Susan's Blog

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Secret Garden Steamboat at Chinatown Point

Before I started to get busy doing nails, went walk walk at Chinatown to get some "feel" for Chinese New Year. "Walk walk" included "nom nom". So here we go ~ Secret Garden Steamboat.

Open concept with uncluttered furnishes.

Not crowded as it was about 5pm.

Honey Lemon, although the taste was not bad, but @S$4.80 was too expensive.

We ordered a set meal steamboat for 2 pax @S$58.00

Had Tom Yum and chicken soup base.
Both taste ordinary before we start to put in the ingredients.

Induction cooker.

The Kurobuta Pork was insanely delicious.......... just look at the beautiful pink color of the meat...

Penang rice noodles and sliced Waygu Beef Brisket

Claypot noodle

Veg with assorted mushrooms

BBQ honey wings

Seafood platter with king prawns, crayfish, scallops, red groupa fish slices, sotong and handmade fish balls.

As we were seated at near the walkway, many people made a brief stop to look at the bountiful spread.

Our table had successfully lured quite a few customers into the restaurant.

3 different types of chilli sauces were served and my fav would be the one closest to the camera.

1 clayfish for each pax

Although this wasn't a buffet, we were full to the brim when we walked out of the restaurant.

Here's the address if you are interested to try out ~~

Secret Garden

Chinatown Point

133 New Bridge Road #02-39

Singapore 059413

Tel: 6604 9936

End this post with a pic of me outside Chinatown Point.

OOTD ~

Black top with peter pan collar - Iora

Grey/black checked skirt - TaoBao

Black wool bag - Camomilla

Black suede boots - Bugis Village

King's Laksa Steamboat

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Top 10 questions asked the past 15 days.

Was doing nails non-stop for the pass 15 days before CNY eve. The following were the TOP 10 QUESTIONS my customers asked:

1) Where did you buy your curtains?

Almost every customer who stepped into my newly renovated nail studio would ask me this question. The curtains gives the room a rose garden and cozy feel to the room, which received many compliments. They are from Ikea. Rose print curtains @$29.90/2 panels, needed to be tied onto the rod. White lace @$14.90/2 panels with pocket for rod to go through. For other rose theme furnitures click here.

2) How long have you been working as a manicurist?

Gotten my Manicurist Certificate from FIL on Feb 2007. Took a month or two to purchase basic nail products and I started from then ^^

3) Why and how did you become a manicurist?

My sister was interested to open a nail salon. So the first step she made was to send me to a nail course while looking out for a shop. After I completed the basic nail course, I thought of just buying the materials and start doing nail services from home first. My initial motive was just to kill time and make use to what I had learnt. Shop space hunting was in vain after about a year, and I continued with my little home based nail salon. Not within my expectation, business grew and grew. Thus I decided to take it seriously by going for upgrading courses as well as registered my business with ROC, and that's how Precious Nail Services was "born".

4) How old are your children?

Darren is 15 this year and Luis is 12. Normally, the response will be "Oh, your children so big already!" Sometimes it's followed by the question below.

5) You married at a very young age?

Nooooooo.......... I really don't know whether to laugh or cry over this..... It seemed that my appearance had created lots of misunderstanding -____-||| My reputation must had suffered really badly........ Some of my customers thought I "messed up" my life and probably shot gun married in late teens or early 20s.

I DID NOT screw up my life. I had planned my marriage, got a flat of our own before we had our first kid. I gave birth to Darren at 27 and I'm 42 this year.

6) How did you manage to slim down?

When this question is asked, I know that person is not my blog reader T_____T

Click my posts on weight management - How to eat without getting fat and How I managed to lose weight

7) What programmes are you having for CNY?

CNY eve was reunion dinner at Pu Tien Restaurant, 1st day visit my father at Ang Mo Kio, 2nd day to my kid sister's place at Woodlands and perhaps a movie, 3rd day to a friend's place, that's it.

8) What will you be doing for your own nails?

I did my nails on CNY eve when Precious Nail Services is close for hoilday.

Did clear extension with slight champagne glitters.

Personally, I don't like overly glittery stuffs on my nails.

For toes, I did black color gelish with slight silver glitter.

9) Have you done your spring cleaning and shopping?

I don't spring clean before CNY. Firstly, it's not possible due to my tight working schedule; secondly, I clean my house as and when, I don't accumulate till before CNY. Since I don't cook, there practically nothing much to buy or to get busy with. We went to Giant a day before CNY eve at 11.30pm it was crowded like crazy! The queues at cashier was insane long, and we left with some canned drinks and bread for next day's breakfast at 2am lolxx....

10) Do you earn from blogging?

Yes, I am with Nuffnang where I gets advertisements from. The amount is nothing to scream about, but it's growing as months goes by.

Any more questions? Just drop me a comment, at the same time, wishing all my lovely readers a Prosperous Chinese New Year!!

Monday, 4 February 2013

Low Fat Meal with Philips Airfryer

I am currently very busy in my nail salon due to coming Chinese New Year.

Not going to abandon my blog, I had prepared this post a couple of weeks ago......

This was my last year's Christmas present from my kid sister.

No fancyful wrapping but who cares!

Here's me hugging Philips Airfryer.

I know what you all are looking at.......
I am not bottomless, I got wear shorts hor -.-

So, back to Philips Airfry, it uses Rapid Air Technology.
Fries, fried snacks or dishes can be prepared using very little oil.
Maintaining a healthy diet doesn't mean we have to deprive ourselves from tasty food.
My principle of life - LIVE TO EAT!

To express my thanks to my kid sis for this ~~expensive~~ wonderful gift,
I hosted an Airfryer Feast for my family members!

This Philips Airfryer came with 2 recipe books, one of which contains low-fat recipes.

These were the dishes I prepared from it~~

Crispy Fish Paste Wraps (225.5 cal)

Fish paste wrapped with bean curd sheets

Brush with 1 teaspoon of garlic oil and the airfry for 12mins.

Hubby had put too much fish paste in the wraps, so they looked kinda bloated.
But they were crispy and the taste wasn't bad!

Spicy Wings (154 cal)

I marinated 2 pots of wings, spicy for the adults and non-spicy for my little niece and nephew.

Used Lea & Perrin sauce, honey and chilli flakes.

This took quite a while as the basket of the airfryer can only contain max of 6 wings.

The airfrying time was about 15mins. No oil was added.

The wings turned out like BBQ wings instead of fried chicken wings.

The wings were tender and juicy.

We were quite impressed how airfrying can cook retaining moisture of meat.

Salted 5-spice Prawns (93 cal)

This was quick, cooking time around 6 mins with a teaspoon of oil.

5-spice powder was the main seasoning, YUMMY!!

I don't think I can share the recipes here due to copyright regulations. Anyway the recipe won't work without Philips Airfryer I suppose.

For cleansing, I wiped the interior and exterior of the airfryer with damp cloth. Obviously electrical parts cannot be submerge in water. I soaked the wired basket with the black tray in hot water. The basket wired needs a bit of brushing while the tray was easily cleansed with mild soap. I consider the cleaning quite minimal as the kitchen wall and floor were clean without oil!

Other side dishes that I whipped up ~

Croissants with egg mayonnaise. My niece and nephew, plus my 2 boys "cleared" them all.

Mixed fruit bowl of rock melon, strawberries and dragon fruit.

I had prepared salad with black pepper smoked duck too, but forgotten to take pic.

Love this Philips Airfryer with temperature control and timer, pretty easy to use. Hope to whip up more dishes with this purple babe.

However, it can't replace a microwave oven as I always need to heat up dishes. I am still hunting for a new microwave oven. My existing one is in "semi-retire" condition. The grilling and conventional oven spoil already, the light bulbs had fused off since one two years ago. Anybody with good recommendation, please let me know ^.^

Thank you!

Friday, 1 February 2013

Malaysia Boleh! @Jurong Point Shopping Centre

After attending Angel DIY workshop at Cystal 'N' Beads, we head to Malaysia Boleh for dinner.

OOTD ~ as fake Arale, cute or not?

In case you are wondering, this is the real Arale ~~

Ok, the cartoon Arale is obviously cuter >.<

Self-takes!

Ok ok, don't protest! No more pics of me, back to the topic, food pics rolling in now.........

It was very crowded.......... people walked in as if no need money one........... super duper crowded -___-|||

Almost every stall had a long queue in front. If it's an ordinary food court, I am sure I had already walked out, but the atmosphere was captivating and the food stalls themselves looked really delicious. Looking at other people's tables was good enough to make us swallow saliva. We were quite determined to eat here!

When I said crowded, it was this crowded............

But it was so crowded that finding a table was mission impossible. Just before we were about to "give up" we found a table with an elderly lady eating alone. So we "chop" the table and waited for her to finish. We were actually quite pai seh and told her to eat slowly as we need to queue for the food which would take a long time anyway. Timing was great, whenlady finished her food, ours came! (that's after more than 15mins).

Ba Ku Teh @S$5.

With generous portion of pork ribs, bean curd skin, tau pok and intestines, value for money.

Claypot Rice @S$5.

This is a MUST ORDER!!!

Yummy to the max with burnt rice, the fragrance itself was heavenly, omg....
Chicken meat so tender, burnt rice on the claypot so crunchy....... :P~~~~~
Huh? Control carbo intake? Eat first lah, we talk about diet some other time......... goodness gracious.... nom nom nom