Wong Chiew Eating House

I was fetching hus from HIS IPT a few weeks back and that's when I drove pass this 24 hour roasted joint. You read it right - 24 hours! So all clubbers/late night supperians who wants a different form of foodie (I.e. not in the form of roti prata, bak chor mee or nasi lemak) can head down for roast duck rice, wanton noodles and the likes.

Tucked away at Sembawang road (Thong Bee road), it can be easily found as its by the roadside. Parking wise, well, I parked at where the landed properties are. :|

We reached at 1030 and look at the amount of ducks and chickens that are still left. Anyway, they served dim sum as well. So its more like a hong kong roasted joint.

I'll skip all formalities and start on my critic - The duck rice (left) wasn't appealing. Full of bones and not much meat within. Although served with a hearty portion of rice, we are here to have duck rice, not just rice. I had the char siew rice (right) which was full of fats. I know guys love their fats, but for girls who are particular about their weight and love MOST (not all) of their meat fat-free, then this isn't the place to go.

I was actually very disappointed with the food as I thought hus and I discovered a new hideout where we can add to the list of eateries.

What perked me up was the dim sum - TOTALLY WORTH IT! Yes, you heard me right.

We had chee cheong fun and the xiao long bao. I didn't take pictures of the chee cheong fun because it didn't last long. HAHA!! I had like 3/4 in my belly till I realised about the photo taking. Even the xiao long bao didn't last long too. Hus was busily devouring those mini dumplings until I had to stop him for photo taking sake

So all you see is one dumpling left. Their chee choeng fun is served thinly which is how the hong kong styled chee cheong fun is served which is what makes me loved them. I don't abhor, but if given a choice between thinly sliced chee cheong fun or those thick sliced ones in sweet sauce from the markets, I'm all for the thinly sliced serving. Maybe because I'm used to cantonese style cooking (My popo is a cantonese) hence when it comes to soup and stuff, my grandma has the touch. :)

In a nutshell, I would go back to Wong Chiew for their dim sum (highly recommended by Evette) but not for their roasted delights.

What about you guys? :)

Tribute to Miss Schoonbeck

It was only on Saturday that I found out my ex-principal is Dutch. She passed away and oh boy, the first thing that came to my mind was - I'll never forget how bad she reprimanded me for cheating on an exam. I was telling my hus about it as it floated pass my memory. I think I was in primary 4-5 whereby a friend and I exchanged papers when the teacher was BEHIND us. HAHA!! Stupid right, I know.

So naturally, we got called down and she was shocked to find that the person she was meeting was me. Why? Because I had an older sister who was a role model - Prefect, good in maths and of course, she was chosen to be the leader in the primary 5 buddy system. What did that left me? To follow in her footsteps of course. So imagine, her shock when she finds the younger one cheating.

With all that said and done, I hated my childhood (Not because of my friends, please don't get me wrong, I loved my friends from MCS) because lots of teachers started comparing. I remember Mrs. Chin who went "Your sister is Emma right? So your maths should be excellent. What happened?" Or sometimes she'll go Äsk Emma to tutor you" I'm not gonna bring in the middle child syndrome concept. But this is one of the reasons why the max number of children I'm gonna have is 2.

Anyway, to run a school full of convent girls isn't easy. I'm sure Ms. Schoonbeck has her hard times as well. Girls are naturally chatty, and as we are from a convent school where boys were a taboo back then (and maybe now), I wonder how tough her job must be.

I wonder what it'll be like if I bring Leia down when she was still alive and showing her my daughter. I think she'll be quite pleased. My mother was still in touch with her even though all 3 of us are out of MCS (Another name for it was when loads of people started calling us ""Grid paper uniform") so I wonder what it would be like for Ms. Schoonbeck to see Leia.

I bet its like how my family doctor whom I have been going since 1988, when I brought Leia for her jab. Dr Yee was all "Wow.. I heard from your grandma, another generation" And even though Leia's consultation was over and all I had to do was collect the medication, Dr Yee went out with me to sit and played with Leia until her next appointment came in. My daughter is really the limelight within our circle. Even Eugene threw his computer game aside just to carry her.

Anywho, digressing abit. But yea, I really hope Ms Schoonbeck goes on happily. Memories oh memories, never ending memories of MCS floods through my mind now.

Whenever it rains or whenever I see NS boys on board the trains, I''ll always think about you. What would your future be like? Maybe every Sunday when I go over, you'll tell me your plans in SMU. You're a smart boy, do you know that? You are academically smart and street-smart. 20 years old is too young to die. Until, your brother told me that you almost have been suffering half your lifetime, so if this makes you happy, then I hope you're happy too.

But also, YOU DO KNOW THAT YOU'RE GONNA GET HELL FROM ME WHEN I'M MEETING YOU 50 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD RIGHT? I might cry first though, when we meet, you'll prolly act all shy and say stuff like Äiyah... See, this place so nice" but I'm still gonna scold you then give a sisterly hug. Oh boy, how I missed you.

Chin yong, you used to laugh at me for attempting suicide and yet, you still chose this path. Anywho, I really hope the place you're living in has loads of watercress soup for you. HAHAHA!!! It's going to be a year since I've become Mrs. Yap. A year since you've helped out at my wedding. I will remember you going to the food tasting as well. How your brother was so shy to meet my parents. Sighs. Don't you know that I'll gladly go to your food tasting as well? What about the girl you've had a crush on for 6 years? I've seen her and she was crying soooo badly that I have a feeling she likes you too.

She even came to send you off. I know, because I saw her cry on the day you were cremated. Sometimes, I hate you. I hate you to put me through such grief. But I gotta thank you instead. Because now, I know how my parents and friends felt, the pain I put them through if I ever succeeded. And yes, that grief would be torturous. A 20 year old taught a 27 year old about grieving and loss. I should be ashamed of myself shouldn't I?

I'm going to bring Leia to see you on the 6th of April. I know, its a weird occasion and I should be out celebrating with your brother our anniversary. But I guess, I would like to spend it with both the Mr. Yap's. I really, truly miss you bro! I'll make sure you know this.

P.S. I know its not your style, but my friend wants me to tell you to haunt that bloody arsehole if you have the time. :) Give him hell, would you? HAHA!!

BB Cream or CC Cream

I'm NEVER the make-up guru. In fact, I believe most of my friends have been using make up for eons (Not that that's an issue). But I only started when I was pregnant which makes it like last year. -_______-

Reason being on why I started applying make-up - I didn't want to be a fat/ lumpy/ full of stretch marks or cellulite mummy. I know these changes are normal during pregnancy. But I'm still the vain old me. In all defence, to remain slim, I'VE NEVER EVER STARVED MYSELF WHEN I WAS PREGNANT. I know I had to eat so I ate whatever I can. However, whatever I ate, I started puking. So it's not that I abstained from food. More like the other way round. Was telling my gf the other week - Want to slim down = get pregnant. If you ever had my morning sickness, you'll slim down damn fast. :|

So yes, because of hormonal changes and stuff, I told myself to stop being lazy and get my arse moving by beautifying myself. My dark circles are horrendous! But I didn't like those thick make-up's as I hated the cakey feeling on the face, thus, I've only stuck to the basics - BB cream, concealer and powder. PERIOD!

So whatever pictures/selfie in this blog, is my somewhat natural face. I think pregnancy made me a little fatter, which makes me look good. I was just casually commenting to no-one in particular that I'm getting chubby cheeks which suited me well in pictures and apparently, hus was eavesdropping and he said "Because you're gaining weight in the right way. Last time you looked like Voldemort, now you look like a human" I guess he is somewhat right, I was as thin as a pole (which reminds me what one of hus friend said before - He was asking if I even reached 40kg), but now after the birth which allows a little weight gain, I kinda like my chubby cheeks, makes me looks nice in photos.

Okay, but enough of the narcissistic nonsense. I want to know which is better - BB Cream or CC cream. My mil uses the CC cream when Rachel Kum first spearheaded it, but I heard from some reviews that the CC cream (be it RK's or Chanel), has very sheer coverage. As much as I would like to admit that my complexion has always been on the good side, but my dark eye rings are REALLY REALLY HORRENDOUS, I can't afford a sheer coverage on my eyes.

Hence, the dilemma. CC cream is supposed to be the evolution of the BB cream so it should be better in terms of results. But now, I'm hearing that all the CC cream does is corrects the colour (or I have no idea what it does) and thus only has mild coverage. @_@!

Can someone please enlighten this poor soul on what I should get? I've been googling for some reviews, but so far NONE! And all I got from this googling was a foot spray from The Skin Food. HAHA!! Apparently, my fingers started clicking onto various websites and decided to get the green tea foot spray. :|

HELP ME PEOPLE! I appreciate it a million.

Pictures of me and my little lady:

And a close up: 

Loving her to bits! I've never known that I can love someone so much that your heart breaks when anything (Be it big or small) happens to her.

Starting to rain, with such lovely weather, how I wish I can be in bed right now.

Leia's milk powder is going to be delivered any day soon. Very pleased with myself. Was telling hus the other day (since we agreed that his money would be used to support Leia 101% financially), that as much as he must spend lots of money on her, at least I'm getting cheaper deals. Never can I find a 1.3kg tin of milk powder that would cost be $63 in NTUC/sheng shiong whatsoever.

Anywho, Leia was regurgitating milk the other day and she got in on my kelly. URGH!!! But of course, I didn't throw my temper at her. How can I when she is just a baby and she doesn't know anything yet. Quickly wiped off the leather with a wet wipe as I don't want the smell of milk curds on the strap. :|

My sunday was well-spent. A food tasting with my muffin (HAHA!! Sounds wrong, I know) and finally gotten down to Musee to sign up for the IPL package (which I will blog at a later date).

And then after, shuyu came down to look at Leia and my dad drove us to her place, whereby she was spoilt by shuyu's mum! HAHA!! But I'm very appreciative of the little gestures that her mum provided for me. She carried Leia and when she sat down with Leia, immediately told Shuyu to take a picture. LOL!! Grandparents will really be grandparents. When Leia started wailing, Shuyu's mum was all "Its been a long while since I heard a baby cry. SHUANG!" HAHAHA!!! I was telling Shuyu, the moment she marries and have a child, her daughter/son will definitely be the queen or king.

Back home, when Leia cries soooo hard, my parents will DEMAND that I wipe her tears away. When I fell down the stairs with her, my mum immediately went up, carried her away from me and shush her (which is normal, and I'm okay with that as I was still in a state of shock). Only my hus came and asked if I was hurt. Love him for that! So, looks like my shotgun marriage came out with something good. I was telling my mum "Just now I gently hit her for screaming". She was telling me "You were like that once upon a time, so what makes you think you're an angel"

I kept quiet as she has a point. But I also have a parenting point to Leia as well and that is, I gotta teach her not to scream/wail unnecessarily. Oh well. I just hope I can be a good mother. As much as Leia can frustrate me, I must tell myself that bringing up a child requires lots of patience.

On a side note, my aunty get-up on Thursday:

Leia's disastrous cereal meal

Not to sure how many mummies will experience this, but I was reading parenting magazines and loads of mummies have talked about how fun and exciting it is to feed your kiddo his/her first semi-solid food. I was waiting till Leia is 6 months old and would be feeding her first cereal bowl and looking at her giggly face and tasting her first morsel of cereal, which looks like this:

Kinda looks like a slab of paint. HAHAHA!!!

Anyway, I was very much excited but to my horror, this didn't go as planned. Leia started screaming at the top of her lungs, and she is still learning the art of swallowing so all the cereal started flowing out of her mouth etc. I know some mummies have said to sit Leia upright, but my daughter hasn't started sitting (Can't wait for that day to come), so we had to put her on the bouncinette.

See how distracted she is and look at all the cereal flowing out. Sheesshh!! Its enough to drive me crazy and scooping cereal back into the mouth. And when she felt me downing her with cereal, she just wails and wails. :|

Only when we fed her with a little bit of milk, did she stop screaming and started being good with cereal. GOODNESS!! My daughter's first experience with semi-solid food? NOT A NICE AFFAIR AFTER ALL. I wonder how the mummies in parenting magazines and even Xiaxue herself could deal with babies who actually enjoyed their food. ENVIOUS MAX!

Food all over her mouth as she couldn't coordinate her swallowing. After much attempt, I finally got a fairly satisfied baby with lots of cereal around the mouth. -______________-

Despite her driving me mad, I still love her to bits!! HAHAHA!!! Any mummies care to give me tips on feeding?? :)

High Society

On Valentine's day, I booked a table for 2 for hus and I at High Society at Marina Bay Sands. Most of you guys would have been/heard of it before. Opened by That CD Shop, high society has very good western delights for all foodies.

An extremely nice chandelier in the middle of the restaurant. Love the setting. We were just lucky to beat the crowd so it was like having the whole restaurant to ourselves. Twas started our first ever Valentine's day dinner. I don't expect the whole big bang of the event itself, but last year was a very crap year (in terms of being pregnant and NOT enjoying it at all) so at least this year hus and I have something between us.

First up - Foie Gras with a slice of steam pear! Of ALL the dishes, I enjoyed this the most.

Not the first time I had foie gras, but the first time I've had foie gras grilled to perfection! Not tough and tender enough to melt inside your mouth. With that slice of pear to down it with, oh man, this foie gras is TO-DIE-FOR!! :) Mind you, my hus loved the foie gras as well!

Next - Prawns sauteed in sweet sauce. I have no idea what this sauce is, but it goes well with the prawns. Yes, you guys gotta find out what this sauce is. Sauteed with a little garlic (which suits me just fine), the prawns caught me off guard as I thought it was "just prawns".

Onion Soup - A typical french soup. Nothing special about this soup, in fact, it tasted more like MSG for me. But here's a pic of it:

Moving onto the mains - I had the seafood laksa spaghetti, which my hus predicted that I'll take it. HAHA!! No surprise there. My verdict - I had better. In fact, just in the heart of compass point, I've eaten at Olio's and the laksa spaghetti was superb! This spag at High Society? Too spicy for my liking. Yes, I know most of you guys would go "But laksa is spicy!" I know laksa is spicy but this is spaghetti, so it should be semi-spicy because of the cream base.

Hus had salmon served with a dollop of whip potato. His salmon was way way better than the laksa spaghetti! Even the mash was done nicely. I really regretted my choice by taking the spaghetti and not the salmon!

Ending off with desserts! Both of us had cupcakes. I was apprehensive about the desserts as I didn't expect High Society to be good with desserts, but I was proven wrong. Hus and I had a cupcake each and I totally adored it! I had the dark chocolate cupcake while hus stuck with the classic vanilla:

TOTALLY FELL FOR THE CUPCAKES PLEASE!! HAHA!!

And of course, how can we not do wine on this special occasion! So we had a bottle of white between us and sadly, I didn't know my hus detest white wine, so we didn't finish it. But it was nice enjoying the much needed wine to unwind.

My date for the day:

Got that shirt for hus as his V day gift! Hope he loved it as its in his favourite blue colour. Hus and I both thought that High Society wouldn't keep us full, and he was expecting a second round of dinner, but no, we were both stuffed with food. Even he was surprised. 

My verdict? High society has both good dishes and desserts! So yes, I was taken by surprise as well.

High Society is located at:

Marina Bay Sands

The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands basement 1

Very blessed and thankful indeed

I know I'm supposed to do a food review, but decided to do an appreciative post instead. :)

I'm thankful to lots of people - My parents who have helped me with Leia, some of husband's friends, Jason and of course my sisters as well. So how do I start? Well, Leia was conceived out of love, but also from a shotgun marriage which we decided to keep her. Naturally, hus would be concerned about bills and such.

Thankfully, we didn't have to pay for quite a number of stuff.

No. 1 - The heavy consumption of diapers. Babies use loads of diapers. Hus friend, Aaron supplied us with truckloads of diapers. He sent a whole van over with cartons of them:

My hus is the one in white going out to receive the cartons of diapers.

Stacks and stacks of cartons of these diapers ranging from size S-L. If you ask me, its almost Leia's lifetime supply of diapers because for a human, we prolly use diapers till we are 4 or 4.5 years old. I'm very thankful to Aaron indeed. By supplying us these diapers, we have saved up loads. Not to mention, we gave some away as the porch couldn't hold them for long. I'm sure those mummies and daddies are thankful to Aaron as well. :)

No 2 - Books and toys. My older sister, Emma, has an affection for books. Being a professional in the English language, I'm guessing she couldn't let her niece do without books. HAHA!! Mummies out there would know how much these would cost and hard cover books don't come cheap! Walk around united square and you'll know.

So yes, I'm very thankful for these books and of course the cuddly bear that Leia inherited from her "Yi-ma" for Christmas! HAHA!! Gonna ask Leia to keep that Jack Frost book as its a limited edition. The author signed it himself. He has signed only 1000 copies and Leia has copy 729:

I don't own books like that. Mine was all borrowing from the library and never had I ever had books signed by the author. SO LEIA, KEEP THIS BOOK PLEASE!! If you ever wanna sell it when the author dies, at least you know it can fetch a high price in future.

Lastly, milk powder! I know most mummies might go "HUH?? MILK POWDERS FROM NTUC ALSO MUST THANK. YOU SIAO AH?" First of all, Leia's milk powder isn't from NTUC. Its all overseas import from Indonesia. The Indonesian government heavily subsidies most milk, that's why a tin cost SGD$38.00. A box would cost SGD$18.00. Before you launch into the topic of whether its safe or not, I'm Leia's mummy and never would I harm my daughter. It's manufactured in Thailand but QC-ed by America. Leia has taken 5-6 tins by now and yes, if you must know, my daughter is still living, thank you very much.

So yes, THANK YOU JASON FOR BRINGING IN THESE MILK TINS FOR ME. All I gotta do is Whatsapp him and he'll ask his staff for me. Very thankful to Jade and her hus, Jason! :)

Its all in bahasa Indonesia, but my dad understands Malay (I'm born into a peranakan family, that's why), so now you know why I know its QC-ed in the US of A. HAHA!!

Once again, I feel very blessed and thankful that these people are giving Leia lots of things. Even my mum and dad for bringing Leia to her monthly injections and of course, looking after their darling grand-daughter. :) THANKS A MILLION!

Disclaimer: I'm not writing this post to show off that I'm getting much support, I'm writing to THANK these people. Without them going all out and showering my daughter with gifts/love, Leia would be a grouchy pie all year round. HAHA!!

I feel blessed for the people around me. :)

Now that I'm a mummy, I know lots of people will be thinking "Sheesh! Another lady who has to forgo all the late nights, drinking sessions etc" But no, I'm not like that. But of course, before anyone judges me, I don't leave Leia to die/go hungry etc as well. I'll make sure she is in good hands (either my parents or my in laws) before I partay the night away.

So yesterday was like one of those nights. After dinner at Thai Village Sharksfin restaurant (Located at Goodwood park hotel), Grace and I went to V6. Okay, it has been a while since I went to a thai pub. My days at Titanium and neverland were over, but decided to give it a go at V6.

Hate the govt for increasing liqour pricing! URGH!! But anywho, we still got a martell between the 3 of us (Andre, Grace's friend turned up as well - Very amusing guy!)

First time playing this new card game (Gonna try it with my hus soon) and met Grace's kaki's as time pass and more people came into the pub. I gotta admit, I'm almost losing touch with the thai pub scene. It really has been awhile. And of course, lots of hum sup lous were there to give out flowers to all the pretty ladies on stage. THEIR FIGURE IS LIKE DAMN GOOD LA!!!!

Now for fatty pictures of me:

Okay, I know lots of reader's gonna say how fat my arm looks. Don't remind me pleaseeee. :|

And yes, confession time - I really miss my late nights out when I was single and mingling. But now with a baby in tow, its not easy. However, I gotta thank my lucky stars that I got help at home which is why I can afford the drinking sessions late into the night. Downside, I can't get myself piss drunk and be all hangover-ish as I got a baby to care for, I gotta leave pubs early (I left V6 around 130am) and I got to not reek of alcohol in front of Leia. But yes, other than that, I'm still the partay girl within me.


This also, DOES NOT MEAN that I'm leaving my baby to die. I'm just trying to point out for mummies who have help within the family, that life can be balanced this way too. Of course, other sacrifices have to be made (like myself) by coming home early and what nots, but still a life is better than none. I'm sure most mummies can agree to this. HA!

Up next, another foodie review.