the wacky wombat weblog

When my family was here in Singapore last week, I was left with the task to feed everyone for all meals. Of course I skipped the usual hawker fare that I have, because there’re far better and far cheaper chicken rice or char kuay teow and wantan noodle without tomato/chilli sauce in Malaysia.

So for one of the dinners, I brought them to Arab Street for some ‘exotic’ Egypt/Arabian food. (Mainly also because I wanna try more items on the menu, hehehe).

Everyone was excited because they haven’t really got the chance to try Middle Eastern food before. There’re probably a few in KL or what-not, but it’s also probably not gonna be cheap. This one at Arab Street (Al-Majlis) is decently priced, dishes cost about S$8 to $12 on average.

Fantastic stuff, great flavour thanks to all the spices, and absolutely yummy.

(Top) Yein ventured to try kibbeh – a triangle of spiced minced beef and nuts, with a side serving of cucumber salad in yoghurt sauce. Looks the strangest but the taste made it one of the best dishes which we ordered that night. (Bottom) I had my usual stir-fry lamb with rice, simple but fragrant. (sadly I’ve forgotten the name of the dish).

(T) For the less adventurous, there’s good ole’ chicken chop. Pei claims the potato wedges taste much better than the ones at KFC Malaysia. (B) Also, another standard dish with a spice-filled twist — mixed grill, consisting of chicken, lamb, beef and rice.

(T) My mom ordered ba’mia, a simple tomato-based curry with okra (ladies fingers) and lamb, served with rice or bread. (half-eaten in this pix. apologies hehe) (B) Mei had harissa, a pan of lamb, no idea how it’s cooked but sure taste great, soft, with flavours that linger in your mouth. Everyone scrambled to try it (and then took extra heaps of it for second tries), so Mei had to order a second one as she had nothing left from the first serving.

We also had a dozen of grilled fresh mushrooms for appetizers. Juicy, and nicely grilled, so it was a treat for a mushroom fan like me. To go with the food, we all had iced mint tea — refreshing and not too sweet.

Great stuff. Gotta go back there again for another round. :p

This is a little overdue, but yes, I have officially graduated.

Convocation was last Wednesday in NTU’s Auditorium. Ceremony was, well, long-winded, especially when I thought it’d be quick with our cohort of only 160+, but turns out there were as many masters fellas as there were mere degree folks like us. 0_o

My whole family travelled all the way to Singapore just for this, so haha, what an honour. :p We were probably one of the largest family to attend, but thankfully plenty of extra tickets were available so I don’t feel so bad taking so many extras, and my sisters didn’t have to sit outside and drink coffee for 90 minutes.

Nice seeing everyone again after my 3-month-long holiday. Took me a few seconds to recognise some people. Must be the gowns, made us all look like some harry potter congregation hehe. Took lots of photos too, so thanks to friends, friends of friends, family of friends, who helped with the photo-taking.

My sis Tse Mei and me (with the mortarboard that gives me extra height). She’s leaving soon for her final year studies in the US, so all the best (with the snow)!

me and some of my choir friends who arrived after the ceremony for our lil’ photo-taking get-together.

After convo (and some touristy activity around Singapore with my family), I went back to PJ with them, spent the weekend there fooding around, and now I’m back in the little island, hoping someone will hear my plea for a job (and money to pay my rent). lol. On with more job sites browsing.