.....times of refreshing.....

Here wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year and may the year of the wooden horse brings you lots of wealth, good health, happiness, success, good luck and positive vibes! 


Have a great time visiting friends and relatives to foster good relationship and enjoy the good food !!! Do drive carefully and keep yourself and family safe on the road. :)

Well, in JB, I believe only two malls usually have nice decors during festive seasons. There's Sutera Mall, which boasted the best decors in JB all along and City Square Mall. The latter's decor are quite unique though not as extravagant as Sutera Mall. Their concept always seems simple but nice and unique. I usually walk past by City Square whenever I arrived in JB from Singapore and I will usually go around for a while, since it's a great mall to shop.

A golden majestic  horse welcomes folks to the mall

Look down from second floor

Folks from both JB and Singapore shopping for CNY goodies there.

I will be travelling back to Ipoh this year to celebrate CNY, after missing out the reunion dinner in Ipoh for two years. I had my reunion dinner with my in-laws last year while my parents came over to Singapore in the previous year. Hope you guys have a good time and travel safely.

I thought of giving my wife a surprise by getting her some new clothes after work. Thus, I text her niece who's staying near to my place to help me chose. I thought the clothes and blouses sold here have more varieties than those in JB, especially she was having problems getting some clothes over the last weekend. Before that, I brought my niece for another Japanese food since she's also like it. Well, not a bad idea, have a pretty young lady to accompany me for dinner. LOL

I order a sukiyaki type of meal with slices of raw beef on top, waiting to be cooked in the simmering miso soup. Love this meal since it's kinda cool lately. The climate was air-cond temperature lately, from 20C - 24C. The beef slices, which contained some fat, was awesome when cooked in the miso soup. The soup was getting more and more salty but tasty as it boils under the cooker.


The set also came with a delicious chawanmushi and salmon sashimi. I was having three meals of salmon sashimi lately, as I had two lunch buffets earlier. However, not a bad thing to eat more fish and omega oil.


This sums up a good evening meal before we went to shop for the CNY clothes.

It's really been a while since I patronised Kinsahi Japanese restaurant in JB. I remember I used to go there with my wife at the Taman Pelangi branch but that was almost donkey years ago. That branch seems has closed down too. This was the first time I ate at the Tebrau City branch. The decors were good and it was quite a crowd there during dinner time.

A pot of green tea to refresh the mind

Salmon sushi

My Salmon Shioyaki Set

It was a cold night and I felt like having a ramen tonight, after my workout. So, I immediately thought of Men-ichi Ramen in Northpoint as it was closest to me since I am in the north. It's also been a while since I went to this restaurant. I always thought they make good ramens in Singapore, together with some other Ramen restaurants.

Chawanmushi - It's always a must when I visited a Japanese restaurant. Men-ichi makes good chawanmushi, though it's a simple one.

Here's my slurpy Miso chashu ramen!

That fixed my dinner for the night! Healthy and simple!

Somehow I had a craving for pizza tonight after my workout ... no thanks to the Italian cruise liner I went back in November. I was having pizzas almost everyday then! So, whenever I smell of cheese now,  my stomach will start growling and asking for some pizza fix!


So, I ended up in nearby Pastamania to satisfy my craving. Luckily it was still opened around 10pm, and I ended up the last person to leave. I got myself a crunchy Peperoni beef, chicken soup and a ice lemon tea, all for around S$15+.

Chicken Soup and drink

Peperoni beef Pizza

The pizza turns out fine, with crispy-fried beef bacon and crunchy thin crust. It seems the 7" pizza not enough for me ... I thought of having more!! Not forgetting the cheese powder which makes it even tastier. Burp!

Koo Kee Yong Tau Foo

I opted for something light tonight for dinner after my usual workout and go for the popular Koo kee Yong Tau Foo. This eatery almost existed in most of the popular food courts around Singapore, for a long time! I love the crunchy noodles and with no lard served, it makes an healthy choice !

Glad it's almost weekend !

After 2014 has started, my Sundays are no longer the Sundays that I knew. There was this ruling in Johor whereby Fridays and Saturdays are declared weekends. This means the public service and schools will starts on Sunday, instead of Monday. Somehow, this ruling has affected my family time as now I only have 1 day in the weekend, which is Saturday, to spend with my kids and if I wanted to have some travel escapades nearby JB, I would likely have to take off on Fridays. My church services too, now have to bring forward to Saturdays. I guess most of the folks in the private sector are affected too. Anyway, that's my weekend life now! :(

Chai Poh Omelette

Braised Pork in Soya

Chinese Bacon

Pork Ribs

A bowl of porridge

Fire Station at Kidzania City

A view of the place

Anotther view ..... there was really a crowd on the friday after Christmas

I find this is a great place for kids, though 5 hours was not enough for one visit. The kids learnt how to be independent, did some role-playing and learnt something. My kids really enjoy this edutainment cum theme park. However, thanks to advice by Merryn and her earlier posts, I got an idea of what activities are popular and thus, we tried to avoid those activities first so that the kids can 'play' more in those not so crowded activities.

Both my kids became dentists... and learn how to brush teeth!

My little princesss joined  two older kids in delivering a postage. The two kids really sayang her .... taking care of her while delivering the postage.

Both bro and sis became sushi master

My kid wanted to drive .... however, before he can do so, he needed to go for an eye test, buy an insurance and learn how to drive in order to obtain his license. All in all, it takes him almost 2 hours before he finally can start driving. He also learnt how to pump petrol and got paid, in their 'currency'.

Becoming a police .... while the 'firemen' busy putting off a fire at a hotel .....

As a first aid nurse

We tried to make them play as much activities as possible, though we did buy them some snacks while queuing. Anyway, they missed out on the hot ones, like being a pilot and a fire fighter which we will try to come earlier in our next trip and let them experience it. However, we poor parents have to endure standing and walking for almost 5 hours!! We queued with them,then we waited for them to finish the activity and the process repeat all over again ... phew!! I think it will be great if they can provide more food stalls and chairs for us poor parents!!

We shall go again in the next school holidays!

I have been reading a lot of STP's blog on kampua noodles. Thus, when I patronised a pan mee eatery in Puchong and saw that they have varieties of noodles there including kampua or in cantonese, kam gua typed, I thought of giving it a try. I love the slice type of pan mee or more known as 'mee hoon kuey' to folks in the south like Johor and Singapore. Somehow, I found out there are a lot of pan mee eateries in the Klang valley compared to other places in the peninsula.

Golden Egg Noodles !!!

Of course most pan mee depends on the broth and this one was not bad at all. It was just nice with the aroma and taste of anchovies and not too salty. It was just great. Then, the noodles were chewy and I am not sure whether kam gua noodles are that springy!

Golden Egg Noodles restaurant in Puchong

2014 has arrived and may all of you have a blessed new year ! It was a quiet day for me on 1/1/2014 as I rested at home most of the time. Earlier, I wanted to attend my church's Watch Night service at 10.30pm till midnight on new year's eve but I was put off by the rainy night and heavy traffic.  I only went out in the late afternoon to run some errands and later, fetched my kid from school for dinner. Yes, it's business as usual in Johor on 1/1 and Johor kids were among the first to attend school. I had my new year dinner with family at my favourite restaurant, Pekin restaurant in Taman Sentosa.


I find that this restaurant has maintained its standard for decades where I first dined there in the mid-90s. It's still an attractive place for folks due to its delicious and affordable menu. We ordered some simple dishes as below.

Lotus with vegetables

Tofu cooked with mushrooms and squids

Foochow soup - love it with some vinegar. Taste like shark fins without the fins.

Pork ribs - very sweet and delicious!

BBQ chicken - my favourite. Dip it in some soft salt and it's damn good!

Brinjals in teriyaki sauce

Another vegetables cooked with belacan

After the dinner, I travelled back to SG in a quiet CIQ, where most folks have already been back due to school reopens tomorrow. 2013 has been great as I achieved many 'firsts' and I hope to continue it in a challenging 2014! Yes, it will be a challenging year for me!