Category Archives: happening!

What happened @ 2am:dessertbar

Posted on by
Reply

We had an afternoon of fun baking, that’s what happened :)

A little background – Cuisine and Wine Asia magazine wanted to do a feature, where a chef will teach 3 celebrity apprentices to make certain pastries. I of course jumped at this opportunity to steal obtain a new recipe for when I finally have an oven again.

Play mates!

From the left,
Stephanie Carrington – the beautiful and always looking for a substitute to every ingredient student;
Janice Wong - our extremely patient and silently suffering pastry guru;
Jackson – our writer who will write nice things about us *fingers crossed* hurhur;
Me in the middle
Jacquelyn Chow – the sweetie pie who will be every teacher’s pet because she follows every instruction to the tee;
Danny – our photographer who took great pictures while laughing unashamedly at with us the entire session and
Derrick  – the guru’s assistant who masked his exasperation at our boos boos and non stop questions well.

I’ve often fantasized about being a pastry apprentice, the same way I’ve thought about being a factory worker. You know how repetition work can be very attractive? No? Ok, different wavelength. Back to baking.

We made two different types of tarts, and boy, were the fillings alot of work! I suspect I’ll be heading back to 2am:dessertbar if I’m craving the chocolate tart or the  marshmellow/cassis parfait filled tart. Also, Janice and Derrick unselfishly imparted to us little tricks (these are the stuff they don’t teach in cookbooks). One was how to shape your tart base using leftover bits of dough so the dough isn’t handled too much; another was to use a metal sift as a filing board to file the edges of the tarts smooth – neat trick!

Now to the taste test-what I liked about the chocolate tart, was that it is firstly not too sweet, and secondly, very shallow and therefore had the perfect ratio of biscuit to chocolate. Yummy!  The marshmellow tart was rather tangy to the taste and very interesting in texture for a tart :)

Alot more happened, but I think I’ll let Jackson tell the juicy bits – will definitely update this post when the article is out early Nov.

Leaving you here with some work pics :)

work montage

An update :)

Posted on by
Reply

Busy as a bee!! That’s how August has been :)

 

There’s the English tele-movie which wrapped a few hours ago – Big Time in Little Street. It is produced by Oak3 Films and the genius behind its making is as always, the many minds that form the crew.  I may be biased but I think the show was well cast (and I’m not referring to me!) I’m not sure how much of the storyline I can reveal so I’ll just say that my character’s name is Sok Yin, and she’s the wife of the impractical dreamer Jimmy Tong (played by Brandon Wong). The other “Big Timers” include Kachuak (Benjamin Heng), Abu (Osman), and Guna(Siva). The boys have an incredible chemistry! Do keep a lookout for trailers on Channel 5 – it’ll air on the 26th Sept. I think that’s the F1 Race Day!

 

Waiting isn’t exactly top on my list of virtues so I’m glad there’s another project keeping me occupied (and a tad stressed).  The working title of this Chinese sitcom is “Mr and Mrs Kok”, where I play a speech challenged assistant to a couple (Mark Lee and Tan Kheng Hua). Same rule on disclosure as above, so suffices to say, I’m feeling productive and happy(yep, even with back to back 12hr days).

 

Oh yes! Before I head to bed, here’s a small montage from the 8Days Road Trip(which had a 50 car convoy!)…. Check out next week’s 8Days for more!! (I did mention that it’s been a busy month right?)

 

8Days Road Trip!

 

Oh oh one more thing to add – FLY’s 10th Anniversary Photoshoot! It must’ve been a logistical nightmare for the managers at Fly to get EVERYONE to do it but Hurrah! Done! *applauds* It’s my first time working with Geoff – excited to see/share final ‘product’.

Note to self: No work the next day doesn’t mean that bedtime can be at 3am.

Driving Miss Foodie – the Food Details!

Posted on by
Reply

The greatest thing about having a blog, is that you get to defend yourself to the world. Even if no one reads it, because you have thrown it out there, it is no longer with you and you have one less emotional baggage to carry around. I’m still talking about me. Dasmond had the audacity to say that I bully him when it is 1) Untrue and 2) the other way round! You’ll know if you managed to catch this episode of Driving Miss Foodie(驾车找吃路). And you’ll see just how maligned I am, how long suffering a host I have been to him. *squeeze out tears*

Ok, enough of whining hurhur here are the food details and pictures of me looking bullied.

Liverpool. Live in my living room.

Posted on by
Reply

First off, I’ll say that I’m not a soccer/football fan. The only reason this entry is happening, is because Dan has been a Liverpool supporter for the last 21years. He declared that I’m a Liverpool fan by virtue of being Mrs Ong. Ookie.

 

So we went to the stadium where every self respecting Liverpool fan is tonight. I haven’t seen the stadium this crowded since it officially closed a few years back(strange but true). I also haven’t seen this many parking laws broken in one place. There simply wasn’t enough space – all the parking lots around the stadium were full. We joined them of course. How else to get in?

 

We went for dinner and arrived at the stadium after the game started. There were no seats on the kop-end (which was more expensive than the grandstand seats!) so settled on balancing our behinds precariously on an aisle railing. It was strange to hear people cheering both teams. A little like betting both black and red on the roulette table. Maybe more favouritism was shown to Liverpool cos we heard “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (Liverpool’s anthem) but didn’t hear “Majulah Singapura” (Singapore’s anthem).

We also didn’t stay past half time – too uncomfortable, too hot and all I could see were little figures running on a field. They should bring back the big screens – at least there’d be some closeups on those. More comfortable to watch the live telecast at home. With closeups.

 

Which is where I am right now writing this entry watching the game.

 

And since the game has ended, I’ll be quite happy to end this entry. Hope your night was fun too!

Driving Miss Foodie – The Unofficial Trailer

Posted on by
Reply

Who else would come up with it, but the one I said was hardworking - you can tell the forethought and effort with editing the soundman and producer shots. Kudos!

 

I’m secretly wondering how many hours he sits in front of that computer when he’s not at location. (No wonder still no girlfriend!! Interested parties, twitter me ok?)

 

Here it is! - On Dasmond Koh’s blog.

 

Looking forward to seeing the official trailer and the ep this wednesday :)

Midway Point

Posted on by
Reply

It’s the midway point of the year. Good time to reflect on the done and the to dos. Who am I kidding. As if I plan beyond next week. So the answer to when the babies are coming is still I Don’t Know.

 

Point of interest 1: filming of Driving Miss Foodie with Dasmond Koh – we got to eat and eat and it’s strange that that’s all we do everytime we work together. The powers that be must like seeing us eat together :)  

I cannot decide if it’s my tastebuds that are spoilt (by good food, not that they are not working), or that my tastebuds were warning me of the impending flu by shutting down (so they might actually have been not working), but I thought that for the most part, the food was more interesting than terrific this episode. Feeling lazy sick so I’ll post a link when Dasmond uploads pics and details cos he does that for every episode. Hardworking that one :)

 

Point of interest 2: photoshoot for NDP. Dan’s meeting overran and he was uber late for the shoot we were doing together. I was panicking at location. Dan was panicking in his meeting. The person who hooked everything up for the shoot, is a friend I’ve known since my school days. She wasn’t panicking because she had enough buffer between our shoot and the next. Cool as a cucumber that one :) *thumbs up Michelle!*

 

Point of disinterest 3: I’ve got the flu. I feel like a social outcast. Enough said.

 

Michael Jackson’s  sudden departure has been talked about to death (sorry about that pun) and I’m not sure if I’m more put off by the people capitalising on him in his waking days or after. It’s just disturbing.

I think my brain is a little too fuzzy and drugged out by flu medication to even be going into this. Will go pop a few more little yellow pills and brown liquids.

 

Ps: My humble blog got a mention in ST!

Sunday Times 28 Jun

Life’s A Beach!

Posted on by
Reply

LifesABeach

Heading to Sentosa for the weekend once I’m done with this post – Life’s A Beach! is happening tomorow!  The main highlight is the concert which begins at 5pm and there’s something very cool about jumping up and down to thumping music with sand between my toes. I’m strange that way.

I haven’t yet decided what I’ll do before the concert but I suspect I’ll be very tanned by the time the weekend is over cos I tan really easily. I mean like REALLY easily. I get a tan line waiting to cross the road. Maybe I’ll join Desiree from 987FM, and be outstanding in white. The sunblock sort of white. Not very cool huh? Maybe not.

New Project :)

Posted on by
Reply

Finally fixed the comments and links bug on my site – was too lazy busy with a new project that came up.

After the recent Little Nyonya drama series, which started an island craze on all things Peranakan, here’s a children’s drama, on the practices of the Peranakan. I play a Chinese teacher in this drama, which centers about a little nyonya (she’s literally little – Sec 1 is little yes? to me, it is :P ), who’s struggling to embrace her peranakan roots in the face of all things modern and fashionable.

Memorising lines in chinese required some getting used to. Dan can probably recite them too cos he’s heard me chant them so many times. If I unexpectedly cannot film, the crew has a ready-to-recite-lines male teacher in my place. Not bad huh.

On set, I remembered all over again how much waiting there is to be done – there’re lights to be set up; props to be prepared; sound to be ready(little known fact : scenes are often redone for the sound), different shots of the same scene; touchups on hair and makeup every time the camera rolls;

I also remembered all over again the buzz and excitement when the director shouts “Camera, action!”. Nice.

The children I’m working with are a pretty amazing bunch. Kids these days are more mature and they learn about responsibilities early in life – like getting their lines right so the entire set do not have to wait for them to get it right. Not even all adults do that.

It’s not for awhile yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing the finished production :)

Gaga over Lady Gaga

Posted on by
Reply

Blown Away. Totally. She owned the crowd last night. Every sound uttered from her lips was music, and every motion, calculated for maximum effect.

This happened last night at the launch of Singtel’s Amped – a new music download service provided by Singtel, and it happened in a dome imported from Dubai.

I thought she was really talented when I mentioned her in this entry, but apparently, I didn’t give her enough credit.  I was all excited when she started on the acoustic version of Poker Face (I really like this one). Midway, she started climbing onto the stool and did part of the song in a partially squatting position. Odd? Not yet – she then stood up with her legs straight and bent her body to create an inverted L. I thought that was about as far as you can stretch a person’s psycho motor skills – singing and playing the piano while in that physically challenging position. She took it a notch further when she sat down and added fill-ins to the song with her high heels!  Yes! She put a leg up on the keyboard and played it with her stilettos! The crowd went wild!!!  There’s a seasickness inducing version here on youtube but it might be better than mere words.

It certainly is very much theatrics, but it certainly worked – I’ll have to take back what I said in the past about gimmicks and music. As if to prove that she isn’t just about cirque du soleil showmanship or plain gimmicks, she also improvised a piano solo not heard in her other performances and it was plain talent.

It may be too soon to tell, but I think Lady Gaga is set to be this generation’s Madonna. She’s bringing the old glamour and fashion of the 70s back, infused with her signature quirky /sexy style. Do I sound like I’m gushing? It’s not very becoming but I am such a fan now J

Here are some pics I managed to get in before my battery died on me – before the show! I was initially annoyed with myself for forgetting to load up on cam juice, but on the bright side, it allowed me to be totally immersed in the moment so I wasn’t worrying about whether I was capturing enough shots *Swoon*

jessica, nat and me

Here’s Jessica Tan (MSU 2007), Nathaniel Koh and me

sarah and kui jien

Kui Jien and his lovely wife Sarah Tan (they like these couple poses -claims it’s how things are between them haha)

dan and young

Dan and Young who did a fabulous job hosting the event (It’s true even from my biased point of view ok)

Rozz from 987FM

Rozz from 987FM all geared up for the showcase wearing Lady Gaga’s signature lightning bolt