the garden slug

That would make a good opening line for a book we hope to write someday. In truth, when someone says “Flea Spree” that’s the imagery that gets conjured up. Or maybe it’s just me, I’m a weird old Slug.

Rest assured, neither canines nor their fleas will be present at The Garden Slug’s Flea Spree. We’ve professionally reserved the former and the latter for the vet and pet shops next door and next-next door…

ANYHOO.

Last couple of days to bundle up a sweet array of gifts for the first lady in your life.
< — gooey puppy-dog eyes are compulsory when presenting gifts to any mother

We’ve got a plethora of unique, made-from-the-heart gifts for fleeing & spreeing:

• reusable, recyclable KeepCups
• aromatherapy oil burners by Frangipani Creations
• organic soaps made by rose farmers in Bandung via sustainable living advocate Daughters of Tomorrow
• purses, hairpins and five-stone sets made by up & coming entrepreneurial young women in India, also by DoT
• canvas totebags – made of environmentally-friendly, unbleached canvas by Scook & Blessing Home
• wines from Sommerton
• ultra-soft comfort-fit t-shirts designed & manufactured by yours truly

Some proceeds of the Flea Spree will go towards building a sustainable living for underprivileged women, animal welfare, and support of the local arts. Because we want to be a business that gives back. Or at least we try to be lah, and we’d like to try even harder in the weeks, months and years to come.

Us Slugs huddled together and got our Mums greeting cards, some soap, some wine, and “wrapped” them up nicely in a practical li’l totebag. Think some of your Mums will like these heartfelt, heart-made gifts too? Tell us when you see us k! xx

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Mothers Week specials are available from today through the week. Foodporn channels: Tw / FB / IG

Once upon a time, we made a knockout dessert called the Knickerbocker Glory Sundae.

Have you ever seen someone cry in front of a painting? We’ve seen people cry, no – wail and weep, at the Knickerbocker Glory.

Actually it was only the Bar Slugs who wailed and wept at having to prepare this everytime someone ordered it lah. It was a mission and a half to make each one of these beasts…

…because it comprised only sixteen layers of vanilla gelato, peach Melba, almond stracciatella, sea salt dulce de leche, jaffa truffle bar, with a dollop of chocolate whiskey cream, and… you guessed it, more vanilla gelato.

This week we revive the monster by sticking something up its gelato, revamped the ingredients and renamed it the Knickerbocker Glory Mega Sundae Popsicle

made with layers of miso toffee, chocolate fudge, vanilla bean gelato & roasted nuts

paired with trusty twin sidekicks – strawberries dipped in white chocolate and crushed pistachios

Available from today until next Tuesday, or while fresh ingredients last.

Are you up for a Knickerbocker Glory challenge? >:-) Post your feeble attempts on Instagram and remember to @thegardenslug. Heroes will be glorified and rewarded with a week-long supply of Nutella Iced Chocolate.

We made this one a very, very long time ago. Since International Jazz Day is coming up, we thought we’d bring it back. How are rarebits related to jazz? No relation. Just an excuse for us to use the word “jazzed up” in all our specials this week. Bahahaha…

This week we’re serving jazzed up morsels of rarebit laced with crispy bacon cheese sauce, anchovy tartare & marinated olives.

Here’s a not-so-rare bit of information (*continues to self-amuse*) – rarebits are, we suspect, a Welsh thing. Usually a dish of melted and seasoned cheese on toast, sometimes with other ingredients. We assure you it’s got absolutely nothing to do with rabbits. ‘Coz Wikipedia sez so.

Rarebits are one of those things – it’s either instant love, or a very acquired taste. We leave it to you to decide.

If this isn’t p0rn, we don’t know what is.

Available from today until next Tuesday.

Yep. Two words. That’s all we gots for you.

This week the Kitchen Slugs said, Let there be Lobster! LOLOL → (Lots Of Lots Of Lobster)

And so lobster there shall be. From today, until next Tuesday 30th April (International Jazz Day!) or while fresh catch can be caught.

Dressed down & jazzed up with lemon + lobster & white wine bisque. In celebration of International Jazz Day ^_^

Very very limited portions. Book tables early-early k. Ppl got hotline we got Slugline 86888575

‘Nuff talkin’. More pr0n-ing.

Quick ones today.

How to choose tomatoes: Skin colour and smell. The redder the better. As long as reasonably firm and not too squishy you’re good. And. A tomato should smell like a tomato. You know what tomatoes smell like, right? They smell like tomatoes.

Storage: Not in the fridge. Anything below 5°C destroys a tomato’s cell structure, taking along with it its flavour.

☆ Free Recipe 1-Minute Breakfast ☆

Pile up in this order:
• Toasted bun
• Cream cheese
• Tomato slices
• Sea salt & pepper

DONE!

OK so we lied. The toasting bit might take more than a minute – so don’t waste time. Boil water, make coffee, do last night’s dishes while waiting for the bread to toast.

photo © Sook Tan

Alternatively, pile it all up first and toast the whole lot like Slugphile Sook did.

Tomatoes grow well in warm climates. Hence, the best tomatoes come from hot countries. Tomatoes are something we particularly love not only because it adds wonderful flavour to any dish, they’re GREAT for our immune system & energy levels. We usually leave the skins on for the lycopene – one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants.

Springtime veggies make for the most wholesome, comforting soups of all. End the weekday and start the weekend right with a Fit Food item ~ say hello to the Potato Leek Vichyssoise

On Throwback Thursdays we can either dig up old embarrassing old photos of ourselves, or bring back old favourites that you’ve been nagging us ceaselessly about. Naturally, we prefer to do the latter.

We’ve heard your plaintive cries to bring back the risotto “some time this century”. Sarcasm isn’t lost on us, dearie. And so here it is, available from today through the week. This time round, however, with a springtime twist – fresh seafood and spring greens.

Creamy Oozy Lemon Risotto w plump shrimp & soft white fish

We don’t make a lot of this each day, so book your tables early-early hor.

And then there’s always the requests for bacon. Anything with bacon. Ice-cream with bacon. Mocha frappuccino with bacon. Nutella with bacon. Bacon with bacon.

While we’re still R&D-ing all of the above requests, what we can do right now and for this week only – is to bring back an old (and almost cult) favourite ~ The Three Little Pigs

Smokey bacon, honey baked ham & herby bratwurst, baked with potato hash, and topped with egg and lots of mozzarella.

Available from today through the week, or while stocks last.

Better get this posted before Wicked Wednesday is over, but truth be told this badass DIY amaretti sundae will always be available at TGS for as long as we have ingredients for it.

The dessert will arrive on your table looking pretty much like this:

.. if you’re indoors

.. if you’re outdoors.

A couple of ways you can go about DIY-ing this.

Make your own SUNDAE – comes with free instructional video!

I know right. Video with music?! And captions?! We’re growing up.

Make your own SANDWICH

Step 1: Kiap the ice-cream in between two amaretti cookies. Like so.

Step 2: Drizzle chocolate sauce all over, to your heart’s content. The messier the better.

Step 3: EAT it. (Ask us for extra serviettes!)

That is all.

Good morning sunshine! TGIF! And happy International Women’s Day! Go up to the favourite woman in your life and give her a big, long hug. If you’re a woman and you’re your own favourite woman you can hug yourself. If you want to be a woman and you’re your own favourite woman, you can hug yourself too.

you’re your you’re your.. aren’t you glad we passed that test, grammar nazis of the world??? we rawk. \m/

This week we’re naming all our specials after storybook characters. Well, most not all. Is Queen Victoria a fictional character? ANYHOO. Once upon a time…

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She may have lucked out and found a prince and lived happily ever after yadda yadda. But let’s not forget how she grit her teeth and bore through household chores and ugly family members, just like many of the strongest women we know today.

The word “cinderella” has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were unrecognised, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. -Wikipedia

At TGS, we’re making it International Women’s Week – starting off with a Fit Food soup of the day: Cinderella’s Golden Pumpkin Chowder

Visit us by Sunday or the pumpkin turns into a horse carriage.

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There are too many different versions of The Woodcutter & His Wife story. Just like there are so many ways to chop wood. And there are so many ways to cook sausages.

But I think our favourite version is the one where the woodcutter was about to get duped by a seductive young forest fairy promising gold and treasure & his wife stopped him and told him to continue earning an honest living. The other woodcutters who went for it ended up marrying a 2,000-year-old scarecrow and losing all their hair and teeth. Or something like that.

Moral of the story:
Listen to your wife
It might just save your life.

Especially if you’re a woodcutter.

Anyhoo.

International Women’s Week share-share special: The Woodcutter & His Wife’s sausage sizzle platter, served with sautéed onions & cherry tomatoes

Named so because the German bratwurst & chicken chipolata look like chopped up pieces of, um, wood?

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Joining our all day breakfast fold is a soufflé egg-white omelette (geddit? omelette? fold? hurhur) we’ve named Snow White. It’s stuffed with white button mushrooms, and served with lightly-toasted multigrain bread.

A light and simple breakfast, available all day, everyday. No poison apple, no horse heart, nothing of that sort. This dish is possibly vegetarian and also a Fit Food item.

Moral of the Snow White story: If you get yourself out of negative situations and be kind to animals and minorities, who knows where it’ll get you! You’ll meet a good, kind person and live happily ever after. The End.

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“Why does the lamb love Mary so?”
the eager children cry.

“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.”
the teacher did reply.

special main: Mary Had A Little Lamb (Chop) – spice ‘n’ herb rubbed w citrus-mint gremolata. Served w cayenne roasted potatoes.

This is the kind of lamb you could bring to school without causing a commotion. We hope you love lamb too, because we can assure you that our lamb loves you.

If you’re a young, not-yet-known local artist and have dreams of becoming a young, well-known local artist, we have news for you.

In our continuous support of young, local artists (of both the known and unknown varieties) – we’d like to share a message from Noise Singapore who not only support young, local artists, they breed them.

Last call for the Noise Singapore 2013 submission of entries for Open Categories and Mentorships. It’s your last chance to make it for the 2013 edition, otherwise you’ll have to wait a whole year… Closing date is 27 Jan 2013.

Open Categories
If you have original works of art, design, music and photography, submit your works at http://www.noisesingapore.com/submission/ and you could be handpicked to showcase at our exhibition in August, or perhaps win the $5,000 Noise Singapore Award.

The Apprenticeship Program (TAP)
Wanna learn from established visual arts mentors? On top of that, you will also stand a chance to showcase your works at a Noise Singapore 2013’s TAP group exhibition (held in conjunction with Singapore Biennale 2013) at the Singapore Art Museum, SAM at 8Q in August 2013. Apply now at http://www.noisesingapore.com/mentorship/tap2013/

The Music Mentorship (TMM)
Wanna be guided by renowned music mentors? What’s more? You will also stand a chance to perform at the Noise Singapore 2013’s music showcase at The Esplanade in August 2013! Submit your works now at http://www.noisesingapore.com/mentorship/tmm2013/

So if that’s you, step forward now. Remember to do so by 27 Jan 2013 and don’t miss out this wonderful opportunity to make art and make yourself known.