Singapore Zoo Visit

Singapore Zoo

For those of you contemplating whether to visit the Singapore Zoo when you are on a holiday trip to Singapore, the answer is a resounding YES! Singapore is pretty small with not many things to fill up your itinerary. The usual top 5 MUST-SEE places in Singapore are as follow:

1) Esplanade (Dubbed the Singapore durian) + One Fullerton
2) Clarke Quay 
3) Sentosa + Resort World (Universal Studio)
4) Orchard Road
5) Marina Bay Sands and Waterfront

If one were to strictly follow the usual itinerary by filling up on the 5 places mentioned above, Singapore has nothing much to offer and you would be done with the city state in a 3D2N stay here. Hence I strongly recommends the Singapore Zoo (Including the River Safari and Night Safari) which is well known as the best Zoo in ASEAN and perhaps would even win a place (If not already) in the best zoo in the world. With the recent River Safari being opened to the public with 2 giant pandas loaned to Singapore by China as the main attraction and the much beloved Inuka (Read Ee-noo-ka) (Inuka has since passed on due to old age since the writing of this post) who was born in Singapore being relocated to a new climatized facility, the Singapore Zoo has became a MUST SEE if you are visiting the country.

Seafood Paradise

SEAFOOD PARADISE RESTAURANT @ SINGAPORE FLYER 2009

When I was in Hong Kong last December 2008, both H and K brought my wife and I to the best roast goose restaurant in Hong Kong at my request and the meal was truly a delight! No one does Roast Goose the way the restaurant did~ crisp yet juicy, golden brown and fragrant (Not mentioning that it is very affordable too)! That alone has teased me numerous times to head back to Hong Kong just for this dish. Using the photo of the roast goose’s drumstick on my desktop certainly doesn’t help curb that urge and who’s fault is it? Nevertheless, can you blame me for that?

Roast Goose (4.5/5)
Yue Kee Roast Goose Restaurant
Crispy yet juicy, golden brown and fragrant.Highly recommended! It is located at
Sam Cheng ("Deep Well"in cantonese) in Hong Kong.

Vienna Buffet Restaurant

VIENNA INTERNATIONAL SEAFOOD AND TEPPANYAKI BUFFET RESTAURANT 2009

It has been long since I last had a seafood buffet dinner partly due to the high price that I had to fork out, which could easily fetch me some pretty decent ala carte dinner. On one fateful day, I chatted with my closer-than-neighbor neighbors, we realized that it has been long since we last hang out together for some fellowship. So uncle G, proposed seafood buffet at Vienna and proceeded to make reservation but much to his disappointment that all the seats in the restaurant has been booked and the ones still open for reservation are seats outside of the restaurant which also means no air-conditioning.

Nice view outside the restaurant

Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House

IMPERIAL TREASURE NOODLE AND CONGEE HOUSE
@ B3-17 ION Orchard

A shot of Singapore Post Building while waiting at the bus stop.

DK is a dear sister that we got to know at the church my wife and I (Now the whole household) attends. The bonding betwen us and this sister grew stronger over the years and it was truly sad to see her going to the States (She studies there). She would come back once in a while and stayed for a week or two and this time round a month+. So they say that happy times pass by in a flick of an eye, its about time she will have to return to the US so we decided to bring her out for dinner. We asked her to pick the place and she has chosen Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House at the newly opened ION Orchard. This place is the "Thing"of Ochard as it is a huge shopping mall (CK Tangs..ahem... step aside please~).

Crystal Jade LMXLB

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao @ Holland Village

I have heard of this place from my colleague TLM and according to him they have a promotion (I believe it is an ongoing thing) for their steamboat buffet at S$19.80++ which also included free-flow of xiao long bao (XLB)! So if you are a sucker for these soup dumplings, this is the place for you. The branch in Jurong IMM has similar promotion with the exception of Pekingese Duck instead of the XLB and heard the price is cheaper too! Drinks are free-flow too. The free-flow beverage options are home-cooked barley, chinese tea and some other gassy drinks.

We ordered the Pork Bone+Corn

& Ma La (Szechuan hot soup) soup base

Tanjong Beach, Sentosa Island

Well, it is nice once in a while to head to the beach and this time round we had an appointment with Brian and guys to bring our furkids to Tanjong Beach Sentosa for a swim and chill out session! The weather is great on that day! Brian picked us up to head to Sentosa together but wonder what went wrong, he thought we are heading to East Coast instead of Sentosa despite Lynn (Faith ma) called to ask where in Tanjong Beach are we all meeting...

Picnic in ECP

30th May 2009

Dana and I was planning for a BBQ on the East Coast Park on this date so that we could have a get together with friends and loved ones. The initial idea was to set up camp and have Barbies at the same time but I am reluctant to spent the $$$ to buy the tent, which may be costly and that being said, something we don't use as often. So it is really not worth the investment. I managed to convince Dana so we will just have BBQ. So off I go to book the BBQ Pit (You have to book the BBQ pit or get the permit for BYOPS in Singapore!) at the AXS machine at Toa Payoh Central. Oh the horror! It is school holiday period and it is not easy to locate any pit on any dates! It was full house! Dismayed, I called my with and told her that I could not booked a pit at all even changing location to Pasir Ris or Changi Park does not helped... So I quickly suggested "Why don't we just have a picnic?" (Eureka! I am a genius!).

On the 29th night, we went to NTUC Extra in Ang Mo Kio hub to get the ingredients we needed for the picnic i.e. bread, hams, greens, cheese and the likes. I especially enjoyed doing groceries. I love seeing the merchandise on display and the fact that all these are available within my grasp. These are also the little things that brought joy and colors to life. The total amount of the groceries came up to around S$60+ and I told one of the picnikers, Jeannie, that it will be a "subway" standard sandwich.

Irodori Japanese Restaurant

It is the time of the year for our department to have our annual department dinner and this time round we are having it at Irodori Japanese Restaurant. The restaurant is situated in River Valley or to be precise, the Riverview hotel. Japanese food is one of the food that I liked due to the way the japanese took pride in preparing their food by placing much emphasize on the colour and the taste (One short of the "wei" or fragrance fragrance of the chinese famous "se" "xiang" wei" combo) of the food. Of course, I will not be expecting such quality especially in a restaurant that serves it the Ala-carte buffet style. So usually the best bet is to go about food that cannot and MUST NOT go wrong ~ sashimi!

The setting is not much to rave about. For started, we were served with some raw salmon with some tangy dressing... guess my taste bud doesn't reveal the combination of the dressing. Also, they served us Hiyayako (Cold tofu), which is pretty refreshing.