Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year 2016!!!

This photo was taken in Queenstown, New Zealand last year - 26 Sep 2015. It felt as if we were there yesterday for our holiday~ But here we are~ we just ushered in 2016!!! Time really passes too fast!! 

Looking back, 2015 had been a pretty fruitful year indeed. 

Just listing a few:

- learnt to crochet (sweater, pants, bookmarks, hats, bags, etc.)

- did more freelance jobs (database, publishing, ...)

- QW went from crawling, to standing and now walking/running~

- visited NZ medical center for the 1st time *Opps! I promised to blogged about the trip last year! *

- learnt more about babywearing and tried my hands at being wraps tester

- hubs surprised me with my very 1st Raffles experience at Tiffin Room

and the list goes on... 

*Haa~ Yes~ I am attempting to VERY briefly and "1st minute" (not last minute since 2015 is history now *LOL*) document 2015's highlights*

I hope that 2016 will also be yet another enriching or more enriching year =)

Wishing all that 2016 will be a even better year than 2015 =) 

Once again, Happy 2016 =)

Crafts: Crochet Brim Hat

My crochet mentor introduced me to a pretty useful site with lots of free patterns (crochet, knitting, etc). It is Ravelry[1]. All you need to do to be able to download their patterns is to register/sign up an account with them. Signing up for an account is free as well ;)

This brim hat[2] is one of the free patterns which I downloaded from Ravelry :) I managed to finish within one night. Hence, I feel that this is a pretty easy pattern to follow. On top of that, it requires only a few materials - Just yarn, hook, stitch marker and darning needle.

I would consider this a good project for beginners. It would be even better if this project motivated a beginner to learn how to crochet the magic loop. That I feel is a pretty useful crochet skill.

Here is the model QW looking pleased with her new hat ;)

Front view

Side view

Initially, I had wanted a fancier border. Hence, I ended the project off with scallop/shell border:

But, I quickly reverted back to following the pattern as I faced a problem with this pattern. Without fabric stiffener, the brim droops down because this border was too heavy. Hence, I redid the the border and ended off with reverse stitch border as suggested by the pattern.

To end off this blog post, I would like to share a silly mistake which I made for this project :P *Haha~* Well, here it goes:

The pattern called for 4 mm crochet hook. And so, I picked up a hook with a big "4" and crocheted happily. After I crocheted the body and band, I paused as I wanted to see if it fits my model ;)

Well, that is when I realised that... the hat is TOO tiny!!! *LOL!* Take a look:

Do join me in laughing at this silly mistake which I had made!! *HAHAHA*

Wondering what went wrong, I finally took a good look at my crochet hook and saw this:

Have you realised what I finally figured out back then?
No? Take a look at this next photo:

Have you figured out the mistake which I had made? *Lol~*

Yes!!! I took the wrong sized hook *Hahaha!!!*
The "4" was a 2.50 mm hook!!!
I should have been using the "7" which is the 4 mm hook as suggested by the pattern!!!

Such a funny mistake I made (which cost me 1 more night of re-doing this hat)!

Ah well, it was an interesting lesson learnt :) *hah~*

References:
1. Ravelry
2. Ravelry - Ruffled Brim Sunhat

Vegetarianism: Dinner at Ling Zhi Liat Towers (Part IV of Birthday Treat - Last Part)

Last but not least, the final instalment of my birthday treat is dinner at Ling Zhi Vegetarian - Liat Tower branch[1]. Perhaps because this is not my 1st trip to Ling Zhi, I forgot to take a photo of the food we ordered!!! I shall remind myself to take some if I ever blog about Ling Zhi again...

Well, the only photo I took while we were there was of QW playing with the SG50 balloon. As mentioned in my blog post on our Staycation at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel, we picked up at the balloon station of "Pedestrian Night on Orchard Road"[2].

If you are an American Express Palate Card member, Ling Zhi is one of the restaurants of this Palate Dining Privileges. So, do enjoy the privileges while you are there!

Anyway, we ordered our usual favourites:
Sauteed Monkey Head Mushroom with Dried Chilli,
Vegetarian Curry Fish
Sauteed French Bean with Fried Enoki Mushrooms.

Just a note: This branch does not have buffet, unlike their other branch at Velocity@Novena Square. But the standard of the food remains the same =)

Well, the dinner sort of marked the end of my birthday treat =)
Had a great day thanks to my hubs for all the arrangements that he had made =)

References:
1. Ling Zhi Vegetarian
2. Orchard Road A Great Street - Pedestrian Night

Vegetarianism: High Tea at Raffles Hotel Tiffin Room (Part III of Birthday Treat)

I had no idea that he planned for a high tea next! Not just any high tea! But high tea at Raffles Hotel Tiffin Room! No wonder he told me not to dress too casually!

Lobby

I only got to know that we were going for our high tea minutes before we stepped into Tiffin Room. Do not just treat it like a place where you just pop by because you are around the area. Do make a reservation beforehand to avoid disappointment. Yes, it is that popular.

It being branded as "Raffles", the quality and variety of food is absolutely on spot. At the end of the room, you will be find the refills for some of the items on your tray and assorted beverages.

The usual non vegetarian menu

One of the sandwiches left a pretty deep impression on me. On top of the usual fillings such as tomato, egg mayo and cucumber, the shiitake mushroom filling was probably my personal favourite. I think the shiitake mushroom sandwich was a vegetarian's special (probably to replace one of the non-vegetarian sandwiches offered by the usual menu)~

As for QW, her favourite was the Mango pudding with lemongrass cream on the middle tray =)

Vegetarian tray

The service? Of course it was great. Not only do they take care of the adults' needs, children needs are also well taken care of. QW's high chair was already set up way before we reached. Also, she was given children utensils and bowl =)

The ambience? Fabulous especially with the background harp music.

I must say that it was pretty flawless. If you really want to find a thing to complain, it might have to be the price then. With good food, service and ambience, the price seems pretty reasonable~

Just ending this post with my favourite photo which we took while at Tiffin Room:

Reference:
1. Raffles Hotel - Tiffin Room
2. Tripadvisor - Tiffin Room

Vegetarianism: Sufood Food Preview

I realised that I haven't blogged for 2 months (since Sep)! Life has been pretty busy - with a mix of good and bad.

September had been mostly enjoyable because we went for a vacation to New Zealand - Southern Island. That I will blog in another post. It was generally a great trip with some hiccups along the way, which made it VERY memorable. It had been SO memorable that I have to work on my negotiation skill a bit to convince my husband into visiting New Zealand someday again.

October had been a "buggy" month with QW falling sick =_= *sigh*

So yes, this post is extremely back-dated! But as we always say, better late than never!

Back to the focus of this post. Previously, I had experience being a woven wrap babywearing tester. With thanks to my sister who won the lucky draw to Sufood[1] Food Preview for two, I had the opportunity to be a food tester this round ;) I felt very excited from the day she shared this great news with me :)

The scheduled preview date was 28 Oct 2015. We were to sample and give feedback for dishes which Sufood planned to include in their menu from 1 Nov 2015 - which means they are all available now!!!

The whole experience as a food tester was very refreshing. Let me share with you a quick run-down of what happened that night:

Sufood set aside a section of their restaurant where all the testers were seated together. Although my sister was told to invited one more friend (which is moi~), they were pretty gracious and accommodated my hubby and QW in the same section. Of course, hubby got to pay for his own set meal and get to enjoy the samples as well ;)

We were served in the following sequence: soup, main dishes, dessert and beverages. Each time a dish was ready for tasting, they will bring the dish to us so that we get to (obviously) take lots of photos!!! Then, they will take them away to serve us a portion of the dish. Their marketing staff then came around to explain the dish to us: conceptualisation, how it may be eaten, etc. And of course, they also collected our feedbacks for their chefs.

Alright, I know there has been a lot of words to read thus far. Here are some photos of the delicious dishes we got to sample that night to break the monotonous essay mood ;)

Misto mushroom soup

First, we tried their Misto Mushroom soup. I would say it was quite flavourful. Kind of like the diluted Brand's fungi essence. I liked that you can see the fungi (e.g. brazil mushroom, button mushroom, etc.) that were used to cook the soup. I tasted a tinge of ginger and confirmed with the staff that it was indeed one of the ingredients. My only complaint? I wished there were more than ONE brazil mushroom =_=; My sis ate the one and only...

Sufood staff busy portioning the dish

Soup after being portioned

Next up was Zesty Oyster Mushroom Rice. It is like bibimbap-kimchi fried rice. As you can see from the photo below, it is very colourful. These 5 colours (yellow, white, green, orange and purple) are colours of Sufood. Not only are they vibrant, they look appetising and is great for health. I am sure you have heard talks about eating a variety of naturally coloured food and anti-oxidants, so I won't repeat how healthythey are. By the way, the eel-looking mock meat is oyster mushroom. I personally feel it needed more seasoning. My meat-eating friends would probably agree that it lacks the "sea" taste of an eel. Overall, the dish is decent and filling enough as a main though. 

Zesty Oyster Mushroom Rice 

 A portion of the fried rice

The Lucky Clover Pizza was my favourite main dish that night. Two main ingredients used in the leaves are spring onion and hericium erinaceum (lion mane's mushroom). The spring onion side tasted juicy and fresh, while the hericium erinaceum side is chewy and meaty. As you can guess, I ate the leaves individually at first. If not for the insider's information, I would never have thought of folding 2 leaves together to eat. The best outcome would be to fold the spring onion with hericium erinaceum sides to eat. 

Lucky Clover Pizza

The Rainbow Baked Pasta is actually baked conchiglie. This may not be as filling as the Zesty Oyster Mushroom Rice, but I prefer its taste. This was my next favourite main dish after Lucky Clover Pizza. Once again, the various colours come into play, which made the food looked appetising :)

Rainbow Baked Pasta

Last and perhaps the least, we had White Ferula Pasta. You probably can sense that I did not enjoy this dish, can't you? It might have to do with the fact that it came out as the last main dish. My stomach was beginning to feel full and hence did not appreciate this dish as much. I felt it was too oily. I did reflect that to their staff and was told it might due to the olive oil used in basil pesto and also when cooking the pasta.

White Ferula Pasta

Drinks wise, 4 out of their 5 colours were ready on the sampling day. Purple took its "leave of absence" because its ingredients were still on their way from Taiwan. Here are the breakdown:

Red - The Lively - Watermelon and tomato

Green - The Purely - Pineapple, choy sum and sour plum

Yellow - The Sunny - Orange and pineapple

White - The Comfy - Pear and yucca root

Purple - The Tasty - Beetroot and honeydew

I LOVE watermelon juice. So, I am biased towards The Lively because it is my LOVE and the most refreshing (in my opinion). To be fair, they were equally tasty. The Purely impressing me a tad more because it has choy sum in it! The pineapple and sour plum really did a great job masking the bitter after taste that the vegetable typically has. That made The Purely a pretty tasty drink, very easy to swallow.

I probably have to make a trip back to try The Tasty =_= Really curious about how it will taste like.

Dessert received the thumb's up and seal of approval from QW. Needless to say, it was the best dish of that night ;)

Mango Frollino

This is not my first time dining at Sufood. Thus far, Sufood has been a nice restaurant to dine in. It is just great to see that Sufood is creating and adding new dishes to their existing menu. It makes it more enticing to revisit them.

Personally, I just hope my sister's lucky streak continues :p

References:
1. Sufood
2. Facebook - Sufood