Tampopo Day Out @ Liang Court

Met up with the gals for lunch at Liang Court to catch up with one another and also to share SL's joy as she is happily 4 mths pregnant already.  :)  We were a bit kiasu and arranged to meet at 11.45am in order to avoid the long queue.  However, none of us except SL made it on time and we smsed one another that we would be late.  Haha... I was the last one to arrive and when I reached, the rest told me that they had placed their order.  They all ordered the same type of ramen, which was the Black Pig Shabu Ramen which the restaurant was famous for.  It was supposed to be spicy but my friends all requested that the chilli flakes to be served separately.  According to them, the soup seemed to be a bit bland and they all added lots of chilli flakes into the soup in the end.

I ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen as I like fried pork cutlets.  However, I think this was a big let-down.  I would not comment much on the ramen as I think it was quite ordinary, nothing to wow about.  When I took the first bite of the pork cutlet, I spat it out as it was a whole piece of fat!  Eeeeek!  The other pieces were also very "fat" and hard.  So disappointing.  The soup was pretty spicy and I guessed all other tastes were already overpowered by the spiciness.  This bowl of ramen had failed to impress me and I am really not a fussy eater, really. :(

Clam soup

Service was ok although my bowl of ramen came first although I was the last to order.  My friends waited for quite a while for their ramen to arrive and they thought their orders were forgotten.  As most of the staff were PRCs, my friends joked that we were like eating in a Chinese restaurant, no "Japanese feel".  When eating the Japanese ramen, we all had the feeling that we were like eating Chinese Dan Dan noodle or some sort.  No offence.    

 

After lunch at Tampopo, we went to Meidi-ya to do a bit of shopping.  I bought a box of miso paste.  Craving for desserts as usual, we settled at Tampopo Deli.  We almost missed this place as it was located at a very secluded corner at the basement of Liang Court, opposite Meidi-ya.  We looked at the nice collection of cakes, tarts and puddings that they displayed.  We were like wanted to try everything out!  So, as usual, we ordered 5 different items to share amongst the 5 of us.  We were really very impressed with their cakes, very fluffy and moist.  Texture of the chiffon cakes was soft.  Much better than the ones we had at Royal Copenhagen. 

Pudding Tart

Mont Blanc

Matcha Chiffon Cake

Banana Chiffon Cake

Cream Puff

Photo with SL and Joyce :)

I also bought a cheese chiffon cake for hubby who was at home.  Would be back soon!

20 Years of Animation - Pixar Exhibition @ Science Centre

I got a pair of admission tickets to Pixar Exhibition from OMY and Singapore Science Centre.  I just signed up as an "OMY" member and this was my first invite from them.  :)  Hope I will continue to get more previews of movies and exciting events from them!!  Whoohoo!!

Was pretty excited when I received their email as I love Pixar movies and was really looking forward to the exhibition to learn more about the "behind the scenes" in making the characters and movies. 

Entrance to Pixar Exhibition at the Annexe, Singapore Science Centre

You will find Sulley and Mike from Monster. INC welcoming you at the entrance

Look at his fur!  The exhibition will give you information on how the animators come up with this character and how they come up with the final look of Sulley and many other Pixar well known characters.

In my opinion, I think this Pixar Exhibition is more suitable for adults and not really for kids as they may not have the patience to appreciate every art pieces and artefacts in the exhibition.  Or rather, they may not even understand what the exhibition is all about.  There is no Pixar soft toy for them to cuddle or touch.  Why I need to emphasize on this is because I had seen kids rolling on the floor and making a bit of noise during the exhibition.  For me, as my job is of some relevance to design, I spent around 3 hours at the exhibition.  Another plus point was that for us, the group of bloggers who got the invitation had gotten special permission to take photographs in the exhibtion hall which is strictly not allowed for the general public :) 

A peep into Pixar History

The organizers brought us to the 2 highlights of the exhibition and after that, they let us roam freely to explore on our own.

1st Hightlight:  Toy Story Zoetrope

This is really, really amazing!! You can find over 100 figurines here, which are characters from Toy Story eg. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Aliens, Jessie etc mounted on precise points on the disc. The disc spins at a speed of 1 revolution per second. It demonstrated the basic principles of animation before the invention of film ie how to achieve the perception of motion through the illusion of continuous activity

The aliens are so cute.  Through this technique, it seems that the aliens are waving at you!  It is all illusion of fluid motion!!  Cool!

2nd highlight:  Artscape

This short film sort of brings you into the artists' world. It allows us to experience imagery from the artist's perspective. The concept sketches all come "alive" in Artscape.

Interactive Kiosk

You should NOT give this a miss. Although there are only 3 terminals, try to ensure that you spend some time here to see how the artists at Pixar work, it is very interesting. For instance, in order to model the movement of the characters for a particular scene, the artists also have to act out the as the characters of the story and analyse the movement of the body parts, facial expressions etc.

This exhibition also gave me a greater insight into the making of Pixar movies, the amount of work and effort they had put in.  I will definitely appreciate Pixar movies even more in future.  In the making of "Finding Nemo", the filmmakers did extensive research and even went scuba-diving with the marine botanists to find out more about marine life.

Colourscripts

A Colourscript is an artwork that visually supports the emotional content of an entire story through general colour, lighting and mood.  It depicts the whole story in chronological format that allows one to see the basic structure of colour applied to the entire film.

Colourscipts of "The Incredibles":

Urethane Resin Models

Models are made to let the animators "feel" the character, how it looks from different angles etc.

Remember this Anglerfish in "Finding Nemo"?

Sulley again :)

The Pixar Exhibition will be held till 27 Jun, so be sure to catch it before it is too late!

In addition, this coming Saturday something quite happening is taking place at the Science Centre:

"Come dressed as your favourite PIXAR character "

on

29th May 2010 (Sat)

Time:  12 - 3pm

Singapore Centre Annexe

If you think you can look like Woody, Buzz  Lightyear, Dash of The Incredibles or even Rusell from UP, be the first 100 to pass the test and you will be granted free entry to the exhibition for you.

Found this on the Internet.  Really look alike right?

PS:  Would really like to give credit to the owner of this photograph but I couldn't remember where I grabbed this photo :P

29 May is also Science Centre Charity Day.  There is a series of interesting programmes lined up for you and your kids.

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11 - 12pm:  Dance Performance

12 - 3pm:  Pixar "Come Dessed as your Favourite Character" contest

Science Performances by Science buskers

3 - 4pm:  Face Painting and Cartoon Tattooing

4 - 5pm:  Shrink Caricatures and Magician Art

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Free flow of popcorn and candy floss throughout the day (10am – 5pm)! Balloons & DIY souvenirs will be given away, while stocks last. All proceeds from SCS ticket sales will be donated to Charity.

Pontian Wanton Noodles @ Toa Payoh

Today is the start of the first weekend spent with hubby after he came back from the States. Morning at around 10 plus, we went over to our friends' house to pass them our Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner as they would like to try the system first before investing about 3k on the cleaner.   After that, we rushed over to Toa Payoh to catch Iron Man 2 at 1pm.  We reached the box office at about 12.40pm and quickly bought the movie tickets.  We had a quick lunch at Subway before the show.  We only ordered 1 set to share as we thought after the movie, we could have a proper/ better meal.

Show ended at about 3pm and we did a bit of shopping around the neighbourhood stalls before our stomach grew hungry again.  We passed by a coffee shop that sells "Pontian Wanton Noodle" and I told hubby to have our "lunch" there.  There are many branches of "Pontian Wanton Noodles" all over Singapore, all with the same signboard.  We had eaten Pontian Noodles quite a few times at Sengkang Square Kopitiam and we like the springy noodles with the black sauce, and also the fried wanton.  This time round, I reminded hubby not to order the noodles with chilli sauce as their chilli sauce is very hot and I don't like it.  Prefer the normal black sauce.  On their signboard, it states that the noodles will not soften (ie turn soggy) even you have it take-away.  I think this is definitely a plus point for them.

Coffeshop at Toa Payoh

I have not been to Pontian to taste the authentic Pontian Wanton Noodles there.  I wonder whether these Pontian noodles in Singapore taste similar to those in Pontian?

Pelican Pizza Delivery

One of my favourite pizza delivery joints.  During my hubby's absence, I ordered 1-for-1 pizza delivery from pelican and of course, I couldn't finish 2 regular pizza in one meal on my own, otherwise I will really be called a real glutton!  I finished the 2 pizzas over 3 meals and I think their pizzas are quite good.  The crust is not too thick and quite cripsy. 

Turkey Mushroom Pizza
Turkey Ham, Mushroom and Cheese

Close-Up

All time favourite - Hawaiian Pizza
Turkey Ham, Pineapple and Cheese

Close-Up

2 pizzas cost $21.90

Take 5! - Old Chang Kee

It is Friday!!!  I had made an appointment for facial at 3.30pm and after facial, it was already 5.30pm - Time for dinner!  So what did I buy for take-away dinner?  Curry Puff from Old Chang Kee?

Nope.. Bought Nasi Lemak for a proper dinner.

The above set cost $3.90 from "Take 5" Old Chang Kee

You can see their menu had expanded beyond "Take 5".  They have up to "Take 8" now :)  The stall do provide seats for you to have your meal too for casual dining.

Website:  http://www.take5.com.sg/aboutus.html

McDelivery again....

Another lazy Sunday. Had celebrated Mother's Day yesterday and I decided to stay at home for the whole day today. I called for McDelivery again. This time round, I ordered the Hotcakes set for breakfast and also McGriddles for lunch. Obviously, I made a very wrong choice. Why? I didn't know that the "bun" for the McGriddles is also a thicker version of the pancakes.  The Hotcakes which I had never ordered before were rather disappointing too.

Breakfast

Hotcakes

Lunch

Don't like McGriddles.  This will be the last time I am having this.  :(

I don't think I will be eating Mac again anytime soon after reading this interesting post from theMOOSE on an experiment with McDonald cheeseburger vs homemade burger.  You may like to check it out.

Happy Mothers' Day - Dinner at Wo Peng Restaurant (MacPherson)

Together with my parents, we had a good dinner at Wo Peng Restaurant in MacPherson (very near to my parents' place).  I got to know about this restaurant through Camemberu blog :)   Initially, I thought of bringing my parents to Tao's restaurant as they have very good service and value for money set meal.  However, when I called for reservation, they told me that there is an additional surcharge of $10 for each person during this weekend due to Mother's Day.  I replied that in that case, we would come some other time instead.  After that, I was searching for a place to bring my parents to and it seemed that Wo Peng was the best choice.  Happy that I did not make the wrong decision. 

It is not easy to find a parking place especially during dinner time.  It is a good thing that the restaurant provides complimentary valet parking service.  The day before, I called in for reservation and I was advised to pre-order the dishes as well.  Thus, based on the recommendation on the phone, I ordered the following dishes:

Cripsy fish skin

Soup

Wasabi Prawns

    Charcoal Grilled Goose

After dinner, we went to Downtown East to collect the Mother's Day cake that I ordered from Emicakes.  At Downtown East, my mum also managed to get a new Nokia handphone.  She was delighted!!  After that, they came over to my place to cut the durian cake.

I would like to wish all mothers a very

HAPPY MOTHER'S Day!!!

Premium D24 Durian Cake

My mum

Sidenote:  Upon reaching home, I switched on my laptop and surf the net. Of course, as usual I will diligently check my blog and I can say that I am very lucky that as I logged on to my blog, I saw Camemberu just put up a contest on her blog:  I quickly commented on the post and I was the second person to comment! Thus, I am one of the winners!! Whoohoo!!! :)

Today is indeed a very happy day.
Cheers!!