Authentic Hunan Cuisine

So today, I'm gonna review this fair-sized restaurant dwelling in the heart of Chinatown. Yep, you saw it right - Chinatown! This means Chinese Chinese food. Let's move our butts to a Provence in China call Hunan. 

Why am I so darn sure that this restaurant is serving up authentic hunan dishes? Simply because a hunan-nese drove me in her spanking drive (An SLK) to eat Hunan cuisine. If a citizen of a certain nationality brings you to the restaurant, you know it's good. I'm totally not familiar with the Hunan dishes, so I let Kris do the ordering.

First up - Nian yu

 

Pardon my chinese because its atrocious, I can only do hanyu-pinyin. This is the nian yu with white radishes. SUPERB DISH. This fish was what I enjoyed the most. Very succulent and the radishes was semi-crispy, which suited me very well.

Next - Stir-fry kang kong with garlic

Nothing special about this kang kong dish. In fact, it took me by surprise to actually eat kang kong this way instead of the usual sambal way. Just something different to go by.

Lastly, the third dish (because its only two of us girls and we wouldn't be able to finish the lot) - Pork belly with crispy white radishes sauteed with chilli.

This is Kris's favourite dish. She was attacking this dish while I was attacking the fish. The kang kong is more of like "Oh, we do need a veg dish to make us healthy" kinda thing. HAHAHA!!!

What's my take on Hunan cuisine? SPICY! Yep. If you have a tongue made for spicy food, then you're reading a review that suits your spicy palette. I would say that 90% of the dishes are spicy, akin to your sze-chuan style of cooking. I had to down 2 cans of liang cha during this meal, I tell you. But overall, a very good place for authentic Hunan cuisine. I must try the beef next time.

Hunan Cuisine restaurant is located at:
24 Smith Street
S(058938)

And of course, not forgetting a lovely picture of the lovely Kris:

Enjoy the Hunan dishes! :)

My little monster

I know parents love to shower praises on their kids and when their child has done well, they will swell with pride. Like all these mummies and daddies, I am just like that. But of course, I have my bad days as well. So today, I've decided to blog about Leia's first ever wedding and how naughty she is. HAHA!! Yep, some mummies will be all "SIAO! Why would you blog about your kiddo being naughty?" But let's face it mummies - as much as I would like proclaim that Leia is an angel, I can't and if I ever did, its seriously, gonna be a lie.

My cousin's wedding was held at Marina Mandarin. Kinda like the concept of having their ROM on St. Valentine's day whereas the dinner and church assembly was held the next day. Didn't take pictures of Leia at the church as she was all moody. The only time her mood perks up was during the photo taking session. WHY? Because she was all amazed by the bride's shimmering gown and veil that she was grabbing onto it. Feeling like a damsel in distress, my mother stood beside to intervene. Gosh, what mayhem!

Fast forwarding to the hotel dinner, Leia being at her 10th level of grouchiness, she looked like this:

Quite a blur shot but I'm sure you can tell that her grumpiness level is at the maximum! Of course, seeing that she was dressed to the nines, I insisted on a family photo, so here goes papa yap, mama yap and baby yap.

 

 

Look at how moody she is. Leia has grown to the camera and on some occasions even posing for the camera, but that day only her parents were smiling not her. :|

 

A mother daughter peekture:

Pictures are all orangey not due to the phone but because the spotlights were dimmed this way. This little fella was only interested in the flower stand. The wailing started when I brought her to the nursery for her diaper change and she started bawling her poor heart out that anyone who is pregnant might even think twice about giving birth to their child.

Her screams were sooooooo loud that I swear anyone hearing her would have called 999. Would you guys want to know when she stopped this crying and started laughing? When she went back home. I guess babies are like this after all. They know their surroundings and they know when to show if they are comfortable or not. But I tell you, to pacify this little monster of mine, needs a lot of effort. I'm glad that hus managed to put her to bed.

How cranky can your little one be? It's good to know how other mummies cope when their little child is being nonsensical/moody/grouchy aint it? :) I, for one can learn a tip or two.



A car? Or not.

Today's topic - A vehicle.

Okay, before I start the ball rolling and everyone's gonna call me a materialistic bitch, please, just read what I gotta say before you comment/bitch-slap/judge me. Let's face it - I AM going to be judged anyway. So why am I even writing this paragraph? Maybe to earn some brownie points from some loyal readers.

Reasons why I thought of getting a car:
1) I can put my license to good use (Okay, not so valid a reason)
2) I got a pram
3) I got a diaper bag
4) I got a baby to carry

Yes, I know some would go "So what? Our parents have done it before and survived. So come on, Evette, please be realistic about here" True to that sentence! But let me ask the next question "Were buses and trains that packed back then?" You know, when I was young, I remember I could get seats on the buses. Not to mention, I remember trains being way way less crowded, and in fact, I enjoy these public transport so much, I would kill to sit in those than in my father's car.

Needless to say, I don't even need to remind Singaporeans the slowness and the mishaps that are happening on public transport nowadays. Which was why, I've decided that yes, I'm going to fork out that huge sum of money ON MY OWN (Must really emphasis, before loads of peeps start saying I'm spending my hus money again) to get a car. Can you imagine pushing Leia's buggy, strapped on a diaper bag, your bag and getting into a train? If the train ain't crowded then hallelujah. But let's face it, the train WOULDN'T and will hardly be.

And not forgetting, those single peeps who have a thing against buggies. Yes, sad to say, there are people who can't stand buggies, kids crying or screaming and can never stand children who are not behaving well according to their standards. They will "tut" women with kiddos (I've actually seen this). How come I know about this? MOST (meaning majority so not all) people don't even give up seats to preggy woman, much less to mention kiddos. If I'm wrong, then I'm glad that chivalry still exist, but I'm pretty darn sure I'm quite right to this knowledge.

Which boils down to - YES! FINALLY A CAR ON MY OWN. Less hassle and def more convenient. I can strap Leia down in the car seat and off I go. I know, some readers will be "What a waste of money!" Then let me tell you this - imagine yourself carrying a baby, carrying two bags and waiting in a blistering heat for a cab. Let me know what's your first reaction to this scenario. HAHA!! Enough said, I guess.

So tell me what you think. A yay or nay.

T-One Steamboat Buffet

My hus is a huge eater when it comes to buffet. He is the sort whereby he must get back his money worth (Yes, a typical kiasu Singaporean, I have no doubt about that. But then again, when it comes to buffet, who isn't?). We've been saying that we wanted to try this steamboat buffet in the heart of Upper Thomson. Its just right below the magic card shop, so fans of magic can't tell me they have no idea where T-One is.

So like any other steamboat buffet in bugis, orchard and what nots, there are air-conditioned and non air-conditioned seating arrangements. We definitely chose to be seated in the air-conditioned area - Let's face it, in such sweltering heat and consuming steamboat, no-one will say no to air-conditioning. This steamboat however, has a different way of doing things, it comes in 3 soups - The chicken, tom yum and mala. And no, you can't say no to the soup base, you gotta stick with this 3. My take - Just have it their way, besides, isn't it the norm to have chicken and tom yum everytime? So with the additional mala at no extra cost, doesn't make a difference. This is how it looks like:

One good thing about this steamboat place - ALL food are packed individually. Yes, you saw it right. Most steamboat buffet would have an array of food in the open, but no, this place has EVERYTHING packed. Let me show you what I mean.

Talk about good hygiene right? For the first time, I've seen food personnel packing food into these containers and refrigerating them. So an A++++ for hygiene please. Now, for the quality of food. Well, I can't really say its fantastic good food, cause let's face it, for steamboat, consumers are the one's cooking food themselves etc, but freshness is definitely guaranteed.

I need my greens! And once again, freshly packed. The salmon balls are lovely by the way.

Total damage for 2 pax (with a can of coke each) was $60. Worth it? For the service and freshness, definitely yes.

T-One steamboat is located at:
220 Upper Thomson Road
S(574352)

Side-tracking a bit, Mr. Yap and I paid the first down payment for our flat. We got a 5-room which some ranted on about how stupid we were. In my opinion though, it constitutes extra space for the 3 of us and with a flat near the mrt, a 5-room might be more sellable than a 3 or 4 room. In addition, if I were to have another kid in future, space wouldn't be a constraint on us all and each kiddo can have their own room when they grow up. So yes, it was with this plan, that I psycho-ed the hus for a 5-room flat. Such joy when I received this letter!

Although, a huge burn in the pocket:

Of course, of course, in the event that I don't have another kid, the extra room will be my walk-in closet. I know male readers will shake their head and give me the "Oh-so-typical-ah-lian-cum-stupid-thinking" look, but I'm sure all female readers will be on my side. SO YAY TO THAT WALK-IN CLOSET PLEASE. At least I'm making one of my dream happen instead of keeping hope. MAKE things happen ladies! :)

My Valentine

So its Valentine's day today, and I know everyone who is attached/married/having affairs will be delighted to be spending the day with their special someone. I have a special someone as well - Mr. Yap. And because its very mainstream to be posting my love story on stomp, I'm doing it on my personal space. HAHA!!

We met in June 2012 in a KTV pub (Yes, never a nice place to meet the other half) and of course, he is NEVER the guy where girls will "go ga-ga"over, not the best looking, always on his phone playing his games and not to mention always the shy type. I'm not sure how and why a group chat just popped up and of course, we started talking. Needless to say, I'm sure you guys know whats going to happen next.

I got pregnant in Jan 2013 (I know, I know, a shotgun marriage and most readers will go "Holy Shit!!") with Leia. The WORST pregnancy ever. Morning sickness took a toil on my body. I was puking still in Trimester 2. PD's said that it will subside, but with Leia, it was a special case. Women had this glow about her when she's preggy, I had a dull aura around me. My weight dropped from 43 to 39kg, it picked up around mid of trimester 2 to end of trimester 3. My full term birth weight was 54kg with a 2.5kg of baby within me. I couldn't work, quit my job and with almost everyone saying I'm dumb, stupid etc (I know some of hus friends said the same thing, but of course with good intentions as they were worried for their friend), Mr. Yap still stuck by my side.

He paid everything - Bills from the private hospital, my insurance, Leia's insurance, her milk powder and my living. So yes, it must have cost him thousands, (Just the hospital bill cost $12,000 at least) but he still did it without a single complaint. Most hus would or might have ditched me, but mine didn't. :)

During labour, he kept telling me to push Leia out. I guess he was quite excited to see the baby. When Leia had to go into ICU for a couple of hours, he refused to budge and waited in the delivery suite with me till PD had good news for us. A responsible daddy indeed yea?

Of course, our marriage wasn't those cinderella tales whereby the princess meets her prince and yada yada. We fought like crazy, slept in separate rooms, he cried, I cried, we hated each other and the list can go on. We could even go sexless for months (Which isn't healthy for a married couple).

My marriage now? I would say LOADS better. When I was down with my cough for that 1 week, I quarantined myself away from the Yap's as I didn't want both hus and Leia down with the sick bug. So night feeding was solely done by hus himself, which to be honest, made me smile both inside and outside. Just the sight of the two of them makes me melt. Good father-daughter bonding even.

To sum it up - I'm extremely happy now (Yes, we still have that odd bickering) but life did change about through every fight. I would say that when we have our disagreements, things would get better as we would still try our best to compromise each other. To be honest, arguing takes this marriage to another level. I'm not sure how to explain this, but it does. So yes, this Valentine's day, I'm dedicating this post to my dearest (and sometimes hateful) hus - Mr. Yap. I love you dear dear, even though we are pissing each other off, but we are still in this marriage and haven't even use the D word. Proud eh? =D

Peektures of the Yap Family on the lunar new year:

Leia and I:

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY MR YAP AND LEIA. Mummy loves you like crazy. :)

Paris Spring Fishhead Restaurant

T'was Mummy's birthday dinner (Her bdae is actually on the 31st of Jan), but we had to postpone the celebrations seeing that it coincides with the Lunar New Year. So, this year, we had it on the 9th of Feb. We headed to somewhere ultra nearby - Casuarina area - seeing that Leia would be with us and we do not want her wailing down the restaurant down. (Mummies-to-be or already a mummy would understand my plight)

This isn't a bad restaurant. Fully air-conditioned with decent seating arrangements. Of course, it is run by the Chinese china nationality, but the customer service there is very good, I must say. So let's put all prejudice aside. (I'm not sure why I'm writing this, but I'm guessing that some peeps might find it annoying that they are surrounded by PRC's.)

First up - Stir-fry chicken chunks with garlic and spring onions.

Very good stir-fry. Not salty and the chicken is very nicely marinated. Of course, being a fan of onions, I really had my fair share of this on my plate.

Claypot frog leg - My verdict for this. I had better. Especially when you've had Geylang frog leg porridge, this is nothing in comparison to it. So please, if you didn't had frog leg before, go to the one at Geylang.

Sweet and sour red Garoupa - This is way good. Of course, my mum was complaining that we should always order steamed fish when we're eating out as fishes that are steamed are at its freshest. Being noobs at the culinary side, we ordered the sour and spicy version. However, I find it not too bad myself. Spicy yes, but with a tinge of sourness within the gravy. The fish meat didn't have the fishy smell as well, so you know the chef knows his way of handling fishes. So yes, order this dish, but perhaps have it steamed.

Cereal prawns - I don't eat prawns outside as its usually not peeled. No, I'm not acting all princess-y. I just don't like to get my hands dirty when I'm out. At home, I'm the most unglam person ever, with fizzy hair and massive eye bags, but when I'm out, its a different story all together. HAHA!! And puh-lease, I'm sure most girls are like that, (Disclaimer: When I say most, I don't mean ALL) so don't judge me. If you're good with being down and dirty, then go ahead and whack those prawns. :) This time round, I have my hus peeling them for me, so yes, I kinda enjoy these prawns. A little hint in eating these prawns, always add a tiny dash of cereal onto your peeled prawns. I love the crunchiness these cereals have.

Of course, being in a zi-char environment, we ordered hor fun as well, but we whacked most of it before any pictures are taken. 6 dishes with a huge hor fun and 4 bowls of rice, the total bill came up to $168. Pricey? I don't think so. Given the good service (they even gave me a bowl to heat up milk and stuff) and the quality of the seafood, I find this good for a second round. Minus the frog leg of course. :)

Paris Spring Fish head Restaurant is located at:
126 Casuarina Road
Singapore 575914

Lastly, Leia turns 5 months today. SO HAPPY 5TH MONTH-SY LITTLE LADY!! I love you loads. More than you can ever imagine. :) A mother daughter peekture below:

First Culinary

Every year on New Year's day, the Goh family would head out for our annual dinner on the 1st of Jan. This year of course with 2 additionals - Leia and the hus.

So this year was at First culinary, located at ITE College central (Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5). It has its own set lunches or ala carte menu. Knowing my parents, we chose the ala carte style whereby we had 6-7 dishes of food. This aint the best food review as by the time I realised that I needed to take peektures, the dishes was almost cleared.

Steamed grouper, fried chicken, sambal kang kong, braised ribs, fish maw soup and hot plate beancurd. I was quite surprised that the zi char was on standard. Quite a gem in centralised Singapore. This zi char cost us SGD$180++ which most people will go "Holy shit!". But think of it as the beginning of 2014, so this time round, don't think about the money but the company and ambience.

Told you everything was wiped up. HAHA!! Wash these dishes down with a pot of 香片(one of my favourite Chinese tea) and I'm a happy mummy.

Now, the deserts ain't that fantastic. I've eaten better mango pomelo sago before.

 

Trust me, looks are deceiving for this. So I'll say no to the deserts but yes to the food! :)

 

How can I forget pictures with my little lady. So here's a stash of photos:

 

Leia and myself with a bare face. No BB cream was used as I was too exhausted and the thought of removing it makes me gag for that day.

The Goh-Yap family. Loving my little kiddo soooo much. She's the best thing that ever happened to me! :)