Fried Carrot Cake @ Redhill

Fried carrot cake or commonly known as "Chye Tow Kway" in Singapore, is normally taken as breakfast. To make the carrot cake, shredded white radish and rice flour are mixed with water to form a thick mixture and then steam to form the carrot cake. The carrot cake is then cut into smaller pieces and fried with diced garlic, chye poh (preserved salted radish), spring onion and eggs.

There are 2 version of the carrot cake, "bai" or "white" and "hei" or "black". The different is that sweet black soy sauce is added to fried the carrot cake for the black version, so it taste sweeter than the white version. I personally like the white version, as the original taste of the radish and fragrance of the egg will maintain. The sweetness of the black version normally covered up the fragrance of the egg. If you can take spicyness, you can request for chilli paste to be added.

This fried carrot cake stall at Redhill Hawker Centre is worth trying. For a S$2.00 plate of carrot cake, the amount of egg and chye poh that fried with the carrot cake are rather generous. But some people might feel that the fried cake cake is a bit too saltish due to the amount of chye poh. The stall owner fried the carrot cake rather well, the carrot cake is still tender while the egg is crisp and not burnt. But be prepare to wait, as the queue could be rather long during breakfast hour.

Kidney Mee Sua @ Redhill

Nowsaday, its rather difficult to find hawkers selling pig's kidney mee sua, as a lot of hard work is involved in cleaning and washing the pig's kidney. If the kidneys are not well cleaned, there will be a urine smell when cooked.

For Chinese, we believe that pig's kidney help to nournish our kidney and help those with lower back ache. It is also commonly taken by new Mummy during their confinement period. Pig's kidney is very high in cholesterol, so should not be taken oftenly.

I found this stall at Redhill Hawker Centre (about 5 mins walk from Redhill MRT station), Quan Xiang Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle, the pig's kidney mee sua is quite good. The kidney is well clean and the soup is tasty. Drink a few spoonful of soup before you start eating the noodle, its really warm up your stomach. The soup also taste better when its piping hot.



Each bowl cost S$4.00 and I got about 7 slices of kidney. The serving size is good but if they can reduce the price by S$0.50, then it will be perfect.

D'Kranji Farm Resort

D'Kranji Farm Resort, located at Lim Chu Kang, is Singapore's 1st Agri-tainment farm. If you want to get away from the concrete jungle but do not want to travel overseas, you can consider staying into the resort for some earthly fresh air.

There are total 19 nos. of twin, triple, or suite villas available at the resort. Each villas has its own car porch and an en suite open air bathroom. For a twin sharing villas, 2 days & 1 nite stay cost between S$230.00 to S$280.00.

Next to the villas, there is a spa centre. You can pamper yourself to the various spa treatment here. The spa centre offers body, hand and foot massages, scrubs and wraps. They also provide facial, manicure and pedicure. If you want to know more on the packages and charges for the spa treatment, check out this website http://www.essencevale.com.sg/singapore/kranji.htm.

If you are looking for some small snacks or want to buy some vegetables or fruits. There are some agri-retail kiosks within the resort. Goreng pisang (fried banana), ice-cream, sugar cane drink, dried fish maw, etc. are available here. Interesting to found that the kiosks come with a small plot of land behind them for planting their products. Thus, you will find banana plants behind the kiosk selling goreng pisang. But, if I am not wrong, the kiosks are opened on weekend and public holidays.

If you just want to have a quiet stroll to refresh yourself. Go to the far left end of the resort, where you can walk around the rice and corn plantation. Along the way you will see various type of fruit trees like papaya, guava and chiku.

If you feel hungry or crave for some alcohol after the day, no worries, there is a seafood restaurant and a beer garden within the resort to meet your needs.

If you are driving there, you can also plan for some other farms visit around the nearby vicinity. They are the organic vegetables farm, goat farm, dragon fruit farm (see my posting on 21 Mar 08), bull frog farm, etc. that you can explore.

To know more on D'Kranji Farm Resort, please visit their website www.dkranji.com.sg.

Qian Hu Fish Farm

If you are planning to bring the kids out for the weekend, but would not want to spend too much money, you may consider for some farms visit at Lim Chu Kang. Most of the farms here are opened to public without admission charges.

Qian Hu Fish Farm is one of the farm located at Lim Chu Kang. They provide free shuttle bus services between the farm and Choa Chu Kang MRT on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holiday. If you are driving, parking is free at the farm.

The fish farm here has a wide variety of aquarium fish, shellfish, crab and prawn for both viewing and sale. For the fish, they have the expensive ranges like arowana & koi to the afforable ranges like gold fish & molly.

I found this molly interesting and would like to share with you. Do you see that some of the fish have heart shape marking on them. If you give these fish to your sweetheart, I believe they will be thrill.

If you are lover for arowana, you can visit the House of Dragon. The arowana here are of the good quality and high range. The arowana are also implant with micro-chip for identification. You will also find an arowana that is previously owned by the international star, Mr Chow Yun Fat.

There is a Agro-Education Center which is decorated with the kampong (village) atmosphere. Over here, the kids can enjoy "longkang" (drain) fishing or tortoise feeding while the parents can enjoy fish spa. Charger for the longkang fishing is S$5/30mins, fish spa is S$10/30mins and the tortoise food is S$1/packet. There are some tropical fruit tree planted within the centre which the kids can learnt about.

If after the tour, you decide to start rearing some fish, no worries. You can get fish food, fish tank, pumps, lights, etc. over at the shop as well.

For more information on the farm, you may like to check out their website http://www.qianhu.com/.

Singapore Flyer

Singapore Flyer, the World's largest Giant Observation Wheel, is one of Singapore newest tourist attraction and it is official opened on 15 April 2008 by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Singapore Flyer stands at 165m with 28 air-conditioned capsules, offers a 360-degree view of sights around the Marina Bay area and parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. Each capsule measuring 7m long by 4m wide by 4m high can accommodate up to 28 guests and each ride is approximately 30-minute.

The views on-board the Flyer will start with eastern Singapore, overlooking places like Chinatown, Kampong Glam and Little India. On the descending part, you can enjoy the first-ever Formula One™ night race track, the Marina Barrage (Singapore's biggest reservoir) and the upcoming Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort.

The Flyer also offers portable in-flight audio guide to all Singapore Flyer ticket holders. The audio guide brings you through a journey of the past, present and future of the Lion's City – from where Sang Nila Utama first arrived, to interesting feng shui trivia of Suntec City and the future Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort.

A friendly tip for you to note. Please visit the toilets before taking the ride, as no toilet is available once you are on it.

For the ticketing details and available packages, please visit the Flyer's website www.singaporeflyer.com.

If you have some time to spare after the ride, you can visit the tropical rainforest which is in the centre of the atrium. You can have a relaxing walk and photo taking on the cascading water displays, streams and rocky outcrops.

If you are hungry after the ride, no worries, there are food & beverage outlets available in the main Terminal Building. I was so happy to see Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits here. In the past, their outlets can only be found in Changi Airport.

Teochew Porridge Buffet @ Windsor

My posting on 20 March 08 introduced you to a good value Taiwan Porridge Buffet. There is another place I found also serving good value Teochew Porridge Buffet Dinner.

Cafe Windsor located in Hotel Windsor serve Teochew Porridge Bufffet Dinner daily at $10.80++ (subject to 10% service charge and 7% GST) from 5.00pm to 11.00pm.

For the porridge, you can choose either plain porridge or porridge with sweet potatoes added. I always go for the sweet potatoes porridge. They also serve rice and fried noodles (either bee hoon, kway teow or mee tai mak). I like their fried bee hoon very much.

For the dishes to go with the porridge, they have more than 10 varieties for you to choose from. The photo on the left show some of the dishes I had during one of my visit. For the main dishes, I like their fried fish, steam sotong and braised duck. See if you get to eat them during your visit. I had been there a couples of times, there are always some new dishes served. So you may not get to eat the same dishes at each visit.

The buffet also include free flow of ice-cream, fruits, orange juice and chinese tea. The ice-cream station is always packed with kids and adults.

To find out more on the buffet and location, you may like to visit the hotel website at www.hotelwindsor.com.sg.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

In 1986, a group of avid birdwatchers from then the Malayan Nature Society (Singapore Branch) came to Sungei Buloh and discovered the beauty of this wetland. They wrote a proposal to the government for the conservation of this ecological jewel. In 1989, the 87 hectares wetland site was designated as a nature park.

On 1 Jan 2002, Sungei Buloh was officially gazetted as a nature reserve and renamed as Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. It was also recognized as a site of international importance for migratory birds.

Today, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve set in 130 hectares of secondary forest, ponds, mangroves and mudflats. It is a rare oasis of natural wonders and home to unique animals and plants. It is also a wintering ground for migratory birds. The wetland reserve is well visited by nature lovers, bird watchers and photographers.

These links will bring you to the map & opening hours of the wetland reserve respectively, http://www.sbwr.org.sg/visitorinfo/gettingaround/ & http://www.sbwr.org.sg/visitorinfo/openinghoursandadmission/. Please note that admission is free except Saturdays, Sundays, Public Holidays and Singapore School Holidays.

If you take your time to walk through the wetland reserve, you may get to see the mangroves, mangrove wildlife like mudskippers, crabs, shellfish, water snakes, birds, spiders, moths, monitor lizard. Resident birds like herons, bitterns, sunbirds, coucals, kingfishers, etc.

If you intend to watch migratory shorebirds/waders such as plovers and sandpipers, then you have to come between September to March.

There are Bird Observation Hides and Screens provided for the bird-watchers to view the birds resting by the ponds, so that the wild birds will not be disturbed or scare off.

Photographers are often found on weekends with their cameras waiting patiently for the birds behind the observation screens. If you are in luck, some of the photographers will show you the photos they had taken. I came across one of them who waited patiently for hours, just to capture the moment when the flock of birds start to fly off.

There are free guided tours provided on Saturday at 9.30am & 3.30pm, for you to understand the wetland better. For details, visit this link http://www.sbwr.org.sg/events/guidedtours/

Below are some friendly tips for you to note, when you visit the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve:

1. Bring a good pair of binoculars.
2. Wear a hat in non-bright colour.
3. Dress in comfortable clothes in neutral colour.
4. Put on comfortable walking shoes.
5. Bring insect repellent.
6. Be as quiet as possible. Do not frighten the birds.
7. Keep to walking routes.
8. During thunderstorm, stay in Observation Hides.
9. Bring drinking water and snacks. (Note: The cafeteria is only at the entrance of the wetland reserve, no sale of drink and food inside the reserve)

Want to know how to get there, check out this link http://www.sbwr.org.sg/visitorinfo/gettingthere/takingpublictransport/.

Minori Dining & Sake Bar @ UE Square

Other than Korean cuisine, Japanese cuisine is also my favourite. All it takes is fresh Sashimi with some hot sake, that will satisfy my taste bud. :)

Minori Dining & Sake Bar at UE Square serve Ala-Carte Japanese Buffet for both lunch and dinner. This is the place where I will think of when I crave for sashimi. Altough it cost S$33++ for dinner buffet, which I think its a bit expensive. But considering I could have unlimited flow of sashimi, I think its ok to pamper myself once in while. Hahaha.

The restaurant is furnished with chestnut brown furniture with warm lighting, so it quite cozy. But it could be a bit noisy when the restaurant is crowded with the patrons talking.

The buffet here offered more than 100 dishes for selection which can be categorise into Sashimi, Sushi, Temaki (hand roll), Maki, Itamemono (Pan-fried Dish), Agemono (Deep-fried Dish), Yakimono (Grilled Dish), Nimono (Simmered Dish), Teppanyaki (Hot Griddle Dish) & etc. You can check out their website www.minori.com.sg for the buffet menu.

Below are some photos taken on the food that I ordered during my visit. Among them, the thickly-sliced sashimi is my most favourite, which consist of salmon, tuna, yellow tail, snapper, black king fish, octopus and cutttlefish. If you are the adventurous type, try the chicken heart, chicken liver and chicken gizzard on skewer, they do taste nice.

Just this month, they have opened a new branch in Tanjong Katong. I have not visited this branch, so can't comment on it. Maybe you try it out and let me know. Hehe.