Crystal Deo Crazy

Good things are meant to be shared. A friend of mine told me about this crystal deodorant stick a while back when I complained that my usual deodorant sometimes does not cover  me for the entire day.
She said this one will cover for 24hrs and is safe to use but I forgot all about it until I stumbled upon it in a Guardian pharmacy store in Johore Bahru for RM29.90 and decided to buy one to try.
After using it, my conclusion, people is, this product is amazing. It really lasts 24hrs and is apparently, chemical free. 1 stick can last for 1 year. Simply wet the crystal surface and roll on underarms when needed. Very cool.
Usual deodorant sticks clog our pores with harmful chemicals that cause bad things to happen to our bodies but this apparently is all natural and doesnt clog our pores.
Give this a go:
THECRYSTAL.COM

Yummy dim sum @ Tim Palace

We decided to lunch at Tim Palace at the fairly newly opened Safra Toa Payoh for my mother in law's birthday today.
I ate so much and the food was so yummy, I forgot to take pictures of the food. Their ala carte buffet is about $26.90/pax. Kids under 5 dine for free and kids between 5-12 years have to pay about $16.90/pax. Safra members get 10% discount.
You can order anything except certain dishes like fish and sharks fin soup as many times as you want.
Their portions are served according to the number of people on your table so if you order a whole fish, and have 10 people on your table, they will serve you a big fish.
Seriously can't think of anything bad to say about the place. Everything we ordered was yummy and the service was not too bad for a chinese dim sum place.
Sometimes they didnt bring the right dish but it's an alacarte buffet so we we didnt mind.
The seafood there is fresh and portions are generous. Besides that, every hot dish was served piping hot, which is always appreciated.
The place is packed by 1130am so if you don't have a booking,  they will most likely turn you away at the door so please remember to book early.
If you are bringing young children, please bring along their cardigans because the temperature can get low in there.

Rating: 4/5
Will go back many more times.

Tim Palace

Safra Toa Payoh

LEVEL 3

Rainy Friday Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh

The loving spouse came over to drive me over to Keppel road to have lunch at Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh. I prefer the bak kut teh at this branch more than their sister branch at Havelock rd.

Sorry to Founder's bak kut teh fans, but even Founder's soup cannot beat Ya hua's power packed soup.
The soup here is always piping hot and the peppery taste is more consistent as compared to her sister shop.
They work fast to get your food to you quickly all the time but because they are always at full capacity, expect to wait a little longer during weekday lunch.
I love their soup as it packs a punch that leaves you craving for more. The meat in the soup is soft and easy to peel off the bone.
A meal for 2 can easily be over $20 if you order dough fritters, salted vegetables and 2 bowls of soup with either mee sua or rice.
This bak kut teh is worth the long wait.
Love it.

I rate: 4/5

Outram Ya Hua Ba Rou Gu Cha Restaurant

7 Keppel Rd

Tanjong Pagar Complex

A Kiehls field day

I went overboard with Kiehls products from their bugis outlet today. Heehee.
Ever since the birth of our #2, my skin has not been able to go back to pre #2 birth state which is a common problem for many mothers my age. Due to hormonal changes, pigmentation becomes worse and the skin drier. The products I used to use dont work on my face anymore and so I have been on a pilgrimage search for the right skin product for the longest time.
I have tried some of their testers and have heard so many good things about kiehls, I decided to take the big leap and buy myself an almost complete set of products suitable for my skin type to try. I even got their midnight recovery concentrate which some celebrities swear by as a quick fix face remedy in times of urgent need. Im so excited. Cant wait to try and update the results as I go.
We also got lots of samples from the nice salesgirl to try out. Yay!

Almost $300 for all these but I am happy.

Visit

www.kiehls.com

Birthday Queen

The boss' birthday brought us to the Queen and Mangosteen at Vivo city for lunch.
I have walked past this place many times before and never thought of going in because it doesnt look kid friendly from the outside and as a mom, I am always on the look out for kid friendly joints. But as it turned out, they do have crayons and paper for kids to use while they are there, which is nice.
If you walk all the way inside, you will find that they actually have a pretty nice kick ass bar facing the waterfront so if you are one who needs that mid week by the tap beer, I believe this would be a nice chill out place to go to for that.
The service wasnt fantastic,  a little luke warm to be exact. The waiter forgot one of our orders and my fish and chips came first way before my colleague's soup, or rather before anyone else's food and by the time everyone else's came, mine was starting to get cold.
Plus point of the dish, however was the very fabulous home made curry tartare sauce that came with it which went so well with both the fish and the chips.
The fish was battered and fried perfectly. The inside was soft and moist and the outside batter, crispy and very tasty. I also thought the portion was quite filling for $24.00.

I didnt try the roast chicken but my colleague did and she cleaned her plate out so it must have been either pretty yummy or she was starving. :)

The rest had lamb stew which i tried a little of and because we must give credit when credit is due, i must say the meat was stewed perfectly. But i am not a lamb person because the meat can smell quite pungent even after it has been cooked so i cant comment much on this one.

Everyone took the lunch menu, except me which comes with a drink, and a choice of entree or dessert.

All In all: 2.5/5

Probably won't go back for a while.

Location: The Queen and Mangosteen

Level 1, Vivo City

Breakout Steakout Friday

Finally tried Steakout at Victoria hotel opposite bras basah complex so here goes all or nothing.

Whatever you do, don't have their rosemary pork steak because its dry, thin and tasted like burnt rosemary.
The only thing good on that plate was the fries.

But please do have their ribeye and sirloin or any of their steaks for that matter.
Very juicy, tender, chunky and tasty.

They give generous sides and the prices are so reasonable.
Nice casual joint that I would go back to any day.

Rating: 3.5/5

Like a boss

This happened a while back and it slipped my mind to share this earlier.
Went to a korean bbq joint in Clarke Quay called Boss BarBQ Korean for dinner and here is what I think of the place.

A colleague bought some discount coupons online, so we decided to go give it a try.
I remember getting there at about 7-ish and were given a relatively low table w garden type armchairs which were, I thought a little uncomfortable but the korean stars on the large flat screen tv on my right shifted the attention away from the initial discomfort. .

The lighting gave me a headache because the lights changed from one colour to another every 5 secs making it challenging to read the menu properly.
I wanted to pick anything at one point just so I could escape hurting my eyes further.
We decided to share 3 dishes and all were pretty good.

Loved the seafood soup the best. However, i think it was the msg that made it good. It had instant noodles, sausage and egg in it which I thought was very cheap home styled looking cooked food for a restaurant to serve.
The roast pork was yummy the way roast pork should be - juicy where the fats are and crispy where the skin is.
The 3rd dish was the beef stew which had a messy appearance that definitely did it's taste some injustice.
Overall
2.5/5 for food
2/5 for ambience.
3/5 for price
Think the bill came up to be about 70 over dollars for 3 of us.
Definitely have had better korean food in singapore but I shall leave it to you to decide.
To each his own.

Tuesday Char Siew Madness

Bought lunch from ABC brickworks food centre today. Had famous Fatty Cheong char siew, roast pork rice and it was pretty good. My colleague told me about this stall so I decided to give it a try.
The char siew marinade is very tasty. Love the bbq smell of the char siew. Roast pork was also salty enough but not very crispy.
The char siew is the fatty type so if you dont like fatty meat, you probably wouldn't like this.
However, the fatty bits give the meat that extra moistful and fragrant ooompf factor. Expect a queue but it clears fast. Highly rated by some but I found the rice too soggy.
Stall #01-120
Overall rating: 3/5

A Smith Street Morning

Hello.
Followed the family to Smith street this morning to have our favourite yong tau foo. The in-laws were eating this even before my spouse was born and its still as good as 30 years ago.
Xiu ji ikan billis yong tau fu is located in the Chinatown complex food centre and one must queue for at least half an hour to get his hands on a fried ikan billis filled bowl of yong tau foo.
Noodles are a little on the oily side but their handmade yong tau fu is so very tasty.
This is definitely an all time family favourite and a must try.

Yummy!!!

Bak Chor Mee Galore...Chore

On our way to get hubby's car fixed, he brought me to a coffee shop next to Chong pang hawker centre to have bak chor mee. Waited 45 mins to get our food. I ate dry pork ball noodles which I thought was only so-so. The noodles were a little too hard and the sauce not tasty enough. The pork ball soup was a little on the bland side.
Not expensive at $3 per bowl but not worth the long long wait. I see that they even have a makan sutra recommendation but I didnt think it was that fantastic. I definitely have had better.
Disappointing 2/5.

After brekkie, we brought my husband's "girlfriend" to the car workshop in Yishun. Uncle Neo is my husband's friend's dad and he is the boss of Hup Soon Lee Motor Service. He is super helpful and a very experienced mechanic.
Visit him in Yishun industrial park 2A if you need help with your car.

Very random monday

Super stoked I got myself a pretty $4 ring today. Its got this sweet mini bow that is too cute.

Reminds me of Anya Hindmarch latest range of bags. :)