Whampoa Food Street (Keng) Fish Head Steamboat

In my late teens years, my family often went to Whampoa market on Sunday for the fish head steamboat. Often the queue was long and we had to wait for nearly an hour. So when we heard that there was another Whampoa Fish Head steamboat around Rangoon Road we naturally became frequent diners at the place.

Over time somehow, the quality of the Whampoa Fish Head at Rangoon Road has dropped somewhat. Nonetheless the charcoal steamboat with flavourful soup is still a great place to have dinner, especially when it is raining.

They added fried yam and a sour plum to the soup, which gave the soup base a richness that is mouth watering. We had pomfret fish when I took this photo. The fish slices are fresh, just be careful about the fish bones, as expected of fish head steamboat.

Part of the reason why the steamboat is good is the chilli they served. The mix of lime, chilli and garlic removes any fishy smell the fish slices might have, and yet the sourish, spicy mixture has an appertising effect.

Other than the fish head steamboat, they have other normal zi char dishes. This plate of dou miao that they charged for $8 is actually quite cheap.

So for those who want to have charcoal fish head steamboat without too long a queue, you could try the one located at Rangoon Road. Parking is not an issue since there are parking lots near the place. In terms of service, the place is only so-so. If you need to add more soup, it is better to ask the aunties to do so earlier. Overall, a meal of fish head steamboat and plate of dou miao (and drinks) cost about $48 for two.

C-CUP: Delicious!

C-CUP is indeed attractive!

Alright, C CUP actually stands for Cake-in-a-cup. It's actually gourmet cupcakes business started by two guys. Their cupcakes look great, and is perfect for corporate gifts. The nice packaging and relatively alright price-tag makes it cheaper than other corporate items.

Each cupcake is $3, and all orders are done online. There are also discounts for orders in bulk of 12 or more cupcakes. They also have a great website nicely done up so go take a look at their website!

Carrerfour Wine Fair @ Suntec 21-31 May 09

Carrefour is having a wine fair (again) at Suntec, starting from 21st to 31st May 09, right outside the Carrefour supermarket.

I was passing by the area when I saw a large group of people, who were already shopping within the wine fair. I believe it was the Wine Night preview or something similar, for those folks to have a privileged shopping experience. I think Carrefour also typically throw in some lucky draw for such preview event when they sent the invitation card.

As usual, there is some form of discount to entice wine buyers, and one could also get the other related wine accessories, e.g. wine glasses and openers at the fair. Normally they will also sell cheese, but I am not sure this time round.

What is more interesting is that Carrefour has also thrown in free delivery with conditions. Those who purchase above $150 worth of wine or other stuff at the fair, can ask for a free delivery of the products. If the total purchase is less than $150, just add $8 for the delivery charge. Saves the trouble of lugging around 4-6 bottles of wine, i.e. about $150 worth of wines.

So for those wine lovers, do drop by Carrefour @ Suntec and take a look! I am likely to grab a bottle or two over the next few days.

Afternote: I popped by the fair, and took a picture of these flask like apparatus. Each flask contained a paricular smell / aroma associated with wine characteristics. Quite interesting to personally experience the 'smell'.

Good and bad times - both depressing

The news this weekend is somewhat depressing. We have the 2 cases of H1N1 in Malaysia, which means it will hit Singapore soon. Hopefully it comes later than the June GSS, else the local retailers will be hit badly. A large part of local employment still hinges on the retailers.

Then we have the news of Temasek losing many billions of dollars from the sale of Bank of America. If I divide Temasek's loss by the number of Singaporeans (about $3.1millions from SingStat website), each of us can get about $1,500.

Somehow the mood here in Singapore is always a bit depressing. In good times, the inflation (yah the unofficial but real numbers) can be scary, which makes one wonder if we need to work till we die. The healthcare costs and housing costs just shot up drastically during those years. GST also increased. So we often hear the phrase 'one cannot fall sick in Singapore because healthcare is expensive. So if one is seriously sick, better die fast.' Sad.

In bad times, we get reminded how expensive we are in labour costs compared to emerging economies, and how vulnerable our economy is because it is so open. So it's irritating, good times we must work hard (GST increase, housing cost increase...etc), and bad times, those in charge of our money lost it and we must work harder.

Ok ok, let's all cheer up a bit, it is a weekend afterall. So let me share this picture of a bubble at the seaside. Ok ok I will share more food / drinks pictures next time instead of such depressive thoughts. Lolz.

Botanical Gardens - Trees & Sculptures

Singapore's Botanical Garden is a place of treasures. It is a peaceful, quiet place in the middle of the bustling city that offers some shelter against the stress of working in the concrete jungle.

I was at the Botanical Gardens some time back (ironically it was for work) and took these pictures of the place. It was nice to see big trees, and nicer still to read that they have gone out of their ways to preserve these trees. The picture below shows a Penagat Laut tree.

Here's the sign that describes their effort in preserving this particular tree. Oh well, this is the 'Garden' afterall so it is not that surprising that they preserve trees.

The peaceful settings in the Botanical Garden is partly due to the many shelters they built, often surrounded by little ponds that added to the overall tranquility. The water plants with fishes swimming around them definitely helps to give a nice touch to the place. One can literally 'lost time' merely by watching the fishes swimming beneath these leaves.

Of course, the Botanical Gardens is also peppered with occasional decorations with a different touch from the trees. When I first saw this 'komodo lizard', I was quite amused.

Then I read from these signs that the Botanical Gardens sort of 'recycled' tree roots and stumps that 'add a wonderful tactile touch to the planting'. They had put in quite some efforts into these sculptures.

This wooden sculpture below is one of plants and leaves. Craving plant shaped sculptures from 'plant' roots gave a different take to the word 'recycle'.

Here's one more lizard sculpture located near their information counter. Overall I think Botanical Gardens is worth visiting, especially for Sundays when one deserves a good rest. They also have many restaurants, and also some performance area for concerts if I am not wrong. This place with over 150 years of history is free for members of the public to visit.

New Shopping@Bugis Iluma

There is a new shopping centre at Bugis! It's the Iluma, right across from Bugis Junction, and next to Bugis Village. It occupied a spot that used to be a community centre, which was later converted to be a carpark. Ok this is somewhat old news, but let me share some of the pictures of Iluma that I took a few weeks back.

Iluma has that interesting exterior with flashing lights of words moving across its facade. Someone told me that the words are actually shop names of the outlets in Iluma. I didn't examine them long enough to verify it. At night the moving lights effect can make the area look more lively.

When I first visited the place, there was a SingTel event, and SingTel brought their Formula One cars for that purpose. Actually I don't think these cars aer such a crowd puller anymore. Oh well, SingTel must have invested enough in them and need to squeeze more value from the cars.

More importantly for me, there is the new cinema at Iluma! So there is now one more option to choose from when great movies come along. The operator is Filmgarde, the same operator for the Kallang Leisure Park cinema. Generally I think their seats and spacing is alright, and the cinemas are well maintained, unlike some places with a hmm weird smell.

During Iluma's opening, Filmgarde actually offered two weeks of $6 tickets everyday! I was hoping to catch some movies at thsi price, but too bad the online booking system always show a full cinema.

Iluma is quite spacious, with many floors of shopping while there is a huge empty space in the centre. I saw Comics Connection, but there are still a large number of empty outlets. I'm over time shops will shift in. Bugis is indeed an attractive place with a constant large crowd.

There is also a floor of restaurants and another half floor of arcade. I am glad there is now more shopping choices around Bugis.

Related Post:
- Iluma's Open Air Gardens

Malibu Rum and Carrot Juice

A couple of weeks ago I realised that I had a bottle of Malibu Rum hidden in the closet. Worrying that the coconut based rum (see Wiki on it) would be spoilt over time I decided to open the bottle of Malibu to try.

To my surprise it tasted quite good! Somewhat sweet, the clear rum is quite smooth and easy drinking. The bottle suggested that Malibu be mixed with pineapple juice. Since I didn't have any I tried using the Pokka carrot juice instead.

The end result if so-so. Perhaps I mixed in too much carrot juice, i.e. the whole can. Malibu's website has many other suggestions of cocktails, including a mix of 3 parts apple to 1 part Malibu. So I guess I had really added in too much carrot juice. The other cocktails on the website, including Malibu Sea Breeze, suggested 3 parts juice to 1 part Malibu.

Take a look at their website, the animations and history part is pretty entertaining.

High stress, low salary driving away Singaporeans?

I saw this report from Asiaone website that cited the 4 reasons Singaporeans stay put abroad. The writer cited high stress (our working lifestyle is all work and no play), low salary (compared to other cities), exposure, and lack of entrepreneurship.

The last 2 are not (in my view) the real reasons. If one seeks exposure, one will return after that need for exposure is satisfy and not stay out away forever. Lack of entrepreneurship depends on what the person wants to do; there are many instances of successful local entrepreneurs. Some started from selling trinkets on websites, clothes imported from overseas, food outlets, and even the sale of cupcakes online (yah C-Cup fellows).

So I think the real reasons are the first two factors, the high stress and lower salary for these people of the relevant skill sets. Once individuals realised that they can earn more from their skills and yet subject themselves (and families) to lower stress, there is no compelling reasons to lure them back.

Yeah, I do think our stressful lifestyle kills off 'life' in general here, unless one is the very rich, or has master the fine art of balancing high stress with lifestyle aims (hmm workaholic?).

Lolz, I guess it's the Monday blues affecting me at this early hour of Monday...