Ponggol Seafood (Old Hock Kee) @ The Punggol Settlement

I went hiking with a few of my colleagues to Coney Island during the Deepavali holiday.  After the hike, we were all famished.  We ended up at The Punggol Settlement as we hiked from the East to the West Entrance.  We saw a long queue outside the famous Sembawang White Restaurant (famous for their white beehoon) and the restaurant was not even opened yet!  Thus, we adjourned to the less crowded restaurant which was gradually filled up as well as we were waiting for our food.

Bamboo Clam (3 for $23.40, promotion price)

 Punggol Hock Kee Seafood Fried Rice ($25)

 Signature Beancurd (Small, $12)

 Mee Goreng (Medium, $12)
Their Mee Goreng is one of their signature dishes, a must-order.

Crackers ($2) were served before the mains arrived.  Overall, the food was better than our expectation as it didn't enjoy as much crowd as its neighbour initially.

Ponggol Seafood
3 Punggol Point Road,
The Punggol Settlement,
#01-08/09,
Singapore 828694.
Tel:  64488511

Opening hours:
Weekdays (11:30am to 2:30pm, 5:30pm to 10:30pm)
Weekends & Public Holidays ( 11:30am to 10:30pm)

IT Roo Cafe - The Best Chicken Chop in Town (Johor Bahru - Walking distance from City Square Mall/ CIQ)

Other than City Square Mall, there are also quite a number of nice food that we can try out within walking distance from CIQ.  I took reference from Johorkaki's blogpost and suggested to hubby to make a day trip to Johor Bahru.

A saucer of peanuts was served on each table just like typical Chinese restaurant.

Food menu

The menu is not extensive but I guess everyone is here for the chicken chop, so it doesn't really matter.

 Drinks menu

I had fresh orange juice and hubby ordered root beer float.

 I ordered their signature fried chicken chop with mushroom sauce.  It came in a very big portion at only RM 15 (around S$3 based on current exchange rate)!  Really very value-for-money.  The fried chicken chop was tender and not oily at all.  They were quite generous with the potato wedges as well.  We had wanted to try out other food around the area but were too full after this meal.

 Hubby ordered the grilled version, which tasted good too!  But I think mine was better.  =P

IT Roo Cafe
17 Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Tel: 607-2227780
10am – 9.30pm

My first successful Home-Baked Butter Cookies

X'mas is around the corner.  As I was still enjoying my holiday after my Japan trip, I decided to bake something for my friends and family.  Chanced upon Miss Tam Chiak's butter cookies recipe (she had taken much effort to experiment the proportion of the ingredients to get the kind of cookies like Jenny bakery), I decided to give it a try.

As I am very new to baking, I need to buy all the different types of flour and icing sugar.

 200g of Goldern Churn Tin butter

 Sieve 50g of icing sugar.

 Mix the butter and icing sugar altogether.

 Beat the till the colour becomes paler and fluffy.  (Not sure whether I overdid it).

 Sieve three different types of flour together - 50g of plain flour, 100g of top flour and 50g of corn flour.

 According to Miss Tam Chiak, need to sieve the flour twice.

 Fold the ingredients together with a spatula.

 Put the dough into the piping bag and pipe the cookies.  This was my first time piping the cookies on my own, so not sure about the right technique.  These are my "anyhow" piped-cookies.

 End product!  Not too bad right?  Tasted good too!  Thanks Miss Tam Chiak for the recipe!  =)

14 Days Osaka/ Kyoto Trip Nov 2015

Day 1:  On board SQ616 =)  Start of the holiday!!!

 Singapore Sling

 Reached our airbnb apartment very late at night.  It is located at Namba and walking distance to Dontobori and Kuromon Market which we frequent very often during our trip.

 Day 2:  Namba/ Kuromon Market/ Dontobori

Brunch at Kuromon Market.

 Dontobori

Dinner at Namba

Day 3:  Kyoto - Arashiyama

 Kyoto Station

 Kyoto Tower

Day 4 - Osaka Castle

 Brunch at Kuromon Market before we set off for Osaka Castle. 

 Osaka Castle

View from the observatory deck at the top of Osaka Castle.

Back to Dontobori

Snack on Takoballs again!

 Take-away dinner from Takashimaya food hall.  Reached there around 7.30pm and there was discount for most food items.

Day 5 - Day Trip to Nara

 Lunch - Unagi rice set.

Must-try at Nara - Very soft mochi with red bean fillings.

Delicious ramen for dinner at Namba.  The meat literally melted in our mouth.

Day 6 - Umeda

Brunch at Kuromon Market.  Seafood rice for only 1200 yen (around $14).

 Grand Front Osaka - Not your typical shopping mall.  Many of the shops are "labs". 

Umeda Sky Building

Day 7 - Side trip to Kyoto

Beef bun set

Day 8 - Osaka Aquarium

Dinner near the aquarium.

Day 9 - Universal Studio Japan

Magical Christmas at USS!

 Dinner at Mel's.  

Magical Starlight Parade at 8pm.

Day 10 - Namba Walk/ Umeda/ Grand Front Osaka/ Namba

                                Atas Pocky... 

2nd trip to Grand Front Osaka as hubby wanted to do an analysis of his feet to see what type of shoes suit him.

Dinner - Yakiniku Buffet near our apartment.  Ate until super full.

Day 11 - Shopping at Shinsaibashi area/ Dontobori

 3-storeys Daiso

 Lunch

Dinner at Dontobori - Our first time trying out kushikatsu!

 Melon Bun with Ice-Cream

Day 12 - Ikeda - Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum 

Lunch at Ippudo near the museum.

Love their fried rice more than the ramen.

  We got to design our own noodles cup.

 I chose the ingredients and favour for my cup noodles.

Taking a break at Holly's Cafe.

We walked a long way to get to this garden.

Take-away dinner bought from Namba Walk.

Day 13 - Kuromon Market/ Namba Yasaka Shrine/ Shinsekai/ Dontobori

We tried out the Kobe beef at Kuromon Market.

Proper unagi don for lunch at the market. 

Namba Yasaka Shrine

Dinner at Yoshinoya.  I had the beef hotpot instead of normal beef bowl.

Tsutenkaku Tower

Billiken figures everywhere.  

Spent last night at Dontobori at Honolulu Coffee Cafe,  Pancake topped with macadamia nuts cream was simply delicious!

Day 14 - Rinku Premium Outlet -> Kansai International Airport -> Back to Singapore

We had tendon for brunch at Namba Walk after we checked out.  

We decided to spend our afternoon at Rinku Premium Outlet since it is near the airport.

Mos Burger - Delicious Ebi Burger

Dinner at the airport.

Continue to shop for snacks at the airport before boarding the plane.