The Tingkat Cruise was a 45-minute dinner cruise along the Singapore River. Priced at S$35 per person, the cruise started at the Merlion Park from as early as 4pm, with six cruises a day for the 10-day duration of the Singapore Food Festival from July 16-25.

The boat, a bumboat, was quite small and places were limited to about 30 customers maximum. The boat finally arrived and we gingerly stepped on board. The braver ones decided to take a chance and sit at the open space in the back of the boat to enjoy the fresh air (and possible rain) while the rest of us preferred the air-conditioned and more comfortable seating inside.

As we enjoyed our lovely late dinner, the guide on board gave a running commentary on the scenery on both sides of the river and a short story connected to each landmark.

The food was not exactly the stuff to write home about though. Similar items on sale at the Clarke Quay Food Street were far more tastier. I didn’t mind the chicken rice, fried noodles and the soon kueh but the carrot cake tasted more like an omelette and the sweet broth was quite bland.

Still, the whole experience did add up to a rather exotic adventure for the younger generation and for foreign tourists.
The Singapore Food Festival 2010 focused on the foods of the five mainstream Chinese dialect communities and apart from the Tingkat Cruise and Clarke Quay Food Street, included events such as Chinese Dialect Street Snacks, Heritage Feast, River market and Culinary Master Classes with cooking games and cooking demonstrations.

You get to sit by the window if you like. Watching the gorgeous Singapore landscape.

On each table were four bright red tingkat with pretty flowers prints on the sides of each of the three tiers.

I thought that putting the food into the tinfoil trays kind of deflated the experience of eating out of a tingkat but later, I realized that this was to keep the tingkat reasonably clean for the customers to take them home after the dinner cruise.

As for the tingkat, in the topmost tier were two tinfoil trays containing Teochew carrot cake and fried Hokkien noodles.

The middle tier had a piece of Hakka soon kueh and Hainanese chicken rice while the bottom tier held dessert – a plastic tub of Cantonese beancurd skin and barley broth with a quail egg.

Nang it!

Do you take constantly try to snap your own photographs of your kids, little nephews, cousins etc? Isn’t it hard?They just don’t seem to be able to keep still.

No? I don’t have a really stunning photograph of kids. Never. They move too much. ):

Well, I ain’t here to talk about how to photograph kids.

I’m talking to you about The Picture Company! Your ultimate hangout spot to photograph your kids and mark the milestones of their growing up.

Currently, there are 2 outlets. One in One Utama and one in The Gardens.

Well, last Sunday, mum and I decided to check it out cause we had a complimentary ticket for a picture… Might as well. We’d never done this sort of thing and we were like so, so nervous.

We didn’t know what to expect either. Would they do our make-up? Do they have costumes we could borrow?

Anyway, just to play safe, we decided to bring some of our own.

When we arrived at The Picture Company in The Gardens Mall, we found a bright, colourful and happy atmosphere. And that included the staff.

They had many album samples of photographs that were taken by them.

There were 2 staff there when we arrived (on reservation) – Zen and Reza. As you can see, they are happy, cheerful types who put customers at ease.

They were really friendly happy people. They greeted and attended us immediately. Really.

Well, they thought it would be fun we did a few shots with a white background for fun shots and black background for more formal shots. Zen was our photographer.

We had loads of pictures taken, but I’ll only show you two. They are really lovely photographs.

She really captured the moments and made us feel so comfy and not awkward at all.

Here’s some of their baby photographs.

Well, The Picture Company specializes in baby and family photographs, but they do photography of all types,  good photographs of couples and groups too!

The Picture Company

Tel: 03-77251918 (One Utama)
03-22841918 (Gardens)

Hello world. Gonna update a little on myself today.. This week it’s been hectic. It’s library week. I didn’t really do much for the library.. I’d prefer calling it supervising. Teehee. Well, I felt bad .. But oh, well. It ends tomorrow. I shall make it up to them by helping them clean up tomorrow.

Anyway, other than library week, form 5s had to do some scholarship thing for ourselves.. Pn. Catherine came to our class few days ago to brief us about it. I didn’t really do much. Didn’t even get a teacher to sign my recommendation letter. So, gave up. Not applying for scholarship! Other than school, everything’s cool. Gotta study for my upcoming exams in few weeks and prepare for my career day next week! I’ve got so much to ask and do! I still cannot decide what I wanna do after SPM. Wondering, any suggestions? Well, I love children, I love photography. 2 years ago, my counseling teacher said I had the Event Organiser face. Thought about child psychiatrist, now I’m not too sure anymore. Thinking of the event organiser again. Maybe I should really get on with it? I don’t know. ): Help me out!

The launching of library week. Theme: Rewind.
I was very very far away.. Mind the heads and photographers.. I was too lazy to move 50m front. Heh. But, ain’t they cute? They are all being hippy and showing the peace signs. Including our 3 guests on the right.

The war zone in the library. Cool eh? They have real Japanese and Malaya actors!

Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They had about 6 of the wonders of the world displayed in the library. All of our hard work.

The stone hedge.

The APD room. This is where the fun and food is.

They even sell these cute ladybug chocolates!

I just love this effect. SO COOL! It’s the president, Anlie for the library week by the way. (:

This is the vice president, Shau Wei. The funny, crazy, and gosh.. He’s so sporting. And helped the library a lot. (:

Cindy and I got bored.. And we were in total darkness most times. Due to the mysterious rewind thing. This is cool right! You’d never guess that it’s a TV screen.

This is the hole in our library roof.

Physics experiment Miss Liang showed us. She’s the funniest teacher. (:

This is Pei Ling. (Hope I spelled that right.) She’s quite adorable, and often seen in the library these days.. I wonder why.

Well, I have no comment for this.

Then there is Alex, one of our famous real live-moving-robotic-wax figurine. Sad part – everyone either teases or bullies him. Fun part – he doesn’t mind!

Haider. He was one of the Malaya actors. I think. Tryna act sad.

Back in class, was just playing around with my camera while waiting for my teacher to come. Nothing much now.

Nang it!

Restaurant Lafite was where I had my lunch today. Gorgeous interior . So urban and stylish.

First thing I saw was this! I was so eager to take photo of it. It’s just so pretty.

They have this cool flower deco on the dining table. It’s real flowers of course. Some has round or square flower decos. Really cool.

The showcase which I initially thought they placed fake food display there.. You know, to tell you how your food would look like! But no it isn’t. Teehee. It’s where you get a free flow of appetizers.

Bubbles. I was curious okay.. I just have to wait for one day to snap a better photo of it . (:

Their selection of bread. See the black ones? Don’t they look horrible? I mean, black.. Reminds you of burnt bread. But you’re wrong! Don’t judge the book by its cover! This isn’t burnt bread. It’s squid ink bread. Sounds weird? Try it first before you judge it again. Seriously, it taste so good. It leaves you wanting more.

Mini Hamburger

Buffalo Mozarella
Sweet pepper, tomato and olive oil

“Squared” Watermelon
Balsamic and Pistachio

Tuna Yuzu
Seared tuna, hon-shimeji and yuzu miso juice.
A little salty if you eat the shimeji mushrooms on its own. So, remember to eat it together. (:

Carpaccio
Yellow tuna, Atlantic cod fish, lemon oil, Brioche croutons and vinaigrette.
Can you already imagine the hard work.  Ain’t it just beautiful? Gosh, after eating it, you wish you had more. (:

Brittany Turbot
3 coloured potatoes, black olives, tarragon, tomatoes and saffron sauce.

Victoria Saltbrush farm lamb
Grilled lamb rack and braised lamb with herbed crust, couscous, young artichokes, fine ratatouille, and balsamic glazed.
De.Li.Cious. The lamb was beautifully done. I only liked the lamb and the couscous though.

Oven warm Raspberry Clafouti
Served with vanilla ice cream (Bottom picture)
Hot and cold dessert. Yum. But because the clafouti is a little hot, I couldn’t really finish it properly. It was really hot, nice and sour. Perfect. Lovelier than a souffle.

Nang it!

Restaurant Lafite, Shangri-La

Lunch: Noon – 2.30pm, Monday to Friday
Dinner: 7pm – 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday

11 Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Lafite Tel: (60 3) 2074 3900
Tel: (60 3) 2032 2388
Fax: (60 3) 2070 1514

Warn retro interior design.

A bar full of alcohol.

They have loads of antiques too!

Erdinger (0.33l: RM22 ; 0.5l: RM29)

Scallops and Prosciutto Ham (RM20)
Skewered fresh scallops wrapped with prosciutto ham and served with rustic sour dough bread
Best dish of ‘em all!

German Sausages
Not gonna go through this. There are plenty! But sad thing is that, the sausages aren’t as juicy as I hoped for.

Leberkaese (RM40)
Bavarian meat loaf served with sauerkraet and potatoes.
Crispiest chicken skin. Ever. And the most tenderlicious meat. Really. Trust me on this. But I must warn you, the size of this .. Thing. Is huge.

Rainbow Trout (RM48)
Pan fried, served with tomatoes relish , sauteed baby spinach and lemon herb butter.
Smooth flesh. Almost like salmon.

Chicken Royal (RM42)
Baked and stuffed chicken with asparagus and mozzarella cheese, served with pan fried potatoes and hickory BBQ sauce

Apple Strudel (RM12)
I’m not a fan of it. But its quite okay. (: Honest.

Table full of food again.

Someone misses my face. Hahha. Here’s an update photo of me.

Bavarian Bierhaus

Lot No. PG-01A, Ground Floor,
Lot 33, Jaya 33,
Jalan Semangat, Section 33, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Tel: 03-7960 5736
Fax: 03-7960 5746

Nang it!

What I think is, no matter whom we are, we long for the same thing – happiness, love, luxury and every other materialistic form in this world. When we have achieved all of those, then we are called to be a success.

Success equals to our dreams and is derived from hard work and determination. To turn our dreams into reality, we have to find out what we are fully capable of.  Making use of our knowledge and attributes in our lives will make the planet a better place. Hence, a better life for us and achieve success. Being a success would be the ultimate stage of our lives don’t you think?

Everyone starts to strive for success by starting off with a simple dream. I’ll share with you my dream that is bound to be reality.

First off, being so exposed to the world, I’ve grown to have many interests and hobbies.

Photography is my deepest passion.

Food reviews the second one cause of 2 things – I get to photograph food and learn more on our world’s food culture.

I love doing photo-manipulation and photo-editing with my Photoshop.
I love blogging and sharing things with the world too!

My 2 cousins and me in the middle
I love playing with kids.

And, I secretly enjoy playing video games.

But the 3 things that I love most are children, photography and blogging.

Last year, all I thought of was to enroll myself into a Mass Communications course and be a PR manager because I’m just an average student. That kind of thinking, I know now, is shallow.

Over one Chinese New Year, being with my relatives and many, many young cousins/nieces/nephews, I found out I grew to love being around children. They are free souls that can absorb any teaching and have nothing much to worry about. (Except when their toys get spoilt, they’d need to think of ways to bug their parents to buy new ones.) But you see, I realized children seemed attached to me too. They would remember who I am and enjoy my company. They want me to play with them and teach them. I felt connected to children and I was the middle person between their parents and them. (Although, many people would think that’s because I’m still considered a kid since I’m only 17.

I want to major in something that involves the study of children behavior. A kindergarten teacher was my initial thought. However it came to me that being a teacher will not lead me to my true passion and success. I dug deeper and found out that there is a job that will fulfill my dreams. A child psychologist.

Straight away, I’ve got everything planned out now.

1. Apply for a psychology course and study like mad. Literally.
2. Major in Child Psychology.
3. Work as a child psychologist for a few years and stay thrifty and frugal.
4. About 30+ years old, I would probably be married with cute kiddies of my own. Well, in order to have well brought up kids, I cannot be a workaholic and spend time with my kids to make sure they have the best childhood lives. So, goodbye child psychologist career (Hopefully, I won’t miss it.)
5. I would be quite free then, with just my kids around me. I would do the things I love most. So I’d say hello to my new part time jobs – Photographer/Blogger
6. Of course I would miss the children-related career, so I intend to open a child care center after that.

Now, you’d probably be thinking, ‘oh, what a naïve girl! She thinks she can be the most successful person with those 6 steps.’ Nope, I’m telling you, this is the way I want to succeed in life. I don’t have to prove to people that I’m successful by being a billionaire. I would be successful because I would have had a great career, found true love, spent time doing my hobbies which would earn me money and make me happy. With all that, I have achieved my dreams and success. I would be satisfied with my life. (:

You are supposed to look for the puzzle pieces of your life. Not wait for it.

And this is a special one. I found a pretty butterfly. It’s really really tiny. This was the best picture. (:

Nang it!

TX5 is a 10.2 Mega Pixel camera

Well, for people these days, everyone wants the indestructible and long-lasting camera. Guess what?

Sony TX5 is

• Water-proof
  Up to 3m deep for up to 60 minutes
• Temperature-proof
  Below freezing point up to –10ºC
• Dust-proof
• Shock-proof
  Allows drops of up to a height of 1.5m (the usual height we hold the camera for photo-taking)

Better, it has 1 year warranty.

Besides, Sony TX5 has the Anti-motion Blur mode which does a lot of improvement to your photographs! (:

TX5 also allows you to take 10 pictures per second! Cool eh? Now you can do a short ‘movie’.

Oh did I tell you? The macro mode allows you to take pictures within 1cm range. 1cm! Ain’t that cool!! OMG.

Like most of their trendy compact cameras, TX5 is touch screen! (:

Other reviews on Tx5

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If my camera was waterproof.. I wouldn’t snap this boring photograph. I’d dive under and snap a picture looking upwards instead. Like the one below. (:

If I had a waterproof camera, my underwater creatures pictures won’t look soooo from an aquarium. Like the ones above.

Don’t you think this one look so much better?

Look! Even I’m supporting Sony Cybershot . (: You should give it a go. Waterproof cameras snaps pictures that will bring memories to life.

So what are you waiting for? Get yourself a TX5 before you regret!
It’s only RM1.5k!

Nang it!

Anyway, let’s talk about the highlights – The BBQ! Well, they have a nice selection for you. All you gotta do is get yourself a plate and choose all your favourite items you want to BBQ. (Yes, the meat are raw, kept fresh on ice. Waiting for you to pick them up.) So the selection, which is in a blue-lit ice box. You can choose from 2 types of thick fat sausages (chicken or lamb), beef patties, beef ribs, sliced lamb, fish fillet, squid, crab, mussels and prawns. Not all the items are marinated so you can add seasoning and sauce like black pepper, mint and brown gravy. Or ask the chef to sprinkle a dash of herbs, ground paprika and other secret ingredients.

Don’t worry about BBQ food being too heaty for you. To help you cool down, there are chilled whole coconuts at one end of the buffet spread inside. The cool, refreshing coconut water is the perfect companion for a barbecue.

Beef (left) & Chicken Kebab

Roasted Lamb & chicken

Lamb Ribs

2 chefs were on duty that night.

My mum forced me to have a picture. Hahah. Not bad. Very memorable.

Lamb (red) and Chicken Sausages (white)

Crabs. Grilling themselves on the grill.

Don’t be fooled! I didn’t just eat that little!!

Salmon Gravlax
It’s not just the BBQ selection outside. The buffet spread indoors is just as impressive. For starters, there are prawns, mussels and freshly schucked oysters.  With all the dips to match.

Then there are cold appetisers, like Salmon Gravlax. With sliced capsicum and pickled black olives. Yummy. And all kinds of salads like cucumber salad, Southern potato salad and lots more. There are even two types of soup – pumpkin and a slurpilicious Seafood Sichuan Soup that’s spicy with a touch of sourness that perks up the appetite.

Jambalaya Rice
They have 2 choices of rice. Plain steamed rice and jambalaya. (:

Cheese Macaroni with Ham
Not much of cheese.. (Or at least someone took all of them.) Other than that, it’s nice. (:

Spaghetti with Chicken Corn Canne.
I prefer the macaroni though. The sauce was little too salty for my liking.

BBQ Vegetable Skewers with Lemon Basting Sauce
It’s not just meat, meat, meat. The barbecue offers lots of lovely vegetables that even vegetarians will love, like skewers of onions, carrots, zucchini and cucumbers. Grilled to perfection with just a slight browning of the edges to give it aroma. (:

Jack Potatoes
Served with condiments like tomato salsa.
Very related to the BBQ theme of course. Yummy. Best part is, the potatoes are healthier. They aren’t burnt like how when I attempt it our way at home BBQ parties. That’s why they’re chefs!

Baked Snow Fish with Mango, Chili Chutney

Ooh. They have the famous chocolate fountain too. Marshmallows, grapes, cakes. YUM. If you’re a chocolate fan, you understand. (:

One of their lovely tart. They decorated them nicely too. (:

They have freshly cut fruit and Malaysian kuih muih selections! Oh, and don’t forget the hot claypot of pengat pisang. Very, very delicious. Or you can be boring and have bread and butter pudding. (: Yummy.

RM78++ per person, RM 39++ per child under 12 years old

Tonka Bean, Impiana Hotel

13, Jalan Pinang,
50450, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 60(3) 2147 1111
Fax: 60(3) 2147 1100
E-mail: info.impianaklcc@impiana.com
Website: http://kualalumpurhotels.impiana.com

click!

Nang it!