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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Sunday 31 March 2013

Hot Cross Buns

Just a quick one to wish everyone Happy Easter! Yesterday I got to baking bread again after what seemed like a much-too-long hiatus. I'd forgotten how therapeutic kneading dough can be. I baked my Hot Cross Buns recipe, which I will re-post below. I might try using strong flour next time I bake these and see how different it is.


Hot Cross Buns

Makes a batch of 12 buns

Ingredients

Dough
3 cups (425g) flour
2 teaspoons (6g) dry active yeast or breadmaker yeast
1/4 cup (45g) caster sugar
2-3 teaspoons ground spice (cinammon, nutmeg, allspice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (120g) dried fruits (traditionally, currants are used but I used raisins)
1 cup (200mL) warm milk
2 tablespoons (35g) butter
1 egg

Flour paste for the cross
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1/3 cup (80mL) water

Glaze
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar

Method

If using dry active yeast, it needs to 'bloom' in some sugar and warm water solution (no hotter than what your hand can handle) for 10 minutes until it's frothy. If using breadmaker yeast, you can just incorporate it into the dry mix.

1) Heat the milk gently in a saucepan over medium heat until milk is warm enough to melt the butter. Melt the butter in the warm milk.
2) Measure and mix all the dry ingredients (flour, breadmaker yeast (if using), sugar, spice, salt and dried fruits) together.
3) Add the warm milk mixture, egg and bloomed yeast (if using instead of breadmaker yeast) to the flour mix and mix until dough comes together. Use floured hands to finish mixing to form a soft dough.
4) Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth. (At this stage, add more flour if the dough is too wet, or add more water if the dough is too dry.)
5) Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set the bowl in a warm, draught-free place (I put it in my oven) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.
6) After proofing, punch the dough down to expel the air, and divide into 12 even portions.
7) Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Shape each portion into a ball and place in the lined tray about 1cm apart. Set the tray aside in a draught-free place for 30minutes for its final rising.
8) In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200degC and make the flour paste by mixing the flour and water in a bowl until smooth. Add more water if paste is too thick. Spoon into a ziplock bag and snip off a corner of the bag. Pipe flour paste over tops of buns to form crosses.
9) Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25minutes until the buns are done. When they're ready, the buns will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
10) Make the sugar glaze by dissolving the sugar in hot water. Brush the tops of the buns with the glaze while the buns are still warm. Transfer buns to a cooling rack.

The buns are best when fresh out of the oven. You can freeze some for later.

Friday 29 March 2013

A local Taiwanese experience @ Duck Rice Shop, Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

We had such a great time in Kaohsiung! Such friendly and helpful people, fantastic warm sunny weather (perfect for biking), and yummy eats for cheap! We arrived late morning, and after putting down our luggage, we set out to the streets nearby the hotel to look for our lunch. Armed with just a copy of the map provided by the hotel, we headed to a place marked simply on the map as "Duck Rice". We arrived at a shop with a simple sign above the entrance that read "Duck Meat Rice" in Chinese.


This little diner was full of local people eating their lunch, and the kitchen and staff were busy as bees. As was expected, there was no English menu and no one spoke English, yet everyone - staff and patrons alike - were willing to help out this girl speaking broken Chinese and accompanied by an obviously foreign-looking family. With a lot of pointing and gestures, I managed to order a full meal for the three of us, as well as convey the fact that my son has allergies to certain ingredients. As I was placing my order, I heard someone behind me speaking fluent English asking if I needed help, and it turned out to be this scholarly-looking guy who had just arrived to order and enjoy his duck rice meal. Then the man sitting at a table nearby (one of the kind folks who tried to help me) asked the guy to make sure I knew what I'd ordered. Such nice people! The food was great, and it was very affordable! Everything we ordered came under NT$400 - a bargain to feed two adults and a kid.

A small bowl of rice topped with shredded duck meat and pickled ginger. Tasty and healthy bowl:

A plate of duck leg, chopped into slices. The duck was quite meaty, and was rather different to the Hong Kong roast/BBQ versions:

Simply stir-fried beansprouts with soy sauce, green onion and pork lard:

Soup with bouncy homemade fish balls:

Tasty food, friendly people and a bargain! I loved how local this place was, as it really added to the Taiwanese experience.

七賢鴨肉飯 ("Qixian Duck Meat Rice")
220 Qīxián 2nd Road,
Qianjin District,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan 801
Tel. +886 7 287 4562
(between Zhōnghuá 3rd Road and Xīnshèng 1st Street)

Address in alternative pinyin:
220 Cisan 2nd Road, between Jhonghua 3rd Road and Sinsheng 1st Street


Monday 25 March 2013

Delicious laksa @ the original 328 Katong Laksa, Singapore

Greetings from Kaohsiung! We have been here since Saturday morning, and we fly back to Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon! We love this southern Taiwanese city, with so many friendly people with smiling faces, and the bike-friendly attitude. We've been having fun exploring Kaohsiung on bicycles and stuffing ourselves silly with all the Taiwanese food, snacks and drinks. I have so many photos to show-and-tell, but that will have to wait until I'm back home. For now, here is the final post from our trip to Singapore not too long ago.

We are big fans of all the varieties of laksa (spicy noodle soup), and hubby particularly likes the coconut-based laksa lemak, a type of curry laksa with a rich coconut gravy. Katong Laksa is a type of laksa lemak from Katong that we first encountered at a Singaporean restaurant in HK named after this district in Singapore. We paid a visit to the original 328 Katong Laksa which is considered by many locals to serve the best laksa in Singapore.

Small air-conditioned dining room; there were more tables outside:

We only ordered one bowl of laksa because we were still full from eating Nonya cakes and dumplings. Regardless of how full my tummy was, I could still enjoy the richly-scented coconut curry with the generous portion of peeled prawns. It was really good! I found myself wanting more with each bite, but my stomach was pleading for me to stop! The noodles were cut so that the whole bowl could be eaten using only a spoon.

This bowl of laksa was well worth the trip out to the east coast of Singapore:

That was the epitome of delicious in one bowl.

328 Katong Laksa
No 51 East Coast Road
Singapore 428770

Friday 22 March 2013

Nonya cakes and dumplings @ Kim Choo Kueh Chang, Singapore

One of my fond childhood foodie memories when I growing up as a young girl in Malaysia is eating the delicious and colourful Nonya kueh - sweet snacks that come in the form of cakes, pudding and dumplings. There are so many varieties of Nonya kueh that it is quite possible that I haven't tried them all, and I always get confused about the names! As the culture, language, history and food of the Nonya-Baba (aka Peranakan) are integrations of the Chinese and Malays, many of the Nonya kueh are also native to the Chinese and Malay cultures. Basically, the Peranakans are descendants of early Chinese immigrants who settled in Malacca, Penang, Indonesia and Singapore, and they intermarried with the local Malays. My maternal grandma is a Nonya from Malacca, and when I was a little girl, I was told of the cool possibility that we may be descendants of Hang Li Po, a Chinese princess who was married to the Sultan of Malacca in the 15th century. Of course, it's also entirely possible that our ancestry could have humbler beginnings, tracing back to one of the handmaidens who intermarried the local Malays, but let's not shatter the fantasy. I digress. Singapore has its own Peranakan community within Katong, and here we paid a visit to Kim Choo Kueh Chang. I had intentions of only buying some snacks to taste, but I got a bit carried away in my excitement.

Kim Choo Kueh Chang shopfront, with colourful kueh, snacks and bak chang (savoury meat dumplings):

Beautiful assortments of sweet cakes and savoury snacks, and bottles of Nonya kaya (coconut egg jam) were also available for sale:

There were also chiffon cakes and chocolate muffin (top), various kueh sprinkled with dessicated coconut (middle), and ang ku kueh too (right):

Another of my childhood favourite food: bak chang - savoury glutinous rice dumplings with delicious savoury meat fillings. Other filling ingredients also added, depending on type. I got two different types, the Nonya Chang (minced pork, wintermelon cubes and Nonya spices, wrapped in pandan leaves) and the Salty Chang (five-spice-flavoured glutinous rice dumplings with pork, shiitake mushrooms and roasted chestnuts, wrapped in bamboo leaves):

One of the chang, unwrapped:

The glutinous rice dumplings were hefty, and only one would have proved too much for myself. Delicious stuff:

The packet of assorted kueh we bought, still wrapped up:

Kueh Lapis (layered cake) - I love peeling off each layer. This had a subtle overlying taste that didn't belong, and I couldn't figure out where it could have come from - perhaps it came from the food colouring? Hubby thought it tasted fine:

Kueh Dadar (pandan crepe stuffed with coconut and gula melaka) - we really enjoyed this one. :

The crepe was chewy and the coconut filling was moist and not too sweet:

This kueh was like Kueh Talam, but I think the guy said the yellow part was yellow mung beans. Another good choice:

The two bak chang we bought were good and substantial to be lunch material, and the kueh were mostly good. We especially liked the kueh dadar.

Kim Choo Kueh Chang
111 E Coast Rd,
Singapore 428801
Tel. +65 6741 2125

Monday 18 March 2013

Kaya toast breakfast @ Ya Kun (Bugis Junction), Singapore

A popular breakfast and snack item for both Malaysians and Singaporeans is the kaya toast. Kaya is a sweet and creamy coconut egg jam that is usually enjoyed with bread or cream crackers, and I grew up on this delicious stuff. There are two types of kaya - Nonya kaya is green due to the use of pandan leaves, and whereas Hainanese kaya is orange or brown colour because the sugar is caramalised first. We could get jars of kaya in the oriental shops in Australia, but I had to go without kaya for the four years we were in Japan. Imagine my delight when I found both types of kaya at the supermarkets in Hong Kong shortly after we moved from Japan! Kaya toast is somewhat of a Singaporean cultural icon, and I naturally felt I had to have kaya toast during our few days stay in Singapore recently (never mind the fact that I already eat the stuff at home). Although we had a pretty good breakfast buffet included with our room rate at our hotel, I gave up my breakfast pass one day to my sister's boyfriend, and joined her for a kaya toast breakfast. It worked out well, because he wasn't interested in having kaya toast (his paleo diet also doesn't allow him to have bread), and it was better value for him to have the buffet as he eats a lot of protein and he can eat far more than I. Hubby and son stayed behind for the breakfast buffet, and yes, I did worry a little about what hubby would feed the kid, but it helped that I had eaten the buffet on the first morning and could show hubby what I usually give the boy for brekkie (hubby did a great job, by the way).

A straightforward set-up at Ya Kun Kaya Toast:

Although there are many kopitiam (Malay for "coffee shop") in Singapore serving kaya toast, Ya Kun Kaya Toast is the most accessible with over 30 outlets in Singapore. It was easy to find a Ya Kun store near our hotel, and my sis and I eagerly set out for some local breakfast. The store at Bugis Junction was crowded, but we arrived just as someone was leaving so we got a table quite easily. There were a few varieties of toast to choose from: Kaya Toast with Butter, Kaya Peanut Toast, Butter Sugar Toast, Cheese Toast with Kaya, Cheesy French Toast with Kaya and French Toast with Kaya, which can be ordered a-la-carte or in a value set meal. We both ordered got the Kaya Toast Set (around S$4), which included two soft-boiled eggs and a drink. Ordering was fairly straightforward - we placed our orders and paid at the counter, waited for our trays of eggs and drinks, sat down at our table with the trays while the kaya toast was being prepared, and the kaya toasts were served to our tables. It was a fairly simple meal with relatively high protein and carbs that kept me going until lunch time. Our only complaint was the overly-sweet drinks, which is the standard way to have them here in Malaysia and Singapore, but I don't generally add sugar to my hot drinks. Both my Milo and my sister's Horlicks drinks were too sweet for us to finish, and we agreed that the next time we order these drinks in Singapore, to request for less or no sugar.

The super-sweet Milo drink:

The soft-boiled eggs were more like the Japanese-style onsen tamago (hot spring eggs) where the yolks were firm but retained the colour and texture of uncooked yolk, and the whites were runny:

The Kaya Toast with Butter - two slices of bread, each sliced into half, and slathered with kaya and a slab of butter in between each halves. I don't like butter, so I removed the still-firm butter squares; my sister, who loves her greasy foods and butter, ate hers with the butter but said that it got a bit too rich for her after awhile:

The Kaya Toast Set:

Ya Kun Kaya Toast is popular for a good reason - the sugary-sweet drinks, buttery kaya toast and the soft-boiled eggs gives good sustenance to break an overnight fast, and it is also a tasty snack. Do give the local breakfast a try next time you're in Singapore.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast
#B1-11
Bugis Junction
230 Victoria Street
Singapore 188024
Tel. +65 6238 8904

Friday 15 March 2013

It's All About TASTE @ Ibis Hotel Bencoolen, Singapore

After a whole day out at Sentosa, we were pretty knackered by the time we got back to the hotel in the evening. It was almost bedtime for the boy, so hubby and I decided to eat dinner at our hotel's restaurant rather than venture out. My younger sister and her boyfriend joined us for dinner after the heavy rain foiled their plans for a romantic Valentine's day dinner. TASTE is the flagship restaurant and bar of the Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen, and the food "is about simply trying everything". The restaurant serves an international and local menu between 12pm and 10:30pm, and it includes an innovative tapas-style menu of around 20 iconic Singaporean dishes served in mini portions so that you can indeed try a bit of everything. TASTE also serves a decent buffet breakfast from 6:30am to 10am, which we know because our check-in guy gave us a nice little upgrade on our room rate to include daily breakfast (he probably felt sorry for us that the three of us had to squeeze on a queen bed, which wasn't actually too bad, but it's not something we can do for much longer because our son is already 4.5 years old and not getting smaller). From the list of 20 local specialties, we could choose three, four or five dishes for S$15, S$18 and S$22 respectively (service charge and taxes were extra). This was pricey considering that we could get full portions of the real deal less than two blocks away at the Bugis Street market, but we needed dinner that didn't result in getting wet and a later bedtime for our son so we willingly paid for the convenience. And we were still pretty full from our lunch so the small portions weren't unwelcomed. The food was pretty good, and I don't think anyone had any complaints (except the carrot cake came out not quite what we expected - more on that later).

Fish & Salad (instead of Chips), which seemed like the safest option for our boy who suffers from multiple allergies. We swapped the salad for the fries that came with my sister's boyfriend's burger set because potatoes are not allowed in his paleo diet. The fish strips were real fish that looked like they were cut, breaded and fried in the kitchen, and was a good non-Asian choice:

The Cheeseburger with Fries. My sister's boyfriend removed the buns and didn't touch the fries (the paleo diet is helping him cope with his IBS issues), but nothing was wasted as we used the buns for the curry below, and there was no shortage of people wanting the fries:

The rest of us opted to share five tapas-style local dishes, and it was hard to pick only five from a list of 20! There was even Chili Crab and Pepper Crab on the list (which we didn't order because of the potential mess factor). This would be a nice way to introduce overseas guests to the local food, in air-conditioned comfort and small serving sizes.

Wok-Fried Vegetables, Roasted Duck, and Carrot Cake, which we'd presumed to be chai tau kueh but it arrived looking more like an omelette. I wished for a bigger serving of vegetables as it was our only vegetable intake for the day and also the cheapest thing to buy and cook. However all the three dishes were tasty and enjoyable to eat:

Fish Curry with Roti Prata - a delicious choice. Bread goes hand-in-hand with curry, and the sesame bun was no exception:

Beef Hor Fun - a very good version with tender strips of beef and flavourful egg sauce:

For a real local experience, go out to the nearby New Bugis Food Village and try the local dishes in a hawker environment. However, if you happen to stay at the Ibis Hotel on Bencoolen, and it's raining with a 4-year-old to be put to bed real soon, the TASTE restaurant is a good albeit more expensive option for a small meal.

TASTE Restaurant
Ibis Hotel Bencoolen
170 Bencoolen Street
Singapore 189657
Tel: +65 6593 2886

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Malaysian Food Street @ Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore

It's not all that surprising to find that many Singaporean dishes are very similar to those in Malaysian cuisine, since the two nations are geographically, historically and culturally close to each other. Malaysia spreads out a wider distance than Singapore, hence the food is therefore more diverse, with regional variations found in different states and cities. Of course, there have been contentions over whether certain dishes came from Singapore or from Malaysia, but many Singaporeans acknowledge that much good street food lies across the causeway that cannot be found in their city. They would drive for many hours or hop on a plane to satisfy their hawker cravings - that was until a year ago, when the Resorts World Sentosa opened the Malaysian Food Street which made many Malaysian hawker favourites accessible to Singaporeans. The food court was packed to the brim when we visited on a weekday for lunch, and there was a long queue to get into the place. A good variety of Malaysian hawker food from across different states can be found inside the Malaysian Food Street, whether it be KL Hokkien Mee, Penang Char Kuey Teow or Malacca Chicken Rice Ball that you feel like eating. The interior was designed to look like the streets of old town Malaysia, and I must say it was rather nicely done.

Facades of old shophouses and replicas of 1950s-style coffeeshop furniture and street fixtures, which would have been visible if it wasn't so crowded:

It took us ages to find a table, and in the end we had to do what everyone else did: scope out for tables whose diners look like they were almost done, then stand next to it to grab it the moment they stand up and leave. It may seem like a rude thing to do by western standards, but I see it all the time in Asian countries (except Japan, of course). My younger sister and I left the boys to guard our table and things, while we went to have a look at all the different stalls, queue up and buy the food. It was hardly conducive for a relaxing meal - not to mention that other people started standing by our table when we'd barely sat down to eat - but the food was enjoyable. The 4-year-old boy had never eaten worse before, as it was extremely difficult to make allergy requests in this environment. We gave him some of our food which we thought were safe for him to eat, but it didn't agree with him very well and ended up making quite a bit of mess. The cleaners were quite diligent - they saw what was happening and were on the ready to clean up anything (fortunately for them, we were well-prepared with sick bags, tissues and wet wipes). In the end, our boy just ate a couple of nut-free granola bars for lunch with some chocolate milk that I'd brought along in his snack box. I felt bad that our kid had to once again miss out due to his food allergies. We ate more food than what is shown below, but due to the frenzy of going back and forth between the table and the vendors, I didn't get to snap at least one dish, the Nasi Lemak (coconut rice) which came with delicious fried chicken pieces and the usual crispy ikan bilis (anchovies), sambal belacan, peanuts and boiled egg.

Penang Lim Brothers' Char Kuey Teow - juicy prawns and lap cheong (chinese sausage) with a decent dose of charry wok hei flavour. Be prepared to queue at this popular stall:

Mixed Satay Sticks from the Straits of Satay stall. The chicken, pork and beef were nicely grilled on skewers, and they were quite delicious with a fruity and tangy peanut sauce. This is another popular stall with a queue to order and a 20-minute wait for the satay sticks to be ready:

KL Wonton Mee, with an extra order of wonton dumplings. My sis said that she'd waited so long in the queue that she decided to order an extra serving of dumplings to make it worth her wait:

When my sister finally came back to the table to enjoy her lunch, I was already done eating (the char kuey teow and nasi lemak didn't take quite as long as the dishes she'd ordered). Everyone was pretty keen for some sweets, so I traipsed over to the Desserts stall and joined yet another queue. I ordered four items, including orange juice (not pictured) which was juiced in situ and it tasted delicious and wholesome complete with pulp and all the goodness of three or four oranges I saw the guy load in the juicing machine.

Sweet Potato and Sago Soup, specially ordered for my sister's boyfriend who is on a paleo diet due to his IBS issues. He really enjoyed it:

Delicious Cendol, an ice-based dessert made with coconut milk, green pandan jelly, and gula melaka (palm sugar):

Ice Kacang - shaved ice with red beans, attap chee (palm seed), sweet corn, and jelly, drizzled with just the right amount of condensed milk, red syrup and gula melaka syrup. I liked this one more than the last one we had in the dessert's homeland:

Malaysian Food Street is worth a visit if you're in Resorts World Sentosa, and you have a craving for Malaysian street food. The food is good, hence it is a popular dining option for many visitors to Sentosa. Avoid going on a weekend or holiday, and bring your patience along.

Malaysian Food Street
The Bull Ring (near Universal Studios)
Resorts World Sentosa
8 Sentosa Gateway
Sentosa Island
Singapore 098269
Tel. +65 6577 8888

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Chinese Stem Cells

One of my friends in Perth (who is also a well-known blogger) started a drive this week asking her readers to register as stem cell donors, specifically targeting those who are ethnically Asian. Although this was spurred to help find a match for Emily, registering to be a donor can potentially save other lives. In Hong Kong and Australia, people can register to be a stem cell donor by donating blood, and my friend Karen has undergone the process and blogged about it to show just how simple and easy it is to do it. Emily needs a stem cell donor of Asian descent, however there aren't very many Asians on the international bone marrow registry, probably due to a Chinese taboo on giving blood. Well, I can personally vouch that donating blood is quite safe (provided that you donate through legitimate organisations like the Red Cross) because I used to donate blood regularly with hubby when we were still living in Perth. I must admit that I haven't donated when we first moved overseas - the language was a barrier in Japan, and I hadn't really thought about donating blood since then - but now that I have the information on where to go, I have no excuses. Most of my readers are from USA, Hong Kong and Australia, and I hope that some of you will take the time to register as a stem cell donor, whether you are Chinese or not.

  • United States: register and order a donor kit via Be The Match

Please click here for a list of other countries.

Monday 11 March 2013

Sights of Singapore: Changi Airport, Little India, Night Safari, Sentosa Island, and Katong

I left Singapore feeling that three days in Singapore wasn't enough time. For the first 10 years of my life, I grew up just across the causeway in Johor Bahru (the southernmost city of Peninsular Malaysia), my older siblings received education in Singapore, and we made frequent family trips to Singapore. However, despite the close proximity and relatively frequent exposure during my early childhood, I don't recall much of Singapore beyond the famously extravagant Christmas lights and the shopping along Orchard Road. Hubby and I paid a visit to this city as part of our honeymoon trip more than 8 years ago, but it was only a day trip with barely enough time to go to Sentosa. It was good to actually stay a few days in Singapore to give ourselves some time to explore the city with more depth. There are still a couple of things left to do on our Singapore list, and I am sure there will be more opportunities to visit the Lion City.

Changi Airport

Changi Airport is something of a tourist destination in itself. With three large terminals to explore (construction for a new fourth terminal is underway), I deliberately gave us a 2-hour layover in Changi when flying from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur on the first leg of our trip, and we also spent a couple of hours there before boarding our mid-afternoon flight back to Hong Kong. Although HKIA is amazing for its functionality and efficiency, it can't quite compare to Changi Airport which has won almost 400 awards and accolades as best airport from various international organisations. It's really the best airport to transit through, and there are many, many wonderful things you can do to pass the layover time, such as taking a nap on one of the specially-designed snooze chairs in the free rest areas, take a swim in one of the pools, hit the gym, watch a movie or stroll through the butterfly garden. Changi is also the most aesthetically beautiful airport I have ever been in, and I've been to a few around the world. Changi Airport's motto is "The feeling is first class", and it certainly is a first class airport.

Admiring the lush Orchid Garden complete with 700 orchid plants in full bloom and a koi pond. As orchids are my favourite flowers, I was stoked to come across this in Terminal 2 during our short layover on our way to Malaysia:

An Angry Birds exhibit with a space theme in Terminal 2, which totally delighted my boy who is a bit of an Angry Birds fan (though he doesn't play the game much) and has a current obsession with astronomy and everything to do with outer space:

A larger and fancier Angry Birds space-themed exhibit in Terminal 3. My boy is wearing an Angry Birds mask from Sentosa (it came with the cable car tickets - see below):

Little India

After checking into our hotel and dumping our luggage, we went to have Indian for lunch in Little India. There were lots of Indian eateries and shops selling Indian clothing, jewellery and goods, and if you need to change some currencies, the money changer at Mustafa Centre is the cheapest place in Singapore to exchange currencies.

We happened to walk past Masjid Abdul Gaffoor, a beautiful mosque on Dunlop Street:

I think this was along Dunlop Street on our way to Serangoon Road from Jalan Besar:

Night Safari

The boy had a decent nap after that long walk around Little India, so we made a spontaneous decision to do the Night Safari later that night. This was the second time in less than one week that our 4-year-old stayed up beyond 12-midnight - way past his usual 7:30pm bedtime. That boy was a little trooper, and he loved going to the zoo and seeing the animals at night. No flash photography were allowed anywhere in the Night Safari (though there were many inconsiderate visitors who ignored that request), and I gave up taking photos after my fifth or so blurry shot. So I don't have any photos to show of the nocturnal animals.

At the entrance to Night Safari, with the Chinese new year decorations still on display:

Sentosa

On our second morning, we hopped on the free shuttle bus to Sentosa, operated by Resorts World Sentosa (this service is only for tourists, so be sure to bring your passports along with the embarkation card). We attempted to explore the island using one of the free buses that departed from the Resorts World but it was raining buckets by the time we arrived in Sentosa, so we ended up just sitting in the bus to return back to Resorts World. We had lunch while waiting for the rain to ease up, and when we saw that the rain was not ceasing, we hopped back onto the bus to do some sight seeing in the drizzle. By the way, just for your amusement, the Singaporeans like to joke that Sentosa stands for So expensive yet nothing to see actually

The Forum, a vast undercover space that provided many of us with shelter from the downpour:

The gigantic replica of the Merlion, the national mascot. It stands 37 metres tall:

The view of a wet Singapore from inside the cable car:

I guess there is a bit of an Angry Birds craze in Singapore. We were given free masks and collectible Angry Birds cups with our cable car tickets:

Katong/Joo Chiat

The first I heard about Katong was when a namesake restaurant opened up in the mall downstairs from our apartment in Hong Kong. This restaurant served up a pretty good food, at least compared to other Singaporean/Malaysian eateries in HK, and it is our go-to place whenever we want to fix our cravings for Malaysian/Singaporean food in HK. We spent the better part of our third day in Singapore exploring the streets and the food that Katong had to offer. We made a beeline for Koon Seng Road, where there are carefully preserved Peranakan shophouses to look at.

On Koon Seng Road, the colourful shophouses line both sides of the streets:

A row of shophouses on one side of the road... (click for a larger view)

... and a row of shophouses on the opposite side of the road. Aren't they pretty?

I will write about the food we had in Katong in due time, so stay tuned!