[Media Invite] Tour East Luxury Tour Lounge @ Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel

Tour East Singapore in partnership with Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, had just launched Singapore's 1st Premium Tour Lounge. Tour East is a member of the JTB Global DMC Network.

Located at Level 3 of Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, this premium hospitality lounge offers a cosy comfortable space for its tour passengers with complimentary Wi-Fi, refreshment, reading materials and a one-stop shop for sightseeing tour needs. The lounge is open from 8am to 8pm daily.

opening ceremony

Tour East Hospitality Lounge

Tour East Luxury Tour Lounge

complimentary refreshment

One could browse the travel brochures, or sign-up for a tour in a relaxed environment. There are tours pertaining to unique experiences such as 'Walk with Our Ancestors' which was nominated for Best Tour Experience 2017 (Singapore Tourism Awards), food and dining tours as well as tours across the Causeway.

[Media Invite] G Session Arcade @ Hotel G Singapore

We took a break from 'adulting' as Hotel G puts it, and let loose at G Session Arcade on 11 Oct 2018. Ginett was transformed into an arcade arena with neon lights, music from DJ Tang and coupled with the adult drinks from the bar to the likes of Jim Beam Highball, beer and wines.

let the fun begins!

For one night only, patrons could have a go (for free!) at the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and maybe challenge the professional DDR'ers (who displayed their amazing footwork!), or have tons of fun playing the Bishi Bashi game or the classic claw machine where one could win prizes from Laneige, Mamonde and Hotel G.

G Session

fun spirals at the bar

With a Jim Beam Highball in hand, lively chats amongst friends and next, was which food to choose. Three options were available; beef burger, vegetarian burger or the hotdog with sweet potato fries. Guess which item I went for?

beef burger

The beef burger fits nicely onto one's palm and loved the thin layer of melty cheese on it. Patty was thick and done to a nice pink medium. With the stomach taken care of, it was time for some fun!

I'm a claw machine enthusiast, so gravitated to that naturally.

which one should I rescue out?

Put in those tokens, take aim and drop the claw. Thought I wouldn't catch any because one of the claw was at the outer side of the plastic barrier and only three were somewhat touching the target's body. But it lifted and successfully carried the toy to the drop area. Lucky!

hi there~

The folks at Ginett and Hotel G were friendly and they took good care of the guests. Had one of those glow band from one, and another plied me with food. Thank you!

thank you for taking care of us!

Enjoyed the G Session Arcade event and thank you to the team that put it all together for guests to have fun. Special thanks to Natasha, Daniel and team.

[Invited Tasting] T.K Kitchen 小厨 @ 710 荣发 (Rong Fa) Coffeeshop Clementi

We ventured to this place nestled amongst the HDB flats in the Clementi West Street 2 neighbourhood area. Went passed quite a few coffeeshop before coming to this one. T.K Kitchen is one of the stall in this coffeeshop. Its main outlet is at Blk 37, Teban Gardens #01-302, S600037.

T.K Kitchen

menu

Left it to the Chef to introduce the shop's specialty. Because we were just a group of 4, we had small portions for most of the dishes.

are we having steamboat?

There was a small portable gas stove on our table, so I was wondering if we were going to have hotpot/steamboat. Indeed. One of the specialty that is only available at this outlet, is the Chicken Soup Set which uses half a kampung chicken and it even has pig's stomach. Came with a side of vegetables, which we can cook in the soup ala hotpot style.

Chicken Soup Set @$22 (half-chicken) 

The pepper taste was pleasantly good and not overpowering. The free-range chicken (kampung chicken) and pig's stomach combo with red dates resulted in delicious soup . It was ready to drink from the onset with lots of flavour but setting it to a boil with the rest of the vegetables gave it a deeper flavour.

kampung chicken and pig's stomach soup

My impression of kampung chicken was that it would be tough. The version that we had were surprisingly tender but yet flavourful. This was one of those dishes that one could enjoy with the young and old in the family. 

Since this chicken soup can also be the soup base for hotpot, simply order up additional plates of vege, meats (pork and chicken), seafood (prawns, squid or lala/clams) or fish. The price ranged from $1.80 to $7.80.

vegetables going into the soup

Assam fish is typically what one could find, but here, they have assam prawns instead. A tangy dish that whets the appetite for more.

If you have kids, then you might want to get the Cai Pu Beancurd. For me, I loved the soft egg tofu that was not overly eggy but yet smooth and silky. The toppings were caramelized with sugar hence, it has that sugary crunchy bite. The taste of cai poh was not apparent.

Assam Prawns @$15

Homemade Cai Pu Beancurd (菜脯豆腐) @$8

/

Sambal kang kung (morning glory) or sweet potato leaves, these are the two favourite choice of diners. If you want to have both of them but don't want to pay for two plates of vegetable, well one could just ask for a mix of these two on one plate.

sambal kangkung and sweet potato leaves @$6

One of the popular dishes from its Teban Gardens main outlet is the Thousand Island Fish (千岛鱼). I think my dad would like this. For those who love creamy sauces like mayo, and something that's leaning towards the sweet side/

Thousand Island Fish @$10

Also had a chance to try White Pepper Crab and Salted Egg Crab (Fried). The former was stir-fried with lots of spring onions. Savoury and strong flavours. Fingers-licking good! The crab was meaty and sweet. White Pepper Crab with beer would make a good pair.

Salted Egg Crab @$40 (one crab)

White Pepper Crab @$40

This place is convenient, especially for those that are staying nearby at 710 Clementi West Street 2. Just come on down the block and voila, there's food! My favourites were the Chicken Hotpot and the White Pepper Crab.

[Media Invite] KANPAI! The Day of Sake 2018 日本酒の日 KANPAI!イベント2018

1 October is also known as 'World Sake Day' or 'Sake Day'. This is an annual event held in the celebration of sake (酒), a well-beloved alcoholic beverage. One of my favourite in fact. Was invited by the good folks at Grand Copthorne Waterfront to join in the KANPAI! event in celebration of Sake Day.

Had fun tasting the sake and shochu from the different breweries and prefectures, and of course, enjoyed the delicious food available from Grissini. This year's food theme for the KANPAI event was local favourites. There were buffet style small plates of chicken rice, roast pork, Singapore laksa, rojak, satay and various kuehs such as ang ku kueh (紅龜粿) and kueh dadar.

The first sake tasted was the Daiginjo Tokugawa Ieyasu (named after the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and one of the three unifiers of Japan). The Tokugawa clan crest is printed on the box.

Tokugawa Ieyasu Daiginjo (Maruishi Jozo) - 徳川 家康 大吟醸

Daiginjo Tokugawa Ieyasu

The taste was a balanced sweet with a smooth mouthfeel. Lovely!

sake set

Next up, was Apple Chan. Cute, right? I believe this was the first time am trying a Nama Sake (生酒) which is said to be the freshest sake because it did not underwent any pasteurization. A Tokubetsu Junmai (特別純米) is a high quality sake. Apple Chan (Ringochan) tasted light, dry and slightly fruity. It was almost as if the sake was imbued with the fragrance of green apple.

AZAKURA RINGOCHAN TOKUBETSUJUNMAI NAMA (秋田酒こまち) and DAINA TOKUBETSU JUNMAI 13 GENSHU (山田錦)

Let's move away a little while from the delicious sake to sample the food from Grissini's kitchen. There were live stations for Singapore Laksa, Satay and Chicken Rice.

Singapore Laksa - one for you and one for me

Satay

Steamed Chicken Rice with Roast Pork

Peking Duck

With food in the belly, it was then time to sample more drinks! This time round, shochu. Shochu is distilled while sake is fermented. Shochu can be distilled from rice, sweet potato, buckwheat (soba) or brown sugar. I've tried all except the ones distilled from soba.

Shochu (焼酎)

Be forewarned that shochu has higher alcoholic content than sake and wine but weaker than whisky. One could have it neat, on the rocks, with water or mixed with oolong tea or fruit juice or mixed with soda and other flavours such as yuzu/ume.

these two were pretty potent (the one on the left strongest!)

can't resist

so many to try

And at the appointed hour, everyone raised their glasses to toast for a bountiful year ahead! Kanpai!

乾杯

Thank you Gilbert for the invite and Grand Copthorne Waterfront for hosting the event. It was enjoyable and educational as well. Learnt more about sake (and shochu) and still discovering the characteristics of the different types and specialty of the breweries.

[Bandung] Strawberry Farm and Saung Gawir Restaurant

First visit to a strawberry farm. Yay to easy peasy activities! It was a peaceful bus ride to the farm. Weather was good and hopefully, there'll be enough strawberries for us bus load of people to pick!

scenery on the way to strawberry farm 

The strawberries are planted onto its own container and these containers are arranged in neat rows. So many of these sections all over the farm. Some are newly planted hence, either they are still green or very small in size. Walk around to scout for those ripe and bigger ones. Some say those nearer to the huts has bigger strawberries.

a section

select wisely

There are those straw hats that one could wear when picking the strawberries because you'd likely be spending about half hour bending over and selecting those that you like. A small scissor and a small basket will also be provided. Once done, just head over to the weighing counter to see how much it'll cost. Mine came up to about SGD4.80.

my pickings

There is a cafe next to the farm and one could get strawberry juice or strawberry milkshake from there as well. It has clean washroom plus resting area.

working hard for the next harvest

Nearby (about 5 to 10 minutes bus ride away), there is a restaurant called Saung Gawir so one could have lunch there.

interior of the Saung Gawir

Before lunch, one could take a stroll as this place has nice surroundings. It overlooks the hill and there are many interesting plants around it.

hill top dining

otak otak

Our lunch at Saung Gawir was Nasi Liwet. The rice was served in a separate steel pot and in it, there are some chilies. Our guide said that there are some coconut milk cooked in the rice as well. Oh, then it is similar to nasi lemak except that it doesn't have a strong coconut milk taste in it.

Nasi Liwet Set (to feed 4 pax)

The dishes for the rice was served altogether on a tray with banana leave. It has grilled chicken, lalapan (fresh lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes), fried beancurd skin, tofu and crackers. Its center was a dish of sambal.

On the side, there was an extra plate of fried indomie and one small whole fish ikan asin (salted fish).

fried noodles

salted fish

Communal dining with delicious dishes at Saung Gawir. This was our second most delicious meal after the one at Boemi Mitoha.

my plate

Saung Gawir Restaurant

Address: Jl. Raya Ciwidey - Rancabali KM.6, Alamendah, Rancabali, Bandung, Jawa Barat 40973, Indonesia
Contact: +62 22 85920675
Business Hours:
Daily: 9am to 5pm, Sat and Sun closes at 7pm