Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Wishing everyone good health and prosperity in the year of the snake! :)

Overheard - Kids Say the Darnest Things

DD (5 years old): Mummy, is Papa older than Grandma and Grandpa?
Me: :O

I was pretty much speechless while DS started exclaiming, "Of course not lah!", and proceeded to tell DD the ages of the grandparents compared to Papa's age.

Taipei, here we come!

22 Nov 2012
Finally, school is out for Casey and we are on our way to Taipei. After spending 5 days in Taipei, we head to Hong Kong. :) DH will be speaking at a conference in Taipei, and doing a poster presentation at a conference in Hong Kong.

This is also the first time that I'm traveling on Cathay Pacific. Cathay flies direct from Taipei to Hong Kong, so it's much cheaper to fly via Cathay on all sectors. Unfortunately, Cathay doesn't fly direct from Singapore to Taipei, we have to transit in Hong Kong first, before heading on to Taipei.

Below are some pictures taken at Changi Airport and some in the airplane. There's a picture of DD trying to show us the wart on her toe, which is going to drop off soon after it was burnt off a few weeks back.

Shinji by Kanesaka

This is where we had lunch for our 10th wedding anniversary. Shinji by Kanesaka is located at Raffles Hotel. Shinji Kanesaka is a 2-star Michelin chef and he chose Singapore to open his first restaurant outside of Japan.

We would highly recommend this restaurant. Unfortunately, after eating "real" sushi and sashimi here, I don't think we'll find Sushi Tei* or Sakae Sushi* as enjoyable anymore!

*Sushi Tei and Sakae Sushi are well-known franchised Japanese restaurants in Singapore which have sushi trains (also known as conveyor belt sushi).

Here is where we sat. Right in front of the chef where we can see him work to prepare our food and chat with him at the same time.

With two very sharp knives in front of the chef, we reminded ourselves to keep any negative comments about the food to ourselves. Hehe. Luckily, we enjoyed every dish tremendously and didn't have to hold our tongue at all. :P

Chef Shunsuke Yoshizawa at work. We were really impressed by how quietly and quickly he worked to get our food ready, and at the same time keeping his working area clean and tidy.

Picture taken before the meal. If it was taken after, our abdomen will be noticeably larger!

10th Anniversary Lunch (Without the kids, of course!) :)

We gave ourselves a treat at Shinji by Kanesaka, a Japanese restaurant at Raffles Hotel by 2-star Michelin chef Shinji Kanesaka. We had the omakase menu, which essentially means that the menu selection is left entirely to the chef. I also interpret it as ingredients that the chef needs to get rid of before they turn bad. :P

For the omakase menu, we had an appetizer, a selection of cooked dishes, sashimi, nigiri and maki sushi, a soup and finally, desert. 

Raw scallop with mustard and tonburi. Tonburi is made from seeds of a shrub called Bassia Scoparia and looks like caviar.

Very lightly grilled barramundi (the flesh is still raw) with deep fried baby crab. These must be the smallest crabs I've ever eaten. See how small the pincers are in comparison to the chopsticks at the side.

Red snapper sashimi

Sea urchin, Japanese yam, ladies finger and seaweed. All raw I think. The different colors made the dish look interesting. We were supposed to mix everything up before eating, and eating this dish was a very unusual experience for the senses because of the differences in texture of the items. The sea urchin was soft and mushy, the minced yam was crunchy and juicy (much like fresh water chestnut), the seaweed was like jelly and the grated ladies finger was, well, like grated ladies finger!

Deep fried Spanish mackerel and minced tuna balls. With grated/minced radish on the side. I think this is the dish that we least liked. The sauce was too salty for our liking, and I don't fancy deep fried meat (or in this case, fish) balls in the first place.

Another really interesting dish. Tuna sashimi, in onion sauce, ginger flower and dried fish flakes.

Flathead fish nigiri sushi

Squid nigiri sushi, with some sea salt and lime. This tasted exquisite! The tinge of salty and sour really enhanced the taste of the otherwise plain tasting squid.

Medium fat tuna nigiri sushi. If you look carefully, you can see the graduation in color of the piece of tuna from darker at the left side to a lighter color at the right side. Fatty tuna is more pink, while the leaner tuna is darker in color.

Fatty tuna nigiri sushi. You can see that this piece of tuna is more pink and lighter in color compared to the previous piece of medium fat tuna. Because this piece of tuna is fatty, you can also see that it is marbled, much like the marbling on a piece of fatty Wagyu beef. According to the chef, there is less fatty parts in a tuna fish, so the fatty parts of the fish is more expensive than the lean parts.

Mackerel nigiri sushi with ground spring onion and ginger. I  know that mackerel fish is known to be "fishy" (although I do like the "fishy" smell and taste of mackerel) but this fish doesn't taste or smell "fishy" at all! According to the chef, for the "fishy" fish, he would soak the fish in a vinegar solution for a short while before it is served. This kills away any "fishy" smells.

Marinated lean tuna nigiri sushi

Shrimp nigiri sushi. I found this very delicious. The shrimps were super fresh and were still slightly firm in texture.

Salmon roe nigiri sushi. We were given a small spoon to eat this. A caucasian lady nearby did not notice the spoon provided for this dish and proceeded to finish it up using her chopsticks. Hehe. We didn't realise what she did until she mentioned it aloud after finishing the dish. At least her chopstick-wielding skills would have improved tremendously after that.

Sea urchin maki sushi

Eel, done in 2 different ways. With sea salt, and with a sweet sauce.

Delicious clear soup. With clams inside. According to the chef, this soup is very good for the liver. After drinking that, the Japanese men can go for their alcohol-binging sessions! Yep, the chef said that. Well, sort of. Haha.

A piece of tamago (egg). According to the chef, this is cooked over charcoal fire and can take up to 2 hours to cook. Must be difficult to cook such a thick layer of egg evenly and without burning the bottom!

Desert! 2 slices of Japanese pear, which was very sweet and juicy, and a scoop of homemade Japanese lime ice cream. This must be the most refreshing ice cream I've eaten in a long time. The lime was not too sour and the ice cream was not too sweet. The ice cream was really refreshing and really finished off the many dishes well.

10 Years and Counting...

DH and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary this month! Would you believe we have been married 10 years?!? Well, neither can we! It is difficult to comprehend how we've spent 10 long years together, and it feels like only a couple of years back that we got married. The truth is, DS is already 7 years old this year! How time flies!

Well, DH, who is becoming pretty good at making video slideshows lately, did one for our 10th wedding anniversary. Here it is. :)

(P.S. In case anyone was wondering, I am nicknamed "A" and DH is "One". Just ask me if you want to know how we ended up with these nicknames for each other!)

June School Holidays! Tuesday 29 May

Everyone, especially the kids, have been looking forward to their dental appointment today. It took us almost 6 months to find a date when everybody, including DH, is free to go to the dentist together. DD was very excited and she was the one who kept reminding me in the past 6 months to make an appointment with the dentist.

DD, as usual, insisted on going first even though she was the only one among the 4 of us who has never had her teeth cleaned.

 DS got to go next!

Overheard: Kids say the darnest things - 2

All four of us headed to the dentist on Tuesday to get our teeth cleaned. This was what happened afterward:

(As written by DH)

After dental scaling. Daughter whisper in my ear, "Can I go a second round?"

(When DH said 'no' to DD's question, DD came to ask me the same thing later on!)

Overheard: Kids say the darnest things - 1

DH was being his usual self the other day, poking fun at the kids and telling them (corny!) jokes. And this was what happened:

(As written by DH)

Me (DH) to son: Isn't it nice your daddy jokes around and we can have more fun that way.

Son to me: No, I prefer you to be more normal.

Me: ..............

School Holidays - Sunday (couple time for a change!)

After the kids' playdate with R, we dropped them off at their grandparents' place. DH and I managed to eat a nice lunch together before running some errands. We went to one of our usual haunts, Tampopo Japanese restaurant in Ngee Ann City. The food is good (we see many Japanese eating there, so it should be authentic!), price is reasonable and service is great.

Family Pictures

Since last year, we've also been trying to remember to take family pictures during Chinese New Year. This picture below, taken at my Dad's second sister's place, is my favorite family picture this year! Why? Because it has been about 10 years since I last took a family picture with these relatives. Every since I got married in 2002, I have been accompanying DH and his family to visit his relatives on the first day of CNY. The first day of CNY is also when my Dad's sisters and nephews (my cousins) would visit him. So I've not seen my cousin, Alan, during CNY for a very long time now.

It was a nice surprise to see them at my aunty's place on the second day of CNY, when we visited her. I was really happy that we could get this family picture below. In it (besides my parents, DH, DS and DD) are my Dad's first and second sisters, my cousin Alan, his wife, and 4 lovely daughters, and my cousin Ah Heng.


OK, not really "family" here, but I think we can consider them so given that these people have known my parents for ages and ages! It has been a CNY tradition for at least 36 years that these friends of my parents go over to my parent's place on the second day of CNY for dinner. The group is much smaller now given that my parent's friends' children are all grown up and most don't join us for the gathering anymore.


A picture with my parents.


And finally, a picture with DH's mum, sister and her husband, and their 2 sweet girls!

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2012!

Happy Chinese New Year! We were in such a rush this morning that we forgot to take a family picture early in the morning when everyone still looked fresh. This picture was taken at the end of the day and DD had already changed out of her red CNY clothing. Strangely, DD woke only at 9am this morning, which means that everyone else only woke up at 9am too. DD is my alarm clock because she usually wakes up before 8am.

As we were late, we had to meet DH's mum at her mother's place instead of picking her up from DH's sister's place. We then headed to DH's cousin, Henry's condominium function room for a huge family gathering. This is the second year that DH's relatives are meeting in a function room rather than having everyone go on a house to house visiting spree, which I really think is less tiring for everyone. On previous years, we had to visit at least 6 families before heading to my parent's place in the late afternoon.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all who read my blog! Hope you ate lots of yummy CNY goodies!

DH and his iPhone

Yep, sadly, this is what happens when your husband buys an iPhone and spends all his time playing with it. Yep. You get a picture of yourself like the one above. DH has been searching for useful apps on his iPhone and what does he come up with? An app to disfigure a picture of his wife!!! He still thinks it is totally hilarious. Sigh.

We Were Out at Night WAY Past the Kids' Bedtime!

We attended DH's cousin's wedding over the weekend. Gasp, yes, we were out WAY past the kids' bedtime again. We only did it once the whole of last year (when we attended my cousin's wedding on Christmas Day), so I guess we've reached our quota and will not be going out at night for the rest of the year! :P

The kids really enjoyed dressing up for the wedding, especially DS, who was so excited to be wearing a suit to "match" Papa's suit. DD loves her velvet dress which had a big bow at the back.

DD being carried by Ah Ma. :)

DS was really excited to go on stage to do the "yum seng" together with all the other kids.



And finally, a family picture. :)

Exercising with Papa

The kids just love to do whatever we adults do. DS has been wanting to exercise so that his muscles will "grow bigger". Hehe.

Riverboat Ride

We brought the kids to take the riverboat ride over the weekend. The half hour ride brought us to Boat Quay, Clark Quay and out to where the Merlion is. DS was really excited especially since he could recognise key places of interest like the Merlion, the Singapore Flyer and the Esplanade. DD seemed stunned. I think she didn't know what to make out of the boat ride. Hehe.

Unfinished Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. Should be completed some time next year.

Behind us, you can see the Merlion spouting water and also the Esplanade. Oh, and the tall building sticking out from above my head, that's Swissotel the Stanford, where DH and I got married 7 years ago. :)

DS giving one of those "I-don't-really-want-to-smile-cos-I'm-busy-but-Mummy-wants-to-take-a-picture" smile and DD looking stunned throughout the ride.

DD still not knowing what to make of the boat ride. No smile from her throughout the ride!

Statue of the boys jumping into the water. I really like this! :)