Samuel , one of our regular slugphilles popped by this evening and had his favourite customized pasta: Spagahetti tossed with grilled sausages in a pesto cream sauce with extra extra pesto! Throughout dinner, he was holding on to a mysterious brown bag of something. And guess what? The Lil’ Sweetheart actually got us a bag of Blue Mountain Beans from Le Snoot Wiener Kaffehaus! His exact words, ” I told myself that on my next visit to The Garden Slug, I will bring you guys something special”. And special indeed is Samuel, with or without his lovely gift. A quiet, unassuming and very polite young man, who’s halfway through his Chemistry degree. Yes, our slugphilles are not just cute, they’ve got big brains too! Thank you Samuel, You made our day! The slugs will get loaded on expensive caffeine for the next couple of days- YAY!

‘Things Fall Apart’ was Fat Cat Maximeowless‘ first foray into short film-making. After years or reclusive contemplation, FCM has emerged once again, leaving behind the likes of Tsai Ming Liang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul to bring us more commercially palatable, made-for-vlogging fare like … Quick Canapes.

The Garden Slug is proud to be the host for Quick Canapes, a weekly series on, well, quick canapes.

Watch this space.

Guess what!? The slug’s cookies were totally sold out at the adoption drive And 5 little feline munchkins got adopted! Four of our very glamourous SGb friends saw our blog post,hopped down to the animal home and actually adopted a calico kitten. Sweet! The Garden Slug will be supporting a larger-scale animal shelter drive in September, we’ll keep you posted..meow

In her spare time, Sophia Slug bakes little kitty cookies for a Mini Bazaar. The good folks at said Mini Bazaar sell these cookies to raise funds for The Blessings Home for Cats. Proceeds from the sale go wholly towards buying cat food, all 200kg of it. The welfare home houses about 200 stray/ sick/ abused/ discarded cats (and dogs also) till they are adopted. [I wonder if the dogs eat cat food?]

We don’t make a cent from this. Just doing our bit. Stop by and grab one of these homemade-handmade-made-with-love cookies! Or better still, if you’re not allergic like me, bring home one of their little feline munchkins!

Me: “So what goes into a cat cookie? Tuna + flour + eggs?”

Sophia: “It isn’t for the cats to makan, it’s for the cat owners!” :-0

Just dark-chocolate dipped cookies with sugar cat face icing and red heart flour quins.

Give their volunteer, Fiona, a buzz at 97456657 if you need more info/directions to The Blessings Home.

Joe slug and I went without sleep for 48 hrs for this very special project.. The rest didn’t do that well in the sleep department too.. Zoozoo had 1 hr of sleep,Michael had 2 hrs, and Hans was our snooze champion at 2.5 hrs! :-0

A bit more on this recent project.. Our client, a 5 star chain of hotels wanted to create a brand immersion event for their staff and decided to hire us to complete the total look and feel. The key words of the day were, ” French, Minimalist, Chic, Modern and Clean”. Their brand colours were black+white+grey+splashes of red. The slugs designed all the food labels and collaterals to reflect their brand identity.

1st station: Vinegar

Note the glass jars filled with Aceto Balsamico, Mirin and Taragon Malt Vinegar.. Instead of just having them as display items, these jars were used to hold the glass piece. “Form and Function”- just like our client’s brand. We featured (1)Roast beef rolls with shaved Parmagiano Regiano glazed with Vinaigrette emulsion and (2) Grilled Tiger Prawns with Tamarind and Mango Chutney topped with dried Mango bits.

2nd station: Spices

We filled vases with exotic items like Kashmiri cherry chillies, Javanese cinnamon sticks ( also known as Sweet Wood) and King-sized Bay Leaves. We made some (1)Japanese cucumber boats stuffed with Cold Ratatouille and dusted with organic sesame seeds (2)Grilled Apple cups stuffed with buttermilk chicken cubes and sour spicy green apples,glazed with lemon-grass infused oil

3rd station: Salt

Check out the Sze Chuan Salt, Rock Salt and Fleur de Sel ( fancypants unrefined Sea Salt ) We crafted some (1)Battered Potatos stuffed with Caviar and dusted with Sze Chuan salt..(2) Baby squid dusted with Lemon ginger salt skewered with zucchini discs and fire-blistered cherry tomatoes

A closer look at those babies… Yum scrums!

4th station : Chocolate

Ahhhh…Chocolate! What’s “Better than chocolate” right? Well, maybe except for a whole trough of them!! We filled these retro-looking ice troughs with semi-sweet french chocolate and bitter pure cocoa powder… Edible props we like!! We tweaked our signature Brownie popsicle item for this project. (1) Double Chocolate Brownie coated with french chocolate and dusted with crushed Ginger snaps & candied Ginger pieces. (2)Lean Turkey cigars rolled with Holland mash and slivers of bitter chocolate. It doesnt taste that weird actually, the chocolate slivers imparts a very smokey taste to the turkey.

5th station: Sugar

We filled these very utilitarian-looking glass jars with Gula Melaka, Rock Sugar and Pilloncillo ( a kind of cane sugar from Latin America) .. (1) Tortilla stuffed with apple goo, crushed macadamia nuts and cinnamon. (2)Caramel soft Nougat glazed with Royal icing and crushed Pine nuts.

OPEN YOUR EYES!! ~ We were tasked to create some drink shots which our client creatively termed as “Eye openers” as they opened their audience’s eyes to different taste and colour sensations. She is a branding genius, I must say.. And of course Joe slug, being our Beverage Maestro rocked !

Look at the sight of the backdrop where we presented our Eye Openers.. Bold black and white swirly graphics in the background + and our bright and chirpy fruit props juxtaposed against that. It was really quite a sight to behold.. And now for the Eye Openers!

We served the Eye Openers in chilled shot glasses.

Yes, somebody ate the Strawberries before we could display them… tsk tsk tsk

Honeydew and Chilli may seem like an unholy union initially, but trust me, once you’ve tried it, you’ll never wanna go back to your straight-laced Honeydew milkshake.

And now, for the Piece de resistance! We blended some organic Cherries to get this beauteous drink.. This is what Seinfeld meant when he said, “I just had a fruit orgasm“. This drink should get a warning label, I tell you!

A soothing finale..

After all that fruity excitement, we thought it’d be appropriate to calm the audience’s senses with a mild Pacific Punch.. We added our signature Garden slug touch and tossed in some Thyme, Mint ad freshly-grated Ginger.

It’s unbelievable but Yes, we survived and lived to tell the tale! At some point, we were so exhausted that we felt like someone just poured half a gallon of salt on us poor , tired slugs.. But we drank half a tank of coffee and charged forward.. We couldnt bear the thought of disappointing our client and we wanted to realize that vision that we had in our heads..

So slugs, you did good! Thank you everybody for being so understanding and so adaptable.. A very special shout out to Zoozoo and Hans for being at the event with Joe slug and I.. And for our darling slugs Michael, Chris & Shaun for holding the fort while we were at the event.

And now for that long-due massage!

Let’s just say it’s got something to do with this… We’ve got a big branding project lined up on Friday, so we’re taking 20th Aug wedesday off to get some crucial things ready .. I’ll post the pics up over the weekend Look out for them!

Meanwhile, if the B&M hunger pangs hit you, do pop by Thursday onwards- we’ll be open 10am to 10pm as usual..

Speaking of Chris, it’s no secret that he had to leave us for awhile, due to family matters. After a good half year, armed with “life experience” and a new zest for his chosen profession (i.e. being a Slug), Chris is back at The Garden Slug. We are glad to have him back. Like Michael, Chris was training as Kitchen Assistant before he had to leave. Now he’s almost all trained up as a cook proper!

Some old pictures of Chris hanging pictures.

p/s: Chris is the bald one.

Photographs by Dennis Chong

We often say we are blessed to have honest, hardworking kids like Michael and Chris working with us. (Okay, we have to stop referring to you as “the kids”, but we can’t help it. You make us feel old!) We know it hasn’t been easy, being a small startup and often lacking in resources like funding and manpower. But you grit your teeth and pushed through with us anyways, with your strength, patience and creativity! We are always grateful to have you guys, and even though we may not say it much, you know we love you from the bottom of our hearts. The same goes for Shaun, Zun, Deepa, Hans and April.

That being said, we are always on the lookout for young, talented individuals who are willing to work hard to learn the ins and outs of running a humble li’l diner like ours. Give us a buzz and send us a resume. [ see hiring criteria ]. We promise we won’t bite

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Buzz anyone of us: Sophia 8138 7539 | Joseph 9006 4163 | Sharon 9225 7913

Send Resume to: justask@thegardenslug.com

This is really what happened on our 1st Slug Anniversary! It was the end of what Joe would call an “all in a day’s work” kind of day, we were just about to close shop, when suddenly Chris Slug comes with a lovely cake. (don’t know where Sophia Slug got this cake from, this one here’s the real deal!) Thank you Chris, for remembering and for bringing cheer to this special day (which we almost forgot, absent-minded geezers that we are..)
Thanks for the photos, Amanda & May Ling!

L-R: Michael, Sophia, Sharon, Chris, Joseph, Deepa. 8 Dec 2007

Yes, our little slugs are very cute. And no, we still won’t give you their phone numbers. We’re very protective. Now stop perving.

Ye Olde Slugs

As for these three here, their phone numbers are displayed everywhere. But nobody wants (except for the occasional catering enquiry or two). Sad.

Our friends, Ron and Arthur just started a new hairdressing salon and academy ( www.vantagegroup.com.sg) and it was their opening reception this afternoon Joe and I got invited so we popped by to congratulate the talented duo. Joe was quite excited at the prospect of checking out the congratulatory flower stand that the garden slug sent to the guys.. It was a gorgeous ! The stand was in a deep shade of maroon, and full of exotic blooms like Bird-of-Paradise flowers and anthuriums. Check it out..

I’ve tried many other florists before, but I feel that www.greetingcuts.com is still the best.. Tasteful arrangements with unusual flowers at a good price.

Their salon is located at 123 Devonshire Road , Tel 67353280. It’s located just across the Youth Park, behind the Telecom Centre.. They’re having an opening July special of 50% off all cuts,perms and treatments. So, for the hairstyle-challenged slugphiles out there, we urge you to go before month end.

Another view of their Salon Vantage. And for the record, Yes- we did see Koh Chieng Mun there, seems like she’s a regular of Ron.. She looks like a glam taitai in person and looks really friendly too. So, do pop by Vantage to say Hi to the boys ok? CONGRATULATIONS Arthur and Ron, may Vantage be a fruitful and happy venture

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p/s: Sorry if you were brought to the wrong website. Vantage link fixed. -Ed.