the search for kua (裙褂)

*back dated entry*

this post is on the search for kua for my wedding.... La belle also provide rental of kua but they only have 2 designs, 1 is peony & 1 is dragon+phoenix... peony is OUT cause mama say is like for "dead" people, again... my whatever expression.... for the dragon+phoenix kua they have, is more of a sequin design, so mama reject cause she only want gold+silver thread embroidery.... as a result, i have to find alternatives from outside store since she somewhat insist me on wearing kua for my actual day... personally i dont mind wearing cause some of the designs are not bad but it isnt a necessity for me.... but mama insist... what to do... so after some internet search, i managed to find afew stores in SG that do rental of kua... there might be more but i only can find a handful....

1. some wedding shop at people's park complex, level 2 (above the market/hawker center)
sorry... didnt managed to catch the name nor the exact address of the place as i just happened to stumble upon this shop when i was searching for cloth in chinatown... the shop mainly sell wedding stuff like tea sets, double happiness stickers, etc.. but they do have rental of kua but only 1 design...

the kua on display

 personally i thought this kua looks pretty nice... but apparently mama bet to differ cause she say the designs are sew on, not embroidery... at first i didnt understand what she meant but when i saw the actual embroidery kua then i realised the differences... but seriously, i think both will look equally nice on pictures lo... anyway the rental for this kua is $100 for 3D2N, deposit $500


2. Gemini Body shop @ 57 pagoda street
this store is on the right side of the street when you came out of the chinatown station... again, the shop focus more on wedding stuff than the kua... similar to the shop at people's park complex, they only have 1 kua but i think that 1 is really embroidery...

photo taken from http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/39662-chinese-wedding-dress-kua/

photo taken from http://www.renotalk.com/forum/topic/39662-chinese-wedding-dress-kua/

i didnt manage to take picture of the shop so i just kope them from this site... the rental for this kua is $250 for 3D2N, deposit is about $300... personally i feel the sew-on design kua look nicer....


3. House of Etiquette @ 16 Jalan Masjid, #01-01
this store really focus on kua & some wedding/evening gowns.... even mama say they have a wide selection of kua, at least in SG...  the store has 3 categories of kua, the simplest = princess, not so much of embroidery but still look pretty nice.... middle = queen, much more embroidery.... super gao = king, full of embroidery till you will look like a gold/silver bar....they also do sell some wedding goodies but comparatively lesser to other stores

the princess style, photo taken from original site

queen style, of cause ignoring the headdress... photo taken from original site

king style, really look like a gold/silver bar right??? photo taken from original site

the staff there was really nice & patient, we spent like almost 2hr there trying out the different kuas..... the staff first took my measurements, i predicted it to be L since that was the size i tried in La belle but surprisingly my size was actually M... & even more surprising is that M is actually not a common size... apparently most girls who rented their kuas belong to size S and L...so the staff only managed to find 1 piece of princess & 2 pieces of queen style for me to try...

princess style

queen style 1

queen style 2

actually we are not supposed to take picture unless we are renting the kua but the staff was very nice to excuse us =P.... of cause if you compare the designs, i would say queen style will be nicer, look more formal since it has much more details but seriously the rental price is too expensive!!!! princess style = $268, queen = $568, king = $868.... i was like OMFG when i heard the price.... like seriously, do you have to spend so much $ just for a dress that you wear for afew hours???? but well... they do have wide selection of kuas IF you are not M size...

4. Little white wedding shop by Golden happiness @ Katong Shopping Centre, 865 Mountbatten Road #01-45
this store has ALOT of people, i was really surprise since most of the wedding shops i went are pretty empty.... as usual they focus on wedding goodies... they do have afew designs of kua but for the embroidery kind, they only have 1 design & sadly... the workmanship wasnt that good which also correspond to the much cheaper rental fee...

the shop

some of the wedding goodies

the embroidery kua

kua selection

 for them, the kua rental was pretty cheap, since we dont intend to rent from them, we didnt ask for the exact price but from the poster at the entrance... the rate is at $68-268


5. I wedding @ People's park complex, level 1 
mama happened to come across this store, really very ulu, deep inside the people's park complex, at the far end, closer to the outram park mrt side rather than chinatown mrt..... again... focus on wedding goodies & only 1 design of kua.... didnt manage to take any picture but the condition of the dress looked really worn out.... & the rental is like $580!!! like WTH..... if you compared to like house of etiquette, that kua is only in the princess to queen range & yet they charge so much for such a dirty dress....

the shop... sorry ar... signboard reflection too strong

goodies sold at the store

after looking at a couple of stores in SG, i would say house of etiquette is definitely THE store for rental of kua but sadly the price is out of my budget.... so after this incident.... mama is actually spark the idea of going back to HK to rent the kua since most of the kua came from HK/china.... & which is why I am flying back to HK tmr (6th May)... haha... really sudden.... super last min decision... leave SG in 1 wk from the day i bought the ticket.. cause cathay is actually have promotion, so my ticket only cost $286.2 including tax!!! like OMG cheap!!!! let see if i managed to find any good stuff in HK =)

pig trotter in vinegar ( 猪脚醋) recipe

ok.. today i am going to talk about how to cook

猪脚醋... my mama got this sudden urge to cook this dish, not that any family member just gave birth... this dish is really nutritious so it is a must eat dish for mommy who had gave birth, at least for the cantonese.... but of cause the dish isnt limited to mommies... normal people can eat them but do eat with limitation... as it can be fattening & heaty when consumed too much

ingredients.... (for this amount, it made about 1.5 BIG pot of 猪脚醋... i think the amount enough for 10pax or more... but normally you dont finish the whole pot in 1 day... it taste even better after marinating for afew days.... so you can eat it for quite awhile)

pig trotter            2kg (we prefer the not super fatty meat so mama will get those more lean trotter... normally you will get the meat above the trotter so is like the whole thigh... it is important you ask the butcher to burn off the pig hair for you... you wont like to be eating hair... kind of gross)

ginger             1.8kg (mama say choose the younger kind of ginger, not the old ginger cause they maybe too "spicy")

egg                  16 

sugar               900g (amount may vary depending on preference)

salt                 1tbsp

vinegar            2-3 bottles (depending you want to drink more vinegar or just enough for cooking.. but this recipe is based on 3bottles of vinegar... & this isnt the normal vinegar you have, this is supposed to be slightly sweeten vinegar specially for making

猪脚醋)

i use this brand of vinegar.. there are other brands in the market but we feel that this brand has a more suitable taste for us

basically i follow the recipe written on the bottle

 

 

 Steps:

1. boiled the eggs & peel off the shell

2. peel off ginger, quickly blanch them & slightly squashed them to bring out the taste

quickly blanch in hot water... dont put too long or else the ginger will lost its taste

 3. blanch the pig trotter too... you want to remove some of the oily & meaty pork taste... the meat should be almost cooked cause raw pork may affect the vinegar taste

4. assemble all the ingredients & start the cooking

all the ingredients... ready to start cooking

 5. add vinegar, water, sugar, salt and ginger, stir well & slow cook the mixture for about 1hr... this time i added 3.5bottles of water.... so the vinegar was alittle too concentrated... so i think is best to follow the instruction written on the bottle which is 4.5bottles of water for 3bottles of vinegar...

6. add in the pig trotter and eggs, bring to boil then simmer for another 30min

everything inside the pot

 7. then the 猪脚醋 is done =)... but it will taste better after standing overnight

yummy =)

 

second taobao batch

*back-dated entry*

yeah.... my second taobao batch has arrived!!!

my loot this time

compared to previous batch which mainly focused on buying cloth... this batch is more for random stuff & some material to make my headdress.... but most importantly for this batch is my 2 new bags =)

snidel!!! nice & simple bag

the samantha lookalike bag

really love these 2 bags.... i feel that i am a very practical person... i dont believed in spending a few thousands on a bag... the samantha lookalike bag cost me about SGD50 which is actually my most expensive bag so far.... i think as long as the bag look nice & of ok material... tts enough.... dont have to be like some designer brands.... of cause... those lookalike bags are a different issue =p

again... this post is to share with more people the beauty of online shopping... especially on taobao.... you can find anything under the sun there & at a much cheaper price.... of cause you may have to compromise with the quality... but as long as it doesnt involve food or ingested products... i think it is fine to get abit of sub-standard stuff....

sidetrack abit... currently i am intensively sewing my kimonos.... so i will try to upload the template and instructions soon =)