Review of Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck

Braised duck is traditionally a dish that is cooked via the teochew’s style of cooking.  It is formally known as 卤味 which is known as one of the braised varieties. It is a dish where one could spend up to hours in the kitchen from the plucking of the feathers to the braising of the duck.

When I cooked this dish myself, I would prefer that the braise sauce to be more on the sweet side as my family prefers it to be sweet. Having said that, this is the first time I have the opportunity to review on Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck to compare the difference between my own homecooked and outside one as I seldom consume braised duck out of homecooked food.

Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck’s braise sauce is slightly more salty as compared to my homecooked one. Having said that, there are many differences in individual’s preferences in the taste bud. The meat gives a meaty feel when upon the first bite. I loved to put the braise sauce on my rice and mix it with his chilli sauce which is sedap aka delicious.

Learning from the stall owner, Mr Ong that the Teochew would either braised it on the sweet or the salty side. It is not a definition that the duck has to braise it on the sweet side only. He said that he had learned his recipe from his grandmother just like me learning from my mom who has learnt from my grandmother. However, I found that his braised duck is slightly more fragrant than mine when I cooked. I wonder what ingredient did he add in.

He actually recommend me to try a lot of his other dishes like the duck noodles, duck kway chup, braised pig trotters, pig tail with peanuts ,another of my favourite which is the preserved vegetables and many more others the next time round when I visit his stall.

Duck noodles

Duck Leg Kway Tiao 

My favourite-perserved vegetables 

Braised peanuts with pig tail

I was still amazed by his braised duck ..so the only thing to pack back was his braised duck for my parents to taste. My parents were like ‘hmm..this braised duck is not too bad’ after all I reheated the braised duck the next day… the duck meat was not too stiff and difficult to bite.

Before I forget, Mr Ong said how to know if the braised duck is nice to eat is based on 2 factors. The two factors are there could not be a funny kind of smell on the duck and there should not be any msg in the cooking of the braised duck.

 There goes another dish for the traditional food which is being struck off my list to learn for cooking. If you are keen to bring your old folks to try out the traditional braised duck , you might want to bring them to blk 504 bishan street 11 to try out Mr Ong’s Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck from 2^nd of May onwards.

My Korea Trip ( 5/3/15 - 10/3/15) - Part 1

As this is my first time going to korea, I got very excited for this trip as it was the winter season. Finally, I am able to experience winter.

I arrived at Korea at around 3.15pm on the 5.3.15. I nearly lost my luggage on that very day cos the queue at the customs was pretty long. Good thing that my luggage bag is bright in colour, so managed to go to the lost & found section to get back my luggage bag.

My friends and I decided to take the subway to the hostel cos the cab will take more than an hour to arrive at the hostel that we booked.

On the subway to the hostel 

Here's a picture of relief goods storage in the subway...dunno what is it for ...

Upon arriving, we then realized that there are a lot of staircases to climb and no lift so have to carry up the luggage like this to go to the hostel.

Photo courtesy by joycelyn quek

 
So we ended up for the first night for some thing cheap for the dinner after feeling tired. As we planned for an early trip to go out the next morning , to visit a lot of places.

DIY Scalp Massage for Healthy Strong Hair! ♥ (Stimulates Growth

I thought this is a good video to share on how to get healthy strong hair. Hope that helps !

Something for personal development

 

I think this is something that we all must learn in order to pick ourselves up from failures and depression.

 

Hope you will be able to benefit this quote . Enjoy the weekend.

Black pepper pork slices

My mom asked me for the black pepper pork slices for one of the dishes for dinner. So as per her advice , I got the shoulder butt meat that is worth $3 to do the stir frying.

Ingredients that are needed for this dish ( serves 3) 

$3 worth of shoulder butt meat from wet market 

2 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee black pepper sauce 

A tablespoon of garlic 

A teaspoon of oil at most
A teaspoon of corn flour 
A drizzle of sesame oil, light soya sauce and pepper

Steps to prepare

1. Wash the meat clean 

2. Slice it thinly and wash it clean
3. Marinate the meat with corn flour. light soya sauce , pepper and sesame for about half an hour.

4. Minced the garlic 

5. Heat up the wok and stir fry the garlic.

6. Add in the black pepper sauce till fragrant.

7. Once sauce is fragrant, add in the pork to stir fry for about 10 mins.

* Remember don't stir fry till the meat is too hard. Sorry people, I am unable to take photo of the end product ços my family was too hungry.

Easter

This Easter is somehow different for me...Being introduced to these 2 new songs yesterday at my church's service ..which I hope non Christians would begin to understand why Christians are being so thankful towards God the Father as He sent his son, Jesus to die for us on the cross.

I hope to share with you people on these 2 songs...especially for those who are weary , facing tough situations in life.

 Mercy Rewrote My Life Lyrics

For years I traveled a road all wrong
My heart had lost its joy and its song
Till grace placed me right where I belong
When mercy rewrote my life

Chorus:
Mercy rewrote my life
Mercy rewrote my life
I could have fallen my soul cast down
But mercy rewrote my life

(key change)
Verse:
My mistakes God turned into miracles
And all of my tears He turned into Joy
Then my past was forgiven and my new name it was written
When mercy rewrote my life

Chorus:

Mercy Saw Me Lyrics

The years had left scars, the scars had left pain.
How could He recognize me? I wasn't the same.
I knew I should pay and I knew the price,
but justice and law demanded my life.
His tender heart heard my desperate cry
and He saw my past through merciful eyes.

Beautiful! That's how Mercy saw me.
Though I was broken and so lost,
but Mercy looked past all my faults.
The justice of God saw what I had done,
but Mercy saw me through the Son.
Not what I was but what I should be,
that's how Mercy saw me.

Wherever you go, you can't go too far
that His eyes of Mercy can't see where you are.
Yes He loves you too much to leave you alone.
No He won't leave you alone.
Yes, you're flesh of His flesh yes you are, yes you are
and you're bone of His bone.
Yet His heart cries out for your heart today.
See yourself through His eyes and then you can say:
Sin had stolen my dignity and all my self esteem,
but I was made brand new again
when Mercy looked past me.

Beautiful! That's how Mercy saw me.
Though I was broken and so lost not too long ago,
but Mercy looked past all my faults.
The justice of God saw what I had done,
but Mercy saw me through the Son.
Not what I was, but what I could be that's how Mercy saw me.
For not what I was, but what I could be, that's how Jesus saw me.
 

I hope all out there could also experience the love of God just like what I experience.

 

Blessed weekend!!!!!

Solo hair colouring session sponsored by Hoyu

For last month, I was overwhelmed with Chinese new year preparation.  I was being sponsored by Hoyu to have my solo hair dye session with the hair technical manager, Ben.

Ben, who has many years in doing hair coloring, explained to me the difference between European brands of hair dye like Wella and Loreal and Hoyu. The difference between European brands of hair dye with Hoyu is that the colour of  Hoyu's hair dye is based on the colour wheel which primarily consist red, blue and yellow. 

 For example, if I wanted to dye my hair a bit of purplish red Ben would have to mix the colour red and blue together in order to get purplish red. The proportion will be based on which colour I would want it to appear on my hair more.

Hoyu's hair dye system stems out from the colour therapy which can be found in the following pictures:

Before mixing the colours together 

After mixing the colours together 

The other range of colours

Here's the beginning of my hair dye session 

Pardon me for this natural curly look

During the session

The end result is really nice. Sorry people I lost the picture which is stored inside my handphone previously. Anyway, a big thanks to Hoyu for giving this opportunity to me to have a personalized hair dying session with technical manager, Ben.

One thing that Ben shared with me was that whichever salons that use Hoyu hair dyes are specially trained by him if the salon owners are keen to get their staff trained.  Most importantly, I feel that salon owners can take the opportunity to use the PIC grant to get their staff trained as well. Not only is training course subsidized, the staff is one step nearly to be a better skilled worker.

The aftermath of going to Mr Lee Kuan Yew's wake

Last Tuesday, I went to queue for 6 hours to go and pay respect at Mr Lee Kuan Yew's wake. Though today is a brand new day without Mr Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, I still believe that we the young Singaporeans are still able to unite ourselves to bring Singapore to a greater new heights.

Throughout the waiting period while waiting to go in to the parliament house to pay respect, one thing for sure is that it is really we Singaporeans and foreigners are helping one another to ensure that all things like the drinks, apple and bread were being passed around to ensure no one is being left out.
Hopefully , this kind of spirit will continue to be within all of us.

I just want to share this song if we could hold on together to all Singaporeans. We will continue to see the bright future for the future generations to come.

 

Death of MM Lee Kuan Yew

Though this is the mourning period for MM Lee , I thought of one thing which is to celebrate that he no longer has to suffer . It was a painful thought to know that he died . However, he did not live his life in vain.

For someone who put us the small red dot onto the world map , living his life for the fellow countrymen. I have nothing but extreme gratitude to him. There might be people saying that he is autocratic in the past. For sure , he is not one. Just that he had to be decisive in all matters. In comparison to Hitler, I guess MM Lee is much more well loved and well respected.

I just want to express my deepest gratitude for MM Lee for making Singapore so successful. Hoping that the young leaders whom he might have picked up for training to make Singapore more successful , are able to bring Singapore to greater heights.

There are also people showing the black ribbon with the design with MM Lee's face on facebook. I wonder if we could make it into a badge for all true Singaporeans to wear on the day of his funeral.

MM Lee please rest in peace

 

Invitation to insights into UK Commercial Parking by Park First Limited Singapore Branch’s Senior Business Development Manager.

Recently I got to know Issa, who shared with me about UK Commercial Parking in Glasgow International Airport offered by Park First Limited, part of Group First UK.

A little background on GroupFirst who has been around since 1998. GroupFirst is one of the leading property investment, design and development companies in the UK.

They worked closely with financial institutions and industry professionals to create a range of unique property investment companies that sit under the Group First umbrella. Their diverse network range of companies range from serviced apartment blocks to housing estates, business centres to industrial estates, self-storage facilities to international airport car parks.


Park First, which is founded in 2004, is a property investment company which provides investors with exclusive access to market leading products. I believe parking is big business. I have not personally experienced a time when parking rates has gone down! And everyone NEEDS parking. They provide exclusive access and affordability into the UK commercial parking market.
 

This is the first time which I learned that commercial parking could be purchased in a form of investment which will provide you with passive income and capital gains. This is something that is hardly been heard of in Singapore. Or Never heard of.


Investors are invited to meet the team at the company’s prestigious office, to help remove any uneasiness which can be felt when dealing with other companies.


For this preview, Park First would be marketing their last phase of their parking facility at Glasgow International Airport. So far they have sold 4 car parks in the last year amounting to over 3000 parking spaces and running out fast. For more information, please take a look at the flyer.

I will be updating an exclusive coverage on what insights I have garnered from this event to help you guys to learn more about investing in overseas property.

 Please do not hesitate to call Issa, Senior Business Development Manager @ 83338403 for more information to find out more if you had missed this preview. Do remember to quote ándrea' if he asks how did you find out about this project.

 

Grandma's Kaya Recipe

Recently, I have been going down to my grandma's place to stay with her during the weekends. This is not just only to spend time with her but also to learn the family recipes.

Her kaya is something that I often missed when I am doing the spreading of bread.

This recipe is done by using melted sugar instead of the usual pandan leaves where there is a green colour.

Ingredients

6 big eggs

Pandan leaves to be wash clean and tie as per the picture

1 rice bowl of sugar

 

Add ten dessert spoons of  sugar to the beaten eggs.

Continue to stir the mixture in the rice cooker. Please remember to add some water in the rice cooker.

Slowly add one rice bowl of coconut milk to stir . After stirring a while , put the pandan leaves in and

continue to stir. Continue to stir till it is semi harden. By this time, you can start to melt the balance

sugar in the rice bowl using a sauce pan . Then put the melted sugar into the mixture and continue to

stir until no bubbles is in the mixture.  Stir until the water in the rice cooker boils. Cover a linen cloth

over the mixture and steam it for another 5 to 10 mins.

Blog Meet SG Event

I attended this #Blog Meet SG event with the excitement being able to interact with fellow expat bloggers to learn from them on what do they really write on their blog. I spoke to one lady who said that she wrote mostly on health issues which interest me a lot that I proposed to her that we could do a guest post on each other's blog.

I actually met up with fellow bloggers, Mia and Oh ya hui zi to walk from far east plaza to the event's location which is at edit lifestyle. However, hui zi met us at the event's location cos she was busy at work.

Edit Lifestyle is located at 137-139 Tanglin Road

                                
Edit lifestyle is which I feel that it is a place that contains lots of happiness. It contains lots of trendy and fashionable pieces that one could be falling in love with.

 Left: hui zi                      Right: mia

                                             

We were greeted with this cute signage when we stepped in.

                             



The legally blonde section for Ms Pinkies



Reminds me of the book 红楼梦

Reminds me of the song 听海 and listening to myself

                                

Macroons from Heidard Singapore



Interesting stamps with words like what the F

Me trying on my personalized straw hat ... do I look kawaii?

Chocolates from Leela fine chocolates

Bill from Hat of Cain fixing my hat

This photo is taken after Bill from Hat of Cain has measured my head size of 57 cm before I tried putting on it.

Bill's pretty assistant reminds me of the song pretty woman 

The event was really fun filled and great networking opportunties where bloggers could also directly interact with the sponsors for the goodie bag.

The sponsors were apple tree, hat of cain , havaroma, hediard, jasperliving, just my type, katharos organics, naaka enterprises, ribbon & roses,simone irani , shiva bespoke designs and tamarind living.

 Looking forward towards the next meetup to get more new ideas on blogging with the fellow bloggers. Really thankful for the wonderful gifts in the goodie bag. Last but not least to thank the beautiful fellow blogger, Lucy Waring for organizing this beautiful meetup.

Happy Chinese New Year - Year of Goat 2015

Today is the eve of the Chinese New Year. I have been busy with attending event like #blogmeetsg and also doing spring cleaning for this Chinese New Year. Have you decided on what you are supposed to wear for tomorrow ? I have more or less decided on what to wear already.

Let me show you what I  am going to wear tomorrow

I am off to my reunion dinner at my grandma's house. So wishing you guys out there a happy lunar new year .

May the Lord bless you all out there with good health and prosperity!

 

Give away ~~a skin analysis

Have you done a check on your skin condition before?

Skin, being the largest organ throughout our entire body can be neglected by us. No doubt for ladies, we might tend to ply on tons of skin care. There is also tendency that our skin where our skin might be dehydrated.

Today I was being blessed with  two tickets by my friend on doing a deep skin analysis which can help to see on the skin's evenness and also the size of the pores. It is called the visia scan analysis. I am planning to do it on either on the 6th or 7th of February 2015 as I am keen to know how to protect my skin further.  There are limited slots for it on each day.  I will be giving away one ticket away for my readers who would like to participate in this with me.

Here's some of the images that I found with the courtesy from pleinvanity.com

 

 
Seems that the scan is pretty comprehensive. I shall see my results on the day when I do my analysis.

I wonder how my results would be like when I do the analysis.

To participate in this free giveaway,please do share my facebook page Secretbeauty with others and like my page with your email address in the comments. The winner would be notified by 5th of February 2015 by 8pm .

 

Beauty Website that I stumbled upon

In the search for a good hair stylist for cutting curly hair, I stumbled upon this website called Wellnessly.com. It works on the concept like hungrygowhere.com just that it has got some points system on going where you could use it to offset your booking fee at the certain salons or spas that you are going to.

I guess the most beneficial thing from this website is the honest reviews from people who really go and try it on personal experience. It is really not based on bloggers' reviews or whatsoever. Even though I am a blogger, I would really only blog on what I experience personally.

There's something that I would like to share on for Chinese New Year. As you all know usually Chinese new year period hair salons would usually increased price. From Wellnessly.com, here are 9 hair salons that do not have the surcharge on CNY period.

                                          99% Hair Studio

                                          Chapter 2 at marina square

                                          Hairloom( shaw towers)

                                                                                             
                                                        
                                           Headlines Hairdressing(china square central) 

                                          J's Hair Salon

                                          Koinonia Salon (Pacific Plaza)

                                          Monsoon Hair House (Velocity @Novena Square)

                                          Salon Vim

                                          Zinc Salon

 You might want to consider using my referral link to get yourself  to visit the website.  Here's the link : http://www.wellnessly.com/r/3uKyVVj3 . Hope this helps for those who are not celebrating Chinese new year this year.

Daily blessing - Comparing myself to a patient who needs dialysis

Today I visited my grandmother 'cos she is always busy on the weekends. So today is her routined dialysis day. As I accompanied her while she is doing her dialysis, I just realized that that it is taxing to be on a dialysis.

The thought of going dialysis is really scary after seeing my grandmother on the dialysis. Throughout the dialysis session, she was feeling cold. Got to keep her warm by rubbing her hands. It also helps me to set my goal further to reduce weight 'cos I know I have no one to rely on when I am old.

Here's the image of a dialysis machine

 

Many at times, we youngsters are neglecting our own health due to the fast food trend and unhealthy eating habits. However, how many times are we considering our health in our old age. It is essential to take good care of our health from a young age rather than we are being plagued with the three highs, which are high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high visceral fat content.

I would like to encourage more people who are looking for weight loss buddy in the east to email me at akimoto_emi05@yahoo.com.sg so that we could help and spur each other in weight loss program.

 

Free Qoo10 cash voucher to be won

I have just gotten an email from one of the mailing list that I subscribe for business use. It states that there are qoo10 cash vouchers worth between $100 - $500 to be won. There is no requirement needed just submit your email address in and you get to stand a chance to win the cash vouchers.

Here's a snapshot of how the email look like when I got it

 

 

So if you are a frequent qoo10 shopper like me, it will serve u well . To join in the contest, please go to http://independencefreegifts.com. Contest ends on February 19 at 11.59pm.

 

 

 



 

Maintenance for curly hair

I have always been bogged down by my natural curly hair that can look like perm hair. It is only since last year I started to embrace my curly hair.

 First thing to know about curly hair is that it is frizzy and that it requires high maintenance. Like for me, the thing I hate about apply a lot of the hair cream on my hair 'cos I have oily hair scalp. Too much of the hair cream will make me have lots of dandruff.

So here's what I usually do

1. Change my shampoo range between clarifying and balancing range when I go swimming, moisturizing on the next day. Further to that, I also will do hair treatment mask for my hair the next day.

2.Using a comb to detangle my locks

3. I don't towel dry my hair neither do I blow dry it.

4.I will use a water based hair spray or anti frizz serum before I go out.

5. Come back home  I just wash the hair with water to remove the dust accumulate.

6. Blow dry with a fan in order to sleep faster.

On weekly treatment, I will use my hair treatment mask for my hair

Here's the range of products I use

Balancing shampoo

                                                              Moisturizing shampoo

Clarifying Shampoo