Monkeys at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

It has been quite a long time since my last visit to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.  Decided to take a walk in this beautiful reserve this afternoon.  The nature reserve seems to be a bit exhausted these days.  Signs of landslides, and tree falling down are more than what I had seen before.  Anyway, I was greeted by a group of resident monkeys in the nature reserve, and there are many young monkeys playing in the trees.  What does it mean?  Does more young monkeys mean they now have an expanded family and the environment is conducive? Or most of the old ones have died as they can adapt to the modern living?  I don't know.  For now, let's share the happy moments with the young monkeys :)

Tea Dot @ NEX

Had tea at Tea Dot @ NEX last weekend.  Their drinks have very fancy names, such as the drink that I ordered is 'Arctic Dragon brew'.  Do you have any idea what it is?  Basically it is just Oolong tea plus some kind of fruits, plus ice cube.  That's it!  For this small glass of tea, the cost is S$5.85.  I guess most of the cost comes from the rent of the shop, in such a nice busy shopping mall :)  Taste-wise, it is typical Oolong tea and there is nothing weird at least.

My friend's order also has a very fanciful name, and it cost S$7.20.  I start to understand why Starbucks is such a huge success :)

Punggol Waterway

Last Sunday was the official opening of Punggol Waterway, a project by HDB that cost S$220 million dollars!  Put it simply, it is just a big monsoon drain without the concrete walls on the sides.

The place is quite barren, with few trees.  It feels hot even though it was a cloudy afternoon.

Paradise Inn @ NEX

It is my second time to Paradise Inn @ NEX.  My last experience was not bad, and of course their Cantonese cuisine is the main attraction.  We were not very hungry that day, so we only ordered two dishes.  One is sea whelm soup, the other is steamed fish head.

Our sea whelm soup is thick and sweet in taste.  You can tell it has been boiled for many hours.  The sweet taste of sea whelm has come out completely into the soup.

The steamed fish head is not bad, too.  However, the fish has too many bones, and you have to be really careful when you eat it.  The way they cook it is more toward Teochew style, and it is a little bit spicy.

Overall, it was a very satisfactory meal :)

Fukuichi @ Triple One Somerset

Purple suggested we go for lunch at Fukuichi @ Triple One Somerset.  There is a display of a blog post from ieatishootipost, a famous Singapore food blog.  We arrived slightly after 11.30am, just after the restaurant opened for the day.  We were ushered in by a lady, somehow like very reluctantly, as if we owed her a million dollars in debt!

When we ordered our food, came another lady.  She was quite nice to inform us that if we pay by UOB credit card, then we can get 15% discount on ala carte items.  In addition, we will get a complimentary century egg tofu cold dish.

Simple, old-fashion table settings.

And here is our complementary century egg tofu.  The taste is not bad, although it is a bit salty for my taste buds, otherwise it is good.  The tofu is tender and jelly like.

My unagi lunch set:

The highlight of the day, and the most expensive item of the day: TORO!

These two tiny pieces of sushi cost S$22.00, while my whole unagi lunch set is only S$18.00!  This TORO has to be god-damn good for that price.  To my disappointment, the TORO is very chewy, and that's only impression I have of this most expensive item :(

Last but not least, our dessert:

We felt that we didn't eat much, but somehow we felt we were very full.  Had to go for a long walk for proper digestion.

In summary, I would say it is just another Japanese restaurant.  Price is reasonable, acceptable service, reasonable food, but not outstanding.

Indecent Ad?

Here is a giant advertisement board at the crossing of Orchard Road and Bideford Road.  This ad has created quite a stir up in Singapore, with people writing to newspapers and relevant authorities to complain that the ad is indecent.  Reason being?  The model's body is too sexy, too smooth, too perfect, and above all, the model's pubic hair is shown partially.  Come on, we all know that humans have pubic hairs when they reach adolescence.  There is no secret about it, although people don't talk about it openly and in general social settings.  Beauty of the human body is a god sent gift, let's don't junk it to the indecent category.   

Meet Your MP

Just a few minutes ago, the MP for our constituency dropped by my humble flat to say hello, and asked whether there were any improvement they can make.

Yes!  I saw the notice the other day and I had been waiting for her to ask this question.  Around my block, there are quite a number of rotten friends running around.  They just come out from nowhere and then run around the path right in front of you.  Our dear dear and darling cats don't seem to even bother about our rotten friends.

Our MP happily agreed to get the experts to come and get rid of all our rotten friends.  Let's wait and see, whether there will really be some improvements in the days to come.  Rats spread diseases, and they are not something that you can ignore and live together happily.

Let's wait and see.

A Weekend Without My Handphone

Mobile phones have been deeply woven into our modern life.  Like it or not, without a mobile phone, there are many things you can't do, even if you don't need the mobile phone to communicate with anyone.

I forgot my mobile in office on Friday, so I had to live through the weekend without one.  I didn't expect I would get myself into any trouble, or even inconvenience myself, as I don't make that many phone calls, or sms a lot.  Then when I need to do online purchase, and when I want to do bank fund transfers, I realize I can't, without my mobile phone. 

Now for credit payments for your online purchase, they require you to have an OTP password to authorize the transaction.  It is an added safety feature to safeguard your money.  I can't say anything bad about it.  But then if you lose your mobile phone, it will also be a nightmare for you.

Modern life, life can't do without mobile phones...

Memorial Museum of Generalissimo Sun Yat-Sen's Mansion

Watched the movie 1911 Revolution yesterday, and it reminds me of my visit to the Memorial Museum of Generalissimo Sun Yat-Sen's Mansion earlier this year in Guangzhou.

Usually, the museum is quite empty, hardly with any visitors, but I visited it on the first day of Chinese New Year, long queues of people at the entrance, waiting for distribution of free entry tickets at each hour.  The museum offers free entry, but they control the number of visitors to, I think, 3000 per day.

The mansion has obviously been renovated, with all the fresh paint visible over the entire building compound.  And, in order not to obstruct the architectural beauty of the mansion, a small part of a nearby bridge was removed.  You see, we Cantonese are really serious in preserving our heritage.  :)

There are two western style buildings in the compound, used to be connected on the second floor with a bridge, but then that is gone.

Within the building itself, there are displays of artifacts related to the operation of the generalissimo during its heydays, offering a glimpse into the life of those challenging days.

Here is the meeting room where Dr Sun used to hold his meetings.

Quiet, airy corridor, perfect for a lazy summer afternoon in the heat of southern China.

Looking over the old structure, we can see the modern Guangzhou, covered in a thin layer of mist.

It is a nice place to remember those who dedicated their lives in the past for the betterment of our lives today.  If you are not interested in history, at least it is a nice place to sit back and relax, and enjoy the view of modern Guangzhou.

If you can read Chinese, more information about the museum can be found at this link.

Empire State @ Causeway Point

Empire State is another restaurant opened at Causeway Point after the renovation.  It is more or less in the same style of New York New York, serving American style western food.

It is quite crowded at 6.30pm on a Saturday, quite a queue outside the restaurant.  However, we were quite lucky that they quickly found a table for two for us.  Customers obviously out number the waiters/waitresses.  In such a hurry, our waitress forgot to bring us our ice water, although we ordered.

Here is my steak & fries.  The steak is medium-well done, however, there is still sign of blood atop the steak. It is a bit scary, isn't it?  The steak is tender, better than I had expected from any American style food.  The food is simple, just a piece of steak, nothing much more to talk about, but they did it right.

Kapap - Self Defense for Everyone

Recently I took up a Kapap course to learn some self defense techniques, just in case I may need that some time, although I hope that moment will never come.

There is a video clip produced by the North East CDC, which you can find below.  You will get more information about Kapap.

1911 Revolution 辛亥革命

This is Jackie Chan's 100th film, and it comes at the 100th anniversary of Xinhai (1911) revolution.

The movie has a bit of identity crisis, it seems like the scriptwriter doesn't know what he/she wants to portrait for this movie, whether it is a movie of history, a war movie, a movie of love, or whatever.  It seems like the movie wants all, but then unfortunately achieves none beautifully.

What is more sad is that, the wishes of the revolution's leader, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, one century after the 1911 revolution, are still not fully fulfilled.  

Hot Tomato @ Causeway Point

Hot Tomato is one of the new restaurants opened after Causeway Point's upgrading.  Often times, you can see long queues of customers outside it, and seems to be a very popular place for young people.  Ok, in that case I must give it a try, and they are having some kind of promotion, how can I missed it?

My order is steak N prawn combo, served with spaghetti for ~13 bucks.  Not too bad a deal.  The food comes with a reasonable presentation, and looks good.

There are 4 parts to my dish, namely prawn, steak, spaghetti, and vegie salad.  Let's start from the prawn.  The prawns are of reasonable size, but unfortunately not very fresh.  The meat sticks to the shell, a telltale sign that the prawns are not fresh.

Next the steak.  I will say it is not too bad not too good, just ordinary.  I order medium, and it is more on the bloody side, yet still ok.

Spaghetti is just normal, cooked with some kind of herb.  The taste is on the plain side.

Last is the salad.  The vegies don't look very good, and totally tasteless.

For me, it is unlikely I will go there again, sorry.

Wong Kok, Again

My friend and I are kind of addicted to Wong Kok Char Chan Teng at JB City Square.

Ok, let's talk less, and show more.  First comes the restaurant's new disk, baked prawn boat.  What exactly is this?  Actually it is a piece of potato.  They dig out the center part, and then fill it back with prawn and fish paste, I guess, then bake the whole thing together with some butter.

The smell is good, and the taste is nice too.  It gives the sweet taste of the potato and the texture of the prawn and fish paste.

Another new dish is Sabu Sabu rice.  This dish is not as good as I expected.  The pork they use has quite a bit of fat, which I don't really like.  However, the thin slices of pork is still not bad, but people with heavy taste may not like it, as the taste is very light.

Manhattan Fish Market @ Causeway Point

Manhattan Fish Market restaurant is a restaurant specialized in American style seafood, similar to Fish & Co.
Decided to give it a try, after they opened a new branch in Causeway Point.

My choice is the Mediterranean Baked Fish (S$.  The fish fillet is wrapped in aluminum foil, and then baked together with banana leaf (?), and garlic.  It is served with some healthy vegies, and garlic herb rice.

The fish is tender and juicy, with a light scent of the nice smell of garlic.  I like it very much.  Rice is not bad, although it is a bit on the dry side, and portion is a bit small.  My young dining buddy complains that it is not enough for him :(