Dining With Jewelle

Not all men are like Michael Jordan and can sport a bald head and still look hot. Unless is it a reaction from medical treatment, hair loss shouldn’t be something that anyone needs to “accept”. But resorting to wearing a wig does not work for all too, unless you can tell yourself that nobody else knows that that thick lovely thatch of hair is not your own! Wearing a headscarf can work but wouldn’t it be better if you can actually regain your own natural hair?

After all, hair loss can happen to anyone (God forbids!) and when it does, you’d be thankful to know that it’s not something you just need to “learn to live with“.

We found a gem of a mall in Hougang, which is about 20 mins ride by MRT and nearly 30 mins ride by taxi because it has a library inside.

But the best thing about the Hougang Mall was that they offer FREE strollers for use within the area! We only brought Qi’s stroller from home and so having a mall that lets you have a free stroller is irresistable for me. It was not too busy too.

I actually wanted to catch the children story-telling session at the Cheng San Library but we were too late. We however enjoyed their books collections and bought more books at their Popular BookStore.

We also found that the DeliFrance here offered so much more than the DeliFrance in Brunei ever did! Hubby and I had tea here as it was also time for Qi’s dinner (she eats at 5pm).

I had the bread pudding which was lovely when eaten with coffee as it’s quite sweet. Hubby had their croissant with chicken and soup.

I was thinking of having their eclair but at $2+ per piece, I thought it was a bit too expensive when I’m not even sure if it’s good. When it comes to eclairs, Crisvin in Keningau (of all the places, I know!) use to serve the best (when I used to work in Keningau). My colleagues and I used to haunt Crisvin for their eclairs alone despite their hefty price of RM1 per piece.

In Brunei there used to be a DeliFrance at the Yayasan Mall but it is now some dimsum place and I’m not sure if they re-open elsewhere.

Who has never heard of Juicy Couture clothes, that range of hip and comfortable sportwears and sweats for women, men and kids.

In fact when I was in Singapore recently, I kept an eye for this brand especially their Juicy Kids range. But as you know travelling with kids mean shopping has to be super quick and kept to the minimial. Needless to say, I did not try hard enough and so did not find it anywhere.

Always one for gossip, I was fascinated to read that Gela Nash, one of its founder is actually the wife of John Taylor, Duran-Duran’s bassist, one of my favorite band in the eighties.

Juicy Couture is now owned by the Liz Clairborne Inc but Gela and Pamela Skaist-Levy, the other founder, remained as the co-presidents and creative voices of this brand.

Maybe during my next trip to Singapore, I’d be on the lookout for this brand more especially for their maternity range in preparations for my next pregnancy.

At first I was thinking of trying to make it for the Jungle Breakfast at the Zoo, an al fresco buffet breakfast where you get to eat close to the animal, as per the advertisement in their brochure.

But at $19 hubby said it was too expensive and so we were glad that they do have a regular food court where they offer normal food at reasonable prices.

Being a weekday, there was practically nobody at the restaurant at 10 am, when hubby and I had our brunch (I fed the girls their breakfast earlier at the hotel).

I’m someone who prefers cereal or bread for breakfast and savoury or fried food usually does not tempt me. But the food counter had an tantalizing picture of a laksa and I succumbed to it! Hubby had fish and chips.

My laksa was delicious and it was only $7 (I think). Hubby’s fish and chips was $6, if I’m not wrong. Excellent and cheap food.

As for the advertised “Jungle Breakfast”, there did not seem to be any, probably they are only available on weekends but where we sat, the trees and birds and some small animals were visible.

During lunch time, we were at the proboscis monkey area with a glass window to view them, air-conditioned although it was open air and so Qi had her packed lunch there.

We only had ours after we finished the round of the zoo and it was back at the Restaurants At The Wild. I went back to the food court for a combo of fried mee, rice and sweet sour fish (for Eu). The mee was spicy but she loved the fish.

Hubby tried the Jungle Tandoor, an Indian food court and had himself some mutton and long beans dish.

Despite having no air-conditioners, the high ceilings, louvred walls as well as being surrounded by trees all around really keeps the whole food court area cool and comfortable even in high noon.

Even their toilet has an interesting back to nature concept with bamboo doors and water falling on the side of the toilet.

The Singapore Zoo definitely has one of the best food courts I’ve ever been in.

Nowadays, whenever we go out for meals, Japanese food is usually one of the prefered choice (by hubby and Eu). This is partly due to the fact that we in Brunei have an excellent value for money Japanese restaurants which serve huge portion of our favourite dish, the salmon sashimi at a price that is incomparable anywhere else.

In fact, since hubby regularly dine at Excapade, our number one Japanese restaurant, he’s become very articulate about the kind of dishes and their names! Not me though as my knowledge of Japanese food does not go far beyond sashimi!

So it’s good that there are helpful online guides like the The Sushi FAQ which answers those basic questions that you never really got round to asking anyone.

Questions like how healthy it is to eat raw fish or even the potential risks of eating them. All very good questions to ask yet who do you actually ask to know answer?

Besides those health issues, this site also delved into a short history of sushi and I was interested to know that sushi actually originated from a Chinese method of preserving fish which found its way to Japan since fish is the staple food there.

If you are not that familiar with all those Japanese dish names in the menu, then it’s good to learn so you won’t keep asking the waitress to explain “what does this sushi contains?” or even “what’s the difference between ramen and udon” (I’ve done this!). Find out what are hamachi or sashimi or even California rolls (this is something I myself have to find out).

But most of all, if you’re a beginner in Japanese food, it’s helpful to know things like etiquette of eating sushi, what sushi to try for the first timer, learning about all the other things that comes with a sushi or the calories and nutritional information. For the advanced sushi aficionados, you could even try making your own sushi at home or even get to know other sushi fans to talk about sushi, of course!

Hubby and his fellow Japanese food fan friends would be grateful to know about this site!

We’ve just visited the Singapore Zoo and as impressed as we were with this zoo, we hope to be able to see another world famous San Diego Zoo.

Even though I’ve covered a part of California when my family and I toured the States in the early 1990s, San Diego was not in my father’s chosen route and so not only did we missed the zoo and sea world but also the reputedly great choice of dining at various San Diego restaurants.

When the time comes when we could make it for a trip to the States, we’d surely make time to explore this city. So it’s great that during this planning cum daydreaming period, I found a fantastic site which gives all kinds of useful information about San Diego. The best thing is their San Diego Top Ten List of categories like “Sushi Restaurants”, “Breakfast Eateries” and “Healthy Cuisines”. That surely makes it easier for visitors to decide on where to dine on when there are endless choices of restaurants and cafes around!

If you’re going to San Diego anytime soon, you should check out the information from this site!

Manggis Mall is about an hour drive from home so all of us left early for our dim sum breakfast at the Emperor’s Court, the only fancy restaurant located in this place.

We arrived a little after 9 a.m but there were already a few tables occupied.

Since we had the buffet dim sum, the folks in my family took loads of dishes and our table was laden with all sorts of dim sum, from steam to fried.

Being the near-pro-blogger-for-money that I am, I pushed aside all sense of shame and photographed nearly every single dish that arrived on our table.

These were not even all of the food that we had!

Being a halal restaurant, everything was either prawn or chicken. There were other food which we didn’t take, like the noodle soup (beef tendon and wantan soup), porridge (which they did take but no photo), fried noodle and some other other food. The dessert section was not bad, with jellies and fresh fruits.

The ambience was nice too, the decor was elegant and I especially like the imitation terracotta warriors on our side of the wall.

I thought the food were tasty enough. Hubby said most were too salty, Qi “said” she didn’t like anything (she’s not a restaurant-goer) and Eu loves the crispy fried skin, the green jelly but hated the red beans (another weird taste she shared with her papa as I love red beans!)

All these were for B$15.80 and it was no wonder that it was packed by the time we left after 10 a.m.

Because it is hubby’s (and now also Eu’s) favorite restaurant, Excapade is a must-go whenever we have any of my family over.

When sis Jacq and Wei Chuen arrived last Sunday, we straightaway indulged them for lunch here where they practically ate all parts of salmon fish, from the salmon roe (Eu’s request) to the salmon sashimi meat slices to the fried salmon head!

I didn’t realized that they ordered so many until Wei Chuen blogged about it!