Luckin Coffee Payday Best Day Promo

I'm starting to be a Luckin Coffee fan due to the many promotions that they have been running. Just had their Payday Best Day promo today with 2 cups of coffee at $8. Quite a good deal actually. Had an Yirgacheffe Latte (1 of their Black Cup series, i.e. special coffee) the other day, and tried an iced caramel macchiato on Friday. And yup I've already used that $0.99 promo previously. :)

They have many vouchers so honestly each cup of coffee is not expensive. Heh I can't get a kopi-o at $0.99 easily in town.

Yirgacheffe Latte from Luckin

Caramel Macchiato

Considering the many varieties of coffee that they are offering, I would get to try different flavours and not get bored. This month it is the Iced Minty Coconut Latte but nope I didn't try that. I might do that over this weekend if I "run into" another Lukcin Coffee outlet. lol. Other than the varieties, the ease of ordering (before you reach that outlet) with a pick up, scan and go, makes it really convenient for those in a hurry. 

I like the non-coffee stuff that Luckin Coffee is offering too. The strawberry Daifuku is nice and soft, just a bit small - one mouthful type of treats. Oh well that is at least something to go with the coffee. 

With as many as like 60 outlets in Singapore, I guess Luckin is doing well here. Nope I am not paid in any way by them, but yup I would continue to use their promo vouchers. heh.

Strawberry Daifuku

GE2025 - Poll Card is here

The poll card for GE2025 is here, and follows similar format to the past ones. Some cosmetic changes but nothing major. They added brochures (four languages) to describe the voting process during Polling Day, e.g. pressing down the self-inking stamp to mark an "X" next to the candidate that the voter prefers (and not on the face 😂).

Of course, what is a lot more interesting is the many physical rallies, and last night was the first night of campaigning rallies. After almost 10 years, the rallies are back, and no surprise that it was a huge turnout for WP's rally at the field along Anchorvale Cresent. Jams and road congestions happened around that field where the rally was held. The physical rallies lent a certain atmospheric feel to the elections; a proof that democracy is alive well and good in this tiny island of Singapore. 

Some argue that those at the rallies might not work for the rallying parties. Well vote or not, the fact that a huge crowd turn out just to hear what the candidates are saying, is a good sign that people care. And regardless of who we vote for, hopefully we would all stay united since the times ahead are certainly going to be choppy given how geo-politics are developing around the world. 

Ok, here's the poll card. They added a QR Code that allows voters to check their polling station queue, which is a nice improvement (we had complaints during the last election about long queues).

Poll Card 2025

See also: GE 2015 - Poll Card

And: GE 2011 - Poll Card has arrived

Singapore General Election 2025 Possible May Polling Day Date

It is that time again where once every 5 years the Singaporeans get a chance to wield their citizens' rights to vote. This time it is against the backdrop of possible global recession (and thus a likely recession in Singapore) and the first general election led by the Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

Well which day could it be? All signs pointed to May 2025, and it is likely within the next two weeks the Writ of Election would be served.

Yes, Parliament has to be dissolved and Writ of Election served before the Election truly starts. This weekend (and last weekend) we have seen appearance of many more potential candidates with declaration of the constituency that they would be contesting in. The electoral divisions could be found on ELD's website. The screenshot is also capture from the ELD website, i.e. all rights belong to them.

Singapore 2025 Electoral Divisions. Source ELD website.

With the Writ of Election, we would have Nomination Day next, and then the rallies! When election was held during COVID, there was no physical rallies. It is only in physical rallies that one could feel the electrifying sense of participating in national level activities. 

So yes, which dates do I bet to be the actual Polling Day? I would venture a guess of 9th May as the date. 9th May is a Friday, which means an extra day of rest except for the election officials. 12th May is a Public Holiday, i.e. Vesak Day. So for a voter, he / she could vote in the morning and hop onto a plane or bus for a holiday in nearby countries for as many as a 4 Days 3 Night break. Helps to build in positivity and indeed helps in sentiments for the current establishment.

Any difficulty for the schools? Schools are often the place used for polling and thus the logistics is always an important element. Well, just make 8th May a Home Based Learning day where the student study from home, and viola, problem solved!

So I will stick with a 9th May 2025 prediction date for the actually Polling Day in Singapore's General Election 2025, and wait for my Polling Card in the coming weeks. Heh like what I did in GE2015 and GE2011. Exciting weeks ahead!

Post event edit - well I guessed wrongly. It was announced today that the Polling Day would be held on 3rd May (Saturday). Oh well.

Cured Egg Yolks (Homemade Salted Eggs)

It is that time of the year where we have some extra time to try out new things, and heh generally the beginning of year is a good time for new stuff. So I have decided to make some cured egg yolks after watching those YouTube video cooking recipes.

Indentations in salt for yolks

The process seems a simple one - packet of salt and some sugar (I didnt add any spices since this is my first trial), And of course EGGS! There were a number of hyper market promotions about chicken eggs, so the cost of eggs is bearable enough to waste a few eggs on a new trial.

I poured the salt and sugar mixture into a plastic container, made two indentation and keep some of the mixture to cover the yolks later. Originally I wanted to make 3 cured yolks, but I over-estimated my skill of sifting the yolks and broke 1. So I have two nice yolks to cure instead.

Broken egg yolk

Cover the yolks with salt

Put the yolks into the two indentations and gently cover them with the remaining mixture. Gentle is the word because I wouldn't want to break yolks now, or the entire container worth of salt, sugar and yolks would have to be discarded.

As per the instructions from those YouTube videos, I put the container into the fridge for 5 days (the timing varies it seems but 5 days looks like a reasonable period). The cured yolks were a bit gooey and still looked somewhat uncooked. The colour is a nice orange amber like shade. So I baked the yolks in oven for a short while under low heat.

Baking the yolks in oven

Cured Egg Yolks (pre-baked)

So are the cured egg yolks tasty? Well, they tasted like the normal salted eggs that we can buy from the hypermarkets - i.e. those cured duck eggs that we used for porridge and mooncakes. Thus for a substitute that I can get for about $0.60 per egg, I think this is too much trouble. Maybe some day I will add some other spices and perhaps the cured egg yolks could be used for say, fried rice instead. Hmm.

Singapore will have more vegetables farms but less fish farms

So coincidental that the day after I posted the blog post about Supporting Locally Produced Vegetables, the Straits Times ran a few articles about local vegetable farms. The first article is "Local farms push ahead with international collaborations to further Singapore's 30 by 30 plans", starting with how Mr Webster Tham of Tomato Town is collaborating with Japanese companies to grow cherry tomatos. They were producing kales and lettuce as well. The article mentioned other companies in different state of developments.

I guess it is only natural that a non - agricultural country like Singapore, would look towards collaborations with agricultural companies for advanced agricultural techniques and sustainable practices. These collaborations should help our farmers improve production efficiency, with resilience against pests (not sure what insects in tropical Singapore eats tomatos), and innovate e.g. vertical farming.

Then there is this other Straits Time article that push innovative concept of farm to table dining for Singapore. Article is about a copany Artisan Green, who wanna implement sustainable farming practices with a dining venue, plus some tours and workshops to raise awareness about the benefits of local agriculture and sustainable eating. Not sure if I want to at right in the middle of a farm in humid Singapore weather. Tried wine tasting and dining in Australia, but that is against a nice beautiful scenery plus great weather.

Oh well, worth trying I guess.

But more importantly back to the 30 by 30 concept, I think it is also great that we try not to waste food, i.e. this 30 by 30 is afterall trying to build some resiliency locally for food consumption. And if we can waste less food, I think it works too! So it is great that we have apps and initiatives to cut down waste, for example article about this app to promote retailers selling discounted food near closing time. I really dont mind getting bread and pastry at a discount near the stalls' closing time, since I normally eat the bread for breakfast the next day anyways (i.e. dont need to buy the bread at an earlier timing).

So yes! 30 by 30, and less food waste!

By the way, vegetables farms seem to be working well, but the fish farms are suffering. The linked article showed that a quarter of fish farms are closing / had closed down in Singapore. Tough life for fisherman.

Support Local - Buy locally produced vegetables & eggs

I was buying my grocery at the NTUC Fairprice when I chanced upon their marketing banner to urge the shoppers to buy locally produced vegetables. Heh the locally produced vegetables are typically priced higher than those from Malaysia or China. I recalled there was a government initiative to sustainably produce 30% of our nutritional needs by 2030, i.e. that "30 by 30" programme, see this "Our Food Future" website. So I guess there is some reminder and support by NTUC Fairprice for this government food initiative. 

Support Local Food Supply - NTUC Fairprice

I am all for supporting local initiatives! Although to be honest there were only a few boxes of locally produced vegetables at the NTUC Fairprice. There is limited variety produced given our weather and limited land supply. I saw some packs of Xiao Baicai and Caixin hua. Sometimes I wonder how our local vegetables farmers can survive given there is not enough scale for their production nor could they compete in terms of pricing against the farmers in Malaysia or China. Yes I bought a pack of the Yili vegetables. I hope there would also be some form of government support for these local farmers, e.g. for some of the government events (e.g. those involving food and such), the organisers should also source from these local farms.

Vegetables from Yili

Further down the shopping aisle I saw this other promotion. This time the promotion is about Chew's Eggs, and great it is another local producer of food! The promotion is a lot more attractive this time round - Buy 2 trays of eggs and Get 1 Free tray. Essentially this translates to about 33% discount if the shopper buys 3 trays of eggs in total. Given all the concerns about food inflation and such, naturally this deal would be attractive to shoppers.

Chew's Eggs - Buy 2 Get 1 Free

Personally I think we could do more to support local producers of food. It was quite sad to know our local farmers (and fishermen) face many challenges when we know (or should know) food supply is a very key ingredient for our national security. I believe the price of chicken hasn't dropped since supply has been restricted from our neighboring country - the few pieces of chicken on our hawker chicken rice is honestly quite pathetic.

This was especially stark during the COVID period when everyone was worried about our food supply. I remembered that shelves were empty and the many shoppers frantically just grabbed any food that they could find. Now that COVID is over, I think our planners should at least pour in more resources or help to make sure the "30 by 30" programme succeed. Hopefully local enterprises like NTUC Fairprice could also help these local farmers (say local commission?).

Planting Sprouted Russet Potato

With the recent rush of rainfall, punctured by periods of bright sunshine, it is no wonder that my bag of potatoes have sprouted. It is quite a sad development actually because we didn't get a chance to use any of the potatoes at all - waste of food. Yes, we have learnt to cover the bag of potatoes and keep them away from sunlight.

Nonetheless here's the bag of potatoes, and the many spuds growing out of the potatoes. I have been advised not to eat them anymore or I might have food poisoning. 

Sprouted russet potatoes

If we zoomed in, we can see the sprouts, although I am not sure why the tips have a darker / black colour. Are these black tips the signs of growing leaves? Can russet potatoes grow in our humid climate?

So I have decide to plant it! No I don't have a garden with sufficient soil for potato planting, but oh well, let's give one of the potatoes a chance to grow right? So I have tried it using a shallow glass container. After a few darks the tips darkened further, and I guess it might not survive for very long. Hopefully it at least grow some leaves and maybe last a few weeks.

Sprouted Potato in glass pot