In my longing for personal time and good restaurant food, I specially invented Table for One Tuesdays which officially started yesterday! Ha! Made it sound like I've been doing this forever when it's been done a grand total of one time. Uno!

So, for the premiere of Tf1T, I went to Sagar, a South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant on Percy Street. I ordered a Rava Dosa, which is made of cream of rice and wheat or something like that and it came served with Daal (or Sambar) and some green coconut thing which I didn't really like. It was deep fried I think, and was relatively oily but not as bad as roti prata or churros, but sufficiently okay to not leave streaks of oil on the plate after I was done, and was crispy!! I like crispy! It would also soften when I dipped it into the curry and that was marvellous. The waiter also saw that I thoroughly enjoyed wolfing down the curry and took great initiative by offering me another small saucer of the curry. Kudos to the waiter! Thanks to him, I'll definitely make another visit to Sagar to try to Uttapams, which sounded really good on the menu. Maybe I'll get some Poori too. Oh for the love of Indian food.

I also decided to indulge in a Mango Lassi. After the previous Indian Karahi feast at Wanting's when Sam's mango lassi failed to turn up, my interest in the drink was stoked and I had to try it. Also because the other drinks available on the menu sounded a little dodgy for my liking and I wasn't sure if I was ready to be so experimental and brave with my drink choices! The mango lassi turned out to be a fantastic decision! The mango that went in there was definitely fresh as I could taste the richness and sweetness of the mango (although I think the best mango I've ever tasted was in Thailand - cheap and good and sweet sweet mango sticky rice) even though it was blended with yogurt, but the combination was really to my liking and I thoroughly enjoyed my mango lassi! So there I was, on a regular Tuesday evening, sipping my Mango Lassi and reading about different leadership types on my dearest iPad mini.

*on a side note, I am rather fascinated by the British use of the word evening. Even if its 930pm and very much night time, the lovely Sky from fitness first will still say, "Bye Violet! Have a great EVENING!" Evening?!?! I really don't understand! Maybe now that the sun sets sometime after 830, the use of the word evening can be extended but often I get so boggled by the diction that I become socially-awkward and just go Hehe *smiles widely* or say thank you! Only once or twice did I actually remember to return the greeting and wish her a great....evening. Mind-boggling the English are!

Back to The Food Issue, I've also recently discovered the ideal location my gym is at, offering my quick and convenient access to tons of cute cafes, niche restaurants and unique cuisines! Maybe I'll extend Tf1 to Thursdays as well. I really want to have some Pho at the Pho restaurant located next to Bagel factory, which I tried today! Brought me back to Amsterdam where I visited my first cafe dedicated to Bagels (Note: fond memories of bagels in amsterdam NOT because bagels were a Dutch invention, though I don't actually know the Bagel's true heritage). Bagel Factory is a lot cheaper than Bagels and Beans in Amsterdam, but to be fair, the bagel I had today was only filled with hommous (second mind-boggler!) and a "Salad", which is actually lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. I describe it like I didn't enjoy it, but truthfully, I was wolfing it down and enjoyed every last bite of my whole wheat bagel, the hommous and the salad. Yum yum yum! Toasted bagels are indeed tasty tasty!

So, hommous. Today, at the counter, I ordered hommous but pronounced it as HUM-MUS and the lady ( not British, sounded a little like she doesn't really speak English so could be Italian/Spanish or Eastern European - sigh, still haven't picked up on accents of non indigenous speakers of English) was like what? So I repeated HUM-MUS with a smile, and I think the smile got to her cause she was all Eureka and said OH! HOO-MUS!

HOO-Mus or HUM-MUS?!?! Walao eh everyday my language capabilities are being challenged. I would like to think it was pronounced with the HOO sound because it was spelled with the HOO sound, so next time I'm ordering hummus/hommous, the pronunciation will depend on how it's spelt. And I will have to find a way to make the guy repeat it to confirm my theory. Something tells me this is going to happen quite soon because the restaurants I've got my eyes on next are Lebanese (adventurous!!! But the name is damn safe sounding: Honey and Co), Turkish (özer, which I thought was German -.- ) and Mildred's (cuisine type I am not too aware but what I'm aware of is that the menu looks absolutely delightful. More tasty tasty!!!)

Diet-wise... I guess it's still keeping up. I've decided to limit myself to 1.5 meals with carbs a day, 1 meal no carbs (typically dinner, since I don't need carbs at night) and 1 afternoon snack. 1.5 meals instead of 1 because oats count as carbs but they aren't my typical rice, wheat, noodles, flour, starch WHICH I LOVE AND WOULD BE VERY SAD TO GIVE UP FOR OATS. oats seriously. I'm eating a 1kg box of oats. Last I weighed the box, it has 748g left which means n more meals of oats la! Sian. Oats for breakfast aren't that bad and quite tasty but like sometimes I just want to indulge in rice and noodles and pasta (!!!!) so I self-discretion and changed it to 1.5 to be more encouraging and also realistic. Must set SMART goals ma, I'm a management student too okay!

Check out Violet's SMART goals:
Specific - be significantly skinnier. Lose 1kg a week (I.e. caloric deficit of 3500 a week, 500 a day, approximately) but actually, for me, weight is just a guideline, more importantly I want to Downsize!!!!!!
Measurable - I have 1 skirt, 1 pair of pants and 1 pair of jeans to test. Plus my measurements and my weight!
Achievable - this is damn sian but I hope with my new ultra discipline plus super feasible plan, it will be more achievable than before when I was confused about the process and anyhow whack. Got the method clear this time plus consulted my medic friends hahaha super useful to have two medic friends <3
Relevant/Realistic - I think relevant is more appropriate because realistic is similar to achievable right? But Janice morphet (#janicemorphet) put in her PowerPoint that its realistic. But different sources say different things. And #janicemorphet has really messed up PowerPoint slides with information that aren't that helpful and MANY MANY TYPOS or awkward phrasing of points which sometimes make zero sense. Tough life of an urban planner leh.
Timely: SUPER TIMELY LA MY GOAL!!! Headed to Alicante in less than 3 weeks and thereafter parents are flying up which means eatlikeapig holiday so the time to lose is NOW. Plus I really wanna be skinny for summer! Want to go back to Singapore and LOOK like I've actually shrunk!!

Summary of my life. I love food and I love eating but I also want to be skinny so... I will work hard and eat appropriately!!! See, I'm having totally positive attitudes now because I never blame the heavens or god or my parents HAHAHAHAHA

Back to more SMART goals!!

Labels: food, London, Table for One Tuesdays