No such Japanese bun in Japan?

Had this for breakfast this morning. It comes in many flavours and I bought the Hokkaido cream one that my colleague recommended. It’s soft and not too sweet but I was expecting some cream since it says ‘Hokkaido cream’. It says on the packaging that the recipe and preservation method are from Japan so guess that means the brand itself cannot be found in Japan. Maybe I should buy some for my Japanese friend when I visit Japan!

2 for $2 at 7-11. Worth a try (but don’t just eat that for breakfast cuz I had it at 8 o’clock and was looking for food again at 9.

Falling for the Niagara Falls

After raving so much about the autumn foliage, how can I not talk about another wonderful work of nature – The Niagara Falls! They look equally magnificent in the day as at night! Hearing and seeing the gushing down of water gives you the adrenalin rush. The view from Toronto was much better than from New York as you can take in all 3 falls - It’s somewhat like a beautiful girl not being able to see how good she really looks (American Falls) and others can see it better (from Canada). Get the idea?

The maid of the mist ride is a must! The cruise will send you all the way into the falls to experience the mist and get close to the birds hovering over the falls. Of course they will give you a poncho to keep you dry but your camera definitely can’t escape unscathed.

There are many legends to the Niagara Falls. One of it is that a beautiful young Indian lady (aborigines) ran away from her village to avoid marrying someone she didn’t like. She plunged into the falls and was saved by the son of the water god (or something like that) and he made her the goddess of the falls.


Niagara at night, New York. Can only see it from the side. Side note: the pasta sold at food court was a little too soft.

Bird’s eye view of the Falls at Skylon Tower, Toronto.

I love autumn foliage!

I just can’t get enough of the autumn foliage! It was a touching and magnificent sight as our coach (with the lousy tour guide on board) drove past rows and rows of the beautiful trees. We took many videos of the scenery. Enjoy the photos, for even that of fallen leaves on grass is a perfect wallpaper!

Paradise Vacations: It drives you to "Paradise"

We joined a 5-day tour to Canada with Paradise Vacations – one of those run by Chinese immigrants. Quite but it includes no meals and admissions.

The driver was a careful and responsible one. The tour guide by the name of Jacky… can't say much cuz besides saying "Ok, everyone", Take a rest (on the coach)" and "toilet to your left" and "we'll reach in approximately XX minutes", he said nothing much. No info on the itinerary for that day, no background on the places we were visiting.

Some older folks said this was the worse tour ever and they couldn't sleep as much on the coach as Jacky had wanted them to. Jacky suggested we subscribed to the meals otherwise we could find NO food on our own and even if we did, it would cost us 3 times as much. And don’t we patronize the same restaurant as the group cuz we won’t be served as quickly.

He even chided an old couple for tipping him in Canadian dollars instead of USD cuz he had to change them back to USD.

I would do my own free & easy tour any time.

And look out for his little blue umbrella which doubled up as a guide flag.

Welcome to East Harlem

This is a story about East Harlem, New York and to be very specific, 105 St Lexington Ave. We stayed in a 4-bed dorm at Central Park Lexington apartment the 6-7 days we were in New York. Contrary to tales that it was a danger zone and crime hotspot, the non-whites a.k.a. the South Americans, blacks and Asians, are extremely friendly and helpful. We felt like one of them living in the little neighbourhood.

The adventure happened in the apartment which looks totally different from the photos on its website. When we checked in the first night, a black lady in her blue nightgown checked us in. she had her hand on her face all the time and didn’t seem very sober, so we though she as on drugs. It turned out that she had a bad toothache. Shortly after we checked in, we met her kids including a 10-month old baby – a black kitten. It was squatting outside the common toilet and hiding in the bathroom the first few nights. On the third night, a Turkish lady checked into our room. Appalled by the condition of the place, she checked out the next day. But and 6-ish the morning before se checked out, the black lady came knocking on every door (still in the same nightgown – we suspected it to be her uniform). She was looking for her baby under the bed and all over the room. I later saw the baby hiding beside the toilet bowl and informed her. She offered to buy me breakfast and was weeping.

We didn’t see her and her baby for the next few days.

We came back one day and accidentally closed the door loudly. The lady heard us and opened her bedroom door and greeted us. She then told us as a by the way thing, that her kitten had died. It swallowed a strand of the mop. We froze cuz we couldn’t believe what we heard (the mop on top of the death). She thought we didn’t understand what she said so she took out that very mop. My friend couldn’t hold her laughter and excused herself and ran up to the room.

It was a totally safe apartment in a safe area. I got all the good training in Little India. No bedbug problem that is bugging New York cuz the bunks are metallic and plastic sheets around the mattresses are still intact.

This was just one of the highlights of our trip. More to come.

Blog vs facebook

With my iPhone now, I'm more prone to conveniently drop a few lines plus photos in facebook than to blog. Which is bad cuz the thought could not be fully explained or might be misunderstood. Fb n iPhone on the go can be so addictive i sat down at a cafe for 2 hours with a fellow iPhone friend not talking to each other at all cuz we were busy with the different apps on our phone.

Here's something I've to share with more words:
I called 15 minutes cafe at lasalle to make reservation the other day. A girl by the name of Michelle (?) answered n I told her my booking details. She said hold on n after a long time she was back on the line. "hehehe sorry what time, for how many?" I repeated myself n she asked for my name n # n I gave them to her. "hold on please hahaha" n she back to the phone after some time. "kris as in krin?" "no, Kris s for Sweden" and the number she repeated was totally different except for the 9 in front.

What work for my skin, and what don't

Am trying to save $ on my skincare products – origins is good but costly, so I’m going to experiment with another combination of products in the evening:
1) origins cleanser
2) any toner (other than hada labo cuz it doesn’t add moisture to my skin nor cleanse any traces of dirt)
3) olay regenerist serum (have been using this for many years – affordable and good)
4) Origins A Perfect World -> Olay micro-sculpting cream.

The tricky thing Olay(4) is not that cheap. It’s under $50 cuz it’s $49.90 and when Origins is having am set or fully redeemable facial promotion, it’s really worth it! And I can always buy it from the airport. Was initially considering Simple’s anti-ageing cream but reviews haven’t been as good. It’s still back to Olay. Will try and share the results later. That is if I decided to make that switch.

There’s this website about.com that raves about the cheap n good Cetaphil products which work well for sensitive skin, and most stuff are under $10!

Talking about skincare, how can I not mention New York Skin Solutions? Bought 3 trial sessions @ $100 each cuz they were so hardsell and persistent and won’t let you out of their office until they get something out of you – which they NEVER EVER will again. The therapists are generally ok skilful but not this is not exceptional visible in the results. After my 2ndsession with them last week, the therapist tried to convince me to sign on for another 2 sessions, and that my skin is withering I needed to purchase and use their treatment essence ($65) at once! They can go and fly kite…

Actually after my chicken pox, I stopped going for facial for a good 6 months and stuck to DIY cuz too lazy to go out just for facial and lie there for 2 hours. My skin actually improved. Maybe b'cos all the toxins in my body were purged out togetehr with the poxes? I guess I picked it up all over just to pamper myself and unwind. But believe me, a good workout works just as well!

Different but Same

Can u see any difference betw the 2 veggie dishes in the 2 pictures? From my eating experience they looked, tasted n r even served in the same plate. But my mom insisted otherwise cuz she said there was mushroom in it... She won again!

Oh btw, both dishes next to the veggies were FISH.

YOGeez

The YOG opens tomorrow. Read about how grand the opening ceremony is expected to be in today’s papers.

I was lucky enough to play guinea pig – attended the rehearsal on Wednesday. I had to use a lot of imagination, visualizing how it would be if Sean Kingston was there, the overwhelming fireworks, the VVIPs. The best were the substitutes (of the YOG and IOC chairmen) saying “Beginning of speech” and that was it. The audience was tickled.

Can you spot the monster/ET in the picture?

We were all quite enthusiastic in the beginning then started feeling sleepy, playing with their handphones, taking wu liao pictures (me) and some just left halfway. There was even a queue at the exit just about an hour into the show. The audience was invited to do a marina wave which didn’t quite take off, and this 4-step dance which required pushing our palms out towards the air, stretching our out hands when we were already packed shoulder to shoulder… the music throughout the evening was admittedly, nice.

When the flags of participating countries were revealed, I cheered loudly for Sri Lanka since I could relate with them.

In line with the hungry ghost festival, they also have larger than life, multi-racial balloon manipulated by performers, floating around. We were all scared stiff when they came round the audience.

I am still at the end of the day, proud to be a Singaporean, if only the tempo of the national anthem at the ceremony could go faster. The best for the evening was the beautiful skyline and of course, the impressive set.

Energy drink

Pardon this blur photo. Discovered only last Saturday that the ginger tea that I so enjoy drinking at my facial salon is made out of a packet drink. So here it is – Madam Kim. I like it cuz it’s mildly sweet and not overly pungent. I feel re-energised drinking it after my facial.

Got a bad news recently - I heard from my mom that she still has another 50 episodes to go before she finishes the Taiwanese drama, “Ai”. A total of 700 over episodes. It’s crazy!!! I think I definitely need more ginger tea to calm me down.

Italiano!

Went to Italiannies at Singapore Powers building (111) in Somerset for dessert. The restaurant opened in April this year. Nice coffee (generally $4.90 to 6.90) and a HUGE slice of tiramisu ($11+) which I thought would taste better if less sweet, more bitter with a stronger taste of coffee and alcohol. The place was packed with diners as many of them tucked in to pizzas and pastas (er.... we were already at desserts at 7.30pm). Hope to try those next time. Nice ambience! The best was the free flow of bread which we cud dip into olive oil n vinegar. The only downside was perhaps that the waitresses were quite snooty.

Surprisingly, 111 has lots of nice restaurants and cafes! Good getaway in the crowded stretch of 313.

Attitude House and their magical cream!

I must say BB cream is quite magical, especially the one from Etude House. But the service attitude is even more so!




I accompanied my colleague to Etude House at suntec to purchase something. She was searching for her stuff so I looked around. A salesgirl who looks young, petite and coloured almost her entire eyelids with her eyeliner, came up to offer her help. I told her I’m just looking around, she insisted on showing me something, so I checked out the pressed powder. She said powder doesn’t provide good coverage as BB cream, so she started squeezing and pumping out the different types of BB cream for me. Then came the cooling aloe vera one. One big lump flew onto the sleeve of my new blouse. She was apologetic and helped wiped some off for me. Then she said she tried her best and managed to remove only 50% of it, and suggested that I went to the toilet to wash it off. I told her not to feel bad about it n wanted to leave the shop. BUT, she insisted that I try out more types of BB cream and started applying them on her own hand, and ended off “So would you like to get one”? Wasn’t she persistent?

Thankfully for her, I was sick, otherwise I would have asked her if she would be keen if she was in my shoes and dragged her with me to the toilet to clean up my sleeve.

But for Etude House, I must say they have gotten themselves such a great, persistent employee!

Thai Accent - don't know what to say

Went to vivo city for dinner yesterday. I had wanted Japanese food but my friend said the Q was freaking long and suggested Vietnamese food. On our way to the Vietnamese restaurant, we got distracted by the aroma from a Thai restaurant - Thai Accent, so we decided to settle for that. The conclusion: the food is like my mom’s cooking – ONLY smells good.

The ambience promised great potential for the food but it stopped just there, like BaliThai (in Suntec). The minced meat with rice and sunny side up was too watery n salty; the clear tom yam soup was equally salty, n unauthentic (the one from Thai Express is anytime better). Only the stir fry kai lan with garlic was passable, but I think i can do that too. The bill came up to about $55, discount if you have the stanchart card. I don’t have that but so what, I definitely wun be going back.

Contrary to the name of the restaurant, most of the waiters seemed to be from the Philippines. Not only was there no Thai accent, one said “sawadee ka” as we left the restaurant.

Don't doubt the oracles!

Was doing my usual morning walk on Saturday when I saw some tourists surrounding a small table outside little india arcade. When I stopped and looked from across the road, I thought I saw Mani, the uniquely Singapore oraculous parrot! However, the world cup final has proven that Paul is the almighty! He has been my idol since the Spain-Germany match, though I lost and said I wanted to eat him. The day after Mani chose Holland, I went to place a small bet. Now; I feel like eating birds (including chicken)!

I have this friend who said she respected the choices of both animals and betted on a draw. And so, she won!

Actually, my McDull also predicted a draw, but as he is a fakie from my boss, I didn’t trust him…

Burger vs Octopus

Paul the octopus, has once again took his pick on the world cup. He chose Spain over Germany!

But animals can be wrong. Mani, the little parrot in Little India predicted a Uruguay vs Spain in the finals. I had wanted to go Little India after work yesterday to twist his neck but thankfully, he was wrong.

My bet with a colleague for the Spain vs Germany match tomorrow morning is on a BK or equivalent lunch. So, I’ll either have a free BK meal this Friday, if not, I’ll go for a bbq octopus feast this weekend.

Pasta Bravo

Went to Pasta Brava for dinner last Friday. Fully booked but thanks to the heavy rain, we cud have a 1-hour meal before the crowd poured in.

I had the homemade mushroom soup @ $7.50 (I had strong craving for soup spoon’s creamy mushroom soup. Walked all the way to raffles city and found the shop not there, probably due to the renovation. There was Cedele but mushroom soup wasn’t on its menu that day. And so, my friend suggested Pasta Brava). The mushroom soup was nice and reminded me of what I had at Fishermen’s Wharf in San Francisco, but it wasn’t what I was really looking for that evening.

I can see why there were so many ang mohs patronizing the restaurant. The pasta was really good though a little pricey and not really the best I’ve had. The one I ordered was $21. Under the waiter’s recommendation….scallops n prawns…cream base something. Lots of Italian on the menu.

Fantastic ambience! And my friend said the wine is good too.



Anyway, here’s the address:-

Pasta Brava
11 Craig Road, Tanjong Pagar
Tel: 6227 7550
www.pastabrava.com.sg
info@pastabrava.com.sg

Anti Pig Piracy!

Besides facial masks, there’re also fake McDulls around! This is more painful than fake masks! Totally despicable! You can spot them in Ladies Market and Mongkok in Hong Kong, many parts of Malaysia and China. To get the real thing, go to McQuarter in HK and some Mu Ee outlets in Singapore. The difference in quality is obvious.

Here’s how you spot the differences between the 2, so you’ll know if you’re getting the real deal, like antiques:-

Real on left, faker on right

Head : McDull always bigger proportionate to his body
Ears : real one has large, thick ears
Nostrils : Real one’s closer together and in dark brown
Eyes : Real one has pea-sized eyes, not kidney bean size like his imposter
Limbs : real one has fingers. You can squeeze his hand/leg and the fingers will open up
Mouth : lower down and ark brown. And he hardly sticks out his tongue.
Hair : real one has longer, smoother, healthier hair

One special feature you can always look for on the real thing is the drop of sweat. There’s always a tag, sort of certification on his left hand.

As for McDull’s friend, McMug, I leave the authentication job to his family/fan club.

It's a Legend

Attended a friend’s wedding last Saturday.

The Legends at Fort Canning has always given me a good impression until last Saturday’s wedding. The 10-course banquet started at 8.45pm. The second dish was served only at 9.30pm. Between 11-11.30pm, 3 dishes were served. Before dinner, we spotted dirty napkins, crockery. In between the dishes, the waiters and even captain forgot about our drinks request, toppled my glass of red wine. It was so bad and slow that we requested for a jug of water to ourselves so we could fill up our own glasses. Sometimes the waitress would plate the dish for us, sometimes she would leave all 10 bowls/plates there, we were so confused and the lag between them putting down the dish and us eating the food was a good 10 mins at least. Those at our table told the waitress in the end we prefer to DIY.

Thankfully, food was good and the souvenir was pretty, useful. And yes, there was fish - pomfret to be specific!

My friend staying in the north managed to catch the last train home.

BTW, was very touched to receive the invitation to me and McDull, very specifically.

Things i learned in HK

Wellcome, the Fairprice equivalent of Hong Kong certainly left my friends a deep impression. This picture reminded me of the incident.

We were buying strawberry oreos and snacks as gifts when my 2 friends dashed out of the shop saying they saw a rat. Since cockroaches are friends I see every now n then at home (I love flying ones – more challenging), so I was quite ok with their distant relative. I went to pay up but the cashier took my money and jumped off when she saw the rat. It was a pathetic little fellow, skinny and a little wet. It might have licked the packaging of my oreos but certainly not th e cookies themselves cuz its legs were really long n skinny.

Next, the store manager, the only male staff I guess, had to try capture the rat with a waste paper bin, but it went under the atm machine, and he waited. Not easy being a store manager yah?

Open your eyes and ears and you’ll learn something new every day. I heard at the MTR a kid pestering his dad to buy him a toy. His dad saved his wallet n pacified him by telling him (in Cantonese) “This is nice but not so suitable for kids 小朋友”. So smart!

Take note of the faces in this photo

Yes, these are the selfish souls who pretended 2b sleeping, reading, playing n their handphones…anything but see the poor old man standing in front of them looking for a seat. It was such a relief to them when the old man finally got a seat. Suddenly, they could all look up.

If only i had taken the photo from a better angle to capture all the faces clearly. And a better camera instead of my lousy hp camera!

I’ve sent this to ST stomp, if it doesn’t get in there, at least I have you guys to help me forward the photos. Thanks!

HK Part 2

I didn’t expect to be back in Hong Kong so soon after my visit in Oct last year, but I had a wonderful time eating, shopping and catching up with my friends. The standard of Cathay Pacific though, has dropped tremendously - headset not working, lousy food, flight delay...you name it.

Whenever I travel I try to explore new places. Even though Hong Kong is a city I’ve been to many many times, I still manage to discover new things every time – new clothes for one! And of course, my passion is always FOOD besides taking slow walks like an elderly.

Walking tours:

Fanling
Far up in the north almost next to China. Nice, historical walled villages (围村/老围- since the Qing dynasty), some of which will be demolished to make way for the rail connecting to Guangzhou or Shenzhen.

The biggest Taoist temple in HK, next to Fanling station, serves good vegetarian food.

Kowloon Walled City, Kowloon Tong
It's a park in the midst of housing estate. Suzhou-style garden built during Qing dynasty. Now just an area residents cut across after buying their veggies etc.

Wanchai
Historical churches, open market which stand in contrast right next to the city’s tallest skyscrapers.

Stanley
Go anytime but during dragoon boat festival for a nice walk by the beach n chill out at the cafes. We went right on 端午节.

Back shopping in Kwai Fong. Nice sweet coconut drink (with red bean or pearl) on overhead bridge linking the shopping paradise (a complex) and shopping mall next to it. McQuarter is in the mall!!! If in Mongkok, go to Argyle Centre for cheap clothes, though slightly more ex than kwai fong.

Food:

Hui Lau San
Well known for its mango desserts but the curry fishballs with squid and radish are equally yummy!

Yuen Long
Sheng Li beef noodles. Very QQQ beef balls and they serve great lemon + coke (冻柠乐). Lemon tea + Ribena is 冻柠宾 and so on.

Back to my favourite Japanese restaurant! Only about S$50 for a sashimi platter!

Tsim Sha Tsui

Sun Kei in dilapidated building on Granville - MUST try the cheese ramen cuz even Louis Koo n all have been there. The cheese ball ramen is my favourite, other than the pig's neck meat. Not easy to locate though. Me n my friend couldn't find this tiny shop the day b4 n ended up eating oily bee hor fun n rubbery singapore fried bee hoon.

Happy Valley
Saw paparazzis at work, taking pictures of some celebrity (we thought he looked like Ron Ng Cheuk Hei) at the atm across the road. So I took a photo of the paprazzis. Went for porridge and ‘zhar leung’ at the shop next to it n told the lady boss about our encounter. Surprisingly, she said Ron Ng is no big deal. Raymond Lam Fung and his mom popped by just last week. My HK friend then told me celebrities like Anita Yuen are regulars!

Causeway Bay
This place serves pretty nice beancurd, though I remeber I had better ones In Sham Shui Po many years back.

Sheung Wan
Fantastic porridge! And the fish cakes also nice!

Central
Shen Heung Yuen – an open air stall that sells nice ketchup soup base noodles, honey lemon crispy bun. Lots of people, nice food but overrated.

The one at Cui Hua tea restaurants is better.

Gau Kei beef noodles – very beefy and sweet! The queue outside even b4 it opened said it all.

Lin Heung Lau – one of the oldest teahouses. Go for the 60s HK atmosphere, don’t (bother to) focus on the food. Ye Shanghai in Marco Polo hotel is posh n frequented by celebrities like Edison Chan, but food is overpriced n nothing fantastic. Go if you have $ to burn.

McDonalds launched a new dip for chicken mcnuggets last week when we were there – the Singapore honey mustard sauce. We Singaporeans never knew it existed!

Probably one of the grossest posters around.


Saw McDull so very often in HK this time! He’s on a roll!!! Even endorsing Canon and Microsoft products.

Got a fakie McDull from my boss this morning. My sis refused to take it from me. Even she said she couldn’t accept anything more than the real thing. LVs can be fake, but not McDull. But I appreciate the gift.