denise tan blogs

To say that Animal Farm is a physical play is a bit of an understatement. Behold the results of our hard work!

Lunchbox Lab

Thunder Tea Rice

Thunder Tea Rice or Lei Cha Fun is one of those dishes that you either love or hate – a delicacy of the Hakkas, this unusual dish is an acquired taste, but apparently very good for your health. Its makers claim that it can lower cholesterol, detoxify the body, relieve stress, aid digestion, combat flu, boost the immune system, etc!
I’d describe it as medicinal, bitter, astringent – so it feels antiseptic and good for you.
Thunder Tea Rice is called Thunder Tea Rice because of the bowl of “tea” which comes with the rice. The Tea is actually a savoury, complex broth made from green tea leaves, coriander, basil, mint, Chinese parsley, sesame seeds, ginger, mugwort and other herbs I can’t pronounce! These are all ground up in a special bowl and then made into a tea which is to be added into your rice. Other goodies like pickled radishes, long beans, peanuts, dried shrimps, ikan billis, fried tofu are then heaped on top of the rice. You usually have a choice between white or brown rice.
Try Thunder Tea Rice at these places:

In other words, I’m so sorry for the lack of blog updates. It’s been a gruelling week or so juggling the radio show and performing in Animal Farm night after night at the Drama Centre – thanks to everyone who’s come to see it and for your kind emails!

I promise more updates and pictures soon, especially of my theatre adventures, but in the mean time, playing Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart on-air today reminded me to share this hilarious video with you. Enjoy!

Lunchbox Lab

HATCHED
A fun, quirky, kid-friendly cafe that serves up egg-inspired all-day breakfasts!
Just a stone’s throw from the lush Botanic Gardens and the College of Physical Education, Hatched @ Evans Lodge is a lovely lunchtime getaway.
With over 40 egg dishes to choose from, you’ll be spoilt for choice whether you prefer your eggs fried, baked, poached, scrambled or boiled! Don’t panic if all those eggs sound overwhelming, there are other menu choices – “friends of eggs” – that include Bacon & Mozzarella with fig-dip and french onion bread with mash.
Sweet treats include waffles and pancakes, bubbly drinks and Belgian beer pairings with your all-day breakfast!
www.hatched.sg

Get a feel for that Island hospitality and amazingly good Blue Mountain Coffee at Cafe Jamaica @ 65 Circular Road. From fresh siphon-brewed blue Mountain coffee, to High mountain espressos in cappucinos, lattes and mochas, coffee is their speciality. Add a splash of Sangster’s rum cream for a bit of an alcoholic kick and you’ve got yourself a party! Cakes, muffins, cookies, sandwiches and the Jamaican version of our curry puffs – the Patty – are the available nibbles. And there’s even a retail corner to purchase your 100% authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans and other products like the rum cream and scented candles.

Ever wondered what your car would look like with facial hair? Well, wonder no more!
A San Francisco based company has started selling a range of ‘carstaches’ – moustaches which are designed to attach to the front of cars.
The 3ft long furry ‘carstaches’ currently sell online for around US$40 each and attach to the grille of cars with a series of rubber coated wires.

IVAN’S PORRIDGE
This porridge stall is run by a husband and wife team and used to be located in the Empress Road Food Centre, off Farrer Road. Many people have recommended this one – praising the smooth, tasty texture, the thickness and the freshness of the porridge ingredients. Choose from chicken, pork, internal organs versions.
Must-mentions are the century egg porridge with lots of century egg and the yummy fish porridge. Paired with the plates of raw fish, comfort food in a steaming hot bowl! The raw fish is really fresh and prepared daily by the boss, who’s very particular. He’s been known not to sell any fish to customers if its not fresh enough!The sliced fish served freshly sliced with lots of fried onions. Prices are reasonable, serving size generous.
Ivan’s Porridge
Blk 22A/B Havelock Road
6 Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre (Beo Crescent)

Every housewife/ househusband will want one…

Meet PR2, a robot that is considered a breakthrough – it does your housework for you! OK, housework as in just the folding of towels, but he does it perfectly. Only problem is that he takes 25 minutes to do each one.

CRACK CRAZY!

Designer Kimberly Brewer has created the craziest fashion accessory I’ve seen – Backtacular Gluteal Cleft Shield. It’s a hypoallergenic adhesive patch, made from denim & rhinestones or studs, that’s applied directly the skin. I mean, come on – would you?!

COMFORT FOOD

One of my favourite foods is the simple combination of meat and potato in Shepherd’s Pie. This traditional English dish is simple, satisfying and also available to buy in single-snack or family versions, thanks to THE SHEPHERD’S PIE in Bedok.
Here’s a sampling of their menu:
• Lamb Special – Richly flavoured ground lamb, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
• Black Pepper Beef *spicy* – with ground beef, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
• Black Pepper Chicken *spicy* – with chicken chunks, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
• Classic Beef – with ground beef, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes. Traditional taste.
• Classic Chicken – with chicken chunks, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes. Traditional taste.
• Veggie Lovers
Most 9×9 inch family size pies go for under $25, pretty reasonable for 4-6 people. And if you live in the area, I hear they do deliveries. Happy noshing!

The Shepherd’s Pie
Blk 3015 Bedok North St 5
#06-05 (Take Passenger Lift Lobby B)
Shimei East Kitchen
Open 11am to 9pm
Call 6789 0707

So I’ve always liked the IDEA of sports. Unfortunately, sports doesn’t like the idea of me! For some reason, when it comes to any activity involving balls (stop sniggering!), I simply have no eye-hand coordination! Bowling has always been an embarrassing activity for me and my friends don’t call me Gutter Monster for nothing. So you can imagine my excitement at hearing that the bowling tournament we were taking part in had a great prize for the WORST team! LG cellphones for everyone who had the lowest bowling score? I thought I had this competition in the bag, but apparently there are worse bowlers than me. Nonetheless, Friday night bowling was super fun with the W!ldrice Animal Farm team, thanks to our wonderful presenters Simon Chrisandra Associates, who threw the crazy, competitive bowling party, complete with psychedelic karaoke/ pole-dancing/ party bus rides!








Yes, beer was involved.

And then there was Sunday’s World Gourmet Summit Champagne Brunch…

This is all I’m going to say about that!

Uno Beef House
Tucked away in Toa Payoh Lorong 5 is this Western food stall, where the food is good, prices are reasonable and portions are generous. Uno’s signature dish is the black pepper sirloin steak & black pepper chicken chop – the fresh black pepper flavour comes through but is not overpowering. Served with a wonderful mashed potato ball with a thin but crisp biscuit-crumb coating. Other must-tries are the fish and chips and ultra-crispy chicken wings.
There are more than 20 items available on the menu and everything, including the gravy that goes with the sirloin steak, chicken and pork chop, is made from scratch. Nothing is pre-cooked and left sitting around.
That is why each order takes at least 20 minutes, but the food is so worth the wait!
UNO BEEF HOUSE
Block 51 Toa Payoh Lorong 5, #01-60
Tel: 9677-6007
Open: 12 – 11pm, closed on alternate Wednesdays.

Brand new accessories for men that will make guys with a full head of hair jealous of those who are bald?
Swarovski-crystal-encrusted headgear that look like swim caps with sideburns!
They’re the brain child of a young London-based entrepreneur named Philip Levine, who went prematurely bald and decided to do something about it. Before, he used to paint crazy designs directly on to his bald head, but he wanted something a little less wash and wear!
Levine says the fancy head coverings are also great for women with conditions like alopecia, but something tells me that there aren’t too many men who are bold enough to bedazzle their baldness. And the few brave guys who take to wearing these crystal skull caps can kill two birds with one stone – they can cover up their baldness and double up as a disco ball on a night out!

Miz is an casual Japanese eatery serving favourites like sushi, sashimi, donburi and udon at at hawker centre prices. Good value for money, tasty food and all in restaurant comfort.
The chef there is a true blue Nagoya native and former five-star hotel executive chef who’s always dreamt of making Japanese food an affordable and authentic experience for everyone.
No wonder Miz is such a popular place for the office crowd in the Tanjong Pagar area – most of the set lunches go for under $10 and there are almost 20 sets to choose from!
Some hot favourites include sets featuring udon and sashimi with rice, grilled mackerel and for the less health conscious, tasty deep fried breaded morsels like oysters and chicken with cheese!
Be prepared to wait though, it can get pretty full during lunch hours and all orders are made from scratch. Good thing they serve you complimentary edamame to snack on as you wait.
Miz
7 Craig Road (Tanjong Pagar area)
S089667
Tel: 8354 7477
Open: Mon to Sun: 1203pm (Lunch), 6-10pm (Dinner)

THREE scintillating videos for your surreptitious office-viewing pleasure! Behold!

Video #1:

This cute little chubbster isn’t called Taiwan’s Susan Boyle for nothing. Although instead of tackling a song from Les Miz, he delivers an eerily accurate rendition of Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You.

Video #2:

Reggie Ramirez, 34, a singer from Davao City, Philippines, has become yet another Susan Boyle-like Internet sensation after performing a startling duet of “Endless Love” on the show “Pilipinas Got Talent.” Ramirez, who says he went on the show to find his long-lost brother, performs as half-man and half-female, singing both the male and female parts of songs like “Endless Love”, complete with a pink dress on the left side of his body and a tuxedo on the right.

Video #3:

Now I’ve saved the best for last. As a huge fan of the decade I grew up in, this short “disaster” film about NYC being invaded by ’80s-style pixelated characters totally blew my mind!

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Discover more animation and arts videos.
Space Invaders, PacMan, Pong, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Frogger and more! Clever, no?

This one is a personal and fresh-from-the-kitchen recommendation, folks!

If you’re looking for REALLY GOOD Thai food, this is the golden ticket and yes, of course it’s found at the Little Thailand of Singapore known as Golden Mile Complex. It’s so authentic that it doesn’t even have a name I can understand – it’s entirely in Thai. The chef is Thai, the waitresses are Thai and so it took a lot of charades and pointing at the picture menu to get our orders in. But let me tell you, it was so worth it!

This little hole-in-the-wall restaurant specializes in Esarn (North-Eastern Thai) cuisine and my friends and I were blown away by how tasty everything was when we went to try it out last night. Don’t worry, though, it’s open for lunch and stays open till midnight.

Highlights of our meal (refer to pictures above, clockwise from top left):

• Deep Fried Pork (or as the hilarious sign on the wall says, “fried deep pork”!) – highly addictive, crispy, salty & slightly sticky sweet. Cut into french-fry-esque strips, these go perfectly with beer.
• Chicken Green Curry - very rich, and with generous portions of (my fave) Thai eggplant!
• Singha Beer (maybe not for lunch, huh?)
• Tom Yum Goong – possibly the best soup I’ve ever had in Singapore! Very piquant, very spicy, very creamy & rich, served in a big metal bowl over a burner. We couldn’t stop at one portion and ended up ordering two!
• Papaya Salad – looks mild, but this amazing dish has a very powerful kick (some of us were crying from the spice – but in a good way!), from the chillies, fish sauce, crunchy long beans, dried shrimp and peanuts.

We actually ordered more food, but would you believe I forgot to take pictures ‘cos I was too busy inhaling everything in sight? Their stir-fried pork with mint, rice and egg is yums and so is their minced beef with basil.

The bill – 9 dishes plus white rice and 4 bottles of beer for 5 people – $96. Less than $20 per person – not bad at all!

Now all you need to do is go try for yourself! No need to thank me, but your tastebuds might just thank you!

(with special kudos to Lush 99.5FM DJ & Thai foodie X’Ho for paving the way)

Measuring Politicians’ Popularity with Potatoes

This isn’t an exact science, but it sure makes common sense – how potato chips could identify the winner of the UK general election 2010…
To mark the run-up to the election on May 6th, crisp manufacturer Real Crisps are producing political packets in the party colours of red, blue and yellow, each containing the same sea salt flavoured crisps.
The Politi-packs – displaying the faces of the three main political leaders, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg – will be available to the public from sampling bins which encourage passers-by to pick their leader.
Obviously a good indication of the politician’s popularity will be to see which packet featuring which politician’s face gets snapped up first!
Click here to see how the Politicians are doing in the Potato Popularity Poll!