Who says Kaya is easy to make ?

The ingredients seem simple but the procedures to making a good, tasty and fragrant kaya is long, tedious and time consuming.

Hopped over to Grandma's place this afternoon to learn the art of making a good kaya. Thought that it would just be an hour's affair but I was wrong...terribly wrong ! Guess how long the whole process took from mixing all the ingredients to producing the thick green paste ? It took almost 3.5 hrs !!!

Now I fully understand what Grandma went through when she put in the effort and time to make nice kaya for us. Imagine stirring the mixture regularly on the hot charcoal. Imagine transferring the heavy hot pot of green mixture from point to point. Imagine sitting next to the hot charcoal for an hour or more. It's really not an easy job as I thought it would be. Got to go Grandma's place as often as possible to master my kaya making skills.


After enjoying 10 days of my leave, I am finally back to work tomorrow. These 10 days seem to pass by so quickly that I thought I have only spent half of it. Anyway, I do miss work a lot and hope that I can return to work as soon as possible...hahaha. From next month onwards, my schedule will be very packed and thus would have little time updating this blog. I do seek your understanding :D.

Alright, time to sleep Zzzzz...

Hong Kong is really a food paradise. As I am typing this entry now, my mind is still wandering in Hong Kong searching for food...hahaha.

My Favourite Dim Sum joint in Hong Kong....Chao Inn @ TST

Clockwise from top left : Har Kau, Braised Pig Intestines, Chicken Glutinous Rice, Har Kau

My Favourite : Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimps

The very fragrant and very tasty Char Siu Su

Presenting my other food connoisseur : Miss Sotong

After trying the various dim sum joints in Hong Kong during my past few trips, the dim sum offered by Chao Inn is still the best in my own opinion. The restaurant at TST looks posh and offers its diners a panoroma view of the Harbour. Most importantly, if you pay your dim sum before 1215 hrs, you pay just half of what u ordered. Miss Sotong and I ordered about 13 dishes and guessed how much each of us pay ? We each paid only HK$65 ( approx. S$ 13 ) !!! We could not even finish what we ordered. Will definitely bring my parents to this restaurant when I bring them to HKG this December.

Have been hearing about this famous Cui Hua Char Chang Ting where a lot of celebrities have their meals. Decided to try their dishes and so I visited the one at Jordan (just opp my hotel) and the one near Lan Kwai Fong.

One of their top 10 dishes : Crispy Noodles with King Prawns. Really delicious and the prawns are really big and crunchy.

Also tried their Pork Chop curry at the one near Lan Kwai Fong with Vincent. Shall say that it's quite nice.

Not only did I meet up with Miss Sotong during this trip, I also managed to meet up with my ex-campmate cum friend who is currently working in Hong Kong, Vincent!!! Thanks for accompanying me for dinner despite your hectic shedule.

Just came back home after watching Hostel: Part II with CF. The show was gruesome and gross...definately not for the faint hearted. Even CF could be seen covering his eyes with his cap during the horror scenes. Well, whats new...haha. Anyway, I have yet to watch Hostel though the dvd is with me. According to CF, Hostel is more gruesome and gross than its sequel. I am so looking forward to watching it soon. Not that I am sick or what, just that I simply love horror shows. Even SAW (I,II,III) is in my top 10 favourite list. For those who still do not know, this movie is based on a true story. Anyway, I still cannot believe that people actually pay to torture and kill those innocents especially when they are in no way related to them. Can you imagine if you are the victim ? It's really hell to go through such sufferings before you die. Imagine someone slashing ur back with a blade while you are suching upside down helplessly. Imagine your throat being slashed and blood gushes out. Imagine your face being disfigured with a saw. Imagine someone cutting part of your flesh and ate it. It's really sick isn't it. One word of caution : Do take extra care of your own safety especially when you are in a foreign land.

Dinner at one of our favourite dim sum joints near Mustafa. The dim sum here is quite nice especially their luo mai kai, steamed chicken with egg, banana and prawn fritters, prawn in beancurd roll etc etc. A must try !

Guess who I met for dinner yesterday ?

Yes...it's none other than Leon & MH. Must really thank them for the Japanese meal and the drink at StarBucks. Really enjoy the evening with you guys. A note to the both of you : The next meal shall be on ME ! If not, we shall not meet forever... & cherish each other ok :D

I think I have fell in love with The Big Apple. Even until today, I still miss that city badly. I really wish I could visit New York more often. I miss raising my head everytime we walked past a skyscraper. I miss snapping pictures of the buildings and streets. I miss the walk we had from avenue to avenue, street to street. I miss the snow in New York (back in Mar). I miss the shops in New York. I just miss everything in New York.

The View from the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller) is magnificient. You get to see the whole of Manhattan as well as those prominent skyscrapers like The Empire Building, Chrysler as well as the world famous Central Park! Just wear more clothes during winter because it can get very windy up there.

Yea...We are at Rockefeller Center.

Abercrombie & Fitch !!!! Everyone spent quite a bit in this boutique...as for me, I just bought 2 polos and 2 t-shirts, a jacket for SY's belated birthday present as well as Fierce, the cologne. The cologne smell really nice.

At the famous Times Square

A very Hearty American Breakfast. I still prefer the one I had in Sear's in San Francisco. Haha.

Interesting sight : Pigeons having their usual gathering on this traffic light beside Central Park.

Last group pic before bidding goodbye to New York. You guys rock! Miss all of you and hope that we can get to see one another again...keep in contact!

Did not venture into the city besides the village near our hotel in Frankfurt. Managed to eat my spinach as well as my crispy duck rice. Also managed to buy Giotto and Hanuta for my friends and relatives.

My all- time favourite and cannot be missed food in Frankfurt : Crispy Duck Rice with Choy Suey from Hong Kong Bistro. The duck here is really crispy and tasty. Their nasi goreng is not bad too. Drool....

With Chiang, my all-time talk cock buddy...haha. Thanks a lot for lunching with me in Frankfurt. Can't imagine this guy actually called all the way from Singapore to inform me that he will be arriving Frankfurt the next day and would be having lunch with me. Once again, many thanks.

Goodbye Frankfurt and shall visit you again next month.

Finally, my air ticket and my hotel have been settled and so I would be jetting off to Hong Kong this wednesday. Shall meet my dear sotong there as well as Vincent, my campmate back in Dieppe. Wahaha...already know where to head to eat in Hong Kong. Shall not do much shopping this time for it's time that I start saving again. Looking forward. Shall post more photos when I am back in Hong Kong this Saturday.

Just finished unpacking and packing my cabin and cargo bag. Haha...this proves how lazy I am when I got back home after work - just simply leave the things in my bag and only unpack them when I need to use them. Ooops.

Was a bit surprised when I was unpacking my cargo bag earlier on. Was taking bags and bags of clothes which I have bought on my last Hong Kong and San Francisco trip. For your information, those clothes and shoes which I have bought during my Taipei and Los Angeles trip as well as my Hong Kong and San Francisco trip back in June are still packed nicely in their respective shopping bags. They are sitting comfortably right behind my door in my room waiting for dust and cobwebs to form around them. In fact to be frank, I have no idea what clothes or shoes I have bought. I have to peek into the bags in order to refresh my memory. Haha...

Yea...All the Sales items. More are hidden behind as I have tried to pile them up nicely.

Looking at the heap of bags behind the door would only give me headache for my wardrobe is already full to the brim. Worse still, more to come when I come back from New York next week as well as Hong Kong at the end of the month. Think I shall spend some time tidying my room and wardrobe when my leave starts next week. My room is in a complete mess. No time to tidy them or shall I say don't bother :O

Was thinking of bringing a pair of cargo pants with me tomorrow but ...

For the next 8 days shall be spent eating, shopping and sightseeing. Already know what to eat in Frankfurt - the famous pasta and pizza from the italian joint, crispy duck rice from Hong Kong Bistro, buffolo wings and finger food from Champions and not forgetting my Giotto and Hanuta ( already got many orders from friends and relatives ) from Penny Mart. Think I need not mention what to do in New York...there are simply too many things to do. Hope I get to sample the food from AppleBee which Shereen recommended.

Alright, see u guys in 8 days time.

Happy 42nd Birthday to Singapore !!!

Fortunate enough to be in Singapore today to celebrate this joyous occasion with the rest of the Singaporeans :D

Wonder if my body biological clock has been screwed up recently because of my weird sleeping pattern for the past few days. Take my Nagoya trip as an example...slept at about 8 pm ( 7 pm Singapore time ) and woke up at 1 am. After which, could not sleep till my call time. Due to that, I slept till 10 plus at night the moment I arrived home in the evening. Of course, could not sleep till 5 am this morning and slept through till 2 pm when mum woke me up for lunch. Haiz...Think my biological clock will even be more screwed up when I go Frankfurt and New York this weekend :(

After almost half a year of absence from the land of the rising sun, I finally managed to visit the last station of Japan - Nagoya. Weather was hot and humid during my 1 night stay there. We did not venture out besides the walking streets near our hotel. Wanted to visit the Nagoya castle but decided to give it a miss as we were simply tired...hahaha...guess my age is catching up...not as energetic and enthusiatic as I was a year ago.

Presenting Nagoya ...

Walking streets

Weather was hot and the streets were not crowded

My Japanese meals

The beef curry with rice was nice but the ramen in pork base soup was even nicer....OISHII. Oh did I mention that the char siew in the ramen actually MELT in my mouth!

Japanese desserts and cakes

The Japanese take pride in their presentation

Called the housekeeping department to send me the iron and ironing board so that I could iron my uniform. Was impressed with the iron and ironing board. Portable and small. Usually we carry the ironing board in one hand while the other the iron. However, the one I got was small with the iron attached to the ironing board. Innovative.

Finally, this third blog of mine is set up after much procrastination and thoughts. Have been having difficulties trying to find the blog skin that best suit my taste. Reason : I simply can't make it work here. Each time I found a skin which I liked and pasted its HTML code onto the template page, there would always be an error. Not once but all the time ! Could someone kindly tell me what's the problem ? Sorry here, I am a HTML idiot...haiz...what I learnt in the past have been returned. Facing with no choice, I configured it using the blogger template which is a feature I have not seen in my past 2 blogs. It may be simple n nothing fanciful or interesting but who cares...as long as I get what I wanted to see on my blog.

Enough of crap....Just got back from Auckland on Friday morning and slept through the whole day. Felt really bad for Daniel for I made him wait for my call the whole day. Was supposed to go swimming with him in the afternoon after my supposedly nap. Who knows, I was so shagged out that I slept till dinner time. I really can't make it...I was just too tired. The lack of proper rest in Auckland probably contributed to this. Not because I was out having fun in Auckland. In fact, I was rotting in my room for the 2 days I had in Auckland. Somehow I could not sleep well despite being very tired...I kept having weird dreams and slept less than 12 hours for the 2 nights. Just felt weird in the room. Err......better not think about it.

Accompanied Daniel to Sim Lim Square yesterday to buy his MP4. Was so tempted to get myself an LCD TV for my room. Somehow I resisted the temptation since my TV is still working perfectly. No point spending money on unnecessary items. Anyway, I think I am selling my Olympus camera in order to get myself a new Canon camera. Saw Sook's & Raymond's new Canon camera and fell in love with them. They are so much better than my Olympus in terms of functions, designs etc. Well, shall see how. Met Gin after that and had our lunch at Causeway Cafe along Liang Seah street. That guy is leaving for Vancouver for an exchange program soon. He will only be back next year. Hopefully, I will get to go Vancouver again so that I can visit him. Hahaha...

Felt so satisfied after our swim today. Finally able to find time to swim. Haven't been working out for like don't know how many weeks. 'You are getting Fat' or 'Wah, you eat well ah' were the comments I have been receiving lately. Shit, I better watch out my weight. Jason, you gotta exercise more !!!! Had our late lunch at TP's Fish & Co. Got to say that the food was as good as usual but the level of service was way below my expectation. Firstly, what happened to my garlic in the condiment dish ??? I thought I was the only one left out but when I looked around, everyone was having only the chilli n the white sauce. Despite not many people dining at that time, no one refilled my water until I asked for it. N the staff are not as friendly and approachable as those at T2 or Wheelock. Maybe my expectation have risen.

Was overjoyed this morning when I was called up to operate to Nagoya tomorrow night. Woohoo...with that I would have complete all the Japan stations. First time to Nagoya, shall go out and explore. Looking forward to it :D