Yummy Ice-Cream

I have always been an ice-cream lover since little. Exploring different ice-cream outlets around Singapore is a must-to-do. Hehehe.

Icekimo located at 8 Sin Ming Road #01-03 Sin Ming Centre, is one of my frequent place, when I crave for ice-cream. The ice-cream are made daily here, with reduced level of fats and sugar and without any preservatives added. Another factor that attract me here, its their creation of ice-cream flavours. To cater to local taste, the owners have created flavours such as Milo, Horlicks, Teh Tarik, Bandung, Durian and Cempedak.

My 3 most favourite flavours are Durian, Teh Tarik and Jasmine. One thing I note about their durian ice-cream is that the taste sometimes varies from each visit. As the ice-cream is made from real fruit, so I believe the different in taste depend much on the durian season. For those prefer a flowery or lighter taste of ice-cream, I would recommend them to try the jasmine ice-cream.

Below are the ice-cream I ordered during my last visit. On the left is Super Durian Waffle, with D24 durian flesh sandwiched in a waffle and top with a scoop of durian ice cream. On the right is Banana Split, you can choose any three scoops of ice cream with any two toppings.

Roti Prata & Teh Tarik

Roti prata is Singaporean all day favourite, which is fit for breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper. But most Singaporean will prefer to have it for breakfast or supper. As they are a numbers of 24hrs food outlets that are selling roti prata, it is also popular among the night owls.

Roti prata is brought to Singapore by the Indian immigrants and thus it is also known as indian pancake. The basic ingredients for roti prata are flour, sugar and salt, with water added to make into a dough. The dough is later been whirl and twirl in the air, until it is paper thin and four or five times larger than the original size. This paper thin dough will then be folded into rectangular or round shape and fried over a large flat pan.

Pratas are often eaten with curry, but they can be also eaten with sugar or just plain. In the olden days, there are 3 standard variation of pratas which is "kosong" (plain), "telur" (with an egg added) or "bawang" (with onions added). With the recent years of creativity by the pratas makers, more variations are now created. The creations include toppings like cheese, chocolate, ice-cream, bananas, garlic, mushroom, sauages, etc.

To complete pratas meal, most Singaporean will order a drink called "Teh Tarik" which means "pulled tea" in Malay. Teh tarik is a tea drink made with condensed or evaporated milk. The tea is tarik (or pulled) by pouring the tea back and forth between a container and a cup at arm's length, till bubbles are formed. This act is believed to enhance the flavour of the tea and also allows the tea to cool faster.

Traditionally, pratas should be crisp outside and soft inside. But recent years, crispy pratas (which are fried till the dough is crispy and hard like crackers) have gained much popularity. To follow the trend, most of the roti pratas outlets have switched to selling crispy pratas. But luckily, I found this coffee shop along Serangoon Road which is still selling the traditional pratas which I prefer.

The below photo, I shared with you my order during one of my visit to this pratas outlet. From clockwise top, paper prata, curry, kosong & cheese prata and teh tarik.

MacRitchie Reservoir Park

Singapore is a small island, so land is very precious to us. Much efforts have been put in to reserve our nature.

MacRitchie Reservoir Park is the place I enjoy going to freshen up my mind and body. Thanks to the thick woods in the park, the air is extremely refreshing in the early morning.

MacRitchie Reservoir is Singapore first reservoir built in 1868. The forest around the reservoir was protected as a water catchment reserve. Over here, you can either choose the walking trails through the forest or the boardwalks skirting the edge of the scenic reservoir. The trails ranges between 3km to 11km.

I usually start off through the Lornie Trail (forest) before the sun comes up and return back by the Chemperai Trail (boardwalks) to catch the sun rise scenic view. As there is no lighting provided along the trails, torch lights are needed if you go before day break. This link will bring you to the enlarge map of the trails, http://www.nparks.gov.sg/imgs/nature_central_map1.jpg.

For the nature lovers, there are lots of interesting plants and animals you can explore yourself. Please remember not to feed the wild monkeys, as they could gets nasty. The park also do not encourage visitors to feed the fishes and tortoises.

There is free "Nature Appreciation Walk" provided on the 2nd Sunday of every month, at 9.30am. The walk is via the Prunus Trail, which is along a boardwalk that hugs the MacRitchie Reservoir. The guide will introduce you to the flora and fauna of our mature secondary forest. Meeting place is at the entrance of Prunus Trail (50m after the canoe kiosk in the eastern side of the reservoir park) at 9.25am.

Getting there is either by bus, taxi or self drive. You can take bus nos. 52, 74, 93, 130, 132, 156, 157, 162, 165, 166, 167, 852, 855 or 980 and alight along Lornie Road at the bus-stop in front of MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

Dragon Fruit Farm

Happy Easter's Day!!!

This morning I visited the Dragon Fruit Farm, located at Lim Chu Kang, at the far northwestern part of Singapore, and learnt the growth process of this nutritious fruit.

Dragon fruit or Pitahaya is a climbing cactus vine that grows well in dry areas. As the flower of the plant only bloom at night, thus the plant is also known as "moonflower" or "lady of the night". In one year, the plants can have up to six fruiting cycles. It can be propagated by seed or by stem cuttings.

The dragon fruit is normally eaten raw with sour plum powder or served as juice. The fruit is known to be rich in vitamin C, aid in digestion, improve eye-sight and prevent hypertension. The seeds of the fruit are supposed to help in controlling blood glucose levels in people with diabetes.

Now, we shall go through the growing process of the dragon fruit. The first stage is the growth of the flower bud. The bud will grow bigger till 30cm or more.














The second stage is the blooming of the flower within a night. This normally takes place around the 1st or 15th day of the lunar calendar month of the growth cycle. (No photo available, as my visit to the farm was in the morning.)

The third stage is preparation to bear fruit after the flower bloom. The petals of the flower will eventually dry up.

The fourth stage is the development of the fruit. At this stage, the outer skin of the fruit is still in its green colour.

The last stage is to wait for the fruit to get ripe and the outer skin will be changed to red. The whole growth process of the fruit will take about 45 to 50 days.











For more information on the farm, you may like to check out their website www.springorchard.com.sg.

Good Value Buffet

I was having "All-You-Can-Eat Taiwan Porridge Dinner Buffet" at Quality Hotel on Tues night. The buffet was price at S$10.80++(Subject to 10% service charge and 7% GST). With this pricing, free flow of food and the cozy environment, I found it rather value for $$ and would like to share with you.

I started my dinner by having a bowl of piping hot salted vegetable duck soup. The photo on the right showed some dishes I pick to go with my porridge. If you like spicy stuff, you must try the curry chicken to go with the deep fried "man tou". Its just taste great.

The buffet also include fruit and dessert. The dessert for that night include bread pudding, hot barley soup, ice-cream and ice-kacang. I tried the ice-cream and bread pudding, see photos below.

If you want to find out more on the buffet and pricing, you may like to visit the hotel website at www.qualityhotel.com.sg. FYI, the buffet price on Fri, Sat, Sun, eve of public holiday and public holiday are higher. So if you want to keep your budget low, avoid going on these days. Or if you want even better value for $$, go for the "Super Supper Buffet" which cost less than S$10, but supper start at 10.30pm.

The cook will change some of the dishes everyday. So if you didn't get to eat what I had, please don't blame me, hehehehe.

The Amazing Calligrapher

I spotted this amazing street performer behind the "Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum", located at the junction of Sago Street and South Bridge Road, in Chinatown. He can write with his chin & neck, foot and hand & foot together.

The photo below on the left showed him writting with chin & neck, while the right showed him writing with his foot holding three ink brushes at the same time.

I think the most difficult part is to write with both the hand and foot together, as shown on the photos below. The best part is that the character written by the foot is different from the hand. This need lots of practice and concentration. See if you can catch him the next time when you visit Chinatown.

Chinatown

As I am Chinese, I would like to start off introducing the Chinatown in Singapore.

The best time to visit Chinatown is 2 weeks before Chinese (or Lunar) New Year. This is the time where some of the streets will be closed up for vehicles passing and lots of stalls will be set up in selling Chinese New Year's goodies, ornaments, clothings, plants, etc. Everyear, I will come down to Chinatown during this period, not necessary to buy things, but to feel the mood of New Year. To celebrate on the arrival of Chinese New Year, there will be performances and count down on the eve. This is the night where Chinatown is most dense with people during the 2 weeks.

As traffic will be very dense during this period, the best way to travel to Chinatown will be by MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) by the NEL (North-East Line). One of the entrance of the Chinatown Station is right at the heart of Chinatown, Pagoda Street (see photo).

Below are some stalls selling the Chinese New Year ornaments. Chinese have always regards "red" and "gold" as our auspicious colours. So most of the ornaments are of these colours. As 2008 is the year of rat, there are also ornaments with cartoon mouse added. Chinese families like to decorate their home with these ornaments during Chinese New Years, as they believe that its not only adds mood of the festive, but also bring them good luck and wealth for the new year ahead.

If you visit the Chinese families during Chinese New Year period , they will served you with the New Year goodies like cookies, sweets, preserved fruits, melon seeds, peanuts, buak kwa(bbq dried pork or chicken), etc.

Chinese sauages, salted duck and porks are also popular. They are the necessary ingredients in making the "Eight Treasures Rice" and "Clay Pot rice". These are some of the Cantonese speciality dishes.

There are also other stalls selling clothings, festive plants and flowers, etc. that you can find there. For the best deal, buy your stuff on eve. As the stall owners need to clear all their goods on the eve, they will have the best promotions or offer on the late night of eve.