travel

Merry Christmas :)

8:30 PM

 25 DEC 2017


Few years ago, I had a pretty sad encounter that every Christmas I just don't wish to be reminded of it. I used to love Christmas when I was young. It's like a tradition even though I ain't a Christian. My childhood days were lovely. Every year I would have snow fights with friends, built snowman at my balcony, snowboarding, skiing in mountains, Christmas Carols, dinners and gatherings etc. Very simple yet heartwarming and wonderful memories.
Back to my motherland, I've kinda stopped celebrating because Asians don't really celebrate it and the Christmasy feel isn't really there. But being in aviation few years ago made Christmas slightly more meaningful because I have been flying my passengers every Christmas Eve or Christmas, getting them back home in time for their reunion with their loved ones for Christmas.

Anyway, I thought I wouldn't be really doing anything much this winter but thank you to an amazing friend that made this year's Christmas lovely again. 🎄🎅

travel

10:39 PM

14 JUL 2017

Some of my friends might know that I have been having digestive issues, I had diarrhea almost EVERYDAY for 365 days, 反正几乎就是吃什么 next 1-2hours later 就泻什么, and I can have diarrhea up to 3 times day. There's not really a day I had a normal shit, HAHA damn this description gets a little shitty, I apologize if any of you are having meal at this moment lol.

I went on scaring myself that maybe there's something in my intestines or whatever that caused all these indigestion problem, but girl friend said most likely I'm having IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), maybe due to food sensitivities or due to stress / anxiety / depression, which might be quite true as I'm always in a stress environment, dealing with career, studies and domestic issues.

Another issue for the past many years was, I think I can't take too much caffeine, if I drank coffee before eating anything / too much coffee/ coffee that contains too much caffeine/ coffee that contains too much milk or cold coffee, I might feel nausea the next moment, giddy, heartbeats getting faster, cold sweat and maybe even start to tremble. Therefore the reason why I seldom drink coffee or tea that has too much caffeine. I think mom has this problem too. To the extend I even once tried and compared almost every brand of coffee I see in supermarket, just to taste which is nicer and which doesn't have the bad caffeine effect on me / mom, and then I will avoid buying those brands which are bad..

Anyway, yeah ever since I arrived here last month till now, maybe due to feeling less stressed out, surprisingly I DID NOT HAVE AN SINGLE DAY OF DIARRHEA after meals! HURRAY!! and I also had (Cold/ Hot/ with or without milk) Decaf coffee almost daily, seems like no issue too. Haha very happy. Decaf coffee tasted pretty good too, Singapore should sell more decaf ones. 😄😄

----------

Nothing much interesting going on recent week, and since I do not have a car at the moment, it is kind of difficult to travel around to explore places, so I spent half of my free time in the kitchen cooking, baking, and experimenting new dishes. Haha I don't know why some people find it a chore but I think it is quite fun. Cooking/ baking/ plating is an art. Plus, it feels nice to share food together with other people too.
Good food = happy tummy = happy days.

Chicken Stew


This one anyhow cook. HAHA
 Kung Bao fried noodles with prawn, sides are fish fingers and lava egg.


 Chicken ham, tomatoes, onions in French bread, drizzled with Honey Dijon Mustard.


 ABC soup, Stir fry minced pork with french beans.



凉拌黄瓜



Fish Fillet, in HK style sauce.



Googled and found the one and only Asian supermarket in town, so Danny and I went to check it out.
It was like 30mins drive from my house.

This is own by a Korean family.
Not a big one, maybe just the size of a 5 room flat, but it has half of the essential asian groceries. A little pricey for half of the items but I guess there's not much of a choice as there isn't a chinatown here and since its like the only asian supermarket in town, the price had to be marked up a little, and we just have to deal with it. 
Mostly selling Thai/ Korean/Vietnam spices, sauces, rice, noodles and vegetables etc, so it is good enough if any Asians are on craving. Just no Garlic chili! WHY?! Lol 😅


A varieties of canned food, tea and spices.


The one and only curry powder brand I found in the shop.. 
Not sure if it is nice, will cook it soon. $6USD ugh


Mee Soto has always been my comfort food. I especially liked the Mee Soto sold at the malay stall back at my home based airport Terminal 3's food court.
Will cook and see if the soup base is authentic.


$$2USD for a bag of beansprouts -_-
Bought it once, just for fun, might take awhile to finish this.
Apparently, angmo's doesn't know what are beansprouts lol


Herbal mix for chicken soup


So yeah I bought some dried soba noodles and stir fried them since I do not know where to buy those soba sauce and do not know how to make them from scratch.
Yummy nonetheless! I put Sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper, sugar. and that's it.


Bought lup Cheong and dried chinese mushrooms from the Asian supermarket too!
 So of course I had to cook some Claypot rice (without a claypot) hahaha.



And lastly, tried cooking the mee soto with the paste I've bought.
It tasted alright but the soup isn't authentic and a tad salty. I guess nothing beats ingredients made from scratch for a soup base.



Till then!

travel

Independence Day, 4 JUL 2017

11:30 PM

Self celebrated by cooking a simple noodle soup (生日面) with 2 eggs (it is kinda a tradition for chinese to cook 2 eggs to go with the noodles on birthdays) for my own lunch this afternoon since it's my birthday. Made another portion of  it for Lauren, Alex and also Barbara the nice old lady neighbour next door. Haha hope they like soupy stuffs.



 Plucked some Mangoes again from the backyard.
YUM!



Headed out to downtown to catch America Independence Day's fireworks in the evening.

Chill out in down town. Half the shops on the street are closed due to Public Holiday.


Thank you for the Birthday Drinks treat from Julius.
Nice of barista to deco my coffee. haha

 When beach earlier to camp a nice spot for fireworks.


Jul, me and Tim.

 Lovely sunset.
but with a lil' sea breeze would be better. haha



Fireworks was announced to be delayed almost an hour.
Here are a few nicer shots taken during the 25mins fireworks display.
Overall was quite ok but firework designs can be improved with more varieties since it is 25mins long.



 and so ....
Birthday Fireworks, bucket list CHECKED! :)


Due the delay of display, we had our dinner pretty late at 11pm, became more like supper.
Luckily restaurants extended opening hour.


First time trying out Paella, it's quite yummy but a lil' salty.
Not sure if it is authentic like the local ones in Spain.




A simple day to end my birthday tonight. 
Wishing a good and fruitful year ahead, surrounded with wonderful people.

Lastly,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

travel

8:32 PM

3 JUN 2017

Jul, Alex and Tim invited me out for lunch at one of their favourite Mexican restaurant this afternoon.



Again, I didnt look at the Menu because I can't really understand Spanish or Mexican words, and I just said to the waiter: "ok any dish is chicken or pork? I'll have that" Haha.. 
I don't what else the rest ordered.

So he served me Tacos, one grilled chicken and one grilled pork filling, served with Mexican rice and baked beans. It seems people here loved bake beans. Macaroni soup and Chips with Salsa are complimentary.
It's all tasted pretty good.
 




 Went to the nearby Cigar shop, and the boys tried some cigar.
Quite a nice chill out shop that serves Beer and Wine at night with some light music.
Shop owner was really friendly, sat down and chit chatted with us when there's no other customers to serve.



Alex looked like some mafia boss, smoking his cigar and settling some big business. lol



travel

Now, that's what I call a Superrrrrrmarket

11:00 PM

2 JUL 2017

Zulma asked me to go shopping together with her this afternoon, and brought me to one of the biggest walmart outlet in town. It really has everything under one roof, like a small shopping mall haha 真方便！
But this is also bad. Because I got tempted over buying everything in the supermarket. A lot product I see looks nice, looks yummy, and then I'll put them into my trolley.. LOL hate it

Here are some things which I came across...

They sell Guns, Rifles and bullets! Wth



They sell firecrackers for 4th July!
$30 for a pack of mini fireworks. hahaha I'm thinking of buying one to try, since it is also lao niang's birthday.
Back home government don't allow selling it in public, so since I'm here, gotta try lol 😅



Cakes for people who are fickled minded, cannot decide which flavour they like.
Singapore's Supermarket, learn from 'em pls

 


Apparently this is not a Banana. 
This is a Plantain.
I had a funny debate with lauren, alex, william, zulma.. that this is still a banana! 
But they insisted that "A banana is a banana, this is a Plantain."

Anyways yeah the difference between a Plantain vs a normal banana:
Plantains is a little more greenish in color (unriped banana?? hmm..) It contain more starch and less sugar than normal bananas, therefore they are usually used to cooked before being eaten. 




25cents per mango!?
I had enough of mangoes which were grown from Babara's backyard, so I skipped buying this.


Surname spotted 😁



Couscous are a lil' cheaper here?



and then I gotten all excited when I spotted a small section of asian groceries in the supermarket.
Not much stuffs here but at least this is where you get your soy sauce, sesame oil, instant noodle, beehoon, jasmine rice.
Apparently when you say instant noodle / cup noodle , nobody here seem to understand what you are talking about. You gotta say: Ramen. 


Oh MILO! Zulma told me she bought it before and loved it. haha

 

Look at the price of flax seed, chia seed etc ..
I wonder if its some sub-quality kind of product because back home, chia seed are usually quite expensive I think?



A lot of milk options available.
It's nice that over here they sell Lactose-free milk for people who can't take milk.



Eggs are cheap here o_o


 Over bought. 😅
I've already cut down on a lot of things not buying, things like Ice cream (?!) as it would melt in such humid weather.



Ridiculous shopping but fun.
Spent like 4 hours in the supermarket mainly only looking at food. Skipped the clothes and other departments as I didn't had the time. Now I understand why a lot of angmo are big size. Eat too much 😁

Alrighty, time for me to sort out my food in the small kitchen. 😆

travel

11:30 AM

30 JUN 2017

It's pretty fast and it has been almost a week here this coming sunday.

Tried some traditional their local homemade breakfast. 
It's homemade hot chocolate which they melt in a pot. Served with different type of cheese and bread.


And tried some traditional meal- Bandeja paisa ( Bandeja means platter in spanish), lunch hosted by William. 
The main characteristic of this dish is the generous amount and variety of food in a traditional bandeja paisa, example: Red beans cooked with pork or minced meat, White rice, Pandebono（Cheese bread), chicharrón (Fried pork belly or pork skins), Fried egg, Puerto Rican Tostones (Fried Plantains) , Fried Yuca roots dipped in salsa and local coffee etc
It is quite delish. Thank you William and friends for the nice lunch gathering :)



 


Lil' Coco started to recognise me!!
He wages his tail outside my room door when I wakes up in the morning, came running and give me a lick. So happy to see the sight of him :)))



Thank you Lauren for making breakfast for me sometimes, even though it is just a simple one, but I really appreciate it, very nice of her.
Lauren always asked me how's my day going, how's my sleep, and never fail to give me a hug every morning when I see her. Heartwarming :)



Even now Coco start to sit quietly beside me and join me for my breakfast! I wonder if Coco understands what I'm talking to her sometimes. hmm..
I don't usually like small dogs (prefered big fluffy ones), but Coco is sucha darling.
Nawwww ♥♥♥
I think it's gonnabe a lil' hard when I leave for home, I'll definitely miss it.