Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe (SG) giving out iPad! #ShamelessAd

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

If you're in Singapore and if you're good at puzzles, try playing Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe's new Facebook game, Piece IT Challenge. Top three scorers win the following:

1st: The new iPad
2nd: iPod
2rd: $100 Xin Wang Dining Vouchers

Up to 10 levelled puzzles to solve before time runs out. Each puzzle more difficult than the next. The faster you solve the puzzle, the higher your score for that level. Accumulate as much points until you finish all levels or you run out of time. Last day of promo: 16 September 2012.

BULALO! Oh Bulalo!

Every now and then, we want a taste of home and have one of our favorite delicacies. It's pretty rare that we look specifically for bulalo, but when we do, we always end up disappointed: Meat was not tender; wrong type of meat; wrong type of bone; not enough meat; you name it. I think we've been served every type of disappointment in the bulalo department for the last five years we've been in SG.

That changed tonight.

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"BULALO! Oh Bulalo! Where have you been all this time?! ;))"
(taken at Lucky Plaza)

HATCHED: Food for the Disney Junior Preview lunch

Hatched was the venue for the Disney Junior preview last May 31st. It's at the Evans Lodge along Evans Road -- a little bit difficult getting there without your own car, as the nearest bus stop is a quite a way off.

It's a pretty small place which could accomodate around 30 people at a time. They're going for the old, rustic, farmhouse look and feel and they certainly achieved that. The yellow light bulbs remind us of the old yellow light bulbs you find around chicken houses used to warm newly hatched chicks. And all the furnishings -- the wooden tables, wooden stools, and the brick accent walls complete the farmhouse feel. Even the bar and display shelves have that simple, functional, farmhouse feel as well. Ah, the joys of farm living. :)

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Ten - Return Flight

April 3, 2009: It's the last day. 5:30, I'm already awake. My flight, PR507, will be on 10:05 AM, but I thought it's better to be ready earlier than later.

My dad and my brother's family are the ones who took me to the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Terminal 2 this morning. I'm glad that they were the ones to take me there. :)

Anyway, I was at the airport by 7:45 AM. I immediately went to the check-in counter. My worst case scenario happened: my baggage was over the limit, at 25KG+. I need to drop to at least 22KG. I took out one unused bag and three bags of dried mangoes. The weight dropped to 22KG+, which was already enough. Well, at least I didn't have to unload alot from the baggage.

I was already at the gate by 8:15; relatively quick, considering the long line on Immigration. Got a little hungry so I bought the "cheapest" food I could find: 4 siomais for PHP70!!!! (Usual price is PHP32). It felt like hi-way robbery, but I didn't really have any choice. Either I wait it out until food is served on the plane, or I cough up the friggin 70 pesos.

Made a few text messages and calls to family and friends. Most of them replied. I still had 200+ load on myn cellphone so I wanted to make use of most of it.

Time flies by I guess. The gate was open and I made my way to my seat on the plane. I knew the plane would be large, since my seat number was 47H, an aisle seat as I have requested (I tend to pee a lot during fligths). Most of the recent flights that I have only 6 seats per row, with an aisle in the middle. This time, the plane was huge -- it was an airbus 340, I think. two aisles, two seats on either side, and four on the middle. Not only that, many seats were not taken. When people realized that there were many seats available, some of them changed seats to be with their respective groups.

Had fish for lunch. Inflight movie was Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories. Everyone decided to sleep, I guess; all of the window covers were down. Not a problem for me; I actually prefer it; it's dark, cozy, and conducive to sleep. I coudn't sleep, though, but at least I felt more relaxed.

1:17 PM, teh plane lands, and I immediately made my way for immigration. I also bought some wine from the Duty Free store, as requested by Che. I'm so happy to see here again. :)

She didn't eat anything yet, so we went to Swensen's in the terminal to eat lunch. Wellm, she ate lunch, while I just ordered a sizzling dessert. Then we're off back home :)

Back in Manila March '09 - Day Four - Earth Day

March 28, 2009: Once again, it a slow start again, but not a big thing, since I had not much plans today -- I can't process any of my paperwork since a weekend, so I just stayed home to relax.

The only main activity was the family dinnerout -- originally, it was supposed to be a lunchout. But my sister and her husband had some business to attend to the whole day. So I rescheduled it for a dinner out in one of the restaurants in Santana grove. Later, when big brother and hios family came, I learned that my dad is already tired of going to Santana Grove. It turns out that the only places that he goes to are his home and the Shopwise-Santana grove area. So I changed the plan again to dinnerout at Dencio's in Brittany Bay. It's not far and we have a scenic view of the Laguna Bay. Also, it was Earth Day. We thought it would be cool to see the lights going out in the landscape -- assuming that people actually "vote for the earth" by switching off their lights for one hour. :) We'll just have to wait and see.

Like I said, big bro is here again, as per their usual routine during Saturdays: 8AM badminton in the subdivision plaza; 10AM visit dad until afterlunch. Had a good time with everyone. I just learned that my niece was a greenbelter in Karate! Geez, and she's been doing this she's 6! Wow! I'm so proud. She's the youngest in the Karate class -- no big surprise -- and I'm happy that she was able to do something that I always wanted to do myself. :) Well, too late for me I guess, but it's good to know that at least one in the family knows one form of martial arts. :)

The rest of the afternoon, I'm tyring to watch all the TV I can get. Jack TV. HBO. Star Movies. Basically channels that we don't have in our Singapore flat. Just learned that Jimmy Fallon replaced Conan O'Brien in Late Night. Don't want to compare but I like Conan much better than Jimmy. Sorry, just my personal opinion. Just have to wait I guess until June 1st, when Conan replaces Jay Leno in the Tonight Show.

7PM came and we were off to Dencio's in Brittany Bay. It's one of those rare occasions when everyone is present and accounted for before we all go out. Normally, either my brother's family or my sister's will arrive to the venue late. This time, all of us are here and we all went together at the same time. Nice change actually. :)

Not sure what to buy, we simply went for the Graduation Special Promo there: for php 3,000, we get a complete meal set for 10 people. We took Set B.



Then the promo also stated that for every purchase of the special promo, you get a Crispy Pata (worth about php400+).

Since there were only 8 of us, we were not really expecting to finish off all of the served foods. Which can only be good news for our doggies back home! :))

BTW, the restaurant is actually Pugad Dencio's. Didn't get why that is at first, but it became obvious the moment we came inside. According to my brother, Pol Medina Jr. -- creator of Pugad Baboy -- is either a stockholder or co-owner of this particular branch of Dencio's. The paper placemats contain some comic strips, much to the enjoyment of my niece and nephew.

That's where we had Earth Day. We thought the restautant will not be participating in the Earth Day, since it's past 8:30 and still the lights are still on. Then at 8:50, they switched off all of the main lights, leaving only the dim nightlights on. Lucky for us, our table is still lit up by the nightlights, unlike the table next to us which is completely swallowed up in darkness. We overheard the people sitting there complaining to the management about this; apparently, they were celebrating the graduation of one of their kids today and they get to spend it near-total drakness. Guess, that's one reason why we didn't see many turning off the lights, despite the large movement urging everyone to switch them off.

We stayed there for awhile -- the people sitting on tables that came before and after us have already left; I guess we were there for at least two hours. We stayed there for so long, ate so much food, and had so many leftovers, we didn't realize that the crispy pata was not served to us. We were only reminded when we exited and saw the poster showing the promo. We went back in and asked about it. Here's the funny if not weird part. The manager said that our crispy pata was served to another table! And that they will just cook another one now. Everyone of us thought that that was B$. We just asked for how long, and they said 5 minutes. Crispy Pata in 5 minutes? Yeah right. Anyway, maybe because the kids are having fun with the place and the weather is actually quite nice that time -- very cool and windy -- everyone, especially dad, are relaxed and just continued where we left off with our discussions earlier.

We came home very late -- maybe 1130-ish, and I was all groggy. I had to sleep now since I need to be early for tomorrow's events...

My sister's family's one-stop visit

As per my last post, my sister visited us here in Singapore before they would go on their amazing race.



BTW, they're Sheila, Peter and Konrad, my sister, her husband, and their son. And of course us. :)

Tiny trivia: for the last six months, we haven't set foot in Sentosa yet. Sheila, staying in SG for only one day, got there first before us. Hmmm... I guess that means...... to be continued.... :)

Dinner at NYdC Wheelock

Our Friday nightout would not be complete without dinner! We went to Wheelock, one of the malls here and whoa, did we have a feast! We ate at the NYDC and had one of the best tasting pizzas!

Here's what we had:

Iced Manhattan Mocha - (My drink) Smooth NYdC mahattan Mocha Coffee served chilled with a scoop of Double Chocolate Chip ice cream and whipped cream.



King Tut's Fav - (Che's drink) Classic NYdC cappuccino served chilled with a scoop of Macadamia Nut ice cream, hazelnut syrup and whipped cream.


Bratwurst Jamboree Pizza - Slices of premium German bratwurst sausage with garlic sauce, mushrooms, onions, and mozzarella.



Roasted Chicken Spaghetti - Slices of roasted chicken in spaghetti served with tomato sauce



You've got to try the Bratwurst Jamboree!!! We can't get anough of it! If only it was a lot cheaper, I would have bought another one to bring home! :)

That's me concentrating on the task at hand. Nothing else mattered. It's only me and the plate! hehehe

BTW, the ambiance is nice. It has that typical pizza parlour feel. The staff are nice and very attentive to us, despite the fact that the resto was fully loaded and there are tons more of people lined up outside. (If we had waited five minutes later, we would have been stuck on the line with those other guys!)

It's a must-try.

In case you're interested, here's the contact info:

NYdC Cafe Wheelock
#02-19, 501 Orchard Road
Tel: +65 6736 3253

Anniversary Dinner at Marché

Yesterday, November 19th, is our First Wedding Anniversary! We still couldn't believe that it was already a year since then. Oh well, time flies. Anyway, since I could not take my leave yet since I'm barely a month in my work, we had to settle for "after-office-hours" activities. So that, of course, includes dinner!

We went to VivoCity (via the HarbourFront MRT station) and had dinner at Marché. (Just go to the link for more details.) Their 200lb sirloin steak was great! I haven't tasted one for... hmm.. come to think of it, it has been years since I tasted one. Hehe!.. Anyway, moving on...

In Marché, they use the so-called "front cooking" concept - your given a "market-credit card", you go around the "marketplace", look around the different "stalls" (i.e., Salad, Bakery, Pasta, Grill, Steak, Vegetables, etc.), then get whatever food you like. Every time you do so, you will be charged on your "market-credit card" -- this card records all your purchases in the "marketplace", which you will pay up at the counter in the exit.

Like I said, the steak was great! And so was the price! :) 200lbs of pure sirloin meat.. yum! One of the best sellers also are the (pork or chicken) franks, since almost every other table has one. We didn't order one, though, so we don't know exactly how it tastes. We also like the calamari! One of the best calamari I've tasted, you can even eat it without the mayo (or at least I thought it was mayo). The paella looks tasty too, but we already had our fill, so we haven't actually tasted it yet. We also tried the herbed chicken pasta with cream sauce - a little bit sweet and spicy. Yum!

The cream of mushroom was a bit different from the cream of mushrooms that we're used to. Not sure if it's the mushroom itself or whatever. It's not really that bad, it just tasted different.

Unfortunately, there were downsides as well... Be careful with the garlic breads there... they're a bit tough to bite through - we hurt our jaws trying to eat one. The banana crêpe was also a downer -- perhaps the pan had too much heat or maybe just a lousy rotten luck, the crêpe itself was too thick, almost like a pancake, and had that "chewable" quality of a bubble gum. We ended up eating just the banana and the almonds and choco bits on the side.

Well, aside from those, it is a great dining experience. We probably won't try their garlic bread or crêpes anytime soon but the dishes we tried are great and the others look promising as well. Maybe next time, we'll try the seafood paella. :)

In case you're interested:

Marché VivoCity
#03-14 VivoCity
1 HarbourFront Walk
Singapore 098585
Tel: (+65) 6376 8226

More of our mis-adventures during our first anniversary here.