December 31, 2012

  • of a winter wonderland holiday in Seoul Part 1

    Visit my website @ http://shirleylye12.wix.com/princessmic

    well, here i am, at home, feeling pathetic cos i am down with a stomach flu. grounded. cos they say it is infectious. so i am alone with Ronnie and constantly running to the toilet. shit. what a new year eve...

    so i decided to start blogging about my long waited korea trip. we took a 8d6n package tour from Namho that covers Jeju and seoul. the trip i can say is fantastic and we both are very satisfied with the itinerary offered by the Korean guide Allen and also our SG guide Diane. we had lots of fun during our 8d there. food and accommodation is gd. this is my second trip to Korea since 10 yrs ago and korea really change alot. i would want to go back there again soon lol

    our trip started last sat mid nite. boarded SQ 608 and landed at incheon airport at approx 8 hrs later. greeted by our Korean guide Allen and also a representative from KTO - korean tourism organisation - Kelvin also our photographer. we were given some time to change into our winter clothings plus wash up and also some light breakfast.

    then we took the bus ride to a restaurant near DongDaemun Market for lunch. our first lunch in korea is their famous bibimbap. they also gave us a steamboat for some pork shabu...we love it! FYI, i dont take kimchi stuff when i first came but this time, i finish them all too. i din know that kimchi is so gd lol

    after lunch, we went shopping for some winter stuff ( for those who did not bring enough winter clothings or wishes to top up ) . to me , the weather is ok, not so freezing la. maybe is due to the heat packs i had in my pocket lo. for those who are also going to winter countries, heat packs are a must - the hand type. for the feet one, i dont find it useful. i only use them twice and i gave up already. oh, also winter leggings are gd too. i m glad that i bought 2 winter leggings ( with skirts ) and 2 winter leggings ( with sole covered) at gmarket. they really came in handy. for the next coming days, i only had 1 winter leggings with sole and then additional ( with skirt) on top of it . it keeps me really warm..better than jeans. but for the first day, i still can tahan the cold la.

    after shopping, the korean guide change the itinerary by going to other places planned for day 5 cos is along the way. i like Allen cos he really did his best effort on time saving so that we do not need to spend time on the road.

    so we went to Buckhon Han'ok Village first instead

    Bukchon Hanok Village (북촌한옥마을) 

    Address

    Gahoe-dong, Jae-dong, Samcheong-dong, Gye-dong, Wonseo-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul-si 

    Directions
    Anguk Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 2.

    Go straight for about 300m to arrive at Bukchon Hanok Village.


    we spend approx 30 minutes walking around the village and we set off for our next destination. currently Buckchon Han'ok Village is a residential premises for Koreans. so we only managed to take pictures outside the houses. the buildings are very traditional like those you see in Korean dramas.



    our next destination is Gwanghwamun Square


    Gwanghwamun Square (광화문광장)

    Address
    Sejong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul-si

    Directions
    Take subway (Line #5) to Gwanghwamun Station >> use exit of #2 and 3 min walk straight

    some information about Gwanghwamun square - taken from visitkorea.or.kr website


    Introduction
    On August 1st, 2009, the redesigned Gwanghwamun Square opened to the public. With the inauguration of the square, Sejong-ro, located at the center of the 600-year-old historic city of Seoul, was transformed into a human-centered space that harmonizes with the beautiful scenery of Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukaksan Mountain.



    The close to 20,000 m2 Gwanghwamun Square is located at the center of Sejong-ro which connects Gwanghwamun Gate and Cheonggye Square. The square is divided into the sections, “Recovering the History of Gwanghwamun Gate Plaza”, “Reenacting Yukjo Street Plaza”, “Korea Main Plaza”, “Civil Participation Urban Culture Plaza”, “Downtown Plaza” and “Cheonggyecheon Stream Connector”.



    The “Recovering the History of Gwanghwamun Gate Plaza” section is at the entrance of the plaza, where a stone base called Woldae and a statue of Haetae, a mythical unicorn-lion that is said to protect palaces from fire, have been restored. Near Sejong-ro Park is“Reenacting Yukjo Street Plaza” where Yukjo Street, the main street of old Seoul (Formally known as Hanyang) was recreated. On the side is also a miniature depiction of Yukjo Street.



    The Statue of King Sejong the Great has been relocated in the “Korea Main Plaza” where Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, is projected on a fountain water screen. Between the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts and the Statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin is the “Civil Participation Urban Culture Plaza” with its range attractions and services including accommodation facilities for visitors, exhibition halls, elevators, Rendezvous plaza, and art galleries.



    “Downtown Plaza”, located near the Statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, symbolizes Sejong-ro. The Square has water facilities such as a pond and pop-jet fountains. The“Cheonggyecheon Stream Connector” functions as a connecting walking path between Cheonggyecheon Stream and Gyeongbokgung Palace.



    In addition, there is the “Memorial Waterway”, flowing underground water, which goes from both Gyeongbokgung and Gwanghwamun subway stations to Cheonggyecheon Stream. Plus, behind the Statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin is “Sunken Square” which connects Gwanghwamun subway station and the ground allowing people to access the Square more easily.

    after that we went for a quick dinner before boarding the domestic flight to Jeju. our first dinner is the korean dumpling steamboat. actually, i prefer the fried dumpling instead of soup cos the fillings were all over the soup by the time we ate them -_-". still, it is just as nice la

    after dinner, we flew off to Jeju...

    PS: all pictures are taken using Nikon D90.

December 20, 2012

  • of Merry Christmas Everyone...

    Visit my website @ http://shirleylye12.wix.com/princessmic

    I know it is kind of early for everyone but i m going away to spend my Christmas in Kimchi land (in fact flying off this wkend!) so i take this chance to wish everyone a Merry Merry Christmas! From Me and Ronnie!

     
    May your wishes come true and enjoy the festive season!

December 16, 2012

  • of a "pasta mania" @ Osteria Mozza ~ Marina Bay Sands

    Visit my website @ http://shirleylye12.wix.com/princessmic

    Well, this is the second time that i been to Osteria Mozza. This shows you how much i love pasta there.  Osteria Mozza, a italian restaurant located at the heart of MarinaBaySands retail mall. The restaurant is hard not to notice if you are going for a show / event at the theater. The food is exquisite and you will be touched by the chef's sincerity in preparing each of the dishes.

    LOCATION:

    B1-42-46, Galleria Level,
    The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (Across from the Theater)

    OPERATING HOURS:

    Dinner

    Daily:
    5:00PM - 11:00PM

    Last reservation at 10:45pm

     

    Brunch

    Sundays:

    12:00PM - 2:00PM

    Last reservation at 1:45pm

    Free Flow until 2:30

    RESERVATIONS:

    +65 6688 8522

    Dress Code:

    Business Casual
     
     
    with complimentary from the restaurant. some finger food to start your meal. Did i mention that their cream cheese is the best i ever had?
     
     

    Caprese with burrata, cherry tomatoes & basil

    Agnolotti with butter & sage - I love this dish. with warm butter gushing out from each bite, this dish is heaven!

    Linguine with clams, pancetta & spicy chiles. This has become one of my favourite too! i love clams with linguine!

     
     
     
    So if you are around the corner @ MarinaBaySands or looking for some good pasta, do pop by their restaurant. For more information, you can also visit MarinaBaySands website -> http://www.marinabaysands.com/Singapore-Restaurants/Celebrity-Chefs/Osteria-Mozza/
     
     
     
     
     

December 15, 2012

  • of Tantalizing Asian delights @ Shang Palace

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    Shang Palace ~ located in Shangri La Hotel in Singapore that offers offers authentic Chinese cuisine originally inspired by South East China's culinary traditions. a One Michelin-starred restaurant, Michelin Guide, 2012.

    Phone

    (33 1) 53 67 19 92

    Location

    Level F3

    Operating Hours

    Lunch 12noon - 2pm (Thursday to Monday) Dinner 7pm -

    10pm (Thursday to Monday) Closed on Tuesday and Wednesday *Closed from 10 July

    to 16 August

    Dress Code

    Smart Casual

    Smoking Policy

    Smoking is not permitted in

    Shang Palace.

    Some of the food we took...

    Shang Palace's three deluxe appetiser delights

    The starter with 3 different dishes

    1. Drunken abalone, jellyfish

    2. Soya Chicken

    3. Mango Prawn

    Next we took their famous peking duck. the skin is very crispy and is very thinly sliced. you do not have a single taste of the meat on the skin itself. the sauce that goes with the peking duck is pretty good.

    for the rest of the duck meat, we choose "Wok fried duck meat fillet with sweet sauce and sesame" as the second course. very different from how we usually take them ( stirred fried and eat with lettuce)

    As they do not serve shark fins but we are served with a yummy delicious braised shredded fish maw bisque, chicken, black truffles. the soup is so thick that u feel that you are drinking collagen straight to your stomach. i love this!

    Sauteed King Prawn with crab roe, asparagus. this is also one of my fav dish. although i m not a fav of prawns but this really took me off..the prawn is well cooked and not tough at all!

    Crispy Cod fish in chrysanthemum shape, sweet and vinegar sauce. what to say...my fav fish in my fav sauce haha...

    braised baby abalone and pork belly. the two of my fav again lol. the pork belly is so well cooked that it melts in your mouth! fabulous!

    fried rice, canopy, crab meat, egg white. fried rice with generous ingredient of crab meat and canopy and egg white! yumz!

    desert, chilled black glutinous rice and ice cream. a not too sweet desert, so they really take care of your figure n health haha.

    the set meal is 78 ++ per person excluding the peking duck.

December 13, 2012

  • of a gem for good food in the less expected place...

    Visit my website @ http://shirleylye12.wix.com/princessmic

    Kaki Bukit is the place that i never thought there will be super good food cos i always relate Kaki Bukit to a place where everything is link to CARS and industrial parks cos is very near ubi. lol.

    We saw this news article on the recommendation on Alliance Seafood Tze Char and we decided to go and try it out. Indeed, they do offer very good tze char at affordable price.

    Alliance Seafood Tze Char
    7 Kaki Bukit Avenue 3

     
    they are famos for their Hua Diao Kampung Chicken. something that you need to really try. To me, i dont really like to eat kampung chicken cos i find the meat is really very tough. But the soup is really good and boiled for long hours with chinese herbs. the hua diao wine is added after they serve you the soup so that the wine will not evaporate and the taste of the wine is still contained in the soup.
     
    next is their coffee pork ribs. each and everyone of the pork ribs is evenly spread with the coffee paste. there isnt too much coffee paste nor is less, everything is just perfect! i love this dish
    next is their deep fried you tiao with sotong paste. I must admit, i am disappointed with this cos they are rather stingy with the sotong paste.
    3 eggs chinese spinach. the soup determines the goodness of this dish and fair enough, this is one of the dishes i love most too
    home made toufu is another dish that you would want to try. the softness of the toufu really determines the skills of the chef ( at least to me). cos until now, i still cannot make a decent toufu haha. the proportion of the egg and the soya milk must be correct in order to make smooth and soft toufu.
     
    overall the price of the food is still consider reasonable. the price of the hua diao kampung chicken is slightly steep ( 28 bucks for 1) but it comes with a super big bowl of soup sufficient for 8 pax ( with 1 person 1 bowl). other than that, it is pretty value for money.

December 9, 2012

  • of dinner @ Bella Vista ~ Star Cruise

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    Dinner @ Star Cruise is pretty quite straight forward. Cos is either Pavillion or Bella Vista or the "Team Dinning Room like buffet" ( cant remember the name anyway) lol.  Pavillion serves chinese food while Bella Vista serve a both chinese and western. and the "TDR" serve buffet lol

    We took dinner at Bella Vista this time after looking at the menu lol. They had herbal chicken soup and Assam fish ( very appetitizing lo)

    Assam fish - i think the fish is those fresh water fish ( cos the fresh water fish usually have alot on those jelly like stuff in the meat). The assam and spicy from the chilli paste kept the "Tu" taste away ( fresh water fish always have funny taste..). added with lady fingers and tomato, this dish is actually quite yummy and not as bad as i thought it will be

    deep fried prawn roll. not something that i fancy cos the prawn roll is a little too tough. i feel that it taste like some leftovers haha (hopefully not..)

    herbal soup. the soup is really very good and we had 2 servings of it!

    sweet sour pork ribs ( pai gu wang).  the meat is a little tough but overall is still ok.

    guess this is the most expensive food on the menu of the day..lol. is cooked with scallops (strips..so tiny that we can barely find it lol) and crab meat

    overall the dinner is still edible lol just that probably we have higher standards on meals on cruise haha.

December 6, 2012

  • of lunching @ Bella Vista ~ Star Cruise

    Visit my website @ http://shirleylye12.wix.com/princessmic

    i think i will first start off with a post on a special performance at the deck of star virgo. lol. actually this is the first time i watch such performance live. This is a special performance by a magician ( i cant remember his name..so sorry dude...). anyway, this magician actually requested some participants on the floor ( at the pool ) to chain him up and then he will be pushed to the swimming pool where he will attempt to unchain himself in the water! and he managed to unchain himself and hold his breath for 3 minutes! i was so shock...cos i cant even hold my breath for so long. it really takes good stamina and training for that to happen lor. anyway, kids, please do not try this ok? this is requires special training.

    here are some of the pictures taken during the event

    ok. back to the food lol. so this time round we headed down to deck 6 ( i must note this down cos we couldnt find the restaurant on Fri night lol). so for Bella Vista, they offer western and chinese food.  you can choose western set or chinese set and their dishes changes every day and every meal. so you get to eat different variety of food.

    for lunch, we took the western set. even for western, there are different main course to choose from. LL took mixed grill and i took sheperd pie ( fish). the mixed grill is so so only while my sheperd pie is very gd. lol. LL always say that my food always taste better. haha

    for starters, you can choose soup of the day or the potato balls.

    they give you a basket of bread and sadly the bread is not warm..else it will be perfect!

    the sheperd pie

    mixed grill

    there are also 2 types of deserts to choose from. so we took one of each. the cheese cake is really gd

    the ice cream

    coming up will be our dinner at Bella Vista...hehe...stay tuned...

December 3, 2012

  • of dinner @ the Pavillon ~ Star Cruise Virgo

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    mc for today. sick since last wk and over the weekend. i slept tru the whole cruise 3D2N. doing nothing but sleep and only wake up for meals. still MC on mon and tue. thus it explains y i got time to blog during this hour.

    ok, dinner @ Pavillon is the first meal when we set onboard Star Virgo and as we boarded quite late so we were one of those "last order" of the day. Cruise, something i like about is that all meals are provided. of cos, there are also other restaurants who are welcoming you to spend some money la. this cruise trip is purely redeemed using points from LL's membership. although is a cruise to nowhere but is definitely a getaway for me (although i spend the whole trip sleeping)

    bk to dinner. well, dinner consider quite a well spread cos we had steam pomfret, herbal soup, prawns, vege and sweet sour chicken.

    steam pomfret

    deep fried prawn

    stirred fried spinach with salted eggs

    sweet and sour chicken

    well, the whole place smell like TDR ( team dining room) haha. reminds me of days in MBS haha. the food is quite nice actually.

    after dinner, we took a walk to the deck. i guess is just after the full moon and the weather is super gd, so we get to see the beautiful moonlight on the sea.

    looks magical right? with some mermaids swimming under the moonlight...what a beautiful sight!

    ok. the medicine is making me sleepy again. i will come bk with more food on the cruise!

  • of authentic Royal Thai Cuisine night @ Thanying Restaurant ~ Amara Sanctuary Resort

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    had a wonderful dinner event at Thanying Restaurant last thursday. we were served with authentic thai cuisine and the food is fantastic!

    it was a 6 course fine dining and this is my first time at Thanying restaurant

    Appetizer

    Miang Khum

    Delectable bits of herb, peanut, dried shrimp, ginger with honeyed tamarind sauce in leafy wrap

    the leaf taste a little bitter but is compensated with the sweet sauce that comes with it. the ginger and herb adds a little spicy taste to it. although i m not a fan of spicy food and i cannot take spicy food, this combination is still quite my liking.

    next we had

    mixed platter ( goong now and hoi-jo)

    Deep fried marinated prawn in herb wrapped in rice sheet and deep-fried crabmeat rolls with water chestnut and minced chicken in soya sheet wrap

    deep fried stuff..who dont like? haha. this dish is nothing special to me cos the crabmeat rolls taste like our chinese nor hiong ( wu xiang). but overall this dish is very nice when u eat it with the thai chili sauce

    next salad

    Yam Mamuang

    Green mango salad mixed with chicken , prawn, roasted coconut, chili and lim sauce

    famous mango salad. with little bit of sour, spicy and sweet taste. the mango salad is superb.

    next is my fav dish of the day - soup

    tom yam pla krapong

    thai spicy fish soup cooked with mushroom, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime and a hint of chili

    after my thai col's explanation, now i know that there are actually two types of tom yam soup clear and those with added milk. hmm. mine is the one with added milk. sounds very fattening but is really gd. the more u drink, the more spicy it gets. it is specially gd when u take it during a cool weather as it really warms your stomach

    for our main course, it is actually a combination of 3 dishes.

    Chu-chi goong

    chu-chi curry with prawn - restaurant specialty

    pla kao rad prik

    deep fried boneless grouper topped with thai garlic lime and chili sauce

    phad nor mai farang

    stir fried asparagus with oyster sauce

    next ending the night with desert of the day - red ruby.

    something different from the normal ones we had in thai express. this one comes with jackfruit and green mango. i love this desert despite i m not a sweet tooth.

    overall the dining experience is gd and the food is really fantastic. thank you Thanying for the wonderful dinner event you hosted for us. the dinner is great!

December 2, 2012

  • of lunching good times @ ichiban boshi

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    got a treat from my col hehe. to ichiban boshi @ centrepoint. there are a couple of set lunches to choose from. i took the udon noodles with sushi set. the servings is huge and the food is quite gd. the udon is not soft and soggy. the sushi is really fresh. the set comes with fruits as deserts too. the paper steamboat soup is really gd and you can taste the freshness of the scallops!

    overall is a worth every single cent.

    the set meal

    the paper steamboat

    the udon..it taste superb when u mix it with the soup from the paper steamboat

    chawamushi, water melon and the cold dish ( tofu)

    sushi