Day trip to Malaysia

What is a holiday without stepping out of Singapore? Since we don't have the luxury of time to travel to faraway places such as Korea and Europe, we decided to cross the causeway and enjoy 1 day of pigging at Malaysia:)

First stop for lunch: This place in city square basement selling shabu shabu, I think it's called Arashi Japanese. The steamboat pot may look small, but it is super filling and worth for money! Mine's V.Special Tofu Shabu Shabu. It then dawned on me the "V" stands for "vegan", not "very" :P Feeling adventurous, I went for the spicy milk soup base which turned out to be the best I feel:D It may sound weird, but it actually tastes like laksa or curry. Other food items on the table included beef teppanyaki, herbal soup shabu shabu, tom yum shabu shabu and vegan tom yum shabu shabu. All these amounted to approximately SGD$80, with 5 super full adults. Bet if this is in Singapore it would cost at least a hundred bucks.

V. Special Tofu Set 

Saw this super kawaii corn at one of the shops! It's sooooo cuteeeeee! I had to resist myself from buying it:/

Mr Corn says hi!

A wide array of polaroid cameras with pretty colours^^

Polaroid cameras with pretty colours

For dinner we ate at this soup restaurant called Tang Shi Fu. Apparently it is quite famous in Malaysia with quite a number of franchise branches. Sorry for the bad photography skills but don't be deceived by the photo. The food is really good. Dishes include ginseng chicken soup (which was too bitter for my liking because of the addition of authentic ginseng), some luxurious soup with all the treasures including scallops and fish maw inside, herbal braised duck, pu-er stir fried french beans and drunken chicken. The concept of the shop revolves around rejuvenating the body, thus all their food items are herbal based targetted at benefiting the body. All the food are yummy and we're all happy:P Pu-er stir fried french beans was the most creative dish, for in Singapore we only heard of sambal or garlic stir fried french beans. Integrating tea leaves with veggies added sweetness to the dish, quite a good combination! The herbal braised duck was also worth the try as it was really soft, making me reminisce the good old CNY days when we have braised duck at my ahma's house:) Bill totalled to about SGD$80, which was once again a good deal considering they were all high end tonic food:)

5 tired souls returned back to Singapore, with bags of clothes and cookies. I am really glad to have this one day trip, at least it takes my mind off some stuffs and I just eat all that I want:) Therapeutic day today, be it in terms of spending quality family time or retail therapy or food therapy.

Back in Singapore, back to harsh reality.

Finding the Silver Lining amidst the Black Clouds

To be honest, I was quite unhappy and frustrated over my internship boss. Don't be mistaken, I love the job scope, working environment and I LOVE my fellow comrades. It's just some things which made me have a bad impression of my boss, which I shall not comment further.

Today was the best day of internship so far, TGIF. All 6 of us are finally reunited after days of separation due to undertaking of different projects. The whole day was filled with nonsense. Playing CS during our breaks, and psycho-ing the manly boys to try the Bear Bites burger were just small bites of happiness.

Group selfie with our cute bear burgers

Bear Bites is a Taiwan themed fast food located at the ground floor of Scape. The printed paws on the burger buns made it unique. In addition, you get to choose the flavor of the bun that varies from squid ink to yam to strawberry. They also have different sauces to choose from, including tartare sauce and thai chilli. The fries that came along with the set was also hand-cut. They are similar to Mos burger fries as they are chunky and nicely fried:) Food was awesome, not to mention that the company we enjoyed which was even awesome-er. Good food=happy us :P

I thought the kbox session after work with my fellow comrades is a great end to the frustrating week. But rainbow appears after rainy weather. I received an email informing me that I have clinched the tuition assignment (despite screwing up my interview). Really thankful for such a wonderful Friday. The funny clique, the nice food, the golden opportunity. If not for my army of crazy peeps, I would have quit long ago. Looking forward to 15 more days of craziness with you guys:) Guess I'll really miss their randomness and bromance after this internship:(

Vegan Day: Yixin Vegetarian, The Living Cafe

After hearing much ravings about healthy living and vegan diets, I decided to embark on a vegan diet today and here's my journey...

Started off the morning with a fruity smoothie specially prepared by my "dasao". It was really fast and hassle-free. Just pop mangoes, bananas, a squeeze of lime, ice cubes and a handful of Kale veggies into the blender and it's ready to go. The veggies only added the green coloring to the smoothie, with no taste of it luckily:P So I still find it manageable:D Tip to smoothie lovers who aspire to make their own smoothie: a wide variety of fruits can be thrown into the blender, including apples, dragonfruits, oranges, papaya. But rmb to add in a fruit that is thicker to give a thicker milkshake-like consistency, such as mangoes, bananas and avocadoes:)

PS: she also added in organic raw chocolate nibs for added crunch and chocolate taste:) 

Lunch was at Yixin Vegetarian Restaurant at Chinatown. I was quite doubtful of the taste of vegetarian food initially. But this place changed my mind. They had bak kut teh, assam laksa and hor fun BUT ALL VEGETARIAN. Yes, it was all vegetarian mock meat. Although the texture was quite obvious and there is only a hint of "meat" taste, I have to admit it is really a good attempt. The bak kut teh had a strong herbal taste which was well-liked by my brother. But to me, the best dish was the hor fun, maybe because of the fried beancurd sticks:P They have a wide variety of vegetarian dishes, including vegetarian dumplings and vegetarian "meat" bun. Really impressed by the kaleidoscope of choices provided. 

Following which, dessert was at The Living Cafe. Promoting a relatively new concept of raw vegan living, it is one of the rare few restaurants in Singapore selling raw food. Yes, everything is raw and vegan. This means that the food is not cooked and made fully from vegetarian products. Pasta, burgers, desserts are all raw. That's right! I was quite amazed at this and so decided to give this special diet a go.

2nd Floor selling organic raw products

We tried the lemon pie, chocolate cake and blueberry cheesecake (left to right). The lemon pie was a tad too sour for our liking. The chocolate cake was quite deceiving. One could not differentiate this from a normal baked chocolate cake. It can easily pass off as a chocolate fudge cake because of its fudgy and moist texture. It was topped with dessicated coconut for additional crunch. The best, in our opinion, was the blueberry cheesecake. The base is similar to our digestive biscuits base, just that it is abit more chewy. There is a strong blueberry taste in the top layer and the best thing, no artificial colouring is added:) The cheesecake layer is also light in taste, so making it guiltfree. The best dessert to end a meal because it is not too sinful and yet you feel happy^^

How do they make pastas, burgers, and even cakes without cooking?! How is it possible to make the pie crust without baking?! Mystery solved: they used dates, coconut oil and walnuts and process them in a food processor. Walnuts provide the crunch needed for crust (sometimes dessicated coconut is added too) while dates provide the thick consistency needed to bind the ingredients together.

The Living Cafe has a really interesting fun concept of providing food for those on raw vegan diet. This diet, although considerably new and not widely embraced in Singapore, is really a great concept worth expanding. It is difficult to stick to such a diet for long period of time, but a raw food diet once a week may be worth trying:) This is a new area of interest for me, not that I will embark on this diet, but hopefully I can learn more about it:)

Who says dessert and healthy living does not go together?

Department of Caffeine

Finally got to try DOC with my beloved cafe hoppers, Novi and Cynthia:)

Maybe because we're noobs in directions, so we had a hard time trying to figure out the directions to the place. The layout of the place was quite unexpected. It had little decorations and the seats were quite cramped together. Because of the close proximity between seats, it wasn't a particularly nice ambience as it can get quite noisy at times. Perfect place for chilling with friends, but not so for some alone time.

We ordered the Shepherd's Pie ($15.50), Chicken Fillet Burger ($15), Smoked Salmon Scrambled Toast ($16) and Waffles with Rum Banana ($14) for dessert. The Shepherd's Pie is not the ordinary kind of pie you would expect. It comes in a glass bowl, with unbaked mashed potato sitting atop a thick layer of what tasted like rendang. However looks are deceiving as it was really hearty. I did not hear much comments about the burger, but it looked and tasted normal though. The scrambled toast was awesome as the scrambled eggs were slightly runny and moist and the smoked salmon added a touch of salt to the dish. However the choice of bread was not to my liking as I found it a tad too tough and too thin.

 The highlight of the day: Buttermilk Waffles with Rum Banana. It was really one of the best waffles I've ever eaten. The waffles were thick and fluffy, and had a tint of cinnamon flavor in every bite. The ice cream drenched with maple syrup complemented the waffles perfectly as its sweetness was not too overwhelming, with a touch of maple. Crunchy bits were added to provide a new dimension to the taste. However I found nothing special about the bananas. No rum tasted. Overall it was a sweet happy ending to the meal:)

Mandatory shot with the signboard. One more cafe checked off the list:) Looking forward to exploring more cafes:) Really amazed at how we manage to bond together and talk about anything and everything. I'm really grateful to have these 2 sweet girls in my life, listening to all my rantings and incessant complaints. And of course being trustworthy friends whom I know I can rely on to share my deepest thoughts, troubles and secrets with. Cheers to more cafe hopping adventures ^^