It was very sad that my Dad caught our maid stealing from him today. On 15th Apr evening, my dad had noticed that $100 was missing from his wallet when he went out for dinner with my mum. He withdrew $200 and that evening, he photocopied all the notes in his wallet.

This morning, when he checked his wallet, another $50 was missing. Nonetheless, he kept quiet and went off to work. After lunch, he withdrew another $100 and went home, photocopying the 'new' $100 that he had just withdrawn. To further confirm his suspicion, my dad put his keys on top of his wallet and did not close the drawer containing his wallet completely.

After changing out of his business attire, he took a business call in the living room for about 15 minutes. When he finished his call, my dad went back to his room and lo and behold, the drawer was completely shut. Upon opening the drawer, the keys that were right on top of his wallet was now slightly tipped off. Checking on the notes, another $50 note was now missing AND his access card to our condo was not in its usual spot.

My dad went to look for the maid and confronted her. She pleaded her innocence and even said to him that he could look into her wallet. This is when I came home from my medical appointment and lunch. My dad then asked me to be the witness. Opening up her wallet and taking out the notes, my dad promptly took out his photocopies and two of the $50 notes from her wallet matched the serial nos. of the notes in the photocopy.

With such glaring evidence, she still insisted that the $100 was from the salary which my mum paid her last month. Even when I asked her point blank, she still pleaded her innocence. My dad had asked her repeatedly to just admit that she stole the money and if so, he'd forgive her and not make any police report.

After 20 minutes, she still refused to admit and was still claiming that the money was from her salary. When my dad grew fed up, he just asked her to keep the money and he'd wait for my mum to return before deciding what to do with her. She then went to our yard, where again, I tried to make her confess by saying that my dad is really angry and he wants to make a police report. However, her response was, "Can send me back to the agent. It's ok."

Well, as an employer, there are 2 things you could do:

1. Simply send your maid off to the agent and get her sent home
2. File a police report under "Lost Property"

I think a lot of employers would choose option 1 because it seems like a lot less hassle plus we tend to feel a bit sorry for these domestic helpers who are here to earn a better living. However, we chose to go with option 2. You can file the police report online here and please get your SingPass ready.

Why did we choose to do so? Firstly, we did give her a lot of chances to admit. The whole 20 minutes of confrontation was really my dad going, "Just admit it and I will forgive you." Secondly, since she gave up those chances to admit, she has to face the consequences and have a permanent record so that she will not be able to steal from another Singaporean family. Needless to say, a copy of the police report will be sent to the Ministry of Manpower. Thirdly, she was unrepentant. Her last statement about us just sending her back to the agent was very telling. To her, the worst that could happen is that she's $100 "poorer" and then she'll be sent home, after which she can come back to Singapore or go to another country to work. Lastly, this is to protect ourselves as a family so that our agent will also not accuse us of being fussy and wanting to change maids so often, as well as to ensure that the maid doesn't try to come back and file a false complaint against us.

If you decide to go through the second option like we did, be prepared to make a thorough statement with the police for around 3-4 hours. They'll call you within 1-1.5 hours after the report has been filed. As such, do not alert your maid that you've made the report but do get her packing in the meanwhile.

The police will call you and then either go to your house to take the statements and then make the arrest or like us, they'll ask you to go down to the station with your maid. As mentioned above, do not alert your maid that you're heading towards the station because she may then runaway. Make sure you bring all the evidence, her work permit and any other documents pertaining to her. My mum keeps a folder on all of our maids, including a spreadsheet with salary amounts and making them sign off once salary has been received. The police did make a copy of that.

If the maid stole from your wallet/cupboard etc, DO NOT touch it any more. The police will want to be able to do some forensics on these items if needed. In our case, it was not necessary because of my dad's photocopy of the notes and the notes in her possession matches the serial nos.

What will then happen? If it is a true theft and the maid has been arrested, she will be placed in lock up. The next morning, the police will present the case to the Attorney General Chambers and there are 3 possible outcomes:

1. She gets off with a warning and is allowed to remain in Singapore
2. She gets off with a warning but will be repatriated
3. She will be charged in court

For our now-former-maid, she was given a warning and was allowed to remain in Singapore. Thus, we had to pick her up from the station before sending her to the agent. Naturally, it is almost the same as outcome no. 2 because as an employer, we would not want to keep her in our employment and neither would any other family accept her. 

It was very sad for me to see her packing her bags because we actually quite liked her and this was the ultimate betrayal of our trust. My mum has often caught her telling white lies and had told her repeatedly that she should do things with a clear conscience. Looks like those words have fallen on deaf ears.

Everyone, theft is a crime not only in the eyes of the law but also against the person that you're stealing from. Don't be silly. It's not worth it.

Yet another design by the super creative Robin Moses, I did a slight variation of hers but I still kept to the same colour palette. Main differences are that I have a purple glitter accent nail and I added mini crystals. My brush work definitely needs a lot more practice but I'm quite happy that I managed to draw the trunk and branches of the tree! I'll be changing my nail design soon for Easter and I've decided that at least 1 nail should be of a bunny. What shall the other nails have?

I had a craving for beef. I think it's because it's the time of the month and I need more iron. Plus, I haven't had a good piece of steak for ages. Thus, the family got dragged along with my craving to The Chop House, a restaurant under the Wooloomooloo group, where they serve up quality Australian beef at lower prices compared to their mother restaurant. Strangely, when we called, they said that they don't take reservations but their website states otherwise.

Anyway, I like the decor of The Chop House, which is modern with a rustic twist and has a semi-communal feel with the large tables that remind me a little of park benches. There are quite a lot of details to take in like the lights on the ceiling that spell out "The Chop House", which I absolutely love.

Actual view from where I was seated

Flipped it for easy reading ;)

Now, that's a proper steak knife! But of course, if you don't order steak, they do have chicken and pasta as well. Oh...if you like your beef between 2 slices of bread, they've got a wide array of sandwiches and burgers too.

Onto the food. My bro ordered Caesar Salad (I forgot the price) to share and 3 of us ordered the same thing: Beef Tenderloin (200gm at S$25.90++).

That's my mum attacking the Caesar Salad while I was taking a photo of the food. I was really impressed that their dressing had actual anchovies in it. It was pureed smoothly but the taste of it was a real treat for those of you who can stand the stronger stuff. All Caesar salad dressings contain anchovies but The Chop House's dressing has a stronger taste of it.

Here's my steak in all its glory on top of sauteed spinach, a potato sweetcorn cake and topped with their signature caper peppercorn sauce.

I was very pleased with my steak. It was cooked exactly how I ordered it - Medium Rare and it was juicy as well as tender. The sauce was ok but I wasn't thrilled with the potato cake. It was slightly sour, which I think didn't go well with the steak. My bro and I finished the onion jam that was given to us as a condiment instead. May I suggest just serving this with a whole side of onion jam? :D

Overall, I enjoyed my steak and I think I will go back again to fulfil more beef cravings. Nonetheless, I do wish that they gave us the freedom to choose the sides (no more potato cakes) and more onion jam!

The Chop House
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-161-162 VivoCity
Singapore 098585

Tel:  +65 6376 9262
Website:  http://www.wooloo-mooloo.com/sg/the-chop-house.aspx

Tadah! I've been wanting to bake salted caramel cupcakes ever since my bro's friend's friend baked the most awesome batch of those. So, I tried my hand at them but I made a few variations from traditional recipes. My recipe doesn't have eggs and I added Chia seeds to make it a little less guilty (anti-oxidents and fibre!). To get the recipe, click here to read it on my In Chef Mode blog :)

As a lazy and exhausted office worker, the last thing you want to do when you come home is spend more than 5 minutes to wash off grime, dirt and make up off your face. I was a bit skeptical when I read the Biore's Uru Uru 2-in-1 Instant Foaming Wash claims to be able to remove make up while cleansing your face at the same time! As far as experience goes, only oil cleansers do the trick for me.

Let's put it to the test. As instructed, 3 pumps of foam:

The foam isn't as dense as Ettusais' 3-in-1 Foaming Mousse but that's probably because Biore's uses an air pump while Ettusais uses a pressurised can.

I have on CC cream, blusher, brown eye liner, a little white shimmer on the underlid and waterproof mascara. I'm not going to use my Clarisonic here because I need to remove my eye make up. So I gently rub it across my wet face (stated that it can be used on either wet or dry skin) and after a few gentle massages around my face, it was rinsed off with ease.
Although they do not claim to be able to remove waterproof mascara, it actually did! Worked better on my waterproof mascara compared to some other oil cleansers, which amazed me. It did not leave my skin feel dry, which is very important to me. I wouldn't mind switching to this daily. Easy to use and removes all of my make up with no fuss!

If you want to win a bottle of Biore's Uru Uru 2-in-1 Instant Foaming Wash, head on to their Facebook page and Instagram account. 'Like' the pages and 10 lucky winners will win a bottle each! To get a bottle as soon as possible, you can go to Watson's to purchase your bottle as it is exclusively sold there at S$14.90.

That, my friends, is Beef Fajitas (S$20.90++) from newly established New York Grand Kitchen (NYGK) located at Suntec City Fountain.

How did I chance upon this place? Well, I actually wanted to go to Peroni for their $14.90++ set lunch but the queue was too long so my colleague and I just went to the nearest empty place. Was a little hesitant because the natural reaction would be, empty = lousy. But I made an excuse for them. There wasn't a queue possibly because they're so understaffed during lunch that you're not met at the entrance within 2 minutes. We stayed and managed to grab a table with no fuss.

With the name "New York" in it, one can't help but think of burgers and chips. However, it seems like the menu is filled with their signature Rotisserie Chicken (2 pages no less) but alas, I couldn't taste it as it was so popular that I would've needed to wait 25 minutes for the next batch. Other stuff on their menu? Fajitas, Gumbo Rice and sandwiches. The menu is really more Cajun than New York. Maybe they should rename themselves to "Louisiana Grand Kitchen"? I'm still annoyed that the banners outside mentioned pasta but they don't have pasta in the menu. -_- False advertising. So, I decided to order their Beef Fajitas.

What I liked about NYGK is the starter/dessert buffet or what they prefer to call the 'deli section'. To me, the deli is where you go and buy breads and cold cuts. Ok, back to the food. They have yummy soups (had a choice between mushroom egg soup and spiced tomato chicken soup) and quite a tasty range of salads (really liked the pumpkin bean salad). Interestingly, they also had nachos with a salsa dip. Your choice of dessert would only be fruit and chocolate chip muffins. They also have croissants, which I felt was a little odd to go with the soups but I guess, whatever goes?

I also liked the Andy Warhol artwork decorating the walls in the large, semi-loft-like feel to the restaurant. So thumbs up on the decor and ambience. 

So, the fajitas. Messy dish that I regret eating while wearing a white dress as sauce from the onions, sour cream and salsa dripped on my skirt. But that said, I loved the caramelised onions as well as the beans. Wished there was guacamole though. The beef was tender and I didn't have to chew it out when wrapped with the tortilla skin, so that was very good. Was it worth $20.90++ though? Not really. I could've gone to Ashton's to get a decent piece of steak at that price. But of course, I was in directly paying for the buffet so I can't really complain.

They really need to increase their wait staff during lunch. I don't know how they're able to cope with both inside and outside dining areas. At least they have the buffet table to ease up on diners' expectation on service as water, cutlery and serviettes are all self-serve. Makes me then wonder why am I paying 10% service charge. Hmm....

Would I go back again? Maybe. Just to try their Rotisserie Chicken (S$14.90++ for 1/4; S$16.90++ for 1/2).


New York Grand Kitchen
3 Temasek Boulevard
Suntec City, #B1-133
Tel no.: +65 6336 6129
Website: http://www.sunteccity.com.sg/newyork-grand-kitchen.php 
Opening hours: 10:00 - 22:00 daily

As part of the World Gourmet Summit here in Singapore, Hashi Japanese restaurant in conjunction with 5th generation wagashi masterchef, Uchida Hiromori, held a Wagashi making class today followed by a bento lunch.

First, there were balls. We were actually given 2 large ones first. We then dipped some red food colouring onto 1 to make it pink before dividing it into 3 smaller balls. As for the white one, just divide it into 3. The red bean paste balls were pre-rolled for us.

There's mum concentrating on rolling the pink balls and she wanted them a dark pink. She accidentally dropped one and Chef Uchida had to give her one of his! Haha.

There's Uchida-san showing us a what we'd be making as well as demonstrating the steps.

Rolled them into a large ball with the red bean paste inside. Notice that I'm holding it on a thin damp cloth? Wondering why? It's so that with a bit of twisting, we'd get the effect as follows:

Above is mine while below is mum's. I think mum's looks better. 姜还是老的辣。Nonetheless, I'm quite proud of my creation.

This is then followed by carefully decorating the middle with a bit of bean paste that has gone through the sieve.

The next design was a bit difficult for me. You had to use the 'sharp' end of an egg to shape a hole but the egg that I was given was super round on both ends! Chef Takahashi laughed at me before going to the kitchen to get me a smaller and sharper egg. Thanks Chef.

Despite the egg change, my dent was still too large and the sides too thick because I gave up on the egg and simply used my fingers. My neighbour did a very good job while her friend gave up and made a money bag instead. Innovative and pretty too!

This is the base of the 3rd and hardest design of all. Looks like a mushroom/cupcake right?

Compare that with Chef Uchida's perfectly shaped one. Hah! Nearly there!! He said that mine was good. Don't know whether it's simply Japanese politeness or he really meant it. Haha.

We had to use a plastic knife to slowly make these petal indents. Not easy! Even the waiter was telling me that this was really difficult and I was 'complaining' to him that Chef Uchida's indents were so light whereas mine look like deep cuts but I wasn't using a lot of strength!

Anyway, the end result is such a pretty and kawaii creation, don't you think? Too pretty to eat. Below is mum's version:

When placed together, they're really very pretty. I had a lot of fun making them and I even managed to score the recipe from Chef Uchida ;) But he said that he'll be sending it in Japanese to me so it'll make me some time to translate for mum.

Us with our masterpieces! Now mum's all pumped up to create these for Mid-Autumn Festival as a replacement to mooncakes. Maybe we'll replace the red bean paste with lotus paste so that it's still pseudo moonie. Ahh...the possibilities.

After the workshop, it was time for lunch! Now, this is where Chef Takahashi takes over the helm. As the former head chef of Nobu Melbourne, he now brings Kaiseiki dining through the freshest seafood sourced from all over.

We started off lunch with a salad that had different types of seaweed and tossed with a mild wasabi soy dressing. It was mild enough that I could finish the plate but needless to say, it was not my favourite.

The taste of wasabi was then washed away with this delightful bowl of hot soba. I loved that the broth was a nice balance between bonito and soy.

Now...what does the box hold????

(From top left to right in clockwise manner) Fried Fish, egg custard with bamboo shoots, tofu and mushrooms tossed in soy with truffle oil; tempura prawns, brinjal, chilli and carrot; sashimi, rice sprinkled with shiso powder.

The sashimi was very fresh and as usual, it leaves me wanting more. The tempura was as expected although it had a bit of a hamching peng taste which meant that the oil has been overused for frying. What wowed me was the mushroom with the soy truffle oil. It was not oily, which made me wonder whether they used truffle oil or actual truffle to cook it together. When questioned, Chef Takahashi revealed that it's truffle oil but they just did a toss so that the mushrooms picked up on the flavour and aroma without leaving it oily.

I ate everything. Including the shiso leaf. Yes, I was THAT hungry and I was the first to finish. Sorry but as a office worker who used to eat lunch at her desk, one does not daintily and leisurely eat lunch. However, do note that I did savour every bite. Nothing really rocked my socks off but it's clean, simple and unpretentious. That, I like.

The meal ended with a serving of Sake Cake made by Chef Uchida. I could smell the sake but I couldn't taste it. Mum said that it's because I drink a lot so only the hard stuff will give me a kick. In my defense, Tapai (fermented tapioca) has more of an alcoholic kick than this. Oddly enough, this dessert tasted like tapai to mum and I. We then had a conversation with Chef Takahashi on this and interestingly enough, his Malaysian staff doesn't know what tapai is! Ok...looks like only the Malays and Peranakans know this dish. I think we've piqued Chef Takahashi's interest enough that he will go on a hunt for tapai. By the way, it's pronounced as tah-pay.

What impressed me about the restaurant itself (other than the decor) is the toilet. It is just so thoughtful and feels like entering a home where the host is so gracious and anticipates your needs even before you do.

In every cubicle of the female toilet is this small tray of feminine hygiene items.

The sinks not only has handwash, it has hand cream and mouthwash! At the sides are ear buds and cotton pads. Felt a bit pampered and the toilet does make you want to linger a bit longer.

Thank you Chefs Uchida and Takahashi! It was a very interesting and memorable experience. I don't regret signing up for it and am now looking forward to more events at the World Gourmet Summit!

For those in Singapore, Chef Uchida will be having a stall at the Japan Food Fair happening at the basement of Takashimaya from now till 11 May so do go down and check out his gorgeous wagashi.