It's snowing!!!

We will never ever get to experience snow in Singapore. If that happens, we're probably in deep shit.

So, the nearest we can enjoy artificial snow (other than in Jurong) is ..... Genting!

The cooling weather at Genting is enticing enough. To add on, the newly renovated Snow World at First World Plaza in Genting is one of the signature attractions over there!

That is a double incentive for you to go to Genting :D

Check out this link for more details:

http://www.rwgenting.com.sg/en/themepark/rides/indoor/snowworld/index.htm

Kuru Kuru

N and I had a buffet dinner to celebrate our JC classmate's birthday at Kuru Kuru Japanese Restaurant. The food was better than what I expected!

The weekday dinner buffet is about 30 plus for adults. The variety is wide and I did not manage to try every single dish but many of the recommended dishes did not disappoint. I did not take pictures of every dish as we were too busy eating and talking.

Valley Point

491 River Valley Road #01-07

 Teriyaki Salmon (Top most) - Quite a simple dish. Grilled salmon drizzled with teriyaki sauce. Tasty!

Yaki Niku  - This stir-fried beef is awesome! It is the usual sweetly marinated thinly sliced beef stir fried with garlic and onions, sesame seeds.... I ate 2 plates on my own. This comes in another flavour - Black Pepper, which was nice because the black pepper taste is not overwhelming.

Seasoned Baby Octopus and Teriyaki Chicken (tastes similar to its Salmon counterpart)

 Two pictures of this - Pork Belly. It was soooooo well marinated and it tastes like the Cha Shu of a nice Japanese Ramen. The fats disintegrate easily and once it melts in your mouth. (I only tried a little as it was too unhealthy)

 Fresh sashimi, generously sliced. Salmon, octopus, yellow tail, tuna, sea bass.

The crowd wasn't very good. Probably cos of the location? Location wise, I felt that it was pretty off - quite a distance to the nearest MRT station. Nonetheless, it was a good dining experience! (:

The staff were observant and service was prompt. The dishes that we ordered all arrived in the right quantity despite us placing order messily. Sadly, the dessert were not included in the buffet. A top-up is required so we gave it a miss.

Love Anastasia Clutch and LB top!

One can never get enough of shopping

Besides eating, gambling, having fun at the theme park and enjoying the cool weather, you can also do some shopping at Genting! 

I often hear people saying that Genting is boring, activities are limited, but NONONO!

My friends and I had to much fun the last time we went!

There are so many things we have not explored and be fore we do so, we should keep our judgements to ourselves!

This time round, Genting is having a Late Night Shopping Event from 9 November to 31st December!

All shops will extend opening hours to 1am.

SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK. 

Click here for more details:

http://www.rwgenting.com.sg/en/shopping/index.htm

Johnson Duck Rice + Stayover + Birthday Celebration

I met up with N for dinner along Macpherson Road as his office is nearby. This place is a hidden find!

Johnson Duck. Done a search online and I found that there is a stall called Johnson Duck & Chicken at Ghim Moh Food Center. Most likely they're related. The logo is the same.

Anyway, I think this place is quite new. The interior is not like a coffeeshop. It is clean, furnished with wooden tables and chairs. 

The menu has quite a variety of dishes and the had some promotion going on for the Claypot Rice.

Waiting time for the claypot rice is up to 30mins so I'm guessing that they used the raw rice and cooked it from scratch. 

We ordered the Set Meal for 2 : 2 rice, duck meat, soup, beancurd and 2 drinks and it costs $12 (I added Kai Lan, which costs $3).

Pretty affordable for the spread right! Am average plate of duck rice would cost about $3.50 already.

Anyway, the food came as a surprise. The soup and beancurd was WAYYYY above expectation.

The soup was a bittergourd soup, with minced meat, tofu as well as some ginger slices. Light and complements the whole meal.

I would expect the beancurd to be the braised tau kwa... Probably one piece, sliced thinly and served on a small plate. But NO, the beancurd is a sweet and spicy beancurd, with shallots, spring onions and a little bit of minced meat. It wasn't FANTASTIC, but the fact that they serve an unexpected plate of beancurd was just commendable!

The duck was okay. Nothing very special, but it wasn't bad either. The sauce was a little bit different from normal duck rice sauce. Well, you could say it has the taste of a normal duck rice sauce, just that it has a tinge of herbal taste infused in it. I love it! The sauce wasn't oily as well, and I soaked my rice in it :D

A really worth it meal I would say! Sadly, their business isn't very good. Probably cos it's new? Or based on their renovation, passersby would think that the food would be expensive. That said, a plate of Char Siew or Roast Pork rice is only $2.50!

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Two days ago I tweeted "The most not-looked-forward-to birthday of the year"

Well, it was jiaqi's birthday. We did not plan surprise on the actual day itself so I went to stayover at her hall so that she could spend the first few moments of her birthday with me :D

Had a simple steamboat & grill dinner and her friends came over with a pint of Haagen Dazs at 12 to celebrate with her. She was screaming and shouting "It's my birthday" for a good whole 15minutes at least and I swear the whole hall or even several other blocks could hear her loud and clear.

I was not amazed. Very used to this.

We spent the night studying. It wasn't very productive for me as I spent 4hours to complete one pathetic reading. 

Lunched with Jiaqi the next day and I took a bus home. Rested for awhile and met up with bball girls at NEX where we bought a Strawberry Shortcake at Four Leaves and went to have Sliced Fish Soup outside SRJC. Our favourite hang out place and we've been frequenting that stall even though we've all graduated. My favourite is E-mian, with additional fish egg. Some stalls do have eggs but it just has a very strong, pungent taste and there's a yellow gooey stuff, which according to my mum, is the gall. The fish egg from this stall is always clean and very well-prepared and cooked.

  

  

The saddest birthday song ever. Everyone just had enough of her and couldn't wait for her birthday to be over. HAHAHAH.

Royal China

Last Thursday, I finally had a chance to go our with Reg for lunch. It was a birthday (super belated one) treat from me and knowing that she like dim sum, I decided to bring her to Royal China! N and I went there in April this year and it did not disappoint! I was there early and had to wait for a while because parking was very expensive and she had some difficulty in find a place to park.

 Beautiful colonial inspired exterior..

Baked Char Siew Puff

 Thin, fluffy and buttery crust with a flavourful char siew filling in its core... Yummy!

 Har Gow.

Generous filling of fresh succulent prawns. Skin was pretty thin! But it wasn't something that wow-ed me.

 Love the Siew Mai! I really dislike low quality siew mai that contains minced meat/lots of fats.

This is really good. Addition of a wolfberry and a stalk of parsley made it stand out (:

 Pan-fried XO Carrot Cake. I'm quite impressed by the fact that the carrot cake is not plain carrot cake. When bite through the cubes, you could actually find mushroom and minced meat. However, I still prefer Canton-i's version. Probably because I couldn't taste any chai poh in this.

 Liu Sha Bao was a disappointment. The buns were not very fluffy and the taste wasn't very distinct. Maybe because it was infused with mango flavour? But I couldn't taste it despite it being mentioned in the menu ):

 A really interested dish! Superior soup with a mega huge dumpling. The dumpling is really special. Wrapped with thin skin, it has crabmeat, scallop and many more ingredients as filling!

 Smooth, velvety chee cheong fun (3 fillings- scallop, char siew, prawn) that glides down your throat

 The egg tarts were good! I like it that it is puny (;

Deep-fried Beancurd Skin. Dou kee is quite and some don't have impressive filling. This one is good!

Very unique dessert here.. Apple Jelly, with aloe vera (and some other fruits if I remember correctly). The cashew nuts gave the dessert a really special taste and crunch! Thumbs up!

Avocado puree with pearl in coconut, with a scoop of chocolate ice cream.

While avocado and chocolate is quite a common combination. Bringing in the coconut as a third party is unusual. The avocado puree is very smooth and creamy. I thought the coconut is quite a calafare and complicates it without giving it anything special. Just the puree and chocolate ice cream is nice enough!

We spent about $89 in total.

Updated on 17th May 2013

I went there for the 3rd time and these are some new dishes that I've tried:

Roasted Pork (烧肉) a.k.a Shio Bak

The roasted pork is fantastic. Crispy skin, yet not overly salty. On top of that, the pork has a thinner layer of fat, makes it less jelat and you can just enjoy the pork at ease :D

The peanuts were gently fried (or roasted?) and the fragrance is at its optimum. 

Scallop Dumpling 

I was wondering why did I not order this dish the previous few times I visited this place. It probably did not stand out as a dish to order. But, as a scallop lover, I like this dish for the freshness of the scallop as well as the bits of caviar on it.

Egg Tart

These dainty egg tarts are so mini and so cute! The crust is light and flaky, but I would prefer the filling to be softer and smoother.

Steamed Pork Ribs

Most meh-ish dish =.= Don't waste the money

Sliced Fish Congee

My friend wanted a staple dish, if not I would give this a miss. The porridge is no doubt smooth and creamy, but at the same time, it was pretty grainy. It tasted quite plain and there were only a few slices of fish. The biscuits (similar to those found on Yu Sheng) did not do a favour for the porridge as well.

Though the food was good, I am really turned off by their service. Even after reservation, we had to wait for like 15-20 mins to get seated (when there were some big empty tables around). I guess they just did not want to utilize the big table for only 2 people. In addition, my friend had a stroller. The staff gave us such a squeezy table. Difficult to get staff's attention. 

Placed order at 2pm.... At 2.20, the food is not here..and guess what, a waitress came to us an said "Our last order is at 2.30, is there anything you wish to add on?" (in Mandarin) I looked at her and said "None of our dishes are served yet and now you asked me for last order?!"

In my mind I was thinking "How would I know if I would be able to finish the food I ordered and whether I needed to order more dishes?!" Yes, I do understand that they have to settle the accounts and close the register etc...But, the fact is that their service is slow, yet even before any food is served, you are asked to place your last order, I find that very annoying.

Shopping in Genting!

The above picture was taken the last time I went to Genting, which was a year ago! It was quite an impromptu trip and we just wanted a mini getaway before uni started.

When it comes to late night activities in Genting, I can only think of Casino. Then again, I don't gamble. So I've never stepped into it before.

Good news is.... There will be a Late Night Shopping Event from 9th November to 31st December!

All shops in First World Plaza will be opened from 10am to 1am!

Visit this link for more details: 

http://www.rwgenting.com.sg/en/shopping/index.htm

Day trip to Klang (Gunung Lambak + UK farm)

Some time back in January, before the boy got enlisted, we had a day trip to Klang together with his family and his parents' friends. It was pretty interesting and a good getaway I would say! 

We started off with having breakfast at a local coffeeshop. After which, we trekked up Gunung Lambak!

(A check on Google translate shows that Lamak=pile/heap so, gunung lambak = a heap of mountain??)

 Us before the trek!

Floral and fauna seen along the way.

Reached the summit! (Not exactly the highest point)

Mark jumping for joy.

We also visited a local farm called UK farm. The place is HUMONGOUS. Signed up for a tour and the guide within the farm drove us around on the bus (or truck?) and allowed us to stop at different points and alight to get close up to the animals!

 The sheeps are such funny animals! They just keep "mehhhhhh-ing", monotonously. One mehs and the others follow. (and their mehs sound really human. When you "meh" they follow too.

 We carried the baby sheep!

 

This is where I really witnessed the "Lost sheep". The sheep were released for grazing and when their time is up, the sheep dog will actually run around to gather the sheep and some of the more blur ones will just stone there and lag behind. Hilarious!!

I think Ostriches are so pretty! Just look at their lashes.

And they are so demure and silent, kind of give me the mysterious feel.

 The horses are all named (:

Apart from animals, there are many other interesting sections to visit at the farm such as Mushroom, Herbs and Vegetables, Passion Fruit etc.!