Maestoso Amore | Music | Life | Me | Jasmine. Me.

Masterchef Dining & Bar Singapore 2016 (1 Dec 2016 Dinner)

10 December, 2016 No Comments

I’ve been watching MasterChef since 2013 when Eugene introduced the series to me.

That was the year Luca Manfe won.

Ever since then, I’ve never missed a season.

When I saw that MasterChef Dining and Bar is coming to Singapore, I was very excited. I remember when I saw the list of chefs coming though it only listed Masterchef Asia’s winner Woo Waileong (yes I watched that when it was on Channel 5) so I decided to wait and see if anyone from MasterChef USA will be coming.

Then! I realised a few weeks back that Luca was coming!! I wasn’t sure at first and commented on his instagram just to check:
screenshot_20161202-145303

And guess who the other chefs are? Audra Morrice, MasterChef Australia (and judge of MasterChef Asia) and Woo Wai Leong, MasterChef Asia! I watched MasterChef Asia when it aired on TV and honestly it was very apparent which will win.

Anyway, it was only until after the press conference last week that I decided that I had to go. Despite the price, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to try out the food!

I sent the link to Alexis, and she saw that if we could gather 6 people, there would be a discount! Initially, most of our colleagues rejected us as they felt that it was too expensive – luckily, there are some foodies among us (and home cooks) who also knows about MasterChef and came along!

Finally 1 Dec came!
We excitedly went to Intercontinental Hotel Singapore’s Ash & Elm restaurant after work and waited for a while before they let us in. Once we went in we were asked if we wanted sparkling water or wine (both chargeable).

I don’t want to go into much detail, but they had a Mystery box challenge and a contest before the dinner. Audra was the emcee and the chefs introduced their dishes and inspiration for it.

The menu:

Food pictures (in order of the menu)!

Luca’s famouse Rabe Ravioli!

Leong’s dish – very life changing. I will never eat a better pork ever again

Best dessert ever!!

We approached Marco Pierre White (or MPW) first for pictures because Audra, Luca and Leong were busy in the kitchen. We were a bit intimidated at first because… Well he’s the Godfather of chefs. We took only 2 menus for him to autograph after a picture with him and he said, “where are your menus?” so we hurried back to take the rest of them. Haha. He’s extremely nice by the way! At the end of dinner, when we had took pictures and autographs and was walking out, he actually stopped chatting with his friend and came over to thank us and shook all our hands. 👍😊😊

Our group had a long chat with Waileong (which included a small tour of the open kitchen). I think Alexis (being her usual self) drove him crazy hahaha. It was fun though and we gained some tips from him about eating at expensive food places.

Meeting Audra was just inspiring. Especially when all I know about her was from MasterChef Asia’s episodes as well as some reading up after that. Her 2 dishes were 2 outstanding ones and I really hope to be able to get her recipe book someday and cook her dishes.

And finally Luca! Meeting him was just awesome! I gave him 2 tissue paper packs (aka napkins) and he kinda featured the group of us on his Instagram Stories lol
I’ve been a fan of him since MasterChef 2013. He’s the nicest person ever (remember him sharing butter with Jessie?? And garlic?). Even in real life he’s friendly despite the fact that he’s probably jetlagged and very busy.
If it were other MasterChef USA cast, I would most likely not want to go.

Last week 😊 #napkinsforLuca pic.twitter.com/5aIYxtNgpj

— Jasmine (@jasmineChye) December 7, 2016

Overall, it was a great experience, and I think much better than having fine dining at a restaurant. You won’t be able to take pictures or get an autograph with the chef at a fine dining restaurant! My colleagues had fun too – which made it even better. 🙂 The organizers did well and everything was fun even though I honestly felt intimidated at first.

I wish I’d won some of the autographed recipe books though!

Event, Food

The Soup Spoon Taste Brazil Preview Session

23 July, 2016 No Comments

20160713_185006

I had the opportunity to attend the preview session for The Soup Spoon’s Taste Brazil launch on 13 July.

20160713_185133

Brought my sister along as the fiance had dinner with his friends and it’s my sister’s birthday week.

There are 8 soups that will be launched under the Taste Brazil season of which 4 will be launched first from 14 July to 4 Aug 2016 (which we got to try), and the next will be from 11 Aug to 1 Sept 2016.

Anna aka Souperchef Anna, who’s the chef behind the Soup Spoon, was sponsored a trip by Sadia (the sponsor for the event that we attended as well) to Brazil where she got to eat and learn the different Brazilian food and how they’re cook so that she can come up with new seasonal soups. I was really excited to be able to meet her as I really really love Soup Spoon and have followed her adventures on Instagram for a while. When we sat down, we were given hibiscus tea (one of my favourite teas) and while Anna shared about her trip to Brazil, we were served the food.

We were presented with 4 soups (the first 4 that are being launched) to taste, and they are namely, Mocofava My Version, Beef Feijoada (fay-zwah- da), Vegan Caldo Verde Curried and Pumpkin Mango & Prawn Bitsque.

Mocofava My Version

One of my favourite! It’s made of beans, some curry spice, carrot puree and chicken collagen. It was inspired by Chef Rodrigo of Mocotó restaurant where Souperchef Anna tasted the soup and created her version of it. It comes with a soft boiled egg. The curry powder was really fragrant along with the beans. It was my first taste of Brazilian styled food and it awoke my senses!

We were given a pack of this to bring home and my dad absolutely loves it as well and asked me to get more if possible.

Beef Feijoada

“Black bean soup!” the first thing that came to the minds of both my sister and I when we tasted this. Souperchef Anna had told us that quite a lot of Brazil food uses similar ingredients as us and this is one good example. The all too familiar Chinese-styled black bean soup is now presented to us in a different way – thicker, with beef and (most interesting of all) orange bits. The orange bits brought about a burst of acidity and flavour when you bite into it which excited my tastebuds. I was a little worried when I saw that chillis were in the soup but it wasn’t spicy to me (trust me when I say that I’m usually bad with chillis).

Vegan Caldo Verde Curried

We rarely get to eat kale here in Singapore because they’re expensive (I once bought a bunch for SGD$9!), so I was excited to be able to try a vegan version of the Caldo Verde curried made from kale. It has vegetarian bacon bits topped to it which brought a little bit of crunch to it. I don’t think a lot of people finished this however, but I pretty much like vegetables (along with any kind of food) so I finished it all.

Pumpkin Mango & Prawn Bitsque

I was excited to try this as I absolutely love the Soup Spoon’s Prawn Bitsque when it came out during Christmas (and also introduced a lot of my friends to try that). Mango in a soup? It was absolutely delicious! The prawn bits were generous and there were quinoa inside as well which made the soup really hearty and full.

Other than the 4 soups, we were given a treat of Chicken rice made from Sadia Chicken and coconut mousse!

The recipe for the chicken rice can be found here in the E-magazine by The Soup Spoon on Souperchef’s Anna trip to Brazil.

20160713_203957 20160713_205644

I really enjoyed my time and I think perhaps it’s time that I get my blogging habits back again 🙂

TSS Brazil soup tasting

Source: Instagram @souperchefanna

Find out more about the Brazil soups here: http://www.thesoupspoon.com/promotions/promotions-souperinspirations/

Interesting, Life, Music

Evelyn Glennie in Singapore 2015

6 September, 2015 No Comments

Three years ago I watched Evelyn Glennie in Singapore. Back then, I’d only played with a Symphonic Band/Orchestra (just every Sunday, non-professionally).

Fast forward 3 years on, I’m taking a break from my Symphonic Band practice, and I’ve explored and played with different people and bands the past year; I’d auditioned and failed in about 3 bands, but also had the opportunity to play in different bands for their performances. Still, I lack self-confidence most of the time, and struggle regularly on whether I should continue playing or give it up, as I know that as compared to professionals, I can be nowhere as good as them.

I envy professional musicians – they get to hone their skills everyday and do what I wish I was good at. Some of my friends (both professionals and non-professionals) know that I’m going through this and they told me not to compare this way.

When Parvin told us that she was able to meet Evelyn Glennie and ask her questions if any, the first question that I had was again the above – What would she advice a non-professional percussionist who knows that she isn’t as good as a professional even though she does her best to work on her skills as best that she can?
Evelyn’s answer (as conveyed by Parvin) was this: There’s no such thing as non-professional percussionists. We are all the same and equal whether we are professionals or not. The most important thing is that we need to explore and understand people’s feelings and try to understand what life is all about. We are here to share our beautiful stories of life through our performances to the audience. Even the audience has some stories to share.

I think this was the best answer that I’d received. I was reminded previously about how we should connect with the audience through our performance but this was the best reminder. I’m really thankful for Parvin to ask my question too! 🙂

This time, I attended Evelyn’s performance with Carol and Parvin – 2 brilliant percussionists that I get to play with. It was Carol’s first time watching the SCO (my 2nd time) and just like my first time watching them previously, she was in awe. There were 2 other soloists – Yu Hong Mei who plays the Er Hu (her music accolades are really amazing), and Han Lei who plays the Guan Zi. I’m intrigued by the sound of the Guan Zi – the lower one with elements that makes it sound like the clarinet, and the higher one which sounds a little like the saxophone.
Pretty much was a good reminder to myself about music.

And we finally finally got a picture with Evelyn Glennie herself!!!
She’s really really nice 🙂

IMG-20150905-WA0012 <

Thank you for inspiring all musicians as always!

I really really love playing music. This is why I haven’t given up yet.

Interesting, Thoughts

SG Postcard Project 2015 – First Shoot

1 February, 2015 No Comments

So… I got into the Singapore Postcard Project 2015! Wow! Quite happy about it though I was a little upset at first because of the way certain communications were handled. The NLB staff was nice about it after I provided some feedback..

The group was really nice. The girls were all younger than me. We had a walk at Scape yesterday and took a few pics. It’s honestly quite tough to think out of the box and compose properly since the last time I took pictures were at a show. I need more practice honestly >.< Okay will post one of my favourite picture:

Really hope to learn a lot from this! 🙂

Interesting, Life, Teeth, Thoughts

Aligners: Week 7-9

19 October, 2014 No Comments

It’s the beginning of week 9 now!

Nothing much to update actually as I’d already predicted what will happen at each set of aligners (e.g. where are the rough edges to file, where to put the wax, etc) and it’s very comfortable whenever I put them on. It’s only the soreness of the teeth when it moves that makes it uncomfortable but it’s usually gone after the 3rd day and everything falls in place.

The 5th set of aligners (week 9-10) is also really comfortable except when I put on and it hits my gum at the back. But after that, it’s okay too.

I’ll be travelling next month, so I did some research on what to do and bring. Will be buying some “portable/individual” flosses and thinking of getting a small bottle of mouthwash. I’ll of course be able to brush at the apartment that we are staying at, but throughout the day I hope those will suffice.

It’s busy next few months. =/

Thoughts

Aligners: Week 5-6

2 October, 2014 No Comments

So! It’s the end of week 6 today, and I’ll be putting on my 4th set of aligners tonight!

But firstly, attachments!

Attachments
I’ve had my attachments on for 2 weeks already, and they don’t feel very bad now. But to be honest, it felt really tight when I had them on with the new pair of aligners 2 weeks ago, and they feel ugly. They look ugly too at first, but after the first week, I realised that no one really notices them. Either that or they didn’t ask. But so far, NO ONE in office (other than those I mentioned to), has asked me about the attachments. Hahaha.

I have more than 10 attachments by the way. Seems like a lot more than what I see online =/ I think not everyone has to have them on, so no worries about it. Speak to your dentist or something!

To those curious on how the dentist put these attachments on, they have to file your teeth first. The filing part came as a surprise to me (coz I didn’t read up and know), but it wasn’t that bad, even though my dentist was scared that I would be scared or something.

The attachments were put on by another dentist, and here’s a video on how the process is like:

Teeth were really tender and sore to be honest, and it was very difficult to take your aligners off without your teeth feeling like they’re gonna fall off. I expect the next aligner to be like that, but I’m quite used to it now. Again, there’s negligible pain, and the sore went away after 2 days this time.

Aligners with attachments are not easy to clean, so do clean it thoroughly when needed.The filing of teeth also created more gaps in between my teeth and I’ll have to take note and floss carefully after meal time or food will get stuck.

How does it feel with attachments? It feels like there’s food stuck on your teeth once you take out your aligners. Not sure how to explain, but it doesn’t hurt, and you’ll just want to put your aligners back on only. Nothing too bad to handle.

Can’t wait to see my teeth move more. They have moved, but it isn’t anything too obvious – yet.

Teeth, Thoughts

Aligners: Week 2 – 4

17 September, 2014 No Comments

Okay! It’s been bugging me that I haven’t updated in a while. Even my bf has been asking me about it and he said that maybe someone would like to find out more about the aligners so I should continue. hehe.

Anyways, after the last post, I’d more or less still lisped a bit, but got better as the end of the second week came by.

Then came the second aligners (week 3).
The initial discomfort came and went within 12 hours, and I lisped a bit again after that. This new bottom aligners has an extra one more for my wisdom tooth (on my left) which was initially a bit odd and made it shaky. However, after the second day it was pretty much comfortable.

I’m more used to the routine of brushing teeth and taking it out. I snack lesser too (but my weight hasn’t dropped much hmph) and get hungry lesser (other than meal times). The only annoying thing that I can think of (if there’s any more cons to write about), is that people always stare at me when I brush teeth or take off/put back my aligners at public washrooms. Like “what’s this girl putting on her teeth?”

I took pictures of my teeth of course, but they still don’t seem much different. My jaw shifted a little at the beginning of week 3 (now they look more proper where the lower jaw is a bit inside) but other than that I can’t really see the shift yet. I googled and people say that they don’t really see the difference till a few months into it but it also depends on how invisalign pushes your teeth.

Thursday will be the end of week 4, and I’ll be going to get my new sets of aligners. The dentist will put in attachments to my teeth as well. Just realised that I should probably get some of those sushi at my bf’s workplace there for lunch on Thursday since I had MOS burger today *random*

We’ll see how it goes.

Teeth

Invisalign – Day 1 till 5.

25 August, 2014 No Comments

So.. After years of talking about it, I finally got started on invisalign.

I decided to write more frequently about this process to assist others if needed, and also to keep a record of my journey.

Anyways, prior to starting invisalign, my orthodontist went through the whole process of explaining about what is was, and answered questions that I had. To be honest, my main worry was only about the cost, so I didn’t really ask about other stuff (and a lot can be found online actually). So after saving up for it (for a few years too mind you), I just went straight into it.

The first session before it they took X-Rays of my jaw, a few photos (side view, smile, relaxed, etc) and also some putty stuff to get a mould of your jaw. Next session saw them explaining about what to correct, and also the cost.

Third session was after you confirm that you would like to do it, and they did another mould, this time using another mixture. This was the more tedious and unpleasant visit so far, and my teeth was pretty messy so they took about 3 times to get the bottom teeth. 5 mins each where you can’t really breathe with the putty stuck to your teeth :X

My orthodontist is pretty popular, and each session was almost 1 month in between *faints*

So anyways, I FINALLY GOT MY ALIGNERS last THursday.

Basically, they give you a kit for you to keep your aligners, and you change it after 2 weeks.

Here’s basically what happened (to me at least – everyone’s body will react differently to change and have different tolerance levels):

Day 1: After soaking the aligners as instructed (in water only), I put it on. It felt very tight and uncomfortable but the pain level was low. Pain level: 2. I talk with a lisp 🙁

Day 2: Still talk with a lisp. Went to work and I felt like my head was very stress and painful. Head. Because all bones are connected? Pain level: 4. Teeth felt shaky and didn’t want to eat at all. But the good thing is that I can take it out. I let my teeth rest a bit after my food, and then put it back.

Day 3: Pain level: 2. Still talk with a lisp. I figured out the more I talk the lesser I lisp. LOL. And also the more I put it on, it gets comfortable.

Day 4: Pain level: 0? I decided that some parts of the aligners were a bit uncomfortable to my mouth, which may be why I lisp, so I went to observe how my tongue was avoiding some areas while talking with the aligners. I don’t have a nail file to file it, so I used the wax given. Seems to be much better.

—————————-

It’s day 5 today. My colleague said that I talk okay, and I can’t pronounce properly for “s” or “x” words, but otherwise it doesn’t hurt anymore. Teeth don’t feel shaky.

Will keep updating here as much as possible. Not sure if anyone’s reading but if you are, feel free to ask questions if any.

Interesting, Omy

[omy.sg treat] Singapore’s Alive Museum (3D visual illusion museum)

9 August, 2014 No Comments

2 years ago, I went to a 3D visual illusion museum when I was in Korea with my family. We had tons of fun and didn’t have enough time to finish all the exhibits before we had to leave (with a tour group). So when I heard that Singapore was going to get 2 3D visual illusion museums, I was quite excited. It’s obviously much nearer than flying to Korea (lol) and I can bring Eugene. heh.

Anyways, omy.sg kindly gave a treat for bloggers to go to the Alive Museum and I got to go!
This museum was definitely different than the one where I went to at Korea, and hence it’s a new experience for me. This was different in the sense that it has more object art and sculptures (kinda like the science center actually).

Anyway I brought my prime lens which was a huge mistake and in the end I used my phone which had a more wider lens. 😡

All pictures taken with SAMSUNG S4.

20140807_201403

20140807_201913

20140807_201321

20140807_200609

20140807_200335

20140807_203220

20140807_203426

20140807_203534

20140807_200300

20140807_203033

20140807_202818

20140807_202706

20140807_202443

20140807_202058

20140807_202228

Eugene wasn’t feeling too well at first, but somehow midway he recovered.

Now, the only few things that could be improved on was the lighting and so many of the exhibits that I saw on their website (that I wanted to take with) were under maintenance 🙁

20140807_202315
This for example 🙁

Space constraints are something that can’t be helped, but we opened a few doors to realise that it was too packed to be opened because there are people behind taking pictures. And it was on a weekday where there was already lesser people :/

Anyway, Alive Museum will update approximately 30% of their exhibits from time to time every 12-18 months and they’ll be doing a Singapore 50 Project as well in future! Do check them out!

Lastly, when you get your ticket, remember to check out the promotions that are offered here: http://alivemuseum.sg/news-events/promotions/. You can get a free BK meal if you flash your Alive Singapore Museum ticket!

Location: Suntec City Mall #03-372 (Between Towers 3 and 4)

Ticket Prices: $25 (Adults), $20 (Children 3-12 yrs)
Operating Hours: 10am – 10pm Daily (Last Admission at 9pm)

Tickets currently bought online are on a 20% discount!

Disclaimer: Tickets are courtesy of Alive Museum Singapore via Omy.

Food, Interesting

Making our own Ramen Burger

11 November, 2013 No Comments

So a few weeks ago, I saw lots of celebrities post Ramen Burger photos on Twitter, and to be honest, it looked really delicious!

Googled a bit and found out that it’s actually quite easy to make (see recipe at Mashable here: http://mashable.com/2013/09/22/ramen-burger/)

So yesterday, we tried a bit but with our own variation (and saladdd).

Got the ingredients above. For the burger itself, we got Muji Ramen (SGD$1.90 for a pack of 4 small ones), lettuce pack from NTUC, and some beef patties (pack of 10).

Note that the pack of 4 Muji Ramen is enough for 2 burgers. We made like 8 packets which was an overkill, enough for about 4-6 people.

The recipe’s easy to follow and takes about 2.5 hours (for about 5 people in our case).