Archive for December, 2007

PK 2 Camp @ YWCA -9th Dec 2007

Monday, December 10th, 2007

iI was contemplating whether or not to join the camp when i received the email in June 2007, around one or two weeks after the PK 1 camp 13-16th June 2007.

PK 1 Camp, themed "More Than Conquerors" with Romans 8:37 as the camp verse, the camp was awesome, so full of God’s presence and all the kids’ love for God just overwhelmed my heart. I was so full of God after being touched by the children. It was tiring but i believed what the teachers had sowed in the children’s life will reap a BIG harvest when the time is riped!

So finally in mid-Oct, i sent an email to Children’s Church Office saying that i was keen in participating in the camp, was i too late? I thank God for the favour and Children’s Church PK 2 Camp Committe graciously accepted me and arranged me to be one of the team teacher!

PK 2 Camp

Venue: YWCA, Fort Canning

Date: 6-9th Dec 2007

Theme: Victory in Christ ( 1 Corinthians 15:57 )

This camp was different from the PK 1 camp as this was a stay-in camp for kids as well. I was assigned to 2 lovely princesses and we had a really good time, playing "cheat" UNO, being their room guardian and "partying" in room 614. There was a little secret of room 614 that should remain untold, but I decided before i forgot all about it, i better write it down somewhere.

Hee…I actually took 2 cupnoodles for them on the last night. They enjoyed it as i was told they were not allowed to eat instant noodles at home.

A little indulgence for the kids on the last night of the camp wouldn’t hurt too much right?

We were not allowed to take pictures of the kids during the entire camp. But my cute little princesses in my room were busy exploring my hp camera function and they found this…

   Collage1_3

We had fun!

Leopard team had their share of fun too! We emerged as the "Most Creative Team" with our innovative "Sine Sine Cosine" Cheer and tri-lingual "My Side-My Side".

After chatting with some of the children in my team, i realised most of them would say "games" or "praise & worship" was the segment they enjoyed the most throughout the camp.

Praise & Worship was powerfully packed with a lot of jumping and action songs like "One Way", "You Are The Same" etc.

Games time, be it indoor or outdoor was equally fun. From trying to "scoop" out the tick-tack/mentos/marshmallow using a tiny stirrer to covering yourself with concoction made up of fishsauce/rose syrup/cranberry juice/honey/Ritz Cheese Biscuits Crumb/Soysauce/Flour/Egg then play "Dog & Bones", a wide variety of games were carried out by the games comm. Bravo, Game Comm!!!

Due to the wet weather with Thunder & Rain, outdoor games at Fortcanning Park was halted after one game for safety reason. Children were disappointed.  We hurried the kids back to YWCA. Some teams were caught in the rain but apparently the children enjoyed the rain.

Games committee had an emergency meeting and rescheduled their games for the last day "Camp Olympiad" by incorporating some of the games missed due to the heavy downpour.

The Games session officially ended on the 3rd day at YWCA’s tennis court with all teachers and children "locked" in it where the MASS WATER BOMB ATTACK took place.

Teachers played crazier than kids. They showed their trueself with the "tail" revealed.

Finale was another highlight of the camp which many of the kids anticipated. The appearance of Muthu, Mr. Commandant (by Teacher Philemon) and Blur Boi Boi brought laughter to the audience. We learnt a mass dance, a dance adapted from "High School Musical 1". It was fun!

 

The secrets having lotsa fun…

  1. Listen to instructions
  2. Do
  3. Have CRAAAaaaZZzzYYy FUN!!!

The camp officially ended on Sunday. We were greeted by the morning rain when we were trying to make our way up the bus to Gallery East, Suntec Convention Centre. Some of the kids joined the second service while the rest were picked up by their parents one-by-one.

Teachers were exhausted while the kids were still so energetic running about in the holding area.

The camp left me with lots of good memories, a lot of kiddo friends on MSN and diarrhoe & fever on Sunday…

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Monday, December 10th, 2007

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Could Prima Deli be “innocent” (non hygiene-lapse) in mass food poison?

Monday, December 10th, 2007

It was pretty shocking, when i was told about Prima Deli’s food poisoning issue…

I was away for a camp for 4 days, totally shut off from all news and information, and all i got to know was this from my colleague during lunch today.

So i decided to google more about it. With its good reputation for serving us with good quality cake and cakes for over 14 years, i found this that could explain a little on the issue and giving Prima Deli some justice.

 

Could Prima Deli be “innocent” (non hygiene-lapse) in mass food poison?

It is noted that in the Prima Deli mass food poisoning episode with 153 reported cases of food poisoning, the tainted ingredients include hazelnut paste, chocolate cream and cake samples, while workers tested positive for salmonella enteritidis include six workers at the baking factory and two workers at franchise outlets.

Part A
Through the investigation has not reported the possible sources and means of transmission, several possible transmission paths are possible.

The simplistic reasoning will lead to the first transmission path. Since the workers are detected to be carrying the salmonella enteritidis, there must had been a hygiene lapse, causing the disease that is usually carried in the fecal to contaminate the ingredients.

In the first transmission path’s reasoning, we are assuming that the cause is human lapse, and the consequence is that the ingredients get infected. However, this reasoning suffers from the flaw that the 2 facts (that both human and ingredients are detected to borne the bacteria) taken together does not means that one has to be the cause of the other. The culprit could be the content within the ingredients such as eggs or dairy products, and that the infected workers are just another unlucky co-occurrence.

In this scenario, one possible content of the ingredients that has a high likelihood of contamination is eggs. The white of eggs are often used to make paste, cream and icing frost. Eggs are also used as base ingredients of cakes. However, as cakes are usually caked at high temperature, the likelihood that the germs can survive the heat is negligible. However, paste, cream and icing frost usually do not undergo high temperature heating process. This means that germs can survive the process, and are waiting for us to eat them.

Now, this leads us to reason that, “Oh well, now they are not cleaning up the egg shell. The egg shell must be infected with the germs. So, it is still a hygiene lapse!” However, according to the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the bacterium, Salmonella enteritidis, CAN be inside perfectly normal-appearing eggs, and unlike egg-shell borned salmonellosis of past decades, the Salmonella enteritidis silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed, leading to intact and disinfected grade A eggs carrying Salmonella enteritidis. (”Disinfected grade A eggs carrying Salmonella enteritidis” sounds oxymoron, but yes, the egg-shell has been disinfected and are of grade A*, but they are also carrying Salmonella enteritidis within the egg white that is well-protected by the shell. So unless you break it to test, you will not find the bacterium. Thus, the egg is disinfected externally, but the bacterium is undetectable and is lurking within.)

Part B
So, the next question that comes to mind will be why does the food poisoning occurs now and not before?
In order for the food poisoning to occur, we need

(1) to have the bacterium,
(2) sufficient amount of the bacterium, and
(3) the processing procedure does not kill them.

These 3 issues must occur concurrently for the food poisoning to occur. So, lets tackle each of the issue one at the time.

So, pursuing this alternative reasoning instead of fingerpointing at possible human lapse, how did the bacterium enter the ingredients and why now. A possible reasoning is that the likelihood/probability is very small for an intact and disinfected eggs carrying Salmonella enteritidis to enter the ingredients. According to USA CDC, “in the USA Northeast, approximately one in 10,000 eggs may be internally contaminated. In other parts of the United States, contaminated eggs appear less common.” So, the probability finally hit jackpot.

Now that the bacterium has entered the chain of ingredients, it has to multiply to a sufficient amount in order to cause food sickness. So, how could sufficient amount of bacterium exist?
Actually, the bacterium Salmonella enteritidis multiplies at a very rapid rate in a suitable medium. It can divide itself into two every 20 minutes. Thus, the usual advise is that food should not be held in the temperature range of 40 to 140 for more than 2 hours, as this will allow sufficient amount of bacterium to have multiplied.

As for the final question, why doesn’t the processing procedure kill them?
This could occur as certain process such as creation of paste, cream and icing, depending on methods, some do not undergo high heat.

Part C
So perhaps, the source of the bacterium might not be due to human hygiene-lapse. This will brings us to how can we avoid this incident from ever happening again.

(1) They can switch from the normal eggs with shell to those pasteurized packet egg whites and egg yolk. The responsibility of keeping the egg white and egg yolk free from bacterium will now be on the manufacturer of the pasteurized packet egg whites and egg yolk. As these manufacturers’ main business is to produce the pasteurized packet egg whites and egg yolk, they will have better facilities to ensure the quality of the eggs.

(2) The procedure of making of paste, creams and icing can be change to ensure that either all ingredients that enter the procedure had been pasteurized or the procedure involves a high temperature heating process that will kill all the germs.

Part D
However, if the mass food poisoning is due to human hygiene-lapse, Prima Deli will need to provide a really good explanation as we noted that they had taken great efforts in maintaining high standard of hygiene and sanitation. For the 14 years of operation, it has been getting an A rating by AVA for its high standard of hygiene, sanitation and processes. All its workers are immunised against the typhoid before they start work (mandatory in Singapore), and they wear protective sleeves, gloves, caps and face masks, and have to disinfect their shoes using foot baths before entering the bakery. So, why is the bacterium still found in the ingredients?

Thus, Prima Deli might now need to implement even stricter hygiene standards and possibly take additional steps to ensure that even non-hygiene related issues are taken care of, in order to convince all its customers from patronising their shops again.

*U.S. Grade A eggs have whites that are reasonably firm; yolks that are high, round, and practically free from defects; and clean, unbroken shells.

Disclaimer: The author is not related to Prima Deli in any manner.

Adapted from Alice in a Wonderland.

The Magic Of ChongQing Hot Pot @ Tanglin Shopping Centre

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

It was Yueh Siang’s Birthday.

It was officially the second last day of exam in NTU.

But for most of my close friends in hall, we already finished our exams or on that day itself.

We wanted to celebrate Yueh Siang’s Birthday.

They decided on the place. I’ve decided not to look at the $$$ sign as i know it would make my heart bleed. But it has been a while since i dine out with my hall friends. So I just followed along.

We went to……

           P1030230a

leaving poor Alvin Tong Xue in hall…

   

It was a Chinese Restaurant serving Si Chuan Cuisine and also ala-carte buffet steamboat. Located Tanglin Shopping Centre with another outlet at Suntec Fountain Terrace, this outlet was not a place where youngster would normally go. I’m pretty surprised that there was a good dinner crowd when we arrived.

The oriental design of the restaurant with attractive red lanterns, faux stucco walls and Oriental ornaments create the feel of a country house in Sichuan. Simple and attractive wooden chairs and tables complete the look.

P1030207 There were two or three plates of Edamame or the green pea which we usually get in Japanese Restaurant on the table but none of us consume it as it didn’t look fresh. We were served with The Duo-Flavoured ChongQing Hot Pot. In it were their famous "Ma La Tang" and "old faithful chicken stock". There were four different sauce on the sauce tray which were sesame oil, sesame paste, grind chilli and chilli with garlic.

The captain (is he? or he is just one of the waiter?? Not quite sure) recommended the "Eight Treasures Tea" or "Ba Bao Cha" when taking our drinks order. He mentioned it was free-flow Ba Bao Cha but actually it was just adding hot water to the cup filled with the eight ingredients. Occupational habit of mine made me looked into the cup and started counting and indentifying the eight ingredients. Hmm… The eight ingredients were some common herbs, Yong Sam Sou or "Foreign Ginseng Adventitial Roots" known to have cooling properties; Jasmine Tea Leaves; Wolfberry or "Gou Qi Zi"; Red Dates; Sugared Wintermelon; Sugared Orange Peel; Rock Sugar and last but not least, honey. The cup of tea tasted good and soothing but priced @ $4.00/cup was a little too expensive for me, especially when i can identified the ingredients and it weren’t some exotic herbs or such.

We were also served with savoury dim sum before and in between meals such as fried spring roll, xiao long bao,guo tie (pan-fried dumpling) etc.

 

According to the "Captain Uncle", there were three magical steps to enjoy the Dup-Flavoured ChongQing Hot Pot which were:

  1. Eat with the Sesame Paste/Sesame Dips. It was supposed to enhance the tastes of the various ingredients cooked in the broth and also to restore the pallate after eating the fiery spicy broth (Ma La Tang).
  2. The savoury and sweet tid-bits (such as fried spring rolls, guo tie etc) were served to cleanse and relive the palate from the spiciness of the Ma La broth.
  3. The Eight Treasures Tea was recommend to restore the body’s Yin Yang balance after a spicy meal.

 

"Orh… " was our reaction after the enlightenment from Mr.Captain Uncle.

 

P1030209 Thinly sliced beef (for you to do shabu-shabu), fish, chicken, quail eggs and a variety of veggies, all were common steamboat spread. The only worth thing worth mentioning was each person was entitled to one serving of raw salmon and abalone which turned out to be a slice only. Good things were hard to come by…

     Collage_4

As usual, Kerry was with his toufu diet…

We were entertained by the person (Mr. Captain Uncle in the picture) who came and refilled our cup. The kettle used was with a very very Very VERY Long spout. It required experience and precision to get the water pour into the cup without getting the spill all over the table. Amazed!

I’m pretty astonished by the amount of food one can stuffed into one’s stomach! We spent almost three hours at the restaurant and the last one standing was Steph with Glennis accompanying her. Phew~ We literally ate until the electric heater stopped and we had to call the waitress to on it back for us, cos they hadn’t finish eating!

Desserts were limited to one serving each too, they were: Fried Man Tou (Bun) served with condensed milk, Fried White Nian Gao and Waterchestnut Kuih. The Man Tou was fried to its perfect texture: Crispy on the outside,soft and warm on the inside. A perfect match to go with the condensed milk. Fried White Nian Gao was chewy but nothing special. Waterchestnut kuey served slightly chilled and refreshing.

The last item served before we left the place was another dessert item. We could only choose between ice-cream or "Eight Treasure Porridge" / "Ba Bao Zhou" which was served hot. Everybody else went for the ice-cream except for me. I had the hot dessert and seriously, nothing special. The ice-cream wasn’t some famous Haagen-Daz, i bet it was Magnolia/Cremo/Walls.

The bill came up to almost $40/person. Personally i didn’t think i’ve eaten that much (even after skipping my lunch) neither did i felt the value of the meal especially when you can get some decent ChongQing Ma La steamboat at Bugis area.

   

The Magical ChongQing Hot Pot

19, Tanglin Road,

#04-06/07, Tanglin Shopping Centre,

Singapore.

Opening Hours:

Lunch : 12.00 – 3.00pm
Dinner : 6.00 – 11.00pm

*Last Orders :

Lunch : 2.00pm
Dinner : 10.00pm

An hour before closing
Days Closed:
Lunch of Eve Of Chinese New Year
First day of Chinese New Year
Set Meals Served: Yes (Lunch only)
Buffets Served: Yes

Vegetarian Dishes: Yes
Private Function Rooms:
Yes, 4. Accommodate up to 50 pax.
Credit Cards:
Amex, Visa, MasterCard, Diners, JCB
Reservations: Required

Geláre Cafe @ Plaza Singapura

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

It was a Tuesday evening.

And at Geláre, it’s Half Price Waffles Day !!!

Yup, you heard me right, it’s HALF PRICE, a 50% off on freshly baked waffles. It’s only valid for the plain waffles with syrup and whip cream only. But what’s a Geláre Waffles without the all time fav Gelare ice-cream? Furthermore Geláre ice-cream is low in fat content and Geláre sorbets are 100% fat and dairy free. Whee~ Making one less guilty upon eating the ice-cream *wink*

And you know what, i actually forgotten to take a picture of the waffles. Anyway, what we had was a large waffle topped with whip cream and maple syrup and a scoop of Swiss Caramel Chocolate ice-cream.

The combination was simply lovely. Just that the maple syrup not really visible except you can see a few strands at the side of the plate to assure you that there was maple syrup. As usual, Geláre ice-cream doesn’t disappoint (except for its Rum & Raisins which was an ultimate disappointment). Its freshly baked waffles was served warm, crispy on the outside; warm and soft on the inside!

Priced at $5.90 after 50% off, no wonder there’s always a long queue on Tuesday at every Geláre outlet.

           P1030323

                               Caesar Salad with Smoked Salmon $10.90

I love Caesar Salad! I will always order this if I caught it in the menu. This salad was a disappointment. I was expecting Romaine Lettuce with tiny bits of croutons. There were lettuce and croutons, but it wasn’t Romaine lettuce, it was just some normal lettuce you buy in NTUC. The croutons wasn’t fresh. It felt like some packet croutons with a heavy aftertaste. Shredded cheese was no where to be found neither could you trace the black pepper. Caesar dressing? Only bottled Mayonnaise squeezed on the salad. I still managed to finish up the salad eventhough the smoked salmon was too salty. I love veggies, what to do? *grin*

            P1030324_edited1

                                 Seafood Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce $10.90

Sorry to say, the pasta didn’t look appealing to me no matter how much i love seafood pasta. It looked pretty pathetic actually. Serving was small with little seafood. Only 2 miserable prawns and a few, probably 4 tiny pieces of squids which were both overcooked till rubbery texture. The only seafood that tasted "ok" was the fish bites, but it was small and limited in quantity too. After some tasting, we found out that it was actually shark’s meat, which is a cheap-o kind of fish-lah. Disappointed. You can taste that the sauce should be some bottled sauce, not freshly cooked sauce. Overpriced, under-value pasta. What a let down!

            P1030325

                                     Frappe Hazelnut Caramel Latte $5.40

Looked good? Please do not be deceived by its appearance. Both me and my makanmate found it diluted and a little yucky. How yucky to be called yucky, you might wonder? Let me described just a little more. Frappe - A beverage made of milk, flavoring, and ice cream, shaken or whipped until foamy. This one, the coffee and the cream part were separated, badly blended. I saw the separation process taking place slowly but surely, right in front of my eyes! Even after trying to blend it back manually by stirring with the straw and spoon, the shaved ice was just too rough and the coffee was just too diluted, close to tasteless. I felt Starbucks’ Frappe is better even i’m not a Fan of Starbucks.

 

"Moral of the story : Only order Waffles and  its ice-cream selection when you visit Geláre to avoid disappointment."

I’ll still go back to Geláre, but definitely not for its main and salad.

My Evil Twin

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

Many of you out there don’t know that i have a twin, do you?

Seriously, beside my brother, I have a twin sister.

Although physically we are way so different, we are so alike in so many ways.

  • Our laughter is horrendous.
  • We don’t really "jaga" our image (judging from the way we both laugh)
  • Understanding of the "mouth-filled-with-water" language. (i bet this is a talent)
  • We are able to read each other’s mind without spelling it out.
  • Like being pretty but felt dressing up is quite a chore.
  • Both hope to get a Kawaii Boyfriend, an Eye-candy~ *grin*

And the list just goes on…

Recently we found out that we might not be just twin, we might be triplet during our recent trip to JB. Karen is our new found sister! But still require some confirmation before we acknowledge her as part of our family *wink*

Yesterday was her 21st birthday, we managed to celebrate her birthday together with Yu Fei’s during our recent "one day excursion" trip to JB.

            Sbs_day_06_3

Happy 21st Birthday, Yu Chii ~

Thank you for always caring and sharing, being there for each one of us, offering yourself to be my "makan kaki" cum evil twin sister, entertaining us with your jokes and most of all, thank you for your infectious laughter! ~

就一顆發糕的感觸

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

  有些回憶,有錢,卻買也買不到。

  有些記憶,不好好守候,隨著時光的流逝,漸漸被淡忘。

  簡簡單單的快樂,隨著我們逐漸的成長,好像越來越難。

是人變得複雜了吧!

         話在當下,珍惜眼前。

    生活中的點點滴滴,是需要你用心去體驗的。

      別在逝去后才後悔。珍惜現在的每一分每一秒,創造出未來你想擁有的回憶。

懷念

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

今早,吃了發糕做早餐。

   

很令人懷念呀!很長一段時期沒吃發糕了,鬆鬆軟軟甜甜的,讓我吃出了童年的滋味。

   

悠記小時候,常常會在爸媽工作地方的樓下買得到,一顆顆的粉紅色發糕,很漂亮! 阿姨們都會跟那“發糕專賣店”的叔叔買那很好吃的發糕來拜拜,好好吃的發糕擺在神台上干掉,多浪費呀!

   

聼媽媽說,樓下叔叔的發糕能弄得那麽好,發得那麽漂亮 (發不起來可就完蛋啦!),還真多虧了 7-Up。不知道是不是啦,但你們可以試試看。

   

昨天工作時,看了看別人的部落個,無意閒看到了白糖糕。啊,那也是我小時候的最愛!

   

發糕、白糖糕、雞蛋糕、九層糕、煎窿包(在新加坡叫面煎粿,但形態與口感不太一樣)、糯米團中包有花生餡(像大型痲糍,哈哈!) 都是我小時候愛吃的食品… 常常在陪伴爸爸、媽媽去菜市場/巴刹時,會去跟賣糕點的阿姨買回家做早點。

   

麵包與牛奶是我家中早餐的主食。炒米粉面、豬場粉、椰漿飯、傳統住家做的糕點,都是要到巴刹去才能吃到的早餐。

   

好久沒吃了,在新加坡嫌貴,又不好吃。能買到的糕點,大多都工廠製作,口感及味道都不好。試了幾次,都令我很失望,放棄了,不再買了。

   

   

想不到區區一個四角錢的發糕,卻讓我吃出了無窮的回憶。

A tale of an Excursion of 6 girls

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

It was a Saturday.

The first day of Holidays for many in NTU but not us. It was already the 2nd Saturday into our Holidays! WhooHoo… A weird kind of feeling though, because for our course, we always have exam until the last day or second last day of the WHOLE exam period. Those were the days when i was still "mugging" aka studying for exam and my hallmates had already finish theirs. Finally things took a different turn. Hah.

3 sleepless girls - Wan Wan, Chii Chii and Karen, too excited for the outing perhaps.

10am at Kranji MRT marked the start of our outing.

Collage_5 A cup of tea while we waited for the late ones and do our "dirty laundry* " at the same time.

Finally, we got to embark on our journey out of Singapore at 10.55am.

Boarded The Smiley Bus - Causeway Link with 50cents. Cheers for Causeway link with student’s price! Reminded my fellow singaporean friends to keep the stub of the ticket for re-boarding of the bus at custom.

Smooth clearance at Singapore custom, but not so smooth at Malaysia side. Whoah! "People Mountain People Sea", it’s a common scene on a Saturday morning.

For Malaysian like me, it probably won’t take you a moment, cos they don’t really care, especially when you are a frequent traveller, in and out of Singapore. I usually just walk through showing my passport without scanning by the officer if i’m alone. My mum will definitely scan her passport.

Struggle to make my way through the crowd to get white cards for my friends. Getting my way back was worse, because i was against the flow of human traffic. Locating them among the crowd was difficult too. Phew~

After a long long wait for an hour, we finally made our way out of the custom with Chii Chii’s dad waiting for us patiently. Yu Chii’s dad was so kind to send us to our first destination, Plaza Pelangi.

Why Plaza Pelangi, if City Square that’s bigger and newer is just within walking distant?

It was because we are going RED BOX located at Plaza Pelangi for K-session. Whoo~~~ Anticipated for this for a long long time. I hadn’t been singing karaoke for ages. Really ages. A year or 6 months at least. Finally, i got to sing.

We took the K-lunch package at RM11++ which include one main and a drink. You can add RM2 to upgrade to 1 litre of drink of your choice! Yes, only RM2!!! Choices of food include Yang Chow Fried Rice RM11++ , Curry Laksa RM16++, Executive Sandwich RM11++ etc. You can also add on some side dishes for RM2 only, add-ons are Cheese Mussels, sausages and a few more which i couldn’t remember. Choices of drinks available are soft drinks, fruit juices such as orange,guava etc and hot drinks like milo, tea and coffee are also available.

Not in my tip-top condition to sing but i had my share of fun, not hitting the right key, laughing through the part that i totally forgetten how to sing etc.

Collage1_2                        

Collage2_3Celebrated Yu Chii and Yu Fei’s Birthday at Red Box with 6 slices of Secret Recipe’s Cake.

From its cheesecake counter: Chilled Blueberry Cheesecake & Rasberry Cheesecake, Healthy range: Hi-fibre Cheesecake & No-sugar Moist Chocolate Cake and we also had Chocolate Banana Cake & Mocha Walnut Cake from its creamcake selection.

Verdict: Secret Recipe’s Cheesecake is Totally Awesome! So is my all time favourite Chocolate Banana. Surprisingly the healthy version of Secret Recipe’s which were trans-fat free were delicious too. But the mocha walnut cake was a little disappointing.

6 girls couldn’t finish the cakes. What a waste! I tried my best to eat off all the cakes but to my dismay, my tummy had its limit too. Ohh…my tummy was bloated with cakes. Satisfied!

Took a cab to City Square for only RM6.00 (less than SGD$3.00 !!!). If i used to stay in M’sia, i would say it’s so expensive for such a short distant. But 2.5 yrs in Singapore changed me just a little. Because spending in Singapore is just too expensive, for me. According to my friends (as i don’t take cab, bus is much cheaper), sometimes hopping into a cab during peak hour without going anywhere already cost you SGD$3-5++ for surchange. So I’m more willing to spend when i’m in M’sia.

P1030299 Visited Wong Kok Char Chan Ting in City Square before we hit off for our movie, Stardust.

Wong Kok Char Chan Ting is another Hong Kong Style Restaurant Franchise which mushroom all over Malaysia. Similar to Kim Gary, which is another Hong Kong Restaurant, the food they serve are a little bit different. With 200++ items on the menu, one is overwhelmed by its selection. Colourful menu captured our attention but the fear of over-feeding ourselves stopped us eventually from order too much. Each order one main while i only ordered a cup of Hong Kong Yin-Yang, which is a cup of coffee and tea mixture.

I once heard, the ratio of a cup of Good Yin-Yang is 7-3. 7 parts of Tea and 3 parts of Coffee. I wonder is it so?

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(1st row L to R: Iced Yin-Yang 冰鸳鸯, Special Golden XO Roll 金包银XO卷,Rice served with Fish and Vegetables 蛋包鱼菜饭

2nd row L to R: Special Golden XO Roll 金包银XO卷, Hot Yin-Yang 港式鸳鸯,Fried Hor-furn with Fish and Vegetables 菜元班腩炒河

3rd row L to R: Cheesebaked Prok Chop Rice 芝士猪扒锔饭,internal of the XO roll, Snow Veg Pork Ribs Noodles 雪菜排骨汤面)

The cup of Yin-Yang is nice. Just nice. A very simple and nice cup of beverage. The taste is not overwhelming yet aromatic. RM 2.90 for a cup of nice Yin-Yang, where can find in Singapore? I remembered I once tried a Hong Kong restaurant which serve the famous Hong Kong Milk Tea, Bleak, worse than the one serve at my home town and im paying SGD$2.90 for it!

The rest gave a thumb up for the Iced Yin-Yang too. So they had high expectatinon for the hot Yin-Yang ordered. But they were disappointed for a split moment as theirs didn’t taste as good as mind, or should i say, tasteless. We eventually found out that Hot Yin-Yang is served sugarless, meaning one need to add in sugar to one’s liking. This is another plus point, at least for me as i prefer coffee without sugar or less sweet.

I didn’t order any main as i still feel really bloated with the previous cakes. According to my humble biology knowledge, fats take longer time to digest and the cakes eaten were all cream & cheese. Nevermind about the calories. I always have the soft spot when it comes to cakes, especially cheesecakes!

We shared a Special Golden XO Roll 金包银XO卷 @ RM7.50 . It was actually an omellette wrapped with chee-cheong-fun, chinese bacon bits, pork floss & some specialty sauce. Simply delicious!

Both the Fish Fillet Cheesebaked Rice @ RM14.50 and Pork Chop Cheesebaked Rice @ RM 13.80 were served in the container you probably seen in Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant. Both looked almost identical to each other until you cut open the generous layer of cheese topping. MMpphh… Yummy! There were three types of sauce for you to choose from: Cream Sauce, Tomato Sauce or Portugese Sauce. Both Wan Jing and Karen chose tomato sauce for their baked rice.

Yu Chun’s Fried Hor Furn with Fish and Vegetables @ RM8.20 looked extremely "open stomach" aka 开胃 because of the salivating egg sauce with strains of egg yolk that you could see when it was served. It was nice but a little too salty.

Rice served with Fish and Vegetables 蛋包鱼菜饭 @ RM9.80, something light in flavour and taste for the palate after a whole lot of cheesecake. Didn’t get to try but according to Yu Fei, it was nice! She didn’t further describe it but she finished the whole bowl of rice, action showed them all, didn’t it?

Snow Veg Pork Ribs Noodles 雪菜排骨汤面 @ RM7.20 took a long time before it was served. We started to wonder was it because it didn’t snow in M’sia? Ok, a silly joke. Anyway, all of us felt it was over-salty but we were thinking was it because Hong Kong style cooking were all to the salty side? Probably. The noodles tasted a little like instant noodle too. Overall, it was not too bad.

   

Headed off to the cinema straight after the meal. We were late for five minutes due to the delay in the toilet. Movie started but luckily we didn’t miss much, 1-2minutes at most. Stardust was a pretty good movie, worth watching! Highly recommended! We enjoyed the show a lot. Funny yet in depth, a meaningful movie.

Movie ended at 9.15pm. Yu Chii headed home and the rest of us headed back to Singapore with hee-hee-haa-haa all the way until we departed with each other at Kranji MRT station.

   

A simple yet enjoyable outing. Excursion experience for some. A bonding session for another.

I simply enjoyed the fellowship and laughter we shared with each other!

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I LOVE MY TCM GIRLS !!!

       

*Dirty laundry* meaning writing the birthday card right in front of the birthday girl. -_-"

Lee Yu Fei, Our Xiao Fei Fei~

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

If I would use three words to describe her, what would it be?

"Dark & Skinny"

     "With Hidden Talent"

         "Spontaneous?"

Skinny and dark, she might be but not weak. She can fly~ Light in weight giving her the ability to run like a bird. Flying fish is she who likes to swim.

Uncommon short hair among a pool of girls in the course, her glasses made her looked studious and a blur look at the same time. Also known as "Miss Lee or Lee Lao-shi (teacher)", she provides some pretty good explaination when we encounter difficulty in revising both Biomedical and TCM subjects.

Do not let her look deceive you. She might look innocent, her mind is full of funny ideas.

She loves French Language.

Loves violin.

Dislike the sound of viola.

Spontaneousity comes abruptly during our conversation, giving you no reaction time. Stunned!

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Thank Q for being my friend Words may be few at times, but i treasure the friendship we share & build over the last two and a half years. Love you the way you are.

Happy 21st Birthday Yu Fei! Friends Forever~