Tsukada Nojo (collagen hotpot)

Pat says

This is the second time that I been to Tsukada Nojo at Plaza Singapura. The first time they opened at PS, I was fascinated at the woody and Japanese style decoration of the place and also what it had to offer i.e Bijin Nabe (collagen hotpot). It is something that I have never tasted before and seems good for face! Note: this hotpot was only offered for dinner. I learnt it the hard way by going there for lunch to ask for it.

They don't take reservations so you have to go down to put your name in a book and they will call you when there is a table available. It is best to try queuing for it during the weekday due to the smaller crowd.

The Bijin Nabe comes with a pot of jelly collagen chicken broth with pieces of chicken in it and a separate plate with prawns, associated vegetables, mushrooms and chicken plus a plate of noodles.

The collagen broth takes awhile to get heated up before the staff will take a bit of the soup and one piece of chicken out to let you try. The soup was very rich with thick sweet chicken broth taste. It is good to have it warm as if it is cold there will be a layer of sticky stuff on top.

Subsequently, the staff will neatly place all the food stuff except the prawns into the pot. For the chicken in the bamboo tube, the staff will proportion several meat balls out of it straight into the pot. All you have to do is wait for the food to be cooked! A simple yet nutritious dish.

I find that it will be good to not to eat the soup for too long as it might get a bit salty after it has been boiled for very long.

The noodles is a good addition but it is good to order it earlier (usually they will serve it after you are done with the food stuff) so that there is time for it to soak up the soup. Especially if you want to eat the noodles together with the other ingredients.

Lastly, we tried their sweet potato with ice cream. There is a very generous portion of sweet potatoes and I love the combination taste of both. It would be awesome when the sweet potato is super hot together with the cold ice cream to top it off!

My second visit was better then the first visit so I'm definitely going back here to enjoy it again! =)

Address: 68 Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura #03-81

Batter Fluffy Flaps

Pat says

Hidden somewhere in Katong area, I chance upon this small cozy cafe which serve pancakes! I have a soft spot for pancakes so I was glad that I could find something like this in Singapore. Tried their sweet pancakes before with my friends and I enjoyed it very much. As I had my pancake craving again today so I brought Key here!

I loved their cute sheep logo for the cafe! The cafe is brightly decorated with cute decorations. We order their BFF special for $42.80 as it seems to be a cheaper deal compared to ordering ala carte. We could chose 2 mains, 1 side and 2 drinks.

 

Arizona peach tea ($3.90)

Chocolate & Banana Milkshake ($5.80) - loved it! super thick milkshake. Full of chocolate and banana goodness!

Create your own ($14.90) - Blueberries pancake, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana, walnut, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

I loved their blueberries pancakes and it comes generous amount of toppings!

Honey Baked Wings ($8.50)

I felt that this was more of baked wings and topped with honey. It would have been better if they had marinated the wings with honey.

Sunset Grill ($14.90)

The fish appears to be not very cooked at first but it was still edible. I find that the pairing of fish and pancakes was a bit weird though. Perhaps pancakes should still be prepared as a sweet food than a savory food.

Overall, I would still come back here to eat their "Create your own" pancake for deserts! =)

Website: http://www.bffpancakes.com/
Address: 89 East Coast Road S(428790)
Opening Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 11am to 10pm
Friday: 11am to 11pm
Saturday: 9am to 11pm
Sunday: 9am to 10pm

Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant

Key says

Had arranged for a quick dim sum lunch with Tai, Cherlyn, Wilson and Amy after our honeymoon - to take back some of our stuff and just to have good food. Eventually we settled for Wah Lok @ Carlton and afraid that there might be a queue, I went there to get us a seat. Overall the dim sum over there is not too bad and definitely enjoy the lunch and company.

Pat says

I have always heard of Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant and I finally had a chance to eat here during the Hari Raya Haji public holiday. Lunch was served from 11am to 2.30pm. Key reached the place at 1pm and got a seat 5 minutes later even though there was a queue! =)

Overall, I had a great dim sum experience. Service was good and the food usually arrive hot. After going to a few dim sum outlets like Tim Ho Wan, Red Star and 126. I believe that I would still want to come back here to try the rest of the dim sum that I have not tried.

Some pictures and short personal reviews of the food we ate that day:

Steam Carrot Cake
Pat: Tasted weird and not appetizing. Not recommended to try.

Xiao Long Pau
Pat: Decent. The skin was not very thick and the soup was nice. We had second servings!

Century Egg Porridge
Pat: Nothing very fantastic. 

Custard and Egg Yolk Pau
Pat: A very nice version of it. There were sufficient filling to finish the whole thing up! Be careful to try it when they just serve the pau. The fillings was still very hot and I burnt my tongue when I took a big bite into it.

Char Siew Pastry
Pat: I felt that this was abit dry and tasted below normal. 

Deep fried yam rolls
Pat: Awesome! Being a person that does not fancy deep fried stuff, I was worried that it will be too oily. This yam rolls were not oily and I love the yam mixture inside. I had second servings of this! 

Har Gow
Pat: Just normal. Can try once to satisfy your Har Gow craving during your dim sum meal.

Po Lo Bao
Pat: Super disappointed. It had a weird texture to it as it was soft inside and tasted like bread to me. Don't think I will order this again.

Prawn Chee Cheong Fun
Pat: Decent! I love the texture of the chee cheong fun and the prawns was juicy and succulent.

Siew Mai
Pat: Similar to the Har Gow, I find it to be just normal. Again, can try once to satisfy your Siew Mai craving.






Website: http://www.carltonhotel.sg/wahlok.html
Address: Level 2, Carlton Hotel, 76 Bras Basah Road
Opening Hours:
Monday to Saturday
Lunch - 11.30am to 2.30pm
Dinner - 6.30pm to 10.30pm
Sundays and Public Holidays
Lunch - 11am to 2.30pm
Dinner - 6.30pm to 10.30pm

F.M.B.P 2013

Key says

The abbreviation of the title stands for Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Paris. Basically these are the places that Pat and I went for our "honeymoon" trip. Reason for the "quotes" is because for Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin, it was a trip with a BIG group of people while Paris is really our personal trip. Nevertheless, I would still consider the whole trip as our "honeymoon" trip since we spent almost 3 weeks in Europe.

The advantages of traveling in a big group is the company that you have, the jokes or bloopers that happened and all these form part of your memories. However the disadvantage is the time it take for consensus to be reached. Lucky for us, we have assigned an in-charge for each day and forming of meal groups have been fast so overall, there isn't much of an inconvenience.

Our first stop is at Frankfurt, where we visited the Schloss Johannisberg riesling vineyards and the Residenz. At Munich, we visited the BMW museum, Olympic Stadium, Dachau Concentration Camp, Oktoberfest, Neuschwanstein and Salzburg. At Berlin, we went for the free Berlin Walking Tour; shopping and spend the rest of the time at Berlin Salsa Congress (for those who guessed it, yes this is the main reason why we had our trip).

After the congress, Pat and I immediately flew to Paris. The stupid thing over here is the wrong information provided by the hotel receptionist, resulting in us reaching the (Berlin) airport SUPER EARLY! We had to rest at the airport and wait for the counter to open, but it's quite an experience. At Paris, we visited the Lourve, Moulin Rouge, Eiffel Tower, Paris Walking Tour, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame, Arc De Triomphe, Musee d'Orsay, Seine River, Basilique du Sacre-Cowe and Musee de l'Orangerie! Food wise, it had been fabulous and for anyone going to Paris, you might want to consider Train Bleu (Le), L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Le Petit Chatelet and Eurl Bistrot Au Bougnat for meals!

Seriously there are some much to write, photos to post that I really do not know how to express it in one blog post. One thing however is certain and that is I really enjoyed the trip and it is truly an unforgettable experience. The only downside is the big hole in the pocket...

Pat says

Finally as our wedding ended, it comes to our "honeymoon". We had a three weeks holiday to Germany and France with our friends. It was an awesome experience with lots of fun, laughter, joy, culture and great food! There were some who asked me why my "honeymoon" got so many people also, however I never regretted going on a "honeymoon" trip with a big group of friends. We could experience new stuff that we never thought of, try more food in one meal and would never really run out of topic to talk about! It is safer to travel in a group too! =D

My unforgettable experience was understanding the history of Germany and looking at real life memorials and palaces. I would never have thought about going to Germany before as I was never really interested in it or I thought there were never much to it. However, this trip was an eye opener with trips to Dachau Concentration Camp, Neuschwanstein and Salzburg, plus the free Berlin Walking Tour where historical memorials appears before my eyes with illustration. The Germans were friendly and I felt comfortable travelling around. I would love to go back Germany and learn more about the rich history of the place.

Paris has been a "must go" place for honeymoons. Since we loved European Art so much, we had to include it in our trip! We allocated 5 days for Paris as we wanted to complete as much museums as we could and made sure we had enough time to at least visit some iconic places and of course to enjoy The Louvre. I love Paris for its lovely classical buildings and the rich culture and art behind it. The paintings in the museums showed objects and people that looked very realistic.

There is also a free Paris Walking Tour and I realized how connected Paris and Germany can be! I'm in love with walking tours now. I have never liked to read history but to hear stories and looking at real life architectures is my style of learning history! Food wise, it can be costly due to the high standards of living. I would recommend a trip to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at least once to try their awesome menu. 

It had been an amazing, awesome and unforgettable trip to celebrate our marriage.

Aftermath...

Key says

The wedding is finally over and I am glad that things went smoothly! In fact, once again we have been blessed - there was no rain for the time that we are running around or in the open (yes it drizzled a tiny bit but no major hinderance to the day) - or perhaps a big thanks to the power of "chill and onion"! It was a tiring yet joyful day and I hope the guests enjoyed the wedding as much as we do. 

Following the end of the wedding, there will be lots and lots of updates. In fact, Facebook has been very active for the past 2 days with all the uploads, likes and comments. There will definitely be more to come when we have collected all the photos from our designated photographer - One Eye Click and we would also update the page in this blog. If anyone is a bit annoyed by the updates, our humble apologies.

Once again, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to the groomsmen and bridesmaids who have helped us for our wedding. Personally from me, especially the groomsmen, who have helped in the gate-crashing and have suffered a stomach upset because of it. Thank you all!

Pat says

I just want to say a BIG thank you to EVERYONE (ie. family, bridesmaid, groomsmen, guest, videographer, photographer, banquet coordinators etc) for making this wedding a success! We present you a happy and married couple!

Mostly I want to thank Key for being there for me. I know there are times when I felt like giving up and giving tantrum with all our plannings and make do with just a usual usual wedding. But you had always gave me the encouragement and assisted with the wedding preparations. I feel very blessed to have met you and am very honored to be marrying you. ^^

In summary, we had a morning gate crashing, tea ceremony, lunch solemnization, evening tea ceremony and banquet dinner. As you can see, we and our helpers did not have much time to rest between the events. At first it all started from a vision that everything should happen on the same day. After doing the timetable, I was having doubts if everything can happen on the same day. But in the end, everything did happen on the same day! and I was happy and glad that it could be and was done perfectly! =)

To be honest, I keep reflecting on whether I felt that I was married or whether do I feel different as a married person during the different time of the day. I only had this one chance to experience it, so every minute and second is impt! Furthermore, I can totally understand and relate to people who usually comments that your wedding day would be over in a flash. The first time I felt something was really happening to me was when I was walking into my solemnization area with my dad holding my hand and the song "Finally" by Fergie was playing as my march in song. The one moment that I can totally relaxed and start enjoyed myself was when I was standing on the stage and "yum saying". It suddenly dawn into me that this was really a success. I highly suspect it was because my wedding day is ending and also I was in front of my dear friends and family and they are congratulating me and my husband.

Will be updating my live thoughts in a page specialized for our wedding (still in progress!~).

In the meantime for those future bride and groom, do consider My Dream Wedding, The White Rabbit, Four Seasons Hotel, A Little Dream, One Eye Click, Cream Photography and My Wedding Car for your wedding! 

One Step Back, Countless Steps Forward

Key says

Since young, the thing I longed for and dreamt of is a tender, loving, caring, supportive and happy family. Perhaps this has got to do with the fact that I was never brought up by my parents and all these elements were missing from my childhood, hence I craved for something which I have never had. In just a few hours more, I'll be welcoming one of the most important milestones in my life - marriage and soon I will have my own family, and hopefully, I can build my own tender, loving, caring, supportive and happy family.

As I sat waiting, I wonder what all the soon-to-be brides and grooms are feeling when they were in my shoes right now, i.e. waiting for the moment to arrive. Do they feel nervous, anxious, excited, worried, paranoid or perhaps nothing at all? Personally, I just hope everything well turn out well. People might say that I'm worrying too much (especially those who followed our blog) since we started planning for our wedding very much in advance, but the fact is that there are some components in our wedding which till this very moment does not seem to be 100% ready. As Pat and I are (i) perfectionist and (ii) someone who prefer to have things finalised in advance, having this uncertainty certainly puts a stress on us mentally (and perhaps very much on Pat), especially over the last few months.

Adding fuel to flame, there is still the matter of turnout which I have shared earlier in my post. Somehow, I just have this strong feeling that there would be issues of attendance (especially so for my relatives side) and there were really unforeseen circumstance resulting in last minute absences (with regards). Some are really unfortunate and uncontrollable and I'm not blaming them, but it's just that there is this imperfection in the planning which bothers me and I really wonder if I have made the right choice (at the start) to keep the banquet small? But there's nothing I can do now and the wedding is just hours away and all I can is hope for the best.

As I look back on the 998 days since we have decided to embark on the journey as a couple together, it is indeed an amazing journey, and rather an unbelievable one. From acquaintance to friends to lovers - never do I imagine I would one day cross the line from friend to lover as friendship is an important aspect in my life. Nonetheless, the journey together have been sweet, beautiful and memorable. There are moments where we get into disputes but most of the times, it had been good. Now on this 999 days together, we will be making commitments to each other, vowing to be together for better, for worse, for richer,  for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. Looking forward to the many days ahead of us.

PS: I love you, Patricia.

It's Getting Real...

Key says

It's less than 3 weeks to the actual wedding. Though we have started preparing for the wedding perhaps more than a year ago, it has never seem so real till now. Also, though we have engaged the necessary parties, e.g. photography, videographer, wedding singer, rental car and banquet venue etc, somehow I keep having the feeling that something has not been covered. Adding to that is I am also worried about the turnout of the guest. We have tried our best to give advance notice to our friends and relatives, somehow the feeling I get from most of them is that they are uncertain of when is my wedding! This is especially worrying as I do not hope to see an empty banquet hall... Hopefully, everything turns out fine... I hope...