Hainanese Pork Chop

Hainanese (Chinese from the Southern Chinese island known as the Hainan Island) people in Singapore are known for their ability to cook.

Hainanese chicken rice is famous all over the world and is something any non-vegetarian visitor to Singapore wouldn't and shouldn't miss.

One of my favourite Hainanese chicken rice store is from Tian Tian. The branch at Joo Chiat has better operating hours and is air-conditioned, making it my favourite place for chicken rice. Tian Tian also has another killer dish - Hainanese Pork Chop.

A thin slice of pork is tenderised, coated with breadcrumbs and then deep fried until golden and crispy. The savoury, sourish-sweet sauce on top comes with peas and onions and nicely coats the pork chop.

I don't usually like pork, but this is really tender, crispy, sour and sweet all at the same time and I just couldn't stop eating it.

Writing this post made me feel like paying Tian Tian another visit soon. Nom Nom!

Internet Kimchi

I do my fair share of internet shopping - mostly books, beauty products, fun accessories and clothes..

I never thought that I'd buy food from online.

Well but I did.

I bought some kimchi from a shop on GMarket. I've always find it hard to get good quality kimchi. When I do, I find them a bit too pricey. A friend of mine had friends who tried out the kimchi ordered from online and recommended I try them.

So I went and ordered 1 kg of cabbage kimchi, some seasoned Korean pickles and kimchi dumplings (also known as mandu). Including the delivery, they cost $30.

We tried the pickles and kimchi tonight for dinner. They were crunchy and tasted good!

Now, I have lots of kimchi to make kimchi jigae (kimchi soup) and kimchi fried rice.

But then... 1 kg.. is really a lot for the 2 of us!

I really liked these seasoned pickles

Cabbage kimchi is my favourite. These ones are pretty good.

Rush Hour

I've just moved to a new office at One Raffles Quay. One Raffles Quay is an office building located right at the edge of Raffles Place, near the new Marina Bay Financial Centre.

And this is the view that I see out of the window everyday.

Photo taken with iPhone... 
Hm... it was a little gloomy when I took this picture, huh?

Beautiful, isn't it?

Sadly, that's about all I like about my new office.

Great views but getting to and from work, as well as having lunch, is erm... for lack of a better word, quite scary.

You see, Raffles Place is at the heart of the downtown business and financial district of Singapore. Throngs and throngs of people work in Raffles Place. Getting to work in the morning is like struggling your way through a somewhat aggressive and desperate crowd during the post-Christmas sales.

The walk from the subway station to One Raffles Quay is a pretty long one.. and every morning, I feel like I'm part of a march to war, with the loud clacking of high heels almost like a rhythmic march to the battle fields. I sometimes almost think that they will blasting military songs through the long tunnel I make my way through to work.

Lunch is an equally frantic affair. There are queues everyone and people seem to be jostling their ways out of the offices to invade into all the food courts and restaurants nearby. It reminds me sometimes of a documentary that I saw where a swamp of locusts landed on a field and ate up everything in its path. Sends a chill down my spine at times.

It's pretty much the same after work, except in a way, the crowd is a lot less scary in the evenings. Maybe it is because everyone is feeling fatigued and drained by work.. Maybe it's because I do leave rather late compared to your normal office worker. I'm not quite sure. But the trains are still rather crowded, although not fully packed. And everything seems less frantic than in the day.

In any case, I have to get used to the rush hour crowd now, there is no escape really.

Although a bit late, but I now really appreciate my previous office location at the Marina Square/ Suntec area - with all the shopping and restaurants nearby.. and a calmer, more amiable crowd in the weekdays.