4 Oct 09 - Bottle Tree Park

Our afternoon was spent in bottle tree park. Mediacorp has introduced this place a couple of times on TV already. It looked like a huge park with lotsa fun activities to do. So I brought Mark along to explore the place before we introduce it to our friends.

Bottle tree park was set up by 3 locals who dreamed of setting up a concept village with sports, recreational facilities, conference rooms, eateries and of coz nature, admist the bustling city. I believe that the idea is appealing to most singaporeans who spend most of our time in a very fast paced environment. It's a nice place to visit if you are sick of typical shopping centres and movie theatres in town. However, I found that it has not differentiated itself much from the other existing nature parks or beaches that we already have.

The highlight of the park are the exotic plants and trees which the owners have bought over from Australia. If I am not wrong, I heard that each bottle tree costs SGD30,000!!! WOW! I wonder if it's hard to maintain! There are a few spots for dining including a seafood restaurant and a pub. The pub is pretty cool. i would like to visit the place again in the evening.

The website boasts of various fun activities avaliable but I didn;t really get to see all of them. We only visited the prawn and fish pond, paintball playing field and 2 tracks for RC Car racing. The fish pond is especially popular amond the kids. It's kinda interesting watching the little kids trayign to scoop up small fishes all over the pond. Ha...

Overall, I feel that it's a refreshing place to visit if you are sick of the typical Singaporean weekend activities. However, my advice is not to allocate too much time for the place. It was actually quite a disappointment for me.

Address:
Bottle Tree Park
81 Lorong Chencharu (Yishun) Click here for Google Maps
Singapore 769198
Restaurant : 65 6759-7077
Office: 65 6759-5771
Fax: 65 6759-5796

4 Oct 09 - Cook Some Love

Mark & I finally managed to wake up early and go to the supermarket to buy groceries to make our first breakfast together after tlaking about it for a long long time. The picture below shows some of the items we used:

Can you guess what we are cooking from the pictures?

Well as usual, the guy is always using eye power. Poor me had to mix and cook practically everything. Here is a pose by Mark, pretending to be helpful (jus for show :P):

Tada!!! After about an hour or so, aunty came back and found her kitchen in a mess. Flour was flying all over the table. Ahahah~! It was only then when we finally completed our first breakfast together.

See Mr Pretend in action:

Pancakes by me, cheese sausages by me and eggs by me... well it was supposed to be scrambled eggs.. doesn't realli look like eh? but it tastes damn good, I PROMISE! Mark helped to pour orange juice and cook his own "weirdcake"...


It was a great experience, Breakfast was exceptionally good! All the love is in our stomachs!

A Visit to EIGHTEEN CHEFS

After much deliberation we decided to visit somewhere beyond the usual makan places. 18 Chefs was the name Shirley suggested. Previously she had shared with me the story behind this set up.

The restaurant was started by Mr Benny Se Teo who had gone in and out of prison due to drug addiction in his younger years. Fortunately he was offered a second chance in a restaurant specially set up to hire ex-offenders. He held the position of executive chef. Being given a second chance in the society again, he is helping juvenile delinquents to re-integrate into society by equipping them with culinary skills and jobs in his humble restaurant whenever possible.

Se Teo eventually learnt about Fifteen, a restaurant set up by Jamie Oliver to help bring young peeps led astray back on track by teaching them culinary skills. Se Teo saw something he could identify with: making an purposeful effort in helping delinquents via a common set up in Singapore. So there he went, a one month stint with Fifteen. Culinary skills he learnt, but more importantly, it was how to successfully create an environment that encourages and enlighten young misled minds that they could be identify as chefs than gangsters.

The place is a cosy simple restaurant with an affordable menu. We arrived early evening with the restaurant half filled. Half an hour later the place was packed, we saw that there was good crowd of mainly students in their 15s to early 20s. Well.. since we were still not that far away from school, we opted for the student menu. Interestingly you get to mix and match your meal. 1. Pick a sauce 2. Pick the ingredients 3. Pick the additional toppings. Ta da! $6.50! But an additional topping will cost $1.5 to $3 (it comes with another free topping) So.. hehe we gave in to temptation plus in addition I ordered a soup so all in all a meal cost around $10. Well I chose 'red and white' as the sauce and scrambled egg, mushroom and fish as the ingredients. Shirley picked tangy tomatoe for sauce but what were the ingredients again?? Oops.. The lemon tea was good the soup? Its alright..

Not known as a refined eating place with extra fine dishes, I thought its still value for money and a refreshing concept. 4 thumbs up out of 5 I would say.

Exact address:
3 Simei Street 6,
Eastpoint Mall, #01-36,
Singapore 528833
(Located beside POSB)
Tel: 6782 1298