Special: Mom's Birthday Lunch at Tunlok Seafood!

Birthday Lunch! Some months ago in November my mother celebrated her birthday and as a family we went to check out a popular chinese restaurant in the middle of town for their a la carte style lunch buffet perfect for groups! It was the first time for all of us visiting so we had high hopes and we intended to try as many of their dishes!

Continue below for the birthday lunch!

Special: Mom's Birthday Lunch at Tunlok Seafood!

Special: Celebrating Grandma's 82nd Birthday at Corner House!

Happy birthday Grandma! My grandmother turned 82 earlier this year in July and to celebrate I brought the family out to have a fine dining experience at the much famed Corner House. Some years ago as part of my apprenticeship for my Hospitality Culinary Diploma I was a trainee at a fine dining place at the very internationally known Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The executive chef at the outlet I was at is now the chef and owner of Corner House which is located in the Botanical Gardens. It was only in recent months that Michelin Stars were given out in Singapore and Corner House was awarded one star! 

I'd actually been wanting to give Corner House a try for the last two years since it opened in 2014 but as time passed and I was so busy with life things that I didn't ever make it a reservation but knowing my grandmother's birthday was coming up I proposed to my family and we made it a date!

Continue below for our amazing and beautiful lunch!

Special: Celebrating Grandma's 82nd Birthday at Corner House!

Special: First proper Halloween Trick or Treating with the Boyfriend's family!

Halloween 2015 Special! Yes, I know Halloween has long come and past but I didn't get around to writing up my post until now! The photos are all from the 31st itself when I joined my boyfriend, his brother and dad on their first trick or treating around a neighborhood in north Singapore that has its roads closed off every year for about the last decade in Singapore just for on October 31! It's the only place in Singapore where you can actually go trick or treating as if your kids showed up at any random homes around Singapore on Halloween day, nobody will have candy, treats or anything to give you because it's not something practiced here at all!

I've gone trick or treating only once ever in my life before this and it was at an apartment compound I stayed at where many of the residents agreed to give out treats. For this occasion I knew I wanted to do a special make up look and after a quick search for inspiration I settled on a ventriloquist doll look!

Continue below for our Halloween night out!

Halloween special! My ventriloquist doll make up and proper trick or treating!

Food Post: What I ate during for the month of August! (local Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Tacos)

Yummy, Nommy, Food! Everything delicious or that looks delicious usually tempts me in someway or another but I'll admit I've always been a sucker for savory foods more so than sweet treats! Those who have been following me for a while or who have seen my 'food posts' or posts of days out will know that I love taking photos food. I don't photograph everything though, I find it pointless to photograph everything I eat as not everything is worth documenting or sharing (but I know some people who do!!).

This food post is quite delayed as it's for the month of August! I had so many great food days in August from eating local chinese food at a new coffeeshop near my home, Thai food, really good Japanese, home made tacos, frozen pizzas and more!

Continue below for all the delicious food!

Chinese from Crystal Jade: Braise beef noodle soup, mushrooms and broccoli, sweet and sour pork, charsiew noodle soup and har gao dumplings! Everything was great but we wished the portions were bigger!

Special: My 21st Birthday! (korean BBQ, pusheen cake, dim sum)

Happy birthday to me! My birthday was earlier this month on the 3rd of August and it was monday! I did my primary 'celebrations' by spending time with the family the day before my actual birthday on Sunday which was also the day I picked up my much awaited custom cake! I really would have loved having a party or get together with friends but besides being generally harder to get friends together as we get older, it's even harder for me as 99% of my friends from school are all over the world as I didn't study and live in Singapore growing up. 

Being a TCK or Third Culture Kid makes having many long term friendships or reunions rare although it doesn't hurt at all when people come and go. We're so used to short term friends and moving around! Having moved back to Singapore in 2010 I have awesome friends from school and colleagues from work but a party wasn't on my planner this year due to so many things going on.

Continue below to see my simple birthday!

My 21st birthday celebrations with family!

Special: My dad's birthday dinner at House of Seafood! (2015)

Seafood Birthday Dinner! To celebrate my dad's birthday this year we went in search of a seafood restaurant which we used to frequent that used to be at a location near us. 'House of Seafood' has several outlets in Singapore and although it's not a large chain and not as famous of Jumbo Seafood but has quality chinese dishes and super fresh seafood! 

It's a tradition in our family like many chinese families to celebrate special occasions with food more than anything else! My family tends to go for seafood meals that usually include prawns, crabs or both! 

Continue below for the dinner!

My dad's birthday dinner at House of Seafood! (2015)

Special: Chinese New Year 2015! (Reunion Dinner and visiting family)

Happy year of the Sheep! To be honest I'm not quite sure if it's a goat or sheep this year as half the portrayals of the animals look like fluffy sheep and the other half have horns and look like goats! Apparently it's the year of the 'ram' to be most specific! I wish all those of Chinese descent a prosperous and happy year ahead! As a chinese Singaporean and living in a country with a predominantly Chinese population the lunar new year is a big deal here.

Expect red and gold lanterns and decorations all over town, supermarkets filled with shelves and rows of traditional snacks and foods for the occasion and streets in Chinatown shut down for temporarily stalls to set up to do business of goods and foods! We also have a public holiday but unlike China or other Chinese countries ours is only a day or two and not a week or two!

Continue below for my CNY celebrations!

Special: Chinese New Year 2015! (Reunion Dinner and visiting family)

Special Occasion: My grandma's birthday dinner! (Chinese feast dinner)

Happy 80th birthday mama! That's what I call my maternal grandmother! It doesn't have the same accent as how an Italian would call their mother or how you see toddlers call out to their mothers...the first 'a' goes up in accent and the second goes down. It's a slang in our teochew dialect. This year marks her big 80th and because of superstition we didn't have this big chinese feast dinner on her actual birthday date but on the day before! This dinner was held back in July but I hadn't gotten around to writing this post!

My mother booked a private room at a chinese restaurant downtown which we had eaten at before for lunch for dim sum (see our giant dim sum lunch here)! The dinner was a few hundred dollars as my mom paid extra for a whole suckling pig as the set she chose only came with half!

Continue below for the feast and family photos!

My grandma's 80th birthday dinner! A chinese feast!

Home made Lasagna and lemon butter cake with glaze!

Dinner and Dessert! How many of you ladies cook home made meals at home? Well, I hope I'm not the only one! Besides having been trained to cook in school and having worked in a few kitchens I've always cooked at home or helped out with cooking. In the last year I've made so many yummy dishes at home by myself or with my boyfriend who also loves food and making it.

I decided I wanted a traditional lasagna with bechamel and lots of cheese and a tasty meat ragout inside! That I left to my boyfriend to take care of, while I made a lemon butter cake I saw on a blog!

Continue below for the delicious dishes!

Home made Lasagna and lemon butter cake with glaze!

Special: Chinese Lunar New Year 2014! (Reunion dinner and family visits)

Welcome the Lunar New Year! It's the year of the horse, my brother's year and so he's going to be 24 later this year. I've been yet again blessed to have this week to school, which meant that I get Chinese New Year day off from school as it's a public holiday and got to spend the time doing the traditional family visiting and feasting.

My family as usual spent the eve of the lunar new year at home and my mother and grandmother cooked a simple three dish meal. The next day which was the first day of the lunar new year my family visited my father's sister's home where most of his family members would visit.

Continue below for the celebrations!

Chinese Lunar New Year 2014! (Celebrating with family and food)

Food: Our Chinese Christmas Dinner 2013!

Chinese Christmas Dinner! Happy January everybody! I've just transferred to another section in my current apprenticeship kitchen and I'm slowly settling. I hope the first month has been going well for everybody! I've been trying very hard not to buy make up this month but I will be breaking that promise soon with the latest sleek palette! It's just to beautiful to pass on!

I've seen so many lovely festive dinners over the last month on everyone's New Years and Christmas posts. I spent my christmas eve and new year's night with my boyfriend but spent Christmas night with my family having a lovely Chinese meal out!

Continue below for the dinner!

Delicious Chinese dinner at Paradise Inn!

Chinatown lunch with Dad!

Lunch in Chinatown! Yes, there is a Chinatown even in Singapore, a place where at least 50% of the population is of Chinese origin! Our Chinatown is not as huge and extensive with housing full of chinese immigrants like in other countries in the world. Ours is more of a heritage area with lots of cafes, restaurants and shops selling lots of interesting knacks and traditional and common things.

Last month in December (OMG, that was a month ago??) I had a rare day out with dad. The day was meant to change my phone, an upgrade essentially as my phone was really having trouble lasting more than a few hours and I did have it for just about two years! It was time to change!

Continue below for the day out!

Chinatown lunch! Steamed soy sauce fish head, stir fried sweet potato leaves!

Special 2013: New Years Indonesian lunch and Ham dinner at the Boyfriends!

Nothing beats home made feasts! These are photos from the lunch and dinner I had at my boyfriends on New Years day earlier this month. Indonesian food for lunch and then we prepared an easy dinner with my yummy made from scratch easier than nothing apple sauce!

Continue below for the food and look!

New Year day Indonesian lunch and a roast ham dinner at my boyfriends'!

Special: New Years Eve Dinner with the family! (FOTD and nails!)

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a good time whether it be relaxing at home, with friends, family or your pets! I had a fancyish dinner with my family which I only booked the night before when thinking about what to do for New Year's Eve!

We ate at a slightly upscale restaurant called "Angus Steak: Charcoal Grill Yakiniku Grill" Their food is a blend of Japanese and western grill using high quality Japanese beef!

I had some trouble at first deciding what make up to do but I ended up doing a layered and very rich looking brown eye!

Continue below for the food and look!

New Years Eve Dinner at Angus Steak: Charcoal Steak Yakiniku Grill, teal glitter nails and a neutral glamorous easy look!

Boxing day dinner and steam boat lunch with family!

Family time and food! My last food post for the year! What happens when asian families get together on visits? Food, food, food! And this end of year was no different when my two cousins came to visit with their parents! I have like 10 cousins on my dad's side but only two on my moms.

Note: I usually love posting my food posts with extra large photos but these are smaller otherwise the post would go on forever!

Continue below to check out our great eats!

Everyone ready to dig in!

Special: Late Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve Dinner at my boyfriends!

Happy post Christmas and pre- New Years?! Oh my, how time flies...unfortunately I'm at home sick with some type of flu like sickness and it's really bothering me. I'm drowning my sorrows with boxes of tissue papers, lots of blogging and reading up for school!

I'm going to start making a list of 'things to do in 2013' as I really must start to learn how to plan time and organize activities to do!

Continue below for dishes prepared by my boyfriend!

Photos of home made Thanksgiving and pre Christmas dinner 2012 at my boyfriends!

Food: Things eaten for November 2012! (seafood, japanese, local hawker food)

Foodie post for November! Oh gosh, so much food, everything I want to eat again! And yet...I'm still on track to losing another kilo of weight for my next weight goal! I go one at a time, makes things easier. Over the last few months I've realized that no ones needs to sacrifice good food for good health. It's not difficult, we just need to stop being so lazy and passive about things!

Continue below to explore my dishes from last month!

Food Craze: Aroy Thai, Straits Kitchen, long Beach and Cedele!

Asian delights! That's what I think when I'm really hungry, I want something tasty, crispy, explosive and fresh! My love for asian cuisine will carry on and I hope to find more places serving yummy bites.

I've yet to find places in singapore serving amazing vietnamese and thai food at good prices so that's a search I must undertake when I've got the time!

Continue below for the photos!

Aroy Thai, Straits Kitchen, long Beach and Cedele

Fancy Chinese lunch with the family at Taste Paradise (FOTD)

There was nothing left! The food I mean! Grandma offered to take us out to lunch at a higher end chinese restaurant called "Taste Paradise", they have outlets in several countries in Asia. We went to the outlet in Ion Orchard. The prices for dim sum were a few more dollars than regular at $5-7 Sgd a portion.


Note: I previous published this post with the name "Din tai fung", that was the wrong restaurant.
  Continue below for the delicious food and my FOTD!

Delicious chinese dim sum from Din Tai Fung restaurant!

Japanese lunch @ Sushi Tei with my better half and mom!

Japanese food galore! Who doesn't like Japanese food! I could eat this stuff everyday, all day! Had a lunch a short while back with the better half and my mom, ate too much and had a good afternoon browsing through electronics of all sorts down town!

Continue below for close up of the food and extras!

Japanese lunch! I love everything! sushi, sashimi, rice sets and mini shabu shabu!