01-30
http://www.marinabaysands.com/singapore-restaurants/quick-eats/java-detour/

Soup Restaurant

It was a family dinner affair at The Soup Restaurant after watching the movie, "The Expendables 2". As usual, the food taste fantastic. The only downside is the peanut snack. It's chilli crisps with peanuts, does not taste nice and too spicy for us. The entire plate was almost untouched. We still prefer the previous, plain crispy peanuts.

Samsui Ginger Chicken (L) $29.90 ++
Must order dish when eating in Soup Restaurant.

Ah Kong Fan Shu Leaves (M) $12.90++
The spicy version of Fan Shu Leaves. The non spicy is named "Ah Ma". 

Boiled Soup of the Day (M) $12.90
Soup of the day is the Lotus Roots Soup. Very tasty.

Fried Baby Kai Lan with Dang Gui (M) $14.90
Don't really like this dish. Might be because of the the Dang Gui, causing it to be bitter.

Claypot Toufu (M) $12.00
Soft and juicy

Soup Restaurant

http://www.souprestaurant.com.sg/
Jurong Point Shopping Centre #02-33

‘HWZ PlayTest: A Shot of Goodness with Samsung NX1000’ Workshop

Signed up for the ‘HWZ PlayTest: A Shot of Goodness with Samsung NX1000’ Workshop! by Samsung and HWZ with Lynn through the Herworld's EDM. We signed up at the same time, but only I received the invite. I was quite disappointed as I was to go alone and due to last night's late night, I could not really get up early and was about 5 minutes late into the event.

The event was held at Zero Zero, #04-86 at Central. The event had already started and it lasted about 2 hours, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. Each of us were given a slice of coffee chocolate cake and a cup of orange juice. There were 3 speakers in total. Two from HWZ and the last was a lecturer from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Powerpoint slides printout was also provided by the last speaker. He also had quizzes and the clever and fast participants received prizes like spa vouchers.

Second speaker for the event

Third (last) speaker, William, for the event. His session was the longest and with the hands-on

William's powerpoint slides. The refreshments/snacks given.
I only finish up after the event as I want to take some photos as and when ;) 

The workshop consists of topics covering Mirrorless Cameras, in consumer's point of view, the technical aspects of mirrorless cameras, and the last part was on How to take Food Photography. Basics on photography like exposure, adjusting the Shutter, Aperture and ISO and also the things to note when taking food photos. The best is to place the food against natural light and with the aid of side light to brighten the dark shadow cast on the subject. Things color-complimenting the subject can help aid the composition.

Of course, the main lead for the day is the Samsung NX1000. It comes in 3 colours, Black, White and Pink. Its image sensor is about 20.3MP. Its main selling feature is the ability to upload the photos directly to any social media platform through Wi-Fi.

We were then given a hands on session to try out the Samsung NX1000 camera and try out the tips given by the speaker with some dishes prepared by Zero Zero.

Our table. Photos photos..

A food blogger with some questions for the first speaker.

Everyone's busy trying out the camera and the tips.

Black Samsung NX1000. The interface of the camera. 

Pink Samsung NX 1000 with the pancake lens.

At the end of the workshop, we were given a survey form and also a goodie bag. The goodie bag consist of a Samsung NX1000 broucher, a HWM July issue, a Samsung-Chelsea water bottle, a Samsung luggage tag and a 8GB Scandisk thumbdrive. Quite cool. Ah.. The tips and hands-on, made me feel like getting another kind of lens on top of the kit lens that I have, to play around ;)

The goodie bag consists of these items

More photos from Samsung Singapore Facebook.

Here's how to win that Samsung NX1000 camera:

Share your thoughts about the workshop on Samsung Singapore’s Facebook Fanpage before 30 August, 2012 and stand to win a Samsung NX1000 camera! 

Step 1 – Go to www.facebook.com/SamsungSingapore & ‘Like’ the page
Step 2 – Search for the album named ‘HWZ Playtest - A Shot of Goodness with Samsung NX1000’
Step 3 – Post a comment saying what you have learnt most from this workshop

That’s it! And Samsung will select one winner from the comments to win the camera.

Hatched at Holland Village

Saturday evening's dinner was at Hatched in Holland Village with my girlfriends. Most were first timers. And I really like the decorations in there. Very cute. Eggs!

CF and I were there first and gotten ourselves a table while we waited for the others to reach. I guess we were quite early as there were still quite a number of empty tables. It was only after about 7pm, the place was packed. There was a second level too, saw the stairs and someone was being ushered up when I went to the toilet. The toilet stinks by the way.

There were quite a number of service crew members, but it was a reasonable number after knowing that there is another level of Hatched customers to serve. The overall service was good.

Love the Salt and Pepper. It's in the shape of eggs. The menu were colorful and funky too.

Cheese Fries $12.00
It is a very big portion. No wonder the price is bigger portion too.

Burly Benedict $13.00 (One) $19.00 (Two)
This is marked as a must try. However, it's beef and I can't try.

Popeye's Salute $13.00 (One) $19.00 (Two)
I ordered this. Even though it looks pretty boring, with just the poached egg on top of
spinach and half a muffin, it tastes not too bad. I quite liked it. Taste nice and healthy.

Papillote ($16.00)
Smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and toast. Forked a little of the scrambled egg
to try and it taste bland. Maybe a pinch of salt and pepper would do the trick.

Hatched
www.hatched.sg/
Evans (26 Evans Road Evans Lodge #01-06)
Holland Village (267 Holland Avenue)

The Handburger

The Handburger was the final decision for our dinner place on a Friday night. We waited quite a while for our seats. I have no idea they are busy or full. I saw a few empty tables. But we still had to wait.

The guy who took our order was extremely blur. Ah. But he's a trainee and he was very hardworking, filling up our cups with water. So, no harm done.

Buffalo Wings $9.80
Super duper salty. All of us kept downing water to clear the taste

Pulled Pork $12.80
 (I first heard it as Pooh and I was horrified)

Stuffed Portobello $14.80
The color did not look very appetizing.
Comment was that it's a tad too bland.

Chicken Cajun Cordon Bleu $15.80
I had this. Quite disappointed. Thought it would be somewhere
near the Cordon Bleu sandwich from Java Detour.

The Handburger
www.thehandburger.com/
313 @ Somerset #B2-17/18/19
Raffles City Shopping Centre #B1-65/66