2016 In Review

Always be grateful for your today, that might be what others were craving for but couldn't reach to. Be thankful; Be filial; Be lovely; Be whatever you knew is legally right to be. At least two decades we have been lived through. With making the same wishes for a new coming year but never achieved. Is because have no planning, no effort and no dream. As you knew that nothing gained with no pain.

I cannot believe December is going to over. It seemed to fly by so quickly this month and I am not looking forward to end my holiday/my Christmas. I would be find with another few more December. With only one day left in year 2016, I thought it would be appropriate to look back at some of my favorite memories this year.

Dancing Hair & Fragrance

Imagine if you could get fragrance emitted from your hair, and how fascinating that will be. Every lady has a wish, she wish to has long, thick, healthy and shiny hair. To maintain a beautiful healthy hair is a common habit that almost every lady has. But not everyone could make hair to emit fragrance. Therefore, the way to make a beautiful healthy hair to emit fragrance will be a vogue topic these days. Sometime when you are just going out from house to supermarket, probably you do not wish to put some perfume on, you wish you could still be gorgeous by emitting the fragrance from your hair. Sounds great because it makes others think that is pure natural fragrance when you are passing by and without meticulously dressed up.

It Makes Great For World Travelling # Casio Baby-G

I had discovered my second Baby-G watch. As from Casio new launch, this series combine with attractive jet black color finish. Black is always my first choice. Today trend, everyone follows to Apple iPhone 7 jet black series, and so we follow to Baby-G black too. Casio Baby-G versions are in femme style, designed in a smaller size of strap which obviously different with G-Shock. Generally is a perfect companion for sport, its design reflects stylish fashion trend and make these watches a tough eye-catcher. You could be fashionable and get ready for the outdoors during summer, especially in our country, Singapore.

A Whirlwind Journey, Jeju Province

Korea’s Hawaii. A Tropical Paradise “Very Famous in Korea.” All those adjectives, and more have been used to describe Jeju no matter who or when it has come up in conversation since we’ve been here. Obviously curious to see what this tropical utopia is all about, I decided to take few days to down to this island off the southern coast of Korea. I spent three days there, was temporarily leaving away from the hustle and bustle city, Seoul. I landing at Seoul the day before and spent one night over there. Had put our main luggage at hotel (Royal Hotel Seoul) before heading to Gimpo international Airport owing to there is no luggage check in allowance with the plane that I was going to take (JejuAir). 

Pandora Christmas

Christmas songs are playing everywhere; Every corner, every district in Singapore. We love Christmas, as we love winter, christmassy all along, and we love to have a beloved one to stay right beside. Conjectured that almost every lady has her own dream Christmas day, Christmas gift and Christmas celebration to create an unforgettable memory. 

Pandora, a jewelry brand which is well known to everyone. It emphasize to create consummate memory, to remember every single important date in your life. They had countless design of bracelet charm, that was their signature. Every charm comprises different of significant: Love, Family, Friendship, Horoscopes, Characteristics, Countries Culture, Numbers, World, Travelling, Chinese New Year, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Christmas and so on. Just to get one Pandora plain bracelet, and you could get charms to match with it. I formed a habit in buying Pandora charms, during every trip and festival. And the Pandora item numbered 791773CZ Christmas Stocking Red Enamel & Clear was the charm that I received as gift for this upcoming Christmas. 

Product details (from Pandora official website): Indulge in Christmas cheer and treat a loved one to this sweet sterling silver stocking charm. Delicately crafted with a cute teddy bear in a holiday hat, this whimsical charm is sure to bring a smile to your face and will be a cute addition to any holiday themed bracelet styling.

Give the perfect Pandora gift this Christmas with Pandora Christmas collection. To keep memories close to you and beloved one. Christmas is just few weeks away, Pandora distributes signature black color pouch and silver case upon purchase. 

There is "Gift Of The Day" when you visit Singapore Pandora official website: http://www.pandora.net/en-sg

It  will participate for your chance to win Pandora Christmas gift by just click in, and fill in your personal information. Hope you will be a luckiest one to receive gift from Pandora Santa Claus. 

Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong MyeongDong | 明洞姜虎东烤肉

It will never to get bored with Korean cuisine. Korean style barbecue is so well-known nowadays. Korean barbecue restaurants are opened everywhere in Singapore, and of course it can be found at almost every corner in Korea. You will never feel how great to having a barbecue meal in Korea until you did, especially is during winter season. Kang Ho Dong BBQ is one of the famous BBQ restaurant in Seoul, specialised with their thick juicy texture of meat and baked eggs. I am not a beef consumer, pork is my only favourite choice for barbecue. 

Korea Roadside Peddles Foods @ MyeongDong Street Foods

This happened on almost half a year ago, during spring season in Korea. I been at Seoul Myeongdong for a week. This post gonna focus on Myeongdong street roadside peddles foods though I have a lot of Korean foods posts still pending. We would prefer to get roadside peddles foods the most, especially at Myeongdong street. Append is my sharing, all about the foods. 

1. Steamed Egg Cake  (Score: **/*****)

This was the first Korean snack I ate at Myeongdong street, and it wasn't the only one peddlers to selling this. With no any idea and had just choose either one. I love the cake, it taste like pancake; but a bit dry for the steamed egg especially its egg-yolk. Overall it was lacking in flavor, and I think supposed to be a little bit salty or sweeter. 

Recommended Hawker Food # Bai Nian at Bugis

I still remember back in School when I would sprint to the canteen during recess, just to get that plate of dried wan tan mee with black sauce and the dumplings that in the soup. In Kuala Lumpur, wan tan mee is quiet a common dish that you would see it at almost every hawker centre/food court/restaurant. It is so common as for our breakfast, lunch and even supper. And when I began my life in The Lion City, wan tan mee over here is taste strange to me. Some are even with tomato sweet sauce instead of common black sauce as what I used to have in Kuala Lumpur. It is on few weeks ago, I got the recommendation about one dried noodle at Bugis area. I had googled it before going to, the photos I browsing through online were literally raised my cravings. This will be the first Singapore hawker food in my blog.

The stall name comes first.

"Bai Nian", I do not know why is people called it as Bai Nian Yong Tau Foo. The scene comes into my mind is those common Yong Tau Foo as I saw at every food court. They put the cart before the horse when they sell every assortment of Yong Tau Foo that is filled with the same fish paste (the white color thing), probably is from the same supplier. Which is the foods that I dislike the most. What I had in Malaysia is really filled with self-made ingredients, might be minced of meat, prawn, fish and even salted fish as well. Therefore, all I saw in Singapore have disappointed me so far. By the way, as aforementioned the photos of Bai Nian dishes have raised my cravings whatsoever.

When my first encounter a steaming bowl of stuffed bean curd from Bai Nian, I literally be mystified.

As far as the eye can see, has no bean curd whatsoever. Instead, there is a whole lot of stuffing, sticks of minced pork and batons of minced prawn. Bai Nian is truer to the spirit than the letter of the dish, with the attention it pays to the stuffing. Among the items, the prawn stick is the most surprising. The mince is smooth, but not too fine, such that you discern separate juicy morsels in each bite. Somehow, the stall has improved on nature and made prawns sweeter and springier. The pork stick has great taste and texture. The bean curd skin-covered fishcake is silky outside and firm inside, while the bean curd skin-covered pork stick is rougher outside and softer inside. And there is few small scallops mixed with it.

They only have 2 selling prices, $5 for regular size, $7 for upsize. Upsize is for the ingredients in the soup instead of for the noodle. You may choose to upsize the noodle as well with no any extra charges, how awesome it was! I do not know how is the queue during lunch time, I used to be there during dinner hour 8pm. So far been there for twice and I never met any long queue. To start your first try, 

01-58 Albert Centre 270 Queen Street

(Nearby Bugis Mrt station)

Opening hours from 8:30am to 9pm Monday to Saturday only 

Typical Singaporean Breakfast (Part 1)

Singaporean breakfast is something of a varied concept. It not must be any grain, croissant, egg benedict etc. Singaporeans used to take breakfast at hawkers and kopitiam, especially during working days. It is as common in Singapore as Starbucks is in the US. Those foods must not only can be lunch or dinner, if an eating house or hawker is serving it in the morning, it can be breakfast, it can be eaten at any time of day. No anyone will look twice if you get a plate of wantan noodle or fried noodle for your breakfast. We are living in a bustle country, but if you have a few minutes to spare, sit down to take your traditional Singaporean breakfast at hawker centers or kopitiams, it is a kind of enjoyable moment in the morning. Append below are just 5 breakfast options to get your day started energetic. 

1. Roti Prata

An Indian food which most commonly to be seen in Singapore and Malaysia, a fried flatbread and usually served with a meat-based curry sauce for dipping. Depends by every different food store, you can ask if can get chicken curry sauce or fish curry sauce instead. The roti is thinner and less chewy, with more of a crisp tender contrast. You can choose to eat roti prata (plain roti) or even with butter/chopped onion/eggs/sardine fish added in. But... Singaporean style "one roti prata and one egg prata"! 

Location: Tampines Central 1, Blk 505

2. Wanton Noodle

Wanton mee (Wanton noodle) is probably one of everyone's favorite local dish. Wanton is the small dumpling that usually served with the noodle, either steamed or fried. Two types of wanton mee are soup based and dried based. As what I knew in Singapore Malaysia Hong Kong, wanton mee used to be eaten for breakfast and lunch. And so, when it comes to breakfast, I prefer dried based wanton mee over the soup based. Don't really like to take hot soup especially in a busy weekday morning. Second characteristic of wanton mee is char siu slices (the Chinese style barbecued pork), it has to be a bit fatty to make dish palatable. 

Location: First Love Wanton, Kopitiam, Tampines Mart, Tampines Street 32

3. Chwee Kueh

Chwee kueh is one kind of breakfast which popular in Singapore and Malaysia. It is a type of steamed rice cake and every single piece has shaped as mini bowl, it served with chye poh (fried chopped radish)  and Chinese style chili sauce. Most of the Chye poh provided taste salty, some are sweet. Perfect taste combined with the plain steamed rice cake plus salted fried chye poh and homemade chili sauce. Singaporeans will request for "more chye poh" when buying chwee kueh, food store owners usually are happy to give you even more without extra charges. 

Location: First Love Noodle, Kopitiam, Tampines Mart, Tampines Street 32

4. Youtiao With Coffee

Youtiao known as Chinese style fried stick, called as Chinese doughnut sometimes. It is a long golden fried bread-stick (about 25cm length), two youtiao (bread-stick) as one piece. A traditional snack in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Youtiao can be eaten plain without any sauce, especially enjoy its crisp texture when just deep fried from hot oil. As breakfast, Singaporeans used to dunk it into a hot coffee, sometimes replaced by hot milo or hot soy bean milk. 

Location: Koufu Shop, Commonwealth MRT Station

5. Economical Fried Noodle/Beehoon/KueyTeow

A common and humble local dish, it serves as a delightful breakfast for the locals here in Singapore. Singaporeans used to dabao (take away) economical fried noodle/beehoon/kueyteow to work, or sit at the hawker to dine. It is literally perfectly-flavored and with some side dish like sausage, luncheon meat, poached egg, otak-otak, fried chicken wing, fish cake etc. If anyone was here as a tourist, forget about the egg benedict in any classy cafeteria, and this fried noodle will definitely brighten up your Singapore trip indeed. 

Location: Holland Village Fried Noodle, Tampines Central 1, Blk 505

Health + Fitness + Positive

I believe everyone does know about healthy fitness. And not only for men, but for women would do gym very often. Eat clean, regular exercise no matter where and when. To keep a fit body shape and healthier life. Nowadays they were not just a trend, but a lifestyle. Attached video was imported from YouTube, by YouTube channel simply_angieraa. A cheerful girl I ever met, Angella Choong. She was talented in dancing, singing and piano playing. With every single things she does, literally with good outcome.

Implausible but it's truth, she won herself a journey to California, United States for Year 2016 Disney® Marathon in September 2016 with participating a video contest, get ready herself to control health and fitness for the race. Video reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owqUs9p8mzU

Herewith sharing this awesome video and hope it would motivate and inspire you, that is Angella's mission. Subscribe her YouTube Channel simply_angieraa, stay tuned for her forthcoming videos and we wait for her news about the fabulous California journey.

Scrumptious Aglio Olio

Aglio Olio is one of my favourite Italian pasta dishes. Aglio Olio means "Garlic and Oil" in Italian, and one of the simplest pasta dishes to make. This is one dish which I don't mind drenched in oil. Authentic Aglio Olio only has a few key ingredients, just garlic, olive oil and pasta, so this is something you can whip up with minimum ingredients. For the light and fresh testing Aglio Olio, I find that I can easily finish my plate and still left hungry for just a bit more.

By the way with this cravings, I had discovered few restaurants which serve nice Aglio Olio in Singapore. Among all and there is one which deeply impressed me by their enrichment of garlic slices in their Aglio Olio, the Peperoni Pizzeria.

Peperoni Pizzeria is comfortable, unpretentious and welcoming, best known for their signature giant size of pizza (21 inch diameter). I ordered the smallest size when I were there, about size 8 inch of diameter, pizza as the crust is super thin and crispy with good variety of toppings. All the ordered dishes to be served in a speedy serving time, it is about 5 minutes. Overall the highest rating given with combination of everything place and staffs are warm enough, food quality has always been consistent.  

Wave House Sentosa, a beachside Californian style restaurant. Order up a jug of coke, fish and chips, Aglio Olio and fried chicken tulips. Not a rowdy crowd, not too noisy. They have a bar, beachside and indoor dining area.

Their Aglio Olio is not same as aforementioned enrichment of garlic slices from Peperoni Pizzeria, but in a pool of fresh al dente shrimps (about 7pcs with size dia 4cm) , which pink in color, bouncy in texture and slightly firm with a slight hint of a crunch. That is what I like the most.

With next coming visit to Sentosa, I would blog more about Sentosa delicacy. 

Hong Kong Bound

Literally memorable that I made it to Hong Kong on last month, January 2016, a first trip in this year. 

That was so good when traveling there. I would say Hong Kong is always great, with beautiful scenery, tasty foods and good weather. 

Traveling with Singapore Airlines is always best and needed. The world ranking no.2 of World Best Airlines in year 2015. Also known as Safest Airline in the world.

Ref: http://www.worldairlineawards.com/awards/world_airline_rating.html

That wasn't a trip mainly for delicacies, but a relaxable journey instead. It was time to temporarily away from Singapore, such a hustle and bustle city. And also everyone should knows the weather in Hong Kong in between December to February, especially February. And I was going there in January, weather is about 16° and no raining. 

I had an awesome hotel in Hong Kong, a fabulous staying with Harbour Grand Hotel. Hong Kong land is like two coasts with sea separates capital (Central area) and Victoria Harbour. Aforementioned hotel is located at the capital side, nearby Fortress Hill station. As I got the second VIP room and it was with a sea view at higher storey-39. 

Few places that I went to, the unforgettable one is site for TVB drama (Gong Xin Ji) shooting, Lai Chi garden which nearby Mei Foo station. As a supporter of TVB drama for years and I went to their site like finally. I love Cantonese speaking, I love TVB drama and so I love Hong Kong.

Usually Hong Kong is meant as island of gourmet foods. But as it wasn't the main reason when I selecting Hong Kong as destination of first trip of the year, therefore I never tried much signature well-known foods like barbecue (chicken rice, cha siew etc), chee cheong fun, dim sum and so on. What I had is bought "yu dan" (curry fish balls) from road side stall, wantan noodle from road side stall and Tsui Wah restaurant, "boh loh bao" (pineapple bun) from Tsui Wah restaurant, eggtarts from normal bakery shop instead of famous one, and the signature Hong Kong milk tea. I like Hong Kong milk tea, I did take 2 cups of milk tea in every single meal. 

Append below are photos taken during that Hong Kong trip, all remain as original picture without any filter edited is just to keep them real for good reference. 

Amazing trip with Hong Kong and will be back there again soon. 

How to keep hair gentle smooth #Hair care solutions

A new trend of short hair has raised my attention on it. Among all of my blogger friends, they done hair cut from long hair to short hair and it's just for a new year 2016. I had think of it repeatedly, I keep a long hair for years, it never been short. And now, the hair stylist literally did not disappointed me, he got me a good hair style for this fabulous new year. 

Sizzling hot all year round in Singapore. In fact, women's hair is much difficult to be maintain as smooth without any damaged. With a good hair would brighten your days indeed. The way to tend and protect your hair isn't just based on a bottle of hair treatment cream. It is necessary to choose a suitable shampoo, hair treatment cream, "leave on" type hair conditional and a good hair dryer. And based on my own experiences, I was realized that almost every brand of shampoo/conditioner/treatment cream is good to use during first few times but became "no result" after that. In fact that 3 crucial matters caused it. 

1. Individual hair type.

2. Never formed a habit of blow drying the hair after shower. 

3. Do not use only 1 brand of hair shampoo and conditioner. Use two different brands of shampoo and conditioner to makes hair remain strong in nutrition adsorbability.  

Append below are the products for my own daily use. Used to get hair care products from any online store, especially refuse to use any been advertised in TV advertising film. Would prefer refer to real results from other users when I buying something from online store instead of those been advertised exaggeratedly in advertising film. 

The KAFEN brand shampoo and treatment cream. So far the best brand of hair care product I ever used. Purchased it from Malaysia online store, costed MYR180 and come as set (shampoo, treatment cream and conditioner oil). Aside to the mentioned conditional oil, it was been omitted from this post owing to I don't use it. Own preference, I always prefer to use conditional cream instead of oily product. This shampoo is exclusive for permed and colored hair. Commonly I would perm my hair and do hair color touch up always. When finished from washing hair after this shampoo (red color bottle), hair will be unsmooth owing to it is discharging the harmful chemical from hair. Therefore, to apply the relevant treatment cream (yellow color bottle) on hair is a must do. Concept of 2 in 1 to complete the hair wash. 

The KERASYS brand, oriental premium shampoo and conditioner. I have forgotten its price, should be around SGD60 for 2 bottles (shampoo plus conditioner), will be available to get from any Watson store. Different with KAFEN, this shampoo is mainly for normal hair type instead of specified perm/colored hair. 

This SBARK hair protein cream was recommended by my hair stylist. An economical yet efficient hair care product ever, costed MYR80. The mentioned "conditioner cream" above is to let readers to understand but it's actually considered as protein as hair needed. 

It comes as creamed type, a fingertip of it is enough for my short hair. As use twice a day, it is sufficient to use for more than 6 months long. Apply it on towel dried hair and hair will not be oily after used. Last but not least, blow drying your hair is a must do. 

Choose a good hair dryer, first important feature is the hair dryer comes with "cold and hot air". 

As hot air will dry a lot faster but make sure to keep moving the air dryer so it doesn't fry your hair. And hot air for blow drying does more damage to hair and removes moisture, we should blow drying hair with cold air if we aren't rushing time. The way I use when rushing time, is to use hot air to dry it more (about 40%) at the first, then turn to cold air after that. Blow drying your hair after applied hair care product will helps to increase its efficiencies. Leave your hair dry naturally after applied the hair cafe product is considered as never applied. I hope this post would be helpful for you to make your hairs become prettier and healthier, consistently do these to turn your damaged hair becomes gentle smooth.