We’ll make this Le Short and Le Sweet. We are sibeh busy now preparing for tonight’s partayyyy and we can barely contain our excitements! *squeeeeeeeee* (sibeh busy still got time to write blog post hor? anyhoo.)

Le Food Table sans food. We will bring out Le Food when Le Party begins to ensure Le Food be Le Fresh for all Le Slugphiles.

Le Thousands of Le Googly Sluggy Eyeballz. Okay maybe not thousands, we exaggerates. Is it only in Le Hundreds. But all we handmake one hokay, dun play-play.

Le Bouquet from LE TWO QUEENS! In shape of Le Garden Slug!! *Le Swoon* Le Eye Stalks are made out of a real plant. Sibeh creative leh, we loves! <3

Two Queens ah Two Queens, why y’all so sweeeeeetttt? We will cry one leh :’) *sniffles*

Le Love Missive from Le Two Queens. HOMG they’ve even caught on to Le Lingo! *Le Double Swoon*

Le Party Packs, Le Door Gifts and Le Miscellaneous Party Items.

Le Prizes. Whatchy’all been waitin’ for, riiiiight?

SEE YOUSE IN JUST A BIT!!! ***LE MANY EXCITES***

I guess it’s going to become Le Sluggy Tradition now, to throw youse a Slugalicious party once a year to celebrate our birthday.

We turned five on 8 December 2011, however, we were too busy watching Le Turkey TV to organise something for youse, our dearest and darlingest Slugphiles. We knew we weren’t gonna be able to get away with it, so we consulted Le Stars in Le Eastern Sky and picked Le Most Auspicious date to celebrate — Wednesday, 4 January 2012. That’s like, merely a few days away! (RSVP details available after a few more paragraphs of mindless drivel. Or scroll down lah if you can’t wait >.< )

Can you believe it? That we’ve been around for five whole years? ‘Coz we can’t believe it ourselves.

We opened Le Shoppe on 8 December 2006. We completely forgot about our 1st birthday. Our 2nd birthday went by just as quietly. We wrote a teary post (probably one of our best posts ever) on how we wouldn’t trade you for a million dollars. We decided to celebrate our 3rd because good things come in threes, right? And finally last year, we decided to celebrate with a bang. It was the single most memorable night for us last year. Many of youse came by to share love and laughs, and we hope you’ll do the same again!

So here we are, Le Five Years Old.

Awsum artwork by Mishal “Noodle” Slug

Le TGS Fan Night 2012
Le Date & Le Time: Wednesday 4 January 2012, registration starts at 6.30pm

Le Theme: Come dressed in Sluggy Olive Green or Sluggy Yellow! (refer to our awsum logo for reference).

What can we has other than everyone dressed in green and yellow? Here iz what we can has.

We can has all your favourite foodses and drinkses.

We can has Le Painstakingly Handmade Door-gift for each of youse.

What are they? They are Le Googly Sluggy Eyeballz of coz!

This is how you put it on. It’ll go perfectly with your Sluggy Olive Green and/or Sluggy Yellow outfit. Trust us Le Fashionista Slugs.

Le Googly Sluggy Eyeballz sans pupils on Le Joseph Slug’s hemsem head

We can has Le Awsum Hug Ticket for each of youse! Basically you can go up to anyone at the party, present them with this ticket to redeem a hug. (Now everybody say, “Awwwwww….”). Yep, that’s us. Always doing our bit to spread Le Loves.

Three lucky (randomly chosen) people will get a special “golden ticket” each, which allows them to redeem a special hug such as:
• Le Bear Hug
• Le Hug With Kiss
• Le Snuggle

*many excites!*

Now remember to keep Le Hug Ticket with you, because we shall be using Le Ticket Serial Number for Le Lucky Draw Prizes! Le Exciting neh! Ooh how Le Clever we are.

We can has special guests like Le Ice Cream Man and Le Tarot Card Reader.
 

We can has good, clean, dorky-adorable games like Le Treasure Hunt, Le “Banned Words” and Le Broken Telephone Line.

Don’t look at me, I’ve no idea what a Broken Telephone Line game is. It is all planned by Le Young Slugs as they will be taking charge of Le Fan Night. Le Old Slugs will simply meander around all night doing what we do best – pretending to act like bossly bosses.

Le Food, Le Drinks, Le Music and Le Good-Looking Slugs are all on da house, yo. So chop-chop-kalipok fasterly RSVP as we’ve only got space for 60-odd Slugphiles.

HOW TO LE RSVP
• Limited to the first 60 peoples
• RSVP by Monday 2 Jan 2012 5.00pm to justask@thegardenslug.com with the subject “TGS Fan Night 2012″.
• Include your name & contact number – limited to 1pax per reservation. (So if you’re coming in a group, each of you has to RSVP individually hokay? Dun be lazy.)

• You may also RSVP via SMS to 9225-7913

CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YA!! Le K and Le Thanx and Le Bye!

Just in case you were thinking we were too lazy (and/or brain-dead) to come up with a proper (and/or witty) title for this blog post. You are absolutely right.

Sekretly, iz an SEO trick. But nevermind that.

Anyhoo.

Many of youse have asked “Hey it’s been five years now, what are your plans for expansion? Please please please open a branch at Woodlands/ Hougang/ Bukit Timah/ Malaysia/ India/ Siberia…”

If you know any of us at all, you would know we are simple Slugs. You would know we weren’t looking to be billionaires (with great money comes great responsibility and great stress). You would know all we wanted was a comfortable place of our own, where we can serve rustic, hearty fare, and make people happy. You would know how we put our heart (and soul and blood/ sweat/ tears, yes even after all these years. Hey it rhymes!) into our food, our service, our staff selection, our smiles. The idea of branching or franchising, to us simple Slugs, makes us worry about the dilution of our heartfelt-ness in everything we do.
 

It would be silly of us to completely rule it out though (so you Slugphiles in Woodlands/ Hougang/ Siberia etc etc… may still have hope) but for now, we’re putting the idea of ‘branching out’ into our “Someday/Maybe” folder. ((And boy do we love our parentheses today))

Expanding we are, though, just not quite in the direction one might expect. We may not have officially announced it (but, um, I suppose this counts as an official announcement?) but sekretly, in the background, we have been working very hard on our Catering arm.

OK la, it’s not such a big sekret. It’s just that our blog posts haven’t quite caught up with all the events we’ve been catering at. We have been engaged for many a happy house party, corporate event, and product launch. We might blog about the entire process someday (which we find absolutely thrilling #food_nerds_r_us) from menu creation, to logistics & layout planning, and how we draw up all our blueprints on re-used A4 paper.

We cannot have done any of these without our wonderful team of Young Slugs — (just so you know, Old Slugs = Sophia, Joseph and Sharon. Everyone else are Young Slugs, regardless of mortal age.)

Meet some of the newer additions to Team Slug Power: introducing Mishal, Mathew, Havard and Simin.

Grabbing a quick bite before transforming into Professional Butlers at the Adidas x Stella McCartney launch at Marina Bay Sands, 6 October 2011 (which was supposed to be the point of this post. Sorry it took quite a bit of waffling before we got here. Hehe)

Our smart-looking Slug Butlers, er, butler’d around with trays of savouries, sweets, and beverages.

A tray of savoury characters.

Another tray of savoury characters.

A tray of sweets.

Replete with beverages to suit (almost) every taste ~ Bersano Conte Baldino Prosecco, Santa Vittorio Still Water, and a TGS-made refreshing iced matcha tea with a hint of yuzu citron

Mishal Slug looking sweet as the Savouries Butler

Havard Slug looking hemsem as the Beverage Butler

And not forgetting our hardworking Kitchen Slugs who slave away in the kitchen, reproducing all the canapés we serve at such wonderful events.

More catering photos and blog posts to come. If you’d like to find out more about what we can do for you re. catering, contact our Director of Food Communication & Design, Sophia Slug at sophia [at] thegardenslug [dot] com . She is quite the friendly, dun worry.

Meanwhile, we update quite the regularly on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous and Flickr. ‘Coz we geeky like that, yo.

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou! (Grrrreetings!) And Kia Ora from our humble little shoppe. Do you still remember we have a blog? Coz we almost forgot we had one.

May was a crazy month. Crazy and fast. Like a homeless man on a stolen moped.

We weren’t quite done with May yet and now it’s gone, GONE! Whoever said “May, she will stay” was lying. Lying through their teeth. (I’m looking at you, Mr Simon & Mr Garfunkel.)

O weren’t they nerdy-hawt in their heyday? *wistful sigh*

Anyhoo. 17 May was a very special day because
1) It’s the National Day of Norway! (I have a fascination with all things Norwegian. Don’t ask.)
2) It’s Enya’s burfday (you don’t have to admit to it but WE KNOW YOU LISTEN TO ENYA TOO!)
3) It wuz mah burfday

And most importantly,
4) The Garden Slug provided VIP & VVIP food service for ANZ Bank’s Singapore branch opening at Chevron House. (btw, I had my first very own not-linked-to-my-parents bank account with ANZ way back when I was a scarfie living in Dunedin, so looking at the logo makes me smile)

O, you should’ve seen our Young Slugs. So dapper in their long-sleeved white shirts & ironed black slacks. We were so busy we forgot to take photos, so no Young Slug pr0n for you I’m afraid. But we do have a bit of food pr0n, albeit hastily taken.

The folks at ANZ were a charming lot. We loved how they did a rousing Maori cheer to get the event rolling. Pity there weren’t any virile young men in grass skirts doing the Haka. (Oh well, there’s always YouTube, ey mate? HEHE)

Photo by Sophia Ms-Occasionally-Shaky-Hands Slug.

L: Japanese Cucumber Hollows stuffed w/ Smoked Salmon & topped w/ cream cheese, chives + fresh cracked black pepper
R: Pumpernickel topped w/ cheddar and sundried tomatoes

Photos by Sophia I-Love-To-Flash Slug.

Left: Sweet shrimp w/ wine-cured fruit w/ rosemary & carrot
Top: Skewers of Buttermilk chicken breast speared w/ tri-coloured antipasto
Bottom: Roast Beef strips atop green frizzy leaves drizzled w/ an exotic lemongrass & olive oil dressing

Marinated Sweet Cherry Tomatoes w/ Greek Feta & stuffed Italian olives in little shot glasses

Top: Rich Fudge Chocolate Squares topped w/ cocoa & mint, emblazoned with ANZ logo
Middle: TGS Signature Brownie Popsicles coated w/ semi-sweet french chocolate & served on ice-cream stick for extra visuals
Bottom: Strawberry Mousse Square topped w/ a chocolate sprig

We’d like to thank event manager Justin of Embrya Productions, for orchestrating a flawless event for all the parties involved.

Aroha nui (all our love) <3

Learn How to Shoot Like the Pros. And by Pros we mean Professionals. But you knew that.

Hansel Tan (yep, the dude pictured above with a cow on his t-shirt) is a veteran tutor, self-taught photography enthusiast & fellow slugphile. If you bump into him here at TGS (or anywhere for that matter), just say “Hi” and ask about photography stuff hokay? — [[don't say "Hey aren't you that dude in the cow t-shirt?"]]

Anyway. He will most happily discuss bodies & lenses with you over a meatball pasta. <– We’ve named the pasta after him. True story.

But there’s only so much photography knowledge one can impart over a meatball pasta, right? Right.

So. If you have a dSLR & have always wondered what those fiddly buttons & settings are for — Hansel is conducting two runs of “Shooting like the Pros – basics of dSLR photography” right here at The Garden Slug.

Hansel takes a systematic, perhaps almost scientific, approach in learning the fundamentals of photography.

Classes will be over 4 hours (2 hours weekday + 2 hours weekend) and there will be 2 runs of the class.

click on image to enlarge

Shooting Like the Pros! – Basics of dSLR Photography
Venue: The Garden Slug
Dates:
• 15 November (Mon) 7-9pm || 20 November (Sat) 3-5pm

Cost: $90
Light refreshments provided by TGS.

Registration: E-mail hanshoots@yahoo.com to sign up.

For further enquiries, contact Hansel directly via e-mail, mobile 9616-6629, Twitter and/or Flickr.

Bright and early last weekend, Joe & I packed a bunch of smartly-uniformed slugs in the slug-mobile and drove to a huge private art warehouse . A client of ours was hosting a cocktail and sit-down lunch for some potential art buyers. We planned a fusion menu for her, as requested. Enjoy the food pr0n!

Champagne & Hors D’oeuvres

Trio of Colourful Fruit kebabs, Japanese Achar cucumber with Toasted sesame seeds, Feta and Stuffed Olives

Champagne on ice

Petite Starter: Lemongrass grilled Shrimps over coral leaves. Dressed in lemon citrus oil and topped with sweet basil leaves

Main #1: Grilled Chicken Breast atop Saffron Tomyam linguine, glazed with Marsala oil. White-wine grilled Asparagus completes the ensemble

Main #2: Slow-baked Vegetable Ratatouille topped with seared vegetable rings

Main #3: Braised Lamb Loin with chunky root vegetables in a red wine sauce, spiced with Szechuan pepper and rosemary

Dessert: Chilled Kahlua Vanilla custard topped with Gula Melaka and candied Pumpkin

Big thanks to Michael, Alex, Jian Yun, Wei Yang & Dexter for doing a great job and looking glamorous while doing it too!

A shout out goes out to Sharon Slug too, who was holding the fort and taking care of Mark and Adeline’s event at The Garden Slug on the same day ** and not forgetting Jose, Kenny, Leo and Sam of course!**

We were tasked to create a Jungle-themed Take Home birthday kit for a guest… Check out these food picks that we made for her canapes… Our job here is to ensure that we help you plan a great party, right down to the tiniest personalized details

Our customers are advised to sit back, makan and relax. Burping strictly optional. :-0

Meet Angie, the radiant bride You’re a lucky guy, Dillon! To get ready for  the solemnization party at noon, Angie popped by Texture ( the cool salon right next to The Garden Slug) to have her hair & makeup done up. Glam man!

The setup for the J.O.P’s table ( Justice of Peace) to solemnize Angie & Dillon’s marriage
Disclaimer: Fancy Cartier rings not provided by The Garden Slug :-0

And now we present the newly weds – Angie & Dillon.
( We noticed that the J.O.P brought along his own little Singapore flag stand!)

All their family members were here to ra-rah them on!

Any guy that is so sweet to his mum and granny is definitely a keeper. And did we mention that Dillon has a fantastic sense of humor? Looks like Angie got a perfect catch too

Friends! What’s a party without whacky friends?!

Once again, Congrats Angie & Dillon ! Stay happy, stay in love always

Answer: None. They don’t change lightbulbs!

They get invited to cool events like last Saturday’s #samsungconvo, take photos, and write about said events and said photos.

© @deliciatan

© @jst79

Non-lightbulb-changing bloggers also get to have a photog lecturer run a little hands-on food photography workshop in a small li’l diner at Telok Kurau.

After which, they get fed & pose for group shots.

Big thanks to these good folks for organising this event: Jimmy & Zach from Silverbullet, and Stephanie & Daniel from Samsung. Thank you for hand-picking The Garden Slug as the venue for your photography workshop.

Lawrence Teo of Peepshow Machine is an extraordinary photography guru. (Click here for Lawrence’s photos of the event!) The slugs picked up a couple of good tips too, during the hands-on session.

And as for the non-lightbulb-changing Singapore bloggers, add them to your feedreader!
http://peepshowmachine.livejournal.com

http://www.danandesther.com

http://mhisham.org

http://molemole.sg

http://jayleif.blogspot.com

http://www.ladyironchef.com

http://beauterunway.blogspot.com

http://imac.multiply.com/journal

http://juicyndelicious.wordpress.com

http://nadnut.com

http://www.sabrina.sg

http://www.camemberu.com

http://www.temptingtreats.com.sg

http://musxzart.blogspot.com

http://www.hisfoodblog.com

http://vic.sg

The Garden Slug was invited to provide  food for the cocktail reception  of Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock” film premiere tonight!

We had a whale of a time planning the menu.. we wanted it to reflect the pyschedelic 70s.. Lots of colours and lots of kitschy references to Americana.

Join Joseph slug and me, on the trip we took…

Check out our brand new Pull-up banner… Sharon slug did the artwork.. nice hor?! We brought in some Fortune cookies all the way from San Francisco, they were delicious and gosh, the messages inside were a real hoot! Examples : ” The lights may all go out but your stars still shine bright” .. “The path runs smoothly for those pure in heart“. Like, what the?! :-0

Bigger pic of the Fortune cookies. Check out the “Fortune Tea pot” we brought along .. Next to it, you’ll see our take on american Chicken Chop Suey, stuffed in cool Japanese cucumbers and topped with roasted pine  nuts.

Check out the crazy colours!  These are our TieDye Brownies!
Overheard at the party…
Lady: “Oh what are these?”
Man:”These are Tie-Dye brownies”…
Lady: “So interesting, ‘Tai Tai brownies’. I’m also a Tai Tai, u know.. hahahah”

Sour dough brioche topped with melted brie, skinned tomatoes and basil.

Our spin on a New York-style  Waldorf Salad, with butter-grilled Apples, baby potatoes, almonds and sultanas in our homemade salad cream with lemon zest.

Magic Mushrooms … the legal way! Whole white buttons stuffed with hand-made Holland mash,topped with Cheddar and soy bacon and sun-dried parsley.

New agey Grilled Tofu & Broccoli kebabs, glazed with honey mustard and hand-pounded peauts. Now, all we need is a pair of birkenstocks to go with it.

Ok.. Now go dream of pink elephants and flying monkeys!! zz