Last day in Singapore

The baby’s face says it all, meh…it’s our last day in Singapore.

The day started out great with this yummy pack of economy beehoon that ah ms and Tspellstrouble bought for my breakfast. They had to trek to the newly renovated Lorong 1 market for our breakfast and have been buying us breakfasts for the past few mornings, 辛苦了！

LG is blurry, Tristan’s eyes are close but never mind, Saitaoha looks cute #shamelessmummy.

Saitaoha is LG’s little shadow, it’s amusing to watch her adulation, I hope she doesn’t mind too much that LG won’t be joining us for the last leg of the trip.

Ah ma looked after Saitaomei (apparently she yelled her lungs out for an hour after we left 😓) at home so I had the luxury of handling only one kid whilst shopping with my sisters. I decided to do without the stroller and Tula-ed Saitaoha instead, good idea because she was thrilled to be carried for a change and even slept in the Tula throughout lunch.

Lunch at Tampopo of meitaiko tonkatsu set was pretty good, my sister and I shared this so the portion was just right. I enjoyed lunch a lot, probably because my kid was sleeping haha.

More playground time in the afternoon. My sister took this photo saying ‘look how small and cute she is, such a munchkin!’ In my eyes, my child has grown so much, but to my sister whose daughter is 6, she’s so little. I must keep reminding myself she’s only two.

Saitaoha wasn’t quite sure how to pose like jeje, always trying to keep up with her older cousins.

Ooh what is this yummy looking snack?

Babies cannot eat meh?

Can I try just a little bit pretty please?

Maybe they won’t notice if I slowly inch my mouth towards the snack.

Getting closer… getting closer…

Lor mee for dinner, I ate mine too late and the noodles were all soggy and all the crispy bits no longer crispy. But I still liked it leh, so much better fresh at the stall I reckon.

We’ve been eyeing this honey cheese cake thing from Breadtalk for days and finally succumbed tonight. It was ok only.

I will miss Singapore and spending time with my family here. I loved our late night TP central shopping jaunts, enjoying Singapore food with my family, our playground sessions and watching the kids play together. I laugh most freely and happily with my family, so I’m grateful to have this gem of a break to tuck into my memory box. Thank you again Singapore for the memories.

Little Caesar’s pizza, dimsum @ Emperor’s Kitchen

Sorry for the lack of updates (aimed at Jan, my most loyal reader)but I’ve been extremely lazy and indulging in a TVB drama coma. The tv has just been moved into the bedroom too which means I’m now a bed potato.

Last week we had takeaway pizza for mid week dinner! I love it when Jo gets her fast food cravings (which is often) and we get to have takeaway bad food for dinner. This time it wasn’t just the normal Dominoes though but Little Caesar’s pizza which is easily one of the most popular pizza places in town.

They do special pizzas there, the ones featured above include their Mushroom Records pizza and their Greek Lamb pizza. The pizzas didn’t taste so good takeaway though, much better eaten on the spot but the restaurant is always way too busy to get seats.

Apple strudel pizza for dessert! Yums. R and Jo didn’t like the pizza though, maybe the cinnamon was too overpowering? I guess for a good apple strudel, Corica beats this pizza any day.

I can’t remember whether I’ve blogged about Emperor’s Kitchen before. I’m almost reluctant to because I don’t want it to become too busy and crowded. Emperor’s Kitchen is away from the dimsum haven of Northbridge and located in Leeming. We knew about this place because our good friend’s father works there as a dimsum chef during the weekends. So obviously the dimsum was going to be superb :).

I like it that there’s lots of variety available in Emperor’s Kitchen. Like this yam puffs which were delicious and are not sold in many dimsum restaurants in Northbridge.

Good charsiewbao is a must for me to rate any dimsum restaurant and I liked the ones in Emperor’s Kitchen.

Favourite chinese delicacy of chicken feet. Very flavourful. Everything in Emperor’s Kitchen is generally really tasty and we would return a lot more often if it was closer to town.

Emperor’s Kitchen
Shop 1, 55 Farrington Rd
Leeming, WA 6149

Sunday dinner of mapo tofu, cabbage and tofu soup and chicken pong teh.

Dunsborough Bakery pies (^__^)

Remember how I said I would compare the Miami Bakehouse pies with pies from another famous bakery? The said  famous bakery is the Dunsborough Bakery located down South in Dunsborough, I’m so sad it’s not a stone’s throw away but hey, at least it’s another reason to go for a very long road trip (about 3 hours drive from Perth!).

Legend has it that  the Dunsborough Bakery is an icon of the southwest and one of the oldest remaining businesses in the costal town of Dunsborough.

Established by Nanty (Anthony) Curtis, in 1941, the bakery was originally situated a few blocks down from where it sits today on Naturaliste Terrace. Nanty constructed the first ovens himself using hand-made mud and straw bricks. He would prepare the doughs at his home before carting them to the bakery via horse and cart for baking. Nanty would use a feather as a thermometer and would know when the bread was ready by the way the feather curled. As one of the first food businesses in the small town the bakery serviced many locals and Nanty would deliver fresh bread daily via his horse and cart to many of the residents and businesses even as far as Yallingup. Since then,  the bakery has undergone many changes since but is still renowned for its famous pies.

Sounds good ? The good thing about the pies, they weren’t overly expensive like the ones in Miami Bakehouse and were around the $3 – $5 range. Pretty good value for famous pies. They had all the classics like pepper steak pie, chicken pie, I didn’t know which one to choose.

The bakery is also pretty famous for their sourdough bread which looked good but I didn’t get any *regret* Nothing smells better than the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries in the morning. Truly, it’s one of my favourite smells in the world.

We bought our pies, bought takeaway coffees from Dome and drove a little way down to the popular Smiths beach. It was quite early in the morning so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves except for a few early morning surfers. Such a pretty beach, it was so gorgeous and relaxing just sitting on the sand, surrounded by beautiful scenery, the sounds of waves, hot pies in our hands,sipping on good coffees and feeling the sunshine on our faces. Like my sister Jan puts it ‘This is the life!’

Ok ok back to the pies. I had a chicken and mushroom pie because well, I prefer chicken pies to beef pies.

I think it would take a really bad baker to bake a bad chicken pie, but this pie was lovely, tender chicken chunks, peppery creamy sauce, I would eat it again.

He had a beef and bacon pie or something along those lines.

I was quite surprised because it wasn’t beef chunks but minced beef, this was really yummy too. I’m still not an expert on pies, but these pies were delicious, so nice that I returned in the evening to buy some for Jo and HC. If I had to rate it, I’ll give it a 6.5, but if I were rating based on value, and how I felt that very morning, it would be somewhere along 7 to 7.5, very bias right?

What can I say? It was the combination of beach, sky, sand and pies.

So now you know, to have the ultimate pie experience, go to Dunsborough bakery, grab a hot piping pie and drive down to the nearby beaches to picnic on the sand. If I could, I would go again in a heartbeat.

Dunsborough Bakery
Naturaliste Terrace
Dunsborough

The Miami Bakehouse: Sometimes you just need a pie … or two

Jan, I wrote this post for you because I know you like pies! Last Sunday we drove down to Freo for a supposed ramen outing. But the idea of waiting for two hours for a bowl of ramen wasn’t too appealing, so I suggested that we stop by the Miami Bakehouse which is located on Canning Highway about 10 minutes from Fremantle.

Apparently it’s flagship bakery in Falcon (that’s near Mandurah) is the most awarded bakery in WA and a must stop for travellers going down South. I have a feeling the pies in the original bakery must be even better, but it’s convenient that we don’t have to travel all the way to Mandurah for a piece of the award winning gourmet pies.

Look at all their awards, I noticed that they’re constantly picking up awards for their seafood pie and also sweet lamb curry pie. Their pies are pretty pricey ranging around $5 – $8 for a pie (I guess since they’re gourmet pies), at $7.70 for a seafood pie,  I was hoping their pies were really really good.

Pies galore. It was a nice fine day so we sat outside with our pies to soak up the sun.

Jo mistook the Big Breakfast as a real big breakfast with eggs, tomatoes and the works. I think she was quite surprised when it turned out to be a big breakfast pie instead. It looked really yummy and cheesy.

Her big breakfast pie had beef chunks underneath a topping of egg, cheese and tomatoes (probably had bacon etc. as well) and was tasty, only it was really a big breakfast and on the heavy side, Jo had trouble finishing it in the end.

HC has the beef and guiness pie which was beef chunks in a Guiness flavoured sauce, I thought it was quite nice especially for those that like their pies with a beer-ish flavour to it. My only complaint would be that the beef could be even more tender.

Richard ordered the seafood platter pie which was prawns, fish, scallop, crab in a lemon pepper sauce.

I’m not sure I could detect the separate seafood in the pie as it was all mixed up together but it was yummy. The lemon pepper sauce was light, creamy and went great with the seafood chunks. Richard said he would return to bakehouse to try the other pies based on this pie.

I also bought an apple turnover (which apparently has won an award too) but it was only ordinary and nothing to shout about. We’re not really pie fanatics so I can’t really compare the Miami Bakehouse pies with other great pies. But… I will probably be visiting another famous pie shop quite soon so I’ll remember to do a comparison post then. I only hope the pies don’t cost an arm and leg!

So verdict on Miami Bakehouse is, the pies are pretty good and worth a visit if you’re travelling down to Freo and want something besides the norm fish and chips. Definitely drop by if you’re a pie lover just to say that you’ve eaten at the ‘most awarded bakery in WA’ ,they have a great variety of interesting pies like a lasagna pie, emu,kangaroo and camel pie which I want to try the next time I go (^__^).

MIAMI Bakehouse
8/369 Canning Highway
Melville.
1300 655 729
Open 7am-7pm, daily

Sometimes you just need a pie

Tuesday lunch bento was ’empty your fridge’ salad made out of leftovers in the fridge.

Included tofu, crabsticks, bamboo shoots and teriyaki fish with sesame, lime and fish sauce dressing. Quite good eaten straightaway but not great for the day after.

I always try to prepare Jo’s lunch bento on Wednesdays because she has to go to work straight after.

Her lunch bento was stir-fried five spice honey chicken and mixed vegetables with rice.

Luckily I didn’t have to do the ‘A week of my life’ meme this week. Because the weather had been horrible of late, rainy, gloomy, dark and wet. I shiver when I go out and I shiver when I go home. I don’t know why I used to say I like winter, winter is horrible!

It doesn’t help that I’ve been leaving the office later and later. Usually I am the only one left with all the big bosses around. Sometimes I think to myself ‘what the hell am I doing here? I’m just a minion!’  I think I haven’t seen the sun all week (T____T).

Today it was another late workday. By the time I got out of the building it was pitch dark and drizzling. Two blocks before I reached my bus stop, I saw my bus rolling down the terrace. To run or not to run? I ended up running after the bus in the rain while trying to keep my shoes from falling off (for some reason they’re so loose lately). I collapsed on the bus seat, panting and thinking ‘there’s got to be a better life than this’ (ya, can swim 100 laps but can’t sprint two blocks, I’m so unfit).

While walking home from the bus stop, I wondered what to cook for dinner. The supermarket and veg shop was closed, any meat in the freezer would be rock hard. Then Jo called my mobile ‘where are you?’ ‘Err walking home on the road’ ‘Oh I’m at the lights waiting for you, scared you walk home in the dark alone’ ‘But doesn’t it defeat the purpose when you’re there alone?! Dangerous for you also what!’ ‘No, I’m at the lights, lots of cars!’ *slap forehead* Sigh, still it was very sweet of her but please hor Jo, wait for me at home!

So I decided to reward both of us for walking in the rain and said ‘Let’s buy takeaway for dinner’. We were deciding between kebabs and Subway. Guess what we had in the end? Jesters pie!

Jo’s Footy pie which is chunks of lean beef with bacon and mushrooms topped with tasty cheese. Looked very nice and oozy.

Mine was a special and not on their normal menu! It’s a Peri Peri pie which had chicken chunks, potato and carrots in a slightly spicy peri-peri sauce. Not bad but then I don’t really like potatoes in pie. Still, the puff pastry was very yummy and it was fun having a pie for a change.

Btw, I’ve added a new ‘sometimes you just need a’ category in my list, it’s for those posts where I succumb to temptation and just think ‘what the heck, sometimes you just need a …’ so far I’ve had curry, sushi and pie (^__^). Once I’ve decided on the ratings system I will put it up on my About page.

Haha, I just had a chat with my mum, we were gossing about the latest tvb dramas and she said  ‘Eh, that drama is REALLY HORRIBLE!!’ Then she said ‘You must watch it!’ I started laughing and said ‘ how come you say it’s really horible then you ask me to watch it?!’ She said ‘because you must watch it to see how horrible it is mah!’ My mum very cute hor Y(^___^)Y.

A Week of My Life : Day 4 Thursday

Err I don’t know whether you all have noticed, but the number of pictures of my posts are diminishing by the day (=___=). BUT it’s FRIDAY tomorrow, so hopefully there will be lots of things to do and blog about this weekend, friends who are reading this, quick ask me out!

The sunny weather in Perth has disappeared and it was cloudy and raining all day. This was taken from my seat at the bus (I was way up front), can you see Perth city and spot BankWest tower in the horizon?

I almost forgot about my breakfast meeting this morning. My manager, A and I traipsed in the rain to a little cafe nearby where they had breakfast while I had a latte. I tried to take a picture of my coffee by stealth but no one could miss the sound of the camera. ‘Di, are you taking photos? This is a violation of my intellectual property rights!’ my manager joked. I had to explain that my sisters, Heri and I are doing the meme, they both thought it was a lovely and cute idea. (=^____^=) so shy.

It was a crazy day at work which had me working till past 6pm. By the time I walked out of the office, the sky was dark, so no evening sky photos today. Sigh, couldn’t make it in time for swimming too.  The terrace looks very different at night.

Jo greeting me in front of my bus stop. Jo called me while I was on the bus and said ‘where are you? I came to pick you up at Woolies’. She was worried that I would be walking home in the dark so drove to the nearby shopping center (where my bus stops) to pick me up. Haha, so sweet right?

Since we were already out, I suggested going to Carousel shopping center to pick up my colleague’s farewell present of a gift voucher from Myers. After what felt like an eternity, we finally got a parking space. An annoying thing happened while we were at the cashier, my coins fell on the floor and I took a step backward to pick up the coins. And stepped onto this young woman’s foot. I truly felt bad and kept apologising, Jo said sorry too. But this girl acted like we sawed off her foot and was groaning and grabbing on to her foot like we ran a truck over it. She made such a HUGE fuss and debacle that the cashier even said ‘do you need me to get the first aid people?’ which she declined. While we were paying she stood behind us with this huge scowl (funny how she recovered after people stopped looking at her). When her mother asked her something she said rudely ‘NO, I AM IN PAIN’. At first I was thinking of apologising again, but her attitude was so bad and rude that Jo and I decided to ignore her. In hindsight, she was wearing clunky leather boots and I was wearing flats, how could it be that painful? What a drama queen.

There’s a new donut store in Carousel called Dreamy Donuts. It reminds me of the Big Apple chain and Krispy Kreme with flavours like passionfruit, strawberry cheesecake etc. We didn’t buy any since donuts in Australia are much too sweet for me (but Krispy Kreme is too sweet too). Sigh, if only they had Mister Donut here, oh I miss those green tea donuts with red bean filling, so yummy!

I feel quite bad posting this up after Heri commented that my dinners are all so healthy looking. Because Jo and I sinned and bought takeaway for dinner! She had honey chicken with fried rice while I opted for Indian butter chicken, curried potatoes and rice. Haha, see, we’re not so healthy after all!

What can I say? Sometimes you just need a curry.

Friday tomorrow, so happy Y(^_______________^)Y!