Grocery shopping and today's meals

Breakfast, refreshment and dinner

My relatives' house in Japan

Above is my relatives' house in Southern Japan. It is a double storey detached house with 3 bedrooms. It has a built-in area of about 1,200 sq feet and a land of about the same size. The house is now about 40 years old, gone through renovations a few times. Guess what?...the house and land (free hold) can only fetch around 10 million Japanese Yen which is about S$120,000. In Singapore, the same property may cost around $8 million in the prime district or $ 6 to $7 million in a suburban area.
Their small plot of land is quite fertile and they grow tomatoes, cucumber, oranges and other seasonal vegetables. There is a bumper crop of tomatoes this summer according to them. Whatever they can't consume they will make tomato sauce and juice and store them in the freezer.

Having sea cucumber++ & salad for lunch

Besides many other health benefits like slowing down the ageing process,

provides relief for joint pain and arthritis, the sea cucumber is also a considered a miracle cancer treatment. Read here

Our dinner for today...spaghetti ++

We decided to cook meat sauce spaghetti for dinner. We ground some coriander leaves together with raw garlic and a little bit of cashew nuts into a paste (green paste above) and added to our meal (our apology for the messiness). We sprinkled grated Parmesan cheese and chopped spring onions onto the spaghetti. The salad course is made up of lettuce and broccoli and the dressing is Japanese. It was indeed an enjoyable meal.
Just for information the coriander is a very nutritious plant and has lots of health benefits like anti-histamine, combat indigestion etc...read more

Breakfast and grocery shopping at Sheng Shiong

After eating our fruits at home, we went to the newly opened coffeeshop and Sheng Shiong Supermarket at Block 473, Fernvale St.,Sengkang. We ordered the wanton mee ($3) out of curiosity due to the long queue and was pleasantly surprised to find it pleasing to our palate.
After the wanton mee, we ordered the kaya butter toast/eggs/kopi set. The price was $2.50 and not $1.80 as advertised. When questioned, the kopi lady told me the offer price of $1.80 was applicable from 6 am till 10:30 am and I was there at 11:10 am.
Next, we proceeded to Sheng Shiong supermarket which was next door and bought amongst other things,sea cucumber ($9.90 for 430 gm on special offer), dried shiitake mushrooms ($6.95 for 200 gm) and chicken wing sticks ($1.95 for 250 gm) for our weekend dish which is known as the "Sea Cucumber Stew".

Steamed garoupa fish for dinner

These 2 garoupa cutlets ($17) were steamed with spring onions, chillies and coriander, Chinese style for our dinner. We add a bit of Japanese wine, soya sauce and sesame oil. The fish was definitely fresh. Overall, dinner was simple but delightful.

Buying fish and fruits from a wet market

The fish is fresh and so are the fruits. We bought the 2 slices of red grouper ($17 for 2) and the salmon ($11) from CP wet market this morning. The watermelon ($2), pineapple ($2) and jack fruits ($3) are also for this weekend consumption. 

Last evening sunset & today's breakfast/dinner

Home-prepared dinner

Today's dinner comprised of cod fish ($13 for 200 gm) with miso sauce and kailan ($1.50) with Japanese rice. Eating fish regularly can prevent one from getting stroke and heart attacks. It's the Omega-3 oil that does the trick. Continue reading here.

Fruits for breakfast & lunch @ Food Republic

It was a day of gathering for us, the old Rafflesians at Wisma Atria Food Republic. I had the char siew roasted pork for lunch ($12.50). After lunch, we proceeded to the nearby Toast Box for our kopi and chit chat session.

A haircut at Chong Pang

This afternoon I was at Chong Pang to buy some fruits and came across a Malay barber shop. My hair was fairly long and thought it was time for a haircut.
I personally prefer Malay barbers to others. They are versatile and have a sense of fashion that suit people of all ages.
The barber shop had 2 customers and I waited for my turn. I saw a notice on the wall regarding the prices of the haircut. A flat-top would cost $12, a normal haircut for an adult $10, a senior citizen or a child was $8.
The guy who cut my hair was about 30 years old. I spoke to him in his language which was Malay.
At the end of the haircut, he asked me how old was I. I told him I was 70 and he was shocked. He told with a smile that I looked like a 50 something. The reason he asked me for my age was to see whether I was a "senior citizen" which would entitle me to a discount of $2.
He also asked me whether I was a Malay or Chinese. After finding out that I was a Chinese, he congratulated me on my fluency in the Malay language. He said my pronunciation was perfect. I thanked him for the compliment and told him I was raised in a Malay kampong and my childhood friends were all Malay, hence my ability to speak the language like a Malay.

BT: The language I spoke to the barber was actually Bazaar Malay or pidgin which I picked up as a child.

My usual home prepared lunch

Once again, we are back to our home cooked food. We may not attend any buffet meal for a while after yesterday's experience. The grilled salmon, salad, fried egg omelette, tofu and rice is more satisfying than yesterday's buffet.

Buffet lunch@ Marina Bay Tower 1

Lunch was at Marina Bay Sands Rise Restaurant. The food spread was mediocre. There was no oysters nor beef steak. Food wise was average for the price we paid ( $52++ each).
There were a few flies that bother us. I saw them settling on the cheese which puts me off. One even settled on the side of my water glass. The staff and service was good (most were Filipinos). I will not return to dine at this place again.

Meals for a Sunday

Today's breakfast was an assortment of fruits, yogurt, croissants and
kopi O. The croissants were from FairPrice at Killiney Road.

Today's lunch

Today we cooked sea cucumber, fish maw,shiitake (mushroom) and pork ribs stew for lunch. For dessert, it was a cup of Japanese green tea and chestnut candy.
We are trying to eat more sea cucumber because we believe that it slows down the ageing process besides having anti-cancer properties.

Cabin crew attacked in London subway

Received a message from a crew who had a bad experience in London and would like to share it with his colleagues.
He was with a stewardess at a train station and suddenly a middle eastern woman clad in abaya (cloak) accused him of touching her and carrying a bomb. She started hitting him and the stewardess but the crew did not fight back. In fact, the crew sustained injuries from the attack.
A policeman intervened and the woman told him the 2 crew accused her, besides the abovementioned lies, also took pictures of her and made racist remarks. The policeman did not press charges against the woman.

Killiney Road hor fun

At Killiney Road in the evening and saw people eating oishi food from a particular coffee shop. Out of curiosity, we ordered the same food and found that they were great! Topmost picture was that of fried beef hor fun ($5) and 2nd picture was that of the san loh hor fun or sliced fish kway teow($5.50).