imperial treasure SUPER peking duck

before i go into the main post which is about the peking duck... it's HALLOWEEN!!!! YEAH!!! trick or treat =) well... last time i was quite into halloween where by used to go out with some friends and dress up alittle... of cause you wont get something as fanciful as those in the states but i think it was quite fun to exchange sweets with friends & camwhore abit in the cute costumes.... but as you grow older, i felt people get lazier... kind of heck care all the festivals but mainly concern with the holidays =p but anyway.. in sch there are still students who will put up deco for each festivals & set up some booth to sell stuff... so yesterday my bf gotten me some sweets for halloween... yeah!!!

halloween sweets

so he gotten me this macaron and chupa surprise!!! sadly the macaron got squashed when i put it in my bag.... it tasted ok... pretty sweet like all macaron but yup... it looks pretty cute.... the chupa surprise is cute... i never notice such sweet before.. or maybe just me being shua ku...

inside chupa surprise

so basically you have this pokemon like ball, inside is the chupa chups & a key chain like stuff... i think is more for kids... i am not really a fan of minnie but is given my bf so i like it =)

so.... after the random halloween sweet part.. lets go to the main point = peking duck... so yesterday went down to paragon for dinner with my lab.... one of my lab mate wanted to try the peking duck so he organised a lab outing but in the end he didnt go due to experiment... awww.....

imperial treasure

after i got up the escalator to 5th floor... i cant find the bloody restaurant at all other than crystal jade and sushi tei... because the bloody place is hidden BEHIND the escalator... so damn secluded....  anyway when i stepped into the restaurant, my first impression was: can you see your food!?!??! the place is so dark.... very dim.... i dont like this kind of restaurant... i know they try to act high class & give you so call nice ambience... but seriously.... you dont have to dim the light so much right??!?!?!

cutlery

cute teapot

so the restaurant serve you chrysanthemum tea... i heard jasmine tea so i requested for water instead.... & the tea cost $2/pax.... pretty expensive i think....

chef slicing peking duck

 the main highlight of the restaurant = peking duck... the chef was so fast then i could hardly get a clear picture of him slicing the duck

peking duck skin

sliced duck

so the chef sliced for us 8 slices of duck skin which means 1/pax.... quite pathetic actually.... but there are sliced duck from other parts of the duck... so you can also do the roll thing with duck meat instead of just the skin....

DIY pekind duck roll =)

tada... my own roll.... i would say it was not bad... skin was crunchy but 1/pax was really too little....

spinach tofu

fried rice

sliced duck with noodle

receipt

so we ordered 3 other dishes to share... cant afford more cause the food there were way too expensive.... the food were not bad but i would say the taste was too salty for my liking... you can see that we only ordered 4 dishes & it already cost $213... we had 8 people so thats like $26/pax..... although i was not hungry after eating, i think $26 for only 4 dishes was too expensive... i think for that price we could have gotten better & more variety food elsewhere.... i mean the duck skin was good but the meat itself... i think 店小二duck was better... for me, it will probably be the last time i going to that restaurant....

printing of photo album (flushmount)

in case for you girls who want to print extra wedding photo album, i hope this post will be useful for you.... as mentioned in previous posts, i already signed up with the pre-wedding package with Labelle so we will get an album from them... but i also asked our friends to take a casual shoot for us so i need to print my own album.... i was doing some search online on where to print photo album and actually quite a number of people do send their order online instead of printing locally.... & the album i referring to is the flushmount style, meaning those thick plastic like photo album used in bridal stores.... not like printing normal 4R photo and insert into album yourselves, which will be easy and cheap... but i want it to look more pro so you have to spend some $ on printing....

1. blurb
this is an online site & quite a number of people recommended this store in the forums.... i think their prices are not too bad but just that it is overseas so i cant really see actual samples which deter me from getting it from them....

2. photobook

another online store... i think this is like a franchise... they have many stores internationally...although they put there singapore, everything is done online & there isn't a physical store to check out their products... so again... i dont want to get it from them...

3. photogenie

North Bridge Center
420 North Bridge Road
#01-20 Singapore 188727

Store Opening Hours: 9.30am – 7.00pm (Monday – Friday)
10.00am - 5.00pm (Saturday & Sunday) 
Tel: +65 6338 3066


this is a local store with some recommendations.... they have 3 outlets but only 1 is in the central area, the other 2 are in the east side....wanted to check it out but i wasnt in that area so had to forgo this options too... the samples online seem quite good though....

4. Glory Workz
3 Coleman Street #04-33
Peninsula Shopping Centre
(OPPOSITE Peninsula Plaza, NEXT to Funan IT Mall)Tel: +65 67293088
Operating Hours
Mon – Fri: 12:30 pm – 7 pm
Sat:  11 am – 2 pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays
 
went down to this store & the shop really look professional... it kind of look like bridal studio but without all the gowns....

store.. photo taken from glory workz website

example of their work..store.. photo taken from glory workz website

their works really look nice & professional but prices are way too high... for a normal A4 size album will cost $300 onwards depending on the material.... i was like ME GOD!!! so expensive!!!! although i really want to print from them, we really dont have that $ to spend...

5. Tommy print
Funan DigitaLife Mall
108 North Bridge Road #02-L2B
Singapore 179097
Tel: 6338 9338

Store Hours: 11am – 730pm Mon- Fri Store Hours: 11am – 6pm Sat Except Sundays & Public Holidays
 

tommy print

also went down to check out the store... this is more of a normal printing store, nothing fancy but price is much cheaper... but they only have 1 size for flushmount which is 8"x8" with 24 pages & cost $119 if i didnt remember wrongly... i think this is quite a standard price but just that i have to go down to town just to print & collect the album, it kinds of turn me off... so i had to forgo this store too...

6. Fotohub
 i believed this name is more familiar to many people... they have quite a number of outlets around the island and they do all sorts of printing.... so the one we want is fotojournal, they have fotostory which is an even more expensive version... but fotojournal is good enough.... the website also has a free software for you to download and design the album... so we printed our 8"x8" album with 26 pages & hard cover for $109.90.... the quality of the album was not bad... pretty decent... & it even came with a box... which is pretty neat.... and if you print more than 1 copy, there will be discounts... so i think fotohub is a better option if you are not too particular with the quality & you get the convenience... i gotten my album in 1wk.... but the down side is that you MUST have good quality photos... cause some of my photos are not in very high resolution... the print out quality was slightly blur & colour was abit weird... but  this is not the printer fault, is the original photo problem so i cant blame them for that... so in general... fotohub is a good option =)

wedding car rental

now is 1 month prior to my wedding, is time to search for car rental.... most bridal store will provide car rental but the price tend to be abit steep so we want to source one for ourselves.... so if you just google wedding/bridal car rental, there will be quite a number of sites available and a rough range will be like $400/day since they will give you those fancy cars like merz, BMW kind.... last time i do want to have a fancy car as my bridal car but now i just want a decent vehicle.... i guess all these wedding planning has drained me so much that i have became very practical & not fantasizing about any fairytale wedding.... i definitely a fancy car will be nice but seriously... you going to be sitting in the car for less than 1hr UNLESS you are traveling between 2 ends of SG....  & we will want to have a weekend car so that we can pick up the necessary stuff on fri, sat will be actual day, sun return stuff & relax before returning the car on mon.... which is why we are going for those normal car rental stores & we came up with our top 3 choices...

1. EAZI car leasing

No.1 Bukit Batok Crescent,
#02-43, WCEGA Plaza, Singapore 658064

Phone: (65) 6684 0761
Sales Line: Fadhilah 9724 4734,
Mr Tan 9111 7715
(Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 10am-3pm)

Email us at:

jeremy.eazicar@gmail.com

EAZI car leasing

so if you noticed most of the car rental place in the west will be at bukit batok area (WCEGA plaza there)... this EAZI place seem to be quite popular since my lab mate also rented from them before... they put up prices online so which is quite good and you are not worried that the sales person will anyhow jet up the price

2. CL Leasing

1 Bukit Batok Crescent #04-57 WCEGA Plaza

tel:  6769-7117

open 9am-6pm

 

CL leasing

this store is in the same building... the prices they gave are cheaper compared to their competitors so it is quite tempting to get from them... but we were abit skeptical cause the condition of the car maybe quite bad which is why they give a cheaper price.....

3. Advance car rental

25 Bukit Batok Crescent, #03-01 The Elitist, Singapore 658066

Tel: (+65) 6395-7792

the elitist

 

Advance car rental

this store is actually quite small... unlike the previous 2 shops which had like this garage, this shop seem more like an office but they have several outlets distributed around SG.... we were considering getting toyota VIOS since it is relatively cheap & the sales person was very nice to show us the car since it was available... the condition seem ok but he said the ALTIS will be newer since it was newly painted... so we went with that options & decided on this shop... we made $100 deposit and remaining $145 will be paid upon collection

actually in general, all the 3 stores have similar prices & they all put up the car prices online... apparently all the sales person seem very shock when we just want to rent a normal car as our bridal car... do we really look so cheapo??? but i dont care.... i seriously dont think it worth to spend $400+ for a nice car which I dont get to use for a long time & its not even mine.... really hope the condition of the car is good.... at least is 1 thing settled for us & 1 less thing to worry about =)

food tasting @ fairmont

went down to fairmont yesterday to have the food tasting session... it was also the first official meetup between the 2 parents... quite nervous & we were really worried cause my mama is really the very naggy & demanding person BUT she seemed quite composed & mild yesterday... so on the whole everything kind of turn out quite fine..... so.... lets back to the food tasting....the dinner was held at one of the function rooms which will also be used for solemnisation.... is quite spacious for a round table of 10 but to fit 50 people for solemnisation, it may be slightly pack.... but is free... so dont complain...

they have this "notice board" thing at the entrance so that you know which function rooms you supposed to go.... so ours was butterworth room =)

menu

so this is the menu... we made some changes to the standard chinese menu which i will elaborate later on....

appetizer platter

it looked quite nice especially with the crystal ball in the middle.... the sucking pig slices were not bad, quite crunchy but sauce abit too salty... the flower sea jelly was quite cool... not the type you get for sushi... is crunchier... in general the appetizer was not bad

seafood soup

it actually look like sharkfin but nope... dont have sharkfin.... taste wise was ok... perhaps they added quite alot of seafood like prawn, scallop & conopy... so it tasted abit fishy... but the taste can be masked by vinegar

scallop with asparagus & nuts

yummy... nuts were nice & crunchy... mama said the scallops were too small & tasteless... but i found them quite tasty wor... got this sweet taste so we just ignored her comment... .

roast chicken

the original chicken dish was ginseng chicken... mama say it's not so good cause after all ginseng is a herb so not good to serve it during banquet.... & i think most people will prefer to eat something more savory so we all agreed to change to roast chicken... the skin was nice & crispy... meat was slightly bland but compensated with the plum powder

abalone with spinach

yummy abalone.... no matter how busy i was on the actual day... i must request them to save the abalone for ME!!! is soft & tender.... delicious =)

steam fish

ok lo... the meat was slightly tough... cause the chef said the fish was rear & not fresh catch... well... expected... especially when the hotel has a budget... cant expect too much

fragrance rice in lotus leave

i think by the time it hit the carbo, most people were quite full so not really into the rice dish... taste was slightly bland but still ok since the previous dishes had stronger taste.... they also put in a lot of ingredients into the rice... they had like diced chicken, duck, dried shrimp.... not too bad

red bean soup

this is requested by mama to MUST have red bean soup with lotus seed+lily bulb... it symbolised good luck & blessing for the couples in cantonese.... i would preferred to have yam paste or red bean soup with dumpling kind.. but oh well.... i probably wont eat it so dont care... haha

so after trying all the food, the chef came in to get some feedback from us... in general there was not any major changes, just some adjustment to the taste cause some of the dishes were too salty or sweet to our liking.... i mean the dishes may not be very extravagant, i think they were pretty decent & tasted not bad =)

Feedback: viewing of album layout @ Labelle

yesterday went down to labelle to view the wedding photo album layout.... i would say they did quite a good job in photoshopping our photo... they removed those obvious bulging fats that i had & double chin for bf... i believed they also photoshop our faces to make it smoother..... on the whole, i think the photos look pretty good but i am still not very used to seeing my face in such thick makeup, hopefully the actual day will look even better =)  since i requested not to do too fancy editing to the layout like adding picture frames & all... the layout of the album actually look quite simple.... not till the sense that it is boring but not as fancy as other albums that i saw... but oh well... what you expect when we didnt have much fancy photos to begin with.....

for the BIG photo album you can choose the different type of album cover... i think there was like maybe 40+ colours to choose from but some of them were too extreme for us so i went for the traditional black leather cover with some bling on it... pretty simple & neat i guess... in the middle will be a 5"x10" photo... you can also choose the glass cover but i think the album will be like so god damn heavy so nope... i stick to the traditional leather jacket...

on top of album, we also had a 20"x30" canvas & 10R table top... again, you can choose any photo that you want... personally for the BIG canvas i prefer to choose a photo that show your faces clearly because you going to put it up at the reception table so having a clear view of yourselves will help the guests to identify the correct venue....

so the whole selection lasted about 30-40min cause we pondered quite awhile to select the photos for canvas & 10R.... Rayden (Labelle staff) was quite helpful to give us some professional opinions especially when it comes to selecting the picture frames... so now we just need to wait about 2weeks before we can see the final products =)

JB half day trip

yesterday went to JB for my so call "hen's night"... thought of doing a stayover at KL or something but due to time constrain we changed to a half day trip at JB.... which also sounds good to me since i have to cook up some excuses to tell my parents if i were to stay overnight somewhere... yes... i have NO life... pathetic me... but soon it is going to be OVER & i can regain my freedom!!!!

anyway meetup with my friends at kranji to take bus 170 to JB custom... i dont know why there were so many people!?!?!? it was like almost 2pm, isnt that too late for tourists to go JB?? anyway, we waited like perhaps 30min before we got onto the bus.... then you have to go through the SG custom & then came the irritating thing.... to catch the bus from SG custom to JB custom... it was like OMFG crowded, we couldnt tell which queue was for which bus!!!! after queuing for like 30min+ we finally reached the front of the queue then when we saw bus 170 came, we wanted to board the bus BUT we were stopped by this F***ing rude uncle who said something like you cant board this bus... his face was like asking us go & die... we were like F*** off man.... we queued for like so bloody long then now you tell me it was the wrong queue!!!! but there was like huge mop of people there so we couldnt squeeze up either... then the guy behind us told us that we could take the bus behind, is some causeway bus... so we went up the bus & turn out we CANT take that bus cause they have some special payment system... like WTF they make the bus system so complicated!??!?!?! then the bus driver directed us to take bus 950 so we had to like stand outside the railing cause there was no way for us to go back & join the queue.... & the bus 950 driver also like some F1 shit... he park the bus so close to the railing that the distance between my stomach & the bus was like less than 20cm... dangerous man.....

DONT take causeway bus at JB custom

all these shit aside, we still managed to reach JB safely.... lesson learnt is that we can ONLY take SBS bus which is 160,170 or 950... i recommend 170 cause it appears that it has the highest frequency....

by the time we reached KLCC it was like 3.30pm... we didnt intend to do much anyway so we just roam around to see what we can do to kill time there... so we went to do our nails at nails studio....

nails studio
CITY SQUARE
LOT J5-21, Level 5
10am-10pm daily

i think this is like the BIGGEST nail salon there... it was pretty spacious & price is quite reasonable... i did the express manicure + paraffin wax hand which cost a total of 45rm... which is like sgd17.6.. cheap right!? too bad is too early to do the nails for my wedding or else i would do the gel manicure...

pink nails

actually the nails were kind of too pink.. haha should have gotten like brown or something but oh well.... just for fun....

so after that we roamed around, my friends bought some masks stuff before we headed to canton-i for dinner....

i would say the dishes are very similar to crystal jade but slightly more variety....

yam custard bus + salted fish fried rice

 the custard bus was ok but slightly too sweet, the rice was ok, nothing too fancy

bbq pork bun + custard layered cake

 since i dont eat bbq pork bun so i cant comment but my friends said they were good... the layered cake tasted nice for first bite but subsequently it became too sweet... you cant taste that much of custard cause it was being overpowered by the shredded coconut...

veggie + mushroom

 decent veggie dish but then for 22rm, the portion is quite pathetic

barley with red dates + ginger

 me god... the drink was so sweet.. then together with other dishes which has ALOT of MSG, we were like super thirsty.... we also ordered the chicken feet + siew mai.. those 2 were ok...

ginger milk curd

when i saw the menu that it served ginger milk curd (姜汁撞奶) i was like so excited, i really loved this hk dessert & there is hardly any store in SG that sells it... BUT it was BAD, actually TERRIBLE... the consistency is supposed to be similar to milk pudding but then the one at canton-i was so watery... i suspect they prepared the dessert beforehand instead of freshly made & then reheat it before serving.. due to repeated heating, the milk degraded & resulted in such watery dessert.. i was very disappointed with it lo....

for the whole meal, it cost 121rm after service charge & gst... so that was like sgd15.60 per pax... that is definitely cheap compared to SG... my friend said their food is great... honestly i think is average... in fact the taste was either too salty or too sweet for my liking... but for a relatively cheap & filling meal... i think it was ok....

PORN's sexy thai food

went down to star vista for dinner recently & didnt know what to eat so we decided to try something new = PORN's.... walked passed the store a couple of times but didnt go in cause i have the impression that it will be expensive... but we decided to go ahead with it =)

menu

carbo stuff

finger food

 i would say the price is average for the stable... but finger food price i think is abit more pricey.... like 3 pieces of fish cake cost $7.50!?!??! i think that's too much.... so we went for the safe choice... pad thai & seafood fried rice & also crispy tofu to share...

crispy tofu

ok... 6 small squares of tofu for $6.50... definitely pricey.... there is nothing special i felt... just like the one you can get it at any zhi cha store.... well.. there is always the first  & last time...

pad thai

seafood fried rice

i think the stables are better... especially pad thai... quite tasty..... & for $9.90, it has quite a generous portion... definitely filling for a meal =)

river safari

*back dated entry*

couple of months ago, we signed up for the NUS welfare thing to ballot for free tickets to river safari & luck for us, we managed to get 4 free tickets!!!! so me, my bf went down to river safari went down with 2 of our lab mates since the rest were not free.... for those who are staying in the west, i recommend you all to go to choa chu kang station to take 927, it takes about 15-20min to reach zoo for a smooth traffic.... for those who are staying in the north then can take 138 from ang mo kio... before we knew about bus 927, we used to take train from clementi to ang mo kio to take bus 138, somemore there was no circle line during those time, can you imagined how much time we spent on travelling....

bus stop at zoo

i also recommend for those who intend to stay in the zoo or river safari for the whole day to bring your own food to picnic cause there is really very limited choices of food there... the cheapest option will be KFC at the entrance but it is still like $2+ more than what you can find outside.... personally i will always opt for picnic but today i dont have time to prepare food & we wont stay there for so long so we just had KFC for lunch prior to entering river safari

river safari entrance

halloween signboards

since now is oct, so there is halloween theme but we are not there during the specific dates so we didnt see much halloween decorations.... & the admission tickets to river safari DOES NOT include the boat ride so you have to purchase a separate ticket... & according to my friend you need to book it early before it ran out...

amazon quest tickets

now there are 2 boat rides, the amazon quest & river quest.... both are at $5 each.... the river cruise seem more relaxing but you will be seeing more scenery than specific animal attractions.....

main entrance

river safari map

i would say river safari is really pretty small compared to the zoo, you can actually finished everything in less than 2hr unless you like to camp at specific exhibitions....  there are 2 sides which are connected at the main entrance & the bridge at the end.... i would say river safari is actually just part of what you will see in the zoo & the "main" attraction will probably be the pandas... personally i am not a fan of them so i dont really see the need to purposely go to river safari, zoo is still my favourite =)

inside river safari

normally people will start the trail on the left but we started on the right first since we want to reach the river safari station before the allocated time slot... similar to the SEA aquarium, there are also huge fish tanks in river safari but lesser compared to former... it is located on the right of the main entrance....

otters

more otters

cute otter baby

stingray

fishes

dugong swimming upsize down

BIG fish tank

halloween  decoration along the walkway

since we are ahead of schedule, we went to see the panda first

interesting fact: panda actually has 6 digits & they are orientated like human, thats pretty cool... but i prefer red panda than normal panda... they look so much cuter!!!

red panda

we went in around 1+ to 2pm so i think it is the nap time for them so they are sleeping happily on the branch... after enjoying the aircon at panda exhibition, we went to queue for our boat ride

river cruise boat

river cruise entrance

amazon river quest entrance

queuing for the boat ride

the boat

the amazon quest ride is actually like those rides inside USS or disneyland, you only get the glimpse passed those exhibitions... & again we went at the wrong timing, is afternoon so most of the animals are napping & hiding under some shelter so we couldnt see most of the animals....

some monkey & i can only see the fur

tapir

tapir? i not sure though

couldnt see any tamarin

capybara enjoying their dip

jaguars hiding under the shade

flamingo

red birds

so basically that's almost all the animals you will see during the the amazon quest... i actually doubt the ride has 10min since like we just breeze through everything.... after the ride, we went to the panda cafe for tea break since we gotten $20 food voucher together with the free tickets

panda cafe

even the chairs has panda design

the famous panda bun

there are 2 flavours to the panda buns, chocolate & red bean.... chocolate is definitely better... mango pudding is ok but taste more like mango mousse... but the gyoza is like omg tough... the skin is like made of plastic... so that's a no no..... after the tea break, we continued with the other exhibits...

another big fish tank

some amazon birds

blue fishes

giant salamander

 this salamander is amazing... if you didnt look carefully at the tank, i would have missed it.... another amazing thing is the name.... 娃娃鱼?? like which part of it look like a doll or something petite???

turtle

when we were walking along the exhibits we saw turtle & alligator being put in the same tank, we were really surprised but after seeing this sign board then we understood why.... haha.... screw you alligator!!!

basically that's all to the river safari... of cause i didnt take photo of all the exhibits but more or less everything is here.... lets end this post with the cute red panda soft toy =)

red panda soft toy