I did not sleep well last night... becos my family is having some problems.
Well, went out with dad today, was hoping to longbang to orchard. Who knows he went to Telok Blangah to look for his friend. His friend opened an orhanic soymilk shop called Soy Good. The address is blk 8, telok blangah crescent. Do support him ok.
We had a simple lunch there, at least i do not need to pay.

Then, we headed to Usana. His friend is a strong believer of usana and obsessed with it. To him, usana is everything and that's y i say his nick is USANA SIAO.

Today is the lunar 15th day thus i went to waterloo street to pray and have vegetarian food at Kwan Im Vegetarian Restaurant.

Kwan Im vegetarian restaurant gets very busy especially during CNY, lunar 1st & 15th day. The devotees would get some pastries or vegetarian food here. Their deep-fried spring rolls($2.50) are quite popular here.

I wanted something light thus i ordered the braised beancurd sheets with black beans sauce. It comes with some cabbage, capsicums, mushrooms, beancurd sheets and fried gluten, cooked in black beans sauce. Fortunately the black beans sauce is not salty and the ingredients are well-cooked. It was a little expensive for $8. However, vegetarian food sometimes cost more than meat.

The deep-fried spring roll is not really worth the $2.50. The fillings are quite little and not well-marinated enough and the skin is too thick.

The service here is quite friendly. You would have to share tables if u are dining alone.

Mum came home early today & brought back a pc of bad news. She went to the doctor and they suspect mum had diabetes! I was shocked.... how could this happen to her? Diabetes is a scary illness. I would have to control her diet from now onwards....

Caigenxiang vegetarian, a small vegetarian cafe located under HDB flats.
IT was rather empty when i arrived at the restarant, only one of the staff is busy plucking beansprouts. I asked her for some recommendations and she showed me the menu. I ordered the one of the chef's speciality: Classic Caigen xiang and Braised Tofu with vegetables.

Classic Caigenxiang took a short while to arrive, pipping hot from the wok. This dish consist of red cabbage, eggplants, capsicums and asparagus cook in bean sauce. My only verdict, too salty. I only manage to pick out the red cabbage as the rest of the ingredients were just too salty.

The braised tofu with assorted vegetables were slighly above average. There were few leaves of white cabbage, carrots and mushrooms, braised with 6 pcs of tofu( slighly pan-fried). At least it was not salty thus it's passable.

Most people order take-away here. The set meal here cost $3.50, $3.80(take-away)consist of a bowl of plain rice and 3 side dishes. The service here is generally okay as there's only one staff there who serve and order.

Mondays.... arrh! monday blues
I had lunch @ ca-zhar(great world cty) today.

Though the resturant is opened for biz, no one stood outside to attend to me.
I walked in and saw two customers having some food.
Finally the waitress greets me and showed me the menu and walked away.
I looked through the menu and decided to order but nobody was in the restaurant.
The manager was busying using the laptop and i called out to somebody but no response. I decided to approach the manager and he quickly apologized.

I ordered the braised bamboo pith, canopy with home-made tofu. The dish took abt 10 mins to arrive. The portion is quite small, just enough for one pax. 4 cubes of home-made tofu, some shredded canpoy and few leaves of vegetables, it's a little expensive for a dish. Well, the dish is not salty and the broth is quite tasty. A pity that the so-called home-made tofu is simply egg tofu from supermarket.

I felt a little uneasy when the waitresses stare at me while eating. The restaurant is very quiet even during lunch hr. One of the captain tried to entertain the other customer to liven up the atmosphere. I praised her for her good service and she was so happy that kept wishing me luck. An enjoyable dining experience.

After lunch, i took the shuttle bus back to city hall and went to DBS bank @ raffles city. Looking at my watch, 12.10pm. I saw the q was quite long and thought it would take abt at most 20 mins. There was only 1 service counter that is available and the staff is super slow in doing her work. All the other ppl in the q is feeling impatient right now. Finally going to be turn but the staff walked out of her counter and started explaining things to the previous customer. WTF!!! I was so angry! The ppl in the q started shouting and grumbling, they even scolded the manager of the bank. This is the longest q ever. When i left the bank, i looked at my wacth, 1pm exactly. I actually q up for 50 mins for this bloody svc!

It has been quite some time since i visit mayim.
I rmb i enjoyed eating their food abt 1 yr ago.
Their standard of food had dropped quite alot.

I had lunch here with mum.
There was already a short Q outside the shop when it was 11am.
The ambience of the restaurant is good and the waitress is quite polite.
After flipping through the thick menu,I ordered:

1X beancurd roll with carrots, mushrooms and vermicelli ( $3.80)
1X poached caixin with chicken broth ($4.20)
1X marinated peanuts with caipoh ($ 3.50)
1x steamed spiced chicken feets (2.00)
1X congee with barley and carrots ($2.00)
1X deep-fried shrimp roll ($2.20)
1X stewed beef tendon ($6.50)
1X ginseng, carrot and sugarcane drink($3.50)

The congee arrived first, it is served in a huge bowl. The congee is quite watery, with bits of barley and mashed carrots in it. Mum felt that it was too bland.

The marinated peanuts and caipoh was a letdown. The peanuts was salty and not fragrant. Only the caipoh is edible.

Steamed spiced chicken feets steamed with balck beans and a little chilli to add some spiciness. Though it's not salty, it taste ordinary.

Poached caixin in chicken broth, a simple dish. I counted the stalks of caixin- 7 stalks. I felt that it was way too expensive for $4.20.

Panfried beancurd roll with carrots, vermicelli and mushrooms, this is the better dish out of all. At least the beancurd sheets are warm and the fillings are fragrant and well-marinated.

Deep-fried shrimp roll, a let-down. The shrimp was too mushy, probably not too fresh. The portion is too little too.

The ginseng drink is not too bad. We were given honey to add in if it's too bitter.

The service here is generally good. They are still able to handle when there are quite alot of customers coming in. However, the standard of foods need some improvement.

Today had lunch at wen dao shi(geylang).
This is a 24hr tim sum place.
The best tim sum that i have tried is swee choon @ jalan besar.
However, they are only open at night.

The menu consist of more than 70 dishes, they have cze-char dishes other than tim sum. Since it's a PH today, it's packed with customers thus i had to sit right at the back.

I ordered:

steamed song fishhead with femented beans
Thai style hand of pork(foreleg)

This song fish head is only valid for dine in & i had to wait abt 15-20mins.
Abt 5-6 pcs of song fishhead, steamed with chilli femented beans and lard. The lard is oohs... siok! Very few places now serve lard due to health reasons. The fish is quite fresh, not much muddy taste. However, the femented beans are really salty! I even requested it to be less salty but the saltiness really....

Thai style hand of pork. This foreleg of pork is deep-fried and cooked in thai chilli and onions. The hand of pork has a thick layer of fats which is extremely rich in collagen(good for the skin).Ladies can consume more. However, eat in moderation.

This tim sum place have been here for many yrs. They are able to continue this biz as their food is quite good, price is reasonable and the people are efficient.

Today is x'mas eve, i wish everyone a merry x'mas.
I didnt celebrate x'mas as im a very ''traditional'' person.
It's also due to religious reason.

Anyway, im so glad that im the top reviewer in HGW & my photo is even pulished in the front page! It's kinda weird too...

Today i had lunch @ Hong Guo (Bugis Junction).
This small little restarant is located beside crystal jade cakery.
Their speciality is ''Guo Qiao Mian Xian'' a.k.a cross bridge noodles.
There's a story behind it which u would find out when u read from the menu.
There are 3 types versions- seafood, beef or pork.
It comes in a huge red bowl with steaming hot soup.
You have to add the meat first before adding the vegetables and then the vermicelli.
This noodle is quite popular in Yunnan.
You do not need to fly to yunnan to savour this anymore.

I ordered :
1x stir-fried kailan with black beans and dace
1x spicy chicken a.k.a ''la zi ji ding''.

This chicken dish is served shortly. I requested it to be slighly less salty but the waitress told me it was pre-marinated and then deep-fried. Well, the chicken is cut into bite-size, deep-fried and fried with sichuan peppercorns, dried chilli, peanuts and spring onions. It was a little spicy but addictive. It was like eating KFC popcorn chicken but is spicier. This is one of the popular dish in sichuan.

Stir-fried kailan with black beans and dace is not too spicy. The cook prepare the kailan very well, getting rid of the bitter taste of the leaves. The dace with black beans is not too salty, control the saltiness quite well.

The service here is a little laid-back. Most of the waitress are from P.R.C and they just concentrate in doing their work by serving. Perhaps they can try to give some recommendations to teh food as well.

Had lunch today @ Ke ren lai again.
I ordered the hakka yong tau foo and fried mixed vegetables.
The yong tau foo comes 5 pcs, each beancurd is stuffed with minced pork and mackeral fish. The beancurd is then served in yellow bean soup. Well, i prefer yong tau foo to be deep-fried and then cooked in the dry version. Rather the hakkas, prefer soup based.

The fried mixed vegetables is a little salty but would be good when eaten with rice.

I think this restaurant is one of the best in City square compared to the other food.

It's been quite some time since i went jb shopping.
Hence, i decided to go today.
I brought only RM 150 to shop. How i wish i brought more.
It's not really enough. I didnt get some of the things i wanted cos i have not enough $.

I had lunch @ Ke Ren Lai, a cantonese restaurant.
I ordered a 3 treasures( vegetables, mushrooms with pork, cabbage with pork and a pork pancake). Well, it's served in soup and everything is pork! I like the soup as it's quite tasty, ikan bilis soup. The pork pancake looks ordinary but they actually mince the pork together with dried oyster thus it's yummy! I want to try the hakka yong tau foo tmr!

I want to get alot of things... so i would go again tmr.
Didnt snap photos today cos it's not safe to bring camera to jb

Count down 4 more days to x'mas. Im not excited as i do not celebrate this occasion.
So many things happen this yr.... n i hope it would be better yr for me next yr.

I had lunch @ Itacho sushi today.
The menu is simple and easy to read.
From single sushi to grilled items, there are pictures for you to see too.
I ordered :

1x tomato salad
1x deep-fried curry lobster with okra.

The matcha green tea was served to me almost immediately.
The tomato salad took not long to arrive. The presentation was good... almost too ''cute'' to eat it. Cherry tomatoes with lettuce with sesame dressing, simple and good.

The curry lobster with okra is a tempura dish thus it took a little longer TO prepare. 3 BATTERED tempura was served to me in a triangular plate. When i bite into it, i could taste the fragrant curry of the lobster meat and then the soft okra.... mmmm... yummilicious! The 3 tempura was served with tempura sauce. It would be better if there were some mayonnaise for dipping.

The presentation of the food is good, the service, ambience of the place is superb and most importantly, the price is very reasonable.

Chengdu trip Dec 2009- 13/12/09( sunday)

Finally it's the last day of our holiday trip. In the morning, we are given ample time for our shopping,The tour-guide had requested for late check-out.

After which we went to have lunch- the most awaited mushroom steamboat. Mind you, this steamboat cost RMB 200/pax. Yes, it's exp... but the soup base is tasty. They even sell the mushroom noodles by packets.

After lunch, we proceeded to the airport for our flight back to singapore. I wanted to spend more time here as it was so fun. Everyday we have nothing to think about but shopping, eating and relaxing. How i wish i can extend this hoilday trip.

When i board the taxi back from changi airport back to my house, i left my back-pack in the taxi. The taxi-diver was very talkative and i was so engrossed in talking to him thus i forgot to take my bag-pack. On the other hand, i cant blame anyone as it's my fault too. Luckily i rmb his car-plate number and his funny looking face. I had to call the customer svc ctr at 2.30am in the morning. I requeste for the bag-pack to be returned back to me and gosh! it cost 20 bucks as the taxi-driver is in orchard road and turn-on the meter, plus mid-nite fare.... I would never forget to take my things again.

I went to 313@ somerset today. It is a new shopping mall located beside orchard central. I think the location is very good as will attract the people working there to have lunch at the food republic @ level 5 whih is much biger than the one @ wisma atria. I was a little disappointed as basement 3 is not completed yet(many restuarants and food outlets are located at b3).

I walked ard the shopping mall, exploring each level. Finally i decided to have lunch at Din tai feng. Being served by several waitress, mainly from P.R.C, i ordered a cold vegetarian dish and a bowl of wanton with vegetables in chicken broth. The cold dish arrive shortly, it consists of kelp, beansprouts, vegetarian ham, vermicelli, carrots and the rest i could not figure out. It was a little spicy but it taste great as an appetitizer.

The vegetable wonton took not long to arrive. A bowl of 8 jumbo wontons with generous of pork and vegetable fillings. The fillings were well-marinated and juicy.
I add sichuan chilli and vinegar to it and i polished up the whole bowl.

The waitress were polite and prompt in serving tea. I like the service here and of course not to mention the XLB which i would try that the next visit.

After lunch, i took photo with santa claus. It's a free photo-shot with santa claus organised by 313 @ somerset. I think it's worth q-ing up for it to keep the photo as momento.