Monday, January 31, 2011

Flying Chillies....

It's getting so close to the end of January, 1/12 of the year is nearly gone. Gone. Just like that.

The school is on the break, which is designed to coincide with Chinese New Year, therefore they all have a full fat week off. We all know that the classes only started three weeks ago, but being an international school set out in a country with Chinese as majority in population, that works fine as well.

Miss K and I tried to shop, we needed to buy a few things and we were glad we found what we were looking for. Unfortunately, when we got home, we found that the lady gave us the wrong size of dress for my dear shopping buddy. What a bummer! That's one more thing to sort out!



We headed for late lunch, as usual, after shopping. That's around 3PM. Just great, most of the restaurants were not packed. Our choices were between Italian and Thai at 313 Somerset. After viewing their menu - as if they were accurate prediction to the greatness of the food - we went for Thai.



It is the place where DH wanted to try but has not got around to, called Flying Chillies. We, being really boring at the time, went for our typical orders. Fish cakes for appetizer, Chicken Pad Thai, Green Curry with Chicken and Sweet Tapioca with coconut milk for dessert. Yes, it was the same old one. Completely super boring.



I personally did not find both their curry and the tapioca appealing. The rests are ordinary. As always, I have to say that I have to try before I know whether a restaurant is worth a return visit. For this one, it is a maybe.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Fresh...



Occasionally I like to put my indoor plants outside to get some small amount of water from the sky. I pick the day when the sun hides behind some thick layer of cloud. It has been raining a lot here. The weather has been mostly pleasant. It drizzled and rained lightly yesterday and I thought I should put my Boston Fern outside to freshen up and brought them back in in the morning. They looked good.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Unplanned Chicken Rice

We had our annual visit to China town, in conjunction with Chinese New Year, last Monday. We just wanted to see, actually it was DH's idea. I, simply, did not care as much. We did not want to buy anything or do anything other than sightseeing. He said, it was supposed to be the largest ever, the newspaper said. To us, it looked the same like previous years'. Except, more rabbit things, as of course, the next Chinese year will be Rabbit Year.



We were done after 10 minutes and we decided to have lunch at the popular Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice stall at Maxwell Road Hawker Centre. We were there around 3:30PM, naturally most people would have had lunch. There was no queue that normally everyone has to suffer through at lunch time. For S$3 per plate, it was a great value for the money.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies



These cookies are so good, but I can't take the whole credit though. Thanks to Betty Crocker's Peanut Butter Cookie Mix that I still had. All I needed to do was adding an egg and a few tablespoons of oil and water to the mix and stirred them well.




Of course, I poured in just enough chocolate chips before scooping them to the baking pans and baked them. They are chewy and addictive.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Soaked....

It rained so much today, it practically rained the whole day. It looked rather gloomy and depressing. But, I must say, it is nice to have cool weather here sometimes as we do have some torturing heat at at times. We could make use of our cardigans. Yay.



Our Yellow Alders were blossoming really nicely this morning before the rain came. They are all wet and soaked now. Don't be dishearted, there will be more flowers tomorrow. Happy thought!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Chive Dumplings



There's always a special place in our heart for dumplings. They are easy to prepare, particularly if you buy the ready-made-frozen ones. A-ha! (Ssshhhhsss....)



Simply pan fried, then add a little amount of water and let them cook until the water runs nearly dry. The meal is ready! Talking about fast food. It's so fast indeed.





Monday, January 24, 2011

Hot Dog!



Why not? It was my lunch today. It would not be my first choice but I got a bag of four hotdog buns for free when I bought a loaf of bread yesterday. The last time we got a some hot dog buns, we had them passed expiration date and I had to toss them away. Nobody seemed to be interested. They were gift too. That should have been turned down, but I would not know unless I took them home first. This time, we will do our best not to waste them. Therefore I had it for lunch. O-yum!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Red Anjou Pears



Miss K initiated buying a red Anjou pear about a month or two ago and we practically have been stocking some at home ever since. I am looking into making some tarts using the pear, looking for the good old recipe around......

Friday, January 21, 2011

Chicken Katsu Curry



There are many Japanese restaurant around where we stayed, when we were in Sydney. Unlike Japanese restaurants here in Singapore which employ mostly locals, we noticed that the waiters and servers were mostly Japanese. We went to one located in the basement of World Square one night to have dinner and I got to enjoy Chicken Katsu Curry that I used to love and back am loving it again recently. This is one of the better ones that I have tasted.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Grown ....



Within days, the baby ZZ plant is all out and grew and is bigger than the others in the pot.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Pineapple Tarts

In about two weeks we will begin a new Chinese Year. The year of Golden Rabbit will commence on 3 February.



One of the reminders that Chinese New Year is nearing is when you seen people start selling pineapple tarts. They come in different shapes and designs, some of them come with more fillings than the others, some are sweeter, some are just not as sweet. Ultimately it all depends on what you like best. We tried this one from a mini market in one shopping mall nearby. They are alright, I have tasted better ones somewhere, sometime ago....

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Growing Baby!



A baby ZZ plant is growing, bringing new excitement to the existing plants in the pot, I think. The whole pot looks better. I like it. ZZ plant is a very slow growing plant, therefore, any new plants are so welcome.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A Gift



My mother in law sent me two potted plants, one of which is this plant, the one with porcupine looking flower. I know that this plant is going to grow taller than me, but for the time being, it is still tiny but producing nice flowers. Anyone knows the name?

Monday, January 10, 2011

Monkey Breads ...

'

There are so many different versions of monkey breads. I simply could not decide on whether the classic cinnamon sugar or the one with cheese. So I went with both. Why not? They both are equally appealing to those who love anything sweet and the cheese lovers.



I reduced the gooey-ness by cutting the amount of sugar-butter mixture poured over, as I thought we all could have more than enough sweetness with whatever I had. It was still good.



As for the cheese bread, I just had fun by placing grated cheese all over the place and mostly on top. Yes, it was fluffy and finger-licking good too! I had to eat both....



Thursday, January 06, 2011

Crossing The Helix Bridge



We made another attempt to have lunch at Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre, this time we wanted to try something better like Daniel Boulod's or Wolfgang Puck's. To our disappointment, both of they only open for dinner which left us looking for a place to eat. There are many restaurants, but somehow, we were not too keen. There's a food court by the skating rink that sells all food from various countries like India, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and many others. Miss K, who tends to refuse eating in most food courts and fast food places, convinced us that she was willing to wait while we eat. In short, we did not like the food and the service there. I don't think we will go back there again.



Our car was parked at Ritz Carlton, a couple minutes away from Marina Bay Sands, therefore we had to walk through the Helix Bridge that I had never been. Up to that point, I only watched the bridge from afar.





The above is the Float, i.e. the floating platform where many famous celebrities have performed in many different occasions. Towards the left, far away, our residence can be seen too. We just have to zoom the original large size of the picture above to get a better view. .



The Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the bridge can be seen on the picture above.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Samsui Chicken



I got try a new dish at a new place for my first meal outside, this year. We dined at Soup Restaurant in Vivocity. DH suggested their set menu which was priced at $45 for 2, before tax & services, it consisted of soup, their famous Samsui Chicken, sliced fish and vegetables. That sounded like a nice balanced meal and we were very hungry too, so we went with the selection to try as many.



The soup was herbal chicken soup served in a tall bowl while the Samsui chicken was served on a large plate with a bowl of roughly minced ginger sauce in the center. A plate of lettuce was presented with that, supposedly to wrap the chicken that is put in there with the sauce and sliced cucumbers. Of course, you can it eat it in whichever you wish as well. It was flavorful, I love the sauce the best. The rests of dishes are alright for me. I am glad we tried.



Saturday, January 01, 2011

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year to everyone! Whether we like it or not, it is 2011 and we all have to get use to it. I was asleep when 2010 ended, but the loud cheer from the crowd down 40 floors below and a couple hundred meters away, woke me up, followed by the boom-boom-more-boom sounds, if that's the way to describe the fireworks sound, from the firework displays away, away, away and a distance away, from Marina Bay area, which is visible from our place here. I have come to realized that it would be almost impossible for a light sleeper like me to sleep through the night here, on New Year's eve.



2010 has been a great collection of life experiences. Have a greater year, 2011!!