Chinese New Year Edition - The Big Day

26/01/09, Monday - On the first day of Chinese New Year, my family had a good rest. We didn't do any cleaning and as my parents were traditional, we didn't do any housework at all on this day. So what we did was munching on the goodies such as pineapple tarts and love letters.

Speaking of pineapple tarts, this is the best pineapple tarts which I have ever tasted! Every year, I look forward to eat these pineapple tarts which are homemade by my auntie' friend. Apparently, I learnt from my auntie that she had to beg this friend of hers to make at least two bottles of these lovely pineapple tarts because making this particular goodie is a definite sheer hard work. Currently, the status quo of these pineapple tarts is finishing real fast. I think in two days time, it will be all gone!

On the other hand, my dad also bought a box of pineapple tarts from Bee Cheng Hiang. I'm not sure how much it costs. After tasting a few of those, my mum felt that these weren't that bad except for the fact that the pineapple filling is a little artificial.

After our morning breakfast, we went out for a walk in Botanic Garden. Well, it has been our family tradition for 5 years now that we go for a walk in a garden on the first day of Chinese New Year. Along the way, I managed to capture a picture of a swan swimming lazily on a big pond.

In the mid afternoon, my relatives from my paternal side came over to my place for a visit. We played mahjong, eat and drink merrily on this festive season where we are able to gather once in a year. So my second auntie who is very good in cooking came to help my mum with the cooking.

She whipped up this lovely vegetables with abalone.

Stir-fried leeks with tanghoon.

And lastly, she cooked this sweet and sour fish. Most of them ate up most of the fish before I can capture a good one on this.

This is one of my mum's speciality - Stewed Duck.

Before the dinner, all of us did a traditional thing - mixing of yusheng (raw fish salad). But instead of raw fish, we substituted it with abalone because some of us don't really like eating raw fish.

This was the beginning state of the Yusheng. It may unapetitising. But once it's mixed, it tasted really good.

This was how it looked like after we mixed it.

It was really fun to meet up with my cousins, uncles and aunties as we chatted, played and ate through the night in this once in a year festival.

High Tea Buffet at Goodwood Park Hotel

On Friday, I met up with Charlene for high tea buffet at Goodwood Park Hotel. That was my second time having high tea at the hotel. The first time I had high tea buffet was with my mother at Marriot Hotel. However, that was an International High Tea Buffet whereas at Goodwood Park Hotel, it was an English High Tea Buffet. The reason why we went there was to check out the place for Charlene's wedding next year.

We went into the Coffee Lounge where the High Tea Buffet was held at around 2.45pm, just in time for the buffet. We sat at the patio of the lounge instead as to enjoy the scenery and also the weather (it was pretty cooling and cloudy at that time).

This is the patio where we sat and had our food. This picture is taken from Charlene's camera.

This is where the pool and the courtyard are situated.

Charlene and I went inside the lounge to get our food, excitedly. We picked whatever we felt like eating. Since it was High Tea Buffet, everything came in 'mini' portions. Anyway, we came with an empty stomach.

Here was my first plate.

Mini Croissant with Ham and Cheese. The combination between the ham and the cheese fitted perfectly well.


Mini Prawn Vol Au Vent. Besides the mayonnaise mini prawns, I realised that there was a little spread of avocado. But I couldn't taste the avocado at all.

Chicken Tortilla Wrap. Initially, the outer layer looked like an egg crepe but after looking at the label, it was written as Tortilla Wrap. Even after tasting it, I couldn't tell the difference. Bah! I like the shredded chicken though. Wish I could get some chilli sauce for this.

Bacon Sandwich. The meat that was sandwiched between the two slices of bread was actually parma ham. It was raw but it tasted great!

After eating this plate, I went back again to get another serving, just like a typical buffet-goer.

Vegetable Penne Pasta. I decided that I needed something heavy instead of all the breads and the pastries. The pasta tasted good, in fact.

Raisin Scone. In every English High Tea Buffet, there will always be scones, apart from the sandwiches. Just like an English, I tried out the scone as well. I spread it with cream and butter. Surprisingly, the scone tasted amazing.

Throughout the session, we didn't really gorged ourselves with just food. We did catch up with one another and personally, I felt that it was a good time to mix conversation and food as well. However, once our stomach grew hungry again, we went back again to the lounge to get our food.

(L-R) Chicken Salad Kueh Pie Tee, Sausage with Bread, Lightly Toasted Chicken Ham Sandwich. I enjoyed all three of them.


Alright, now for the sweets.

Creme Brulee. One of my favourite desserts of all time, this mini creme brulee, which is a custard that has been sprinkled with sugar before placed under a broiler to get a brown effect on the top pf the custard, came in a small portion. But overall, it was good too!

Chocolate Fondue. When I saw the chocolate fountain, my heart went screaming, "I am going to eat this later!". Hah! Next to the fountain laid a few plates of fruits and marshmallow to choose from. I picked two strawberries and a marshmallow to share with Charlene. There were even toppings such as rainbow beats and almond slices to choose from. Yum.


Cakes and Pastries. (L-R) Chocolate Eclair, Lemon Meringue, Raspberry Cake and Fruit Tart. The Lemon Meringue tasted really sweet and lemony!

After eating so much, we felt quite satisfied. However, I felt that the selection of food could have been more. After getting the bill, we explored the hotel premises and Charlene told me of another swimming pool which I captured a shot of it.

This is the hidden pool. It's gorgeous! I love the serenity and tranquility of it. I may make this my writing space the next time!


Goodwood Park Hotel is located at 22 Scotts Road. The High Tea Buffet starts at 2.45pm till 5pm. It costs S$30++ per person.

An outing at the Sentosa

Yesterday Cheryl, Ellie and I celebrated Zoe's birthday at Sentosa with a picnic! We decided to have a change of location for our gathering for once as we usually organise our gathering in the town area (read: boring) and after much thought, we ended up at Sentosa. A few days before the gathering, Ellie and I discussed about the food items, like what food is required for the picnic and etc. Besides, it was our first time organising a gathering far away from the civilization world.

I woke up at around 8am to cook Fried Beehoon - a local famous food sample during a picnic - and it was a hard work! I threw some shredded carrots, mushrooms, cabbage and fishcake into the beehoon and mixed them all up. It's no easy feat stirring a huge portion of thin noodles all around the wok with a medium heat. Nonetheless, it was still enjoyable! At the end of it, I garnished it with some shredded fried egg and tada!

We took the Sentosa Express (S$3 for a one-day trip) to the island from Vivocity. It's actually the latest addition from the Sentosa Island. In the past, visitors used to take ships (yes, it's true), buses or walk to Sentosa. But now, we have train. Anyway, the train was practically packed with people. I had no idea where they come from.

When we reached at the Beach Station, the weather was pretty cloudy; it was neither sunny nor rainy. Nevertheless, Zoe decided to suntan at the beach. We went to the Palawan Beach for the picnic. We choose a nice spot which overlooked most of the scenery. We placed our towel and sheets of paper, as a substitute for picnic mats on the sand. We unpacked most of the foodstuff on the towel. We were all ready to eat when all of the sudden, we felt drops of rain started to pelt onto my head. Small drops of rain became big drops of rain and soon, arrows of rain started to fall onto the beach. Everyone, including us, ran for the nearest shelter. Well, our nearest shelter was Koufu Foodcourt. Cheryl heaved a sigh that our picnic had to end up at a foodcourt. I think all of us shared the same sentiment as her that our picnic had somewhat being ruined by the force of nature. Oh well.

After so many hurdles, we finally had our lunch peacefully against the raining backdrop. Halfway through our lunch, someone walked towards our table and asked us where we got our lunch from as he pointed to the box of fried beehoon. I kindly said that we brought it from home. Zoe suggested that I should have sold some of it.

Ellie bought two big packets of German biscuits from Candy Empire (S$9.80 for 2). This was one of the packets which we opened. It's called Desiree and it is so good! I wouldn't mind eating them all over again. Despite of the bad weather, we still had a good time chilling out with Lays Potato chips, German biscuits and fruit drinks.

At around 4pm, we decided to explore the Siloso Beach and since the rain had stopped, why not? We walked and walked and halfway through our journey, a strange passerby who didn't looked like a local to us, asked where is the Sentosa Station. Well, most of us giggled inside our hearts struggling with the idea of a Sentosa Station like our very own City Hall MRT Station. But we did a bad job in directing her to the place.

We managed to find a good spot at the Siloso Beach, lying down on the towel and feeling the wave crashing onto the seashore. It was a nice feeling. Zoe fell asleep for a little while.

Here is a picture of the beach. Gloomy clouds looming ahead of us.

And a picture of me and Cheryl's feet with our Havaianas flip flops.

By evening, we took a train back to the civilization world again. We had our dinner at Secret Recipe@Vivocity. It was quite packed when we went there and we waited about 5 minutes before we finally got a seat. In amidst of the waiting, we studied the menu and even ordered food in advance.

We choose two main courses to share: Chicken Cordon Bleu (S$11.90) and Pan-Grilled Catch of the Day with Lobster Sauce (S$11.50).

The Chicken Cordon Bleu is one of the strongest recommended dishes my friend usually tell me to order at the Secret Recipe. Inside the chicken is actually ham and cheese. So when one cut open the pippin' hot chicken parcel, one can see the melted cheese and the ham. Quite yummy!

The Pan-Grilled Catch of the Day with Lobster Sauce was the best. The fish tasted fresh and the lobster sauce definitely went well with the fish. Everyone on the table voted unanimously that this dish was the best.

As for dessert, we had both of their signature cakes - Chocolate Banana and Marble Cheesecake (both priced at S$4.90). Zoe, Ellie and I have a common eating cake habit - we usually eat the tip of the cheesecake first.

Cheryl would eat the bananas first in the Chocolate Banana Cake.


It was a pity that our dear friend Gin couldn't join us for outing but I bet Zoe was pleased with the birthday outing. I guess I should begin to think of an exotic place for our next gathering.