And The Entries...

The organiser did request that I report this in a matrix. However, seeing that it would be near impossible to squeeze it all into a small table to be presented presentably on this page, I shall attempt to list it by the Receiver (I also just realised the gifts are giving clues to our real names!)

*did not fulfill IQ requirement on packaging

For ML

• casual cost-effective comfortable cheery charming cooling cotton core-clothing Camisole (*YH 11pts)
• cool classic cleansing cold Cream cum cuticle Creme (YY 12pts)
• classic charming chrome-plated carryable compact cool containing carefully carved customised card Case (*EL 14pts)
• crunchy cream-coloured cool cute chocolate chip Cookies (WK 11pts)
• colourful Calculator (JL 6pts although there was a creative cow Bank that the I.G.G.Y.S. panel disqualified)

For JL

• eclectically earth-tone edgy extra-easy effortless eclat enchanting empire Eyedust (YH 13pts)
• engagingly electrifyingly elaborately ecstatically elegant Earrings (*ML 8pts)
• enriched eliminating essence Exfoliator (YY 8pts)
• excellent elegant ethereal enchanting embellishing effulgent eye-opening "expensive pink" Eyeshadow (EL 13pts)
• exuberant eccentric enlarged ephemeral excellent Eggplant (WK 10pts)

For EL

• excessively elaborate exceedingly exaggerated eye-embellishing extraordinary even-numbered extremely enticing electrifying enigmatic elegant ebony elongated Eyelashes (*YH 17pts)
• extremely edible entertaining Eggplant (WK 8pts)
• extremely exciting electric eyelash curler and elongated Eyelashes (JL 10pts)
• especially efficient everlasting excellent enduring Eyeliner (ML 10pts)
• extensible emerald Eyeshadow (YY 7pts)

For YY

• jet-setting jotting jubilant jolly jazzy Journal (YH 10pts)
• just joyful Jewellery box (ML 5pts)
• joyful jolly jocund jewel-toned jotting Journal (EL 10pts)
• jolly juicy jazzy jiggly japanese Jelly (WK 10pts)
• jovially juvenile Jenga (JL 7pts)
  J was really hard!!
  

For WK

• essential everday effective eye-edge enhancing exceptionally enthralling emerald "endless ocean" Eyepencil (YH 14pts)
• endothermic enthusiastically elastic Eyegel (JL 8pts)
• enormously effectively enduringly enriching Eyecream (ML 9pts)
• smoothing oil essence and enhancing eyelash Essence (YY 8pts)
• extremely effective electronic equipping ergonomic energising entertaining exceptional Earphones with extra eartips (EL 15pts)

For YH

• really radical Rollerpen (*ML 5 pts, a really close call on this one but its entertainment value won the I.G.G.Y.S panel over)
• revolving revolutionary Roulette with ravishing red roses (JL 10pts)
• radiant removable riveting robust ravishing rare Riesling (WK 11pts)
• remarkable ravishing radiant round raised ridged rose-shaped rose-scented red Ring rouge wrapped with red ribbon (EL 17pts)
• recommended repairing rich revitalising Reconstructor (YY 9pts)

Final Score:
EL: 69 pts
YH: 65 pts
WK: 50 pts
YY: 44 pts
JL: 41 pts
ML: 37 pts

The winner is EL! And the longest GEP entry is a tie between YH (for EL's gift) and EL (for YH's gift), although YH really did have more adjectives, but did not meet the IQ on packaging.

Notes: WK gave everyone 2 gifts (a GEP gag gift plus lovely gifts from L'Occitane which we all enthusiastically started using there and then) lest the readers think WK did not meet the $20 guideline.

Till the next GEP... what would we dream of next? Stay tuned!

Final Notice: RGS GEP (10 Dec 2008)

Dear Participants,

We are fully aware that there are GEP participants who really HAVE met with the minimum IQ requirement, but are struggling to show this.

We have sought confirmation from the Insitute of Good GEP Youth Standards (I.G.G.Y.S) Committee, that such participants can be transferred to the Rules-Got-Slacked Gift Exchange Program ("RGS GEP").

Hence, would participants be fine with participating in the RGS GEP is as follows:
- 5 points for meeting the Minimum IQ Requirement i.e. this IS shown on the label.
- 3 points for an Attempted IQ i.e. the IQ is NOT shown on the label.
- 1 point for each Alliteration (need not be shown on the label).

At the RGSGEP, creativity AND airing feedback is highly encouraged (note: Normal GEP only encourages creativity).

Best Regards

Further Notice: GEP (10 Dec 2008)

Dear Participants,

Thank you for all your feedback - as you know, the GEP organizers are always keen to seek feedback to improve.

To clarify on the Bonus Point system, you only get Bonus Points IF AND ONLY IF that item meets the Minimum IQ Requirement. So you could not earn Bonus Points if your item does not meet the Minimum IQ Requirement.

In line with the need to show that the GEP is NOT arbitrary, we will have to persist in asking that all IQs are obviously shown on one's packaging.

After all, we would not want to be accused of allowing non-qualifiers into the GEP.

We will of course circulate a Post-GEP Feedback Form, so that we can improve the program for next year.

Best Regards

Notice: GEP (10 Dec 2008)

Dear all,

For Christmas Eve 2008, some of us will be having dinner at Iggy's (what are the rest of y'all doing????).


In line with the festivities, we will also be participating in a Gift Exchange Program ("GEP").


For those who want to participate in this elite, invite-only GEP, the rules are as follows:
- Each participant has to buy gifts for all OTHER participants in the GEP.
- For now, confirmed participants are the 6 attendees of the Iggy's dinner i.e.: ML, YY, YH, WK, YL, JL. However, non-attendees can also participate - they should email me back to confirm their participation by end today.
- Each gift must not cost more than S$20.
- The GEP has a minimum Item Quote Requirement ("IQ Requirement"), which all Gifts must fulfill:
- In buying a gift for another participant, you must buy them a gift that starts with the same letter as their name.
- This gift MUST have the Item Quote shown on its packaging. For example, if you buy Mary a jar of Marmalade, the jar must state "Marmalade" clearly on its packaging. i.e. you cannot buy a jar of Marmalade for Jean, and call it Jam, even when the jar clearly states Marmalade.
- The Item Quote MUST be a NOUN: i.e. you do not meet the minimum IQ Requirement if you buy Mary a box of Mattifying Powder (because in this case, Mattifying is an adjective, not NOUN).

- The GEP also allows you to earn Bonus Points:
- If you are able to buy a gift that is 'alliterated', you earn 1 Bonus Point for every alliteration.
- So to sum up, if you buy Mary the following:
- Mattifiying Powder => you do not meet the minimum IQ requirement
- Mattifying Mask => you earn 1 bonus point and have met the minimum IQ Requirement (assuming your Item shows "Mask" clearly on its packaging
- Moisturizing Mattifying Mask => you earn 2 bonus points and have met the minimum IQ Requirement (assuming your Item shows "Mask" clearly on its packaging
- Men's Moisturizing Mattifying Mask => you earn 3 bonus points and have met the minimum IQ Requirement (assuming your Item shows "Mask" clearly on its packaging
- Note that for Bonus Points to be earned, they need not be shown on the item's packaging.

GEP participants are highly encouraged to use their creativity to score Bonus Points, beyond fufilling the minimum IQ requirement.

The participant with the highest amount of Bonus Points wins a voucher at Iggy's (amount to be determined)

Please feel free to email me back if you have any queries / clarifications.

“It’s Brain!!!”

Well, we knew we were in for a good dinner. After all, a restaurant that charges $195++ for a set dinner and requires not only reservations but charges you for dinner regardless of you showing up has to have a valid reason for its attitude.

Personally I feel that Iggy’s did not disappoint. Although JL and YY voiced at the end of the night that it would have been more worth it to spend $200 on fresh sashimi, but I thought that the service, ambience and rather experimental fusion food was well worth the money.

For a start, the service was top notch. There were no waitresses with poor command of english here. Paolo greeted us cheerfully and showed us to our seats while Azman intelligently answered all our queries, and obliged our request to speed up the courses only for YH since she had to leave by 9.30pm for a gig. He even bantered with YY, coolly entertaining our seemingly trouble-making suggestions of staying till 3am. (Post-script by ML: While we didn't stay until 3am, we were still pretty pesky by being the absolute last to leave at 12 midnight, after making a heck of a lot of noise.)

It was about this time that Mr. X walked over and said hi to YH. He introduced himself as a friend of Sam Yeo’s (owner of barstop) and mentioned that he knew YH from barstop. We quickly found out that Mr. X was a co-owner of Iggy’s , but since he did not give us so much as a discount or a complimentary dish, we shall make no further mention of him henceforth.

While waiting for WK, we enjoyed our southern french red wine and some spiced crackers. It is important to mention here that out of the 100+ bottles listed in the wine menu, only a handful were less than $100. The average price for a bottle of wine was $1000, and there were quite a few going for $20,000. Nevertheless, our 2 bottles of wine that were priced at $95 and $80 were delightful. Luckily, we did not order the $20,000 bottle of wine.

The section where we were seated was decorated as a study room. It was not particularly romantic, but it had the “perfect lighting for photography” -EL. There was a generous amount of space within our round table, as well as between the four tables in the room. We spent 10 minutes of our time honing our chinese diction, discussing why the ang mor at the next table was wearing such a causal white polo shirt when his date was all dolled up.

But more importantly, on to the food.

Dinner started with bread and then a complimentary appetiser that was a green curry emulsion with a strange-looking unidentified piece of white mushy object within.


ML courageously asks: “What is this?”

EL: “It’s brain!!” (repeats a few times)

Everyone else: “It’s not brain!!”

The waiter informs us that it is indeed not brain, instead, it is ovaries of codfish. We were undecided as to which was worse. Some things were definitely better left unsaid.

To distract us from the word “ovaries”, JL introduces a new aspect to the dish: “It tastes chinese!!”

YY: “It tastes indian!!”

EL: “It’s totally thai lor”..

The evening of contrasting comments continued, with descriptions such as “light” (ML) and “rich” (YY) used on the exact same dishes.

I believe here-in lies the genius of Iggy’s food. They are unconventional in their use of ingredient combinations to create fresh new colours in the taste palette.


For example, on the IKURA dish (Marinated Salmon roe, Orange jelly, egg royale), the saltiness of salmon roe was delicately balanced by the lightness of egg custard and every-so-slight bitterness of orange peel.


In the JABUGO IBERICO BELLOTA dish (Jamon Iberico, grilled watermelon, tomato concasse and micro herbs), the saltiness of the ham was perfectly offset by the sweet juice of the watermelon as well as the tanginess of the tomatoes. Even the different textures within the dish complemented one another.

This theme of “creative delicate balance” in the food continued with the SPANNER CRAB (Spanner crab meat souffle, shellfish bisque, rocket sprouts) and HALIBUT (too long to type).





The popular hits of the evening were Pan-fried foie gras on toast and the smoked mullet roe cappellini (Postscript by EL: I forgot to take pictures of it, too busy eating it! Plus a picture of the Duck Breast).

I headed off before dessert was served, but I heard that the IGGY’S LEMON TART was what I should have missed my gig for.

(Postscript by EL: Dessert commenced with a pre-dessert with was a blood orange sorbet on a bed of forest berries and jelly, followed by a delicious Chocolate Dome with Gingerbread Ice-cream, which we happily devoured YH's portions :) The highlight of the dessert had to be Lemon Tarts, served with a peanut butter biscuit tree. These Lemon Tarts had Pop Rocks (those crackly sweets that pop in your mouth) baked into them so it was literally like fireworks going off in your mouth haha.)




Overall, the evening was extremely enjoyable, with talks of making IGGY’S a yearly christmas event. Of course, much of the enjoyment can be attributed to the hugely succesful GEP system, which will be furthur analysed in the upcoming blog entry.

(Posting on behalf of YH)