Day 1 in Hokkaido Lake Toya: We reached Tokyo Narita airport at about 10am. We made our way to Haneda airport for a connecting flight to Hokkaido. Finally, we reached Hokkaido at about 2pm. We went for lunch and later made our way to Shiraoi Ainu Village (Porotokotan) where the oborigines of Hokkaido with their own culture and language lives. Thereafter, we went back to our hotel: Lake Toya Kanko for dinner. Our hotel have a very nice view of Lake Toya. After dinner, we went to a private hot spring at the hotel. This hotel have both indoor and ourdoor spring.
Day 2 Asahikawa: We had our breakfast, we made our way to the Bear Ranch where we can feed these bears. Later, we drove to Jigokudani (Hell Valley)where we can walk through the sulphurous valley and see the boiling ponds and steaming streams. We headed for lunch. We went shopping at the wet market just below the restaurant and pick the sashimi we want, they will chop it up and delivered immediately to us at the restaurant!! That's what we call fresh! We had sashimi and fried Salmon(provided in the package). We had Abalone, scallop, uni (Sea Urchin)and otoro (tuna belly). For this sashimi, we spent about 13500 Yen (S$200). After lunch, we went to Otokoyama Sake Brewery Museum to buy sake. We purchase 2 sake, one bottle of hot sake and a bottle of cold sake. This Sake Brewery has a 330yr history of brewing some of the best sakes in Japan. Then, we went for dinner at Hokkaido Ramen Village. This place is dominated by ramen stalls. I have been always wanted to go Hokkaido to eat their sashimi and ramen. After dinner, we proceed to Asahikawa shopping street. Asahikawa is the 2nd largest city in Hokkaido. But as we were there at about 8pm, most shops were already closed. We saw Louis Vuitton and many departmental stores. But they are all closed at about 830pm. We stayed at Hotel Crescent.
Dan's parents anniversary was on the 18th Nov. Dan gave them a treat at Shang Palace at Shangri La. They were mentioning that they have change their head chef and the place is newly renovated.
We forgotten that the Asean Submit was at Shangri La. The security there was super strict. Mindef was all around, there were car checks, when you enter the hotel, you need to go through a security scan.
The food was ok, not fantastic though. Dan and auntie had Shark bone soup, while the rest of us at double boiled soup with white fungus, green and red carrot. The soup was fantastic. We also had peking duck, I find that the flour for the wrap is abit too thick.
Next was the mantou with pork belly (so-so), fish my bf's family is said that there is a smell, but I like it. I am a fish person!!! hehe... I like the japanese mushroom with beef and mustard seeds (like a fusion of chinese and western). The HK kai lan was normal.
I like the restaurant's settings but the food was so-so only.
Mambo night at Zouk on the 7th Nov. As the next day was public holiday, the queue was crazy, you need to queue up for about 1hr plus before you get in... and the funniest thing is that is not super crowded inside.
The guys there are so funny in their synchronized dancing. We keep laughing the whole night at them. After we hop over to velvet, which I drop a jug of drinks on the dance floor!! Haha, David thought that i was holding the drink and I thought he was holding it. The jug miraculously disappeared in the dance floor!! OPPS... ;)
We were there from 9pm - 2am and we went to eat bak ku te and guess who we saw!! David Gan!! with a bunch of his friends and 1 girl....
' 9:13 AM Y
WOW!! So long never write my blog because I was so darn busy!!! I was handling 2 portfolios for 1 month plus. So didn't have time to write my blog...
M1 dinner and dance was held on the 25 October 07 at Swissotel the Stamford. It was a night of fun and entertainment. Ok la, is actually we entertain ourselves.. The MC and games that the MC played were good, but the performance by the other entertainer was LAME!!! Food was not so good. But overall we had a lot of fun. And of course there were wine... hmmm....
Our team was dressed in the 1960s, Belinda, Su Jen, Charmaine, Wendy and me went to have our hair done. Yong Teck, Kydd and David went to rent their costume with wigs... Haha they look hilarious!! David sabo me up the stage. I have to repeat the "M1 Mumbai, India ad". So I sabo him back haha.. He had to act on stage!! So funny... David and Belinda were among the 5 or 6 who won the best dressed, they will get $200 vouchers each!! Cool man...
Then came the lucky draw!! HAIZ.... Always never lucky in it some more 300 prizes le.... Haiz....
Hehe for my birthday, I just did my hair!!! soft-rebonding... as my previous permed-hair looks so dry and messy... Now I just need to wake up in neat straight hair, no more troubles... Yeah!!! Hmm but most people say I look better in perms... which I am looking at for my next year hair-do..
PS: Thanks to my colleague for buying me Reds voucher for my birthday!!! hehe Thank you.
I celebrated my birthday with my family at Hua Ting restaurant at Orchard Hotel. This restaurant served cantonese cuisine. I love this chinese restaurant's double boiled soup... Hmm... the honey glazed baked pork with nuts is also fantastic... and so is the french bean with fried golden mushroom. Beef is not so great... The mango duck and wasabi prawn was so-so...
The last time we came, we drank the shark bone soup was great but abit expensive (cheaper then shark fin soup and so different from shark fin soup!) , but is a one-in-a-life-time experience...
Dan brought me to Desire at The Scarlet Hotel (a boutique hotel at on Erskine Rd near Club Street) for dinner on the 27th Aug to celebrate my 27th birthday.
This restaurant is very cozy, it has a very unique decor with red and black as the theme color.
For Appetizer, Dan had French Onion Consomme: Clear onion soup served with cheese ravioli and caramelized white onion. I had my ALL-TIME FAVOURITE Desire Duet: Pan seared foie gras (Ya Ya... HIGH Cholestrol.. but I cant help it... anyway it's once a year, should be ok!!) and warm foie gras custard (I know, foie gras custard sounds abit gross but its really good, taste abit like chawanmushi.. haha) with poached pear. They served freshly baked bread (still warm!!). They had olive bread, sun-dried tomatoes bread(My personal fav) and onion bread.
For the main course,
Both of us had beef tenderloin - Char Grilled Chateaubriand: Center cut beef tenderloin with potato rosti (WOW!!! The rosti is puuuurrrrfect), sauteed mushrooms in porcini jus topped with bordeaux butter (This butter is so yummy!!!)
We then shared a dessert which is yet my another ALL-TIME FAV...Creme brulee. We ordered the Chestnut Creme Brulee: Chestnut custard topped with a layer of caramelized sugar crust and walnut gelato sandwich. Dessert, I must say is not really good... I have tried better Creme Brulee... Quite dissappointing...
After dinner, we went to dempsey hill and had a drink before heading home!!!
