[PRESS] Straits Times, Fit & Fab: Food Writer's Secret to Staying Slim

The Straits Times
Tuesday 27 October 2015 (Singapore)
Online Article: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/food-writers-secret-to-staying-slim

Just in. 'Slim' isn't exactly what I would call myself, but thanks #StraitsTimes 😂. I love sports as much as I love food. I gained a lot of weight this year, the peak of which when this interview took place...! but being active, leading a balanced life of good mental health, physical fitness, and fun is ultimately more important than weight scrutiny. Smaller dress sizes naturally happen when that's all in check. #mindandbody #fitandfab #GastronommySG

A photo posted by the chubby ninja (@victoriacheng) on Oct 26, 2015 at 6:51pm PDT

Victoria Cheng x Cointreau Halloween Cocktail Event

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense." 

Alice in Wonderland

Thank you everyone who joined me at the mid-week Halloween cocktail event in collaboration with Cointreau Blood Orange.  You can find all the photos from my personal camera on my Facebook page.  Other photos will be available on Cointreau, Lifestyle Asia, Büro24/7 Singapore, and Vanity Singapore's page.

Just a couple of photos I have on my phone, camera, and computer...Cointreau Singapore's unique collaboration parties...
Posted by GASTRONOMMY on Friday, October 30, 2015

[PRESS] Büro247: Three ways to jazz up your Halloween party

Büro24/7 Singapore

October 30, 2015

We draw a few pointers from Victoria Cheng's whimsical party inspired by Alice In WonderlandIt all begins with a stairway carpeted with grass. Giant mushrooms and life-sized flowers greet you as you make your way down this rabbit hole. If first impressions are anything to go by, Victoria Cheng's Halloween party, thrown in collaboration with La Maison Cointreau, is a hard one to top. Instead of choosing to amp up the scare factor, Victoria's party is all about celebrating all things strange and whimsical. For her one-night only wonderland, the writer, producer, and #FriendofBuro drew inspiration from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, pulling together a stellar crew of friends and partners to help her stage a party that saw over 160 guests making merry at Vanity, the new cocktail bar at The South Beach. Full article at Büro24/7 Singapore

Destiny

Destined to have food related events on the news since 1994.  Found some old videos from my childhood!  Channel 12 News, oh memories from New York.

Pizza pie and giant cookie birthday party, still two of my favorite things ever.

I still throw pie themed birthday parties, and now we're going to have cookies at next week's event...

Next Wednesday 28 October 2015, join me for our costumed event

Victoria Cheng x Cointreau

featuring specially crafted cocktails, food, music, and transport for the evening.

Losing 3kg in 10 Days

Yeah, I just did that and didn't starve myself - I even had a full dinner at CUT by Wolfgang Puck on day 7 (french fries, wagyu steak, creamed spinach, bread, etc), and had two flights within the week.  Granted, I had gained 10kg since November, so the first 3kg is the easy part.  More on this later.  I just wanted to pat myself on the back, because I worked my ass off and am pushing through a flu.

Burnt (movie): Two Thumbs Down

Burnt couldn't be a more apt title for this movie.

Food, kitchen stories, and Bradley Cooper.  It sounds like the perfect recipe for two food writers to indulge in.

Let's talk about food porn, because really, that's half the juice of a restaurant movie. You hear the sizzle from the pan, you see the slice of freshly baked bread, glistening beef marbling, bright artichokes... Things that make you salivate in your movie seat. You can practically taste it. In the movie, Chef Adam Jones says he wanted to make diners stop and orgasm in their mouths.

But in Burnt, the dishes are redundant and are way too focused on the chef's halibut and steak dish that looks like it's from hotel fine dining circa 1990.  Not salivating nor admiring here.

The scenes were amateur, as if this was written with no real research and shitty character development.  Chefs in the trade do have meltdowns, and they can rage when their team isn't working up to snuff. In Burnt, however, it's not clear why Adam just walks into the kitchen flipping out at ... what exactly?  Unfortunately, his character development isn't particularly deep, so the viewer doesn't get a sense of empathy or deeper connection to his impression of Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen.

What was in this world-changing sauce that Sienna made?  Really - is that little cut of presenting a pan all you're going to give us?

I had it when the maitre'd had to explain to his professional front of house staff what the Michelin guide was.  You're telling me that polished waitstaff in an ultra fine dining restaurant IN FRANCE have never heard of this "Michelin Guide"?

Perhaps my companion and I were being too critical of the movie, as some of the other viewers who left the movie were quite satisfied with the course.  But in an age where kitchen life has become more mainstream in mass media, the team behind Burnt could have done a little bit more research on what actually goes on.

It's Been Done Before

It can be a struggle to push forward when there are skeptics, naysayers, and expressive in-the-box thinkers.  Sometimes it's by critical people who suffer from schadenfreude; often times it's by loved ones whose criticisms stem from concern. However, if "But it's been done before," is enough to deter you from pursuing a creative or entrepreneurial endeavor, you should just go back to your 9-5 job. It's been done before, but not by me.

I've been wrapped up with a full commitment to work lately. I've been stressed, excited, frustrated, happy all at the same time with the journey, and I love the process.

First day off a Juice Cleanse: Peking Duck

After a 5 hour photoshoot all morning, I finally get to have my first solid meal since Sunday (5-day juice cleanse) with Tunglok Xihe Peking Duck! Even better, I got to have it with exceptionally fun company who were so kind as to be nice about the wild new hair I didn't choose (for the shoot this morning).

Tunglok A-Class: Victoria Cheng, Paul Foster, Darius Chia, Annabel Tan

Known as the "wagyu of duck", the famed London duck from Ireland's Silver Hill Farm is served at TungLok XiHe Peking Duck, the first in Singapore to be served traditional Peking style. The special breed of duck is unique to this farm, a hybrid of two types of duck that are specially bred for their density and porous skin–which allows better absorption of the marinade when it comes time to prep, making for the ultimate succulence and flavour for Peking duck. The London duck are of the highest standard in the world. They are fed on a diet of soy and wheat, which prevents the resulting meat from having strong odors and tasting excessively gamey.

TungLok XiHé Peking Duck (two locations)

https://www.facebook.com/TungLokGroup

The Grandstand 200 Turf Club Road, #01-23/26 Singapore 287994
Tel: +65 6466 3363  

Orchard Central 181 Orchard Road, #07-07/09 Singapore 238896 

Tel: +65 6736 0006

[Part 2] 5-Day Juice Cleanse Mid-Mark Commentary

Juice Cleanse Experiment courtesy of Antidote.SG

Days 1-2

The [Intermediate Juice Cleanse] is a nice balance between fruit juices, green juices, and a nutmilk. The beginner is mostly fruit juices, while the advanced is mostly green juices.

6 bottles a day for 5 days:
To start the day, bottles 1 and 2 are the only green colored juices in the pack.  They each have some fruit in it, so they are unexpectedly refreshing and palatable. The anti-inflammation and hydrating properties of the juices have been a great way to begin the morning.

But mostly, I get through those as quickly as I can in anticipation of bottle 3. I love ABC juice in general (apple, beetroot, carrot), but Antidote's Angel Falls is especially delicious.  Each ingredient is added for its health properties, but I've found the addition of coconut oil adds a silky texture to the juice, while the rosemary keeps the 500ml of juice interesting with its herbal dimension. Absolutely love this juice, it's the only bottle I finish without a problem.

That's not to say that the next three juices aren't good. Victoria Falls was my favorite juice until Angel Falls came along. I've actually posted about it before on instagram when I was diving in Bali.

The Atlantic, bottle 5, was new to me out of the Antidote range. Packed full of natural sugars from apple and pineapple, by day 2, it almost felt wonderfully sinful to drink. I felt like I should be drinking this out of a cocktail glass with a little umbrella. My friend, Adam Tun-Aung, who was giving me looks of disgust about "juice cleansing," tried a bit of this from my bottle... and then a bit more... and a bit more.  The juice is delightful.

Speaking of sinfully good, the final concoction of each day ends with this:

You know the Chinese black sesame soup dessert? Or tang yuan, the sticky rice balls filled with black sesame goodness? It reminds me of that, except in a milky bottled version, and organic. This is another bottle I have no trouble swigging through.

Notes about the cleanse:

Issues I had:

• I started this cleanse the day after a big night out for a friend's birthday (read: alcohol). Don't do this, folks. I was thinking about bacon, egg, and cheese sammiches all day on day 1.
• Each bottle is 500ml (2 cups), there were many times I had trouble finishing everything. They're filled with cold-pressed juices and are surprisingly filling. I drink a lot of water everyday normally, but I found I was simply too full to fill myself with additional water as I constantly do normally.
• Being on a bottle all hours of the day, I needed access to bathrooms for what feels like every 30 mins. But thankfully, bowel movements weren't wrecking havoc (popular belief is that explosive diarrhea is part of the juice cleanse - it's not! phew!).
• However, my stomach constantly made loud churning noises. Supremely awkward when I'm in a quiet room next to someone. I'm not sure why the noise, since I wasn't really hungry.
• I wasn't hungry, but I missed having something to chew on. 
• I had to turn down a lot of social meal-time gatherings, since I have crappy discipline around good food and good company. Same for needing to change my gym time, when I go for high-intensity classes with friends.  Didn't want to faint or expend excessive energy.

Good issues I had:

• So when I was craving something to chew on, on day 2, I munched on 2 big leafy lettuce leaves. It turned out to be very satiating, ha. Due to the liquid cleanse, I suppose any tangible food feels plenty. I had 2 egg whites one afternoon (it wasn't on the list of approved foods, but I did so anyway hehehe) and it kept me full for hours.
• Convenience. I didn't have to think about what to eat, where to eat, what to buy. It saved me a lot of time and energy that I instead spent on work and hobbies.
• I discovered yoga isn't as boring as I thought.
• A combination of juice cleanse + strength training at Lifestyle Fitness = lean. I already saw some positive slimming changes in my body a little past day 2. (Granted, I lose and gain weight really easily. I happened to start this cleanse when I gained a lot of weight recently)
• I usually need minimum 3 shots of coffee a day, now just one cuppa joe carries me through the whole day.

Also to note, I have continued supplementing my diet with Swisse Vitamins (alternating between Women's Multivitamins, Hair+Nails, and Immunity). I've been taking them the past few months since seeing their positive effects and don't want to halt that at the moment. I don't know if that is overkill, I'm not a nutritionist, but I feel fine. My pee is also all sorts of bright colors now.

Experiment: 5-day Juice Cleanse with Antidote and Lifestyle Fitness

Antidote.sg's 5-day Juice Cleanse

Day 0 - Preparing for the cleanse
Just received my first 3 days worth of juices for an Intermediate level 5-day cleanse, accompanied by a Cleanse Guide. Basic instructions: Drink our juices in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 every 2-4 hours for the duration of your programme.

It advises to do things like

• Hydrate with lemon water
• Sip herbal tea
• Plenty of rest
• Brush your skin every morning to help blood circulation, stimulate lymphatic system, and remove dead skin
• Light exercises
• Go for a massage

Massage? No problemo.
And to avoid these foods (more of a problem):

• Gluten
• Dairy
• Soft Drinks
• Alcohol
• Refined Carbohydrates (white rice, white bread, pastas, etc)
• Meat
• Trans and Saturated Fats (fried foods)

If I get HANGRY during the journey, I'm allowed to eat broccoli, cucumber, apple, raw nuts, avocado, strawberries, low sodium vegetable broth, and I can drink black coffee.  Thank goodness for the coffee allowance.

I'll be avoiding high intensity workouts during the week, so I don't faint! Instead, I'll be working on a specialized low intensity program on the Vibrogym at Lifestyle Fitness with Alvin Tan, which has proven to be extremely effective in leaning me out in the past. (read more on that here)

[Video] Gastronommy TV: Diageo World Class Finalist 2015 Steve Leong

Have you ever heard of a chicken rice cocktail? Victoria Cheng interviews Diageo World Class 2015 Singapore Finalist Steve Leong (Tess Bar & Kitchen) about his preparations for the World Class global finals in Cape Town this August-September 2015.

Click to view the video here

Read more about Steve Leong in this interview with Büro24/7 Singapore: http://www.buro247.sg/lifestyle/insiders/interview-with-steve-leong-winner-of-diageo-world.html

Read more about Victoria Cheng in this interview with Büro24/7 Singapore:
http://www.buro247.sg/lifestyle/insiders/friends-of-buro-sg50-interview-with-victoria-cheng.html

Shoot location:
Tess Bar & Kitchen
38 Seah Street, Singapore
Tel: +65 6337 7355

Special Thanks to Production: MLC Productions Martin Yeoh, Alvin, and Siti.

[PRESS] Friends of Büro24/7: SG50 interview with Victoria Cheng

Thanks for the Singapore Birthday interview, Büro24/7! 

See the full interview here: http://www.buro247.sg/lifestyle/insiders/friends-of-buro-sg50-interview-with-victoria-cheng.html

Excerpt:

The most underrated thing about Singapore is... how studious everyone is. Nowhere else in the world have I seen cafes with signs by the cashier notifying students not to study there during peak hours.

In 10 years time, I would like to see Singapore... living in a biospheric dome with technology you'd see in Disney's Tomorrowland. I expect nothing less, Singapore!

Singapore is uniquely... not obese despite its supper culture with high cholesterol dishes that are all greased up and deliciously full of lard.

VC Travels Perth: Vlog 8 Days in 8 Minutes

Spent 8 days in Perth, thanks to Ryan & Sylvia.  It was my first time in Western Australia, and my first time using Snapchat... I documented the trip on Snapchat and compiled it all into one video for memory's sake. Now that I'm back in Asia with proper wifi/data/phone and general communication, let me share what happened... (we had some wifi issues while we were in Perth)

Sylvia & Ryan

Stuck in one house for eight days in the middle of winter in Perth is a serious test of friendship, and I'd like to think we all passed.

We were there to film an upcoming video on Night Owl Cinematics (along with Anna, Aylna, Joanna, Bryant and NOC's hosts: Airbnb, Kat & Michael, and Phryne).

VC Travels Perth: 8 Days in 8 Minutes
Featuring: (instagram handles)@nightowlcinematics @sylsylnoc @aylna @joannalhs @anna_en @bryantlyh @phrynephotofc @mhossen @veganburg and Dan Khoo's cheese.

Places visited:
Perth Australia
Lucky Chan's
Fremantle (Freo)
Fremantle Market
Little Creatures
Cicerello's
The Tuck Shop
Swan Valley
Feral Brewery
The Cheese Barrel
House of Honey
Houghton Winery
Whistler's Chocolate Co.
Mandoon Estate & Homestead Brewery
Habour Town Outlet Shopping
Old Faithful Bar & BBQ
Blue Boat Shed (Mounts Bay Road)
Cottesloe Beach
Wolf Lane
Grill'd Healthy Burgers
Max & Sons Coffee
140 Perth

Infinite beauty in anything

I love everything about this scene, from the card trick (which was a real performance by Rachel Weisz), the script, the acting, and the camerawork.

Bloom: Do you feel cheated?
Penelope Stamp: The trick to not feeling cheated is to learn how to cheat.
This was a story about a girl who could find infinite beauty in anything, any little thing, and even love the person she was trapped with. And i told myself this story until it became true. Now, did doing this help me escape a wasted life? Or did it blind me so I didn't want to escape it? I don't know, but either way I was the one telling my own story...

[Giveaway] Tickets to Epicurean Market at Marina Bay Sands

Epicurean Market is back for its 3rd annual food festival at Marina Bay Sands! It is three palate-pleasing days that include master classes led by Celebrity Chefs and award-winning bartenders, a fresh produce and seafood Farmer’s Market, a massive Wine Zone for you to sample your way through the world’s cellars, a pumping After Party on Friday and Saturday nights, and so much more.

GIVEAWAY: Gastronommy has TEN (five pairs) Epicurean Market tickets to give away. It is worth S$28 for the 3-Day Pass + Entry to After Party. You also win a pair of complimentary Schott Zwiesel red wine glasses (worth S$38). http://www.marinabaysands.com/epicurean-market.html

TO WIN: Name one of the many celebrity chefs who will be at Epicurean Market in the comments below, on Facebook, or on Instagram.

Contest deadline: 13 August 2015

TOP 5 THINGS TO DO AT EPICUREAN MARKET

1. With over 30 free masterclasses over the weekend, brush up on your culinary skills and pick up some tips from the gurus.

2. Epicurean Market has searched far and wide for the best gourmet ingredients - head to the Farmer's Market and buy from who Marina Bay Sands restaurants buy from -- and at lower prices than your grocery store!

3. Pair your picnic of signature dishes from award-winning restaurants with a bottle of wine from the Wine Walk - look out for great deals and add to your home collection.

4. Head to the Epicurean Bar for hourly tasting sessions and specially concocted cocktails by award-winning mixologists.

5. Stay on for the after dark and party with resident DJs from CÉ LA VI on Friday and Saturday night. Have a drink or two at the bar with our chefs and check out pop-up restaurants by OLA Cocina Del Mar, Bar-Roque Grill and Kimchi Korean Restaurant.


Event Date and Entry Times
14 Aug, 12pm to 1am
15 Aug, 11am to 1am
16 Aug, 11am to 9pm

Sands Expo® and Convention Centre, Hall D & E
Official event hashtag: #EpicureanMarket

Link: Epicurean Market Website

Epicurean Market Facebook