Where's this? 0708

It's been a looong while since I've been back to this place. But tonight, because of an alumni event, I had to have my Korean fix from the stall. As usual, I ordered my soon dubu jjigae... and it's good! Not great, but can't complain since I've had worst. Wish the broth was thicker and heavier taste, but toufu was excellent and silky soft. Coming back here again, brings back memories of the 'countless' weekends spent at this vicinity (well, to be quite exact, it's 20 weekends as we've been told).

Guess where's this place?

Where's this? 0707

My favourite teochew cuisine hang out place:) Famous for their claypot spring chicken, they also have other great dishes like mapo toufu, egg tofu omelette, prawn roll.... and they have excellent yam paste with ginkgo nut.

Guess where this is?

Where's this? 0706

This eatery has a few outlets, but the one we went is near Balestier. They are known for a particular fish hor fun and fish soup cooked in a 'special' style. But we ordered their herbal seafood soup instead, as well as sweet sour pork rib and sweet potato leaves cooked with sambal.

Guess where this place is?

Where's this? 0705

Finally I had my Korean cravings fully satisfied. This restaurant is my current favourite now. Found it via an online search and is located in Mosque Street. We ordered the usual suspects like BBQ chicken, bulgogi, kimchi pancake, and son du bu jjigae. This time, I ordered the cheong guk jang, which I tasted the last time I was in Korea for business and leisure. I liked it as it was made from fermented bean paste, so it was tasty (read: salty) and had lots of vegetable bits - potatoes, onions and tofu.

After dinner, we walked to this famous dessert store in Chinatown (which I had mentioned in earlier entries) and we had my favourite almond paste with egg white and gui ling gao.

Guess where these places are?

About me

In case you are figuring what to give me at birthdays, X'mas and other 'just because' days, here are some hints about what I like. Oh yes, if you don't already know, I'm shameless.

Favourite TV Programmes:
Mind Your Language; Allo' Allo'; The Benny Hill Show; CSI Las Vegas and CSI NY; Matlock; Murder She Wrote; Mathnet; Absolutely Fabulous; Little Britain; Whose Line Is It Anyway?; The Tudors

Favourite Films:
The Sound of Music; The Exorcist; Jaws; The Silence of the Lambs; Se7en; Forrest Gump; American Beauty; Courage Under Fire; Saving Private Ryan; The Sixth Sense; The Green Mile; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Favourite Books:
Shopholic series by Sophie Kinsella; Can you keep a secret? by Sophie Kinsella; Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery; The Street Lawyer and The Testament by John Grisham; 亦舒小说系列; The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Goal: Complete 5k run in 30mins (20mins if I push myself)

Objectives:
- run for at least 30 minutes without stopping at least 4 times a week (starting with 5 mins brisk walk first)
- complete a run of 5k about three weeks before the race
- maintain a 1,500 calories per day diet


Week 1 will consist of the following :
day 1 = on this day you will attempt to jog/run for the full 30 minutes
day 2 = Rest which consists of stretching as well as looking at our strength routine - look don't touch
day 3 = on this day you will attempt to jog/run for the full 30 minutes
day 4 = go for a 30 - 40 minute brisk walk with warm up routine
day 5 = on this day you will attempt to jog/run for the full 30 minutes
day 6 = choose an exercise from the strength routine and repeat x 10
day 7 = Rest - NA NA nothing - enjoy


Week 2 will consist of the following : start by telling somebody you love them, then look forward to the week's schedule.
day 1 = on this day you will jog/run for the full 30 minutes. After the run ask yourself how you felt during the run and whether you enjoyed it.
day 2 = choose 2 exercises from the strength routine and repeat x 10
day 3 = jog/run for 15min then 5min at the pace you would like to run your 5km's in then followed by 10min easy jogging.
day 4 = Rest with stretching and 2 strength exercises x 10 repeats
day 5 = jog/run for 30 minutes
day 6 = 30-40min brisk walk + 2 strength exercises x 10 repeats
day 7 = you have heard it before NA NA


If you asking yourself the question, why do I need to walk, now ? Well, it is still time on your feet and your legs need to adapt to the extra day.
Week 3 will consist of the following :
day 1 = 5min jog/run then 15min at the pace you would like to run your 5km in, then followed by 10min easy jogging.
day 2 = Rest with stretching and 3 strength exercises x 10 repeats
day 3 = an easy day. Only 30min jog/run. Can you see your improvement, if not then you need return to week 2 of this schedule.
day 4 = 30-40min brisk walk + 2 strength exercises x 10 repeats
day 5 = 30-40min light jog/run
day 6 = REST - NA NA nothing - enjoy
day 7 = Rest with stretching and 3 strength exercises x 10 repeats


The final week. Week 4 will consist of the following :
day 1 = 5min jog/run then 15min at the pace you would like to run your 5km in, then followed by 10min easy jogging.
day 2 = Rest with stretching and 3 strength exercises x 10 repeats
day 3 = Rest with stretching and 3 strength exercises x 10 repeats
day 4 = 20 min light jog/run TALK TEST with exercises after
day 5 = REST - NA NA nothing - enjoy
day 6 = REST - with a stretching routine
day 7 = Go for your PACED 5km run and enjoy.

From http://www.time-to-run.com/

Where's this? 0704

We had an early celebration for mum and went to this 'popular' Thai restaurant amongst us Juniperites. It was a more 'high end' one but although it is pricier, the food was good. We ordered the usual like tom yum goong, fried rice cracker with special thai sauce, thai fish cake, stuffed chicken wing, olive rice, steamed sea bass with lime sauce, thai green curry with prawn, kai lan and mango sticky rice.

Everything was tasty and fresh... Four thumbs up, if I can grow another two more.

Guess the name of this restaurant.

Where's this? Answers

Where's this? 0703

It's Saturday and once again, it is pasta weekend. I have been to this place before but the last time I was here, I was so disappointed with the quantity served. For the prices the restaurant was charging, I'd expect at least a decent portion of serving but alas, I felt so short changed, I have not been back for a long long time. However, decided to risk it again today and was pleasantly surprised with how things have changed.

The portion this time was so much better. In fact, mum couldn't finish hers. We ordered crab pizza as we had thought the portions were going to be pathetic (based on the last experience we had) but probably we might have over estimated this time. The pizza was nice and super thin crust, almost like eating a piece of paper. It was lavied in cheese, so the taste is nice and salty and cheese lovers would feel happily satisfied.

I ordered the prawn and (scrambled) egg pasta while mum had some sort of quail egg with bacon combo with cream sauce. I think mine is close to the aglio olio style (what else), as it tasted almost sauceless, although the menu said it was 'wafu' sauce, whatever that is. As the restaurant was also having a promotion, I ordered the onion soup so that we could get the $10 off with $50 purchase and above. It was good and I love it that it was piping hot. So hot, I think I might have burnt my tongue and throat, but that's the 'shiok' feeling I like.

All in all, I'd give this one two thumbs up and another if I had third thumb.

Guess where this place is.

Hint: we went to somewhere in novena as it was near to our home. Also, the pictures have alot of clues if you look closely at it.

Where's this? 0702

Home to 24 emperors, it has 8,000 rooms and was built by over 1 million labourers over a 14-years period. Guess where this is?

Where's this? 0701

OK, it is Friday night and the girls are out again. We were going to catch Harry Potter in Orchard and decided we cannot mistreat our stomach. So, we had a good dinner at this restaurant which had outlets in various places and Katong being its first outlet if I remember correctly. We ordered the fish and chicken which came with 2 sides of your choice. Service was unfortunately slower than expected although we got our seats pretty quickly as this outlet has been surprisingly quite packed every time I passed by; there'd be a snake long queue of young teens lining up for their table. We had to repeatedly ask if the chicken would be coming as we had a show to catch.

I remember the last time I ate at the Katong outlet, we had to queue darn long and waited even longer for the food. It was known for 'cheap and good' wagyu beef steak then, but quite disappointed when it came - guess you pay monkey price, you get monkey goods. But its other western selection was decent.

Nevertheless, when the food finally came, it was nice and up to our expectations. The portion were decent and our meal costs less than $18 with iced lemon tea included. Two thumbs up for the food but only one thumb for the service.

Guess the name of this restaurant and location.

Where's this?

OK, here is how the game goes - I'd describe the food and give hints about the place where it was taken. You have to guess the restaurant's name and location. The prize for guessing right - self satisfaction. Priceless.

Eat, drink and shake...

After an 'exciting' night watching some of my colleagues shake their bellies... I had a quick dinner at ichiban boshi in Centrepoint, Orchard. I ordered the 'tenzaru' chasoba, which was just alright.

Won't say it is the best, but it satisfied my craving for soba. One thumbs up.

Set lunch

An alternative to Hans cheap and good set lunch is the one at Arcade... forgot to take the shop name, but it was your typical hainese chef's cooking of western dishes. It also has chinese selection like your beef hor fun and stuff. We took the set lunch set for Tuesday, which was fish and chips. As with set lunches, it came with soup, beverage and dessert. Of course was a wee bit diluted but the colour looked promising. The main course wasn't too bad. The fish was thinly coated with crust, and the portion was decent. The salad was overloaded on salad cream but I love the sourish taste.

The dessert was a tad disappointing - a cup of jello. Would have preferred it was a slice of watermelon or fruits of sorts. Anyway, for $12nett, it wasn't too bad a bargain for lunching in CBD area.

The Low Family Reunion - a long awaited affair

It has been a really long while since folks on my dad's side gathered for a dinner like Saturday night. But we did have a nice dinner, all thanks to Aunt Rosalind who's back for holiday. Her son, our cousin Hiroshi, as the name he goes by these days, was the head ring leader to gather the folks at Long Beach seafood on dempsey.

The food was good and selection was just right, although I'd like to have black pepper crab but I had to remind myself I was guest, plus we have visitors to Singapore and thus, must give chili crab the higher priority as it is the unofficial official 'national' dish of our country. Two thumbs up for the food - and I enjoyed myself so much, I forgot to take the picture of the Ee Fu noodles (which was very well done and tasty, without being overly salty and I've never tasted ee fu done like this so deliciously in any other restaurants before) and dessert (bulu hitam which came with coconut ice cream instead of coconut milk). The vegetable with Enoki mushroom was also really good.

The highlight of the night for me was meeting our youngest cousin Ian. We haven't seen him like 10-20years or so, and now he is all grown up. But, he still had that same impish look and didn't take too long for me to point him out. Pity our eldest cousin "Ah Jin" and her brother couldn't make it, else it will be cousins in full force.

For a moment, I just had this feeling that if grandpa was around, or looking down from wherever he is for even a split second if he could, he would have been proud to see us all gathered together.

Night at the museum

Want to do something different on a Friday night that'd be fun yet 'healthy' and educational? Check out the Night Festival at the National Museum of Singapore happening 10-11Jul.

So instead of my usual coach potato Friday exercise, I ended up with sore feet. Pity I wore the wrong pair of shoes, otherwise would have stayed longer and explored further within the vincinity where the festivity was held. So much was happening and roads were blocked. I hope they continue this and hold it more often and longer period as it made Singapore looked much more interesting and fun with various acts, movies and exhibitions all happening at the same time.

The acts were happening at National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, The Peranakan Museum, The Substation, Singapore Management University Campus Green, Stamford Green & Stamford Road.

It was like an open house or a POC demo of sorts. All the more interesting that it was held at night when the air is much cooler... and great for night owls.

I am tempted to go back again tonight.... any other takers?

Food hopping

The plan was simple... we'd food hop around chinatown area. But we ended up being overloaded on porridges so the night was kinda kept short. Plus all the participants were quite tired - me especially.

We had frog leg porridge, pork porridge and pork liver porridge and tofu. The food was good - I'd give it two thumbs up. The pork liver was done just right, not over cooked. The frog leg was a bit tough, plus of course we can't compare with the ones at Geylang, but decent enough that I had 3-4 helpings.

The tofu was also soft and flavourful. I liked it but the chili sauce was a bit too salty.

Later, we went to the dessert store where we had black seasame (because my almond egg white paste was out of order), milk pudding and egg pudding with ginger. It was disappointing so we thought we'd end the dessert galore with mango sago to save the night... which was good but I'm not sure it helped to save the day. All in all, the desserts here were less than satisfactory than ones we had in HK.... so I'd only give it 1 thumb up. But then again, what were we thinking...

Quality porridge eat-all-you-can

If you are craving for a simple, no-fuss, taiwan sweet potato porridge with good variety of dishes at excellent price (buffet style eat all you can), then the one at Quality Hotel is the choice for you. At $10.80 per pax only for weekdays, we finally got ourselves a table here as we had been trying to eat here for the nth time but was always unsuccessful as we would try to make a reservations at the last minute over the weekends. If you want to try the weekends, make sure you book at least one week in advance. Otherwise, try the weekdays but come at 'odd' hours like 8pm onwards. My 2 thumbs up... I'd give a 3rd if I had an extra thumb.

台湾吃什么好呢？

豬屠口豬血湯
台北市昌吉街46號
2596-1640
營業時間：10：00~20：00
豬血湯40元
豬血湯加大腸70元
麻辣豬血50元
米粉30元/小
涼拌脆腸60元
魯豆皮30元
焢肉飯45元


大龍街肉圓、老店米粉湯
大龍街民族西路口
米粉湯營業時間14：00~22：00
肉圓營業時間15：30~23：30周日休
肉圓35元
米粉湯25元


維格餅家
台北市酒泉街76號
2599-7533
鳳梨酥250元/10入
墨條酥400元/6入
太極鳳梨酥1000/6入

Hans... go solo?

Ok, cheesy title, but we had dinner at Hans today at Novena Sq. As lunch was super filling (we ate at Kia Hiang, our favourite teochew homecooked diner), so I didn't feel like having much. I had pasta for the nth time, and it was just vegetarian aglio olio (spicy) yet again. Yes, I think I am minus sauce type of girl who likes it ala 'solo' style with 'no complications'. Just plain ol' pasta like plain ol' Jane. For extra kicks, I added in many dashes of tabasco sauce. Goes well with the chili padi slices. Oh, and I washed it down with hot lemon tea. 2 thumbs up.

Women: Discover What Men are Really Thinking

Women: Discover What Men are Really Thinking

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Pasta la viva!

Guess what, I googled the above name and found that there is a restaurant called "Viva la Pasta" in USA. How about that!

Anyway, had lunch with Jac today at tcc in One Marina Boulevard where I was attending a 2-day conference on Search Marketing. I've had meals at tcc before but I think the one here has some work to do with service and taste of food. I ordered the chili beef soup and seafood aglio olio (but I forgot to take the pic for my pasta, duh!) while Jac had the wild mushroom pasta, which was kind of the same thing she had at mussles guys the other day.

Unfortunately for Jac, hers was bland and guess she didn't like it all that much. She was raving about the one at mussles guys, but tcc's version was not good for her.

Me, I was happy with my soup and pasta. In fact, I think my seafood pasta was much fresher than the mussels guys one and they had tons of garlic to give it flavour. The soup had 3 chilis to indicate its spiciness and I wasn't too disappointed as there was some kick to the taste.

However the service was quite atrocious. Yes, it was office peak hour lunch time period but it's not like the restaurant had THAT many people that they couldn't see what we needed at our end of the restaurant floor. The floor area was quite small as the tcc store just took a part of the 'walkway' on floor 1M leading from the escalator on the first floor to the level where connecting lifts were to get to higher floor offices.

Anyway, for this outlet, I'd give it 1.5 thumbs up for food and just 1 thumb up for overall. Not likely to patronize this particular outlet again but will still go back to other tcc outlets.

Heads up!

We had steamed fish head at Chinatown foodcourt for dinner. Dad likes this store's version of the FH because of the freshness of the fish, the mere size of it plus the sweet based sauce with a very light tint of spiciness and sourish flavour (which must be from the chili padi as well as sour plums bits). It is also showered with lots of fried lard pieces.

We also ordered 2 vegetable sides - bitter gourd in black bean sauce and kailan in oyster sauce. Both are nice, but for me, bittergourd shouldn't be cooked this way in such huge, ugly slices. So 'uncouth'. Although they were sliced thinly, the shape of the BG was not at all the way I'd like to eat 'em. I don't mind 'big' pieces, but just not sliced this way. Ok, call me fussy. I'd give it 2 thumbs up for the fish and 1 thumb up only for the bittergourd.

Oh, we had juices as well from the juice stall near where we were seated... and they were priced so darn cheaply - $1 for selected fruits. Nice!