Outram Park Yah Hua Rou Gu Cha

Heard that there was a good bak kut over at the CBD area, opposite Jit Poh Building along Cantonment Road. When wj and i reached there at 830am, wow, there were people eating there already and there was a table which just finished! and we both were quite skeptical the day before as to whether we could catch breakfast there but we heard our colleagues saying that there were people having brekkie. So we ordered

1. tong ou veggie in soup



2. kidney liver soup (yummy cos they served thick slices of liver)



3. bak kut soup



4. tau kwa

and of cos they served us cut fresh chillies and a bowl of fried fritters to go with our soup. The soup stock was quite okay, peppery not too spicy. But i didn't think it was as thick or slurping good compared to the one at Rangoon Road. However, it must have attracted many judging from the number of celebrities photos plastered all over the shop's walls. There were the taiwanese boy band 5566, a few HK stars and our very own local celebrities. Maybe the morning was pretty early and the soup still abit thin, or maybe they haven boiled it long enuff...so it's just okay for me this time. As for pricing, i think it's quite reasonable and i would even comment it as cheap (compare with the prices at Founders Bak Kut Teh). For the above 4 dishes plus fried fritters, our total bill came to $14! And the other good thing was the lady boss and waitress will come round to fill up your bowls with more bak kut soup.

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

Nicely tucked in a corner of Ngee Ann city is the Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge on the 2nd storey. It's a perfect place for a tete-à-tête session with your girlfriends, so much so that they even have an award just for that 'occasion'. i personally took some joy in choosing my teacake from the patisserie counter, i chose one which was covered with 'green moss' like how my sis described it...and matched it with a cuppa UVA tea which had a strong vermillion colour with aromatic taste. Actually it was like having a really good cuppa teh-O!!!! Back to their cakes, i heard that the choice favourites were the saccharine pineapple cake (wasnt at the counter today), indulgent coconut cake (i skipped this one cos im not a fan of coconut) or the lusciously rich chocolate brownies cake (mr goh was having indigestion and sore throat). I also saw an old ang-moh guy eating a crumbly homemade scone with twin accompaniment of butter and a flavourful strawberry jam while his wife had a cranberry cheesecake.

if it wasn't that we had our lunch earlier, we would have ordered the set lunch of the day as it was definitely prices far beyond extravagant for it's prime location. If i remembered correctly, the set lunch comes with a cup of aromatic coffee or tea with dessert (obviously their cake), soup or panfried scallop for starters, a choice of seared red snapper or trio opened sandwiches. All for $22.90++ which i tot was really worth its price.

Anyway, the best part of it was everything was served in fine blue painted porcelain, from plates, saucers, cups to sugar condiments! The whole setting was very piquant and fresh with lots of natural sunlight glazing through its double volume windows.

I guess the only downside was the tea and hot chocolate took really long to make its way to our table as the cake arrived almost immediately upon ordering.

I think it certainly worth a once in a visit time.

So make your way there today just like how i make time for it today.

girlswannahavefun

we arrived, saw, drink and drunk, ate, laughed, lotsa merry faces. so shit it isn't Friday.

new sofa for the room

"i got my own sofa to watch telly in!!!"

~ mummy says i spoil him so much.

Batam's Balcony

how we enjoy our 'quiet' time together. and our little 'guests' who dropped by our balustrade the next morning.

3 little monkeys (little rascals and their chattings in the wee hours of the morning) and a big black crow.

White

white beads

Batam Part 03

Weekend Getaway

~and we are back from our split second getaway.

Buffet Batam

$20 buffet. either it was this or the stone grilled restaurant. (which i heard was not bad but we couldnt decide what to eat from the restaurant's menu! hohoho....)The lamb shank was dry, good thing was that there was mint sauce to rescue it. Pineapple rice was good. Tofu prawns...hmm prawns were fresh but the tofu was abit hard! Broccoli with crabmeat was the safest choice. Beef rendang was wj's fave for that nite. He ate non-stop and went for refills every 20mins. i think he must be hungry and thirsting for red meat.

journey on

will post more photos soon!

Batam Part 1 - Early MORNING

6am: time to wake up and get ready!
7am: reached Harbourfront via cab! cos we were running late. Bought some sandwiches and milk from 24h Cheers. Check in and waited for our turn to board the ferry - and it was called Jet Raider...BATAM here we come!

about 45 mins we reached the island. The customs took blardee long. Very very crowded and so many people were cutting queues! so rude! can u believe these people! argh. Anyhow we opted for a city tour and i did ask the tour agency what did the city tour include but that coke-bottled spekkie dwarf cant even tell me what the city tour comprise off!

Dwarf: eh..got some tour, lunch included. Let u buy some local products...tour again...er er *shifts his specs*

Me: hmm...okie.

Dwarf: So how?

Me: okay we take the city day tour.

*$7 more just for the tour, why not man i thot to myself*

and what we tot of a half day tour turned out to be a FULL day! from 10am till 8pm!!!! and we didnt realise it until after lunch and the tour guide was still suggesting more activities for the rest of the day! then we were like 'HUH' cos we were so tired and the whole purpose of this trip was to R&R at the resort which we paid so much for!!! not for shopping and shopping and more shopping! and we even booked a spa for ourselves at 8pm at another resort!!! Gosh. so after lunch, we took a cab by ourselves to the resort.

so here's us at our lunch destination. Quite a sumptous one with lotsa seafood! (chilli crabs, gongong, tofu soup, fried fish, crispy cuttlefish, butter prawns, sambal kangkong and choice of drinks = coconut, teh, kopi, soft drinks)

okie, will blog more when i have the time to compile more pixpix together....

and the story continues....

Batam Part 02

Late afternoon check in.

Like i said if u are looking for a hideaway resort, this is the place. It took us 1 hour of travelling time from Nagoya City to here. And the cab cost us a whooping S$15. So it's really quite faraway, and according to the tour guide, ever since the PM of Indonesia took the casinos away from Batam, the employment rate went down; lesser 'tourists' and hence lesser cabs as well. Most locals around here went to other parts to make a living when the economy was down.

Verdict on the resort:

The foundation of the resort is built on a steep plateau. So rightfully speaking, all the chalets are tiered on top each other like a wedding cake. The lobby area is on the 3rd floor, swimming pool + dining area on the ground floor. The rest of the chalets are distributed along the 5 floors. The ones that needn't any climbing are the executive suites. Ours was just the normal suite and we got the 4th level. hoo hoo....4 flights of steep steps to climb everytime we went to the poolside, went back for a change, went down to book their signature Urut massage (which i fell asleep but it's really good! so good that i fell asleep after they did my back), climbed down once more for dinner, went back to rest, went down again for the island bar. Went back up again to sleep. it's a wonder whether did we went there for a relax vacation or for some steep exercise!

Hideaway Resort

An idyllic retreat in the tropical Riau Islands amidst unspoilt beauty and fine beaches, Turi Beach Resort is a boutique paradise where tranquility and friendly service are right at your doorstep. However, most of the staffs' vocabulary is limited to "yes" to whatever u say or ask. But they always do it with a smile, just like Giordano.
If you are looking for a 'secretive' place to getaway, forget about shopping and citybuzz, this is the place. Becos it is really tucked away from the ferry terminal, Nagoya City and Jodoh. It takes about an hour ride out to the city and cab fare in batam can get quite costly, so my suggestion is to stay in its quiet and tranquil surroundings, enjoy a glass of beer or cocktail by the Island bar at the lookout point or get their signature Urut massage done at one of the huts.

Giraffing Away

Giraffe Restaurant & Cafe

Another new try out for pinky!


when xw asked me where should we meet for a reunion, i just thot of Giraffe. i passby this place everyday on the bus, and i keep thinking how does it feel... having a meal right smack in the city garden - Istana Park, nestled amongst the green and concrete buildings and between 2 major traffic roads.

anyhow, i googled the place and sniffed out the chef cum forum's recommendations. So here's the verdict:


Main: Seafood laksa was quite good. (very savoury, not soupy, but like horfun kind of wet degree)
Main: Mushimono, according to Shilynn, taste very healthy, soupy based with salmon, shitake mushrooms soaked in teriyaki sauce.
Dessert: Molten Lava was small portioned but no complaints here since it's so sinfully filled with calories fat and all the NOTs in your body. So small portion is good here. IT even had their signature animal silhouette on the place with wavy horn like biscuits stuck into a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.


So on that nite itself, i must say the entrance to the restaurant was an experience itself, walking thru the platform above the water was quite refreshing and weird, if i was miss piggy, i would be quite afraid that the glass floor might just break under my weight and i would just fall into the pool beneath. The glass green bottles shelf display on the right was very much like strait kitchen and the drinks corner by the bar was looking quite chic while the second level was the dining area.

Lastly may i add that there was the friendly waiter who took photos for us! curly almost reaching should length hair, tanned skin....perfect smile

~ Thank you mr waiter!!!!~

PPGS

~happy belated birthday babe!~

we love you so very much!!!!

with lotsa green tea cake

sashimi (always jap food)

+

strawberries

(al naturale and plastic)

Dessert shop along chinatown

there is this little shop along chinatown which sells really good hot desserts. It's highly recommended by my mum.

i can't really remember how to get there but i do know that it's at a corner of a junction and it's within walking distance from the chinatown MRT.

We tried the mango sago with pomelo, black sesame, cold guilingao, almond paste and walnut paste. All were super yummy, not too sweet and thick, or rather it wasn't thin.

Good for elderlys with a sweet tooth!

Durty Nellys

KennyRogers

not a meat eater?
then u should try KennyRogers' Chicken! cos they are so juicy and tender, well almost. ( i had the drum and thigh bit which was perfect, wj had the breast and wing bit, so it was a tad dry at the breast)
Btw, we love their corn muffins when they are just hot right out of the oven. I remembered during my JC period, we even tabao the corn muffins back...and KennyRogers was always one of those places to hangout as a big group, besides Ponderosa. So coming back here certainly brought back abit of memories down the lane.
Rites, back to food... they have quite a variety of sides like RedSkin Potatoes, macaroni and cheese(really sinful), mashed potatoes, green vegetables, coleslaw etc...it's not fantastic. BUT PEOPLE: EAT YOUR GREENS!
So if u aint into eating fast food like KFC (like me) ...cos i think Fried chicken is quite unhealthy and heaty...this may well be your choice!

of cos there's always the hainese chicken and roast chicken and soy chicken at the foodcourt.

Late Nights in the office

New Tee

ah ren's got a new tee from the Netherlands! woohoo!

he's really PROUD of it and although it's hanging loosely on him

it fits him just nice for PJs! dun you think so?

my guess is that since the dutch guys are the tallest guys in the world

i guess their teddy bears must be pretty big as well.

So equates big tees for their bears.

thanks tine!

iwannagohome

this was how i spent National Day *yawns*:

had breakfast with parents at Prata cafe, gorged myself with Indian Rojak, gosong and egg prata+teh tarik (yet again). Drove down to Tanglin mall to check out the newly furbished life furniture mall iwannagohome, they have a Pageone section for those who love ID books and some life books. i guess the only thing which caught my attention was the BITCH cushion. i lurve it! The sales person stopped me for furthering my photographic skills so these are the shots u can see (so stupid got free advertising from me also dunwan...STOOPID.), wanna see more just go to their shops (IT IS NOTHING GREAT...okie im BITCHING here cos they wouldnt let me take photos...puipui) They can be located at Tangling mall and Great world city, heard that the Great world city sister branch carries more stock.Next stop was starbucks for my caffeine fix and finally we went down to Vivocity for dinner and watched sneak preview of the Bourne Ultimatum and caught a shot with the simpsons!