CNY 初二 // Ninja Bowl

Okay here's the 2nd post!!

As I've said previously, this year's CNY is different, which applies for the 2nd day as well!! Usually my family will go my mum's godma's house to 拜年 but this year I spent it with my besties!!! HEHEH it has been long since we 3 met up together wew. We met at Soph's house first to nua for like 1.5 hours. We just sat and talked and played with Happy. Wah he's very obedient today and he even sat beside me man so cute!!!

QTPIE

Headed out at 11.30am to take train to go to Ninja Bowl. Google Maps estimated 47mins of travelling and our reservation was at 12.30pm so we thought we'll like reach early or on time but no man. Got a bit lost after getting out of the station and spent like 10-15mins finding the place. It didn't help that the signboard was so unnoticeable as well lol we walked past without noticing it.

Get what I mean lol

Upon opening the door

counter with cake selection

We took quite a while to decide on what to get cause everything seemed so good?? We were there for the bowls which were priced between $14-16 and base add-ons of ninja rice (brown rice+pearl rice)/ orzo pasta (pasta shaped like rice grains)/ garden greens (lettuces) for $2 or quinoa for $3! Their bowl names pretty unique, all Japanese names eh! HAHA but omg their brunch items look damn tempting tooo :((( Okay anyways, here's what we selected!

ps sorry for bad quality photos this time round 😥 kinda screwed up the camera settings :((

Iced Honey Yuzu, Iced Cafe Latte, Black Current sparkling water

Ki's Kaisen

The Kaisen bowl consisted of pan-seared Hokkaido scallops, mussels, carrots, mixed mushrooms and lemon butter sauce. Ki added ninja rice to her bowl and ordered a glass of Iced Cafe Latte ($6) !

"Mmm I liked the bowl a lot but I felt it was slightly heavy and so I took a longer time to eat after a while, especially the mushrooms. the rice also was on the heavy side but I would've liked it a lot if it had less 料 alongside it. but the scallops were so nice omggggg 😗😗😗 I think I'd prefer to add the garden veggies next time instead for a crunch that offsets the richness of the 料 so I won't end up so full like today ://

I was kinda shocked that my bowl had mussel shell shards inside. none of them cut me or anything but I'm still pretty worried cos it could be like a kid or somebody else cutting their mouth or even worse with the shards. they should prolly check the bowls more carefully?

Also, the coffee was alright? I liked the slight thickness of the coffee but I had to add syrup halfway cos it just didn't go with the hearty bowl well :(( The slight bitterness wasn't very pleasant halfway though the bowl, probably should have ordered like juice instead."

I tried one scallop and it was a big piece that was of good chewiness nomnom.

My Genki 

look at that bowl size LOL

The Genki bowl consisted of yaki unagi, Korean beansprouts, pickled beets, onsen egg and roasted pumpkin. I added garden greens to mine and ordered a glass of Iced Yuzu Honey ($7 + $0.50) ! Omg I really love my bowl?? The unagi was soft and was not very jelak. My bowl had many crunchy stuff of the beansprouts, beets and lettuce hahaha, I quite like the pickled beets actually! Like the sourness adds a different tone to each mouthful of veggies. The roasted pumpkin was my love omg 😍😍 They're so soft and mushy and just so good!!! The black pepper added a nice touch of flavour to them too I think! It was pretty damn filling okay, damn heng never order rice hahah

Omg the Honey Yuzu was like scam my money lol We thought it's like those fruit drink but nope it's teabag of like honey yuzu flavoured tea I think fml and the flavour was so so slight that I felt like I was just drinking plain water... Went to get like some honey to pour in which was much better. Probably had to wait a bit for the tea favour to diffuse through the water too I guess since towards the end I could finally taste stronger tea flavour which was quite nice I think. Won't order it ever again though lol so bloody expensive omg :( It was supposed to be a hot tea so when I changed to iced, I had to top-up 50cents sigh.

Soph's Kabuki

The Kabuki bowl had seared honey chicken leg, baby corn, pickled beets, Korean beansprouts, onsen egg and fried shallots. She added ninja rice and ordered Black Current sprarkling water.

"The portion of food was huge and I felt like there was a lot going on. The buttered baby corn was unexpectedly easy to chew, I didn't like the beets tbh 😅 and although the rice with furikake was nice, it felt like too much overall.

The Black Currant sparkling water went pretty well with the bowl since it was pretty refreshing and balanced out the heartiness of the food."

I tried a piece of the chicken which was quite tender I think!! And I quite like sparkling water too, like it reminded me of less sweet Ribena.

We would probably return to try their other bowls and brunch items hopefully in the not-near future (our wallets crying from malnutrition) but definitely not buying their drinks. ever. So overpriced sobbles.

After our ultra filling lunch, we went to take some photos and walked around the area before heading to Mustafa Supermarket.

center

up

left

down

right

Reached Farrer Park and holy smokes it was so crowded?????? We totally forgot it was like Sunday so everyone came out to shop or something fml. It was slightly intimidating tbh and we didn't get to enter the supermarket in the end as we saw the crowd hovering around the entrance and were like.... nope. So we just went to the nearby City Square Mall's Food Republic to sit down and like chat ahaha

Left at like 5.30pm for home and it was such a heartful day hhah that makes no sense but well, I love spending time with my besties hehe.

CNY 初一

Hello 大家, 新年快乐!! So, I'm gonna blog about my 初一 in this post and 初二 in the next! Let's get started!

Started my day waking up late LOL quickly rushed to prepare and took brekkie before heading out to my Ahma's house. Reaching there only at like 1030 and while waiting for the others to arrive, Ying and I went out to take photos for our OOTDs hhaah both of us each took like 30mins man omg. #annualthing

My outfit this year is a cold-shoulder white romper with floral details from TEMT paired with high black wedges from Bugis Street (reworn from last year hhah) Pretty comfy and really cooling hoho.

After everyone arrived, we could finally set off to 拜年 at the other house.

2 pretty couzzies

This year had the company of all my cute nieces and nephews omg they're adroable!!! And also 2 more additions hehe (gf and bf of my cousins hohoho)

My family had to leave for my Waipo's house next before moving off to 拜年 at another relative's house again.

Cousins and aunts 

 They're the children of our parents' cousins whom we are all not close to lol. We have zero interaction throughout the years, we just sit among ourselves and isolate away from them haahah.

Usually my yearly CNY routine is to go home after visiting this house but this year we did something special huehue. Finally being allowed to join my paternal side cousins for their yearly CNY movie dates!!! Omg sobs finally hahah. We walked as a big group to the cinemas and we were a joke HAHAH we made loads of noise man omg and the cinema was so packed??? We were totally late, the movie prolly was 5mins in already or something HAHAAH. Oh we watched Kung Fu Yoga this year which starred Jackie Chan!! I enjoyed it pretty much hahah it was pretty comical and light-hearted, especially after the ending man HAHAH. My younger cousins were commenting that there were many loopholes though which I guess it's true. But aiya, I feel that these movies weren't produced to become like blockbusters or anything but just for the festive season, for families to gather and spend time together laughing, bonding ba.

all us cousins wew

It was a good and slightly different CNY this year hoho

soon kueh brunch // Reunion lunch preparation

Well hello there!! I'm currently blogging at this ungodly hour cause I'm still full from supper and napped too much during the afternoon HAHAH so yep here's a post on today!!

Kicked start the day with a yummilicious brunch at Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre 👅 Never had soon kueh before today and my virgin try was daebak. Soon kueh is like this dim sum thingy (?) that has turnips encased in a sticky, gelatinous, translucent but almost opaque grey skin (I'm trying my best to describe it HAAHAHH) I bought mine from the stall #02-02 Tiong Bahru Teochew Kueh as recommended online!!

http://www.hungrygowhere.com/dining-guide/critics-reviews/zoe-tay-s-favourite-teochew-kueh-*aid-b7d12c00/

They sold each for like $1.10 and their soon kuehs were served lightly pan-fried. I spammed chilli and drizzled dark sweet sauce before tucking in to that tempting plate of chewy goodness. 😍

Although I found the skin slightly too thick, it was still awesome nevertheless. The fact that it's pan-fried allows the mouth to have a varied texture to have a greater bite instead of just the chewy skin along with the crunchy turnips within. Together with the sweet sauce and slightly spicy chilli, it was harmony in my mouth. Maybe a bit exaggerated but I was really in bliss having brunch HAHAH

Also bought a cup of cold soya bean milk from stall #02-69 Teck Seng Soya Bean Milk to share with mum.

http://www.singa-pura.com/tiong-bahru-food-centre-a-culinary-heritage-of-singapore/

IT'S HUGE LOL but only for $1 omg. It's the best soya milk I've had man. To my surprise it actually came in like prepacked, sealed cup like those bubble tea kind but greater surprise was that at such a big cup it only cost $1?!?! Its sweetness level is like perfect man. Other soya bean milk are often overwhelmingly sweet that leaves my throat screaming for water after a few sips but that wasn't the case for this. It was sufficiently sweet and was refreshing at the same time, helping to wash my soon kueh down.

Mummy bought a plate of chee cheong fun and some pumpkin cake thingy. The pumpkin cake was not too bad but the chee cheong fun was just normal I guess. I have no idea which stall she bought it from though haha.

PS those were are thinking of visiting this food paradise (hahah soz I'm biased towards here), do try the soon kuehs yeah! And the chicken rice, sotong mee, char kway teow, lormee (never tried but heard it's good) and carrot cake hehe

Okay so after that satisfying and ultra full brunch, we headed to my Ahma's house where my aunts will annually come down to help prepare ingredients to make popiah during reunion lunches and CNY day 1. Our popiahs are the bomb okay hahahah can wrap as big as we want, put whatever ingredients we want and eat with our hands and just oh so good YUMZ.

Anyways, always wanted to come down help but the past few years never ever got the chance to since I will be preoccupied with school. Basically we had to cut up long beans, leeks, spring onions, carrots amd turnips in the afternoon and wash them at night. After afternoon's work were done, we got to have a break and during this break I took an hour's nap on the chair lmao. In the evening, my aunts, mummy and I went to the market to look at flowers and bought some back. Saw some blue baby's breath and omg they're so so pretty!!! 😍💕

After an early dinner upon returning from the market, we started on our night's work. My Third Aunt and I were in charge of washing the cut vegetables and passing them to the other 3 women in the kitchen in charge of cooking them haah. Quite a lot of work actually although this year's work load is supposedly lesser.

Felt glad to have been able to help out and spend some time with my aunts wew. As I was helping in the afternoon, I had a thought: this tradition might not be passed down man, like how many of us actually stayed to help and learn how to prepare these ingredients? Will we still even be able to eat our popiah few years later when all our mums grew older and no longer have the stamina to prepare all these? :(( Mehh.

Anyways, super stoked for this year's CNY heheh. No more schooling makes life more to look forward to HAHHA. Gonna celebrate 初二 with Soph and Ki then 初六 find Pua they all, and hopefully 初八 can find the dancers wew. Omg it's like 4:30am now and I'm still here typing hahah oops. Okie bye have a great CNY everyone!!! 新年快乐 🎉🍊🍊

Nana's Green Tea

Well hello!! Back with a new post since the Makan Kakis met up for another food outing 😋 before the boys enlist haha! Ced recommended this place which happened to be in my food bucket list hehe 😊

So we went to Nana's Green Tea for their lunch set which offered a main and a drink at only $13.90!! (exclusive of GST and service charge though but still very worth) They offered both rice and udon mains! Actually wanted to eat their cold creamy salmon udon but I think they took down those cold dishes since they probably weren't popular among the locals who are not very receptive towards cold noodles?

Okay, important question: rice or noodle? 🤔 Internally debated between ordering their raw Salmon Don or hot Salmon Udon with Cream Sauce. Decided on the latter in the end.

Salmon Udon with Cream Sauce

They gave a rather generous portion of udon and the cream sauce although reminding us of carbonara, was on the thinner side kind of sauce so not jelat! It had 4 stalks of broccoli, some sweet corn and quite a few slices of cooked salmon. The salmon were pleasantly well cooked, not dry and has strong salmon taste.

Sarah's:

Beef Curry

A bowl of Millet rice, with generous amount of beef slices in curry and some pickled ginger. Plus a bowl of Miso soup.

Mer's and HX's:

Chicken Cutlet Curry

A bowl of Millet rice with a large fried chicken cutlet in curry and pickled ginger. Also comes with a bowl of Miso soup.

Ced's:

Chicken Nanban

A bowl of Millet rice, with fried chicken thingy covered in some cream sauce, possibly potato salad, some lettuce, a stalk of broccoli and cherry tomato. Had a bowl of Miso soup too.

The girls each ordered cold Matcha Latte, Ced had cold Azuki (red bean) Latte and HX got cold Thin Matcha Green Tea (which he didn't get to drink 'cause he accidentally spilled it when we wanted to take a photo 😂 ) that came with a tiny jug of sugar syrup. Personally loved the Matcha Latte!! 😍😍 Tried the one from Starbucks previously and didn't like the overwhelming milk taste but NGT's had a strong matcha taste which I prefer!! Had a slight grainy texture. Couldn't finish the drink so poured into my plastic bottle to takeaway 😅 I know I aunty but eh expensive ok! And too nice to waste hahah. #dontjudge 🌚

Ced's (top right), HX's (middle), girls' (other 3)

Overall, it's pretty value for money considering the generous portions and I would like to go back to try the Salmon Don actually hahah. But their most drawing factor to me would definitely be their matcha drinks and desserts hehe. PS realised I was the only one who ordered a noodle dish hahah.

Ohya while waiting for our food, we begin gift-exchanging hahah since some of us went abroad so exchanged souvenirs and Xmas gifts wew.

After lunch we kinda have no clue of what to do LOL as always hhaha. Walked to The Cathay and walked around Naiise then impromptu decided to catch a movie LMAO Walked back to Plaza Singapura to catch a 2.30pm show called "The Great Wall". Yes, it features The Great Wall of China hahhaa (got Andy Lau starring inside leh haha) It was surprisingly not bad!!! 😳 It was funny at times and had some jumpscares. I was super noisy haha a lot of sound effects from me 😅 The main actress quite chio eh hahha. To be honest, I don't think there's anything spectacular about it la haha but is a good lighthearted movie option to spend the time away.

Took J11 'cause my b'day👅

Had no plans after the movie so walked around Daiso and Spotlight and the basement while Ced gets his Boost. Actually that kinda ends our day la hahaa we just headed home afterwards. Good luck to the boys for their enlistment!! Come out men ah! HAHAH okie bye!