Must try at JB, M'sia: San Lou Seafood!

Now I know why I haven't been able to lose weight... Just check out my blog and you would notice that 99% of the stuff that I've blogged are all about good food (I even have some "back-log" posts on food)!

Last Sat we crossed the borders over to Johor Bahru to buy some Chinese New Year stuff and tried out this awesome seafood restaurant called San Lou Seafood. Can you imagine it? About 9 dishes for 166RM?! SUPER CRAZY CHEAP!

Candid shot of the couple who brought us to so many places for good food!

This restaurant isn't very easy to find in my opinion.. 

80400 Johor, Taman Pelagi (open from 4pm to 1am)

But once you find it, it is definitely worth it! *not very far away, about 10-15mins away from Taman Sentosa.

Perhaps their most signature dish over there, San Lou Bee Hoon! Super nice! Not too dry and oily, and the "Wok Hei" is really omg~ =)

Luckily Jessie was craving for cockles if not we would probably not have ordered this plate of tasty delicious cockles! The cockles are cleaned very well (no sand etc.) and the sauce that is slightly spicy just makes it taste so good! 

Cockles and La La = Super combo~ =) My photo did not do this dish justice though, the picture may make this dish seem to have very little "meat" but in actual fact, there was a lot of "meat" and you won't feel cheated like how some seafood restaurants tend to add in a lot of empty La La to make the portion look huge but with very little meat.

Perhaps this was the highlight of the dinner, Indonesia Prawns! MUST TRY X 99999! 

The curry is so dam awesome that the the aroma stays in your mouth the whole time! And the prawns are so so fresh! the meat will NOT stick to the shell =)

Fried baby squid! Love this tasty little snack =) The meat isn't tough if you are worried that you may not be able to chew into it easily.

If you are looking for some tender juicy slices of pork, then you should try this 宫保山猪 "Wild Boar in Gong Bao sauce" *hopefully i didn't misinterpret the name of the dish LoLx! It is super tender and i think you can't find this in Singapore anywhere!

This veg has became me and wifey's favourite^^ Stir Fry Kai Lan! It is so crunchy and tasty ooooo~ what more can you ask for? LoLx

The following two dishes are perhaps the only ones that i would not recommend... 

排骨王 ... This was disappointing. Despite it looking so delicious, the meat was a little bit "powdery" if you get what i mean.. It's definitely not the best or even most average 排骨王 that i've had before..

Usually this is my favourite, 油条 with 鱼肉... But this one here... really isn't very much to my liking.. it just taste... very very very normal... not worth it..

While the last 2 dishes were a little bit disappointing, San Lou Seafood is a place that i will definitely revisit if i ever cross the borders again! And because it closes around 1am, this is also a very nice place for having supper and chilling out! It's near the Woodlands Checkpoint as well, so you don't really have to be worried about travelling too far.

Check out our great bargains/buys over at JB =) 

Be careful though, as CNY is around the corner, JB may not be a very safe place to travel.. and if you do want to go over there... please be very mindful of your valuables as you definitely do not want to fall prey to the thieves over there!

Sigh....

Now.. hafta restart my diet program all over again... 75kg by Apr 15, gogogo! 

Singapore's Sports Hub is a huge disappointment and shame!

Previously there was a huge uproar with regards to the quality of the grass field at the newly constructed Singapore Sports Hub. From real grass to hybrid grass to fake grass... I don't know what other kinda grass they want to use but in conclusion.. it sucked and people, many people complained.

Now it's my turn..

After such a long wait due to the postponement of the Jay Chou's concert BECAUSE of the stupid grass that i've mentioned earlier, it is finally here! Wifey and I, together with her sister and friends, are finally gonna caught Jay Chou live in concert!

Before i begin ranting on the stupid Sports Hub, i have to say that we totally enjoyed Jay Chou's concert! He did a rendition of his past and newer songs that brought back nostalgic memories of my secondary school life and also the latest hits that we are all listening to right now!

A photo with the new Sports Hub is a must! (the nightmare is gonna hit us in approximately 3 hours time..)

A sea of luminous pink lights~

Overall, the stage was 'decent' enough. Really nothing fantastic at all, just average. The sound system, however, was atrocious. There were many many occasions where we could not hear Jay Chou's voice while he was singing/rapping. It is.... bad..... Luckily for 3D stage effects which if i am not mistaken, is by Jay Chou's very own company and has nothing to do with the sports hub or any Singapore stage "effect" company, made the plain looking stage very much more spectacular!

We really had a good time at the concert singing our hearts out until... the concert ended....

This is a photo taken from the internet of the Singapore Sports Hub. Looks pretty nice ya?

This is the reality....

Image taken from SGAG, i was too busy trying to squeeze through the crowd and shield myself from the rain that i was totally not able to take any photos.

Imagine this, a multi-million or billion dollar sports hub/stadium that is leaking at its roof! it does not matter whether you are seated inside the stadium or walking around the circumference of the stadium, you will be drenched by the rain! And just looking at this photo i am sure you will notice how poor the crowd management is. Luckily for a concert, only 60% - 65% of the stadium is filled (the seats at the back of the stage is not available for concerts). I can not fathom the disaster if the whole stadium was filled. Everyone is like running around and squeezing through everyone else to get to the MRT station...

And to make matters worse.. From the stadium to the MRT station, it is NOT totally sheltered! Just as we thought we will be sheltered once we hit the stairs (i mean... the top part of this stairs is a roof! so why the hell will we be expecting it to continue to rain inside the stairways????) it was leaking/raining all the way throughout the whole flight of stairs! Do you know how dangerous it is? People rushing down the stairs because they are getting drenched by the rain, and the heavy rain is obviously making the stairs so wet and slippery!

This whole lack of crowd control eventually led to a scene akin to Left for Dead or Walking Dead...

Nothing changed even if you reach the MRT station.

This is so bloody disappointing and in my opinion, shameful... We have spent so much money on the sports hub, and it all amounts to this; lousy/poor quality of grass field, leaking rooftops, poor sound systems, lack of shelters, little to no crowd management...

Seriously, it doesn't mean that the more money we spend, we will be guaranteed results. Instead of mindlessly throwing money away, please think through and learn from other countries how do they manage/maintain their stadiums. Don't act smart and think that the only hard thing to do is to obtain budget from the government and every other thing else can just be settled by money.

Sigh...

A great concert held at a venue unbefitting of its standards. Singapore have much more to learn apart from making money and surviving in the financial industry.

Power Chendol, Gangster Ice and Supper at Kko Kko Nara!

Have been really busy with exams lately.. and today, marks the end of my 2nd paper! Just 2 more to go and i can enjoy my year-end holidays! (hopefully i do decent for my exams so that i can truly enjoy without any worries hahaHaha)^^

I attended my cousin's wedding about 2 weeks ago, at Hort Park. If i don't remember wrongly, this was probably the 2nd church wedding that i've attended. But my cousin's wedding was really special. He actually composed the march in song himself! Yes, he has a very strong background in classical piano and he plays the guitar really really well! and... to top it off, he is a dentist ! Apart from attending his wedding, i also got to meet up with some of my other cousins too^^

Selfie with Wifey at the wedding =)

When u see a backdrop like that.. you know you have to take a couple of photos ya? haha

My cousins acting cute =X *if they see this i am so dead...~~*

Our 'small scale' family photo lolx. Our family is pretty big, so this is really just a fraction of it.

It was really nice to be able to attend the wedding of your younger cousin whom you've played with since young. Although due to certain reasons, i kinda became distant from them after primary school, it is nice to know that we are still family. Uncle Henry and Auntie Irene are amazing parents. I can never imagine how they got through, raising 4 children by themselves, and now, they have all grown up so well. Most likely all of them will be university graduates (the youngest one isn't yet, but definitely will be, soon enough).

While a buffet spread was being catered on that day, it wasn't exactly enough to fill my stomach =X so we headed down to ABC Market after that! There is a dessert stall that i've been wanting to patronise for the longest of time!

If you haven't heard about them, you have got to make a trip there! Because.............

Their Power Chendol and Gangster Ice is just simply FANTASTIC!

The Gula Melaka is so nice! Kinda like that ones i've had at KL =) It really sets itself apart from the 'normal' chendol that you would've tried in Singapore. Gula Melaka is a must have for ALL chendol!

Why is this bowl of awesomeness called Gangster Ice?!?! Because its... sibei ah beng! i mean.... its really out of the norm! The fruits are obviously Mango, but the ice-cream is.... Durian ice-cream! And guess what???! It goes together so so so so WELL! It doesn't sound logical, but it just taste so well together! =D~~

Wifey loves the "Hong You Chao Shou" from this store and it is realllyyy good! In my opinion.. perhaps... a little better than the ones i've had at Ding Tai Feng. It's more tasty i must say

We had it take-away, so it was a little bit dry and clumpy when we brought it back. But nonetheless, it was still very delicious!

For our next pit stop, we went to Fatty Chiong to buy some roast duck, char siew and roast pork home to eat! the queue was CRAZY!

And.....

I regretted queueing up for it. It was... so so normal...

Their roast meat totally couldn't match up to Kay Lee's, not a slightest bit. Perhaps they have gotten pretty famous, so the quality of their roast meat deteriorated. But nonetheless, they still managed to retain many regular customers. Which i just don't understand why... definitely not worth it...

Sigh.. it was really quite a disappointment for me...

So to make up for it.. we went to grab some Korean Fried Chicken! =X

If you haven't heard of Kko Kko Nara yet you must give them a try! Their food is really good! Their fried chicken and all the other marinated chicken tasted great and they have quite a variety of other Korean dishes as well!

I really liked the decor at the first floor. It has a kind of authentic Korean flavour to it^^ But.. wasted.. even though we were there at like past midnight (if i don't remember wrongly, they operate till around 4am, great for supper!) it was full house!

We had to go to their lounge area where the music was kinda loud, but who cares~ the food was good!

We had a small combo platter which gives us a variety of the default fried chicken, garlic sauce chicken and another flavour that i honestly can't really remember. But they were all VERY VERY GOOD!

This is perhaps my favourite street food in Korea! Odeng, which is sort of a fish cake stew kinda dish! And to spice it up to our Singaporean taste, they added quite a bit of chilli into the soup which makes it all the more tastier! Love this particular dish so so much!

The portion of this spicy rice cake with ramyeon was kinda disappointing. But the quality, the taste of it doesn't disappoint us at all! All in all, the food at Kko Kko Nara is really really good and i would definitely come back again with friends for supper!

Chit chat, eat delicious food, finger food and drink some...

Watermelon Soju! This is so thirst quenching. It is like a watermelon fruit punch with soju in it, although the alcohol content is really really low because the watermelon meat and juice totally eclipsed the alcohol lol. They do serve a variety of fruit soju at Kko Kko Nara, but wasted they were sold out pretty fast..

Well.. That wraps up my almost 2 week old post and i hope to be able to update my blog more religiously once my exam ends in about 7 days time! =)

New member of UNIQLO ^^

I've never really liked to sign up for memberships because:

1. I never really utilised the benefits
2. I always forgot to bring the membership cards along
3. As far as I could remember, i never redeemed any kinda membership points/benefits/perks for almost anything LoLxx
4. I kinda even 'hated' receiving those kinda stamp coupons because they always ended up somewhere in my bag.. wallet.. car... but always never used

But this time round, i actually self-initiated to sign up for UNIQLO's membership because its free and super hassle free! all i needed to do was download the UNIQLO app and i'm a member =) But before we go shopping.. we MUST always fill our stomachs first!

I know that usually for such food, the place to go to would be Kopitiams, hawkers etc. but it definitely isn't true for EAT.

While they are a typical food store chain that has several outlets around Singapore, they serve very very good Fishball Noodles and Satay Beehoon! In fact, there isn't a lot of places that serves decent Satay Beehoon now... But EAT. does a pretty decent job!

Amongst the few side dishes that they serve, the Fish Cake Roll and Fried Beancurd Skin is the best! Personally, i must order them whenever i dine at EAT. coupled with my favourite Kopi~ Heavenly~ =)

Another photo of the Satay Beehoon ~

And as i've posted in my Instagram, I AM HAPPY! ^^

Today was quite a shopping spree for us! Both wifey and I did not go home empty handed =)

Wifey bought her pretty dress from MDS

And i've got the neck warmer that i've been wanting to buy at UNIQLO!

p.s. I did not buy this to 'act'/'look' like a ninja, i bought it because we are going to Hokkaido in Dec! And the temperature over there is gonna be like -10 degrees! Can't wait to travel again!

We were just shopping around at UNIQLO and apart from the merchandises that were on limited offer; there were chino shorts (for men and women) going at $19.90 each and i don't have to elaborate how good the quality of the apparels at UNIQLO are. I chanced upon a signboard that says "For mobile members, price at $29.90!" and that was for a hoodie that i wanted to buy, usual price is $49.90! LoLxxx no need to wait liao~

Just install the UNIQLO app and when you open it, it will prompt you to reg. as a member. Once done, there is a weekly voucher page that shows you the deals of the week. So i just needed to present the eVoucher to the cashier to enjoy the discounted rates!

Wifey also wanted to buy to buy a hoodie and we both saved a total of $40! By just installing that app =) And i kinda like UNIQLO stuff too, and their outlet at NEX shopping mall is pretty huge so.. all the better =)

Heh~ We ended up splurging around $170 at UNIQLO but check out what we bought ^^ A total of 3 berms for me, 2 shorts for wifey, 1 hoodie each and a neck warmer! Super love the berms tooooooo its those kinda super soft material, can wear to 'nua' and also look presentable =)

I really think that UNIQLO's weekly voucher for their mobile members is really cool! no physical membership card required (which i totally hate) and the prices are really affordable! Hopefully when H&M opens at NEX they also got this kinda membership LoLx~ Speaking of which, I can't wait for Seletar Mall to be ready as well!

After all that 'hard work' at UNIQLO, Wifey and I had a mini b'day dinner for my mum at Knuckles, situated near Kovan, just beside Nakkhon Kitchen.

The place is super cosy, so much so that the lightings are only powered by a couple of bulbs and the candles by the tables.. Soooooo poorly lit that my poor Olympus E-PL6 just could get any nice crisps shots of the food and place over there T_T

Not to mention that the place only has 2 ceiling fans (okay... maybe 3?... but still) ... its super duper humid in there! The ceiling fans were moving at like taichi speed can... zzZZz Sweats~

Despite all that, a selfie is still a must =X

I must say that i kinda like their interior design though.. just that...

1. Too warm and stuffy!

2. Too dark! Too poorly lit!

3. Too cramp! Its packed with tables but every table (indoor) can only fit 4 person and there's simply no space to squeeze another table if you have more than 4 pax. The only way is to probably place another chair at either ends of the table... but the person would hafta open their legs really wide =X or else, i really dunno how he/she is gonna sit LoLxx

IMHO, the best dish at Knuckles, and it is ironically Truffle Mushroom Sauce Spaghetti. Nothing to do with Knuckles or whatever hahaHaah.

 The chicken chop... normal...

 German pork knuckles... normal.... in fact... disappointing....

Oh ya.. i forgot about their Pork Steak, this is pretty good though. Which means, there are only 2 main courses that i would recommend, the Truffle Mushroom Sauce Spaghetti and Pork Steak. Thats all~

Erm... not bad but not exactly fantastic =____+

 The Truffle Fries was pretty good but Wifey feels that it is kinda bland, the truffle taste isn't strong enough.

Last but not least, i think this place has a lot to improve on if they wanna survive.. They have a pretty decent location, great staff with good service and nice decorated interior. But those aside, the core of the business, the food and beverage, isn't too well managed and should be paid more attention.

To ease our 'sorrows' we went to Hatter's Cafe for Waffles! =X It's like our 9999 time there already wahaha. No pictures though, i already blogged about it 2 times ^^

Can't wait for our Japan trip!