Hairy crabs at Wan He Lou, Jalan Besar.

Today being Deepavali PH, we headed to Jalan Besar for lunch.
There's a restaurant tucked in the nondescript streets of Maude Road that is highly recommended on Trip Advisor and even visited by celebrities.

 

Welcome to Wan He Lou, famous for their lobster dishes and hairy crabs.

65 Maude Rd, 208347
Tel: 6294 8057

Opening hours: 11am - 2:30pm; 5pm - 10:30pm.

Adam took this shot of us.

Salted egg crispy lotus root slices

Their special sauce chicken

Clam soup

Cod fillet

And they saved the best for last

SLURP!

BURP!

 

Here's a video that shows you how to de-shell a hairy crab like a pro :)

 

 

Happy Deepavali to all our Indian friends!

Uninterrupted time with the husband - our Friday date nights.

For a couple of months now, Adam has been requesting to have sleepovers at my in-laws' on Friday nights.

My condition is that he finishes his homework, and in exchange he gets to sleepover and play on my brother-in-law's iPad for a while before bed. (We did away with the iPad at home. Like totally.)

Andy & I get to go on dates on Friday evenings for a couple of hours before fetching Ashton home.

It is a dream arrangement for everybody.

I don't know how other couples do it, but even though it is only for a few hours on every Friday, this alone-time with the husband is much needed and works great for us.

Some time to ourselves without the kids getting into our hair. 

 

Tonight, we were at Akashi Japanese Restaurant for dinner.



Otoro (fatty tuna belly) and Uni (sea urchin).

The uni is sweet and delish!

 

Sukiyaki beef noodle set.

I'm in a white-tee-and-ripped-jeans phase right now.
White tee: Gap kids (it has a breast pocket which is so cute)
Ripped jeans: Mango
Orange beaded necklace: eBay
Shoes: Tory Burch wedges
Bag: Hermes Birkin 30

 

 When I got to my in-laws' after dinner, Adam was finishing the last two questions of his abacus homework without my prompting, both kids had been fed and bathed.

This is one of the better nights where everything is falling in place. Stellar moment when I walked through the door to see Adam beading his abacus. 

I swear, some days are so dark I don't even know how I made it out alive.

 

When I was little, or maybe in my teenage years, my Mum used to exclaim in exasperation "Wait till you become a mother!"

That was probably the most profound advice she's given me in all her life, and mine.

Wait till I become a mother. That's it.

I am a mum of two boys today, and have been mummy status for slightly over 5 years now.

Nobody has given me any advice about being a good mum.

Well, I know anyone can be a mother. But a good, terrific, nurturing and loving mum, now that's seriously tough shit.

 

I would think I'm faring OK on some days - the kids hardly get sick, I try to provide them the best nutrition I can afford, I am selective (fussy) about the toys I buy for them (safety first and reputable brands only please), and they don't watch DVDs other than those from Leap Frog.

I must be raising prodigies!

 

The not-so-ok days are those where I receive feedback from the teacher/ helper/ family member/ part of the village who's helping me raise my kids.

Feedback about how I'm not reading enough to Adam/ Ashton climbed on and flew off the coffee table and hurt himself/ both boys fighting/ child so-and-so did this and that, blah blah blah.

Feedback that make you worry about what you're doing wrongly or inadequately.

Feedback that make you cringe and wonder how your own offspring can be like that.

 

 

 Parenting is like taking two baby steps forward, and one step back.

You keep going and going and hopefully one day you look back at your grown-up kids and think you did an OK job after all.

Five years into this mothering job, I'm still absolutely clueless.

 

Tsukada Nojo - Collagen beauty hotpot at Westgate Mall.

A friend told me she recently went for dinner at the famous 美人锅 Tsukada Nojo at Plaza Singapura.

That got me curious to try their Collagen hotpot which has so many queuing 1.5 hours for.

We decided to go to the outlet at Westgate Mall, just beside Jurong East MRT, because it is newer and bigger than the outlets at Plaza Singapura and Chinatown Point.

Also because my aunts stay in the West...

They do not do reservations so all you can do is to go there and queue.

 

Reached at 5pm and there were many empty tables in the non-aircon seating but the air-conditioned section is already full.

In the end, we didn't want to queue so we accepted the non-aircon table. They have fans and air-cooler but as things start getting steamy, so do our sweat glands.

The famous Collagen soup curds shipped from Japan. I just went for my IPL facial laser 2 weeks ago so definitely MUST try!

Once the curds melt, they form a thicky, oily and creamy soup.

"JITOKKO" is a very valuable brand chicken in Japan. This chicken is raised in an organic way with thorough quality control further than the government's stringent standards. This chicken is shipped only by limited number of farmers.
That is why this is called "rare chicken".

Oishi!

三 大 美 人 吃 美 人 锅 (3 Big Beauties eat Beauty hotpot) :P

Waiting time:

Waited about an hour for air-conditioned seating but alas there were no adjacent tables available so we ended up taking the outdoor seats where 6 adults and 2 kids could all sit together.
Once you secure a table, the food comes very fast though.



Food:

I find the soup tasty and very filling (didn't even eat that much) but Hubby finds it too oily.
The chicken meat was not very tender, in fact a little bit tough, giving me a feeling that it hasn't been cooked long enough.
Or maybe it could be because it's organic chicken and not farm-bred, I'm not sure.

 

Service:

Impeccable service provided by the waitress who was assigned to help us cook and teach us about the famous soup base.
She was also very quick in assisting my fussy boys for their drinks and children cutlery.


Price:

In total, 6 adults and 2 children paid a total of $187 only. I find it very cheap considering it is a famous hot pot. Way cheaper than Hai Di Lao.

However, they lost 1 star because I ordered 1 plate of fried rice for my helper (she cannot eat pork) which cost a whopping $12.

 

 

 

After the kids finished their share, my helper brought them upstairs to the rooftop playground called Westgate Wonderland - a HUGE outdoor playground with water play and tree-top play.

Thanks for dropping by to read about our Beauty hot pot experience :)

One tip is, if you don't want to wait too long for it, reach early at about 4:30pm - 5:00pm.

They open at 5pm but there was already a queue at 4.30pm because everybody wanted the air-conditioned seats.
However, the max seating capacity per table indoors is only 4pax, therefore bigger groups will have to be seated at the non-aircon section.

Rainy Saturday breakfast: Vanilla french toast with organic honey and fresh fruits.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of bread
3 eggs
1/4 cup fresh milk
1/4 cup plain flour
1 pinch cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Powdered sugar to sieve on cooked toast as finishing.

Method:
Whisk the eggs, milk, flour, cinnamon powder and vanilla essence together until smooth.
Dip the bread slices into batter.
On a non-stick frying pan, melt a teaspoon of butter
Lightly fry the bread slices until golden brown

When all slices of bread are cooked, drizzle organic honey and add fresh cut fruits.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Served with a side of Greek yogurt.

Ashton enjoyed his breakfast so much that he finished the entire serving.

Even though it was a rainy Saturday, I decided to wake up early to make breakfast for the family.

I particularly enjoy such hands-on moments as it makes me happy to see my children and hubby happy.

I still do the diaper-changing, butt-washing, bathing etc on my own.

Such moments will be much missed when the kids grow up!

 

Kids playdate on 12 Jan 2014

2014 has been all good so far. Pace is picking up at school (for Adam. He's in K1 already?!) and work (for me) and home (getting ready for CNY, shopping for the kids' clothes - MUST be matchy-matchy, spring-cleaning etc).

Met up with Paul, A and Morgan last Sunday. Morgan has moved back to Thailand with A and thus the kids have not met up for a long time. 

Last Sunday, we went to Jim Thompson at Dempsey Road for Thai buffet.

These boys, born just weeks apart, carried on as if they have never left sight of each other!
Paul said they are gonna grow up and get pissed together next time, whaddya think? :P

Been busy the past couple of weeks, running around different shopping centres to get different items for the kids.
It's so tough buying shoes in the correct sizes for the kids! Went to Takashimaya and didn't realise they don't have Pediped anymore (there's been reshuffling of the departments. Kids dept is now relocated to Level 4 instead of 3). Ended up going to United Square which is just a stone's throw away from my work place!

Hope you are all ready and raring to go this Horse year!
One tip for kiddy shoe-buying without physically bringing your children - trace the outline of their feet on a piece of paper and bring it along in your purse and buy the next size up.