Botak Jones latest promotion takes the cake.

The staff at Botak Jones should beware however, of parents haggling for marks for an “upgrade”.

2 months ago the geek and i attended a burger appreciation session conducted by botak jones (bernie utchenik) at the national museum. the hands-on bit was making the meat patties. botak jones grilled the patties for us.

last night we decided to put our head knowledge to good practical use, and test for transfer of learning as well by having some friends over for a modest dinner over burgers.

this time we had to do everything ourselves including chop the garlic and onions. it was time consuming, but fun! and of course i amused myself further by taking photos of the food preparation process.

the outcome was better than expected! our friends and us, loved the meat patties. i loved the salad that i put together the cheat way (premixed salad packs, prepacked feta cheese and bought off the counter sun-dried tomatoes)

also, putting together the photos in sequence and with captions revived my cooking blog, kwokwok. this would be my first entry in two whole years. do check it out!

i’m now thoroughly enjoying my special long weekend. i’ve never really had a real weekend break i.e. not bringing work back home, till i jumped (the sinking) ship.

while reviewing my backlog photo upload, i realised that i’ve truly been chilling quite indulgently. had drinks at L’Estaminet (Greenwood Avenue), ice cream at Udders (United Square), tea at Indochine (Empress Place) and dinner at Olio Dome (Bishan CC).

my favourite has got to be Greenwood Avenue, it has the best kept secret row of cafes and restaurants tucked behind the housing estate of Hillcrest Park along Bukit Timah.

the crew from the new ship and i were at both cafe iguana and L’Estaminet to take advantage of happy hour. the party pooping me of course had to have a mug of lemon ginger mint tea and home brewed ice lemon tea respectively.

but as i always assert, its the company that matters. and this company, matters.

i’ve always wondered why hot cross buns are famously connected to the good friday/easter period. i infer that the cross on the bun alludes to crucifixion.the geek brought over some hot cross buns on friday made by his mom, and when i got home last night i found more hot cross buns on the kitchen counter.

true enough, wiki says that “in many historically Christian countries, buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the crucifixion.” However, i also found out that it had served political purposes, “English monarchs saw the buns as a dangerous hold-over of Catholic belief in England, being baked from the dough used in making the communion wafer. Protestant England attempted to ban the sale of the buns by bakers but they were too popular, and instead Elizabeth I passed a law permitting bakeries to sell them, but only at Easter and Christmas.”

this makes eating hot cross buns a subversive activity.

i tell the geek that having dinner out or watching a movie on a weekday evening is living dangerously for me. quite sad case.

to sustain through the next working day, i usually need my 8 hours of sleep. the thing is, work begins really early, so i have to sleep really early too.

this week, i seem to be on a roll, coz i went out two nights in a row.

last night, sm (girlfriend i serendipitously bumped into in school when she was conducting a course for my students) brought me to for pre-dinner cocktails at loof and then dinner at the supper club, both at odeon towers.

i had “the loof life” going for 1-for-1. the only reason why i could stomach the cocktail was probably because there was not a trace of alcohol in it. it tasted more like wheat grass. the alcohol kicked in only after i chugged it.

it was only after checking out their website that i realized that the 1-for-1 was a wet weather programme.

dinner at supper club was foc because sm’s contact put us on “the list”. dinner usually priced at $65.

dinner consist of an exquisite 4 course set that is served at about 20 minute intervals from 8.30pm. it a standard set meal that everyone is served at the same time. for a minute there i felt that i was being served airline food.

we sat and lounged and ate around a small metal table placed at intervals along the continuous bed.

the quality of the food was really good though. i can only describe it as boutique, because its quite hard to put my finger on it. the first dish was salad, the second was soup and the main course was duck with sweet potato (i think).

soup however, was served in a champagne glass. it is clear at the bottom and murky at the top, you have to swirl it to mix it. the soup was somewhere between herbal and laksa-ish and had a spicy after taste.

the supper club was an interesting experience which i wouldn’t put myself through again if i had to pay for it or if i was really hungry. the loof however, would be nice checking out especially if it rains.