Sunday, February 27, 2011

Mini B'day Celebration with Pauline

Pauline wanted to give us a b'day treat today. :)
But we were busy - needed to treat flowers & there were prospective buyers coming to view our house.
I had craving for junk food i.e. pizza from Pizza Hut. Moreover because pizzas are round, we can just use it as a b'day cake, and Pauline need not buy a b'day cake for us. How brilliant. ;)

The cloudy & breezy noon made it an excellent day for lunching in the garden. ;)

I have a soft spot for Pizza Hut's sweet & spicy drumlets. *.* We went with the all time fav Hwaiian pizza & Ocean Catch which was a tasty seafood selection of shrimps, squids, tuna, crabsticks, juicy pineapple chunks and diced tomatoes on cool lime mayonnaise sauce. Pauline & Lin kinda enjoyed the Ocean Catch. As for me, the unadventurous me, would rather stick to good-o Hwaiian pizza. Lol! :)))

Thank you Pauline for the junkie treat! ^.*

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Celebrating Our B'day with Sonia!

Sonia's borned in the leap year! There's no 29 Feb this year, so we celebrated our b'day together with her on 25 Feb instead. :D Serena snapped alot of pics for us....but we can't use any. : ( I should have set my camera to auto mode! *.* Silly me!!!

Oh well, at least we have some pic of the little one & the b'day cakes - taken earlier by me :))) One b'day cake for Sonia, and the other for Lin & me! ;)















































Happy three years old Sonia! :D

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Buying Our Own Birthday Cake *.*

Mom & Beanie were busy at work. This meant we need to get our own birthday cake. *.* We had a Pokka card which gives us discount when we dine/shop at their outlets. And so we bought our cake from Rive Gauche.

Rive Gauche specializes in French & Japanese style cakes and pastries. I love the colours of the fruit cakes. But being chocoholics, we went for their Guanaja instead. :))) It's made up of bitter sweet chocolate mousse, two layers of chocolate sponges and crispy biscuit base.

















Blessed b'day to Lin & moi! :)





















Details of Rive Gauche:
W: http://www.pokkafood.com.sg/gauche/
Menu: http://www.pokkafood.com.sg/gauche/includes/gauche/menu1.php

A Getaway Dinner ^.*

Lin wanted some "getaway" feel. So I suggested going to Thanying at Amara Sanctuary @Sentosa for dinner with mom & Beanie. We love the goregous place but wasn't awed by the food. Something gotta give I guess.

Btw, I was still using a Lumix during dinner. *_*

















Thanying's interior is very charming. :) Ideal for small weddings? (if you are alright with average food that is).

























The menu was limited. But what was worse was the food was average.
There were only two items which we like and one of it was the tom yum soup. :)





















We had stuffed chicken wings, pineapple rice (a little sweet) & green curry beef (which I felt the gravy was too diluted).














The deep fried grouper was overwhelming for me & the water spinach (kang kong) with prawns wasn't spectacular at all.



















The worst dish was Phad Thai. Waaaaaaaayyyyy tooooooo sweet????????? : /



















There were only two choices for desserts: Red Rubies and Mango with Glutinous Rice (which was the second item we like. Thumbs up for it). :)



















Details of Thanying Restaurant (Amara Sanctuary @ Sentosa):
1 Larkhill Road
Sentosa
T: +65 6825 3881

23 Feb Began with a Swim & Dim Sum for Two :)

Lin and I had an awesome 23 Feb. It was our b'day! :D We started the day being really healthy by going for a swim. ;) Afterwhich it was just eating throughout the day! *.*

Lin had cravings for dim sum at Imperial Treasure Teochew Restaurant. I tried to restrain her, but caved in to her desire instead...Lol :))) So it was afternoon dim sum for 2 of us.

Side tracked a bit. I tried using Lin's Panasonic Lumix LX3. Not very happy with the colours... :I It's not as vibrant as I wanna it to be...

















We were careful with our dim sum selection. We didn't want to over eat & waste our swimming efforts. :D So we only had our utmost favs. :)))

1) Scallop cheong fun
2) Pan fried carrot cake
3) Chiu Chow Fen Guo
4) Pan fried chive dumplings
5) Custard buns

And we had jasmine tea to down whatever grease there was....

I like chiu chow fen guo for their cruchiness! Somehow, there're always two peanuts in each of these dumplings.





















The burnt portion of the pan fried chive dumplings gives the savoury dumplings some crisp. We like it! :)















Our dim sum session wouldn't be complete without Lin's fav custard buns! ^.^















Details of Imperial Treasure Teochew Restaurant:
Ngee Ann City
#04-20A
391 Orchard Road
T: +65 6736 2118

Monday, February 21, 2011

A Localized Birthday Dinner :)

We had an early b'day celebration with our dearest cousins last Sat. :) Grandmom & small aunt dropped by for dinner too. ^.*

Local flavours was our theme for last Sat's celebration. Mom's kueh pie tee was an instant hit. So were the laksa. :) We bought otahs from the famous otah shop in Jalan Kayu. :)




























We even have Kacang Puteh! Something stinky but yum...durian puffs! 





















And dessert? DIY Ice Kacang! Lol! :)))



































Lydia gave us a b'day surprise! :D She decorated a b'day cake for us! :) Sweet sweet! *.*

















Nothing beats having a loving family. :) Love love love...

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Celebrating 元宵 with Friends from Dubai

We had a surprised visit by Lin's colleague, Jo & her family from Dubai on 元宵, the last day of the lunar new year! :) I don't supposed they have proper (whatever it means) hotpot place in Dubai, so I suggested to Lin to bring them to Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant. Moreover, they could try their hands on Loi Hei too! ^.* Brilliant!

It was the most graceful loi hei session we ever had!!! Lol!!! :) Btw, loi hei's supposed to be rowdy! Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant's loi hei was  delightful! The ginger & orange peel gave the salad an extra kick! :)

















Jo's a vegetarian. :) This provided us with an excellent opportunity to try the restaurant's seaweed & kelp soup base. The other soup base we had was traditional pork bone soup. :)

The groupa fish slices were ordered specially for Jo. ^.*

















Of course we have our usuals as well. :) Kurobota pork slices, beef slices, shrimp balls, fish balls, chive dumplings, shrimp dumplings, shrimp wantons, radish, Tianjin cabbage, assorted mushrooms....did we finish everything? Well...we cleaned every plate! Lol! :)))



























Details of Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant:
TripleOne Somerset
#02-21
111 Somerset Road
T: +65 6732 8231

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Lunar New Year Dinner with Close Friends :)

Our friends came over for dinner tonite. Happy happy happy! We have not seen some of them for a while! :)























We kind of "promoted" our granny's chicken spices to our friends. :) I've no idea why Pauline, our gf for so long doesn't know our granny's in the food manufacturing business. Lol. :))) Now she knows. ;)

Pauline & Lin like braised eggs, so mom made some for them & the kids. :)





















Sarah Mae seemed overwhelmed by the selection! Hahahah...:)))















We had our usual Chinese New Year dishes, prawns with chives & stewed veg. *.* I'm never sick of eating them. :D





















The only dish which we "ta bao" was cereal tofu. The golden & crispy cereal tofu made such auspicious CNY dish! Btw, they smelt absolutely goregous!!! *.*

Again, we wanted something light & refreshing for dessert. We haven't had pomelos this lunar new year yet. So we decided to put longans & pomelos together with lots of crushed ice & some lime juice. ^.*





















Sandra is a star mommy, serving her kids! :)))





















Sonia Rae is a big girl now! She wanna eat on her own. :)





















She's a daddy's girl. Gerry was entertained by his younger girl. Love the following blurry pics. :)





















We waited all nite for Serena & Francis to do loi hei, but they couldn't come. So in the end, it was just the few of us! :)

















We loi hei to:

1) A blessed Bunny year
2) Good health
3) Love
4) Blissful marriage
5) Babies
6) Peace
7) Promotion
8) Bonus
9) Good business
10) Good returns on investment
...
...
... Lalalalalal and the list goes on! ^.*

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Hotpot with 老友!

Lunar new year is a splendid time to catch up with old friends! What better way to do so over hotpot! ;) The rainy Friday evening made our hotpot session even more appropriate! Yeah! :)















We had a platter of everything; that should cater to everyone's palatte. ^.^





















There's something which our hotpot CANNOT do without! Beef & pork slices! :) Mom's chilli & blue ginger dip further enhanced the flavour of the meat. : O 















Our hotpot is quite a balanced meal for we had an assortment of greens & mushrooms. :)





















Joanna loves our chicken & daikon soup base and commented many times it was "very good". Lol! Well the soup was extremely flavourful as we had cooked it for hours using the freshest ingredients! There's no MSG at all. 

And because we like variety, we bought chive dumplings from the supermarket. Haiz...the dumplings're nothing compare to Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant's. : (





















It's Chinese new year and so we served our fav mikan jellies. Very oriental, very refreshing & light after a heavy meal! They were a hit with TG, Joanna & Sheau Wen. :)














We wish everyone a Sweet Sweet New Year! Gongxi gongxi! *.*

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Lunar New Year's Scrabble

While most people play majong or gamble during CNY, we played Scrabble to pass time at Grandmom's place! :D Playing Scrabble during CNY has become an annual affair. *.* Hahahaha












Ooops lousy tiles! : / Heheheheh despite that, I still won! ^.*

Imperial Treasure Lunar New Year's Carrot & Yam Cakes :)

Imperial Treasure Lunar New Year's carrot & yam cakes make such excellent breakfast or afternoon snacks. :) Without self discipline, I can finish one whole cake! :))) Who's able to resist? The carrot cake is soft & melts in your mouth! You can still see some carrot strips! :O For yam lovers, you would love the yam cakes. There's generous amount of chunky yams in them! ;)





















Details of Imperial Treasure Teochew Restaurant:
391 Orchard Road
#04-20A Ngee Ann City
T: +65 6736 2118

Friday, February 4, 2011

团圆饭咯 - Reunion Dinner!

Work has kept me away from blogging for the last three weeks! : O A busy but happy start to 2011 nonetheless! ^.^ And before I realized it, it was Chinese new year's eve. We had a simple but cosy reunion dinner at home with Mom & Beanie. :)















Our meals for the past three weeks have been quick fixes. Lunch breaks were kept to approximately 15-20 mins and dinner, perhaps 30 mins. So CNY eve's dinner was exceptionally YUM! :))) We could finally sit back & savour the goodness. Ah... *.*

Fish is a must for it signifies boutiful harvest (年年有鱼) and the prawns signifies happiness (嘻嘻哈哈). Cold crabs are just traditional Teochew fare. :)















Mom made our all time fav CNY's dish, mixed vegetables. :) It consisted of 7 types of vegetables, gluten, mushrooms, fa cai & vermicilli. We could down a big bowl of rice with this dish! :D She also roasted a chicken & made fishballs & cabbage soup!















Hugs & kisses to mom for whipping up such an awesome spread! We finished everything on the table & couldn't help but ... burp...excuse me! ^.*