Nuffnang

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

~ Its Open House Day @ Sengkang and Pasir Ris Sports & Recreational Centre

Last Saturday, Sengkang SRC opened its doors to the public. Apart from free entry to the gym and swimming pool, there were also free coaching and try-outs of over 10 different sports! I signed up for the early bird membership and received 10 complimentary passes to gyms and pools islandwide. :)

Lucky for us, we happened to be at the complex as the children were having their swimming lessons. That means free entry to the pool! The kids were distracted most of the time and could not wait to visit the sports stations after their lessons. Each child was issued a Play Pass where they can collect a stamp for each sport trial that they attempted. You can redeem a free gift with a minimum of 5 stamps.
 Popcorn and candy floss stations always attract a queue and its a favourite among children. 

Meet Nila - the lovely mascot for Singapore National Games 2012!

There were also other filler activities around the SRC. Mini golf, snake and ladder were also set up for the children to play.

Nila made its way to the pool to support the lifeguards in their life-saving demonstration to the crowd. It was very well received and we also met the water-polo boys. :)
Apart from the games and finger food, Denver & Gladys enjoyed trying out the various sports activities most. They went round the complex for hockey, futsal, table-tennis, basketball and badminton.

Seeing the coaches guiding the children how to hold the racket correctly, how to serve and play the game was very encouraging. It was the first time our kiddos played by the table-tennis table and they were able to hit one or two balls under the coach's guidance. 

If you have missed the Open House at Sengkang SRC last weekend, there is another Open House at Pasir Ris Sports & Recreational Centre on 10th November 2013 (Sunday), 10am - 7pm. 

Check out their facebook page for more informtion. :)

Check out Sengkang SRC for more photos of the past Open House event.

Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation Centre
120 Pasir Ris Central
Singapore 519640
Tel: 65838557 / 65832696
Fax: 65835859

Saturday, October 26, 2013

~ 食客 Ssikkek - Korean Grill BBQ Buffet ~


食客 Ssikkek is a Korean restaurant offering Korean grill BBQ buffet. Currently its outlets are located at North Bridge Road, Bras Basah and United Square. We hopped by the branch at Oriental Plaza to try out its buffet spread. 

 


Weekday lunch pricing is more affordable and attractive for our family where adult and child are charged at $14++ and $9++ respectively. This includes free flow of drinks. 


Each table has a built-in grill, scissor and metal tongs. Looking at the buffet counter, there is a section for salad lovers with corn salad, mixed salad, mixed vegetables and salad sauces. There is a smaller selection of vegetables with lettuce, mushroom, potatoes and raddish wrap available on the buffet bar. But that is fine with us as we are meat lovers! 


Moving on to the raw meat section, Ssikkek offers squid, chicken sausage, pork collar, pork bacon, pork belly, marinated chicken, beef and prawns! That got us excited already!

Other cooked side dishes include Kimchi, Dak-bbokeum (Spicy Stir-fried Chicken), glass noodles, spicy rice cakes, soup and rice. 
 

We got hold of most of the meat and started grilling. Pork bacon was too salty for our liking but the others were just right. Our preference still goes to the thin slices of pork belly and pork collar as it was quicker to grill and cook. The tender and juicy meat tasted great on its own or wrapping it with a piece of lettuce.


The other side dishes were just as satisfying, particularly the glass noodles. I lost count on the number of rounds I went to refill my bowl. :) I was disappointed with the flavour of the soup as it didn't suit my liking. 

Overall dining experience at Ssikkek was enjoyable. While digging into our food, the Korean MVs and songs also kept us entertained. Our kiddos were also humming along whenever they heard a familiar song. :) 

The only downside, as in most grill BBQ restaurant, would be the smoke emitted during cooking and leaving a strong stench of food smell on our clothing. Nevertheless, we love to be back again and maybe visit the other Ssikkek outlets.


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Pricing:

Weekdays
Lunch (Mon to Fri) - Adult $14++, Child $9++
Dinner (Mon to Thurs) - Adult $22++, Child $18++

Weekends
Lunch (Sat, Sun, Public Holiday Eves and Public Holidays) - Adult $24++, Child $18++
Dinner (Fri, Sat, Sun, Public Holiday Eves and Public Holidays) - Adult $24++, Child $18++

Ssikkek - New Bridge Road Branch
 Oriental Plaza, 291 New Bridge Road, #01-01, S088756 (Chinatown)
Opening Hours : 11:30am - 2:30pm (Lunch), 5:30pm - 11:00pm (Dinner)
Contact: 6225 6964

Sunday, October 20, 2013

~ International Buffet Lunch @ Sakura ~


Being bigger eaters, we tend to have a preference on buffet style dining. Children also love to move around the restaurant and pick their food instead of solely looking from the menu. However, it's not easy to find value-for-money dining for our family and we have to be selective depending on the price and food variety.

It's been a few years since we last visited Sakura. There was a lunch promotion offer and we decided to revisit the restaurant. Like other International Buffet, Sakura serves Japanese, Western and Oriental food. Popping by the F&B outlet at Dhoby Ghaut Green, the restaurant is slightly smaller compared to the ones at Yio Chu Kang and Downtown East. However, the variety of food available on the buffet line is not compromised and considered satisfactory.

We began our feast at the appetizers section. Sashimi, mussels, salad and the freshly-prepared sushi made our day. I always love to see a good range of sushi platter available at the counter and I wasn't disappointed.


Love the idea of having the egg roll as this is Gladys' favourite. She does not need to eat the entire sushi to fill her tummy just for the Tamago. 

Personally, I am not a great fan of Teppanyaki but usually we will order some beef, prawn and salmon fish to complete our dining experience.


The main entrees would be the cooked food, tempura and dim sum selection. 



I love the way they serve the chicken. Very personalized and appetizing. 

Desserts is what we always looked forward to! Remember to save some tummy space for the mouth-watering cheesecakes, eclairs, cream puff, jelly, mochi and more! Their ice-cream is a must take as Sakura serves Ben & Jerry's ice-cream!


Random snap shots of the food we had. 

Nice & satisfactory lunch at Sakura. 

Friday, October 18, 2013

~ 2012 Manila Trip - Day 3 & 4 ~

Going into the final 2 days of our short trip in Manila. Here's a view of New Horizon Hotel from the train station. 


We were very tempted to come out for supper as Jollibee and Wendys are just next to the hotel. 

View of the train station during the day. Security guards at the entrance checking everyone's bag before passengers were allowed to proceed to the gates. One line for men and one line for women. This is a very common scene in the Philippines where you go through a check-line before entering the shopping malls, train stations, certain eateries and supermarts.

We spent most of the time mall-hopping covering Greenwich, Greenbelt, The Landmark and Forum Robinsons within a day. 


Our final stop was at Robinsons since it is located opposite New Horizon Hotel.


Dinner was at Mr Choi Kitchen. If my memory did not fail me, we had Wanton Noodle Soup, Soy Chicken and Beef Ampalaya rice topping. Although we adore the food in Philippines, it was nice to have some Chinese food for a change. :) After all, the taste, flavour and presentation is very much different from how we have in locally. 

After dinner, we had a leisure walk around the mall and the children spotted an arcade centre. We spent near to an hour playing with the various stations collecting tickets.  

Gladys was 'hook' onto this game as she always find herself grabbing bundles of tickets from the machine. Playing arcades in the Philippines is not as expensive compared to Singapore. We were able to fulfill the children's wishes and let them have a go on the games without worrying burning a big hole in our pockets. 


On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Wendys and bought some supper. :)

We continued to shop at the nearby malls on the following day. Stopped by at Goldilocks, famous local bakery store with numerous outlets country-wide, to purchase some bread and cakes before we head to the airport. There is a wide range of selection and just looking at their cakes make me drool. 


It was a short eating and shopping trip in Manila. We were able to visit new places and re-visit old ones. Would love to be back again to check out the other scenic islands in the Philippines. 

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

~ DKranji Farm Resort Open House ~

13 Oct 2013 - DKranji Farm Resort had its first open house to the public. There was a line up of activities including game stalls, flea market stalls, lucky draws, free lunch and free flow of refreshments and beer! It was our first time dropping by the farm resort to see what it has to offer. 


Prawn fishing is available at $15 an hour. Rates seems to be a little steeper compared to the other operators but there are still fishing enthusiast who may be game on it.
We were thrilled to see the flea market stalls set up by the countryside farms in Kranji.  

Ever tried eating fresh, greeny leafy vegetables? Trays of leafy sprouts were on display for public to pluck and sample. We took up the challenge and surprisingly, the Wasabi sprouts were delicious! Denver was a bit sceptical at first but after tasting one, he could not resist plucking more!
The most popular stall among children has to be from the Jurong Frog Farm and Farmart. The cute little chicks and tadpoles attracted a fair bit of crowd. Denver & Gladys pestered us to buy the quail chicks back. The boss even promised to give Denver 2 chicks if he is able to score above 85 marks for all his subjects in the coming examinations! The little ones are indeed very adorable but thinking of the commitment and duties does make us hesitate. It took us a long time before we were able to hop to the next stall.
Free hands-on pottery trail on the spot. :) Even the minions are made into pottery. Our kids don't mind getting their hands messy at all. It was pretty fun molding the clay into shape.
Game stalls always attracted the longest queue. Coincidentally, all the games being set up was about aiming using bullets, arrows and a ball.  

Main highlight of the event - visiting the rooms. :)

Lots of greenery and the exterior looks clean and tidy. There is a carpark within each unit and a separate driveway for cars to drive in to the personal car porch. 


Executive Villa - The air-conditioned room comes with a queen size bed and a 2 seater couch in the hall. There is a patio and I adore the bathroom as it comes with a Jacuzzi tub, open concept showering area and a steam room!
Moving to the Superior Hut, the room is smaller but it also comes with a queen size bed and an open concept showering area.
Unfortunately, we were not able to view the Family suite as it was occupied. However, we understand it was the largest room with 2 queen size beds, a living hall area, 2 bathrooms and a backyard with BBQ pit facilities. (BBQ pit is only available for family suite room).

Room rates for the various accomodation types.

The rooms are clean and facilities looks new. Surrounded by lustful greenery, it would be lovely to experience a night stay at DKranji as I heard they also organise farm tours. Unfortunately, the room rates look a bit steep and only the Famliy Suite can fit us and suit our needs. Look forward to seeing more promotions and opportunities to visit/stay in DKranji in the future. 

Sunday, October 13, 2013

~ AMK Food Trail Hunt with Food Bloggers ~

It was purely a coincident that we signed up for the food trail hunt when we were having our lunch at AMK Central Food Centre. Didn't really realized when we were in for but our kids were pretty excited and looked forward to makan-ing.

Organised by Openrice, together with HUAWEI, We met up with 5 food bloggers where each of them will be leading one team for the food trail.  



Rules of the Game : Each team will have 2 HUAWEI phones and $60 to spend during the Food Hunt. Teams will be travelling to 5 different food centres around Ang Mo Kio Central in random sequence depending on the lot that was drawn in the envelopes.

At each location, teams must order 1 (or more) dish. Take photo or video of the food using Instagram on the HUAWEI phones provided. Hashtag and provide location to be qualified for points. Teams have to finish the food that was ordered before drawing lots for the next location.

Each photo earns 1 point, video earns 2 points and the team that return to the starting point will be awarded 5 points! Teams were given 3 hours to cover all the location and complete our tasks.  

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We were placed under Miss Tam Chiak's team and the kids had the 'privilege' to draw the lots for our locations. Thanks to their 'lucky' hands, here was our 'running' sequence.

1. Cheng San Market & Cooked Food Centre (Blk 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10)
2. Mayflower Market & Food Centre (Blk 160/162 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4)
3. Chong Boon Market & Food Centre (Blk 453A Ang Mo Kio Ave 10)
4. Teck Ghee Court Market & Food Centre (Blk 341, Ang Mo Kio Ave 1)
5. Ang Mo Kio Avenue Central Market & Food Centre (Blk 724 Ang Mo Kio Ave 6)

We started our trail with a quick walk to Cheng San Market. Followed by taking a bus down to Mayflower Market. We were walking, running, perspiring, eating and busy taking photos and videos along our way. 

With $60 in our hands, we had to strategies and plan what we can eat the most with the least amount of money. 
Check out some of the food we ate :
Chicken rice, fishball noodles, Chee Cheong Fun, Chee Kuay, porridge, Bak Kut Teh, glutinous rice, yam cake, prawn mee, cheese fries, Cheng Teng, char kway tiao, carrot cake, muffin, rojak and more!


Dessert was our personal favourite! Grass Jelly with Longan
 
Mango with Longan

Denver & Gladys were very co-operative. Trying their best to eat, pose for photos and videos! They were not shy at all!


We ran all the way back and were the second team to return before 5pm. It was exhausting running with a full tummy. After calculating the points, we actually WON the food trail hunt with 53 points! That was unexpected news! The children were thrilled!

Special thanks to Miss Tam Chiak for leading the team, Thank you OpenRice for hosting the event. It was a tiring but rewarding experience.