Ben Fatto

When our foodie friends invited us to a dinner at Ben Fatto, I knew we couldn’t say no to the invite. I have been wanting to go to this private dining place by Yum Hwa for the longest time after seeing his instagram and being wildly fascinated by how he does his own pasta from scratch.

This is a long overdue post obviously as I think we had our dinner there early this year but it remains as one of my most favourite meals that I fondly remember. The pasta was done beautifully, the sauces complemented the pasta and not the other way around and the little dishes that were served in between the pasta dishes all complemented the carbs beautifully.

I have no further words to add to this fond food memory of mine so I leave you with pictures of the dishes that we ate and hope I did it justice by making it look delicious in whatever way I can.

Su Filindeu also known as Threads of God

The Su Filindeu is the one pasta that really blew me over! This is a rare pasta from the Barbagia region of Sardinia. It is made by pulling and folding semolina dough into very thin threads, which are laid in three layers on a tray called a fundu and dried to form textile-like sheets. This really is an work of art and it is edible. I almost feel bad eating such a beautiful form of food art.

Su Filindeu/ Lamb broth

Cannoli

I am not sure if Ben Fatto is taking any more reservations for his private home dining but he is now working with the people in Forma which is an upscale trattoria with a fresh, handmade pasta programme by The Cicheti Group and Ben Fatto. I managed to score a table there for September and hope that the pasta there will be just as good. Can’t wait!

Overthinking

I’ve been told by friends or people close to me that I think too much. I do not deny this as I do tend to overthink about things/ problems/ people and even scenarios. The last 2 – 3 years with the pandemic, it has also caused me to withdraw into a little hole. It was overwhelmed greatly not just living with the pandemic but dealing with relationships that come along with it, navigating them and threading on sometimes thin ice how people feel about me.

The first year of the pandemic, alcohol was featured mostly in our daily lives as we wondered how best to survive. In the second year of the pandemic, I sought to healthier measures to dealing with my life. I first turned to exercise as a form of filling my time after dropping the kid in school. Then as I started to enjoy the workout, I tried out other forms of workout to challenge myself further. While I didn’t lose a lot of weight, I felt that the endorphins released during the workout made me happy. It also challenged me to remain discipline and also stick to a regime where I chose to shut down at about 10pm to head to bed. The workouts also made me tired physically and I felt that I didn’t have bandwidth to think about other things.

I’m generally quite a sentimental person valuing friendships and relationships. But people move on, people can change, perhaps I have changed as well – my values are different and my priorities have changed. I realised that social media is not a pleasant environment for me as it made me compare about the lifestyle I have vs others. I realised this is not a healthy habit that I want to continue to hold so I am now mindfully doing what I can to cut back on the use of social media and the mindless scrolling of envying what others have vs what I don’t have.

It is still a long road for me and I feel I now have social anxiety but I hope as time goes pass, I am able to conquer my challenges and feel better about myself as a person.

Baby steps.. one day at a time…

Primary 1

A reminder that time really just flies by. Thankfully, we survived Primary 1 despite all the COVID-19 restrictions in place. One thing I was a little sad for the Bub was that she didn’t get an elder buddy when she started her P1 and I wasn’t able to go into school to witness her buying food in the canteen like what other parents did the years before COVID. But it’s nice to see her thriving well in school and really surviving P1.

2022

I’m still here! Nearly 3 years on after the COVID-19 pandemic, here we are.. still living in a pandemic stated of mind.

The world has changed and so have I. Social media has transformed the way I’ve shared things and also viewed things. But I’m trying to keep it together, to share things that are meaningful to me and to be authentic to my own feelings.

I was contemplating whether I should be writing more here. It’s been on my mind for a while but I just didn’t feel the hurry to start until I received an email asking for a collab. I was rather amazed that my blog was picked up! Instagram is much snazzier and a lot faster for most businesses these days. I felt a little touched to even be considered so that kinda reignited my desire to write.

I look forward to kick-starting my engine for writing / sharing more on this platform. Perhaps starting with the recent holiday that we took last December. Stick around and let’s see how it goes!

Staycation: St Regis

Booked ourselves in yet another weekend staycation. This time round, we tried out St Regis Hotel. We thought we will be venturing out of the hotel room.. I did picture leisurely walks around the Botanic Gardens and a spot of window shopping around the Orchard Road belt but all these grand plans were shelved for the kid had a mind of her own and preferred to stay indoors with room service and Netflix (again). So call this over Lim version of SHN where we literally holed up indoors for about 48 hours with the exception of going to the restaurant for breakfast and then dinner.  That said, the view of Orchard was pretty scenic and it was nice to peek into some of these huge properties with an enviable size of a swimming pool.

This is the kid’s idea of a perfect weekend in. Room service with fries plus her fave cheese and ham toastie. Yup, that’s what we basically did all weekend. Holed up as Saturday saw grey skies which derailed our pool plans but I managed to squeeze in some of my work at the Company as well as finish off my book on the Kindle. I’m really glad that after getting the Kindle, I’ve started reading more again. It really helps to take my mind of indulging in social media which of late, has brought more emotional harm than any kind of good.

On our second night, we did manage to finally emerge from our room to head out for dinner. My fave kind of cuisine – Japanese!

It was a treat for the girl too since we all missed Japan very much!

We didn’t manage to sit at the counter but we got a private room instead for we were dining with a child under 7. I guess the upside to this is that the kid got to watch her programme without us shouting at her to lower down the volume.

And before heading home, we were thankful for the clear, blue skies that allowed us to hit the pool for a bit. Water was really, really cold so I couldn’t manage to head in without screaming. I just thank God for the Man who doubled-up as a play-mate for her.

So here’s my overall view of our stay in St Regis:

• Hotel facilities are a little dated and they do seem a little understaffed so our Room Service requests did take a while to come.
• Our toilet as well as our air-con did break down during our stay but thankfully, they managed to fix it without us having to move to another new room.
• Rooms were pretty clean, toiletries were basic and nothing much to shout about.
• There isn’t Netflix installed on their built-in televisions, so do bring your personal devices if needed.

Would we come back? Probably not.

On to our next staycation! 🙂

Staycation: Raffles Hotel

Well, since we can’t really travel for now and do not have nearby towns/ cities because of our country’s limitations on land, we decided the next best thing we can do for a short get-away is a staycation.  The little one couldn’t be happier to just stay under the sheets, order room service and just watch her fave cartoons on Netflix as we whiled away our weekend. Just check out that face.Over the National Day long weekend, we checked ourselves in for a night at the recently renovated Raffles Hotel. It was such a treat for the girl and she couldn’t wait to jump straight into bed. But sleeping was not what she was keen on doing.. instead, after checking out the room, she immediately asked for us to turn on the TV and then proceeded to ransack for snacks. We didn’t have any.. attribute it to last minute poor planning which I haphazardly just dumped a couple of dresses into an overnight bag.

Well, at least we got similar outfits to twin on our staycation.

The girl wasted no time in tucking into sweet treats courtesy of the hotel in celebration of National Day after enjoying a warm bubble bath complete with a Lush bomb.

The hotel’s grounds were spacious and we actually didn’t cover much for the room made for a great stay-in. I managed to squeeze in a luxurious massage (thankfully) and after that, we had an early dinner booked in for Butcher’s Block. Steak was fine but not superbly memorable. And after our bellies were filled, we strolled leisurely back to our room. We had grand plans to watch the annual fireworks from our balcony but the fireworks were best enjoyed from the Marina Bay area. We were obviously not in the right location but well, the live telecast of the parade coupled with the best company surely made up for it!

The next morning, she lazed in bed and because we wanted to avoid the crowds and possibly not over-eat from the breakfast buffet selection, we just ordered another round of room-service.

Living the best life for now and she ain’t complaining for sure! For us, we are just thankful that we are able to provide this bit of happiness for her and spend the entire day with her.

Of course, no vacation or rather staycation is quite complete without a visit to the pool. Pre Covid days, everyone would be hanging out by the pool and soaking in the rays. Now, in order to hit the pool, you will need to make an appointment to book the slot for the family. Each family is given about 1.5 hours at the pool so do check with the hotel on their procedures for the pool and see if you are comfortable with their approach.

The kid had so much fun and to be honest, me too! I slept at 9.30pm and had one of the most restful sleep I’ve ever had. I probably attributed this to the black-out curtains or quite possibly having too much to drink over dinner that I was knocked out. But it was fun and we are looking forward to our next ‘staycation’.

Love Shack Fancy x Target (Wishlist)

I’ve fallen into some kind of fashion rabbit hole of late wanting to score pieces from the Love Shack Fancy x Target collab. Ok, Love Shack Fancy is a girly and cutesy American fashion label that LBG shared with me. I wasn’t sure if I could even carry off the florals, puffy sleeves and ruffled dresses without looking like an over-aged aunty still tryna act cute. Ok, one point I prob left out the price-tag on one of these dresses.

But the Target collab with Love Shack is one that is a lot more affordable. Accessible in terms of sizing but not in terms of getting pieces since the price-point has been reduced. I got them in sizes ranging from XS to S, not knowing how they may eventually fit but I am sure hoping that I don’t look like some kind of over-sized bak zhang squeezing into them.

Still thinking if I should add one more long floral dress into the ocllection of give it a miss. Also, what if the dresses don’t fit and are too long for me. What do I do then? Alter? Let’s see… counting down the days that I will eventually get them. Seems like a loooong while!