10th Anniversary Celebration @ GV Suntec Gold Class, Ultimate Crab Feast 2016 @ PARKROYAL on Beach Road

The 10th anniversary celebration was nothing fanciful. It was just another day out to spend quality time together because we have been way too busy with our driving lessons for that few months. 

Totally tired and worn out every weekend so we did put in some effort to cater some time to celebrate the anniversary. It's also a good chance to stop thinking about the upcoming driving exams which happens right after the anniversary celebration. We totally need to de-stress. 

Beautiful blooms on this special day.

This was actually a make up bouquet because I didn't get one on Valentine's day due to the exorbitant price. I'm fine with just a bouquet of flowers a year and the occassion doesnt really matters haha.

With the pretty flower blooms.

#welfie before we head out..

#OOTD that day. Dress & bag from Fayth and the dress has been worn to death since that day. 

Headed over to Suntec for our movie date. We finally put the movie voucher to good use and it was given by my uni mate as a wedding gift. It's also our first gold class experience after dating for a decade. 

However, the downside is I've to personally go down to redeem the tickets first before using them.

They should probably come up with a voucher code printed on the voucher so I can use it to book it online instead of personally going down to get the tickets. I know I should not be fussy about it but it will really saves a lot of time and trouble. 

Got the vouchers exchanged for these tickets before the anniversary celebration. FYI, movie timing are only released 1 week by 1 week so I've to quickly go redeem the tickets before it's full house.

To my surprise, there's quite a lot of people who chose to watch movie in gold class theater especially for such block busters. 

Our drinks for the movie. 

Would appreciate if they could help top up hot water or so during the movie screening because the air con was blasting, hence my tea gets cold really fast. I was not given a lid to cover up my tea too. So in the end, I only get to drink cold tea throughout the movie. 

Took some photos before the movie starts to mark our first gold class experience..

This very much reminded me of our wedding venue set up...

Derp commented he felt like a hospital patient in this photo. -_-'

:)

 I didn't bring my cardigan along so the blanket was very important to me. 

#welfie before the movie starts 

X-Men: Apocalyse is a nice movie. Do find some ways to watch it if you have not done so. Probably one of the better X-men movies as compared to the previous few. 

Doubt we will be going for anymore gold class experience unless necessary because we are fine with just the normal theaters though. Derp totally don't enjoy the 'sink in' feeling of the chair as he prefer to sit up straight. Me on the other side, had quite some fun adjusting the leg rest lol.  

Overall the experience was good but could have been better if they can improve on what I've mentioned earlier in my blogpost regarding the tickets and my cold tea. 

GV Suntec Gold Class

#03-373 Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Blvd, Suntec, Singapore 038983

We set off to our dinner venue after the movie. It's time for a crab feast because we have been craving for crab for quite sometime. 

The ultimate crab feast.

The restaurant was really crowded when we reached and we actually went to the wrong branch for the crab feast. Parkroyal has a few hotels that is having the ongoing crab buffet and we totally mixed up. We had already made reservation but ended up at the wrong place. 

But anyway we just go along with it since it's troublesome to travel from place to place since both hotels offer the same crab buffet, just slightly different in price due to the promotion at the different hotels. 

Enough of ranting, food pics as below. 

The salad bar which I will always go first for every buffet be it breakfast/lunch/dinner. 

Fruits station

Lots of fresh seafood

Where all the cooked crabs were..

Black pepper crab

Salted egg yolk crab

 I definitely came here for it because of the salted egg yolk craze at that time.

The different kind of crabs I took..

#onthetable 

Both of us love their black pepper crab the most. 

There's also the classic Chilli Crab and the fried bun. Yummy! 

Before digging in...

:) 

Lots of crabs on our table haha! 

Derp is doing the job for me so we need not snatch the tool to break open the crab shells. He did it for me all in one shot asI was quite lazy to do it myself too haha. Very afraid that I will make a mess everywhere. 

This is crab chawanmushi.

I know one can't really tell from here but there's actually some crab meat inside. Taste wise not any different from the normal chawanmushi.  

After eating down lots of crab, I decide to go around to see if there's any other crab related food which I've missed out other than crab itself.

The indian chef kindly heat up this prata for me and the prata must be one of the most crispy prata I've ever eaten before. It's so crispy! He told me to take the crab meat masala to goes with it. So I heeded his advice since I'm out to try something new and indeed, it's super yummy :) 

Totally worth the calories and that's probably the only carbo I ate that night.

I took the green tea chocolate chip ice cream for dessert before we left. I was literally bursting from all the eating so I didn't took any other desserts. 

The crab buffet costs us $150++. I can't remember if there's any credit card discount but I remember there is for certain credit cards and we did use it to make payment.

Apparently, the crab buffet comes back every year for a few months so do look out for them if you are a crab lover.

It's worth to give it a try as there's a wide variety of crabs and your appetite is huge. They do top up the crabs so fret not that there won't be any crab left if you are not 'fast' enough.

If you are does not have a huge appetite, you can just opt for eating crab from tze char stall and who knows it might be cheaper :) I can't taste much difference in the crabs offered by the hotel and normal tze char stall. But of course, the wide vareity offered by the hotel is a plus point and eating crabs at the hotel restaurant offers more comfort so it really depends on what you are looking for.

That's all for my review for the Ultimate Crab Feast 2016 @ Parkroyal on Beach Road.

PARKROYAL on Beach Road, Singapore 

7500 Beach Road, Singapore 199591 

+65 6505 5666 

Menya Takeichi @ Suntec City, St Marc's Cafe

After collecting the Sundown's racepack at Suntec, we decide to head over to Menya Takeichi because I want to try their Black Truffle Ramen! Yay to anything truffle because they taste so good :) 

It took us quite sometime to locate it because we hardly go Suntec and the place is way too big. It has changed so much since we last visit there. But anyway, Menya Takeichi is located at the top level with the rest of the jap restaurants. 

They are famous for their chicken ramen...

Okay it sounds quite wrong haha! *If you know what i mean..*

We didn't know they have opening hours for their lunch session whereby they will close after certain time and then reopened again for dinner.

The restaurant manager actually told us they were closed and we were totally sad. Imagine walking the whole of Suntec trying to locate this place and it was already very late lunch, totally famished by then(because we went to collect the race pack first) and there's no food for us :(

The chef probably noticed our disappointed look and told the restaurant manager to let us in. So grateful for that kind gesture on their side and that did not make our trip wasted.

Their ramen are not cheap though..

Yes! I'm finally having this..

Black Truffle Ramen - $17.50

So they added in the black truffle paste to the ramen. Super yummy because to me, anything truffle is nice haha! I'm biased just nice that lol.

Special Rich Spicy Ramen - $17.50

This is what Derp ordered, he usually goes for anything that's spicy..

#onthetable

Both of us polished the bowl clean including the soup because the soup broth taste really good. And there's no urge to drink water after drinking the soup simple because there's no MSG added. I do hate it when the soup taste so good but you have to drink lots of water down thereafter thanks to MSG.

The ramen are on the pricey side even though it taste really yummy but doubt we will go back there again for their ramen, given the fact that we have to walk really far just to get to the restaurant. 

Menya Takeichi

3 Temasek Boulevard, #03-313 Suntec City Mall, Singapore 038983

We continue running our errands and took a rest at St Marc's Cafe at Raffles City Shopping Centre..

We had the Matcha Latte and Little Fuji for our dessert/tea-break. 

I can't really remember the price but I do love their Matcha Latte comparing with the one from Starbucks. I love their Ice Yuzu Tea too. St Marc's cafe has since became a place for me to go to get my matcha craving satisfy haha.

Anyway the Classic Fuji tasted not bad. Will go back there for other desserts if there's chance because they seems to have a lot of different looking pretty desserts. In fact, they have this matcha series which looks really awesome. Typing this already makes me feel excited about them! Shall pay them a visit soon :)

St. Marc Café (Raffles City)

Address: 252 North Bridge Road #B1-44M

Raffles City Shopping Centre Singapore 179109

Flea Party (Beside Jollibee) @ Lucky Plaza by Fleawhere, Nunsongyee @Bukit Timah

3 years ago, I participated in the flea market organized by Forfleasake (now known as Fleawhere) at Lucky Plaza (Opposite Jollibee). 

The response was very good and I'm only left with a few pieces of clothes back then. You can read more about my experience back then here. It wasn't my first time joining a flea market as a vendor but Lucky Plaza has probably the most customers till date.

I had quite a number of unwanted clothes from my parents' place and I felt guilty for not clearing them since I've shifted out for years so I decide to consolidate all of them and set up booth at a flea market once again!  

Anyway, this time round it's back to flea-ing at Lucky Plaza since they have the best crowd so far. However, they seems to no longer have flea market opposite Jollibee but instead beside Jollibee. 

The price of renting a table space goes up to $160 now (in the past it was $100/120 on Sunday. Sunday's booth are the most expensive because it has the largest crowd). There were only 16 or 18 (I can't remmeber the exact) spots up for snatch so faster fingers first. Sunday's booth often get snatched up pretty quickly due to the popular crowd.

All ready for the flea market :)

The flea market was supposed to start from 1pm till 7pm. Vendors can reach slightly earlier to set up their booth and from my experience, vendors usually reach earlier than the time stated so as to be the first few to choose and 'chop' a better spot booth. 

We reached at around 12 and we were the last in the queue...

Oh well, it doesn't really matter as long at the end of the day, there's table for us to set up our stuff will do :) 

We only managed to make our way in after a short while of waiting and the process of entering the flea area is quite 'torturing'. 

There were permanent booths at the flea market and they have already started their business so customers were already inside doing their shopping. With our big bags, we have to squeeze through stalls/people just to get to our tables. 

Took us what seems like forever to finally squeeze inside though.. 

And as usual there weren't much time for us to 'slowly' set up the booth because in no time after we settled down, potential shoppers were already on standby to flip through the mountain of clothes that we have.  

As usual, 'people mountain people sea'.. Those stall on the far left in the picture, behind that white pillar) were those stalls closer to the entrance and they were the permanent stalls.

More pics of the crowd for the flea below.. 

Though there was air con, but it's still very stuffy and dusty as usual. Everyone is still perspiring non stop. Non of the time I flea at lucky plaza has what we call ideal condition for the shoppers and stall owners.

Within the first hour, we sold quite a number of clothes because there's one lady who bought lots from us. In the end, we found out she's actually sourcing for clothes for her own stall (she belong to one of the permanent stall there) lol. 

We only came to realize that when Derp went to get lunch for us and he saw familiar looking clothes at one stall lol. 

Oh well, what matter most is we clear our clothes and we definitely earn back the capital money for renting a stall at the flea market. Not forgetting at the end of the day, there's some profit :) 

By 6pm we were done. Had a grab bag sale for the very last few piece of clothes and yay to a successful flea!  Was totally shag out after that and am glad that the next day it was a public holiday! 

After we were done, we went to bukit timah for our dinner with bil and sil :) the booth was shared between me and sil and of cause our partners were dragged into in unwillingly lol. 

We spotted the newly opened (back then) bingsu cafe when we were there so we decide to check it out after our dinner.

Oreo Bingsu

Mango Bingsu 

I will say it's Instagram worthy, but taste wise, I will still prefer Ice Lab Cafe's bingsu.  

Somehow the mango is too sour and the Oreo doesn't have much taste to it. It's like pure ice shavings and Oreo powder on top (so easy to make right? Haha) 

There aren't as expensive as Ice lab's bingsu, probably few dollars cheaper but the taste is not on par with them. 

Nunsongyee 눈송이

9 Yuk Tong Ave, Singapore 596314 (Beauty World MRT)

Won't be joining flea market for the rest of the year because I've cleared lots of clothes this time round. Probably next year then :) Crossing fingers that the rental fees for the stall won't keep going up the next time I feel like clearing my clothes again. 

For a more detailed guide on holding your flea market, please click here. 

Sundown Marathon 2016

Back to running Sundown after a year hiatus. I skipped running Sundown last year simply because I missed the chance to register for it and was only left with the non-early bird rates. 

To be honest, I missed the early bird rates for Sundown 2016 once again so I sort of give up the thought of running Sundown 2016.

However, I chanced upon a discount code for this race so I decide to go for it once again. Sundown 2014 was my first time running a half marathon. It was a memorable race and I'll probably not forget for the rest of my life. Been there and done that so I decide to just stick to the usual 10km race category this time round :)

Race pack expo was held at Suntec and everything was a breeze.

No queue despite going there on a Saturday.

As long as you have the courage to start, anything is possible.

What's in the race pack. 

Needless to say, it's all things pink for sundown 2016 :) 

On race day, we took a train down to the race site as the race only starts at 10pm. Saw many fellow runners while on the way there :)

Pre-race mandatory shot.. 

It was mad crowded at the start pen even though I didn't see many runners at the race pack collection.

Far from the starting line even though we were early for the race.. 

We watched this digital laser display many times as we were in the 5th wave if I didn't remember correctly. 

It will repeat itself and countdown to the next flag off. 

Finally closer to the starting line after around 30 mins past the flag off time. Even the emcees sound tired from flaging us off.

The whole 10km route was very congested, I don't remember if there's any part of the route which allow me to run at my own pace. The worse part has got to be at Garden by the Bay. I clearly remember 2 years ago when I ran the half marathon, it wasn't that bad as compared to this year Sundown.

Finally the hour plus of 'torture' has ended and we can head home to catch up on our sleep..

Sundown 2017? I guess I will think thrice before signing up once again. For 2017, it's 1 week after 2XU race, I'll definitely prefer joining 2XU then (nicer looking race singlet/tee) and a morning race is still better than a night race. At the very least I need not fight with the Zzz monster. lol. 

Probably no more Sundown for me in the near future because both times I join, both times were quite disappointing. 

Till the next race review :)

Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice

Diring my previous trip to Oh My Tian cafe, I told myself to come back to this area to try Boon Tong Kee chicken rice. 

The restaurant was flooded with people and there was a queue forming when I passed by there the previous time.

Seems like it's worth a try so I'm back to this area again to give it a go.. 

Late lunch but there's still a queue for it..

We didn't wait that long before we got our seats perhaps because there's only 2 of us. The big round tables meant for families were fully occupied. 

We ordered this Signature Homemade Crispy Beancurd as our side dish. Seems like everyone else is having this dish on their table.

True enough, it's really very yummy! Outside crispy inside soft and comes with a slight salty taste.

Hereby presenting to you, Boon Tong Kee's Chicken Rice..

Looks pretty normal...

#onthetable

So after trying out the chicken rice, we don't really feel there's anything special/nice about it. Perhaps because I'm not a fan of steamed white chicken and Derp has a high standard of the chilli sauce (he still feels nothing beats homemade chicken rice's chilli which he made himself lol).

Boon Tong Kee Pte Ltd

Chinese Restaurant

34 Whampoa West #01-93

6299 9880

Can't help but swing by Oh My Tian cafe after our lunch for desserts..

The all time favourite belgium waffles with ice cream top up with salted caramel sauce :)

For more information about Oh My Tian Cafe, you may click here.