Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Mojito – Don’t drink and blog!

Finally Home Sweet Home! Will blog about my holiday story soon.

I brought a bottle of Bacardi from DFS yesterday and immediately try my hands at making one of my favourite drink today – The Mojito!

mojito My first attempt at Mixology and by the look of it, I think I am quite good at it. 

Cool summery drink. Refreshingly relaxing.

*hics*

School? Homework, what homework?!

*hics*

Best wish for the New Year! Good bye 2009 and all of the devils! Hallo Sunshine - 2010! 

Sunday, December 20, 2009

今年の漢字 2009 - Chinese Character of 2009

Japan's annual Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation had choosen a single Chinese character (Kanji) that best represents Japan's situation for 2009. The selection process is also known as今年の漢字.


The Chinese Character which they have chosen for 2009  is:


 
It is pronouced as "Xin" which meant "new". Apparently, Japan has chosen this word because of Swine Flu which rampage the country earlier on. It was termed as "新型"(しんがた、shingata), or "new type" flu. Then of course, they had a new government which is termed as "新政権"(しんせいけん、shin seiken).

Over at Taiwan, the Chinese Character for 2009 which best represented Taiwan's situation is:



The character is pronouced as "Pan" which meant hope. Taiwanese after been through so much in the year, hope for a better future.

In Singapore, we do not have such practise of chosing a Chinese character. However, we were told in one of the CNN article that the term of the year for Singapore was:

"BOOMZ"

Well, the controversial Ris Low was chosen to be the most influential person in Asia for year 2009. Not sure what is their criterial, but I think there are more important things /persons that we can remember 2009 for.

Reference:

Monday, December 14, 2009

石川さゆり - ウイスキーがお好きでしょ

One of my favourite song by Sayuri Ishikawa - "Whiskey, your favourite!" Goodness. I want to be able to sing live like her...


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Another Interesting article - Five Lies We All Tell at Work

Hmm... I don't recall telling lies that often at work... Ok, I just lied. At times, I feel that certain situations call for one, not that we wanted to do so. I am not a good liar, pretty bad in fact. I have always been very frank, so frank that it sometimes hurt people.

Don't understand why... I think half of the paradox that we are encountering in life and work especially, are due to the fact that we think too much and are unwilling to be frank.

I read through. Out of the five, I think I used only one before.

MSN Careers - Five Lies We All Tell at Work

I swear!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Want to be a vampire? Learn how to feed like them...

I have always been curious (what's new?) about Vampires. Do they ever exist? Why do they need to drink blood? Can they really fly? What do blood taste like? Which blood type do they prefer? Are they really immortal? I can just go on and on, asking questions about their lives, if ever one would like to grant me an interview session. Ha Ha.

Anyway, I was reading MSN earlier on and this interesting article caught my eye. It suggested where a vampire, if they ever existed, should bite into when feeding.

I strongly recommend those with a keen taste for Bloody Mary to read on. ;)

http://www.slate.com/id/2236153/?gt1=38001

However, I am sticking to my Mojito. Read that blood has a metalic, irony and coppery taste... Yuck...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Recipe: Dak Bulgogi - Spicy Korean BBQ Chicken

It has been sometime since I posted the last recipe. Well, after such a long wait, I decided to post a heavy weight recipe - one of my very own creations, on how to marinate and cook Bulgogi (Korean BBQ meat) at home!

Ingredients:

Chicken Meat, cut in Chunks– 800g  (Preferably leg meat) 
Spring Onions – Handful (Optional)

Marinate:

Korean Chili Paste – One tablespoon
Minced Garlic – 2 cloves
Sesame Seed Oil – Half a tablespoon
If prefer spicier, can add in fresh minced chili.
Also, freshly squeezed juice of half an orange or pear.

To note:

It is better to use chicken thigh meat for this recipe as they are more suitable for grill. I do not recommend chicken breast as they tend to be dry if grilled for too long. You can also replace the chicken meat with pork or beef. Suggest to use pork shoulder, i.e. fattier cut of meat for this recipe.

Depending on how sweet the fruits are, you might need additional sugar. Alternatively, use Citroen Honey as sweetener and some water to dilute the marinate into paste-like mixture.



The marinate also do not need soy sauce or salt as the Korean Chili paste, see picture above, is salty by nature. The Korean Chili paste is not really spicy, in my opinion and in fact tasted more like Chili- flavoured bean paste.

Method:

In a large bowl, mix all marinate condiments together.



Our family love spicy food, thus I added quite a huge amount of minced chili.  


The mixture is then diluted with the freshly squeezed juice. I would strongly recommend you taste the marinate at this stage and make adjustment to see if it suited your taste.

Add more sugar if you prefer the meat to be slightly sweeter or a bit of soy sauce if you feel that it is too sweet and not salty enough. The thumb of rule is that the marinate should be slightly stronger in taste, so that when you add in the chicken meats later, it will be just right.

 
Mix in the chicken pieces thoroughly. It should preferably left to marinate for at least one day. You can store this directly in the chilling compartment for about 2 days. You can also marinate in bulk and store the marinate meat in freezer. It can be kept for at least two weeks. 
To cook:
Although I did say grilled and BBQ, to save the hassle, you can actually “grill” them in a non-stick pan. 

This is what I did.

 
Heat up a non-stick pan with medium-high heat and grill the marinate meat without oil. To accompany the meat, you can also grill onions and fresh mushroom in the same pan.


Viola! There you have it, beautifully grilled, aromatic, spicy and sweet Korean BBQ Chicken ! 



Looking at the dish, I can’t help myself to tuck in immediately.

Tip: As there is sugar content in marinate, the meat burnt easily. Pay closer attention when cooking it. Turn it frequently. Add a bit of water to deglaze the pan, if it gets too dry.

Of course, such a wonderful dish can be serve as it is or with a bowl of hot rice! Let me show you how I eat it:



I learnt this from Korean restaurant. They loved to pair greasy grilled meat with fresh lettuce leaves and so I did.


On top of it, I put in a bit of caramelised grilled onions.

 
Then, the grilled mushroom.


After that, I select one of the golden grilled meat…

 
… and place it on top of the mushroom and onions


Gently, picked up the lettuce leaf and make it sort of like a wrap. Shove it into the mouth immediately (not that you can wait anyway…) !

Hmmm… Now where is the ice-cold beer?

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Yishun’s Bottle Tree Park

On a beautiful day, the KL shopping kakis decided to meet up and do something different for a change. They didn’t manage to travel to Malaysia for holiday this year, a pity, due to differences in schedule. Therefore, they decided to find retreat in Singapore instead. A relaxing place with never-done before activities…



This bottle-shaped tree is aptly known as Bottle Tree. It is native to Australia and cost the park owner quite a fortune to fly them from Australia, so that they can be transplanted in Singapore…

The dilemma is that we have basically done everything that we could do in Singapore. There are only that many songs to sing in Karaoke, that many shopping centres we can shopped in, that many movies we can watch, that many one for one buffets we can enjoy…

So, after a brain storming session, we decided to do something “outdoorsy”, something close to natural, something which we have heard a lot, but never tried before.
We decided to …


…go Prawn-Fishing ~! I first got know of prawn fishing activities from this nasty “Ah Beng” intern. Don’t know why, but he always bring the gang of intern to go prawn fishing in the middle of night. I always wondered then whether it is really “fun”.


We reached there at about 1 pm. There were few groups of people already fishing. Each of them occupied certain area of the pond, patiently waiting for prawns to hook. Seriously, it doesn’t looked like it was a difficult task. Every few minutes, there will always be a prawn hooked up somewhere.
 
Prawn fishing charges hourly. I remembered we paid about $13 dollars each for 1 hour worth of fishing time. Rods and baits are provided. It looked easy enough, but strangely experience does play an important part.

The uncle-in-charge was a very nice guy. At Bottle Tree Park, there is no such things as “to prevent people catching too much prawns”. Somehow, I got to a slow start. Prawns just avoided my bait. Uncle though busy with other chores, still managed to keep an eye on me. After 15 mins without a hook-on, he came back and check my rod. Eventually, he decided to change a new rod for me and even directs me to a good fishing spot.

He said “Let’s get you another rod, if not you will be bored and not be able to enjoy fishing with your friend.” I was so impressed with their service standard.

True enough, less than two minutes after his coaching, I caught my very first prawn. It was a female prawn with roe. Somewhat, I pity it a lot and did not want to eat it. Thus, I secretly missed the net when trying to put it into the net. Big sister caught eye of it and I was scolded for wasting time and money. Well, as long as my conscientious felt better (briefly) then. 


Here’s some inside tips about prawn fishing. The bait used is actually chicken heart. Usually, you only need a small piece at the tip of the hook. Uncle says the heart will expand when comes in contact with water, so don’t be greedy and use a big piece. Also, prawn had a small mouth, so if it is too big, you might not be able to hook it.

Then when fishing, try to place your line near ventilators, Uncle said that prawns usually congregated there for more air. The next thing to take note is to be able to spot the slight, very gentle tugging. When the prawn is eating the bait, it would tug the line. 
 
While you might not agree, but sometimes it pays to be the “weaker sex”. Even with uncle’s tutorage, I did not fare too well, only managed to catch about 3 prawns. (I thought I have committed enough sins…) Mindy caught slightly more than me but still lost to the winner - Jade who caught more than a dozen of them. She practically got prawns up her hook every few minutes. I guessed she is their cup of tea.

Maybe our laughable awkward action caught eye of those experienced fisher, one of them actually gave all of his catch, about 20 of them, to us. I jokingly exclaimed that Jade is not only good at catching prawns, but also caught attention from some men. LOL.  


The good thing about bottle tree park is that they have an electrical grill near the pond, for people to grill prawns on the spot.

The thing about prawn fishing is that it is rather cruel spots. Called me a hypocrite, although I am a meat-eater, but I can’t bear to kill them myself. In the end, Mindy and Jade had to wash, cut off their long claws, skewed them for me to cook them. Mindy joked that if we were back to prehistoric times, Jade will be the hunter, she will be the processor and I will be the chef.

Nope I did not felt better after hearing it. I was really bad.

It was interesting, but somewhat cruel activity. I think I still prefer to delude myself with packed meat and dead seafood.

To those prawns that I have cooked that day, may your souls rest in peace and be born a better being.

Amibatha…

For those who are not that sentimental, please do visit Bottle Tree Park. It is a relaxing place with many back-to-natural activities for one to rub off those city-stresses.

Visit their website for more details:
http://www.bottletree.com.sg/

Friday, October 2, 2009

Good Luck Birthday Noodles


Celebrating one’s Birthday with a Birthday cake has become a common practise that people forget it was originally a western tradition. Traditionally, Chinese would celebrate one’s lunar birthday with a bowl of noodles cooked in broth called mian xian “面线". The supposedly long noodles symbolised longevity and Chinese would add a pair of hard-boiled eggs for good luck.

My mum cooked me a bowl of mian xian on my lunar birthday. A simple pig liver and minced meat noodles soup, with of course a pair of hard boil eggs for good luck. A simple dish, but filled with so much love and well-wishes.

Immediately, one felt much better smelling the appetising sesame seed oil fragrance. To be eaten while it is hot, I sweat as I gulped down the noodles – a sign of purifying. Hmm…I wondered if one’s bad luck would be expel from body through the sweat. I certainly hope it was!

山穷水尽疑无路 柳岸花明又一村。。。
风水是会轮流转的。。。

Monday, September 21, 2009

Past A Quarter of A Century Old

I celebrated my 26 year-old last week. A low-key affair, but with so much warmth that I felt so touched.
 


Brother A had always been a thrift person. On a pretext of going for his nightly exercise routine, he cycled out to get me a birthday cake from Crystal Jade. Yes, Crystal Jade bakery offered 40% discount after 8 pm. He was so proud of this buy. (Nope, I don’t mind it at all.)


Vesparado worked quite late that day, but also brought back noodles, fried rice and yam ring from our favourite zi char stall for the mini-celebration.


Half-eaten fried rice.


Colourful yam ring from a zi-char stall.

That day, I felt so contented as I realised that I have a lot of things.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Selamat Hari Raya!


Wishing all Muslim readers - Selamat Hari Raya! See left, one of our neighbours sent us a box of delicious cakes and sweet stuff. Yummy~

Yeah!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Pigeon Flew Away This Morning!



Yup! As per the header, "Percy" the pigeon, who was wounded by the cat had finally recovered and flew away this morning. I did not get to see him go, but my dad saw him on the window still (instead of inside the box) and flew away moments later.

A satisfying ending, but somewhat disappointed as for the five days that he was with us, he was very afraid of human contact. I had a hard time putting medication on him.

I hope that he would live its life to the fullest and start a family even after this scary ordeal! Maybe in its limited memory, he would remembered that a strange being, maybe as terrifying as the cat, had captured it for five days.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Last Day of Hungry Ghost Month



Today was the last day of Lunar 7th Month which is also known as Hungry Ghost Month. Just like how people would pray on the start of the month, people will also pray on the last day of the month to send the spirits and demigods back.

Let's hope all will be well and that there will be blessing throughout the year for the family!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A Fated Intervention – Took Home A Wounded Pigeon to Nurse

Not that I am Lim Dai Yu or I am relating an ancient story where the gentle (Not me definitely) female lead character took home a wounded animal to nurse on behalf of the male lead character, but I just took a wounded pigeon home (out of my own accord) to nurse. I believed it is all fated.

Was on my way to work this morning when suddenly I heard some rustling sound coming out from a nearby bush. Out of curiosity (what’s new…), I went to the source of the commotion to take a closer look.

It turned out that an adolescent orange-fur tabby cat managed caught a pigeon and was trying to tug it deeper into the bush to eat it. Luckily for the pigeon (and too bad for the cat), the cat was distracted by my presence and the pigeon took chance to hop off. Worried that the cat would pursue it, I shooed it off, hopping that the bird would have a chance to survive.

I went off hurriedly to work as the cat ran off, putting the incident behind me. I was only reminded of it as I was walking home in the evening. I saw a man squatting near a bird, cooing it. Something is wrong with the bird, I thought to myself. The sky is almost dark and it did not fly off with its friends…

As I walked closer, I noticed that it was a pigeon and that it could be the pigeon I saved this morning! Usually, I would struggle with thoughts on whether my mum would kill me if I bring it home , but strangely I did not even betted an eye lid this time round and told the uncle that it was wounded by a cat and that I am going to bring it home.

Honestly, I couldn’t really catch the pigeon even though it was wounded. My god, it could run really fast. Luckily, the uncle volunteer to catch it for me. I was a bit scare at first at the thought of holding the bird as it kept flapping one of the wings, but somehow I got hold of myself and just took over it from the Uncle nonchalantly. I remembered walk home at usual speed.

Mum was watching TV at the living room when I reached home. I hold the bird for her to see and told her the story. (Surprisingly) She did not scold me and even urged me to bring it to a vet. Not sure whether veterinary clinic would still operate at this hour, I decided to nurse it myself. Since it cannot fly, I conveniently put it into a cupboard box.

The pigeon was in good condition despite it cannot fly. The nasty cat took a big bite out of the bird’s breast. The wing was also slightly scratched by the claws. I applied some antiseptic cream on the wounds and even managed to feed it water. It could still drink by itself.

(Didn’t manage to take a picture as both of my hands were occupied)

I really hope that it would survive. Will try to feed it with some food tomorrow morning and see if the conditions improves.

I will update everyone about it again. :)

Ps: For easy remembrance sake, I have decided to name the pigeon – Percy!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

German Zoo Keeper Drowned in 200 Pounds of Elephant Dung

This is a sad but freakly true story.

A German Zookeeper named Friedrich Riesfeldt wanted to help a constipated elephant named Stefan to relive himself, ended up dead in elephant dung.

Apparently, Zookeeper Friedrich fed the animal 22 doses of animal laxative and various concoction of fresh fruits, hoping that the animal could relive itself. Little did he expected that the animal would start reliving himself while he was standing directly behind it, trying to administer an olive oil enema.

I guessed the elephant had been suffering from constipation for quite some time as it excreted 200 pounds of dung that day. Without warning, Friedrich was pinned violently to the ground by the load. In course of action, he slammed his head against concrete floor and was knocked unconscious. Sadly, the elephant continued to excrete on him and Friedrich eventually suffocated beneath the dung.

Friedrich was discovered an hour later, dead.

http://www.8bm.com/diatribes/volume01/022/435.htm

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hungry Ghost Festival

Every year’s 7th month of the lunar calendar is known to the Chinese as the “Ghost” month or 七月 in Chinese. Chinese believed that Hell will open its gate for the whole of the month to allow spirits and ghosts to roam the earth freely. According to legend, 7th month is an important month for hell’s spirits and ghosts as they were normally not allowed to eat, whatever that touched their mouth will become ashes. However during this special month, they were given concession to eat and to be fed.

The 15th day of the 7th month is known as the Hungry Ghost Festival 中原节 or 普渡. Some people would confuse this day with Qing Ming 清明节. Although both festivals honour and pray to the deceased, but they are different in nature. During Qing Ming, people prayed and make offerings to their ancestors in remembrance of their roots. However, in the case of Hungry Ghost Festival, people not only make offerings to their ancestors, they also make offerings to roaming spirits as well as demigods “working” in hell.

(Picture above shown offerings: Red Candles, Tea Leaves, Joss Sticks and Joss Papers)

Many of the roaming spirits do not have a “home” or decedents to pray for them, so in spirit of giving, people often prepared additional offerings for them. Chinese prayed to the demigods too as they believed that getting into “good books” of the demigods, they will be blessed for the year. This year’s Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 3rd of September. Our family, like many other families, make offerings too.

Joss papers came in various forms. Some of it has chants scripted on it, when you burnt them, it is like you are chanting “good” for them. While some others are more “mundane” things, money known as hell notes, colours papers which are supposed to symbolise cloth for making clothes.

Chinese steamed-cake. Chinese usually include one of these steamed-cake when praying as they symbolised prosperity.

Some of the joss papers have to be folded, a bit like origami, to look like gold ingots.


Unique to Hungry Ghost Festival, people would lay a table full of their daily food stuff as offerings to the spirits. It is also believed that people will be blessed eating those food that has been offered before.

More pious Chinese would even get whole roasted pig as offerings.

In order to invite spirits and demigods to come and feast on the offerings, one need to stick a joss stick and specially-made flags on every food items.

The offerings are left outside for a while, so that the spirits and demigods have “time” to feast on them…

看着烟袅袅的升起 它是否带着人们的祝福和期望到祂的耳边?

Have you all seen the above before? Always wondered why people did that? Scroll down for answer…

After praying, the folded joss papers are brought down to the streets to burn. Chinese believed that the deceased can only received them through burning them.

My mum said that burning joss papers in the chalked area meant that it is for a specific recipient usually for ancestors.

I did not manage to take photo of all joss papers. As you can see from this photo, there are many varieties.

Hell notes, one form of the joss paper, usually comes in big denominator i.e. millions. A TV drama once joked that hell has serious inflation problems due to people printing them in big denominators.

Of course in Singapore, we cannot anyhow burn joss papers as they constitute to littering as well. Often, town council would prepare metal bins for people to burn joss papers.

As I watched the joss paper engulfed in flames, I hope those who are in need would be able to receive them and blessed our family in return…

Friday, September 11, 2009

Problems Uploading Photos on Blogger? Read here for solutions!

Anyone got problems uploading photos on blogger? I did. In fact, weeks ago and the errors lasted for two weeks.

When I login in, the frames were missing. All the buttons became underline links.


Or

The frames will be there, but when clicked on the picture button, the status bar will show error in the pop-up window.

I almost tear my hair out and I cannot blog for weeks. Also, I have no ways to contact Google/Blogger about it. They direct you to help forums or something.


I google about the problem and found this amazing blog! It actually listed errors which blogger had and how they can be resolved!

http://knownissues.blogspot.com/

For those who are lazy to click on the link, but wanting to know how to start photos onto blogger, try this:

Depress "Control and F5" together to force the page to refresh. It turned out that Google had always been informed of any errors almost immediately and users only needed to reload their page to see the patched work.

Strangly, I tried clearing my cache earlier, but it did not work. I did "Control and F5" and the system was back to normal.

:)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Dedicating This Song to Aunty !

As per title, I dedicate this song to my aunt! ;)

Others: If you don't understand, never mind. Well, it is just a family joke.

*Poke Vesparado - LOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Thai Asparagus Looked Like This ?!

I was at NTUC yesterday. Had wanted to pick up some parsley when I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. See below. Did you spot the error?


Thai Asparagus looked weird, I thought… How can asparagus looked…leafy. Hmmm…



A second look confirmed that it is parsley…

Photosophize can now drive!

Did I mention this? I just got my driving license !

I hope to drive around Singapore soon !
:)
La la la la...

Monday, August 31, 2009

Marina Mandarin Peach Blossom - A La Carte Dim Sum Buffet

Earlier on, I took one week leave from work to finish up several personal errands. During which, I took my parents and brothers out to an a-la carte Dim Sum Buffet lunch at Marina Mandarin Hotel’s Peach Blossom.

I was quite excited about the occasion as it was the first time that the whole family could take time out from whatever that we needed to do for a proper sit-down lunch together.

I had first read about Marina Mandarin Peach Blossom’s a la carte Dim Sum Buffet from one of UOB’s credit card brochure. I was quite surprise that a five start hotel Dim Sum buffet only charges $18.80 ++ per pax. I decided to try it out to see if it was really that worthwhile.

I did some research before we went. Read online that for that special lunch time price, Peach Blossom only offered 20 items for the ala carte buffet.

Dim Sum Trinity:

What is Yam Cha 饮茶 (Cantonese: Tea) without Dim Sum Trinity - Har Gao 虾饺, Siew Mai 烧卖 and Cha Siew Bao 叉烧包? So, how is their Dim Sum Trinity?

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Mushroom

I am glad that the steamed dim sum came piping hot. I had thought that their Siew Mai size is a bit dainty compared to Har Gao. It could do with a slight “upsize” so that it would looked more equal. When bite into it, it had a slightly Q texture and one could taste the fish/prawn paste in it which enriched the common Siew Mai with a rich seafood flavour. However, I thought Siew Mai’s highlight should be the pork flavour and texture, but I could hardly taste it.

In fact, many of their dim sum dumplings used too much of “prawn meat paste” that all of them had a similar seafood taste. Perhaps, they should vary the proportion of the prawn meat to give each of the dim sum a different taste and characteristic.

Steamed Prawn Dumpling

The Har Gao came in a good size. The prawn meat filling was quite fresh and springy. I especially like that the chef sprinkled some chopped seaweed flavoured herb onto the dumplings which gave it an additional edge.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun

Perfectly cooked Cha Siew Bao must “smile”, or rather must have cracks on the dough which allowed one to peek-a-boo at the bits of the amber red pork fillings. In case one does not have this before, the red pork filling is actually Cha Siew. It should have a slightly sweet smoky taste. Their Cha Siew Bao not bad.

Steamed Dim Sum:

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Chinese Chives, Mushroom and Prawn Paste

Apart from the distinct chives flavour, this interesting green-coloured dumpling had the texture and taste is similar with the Siew Mai. Nothing much, really.
 
Steamed Seafood Roll in BBQ sauce

This dim sum dish is essentially bean curb skin and seaweed wrapped around crabsticks, with a bit of prawn paste and enoki mushroom. It was drizzled and steamed with a bit of salty sauce which I realised now that it was BBQ sauce. Don’t understand what this dish is about.

Steamed Lotus Leaf Bun with Roasted Pork

When it was served, I could not recognise the dish. It was huge. I guessed the chef decided to get creative with this traditional bun dish.

Instead of braised meat cooked in dark soy sauce, the chef used roasted pork which are stewed in bean sauce. While I applause for this creativity, but I think the portion scared us a bit and the meat is too fattening (in my opinion) for our liking.

Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce, Minced Garlic and Diced Chilli

This is another traditional must-have when eating dim sum. I remembered when ordered this at other places, the spare ribs still got meaty bits. For Peach Blossom’s version, they are all bones. I can hardly find meats on it. Not good.
 
Chicken Feet in Szechuan Spicy Sauce

Unlike the spare ribs, this traditional must-have is properly executed. The chicken feet are braised and steamed to perfection. It is so tender that one hardly need to bite and the meat would fall off the bones naturally.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake with Dried Shrimps and Mushroom

I personally quite like this dish. It is a cross between Chwee Kueh and Wah Kueh. The steamed pumpkin cake has a delicate texture which is almost like a bean curb. The soy-sauce tasted like those Hong Kong Rice Roll’s sauce which has a hint of sweetness to it. There is also dried carrot bits (chay poh) on it.
 
Fried Carrot Cake with Chinese Sausage with X.O Chilli Sauce

I was quite surprise when seeing this as they are not quite what I expected. It has a very fragrant aroma, but it was a tad too salty.

Soups:
Dumpling Soup with Choy Sum

I have to be blunt here. This dumpling soup is uncalled for. There is nothing extraordinary about the dumpling. It is more like a wonton (without prawn kind) in fact. It tasted so common that in comparison, the aunty selling Wonton noodles at the coffeeshop near my place make a better wares than them.

Soup of the Day:
 
Watercress Soup
Another salty soup without much edge. Can be missed.

Porridge:

Fish Fillet Porridge

This porridge is typical Cantonese style. The rice grains has been cooked till non-existence, very smooth. Because it is a fish porridge, there is a hint of ginger flavour in it. A pity, there could be more fish fillet.

Century Eggs and Lean Meat Porridge

Instead of the ginger flavour, there were century egg bits in this. Though it was stated as century eggs and lean meat porridge, but I could hardly find the lean meat. Maybe they were so lean that I missed them out. :P

Fried Dim Sums:

We quite like their deep fried mango roll with shrimp paste and fried prawn dumplings Dim Sum. However, the batter crust of bacon roll and mango roll could be thinner as the thick crust tasted too greasy.

Deep-Fried Yam Dumpling

I like how the size of this dim sim is just nice. The tart strawberry slices rids off the greasy taste.

Conclusion:

For $18.80, you get to enjoy a la carte buffet at a five star hotel – it can be considered worthwhile. Tea charges separately and per pax. Depending on the variety, it can cost up to $12 plus per person.

I like how they allowed people to order the dim sum by the number of pieces. All of the guests will be ensure one piece of the dim sum when served and it allowed us to order more of those which we like more.
 
I am however rather disappointed with the service crew. Firstly, I thought they should spend some time explaining to customers what they are serving for the first time, but no. More than often, I could not get their attention for my order. The same thing happened when I called for bill. The only consolation was that they do cleared the dirty plates quite often.

Lastly, the repeatedly use of prawn paste in every dim sum really gets on our nerves. Every dim sum almost tasted similar and it kind of get very sick of it at the end of the buffet.

Because of their reputation as a five star hotel Chinese restaurant, I suggest they should improve the quality of their buffet. No point sacrificing quality for “quantity”. Reputation worth more, in my opinion.