Dayna.me » Food

I went Macau-ing again

Dayna — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:42:26 +0000

Yours truly went Macau-ing again last week even though I am definitely no fan of the smoky casinos or uncles dressed in Hawaii-looking shirts. This opportunity was presented to me as an “on-the-house” birthday trip sponsored by dearest daddy. A break from work while I step into the 23rd year of my life doesn’t sounds too bad seriously!

A huge photo collage of the dishes I’ve tried at Macau.

All the dishes I have tried

Please be forewarn that the next half of this post will solely be on commenting on the interior designs of the hotels. There’s nothing much to blog about except their food and impressive architecture.

Street Shopping

We weren’t exactly shopping but more of taking a leisure walk around the town area. It’s only been a year since I last went there during my “Graduation Trip” and there wasn’t much of a change except the place was noisier and definitely more crowded. The weather wasn’t helping either as temperature soars to about 32 degrees; pretty much like Singapore except it was much less humid.

Lan Kwai Fong Macau

We took a quick look at Lan Kwai Fong as well; rather new and I adore the crystal lion “guarding” the main entrance. It’s munching on cash though; those are real notes in its mouth and not newspapers if you are wondering.

Grand Libosa

Not new and it’s also not my first time here. The grand hotel lobby totally blew me away. I can’t imagine any hotels in Singapore which can rival this. It makes me wow literally when you stepped into the hotel.

There’s also this awesome tea performance by the rather good looking waiter. He even asked if I had my camera ready to shoot him! He has ego, I’m sure of it!

City of Dreams

Modern, sophisticated and it gives off the “Singapore Marina Bay Sands” vibe. However, like the Grand Libosa, it’s interior design, lightings etc were miles better.

Galaxy

Across the road from The Venetian. Personally, I feel that it’s design is more traditional as compared to the City of Dreams. I am pretty sure the theme was “Peacock”. All the lightings in this hotel are set to change colours every few seconds. One minor complaint was that the Casino was too bright for my likings.

I can’t believe it took me more than a week to get this “wordless” posts up, I’m procrastinating and I can’t help it. Life’s busy.

Check out the entire album of photos taken on my Flickr.

Stepping closer to the 23rd mark

Dayna — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:28:16 +0000

Another week before I turned 23. Not much thoughts except I’m really starting to feel old. Although I got to admit there isn’t anyone who thinks I am older than my actual age yet. Thankfully. I spend my Sunday hanging out with the girls before we met Mr Pink¹ for dinner.

Nice scenery, quiet place, good music, juicy steaks, cakes, pasta, you name it, we have it!

We took lots and lots of pictures. Just because, I’ll never want to forget beautiful memories like this.

Not to forget, they got me something on my wish list!

I can’t help laughing at the “Terms & Conditions” written on the back of my DIY Happy Lemon Vouchers. They are creative, I don’t deny. In fact, I am starting to believe James has some hidden designing talents while looking at those vouchers. It’s still a mystery how they managed to get hold of my National identification number. I’ve no clue!

On a last note, I am super in love with the lace skirt from Lacepipe. I’m not usually a lace person but their stuff are really awesome!

I hope he does not read this. I might get assassinated tonight if he does.Then again, he rarely ever wear any other colours except black, white, brown and grey.

Welcoming the “Great Singapore Sale”

Dayna — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 10:04:06 +0000

It took me a great deal of self-control to only get started on the GSS¹ yesterday. I haven’t been very kind to my wallet recently but how can we resist the discounts?

Before I start bombard you with photos of my hauls, let me raved about this new Chinese restaurant Mum and I went for lunch yesterday. We were contemplating whether to head to Crystal Jade or Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant. We ended up eating at the latter mainly because of the Set Lunch Weekdays Promotion at S$27.90 for 2 pax, it’s something like a 5 course lunch with selections of cold dish, appetizer, meat, rice, noodles etc and there were 6 dishes in total. The bill totalled up to about S$34 after including the towels, tea & GST.

I thought it was a bargain considering the food was pretty good! Much much better than the branch at Bugis which I’ve visited quite some time ago and was not impressed at all. However, this new branch at Plaza Singapura is certainly worth a try!

Set Lunch for 2

My first loot of the day – a stuffed toy much to the dismay of my Dad. He’s no fan of my huge collection of toys. Anyway, Pinky² was on sale at 50% off yesterday and it wasn’t the first time he caught my eye. I got to have him after looking at the price tags! He’s the most adorable stuffed cat ever. He’s a cat in case anyone is wondering and he has different patterns of fabric on both sides.

My new toy - Pinky

The other side of Pinky

And some other stuff I purchased this week:

2 pairs of new jeans
Black leather wedges from Nine West
Black glasses (geeky ones!)

Crystals on the back pocket of the jeans

Black leather wedges from Nine West

Geeky Glasses

What are your recent buys?

Great Singapore Sale
I named him right after we got home!

Happy Dad’s Day

Dayna — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 06:33:17 +0000

Our whole family mistakenly thought Father’s Day was this week instead of the next and so we had an early celebration. It’s been some time since the last major family gathering¹.

I rushed home from work to be greeted by these wondering darlings and not to mention the food, food, foood. Dinner was good, supper was good. Is there anything that aren’t? Although I got to admit the day didn’t start off too well with me spilling tea all over my office desk. I hope ants wouldn’t be the first thing I see when I enter the office on Monday.

Look at these rainbow-coloured macaroons, who wouldn’t love them?

Have a wonderful day, dad! It’s my pleasure and honour to be your daughter.

I could not even remember when was the last. Chinese New Year perhaps?

Getting into the holiday shopping mood

Dayna — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:04:53 +0000

I went on a major shopping spree with Brenda today at Orchard. We were suppose to go Karaoke but Cherlynn was down with a bad sore throat so there was a change of plans. Hope you feel better soon Cherlynn, we shall go sing again when you are well!

Shall let the photos do the talking as I’m extremely tired and sleepy now.

Lunch at New York New York

Takashimaya Beary Christmas Trees 2010

This is Takashimaya’s “Beary Christmas Tree 2010″. I prefer the 2009 version though. It’s prettier with the golden bells (see photo below taken last December).

Takashimaya Beary Christmas Trees 2009

I was showing the Photography Apps on my iPhone to Brenda and she discovered this “Actioncam” App (which I downloaded but haven’t really played with it yet). Here’s the results of our testing:

Dayna in ACTION!

Brenda in ACTION!

On a side note, Bump is a good app for sharing files, photos etc between iPhone users. Bump your friends! Though Brenda and I were bumping our iPhones together not our hands. =p

Check out Brenda’s gorgeous blogger’s namecard!! I haven’t had time to work on mine yet. I “promise” the next layout I’m putting up, it will come with a matching namecard!

Brenda's Bloggers Namecard

Loots of the day if anyone is wondering: 2 pairs of shoes (including a pair of little red shoes!), 2 tops, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of earrings and 1 hat. I haven’t been on a shopping spree for a loooonnnnnnggggg time!

Not-so-happy experience at Prive Bakery Cafe

Dayna — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:57:48 +0000

I went Prive Bakery Cafe last Sunday with Sissy, Chewy and Francis. Within 5 minutes there, I can only say the service is really horrible. Perhaps if we were to “dress up” and do not look too much like local Singaporeans, we would have had a better service experience. We were ignored when we entered the cafe and decided to choose our own seats since none of the waiters and waitresses were willing to come forward to attend to us. The funny thing is when a Caucasian walks into the cafe, all of them rush forward to serve him. So much for good service huh? Apparently, we weren’t the only one with the bad experience.

No one came forward with the menu and it’s only after 3 tries of requesting for one that the menu was being presented to us. We were extremely upset by the time our cakes and tea were served. Honestly, the food was good and I was especially intrigued by the gold dust I saw on the Tiramisu. However, I doubt I will be going back again.

No matter how first class your food is, your service is still third class.

My first food hunt!

Dayna — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:50:17 +0000

I feel guilty for not blogging in a month and so here I am blogging about something that happened last weekend. Rather than making excuses like I don’t have the time to write a full post, I reckon I will just make do with small photos posts every week. Sounds good?

This will be a rather wordless post so enjoy the (poor quality) photos.

I went food hunting with the gang and seriously, it’s the best day ever!

Bumbu Restaurant

A Thai-Indonesian Restaurant at Kandahar Street. Food was pretty good, fresh fish as well! Though I’m still wondering why the interior deco of the place has some Chinese “flavours” in them. It was about SGD70+ for 6 dishes. Definitely a must try!

Bumbu Restaurant

Interior decorations in the restaurant

Old paintings on display

Group photo of the day

Check out their website at bumbu.com.sg for more details if you are interested!

Ah Chew Desserts

A very popular dessert shop at Liang Seah Street. It was very packed when we arrive and waited for seats for a while. Not bad but I still prefer the ones from Hong Kong and Macau (definitely right?).

Ah Chew Desserts

Sneak peek at the menu

Our desserts!

Tom’s Palette Homemade Ice Cream

We visited the branch at Shaw Tower and they have lots of unconventional flavours for their ice creams. Tried the Lavender, Oreo Cheesecakes, Lychee with rose etc. Good except that James nearly dropped my iPhone after taking the following shot.

Tons of ice cream sticks after trying the different flavours

Visit their website at tomspalette.com.sg for more information.

Rive Gauche

Take-away cakes at Suntec. Shared the Strawberry Shortcake with Jess. My only comment: The strawberries were really sour!

Delicious French Cakes

Say hi to the snowman

Nantsuttei

Discovered this when Chewy wanted to try it desperately since he’s a noodle lover. I have only tried the normal ramen and “Happy Couple” Gyoza. Funny name for dumplings! Not to mention the adorable pig at the bottom of the bowl. Some of the staff are Japanese and they are really friendly.

My favourite ramen

I promise I will take more photos during the next food hunt!

Birthday surprise!

Dayna — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:45:40 +0000

We had a gathering co-organised by James and I to meet up with Huaian who came back to Singapore during his school vacation yesterday. I was extremely surprised when these adorable fruit tarts with smiley faces popped out in front of me as an early birthday celebration. Who doesn’t love these freshly home-baked low sugar fruit tarts with love from Jess? Honestly, I’m so touched they took the effort to “secretly” planned everything and Jess’s effort for waking up at 9 in the morning to bake the tarts. I feel loved! I didn’t suspect anything even when Jess kept walking around and sneaking behind James. I thought she was asking him to show her where’s the washroom. I thought that was odd though.

They taste as good as they looked which reminds me I should get the recipe from Jess and try this at home sometime. The custard tastes heavenly!

We dropped by Mind’s Cafe and found a new game which was really fun! True colours is a game where players attempt to best anticipate how others perceive them. Each round consists of several private ballot votes on who best fits a particular question. Once votes are entered players guess at the number of votes they received for that particular question. The better your estimate the more points you make and the winner being the player who best understands how others see the player. I ended up as the one with the lowest point. Hopefully James will get this for his board games rental site! It’s really fun and entertaining playing with people whom you know.

We went to Bottle Tree Village for dinner and got lost on our way there because the taxi drivers didn’t know how to go there. We chalked up to about SGD 30 of fares. That wasn’t the worst part because the walk back to the bus stop was so creepy. There wasn’t much street lights and no one was walking along the road. It was like a mini night adventure similar to the night walk during our secondary 4 adventure camp but I swear I’m not going there again without a car. It was horribly inconvenient!

On a last note, thanks guys for the gift, tarts and wishes! I really appreciated your thoughtfulness and everything.

What happens when 4 girls are put together?

Dayna — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:38:02 +0000

Fun, laughter, jokes and embarrassment are what you get if you put 4 girls (who are all bloggers) together. I meet up with some fellow Singapore bloggers, Ivy, Brenda and Cherlynn last Saturday during our monthly meetup session. Terry, our wonderful organiser couldn’t make it because he was sick. With one more guy, it would be a blast! We miss you Terry, hope you get well soon. We meet up at Relax Bistro at Somerset 313 for lunch and here’s a peek of what we had.

Delicious looking soup

Grilled Chicken

Cherlynn is totally (not) camera-shy!

After a hearty lunch, Brenda suggested going to the flea market near by. As I’ve never been to a flea market, I gladly agreed, so did the rest of the girls. The last time I tried to go to a flea market, I spend 2 hours trying to find my way, got lost and never made it there in the end.

Come to think of it, I’ve done a couple of things I’ve never done before that day. I have never withdraw cash from an ATM machine nor have I ever been to a flea market before Saturday. I can explain myself. Let me see, the probability of Dayna losing her wallet is 10% and the probability that she will drop some cash when she opens her wallet is 30% which is about 40% in total and this is considered high risk. To mitigate the financial risk, it’s safer for her to bring lesser cash when she leaves the house. Sounds cool? Since it was my first time, I thought it was normal that I inserted the card in the wrong direction! Ivy helped me on that and Brenda even conducted an interview with me. I feel grown up to have finally used the ATM machine (lol).

We conquered the flea market! - Photo by Brenda & edited by me

Flowery vintage top

The flea market was packed and we had a hard time trying to escape. We went across the road to the other flea market (I’m not sure if it’s suppose to be the same one) beside Cineleisure. It’s quieter and we had a better time shopping if you ignored the hot weather. Everyone bought something and I’m no exception being a hardcore shopaholic myself.

I got myself a brand new vintage flowery top for SGD 18. It was priced at SGD 20 and Brenda manage to bargain to 18 for me. Lesson learn: always try to bargain if the tops are above SGD 15. According to the girls, the top is so me! They practically know my style 101% in an hour. I thought the photo of us above is so “blogger-style”.

We were melting by the time we “conquered” the flea market. Some air-con shopping and Sakura flowers sounds like a good plan? We headed to Takashimaya excitingly to view the exhibition of live Sakura flowers and here’s what we saw…

Click here to view the embedded video.

This fantastic video is taken and edited by Brenda. You should definitely check out her post and Cherlynn’s about our outing. It has an extremely unflattering but cute (according to her) photo of me and I’m definitely not going to post that photo of myself here. :P

Sakura flowers & a really cool pose - Photo by Brenda

Cherlynn and I look kind of dumb beside Brenda’s awesome pose. It’s kind of funny how all of us did the peace sign in a lot of photographs to piss Brenda off. =D The awesome pose ended with a bang as well as Brenda fell after a few seconds. I think a few others saw it but we were too busy wondering if Brenda’s okay to bother about the attention. At least her effort was not in vain as Ivy managed to capture this great shot of us. We should all do the star jump pose the next time we meet!

The day ended with more shopping and jokes, of course. I will proudly present the joke of the day award to Cherlynn (I’ve got a feeling she’s going to kill me for this). So what happen exactly? We were trying out some clothes at Fox. Cherlynn tried out this grey superman tank and denim shorts. We thought she look great in it and urge her to grab the top. She thought the denim shorts was a bit too short. It all happened within a few seconds when she asked the big question: Do I look like a hooker in it? And the next moment, this was what we heard over the speaker: And you ain’t nothin’ but a hooker. According to Brenda, this song is titled ‘Hooker’ by Pink. It was so much of a coincident that all of us burst out laughing uncontrollably. I feel bad for exposing her in this entry, how about a little cartoon as compensation?

Cartoon illustration of the awesome photo above

My first trip to Universal Studios Singapore

Dayna — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:45:40 +0000

Before I start, be forewarn that this post is extremely photo-intensive! So, let the story begins. Last Friday was one of the most anticipated day in recent years because I went Universal Studios Singapore with my mum and Sissy! I have been telling people around me how excited I was because it’s the first time I am visiting a theme park in 22 years of my life. The main attraction, Battlestar Galactica was closed since the day before. As I wasn’t planning to take the ride in the first place, I wasn’t too disappointed. Dayna is not a fan of thrilling rides because my fragile heart simply couldn’t take the suspense. I didn’t want to risk myself having a heart attack on any of the rides so roller coasters are a big no for me.

We arrived at about 9.30am and the place was pretty packed. I had not expected such a big crowd since it wasn’t a weekend or school holiday. I was very impressed with the architectures, buildings and design because they are gorgeous! I don’t feel like I’m in Singapore once I stepped into the park. The friendly staff directed our ways to collect the dining and shopping vouchers and we started our day via taking a picture with my favourite animal in the world – the famous Kungfu panda, Po.

Honestly speaking, I don’t really like this photograph because I’m so tiny in it. I can’t even see my own face clearly. The shot taken by the cameraman of Universal Studios Singapore did a better job and we ended up purchasing the photograph which cost us SGD 10 from the photo studio; The Dark Room. Quite a creative name instead of the usual “Kodak Express” I see in the malls!

Why doesn’t Singapore have such beautiful newspaper stands (or is it called the papers vending machine)? We headed straight to Madagascar and managed to catch a 15 seconds performance of the penguins. I was so glad I got the chance to take a shot with the super duper adorable penguins. What’s his name again? Skipper? My personal favourite is the short chubby one. I should have asked him for his name (the penguin not the person)! =D

Our first ride was the King Julien’s Beach Party-Go-Round which is basically just a ordinary Merry-Go-Round without the horses. You will find all kinds of characters in Madagascar on this ride. I love the penguins so I chose to ride with them! The ride was really slow so don’t worry about getting dizzy. The kids are having a really good time on this but for someone who has lived 2 decades on this earth, it was all right. The characters were adorable though.

There was really nothing much at Madagascar but the shops are beautifully designed. I took a picture of the penguins hanging from the ceiling. I applauded the management for taking the time and money to beautify the ceilings. Most wouldn’t even spare a glance at the ceilings. On a random note, you are going to love Sissy’s photographs, she has the most hilarious and coolest pose! And one of the joke of the day?

Mum: Excuse me, may I know where to get to this roller coaster (pointing at the Enchanted Airways ride)?
Staff: Oh, you have to walk to far far away.
Mum: Huh? I still have to walk far far away to get there?
Sissy: LOL! No, no, that place is called “Far Far Away”.
Mum: Oh (laughs), thanks!

I couldn’t get a full view of the castle because of the blue shelter built right in front of it. I remember seeing a photograph of it taken by my friend a few weeks ago and I’m pretty sure the blue shelter wasn’t there at that time. Perhaps it was built to cater to the queue. After taking the Enchanted Airways which is a small family roller coaster, we went to watch the Shrek 4D show. Frankly speaking, the pre-show talk was way too long. We were brought into this empty room with a few big screens right at the top. I had a stiff neck after looking up for 15 minutes during the pre-show talk. The grandma standing behind us was getting tired as well. Seriously, no seats? The screen is way too high up and the speech was terribly long. My anticipation for the show decreased by a fair bit after the long speech. My verdict of the show: it was mediocre. Just rocking seats, splashes of water and maybe some wind. The 3D effect wasn’t fantastic either.

Mum suggested having an early lunch to avoid the lunch crowd. Since she wasn’t a fan of western food, we decided to have lunch at Hollywood China Bistro. On our way back, Sissy spotted this interesting sign and asked me to take a photograph of it. All shopping malls should be using this. Dolls FTW! We had Chinese noodles and dim sum which cost us SGD 30+ after deducting 30 bucks using the complimentary dining vouchers. Lunch was pretty good. The restaurant was beautifully decorated in red and gold (typical colours used in Chinese restaurants). In addition, the friendly and polite staff makes it a good dining experience for us.

Our next stop was at Jurassic Park. We went to watch the WaterWorld show and Sissy nearly fell asleep in there. I thought the show wasn’t too bad. Explosions, lots of water, stuns, rather good storyline and a wee bit of fireworks. The performers can really get the audiences to participate and at the same time, get them soaked as well. Lots of small children were crying halfway through the show. I’m not sure why parents will want to bring their young children to the show when they have been warned that this show involves lots of loud noises, explosions and requires parental guidance due to the use of (fake!) guns and stuff.

We were actually planning to ride the Canopy Flyer but the queue was an hour long. Since the park closes at 6pm, we don’t think there will be enough time so we skipped and proceeded to Dino-Soarin. The sun was blazing that day and I felt like I’m melting into a puddle of goo. Up next is the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure and I got to say this ride was a disappointment! Sissy wanted to get the poncho initially but we didn’t realise that we have to get it in the Jurassic Park merchandise store and not at the ride itself. Mum and I convinced Sissy that it will be fun to get wet because it’s no fun when we get off the ride dry. The lockers were rented at $4 for the first hour and since we were without the protection of the ponchos we rented one to keep our bags dry.

The first half of the ride was so slow and mundane. We were just floating down the river looking at (very) fake dinosaurs that open and close their mouths like robots. The raft entered a dark tunnel with flashing lights, a door opened and we were “flushed out” of the tunnel. The ride ended with a big splash and I was pretty much drenched. Even the raft ride at Sunway Lagoon is way better than this. Is this all they can come up with?

I tweeted that I almost died that day on the Revenge of the Mummy’s ride and it was true. i swear I’m never going to take this ride again. Like I said, I’ve a low threshold for thrilling rides and I’m surprised I still have my voice after screaming the entire time while I was on the ride. Just the walk from the main entrance of the ride to the actual queue took us about 15 minutes. A rather long walk I would say. To top if off, the passage way was really dark with lots of turns and corners. Interestingly, I saw someone in front of me wearing a pair of sunglasses in the dark. I wonder how he sees in the dark. Anyway, is the walk suppose to build up our tension for the ride? People that cut the queues really spoil the fun for me. I do not understand why some people let others cut the queue in front of them without saying a word. I would have told them off but I was too far away at that time.

In the Sci-Fi City, Battlestar Galactica was closed so there wasn’t much to see. Mum and Sissy went onto the Accelerator ride which has the same concept as the Mad Tea Party in Disneyland. Both of them said that it wasn’t much fun because it’s slow even when they control the speed manually. I didn’t take the ride because the last time I rode a similar ride at Escape theme park 10 years ago, I ended up puking really badly. It started to drizzle and we headed to New York because it was sheltered. We spend some time snapping away on our cameras. There was lots to see but nothing much to play.

The only attraction we went at New York was Lights, Camera, Action which actually showcases what happens to a boat house in New York City during a category 5 hurricane. The effect was nice and the sea look very realistic from the fake windows. But again, it wasn’t anything exciting. I was expecting more than just a few broken windows, fire etc.

It’s nearly 5 when we exited Lights, Camera, Action and we decided to go for a quick bite. We wanted to have tea at this princess-looking pink cafe, Hollywood Celebrity’s Cafe but after looking at the menus, we thought we should go for something fuller and cheaper. True to its name, the menus especially the price tags are really celebrities’ class.

We settled for Mel’s Drive-In. They have a shiny looking junk box and the retro interior decorations suits the theme very well! The servings are huge and very fulling. The place was pretty packed, perhaps due to the more economic price of the burgers. I caught the appearance of a few retro dancers right outside the dining place. I love their colourful costumes and how they tried to engage the audiences and get them to dance together as well.

With only an hour left, we went on a shopping spree. I love all the merchandise sold there! They have the best souvenirs such as toys, cushions, mousepads, pins, notepads, caps, t-shirts, towels, mugs and lots of other stuff. Admittedly, the best attraction at Universal Studios Singapore was their merchandises and not exactly the rides. Here’s the other joke of the day:

I was looking at 2 tees which look exactly the same with different price tags.

Me: Excuse me, may I know why these tees are priced differently? The size L tee cost SGD 21.90 while the size S tee cost SGD 23.90.

After pausing for a few seconds, he replied.

Staff: Oh, the smaller the tee, the more expensive is it because it’s more difficult to manufacture.

Me: Huh, okay. Thanks!

After I went home and look at the photos on my computer screen, I realise the size S tee was a men’s tee and hence it’s more expensive then the ladies’ size L tee. The ladies’ tee are priced at SGD 21.90 while the men’s tee are priced at SGD 23.90. So much for “the smaller the tee, the more expensive it gets”! He (the staff) was really friendly though but I just thought the above was hilarious!

With all the self control I had, I only bought 2 tees and a penguin clipboard + notepad. On the other hand, Sissy got a tee, pin and mousepad. I regretted not getting the mousepad. It’s really cute! Sissy’s going again next week so hopefully the stores will be open so that she can grab an extra for me. This concluded our day at Universal Studios Singapore. We didn’t manage to visit all the attractions due to time constraints. I wish the park would extend it’s opening hours till about 8 to 9 at night so that we’ve more time. Although I wasn’t too wow by the attractions, I had a rather enjoyable time. Maybe it’s my first time visiting a theme park, hence I don’t have a very high expectation. For more photographs, check out this album on my Flickr.