Tang Tea House

Last Saturday night, I took Irza out for supper, while Inka has already sleeping. Since were were not too sure where to go, I decided to go to Tang Tea House.

This MUIS-certified halal Chinese "makan" place is recommended by my friends from the IMAS community. Its specialty is the tim sum, although it also provides any other types of dishes such as chicken rice, seafood and even shark fin soup.

It was past midnight when I and Irza reached there. It's located at Simpang Bedok, along Bedok Road, opposite the Bedok Market Place. It provides a very nice and cozy alfresco seating arrangement. It's just a short 15 minutes walk from Tanah Merah MRT station, although if you don't want to walk, you can also take bus number 2 or 9 from Tanah Merah MRT station, or bus number 10 from Tampines bus interchange.

I ordered four (yes, it's FOUR) dishes of tim sum: my favourite chicken feet, siew mai (siomay in Indonesian), har kow (shrimp dumplings) and chicken pau, which is requested by Irza since it's his favourite.

However, Irza loves the chicken rice, which I specifically ordered for him. His comment is that even without the chicken and the soup, the rice itself is very nice. He also loves the har kow with the shrimp inside.

The price is, surprisingly, reasonable. A dish of siew mai (3pcs) and har kow (3pcs) costs $2.50, chicken feet costs $2.20 and chicken pau (2pcs) costs only $1.60. My longan drink only costs $1.80 while Irza's milo dinosaur costs $2.80. His chicken rice (a set of rice, chicken and soup) costs only $3.

More pictures can be found here.

Kastengel ala Indra and Inka-Irza

Following last year's success in making kastengel cheese cookies, I made the same cookies last Saturday afternoon to celebrate this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri, before we went to the KBRI's buka puasa event.

Following exactly the same recipes as last year, I mixed 200 grams of margarine and 50 grams of butter with 2 egg yolks, and then manually mixed them with 350 grams of plain flour and 200 grams of shredded edam cheese. After shaping, I put egg yolk and shredded cheddar cheese as toppings before putting them on a tray and bake them inside the oven under 170 degree Celcius temperature for about 20-30 minutes.

During the kastengel cookies making procees, I got help from Inka and eventually Irza who also wanted to join the fun :), while my wife helped us to bake them.

Before someone is asking :), no, I don't take orders. :) I'm only making these cookies for personal and family consumption only... :) :)

More pictures can be found here.

Weekend Trip to Johor

Two weekends ago, we drove up to Johor for a short weekend getaway, to celebrate our 9th anniversary as well as testing my new GPS receiver to Malaysia.

We stayed at Cinta Ayu All Suites Hotel [ note: Cinta Ayu, not Cinta Laura :P :P ], a nice apartment-type hotel located in the vicinity of Pulai Springs Resort. This resort is located on the outskirts of Johor Bahru, along the main road leading to Pontian.

Although the resort is meant more for golfers (since it's surrounded by two 18-hole golf courses), it also provides quite good facilities for families as well. Other than the hotel's swimming pool which is located on the second floor, we can also use the main resort's facilities, including the swimming pools which have nice views over the golf course and mount Pulai. One of the swimming pools is also equipped with a slide, which Irza enjoys very much.

We chose a 2-bedroom type of apartment for S$170 per night, which is booked online from AsiaTravel and includes breakfast for 4 persons. The 1-bedroom type is also available for S$128 per night. The breakfast is provided at the Cinta Terrace restaurant and the food is quite nice. There's also a spa facility at the sports centre, and the price is quite reasonable. Quite worth the value for money, in my opinion.

We were not only making use of the hotel's facilities, but also made some side trips to couple of locations in and around Johor Bahru, either for food or sightseeing.

On Saturday (12/4) afternoon, we went to AEON Tebrau City and had lunch at the JUSCO food court located on the second floor. This was our third visit to this biggest shopping mall in Johor, and other than the food court, we also went there for the amusement centre for the kids (which is located just next to the food court) and, of course, the Breadtalk bakery shop and its popular spicy chicken floss buns, which is halal in Malaysia.

In the evening, we visited Danga Bay and had dinner in one of the BBQ seafood restaurants there. The food is superbly delicious, and the price is surprisingly reasonable.

We had our dinner in an alfresco seating environment, with trains passing by giving amusement for the kids. We actually could ride the train however we were not able to find the location of the station where we could buy the ticket and board the trains. :( The kids were disappointed for not being able to ride the train. Will have to find the exact location of the station when we go there again. Anyone knows? :)

On Sunday (13/4), after checking out of the hotel, we went to Gunung Pulai and since the main recreational forest park is closed, we went to a less-visited attraction spot located south of the main park. My GPS told me that there is a waterfall on that spot as well, however when we went there we couldn't find it. Just saw some parked cars and some food stalls, and some locals having a bath in the river there.

Another thing I would like to share is that now we do not have to fill in the Malaysia immigration cards when we pass through their immigration, making trips to Malaysia much easier now.

More pictures can be found here and here.

Housewarming Event at Om Bagus and Tante Luki's New Residence

On a nice Sunday afternoon, we went to Anchorvale in Sengkang, north-east of Singapore, to attend a "housewarming" event at om Bagus and tante Luki's new residence there. The food is all wonderfulicious, with the hosts preparing sambal goreng, fried chicken, tekwan, siomay for lunch, with all the desserts such as fruit jelly and watermelon fruit cuts thrown in.

Inka and Irza were very happy playing with all their friends there, both in the house and at the playground outside the block. Irza even took some pictures of the event, together with other photographer-kids Kanaya and Fresha. All the three little photographers were using their respective parent's cameras, and they ended up taking pictures of each other. :) :)

Irza, as well as Kanaya, were fond of and a big fan of Naurin, tante Lenny's baby daughter. That explains why Irza took quite a lot of her pictures. Irza were also taking pictures of om Yuwono who were trying to take pictures of the three little photographers. :) :)

Well, some of you might asked, why Irza prefers to play with the girls (especially pretty girls like Fresha or Kanaya :P :P) rather than with the boys? :) Because Irza always tend to fight, and not play, with the boys, hahaha... Which reminds me or another thing, sometimes Irza refers himself as a "playboy". Of course, his definition of playboy is "a boy who likes to play...."

More pictures during the event can be found here, while the pictures taken by Irza (which some of them has been cropped and edited by me for your pleasure viewing) can be found here. Other pictures can also be found here (thanks to Mbak Ati).

Inka's 8th Birthday

Inka was having her 8th birthday on 11 December 2007, and we celebrated her birthday by inviting some of our Indonesian friends over for BBQ gathering at our apartment's BBQ pit and club house, on Sunday evening, 16 December 2007.

My wife ordered the birthday cake from her friend Syanti, and the theme of the cake is dinosaurs, Inka's favourite creatures. More pictures of the birthday cake before delivered to us can be found here.

Similar to Irza's BBQ birthday party last August, we ordered the bulgogi chicken satay and black pepper beef satay from Seoul Garden. For this event, my wife also ordered the famous Braddell satay from Hany, which is a hit for the kids. My wife also made her special home-made macaroni schotel.

Some of the kids also had the chance to swim at the swimming pool, which is located just next to the BBQ pit. Unfortunately, it was raining near dusk, and we had to move the party to the club house, which is located behind the BBQ pit. The kids were also having fun playing piñata.

Some of Inka and Irza's friends who came include Aidan, Hanan and Haifa, Marsya, Fazil, Naira and Fauzan, Annisa and Nadia, Nadira and Adam, Titis, Zahira, Ivan and Rayna.

More pictures can be found here.

Mak's Place Hawkerant

Last Sunday night (4 November 2007), I and the whole family went to Tanjong Katong Complex in Geylang, not far from Paya Lebar MRT station, to buy Inka's traditional Malay dress (baju kurung) for her school's event. After which, we went to Mak's Place Hawkerant for dinner. Thanks to Teh Ellen for guiding us to go there over the phone. The "hawkerant" (restaurant with hawker's cheaper price, as they claimed) is located along Changi Road, not far from Kembangan MRT station.

If you drive along Changi Road from east (Bedok) towards west (Geylang), the restaurant is located on the right side of the road, just after you see Kassim mosque and Hotel 81 (Changi) on your left. You can park along Changi Road or in several carparks nearby, although sometimes it's a bit difficult to find a carpark lot during evening peak time.

Inka specially ordered sliced fish porridge while Irza ordered shark fin soup for appetizers. We ordered fried butter squid, hotplate spicy chicken and mixed vegetables (chap chay) for the main dishes, ice milo, ice barley and ice green tea for the drinks, and some ice creams for the kids' desserts.

The service is quite efficient, served by mostly Indian servants, similar to Al-Ameen or Al-Azhar. However, it took quite long for us to wait for the food to be served after ordering, perhaps around 20-30 minutes? Luckily there's a stray cat there which amuse the kids and they kept on following the cat wherever it goes... :)

More pictures can be found here.