Taipei trip Nov 2018

Took a short trip to Taipei after hubby came back from his 3 weeks work trip in France. This time, I finally get the chance to take the hello kitty Sanrio Eva plane. 

The check in counter and the air ticket was so cute. The plane we are taking is called Shiny star as it’s the little twin star theme. Yippee!

Interior of the plane. Haha...I took the cushion back home as souvenir.



Looking at the menu makes you happy...haha...

And as expected, I took the cutlery back home as souvenir....hehee...Was sort of disappointed that the food was not Sanrio theme but just normal airplane food.

Lunchtime at Chijmes

Had lunch at the newly opened konjiki Hototogisu -Michelin bib gourmand ramen. It’s famous for their clam and truffle soup. I ordered the shoyu hamaguri soup ramen with onsen egg. The soup was clear with a strong taste of clams and a light taste of truffle. Overall, it has a distinct rich taste that is different from the normal typical ramen soup. It was pleasantly nice at first but can get a bit salty towards the end. The onsen egg at $2 was not flavored at all.

After that, I showed my mom to this place called Hvala at chjimes that serves nice matcha latte as she loves matcha latte v much. 

I ordered the matcha latte hot and matcha hojicha latte hot for myself. My mom quite like the matcha latte as it was not v sweet and had a slight bitter matcha taste. The matcha hojicha latte is a blend of both matcha and hojicha as shown in the pic above. It looked just like matcha latte but with a oolong taste...or hojicha taste. 

Anyway, the place itself was pretty nice and zen looking. Good place to chitchat and relax. Not much of a crowd during lunchtime. But it was v packed when I was there on Friday during 3-4pm. Guess it’s not a place for lunch but more a place for afternoon tea.

Poochi’s Germany jersey

Ordered a Germany sport jersey for Poochi on Q10 for only $3.90 including shipping. Dirt cheap! Turned out it’s a bit tight fitting but still able to fit in...haha

Now he can join hubby together watching World Cup and support Germany.

Lunchtime date at elemen harbourfront

Met hubby for lunch yesterday to eat elemen at harbourfront. We had tried the same restaurant at Millenia walk before and it was not bad. Reservations are required as it’s fully booked almost all the time. 

We took the 5 course meal.

For starter, there is only 1 choice-the elemen starter which consists of eating the mushroom first, followed by the thing in the middle and lastly by the tomato. The tomato was super sweet and juicy. 

I chose the soup instead of salad. For soup, I decided on the mushroom cream soup with truffle oil. The truffle taste was not v strong and overpowering and the overall taste was v good. 

For the mains, I picked the Japanese curry with udon. Taste normal to me as the udon was not the thick chewy type which I preferred. 

For the drinks, the lychee green tea was refreshing and cooling. 


The dessert, it’s the snow chrysanthemum with grass jelly. Yummy! 

However, do make reservation when u come otherwise u will end up sitting under the hot sun like me without any shade....coz all the good seats were reserved....

A fun day at Singapore Art Museum SAM

The Singapore Art Museum is now having the Imaginarium exhibition now and I was interested to go and take a look at it. It’s my first time at the museum and it’s free entry for Singaporeans. 

On the first level of the entrance area is this room covered with an illustration of Singapore portraying distinct landmarks and food. 

Couldn’t get the whole picture in as it took up three full walls. I like the illustration as it’s cute and feel like looking for Wally in Singapore game...haha....

Next we went upstairs to watch a series of animations in a large and comfy dark theatre. Think we spent most of the time there and my favorite show is the little bird and the caterpillar. 

Next is this room with a large of jars.

There is a camera at the side where u can record ur face and try to find it among all the jars. V fun and interactive exhibit.

Besides the jar room is this room with blue fiber optics.U can brush ur hand along the optics and play with it. 

Each staircase had a full wall illustration. My favorite is this.

Next is this room with an interactive display of the 4 seasons. Above is spring.

Above is autumn.

Above is summer. Think this is a water scene.

Above is winter. Our faces were portrayed onto the snow man. 

Haha...that was fun. We had the whole room to ourselves. 

The good thing about this whole experience was that it’s not crowded at all and I was able to enjoy myself without squeezing with others.

Uya hitsumabishi at Wheelock Place

Finally got the chance to try out the other famous unagi dish beside from ManMan.  Compared to Man man unagi, this place allowed reservations to be made. I find the unagi here to be of the same quality as man man. It’s crispy and slightly char texture is just to my liking and the amount of unagi given seem to be more. Oh dear, think Man Man have some serious competition coming....

Creative figure illustration course in Lasalle

Yesterday was the last day of my short art course at Lasalle. It was a 8 sessions course on every Monday and Wed from 7pm to 10pm. At first it was fun and interesting but gets tiring as it progress as I need to work and having to go to class after work till 10pm twice a week was too much for me. If only I’m not working!!!

Although I wish to continue the part 2 of the course, I dun think i have enough leave and MC to last myself through another 8 sessions. Also, I need to brush up on my drawing skills as I haven’t been drawing since more 10 years....haha....basically I dun think I can draw artistic stuffs...my style more into manga and anime. 

Anyway, here are the final artworks of our class for this course. 

Hokkaido white curry

Finally tried the Hokkaido white curry locate on the second floor of Millenia Walk. It’s business was quite bleak at first but now it seems to be picking up. I ordered the chicken Katsu white curry set which comes with asari clam miso soup and truffle chuawanmushi. Both are delicious! The chicken katsu is huge and crispy and it’s portion is bigger than the rice. I do find the rice and white curry bit too little. However rice and soup are refillable for free. Not sure abt the curry. The curry seems to taste the normal curry except it’s white. Service seems to be bit lacking as staff seems new and inexperience. Would I come again? Hmm...not sure, but it’s definitely more value for money compared to saboten next door. 

Supertea

Found a new favorite bubble tea store at Millenia walk. It’s called Supertea and has a nice cozy place for ppl to sit down and enjoy their tea which comes out from a draft beer tap. The tea was v nice and the pearls were soft and chewy. It’s not v sweet even at 30% sugar. Hope they stay open for a long time....

Totoro cream puff at Shiro-hige

Situated about 12mins train ride away from Shinjuku Station at Setagaya Daita station was this quaint little cafe tuck away in a quiet residential area. 

The staircase lead up to the cafe and the door on the left leads to the shop selling cream puffs and other pastries for takeaway.

The menu as shown. We tried the spaghetti aglio oilo with prawns and tomato. The tomatoes were really sweet and nice. However, the pasta did not look like a typical aglio oilo type of pasta...more like a soupy version. Anyway, just go for the totoro puffs will do.

We chose the matcha with azuki bean puff which is the one wearing a yellow hat and a strawberry puff which is the one wearing a pink sakura flower.

Conclusion: the puff were more sturdy and harder than we thought. Taste wise was ok. Not the wow fantastic type of cream puff but good as the puff was crispy and the cream was delicious and abundant.

We were lucky to be able to get a seat inside after abt 10mins wait as everywhere was damn crowded during the golden week period. 

Ending phase of blue nemophila

The ending of the blue nemophila at hitachi seaside park. Most of the flowers had withered and poppies were starting to pop out among the nemophila. 

Can see more greenish among the blue flowers. Weather was super hot, like Singapore weather. This year, due to the unusual hot weather, most flowers withered earlier than usual. 

Start of Japan Tokyo shopping trip

Start the day by having breakfast at the krisflyer gold lounge at Changi Airport. Breakfast was quite a spread with bee hoon, porridge, Indian curry and noodle, dim sum, lo mai kai, Chee Kway and scrambled eggs. Feel so full and satisfied! 

Donki sipping coffee after his toilet break.

The dim sum selection area.

Coffee, TWG tea, fruit juice, draft beer and liquors selections.

Hot food selection area.