Instagram Snapshots ~*May 2014*~

The month of May opened with a bang as the hubz and I went on our rather impromptu Taiwan trip. After coming back, it was quite hectic all the way till the end of May. The last week of May was my birthday week but instead of meeting up with different groups of friends, most were pushed to June.

There are a lot more Chinese characters in this post than you can find anywhere else on my blog. For my non-Chinese readers, you could copy and paste the words onto Google Translate or feel free to ask me what they mean.

Without further ado, here is the instasummary for the month of May!


~1 May 2014~
Happy Labour Day! I'm so amazed by the Butterfly Garden @ Changi Airport! Not shy these butterflies; they are not afraid of humans. Stepping into Changi Airport, it is finally beginning to feel like I'm on a holiday.




~2 May 2014~
Our accommodation for the whole Taipei trip -- Taipei Beauty Hotel B7 Part 1.
Great pictures on Google image and various websites, favorable reviews on Tripadvisor... But why so small??? It's the smallest hotel we have ever stayed in for all our holidays. And we thought Paris and Venice have got the smallest hotels.




~2 May 2014~
Our accommodation for the whole Taipei trip -- Taipei Beauty Hotel B7 Part 2.
This is me propped up in bed watching Pitch Perfect and looking at the amount of space in between the 3 walls and the bed.




~2 May 2014~
Our accommodation for the whole Taipei trip -- Taipei Beauty Hotel B7 Part 3.
Room is small but the toilet is quite big in relation to the room at a ratio of 1:2. The tv is big too. Considering the fact that I don't have to wear glasses to read the subtitles, it has gotta be 42 inch. Or maybe, the room is just that small.




~2 May 2014~
Modern Toilet Restaurant - 便所主题餐厅. This restaurant has been featured on many tv programmes and I thought I would never ever dine there. I was wrong. So for lunch, we ate from toilet bowls and drank from plastic urine bottles. I couldn't finish my food...




~2 May 2014~
Atop The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂). We walked the whole damn day and by the time we reached that area, it was so late. However, it was fortunate that we were late as we managed to catch the lowering of the flag instead of the hourly change of guards.




~2 May 2014~
Ended the day with super delicious panda matcha 熊猫抹奶茶 from Tea Fan. @emsmoments why didn't we bump onto each other at 師大夜市? Was looking out for you! 真没缘！




~3 May 2014~
At Taipei 101 now and the view is awesome. Photos don't do justice though so here's a picture of us listening to the audio guide instead. ^_^ Everyone from the lift guy, to the lady who helped us take pictures to the old man assisting us with the audio guide thought we were Japanese. And I thought this only happens in western countries where the Caucasians couldn't tell Asians apart. We are proud to be SINGAPOREANS.




~3 May 2014~
Taipei 101 Damper Baby mascot. Only the hub can do something so dumb. 101, 101, 101.




~3 May 2014~
Super satisfying and FULL at 醉麻辣. First time trying 鸭血. Tastes just like 猪血 of the past. Fresh ingredients, delectable desserts and overall, a great experience. But the 麻辣 seems to have screwed up our taste buds. Everything tastes bitter now. T_T




~3 May 2014~
At Rao He Night Market 饒河街觀光夜市 entrance/exit eating the legendary black pepper pork bun and hearing lots of Singaporean accent from the 2 groups of people around us. Ah... That familiar Singlish.




~4 May 2014~
Smelling of hotpot and night market but first let me take a selfie with different filters for a selfie Sunday. My 大姐 @kappo77 says I have small eyes. Thank God for the invention of eye make up. Next time I shall try 美图绣绣 to 放大眼睛 a la anime style girls and see what she says.




~4 May 2014~
Cocoa milk tea and apple-flavored probiotics drink. Yummy yummy. Aside: Why the bottle for the cocoa milk tea so pretty wan?




~4 May 2014~
Lover's Bridge at Fisherman's Wharf 淡水漁人碼頭.




~4 May 2014~
So people say 淡水漁人碼頭 Lover's Bridge is the best place to catch Taipei's sun set. No sun set in sight so we just had to admire the night lights.




~4 May 2014~
Hubby suggested buying these cute macarons and I was HUGELY surprised. He even offered to open the box so that I could snap a clearer picture. Immediately after I snapped, he did this to Hello Kitty... T_T
I... Wanna... Cry.




~5 May 2014~
Onsen! Here we come!




~5 May 2014~
Hotel Double One Beitou was an accidental stumble and what a good stumble it was! Really enjoyed ourselves for that short 2 hours. We got a free room upgrade to the largest room. Video of the room later!




~5 May 2014~
Instagramming while waiting for @emsmoments at Shilin Night Market. Complimentary tea break after the soak at Beitou Hotel Double One. Xiao long bao, double boiled chicken soup, vege appetizer. Not pictured here: green bean soup and coffee. Great customer service from a staff called Ryan which made the experience memorable.




~5 May 2014~
Hotel Double One Beitou Taipei Part 1.
We got an upgrade from the normal room (Suite Love) to the most expensive room (Suite Only) at no extra cost as they ran outta rooms. Great service too. What a blessing!




~5 May 2014~
Hotel Double One Beitou Taipei Part 2.
We got an upgrade from the normal room (Suite Love) to the most expensive room (Suite Only) at no extra cost as they ran outta rooms. Great service too. What a blessing! It was just a 2h soak and it was a pity that we couldn't enjoy the full amenities like the sauna. Any of you thinking of going Taipei Beitou can consider this hotel. You wouldn't regret it!




~5 May 2014~
Beitou train carriages with cute illustration juxtaposed with the normal MRT train carriages at the end of the video.




~5 May 2014~
It was drizzling at Beitou. The public library was under renovation. The museum and Thermal Valley are closed every Monday. But it was still a beautiful day overall.




~5 May 2014~
Selfie in the train. Tourists don't care!




~5 May 2014~
阿宗麵線 at 士林夜市 was the meeting point with @emsmoments. Super love meeting up with friends in foreign countries. Aside, the Mee Sua is damn good!




~5 May 2014~
Favourite picture of the day! A selfie with galpal @emsmoments! Really love meeting up with friends in foreign countries. 我们终于想见了！




~5 May 2014~
豪大大雞排 hao da da ji pai at 士林夜市 Shilin lives up to its name of being very big... As big as my face. It is also juicier than "Pissing Chicken". Thanx @emsmoments for suggesting this pose! #sorrynotsorry for bombing soooooooo many pictures of my #taiwanadventures. 😝😝😝




~5 May 2014~
The best thing about visiting Taiwan night markets with friends is that we get to try A LOT more food than just the 2 of us. Thanx @emsmoments and your friendly sis for the great evening! Love ya!




~6 May 2014~
Sipping tea at 阿妹茶楼 at Jiufen. Everything seems so lovely... Except that... I would wanna repeat everything in the hubby's FB status. So for those who are on my FB, check out the hub's status. Feeling meh.




~6 May 2014~
The relentless rain simmered down to a drizzle as we sipped tea at 阿妹茶楼. Love this tea house a lot!




~6 May 2014~
First railway train ride in Taipei.




~6 May 2014~
Nanya Rock Formation 南雅奇岩. It was not drizzling but raining. (Ya, you couldn't see from this photo.) Many natural attractions along the coastal region were shrouded in fog and blurred by the rain. Rain rain go away!




~6 May 2014~
摩斯漢堡 MOS Burger for dinner/supper in Taipei. Our first non-Taiwanese meal here. A double meal set with a free recycle tote.




~7 May 2014~
Chia Te pastries (佳德糕餅) from Taipei given by gal pal @emsmoments. She gifted us her favorite flavours: pineapple egg yolk and cranberry. Now, I'm not even a fan of Taiwanese pineapple pastries but I LURVE these! Chia Te pastries have since been putting my relationship with the Hub on tenterhooks as we fought over the pastries. What sorcery is this??? As I'm typing this, he is insisting "It's mine!" On a separate note... We are on the train to Pingxi and Shifen area and we are praying it doesn't rain as heavy as yesterday.




~7 May 2014~
We couldn't make it in time for the Cat Village at Houtong so gotta make do with this kitty cat at Pingxi (平溪) Train Station. Many people were shooting this sole cat at the station. The thought bubble for the cat must have been "Stupid humans".




~7 May 2014~
Shifen Old Street (十分老街). It is indeed one of a kind to see working railway tracks in such close proximity to both sides of the streets.




~7 May 2014~
Releasing our wish lantern into the sky at Shifen Old Street 十分老街.




~8 May 2014~
Last few moments in Taiwan was spent in Ximending. Bye Taipei!




~8 May 2014~
Wearing a kitty cat top I bought here. The hubby who is a well-known cat bully and cat-stuff destroyer chose this top for me saying, "This cat is soooooooo cute. Cute cute sit in the cup like those innocent puss in boots pattern." After destroying my 3D kitty latte foam and eating up my Hello Kitty macarons before I had the chance to pose with it, I had to tread cautiously for I didn't know what he was up to this time.




~8 May 2014~
It's a cat and dog life.




~10 May 2014~
New passport cover! My passport is always naked whenever I travel with the hubby coz he seems to like my masculine dark brown leather passport holder better. Now I have my own feminine looking one.




~10 May 2014~
After having Taiwanese food for a whole week, it is time for Italian! At a new concept Marche at JEM. Yummy pizza, pasta and house special basil lemonade!




~10 May 2014~
Got this fragrance from Yankee Candle for the car coz it was one of the only fragrance that could pass the hub's smell and visual test aka not too girl-girl scent and oh-so-girlish-pastel- colour. The name itself is already to die for! Sounds so Shakespearean. Me likey!




~11 May 2014~
This kitty cat from @gerrachong was accidentally tortured by me. Saw a loop at the whiskers and started unknotting and pulling... Big Ooops! Love how its expression matched the scenario.




~11 May 2014~
Kua si mi?
The staring game after plucking off all of the kitty's whiskers.
Hmm... What should I name @gerrachong 's kitty. Ah, I know. Whiskers! Say hello to Whiskers!




~11 May 2014~
A small something for both mums. Happy Mother's Day!




~13 May 2014~
Blogged... Zzz




~17 May 2014~
Lots of packages to mail and immense amount of time and effort expend on each. Providing a personal touch and customer service in general is of utmost importance.




~17 May 2014~
It's a specky sort of day.




~18 May 2014~
Repost from somebody's page. Kids write the darnest things! 😂😂😂




~24 May 2014~
1st birthday card from work.




~24 May 2014~
Super impromptu meet up with the St Nicks group at Professor Brawn. Great reminiscing, great company and great food for a good cause.




~25 May 2014~
Wow Google really surprised me!
The Google Doodle for today had little colourful cakes and I wondered if it is the birthday of somebody famous.
Imagine my surprise when I moused over the doodle...
Google certainly made my painful, crampy and gloomy birthday a lot less gloomy and of coz, all the well wishes pouring in from every medium too!



~25 May 2014~
Had a fine 7-course dinner at Sky on 57 by MBS celebrity chef Justin Quek. We opted for the seasonal bespoke creation which was a menu created on the spot based on our dietary preferences and food allergies. Hubby said to the waiter "surprise me".




~25 May 2014~
Most unique truffle white chocolate balls. Truffle as in the fungi truffle. Not the sweet chocolate truffle truffle. The not so nice macarons was the only miss of the whole dining experience.




~27 May 2014~
Got a Lego doctor man from my gal pal. Aside: Can't believe I took 15min to post this while nodding off to sleep far too many times.




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Birthday Dinner at Sky on 57

My actual birthday 2 Sundays ago was spent cooped up at home for most part of the day. Kh made a reservation at Sky on 57 saying that even if I planned to coop myself at home feeling sickly, crampy and miserable, I still had to have dinner. Making up and dressing up certainly sprinkled some sort of magic dust on me in the process. The pain and moodiness dissipated with each wave of the mascara wand, each glide of BB cream, each curl of hair (bimbocity continues...) Oh, if only the magic was dusted much earlier in the day.




Sky on 57 is located at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) SkyPark, on level 57 which is the highest point of MBS. The restaurant, helmed by celebrity chef Justin Quek, offers a delectable array of modern Asian cuisine with French culinary influence. All of these delivered in a setting that offers a bird's eye view of our beautiful city.




The above image was taken from http://www.yoursingapore.com/. Our view from the table was great except that we would be overlooking the outdoor terrace through the glass with loving couples standing in our line of vision to the panoramic city scape.




I'm someone who loves my cheap hawker food so when I saw the sky-high price of Chef Justin Quek's (JQ) acclaimed Hokkien Mee, my jaws almost dropped. Yes, lobster would be used instead of prawns but would that cost about $50 extra? I was undecided on my mains so we decided to opt for the degustation menu. There were 2 Gastronomic Menu options to choose from of which, one was a seasonal bespoke creation -- a menu created on the spot based on our dietary preferences and food allergies. Kh decided on that for the both of us and told the waiter, "Surprise me."




Still sceptical about spending so much on Asian food which we could get from hawker centres and Chinese restaurants, I decided to read up some reviews. The mixed reviews ranged from 2.5 to 4 stars out of 5 and I was eager to give my take on this restaurant and JQ's culinary skills. The variety of bread had us spoilt. I must say that the truffle butter served with the complimentary bread had already teased my taste buds and heightened my expectations for JQ's cuisine. I had to request for another piece of truffle butter to go with the 2nd bread.




This lovely crispy seaweed on the house further whetted my appetite. I really could not wait to be further surprised. I really dislike not knowing what would be served but this time round, I found excitement in it all.

Before I proceed further, may I ask all vegetarians, detractors of fine dining and people who think people who spend too much on food are dumb, to stop scrolling and come back for my next post?




1st course:

~*French Oyster*~
Tomato gelee and ikura roe

I didn't even know how I should describe this oyster. It was like kissing the sea softly on the lips. It was salty, sweet, briny, firm, chewy all at the same time -- a fresh burst of flavours. American chef and food writer James Beard described oysters as simply “one of the supreme delights that nature has bestowed on man". I would steal his words for this delightful little tart of an oyster.




2nd course:

~*Hokkaido Scallop*~
Ceviche with Oscietra caviar, lemon vinaigrette and micro greens

At the 2nd course, I confidently declared to kh that "this is only the 2nd course but it is my favourite fine dining place already." This dish took me right back to our Maldives holiday when I was hooked onto fresh, raw seafood, tataki, tartare etc seasoned with vinaigrette.




By our 2nd course, the terrace was more empty. This couch was right beside/under us and I'd thought of sitting there for a while to enjoy the breeze after our dinner.




One of the best white wine ever. From JQ's selection-- Schloss Vollrads Riesling, 2012. The aroma was like fresh grapes and apples, and the taste clean and fresh. It was not acidic at all and a great pleasure to drink.




3rd course:

~*Amadai*~
Crispy scales, curry mussels

This fish wasn't descaled. The scales in fact was the main recipe for its crispiness. I love the cripy skin with the tender flakey meat.




Me love fish. Me just want an excuse to take photo.




4th course:

~*Pigeon*~
French pigeon confit, braised abalone, Chinese sausage and risotto

Initially, I was confused between which was the abalone and which was the pigeon. I don't think I've ever eaten pigeons before and was trying to discern a poultry texture from the pieces of unknown. I usually dislike Chinese sausage but this one tasted good. It seemed to have a hint of liver. Hubby usually do not like risotto but felt that the risotto in this dish was good.




5th course:

~*Omi Beef*~
Wok fried in black Asian pepper sauce vegetables

To me the term "wok fried" reminds me of Chinese cuisine, of zi char, of delicate smokey wok taste. I almost could not believe these wok fried chunks of Omi beef could taste like French cuisine. I loved it! I'm craving for it while I'm typing this.




6th course:

~*Langouste*~
Superior broth soup

OUR ultimate favourite dish for the night was this langouste bee hoon! I had craving for the broth for the next few days and kh was upset that this isn't available on their à la carte menu. I simply do not know how to describe this dish. Yes it is bee hoon only ma... Something so easy to cook, something that could be gotten from hawker centres and even in instant mee packets but this bee hoon is just so DAMN GOOD that I do not have refined words to describe this dish. Think of it as a bee hoon that is more delicate, more refined and clean. Think of it as a soup without the oily feel yet so full of robust flavour that is savoury yet not salty. Think of it as a superior broth made using the freshest ingredients that is so full of natural goodness.




7th course:

~*Red Fruits*~
Pink champagne jelly, vanilla ice cream

You know when it comes to desserts, I often pick one fruity one and one chocolatey/creamy one for the both of us to share coz I love both fruity tarty and creamy sweet. I'm glad I did not get to choose for this menu coz I'm usually undecided. The red fruits paired with champagne jelly and vanilla ice cream was just the perfect combination of zesty and sweet to end off the meal. Oh, and check out the edible gold speck.




When we were still at home, Kh told me that there would not be special arrangement for birthdays as he did not call in advance. I voiced out that for such an expensive restaurant not to have birthday arrangement is indeed a shame. Hence, I was really surprised when our waiter brought out a birthday dessert with a few others singing the birthday song.




This is the most unique dessert ever. Our good ol waiter told us that it is a dessert that you either love it or hate it. The macarons are gula melaka flavoured. I'm not quite a fan of gula melaka. The 2 white balls are truffle white chocolate balls. "Truffle" as in not chocolate truffle but the fungi truffle. Like my favourite truffle fries "truffle" and the truffle butter "truffle" earlier on. Yes, salty truffle.




This was the brightest photo for the night coz I intentionally illuminated myself with the candle flame. I was really quite miffed that the place was so dark to snap any photo that did justice to the food. All the photos in this post except for this had been edited by adjusting the brightness, contrast, saturation and colour curves. The graininess of the photos is so bad but I'd to make do with them or to present dark photos.




A shot of us in the restaurant before we headed out to the terrace.




I love our waiter and I feel like kicking myself for not remembering his name now while crafting this post. He provided the most impeccable service ever. It was professional yet casual all together and he got us laughing quite a few times. When I asked if he could do me a favour of writing down our bespoke menu for ease of blogging, he told me that he would try his best though it would not be a full description. Imagine my delight when he presented 2 of these to us, informing us that he had gotten his colleague to print it out.




By the time we finished our meal, the terrace was almost ours. The table behind kh was where we were sitting just now and the guys actually knocked on the glass to wave to us.




Our beautiful night city scape panning from right to left... all blurry and unfocused no matter which mode I chose. Time to get a new camera.








It was just too difficult to get a good shot without flash.




This was the most unblurry one of us and the stunning view.




It was a lovely dinner at Sky on 57. Indeed my favourite fine dining place to date. What you don't see in this post is how I... pardon my language... pissed through my ass thrice through the night. Kh had no problem at all and I guess it was because of my weak gastrointestinal health. I still love the whole experience and would definitely be back again. Thank you dear hubby for the pleasant birthday dinner.




It's already a week past June and I've yet to meet up all my friends who arranged to meet up with me. I've got a lot more photos of birthday meet ups and pig outs these past 2 weeks to stay tuned!