2011

Wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year!

2010

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. I finally took down the Christmas tree and decorations. For me, this also marks the start of the new year. Christmas 2009 was also my first Christmas in Belvedere. It was a rather quiet event. New Year was a lot more fun. I had a whole bunch of friends over and did the count down and saw the fireworks from my balcony.
I guess the next thing on my To Do list would be to post up some of those pictures. Do look out for them.

Another Year Older

Another birthday party, another year older. I had a great weekend with my close friends in Sentosa. I should try to post some pics up. The colonial manor at the Capella was fantastic. The unfortunate part was that Capella did not live up to its "more that 5 Star" reputation. Great product but lousy software. I had to wait 40 mins to check in when they had a 24hour check in,check out policy. I did not even arrive early. I arrived at 2pm in the afternoon and was made to wait cause their housekeeping did not communicate with their catering division. This was just one of the many mistakes they made during my stay. Anyway, I had loads of fun with my close friends and that made up for it.

It's the festive season again :)

I had my first cup of toffee nut latte from Starbucks yesterday! This marks the start of the year end festive season. My favourite time of the year. It's been a while since I blogged so this is as good a reason to start again :)

Progression

Its been some months since I completed the renovations at my apartment. I have stayed over for the weekends but I have not tried staying here during the work week. So I guess this is my first night here during a work day. I guess as time progresses, I will be slowing move out of my parents. I guess it takes time for them to adjust and for me as well. But this is a first step.

Restaurant Sazanka, Hotel Okura, Amsterdam

I love Japanese food in general. I knew I was hooked when my parents first introduced me to sashimi that many years ago when I was still a young boy. I guess I must have been no more than 12 then. I loved it for its simplicity, just a piece of raw fish with nothing but wasabi and light soy sauce. I guess my love for Japanese food, or should I say sashimi and sushi, is because it’s non-oily and for the most part and it’s clear and refreshing.
Since then, I have sampled different types of Japanese cooking. I can’t say I am big fan of teppanyaki. Anyway, as part of the series I am writing on restaurants in the Netherlands, I think I should not leave out Sazanka at Hotel Okura in Amsterdam. The teppanyaki at Sazanka has somewhat made me change my view on teppanyaki. Well, below are some of the dishes we had :

Restaurant Sazanka, Lobster tail cooked in rice wine served with scallops

Duck meat cooked to perfection served on top of a salad, followed by beef cooked in

sukiyaki sauce.

Finished off with a simple fried rice and ice cream wrapped

in crapes flambayed with Tia maria

Visaandeschelde

It’s been some weeks since my last entry. Both the New Year and the Chinese New Year festivities are over. It’s now back to the reality of a full work year ahead. In fact, I just came back from a work trip to Amsterdam. As in my previous post, one of the things I look forward to during my trips are the dinners. We usually visit this restaurant called Visaandeschelde. We were recommended to this restaurant by our Dutch partners quite a number of years back and it has become a ritual that we visit it every time we are in Amsterdam. The chef does a 3, 4, or 5 course chef’s surprise and the menu changes every 3-4 weeks. Here are a few pictures I took during my recent visit :

Do visit their website at http://www.visaandeschelde.nl/ if you want to know more about the place.