New Year’s Eve Family Dinner

The best thing to close the year with is to have a dinner with the family. We were happy that our family was available to do dinner with us at Irodori Japanese Restaurant located Four Points by Sheraton.

We were fortunate to be given a private room though I did not request upon reservation. It was first time for some of our family members and they were happy with the buffet menu as there were so much food to order to try.

As for the kiddos, they ordered many rounds of Tempura as that would be the kids’ favourite dish while the rest were shisamo, sashimi, udon and teppanyaki. Little pumpkin enjoyed the chawamushi as well as the yakisoba.

After dinner, we decided to take the family down to Orchard Road to view the Christmas lights for one last time since it was the last day for the display too. I would say that the Christmas lightings this year was not too bad but no longer the WOW thing for us compared to those good old days where they had the Christmas Decoration Competition among all the shopping malls. 

I remembered those days it was Centerpoint or CK Tangs who were usually the winners. Their decorations were stunning and so beautiful. I wish the competition will be back again so that the malls will put in more effort to decorate their premises.

Tiger Sugar

RRRROOOOAAAARRRR!!!!!!!

Ooopss!!! Wrong sound!! Hhahhaha…. Tiger Sugar is making waves when they hit Singapore and I was really dying to try it out as I am big fan of milk and brown sugar.

Unfortunately, they had only 1 outlet in Singapore and it is at Capito Piazza. If I am still working in town, I will definitely travel down to get this drink. I was always seeking an opportunity to be in town just to get my tongue tasting this popular drink.

I was really happy that hubby was not working today and he needed to be in town to run some errands and I tagged along. I was really excited to get my 1^st Tiger Sugar and honestly, I can’t wait to drink but I could only drink after my lunch.

Well, the wait wasn’t too long… IT WAS YUMMY!!! I gave thump up for this drink for those who are big fan of milk and brown sugar. The taste was balanced and simply love the brulee cream as the topping. Simply delicious!

Okay, the queue was really ridiculous… I queued for about 8 minutes to get my orders taken and then waited about 15 minutes for my drinks to be ready. Well, the problem was many customers ordered 12 cups or 18 cups at one go and there were only 4 staff preparing the drink, 1 taking order and 1 sending out orders.

I will definitely go back for more MILK and I do hope the queue will not be that long in other outlets. 😊 

The Summer House

Our friends from Perth are back for holidays and we were so happy that we were invited to have dinner with them. We recommended a few places and they chose The Summer House which is located at the Oval Park.

The kids were so happy to meet with one of their favourite friend Bella whom they first met in Perth a few years ago. They hit it off very well and then became good friends. Though we only get to meet up once or perhaps twice a year, the kids still happy to play together.

Summer House is pretty new to us but heard that former US President Obama went there for dinner when he visited SIN. It was a pretty quiet restaurant when we arrived and only about 4 tables were filled. The menu seemed quite interesting and we did not take long to decide on our food.

Well, I thought the food was fine but honestly, nothing spectacular about and my hubby was utterly disappointed with his dish. He ordered Wood-fired Free Range French Poulet, Spring Asparagus and Zucchini and he wasn’t happy at all. He told us that his dish tasted worst than the normal chicken rice and was shocked by their standard. 

Well, as for the rest of us, we were quite happy with our orders. I thought my Kurobuta Sausage Ragout Tagliatelle Pasta was pretty nice though the taste was a little blend. Lady Faith’s carbonara was alright though not a knock out. 

After dinner, we walked around their edible garden and it was really beautiful. We held little pumpkin’s birthday party a couple of weeks back and the place transformed to another ‘fairy-land’ in the night. Simply beautiful!

Thank you Mike & family for inviting us to this wonderful dinner and let’s meet again to discuss about our trip soon. Cheers!

Boxing Day

This is the BEST DAY for my kiddos as they will finally get to open all their Christmas pressies at one go. They received pressies from friends and family yearly during this time of the year and usually I will only allow them to open on Boxing Day.

I always believed that Christmas is a time for our Lord and time for the family so, I will usually tell them to wait till Boxing Day to open their pressies. It has been a tradition ever since. At the same time, it’s somehow good to train them to be patient though most of them they are super excited about opening new stuff or toys. 😊 I am really proud of them for keeping this tradition… thumps up to them!

Happy Boxing Day darlings.

Boxing Day Hangout

It is always nice to meet up with friends especially when they are closed to heart. It’s Boxing Day and headed out to Millenia Walk to lunch with a bunch of beautiful people.

We gathered at Kith (our usual hangout) for lunch as they served pretty good set lunch if you are not aware. Brought the kiddos along with me today to have them bond with their extended family once in a while. I do hope we can do that more often…. Hahahahaha

Since it’s still Christmas season, I brought some homemade Santa Clause cupcakes for those lovely people. It is the time to share, love and have fun. 

Though it was merely just an hour of luncheon, we certainly made the most out of it by catching up over luncheon while the kids had their own fun at the children’s corner. Rie and I continued our shopping while the rest returned to office (unfortunately) and we ended up snacking again!!!!

It was a great day out with the kids and we were so happy to see them having fun together and yes, we will do that again soon!

Christmas At Cousin’s Place

Christmas is indeed a time to gather with family and friends and this year, we are invited to my cousin’s place to celebrate our Lord’s birthday together.

Florence kindly prepared a fantastic spread of dishes for us and it was really delicious! The kids were more interested in playing with each other rather than the food placed on the table. They hurried their food and ran off to the guest room to play as they did not want to waste a minute bonding with their cousins.

The adults were having a comfortable time enjoying the spread and I simply enjoyed the beef and pan seared scallops. Thumps Up to those! 

We took some time off to gather the family to sing some Christmas Carols which was led by Brian. This would be the first time the family is singing carols together and it was indeed unforgettable and very precious. Mmmh…. I think we should do that at our place next year.

They did not want the happiness to end so quickly and we continued to indulge ourselves with the desserts. I was really happy that they enjoyed my Santa Clause mini cupcakes and it was ‘sold out’ within minutes. 😊 

Though it was merely a few hours of gathering, it certainly brought the family closer in a way or another. Christmas is always a season for love, care and share. I am so glad that my family are close and we will try to have more gatherings in 2019!

Blessed Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Family Gathering

Christmas is one my favorite seasons and we were happy to have the family gathering at our place. I headed out to get my marketing done this morning and started to bake.

I was in the kitchen literally the whole day and I was really happy with myself that I managed to whip up a spread for the family. With mum’s help for the cutting and chopping, the dishes came out to be pretty good.

I prepared baked chicken, baked asparagus wrapped with bacon, baked salmon with herbs and lemon, sautéed mushrooms and onions, mushroom soup, salad and the Santa Clause brownies and vanilla Oreo cupcakes with lemon cream cheese. I also bought ham & cheese selections while hubby bought pizza and pasta. 

When the family arrived in the evening, I was almost done with the cooking and was really happy that some of the dishes were served warmed. After the prayer by my mother in law, the party began. I was glad that everyone enjoyed the food that we prepared and the kids were digging too.

Maggie also baked a Christmas cake for the family and the kids sang a birthday song Jesus. It was so sweet to watch them and happy to know that they were aware what Christmas meant to them.

After the dinner, the elders had a game of mahjong with my sister in law and my niece. It was really fun to watch them and it was my time to take some rest. The kids were playing hide and seek with my nephew and they had a great time bonding together while Maggie (younger sis in law) and I had a wonderful time chatting.

Thank you Lord for the wonderful time we spent together as a family on this beautiful Christmas Eve. May you continue to bless our family with happiness and good health.

We Love Hong Kong!

Hong Kong would be one of our favourite countries for holidays be it short or long. This place is filled with good food, interesting places of interests and many outlaying islands to be explored. This time, it is no different, we were really excited to be in Hong Kong after our wonderful stay in Osaka.

When you are in Hong Kong, you really got to be up early and not waste time (yes… even with kids!) As this is our only full day here, we headed out for our dim sums at Mong Kok area. When we arrived at the restaurant, it wasn’t as crowded as we expected, probably it was a weekday morning so, many are at work. 

We ordered the usual few dishes that our kids love and we tried something new on the menu. We have always enjoyed the dim sums in Hong Kong…. Honestly, no matter which restaurant you go, they all tasted GREAT! 

After our delicious brunch, we brought the kids to Sham Shui Po to walk around and check out their street market. It was really an eye opening for the kids as we do not have wet market on the streets where you can visually see the pork stall chopping the ribs away, vegetables seller arranging the vegs, fresh fishes in the Styrofoam cooler box and have them scaled when you decide to buy it. The girls were uncomfortable at the sight or the condition of the area coz’ they were exposed to supermarkets which are cleaner and all ready prepared stuff. We told them that we used to go to the wet markets like these places but now we have supermarkets.

From the very local Hong Kong scene, we moved on to Central where you find the tall buildings, many huge shopping malls and an office district similar to our CBD. We walked around and headed to the Central Pier to for some pictures taking before taking a ride on the ferries wheel.

Central Pier became popular not only for their filming location but also for the famous Ferries Wheel. We took the ride on the ferries wheel even though I am not too keen as I am afraid of heights. The kids were thrilled the moment they got onto the capsule. The ferries wheel travelled slowly and when you are right at the top, the view is simply amazing and you just forgot you are actually on the wheels. It was about a 20 minutes ride at a super reasonable price of SGD 8 per pax.

We went straight to the AIA Carnival which was happening just nearby and the kids went mad. Since it’s holiday and our last day, we decided to allow them to spend on the rides. The kids had so much fun taking on different rides, on the bouncing castle and even a couple of plays at the game stalls. For us parents, we know it’s all worth it when your children are happy and they will remember this for a long time.

As the evening came, we set off to have our dinner at Jamie’s which is located at Causeway Bay. We have been there on our last trip to Hong Kong and we enjoyed the food quite a bit. This time, we are back again since we had steamboat last night so, we should do western today. 

We did not have a reservation but still managed to get a pretty good seat when we arrived. The service and food at Jamie’s were great and it was a great dinner to end our full day fun in Hong Kong.

On our way back to the hotel, we went to check out their other milk tea joints to get the brown sugar milk and of course my daily dose of steamed milk pudding as our dessert. YUMS!!! We will miss the food but I am sure we will return again very soon.

Hello Hong Kong!

We have arrived in Hong Kong after a short flight from Osaka. We did not waste any time and got our luggage and off to our hotel we went. After a quick check-in, we unpacked some of our stuff and rested for a short while before we shot out to the streets to hunt for our favourite snacks.

Our first stop was to the laundry as we would like to clear as much laundry as we can before returning to SIN to avoid overloaded washings. We passed by some of our favourite snacks and we did not hesitate to buy them. The kids love the ‘zhu chong fun’ as much as we do and one packet of that is never enough for share among our family of four. 

As it was still early for dinner, we continued to walk around Mongkok area and chanced upon a shop selling pastries. The smell of the freshly baked egg tarts just lured me into the shop and bought a few just to satisfy my craving. It was delicious but I still prefer the egg tarts from St. Honore Cake Shop.  

When late evening arrived, we decided to head down to our favourite restaurant Tao Heung for our steamboat. I remembered those were the days when hubby and I visited Hong Kong almost twice yearly and we had steamboat twice on each of our trips. We love their varieties of steamboat dishes and the price is truly reasonable. Thumps up for the service and food always!

After dinner, we took a stroll to the ladies’ street to walk around and eventually bought many intentioned stuff… hahahahahah… we also chanced upon a milk tea joint where a long queue was formed. I did not hesitate and went to join the queue. I seriously made the right choice… the milk tea was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo DELICIOUS!!!! It wasn’t too sweet and the milk was so tasty and smooth. Simply LOVE IT! I am hoping that they will come to SIN some day! Before taking the train back to our hotel, we stopped by to get my MUST-HAVE steamed milk for my supper. 😊 YES… my supper or perhaps desserts would sound a little better… hahaahahah who cares! 

Last Day In Osaka

What is the best thing to do on your last day of holiday? Shopping of course…. Hahaahah… for the past couple of days, we have been visiting places of interests and travelling to Kyoto and finally today, we will do some last-minute shopping.

We arrived at Rinku Premium Outlet after about an hour dive from our hotel. This place is huge! There are a few sections for shoppers and housed about 200 brands and eateries. We do not have the luxury to shop at our own pace as this place is too far from the city. We hurried to do some shopping at the brands we wanted and rested for a while before leaving for another location. While the kids were having their time at the playground, hubby and I tried their crepes ice-creams which was delicious! It totally reminded me of Blue Seal in Okinawa…. How I miss that…

We headed off back to the city and managed to reach the Osaka Castle before night fall. Our driver dropped us at the Osaka Park and we took a long walk through the garden and after about 20 minutes of walking, we finally arrived the Osaka Castle. This place is beautiful and had a very thick history but the weather is not really helping as it turned cold (6 degrees) in the late afternoon. We were worried for the kids as they were complaining about the cold wind and they want to go back. 

We decided to take a couple of pictures and left for our hotel. We will definitely try to explore this place again if we visit Osaka in future. It should be a nice place to walk around and checking the museum should be interesting too.

When we arrived at our hotel, our little pumpkin was so tired that she just fell flat on the floor and refused to move… hahahahahah… that’s somehow the sums up the phrase “Shop till you drop” but for little pumpkin, it will be ‘walk till you drop’….

After freshened up, we went to the restaurant just opposite the hotel as the kids did not want to go too far. We tried out the Izakaya style dinner and it was really GOOD! The food served was reasonable priced and very much tastier than the ones we have back home. The kids enjoyed the food very much and we even ordered 2 or 3 portions for some dishes. 😊 

It somehow summed up our trip to Osaka and it sure created some plenty of good memories for us to keep and now, we will be looking forward to the food in Hong Kong. Thank you Osaka and see you again in the near future!

Back To Kyoto

We can’t get enough of the beautiful Kyoto and here we again today. This morning we are taken back to Kyoto and our first stop is the Arashimaya (Bamboo Grove) which we have been couple of days back. We did not follow the tour to the Bamboo Grove but went on shopping instead on our own.

It was a beautiful Tuesday with weather about 8 degrees with sun. We strolled through the streets and found many interesting shops which we missed on our previous visit. This time, we had all the time to visit shops we missed. 

We passed by the Miffy Shop and man… it was too cute to resist. I walked into the confectionery and bought this cute little miffy buns. There were other super cute pastries but we were not there for hi-tea…hahahaahahah…. Bought a couple of stuff from the shop too and even the personalized chopsticks for the kiddos. Thumps Up!

As lunch was provided with the 1-day tour, we went to have our lunch before continuing to explore other parts of Kyoto. This luncheon place was the same place as the previous one but different restaurant serving different type of food. We were having the chicken pot today but I thought it wasn’t as nice as the buffet lunch we had. The kiddos did not like the food but we managed to get them to finish the rice with the soup at least… sighz….

We continued the journey to explore Kyoto after lunch and we arrived at Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). This is a Zen Temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Kinkakuji is an impressive structure built overlooking a large pond, and is the only building left of Yoshimitsu's former retirement complex. It has burned down numerous times throughout its history including twice during the Onin War, a civil war that destroyed much of Kyoto; and once again more recently in 1950 when it was set on fire by a fanatic monk. The present structure was rebuilt in 1955.

We continued our tour to Todaiji which is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. Todaiji's main hall, the Daibutsuden (Big Buddha Hall) is the world's largest wooden building, despite the fact that the present reconstruction of 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple hall's size. 

We also encountered many deer from the adjacent Nara Park, begging for shika senbei, special crackers for deer that are sold for around 150 yen. They were some very polite deer, they bowed each time you are near them and they will move forward to smell if you have food for them. We bought 2 packets of crackers for the kiddos to feed the deer and some of them were really violent… they came rushing through and snatched the crackers from Lady Faith. Another one actually gently attacked Little Pumpkin on the forehead for she was around their height… hahahaahah

The kids had so much fun feeding the deer but afraid at the same time as they kept coming to you even you have no crackers left. We heard from the tour guide that they also eat papers… Yes… PAPERS!! The tour guide told us that there was a couple who was at the shop buying some stuff and they had their money in their hand but the next moment, their money was taken by the deer nearby and started chewing on it… hahaahahahah  

After a fun day outdoor at Kyoto, we returned to Osaka for our dinner. The kiddos were too tired to join us for dinner outside so they decided to stay in the hotel room while the two of us had a chop chop dinner just opposite.

We stumbled upon this ramen shop opposite our hotel and decided to give it a short. When we entered the shop, we were their 1^st customers for the evening. We browsed through their menu and did not take us long to decide what to order. The ramen was really good… I had the miso base and it was super tasty. It was a fantastic place for a quick and cheap meal. Thumps Up!