Turning 30

Gosh, I'm turning thirty in a few days. The past decade has flew by so very fast. Graduated from Uni, got my first job, first boyfriend (the dearie) whom i married, got our own place, travelled to Europe and Japan, started my second job and now expecting my little one.

Time flies and it takes great effort to maintain ties with the friends i so cherish. I so hope the next ten years will be wonderful as well. Had high tea today at Fullerton Hotel's The Courtyard with Fen. Hee.. scones with cream and jam makes moi a happy babe. So good to catch up with friends.. Birthday celebrations these days are subtle and without fanfare. Feels good to catch up with the good friends.. The countdown to the big 3 zero has began.

Brunch Weekend

Its Brunch galore this weekend as me and dearie had brekkie at Swensons before heading for my medical appointment on Saturday. Value for monies brekkie..

This was followed by brekkie at Boomarang with the babes on Sunday. Buttermilk pancakes.. yums. Yup, I've been into having late breakfast recently.. Hee.

Day out with Fen

Celebrated Fen's birthday with an outing to Vivo City on Sat. Mango Cake at Secret Recipe (They were out of White Choco Macadamia.. sobs) followed by some shopping. We din manage to catch SATC 2.. the tixs were sold out for the 3 shows! We ended the day with Dinner at.. *Drum roll*.. ha ha.. JPot lor.. Moi and not very creative with food choices.. ;p

Pork Ribs Soup and Laksa Soup Base

Tea time- Mango Cake

A Wedding and Brekkie

Was busy last Sat with the Sec Galfriend's wedding. Woke up bright and early and travelled all the way to the West to her place. She only had 2 jiemeis. Both of which are married.. coz she's the last in the group to get married..Hee.

The groom only had one xiongdi. Wha, so its a rather easy affair. She had her tea ceremony at her place before the whole entourage moved to her new place in the East for the second round of tea ceremony. Wha..the bride had 3 outfit changes during the ceremony.

It was the church wedding thereafter. A very fast event, i must say. A simple ceremony attended only by immediate family and a few friends. This was followed by dinner. Hee.. tits a long day.

Had brekkie @ Graze with the babes on Sunday. It meant more travelling to the West! Brekkie was great manz.. although i din really like my dish which had quite abit of avocado mixed with feta cheese. We ended the meal with the dessert platter. It feels good, meeting up with the galfriends, especially for brunch. Gotta meet up with the fres more often =)

Dessert Platter

Jinny's Hash Brown

Han's Eggs Ben

Hui's order -Omelette

My Brekkie

Mommie's Birthday

We took the day off from work. Am I sure am glad we did. Its the mommie's 56th birthday! We caught up on lost sleep before heading out for the day. The mommie had wanted to visit the Flyer, and so we did ( I know, we quite "mountain turtle" ah..going only so many months after the opening!).

Lunch at Popeyes

It was a rainy afternoon and the rides were temporarily suspended due to the bad weather. We had a late lunch at Popeyes while waiting for the rides. Luckily the rides resumed around 4pm and we gamely got our tickets despite the slight drizzle. Its a good experience, being able to view my favourite landscape and the construction going on at the nearby Integrated Resort. (Despite the pricey tixs and the short half hour ride.. ;p)

Still Drizzling Outside

Beautiful view of the City

Top of the Wheel

This was followed by dinner at Vivo City. Yup, we brought mommie to dinner at JPot. We chose Dinner Set B this round, and added some items from the menu like vegs and bean curd. We had the superior broth and Bak Kut Teh broth again and ended up totally stuffed. We had free flow longan tea and drank many many cups of the drink too. Dinner was yums, and reasonably priced as we had a discount coupon for $20 off. Hee, perks of being an auntie with loads of membership cards.. We ended the day with shopping at Vivo and moi brought back loads of goodies from Candy Empire.. ;p

Pasta Tonight

We brought some fresh chorizo sausages from the supermarket over the weekend. The chap at the counter mentioned about cooking the sausages with Pasta. So I did, for our dinner tonight. I was afraid there would not be any vegetables in the pasta, so i threw in some carrots, diced tomato and button mushroom to balance the saltish spicy sausage. Hee.. used up my sun-dried tomato sauce.. gotta go grab more. I quite like the pasta paired with the sausages combi. Will definitely be rustling up more sausage pasta soon.

Dearie's Pizza

Pizza baking in the oven

I got off the train one station after my usual stop and walked home instead of taking the feeder bus service. In the late evening coolness (although the air was hazy ah), walking in my high heels was actually bearable. Good for this lazy moi to get so exercise huh (aiz, especially in view of the ballooning dress size).

Came home to warm cheesy smells from the kitchen. Yup, the dearie made Pizza today. From stretch (almost lah) with Pita Bread as base. Just add pizza sauce, topped with honey baked ham, luncheon meat (or spam), pineapple pieces and mozzarella cheese and bake in oven.. Tat Da!! Easy home made pizza for dinner. The melted cheese was simply divine goodness! Add in some mushroom soup and the meal is complete. Although the canned soup would be better if it was home cooked.. ;p

Hee, starting to get overdose of western style food. Looking forward to other type of cuisine.

Yums Discovery

I know I am a late bloomer. Yah, I've just discovered the yummy goodness of Tim Tams. The colleague had given moi a small packet for Christmas and I was feeling hungry one day. So I gobbled up the 2 pieces. The chocolate malt biscuit is rather addictive in a comfort food kind of way. When i told the colleague I just discovered the goodness of the biscuits. she said" Oh my, I must have consume loads and loads of Tim Tams growing up". Well, its not too late to play catch up.. :)

Porridge Goodness

He rustle up some porridge for dinner tonight. He throwed in some dried scallops to broil the rice with. And added some prawns and fish cakes with minced meat. Flavoured with fish sauce and a bit of pepper. And its our dinner tonight. Just simple boiled rice, dearie-styled. With the both of us being still sickly with sore throat. We've been slurping up on soupy food the whole weekend.. and I luv this simple meal the most.

Also, feels accomplished today..because I managed to iron the whole couch full of clothes which has been seating there for some time. Happie housewifey kinda day.. :)

Steam-Boaty Goodness

We went in Vivo City for shopping on Saturday and decided to check out the JPot Outlet there. Been wanting to try the food there, since I'm a Jumbo Card holder and they have been sending fliers on the new food concepts. JPot serves hotpots, with various soup bases that is quite unique.

We had the dinner set menu C with the Bak Kut Teh and Superior Broth soup bases. A rather yums meal which moi rather enjoyed. Definitely a place I would bring the family. Although the bill can be quite heffy if you choose the choicer "hot pot" items and the quantity is not alot.

Its also quite a shiok to be able to concoct your own dipping sauce to accompany the cooked food. Plus, with a serene view of the harbour and the Sentosa Resort, whats there not to like. Already salivating and looking forward to the next hotpot meal. Slurp!

Of Cakes and Cakes

We were at the Katong Area for a wedding and popped by Katong Mall on our way over to Parkway Parade. Saw Awfully Chocolate and decided to get a 6' inch cake on our way home. We got the Chocolate Banana flavoured one. Quite moist and nice for a chocolate cake. Not too sweet. (well, i'm really no fan of chocolate and i still simply adore the rum cakes from Balmoral Bakery). Will probably order chocolate cakes from there if there are festive occasions or friends popping by. I find it amazing that the shop which sells only 3 types of chocolate cakes and chocolate ice cream. Plus, no cakes on display anywhere in the shop at all. Its quite a genius marketing concept. If I ever have my own business, i wanna do something unique and ingenious too.

Signz, if only i could bake such wonderful cakes. Drools.. over the cakey goodness. If only I can have a small business to call my own. I'll be a happy donkey!

Yumms

The dear father-in-law brought yummy food cooked by the mother-in-law and left it for me. Yup, I have fantastic in-laws. I get healthy good food with fruits inclusive. Hmm.. no wonder the dress sizes has been going up.

Tonight's dinner tha-paoed by the father-in-law.

Dearie Cooks

The dearie has been cooking for the 2 of us recently. I should be the one cooking, but.. I'm just letting him have his chance to display his dormant cooking skills okays (nnaahh!! this lazy moi is just trying to find excuses as usual huh)..

Well.. the time seems to just fly by during the year end period. At work, for the weekends. Loads of upcoming weddings and events in Dec.. and Nov is already drawing to a close. Golly!

Pics, for the cooklog.. :)

Fish Porridge

Soupy "Mee Tai Mak"

Dearie's Fried Rice

Wife's Biscults

I have an old lady's palate. i enjoy traditional food. Like Wife's Biscuits ( Lao Po Bing in Chinese). The mummie's friend got a box back from Hong Kong for her, and she gave the entire box to me.

Yums. Not fresh-from-the oven-goodness that you get in Hong Kong ( i think they have retail outlets in the Sogo Supermarkets..i got mine there the last time i was in Hong Kong ) because of the time gap and the carrying/travelling part which causes the flakey biscuits to crumble. But, I'm still loving it.. ;p

So so wanna travel................................. Hong Kong.China.Vietnam (Hoi An & Danang).Thailand. Wanderlust bug biting again. Uurrggghhh

Having Hairy Crabs

Its the season for Big Hairy Crabs. We been talking about wanting to try out the famous but oh-so-expensive crabs for a couple of years. Well, we could never get pass the exorbitant pricing of the crabs.

We were dinning at Pu Tien today, barely arriving in time for the tail end of the high tea buffet and the restaurant was having a promo on the Hairy Crabs. So, we took the plunge and ordered 2 crabs. Mommie had not eaten the crustacean before and was game to try it. This despite the 3 of us being totally stuffed from the buffet food. We had to wait about 20 mins for the crabs after our buffet to end off the meal, which gave us some time to digest our food!

Our 2 crabs looked pretty, presented on a bed of greens. The crab roe was great, fantastic seafoody creamy goodness. A tad expensive a splurge for that 2 mouthful of orange goodness per crab.. Hee. The experience of having someone present the crabs into edible portions was quite a novel one, as with the experience of having eaten the crabs. The meat of the hairy crab was forgettable..so yah, its only the roe that is really swoon worthy.

Our servers preparing the crabs

See the orange-yellow roe..so yums

Although the dearie still prefers his Teo Chew Cold Crab for the balance of roe and meat..So its much unlikely we'll be having the hairy crabs again soon ;p

Bliss, Blessed

MIL's Home-made salad sans salad sauce

Home cooked pork chops set, courtesy of the MIL

The dearie is working late today, so i came home late as well. The dear Mum-In-Law, Dad-In-Law , Sis-In-Law, little Javen and Megan trooped over to our place at 8 plus. Just to deliver MIL's home-cooked.yummy-licious Western Food for us. I'm so blessed to have wonderful thoughtful in-laws.. bliss as I chomp on the food... the pseudo chinese-western styled pork chops with the old school fries made from real potaoes which i used to cook when i was younger.. Hummhh.....

Celebrating One Year

We took leave today, in celebration of the day one year ago. We woke up late and wanted to go for a quick swim. That was aborted with the gloomy weather. The dearie cooked porridge with some steamed chicken and veg for lunch.

Geisha Blossom Tea

Celebration Set at TWG Tea

We headed to Ion for shopping and tea. Had glorious tea at TWG Tea. Very expensive, very chic tea (although I must say, its more packaging and marketing than anything else). We ordered the celebration tea set.. which comes with finger sandwiches, scones with cream and jelly and macaroons. The dearie had the Geisha Blossom Tea and I had the Bian de Rose Tea. Hee, the experience of having luxury afternoon tea was a rather grand one.. although too heffy to be done often.

Dinner

We walked around a fair bit and moi bought a pair of pretty pink havaianas and 2 dresses. Opps, no more shopping for the month. We ended with dinner at Watami. Quite good Japanese food, not too expensive.

Salt Caramel Swiss Roll

We even came back with Salt Caramel Japanese Swiss roll from Arinco King. At $18 for a small roll.. its no wonder there's no queue although the Swiss roll is great. The dearie got Bak Kwa from Lim Chee Guan.. so he's pretty happy. Its a simple day with the dear dearie.. am glad to be off work.. ha ha.. am i starting to hate going to work.. ? ;p

Simply Hawker Fare

A well know foodie mentioned that one should not waste one's calories on yucky food. Its kinda true.. i luv my Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Italian, Western and Chinese cuisine although i am quite a non fussy eater.

These days..i find myself not being able to stomach food thats too sweet and non too palatable. On the other hand.. i'm beginning to enjoy great hawker's food. Especially my Prawn mee, Minced Meat noodles, Fish slice noodle soup and Yong Tau Foo.. although i still don't fancy laksa, chicken rice much. Currently trawling the island for great hawker makan.. yummy!

Prawn Noodles from East Coast Road.. *Slurps*

Side dishes

Minced Meat Noodle from 'Seng Kee' at Changi Road (Near Eunos)

* Drools* for great homely heartlander cuisine from good hawkers.