Crocodile Rock

On my first night back in Kuantan, Tong Wooi came over and we went to Crocodile Rock for beer and some chit-chatting. Crocodile Rock is a bungalow which has been converted into an eatery by an English woman who stays somewhere near my house. This place is a popular chill-out place for locals.

I've only had Paulaner beer from the tap, i wasn't aware that they came in such nice bottles. It still taste as good, though. It's quite an easy beer to drink cos of its smoothness and it is less bitter.

We were thinking what goes well with beer, but Nachos? This plate of corn chips came topped with melted mozzarella, sour cream and tomato salsa. It is such a disappointing snack, the nachos were no longer crunchy. Perhaps it was a bad idea to have all those things topped on the nachos. If the dip was served separately, they might be crunchy.

 

Crocodile Rock is renowned for their thin-crust pizza. This is the 'Sunset Special' - with turkey ham, green pepper, mushroom, black olives, garlic, oregano and mozzarella cheese. Sixian loved the pizza here, for the next few days in Kuantan she kept on wanting to go back but we didn't....haha!

Can't Get These Out of My Head!

Katy Perry is my favourite artiste of the year. Her songs are fun fun fun! This particular song 'Teenage Dream' is my favourite, but the MV is very blah....low cost and with a bunch of idiots prancing around.... XD

The song 'Rocketeer' by Far East Movement is a song that kept stuck in my head with its rap and melody, not to mention its MV which made me wanna soar with the guy on the skateboard. The MV was well-shot, with a storyline where the guy goes around collecting materials to produce a human rocket.

Heehee, this song from 2007 'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance has very cute lyrics. Of course it also helps that they sung it with attitude and gusto!

This Raymond Lam song '爱在记忆中找你' is one very depressing song, but very well-written and well-sung. I remember it well, from the drama 'The Drive of Life' from several years ago. The composer is indeed a genius, one of the best Cantopop songs i've heard in years.

Glee is a TV show which covers many hit songs from all these years. I heard this song 'Light Up The World' from the radio. If i'm not mistaken , this is one of the rare songs which is an original and not a cover. One listen and i was ready to conclude this is a hit.

I love listening to Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night (TGIF)' on Fridays. It has an MV like a movie, with cameos with people like Kenny G as 'Uncle Kenny', and even Hanson, Youtube star Rebecca Black and Debbie Gibson. Cute MV, in line with a fun, happy song.

First time i heard Paramore's 'That's What You Get' was when i was playing Guitar Heroes on Nintendo Wii. I fell in love with this song ever since, but have not heard it for a few years, until I chanced upon it playing on a radio again.

Penang Laksa Get-Together

Sixian's mother hails from Penang and every once in a while she'll cook Penang Laksa for us. This is the first time Yurou is joining us. She put on a nice dress for a great afternoon with us. Her mommy got this dress during her business trip to Manchester earlier this year.

Yurou is quite cheeky and stubborn. Sixian's mom said that she's like a little boy than a girl.

This shot was taken just as I arrive at Sixian's home. Yurou came to the door to greet me and the balloon i got for her on the way.

We got some Java-To-Go from Coffee Bean, just nice for the all of us.

 

There you go, the Penang Laksa. Very generous heap of tuna fish and lauk-pauk. Not like those you get from outside!

Orchid Live Seafood Beer Garden

There's a beer garden in KL, but there's also one in Singapore, introduced to me by Datin, my Dajie. Really Datin lah, cos she comes to this place in Bah Soon Pah Rd at Orchid Live Seafood to have Lobster Porridge.

I had a Bamboo Clam before my meal. It was cooked generously with lots of garlic to rid of the sea smell. The final dish that ended up on my table is wonderfully chewy and tastes surprisingly fresh. 

Datin also recommended me to try their veggies cos they are planted right at the backyard of this eatery and I think they are organic? Never mind, they do taste different than the normal fare you get outside, and I meant it as a compliment.

Yup, Datin always comes here for Lobster Porridge so i also ordered one lah. But i didn't really like it. First of all, i prefer porridge that are cooked till you can't see the original shape of the rice, not the kind where you see the rice beads in a broth. Also, i didn't really like the taste of this lobster, it is kinda like eating a really huge prawn, and i'm not a big fan of prawns. The soup is really nice, though. It must be great to have this on a rainy day, cos I had to sit alfresco at this place and was working up a sweat.

 

This is one of their signature dishes : Steven Chicken. The chicken wing is fried to perfection....muack *puffyrazzi kisses her finger in an OK sign*. Don't know how they push the meat in the mid joint to reveal the bones, but this Steven Chicken had me craving for more. Every time i pass by Bah Soon Pah Rd, my head is filled with thoughts of this dish and saliva starts to drip. Y-U-M-M-Y!!

Dove ruins cat's nap

The poor cat is trying to nap, yet the bird is relentless! Doesn't the bird know that cats eat birds?? And the expression on the cat's face is priceless, his grumpiness is written all over that adorable face!

What's On My Dressing Table? (Part 13)

Boi-ing Industrial Concealer is an industrial strength concealer by Benefit. For me, it is exceptionally functional in hiding one of the biggest flaws of my face, my dark eye circles and eye bags. In fact, it is very durable and doesn't even budge at the end of my working day. No wonder they call it 'industrial strength'....haha...

I normally rotate my shampoo use on alternate days. At the same time i'm using Clairol's Pina Colada ( from a few posts back), i am also using Clear Cool Menthol shampoo. While it claimed to be cool as menthol, i could hardly feel that icy cool sensation when washing my hair. I still remember the menthol shampoo i used at Crispy's home, i forgot the brand, but its menthol imparted such a refreshing, cooling effect on my scalp.

Do you remember my complaining about Dove's conditioner having too much fragrance within? Well, i bought the Hair Mask too and guess what? It had the same fragrance and as strong as ever too. Gosh! Having said that, i thought that Dove's conditioner and hair mask serve their purpose very well and leaves the hair repaired and improves its combability.

One of the projects we recently completed was formulating a cold cream ala Hazeline Snow. So we bought a jar for reference. It only cost us $2 per jar.... they had a new version in green packaging, which comes with SPF protection, but we prefer this yellow, old-school version. It is cheap, feels good and only boasts 4 ingredients on its label...haha...no wonder it's not expensive to make. Sure beat those new creams with 50 ingredients on its label and costs 100 times this.

I saw Sephora's adjustable sunscreen on the pages of a magazine and was puzzled at how specific this product is. It says that this product has an adjustable cap which controls whether you want it SPF 15, 30 or 50, meaning it has three separate compartments within housing sunscreen of different SPF. Would you buy this? I would just buy a bottle with SPF 50! Why bother deciding which SPF you need on a different day depending on your sun exposure? Some brands really have 'itchy butts' to come up with such 'creativity'.

Superb Street Food

Several months ago, Andrea recommended a place which sells her favourite fried fish soup. This place is near at Jurong East, in a secluded hawker centre which i've never been! It's run by a Hong Kong aunty which never closes the stall unless she goes back for a break. If you go in the afternoon, it is uncle who cooks and is not as nice, so go in the evening for aunty's more generous with Shaoxing and milk in her broth.

Yup, everyone must try it! At least i think it's fantastic, cos i can normally slurp down the entire bowl plus a full helping of rice, which is a rarity for me. So far, it's not easy to find a stall which sells soup this irresistible.

Another hawker centre in Jurong East is near the swimming complex. This hawker centre also has a large variety of food. Been there a couple of times, and during one of my visits, i had a bowl of chicken porridge and paired it with raw fish. I've come to like this combination, ever since trying a better one at Jurong West Market, but this one is not bad too. The fish is always fresh, so no problems there.

 

They also sell Kungbao Frog Leg here! Nowadays, it's not easy to find these. Only selected places has them, cos i suppose not many people enjoy them anymore, but i like how smooth and silky the texture of the meat with, and cooking them Kungbao style makes it more appetising cos of the spicy flavour.

Yvonne's Birthday

Yvonne's birthday came along just 3 days after we no longer report to her as a boss. See how much she has let her hair down since then.... don't worry, the bottle's still full, she's not drunk :)

She personally picked that cake out during one of our lunches out and we sort of kept that at the back of our minds till her birthday.

Andrea and Xiuhui wishing Yvonne and happy birthday too!

When she poured out the sparkling juice, she joked that it felt like the groom was not present. No worries, no alcohol content, or else we would have all been caught.

 

Cheers!!!!

The way of pronouncing English words in Chinese

Spice Peranakan

This wonderful restaurant, Spice Peranakan, was recommended by Yvonne for her birthday celebration. It is a family-run business tucked in the busy area in Biopolis, in a building called Centros. Believe it or not, this business is run by a 'Wee' family too! No wonder i feel the warmth already :)

In the menu, the story of the Wee family was told....unfortunately i don't originate from the same Wee family cos my family is Hainanese, not Peranakan...hehe...

Service was impeccable, uncle Wee recommended we start the meal with home-made Lemongrass drink. This drink has lemongrass boiled with pandan leaves, simply aromatic and one sip keeps you hooked. When uncle Wee served this, he instructed our whole table to drink this with our eyes closed. Somehow, the loss of one of our senses actually evoked a stronger sense of taste, and the drink tasted much much fragrant with our eyes closed!

We kicked off our feast with Kueh Pie Tee - crispy cups filled with turnips and sauce. The cups were very crunchy, and the chilli sauce was perfect with the flavours of the turnip! Simply irresistible.

Our share of vegetables came from this bowl of Chap Chye - mixed vegetables drowned in tau chio. Not really my kind of vegetable dish, this was the only one we didn't wipe clean.

Wow, check out these big, fat Otak Otak - fish and prawns clothed in delectable spicy paste with a hint of coconut. The Otak Otak were huge, moist and spicy, what a way to get your appetite kicking in.

Yvonne said that the one true dish by Peranakan is Ayam Buah Keluak and she taught us how to eat the Keluak, by digging the paste out of the nut shell and eating it together with the chicken and the gravy. I must admit it's really and acquired taste. As described in the menu : ayam buah keluak is the quintessential Peranakan dish - black nuts stuffed with minced pork and prawns and then cooked in rich, slightly sour gravy.

Oh yes! The Ikan Assam Pedas - a choice of fish cuts cooked in spicy assam base with eggplant, lady fingers and tomatoes. The sourish yet spicy base had us falling in love after the first taste and made us ask uncle for a 2nd helping of rice.

After we wiped clean the Ikan Assam Pedas, uncle Wee walked over to entice us with his Onde-Onde freshly made by hand. He only makes certain items when he feels like it and when ingredients are available. That day, he made these and the glutinous rice flour was mixed with Sweet Potato to give it the orangey colour and the sweet taste. Once bitten, the Gula Melaka within burst in our mouth to our delight!

 

No matter how full we were, we still insisted on dessert! Hahaha....we had 2 each sharing one bowl of Durian Chendol. It was superb, a great finale to an excellent meal i have not had for a looooong time. Service was great, and according to Yvonne, if you go on Friday nights, they have live band singing too.

Shopping Kaki (Part 6)

Anchor Point is a small little shopping mall in Queensway, right opposite Ikea. It is relatively quiet, but the maintenance of this place is pretty good. After all these years, the interior is still looking good. It has some decent shops, but with the thin crowd i'm just still wondering how the tenants survive.

White Sands is a busy place right at the east end of Singapore in Pasir Ris. This aging mall is still bustling, but partly only because of its small size and the crowd it has to cater to. I only come here once every few years, but nothing in there really interests me.

Liang Court mostly serves the tourist crowd, with its strategic position in Clarke Quay. We hung out here for few times during our D&D this year, cos it shares the same building with Novotel Clarke Quay. It has several good eateries, especially Tampopo Japanese food, and a large Audio House outlet within.

Marina Square is a place where you can drop me and i can shop there for the entire day. It's one of those large and carries everything kinda place. This place is also the place to be during the F1 race because its backdoor opens right onto the track and the entrance to the track. Even though the design of this mall is a simple cross ( a central forum with 4 different directions), but i always get confused with my directions in here. 

When i was younger, i didn't even step into Raffles City because the stuff is simply out of my budget. These days, i like going into Robinson's to try out all the testers at the cosmetics counters. There is also a wide variety of snacks at the basement after its renovation, but i still refrain from shopping in the other places, which i think suits 'Datin' more :)

Cedele

My friends and I have a thing about all day breakfast, somehow. Imagine our delight at finding Cedele which also serves breakfast till dinner time, similar to Food For Thought in Queen's Street. There are several Cedele branches, but we picked the one in Raffles City, for its privacy. It's tucked in a small corner after a bend in Raffles City and won't be found unless you really intend to go there.

To whet our appetite, we started off with Green Apple Juice.  The nutrients in apples can help in keeping the heart healthy and happy.

This wonderfully addictive dish is completely vegetarian. Portobello & Other Fungi - consists of pan-fried plum Portobello, Shitake, Button & Oyster Mushrooms with recommended salad dressing of balsamic and olive oil. 

I'm the ever pancake fan, so no 'breakfast' ( and we had this at 6 pm) is complete without them! Wild Blueberry Pancake - with vanilla butter and maple syrup comes with choice of bacon rashers or sausages ( and i picked the bacon, obviously).

 

This is the tremendously huge Big Breakfast Set - Brioche/Rustic white toast , bacon rashers, sausages, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes. What more could we ask for?

Swinging Dogs