This has got to be my most extensive walk in a city so far.

On the way from Novena to City Hall. I don't know why my cousin brother insist getting off at this station. During the ride, I saw an ang moh family beside me. Quite picture perfect isn't it?

Alighted the train at City Hall and walked through a series of malls such as City Link. I wasn't sure where I was until I saw these art displays. It means I am near Esplanade and I didn't even walked under the hot sun for a tiny bit.

While we were heading towards Esplanade Mall, there were several series of art displays along the way. Seriously, I don't get what is this :P

Although an art person, I gotta admit that I don't know what a toilet seat with a plastic apple and pineapple being put together means. Somehow its entertaining to us in a strange way LOL

Another series of display call 'Celebration of Life III' by David Joe Lim.

Metal sheets with patterns created using acrylic paint. Quote: "...Reflect the gleam of colours and energy before a viewer's eye as the dancers move into the rhythm and tempo of music."
Pretty cool. I wonder what music did he referred to when he created this artwork.

Out from the Tunnel, we hang out at Esplanade Mall and continued walking, passing by the 'Durian' Theater of Singapore hahaha!

From Esplanade to Fullerton One. Formula One race just ended about a month before I traveled to the island nation. It must have been quite an experience driving on the streets.

I was blessed with great weather for the first 2 weeks of my stay there. Weird. The sky would get very cloudy but somehow they clear off or there's no rain at all.

Behind Fullerton Hotel is the business district of Singapore or what my cousin bro calls it, "Singapore Wall Street". And he went on mimicking the morning business newscaster XD This is also the place where Flashmob performed (different day)...Haih...sadly I missed it. I didn't even know about it!


After much persuasion, cousin bro was reluctant to agree having dinner at Marutama Ramen until I said the word "my treat" =.=

With a map and good navigational skills, we walked from Raffles Place (Business District) to Clark Quay. I never seen this part of the city before and I never thought these buildings are still standing today. The place in the picture below is Hong Kong Street and by the time we were there, the area was quite deserted. Most of the shops were closed and called it a day. Pretty similar to Campbell Street in Penang except that the buildings are 3 storey high.

Headache from lack of sleep and almost died of thirst @.@ Saw a canned drink vending machine with imaginary hands luring me towards it. SGD 1.40 for a can of 100 Plus! I simply would not give in.

Central Mall at last...but I wasn't even sure if Marutama Ramen is in the mall.

Singapore's ERP gantry...Fortunately, they do not charge people who walk under it LOL

We checked the mall's directory and confirmed it there. About time because we were already half dead and would certainly die if we had to continue searching.

To be continue - Marutama Ramen

Happy reading~

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Don't get me wrong here. I am not promoting Tan Tock Seng Hospital or whatsoever. But the fact that I am so katak di bawah tempurung, I can't skip through this place. LOL

The hospital was really huge and once you are in there, you weren't even sure if you had just stepped into a hospital. NO Dettol smell!

There is Delifrance and Subway too! Eeks >,< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hr3acwTEpOo/SwAWonRCSLI/AAAAAAAADF0/dJ2imaDn4Sw/s1600-h/Inside+Tan+Tock+Seng.jpg">I left with awe. LOL Of course, to come up a building with top notch facilities, a lot of money is needed and I don't think I want to discuss it here :P

That day, me and cousin bro planned to get to Esplanade. So to get there, we need to pass through Novena Medical Center (Novena Square) and head to the MRT. Till my cousin bro complained he was hungry and I did not want to give in when he suggested to have lunch at TTSH Food Court :P

We somehow agree to try QQ Rice despite the outlet looks deserted.

There were a few choices of rice to pick such as purple rice, 5 grain rice, brown rice and so on. They were all kept warm using these wooden buckets. Pretty interesting.

QQ Rice also offers a wide choice of fillings for the rice. These are vegetarian fillings (e.g. mushrooms, vege, beans, seaweed etc)

If you don't like vege and prefer to have your rice packed with meat, there are also an equally wide array of fillings (e.g. seafood tofu, crabstick, bacon, even Ngoh Hiang!)

Many choice but no time to think what fillings to go with. So we quickly pick purple rice to go with mushroom, cheese and turkey bacon...LOL!

The rice ain't cheap though...if not mistaken SGD4.50 or sumthing...

Pizza kind of topping wrapped in rice =.= We didn't eat it immediately after we bought it. As a result, the rice smell of plastic :S Other than that, the taste was fine although a bit tasteless :P

Hot rice wrapped with plastic doesn't seems to be a good idea because plastic smell was strong. We finished it anyway. Kind of defeat the purpose of being a healthy food. They should find an alternate material to wrap the rice or something.

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Geee...Seriously I don't know what to say about wet market. Although I like to hang out in malls particularly air-conditioned ones, wet markets would always come across my mind regardless where I travel to. We can see lots of things there be it "tersurat" or "tersirat" LOL

Types of fresh produce, the quality and pricing says a lot about the locals as well as their lifestyle. Kovan Hougang Wet Market is only one of the MANY wet markets in Singapore.

There are a couple of stalls selling fish but this stall has the widest variety. Really fresh and they have grouper too. I saw a 东星班 at the another stall. Don't know what's the price though...

Halal poultry stall with some frozen beef in the chiller. Because they are kept in the chiller, the chicken seems to be pinkish and fresher too. Halal chickens are smaller compared to the normal ones. Don't know why.

Here comes a stall that caught my attention. The aunty sells 生鱼肉 (fish) and 活田鸡 (paddy frogs).

Super fresh and those frogs were plump too. Reminds me of the man who slaughters frogs back at Taman Connaught Pasar Malam. You wouldn't want to see how they do it.

I never seen such huge 生鱼 before. The aunty would slice them based on how much the customer wants. If not mistaken, half slab of it cost about SGD14.

In Penang, an uncle would normally sit beside a huge blue plastic tub with nets covering it. The small 生鱼 would then be slaughtered upon order.

One of the vegetable stalls in the market. Hardly see people selling asparagus in wet markets. Vegetables here are not bad.

Standard sizes...even the leeks are plump.

And clean too! Don't recall seeing any dirt on the vegetable and bad leaves were removed before they are bundled together. How I know? The uncle was just sitting beside these bunch of vegetables, carefully picking the leaves XD

Beautifully roasted items :DDD

But despite so many items, my aunt went for the other stall instead :S The old couple's stall located just beside the stall in the picture above. The old uncle reminds me of my grandfather LOL Hair style, Pagoda brand shirt and those shorts...just can't miss it ;)

Not as many items, and the char siew is red. However the roast pork was not bad. I was more curious on how the duck would taste like. They don't sell only drumstick, so we took a quarter of it and of course the lower part with the drumstick...hehe

I never thought the duck would be tasty! LOL The skin wasn't crispy but smells good. Must be the maltose syrup (麥芽糖 ) the uncle added when marinating the duck. The maltose syrup also contributed to the roast duck's colour :D Duck meat wasn't dried out. Still soft and juicy. Things got even better when the duck sauce was poured over it. It was great! Not too salty or watery. It doesn't have the strong bean paste smell with a tiny hint of wine. Probably the bean paste brand they get in Singapore are the better ones and also it all boils down to the uncle's/aunty's skills.

Hong Kong style roast duck? Should be. This is only an ordinary stall in a wet market. Those famous ones must be even better.

One thing is for sure...Never judge the outlook of a stall :P I almost finished the duck in one sitting LOL leaving only bones (with a bit of meat attached) for my poor cousin brother...wahahaha!

Happy reading~

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I have been wanting to visit Singapore's wet market but wasn't able to do so until recently. It's either I don't have the time or I couldn't wake up :P Come on...where would you choose to go if you only have a few days time in Singapore? Ochard Road or wet market flocked with aunties?

Aunt and I decided to have some breakfast before making our way to the wet market section which is just next door.

Something we were very aware of was the Sunday crowd. Lots of people, lots of car and lots of stalls with long queues!

發記 is a stall selling fish ball noodles with a variety of noodles like mee poh(flat noodles), mee kia (yellow noodles), koay teow and bee hun. The uncle was very fast in whipping up super hot bowls of fish ball noodle soup.

Finally he prepared mine. By the way, its all self service here.

This bowl of regular Koay Teow Tng was priced at SGD3. I would say the pricing is similar to KL. The slightly higher pricing is quite reasonable because you can practically share this HUGE bowl of noodle with another medium eater.

The koay teow noodles is quite thick and the uncle gave A LOT =.= I would prefer to have thinner and less thick strands of koay teow :P Anyway, the soup was pretty good. Although a bit oily but the soup was boiled with lots of meat and LOTS of pork liver. Pork liver was very fresh and powdery. The fish balls were very bouncy and no fridge smell.

Aih...needless to say, this bowl of ordinary koay teow tng warmed my stomach pretty well. It rained a little that morning.

The stall also serves curry chicken noodles and dried style noodles. I haven't try dried style noodles from this stall but I do love the taste of Singapore style konlo as they add ketchup to the noodles. Hahaha weird but I like it :D

Of course I couldn't finish the noodles so I had to pack the other half home :S What more its super hot. So hot that I have a hard time snapping photos of it and also eating it :P

Happy reading~

Location: Kovan Hougang Wet Market (Morning-Evening)

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I haven't been to Ichiban for a few years now. Although Ichiban is not some high class Japanese food outlet, it's a place where I use to have my meals with my cousins when they are still in Singapore. So I make it a point to visit this place whenever I travel down south :) Still the food has to be good too right?

Haha I sat at the exact same place when I last came here with my aunt. The only difference was that the chef was cutting up piles of fresh salmon fillets.

We went to Ichiban Sushi on a Saturday so we had to wait for a while before our food was served. The restaurant was pretty packed.

Cousin bro ordered Nikutofu Wazen Set SGD 16.90

There would be the usual vegetable tempura...

A small bowl of teriyaki chicken with rice.

And of course the egg, tofu and beef hotpot...Just the bubbling sight of it already makes you hungry.

Sweetish flavourful broth with soft beef slices and silky tofu...The egg was really good too because it soaks up the broth while heating above the small flame. Good stuff~

Beef hotpot aside, my order arrived. Chasoba and Katsudon Set SGD 13.90

Ice chilled soba noodles were very springy but to some point it becomes hard after awhile. Anyway, one thing I realised was that the chasoba didn't come with raw egg anymore :( So much for the Avian Flu...The chasoba was really a lot and unfortunately my cousin bro weren't able to share this with me. His set was already filling enough.

Just to make things clear...I seriously saw the word there MINI on the menu. Suddenly my set came with a medium sized bowl filled with rice, egg, onion and a thick slab of fried chicken fillet on top =.=

Although full, I manage to stomach this bowl of Katsudon. It pretty good. The egg was cooked together with some onions and the slab of chicken chop. Similar to the Unagidon at Sushi King but Ichiban's Katsudon taste way better... hands down. The rice wasn't too wet or sweet. Just nice ;)

After the meal, I could barely walk :P And not to mention, we have groceries to buy as well...

Happy reading~

Location: #02-23 Hougang Mall
Tel: +6563867836

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It was my first time heading over to Toa Payoh if I exclude the trip of sending my friend home a few years back :P Only after I went back to Penang, my mom told me about the curry mee at Toa Payoh =.=

Me and my cousin bro were heading over to Toa Payoh Community Centre to settle some applications. The cab dropped us in front of Toa Payoh's community library. Such a huge building...which I am very sure there are tons of books in there...But it doesn't matter now. I can enter USM library and borrow books any time any day LOL...

It was almost 6pm when we were done with our errand. Clear sky and pretty hot. This is when a lady came by and asked us, "Do you know where is XXX shop?" with a look on her face hoping we could answer her. Too bad we couldn't as we are not local.

Not much things here except for ordinary shops.

At the end of the open air mall, we walked to this area. This is where high rise buildings starts to dot the other half of the place and I did feel as if I was transported to another part of the island or something.

On the way to Toa Payoh MRT station, a teenage girl holding a music phone walked to us and asked, "Excuse me, do you know any cinemas around here?" Again, we were not able to answer her. Singapore doesn't seem to be that small after all.

Judging the sun ray, you would have guess that me and my cousin bro were probably roasted by then...and that was when I saw a row of shops on my right side particularly the one I am going to feature...

Tiong Bahru Pau & Cake Shop. Toa Payoh area but Tiong Bahru Pau Shop... Anyway, people were queuing up in front of the shop, so we joined the crowd too LOL!

With a number of items on the price list, I didn't hesitate to ask a customer queuing behind me on what are the shop's famous items :) She told me their all their items were good especially the pau. She didn't say what pau so I decided to order 鸡肉大包 SGD1.50 and 鸡球大肉包 SGD1.50 since I never heard of them before.

Fried items looked good but we were heading off to Ang Mo Kio to have our dinner, so I gave it a miss.

However, I saw this basket of siu mai-s which looks really good. Pricing at SGD 0.70 per piece, I only asked for 1 :P

The siu mai-s are the largest I'd seen so far. It looks as if the meat were bursting out of the siu mai wrappings LOL...At least double the size of our Malaysian siu mai.

The taste? It was great. Fresh meat taste. No fridge or weird smell whatsoever, not overly minced, has some bite to it and juicy. Worth every cent I paid for it.

We didn't eat the pau on the spot. Instead, I put them into freezer once we get home like after 4 hours? :P Pau will last longer and maintain its flavour if you freeze them. And that's what happen to the pau below.

After 2-3 days of rock solid freezing, they still come out delicious and juicy as if we just bought it.
I think the pau below is 鸡球大肉包. Its really good. Fragrant with wine smell and juices were flowing from the pau.

鸡肉大包 on the other hand wasn't as good as 鸡球大肉包. It lacks something which makes it less tasty comparing to 鸡球大肉包. Dad says it's important that they add ginger juice to balance off the wine in 鸡球大肉包.

Anyway, I am happy to be able to try regular food like these :D

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