i just went shopping for baby clothes today, unfortunately not for my own unborn child – that would have to wait.

right now, there are SO many friends popping out babies, left right and centre… oh wait, this has been happening for quite a bit for the past two years, hasn’t it? well, in any case, this time, i got to have a *taste* of what it feels like to actually be able to buy baby girl clothes for myself, and now i can look at them without feeling any envy. finally, to scoff at little boys’ clothes instead!

i’ve always been wary of the blue-for-boys, pink-for-girls stereotype, so i’ve conscientiously tried to steer clear from buying these socially-assigned, gender-biased colours for them. though i have, on weak occasions, veered into the pink zone just because I COULDN’T HELP IT THEY’RE SO FREAKING CUTE, but i made firmly sure they’re not prostitute-hot-pink and are tastefully paired with earthy colours to tone the pinkness down. seriously!

oh, and i hope to not to be deluged with pinks myself when this one’s born too, ha ha. :p

well, ok except for this one dress i saw just now at the Bloom B shop, which was pink and green, in the softest cotton, all flowy and purrrty… sigh.

aanyway, another thing i told myself not to do was to, erm, ‘toncet’ the lil girl’s hair, you know like the ‘jin toncet’ kind, on top of the head, like a tiny palm tree sprung out from the head… hehe!

oh, and none of those little gold bracelets, or ‘kling-kling’ thingies on their legs, like little gold shackles with bells. irritating arh, macam kucing. (do they sell mini tiffany’s bracelets, you think? now THAT would be quite cute, hehe.)

but we’ll see how. i may have all these ‘rules’ now, but we all know rules generally get assed when you’re a parent. :p

0

  

this was, believe it or not, our first visit to manhattan fish market. we saw it at jusco, jb but wasn’t really craving for fish at that time. but when we realised that they have a branch in singapore, we decided to give them a try to see if they can rival our number one fish joint, fish & co. ;)

so to celebrate the wifey’s birthday, i decided to bring her to the restaurant. typical saturday night crowd at plaza singapura, just getting into the carpark took 30minutes, but luckily, we managed to park the car almost immediately. must be birthday girl’s luck. :)

there was a queue at the restaurant but at least, it was moving. we got seated by 15 minutes and the staff there were fast and attentive to our needs. we ordered the salad and mushroom soup for starters and the kids’ size fish and chips for aniq. i must say, for a full house, the orders came pretty fast!

the salad which was coleslaw with raisins tastes just like the one from kenny rogers, crunchy! the mushroom soup was thick but i felt that it was a bit bland, though the wifey thought otherwise. she kindda liked it.

the main course was the seafood platter for two. this was exactly like the fish and co seafood platter but with a twist! it came with the usual calamari, prawns, fries and garlic rice. the difference was that they had this tasty fried mushrooms oysters that i love! crispy on the outside and all chewy on the inside. the fish was also generously large.

what literally blew me off was the torch-carrying waiter. when i thought that he wanted to place the pan on the table, he stopped two steps behind and began to blow-torch the prawns! the flame blower reminded me of my secondary school days doing experiments with the bunsen burner. kindda had the same effect. anyway, after he practically almost burnt the prawns, he finally placed the pan on the table. although the prawns looked cooked,  they tasted of LPG. but at least the sauce tasted great.

the calamaris were just ok, i still prefer the ones at fish and co, but perhaps the best was the fish. crispy and light, just nice. the rest of the seafood were just ok. although MFM was generous with their fish, they skimped on their prawns and calamari. the garlic rice was tasty but still cannot compare to the basmati-like rice of fish and co’s rice.

the verdict? the servings and service are excellent. but the food just fell short of the standards set by fish and co’s. but at least they are way ahead of the naked fish shoppe. :) 

0