Tim Ho Wan (Singapore)

Warning: Do not read on if it's really late at night and you're hungry! :P

I've recently been to Tim Ho Wan at Toa Payoh with G & my family (: My parents very generously brought my grandparents and my extended family along too for a treat! Toa Payoh is a little more far out for us, but the only reason why we went there was because the queues weren't as insane. We reached at about 3/4pm and there was no queue! That totally wouldn't be the case if we were at Plaza Singapura instead, where the queue almost never ends.

I had a really light lunch (1 roti prata), so I was starving and anticipating this meal a lot! The last time I had Tim Ho Wan was in HK and we queued for hours because finally having a taste of this. Of course the queues there were better because we didn't have to physically stand in line. We could do our own things while waiting. We were pleasantly surprised that this is the first time we didn't have to queue for it at all! :D

Enjoy the food diary and please pardon if the pictures seem substandard because the food kept coming so quickly, and we had really limited space on the table to put everything nicely. We were too eager to sink our teeth into the delectable food anyway! :D

MUST HAVE! The famous famous pork buns of Tim Ho Wan. Please don't ever step out without getting a bite of these!

Another MUST HAVE! Steamed cake that's oh so good! :D

Verdict: I LOVE IT!

Honestly, when we had it in HK, we walked out only with praises for the Pork bun because queuing for hours to try a 1 Michelin starred restaurant, we expected more. Our experience in Singapore was much more pleasant because 1) we didn't have to face the long queues, 2) we dropped our standards and the fact that it's a 1 Michelin starred restaurant. Having expectations kill everything, so, we enjoyed the food as it kept coming and savouring the piping hot dimsum. I think the prices here are slightly higher, but that's to be expected with everything that comes into Singapore. #sadfact

So drop all expectations, and savour every bit of the HK goodness brought here to our homeland! I would really recommend going at odd hours because sitting around queuing for food... I think we've got more precious things on our hands to do!! (:



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Bistro Du Vin

Just a few weeks ago, G & I planned a nice dinner date together during Restaurant Week. We got reminded of the restaurant week quite late this time round, but thankfully, we secured a slot with Bistro Du Vin at Shaw Centre! *yay*

We don't eat out as often these days to well... save more money, so I haven't been checking out as many nice restaurants lately. I have soooo many I want to try now! I shall tick them off my list, slowly but surely! :D 

As usual, a serving of bread first :P

Followed by what seemed like really unique Entrees which we both love! We ordered everything on the menu to share & try because there's two different dishes for each course.

Foie Gras Ravioli with roasted hazelnut & port wine sauce - Personally love this best because it's foie gras! This is really good and I licked the plate clean!!

Stewed Escargots in Red Wine with Fried Egg & Bacon - A unique way of serving up escargots. Very nice as well! 

Pink Tiramisu sounds so good, but alas, we were too full from our three course dinner to fit in any more desserts!

Beef Short Ribs stewed in Beer sauce and served with Celeriac Mash - The rib, was hugeee. It was impressively huge, and the meat is really really soft & tender. It didn't taste like Celeriac at all! I thought it was potato mash but good all the same. Well done for the texture of the meat & letting everything on this dish compliment each other.

Fisherman Chowder - A huge variety of seafood included in this bowl. I took a sip of the soup and fell in love with it! Despite the various seafood that's in this dish, the soup didn't taste fishy at all. It was so good and heartwarming. Just like how Chicken soup always warms the soul. Besides the soup & the fresh seafood, this dish was just alright to me. Delicious and comforting, but not something that I would order out of a menu.

And the highly anticipated end to our dinner, DESSERTS! (:

Floating Island served with candied almond on vanilla sauce - One word: Sweet. Too sweet. I love the interesting texture of the dessert though. It tasted like foam, heh. I think (please excuse my poor baker's knowledge) that it's egg white & sugar beaten together? But I'm not sure how they got it to stand so firmly! Haha. It was nice for the first few mouthfuls but it's way too sweet to finish it up properly.

Baked Pear Tart served with Blue Cheese Ice-cream - Again, this was an interesting dessert and I love restaurants who innovate and play around with their offerings, rather to serve common desserts like Warm Chocolate Lava Cake. I would prefer if they try to reinvent it to become something else like, Earl Grey Lava Cake perhaps? I don't know, that's just me! (: The dessert didn't work, at all. The Blue Cheese tasted too salty. I know cheeses are supposed to be salty, but not in an ice-cream? It's probably supposed to balance the sweetness in a pear tart but... it's almost eating cheese & pear tart :/ 

Aww, I was so hopeful for the desserts following how the Entrees and Main courses were like, but they turned out a tad disappointing :(

I love the cozy ambience of the little French restaurant tucked away in a corner of Orchard. It felt like it brought me away to France just for that couple of hours with G. It was so lovely, and felt like I needed that "little" getaway after being stressed out with work just before dinner.

I can't wait for the next round of Restaurant Week next year! It's a great opportunity for people to go around trying out new restaurants. And of course, sneaking in opportunities for us to go on foodie adventures while dressing up for these fancier restaurants to go out on a date! Teehee.

OOTD: Lace & Ebony Label's Reire Crochet Dress in White

Phuket Trippin Part II

Phuket has her own charm, and I absolutely love the laidback life here. Away from the hustle & bustle of the city life I'm accustomed to. Days 3 & 4 had us exploring more of the island, eating more and lazed around while the car gets us places. We hardly walked! Haha. #severelyinneedofagoodworkout

Here's a compilation of the last set of photos from my lovely birthday vacation.

We chanced upon a weekend market while driving and so glad that we stopped and have a look around. Tried some of the local street food and it was uber cheap & good! Could almost eat more but we were waiting to go for our Mookata dinner so can't fill up so much space with snacks!

The food was made with very simple ingredients, but the combination of flavours and tastes were simply good! Looking back, I wished we had bought more of it and hoping to head back there again someday.

I needed a restroom badly so... we stopped at a nearby tourist attraction, Fantasea. Hahaha. And nope, we weren't one bit interested, but G captured a few interesting photos there!

Onwards to dinner! We had another Mookata place in mind but we took so long just to find it and when we eventually did, it was completely empty. It made us a little skeptical to try. But... we spotted another place just down the street of the initial restaurant, and G had a strong hunch that it's pretty legit since there were a few locals dining there. So I eventually relented and got ourselves a table!

The lady boss speaks Canto, and spoke a little to G. While I completely don't understand their conversation being a non-canto, I smiled and nodded at appropriate times. It was a charcoal mookata and I liked it better that way because it felt more authentic, and there was fresh produce on a buffet table for us to take.

The chilli sauces were DA BOMBZ. I loved it!

Everything was fresh, well marinated, and so so yummy. We ate our fills that night, and went back smelling of BBQ. No regrets there! They also had homemade chocolate ice-cream which was just what we needed to end off the night of feasting. I'd definitely want to head there again if we go back to Phuket. On my Must-Go list for sure!!

I was really sad that our Phuket trip came and went by so fast. I'd usually get quite emotional on the last night, and made sure we cherished every single & last moments on the wonderful island. Packed our luggages, and checked out from our villa. Loaded the bags into our car and went off and about on our last day :(

G wanted to do a little adventurous driving on the last day and we ended up exploring the south again. It was a good & sunny day, and we spotted a jetty, so we parked and set off to take some photos!

Someone's attempting a #selfie

Hehehe, yes we did a little mini photoshoot there! I love this picture of G! :D 

Watched some locals catching some fish & scrapping for barnacles or shellfishes? I'm not too sure!

We headed for some brunch at a place near Phuket Town called The Gallery. Such cafes/restaurants are up & coming, so cool that they are catching on there!

We ordered 3 brunch dishes to share between ourselves, so can you imagine how stuffed we were after that? Hahaha, goodness, we really are greedy people! I'm very thankful that they kept the prices reasonably low and though the plating and presentation wasn't fantastic, the food was surprisingly good.

After a hearty brunch, it was a much-needed massage, and time to scoot off to the airport. It was a fantastic & timely holiday because I was feeling the burnout from work.

I'm extremely blessed to have G, the love of my life, and how he takes care of me in his own little ways. He doesn't do it extravagantly, nor lavishly. He does it in ways that I really need, and that's enough for me. Thank you for a great birthday trip! I think it's catching on now... Scooting off for our birthdays are slowly becoming the greatest gifts we can ever give each other! <3