Nice zichar in an old neighbourhood

We recently found another nice zichar place stacked away in an old neighbourhood at Commonwealth Crescent.

Believe that this place has been around for more than 20 years at least. I think its not easy to find an old coffeeshop that is still being preserved in its original state and most importantly, the quality of food here is much better than many of those served in newer coffeeshops.

Check out the old design..

Even though the place look old, it definitely still maintain its hygiene quite well.

As only 2 of us went, we could not order many dishes.

So we ordered a couple of the chef recommended dishes.

Hot plate tofu. One of the most tasty hot plate tofu that i have eaten so far.

Seafood bittergourd soup.

One of the speciality: Salt and pepper pork knuckle.

I personally think that this is a must try.

Apart from the tasty-ness, the chef has also deboned the knuckle… making it a lot easier to eat.

To me, thats great cos its child-friendly! I can hold Justin in one hand and use the other to continue to savour the dish. =)

We were so full by the end of the meal!! And the total bill cost less than $40……Good deal isn’t it?

So one week later, we went back again, and this time, we tried their claypot fishhead.

The fish was fragrantly fried and served with lots of vegetables in the pot.

So one dish was enough for the 3 of us and once again, we left with a full and satisfied appetite.

If you are interested, you can find this coffeeshop at Blk 118, Commonwealth Crescent.

They are opened from 11am to 2am everyday.

Training starts young

I am not a musically inclined person, whereas my husband plays the guitar well.

So we had long decided that once baby Justin reaches 3 years old, our wish is to send him to the Yamaha music school to learn music. Children are most mouldable at that age for pitching, according to Dear’s research.

But Justin is a super inquisitive boy. So seeing his daddy playing the guitar often, he also fell in love with the guitar. For the record, he already has 1 guitar at home and 1 at popo’s house. Almost every day when daddy comes home from work, he will take his guitar and drag daddy to the room, and make him sit down and take his guitar and start playing together.

So the other day, while daddy was practising, he guai guai sit beside him with his guitar for about 10 mins and i must say my boy really hold the guitar with some “sey” and he really could do a bit of strumming! Hahaha… really quite hilarious looking at him .

Nice Dim Sum Brunch

This restaurant is humbly located at a quiet neighborhood behind Gerald’s old house. It is at the bottom of some old HDB flats, but it definitely does not have humble beginnings. Did a google and found out that the owner is actually a Hong Kong-born chef who made his name in 1990s at Empress Room in Raffles Hotel and later Xin Cruisine Chinese Restuarant at Holiday Inn Atrium Hotel.

The restuarant now occupies the entire ground floor of the a HDB block at Lengkok Bahru and It is divided into two parts: an open area dedicated to zi char (home-cooked fare) and an air-conditioned area for more upmarket stuff like bird’s nest and abalone.

Last weekend, we had the cravings for dim sum, and i remember this place do serve dim sum as well.

So off we drove there for a nice dim sum brunch.

Don’t ask me why the grouchy look on Justin’s face. I guess it must be the cap. :p

And we reached the place. Nice yellow signboard. Best is that it is not crowded. Good way to spend some quiet family time over meal.

The nostaglic and original deco of the coffeshop.

Here comes the menu. They have a limited dim sum menu, but to me, quality is more important than quantity.

Since we only had 3 of us, and Justin cant eat most of the items except for the congee, so we could only order a few dishes.

Gerald’s stewed Beef Ramen. Which i think pretty good for $3.80.

Traditional Siew mai

Har gao… a must have.

And i recommend this. Pan Fried Gayoza. My first time trying, but the filling in it is sulcent and not too much.

And it is cooked to the right texture. =)

Ordered some cha siew pau for Justin.. but totally untouched and we had to dabao home.

And i must have this every time. Black bean sauced chicken feet.

Century Egg Porridge. Lots of ingredients in it and it is so smooth that you can just swallow the congee. Typical HK style.

So that marks the end of our dim sum brunch, colourful and sumptuous.

If you are interested, they even have 30% discount on Mon to Friday for their dim sum menu. :-)

Zi Yean Restaurant (自然海鲜粥面夜市)
56 Lengkok Bahru
#01-443 Singapore 150056
Tel: +65 6474 0911

a date with hubby

I am sure many parents with young kids will agree that once your little one comes along, the couple will have to purposefully find time to go out and spend quality time with each other, without the kids. To me, that is an important factor to keep the marriage going strong, bearing in mind that our soulmate will be the one to accompany us till the very end of our days.

So after a busy month, or should be months, i decided that i would just take an afternoon off and go pak toh with hubby. Has been such a busy year so far, since Jan 11 till June 11…. time literally zoom past, not even a breeze. So to take stock of the remaining half of the year, we have to do something!!

Always enjoy paktoh days, where we can just chill out and take things slower, without having to run after the kid or trying to control the kid from messing up the dining table.

And so, off we catch the new Transformer movie. I am not a transformer fan. But my hubby is. Thankfully, the entire movie was pretty interesting, enough to keep me awake for the whole movie (given the fact that we had a tough night the previous night as Justin woke up at 5am to play!!!)

After dinner, we decided to go for steamboat!! Something that we both enjoy and definitely wont be able to go if Justin was with us.

So off we went to Bugis 鲜得来火锅！！

Actually this is not one of the cheapest and best buffet around, but at least its environment is rather clean as compared to the rest.

And i love the special chicken prepared by the chef. 香辣子鸡。Good and delicious appetiser!

The fried dried chilli that will go into the soup base later on.

My concocted sauce.  

and these are some of the items that we ordered…

Dory fish fillet

Golden mushroom

Big head bean sprout

Fresh crab

Fresh prawns

Beef fillet

Quail eggs

 

Luncheon meat

Vegetables

and many more… but too busy eating and forgot to take pictures…

Has been a long time we have a peaceful dinner….. but we both agree that we felt weird without Justin around. haha.

Guess we are too used to having Justin around us already. =,=

But nonetheless, so enjoy the dinner!!!

actually wanted to go for dessert after that, but both of us were full to the brim!! So decide to shelf that for another day. =)

looking forward to the next paktoh day….

many new things are happening

It is a season of new things.
Many new things are taking place in my life and of cos, many changes as well.

I am learning to adapt to the changes.
Everyday, I ask for wisdom from God.
To handle the changes and new challenges.


Changes in human relationships
Changes in environment
Changes in the speed that things are evolving and changing.
Changes in the work schedule and the countless emergencies that happen every other day.

God, I need a big and strong heart.
Otherwise, one day, i think i may just break into depression and withdrawal symptom.


I know changes are good.
But changes can also be sad.
Of cos, we can never expect things to be unchanged all the time.

Well, just got to take it in my stride.

Believing that life is definitely changing for the better with all these changes.

First outing to ECP

Last saturday, it was the first time that we brought Justin to East Coast Parkway for a cycling trip with some of Gerald’s colleagues.

I must confess that one of the reason that we had not brought him there earlier,

mainly because the mother, aka me, is a cycling-idiot.

Anyway, we planned and decided to put it to action.

On Sat morning, the sky was extremely gloomy when we left the house.

And shortly after we drove out of the estate, it started pouring.

Kind of sian, but I was also happy because this means that I will have time to have my breakfast at Mac before starting the day!! Yippie!!

When we reached, as expected, it was pouring. So we ate our breakfast and waited at Macs for prob 1.5hr, before Mr Sun decided to come out to play.

Wasting no time, we went out to look for the bicycles rental shops.

See how excited Justin was…running all over the place… and even nearly caused some minor collision with the other cyclists on the track =/

   

Since I cant cycle, we had no choice but to get the family bicycle… 3-in-1

toughest job was the father… hahahahaha.. cos he had to balance the bicycle for all of us…. kudos!

Justin was busy examining the new vehicle when he was strapped in there for the first time.

 

And off we go!!  

The cycling party.

Family photo…. under the hot hot sun!! See Justin’s grouchy face.. hahahaha

   We had to stop our bicycle in order to take a picture.. otherwise, it was quite hard to balance…

And Justin was busy playing with his new friend!

it was definitely a great day of workout and fun for the whole family.

after the workout, all of us were famished and went to the HK cafe and had a big feast, before heading home for a power nap. :-)

we will definitely go back again soon…

meanwhile, the mummy is contemplating to pick up cycling???