Whitley Road Fishball Noodle

 

I happened to be at the old Lavender Food Center this morning and decided to have fish ball noodles for breakfast. There was a bit of a line at 8am at Whitley Road Fishball Noodle and decided to try it. 

Apparently they made their own fishballs which explained the non-uniform shape which was a good sign. Don't you get a bit tired of having those factory made fishballs in most places now?

The fishballs were bouncy and juicy with a bit of sweetness in them. The noodle was a bit dry after a 15 minutes journey but after mixing it with the sauce it was quite ok. I do love that they did not stint on the lard pieces. Sometimes you just need something sinful to slurp up the noodle. 

Another birthday, another year :)

I received this yesterday :) The FedEx guy actually came the day before, on the day of my birthday but alas, our doorbell was not working so nobody heard him. I found the failed delivery notice when I came home and was going to throw it away. Reason was I was not expecting any parcel, plus I received another delivery at about the same time. My friend sent something and the person called my friend when nobody answered the doorbell. So my friend was able to contact me and I called home to get someone to receive that parcel. So I thought maybe the failed delivery notice was from that parcel. 

Luckily I called my friend to check if she used FedEx and if I could throw away that notice. She asked me to check the tracking online or call the customer service as she did not use FedEx. I did and found out it was a parcel from the USA. Phew! 

It was a birthday gift, with a card (birthday and Valentine and CNY wishes) from Harry & David, my favorite store for truffles in the States. A basket full of assorted cookies in a wire-mesh cloth covered basket. Useful. I could use it when the cookies are all gone. 

There are a lot of cookies in there. 

• 6 Blackberry Galettes (0.67 oz. each)
• 2 Apple Raisin Cookies (1 oz. each)
• 2 Giant Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Cookies (3 oz. each)
• 2 Giant Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies (3 oz. each)
• 2 White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies (1 oz. each)
• 2 Macadamia Chocolate Chip Cookies (1.1 oz. each)
• 2 Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies (1.2 oz. each)
• 2 Moose Munch Cookies (1 oz. each)

It has been a wonderful birthday, celebrating it with friends and family on the actual day and days before and after it. 

I didn't even know Harry & David delivers internationally. Apparently it is limited selection for International delivery though. I guess it is due to the delicate nature of foodstuff. But I am very happy with the cookies and the thought behind it. Plus it was delivered on my birthday even though the expected date given by the company was much later. 

Goodbye Fire Dragon, Hello Water Snake

Happy Chinese new year! Another new year. Another opportunity for new beginnings.

Christmas Eve Dinner - 24 December 2012

I touched down in Vancouver on Dec 23 and spent Christmas in Canada. My friend celebrated Christmas with a dinner on Christmas Eve. It was a simple affair, with a hearty home cooked food, with a touch of Romanian dishes.

It was a wonderful Christmas eve dinner with old friends and new friends. Just a cozy evening in a cold country and Christmas lights all around. Being back in Canada was still like going home. I guess Canada will always be a home to me, it is where I grew up to being an adult. A place which taught me to be independent, to drive, to analyze, to vote, to drink, to know every little bit counts.

Store bought apple pie which was delicious, and I hardly buy pies from the grocery store.

Another store bought dessert - baklava

My favorite dish of the night - Cabbage rolls. Minced meat and veggies stuffed into cabbage leaves and then boiled in a tomato infused soup.

The turkey!

Black forest cake from Superstore which was also pretty good.

Romanian soup - meatball soup which was great for the cold weather.

My dinner plate. Stuffed from all the food.

Chinese New Year Eve

Since I missed posting on 1 January 2013 or on 31 December 2012, I decided to make up for lost time by doing it for the Lunar calendar. I do have a very good excuse for the no posts. I was traveling and up in the air :p

Okay, okay, technically I was not in the air the entire time crossing numerous time zones though I could be. Instead I only crossed a couple of time zones. From PST to EST, and I traveled on Dec 30, 2012 from Vancouver and arriving in Toronto on Dec 31, 2012 and then to New York City still on Dec 31, 2012. But as I was too tired from all the traveling, I was actually sleeping the afternoon away upon reaching my destination. As that was followed by a night of partying, New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York City, I think I deserve some slack :p

Reflecting on 2012, I do think it has been a good year for me. I fulfilled many of my dreams, wishes or whatever you call it.

1. Visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia, my birthday wish and trip
2. Went back to Canada and even to the States (Vancouver, Seattle, NYC, Orlando, Washington, DC and many more) for a holiday
3. Found all Canadian documents and stuff a few months before my trip (God is really good, I found them just before and I started my search a couple of years back)
4. Had a relaxing and wonderful vacation in Phuket, still my favorite beach holiday in SE Asia
5. Met someone whom I like and the feeling is mutual :)

What did not happen:
1. No wedding for me :p
2. Weight remained the same, no loss or gain (maybe I should be grateful there is no gain)
3. No big fat bonus

That was my 2012. It was filled with ups and downs. A tension and worry filled mid year when my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It has been arrested and thank God he does not need to undergo chemotherapy. It is a wake up call to everyone that health is precious and hospital bills are astronomical!!! Again, thank God we are able to shoulder it.

Dental bills are also crazy when I went through my dental implant. Just 1 implant plus a gum flap extraction surgery cost about $8k! I spent most of 2012 visiting my dentists because of the implant. I became very well acquainted with needles and anesthesia.

I also did a thorough eye check up in 2012 but only got new lenses for my eyeglasses last month. I finally found a good and experienced optometrist. I will be getting new contact lenses after CNY. So I shall be all set for the Snake year.

The upside of 2012 was of course most of my wishes/dreams came true. I am always thankful to God for his grace and love to me. Even if I do not talk much about it or attend church every Sunday, God is very much in my life, every minute, every hour and every day. That is the beauty of having God in my life. I can talk to him anytime, anywhere. I do not need a physical building to find Him.

As the Dragon year closes with a bang and a roar, I find myself looking forward to the year of the Snake. I never really like the snake when I was young but now that I am older, I find myself identifying much with the attributes of the Snake. Maybe I am just a confused child or maybe I am lucky to have both Dragon and Snake elements in my sign, being born in the Snake year but before CNY, so technically a Dragon, but then it was after 4 February and some said it is still a Snake. So what the hell, I shall just embrace both Dragon and Snake attributes wherever applicable :p

Enjoy the last of the Dragon year and the reunion dinner for those who celebrate and observe such traditions :)

MIA

I know I have not been actively posting on here. It is just plain laziness :p Or I could always blame the smartphone. Why? Because I hardly bring my camera out now and all my food pictures or any pictures are shot using my phone camera. I dislike tapping on the touchscreen so it does take a while to coordinate the pictures and the text.

I will try to be better but for now, it will be quite sporadic.

Continued Chiropractic Treatment

After a couple of months of stopping my chiropractic treatments, I finally went back to getting adjusted. I stopped after my regular chiropractor left the place and I did not feel comfortable with the new chiropractor at Infinity Chiropractic. I still have a few sessions left there and I will probably convert it into massages or something.

So where did I go to get adjusted? Nowhere. I was waiting for my regular chiropractor to set up his own practice and he finally did. Then I was busy with stuff and it was about a month before I visited him at his new place ~ Concierge Chiropractic & Rehabilitation.

Dr Dylan Altfeld has been treating me since July 2009 and there is a rapport between us. I trust him to adjust my spine and this is crucial. You do want to feel comfortable with the person and know that your spine will be well taken care of. I am delighted for him that he has his own practice.

Because my body actually felt bad (it was achy from not being adjusted but the body forgot and sort of adapted to the bad shape so I was not in pain at all), we decided to go with once a week instead of my once every 3 weeks treatment. But after being adjusted...ahhhh...relief from the body....the body decided it wanted more adjustments :p I could feel the body protesting a few days after the treatment that it wanted more.

So I told Dylan that I want to do twice a week for a while until the body is back on track again. I only did twice a week for about 2 weeks when the body got better. So now I am trying out once a week treatment. Hopefully I will soon progress back to alternate week and to the once every 3 weeks again.

I do hope Dylan will stay in Singapore for a while since it will be a huge pain to look for a new chiropractor if he decides to move back to the States.

Through this experience of not being adjusted for a while and then being adjusted again, I could definitely feel the difference in my body. I still do not get much migraines/tension headaches which is a good thing. Massages are a thing to enjoy now.

Note:
I understand that those who are still with Infinity Chiropractic can actually transfer the remaining treatment sessions to Dylan's new practice. But do check with them on the procedures as I have not gone back after my consultation with Dr Alex, the new chiropractor over there. 

Chiropractic...love it or scoff it

Just another update on my chiropractic treatment. I have mentioned it can be a lifelong affair (if you want it to be) as it is so similar to doing to the dentist or gym. I started reading up on chiropractic treatment after my first encounter with it in 2007. I was aware of the risks involved (yes, you could be paralyzed if the chiropractor did not do a good job) but I wanted to give it a try since conventional methods did not work much.

I used to suffer from migraines and tension headaches frequently. When the attacks came, I just could not do much to alleviate the pain. Regular painkillers did not work for me, plus I am allergic to many other painkillers so my options were very limited. My doctor prescribed Naramig for my migraine. At $9+ per pill, it was a costly affair.

My shoulders, neck and upper back were also very achy and sore all the time. Regular massage (sometimes 3x a week) did not work either. I would feel good for the first few hours but the ache and pain would be back the next day. This is apparently a very common problem for office workers, those who are desk bound, due to staring at the computer screens for hours on end with no break.

So I was at a fair and met a chiropractor in Vancouver. I paid for the trial and went to his clinic to learn more about it. There was an X-ray machine and he took X-ray of my spine. After which he went through my X-ray and told me how my spine was faring. Seriously if you ever see your own X-ray and the shape it is in, you may be more receptive to chiropractic treatment.

Chiropractors believe the body has the ability to heal itself when everything is working properly. That includes a healthy spine where messages can be passed from the brain to various parts of the body sent via the spine. When the spine is compressed or out of shape, the messages may get lost or delayed, resulting in a less than healthy body. So the chiropractor tries to adjust the spine back to its original healthy position. This takes time and so one needs to persevere to see results. This is my crude interpretation of what chiropractic treatment can do :p

I believe it and I also do not want to keep popping pills which are chemical and only mask the problems. I only completed a couple of months of chiropractic treatment before I left Vancouver. It took me a while before I finally found a chiropractor in Singapore who is similar to the chiropractor I saw in Vancouver.

So I went back to regular adjustments. I started with 3x a week for 2-3 months before dropping to twice a week, and then once a week to alternate week and finally once every 3 weeks. My chiropractic journey in Singapore started in July 2009 and is still going on. I must state that for most of last year and this year, I was already on once every 3 weeks treatment and I thought that was pretty good for me.

Results: Drastically reduced migraines or tension headaches attacks. I think I only get it 1-3x a year and only when I am very tired or ill. I don't need massages anymore. If I go for massages, now I only go for swedish or relaxing style as I don't need the hard stuff to remove the knots on my shoulders and neck. 

Everything was fine until my chiropractor stopped practising at Chiropractic Infinity. So for about 2 months I was not adjusted and I could sooooo feel the difference. The body was uncomfortable for the first few days but after a week or so, it got used to the ache and pain so I did not feel so bad. That is really how the body cope with pain. Someone once told me when you feel pain, it means the body could not bear it anymore. The body can actually absorbs 90% of the pain.

There is a new chiropractor at Chiropractic Infinity ~ Dr Alex. I am not sure I would be comfortable letting him adjust me, so I arranged for a consultation. As the treatment of the spine is very important with serious repercussions, I want to be sure I would be ok with the person first.

I found out Dr Alex is originally from Greece and moved to the States when young and graduated from a chiropractic school in Chicago (not Palmer which is where both my chiropractors graduated from and Palmer was the guy who invented or originated with chiropractic treatment). Dr Alex examined me and was able to tell me which were the problem areas and advised me to add some exercises to strengthen my core besides chiropractic treatment. I found his style to be similar to an osteopath. Osteopathy is a cross between chiropractic and physiotherapy (again, my own meaning) and osteopath believes in strengthening the core and exercises to build the body.

In any case, I was not comfortable with Dr Alex to adjust me so I did not get any treatment from him.

Luckily my usual chiropractor (Dr Dylan Altfeld) has set up his own practice and so I am able to get adjusted again. Yay!

Wang Cafe @ Changi Airport Terminal 3

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best life has to offer. In pursuing endless wants, we may forget what is important to us.

So I was at the airport late at night, waiting for the arrival of a flight, when hunger pangs struck. Most restaurants had closed by then, not much choices after 10pm. Meandering the vastness of Terminal 3, I chanced upon Wang Cafe and Coffee Bean. I decided to go for traditional fare of coffee, soft boiled eggs and kaya butter toast.

Look at the eggy goodness. The eggs were nicely done, the yolks were not too soft or hard and actually maintained its shape when I tried to balance it on the tiny teaspoon. They just hit the spot with dashes of pepper and dribbles of dark soya sauce.

The kaya butter toast were decent. Crispy and warm with the right amount of kaya and thin slabs of cold butter.

The coffee was alright, not too sweet or thick. Just a simple snack food to keep my stomach from growling. It was a good thing I ate something as the flight was delayed and it was after 1am when the plane finally landed.

Adam Road Food Centre

I recently found out how close Adam Road Food Centre is from Botanic Gardens MRT. Needless to say, it has been quite routine (well, twice so far) for me to head there for a late lunch after a pedicure session at Cluny Court. I love Cluny Court for the quiet and cozy vibe it exudes. Sometimes you just do not need to have the glitz and hustle bustle of a huge shopping mall. It is enough to just have the basic ~ decent supermarket, cafes, nail parlor, hair salon, bakeries and some small shops to satisfy a bit of browsing.

Adam Road Food Centre...I mostly know it for the 'famous' nasi lemak. Since I rarely went to Adam Road FC, I only had the nasi lemak as take-away and frankly I did not find it that awe-inspiring. I think last year was the very first time I actually ate at Adam Road FC (yes, I am a pretty much deprived child :p) and I had the bee hoon soto which was pretty good.

This year I have been to Adam Road FC twice, and we pretty much ordered the same thing. Beehoon goreng (Indian style with the orange colored bee hoon and ketchup), mee soto (bee hoon had sold out) and Indian rojak. We did not get the teh tarik this time as the stall was a bit far from where we were sitting.

The bee hoon goreng (near the 2 nasi lemak stalls) was to die for. Charred crispy bits of bee hoon with fragrant small pieces of ground mutton with a fried runny yolk egg, plus ketchup squirted on the side. It was simply delicious.

The mee soto was served with a tasty and slightly starchy broth and topped with bergedil. It was absolutely unami.

The Indian rojak was fresh and the potato was my favorite. Slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Just perfect for me. Most items are $0.70 each and you will need to have a min of $3-$4 (I think) worth of items.

Thank goodness I only go to Cluny Court like once every 6-8 weeks now, otherwise I will be dining at Adam Road FC every weekend. If there is room for dessert after Adam Road FC, I think I will either get my favorite ice cream from Island Creamery at Serene Centre or a cupcake from Cupcake Engineer at Cluny Court.

What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

Hot Star Large Chicken at Nex Shopping Mall

I must have been living under a rock as I have never heard of Hot Star Large Chicken until I saw it being featured in a Takashimaya Flyer. Apparently it is the big thing in Taiwan and now it is available in Singapore. After a friend told me Nex Shopping Mall has it, I decided to pop by and try it.

There were several flavors and I chose the original. You could also get chicken cubes, popcorn chicken and sweet potato fries and drinks.

After paying the cashier, you will have to wait for them to grill and deep fry the chicken pieces. Looking at the vat of oil, you know this is not an everyday snack or meal to have.

The freshly fried chicken waiting to be seasoned with flavors and spices. It is huge!

They will not cut into smaller pieces for you and it is served whole in a paper bag. I brought it home and put it on an oval plate. The chicken is partly breast meat with some bones and a bit of thigh. A bit too floury for me but not too bad.

The best chicken bits I had was still in Taiwan but sadly I could not remember the name of it though it could be found everywhere. It was only nice when it was hot and crispy.

Artisan Bread by Bakerzin, Serangoon Gardens

Chocolate Chip Muffin

I went to Serangoon Gardens Village recently and was quite enthralled by how much the area has changed. I used to go there every weekend growing up as my piano teacher lived there. Plus my maternal grandmother and various uncles and aunts used to live in the big house there before they sold the place many years back.

I remembered the old bus interchange in the gardens before it became just a bus stop and then with part of it converted into a parking lot. Some things remained the same while others had evolved. So the mini mall was finally built and with it came with several eateries such as Relish, Da Paolo Gastronomia, Udders and Bakerzin Artisan Bakery to name a few.

The breads and buns looked attractive and just slightly different from other bakeries. I was keen to try the muffin as it had a real proper muffin top. It could be quite hard to find a muffin with the huge overhang as most looked more like cupcakes in Singapore.

Taste-wise, it was average. The sides were slightly crispy and it was full of chocolate chips. The muffin was a bit crumbly and dry when kept for the next day. I guessed I still missed the muffins from Mmmuffins in Canada. That was still my ultimate muffin treat, especially the banana nut and butterscotch pecan. Yumz.

Marine Parade Baos

It has been so many years since I had the baos from the corner bao stall in the corner coffee shop in Marine Parade (near the old Republic cinema). I happened to be back in the area a few weeks ago and could not resist checking out the place and see if the place is still in existence. After all we are talking about over 20+ years since the last time I went to buy the baos on my own.

As I just had lunch over at the new 112 Katong (previously Katong Mall), I only bought a big bao and a char siew bao. These were the baos I grew up eating in my childhood years when I lived in Marine Parade. They were not pretty or tiny but they packed a punch in taste and portion. 

The big bao was juicy with the sauce coating the interior of the soft white doughy bun. My favorite part of the big meat bao was the gravy soaked bun. Somehow the marriage of the unami sauce and sweetish dough made the taste buds danced a merry tune. It was a very generous serving and was typical of the baos which used to be everywhere in the 1980s or earlier, unlike the baos I often had now from the stalls in the malls.

The char siew bao was equally good with well marinated meat. It was not fatty meat like some other outlets but the proportion of fatty bits and lean meat was just right. The thicker bun meant each mouthful had an even part of meat and bun.

I could not really recall the taste of the buns of my yesteryears but these were really good and fabulous for when I wanted a more decent serving of baos.

Grilled Cheese Roll and Adult Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Grilled Cheese Roll and Grilled Cheese with Onion Sandwich

I was on a mission to find the perfect macaroni and cheese recipe and along the way I found many versions of grilled cheese sandwiches and decided to whip up something quick, just so I could try them. I could be funny that way. I read. I saw. I made. All in the same day, but only because I already had those ingredients handy :p

Grilled Cheese Roll Recipe:
Ingredients:
1. bread slices
2. cheese slices
3. butter


Method:
1. Remove the crust from the bread and flatten bread.
2. Butter 1 side of the bread and place a slice of cheese on the unbuttered side.
3. Roll the bread and place on the pan seam side down.
4. The cheese will melt as it gets heated up and it will seal the seam. Slowly roll the bread to brown evenly. 

Adult Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe
Ingredients:
1. bread slices
2. cheese slices
3. butter
4. onions


Method:
1. Slice onions and saute till caramelized. Set aside.
2. Butter 1 side of bread and place on pan. Add cheese on the unbuttered side and pile on the caramelized onions.
3. Grind black pepper over it and cover with another slice of bread, with buttered side up.
4. Flip over the sandwich when it turned a bit brown.
5. As it sizzles on the other side, flip over again to cook it further or till desired brownness. 

Grilled Gouda Sandwich

This is the regular grilled cheese sandwich with gouda cheese and multigrain bread. You could also make ham and cheese toasties with this method of grilling.

Day 2 of Siem Reap (24 Feb 2012) - Lunch and Tonle Sap

Since we finished early with the temple ruins, we had lunch at 11+am. Then again, considering we started our day at 5am (waking up at 4+am), it was not that early to have a hearty meal. Lunch was at Angkor Flower, a restaurant with aircon serving Khmer food. It was probably a tourist restaurant as the food would be considered pricey at around US$5 per dish. Across the restaurant was a river which the guide said was the King's swimming pool. Huge one.

I felt a bit strange to dine there and our guide and driver were left to their own devices (or settled their own meals). What is the protocol when you hire a guide and driver for the day? Do you also invite them to join in or would they feel awkward too? In the end we decided to just leave it and just go along with wherever the guide wanted to take us. We figured he would be earning some commission from bringing tourists to the various places. But most of the places he took us were not the typical tourist traps but more of finding beauty in the way of life and craftsmanship.

Our guide recommended the Amok (fish and chicken) which was my all time favorite food in Siem Reap. It was a light curry, similar to Thai green curry but a bit sweeter and cooked in coconut. This came served in a coconut which made presentation pretty. We also ordered seafood tom yam soup and fried rice. The tom yam soup was so-so and the fried rice was decent.

After lunch, we decided to visit Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and home to a floating village. The homes were built on bamboo or something as they would float and go with the levels of the tides. These were different from the usual kelongs (houses on stilts) which were more common in Thailand and Malaysia. It was interesting to see the people travel across the lake in a small canoe. Every time the boat (ours and others) cruised by, I feared for the villagers paddling in the canoe as their craft would bob about in the wake of the waves.

There was even a floating church in the middle of the lake and school and a restaurant/market which was obviously for tourists. There was a mini exhibition there explaining the existence of the floating village and how the tides affect the lake and the different types of fishing cages and nets were available to the fishermen. There were also crocodiles being kept though I was not sure what were their purposes.

Day 2 of Siem Reap (24 Feb 2012) - Elephant and Leper King Terraces, Ta Prohm

After so many temples which seemed to look alike after a while, I was more than ready to just stop and rest for the day. We got to Elephant Terrace and the Leper King Terrace where the renmants of the carvings remained.  It was very dusty in Siem Reap and the soil was orangey-red. Interesting. We also saw elephants which were available for visitors to ride on to explore the ruins. I guessed elephants were still an important part of life in Cambodia.

We could probably have gone on to more temples like Bakheng where you could get an aerial view of the ruins (we didn't know that until the next day) but we were just so tired that we told our fantastic guide we just wanted to go to Ta Prohm and be done with the temples. We had already decided beforehand that it would be quite impossible to do everything and the two "must visit" places were Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm so we just focused on those.

At Ta Prohm (of Tomb Raider fame), we saw more tourists and Cambodian children and ladies trying to sell souvenirs and things to tourists. While I felt for them, it could get a bit annoying as you could hardly walk a step without them blocking your path.

It was quite humbling to see the ruins being engulfed by some trees and knowing these have been around for centuries and that life goes on. Time will pass and soon everything will be history.

Can you spot the apsara dancer hidden within the roots of the tree in the bottom left picture? The guide pointed that out to us and I used the zoom function to capture the image. Otherwise most would have missed it.

Day 2 of Siem Reap (24 Feb 2012) - Baphuon and Phimeanakas

Still on Day 2 of the Siem Reap exploration of the temple ruins. After Bayon, we moved across to visit Baphuon with another steep climb to the top. There was a structure which looked like a "sleeping Buddha" at the top.

We walked past trees so old they wrapped or were part of the ruins. The remains of the Royal Palace in Phimeanakas which was a laterite and sandstone pyramid temple where the king used to worship. The grounds were extensive and the ancient pools were huge.

Siem Reap - Day 2 (24 Feb 12) - Bayon

Bayon is another site with carving of faces. After a while, it all looked the same to me. We spent only an hour or less at Bayon. Like Angkor Wat, many of the statues were destroyed or plundered during wars or invasion. Jewels encrusted on the statues were removed.

Siem Reap - Day 2 (24 Feb 12) - Angkor Wat

The reason to visit Siem Reap - Angkor Wat.

I was told I must go for the sunrise so we dragged ourselves out of bed at 4am (luckily Cambodia was 1 hour behind Singapore, so it was 5am in Singapore) so that we could meet our driver and guide at 5am. We arrived around 530am and it was still in total darkness.

Luckily there were other people with torch lights so we could see the ground better and followed the others. It took a while and slowly we saw the sun peeking out and bathed Angkor Wat in shades of orange, purple and pink.

Angkor Wat was a huge compound and some areas were being restored. Since 2009, they added wooden boards over existing steps and railings so that it made navigation easier for visitors. It was amazing how the people then were able to build something so complex, with beautiful intricate carvings on the pillars and columns.

We only spent about 2 hours or so at Angkor Wat and it got hot once the sun was up.

Siem Reap - Day 1 (23 Feb 12)

It has been tiring, trying to sort out the pictures. We arrived in the late afternoon on Thursday and were met by the hotel driver. It was HOT once we got out of the plane. There was no aerobridge, so we walked on the tarmac and waited under the hot sun as the long line of passengers slowly inched into the immigration building.

We booked La Niche D'Angkor, a local boutique hotel just off the central area of Siem Reap. I do prefer boutique hotels when traveling in the region as I find it more cozy and personalized. Plus it also helps their economy when you go local.

As friends have told me to head to FCC Angkor for a drink and to catch the sunset, it was quite a mad rush for us to check in and unpack and go to FCC.

FCC Angkor is set in a colonial style building, similar to Singapore's Raffles Hotel in the old days. Open air with ceiling fans rotating lazily to cool the air. We got a table on the terrace with a view (hotel helped us made the reservations), so we could see the river just in front and the other guests having a drink on the ground level. We did see the sunset but it was nothing spectacular.

Drinks were cheap during Happy Hour at 50% off (US$2.75 after discount). I had the caipirinha and it was strong. Nice!

We shared the salt and pepper calamari - tiny squids but pretty decent, crunchy and tasty.

I had the Cambodian Tasting Plate - steamed fish curry (fish amok), pork and prawn spring rolls, banana blossom and chicken salad, stir fried beef with toasted rice, pork brochettes (satay) with pickled vegetables.

I love the fish curry and beef, not so much on the salad, brochettes and spring roll.

The others ordered the hot and spicy prawn udon (came with fishballs in tomyam broth) and tandoori salmon which was accompanied with long beans and roasted potatoes. Both were equally good.

It was our most expensive meal in Siem Reap at around US$60, including tips as there was no service charge or tax, but it was also the best in terms of food quality and service and presentation. I guessed you pay for what you get. Otherwise food is generally cheap to tourists from wealthier countries.