Simple Birthday Fare for Pauline

Pauline is so easy to please. :))) We asked where she wanna do her b'day dinner & she said "let's chill at your place." That's fantastic news for us! Lol :))) At least we don't have to burn a hole in our pockets. Yeah! :D 

Our gf has lost quite a bit of weight. We figured she needs some nourishment. So we used grandma's gingseng chicken spices to cook a huge, finger licking good & nourishing chicken for her. She needs it! ;) Lin had craving for braised eggs. So a bowl of braised quail eggs to satisfy Lin's cravings. Novi fried bee hoon in place of noodles for longevity. :D Such a simple fare but our Star loves it. :)))

See even Koka can't resist it. She's been eyeing Pauline throughout dinner. *.*

No space left for b'day cake... : O Have a cup of tea first...wooooooo....

Pauline thought I was baking her a cake. But e hem, sorry gf, let's get it from Awfully Chocolate instead. :)))) I only added raspberries to it. ^.*

Pat on our shoulders for almost finishing the whole cake. :D Well, there're 7 of us. ;) Mom, Beanie, Aunt Annie, Novi, Lin, Li & Pauline. :)))

Fuzzy Christmas

Blessed Christmas to all! :D We hope everyone had a fabulous one like Lin & I. ^.*

Christmas is a busy period for us. Not only do we have Christmas deliveries to do, we gotta prepare a small feast for our loved ones. :) All these efforts are worthwhile. There's a great sense of satisfaction when our guests are well fed & happy! :)))

Here's a peep at our homely & fuzzy celebration. :) Our garden made prettier with fairy lights. :D The Christmas tree in the planter has grown so tall; it takes extra effort to put the lights up. Umph. Wonder how we gonna manage next year?

It's difficult to resist the fresh red berries. Even if they cost SGD50 a bunch, I just gotta get them & do a simple Christmas arrangement :)

Christmas decor at every nook & corner of our home. :)
 

We have accumulated quite a bit of Christmas decor over the years. Some were bought and others were given. The musical Christmas ball for instance was a gift from TG & Joanna. :) We love the snow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... ^.^

Two areas have been assigned for pressies. Take your pick? :)))

Novi, our helper was apprehensive when we told her we were expecting 90 guests. Lol. :))) Can we cope? Will there be sufficient food & drinks? Well we did it! ;) Woohoo!

We served our all time favs: Mom's special chicken mid-wings, bacon & tomato rolls,

champagne pork ribs, prawns,

lobster bisque, peanut rice,

wasabi quail eggs, smoked salmon on crackers, tuna cups,

raspberries cake, muffins, durian puffs, club sandwiches (from our lovely neighbour, Amy) & fruits! :)

Snapshots of the couples at our home. :)

And some other cute guests. :)

This year, we are truly blessed to have the Bless Community, YCK Chapel over for Christmas caroling. :D

Everyone including Koka had a fabulous time. She received Christmas pressie too! ;)

I have no id where to place these two pics. So I'm just gonna post them here. Beanie's teddies decked in red! Happy Christmas! ^.^

冬至 - Winter Solstice Festival (22 Dec)

It's 冬至, time to have 汤圆! 

Our 冬至 is dampened by two events this year. Lin was traumatized by a Uni senior who's unwell. We pray he'll seek medical treatment asap & be his old, happy & confident self. It's disheartening to see a jovial, confident person be reduced to one who's badly battered, troubled and heavily burdened. Mom on the other hand was traumatized by Koka who choked on half an apple. Fortunately she managed to help Koka force the apple out.

Despite all the above, we still managed to have our bowls of 汤圆. When we were kids, mom used to make us roll the 汤圆. Now, we just get the dumplings from the supermarkets. :)))  Mom likes to add pandan leaves when cooking the soup for the dumplings. It's gives the 汤圆 a nice aroma. ;) We like our dumplings with peanut fillings. What about you? :)

As Lazy As I Can Get

Yayi's leaving for Germany next Monday. : ( And so we threw him a mini DIY maki party. I couldn't be any lazier. Lol. :))) Most of the stuff I got for our dinner were either "throw in the toaster", "throw in the oven" or "pan fry". Our helper, Novi asked "that's it?" Without Lin to go grocery shopping with me, I tend to take short cuts. ;)

Lin complained there wasn't enough variety for our maki stuffing... : O But at the end of everything, she said she was overstuffed??? My other half is difficult to please eh? :)))

Following were what I've bought: tamago, crispy chicken with seaweed, tobikko, crispy pork floss...

unagi & sausages. :)

Our spread also included kimchi & ebi gyozas and Lin's fav Indian crackers. :)

Tonite's dinner was really as lazy as I could get. While the quality of the food is an important factor to a perfect dinner, the company of loved ones rules above all else. Don't you agree? ^.* Say yes.

爱面吧 (Ai Mien Bar)

I'm under the weather today. Woke up with an ultra bad throat & runny nose. Nonetheless, I still gotta crawl all the way (well I drove) to meet TG, Alex, Yvonne & Lin for lunch. I've not seen TG & Alex for a long while. Wasn't sure if I wanna lug the heavy camera along. But it's a new noodle place. The thought of not going there again if the food was below average made me drag the camera into my miu miu. Lol. :)))

I like the high ceiling of the restaurant, just wasn't too sure about the coloured lighted balls. I didn't really like the 3 or 4 folded paper menu. It made me raised my brows. Oops. :))) Ai Mien's website needs some fine tuning too. Lin said I'm very critical today. I think it's the bug... *.*

Everyone liked the deep fried silver bait. :) It's crispy & tasty. We had two servings! The tofu was average. Alex & Yvonne found the tofu cubes a tad spicy.

I tried Ai Mien's signature creation which consisted of four varieties of noodles, each offering a taste of a geographical location in China. :)

I was told by Lin to eat the noodles in the following order: Cold green noodles with shrimps, beef noodles, wanton noodles & minced pork noodles. They weren't too bad but it reminded me of SQ's business class's meals somehow.

Yvonne had Beijing Jiang Mien while Alex had fried noodles with shrimps. Yvonne found her noodles pretty light & good. :) Alex didn't enjoyed his though. His noodles was almost untouched.





















TG & Lin had sliced fish with century eggs congee. I tried a little too. Thumbs up for it! The congee was smooth & flavourful, and most importantly, the sliced fish were fresh. :) We'll be coming back here again, not for Ai Mien's noodles but congee.

Ai Mien serves delightful desserts. We love the soft cake and avocado purée with ice-cream, aloe vera and walnuts. :) Will come back for more!

Details of 爱面吧 (Ai Mien Bar):
168 robinson road #01-08 Capital Tower 
T: +65 6592 5296  
W:  http://www.aimienbar.com.sg/

Brunch Time Visit :)

It's a pretty chilled Tuesday for me. A good day to visit my niece? Yes yes yes. She's been out from her mommy's tummy for nearly two weeks & I have yet to see her. :O

Everyone, this is baby Faith! ^.^ Soundly asleep when I arrived. She's a slimer version of her brother, Jarius. :D Isn't she sweet? ;)

I think Lin & I need to do some shopping. Her cotty is kind of empty other than the bunnies mobile & nappies. Lol! :)))

Roti Prata for Sunday Lunch

It's a hot hot Sunday! :) We added more heat to our Sunday by having roti prata, chicken curry & briyani. : O

There're many variations of roti prata & here's our family fav. ^.^

Lin & I love to have our pratas with sugar. What about you? :)




























To make our meal more complete, we had chicken curry & briyani too. :D

Details of Thesavi Roti Prata:
237/239 Jalan Kayu

Shabu Shabu at Shabu-Hana

I had cravings for shabu shabu! : O It's really difficult to find a Japanese restaurant that serves shabu shabu in Singapore. Went googling and found Shabu-Hana. So we visited the place with Patrick last evening. :)

We had two sets of Waygu beef & a set of Kurobota pork. The soup base was light as it was boiled with kelp. It suited Lin & my palatte but people who prefer stronger flavour such as Patrick may find it average. He was still hungry after the dinner. Lol. :)))

Shabu shabu makes such great winter meal. ^.* We do not have winters here, so a rainy December kind of justifies a warm shabu shabu dinner. :D

To end the meal, Lin & I had a bowl of ramen each. Wonderful. :) It was an evening where I just wanna indulge somehow...perhaps I'm deprived, perhaps I was just restless & needed some perk me ups...perhaps perhaps perhaps. :)

Details of Shabu-Hana:
14 Mohamed Sultan Road
T: +65 6235 8216
W: http://www.shabuhana.com/

Tea With An Unwillingly Companion

The weather this morning was cooling with some sunshine after days of heavy downpour. :) Aunt Annie brought us pandan cake from Bengawan Solo. Lin just found me a cute tea set. The elements were so right to do tea in our little garden. :) I got Koka, the unwillingly one to do tea with me. Lol. :)))

We got this tea set from Japan, maybe 4 years ago? I can't remember now. It was hidden somewhere in the cupboard until Lin did some housekeeping a few days back. I love it! :)

The cap & face are actually teacups. How cute is that? *.*
I made myself a pot of apple tea. The apple fragrance is sweet, sweet, sweet.

The lightness of Bengawan Solo's pandan cakes makes it very easy for one to take two. Somehow you wouldn't feel guilty having more than a slice. ;) Am I deceiving myself?

Here's my unwillingly tea companion. She still manages a smile though! :D