Internship

Today's internship workplace is at NUS Business School! It is the 4th workplace I've went to for my internship so far:P Being the facilitator for Youth Enterpreneurship Symposium (YES), our company was in charge of the event. Not as well-organized as we expected, but we ended off on a high note:)

My lovely interns

As I reflected about today's event, I felt really grateful for landing in this internship. Indeed, there was alot of complaints about various aspects of the internship where I felt unjust, unhappy and angsty but I'm glad I have this crazy bunch of fun-loving people whom I can crap with. Without this bunch of people, I doubt I will be able to survive this internship. Suaning each other every few sentences, making fun of the guys, camwhoring sessions are all bits and pieces of the lovely memories we shared with each other. 1 month is a short period of time, but it's quite surprising how we manage to bond with each other within the 1st week of work. Thank you guys for being such great peeps. 12 more days of nonsense with each other:)

It is the people inside who make a company a company. 

Finding the Silver Lining amidst the Black Clouds

To be honest, I was quite unhappy and frustrated over my internship boss. Don't be mistaken, I love the job scope, working environment and I LOVE my fellow comrades. It's just some things which made me have a bad impression of my boss, which I shall not comment further.

Today was the best day of internship so far, TGIF. All 6 of us are finally reunited after days of separation due to undertaking of different projects. The whole day was filled with nonsense. Playing CS during our breaks, and psycho-ing the manly boys to try the Bear Bites burger were just small bites of happiness.

Group selfie with our cute bear burgers

Bear Bites is a Taiwan themed fast food located at the ground floor of Scape. The printed paws on the burger buns made it unique. In addition, you get to choose the flavor of the bun that varies from squid ink to yam to strawberry. They also have different sauces to choose from, including tartare sauce and thai chilli. The fries that came along with the set was also hand-cut. They are similar to Mos burger fries as they are chunky and nicely fried:) Food was awesome, not to mention that the company we enjoyed which was even awesome-er. Good food=happy us :P

I thought the kbox session after work with my fellow comrades is a great end to the frustrating week. But rainbow appears after rainy weather. I received an email informing me that I have clinched the tuition assignment (despite screwing up my interview). Really thankful for such a wonderful Friday. The funny clique, the nice food, the golden opportunity. If not for my army of crazy peeps, I would have quit long ago. Looking forward to 15 more days of craziness with you guys:) Guess I'll really miss their randomness and bromance after this internship:(

Special Gift from Father: NEW BLENDER:)

So, on the 8th day of my smoothie breakfast plan, my old blender broke its "leg". Thus it retired from its duty and passed its duty to the new blender. New toy kindly sponsored by my dad:) Thankew dad for the awesome present! Now I have additional motivation to continue my smoothie plan^^

Celery+Carrot+Mango smoothie

My dad asked "So after so many days of smoothies, do you feel any difference?" Well, I have only started on this 1 week ago, so in such a short period of time of course there wont be marked difference. But I feel happier every day, because I know I had a healthy breakfast and knowing that you have a healthy start to a day just makes you happy:) There's always something sweet to look forward to every morning and it is really great fun experimenting with different fruits and veggies^^ 

For those interested in trying out smoothies, can always check out the smoothie recipes listed on the sidebar at the right hand side of my blog:) All the smoothies look good and smoothies are generally cheap and easy and hassle free. Best of all, it is healthy and guilt-free sweet treats:)

#eatclean

After listening to my friend raving about all the benefits of a clean diet, I decided to embark on this special challenge- green smoothie for breakfast. Shall see how long I can sustain on this green smoothie brekkie:)

 Personal favorite for now: Celery + Carrots + Mango.
Some people may eew at the thought of a green smoothie and the addition of veggies may scare away many. But trust me, this is not that green afterall. Especially since mangoes help to enhance the sweetness of the drink, making u happy in the morning ^^

Bringing raw vegan diet to a whole new level, she made a RAW VEGAN fruit pie for my family:D The crust is raw, made from walnuts, dates and dessicated coconut. Instead of the usual fattening custard filling, she used mango puree which added sweetness to the pie. And finally, an array of colourful fruits for aesthetic purposes:) The pie was quite chewy and crunchy because of the coconut. The pie was generally a great attempt which received good review from my picky dad:P

Who says healthy diet and desserts have to be mutually exclusive?

Impromptu Meetup cum Shopping Date: Saveur

Meetup with my bestie from hall once again for a shopping trip at Bugis and catch up session:) But this time, we jio-ed Miauw for dinner after he mentioned twice that we "cafe bojio" :P The two of them really make a good company as we just sat there chatting non-stop, discussing korean guys and korean dramas. Really thankful for the awesome evening. Food may not be superb, but the awesome company made up for it:) Moving on to the food!

Dinner was at Saveur. After seeing many people posting photos of Saveur and not jioing us to Saveur, we decided to pay this shop a visit. It does look posh and classy with its white and simple interior. The menu was also elegant, with no pictures. So here's a tip: go to instagram and check the photos that people posted:D We ordered the signature Saveur Pasta, Chicken Roulette, Seabass and Duck Confit.

The pasta was not as superb as what we expected, abit disappointing. "It tasted like wanton noodles" (Miauw, 2014). The sakura ebi added on the top was an interesting idea, but the taste wasnt superb. So was the seabass, for I am not a fan of seabass because of the fishy taste. So no comments for that. The chicken roulette looks like some chicken sausage sitting on a bed of butter rice. Despite the rice being overly hard and too much butter, the chicken was awesome as it was soft with a crisp outer skin. However the best dish of the night goes to the duck confit. Although it looked dry on the outside, it was soft and juicy on the inside:) No wonder everyone posts the photo of the duck confit on instagram!

What is a meal without dessert? After much discussion and debating on desserts, we landed up in Ah Chew's desserts:P The black glutinuous rice with vanilla ice cream was on our checklist once again. All-time favorite, possibly due to the ice cream:P Novi, feeling adventurous after her HK dessert spree, daringly ordered the steamed milk pudding with chocolate cookies. It was surprisingly good, with a strong egg taste topped with chocolate crunch. I think Ah Chew generally wont fail to disappoint in terms of food taste and quality:)

Having met up with my awesome friends who are always so spontaneous in saying yes when I jio them out for 4days straight, I miss my homecooked dinner;( As such, tomorrow shall be a guai guai stay at home day:) Time to spend time at home and enjoy my mummy's cooking! 

Counting down: 4days to internship

Happy 21st to my high frequency gal Jops:) : The Little Diner

Just 2 months ago we were at PoTeaTo celebrating my 21st and in a flash, it's Jops 21st:) Scary how fast time travels, nonetheless I had a great night catching up with my beloved friend:) We chose this cozy little place called The Little Diner. It is located along Bukit Timah Dunearn Road. Funny how we didnt know of this place back in NJ days.

The place has a very old feel, with little furnishing except for blackboards at the sides showing the menu for the day. However the tables were nicely decorated. If you make a reservation beforehand, they will specially hand-write your reservation card on the table. That's so sweet of them. The service staff were also very approachable and friendly and makes you feel really at home. One of the best service I have ever received I must say.

Special request to write the note on the reservation card

We ordered the Truffle Fries, Old-Fashioned Mac and Cheese (+bacon bits), Risotto balls and Apple Crumble. When the truffle fries came, the smell of truffle oil was overwhelming. It was handcut and every single piece of fries was heavily coated with the taste of truffle oil. Good recommendation BUT it's for sharing:D The Mac and Cheese, seemingly suitable for portion of 1, will get too cheesy after a while, so make sure to share it! But it was really a good choice because I love the top crispy cheese layer:P The risotto balls were deep fried on the outside, but inside there is a layer of mozerella, centre filled with risotto. Interesting combination of ingredients, but not exactly superb. The apple crumble put a nice end to the meal, with its base lined with apple wedges that perfectly complemented the vanilla ice cream. I like the crumbs (as always):P

For the service and nice ambience of the place, it was really a great location for catching up session with friends:)
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Really grateful how this birthday girl always makes an attempt to catch up with me despite her busy schedule. She had a long hard day at work, and having to travel all the way to Bukit Timah is super tiring especially after work. Yet she set aside time for me to update me on her life. It's really friends like these whom you know you want to keep for the rest of your life. As I always say, people who want to be part of your life will always make an effort to do so. Even a simple text message is a sign of putting in that extra effort of maintaining a friendship. Is it really that hard to maintain a friendship in spite of heaps of school work, work and CCAs? Time management and geographical boundaries are issues, but should never be barriers hindering a friendship. Thank you friends for constantly making the effort to keep in touch with me even though I may be slow in replies or unable to meetup:)

Happy Birthday once again Jops. I'm really glad to have met you in NJ <3

Vegan Day: Yixin Vegetarian, The Living Cafe

After hearing much ravings about healthy living and vegan diets, I decided to embark on a vegan diet today and here's my journey...

Started off the morning with a fruity smoothie specially prepared by my "dasao". It was really fast and hassle-free. Just pop mangoes, bananas, a squeeze of lime, ice cubes and a handful of Kale veggies into the blender and it's ready to go. The veggies only added the green coloring to the smoothie, with no taste of it luckily:P So I still find it manageable:D Tip to smoothie lovers who aspire to make their own smoothie: a wide variety of fruits can be thrown into the blender, including apples, dragonfruits, oranges, papaya. But rmb to add in a fruit that is thicker to give a thicker milkshake-like consistency, such as mangoes, bananas and avocadoes:)

PS: she also added in organic raw chocolate nibs for added crunch and chocolate taste:) 

Lunch was at Yixin Vegetarian Restaurant at Chinatown. I was quite doubtful of the taste of vegetarian food initially. But this place changed my mind. They had bak kut teh, assam laksa and hor fun BUT ALL VEGETARIAN. Yes, it was all vegetarian mock meat. Although the texture was quite obvious and there is only a hint of "meat" taste, I have to admit it is really a good attempt. The bak kut teh had a strong herbal taste which was well-liked by my brother. But to me, the best dish was the hor fun, maybe because of the fried beancurd sticks:P They have a wide variety of vegetarian dishes, including vegetarian dumplings and vegetarian "meat" bun. Really impressed by the kaleidoscope of choices provided. 

Following which, dessert was at The Living Cafe. Promoting a relatively new concept of raw vegan living, it is one of the rare few restaurants in Singapore selling raw food. Yes, everything is raw and vegan. This means that the food is not cooked and made fully from vegetarian products. Pasta, burgers, desserts are all raw. That's right! I was quite amazed at this and so decided to give this special diet a go.

2nd Floor selling organic raw products

We tried the lemon pie, chocolate cake and blueberry cheesecake (left to right). The lemon pie was a tad too sour for our liking. The chocolate cake was quite deceiving. One could not differentiate this from a normal baked chocolate cake. It can easily pass off as a chocolate fudge cake because of its fudgy and moist texture. It was topped with dessicated coconut for additional crunch. The best, in our opinion, was the blueberry cheesecake. The base is similar to our digestive biscuits base, just that it is abit more chewy. There is a strong blueberry taste in the top layer and the best thing, no artificial colouring is added:) The cheesecake layer is also light in taste, so making it guiltfree. The best dessert to end a meal because it is not too sinful and yet you feel happy^^

How do they make pastas, burgers, and even cakes without cooking?! How is it possible to make the pie crust without baking?! Mystery solved: they used dates, coconut oil and walnuts and process them in a food processor. Walnuts provide the crunch needed for crust (sometimes dessicated coconut is added too) while dates provide the thick consistency needed to bind the ingredients together.

The Living Cafe has a really interesting fun concept of providing food for those on raw vegan diet. This diet, although considerably new and not widely embraced in Singapore, is really a great concept worth expanding. It is difficult to stick to such a diet for long period of time, but a raw food diet once a week may be worth trying:) This is a new area of interest for me, not that I will embark on this diet, but hopefully I can learn more about it:)

Who says dessert and healthy living does not go together?