Happenings in January - Chinese New Year 2020

Friday 24/1/20

Finally we have reached Friday, a half day work for us because it was Chinese New Year (CNY) eve. I ended work at about 12.50pm and made my way to Chinatown Point to meet GF for her birthday lunch at Otoko Ramen.

I had Karaage Don ($11.90++) where the fried chicken was drizzled with special chilli sauce and soft boiled egg served with rice. Big chunks of fried chicken was sitting on top and covering up the rice.

We had a good 2 hours lunch gathering. It was such a rare occasion for me to spend time with GF on her actual birthday because she always spend her birthday overseas. Because her birthday this year falls on CNY, hence she was here in town. Hope you enjoy the birthday lunch.

The time was 3pm and we were ready to part for our reunion dinner. 

Grandma was carrying baby Feelyn in her arm.

I haven't seen Xin Ru for awhile since she has grown up a little, coming to 2 years old this year. She was shy and sat quietly at one corner in the living room when she first came. But once she came into the room, she started to join the other kids and having fun.

Saturday 25/1/20

Happy CNY, we have started the zodiac sign cycle again to Rat.

Aiden has finally warmed up and wanted to play. This yellow pong pong was enough for him to be self entertain.

We ordered the catering this year from Stamford Catering. The amount of food was too much and we could not finish the food. We also invited our neighbours to join us for the feast. CNY is all about gathering and feasting together.

Time for my first lo hei of the year. This year, the kids took the center stage for lo hei. Why do they need to huat leh?

The end product. 

I didn't took much photos today but I was busy entertaining all the kids. I have to admit that I have aged, I get easily exhausted these days.

Thursday 30/1/20

Here comes my second lo hei with my section in office. I enjoyed having the raw salmon and the golden cracker.

The lo hei was accompanied with good food for lunch. The catering had all my favourite food, it was enjoyable but it would have tasted better if the food was not so salty.

Good bye, January. 

Dinner Gathering at Ding Garden Buffet

Since GF's birthday is approaching, we decided to call for a meet up for a birthday gathering at Ding Garden Buffet. It was all our first time at the restaurant. Ding Garden Buffet is located at New Bridge Road, 2 minutes walk from Chinatown station exit A. 

You will not missed this vibrant and well lit up store with Bumblebee guarding the place when you walk past Chinatown. Ding Garden Buffet is located at level 3, just walk in and take the lift up.

The restaurant gives a relaxing and casual vibe with the comfortable seating and the animated movie theme wallpaper. We reached the restaurant at 7pm and were lucky to have a table, we didn't book a reservation and the restaurant was also full house by 8pm.

We opt for Roasted Fish and BBQ buffet at $25.90++ per pax. We have chosen Roasted Fish with Pickled Vegetables which we enjoyed very much. The roasted fish was fresh and the meat was sweet. With the fish soaked in the pickled vegetables aromatic flavour broth and loaded with red and green chilli, the fish carried a combination of sweet, sour and a little spicy taste that was to our liking.

Help yourself to the self service station of the frozen ingredients. On top of the buffet, drinks, fruits and ice cream are free flow.

Without us knowing, each of us bringing a plate of ingredients, our table was soon filled with lots of food. Do note that the meat is to be ordered with the staff, it is not available at the self service station. 

Meryl and I could already smell the smoky aroma from the BBQ grill. We can't wait to kickstart the dinner, but let's have photo first.

A group photo of the girls. The hotpot and BBQ definitely warm our heart on a Monday night while we enjoyed the piping hot food right in front of us. Food always tasted better when share with friends.

It has been more than 2 months since we last saw each other in full attendance, GF's birthday provided us a perfect reason to gather again. Jasmine took this welfie to capture both us and the food.

I love the grilled food, especially the juicy chicken which was delectable. The chicken wing was tasty with its tender and smooth texture, the meat was easily ripped off from the bone.

We put some of the ingredients into the broth so that they were soaked with the flavour that enhanced the savouriness. It was packed with good depth of taste.

The money we paid is totally worth it because we enjoyed 2 hours non-stop eating and chatting. We paid about $30++ each per person and ate until our stomach was full to the brim. Last but not least, we ended off the meal with a cup of ice cream. 

See you girls again soon.

Happenings in January - Food Hunt + Bio Essence Bio-Gold 24K Gold Water

Wednesday 1/1/20

Happy 2020 to everyone. It's the start of a brand new year, I am going to embrace the new year with an open heart, try my best to overcome any challenges along the way and appreciate the surrounding more. The incident last year indeed make me look at things differently. 

Festive season is always the best time to meet up with friends because the holiday gives us a perfect reason to do so.

Met up with W for lunch at The Manhattan FISH MARKET @ Plaza Singapura. I had Grilled Glory Dory with Rice ($13.90++). The dory fish was grilled perfectly to bring out the sweet juicy meat.

It has been more than half a year since I last watched a movie in cinema theatre. I wanted to watch Jumanji: The Next Level and we went to catch a movie after our lunch. 

A team of friends return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own but discover that nothing is as they expect because the game has changed. The players need to brave parts unknown, from arid deserts to snowy mountains, in order to escape the world's most dangerous game.

The movie is really exciting and humorous, creating lots of laughter throughout the movie.

I recently gotten a new skincare product to share with you. Bio-Essence 24K Bio-Gold Water has a sophisticated exterior with its bottle filled with superior gold flakes, that is what that attracted me to this product in the first glance. 

Though the texture is thicker than the toner, the absorption of bio-gold water into the skin is fast and no sticky feeling left behind. It also gives a pleasant scent and smooth touch to our skin after application. Bio-Essence 24K Bio-Gold Water is a product that targets at many concerns we may have like skin’s firmness, elasticity, hydration and radiance. One key target concern that I always look for in skincare products is hydration and Bio-Essence 24K Bio-Gold Water delivers this result. 

My skin has visibly brightened up after using it for a week, my skin now looked glowy, supple and lesser breakout. I feel so happy that my skin condition is getting better.

Saturday 4/1/20

We went Sum Kee for dinner because the bro is treating us and he suggested this Tze Char Restaurant. 

Here were some of the dishes we had.

My family is a big love of zi char fare as they only like to eat Chinese food. We ordered Hot Plaza Tofu, Chicken with Thai Chili Sauce, Sambal Kang Kong and Omelette. These zi char dishes offers a taste of home, perhaps this is the reason why it attracted my folks because they love comfort food. 

Tuesday 7/1/20

These 2 months I have been actively heading to salon when I have time to spare to go for scalp treatment to deep cleanse my hair and remove impurities that can't be cleanse for normal shampoo. 

This time round, I tried a new hair salon because the treatment at the current salon was charging at a high cost and the staff are super high selling, which is something I hate. So I'm not going back to that hair salon again. This hair salon applied masque at my scalp and steamed in for 15-20 minutes before washing off. I like their service and the cost is reasonable ($55), most importantly, there is no hard selling. 

Wednesday 8/1/20

I decided to have something new when dining at Aston. Normally I will order mash potato and onion rings for my side dishes. This time round, I have a change. I tried out cold pasta and french fries for my side dishes. It was not too bad.

Saturday 11/1/20

I always feel happy receiving overseas souvenir from friends because it means they think of you during their overseas trip. I met up with BQ who just came back from Bangkok. We decided to meet up at Cineleisure for lunch as the place is less crowded and I suggested Collin's.

Since I had a late breakfast, I opt for something light for lunch. I had Crispy Chicken Fillet with Skinny Cajun Fries ($8++) and Milk Tea ($5++). The chicken fillet was meaty and the fries were flavourful. The milk tea on the other hand was light and not too sweet.

Another agenda of our meet up today was to have ice cream. Hence, we walked to Ion Orchard for our dessert fix at Häagen-Dazs.

I had Brownie with Pistachio ice cream ($10.80). The ice cream was smooth and complemented well with brownie. The nuts on the brownie added crunch to the texture of every bite.

Thanks BQ for getting me the Thai Milk Tea from Bangkok. My cravings for food indulgence was satisfied.

Wednesday 15/1/20

I was back to Swensen's @ Plaza Singapura with G and MI. My last visit here was the day of my accident 4 months ago.

I had Carbonara ($12.50++) for lunch. The pasta was tossed with eggy cream sauce,  turkey ham, Shiitake mushrooms and crowned with Parmesan cheese and crisp turkey bacon bits. The pasta was cooked al dente and smooth. Towards the end, it made me feel a little greasy because of the rich cream sauce.

Friday 17/1/20

Little Teddie came over for a visit, she looked so cute. She was crying on and off, we tried different ways to pacify her and one effective way was to let her watch kid videos. 

Stay tuned for more updates.

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Bak Kwa Delivery

With Chinese New Year (CNY) approaching in just 2 weeks time, I'm sure many of us are now preparing for the festive to arrive. One of the must have items is definitely the sweet and smoky bak kwa.

Since Bak Kwa is an essential snack to have during CNY, the queues at the Bak Kwa stores can get really long during peak seasons. If you don’t fancy queueing for hours to get these delicious Bak Kwa just like me, another alternative is to order from Bak Kwa Delivery and have the Bak Kwa deliver to your door step within 2 hours in airsealed pack.

I like that Bak Kwa Delivery uses the freshest ingredients and a unique blend of marinates to roast the Bak Kwa using traditional methods (Charcoal roasted and bamboo sieved), ensuring the high quality output. The traditional recipe was passed down through generations.

The end result is a tender and juicy Bak Kwa with slightly charred edges. The robust and smoky flavour makes a succulent bak kwa.

The Bak Kwa they produced is grilled over low-heat charcoal hardwood which creates a smoky flavour into the meat. The caramelisation of the pork jerky gave it's distinct colour brown.

Though Bak Kwa Delivery only launched in 2019, their Bak Kwa already won the heart of my family. The Bak Kwa are delectable and has equal standard as the Bak Kwa out in the market, or even better because we can celebrate the festive occasion in the comfort of our home with the takeaway Bak Kwa treats.

As Bak Kwa Delivery is still relatively new and customers may want to try out the bak kwa before buying, they welcome customers to their shop at Wing Fong Building to taste the bak kwa for free.

Traditional Sliced Pork Bak Kwa (1kg) is selling at S$55.90. Once your order is placed, delivery will be in 2 hours time. If your order is more than $200, delivery fee is free of charge. Otherwise, shipping fee is $12.90. 

Delivery time slots are as follows: 

Time Slot 1: 6-8pm 

Time Slot 2: 7-9pm 

Time Slot 3: 8-10pm

Thanks Bak Kwa Delivery for sending me this original flavour Sliced Pork Bak Kwa which my family loves very much.

For ordering, please visit https://bakkwadelivery.sg/

The Bubble Tea Factory at SCAPE

The Bubble Tea Factory is the first of its kind in Singapore waiting to be uncovered. It is an immersive bubble tea-themed exhibition happening at SCAPE from now till 18 Jan 2020.

Bubble tea lovers should take this opportunity and let all your wildest bubble tea dreams come to life.

I was attracted by the bubble tea plushie when I was browsing through the merchandises, I wanna bring it back home. 

The Bubble Tea Factory spans over 6 rooms with 10 visually spectacular installations, bring us through a multi-sensory journey of bubble tea world. We were each given a Boba Booster Pack where we can use it to redeem goodies and interactive challenges with our friends!

The colourful light was dancing around and lighting up the darkness as we entered the first room. Just enter the room and enjoy the countless photo-taking opportunities throughout the journey.

We set our foot into the paddle pop rainbow room with fluffy white clouds floating above us. The pastel colour made the room looked sweeter. This room was decorated with a blend of purple and pink accents, very cheerful colours. 

A dose of Bubble Tea (BBT) with GF. 

Knowing that I have not been to The Bubble Tea Factory yet, GF brought me along for this exhibition when she had a pair of tickets. We had an enjoyable affair at different installations. The vibrant shades of pink has put me in a good mood, a perfect place to go for the weekend. 

We have used our "Power Up" card and complete a challenge to exchange for a cup of delicious BBT flavour snacks. My first time tasting BBT flavour popcorn.

Every corner of the factory is an Instragram worthy spot, it is a piece of artwork. Absolutely incredible.

Coming out from a tunnel.

The whole experience was an amazing and enchanting one for me. The reflection made it as though I have stepped into a room of illusion with many BBT pearls surrounding us.

Our millionaire dream came true when we found money scattered around the bathtub. We are going to use these money to buy more bubble tea.

Don't be surprise, the money can be found in the toilet bowl too.

My favourite room is definitely the Pearl-duction Line room where we soaked myself in the vast Pearl Pit, it brought out my inner child where I found joy in playing with the purple pearl balls and don’t wish to get up. 

Until the end, we just lie down and hide ourselves in the vast pearl pit. We were totally blown away by the pit corner. 

Feeling satisfied, we climbed up from the pearl pit and ready to proceed for our next stop where we used our "Power Up" card to redeemed a cup of bubble tea.

Both of us had Black Pearl Milk Tea from Miss Tea. It has been a few months since I last have bubble tea, now my bubble tea craving was satisfied. The bubble tea came just at the right time for us as we were feeling thirsty after an hour of exploration.

Here at our last stop in the airplane cabin. It really drive my urge to travel again. How nice if we can enjoy a glass of bubble tea while we were on plane?

Come down to The Bubble Tea Factory located at SCAPE and experience these magnificent installations for yourself. The exhibition is ending on 18 Jan 2020 with no further extension. Information can be found at https://www.thebubbleteafactory.co/