Alive Museum

My initial plan was to visit the trick eye museum however, i'm not sure why my mind kept telling me Alive Museum. That's how i ended up at the Alive Museum instead of the Trick Eye Museum. 

Tickets are at $20 per pax (adult) with Mastercard. It was quite fun and interesting to try to take pictures with challenging poses but I felt that the lighting there wasn't that good and some of the images were too close to each other to get nice pictures. Nevertheless, we had fun :)

WooHoo!

Lunch was at a random Ramen shop in Marina Square. Ramen was not too shaby.

Spicy Ramen

Birthday Boy!

To-gather Cafe

It was Chee Wee's birthday yesterday and we had a hard time deciding what to have for dinner. I wanted to treat him to something good but at the same time not too expensive. My brother recommended To-gather Cafe as it was reasonably priced and the food was not bad. To our surprise, the cafe was located right beside our new house that will be ready in 2017.

It was not easy to find a car park lot even on a Tuesday night. We drove around several car parks and they were all full. Got lucky at the car park right in front of the cafe!

The cafe was pretty full for a weekday night. They have several tables outside and the space inside was not too shabby. We like that the cafe has a very cosy feel. Another plus point is that they do not charge GST and service charge!

We ordered:

Ice Mango Latte
Iced Lemon Tea

Soup of the day

Mexican Quesadilla

Cordon Bleu Pork Chop

Pasta Carbonara

Cheesy Japanese Baked Curry Rice

Lava Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

The total bill came up to S$53.10.
I was expecting to pay more than this but am happy that I got to try many of their dishes with not a very expensive bill. The drinks were not bad. We love the Iced Lemon Tea. Mexican Quesadilla was pretty good too. For the Carbonara, the sauce was great but Chee Wee felt that there was a strong starchy taste to the pasta. Cheesy Japanese Baked Curry Rice was pretty good too. I couldn't finish the baked rice because it was too filling. When I ordered the Lava Cake, I requested for a candle. I did not mention that it was for Chee Wee's birthday and they served the cake with a nicely decorated plate with the words Happy Birthday written on it. They even played a birthday song in the cafe. It was a pretty nice surprise for the birthday boy!

To-gather Cafe

84 Bedok North Street 4, #01-27

Opening hours:

Tue - Thu: 11:00 - 22:00

Fri - Sat: 11:00 - 23:00

Sun: 11:00 - 22:00

Closed: Mon

                    Tel: 64451011                   

Menu

I had a good experience there and will probably drop by again some time soon to try out other dishes. 

                                            

Crab Bee Hoon

Have been trying out new recipes recently and I made Crab Bee Hoon yesterday!
Think I am very bored with the food that I have been eating on a daily basis.

Googled online for this recipe and it was really easy to cook!

 

Personally, I always go for the simplest recipes. This recipe is from Rasa Malaysia.

http://rasamalaysia.com/crab-bee-hoon/

 

Ingredients:
6 oz Guilin rice noodles (dry)
4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
6 slices peeled ginger
1 cup canned chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 lb crab, cleaned and cut into pieces
5 baby bok choy, cut lengthwise into halves
1 tablespoon rice wine
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce or to taste (or salt to taste)
3 dashes white pepper
1 stalk scallion, cut into 1-inch lengths

Method:

Boil the dry Guilin rice noodles per the package instructions until al dente. Rinse the noodles with cold running water to remove the starch of the noodles (the noodles should be smooth and clean of starch after rinsing). Drain the noodles dry and set aside.

In a pot, add the butter and saute the ginger. Add the chicken broth and water and bring it to boil. Add the evaporated milk and follow by the crab. Cook for a few minutes until the crab turns red and cooked. Add the baby bok choy, rice wine, fish sauce, white pepper, scallion, and the noodles. Bring it to a quick boil and serve immediately.

Cook’s Note:
Add 2 more tablespoons of evaporated milk if you like your crab bee hoon creamier.

 

I got the crabs from NTUC and Cheewee had the honor of prepping the crabs. It was his first time and I must say that he did a pretty good job. He watched a youtube video before he started. It was not easy to kill a crab. Chopsticks were sacrificed in the process. While he was dealing with the crabs, I got started with the soup base and noodles.

 

I followed the recipe quite closely only excluding the bok choy and scallion. I also doubled the amount for the soup as my family loves soup. The soup will be perfect with more ginger, fish sauce and rice wine! I'm pretty amazed at how simple this recipe is and it tastes wonderful. Cheewee and my mum love it :D Feeling happy!

 

The soup looks very yellow due to the butter on the surface. Not sure if it's because there's too much butter. I also wonder if the soup will still taste as good with reduced butter. It's good but looking at the ingredients, it's super unhealthy :X

 

 

 

 

Two chefs to 18 chefs

I went to Two Chefs twice last weekend! Once with my family for dinner and lunch with my friends. Used to go to the branch at Commonwealth instead but Sin Ming branch is nearer for me. I feel that the Sin Ming branch is cleaner too. 

My family went there to celebrate my uncle's birthday. We made reservation for 7.30pm but the reservation was useless. When we got there, there was this huge mess of people trying to get tables/ order food. So even though we made reservation, we only managed to get seated 30 minutes later. The best thing to do is to go early.

Mee Goreng

Herbal Chicken

Butter Ribs

Strawberry Shortcake from Lady M

The next day, I went for lunch with my friends. 

Kind of ordered the same stuff :x

The few dishes that I like that are: 

- Butter ribs

- Mee goreng 

- Herbal Chicken

- Drunken cockles 

- Spinach with 3 types of eggs.

Went shopping with pok for her japan trip after lunch. Buying all the stuff with her males me feel like travelling! There's a 2 cents sale later for scoot but I think that their website will crash. Hopefully I'll be able to get something. 

After shopping, we wanted to catch a movie but there's nothing to watch. Because of that, we went to have dinner at 18 chefs. It's one of favourite places to eat in town. There was a branch near my place awhile ago but because the shopping center that it was located in closed for renovations, 18 chefs moved out. I'm hoping that it will move back once the new mall is ready because I loved how cosy it was when it was still there. It's small but homely. The one at cineleisure is always full :x 

So that was my weekend. 

Calista's Wedding!

Attended Calista's wedding last Friday at Hotel Grand Pacific opposite Bras Basar. It's not a good place to drive to because of the very limited parking lots and the many ERPs surrounding the area.
Calista was my primary and secondary school classmate. It was nice to meet up with friends whom I have not seen in years. There's this comforting familarity.

Bride and Groom

Esther, myself and Clarice

We squeeze in a selfie with the bride.

Table 22

Crescent Girls!

Post braces days

I am loving it! I feel more confident smiling now and I don't hide my teeth anymore :D I smile more now too!

The before and immediately after removing braces.

Also the before and after braces!

 

Braces free!

My top braces went up on 7 May 2013, bottom one went up 3 months later. I got the braces removed yesterday (26 May 2014). So i think I'll just take it that I had my braces on for 1 year. Pretty fast I think, looking at how crooked they were. The removal was not exactly painful. It's just the fear of not knowing what's going to happen that is scary.

First he used some tool to swiftly pluck the brackets. That was not painful, just some thugging. The more painful ones were the molar rings. One of my molar ring was quite deep into the gum as the teeth shifted. I could taste blood the moment that ring was removed. After which, it was the polishing of the teeth. That was more annoying that painful because of the sound and the water splashing around. After the polishing, my dentist took a mould of my teeth and they took Xrays of my teeth. I will be collecting my retainers a week later.

Initially it was quite weird with the braces off. It has been a year since my lips could feel my teeth! So happy to smile now :D