18 Dec - Sunsets, Rockingham
I had an affogato whilst waiting for everyone else to arrive. It was a decent coffee with some decent icecream and went down a treat. It was a little small though.
We were also treated to some garlic bread and bread and dips (not pictured). These weren't bad, the dips were chickpea, beetroot and one I can't remember.
For lunch, I had a salmon and leek filo wrap, which was served with some roasted pumpkin, broccoli and a prawn sauce. The pumpkin seemed to be sweetened with sugar, and wasn't to my liking. The filo wrap was nicely cooked and quite tasty. If I ever came back here though, I'd opt for the steaks, they looked quite good.
16 Nov - Subway, Noranda
12 Dec - Mille Cafe, Inglewood
CB and I shared some salt and pepper calamari for starters. These didn't touch the sides, and weren't very salty or peppery. But they were still cooked to perfection, not tough at all. The dipping mayo wasn't that tasty, and I wasn't a big fan of the raw bean sprouts.
For mains I had Osso Bucco, served on top of risotto. This was tender and fall off the bone. This was a good feed, however I had trouble trying to eat it all. I think I prefer lamb shanks over osso bucco, as they can be slightly more fattier and therefore more melt in the mouth.
10 Dec - Subway, Morley Galleria
Before doing some shopping last Thursday, I grabbed a quick bite to eat at Subway. I had a 6 inch Ham sandwich, on multigrain. I opted for all salads as usual, with a little mayo. It was a little dry, due to not enough mayo and cos of the bread. I think I might try more mayo next time, even though I'm trying to eat better...
Singapore 2009 Holiday Day 21
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Starbucks, United Square
MOS Burger, Bugis Junction
The Coffee Connoisseur, Bugis Junction
After light perusing, LWA bought a CD, Wagg bought Famous Amos to take back and CB headed to Citylink. The rest of us went back towards the hotel.
Swensens, United Square
Popeyes Chicken, Changi Terminal 1
We met up with our two of our three CK cousins and chatted before we left for the departure gate. LWA then did his GST refund which took longer than expected, and we all rushed toward the gate as the screens said "Gate closing". Turns out we still had plenty of time though.
Qantas Plane Food
The End.
Singapore 2009 Holiday Day 20
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Toast Box, United Square
The day started off at Toast Box, where I bought a curry chicken with rice for breakfast. Not being a fan of barley, I ordered a Milo Dinosaur instead. The Dinosaur was OK, there was no milk in it though, just water. The curry chicken didn't disappoint and was super tasty.
We then headed to the SITEX expo, where there was a whole bunch of laptops for sale, along with other various electronics and computer bits. We stayed for a couple of hours, I ended up buying a 1.8" 160Gb HDD and caddy for SGD $85 and CK ended up with a new laptop.
Hawker Centre, Bedok Bus/MRT Interchange
After the expo, we headed back to Bedok so we could alight a bus we hadn't heard of to go to Lilliputt. Trying to eat quickly, Mum ordered some Tiong Bahru bao for everybody. I also had a lime juice which was very refreshing in a hot day.
We then caught a bus to go Lilliputt.We played a round of 18 holes and CB ended up winning. After mini golf, we then caught a taxi to Tampines to rellies.
Din Tai Fung, Tampines Mall
We arrived early and put in our request for a large table. By the time our rellies arrived, our table was just getting ready. Some of the things we had included:
Coffee Bean, Tampines Mall
Singapore 2009 Holiday Day 19
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New Victory Restaurant Muslim Food, Bugis
This morning, Dad took us for a Roti Prata breakfast at a place which he ate at when he was younger. We disembarked at Lavender MRT and walked quite a distance down North Bridge Rd. Turns out this place was just behind Golden Landmark Hotel, which is close to Bugis MRT.
The roti bread was cooked with egg, which resulted in it being quite light and tasty. There was two accompanying curry sauces, one hot, one not quite. Both were tasty but the hotter one was definitely the best. I had one and a half serves before I couldn't eat anymore. Everyone ate (8 people) with a few drinks for about $23 SGD.
Afterwards, Mum and Dad bought some ikan bilis from a wholesale market at Bugis. They then headed off to the Chinese Gardens. LWA and I headed to Pagoda Street at Chinatown, as I wanted to buy hanging decorations and LWA wanted trinkets.
I ended up buying 5 wall hangings, and we then headed back towards the hotel. At United Square, LWA had Starbucks, we then looked through game store (which was finally open), and then I had a snack.
McDonalds, United Square
My lunch/snack ended up being a $2 McChicken. I was originally going to have a double cheeseburger but ended up with the salad option. This wasn't the freshest burger by a long shot.
Afterwards, i headed back to the hotel to start packing for the journey home. At 5:30, we met up again to head over to my cousin CK's place.
Old Chang Kee, Toa Payoh
Before going up to CK's flat, I had another snack to tide me over till dinner. Originally, I wanted a couple of chicken wings, but I didn't see any. So I had this Curry-O instead. After, I found the wings on the other side in a different warmer.
KFC, Toa Payoh
After quite a long chat, a few of the guys decided to go and grab dinner, which was KFC. In the end, I believe two family meals were purchased, one with original recipe, the other with a black pepper crust. The black pepper crust was hotter than Australian Hot and Spicy I thought, but the others didn't seem to think so. I much prefer Australian coleslaw as it is not sweet. Their popcorn chicken is weird. All in all, whilst Burger King and McDonalds is pretty similar between the two countries, KFC is vastly different.
I also ended up eating half a packet of longans, which CB brought along.
Singapore 2009 Holiday Day 18
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A local Cantonese Roast House, United SquareThe day started off at 10AM with a brunch at the local Cantonese roast house at United Square. I grabbed a savoury char siu and roast pork rice, whilst some of the others bought porridge or noodles instead. My brunch was OK, the roast pork was a little dry but it all went down well.
We then headed to Ang Mo Kio to check out the shopping centre. At The Coffee Bean, I had an Iced Latte before heading to the games shops.
I ended up buying 3 PS3 games (COD4 Modern Warfare, Scene It and Orange Box) for $130 odd, and 3 packs of 20 oil filter papers for about $2 each.
After Ang Mo Kio, we then headed to Marina Square to meet up with Arnee-ah and Carley-ah who checked into the Pan Pacific for the remainder of the holiday. We checked out their room, which turned out to be pretty swish, and then headed off for a light lunch as it was past 2:30PM.
Dim Sum stall, Marina Square food court
My light lunch consisted of two dishes from the dim sum stall at the top of Marina Square food court. I bought some pork spare ribs and chicken feet. CB also had extra soup from her meal so I had that too.
We then headed back to the hotel to relax until dinner with relatives.
Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant, Quality Hotel
We met up with our cousins, aunts and uncles for a steamboat dinner at a hotel restaurant close to where we were staying. We had two soups in our steamboat, a herbal stock and tom yum, which was quite hot. I had the following things:
With some broth from the pot, I was quite full after eating four plates worth of food. I guess I probably ate more than four plates worth, due to the way steamboat operates, I know I ate some of other peoples additions.
Singapore 2009 Holiday Day 17
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The Toast Box, United Square
After breakfast, LWA, CB and I headed to the Singapore Science Centre, to look at the various displays, but also the Body Works display in particular. The exhibits in this display are actually real humans who had donated their bodies for science when they died, and was actually very interesting. On the way out, I had a light snack to tide me over till the afternoon.
McDonalds, Singapore Science Centre - Jurong
Equinox High Tea, Swissotel The Stamford
High Tea at the Equinox ($45) starts at 3:30PM and runs until 5:00PM. We received a table right next to the window and started eating straightaway. I had the following:
Slightly after 5:00PM, we headed back to the hotel and rested until our cousin Keith picked us up from the hotel. From here, he took us to PS Cafe, which is located near Dempsey Road. This cafe looked a little swish and we sat here for awhile and had desserts.
PS Cafe, Harding Road (near Dempsey Road)
We then headed to Holland Village to have a look around. There wasn't a lot, mostly eateries, pubs and coffee shops, which we weren't interested in as we weren't hungry. But it was another thing to check off our list.
Afterwards, we were taken to Joo Chiat for durian, where there was a 24 hour durian shop. We had a few different types of durian, I tried the slightly bitter and sweet versions, with my personal preference being the sweet one. No photos as my phone died.
CB had mango instead, and the Indonesian mangoes did not disappoint. I also tried washing my hands with water in a durian shell and it did quite a good job of removing the durian smell from my fingers.
Singapore 2009 Holiday Day 16
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KFC and Burger King, Velocity MallAfter breakfast, we headed to City Hall where we split and a group of us went back to Funan. We walked around for an hour before splitting again to meet later that afternoon.
Arneeah, Dad and I headed to Sim Lim. I bought another 1Gb of DDR1 laptop memory, whilst Arneeah was looking for two PS3 games. He eventually got told to jump off the first floor balcony as he aggravated the sales staff who tried to push their dodgy tactics and charge extra GST.
We then headed to a new shopping mall near Bugis where Arneeah found his games at a reasonable price. We also looked at a CD shop there before heading back to City Hall and then towards Marina Square. Once there, I had lunch:
McDonalds, Marina Square
We ended up waiting about half an hour before there were two lanes adjacent to each other to be free. We played two games. In both games, I needed to hit a reasonable amount of pins on the 10th frame but failed and choked both times.
Sakae Sushi, Marina Square
With a group of 10, we were not seated next to the sushi train. Instead, we had to order from the menu, so I took the opportunity to have a bento set with hot tea.
I ended up ordering a deluxe bento set, which consisted of rice, miso, teriyaki salmon, tempura prawns.
Swensens, Marina Square