Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall (孙中山南洋纪念馆)

Also known as Wan Qing Yuan (晚晴园),the colonial style villa was used by Dr Sun Yat Sen as a headquarter to plan his revolutionary activities between 1900 to 1911.

In case you are not familiar with this Dr Sun, he was the founding father of Republic of China. He visited Singapore 9 times to meet up with his fellows to plan for 3 uprisings revolutionary activities like the legendary Xinhai in 1911 to overthrow Qing dynasty.

Now this villa and museum housed almost 400 artefacts some other relevant exhibitions e.g. The six men who saved Wan Qing Yuan; and Dr Lim Boon Keng.

The first impression of the museum when I stepped in was Peace. The furnitures are mostly wood and the fragrant of the villa was very unique. There are antiques too!

 The reception. The staff was very approachable and friendly.

 Love this balcony.

"Universal Love" drawn by Dr Sun.

This beautiful villa is located at 12 Tai Gin Road, right behind the new Zhong Shan Park along Balestier Road. It opens from 10am - 5pm everyday except Mondays. Most importantly, Singaporean and Permanent Residents admit free! But do bring along your IC for verification. There are also guided tour in the afternoon if you are interested to understand more of every artefacts. 

For more details, visit their website at http://www.sysnmh.org.sg/SYEPortal/.

xoxo

Hard Rock Cafe Singapore

Hard Rock Cafe has been opened for soooo many years in Singapore, have you dined there before? It's quite a nice place to dine, with nice 80s-90s mtv and live band at 9pm. Not to forget, alot of Caucasians..hehe..Locating at Orchard, this place is very convenient and enjoyable to dine in. And quite romantic also..Oh ya, they have the Rock shop there where you can buy some souvenir too.

 Electric guitar lovers, you will sprain your neck appreciating all the guitars at 2nd floor..

 

My Pina Colada ($15), very coconut-ty and not too sweet!

Grilled Salmon Fillet ($30). Good texture and well seasoned, not too salty..Doesn't taste fishy at all too. The mashed potato was quite generous, I could not finish.

NZ Pepper Steak ($30). Slightly over cooked but still not too bad. Not too chewy.

Haystack Chicken Salad ($18). It has carrot, corn, chicken breast, diced tomato, pico de gallo and shredded cheese. Portion very generous too..

Finally, the band started. Couldn't chat with the loud but nice music. (the 2 cellphone guys really spoilt this pic. Don't understand why their cellphones were more important than enjoying the band)

So here are my views:
Ambience 3.5/5
Food 3/5
Service 3/5
Price Affordable
Toilet Availability 3/5 

Address:
Hard Rock Cafe Singapore
50 Cuscaden Road #05-01
HPL House Singapore 249724

Check out their website here. 

xoxo 

Just like it

OMG! I'm going to eat instant ice-cream! This instant ice-cream is not budget kind like instant coffee or instant noodles..it uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the cream. So scientific right?!

I went to the Ang Mo Kio hub branch because I came back from the zoo, which will drop by this interchange.

 See all the flasks and the "lab scientist"..the flasks contained different flavors of cream.

One reason I don't mind trying this scientific ice-cream is 0% sugar added! But I don't understand the words original and artificial when the ice-cream is made with liquid nitrogen.

They have Tiger and Guinness flavor! That means the Guiness ice cream is black color?! I chose my favorite vanilla flavor..Next time I shall try the cocktail series..

 You can choose toppings..

 And then the scientist started making my ice-cream! First pour the flask of vanilla cream into a jug with measurement..

 Then pour the cream into the mixer..

 Prepare the liquid nitrogen..

 And make the magic potion by pouring the liquid nitrogen into the mixer..

Voila...my vanilla ice-cream..I could see the vanilla seeds in it! It is creamy, pure and not sweet and not too rich at all.. Girls, you have to try it once because all the 0% gives us the excuse to eat this during our diet without guilt.

Check out their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/justlikeit.sg for other branches and promotions.

Boon Tong Kee

I guess this place is no stranger for chicken rice lovers. Although I'm not a chicken rice fan, I do go there for their cantonese dishes, which I think is much better than their chicken. Their chicken is somehow, erm, overrated. BUT the rice is great.

 Al Fresco - quite warm to sit outside, plus I really don't like to eat along the road with the noisy cars driving by..

 Indoor

They have 2nd floor as well. By 6pm, the place is fully packed already, so do go there as early as 5.30pm sharp.

After some argument with the waitress who doubted that I can finish so many dishes, I finally ordered 4 and forced her to shift me to a bigger table. I get agitated easily with waitress who likes to warn me how much I can eat. Unless I ask about the portion.

 Poached chinese spinach with assorted eggs ($10). Basically, spinach cooked with normal eggs, salted eggs and century egg. The gravy is nice to eat with rice, slightly salty because of the salted egg.

 My favorite crispy beancurd ($6). They are served with mayonnaise. The skin is thin and crispy, very slightly salty, the toufu inside is sooooo soft and smooth..

 Their signature boiled chicken ($5). Comes in different amount, this is the smallest, enough for 2 pax.Taste common, I think it's the sauce that helps. Oh, and also their chilli sauce. Spicy and fragrant.

 Fried egg with shrimps ($12). Not alot of shrimps, quite oily. Not impressive.

Really, they have very tasty rice. So it's not really a wasted trip.

BUT..one thing that I dislike about this restaurant is they still sell shark fins soup, and they display shark fins in their shelves with pride.

I can never highlight enough how brutal the process is to get shark fins. If you have no clue about how these fins are achieved, please refer back to my old post - I'm FINished with FINS, too.

Please people, stop eating shark fins soup. It is toxic and it is cruel. We are human with high intelligence, so make the right choice and be humane. Eating shark fins soup is no longer an act of luxury enjoyment, it is an act of ignorance and inhumanity.

Even my cat is FINished with FINS.

So here are my views:
Ambience 2.5/5
Food 2.5/5
Service 2.5/5
Price Affordable
Toilet Availability 1/5

Address:
399 /401 /403 Balestier Road
Singapore 329801

Telephone number:
6254 3937 / 6256 0138

Check out their website at http://www.boontongkee.com.sg/

Shinkei

This is a newly opened Japanese buffet restaurant at 600@Toa Payoh which is at lorong 4 (near Toa Payoh Library). I'm not sure about lunch time, but it was very peaceful during dinner time. Especially after a long long week at work, this is a place to rest your mind and eat to your satisfaction. No crying kids and loud nonsense music.

At $39++ (Fridays and weekends dinner), you can order everything from the menu. From teppan chicken heart to curry rice and sashimi, everything is free flow.

And I must say, these food were not that bad! I shall let the photos do the talking...

 Crispy on the outside, smooth inside.

 The sashimi platter was very generous.

 California rolls were great too! Seaweed was crispy, mayonnaise was delicious and rice perfectly cooked. 

They have nice cold premium beer at $8 too...superb!

I couldn't wait to dig in, so I didn't manage to take photos of most dishes.

 

I think it does not do this place justice just by looking at its price. Beside providing good standard Japanese dishes, they offered great service. The waitresses were very polite and full of smiles. To me, service and ambience are keys to customer's satisfaction. I would love to go back again to try out all the items. They have so many! I wonder how they can finish washing all the small small plates..maybe they have a heavy duty dish washing machine?

So here are my views:

Ambience 3/5
Food 3/5
Service 3.5/5
Price Slightly steep but can try it!
Toilet Availability 0/5 (but you can use the clean toilets in the building)

Check them out at facebook.com/shinkei.

Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm

Dinner: 6pm - 10.30pm

Address: 600 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh #01-06/07/09/10, Singapore 319515

Telephone: 6255 5598

xoxo