Yay to long weekend in Singapore

Enjoyed the Hari Raya Puasa long weekend that has just passed. It was great to just rest and not to have to think of work (except for 1 hour on Sunday - no choice, boss messaged).

Spent Saturday packing the house (G was coming to visit) before heading to Ikea (so so crowded) then Vivo City for dinner with the family (SS was flying off to Seoul the next day).

Sunday was spent at home packing again (LOL) before staying over at my parents' place. Feeling very domestic.

No Monday blues as I went cycling at East Coast Park (ECP) with C and KL Did I mention before that we can now cycle from ECP to Marina Bay Sands via the Park Connector Network (PCN)? Have done it thrice and loved it! Definitely looking forward to this healthy fun again soon :) The finale? Meeting Grace for dinner before heading to my place. Was a good catch-up as it has been a while since Maldives (check out Life is an adventure).

Photo stop at the Bay. Glad we started the day early - Singapore is beautiful in the morning too!

That's our CBD.

First time I cycled past the Barrage to MBS. That's the older part of the CBD (as I termed it).

Another beautiful side of Singapore that I seldom see in the morning.

Back to where we started the day at Marine Parade Food Centre. Herd mentality got us queueing for the Kun Ji duck rice/roasted meat and the Da Dong prawn noodle.

Not in sight is the Apollo Fresh Cockle Fried Kway Teow which we have wolfed down- surprised there was no queue!

#ilovelongvacationsg #longweekend #harirayapuasa #food #East Coast Park #MarinaBaySand #ECP #MBS #MarineParadeFoodCentre

Walk and Dim Sum Chinatown

Sometimes, it's quite ironic that we travel the world to explore far flung places while we  have not explored so many places in our own backyard. A mental note to myself to check out more places in Singapore and share them with you #ilovelongvacationsg

It was Dim Sum time with the family last Sunday #throwback Been a while since I have been to Chinatown and I took the chance to walk around after lunch. Feels like a tourist in my country and don't get me wrong - it feels good.

Kind of bring back good memories of Jonker Street in Malacca and Georgetown in Penang. Definitely a good place to hunt for vintage stuff -  saw some metal posters going for $6 each (think they will cost double in the shops). So fascinated by the find that I forgot to take pictures of them! Haha. Anyways, sharing some pictures I took below

Didn't knew we had a visitor center in Chinatown! Visitor centres are usually one of the first places I visit when I travel, especially if I did not do much research. Good to see one at home - go check them out, friends of Singapore！

So we have these floor markers in Singapore too! Very apt to use rickshaw on the floor marker in Chinatown as in chinese, 牛车水 literally means 'trishaw pulled by cows'.  

Spotted our very own ice-cream on rickshaw before entering Buddha Tooth Relic Temple for the first time.Was asked to leave as my dress was 4cm above the knees. Oops. Do take note of attire if you are planning to visit. 

Dim sum at Tak Po was OK but considered good for the price - less than $100 for 5 pax. The frog leg claypot porride was good - must try! :)

In-between work:Lobster Rolls and Pork Noodles

Was looking through the photos taken in July with my mobile phone. Up to nothing much, except for going on a short weekend trip to Chiangmai (which I word-pressed in http://ilovelongvacation.wordpress.com/) and checking out some much-hyped about food in-between work.

Lobster rolls must be one of the latest food fad in town. Had my first one at Platypus Lobster Shack with the girls at Pickering Street after work one day. Not awesome, but wholesome :)

Cosy cafe specialising in lobster rolls after 6pm. 

The making of the lobster rolls. Looks simple. But it took a while before we were served....

The best shot I took of the lobster roll served with chips and salad. Too cosy were the lighting! We all chose The Traditional flavor, this being our first visit. Served in other flavours too. Like sun-dried  tomatoes, smoked paprika, spicy diablo etc. 

Had the famous Tai Hwa Pork Noodles (Bak Chor Mee) for lunch at Crawford Lane. Was such a long wait of 1.5 hours! Tasty but don't think  I will do it again for lunch. Too much of a queue - for taxi and then food. LOL.

Bak Chor Mee! Ingredients were cooked just right - nothing over cooked or under cooked. Sounds really simple right? But really hard to strike that dedicate balance, I think 

Huge portion of pork balls soup! Tangy balls and savory soup :)

Wish I had found the energy and time to blog earlier about these food options so you can check out if you work near or are near the CBD. Not really a fan of checking out food during and after working hours though - guess not in the food mood :P Always more enjoyable to explore our backyard on weekends (which I have spent quite a few checking out flats these days...taking a break this weekend because I'm running the Half Marathon tomorrow!!)

Fooding around Chinatown

Feeling good after my first 4KM of the year! A good end to a not very happening week - just been Fooding around (while working) :)

Had 开工 (start work) lunch with my team at Paradise Pavilion, which is famous for its Peking Duck. Thought it was so-so only but the dim sum was good! No pictures though - funny how we don't food-porn at work :P

Attended an ex-colleague's wedding yesterday at Amara Hotel and the food was good. So was the company :) Also no pictures because....haha...



 

Latest Foodages - Dim Sum with the family at Mouth Restaurant today. For me, I preferred the fried Dim Sum to the steamed items. The filling was quite sumptuous, I must say.Frog leg porridge was nice. The rice roll was not good. Haha.



 



We were at the China Square branch at 10.30am and the restaurant was not very crowded, so it was good for a cosy dim sum breakfast. Wanted to soak in the Chinese New Year festivity at Chinatown but it started drizzling. Another time, perhaps? About two weeks to the Horse Year! :)

Asian Food and Goodbye 2013!

Happy New Year in about an hour (Singapore time)!

Looking back (yes, it sounds cliche), it has been a year of blogging about my vacation in Singapore (time off work really to wander around Singapore, try new things and do things I feel like doing) and to share my life in words. I usually blog about my travels in the other wordpress: http://ilovelongvacation.wordpress.com/

Quite surprised that many of my blogs were about cafes in Singapore (because I never really think of myself as a foodie :P) and many of you have taken time to read those blogs (thanks!).

Well, it's been nice winding down the year with Asian food and ending the year with a blog to share Instagram pics @ilovelongvacation) with you.



Christmas Eve Dinner with my parents - quite unusual to eat hawker food on this day but well, my parents wanted to. Haha. Had porridge (with pork intestines and frog legs), fried oyster, rice with basil chicken (didn't take picture) and rounded up dinner at Tiong Bahru Food Centre with Ice Kacang :) It's been a while since I went there with my parents, so it's quite a nice way to spend Christmas Eve.  

 

 

 

 

Boxing Day dinner with my bestie whom I have known for more than 2.5 decades! Amazing how we have all grown up - she's now a career woman cum mummy of a 3-year-old girl :) We had Korean food at Bornga at Vivo City - pork soup, grilled pork and seafood pancake. This was our first time there - heard good reviews about this restaurant which started in the Star Vista. Quite nice, I would say. We were so full!

 


Fish soup noodle for lunch at Asia Square :) It's a new stall and it's been a while since I had this... and met an ex-colleague for lunch.

 

Roti Prata bought by my father from a food centre near our place :) Very thankful to him for always ensuring we go to work with a full stomach. Haha.

 

Lunch with colleagues at Yew Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice, Noodle House. We took a free ride on the newly opened Downtown Line from Downtown Station to Chinatown Station. Now we have more food choices :) Yee Kee has been a while too...



And last but not least, the last lunch of 2013 - Buka God Ramen at Ramen Champion at Bugis+ Quite authentic food and ambiance - a nice place to lunch deliciously alone. LOL.

 Whether you are feasting away or counting down at the year-end parties, enjoy the last moments of 2013! See you in 2014! :)

12 days to Christmas - #1 Antoinette

Gosh! It's been so long since I last blogged! November flew by - with half of it spent in Taiwan and the other half hard at work before I went on leave and after I came back from leave...

After 2 weekends of wedding feasts in December, am I glad to be able to finally to start the weekend with a brunch! :) Visited Antoinette at 30 Penhas Road (off Lavender Street) with XF and GT - at first I thought it would be difficult to find the place but it's quite easy, really :) Exit B from the MRT station, go past V hotel and then a condominium, turn left when you see Penhas Road and there you find Antoinette!

Some Instagram shots (Rise effect) to share!

Quiet when we reached. Guess people go there for lunch, more than brunch... Very nice ambiance...

Merry Xmas! :) Used the Daiso curlers I got in Taipei for NT39 (less than SGD2) and the girls said I look good. LOL. May I should blog about the stuff I got from the trip...

Christmas goodies look good! Might have gotten the meringue, if I was going straight home... 

What I had! Top: Very nice Antoinette cake and good café latte. The pancakes were ok....

What the girls had. Not bad too...

 

 

Nice place but doesn't give me the feel-at-home vibe...

Been finding it easier to Instagram these days instead of blog, so do follow me @ilovelongvacation :) Maybe I should try Dayre one day, starting in 2014 perhaps? But it feels good to start blogging again :) Have a good weekend, everyone! :)

Soupy lunch at 一家村

Happy to leave office at 6.30pm today. Guess I'm winding down for the long 2-week break ahead. Often, it's really about letting go, trusting others and not trying too hard to prove myself. And I do think that is one of my big takeaways since I came back to work - a new philosophy of life, I guess...

So here's a post about one of my lunches at work last week - so much about letting go. LOL. Had soup at Arcade, Raffles Place. It has been such a long time since I last had lunch at this Chinese soup place 一家村 :)




Pig Intestine Soup

With Yam Rice - so full!

If you are thinking of having delicious soup when you are at Raffles Place, check this out. A variety of soup to choose from, different menu everyday :)

Singapore Food Festival 2013

The Singapore Food Festival Village started on 12 July and will end today. It is very near my workplace near Marina Bay Sands, so my colleague DC and I checked it out last Friday. At first, we hesitated to go because we did not have a NETS FlashPay card but we discovered that they do sell it at the village. And the good thing is you can use the card in future and may get rebates for food purchases!

Was good to go  at lunch time on a weekday - smaller crowds, shorter queues :) Thought I will quickly post the pictures taken so that if you chance upon this post, you still have the next 10 hours to visit the village for your Singapore Favorite Food :)

 

 

  

What is your Singapore Favorite Food? :)

Popiah ~ Chinese wrap? :)

Come weekends, I try to stay home at least one day (usually Sundays) - to either 'work' personal stuff or just do nothing or anything I feel like doing :) After 5 days at the real work, it feels really good to have time for yourself and recharge!

And one of the weekends, we had home-cooked popiah! :)



Ingredients that go into the popiah... the good thing about home-cooked popiah is you can choose the ingredients you like :)

In the making. I love the peanut :)

Ready-to-eat popiah :)

And here's a video of my brother making the popiah - not really the way Singapore hawkers do it. But well, that's home-cooked style, right? :)

And I grabbed some videos from you-tube on how popiahs are wrapped, in case you are wondering :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZgI4UsHTvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZaEXyhPi5M

Now I'm reminded that I have blogged about what I tried to cook at home - check them out! :P
-Make your own Japanese Curry
-Baby potatoes with herbs and a Merry Christmas!
-Topokki Rice Cakes

Happy Sunday, everyone! Guess I'm just going to do nothing today - maybe blog. Haha.

Douter Coffee@Marina Bay Financial Centre

Not sure about you, but sometimes I just feel like having lunch alone. And I did that last Thursday at Douter Coffee at Marina Bay Financial Centre.



Douter Coffee is bigger than it looks on the outside. Not crowded before 12noon, so quite a cosy place to lunch alone.



Honey Sugar to go with the ice tea. Nice.



Avocado & Shrimp sandwich. Bread is nicely toasted. Like the mashed eggs in the sandwich. Felt more like a Shrimp & Egg sandwich :P

The wall can dance - watch the video if you don't believe me. This kept me well-entertained throughout lunch :)

 

 

Have a great work week ahead, everyone!