It's good to be back home in SG after the recent festivity. We spent the Chinese New Year vacation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was a nice experience to say the least exploring the capital city of the country that's well known for that genuine Asian claim - "Truly Asia". 4 days were actually not enough to explore this throbbing yet still a bit calm, distinctively historical yet fast growing metropolitan.

KL is not very far from Singapore. The usual options to go there is either to travel by land or air. If time is too limited for travel, the 50-minute plane ride is the right choice. For the more budget friendly route, a 5-hour bus ride is also not so bad to take. For the latter option, Aeroline is your best bet especially the double decker one. It's very spacious, travels on-time, service is good and the basic necessities (like toilet, individual entertainment screen, reclining seat) are all on board to comfort you during the long travel. It actually felt like riding a plane on the road. I won't have any second thoughts taking it again the next time.

Apart from the popular Genting Highlands, there are so much more to see, enjoy and experience around the city of Kuala Lumpur. These are just some of my top picks.

1. Petaling Street (China Town) and Bukit Bintang - definitely the shopping districts to be! Petaling Street is home to a wide array of goods. Leather items, clothing, accessories, and other bric a bracs can be found here. If you don't mind buying fake brands at very affordable prices, this must be the place for you. However, if you prefer adding more value to your money's worth, Bukit Bintang is just nearby. It's a shopping strip that houses upscale shopping centers (e.g. Pavilion, Lot 10), bars and cafes. The ambiance here is tourist friendly.

Sweet, tangy, juicy and a tad sour. These are the flavor elements you can find in the most popular salad around town - Rojak. The name implies "mixture" in malay. It's a blend of fruits and vegetables generously coated with a sweet dressing and drizzled with lots of chopped peanuts. I've been meaning to try this traditional salad for a long time now and finally I had the opportunity to sample a plate at the newly opened Nex shopping centre in Serangoon. Texture wise, it's quite playful in the palate granted that the crunch of the fruits and vegetables are preserved. On the overall taste though, it's way too sweet for me. It's beyond my capacity to consume a plate.

It'll be our second year to witness Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration down here in Singapore. Apart from being a truly bright and colorful Chinese festivity, CNY brings inumerable food delights. From lavish meal gatherings to luscious traditional delicacies that speak of prosperity, abundance and generally good vibes, the market is full of food choices to make. And as a kick-off for this up coming occasion, we trooped down Boon Lay Raja Shark's Fin & Seafood Restaurant for a delicious banquet. It leaves me with no expectations at all as I entered the restaurant premises. It's a typical chinese restaurant you will find elsewhere.

But for the food and service, I'll give them 4 spoons out of 5. Generally, the quality does not disappoint. It will leave your tastebuds happy and satisfied. I enjoyed almost all that was included in our lunch repertoire which consisted of shark's fin soup, fresh steamed garoupa, wasabi prawn, spinach & mushroom, crispy-fried chicken, seafood salad, cold platter and yam paste for dessert. With all it's simplicity and downright filling taste, this is one restaurant I will definitely be back for more.

Call it a love at first. That's how I will likened my first encounter with this steaming bowl of healthy greens, seafoods, noodles and tofu. What is there not to like about this dish? I can hardly think of any. I can vouch that this popular soup - Yong Tau Foo is among the must-try local dishes around Singapore. So widely known is the dish that it's nearly impossible not to find a kiosk in most hawker centres and Kopitiams offering it. It's usually eaten either as plain soup or added with your preferred noodles. It can also be opted with the soup on a separate bowl and the rest of the ingredients dry. For the type of soup, there are also different varieties to choose from. If you're like me who prefers to stick to its "healthy appeal", I normally go for the clear broth. Otherwise, there's curry or laksa for the more daring ones. Depending on your appetite or how indulgent you would be, a bowl would cost around S$5 -S$10. If it's less sophistication yet filling and healthy eating is what you're looking for, this is one simple dish that perfectly fits.

I've been hearing raves about the buffet at Mandarin Oriental's Melt - The World Cafe restaurant. With the on-going UOB promotion on 3 diners + 1 diner free, my colleagues and I decided to go and discover what the buzz was all about on this famous restaurant. Armed with an adventurous and curious appetite, we lavishly feasted on the extensive repertoire of combined asian and international buffet.
A wide array of fresh seafood on ice was the star of the buffet set-up. It's beaming with fresh oysters, crabs, lobsters, scallops, mussels and prawns. This was a very good station to start with.

Pardon the very limited food shots taken for this post. The dimly lit ambiance at the restaurant made it relatively difficult to capture a nice angle. The buffet showcased a total of 7 stations to choose from :


1) antipasti, salads, breads & cheese, sushi & sashimi
2) fresh, cold seafood
3) chinese & thai cuisine
4) indian cuisine
5) combined asian & western cuisine
6) roast specialties, pasta & noodles
7) desserts & sweets



While each station had something that's worth a try, there were also some dishes that were mere so-so. Some of the notable ones were tandoori chicken, chicken masala, naan, tomato soup with garlic bread, fresh seafood, smoked duck, roasted pork, barbecue ribs for the savoury dishes and chocolate fondue and waffle a-la mode for the desserts. Generally, it's a good buffet to try but it still leaves you craving for more. In terms of variety, it's extensive enough to deliver your money's worth . Quality wise, which pertains to taste and wow factor, it fell short of my expectations granted that it's very well hyped in the foodies' world.

Christmas tree is the typical icon of the holiday season. It brings an unexplainable cheery ambiance especially at home. From an orange - gold themed Christmas tree back in the Philippines, I decided to go tradional (red - silver) this year for our Christmas tree in Singapore. I got most of the tree hangings at Ikea, IMM and the Warehouse Sale at Tampines. The tree was a steal at 50% off the original price. For this tree, I spent S$300 to complete the look albeit I think I'm still half way to what exactly I want it to look like. (Anyway, I'll just keep that idea for next year), my children are already ok with it.

It's exactly 4 days to go before Christmas! My goodness! time really flies so fast. It seemed like it's only yesterday since I started the countdown on our office board and it's now down to just 4 days. While my kids can no longer contain their excitement on Santa's gifts for this year, I still need to find time to shop for those "secret presents". There were 3 items on each of their lists and I do hope that stocks are not yet depleted in the shops. This is by far the least stressful christmas year for me. It's the first time ever that I didn't bother my self to shop around and get busy with party preppies and gift wrappings. This experience is both good and sad actually. It's good because it turned out to be a hassle free season and I managed to save a lot. But at the same time, it brings me sadness because I still missed the customary gift giving. After all, there's really no Christmas like home in the Philippines.

To further mark this very different Christmas in 2010, I am also not preparing a noche buena at home. It's a first since I got married and have children. I used to think about my food theme year on year but this time, my family and I are going for a Holiday Buffet (as to which Hotel? that's yet to be decided).

Philippines : Spicy Tuna Pasta Twist

This is the dish that our team prepared. You can check the recipe here but we modified it a bit. Instead of using 3 x 250 ml all-purpose cream, we modified it to 2 x 250 ml and added with 1 can of classic condensed cream of mushroom soup.

Singapore / Malaysia : Curry Chicken

Singapore : Chicken Kebab

Mexico / Italy : Beef Lasagna

We still had some French dishes from our French colleague; it's a pity I was not able to take a snapshot of those. Overall, it sure was a very filling and scrumptious lunch experience. On the other light, it's also inspiring to share each one's culinary skills and creations. 'til next potluck time! =)

Straight from Japan, a colleague spotted and brought some samples of Kit Kat's new product innovation to the office. The chocolate that's positioned as a favorite "snacking item" now comes in more exciting flavors. Think of fruits, drinks and some classic savoury flavors infused into the wafer chocolate. Sounds odd, huh? Well, definitely not. Kit Kat has done it. And honestly, I was wowed by the product when I tasted it. Among those that I found really good from the range of flavors are the Cheesecake, Cheese and Green Tea. The Wasabi is a bit selective but acceptable too. Each flavor is being marketed as a specialty of a certain place in Japan. Say for instance Green Tea as Shizuoka edition and Cheesecake as Yokohama edition. These sweets are just perfect for the season and I do hope they will be made available world wide soon.

Green Tea

Cheesecake

Savoury Cheese

Since Christmas is nearing, SALE is truly all over the island. Together with some colleagues at work, we visited the CROCS SALE at TradeHub 21. From there, we headed to LAM's Noodles for lunch. Apparently, the food place is known for it's Kung Fu Peking Duck and Abalone Noodles. I opted for the latter since it's a complete meal in itself. Boy, was I overwhelmed for its too fatty taste and mouthfeel! The fermented note is also way too much that I can hardly appreciate the seafood / abalone in the noodles. My palate was coated with too much oil. This is certainly not the kind of food I would recommend to people on a health & wellness regime diet wise.

Upper left : Fried Bread - sweet, tastes like a donut

Upper Right: Fried Fish Skin - crunchy, fatty, sinful but enjoyable

Bottom: Soup - creamy, oily, non descript in taste

Vegetable & Fruit Juice - sweet, greeny, not so refreshing


Abalone Noodles with free Soup