Malacca Celup

Since i was in Malacca two years ago, i sorely miss their Satay Celup. It is especially hard to find in Singapore, and not long ago, there was a Groupon deal for a shop in Joo Chiat called Malacca Celup. The coupon for its ala carte buffet costs $10.90 each and i decided to try.

U can either order alacarte or you could go to its vegetable station and get ingredients like mushroom, kang kong and baby corn.

They also have a large refrigerator with things like fishball, crabsticks, and quail eggs.

Once you think you've gotten enough, it's time to immerse them all in your own pot of boiling satay sauce. Wow, i can't believe how awful one can make satay sauce... it's the most watery and tasteless satay sauce i've ever come across in my entire life.

At least its seafood is fresh :)

 

I also ordered some fried stuff and beef, but thin-slice beef still go better with broth, rather than satay sauce.

Stay away from this place, i can imagine if i pay the full price, i would've probably burned down its shop sign !

Many Returns of the Day, Ching!

For Tze Ching's birthday this year, we had a scrumptious lunch at Ju Shin Jung Korean BBQ restaurant. The place is quite well-known for its BBQ and is normally hard to book for dinners and weekends.

We all ordered an ala carte buffet where we are free to order a refill of any BBQ meat except beef, which each plate is charged at 50% price. Of course, there are also all the wonderful side dishes that came with the meal. These Koreans sure know how to cover an entire dining table with bowls and dishes. I wonder how much detergent they use for their dish washer??

Star off with some Pork belly! Wahahaha....tak halal ini...!

The marinated meats are the best and taste the most juicy and aromatic! We ate for such a looooooong time and filled our stomach to the absolute brim.... it was dining madness and the final bill was not cheap as well.

The whole group of people who enjoyed the birthday lunch. This photo was purposely taken mid-lunch so that our belly has not shown yet and nobody has to take deep breaths while having this snapped.

Our favourite choice of birthday cake - Pine Garden's Lychee Martini cake :) I personally went to get this in Ang Mo Kio with our designated driver, and we were there too late at night so they only had two left, both with some defects. This one had a slight lychee stain on the top.

We always celebrate our birthdays in the small meeting room.... i'm getting bored of the same backgrounds in all the birthday photos....*yawn*

We also celebrated Tsuey Tsuey's birthday, which is 2 days after Tze Ching's.

 Here you are, the two Graduate Trainees who've recently joined us. That makes our company having 4 of them. They are supposedly the future leaders of the company, their interviews are done in front of the full board of directors and for the first two years they are with us, they will jump to a different department every 6 months to hone their all-around skills.

 

Happy birthday dear gals, God Bless!

愛是不保留/ An Unreserved Love

I chanced upon this song on a friend's facebook newsfeed. It's a Cantonese song used in a Christian Wedding. The melody sounds really soothing and the lyrics meaningful. I totally love this tune and the language makes it different from the rest I've heard.

Later, i discovered its English version, which sounds sweeter and has more impact. The singer is also stronger and just makes the song sounds better!

The Pink Monster

I'm wearing pink, and i'm holding a pink cotton candy. It's my first time seeing this soft, fluffy treat.

I'm going to have a nice lick..... *lick* *taste*.....

 

Oooh....it's so sweet....just like me!

Weekend Getaway to Kukup

It was an early Saturday morning, we embarked from JB in two cars ( one of them a  7-seater) and reached Kukup after lunch. After a hot meal and check-in, we walked about the sleepy fishing town and scaled their highest tower. I miss seeing a skyline where there are no skyscrapers... :P

It was my first time traveling with Hui Ting. Seemed in the last few years, i've gotten to know many people who come from family of three sisters. She too, has two sisters at home and no brothers. The difference is that she's the eldest... haha...

Part of our homestay included a boat ride to a kelong to see how they rear fishes and horseshoe crabs in seawater. 

 

That's the whole gang, minus Sixian who was the camera girl :(

Feasting in Gelang Patah, JB

The night before our trip to Kukup, we went into JB and checked into a budget hotel there for the night. Before that, the whole big gang went to Gelang Patah for a seafood dinner at a popular eatery - Tian Lai.

We began our meal with Beer Ribs. You could actually detect a hint of beer in this slightly sweet but very soft pork ribs. Nope, we didn't get drunk from the alcohol but it was a good start!

You could never go wrong with Hot Plate Japanese Tofu, especially with the egg slightly sticking to the base of the hot plate and having to scrap it off with your utensils. The minced pork luxuriate in the creamy gravy and goes well with the rice.

Most of the enjoy mini squids, but it's really not my kind of thing. It has this fishy smell that i don't particularly like. One sotong and it's no more for me :P

What is this called in English? It's actually 大头 in Chinese but it's not clam nor mussels, ah well.... we wanted to order La-La but it is not in-season. Even when we were in Kukup, we tried ordering at every meal, but it is just not available. I guess this is almost an alternative, to satisfy our crave.

This is the fried mantou as an accompaniment to the next photo.....

Chilli Crab! The crabs were really fresh, and huge! Plus the crabs they serve here has the yellow stuff, i think it's the eggs sticking on the shells. My friends had so much fun sucking those off... to them that's the essence of the crab. This dish is slightly salty, i guess that's the one minus point.

We couldn't agree on one vegetable haha....some don't eat Kai Lan, some were against kangkung. others hate beansprout....so we settled on Potato Leaves...

We had a 2nd plate of crab, the salted egg crab. This dish fared much better than the chilli crab and still the crabs were big and filled with essence. There is also a lot of crunchy goodness on the surface to keep us satisfied sucking on them.

 

Just opposite the road is a huge durian stall and it was durian season during our trip. We bought 3 durians and had them opened on the table right after our dinner....ooomph

Besties !

My bestie QQ loves being the center of attention. He looks so tiny with me holding him huh?

I adore this pic, notice his pink little tongue sticks out a little as if giving me a gentle lick. And he still refuses to look at the camera.

Once you hold him for over the optimum time, he starts to fidget around, being impatient.

 

You just need to distract him or sternly call out his name and he will stay still and look at the camera, for a fraction of a second :P

What's On My Dressing Table (Part 14)

A popular product by Biotherm ( they must be good, they've got Takeshi Kaneshiro as spokesperson!!) is their Aquasource range. I tried a sample of their Aquasource gel version given free. It comes in a soothing light green semi-transparent gel and is targeted at intensive hydration for the face using thermal plankton cellular water. Hmmm.....It feels very much like the next product I've posted here. We bought one for my friend Sue Anne's birthday this year, although she was actually asking for the Nutrisource line which has been discontinued.

I actually bought Clinique's Dramatically Different moisturizing gel after rave reviews from people. If you like light moisturizers, do purchase this ( but make sure you buy the gel version, because the lotion version is packaged the same, except for the name). Different from my peers, i actually prefer products which are more powdery, so i am pretty indifferent when it comes to the feel of both this and the previous product, although many simply swear by them. This gel is developed to maintain optimal moisture balance for dry skins. One good thing i must say is that the bottle is actually made of plastic so it is very durable and not as heavy as some other brands.

I bought a small tube of this Nivea's gentle cleansing cream for traveling purposes. It does its duties well, at cleaning my skin and making it supple after wash. I didn't like the fact that when i squeeze the cream out it does not look as smooth, like it is not stable. I certainly won't buy this in its normal size.

I recently tried a sample of Sunsilk Weather Defense-Shield & Frizz Control Light Cream. Wowwwwww, i'm impressed by Sunsilk. They are certainly not kidding when they say 'Light'. The cream left absolutely no residue on my hands. Once you apply it to your hair, it is strangely substantive to the hair but not to your hands, well say like M&M, melts in your mouth, not in your hands. This would be a great buy, real value for money.

The Body Shop has a line of body shampoo called 'Earth Lovers' where these are claimed to be sulfate-free, 100% biodegradable etc. etc..... I'm currently using the Watermelon & Eucalyptus one. They have several others which sounds equally yummy. Like all other sulfate-free systems, they really lack of foam, although foam is not a representation of cleansing effect. Kudos to them for consistently caring for the environment though *thumbs up*

Jalan Jalan Cari Makan di Kuantan

A signature dish of fried fish we had at a chinese eatery in Kuantan. I then realise why they call it their signature dish, cos it's brilliant and a stroke of genius! It doesn't look that beautiful a dish, but the tomato gravy really brought out the taste of the fish. Bravo to this, i bet beer would go great with it.

Sixian loves salted egg. Imagine the delight when we had Crayfish coated with Salted Egg.... MmmmMmmmm....not really my kinda thing, but suppose it really was good.

The famous Sungai Lembing tofu noodles, we ideally would've wanted it all purely tofu, but we were late so they only had a mix of yong tau fu stuff left. The cook thought my mom and dad were having the ones with the pig skin, so the helping was generous. Boy, were they surprised when it was the two younger ones who are slurping down that pig skin ! Of course the Lembing egg noodles are yummy!

I have no idea what this Malay kueh is called but it's always comforting to have some. It's the synergy of tastes it gives, with the spicy chilli and meat on top of a sticky yellow kueh below. The green version with sweet filling ain't that bad too.

 

Rojak Ayam - one of those mamak dish that we enjoy having once in a while. They always give very generous portions of chicken and lauk-pauk. Preferably the gravy is not that sweet and it would be just perfect.

Puppy Fakes Own Death

The naughty doggie is setting his aims on 金像獎!

Sungai Lembing Day Trip

When Sixian was in Kuantan, we made a day trip to Sungai Lembing, a sleepy town just about 45 km from Kuantan. It was where my sisters and I spent part of our childhood there, yes all those memories that came flooding (pun intended) back with every road and building.

There is now a new resort there, the Lembing Riverview Resort for nature lovers who would love to spend some time exploring Sungai Lembing. They offer rooms at an affordable rates and was where the Mediacorp stars stayed during their filming there.

The suspension bridges sure look much sturdier than they used to!

If you've dreamt of visiting a ghost town, this place is perfect for you. Many houses and old buildings have fallen into disrepair and you don't see many people hanging around. The new wave of tourism seemed to have revive this place a little, let's just hope that this town will not be forgotten.

We visited the Sungai Lembing Museum, which showcased and is a learning center for those who would like to know about the history of Sungai Lembing, mainly on its tin mines and the operation of PCCL. We had the perfect tour guide in the museum :  my dad!