Random

My colleague came back from Japan and bought Almond Tofu Kit Kat and Wasabi Kit Kat. I didn't try the Wasabi (green packaging) coz I never liked Wasabi nuts so Wasabi chocolate is way too weird for me. I'm not too adventurous when it comes to food. This almond taste is surprisingly really strong, weird but nice! She also bought us lots of Japanese crackers! I love it when friends come back from Japan because the snacks are usually nicely packaged and looks soo good!

I bought Lego City set for my nephew's birthday. He asked me to teach him how to do it because unlike the other Lego sets where you can build anything free style, Lego City requires you to follow the picture step by step and build it into cars and things. So I sat down on Saturday and taught him how to follow the photo and plug the Lego piece by piece. After 15 minutes, he said "Ah Kor, you do ok. I go out and watch TV". Then he ran out. He came in every 10 minutes to ask "ARE YOU DONE" all the way until I'm done!

This..is meaningless photo obviously. My friend said I seldom post photo of myself?! So here you go, major camwhoring.

Tomorrow is Friday already woo hoo! This week passed surprisingly fast!!! There's still mountain of work piling but somehow things are becoming surprisingly easy so it's quite a breeze. The toughest part at work is trying to understand when 1 Chinese (from China) + 1 Taiwanese + 1 Indian discussing things in English in a meeting =D =D

Thank god it's Friday!!!

Street Jazz

Since the boy has migrated and I don't have to travel down to KL on weekends, I've been considering to go back to class after like...3 years?! So I googled up the dance studios and like this particularly one. And coincidentally Grace posted the SAME video up in her FB the day after. Is it a sign wtf.

But anyway after viewing more videos I think I'm too old for this shit and not fit for dancing anymore =(

You've Got Mail!

Look what came in the mail! Technically, look what came in the mail 4 months ago wtf. It was mailed during Christmas and I only got it recently since it's sent to my hometown.

When I was around 16 years old, I had the opportunity to live in Japan as a youth exchange. I lived with the Arai family in Tokyo city, before I moved to the countryside (1 hour from Tokyo city) with the Watanabe family.

I have only 1 host sister Naoko in Tokyo (another older host sister was on her exchange to the US at that time), and 2 brothers from the Watanabe family. Oh and how can I forget them because my older host brother Yoshiko, who's 1 year older than me, is the prom king in his secondary school! I spent most of my nights teaching him English to differentiate 'him', 'his', 'she', 'her' and simple grammars and helped him with his English homework.

My host sister Naoko is really sweet. She mailed me and sent me several cards already, and she still try to write to me in English even though she can hardly make a proper sentence.When I was living with them, she's only 14! She has graduated and is a nurse now. Well, I also completed my Japanese elementary and moving to the next level already. Hopefully I'll be able to write back to her in Japanese soon!

Sigh. Those are awesome experiences I'll always always always treasure. I live like a princess there because they treat me sooooo good and buy me almost everything I LOOK at. If I walk past something and I stare at it a little longer, then when I get home, they're all wrapped up and placed on my bed as gifts. I'm serious! They brought me around Tokyo, and cities around Tokyo, even Fuji (!) and we took like hundreds of purikura together. I still have some of them but they're mostly fading already. One thing I regret is I didn't eat enough sushi and ramen. They brought me to Chinese restaurant everyday because they worry I'm not used to it and want me to feel at home.

I miss Japannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Aunt Joan

I'm a proud aunt to a new niece born today!!!!!!!!

Wimbly Lu The Chocolate Cafe Singapore

I'm not a dessert person. I like to end my meal with plain water and that's about it. If there's dessert, I'll probably just have 5 bites the most. Anything more that that it makes me nauseated. However, I've read many reviews on Wimbly Lu . No good words for the breakfast menu and other desserts except for Blackout Cake and Waffles.

 

It's hard to miss the vintage red and white beetle stationed at the doorway.  I have no idea what the significance of this beetle is.

Interior is comfortable, cooling and quiet. Overhead  clear glass ceiling lets in good amount of sun.

I'm not a fan of very chocolatey things (brownies or 3 layers chocolate cake or anything similar. Can't remember the last time I have something like that, maybe 10 years ago wtf) hence I did not order the Blackout Cake. I settled with the most raved about - Waffles with salted caramel ice cream (S$8.50) and iced chocolate (S$6) with decent amount of whipped cream.

Waffle does not disappoint. It is crispy and ice cream is good with just the right amount of salt to draw out the caramel's sweetness.Though I thought the waffle tasted a littleeeee bitter but I can live with that. Iced chocolate, however, was very disappointing. I don't even know how Iced Chocolate can be that bad. It's diluted and too water-ish for my liking.

Plain water is free! I detest places which charge for water.

The cafe prepares different types of seats. The usual ones under the open glass ceiling, sofa seats at the corner, kids play area right behind the sofa seats and also garden seats.

Although the waffle is ok but I don't think I would visit the place again because it's not very accessible through public transport and it's quite a fuss to go there just for a mediocre waffle and no other good food (never tried others but other reviews have raved about waffle but gave negative comments on food).

Wimbly Lu
15-2 Jalan Riang,
358987,
Singapore.
+65 6289 1489

Valentine's Day 2012

I almost never eat out on Valentine's Day. Too many couples queuing, low food quality and obviously overpriced. Whats with the "no ala carte today only valentine's menu packages?"

The plan was for me to stay here and him to stay in KL then we'll celebrate belated Valentine's. But he made a surprise visit so we made an exception to dine out since it's not convenient to cook at home. I had to work till almost 7pm so the most obvious choice is...Clarke Quay. Easily accessible by MRT and I don't have to change line to go home. As we didn't make any advance booking so I reckoned most of the restaurants would be fully booked. Clarke Quay has 20 over restaurants so I don't believe we can't even get a table there!


Ended up in Ramen Santouka, famous for its Tokusen Toriniku Ramen, which is the pork cheek ramen. It boasts of the tenderness of the pork cheek and according to the advertisement, there's only 200-300gm of pork cheek from every pig, which makes it quite rare.


Spicy ramen with chasyu.


Central organized the "Locks of Love by the River" where with every $50 spent, you can take a photo at the arc of love and secure the love tag on the gate with the lock.

"This event is centered around the symbolic Lock of Love, whereby each couple inscribes a short message on a tag and secures it on the gate together with the lock. However, prior to the symbolic securing of lock, the couple will be invited to walk through an arc of love and ring a bell. It has been said that couples who do this attain unending love. This practice is especially popular in Japan where couples see it as a way to profess and seal their everlasting love for each other."


Obviously after spending $50 my arc of love photo is spoiled by another loving couple wtf.


Sat at the riverside enjoying ice cream. We looked over at the restaurants in Clarke Quay, and they're not even crowded. We thought all the restaurants will be fully booked. Either people don't come to Clarke Quay to celebrate or it's true that most couples refused to get conned by the overrated Valentine's Day!

Santouka

6 Eu Tong Sen Street #02-76,

The Central,

Singapore.

+65 6224 0668

Victor's Kitchen Dim Sum Singapore

My favorite item from a dim sum restaurant is the custard buns. I still remember the first time I bite into the bun and it literally exploded and the piping hot egg custard came oozing out!

I googled to find any dim sum places in Singapore that is not too expensive. There are many recommendations but mostly are in Orchard Road and they are on the pricey side. A search in HungryGoWhere brings me to Victor's Kitchen. It's one unpretentious little shop with close to no decoration and tables are all jumbled together to sit as many people as possible. It's almost like the Hong Kong Char Chan Teng feel.


It's at the far end of Sunshine Plaza next to manga and printing shops.


A look into Victor's Kitchen. Most of the tables are placed together in a long row so people have to share their tables. The yellow stickers on the walls are all written "MUST TRY: CUSTARD BUN".


The other reason I took the 1 hour bus here is to try the HK Summer Ice Tea (香港夏日冰镇奶茶，$3). Everybody knows I loveeeeeeeee my milk tea, especially if it sits in a pool of ice so it would be kept undiluted. We enjoyed both the milk tea and the Chicken & Sausage glutinous rice. My first impression wasn't good. It looks white and..plain. But damn, was I wrong, it was fragrant, packed with loads of meat and it was drizzled in the meat sauce hence made it sticky.


Her World magazine review of the best custard buns in Singapore. I am soooooo excited to try the custard bun since it's so highly raved about!


Meh. I bite into it and there's no sauce exploding out. What disappointment! It's a really ordinary custard bun. Either we're unlucky to get one lousy basket or it IS really not up to expectation.


The rest of the things are nothing to shout about. They're mediocre and costs about $3-$4 per basket.

I might go back again to try out the custard bun. I can't believe it's that ordinary when everyone else has praised it and wrote about how good they are!

Victor's Kitchen

91 Bencoolen Street #01-21,

Sunshine Plaza,

Singapore.

+65 9838 2851