Our Lalaland 4Ever

Ice Cream Making Session @ Tom's Palette

2010-09-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

After many postpones due to our commitments to work, we finally made it for the long anticipated ice cream session at Tom's Palette on 15 Aug!

The lesson costs $50 per person. Lasted around 2 hours, pretty interesting we would say. The lesson teaches you how to make ice-cream (a cup volume) from home.

In the first hour we learnt to make green tea and horlick flavours ice creams. The next hour was more or less spent on tasting different ice cream flavours, learning the different ice cream types - french ice cream, gelato, sorbet etc, and how flavours make it into the ice cream.

Some interesting take aways, there are a few things which can make a ice cream texture smooth, with any one absent, it has to be made up via other ways -

1. Fat/ buttery

2. Air

3. Sugar

Sorbet itself is very smooth while it taste just 'sweet' it is actually very high in sugar content. Because it is tasted very cold, the extreme sweetness is not felt. Gelato while having milk absent from its content is also very sweet due to high sugar content. So the point here is, as long as your ice cream taste good it is SINFUL!

Another interesting thing to point is that, ice cream extracts flavours from the ingredients via milk. Hence if you would like to create 'fried onion' flavour, you can, by 'extracting' the flavour out of the fried onion by dipping it into the milk for the ice cream making - imagine how sinful it sounds, all the oil!! (Oops..) Still a flavour innovative enough to deserve a try! :)

Summing up, it is still a fresh experience. Worth your $50 bucks we would say! (Oh by the way, we were given 2 ice cream vouchers each at the end of the lesson.. :) )

Shirley and me working hard making our first ice creams!

The number of cups you see there are the number of flavours (half that please.. since its 2 of us) we got to taste.

Ipuddo @ Mandarin Gallery

2010-08-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the best ramen we have had so far - check out Ippudo @ Mandrin Gallery:

With a nice combination of modern and authentic decor, the ambience was great... a 30min wait on weekend nights are no surprise.. u always find a long long queue outside this yummy spot during meal times.. once you enter, you will go around this big wooden table where you get to look through the menu while wiaitng for a seat.. if u r there for the first time, check out the chefs... think they are all japanese!

The ramen? it's 2 thumbs up! The soup is so rich and delicious that both of us finished all of it.

Psss!!!! I ate besides Prof Mark Saeys!!!! :PPPP

The gyoza is typical.. nth great about it:

But the ramen is unbeatable. We will definitely visit this place again!

A dessert bowl

2010-05-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Looking for yummies is one of our favourite activites...

This time round, we like to share about one of our fav dessert spot: A desert bowl, located in serangoon garden...

It's pretty easy to find among the shop houses because of its read sofas beside the full glass window facing the road as show below:

That's Mark, happy as can be, waiting for his yummy:

The highlight of our evening came shortly. Here we have:

1) Mango with black glutinous rice - my personal favourite! the combi is surprisingly yummy! Somehow, the mango, glutinous rice and coconut came together as a perfect match. The black glutinous rice added an extra texture, giving it an adiditonal kick:

2) This is not new.. traditional warm dessert, cooked with chinese pear, almond and gou ji zi

Burger Shack!

2010-04-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

We found this place by chance. We were actually looking for Melvados, a brownie cafe that also supposedly serve decent meals. To our dismay, the restaurant was replaced by a burger place - Burger Shack. Since fate brought us here.. Haha we decided to give them a shot!

We tried 2 burgers complete with fries and drinks. The bill totaled to around $18. The 2 burgers were original and chicken. Shirley thought it was a more 'atas' version of Burger King and that Burger King was better in taste! It tasted ok, but the ambience was a draw. We saw groups of teenagers to young adults. A good place to chill out - bright white lights near the counters, very westernized style of layout. The meals were served in small aluminium trays. There was definitely a sizeable crowd and looking at the photos on the wall, the main stream of fans were definitely students. A bit pricey but worth to check out. By the way, the restaurant claim that their beef patty is battered by the chefs themselves to ensure quality of the meat source.

Check it out. They open Tue to Sun 12pm to 10am. Address is 559 Bukit Timah Road #01-01 King's Arcade.

I thought the beef burger tasted better (reminds me of Burger King though..)

Thai Food in Shaw Centre opp Suntec

2010-04-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

On 17 Apr 10, Mark recommended me this Thai restaurant - Ah Loy in Shaw Centre. I was also told that they have a branch in Siglap. It's near Ah Yit Seafood Restaurant on 1st floor. It shouldn't be too difficult to find if you have been there before.

We reached at 12 noon and was told by the boss of the restaurant that they would only open an hour later. The hour seemed to take forever as the building lacked of shopping spots. I was already impatient and hungry since I did not have any breakfast. At 1.03pm, I became pissed when we were told that the chef and cashier has not arrived at work. HOW can the boss let that happen?!!! The restaurant was supposed to open at 1pm! I was already giving it a rating of 0 out of 5 for Service before I was served by anyone. It was a bad start and I was warning Mark that the food they are going to serve better be worth all the waiting. Here's what the 2 hungry monsters ordered for about 25 bucks for 1st round:

Green Curry, Tom Yam Soup, Mango Salad, Pad Thai, Traditional Thai Red Milk Tea and Homemade Lemon Grass Drink which is missing from the picture.

Below are some close ups:

Tom Yam Soup: I found it quite like tomatoe soup. But Mark loves it.

Pad Thai: I think Thai Express's is better. But it looks good doesn't it? We took about 1/4 of it before we remembered to take a photo of it.

Green Curry: Pretty much similar to my cooking. But lacked of fishballs and chicken. Suitable for one person though.

My Oh My! Don't be deceived by how harmless the mango salad looks. There are so many chili padi slices hidden that I drank a full cup of water with every scoop. I found the tom yam soup and green curry harmless. Beware if you are alread threatened by the tom yam soup and green curry like Mark. He had barely 2 or 3 stripes of it. muahaha... The handmade steamed fish cake came much later. Taken with he peppermint leaves and onions, it reminded me of Pho Bo I had in Hanoi.

Overall, I would say that the food is still recommendable. Not too pricey. For taste, I give it 3.5/5. The restuarant is rather small. But it seemed to be a very popular place. May be that's why the chef and cashier are so spoilt.

Long Weekend at Bintan

2010-04-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

With a long weekend coming, from Good Friday onwards, we decided to get away from the city buzz of Singapore. 3 days of break probably meant that a short trip nearby would fit the bill perfectly. The destination would be Bintan. The resort? Blue Lagoon. The room cost $232 per night and a ferry ticket to and fro cost $65. From our understanding the room rates were considered pricey as rooms booked much earlier would probably be in the $100++ region.

Day 1

We headed to Pasar Oleh Oleh for some good massage and local food. The single way taxi fare costed $22 and it took around 15 - 20 minutes. Once we reached the place, we were spoilt for choices which massage parlour to go to. The guides at Pasar Oleh Oleh each tried to persuade to each of the massage parlour. The interesting thing is, each massage parlour is paired up with a restaurant. Usually the massage parlour you opt for will provide you transport back to the resort.

Lunch was settled there. 3 of us ordered Ayam Penyet while 1 ordered Bryani. Honestly, we weren't used to paying $12 for a meal of rice and drumstick that was probably only slightly bigger than the bbq chicken wings you see in hawker centres in Singapore! It tasted not bad but not worth your money. Bryani wise I guess it was ok (we didn't sample it). I guess if given a choice I would have to say Singapore's Ayam Penyet was definitely a more decent meal overall.

After lunch, we walked around Pasar Oleh Oleh before heading for the massage session. The place was filled with shops selling wooden handicrafts. There were also some provision shops for you to stock up.

After a while we went for one of the massage parlour and it costs around $55 per person.
What it includes
1. 1 hr body scrub
2. 1/2 sauna (in this small cubicle)
3. 1 hr massage

The massage was good, so was the scrub. Money well spent!

Dinner was at place recommended by a friend. Haha its called 'Cafe Helo Helo' (nvm the spelling). Mee goreng and cha kway teow each cost $3.5. We also ordered chicken wings, bbq prawns and cuttlefish as well as satay. All in all plus the drinks it costed $43 bucks (same as lunch!) A more generous spread vs lunch (ok... a very generous spread of carbon too ....) Chicken wings, mee goreng and cha kway teow was good, the rest not worth the mention!

After dinner we headed back the resort. We went to the beach and stoned for a while, enjoying the breeze and the lovely moonlight. The sand was really fine and the beach was really clean. Day 1 was wrapped up.

Day 2

Shirley and I woke up early to have breakfast. Breakfast was ok, with omelette 'stealing the limelight'. Well, you pick your mix of button mushrooms, union, cheese and bacon and on the spot they would fry the omelette for you. After breakfast, we took a stroll by the beach. The waters pretty clear (as compared to Singapore) and occassionally you would spot fishes swimming near to the shores. And to our pleasant surprise, we caught 2 hermit crabs by the shore! I caught 1 first, Shirley wanted part of the fun so she combed and very quickly caught 1 too! Well.. honestly the 2 crabs were not too lucky, cos they were the only ones we managed to find!!

We really enjoyed the sea sports that followed after that. We kayak for and hour - $18 where Shirley was happily feeling the waves splashing against her. Really felt like 'natural jacuzzi'. We would align our kayak perpendicular to incoming waves and the 'jacuzzi' would follow shortly. It was fun. Next thing was the banana boat. $18 per person. Damn.. later did I realize very much of the fun from banana boat was supposed to come from the boat capsizing!! The ride was really bumpy, suddenly the speed boat in front slowed down and SPED UP, MAKING A TURN! That's it - all of us in the waters. My eyes closed to a fine line, feeling really silly in the pathetic state when I could hear the laughter of Shirley behind.. What a contrast! Later, the boat capsized.. AGAIN! OMG why would anyone pay $18 to get himself capsized!!!! Ok.. I gotta admit it was fun still haha

For the rest of the day, it was raining, and we just slacked in our room till dinner. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant (and it ain't as bad as what Shirley's friends said!) A bit pricey - how much was it again? Let me try to recall..

Night was simple but fun. We played mahjong. It costed $10 for renting a mahjong set for 3 hours. Day 2 ended.

Day 3

Haha. 1 word - Mahjong! We had a heavy breakfast and played mahjong till the time was right to take the resort bus that fetched us to the ferry terminal. A short but fun trip, long enough for us to start missing our beds in Singapore though...

Supper in Canopy @ Bishan Park

2010-02-28T05:47:00.000-08:00

Sick and tired of the bustling city? Have a relaxing day in Bishan Park. On this day, Mark and I lazed at home and played some board games. After dinner, we decided to try out Canopy bar which we passed by during our morning jog a few weeks ago for supper. We haven't chilled out together for a long time.

It was way too dark for my humble 2 megapixel phone camera to capture clear photos. We sat outdoor at the garden bar just beside the restaurant. The ambience was great. Here's a photo of some decor on the tree just beside us:

Mark ordered Baileys and I had one of their signature dessert - Sticky date pudding:

It's really good. I give 5 tumbs up! Served with vanilla ice cream, the date pudding is sweet, moist and a little sticky. But its texture is more like soft cake.

I forgot what is this drink. We shall wait for Mark to update :P ( Mark: Haha.. Ok I gotta admit I don't have the name in my head... but this drink is really refreshing! I believe its some lychee drink with crushed ice and minty feel..)

Ritz Carlton Buffet Dinner

2010-02-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ok. We mentioned in one of our earlier post we'll visit Ritz Carlton again. And yes! There comes that special occasion which gives u that good reason to splurge at RC again! We were having our early V-day dinner.

This time round, we will zoom into some of the changes and bring u closer to that dessert bar.

Black chicken soup was offered this time round. The restaurant was somewhat full considering CNY was round the corner, so we speculate this could be an impromptu solution to fill up partial of our stomachs should the buffet dishes do not suffice to satisfy. It was good but quite salty.

I went back to the barbeque bar and ordered some prawns but well.. no prawns for the day but they had... LOBSTERS! Very meaty and filling. Taste wise was ok. The rest of the dishes were pretty much what we have tried on our first visit.

Take a good look at the dessert bar. The cakes all look pretty and they certainly match the 'good looks' with their 'good taste'

This is a zoom in for the sorbets we would always order to wrap up the dinner 'sweetly'. The berry and lime flavours were really good but mango was ok.

A shot outside the restaurant.

Crystal jade HK Cafe @ Orchard Central

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Honestly speaking, HK Cafe has become an overwhelming phenomenon in Singapore. Just like bubble tea, some restaurants eagerly take off in the HK Cafe direction after seeing decent successes in the pioneering batches. Crystal Jade was the latest finding for us. Hmm.. deco wise seemed abit off - a combi of Tong Shi Cafe + Cafe Cartel. They were playing Taiwanese CNY songs with MTVs which probably even our parents wouldn't enjoy too much more than us!

Foodwise.. let's take a closer look.

A weak tummy day for me meant I wasn't so looking forward to the food until...

The 'Yuan Yang' came in a COOL conical flask that has a concaved portion containing dry ice. Well, taste wise was ok, but the presentation was innovative for sure with all the smoke surging out from the centre. It actually also helps to keep the flask cool too. It impressed Shirley more than me, but the next on the list that came certainly raised my eyebrows!!

Mixed Grill!! It looked fantastic! With a decent sized portion of lamb-chop, chicken, sausage egg, it reminded Shirley of her mixed grill meal in HK. It cost only around $13. Worth every penny if you are looking to fill up your tummy in Orchard area.

Ok. Got to admit, this green tea snow ice was disappointing. I know this sounds weird but it was suppose to be my staple food for a bad tummy day haha, but at the end it was the mixed grill (okok.. generously shared by Shirley) that help make up for the snow ice. The snow ice was more of green tea syrup than real green tea powder taste, mixed with red been and jelly. Can't really taste real green tea honestly.

A place you can visit when u are really hungry and do not want to suffer the long queues else where. Foodwise - stick to mixed grill.

Ci Nai HK Cafe @ ECP

2010-02-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Wa work has been keeping me super busy! And I lost the USB cable to my HP. so sad! This is also why we haven't been posting since Dec.. hahaha... This post is for our date on 17 Jan 10. We went to one of our favourite eating place - Ci Nai HK Cafe @ ECP:

Though the decoration is far from the traditional HK cafe I've been to in HK itself, this place never failed to satisfy our hungry tummy! If I am not wrong, they open until 3am!

Here's our orderfor today: Curry fishball, Mango king (not sure of the actual name but it has icecream, jelly, mango puree, mango slices etc), yang zi gan lu with ice cream

and how can we forget their signature dish - XO sauce fried carrot cake:

Besides the fantastic menu with a wide variety of delicaies to choose from, there are live bands performing everyday. Most of the singers can sing quite well. Music varies across different languages - chinese, hokkien, cantonese... I think I haven't heard any English songs here before. Ci Nai HK Cafe is an ideal place for supper hunters like Mark and I but don't sin too much!

Mark's birthday dinner @ Ritz Carlton

2010-01-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

This was certainly one of the best restaurants I've been to for my birthday. Nice ambience and a wide choice of food for buffet. We almost missed this meal as we went for a wild goose chase and went to Carlton Hotel first before moving on to the correct 'Carlton' (with a 'Ritz' in front) Hotel. After walking some distance and arriving at the wrong hotel, we decided to ease some of the frustration by taking cab. Haha.. it was certainly worth all the effort and money after all..

The lighting was comfortable. While the buffet area was very brightly lit, the dinning area was cosy and easy on your eyes with rather dim lights.

We started the course with raw food, comprising fresh oysters, salmon sashimi and cold crab. Sashimi was decent, but oyster and crab was better. The former was really quite fresh for what you can get in Singapore while the latter was sweet.

We moved on to cooked food. Big barbecue prawns and cod fish were some of the better dishes. The prawns were prepared on order and takes around 5-10 minutes to cook.

The dessert, in terms of variety, taste and looks made us question if Fullerton's Chocolate buffet was worth your money. Well.. of course at Fullerton, the desserts were chocolate-themed. But throw in the ice cream (the sorbet ice creams taste really really REALLY GOOD!), and the winner for dessert is clear. Your can literally taste happiness when it comes to Ritz Carlton's ice creams. TRY IT!!

Look at our blissful faces, and you know you can't go too wrong with RC. Its $178 but with UOB card it costs around $160 for 2. Pamper yourself on those special occasions! A place we'll definitely visit again.

12 Dec - Home cooked lunch

2010-01-16T05:54:00.000-08:00

I've simply forgotten about this until I was uploading photos from work. On this day, I decided to cook lunch for Mark. It was an in-prompt-to thing. So we didn't caught a video of the process. Only the result, TADA:

My famous green curry chicken, dear's favourite saba fish, leftover fried rice which granny cooked for my brothers and 2 lovely coconuts!

The price for saba fish has increased 2 times ever since more korean restaurants and stalls have opened in Singapore. Shop n safe sells it in slices as above. Raw of course. It's easy to cook. Procedures are as follow:

1. Wash fish and drain off water.
2. Season with salt.
3. Heat pan with oil.
4. Pan fry fish till cooked
5. Serve with lemon slice.

Christmas Eve Dinner

2010-01-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

This is a long overdue post covering our Christmas Eve celebration together. Wanted to give Shirley a surprise and I started feeling cocky when she made all the wrong guesses where I was about to bring her. And well.. sigh.. as usual the surprise turned to 'no surprise' as she still managed to figure out it was 'Chocolate Buffet' treat she was in for eventually!

We had a short stroll along the river before heading for the well anticipated Chocolatey treat which starts at 8pm and is available till 11pm. According to the website, Chocolate Buffet is available on Fri and Sat, however on Christmas Eve, a Thu, it did not disappoint chocolate loving peeps like ourselves looking to pamper our taste buds during the festive season. It costs around $60 a person and comes together with dessert wine (we thought the wine was nice).

A place I wanted to bring Shirley to for some time already. The Fullerton Hotel's Chocolate Buffet was well-known and recommended by many. Well, the treats were equisitive but the experience fell short of our expectations, factoring the rave reviews it has earned over the years.

As we step into 'Courtyard' for the buffet, our eyes combed the place, expecting long stretches of tables displaying chocolate desserts, however our eyes were the not getting the treat as expected. Visually it could have been more impressive. What the place had were a) small round table displaying assorted chocolate cakes and desserts

b) section where you can choose from a variety of solid chocolate which the staff will melt together with milk to give u a chocolate drink ( u can choose to infuse Rose Petal, Lavender, Szechuan Pepper, Chili, Star Anise, Black Cardamon, Wasabi, Lemongrass, Ginger and Coffee into your drink but we say it doesn't taste that different) and

c) a fondue area where u basically mix and match fruits and mush mellow for a sinful chocolate dip!

With that said, it was still no doubt a worthy trip to uncover all that hype behind the Chocolate Buffet. A place we will still visit, but maybe well.. not that frequently? Below are some pictures covering those sinful looking faces indulging in a chocolatey evening..

That's all for 2009! Have a great 2010 to all!

Singapore flyer

2009-12-23T05:40:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, we finally got onto Singapore Flyer for the first time!
Mum's right. Evening is a great time for a ride on Singapore Flyer.
We boarded at around 7pm and managed to catch the sky darken to night.
Here's a compilation of the photos and videos I managed to take with my humble 2.0 Megapixel phone camera:

A splendid dinner @ Grill-Out

2009-11-10T07:51:00.002-08:00

Take 2 flights of escalator up, in front of Orchard Central all the way to The Verandah and you will find this promising logo inviting you to unit 07-01 for a good meal.

Grill-out has both indoor and alfresco dining. If you would like to enjoy the air-condition and take a peek at the fresh meat and sausages you are going to order, go for the indoors side. Mark and I chose to go for alfresco coz there was a duet playing outdoors.

We chose to sit beside the glass walls where we could have a feel of the bustling night life along Orchard road. The traffic was really bad. Even at bad economies like this, Orchard road was still flooded by shopping addicts like me :P

A wide spread of vareities was shown in the menu and the price is quite reasonable. We chose a combo set dinner for 2 which costs about $40 after extra charges. One of the best bargains the restaurant offered was wine at $6 for any main course order. Unfortunately, we were not in the mood for booze since I havent had my shopping done. :P

Here's our spread:

FOOD ALERT!! Our combo meal has pork and steak. I am not too sure what are the sauces though. One of them has rasins and it's just super yummy~!

Dains Festival @ Esplanade

2009-11-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Dains festival is held in Esplanade, over different locations. From our observation, there seems to be many works from Asian choreographers. Later, we found that this is a support through the Artist Residency programme. Most of this performances are ticketed.

For passer-bys like us, performances in the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre is ideal. The scenery from the theatre is beautiful. It is right in front of the waterfront along Marina Bay. We enjoyed a maervelous performance by an Indonesian group under the starlit sky.

The dance group is Surakarta Panji Group. As shown in the banner below, the performance is called Wayang Topeng (also known as Wayang Wong). It is a tradition dance, using masks to differentiate the different characters in the performance.

For free and entertaining performances, check out the esplanade websites when you have time. It's a great alternative to hitting the cinemas like all other "made-in-singapore" couch potatoes.

Our Archery Trial Session

2009-11-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

We have uploaded the pictures ages ago. I can't remember when we did this. Both of us have been too busy to update our blog.

On a very boring weekend, we happened to pass by this new archery shop in suntec city. It is in tower4, just opposite the row where the cinema and arcade is located. So we decided to give it a shot. Mark is just too shy to be in the picture. So here you only see my first attempt at archery:

It's a pretty cool activity. I feel like Zena or something. Hahahaha :P
The shop assistant is very helpful. He showed us the posture and guided us through our first few shots. There are several shooting packages avaliable: $5 for 12 shots, $9 for 24 shots etc. We went for the 5 bucks one since it's out first attempt.

Well, as beginners, we took some time to do manual zeroing. I think both of us managed to hit bull's eye 3 or 4 times after our first few shots. Mark was really thrilled. Ladies, not to worry. They have a female bow. it's super light. No struggle for me at all.

Probably a gd way to destress. Just imagine your enemy at the bull's eye! I wouldn't mind giving it a try again!

Address:
DM Archery
#03-040
Suntec City Mall
Entertainment Zone
Telephone Number : 97964754
Opening hours : 10am – 9pm

01 Nov 09 - Picnic by the River

2009-11-02T05:38:00.000-08:00

After a long long time, we finally have something different to blog about..
We have been living in Singapore for about a quarter of a century. Like most of the other Singapore couples, we have kind of ran out of idea for dating spots.
Yesterday, we decided to bring our son out to our last Vday spot.

Instead of going for posh crusine, we were thrilled by a great variety of local favourites under the candlelight and the nice scenery by the river. Picnic by Kallang River is quite ideal if you're sick of typical posh restaurants and joining the crowd in Orchard on the special day. Since it was just a normal day out, we did away with the candles and wine glasses which we brought along during V day.

So where exactly is this spot? At the open park opposite the row of restaurnts behind national inddor stadium. This is the view right in front of our picnic spot:

Like last time, with a much smaller budget compared to the price of usual v day set meals, we went to Kallang Airport Market to buy our food from numerous famous stalls. Here's our wonderful spread:

1. Seafood Mariana Set inclusive od Mushroom Soup and Garlic Bread
2. BBQ Chicken Wings
3. Laksa
4. Oyster Omelete
5. Chicken Chop
6. Soup Sop Drink
7. Mango pomelo
8. Papaya milk

After having our dinner, we spent our remaining time flying kite... or should I say trying to fly one! It wasn't very windy that day. But we managed to fly it for a couple of minutes every time we tried. Though we tried to take a video of it, it was too dark to see us running around like silly lil kids. :P

4 Oct 09 - Bottle Tree Park

2009-10-08T05:58:00.001-07:00

Our afternoon was spent in bottle tree park. Mediacorp has introduced this place a couple of times on TV already. It looked like a huge park with lotsa fun activities to do. So I brought Mark along to explore the place before we introduce it to our friends.

Bottle tree park was set up by 3 locals who dreamed of setting up a concept village with sports, recreational facilities, conference rooms, eateries and of coz nature, admist the bustling city. I believe that the idea is appealing to most singaporeans who spend most of our time in a very fast paced environment. It's a nice place to visit if you are sick of typical shopping centres and movie theatres in town. However, I found that it has not differentiated itself much from the other existing nature parks or beaches that we already have.

The highlight of the park are the exotic plants and trees which the owners have bought over from Australia. If I am not wrong, I heard that each bottle tree costs SGD30,000!!! WOW! I wonder if it's hard to maintain! There are a few spots for dining including a seafood restaurant and a pub. The pub is pretty cool. i would like to visit the place again in the evening.

The website boasts of various fun activities avaliable but I didn;t really get to see all of them. We only visited the prawn and fish pond, paintball playing field and 2 tracks for RC Car racing. The fish pond is especially popular amond the kids. It's kinda interesting watching the little kids trayign to scoop up small fishes all over the pond. Ha...

Overall, I feel that it's a refreshing place to visit if you are sick of the typical Singaporean weekend activities. However, my advice is not to allocate too much time for the place. It was actually quite a disappointment for me.

Address:
Bottle Tree Park
81 Lorong Chencharu (Yishun) Click here for Google Maps
Singapore 769198
Restaurant : 65 6759-7077
Office: 65 6759-5771
Fax: 65 6759-5796

4 Oct 09 - Cook Some Love

2009-10-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Mark & I finally managed to wake up early and go to the supermarket to buy groceries to make our first breakfast together after tlaking about it for a long long time. The picture below shows some of the items we used:

Can you guess what we are cooking from the pictures?

Well as usual, the guy is always using eye power. Poor me had to mix and cook practically everything. Here is a pose by Mark, pretending to be helpful (jus for show :P):

Tada!!! After about an hour or so, aunty came back and found her kitchen in a mess. Flour was flying all over the table. Ahahah~! It was only then when we finally completed our first breakfast together.

See Mr Pretend in action:

Pancakes by me, cheese sausages by me and eggs by me... well it was supposed to be scrambled eggs.. doesn't realli look like eh? but it tastes damn good, I PROMISE! Mark helped to pour orange juice and cook his own "weirdcake"...

It was a great experience, Breakfast was exceptionally good! All the love is in our stomachs!

A Visit to EIGHTEEN CHEFS

2009-10-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

After much deliberation we decided to visit somewhere beyond the usual makan places. 18 Chefs was the name Shirley suggested. Previously she had shared with me the story behind this set up.

The restaurant was started by Mr Benny Se Teo who had gone in and out of prison due to drug addiction in his younger years. Fortunately he was offered a second chance in a restaurant specially set up to hire ex-offenders. He held the position of executive chef. Being given a second chance in the society again, he is helping juvenile delinquents to re-integrate into society by equipping them with culinary skills and jobs in his humble restaurant whenever possible.

Se Teo eventually learnt about Fifteen, a restaurant set up by Jamie Oliver to help bring young peeps led astray back on track by teaching them culinary skills. Se Teo saw something he could identify with: making an purposeful effort in helping delinquents via a common set up in Singapore. So there he went, a one month stint with Fifteen. Culinary skills he learnt, but more importantly, it was how to successfully create an environment that encourages and enlighten young misled minds that they could be identify as chefs than gangsters.

The place is a cosy simple restaurant with an affordable menu. We arrived early evening with the restaurant half filled. Half an hour later the place was packed, we saw that there was good crowd of mainly students in their 15s to early 20s. Well.. since we were still not that far away from school, we opted for the student menu. Interestingly you get to mix and match your meal. 1. Pick a sauce 2. Pick the ingredients 3. Pick the additional toppings. Ta da! $6.50! But an additional topping will cost $1.5 to $3 (it comes with another free topping) So.. hehe we gave in to temptation plus in addition I ordered a soup so all in all a meal cost around $10. Well I chose 'red and white' as the sauce and scrambled egg, mushroom and fish as the ingredients. Shirley picked tangy tomatoe for sauce but what were the ingredients again?? Oops.. The lemon tea was good the soup? Its alright..

Not known as a refined eating place with extra fine dishes, I thought its still value for money and a refreshing concept. 4 thumbs up out of 5 I would say.

Exact address:
3 Simei Street 6,
Eastpoint Mall, #01-36,
Singapore 528833
(Located beside POSB)
Tel: 6782 1298