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My 23rd Birthday at 2fifteen Kitchen!

  I had the most splendid 23rd birthday party held at 2fifteen Kitchen last week. It's tucked in a little corner of Rochester Mall, a short walk from Buona Vista MRT. Only accessible from its own entrance, so you have to follow the signboards to find it.

It's a REAALLLY new mall, so some shops aren't even open yet! Want to be at a place before everyone else finds it? If you want a quiet, homely, place for a romantic dinner or lunch where you get 100% attention from your partner, this is it. 
(PSST! Read on to find out how you can get 15% off when you dine at 2fifteen Kitchen!)

I loved it.

Let me briefly talk about my past 2 birthday celebrations, shall I? If you don't want to read about this bit, just skip ahead until you see the pictures of the food, they were phenomenal!!

On my 21st birthday, I booked a room The Chevron's, which is all the way at Jurong East, but it had a great room!


A stage, a pool table, and enough capacity to fit 70 pax. On that day itself, I realised I could even afford to invite more people because there was so much food left over and there was so much space to even fit 120 people. I even sang on stage (albeit out of tune, but this wasn't a competition right), and my friend bought me a little adorable tiara! Went to Marina Barrage after that to release balloons into the sky, spent midnight there and then went to Zouk after.

My fabulous cake was from St Regis. It was a great 21st! Whoever travelled all the way to Jurong East just for my birthday got mega brownie points. Lol!

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Last year, on my 22nd bithday, I spent it... in Germany with my relatives and distant relatives. I got to experience a German birthday!! 

All the relatives did a canon and sang  happy birthday to me in German, while forming a semi circle in front of me. It was surreal... and surround sound. Haha! Pretty awesome.

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Which brings me to this year. I wanted a small dinner with my blogger pals to thank them for everything and a separate small one for my pals! I only started this blogging scene (events and such) about a year and a half ago, I've learnt so much and got to experience more than I ever thought I would. So when Walter recommended this place to me, (I hold a high esteem for Walter's taste), I just had to check it out.

 
 This is what you see when you've found the right place. With a gorgeous chandelier on top! 
I liked this place already.

Since it was my birthday, I decided to spice it up and decorated the place a little. Bought 12 balloons to hang on every chair, made some placards, and got some Smoulder lava cakes to place on the table in case my guests wanted to nibble on something before everyone else came. 

The team at 2fifteen were so kind to prepare a menu for the night! A great touch, as you know, bloggers like to know what's in store for them, and know what they're eating. Haha! Here's some photos of the setting after some magic.

 
 Love the unpretentious feel :)

Had to be there early to setup for my guests. Sarah, Valerie, William, Hong Peng, Joey, Angie, Jessie, Shu Qing, James, Christine and Jordan! 

We even had a hashtag for the night on twitter and instagram! #clairesflair but I think most stopped using it after a while haha.

 

 
 Printed these online, coloured them with colour pencils like a primary school kid, and cut them into little pieces! #effort



Me all smiles and writing the names on the placards. Peach lace dress from H&M in HK.

 
The staff, all smiles and ready for the night!

Pretty, right? I couldn't have done it without Christine and Jordan's help, and 2fifteen *hearts* Thank you! Okay let's go right to the food!

 Smoulder 's  bite sized lava cakes for everyone! Each box had different flavors.

What I love about Smoulder is that their cakes are prepared daily in nine unique flavours with premium ingredients and no preservatives! 

I just HAVE to list all 9 flavours out for you. Here you go.

Signature Dark Chocolate, Intense Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Black Forest, Milk Chocolate Mocha, Milk Chocolate Rum & Raisin, White Chocolate Matcha, White Chocolate Raspberry, White Chocolate Pistachio, White Chocolate Lemon

Address at the bottom of this post!

2fifteen Kitchen's menu creations are made lovingly by Kenny Yeo, who has helmed renowned restaurants in Singapore and Taipei including a 3-star Michelin hotel in France. Plus they only use quality ingredients to pamper their guests ;)

 We were served some bread, and I was impressed by the presentation already! The bread was arranged nicely and even the butter, cut into little rectangles with a zigzag design.

 The first out of the 5 for the night.
 Hot seared Duo Watermelon with Foie Gras, Basil Oil and Feta Cheese.
Incredibly generous portion. Everyone was so impressed by the dish that no one talked until it was half devoured. Hahah. It was Sarah's and Christine's first time trying Foie Gras, and they agreed that it was really good!

You might think that the fruits and cheese might be a strange touch but it complimented the flavours wonderfully. The fruits were cut in a perfect cube, and the effort gone into this dish could be tasted as well as felt. *thumbs up*

 Carrot Puree soup with Clam jam. 
What IS clam jam anyway? The clam portion was cold while the carrot puree was hot. Blend them together and you get a hot/cold mix. This is definitely an acquired taste. I never had Clam jam before, so it was different for me. I preferred the carrot puree, blended but didn't lose its thickness and sweetness.

 Prawn Capellini
 The prawn was really fresh and juicy, and the chef Kenny asked us if it tasted like Hokkien Mee. Lol? I didn't think it was similar though, but this was really tasty! How Kenny made the noodles into a rectangular shape, I do not know.

 Confit of salmon roulade with wild rice, hazelnut oil and poultry jus
This. was. h e a v e n l y.

 I have NEVER tried anything like it. The salmon, though it looks raw, is actually cooked for hours under really lowwwww fire. It literally, MELTS in your mouth. A must try!!

 
Wow, the dessert platter. Bean curd cheesecake, granny smith green apples, vanilla ice cream and a cherry tart with pistachio nuts :D
My grin and smiles were wider after a bite of this. Soooo good.


 
 My favourite dish of the night is the foie gras, but it was very hard to decide between the foie gras or the salmon confit. In fact, I am planning to go back just to have them again! :)

 Just when I thought things couldn't get any better than this...

2fifteen surprised me with a birthday cake with hazelnut, biscuits and vanilla!! YUM!! One of the most ostentatious cakes I've ever eaten. And it was no ordinary candle...it was a SPARKLER. A really high one!!


In the middle of the courses, we played some games to pass the time and get the bloggers to know each other better!

Every one is assigned a celebrity, and has to put the card on their forehead for the rest to see. Then they have to ask a series of questions to try and figure out who their celebrity is.

So William was given Paris Hilton, but he couldn't guess it. So we changed the rules again and tried breaking the words into two to help him. "What is the capital of France?" "The place where Eiffel Tower is?" "That hotel in Orchard road that's next to Forum?"

After that, we chose Britney Spears for William and Hong Peng to guess. They had no idea, so Jessie and I incorporated the titles of her songs into our conversation.

"She's very Lucky! And Oop's she did it again and hit her baby one more time!"

Fun stuff hahah.

 A slice of goodness for everyone :) The staff cut my cake into slices for me. Good idea because I probably would've messed it up hahah.

Continuation of the games: Sarah was so cute, she wrote me a celebrity to guess, and it was HER! Hahaha I guessed it really quickly *hearts* I picked Blake Lively for Sarah and she also guessed it! Awesome.

Jessie decided to come up with some games of her own (Yay!) and she told us to find a cat at the back of a $2 note. Can you find it? Hahaha take out a SGD $2 note and try to find it, if you think you've got it, leave a comment!

THANK YOU
Thank you my blogger friends for coming, for making this so memorable, the 2fifteen team (Kevin, Jolene and everyone!) and Walter for making this party a sweet success!
Thank you Nicolette for lending me the photo frames!
Also, thank you William for letting me use your food pictures!!


Thank you Kenny for the mind blowing, indulgent meal! I loved every single bit of it and there was nothing more I could ask for. It was perfect.

 





2fifteen will unveil a brunch menu in November in two sessions, 11am and 2pm on Saturdays, Sundays and Public  Holidays! It's an ala-carte buffet with hors d'oeuvres before ordering your main course. 
$38 per adult, and free for kids below 4 years.

Once the party was over, we went outside to play with sparklers and lightsticks that I had brought. When I came back from the toilet, everyone pointed at William for releasing two balloons by accident ahahah.

After playing with the sparklers, William came up with this super sweet idea of using the lightsticks to spell my name! That was completely unexpected.

 An extremely happy birthday girl ^_^

Watch this video to see the lightstick presentation :')

 
 Watch this to see snippets of the entire dinner! William made this for me!! Hi girls please snag him up already. *hearts*

I am so, so, happy, grateful, and thankful right now. It seems like there are rainbows and just happy thoughts everywhere.

Also a shoutout to Smoulder, thank you for the lava cakes! They were fabulous, just like I remembered them to be. The pistachio and intense dark chocolate flavours are my favourite! Everyone should just make a trip down to Raffles Place just to try them. If you're working near by, be sure to stop during lunch time!

Smoulder
 Location: China Square Food Centre,
51 Telok Ayer Street #01-04,
S048441, Singapore

Phone: +65 6225 6422
 Hours: mon-fri, 8am to 8pm
sat, 11am to 3pm

Once, I accidentally pre-heated it for too long and it came out as a cake instead. Still delicious though, but remember to keep the timing very carefully!

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 2fifteen Kitchen
Location: 35 Rochester Drive,
 #02-15 Rochester Mall S(138639)
 Phone: +65 66598215

HOW TO GET 15% OFF 2fifteen Kitchen?
Just make a reservation via email to 2fifteen@epicurean.com.sg with the subject header "Claire's Flair" and you will be awarded with the discount accordingly. 
The discount is applicable till 20 December 2012.

Once again, thank you 2fifteen! This year's birthday was simple, superb.
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I'm 23 and loving it!

Hi everyone I'm back!!!


Sorry for the long hiatus. I shall summarize the past 3 weeks. I was in London for about 7 days, then Hong Kong for 5 days and finally when I came back I had to combat work and emails and planning birthday things , Johnnie Walker Circuit Lounge, had my company's DND, then it was Filter's 2nd anniversary and catching up on season premiers of American dramas and... okay basically the rest are excuses. I just needed to rest.


I compiled a list of places to eat in HK for you guys!! And I haven't uploaded my pictures from London yet so... sorry. >_< I have, however, uploaded pictures from the DND so you can see me decked up as a Greek Goddess. This is the first time I've ever dressed up as a Goddess so... I'm pretty happy people could guess who I was supposed to be. :)

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Travel
Let's start with my travelogue summary. London was amazing, this was the best trip to London I've had so far, even though my brother fell sick, because I had a friend who had been a student there for 4 years to bring me around! I also managed to catch the Thames Festival Parade, and watch fireworks in the freaking cold.

London Eye, not SG flyer.

Hmm what else. I went to Oxford to check out the factory outlet, bought some fudge, didn't have time to watch a musical this time, had really yummy food (larger budget haha) and uh, had a drink every day.

Hong Kong was super different. It was hot, sweaty, the haze was horrible, water from the aircon units in buildings above leaked randomly and would drop on random 'lucky' people, but the food was great.
Michelin star char siew bao
 Things were also much cheaper here compared to London and I was spending money happily. Branded goods are also crazily more expensive here (yes more expensive than Singapore)!

When I got back to Singapore it took me a day to get used to hearing strangers speak english again, haha. Yes I know they speak english in London but their accents are so thick sometimes I don't understand them at all -_-

I feel like having weekend trips to Hong Kong, gotta keep my eyes peeled for cheap fares ;)

Beauty
I've kinda mastered the AB double eyelid fibre tape. I swear it's amazing. I think they probably patented the fibre idea (which is genius) because I don't see any other brands selling it for cheaper! It's completely worth your money, I'm not even being endorsed by this, but please get it from Guardian ASAP.

It can make tapered eyelids parallel, and create double eyelids for single eyelids, and is not obvious at all. I cannot stress this enough. The scariest part of the AB tape is cutting the sides off because I use a big scissors and have a fear that I might cut part of my eyelid away =\

So far it has not happened. Should I do a tutorial on how to use the AB tape? Though there are quite a few tutorials out there already!

Can't wait to share with you guys Elizabeth Arden's Visibly Difference range. I brought it along with me to London and it does wonders for my skin, especially in the cold!


Birthday
Right now my eyes are a little tired but I'm really happy because... it's my birthday! I want to remember every bit of it because I have the worst memory ever. Thank you everyone who wished me!! I feel really grateful and appreciate every effort! Am I the only person who still believes in phone call wishes?

I had a friend who sent me answers to a test I had to do so that was officially the first birthday present I received :D That was late last week. I just had to mention this because I used it as my bargaining chip to get the answers ahaha.

2nd Oct eve was spent having a croissant from Tiong Bahru Bakery with Pearl of the Orient Tea (I love my tea), followed by ramen (which was tooooo salty) and James Morrison's concert!! James Morrison also flashed his (not very defined) abs twice and I screamed like a fangirl. That's the whole point of concerts, isn't it?

3rd Oct morning I woke up to birthday messages, Chrispytine sending me a picture of a bunny which made me melt on the train, Shu bought me a creme brulee tart with a candle in it :') Then lunch with my colleagues at Botan Restaurant. They gave me a treat! Thanks guys!


Picture of ladies for you guys to look at.

PSST: My nose looks quite sharp here right! I swear by the highlighter + shading tools found in Haraju-cute (in Guardian) I can't remember the brand offhand but it has three colours and a brush. Choose the princess palette. It really makes your nose look sharper, especially in pictures. Don't put too much though, then it'll look fake :X

That's a quick update on life so far. Miss all of you LOVE
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Post Wisdom Teeth Surgery. Less wise but... slimmer?

It's been almost a month since my wisdom teeth surgery, thank you guys for all your well wishes and all your concern!! Feel so loved :) I wanted to reply the comments but somehow there's some blogger error with comments, getting it sorted now and importing my comments to another third-party program. Sorry for the wait!
A cute picture to start the post.

I got a week off to recover from the general anaesthesia, and eating food was torture. I asked some of my friends who were lucky enough to be eating proper food a few days later, but because my gum was cut quite deep in, it wasn't a good idea to be eating completely chewy food... I'll get to that later.

The day of the surgery and the day after, my lips were numb, my tongue was half numb, my chin was a little numb, and of course, my cheeks were numb as well.

I drank water through a straw, (and drank some of my blood as well), cold drinks were a really good idea. Ice cream was a good idea too, except I had chocolate ice cream with some nuts and that caused a tiny problem >_> The day of the surgery and the next 2 days or so, I felt phlegm in my throat/lungs and the doctor said that I should try not to cough it out (or my gums might bleed again) and instead my body's immune system will clear the phlegm.

I think the phlegm was caused by the blood. =\

The doctor prescribed mouthwash to gargle my mouth with, and every time I gargled, I could see traces of blood in the sink. It worried me for a while, but after a while, I gave up. I didn't dare brush my teeth near the affected areas, and I brushed really gently for fear of opening the wounds.

Barely felt like eating the first few days because I had to tilt my head back to try and pour the porridge carefully in the middle of my mouth. Plus, the porridge had to be room temperature. Ick.

I told my mum that I'd like to try baby food instead, because I wasn't getting the proper nutrients required, and I was really sick of porridge. So my sweetest mummy bought me these.


Which I consumed through a straw. The sweet potato one is delicious!!

Sleeping was slightly painful whenever I lay my cheek on the pillow.


And I randomly would become nauseous, or get headaches so I would have to lie down and sleep -_- Oh, and I would get random cheek aches once I ran out of painkillers.

Oh yeah, my face DID swell. I don't want to post a picture here because I look horrible. Laughing was also painful, so I had to do quiet chuckles. (Imagine: Me laughing ho ho ho / hur hur hur)

About 4 days after the surgery, I could chew with my front teeth so slightly



Here's a piece of advice from me to people who are gonna get their wisdom teeth extracted. 
Do NOT eat fries!!! I ate ONE fry and a lot got stuck onto my stitches, and in the hole, it was really crappy trying to get it out.

Finished my antibiotics like a good girl :) Yay.

Tip: Do not EVER, try to act cool and throw a medicine pill into your mouth. Once, I threw it right to the back of my throat and choked -_-

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Got to remove my stitches. My top two gums healed so well that the stitches kinda healed into the gum a little, so the dentist had to cut the string and pull it out a little. Which hurt a teeny bit.

The bottom two holes are still quite deep, dentist says they will take at least a month to close, so no sashimi buffet for me until mid August. Torture!!

Shall stick to crepes.

On a side note, I had a cute assistant dentist who issued my MC to me on the day of the operation, and how small is the world seriously, he's my friend's childhood friend. What the. Hahaha. I hope he doesn't see this.

I'm glad I got all 4 of them over and done with!! Plus, some of my friends have said that my face appears smaller. Or is it because I've lost weight?!? Thank you all again!!

Ending with a cute picture of Peishi and I. 
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The Real Deal. Wisdom Teeth Surgery. My first Operation.

My first operation, my first surgery. To many it wasn't painful, it wasn't a big event, but if it's a first for me, its gotta be huge :P Contains some pictures.

Made my way down this morning, was super hungry because you can't eat or drink anything six hours before the surgery (to prevent puking I suppose) and was met with great service. Was ushered into the room, staff was polite all the way, helpful, being like little mums taking great care of you. They actually made me feel more at ease.

**GRUESOME-ish pictures ahead! And unglam ones.

The first nurse took my temperature, took my weight (I gained weight omg I hope I lose weight from this), gave me some forms to sign, etc. Then another doctor brought me to a room with the x-ray of my teeth and reminded me of the procedures and what was to happen.

So I was a little nervous. Or quite a lot.


The Doctor warned me that, due to my lower teeth being near the nerves, I might experience numbness in my jaw, chin and tongue. He also warned me that, because I was removing the top teeth too, that I might get a sinus infection and that there might be a hole which would cause water to go to my nose.

He also told me that a tube was to be inserted through my nose into my throat. Which might lead to a sore throat (and phlegm). This tube goes down my throat into the main airway so that I can inhale the anesthesia. Normally it's via mouth but because it's a dental surgery so it's placed through my nose.

Wouldn't that scare you more? But Doctors have to tell you all the risks that came with the operation, of course.

I didn't know that nail polish wasn't allowed, so when the nurse saw my painted nails she made me remove the index finger of both hands hahah. Woops, my bad! I don't think they actually had the retail nail polish remover, but probably the equivalent in solution form :O It didn't stink too much.

When I went in, the surgeon asked some basic questions, and I commented that I was really cold (slightly shivering) and when she took my hand to find my vein, she agreed.

"All your nerves are constricted!"

I did some hand exercises, she tapped my hand a few times, but nope, my nerves had dug themselves in real deep. But I think the surgeon sorta saw it? So she poked in. Yes it hurts but it wasn't THAT bad. (If you can survive brazilian/bikini waxing, this isn't so bad, seriously). The IV Drip didn't run. And there was a slight sensation where my butt felt pins and needles. Nurse said it might be because of the hot air.

After one nurse blew some hot air onto hands and I felt SLIGHTLY warmer, the surgeon tried again. This time it worked! Woopie.

 Surgeon asked me why there was a cut on my hand. I forgot why but now I remember! I scraped it against a locker -_-

By then, another nurse had clipped my index finger to for blood oxygen saturation measurement (it shoots out a light which measures the wavelength that shows how much oxygen there is in the blood)  and there were some sticky circular things stuck on my chest to measure my heartbeat.

That same nurse asked me to inhale some oxygen gas through a transparent, triangle shaped mask. I obliged. Think it was three seconds later and I fell asleep.

Woke up because someone shook me awake (I'm a light sleeper) and told me that the surgery was over. I gestured to the nurse to ask her what had happened, and she told me that I was in the recovery room where they will observe me for thirty minutes before sending me out. My face felt numb but my nose and throat felt raw. I remembered how a tube was through my nose so I didn't dare touch my face in case the tube was still on. It wasn't.

I was super sleepy, but the nurse kept shaking me a bit and telling me to stay awake as she measured my vital stats. I looked at my right hand, looked around the room, looked at the clock, tried to open my eyes, and somehow it worked. I was also SUPER cold. Like shivering even more, and the nurse had to bring me the hot air thing again.

Guess everything was fine so the nurse wheeled me (still on the bed) to the main visiting room. I was really drowsy but happy that it was over and that I felt no crazy pain. And that korilakkuma was with me (Yes I brought my bear, It makes a great bolster too)

 
As you can see, my cheeks are slighly swollen/puffy!
 
 An hour or so later, the nurse asked me to have some water, and swallowing was so hard. Then the numbness started to wear off so the nurse got me the painkiller tablets (x2) for me to swallow. It was tough. Firstly, my lips were numb so I didn't even know if the water or how much water was in my mouth. Secondly, I couldn't swallow really well. Thirdly, my throat was numb so I didn't even know if the pill went down. I had to try a few times, open my mouth so that the nurse could look in to see if it went down (it didn't until like five tries later) and there was once I actually GAGGED.

I think there was too much water in my mouth for me to swallow. So my body just did a gag reflex and churned out the water. So after the water dried up, I realised there was some blood in it (from the colour) and I felt really bad for whoever had to clean up after me.

The nurse put a gauze in my mouth "to absorb the saliva" but of course it was to make my wound stop bleeding. When she took out the gauze an hour or so later, it was... gross.


The funniest thing was that, I felt like I needed to use the restroom, but I was wondering why because I hadn't drank any water! Then I found out that the IV drip is kinda liquid so I kinda had water. Just not through my mouth. I was still quite weak when I got out of the bed. The nurse asked me if I wanted one of those portable toilet chairs. I vehemently denied. I almost fell on the way to the toilet.

A while later I also realised that there was no tube on my face and that my right nostril had crumbly blood bits. Must've been from the tube, and my friend says it's probably traumatic because during insertion can have injury! >_>

Stayed in the bed for about an hour longer, couldn't sleep because other people were making a lot of noise, but after that, I had a bit more water, changed my gauze and headed back.

Notice the stuff next to my bed. Diluted Ribena that I couldn't drink properly, water used to take my meds, me looking awkward because I was trying to swallow -_- Oh and that white stuff? Filled with blood hahah.

Dad drove me home, my tongue was still numb, lips have some sensation, I'm not sure if they're numb because the anaesthesia hasn't worn off yet or it's because of the impact to the nerve.

I also inspected my teeth, which the doctors generously returned to me. The top two are perfectly intact, there was no drilling at all, but the bottom two were in pieces. And had bits of gum/meat stuck to them. The roots also looked mighty tough and strong so I hope the dentist didn't have too much of a struggle.

Luckily mine was the first wisdom teeth extraction for the day :X There were two kids before me and they were screaming and crying it was so annoying.

I didn't want to pay a large amount for my surgery, so I actually went to the polyclinic's dental to have them refer me to NDC, hence I paid a subsidized rate and used some Medisave to cover it. Something you might want to consider. It saved me about 2k SGD but mine was still above 1k btw.

Thank you everyone for your wishes and prayers and lovely comments Love you all and I know you're awesome! To those who read my tweets/status updates but didn't bother saying anything.. well, God Bless you. To those who were so cute and asked me where I was staying so they could visit, you guys are true friends :')

To a speedy recovery! :) If you're having your wisdom teeth operation soon, good luck! If you've already done it, salute!

I am damn hungry though.

Read about my previous wisdom teeth consultation, explain my choice (why 4 and not 2?) below!

FIRST (and earliest), SECOND, and THIRD.
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