The bird and the seafood

The bird, in this case, refers to the restaurant, The Pelican Seafood Bar & Grill, located at One Fullerton. A couple of bosses wanted to buy lunch for some of us, particularly for S who has got a promotion. The initial restaurant choice was Sun Moon Japanese restaurant at Wheelock place, where the food is pedestrian to be honest. Lucky for those of us who have a penchant for good food, including S, an Indian colleague doesn’t take Japanese. So S suggested The Pelican where she had dined once and likes the food. Besides it has vegetarian option for another Aussie co-worker.

Both S and I checked out the online menu prior to lunch. She recommends the clam linguine, crab cake and clam chowder, as well as the Cod’s tongues. The restaurant also offers set lunch at S$38++ which includes an appetizer of either a soup or salad, a main consisting of either burger or linguine, and the sweets of the day. I thought that was a pretty good deal, though I wanted to find out first what the dessert was.

The restaurant has a classical setting with mirrors, warm lighting, hanging lamps, padded chairs and padded booth seating at an elevated left section. The bar is located right in front of the entrance. Strangely it doesn’t have any marine theme; instead it can pass off as a steak restaurant. The ambiance is serene and the place has a comfy feel to it. According to S, it’s owned by the Marmalade Group. Another colleague who had also tried the food there told me that it was previously the Pierside Restaurant, and Marmalade Group is now a co-owner.

When we were there on a Tuesday, only a few tables were occupied. I guess they don’t do a lot of lunches on weekdays. The restaurant has a simple one-page menu, which is a good sign. I find that usually restaurants which offer every and anything is an indication of crappy or at best, average, food.

Initially both S and I were considering the set lunch. She was planning to get the white bean soup while I would have the house-cured salmon with salad so that both of us could share, and we were both thinking of getting the linguine for our mains. We checked with the wait staff for the sweets of the day, and it was creme brûlée. S wasn’t enthusiastic as she doesn’t like the dessert, and though I don’t dislike it I was hoping for something more appealing.

After looking through the menu, both S and I decided to follow the rest of the group, no set lunch for us. We wanted the linguine with Atlantic clams which serves two, and that was alright by us. S also ordered the clam chowder like our partner boss. Our two co-workers wanted the tomato soup. The two bosses were sharing two appetizers of crab cakes and Charlie cakes. Our Indian colleague ordered a pan-fried stripped seabass and the Australian girl got the celeriac steak with spinach and red wine-infused mushrooms. The wait staff seemed a little confused with our orders, and couldn’t quite get the quantity of the soup right. We had to repeat our orders a couple of times.

My interest in the dessert selections was piqued when the lady boss mentioned she wanted the lemon meringue. I was tempted by the chocolate whoopie pie and so ordered that. Everybody looked at me, “are you going to have that now? With the main course??” The lady boss remarked, “Maria, you are going against the meal order.” I decided, “alright, I’ll get it later. Actually I don’t mind having it with the main.” I seriously don’t, though I know it’s pretty weird. I was instead surprised by the lady boss ordering a lychee mojito. Hmmmm… Is she going to get tipsy for the rest of the afternoon? 😛

We were served brown bread with unsalted butter; the bread could be wholegrain but I didn’t check with the staff. I like it and was rather pleased it was served warm. This is a mark of attention to details. We didn’t have to wait long for the food to arrive. The appetizers were first served. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to take a picture of the crab cakes, which were quickly chomped down by the bosses. But I did take pictures of the other appetizers, like the clam chowder soup which S kindly offered to share though I only wanted a sip for a taste of it.

The clam chowder is creamy and really flavorful, filled with potatoes, clams, bacon for a smoky taste and croutons. It’s really yummy, one of the best chowder I’ve taken. My only grouse is that portion is a little small.

I didn’t try the tomato soup but my colleagues said it was very good, and could taste the fresh tomatoes in it. They also felt the portion is on the small side.

The Charlie cake (or Johnny cakes on the menu) is something new to me. It’s caviar sitting atop sour cream on a beenie base, sprinkled with chopped chives. But the lady boss realized the base wasn’t beenie biscuit; she couldn’t quite get what it was and said it tastes like tapioca. The partner thought it reminded him of ‘Mee Chiang Kueh’ (面煎粿), a popular local pancake snack, typically filled with crushed peanuts and sugar. I asked the waitstaff, who had to check with the chef. This is a little surprising as I expect the waitstaff in restaurants like Pelican to know what they’re serving the diners. Anyway she reverted to us that the cake base is actually made from polenta.

The linguine with Atlantic clams that both S and I shared is beautifully flavored with garlic and white wine. The linguine is cooked to the correct al dente texture and the mussels are tasty. In fact the chef is very generous with the mussels. They are small but lip-smacking juicy!

Our Indian colleague had the stripped bass with braised artichokes and diced carrots. Unfortunately she didn’t enjoy it as the fish was too bland, and even the vegetables were bland as well. Though she did admit that she’s used to spicy and strongly-flavored food as all Indian food are.

The Australian lady who had the celeriac steak likes her dish. She could taste the celery, though a little bland, but it’s nicely complemented by the flavors from the spinach and red wine-infused mushrooms.

When it was dessert time, most of us asked for the double chocolate whoopie pie, while the two bosses went for the lemon meringue ‘mess’.

The whoopie pie is fabulously yummy and sinful at the same time! For those unfamiliar with it, it’s like a burger where the buns are actually moist chocolate cakes, and the patty is chocolate cream. The pie is covered with a layer of ganache, and topped with dark chocolate bits. This is honestly chocolate overload, and you
can also call it death by chocolate, but it’s well worth it because you’ll die happy.

I tried a little of the meringue which comes in a glass container. It’s covered with a light cream and raspberries. I don’t quite like the meringue which has an eggy taste, and that makes it unappetizing.

All in all, the food is pretty good in general though service can be better. I would definitely recommend this restaurant for a special night out, or you can opt for the set lunch if you don’t mind sweets like creme brûlée.

Buddy turns one

We had a low-key celebration for Alex’s first birthday last Saturday, which was a co-celebration with my mother-in-law. It was still special for everyone as we had an enjoyable trip to the River Safari in the day (see previous post ‘Alex and the River Safari Trip’).

Buddy received an early birthday gift from Uncle Francis and Aunt Hua from the US a few weeks ago, a pair of polo shirts and dungaree. We put on him one of the shirts for his birthday but left out the dungaree as it’s a little warm for him.

I don’t think Buddy understands the significance of the day nor the cake. But at least he had an exciting day at the safari park. At home, together with granny, they cut the birthday cake.

We ordered the cake from Awfully Chocolate, and I mentioned in another post ‘The Big-Day Preparation’ dated 20th May, we had a bit of a problem trying to get my husband’s birthday greeting on the cake. He abbreviated it further, and we’re happy to say that the bakery staff got it right. The cake is also pretty good. Even though we collected it the day before and only had it after it was kept overnight in the fridge, it was still rather moist and not overly sweet. My husband, who’s not a fan of chocolate cake, likes it a lot.

Buddy wasn’t allowed any cake since there’s too much sugar in it for him. So I bought some snacks for him and the other babies and toddlers at infant care for a celebration last Friday. The brand, Organix, has a wide selections of healthy snacks and food for the little ones. There were biscuits and dried fruits for the toddlers, raspberry and blueberry rice cakes for those aged 7 months and older, and fruit purée for all except one baby who’s only 3 months old. Of course we haven’t left out the teachers; we got them a chiffon cake.

I bought a terrier balloon for Buddy’s birthday but he’s only interested in hitting at it. Poor terrier gets battered by him.

My husband and I marvel at how quickly time passes and Buddy is already a year old. He has grown so much since he was born, and his personality also manifests over time. He has a stubborn streak in him, probably got it from me, and is increasingly naughty as he will throw tantrums if he doesn’t get what he wants. He loves playing with tissue box, and the other day my husband moved one, that was on the couch, out of his reach. Buddy yelled in protest and threw the panda rattle, that he had in his hand, at the box. Yes, discipline has to come in now.

We love our little dragon baby, and hope he’ll stay healthy and strong. Most of all, like what my husband hopes to do, we want to help Buddy build a strong foundation in the intellectual, physical and moral aspects, and the rest will fall in place. Happy one year old, Alex boy!

Alex and the River Safari trip

Last Saturday (1st June) was Alex’s first birthday. We had planned to take him to the River Safari to see the 2 giant pandas. My in-laws were here too, as my mother-in-law’s birthday falls on end May and she wanted to have a co-celebration with Buddy. But my husband developed a fever the evening before, and we thought we had to postpone it. Lucky our family doctor is pretty close by, and my husband went to see Dr Shrimpy who gave him ibuprofen. He was well enough the next day, and we went ahead with our plan so that Buddy’s birthday was a special one.

My husband insisted that we should be at the zoo (which is really next to River Safari) early to beat the crowd, according to reviews he read. I wasn’t convinced that there would be hell of a lot of people since the pandas have been around for some time already. When we arrived at about 9.30am, the car park was only partially filled and there weren’t any tour coaches. In fact there was no thronging crowd. But once we were at the F&B outlets and the ticketing booths, a small crowd was already there. As we were having some snacks at a cafe, more people turned up particularly families. So it turns out my husband was right to follow the advice from the reviews. Alex was very excited when we arrived at the zoo; it was new sights and sound for him.

At the entrance to the River Safari, we get a view of the green scenery that makes up the park, very different from what you see anywhere in Singapore.

Here’s the map of the Safari park. The large reservoir of water is what is seen in the picture above.

The River Safari features 8 notable fresh-water rivers and their fauna from around the world, and they are housed in huge tanks.

The Mississippi River is the first showcase; I thought the Gar Fish found there is pretty amazing looking with it’s alligator-like snout.

The crocodile in the Ganges River tank is scarily big. Imagine encountering one!

The size of the giant catfish in the Mekong River tank is like that of a baby shark. Anyway I’m sure the river itself is not this pristinely clear. This is the ideal environment, but caged up.

I’m not sure why the giant pandas are housed in the River Safari since the park features river animals, and the panda’s habitat is nowhere near any river. Maybe the zoo runs out of space.

A special dome was built for the enclosures of the giant pandas and the other animals in the same habitat, including the cute red panda. We were so relieved that it’s air conditioned! The heat and humidity caused Alex’s eczema to flare up quite badly. Like the pandas, he requires a cool environment.

I’m not sure why the giant panda is such a popular animal, and it’s even used as the symbol for World Wildlife Fund. When we talk about endangered animals, there’re a whole bunch of them. The Siberian tiger is facing the same risk, so are the Javan rhinoceros (only 60 left), and the Northern Sportive Lemur. Honestly, is it because the panda is deemed to be cute and cuddly? Though personally I only find the baby panda cute, but most baby animals are cute anyway. Remember Knut, the baby polar bear? He was a cutie. But disproportionate amount of attention is focused on the giant panda that I think it is seriously over-rated. But since China has taken on the animal as a national symbol and the country is now a rising power, it’ll definitely want the panda to be constantly in everybody’s radar. That, to me, doesn’t do justice to the other animals. The Siberian tiger is certainly not gentle, but it’s a magnificently beautiful animal. Too bad the Russians are not advocating on it’s behalf.

I find the red panda more adorable and endearing than the giant panda. This pretty one is also rather frisky.

Guess what were the giant panda doing? This one, Jia Jia, was sleeping like a log. My husband even thought it was dead because it didn’t stir one bit.

As for the other one, Kai Kai, she was hiding inside the enclosure because she’s too shy to show her face.

Well, we might as well watch the pandas on the TV. At least the cameraman would be the one spending hours filming the action.

The highlights of the tour turn out to be at the Amazon Flooded Forest. The piranhas are the first attraction. These scary fishes went into a formation when a number of people started crowding round the tank. They were almost motionless as they stared back at the crowd, looking like they were ready for an attack. My husband felt it was pretty unnerving; and said if the piranhas started to rush at the glass, that would send the crowd running away screaming.

My favorite tank is this humongous one that houses the manatees and other big fishes.

It’s quite an amazing sight standing right in front of this huge floor to ceiling glass tank, looking at the fishes and manatees swimming above you.

This is a view of the tank from the top.

There’s a mother and baby manatees. I was a little surprised to find these mammals feeding on cabbage.

The park is supposed to have a boat ride along a river within it. But there was some problem with the boat and so that part of the park is closed for the time being. So the ticket costs S$25 per adult right now instead of S$36. We didn’t get to see all the exhibits, like the squirrel monkey forest as it out under the sun and we were afraid that it might worsen Buddy’s eczema. It has been a pretty enjoyable visit, many of these animals are never before seen, except on TV. We would definitely return for another visit especially for the boat ride which would be fun. However we have to wait till Buddy is slightly older and his eczema problem has pretty much receded before coming back. This time we’ll check out the squirrel monkey forest. And we’ll also bring along lots of water and some snacks. The food at the park, whether fast-food or sit-down, sucks! Water is $2 a bottle and you need lots of it because of the heat. Only the panda enclosure and the Amazon Flooded Forest have AC, other than the restaurants and souvenir stores. Outside the panda enclosure, a fast food Chinese restaurant serves the panda bun, which is really red bean bun, but don’t count on the taste. Buddy was fascinated by it, as with the rest of the food we were having.

Here’s our baby panda. Strangely he doesn’t mind this woolly hat. We have tried putting a floppy hat and a cap on him and he pull them off his head.

The chocolate cake

The chocolate cake is a perennial favorite, with numerous versions out there. The molten chocolate cake, which is also known as warm chocolate cake or lava cake, is one of my favorites. I still remember the one I had at The Datai resort at Langkawi, Malaysia. It was one of the best, if not the best molten cake I ever had. When I cut into it, oozing warm chocolate flows out. The superb chocolate, together with the moist cake and the vanilla ice cream, was simply heavenly!

Too bad The Datai resort is not easily accessible, and to me Langkawi is damn boring, probably because I’m not a beach person. So I’ve not had another chance of the heavenly taste. But I have tried similar molten cake at bakeries and restaurants, and some have come close. There used to be a Japanese sweets shop called ‘Beard Papa’ which has a small version at a fraction of the cost. I have to say it’s pretty good for a cheap and cheerful version. Unfortunately ‘Beard Papa’ stores have dwindled down to a handful now that there’re a lot more dessert choices.

A few months ago, a new cake shop opened in the basement one level of Raffles City mall, selling specifically molten cakes called ‘Smoulder’.

There is a wide selection of these mini molten cakes in various flavors, each at 2″ wide, selling for S$2.80 each. The bakery also offers chocolate cakes which they call ‘The Real Chocolate cake’.

For the mini molten cakes, the chocolate flavor even has various degree of dark chocolate mass. I first tried the one with the highest cocoa content, Intensely dark chocolate, which has 75% dark chocolate.

It certainly tastes like it is chockfull of cocoa mass; it’s more bitter than sweet. This is strictly for those dark chocolate connoisseur.

I tried the slightly less intense version, Dark chocolate, which has less cocoa, at 50%. The bitterness is offset by the sweetness, and this has a good balance.

The cakes are moist, but I didn’t warm them up and so I can’t say if there’ll be oozing chocolate.

I have also tried the warm chocolate cake from Starbucks. For a place not known for cakes, I’ve to say that it’s unexpectedly good. You have to remember to warm up the cake though, otherwise it’s not as great eaten cold.

Last weekend, we were at Takashimaya and there was a Sweets Fair. Expectedly there’re cheese cakes from Japan including Petit Merveille which we had tried previously. But there’s another Hokkaido brand called ‘Patisserie Jolli Creer’‘, which has cheese soufflé and chocolate soufflé available. I lnow the name sounds really wierd. My husband tried the cheese flavor and I had a sample of the chocolate one. My husband thought the cheese soufflé is really good, even slightly better than the one from Petit Merveille. But this post is about the chocolate cake.

The chocolate soufflé is fabulous despite not being freshly made and has been refrigerated for some time. I don’t know what the Japanese add into it but it’s able to retain moisture. It’s rather chocolatey, and not very sweet. Admittedly, at S$18.90 for a box of four mini soufflés, it’s pretty steep. But these are some of the best soufflés I’ve eaten, and as good, if not better, than those available in the patisserie shops here.

For Alex’s birthday, we ordered a ‘All Chocolate’ cake from Awfully Chocolate. I have tried other cakes from this bakery but not the chocolate cake. I know it’s very popular but thought it might be just like any others. The cake was better than we expected, like the Hokkaido chocolate soufflé, the cake is chocolatey and not overly sweet. Despite the cake being stored overnight, it was still moist and yummy. We definitely recommend the chocolate cake.

What do you do with a baby like Alex

Alex has learned to call me ‘mama’. For the past month or so, my husband and I have been teaching him that I’m mama, my husband is papa and Alex is baby. A few days ago he suddenly said ‘mama’ when I was near. I wasn’t sure if that was what he said since he has been babbling for some time. It was only when he turned to me and called out “mama, mamama…” when he wanted me to cuddle him, that we realize that perhaps he has learned the association. Now many mothers out there would get all excited. But I’m still not very sure if Buddy truly gets it since that only happened a couple of times so far.

Alex looks better now that his eczema problem has improved so much. The teachers at infant care exclaimed that he’s a handsome boy! One even told my husband that he’s the most popular baby. At one time when the eczema on his face was bad, his ranking fell to no. 2, but now he’s back with a vengeance. Other parents go goo goo ga ga over him. As the infant care center is located on the ground floor of a residential apartment, my husband has seen residents looking through the glass window at Alex playing. It’s like he’s an exhibit. My husband always jokes that we have to find a way to monetize Buddy’s popularity.

Recently we were at Ya Kun cafe at Changi City Point. Buddy was standing on my lap and looking around as usual. A little girl, who appears to be 4 or 5 years old, came over to make friends with him. Her family was sitting behind us, and a family member turned around to look at Alex. She offered her hand to high-five with him, which he reciprocated. The little girl did the same, and all of a sudden, she burst into tears and then ran over to her mom. She was babbling something which I couldn’t make out. I thought Buddy hit or scratched her, and got a little worried.

The family member (might be the aunt) and the mom kept consoling the little girl that it was alright. I asked the aunt if she was ok, and she explained that she was tired. The mom then said something about Alex not reciprocating her high-five. At that point, the little girl stopped crying and gave Buddy the evil eyes, and proceeded to shout at him. Both mother and aunt told her to stop it, but the little girl continued to glare angrily at Buddy, who remained blissfully ignorant. Honestly both my husband and I were taken aback by her strong reaction. She’s only a little girl, but acted like someone jilted. My husband remarked, “I really pity her future boyfriend.” Then he turned to Buddy and said, “Alex, when any girl offers you her hand for a high-five, you do the same. Otherwise, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction!”

Alex has shown his likes and dislikes since he was a newborn. Till today, he doesn’t enjoy bath nor changing of diapers. He also wouldn’t lie still for us to change his clothes. We have bought a swimming diaper and a float for him, hoping to take him into the children pool for a dip and get him to enjoy the water, but so far we haven’t gotten down to it. But one thing Buddy has shown a love for is toy ball. The infant care teachers told us that he’s the only baby who loves playing with toy balls, particularly those that bounce. I got him one, but it doesn’t bounce. I can’t find those available in the infant care center in any department stores or toy shops. It turns out there are two suppliers of toys to the infant care centers and they don’t sell to the retail stores.

But what I don’t understand is why it is so difficult to find toy balls. Instead I see Lego sets, transformer toys, remote-controlled cars, some complex-looking gadget from Fisher-Price and fancy-looking toy guns etc. My husband told me these are high margin items that toy manufacturers love to sell. Toy balls are low margin stuff that they prefer not to make, but they still do, only in small volume. But a toy ball provides lots of fun for Buddy when my husband and I play with him. He is especially tickled when my husband head-butts the ball at him. He tries to do the same but doesn’t realize he has to move his head, and ends up throwing the ball behind him instead.

The older Alex gets, the more active he becomes. Feeding him solids takes half an hour. He wouldn’t sit still and take the food. We haven’t bought a baby chair for him as we weren’t sure if he would be able to sit long enough in the chair. In restaurants, he has enough distractions to stay in the chair for that length of time. At home, we’ve tried putting him in the stroller or try siting him down on my lap. We must have the baby songs on iPad to keep him entertained. But Buddy takes his time with the solids, and after 15 minutes he would start fidgeting. When I feed him in the play pen, I literally have to follow him around with the spoon and bowl.

My mom said that Alex behaves this way because he has no competition. Unlike him, my nephew (who’s 10 months old) finishes his food in less than 10 minutes and screams whenever his sisters come near the food. Even the pet dog get shooed away for sniffing around him. So for Alex, he knows he has full attention from my husband and me.

We haven’t bought a lot of toys for Alex. He’s still playing with those that he received when he was much younger. The last toy I got him was a toy ball a couple of months back. He doesn’t play with the soft toys, instead he sticks to the panda rattle, the crab rattle, the toy ball, and even enjoys playing with a plastic spoon he received at Jones restaurant. Anyway he has some toys, still in their boxes, which are gifts from family members. Recently my husband’s brother and his wife came for a visit from the US, and gave Buddy the popular scooter bike and two packs of flash cards. They even set up the bike for him but he’s still a little too young to get on it. In fact most of the toys are still rather advanced for him, like the flashcards, which has a pen and eraser, are for 3 years old kids. I guess this means we don’t have to buy new toys for Buddy for the next few years except for a couple of toy balls.

Here’s Alex in a gangsta pose.

The big-day preparation

Alex is turning a year old soon, and we’ve decided to take him to the River Safari to visit the pandas on his birthday. My mother-in-law, whose birthday falls on end May, wants to have a celebration of her 70th birthday with Buddy. We’re getting a chocolate cake for the joint birthdays, since she likes chocolate. Too bad for Buddy but he can’t have a taste of it. My husband and I want to delay feeding him sugar as long as possible.

A digression here, I was quite shocked to find some custard or dessert purée from brands like Heinz and Gerber contains sugar and this is for baby aged 6 months and above. I think it’s unethical of these companies to add sugar into the ingredients since it is addictive. We have also seen parents giving ice cream to their babies, and again we think it’s unconscionable. A baby has sensitive taste buds, and getting exposed to sugar is like having crack for the first time.

Anyway my husband told me to look for a chocolate cake with pretty design that can fit in a birthday message for two. Sounds a little like a tall order to me. I’m also tasked to look for a nice birthday wear for Buddy, preferably panda themed. Again a tall order. I did search online for panda suits but it’s been pretty difficult to find one. So I tried looking for a nice outfit at a couple of baby stores, maybe something preppy.

I checked out a couple of baby boutiques like Ginger Snap at Raffles City mall, and suspect that the designers don’t have baby boys of their own. Otherwise why would the pants for one-year olds have belt, button and zip? Don’t they realize that it’s necessary to make the clothes convenient to put on and remove for quick diaper change? Truddy and Teddy offers preppy clothes for baby boys, and the pants are designed with buttons at the crotch area for easy diaper change.

We went to Takashimaya where there are more selections available. My husband likes a red polo shirt from Ralph Lauren baby that was in the sale bin, though I don’t like the short pants that go with it. But the set costs S$150! For clothes that last only 6 months, despite the 30% discount, that’s still a ridiculous price to pay. Anyway we didn’t get the preppy set from Truddy and Teddy as my husband feels it’s too formal, and Buddy probably won’t get another chance to wear it after his celebration. We’ll have to get something for him by this weekend.

As for the cake, we looked at the selections available at Flor Patisserie, and decided on a Cacao Royale cake which has fresh fruits on top of dark chocolate icing. It’s a pretty cake which we think my mother-in-law would like. When we were asked for the message, to be piped onto an edible birthday card placed on the cake, I said, “Happy Birthday, Alex and Grandma!” But my husband objected. He wants something special that links Buddy to his mom and not any run-of-the mill message. We spent like 10 minutes deliberating and he wasn’t satisfied. In the end I told the staff we would revert in a couple of days’ time. Instead we went to the foodcourt for a drink and my husband continued to figure out the message he wants. After 5 minutes, he suddenly said he’s got something cool.

When I saw the message, my first reaction was “huh? What does it mean?” My husband was incredulous, “don’t you understand the numbers?” I told him, “I’m bad in Maths. I don’t understand those symbols.” “These are plain numbers, nothing complicated.” “No, the message is too complex for me.” He then explained, “it’s just playing with numbers. Alex is 70 to the power of 0 years old, which is one. Grandma is the summation of 1 over 70 times years old, which 70.”

I had a feeling the staff at Flor would be confused. When I showed it to her, she looked puzzled, but instead of asking for clarification she told me the message was too long. My husband then had it shortened.

But the message is still considered too long. I was shown pictures of cakes and they have the usual simple message of ‘happy birthday, so and so’. My husband pooh-pooh it, “so boring! Can we be a little creative? Don’t you think my message is cool? The Google guys will love it.” Er, the Google guys are scary smart. Most of us don’t have that kind of firepower.

Anyway we didn’t get the cake from Flor since the message cannot be piped onto the cake surface and the edible card is too small. I suggested to my husband to get the cake from Awfully Chocolate, which has plain cake and able to accommodate the message, and he agreed.

We went to the AC store at Katong, and my husband simplified the message further because the staff might make a mistake with the summation symbol. We ordered an 8″ cake to accommodate the message. But the explanation and the wait to confirm the order took us 30 minutes. This is almost like trying to understand rocket science. I told my husband to prepare for mistakes when he collects the cake, but he’s not perturbed, “it’s only icing. It can be wiped off and redone.”

Post Mother’s Day musings

I didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day last Sunday. Yes, it was my first Mother’s Day but I didn’t think of having a celebration. Guess I place more emphasis on birthdays instead. So last Sunday was just like any others, mainly caring for Buddy.

At church in the morning, all mothers were given a foldable recycle bag as a gift, which is a nice touch. We have recently switched to this church, which is relatively close to our home. My husband checked the parish geographic areas covered by the church and realized that our home lies within its coverage. It’s strange how we had never thought of attending mass there until a couple of months ago.

We had previously attended two other churches (also within the eastern district), but don’t like either ones. The first one had a change of priests and the articulate one got transferred. The sermons got so boring that my husband thought that we could record them down to induce Buddy to sleep. So we moved to the new church where the articulate priest is at. Yes sermons are better, but the church is so freaking crowded and impersonal. It’s also not baby nor elderly friendly. Besides we didn’t have very pleasant experience there.

My husband then suggested we try this current one. I checked the mass schedule and like what I see, a timing which is not too early nor late, just right. Not only that, the priests are pretty personable and gives good sermons. The church also is elderly and stroller friendly, with ramps and handrails available. It has a strong community spirit, and the parishioners are pretty considerate too. Buddy is a hit there; a number of parishioners are smitten by him. After so many years, we’ve finally found a church that we enjoy mass.

Last Friday, we took Buddy to the National Skin Centre to see a specialist, Professor Yoke Chin GIAM. She is recommended by a parishioner from our previous church, and I was told the good doctor is an expert on eczema. Both parishioner and her toddler son are sufferers and sought consultation with the professor.

As is expected with public healthcare institution, even though there is an appointment system, there is still quite a wait. It wasn’t as bad as the wait-time at Loh’s clinic, but it still took us slightly more than an hour. The prof is a motherly elderly-looking lady, who impresses with her knowledge and experience, and amuses my husband with her old English vocabulary. Upon seeing Buddy, she remarked, “what a bonny boy!” My husband later quipped, “I wonder if she knew Charles Dickens personally.”

When I showed the good professor the steroid cream prescribed by Dr OK, she told us that it is only suitable for baby 5 months and below, and is too mild to be effective for Buddy’s eczema problem. She prescribed a slightly stronger steroid cream to be used for a few days and a non-steroid one for use when we see improvements. It was a relief for us when we were told that Buddy’s skin problem is not very serious. She also said that by puberty, 80% of children, who contracted eczema at baby stage, would have gotten over it. What’s surprising to us is that the rashes on Buddy’s arm and leg creases are actually eczema, and not fungal infection as what Dr OK thought. No wonder after we stopped the fungal cream, the rash returns.

We were even given a flyer showing a treatment flow-chart. My husband couldn’t help saying that he never felt so clear about what to do. I showed the professor the super duper rescue lotion from Buds for Baby. She checked out the ingredients under the magnifying glass and commented that some of the ingredients have similar properties to steroid but milder. This explains why the lotion works to a certain extent. I know I have mentioned before that I thought the Physiogel AI lotion is not very effective, but the prof told us to continue using it because it helps to repair the skin. Since it’s only to be used twice a day, we’ll apply the rescue lotion on Buddy at other times.

As per our usual practice, we have to give the prof a nickname. She is so motherly that I feel like a kid in front of her. My husband and I were brainstorming for some catchy names, “Mother hen”, “Prof Mama”. In the end, he suggested “Mamacita”? He said it was Mexican for ‘little mama’. I thought that was pretty cool. But after I goggled it, I found that it’s a Spanish slang for a hot chick. Now, no offense to the good prof, but she’s no spring chicken, and definitely no hottie. I thought we should call her “Madrecita”, a term of endearment and respect for an elderly lady. But my husband feels “Mamacita” is more catchy, which is true.

After a few days of applying both the steroid and non-steroid cream, Buddy’s eczema problem has improved tremendously, and is almost gone. So now we know that when it comes to skin problem, you should go see a skin expert like Prof Mamacita, who’s now the miracle worker. Dr OK is, after all, an expert in babies and young children, not dermatology. Anyway whenever “Mamacita” is mentioned, I’ll be reminded of this Christmas song ‘Donde Esta Santa Claus’ (Where is Santa Claus).