Taiwan SunnyHills Pineapple Cakes

I am sure during Chinese New Year most households would have at least a tub of freshly made or store bought "Pineapple Tarts". And for those who loves Taiwan snacks, their famous Pineapple Cake(凤梨酥) or Sun Biscuit(太阳饼) is definitely something that you would not want to miss out.

Last week I have received a complimentary box of Pineapple Cakes from "Sunnyhills(微热山丘) which is air-flown from Taiwan. According to the local distributor Mr Damian these pineapple cakes are made from fresh ingredients that do not contain any preservatives or colourings. From the photos you could see that each brick-shaped pineapple cakes is individually packed and sealed to maintain it's freshness till the expiry date.

Sunnyhills Pineapple Cakes (微热山丘凤梨酥) used only the native Cayenne pineapples from the rich fertile soil of Ba Gua(八卦山) mountains in Nantou(南投) area to make their pineapple stuffing which is full of natural sweet and sour goodness.

These golden brick-shaped crusts are made using premium eggs mixed with gourmet baking flour from Japan and pure New Zealand butter. No wonder each mouthful that you bite brings out a wonderful buttery aroma and fine texture from the pastry. And with its authentic gift box set that comes in 3 different sizes including a little warm greeting card, I guess this might be something special that you would want to consider in your Chinese New Year gift purchasing list.

  In order to achieve customers satisfaction, the distributor for Sunnyhills Singapore would also give out free individual tasting packet (sample shown above) to customers who visit their booth during the festive event period. So if you are interested to find out more about this new product from Sunnyhills, remember to pop-by at Funan IT Mall starting from 17 - 31 January 2011 on the Chinese New Year Food and Lifestyle event.

Or you could also contact them at (65)8522 9605 for enquiries or place your order which they would delivery to your door-steps at your convenience at a minimum amount purchased. Lastly Iwould like to thanks Sandy and Damian for sending us these delicious Pineapple Cakes from Sunnyhills which comes just in time for Chinese New Year.

TO ORDER

Contact: (65) 8522 9605
Fax: (65) 6792 8211
Email: services@sunnyhills.com.sg
Website: www.sunnyhills.com.tw

~ FREE DELIVERY for oders S$90.00 and above.

[New In Town] City Nomads

CityNomads.com is not just a website where people can find great deals in Singapore, it is a social network and community for Singapore’s food and drink lovers. On 16th December 2010, CityNomads has a launched party at Infusion @ Dempsey to celebrate its' official launched.

And on the following day, 17th December 2010 they launched their website which is easy to use with only four main tabs to navigate from such as:- "Today's Promotions, Recent Promotions, How it Works and About City Nomads". Below is a sample of the screen capture for your reference or you could click the link provided to explore more at: http://citynomads.com/


Just like some of the well-known online restaurants and leisure search sites such as inSing, HungryGoWhere and OpenRice_Sg, CityNomads will also organize regular events such as wine tastings, absinthe parties, whisky appreciation, cooking classes and and etc to bring likeminded individuals together.

And on top of the these, CityNomads also promotes Eco-friendly habits with its paperless system. Members will not need to print out any coupons but instead just provide their ID and mobile number for verification.


  There is even an Iphone App (more information HERE) for “Nomads” to help keep track of purchases. For quicker updates and information on CityNomads, you could add them at Facebook(link HERE) or Twitter (link HERE).

Sakae Junior Club - Sushi Making Workshop

Last Friday, 17 December we went for a kids' Sushi Making Workshop organised by Sakae Sushi at one of its' outlets at Causeway Point. Although making sushi is not something new for my boy who loves to help me in the kitchen but from his facial expression I am sure he is having great fun and enjoyable experience with the new friends.

After registration at level one, we are asked to proceed to the Kid's Section at Level 2. From a glance you can see that the venue is well-prepared with kids' friendly sitting area, ingredients and great atmosphere towards kids liking.

This sushi workshop lasted for about an hour plus and all kids get to learn the steps and hands on at how to make Chawanmushi, Tri-Colour Sushi Balls and Cartoon Inari with some assists from their accompany parent(s).

Each and everyone of the kids enjoyed this interesting workshop very much and you could heard laughter almost every few minutes during the whole section. And another encouraging issue is everyone present at the workshop is very co-operative in following instructions which makes everything goes on smooth and enjoyable. Above are the 3 items done by my boy.

After the workshop, each and everyone of us get a set of the Lunch Bento according to our preference choice. For both Adults and Kids, everyone gets  to choose their desire bento set from the pre-ordering menu before the workshop. Since we have two adults we could get to try out both the Salmon and Spicy Chicken Bento while Rey settle for his Fire Engine set.

Photographing & Tasting Event @ Sarang, Orchard Central

Last Saturday I was invited to a Food Photographing and Tasting Event at "Sarang" a newly setup Korean Restaurant on the rooftop level of Orchard Central. The main aim of this event is to launch the “OC Foodies” Food photography Contest where they invited local famous food blogger, Leslie Tay(from ieatishootipost) to share with us some of his food photographing tips together with some hands-on session with him.

During this event the chefs from Sarang prepared many tasty dishes for us to have our hands-on photography session together with array of sample tasting dishes to excite our sight and taste bub.  The above photo shows the popular Korean Spicy Hotpot known as “Amy Stew” which consists of ingredients such as:- Kimchi, Sausage, Spam and tofu and etc. This will be a great choice during rainy day.
Price: S$12.80 per pot

This is totally different from our Asian Stir-fried Vermicelli (炒冬粉) with egg, pork or etc. It is known as "Sarang Japchae" with comes with vibrant colour and light fragrant of sesame oil taste.
Price: S$6.80 per plate

Kimchi a traditional fermented Korean dish which is made of vegetables with varied seasonings. In Sarang they also offer "Fresh Kimchi" in their appetiser menu.
Price: S$4.80 per bowl

There are about 9 different types of Main Course available in their menu with interesting names such as "Angry Piggy", "Superstar", "Godfather" and etc. Above is their "Drunken Pork” dish which is wine-marinated pork belly that is grilled and served with kimchi on sizzling hotplate.
Price: S$15.80 per plate

"Godfather" a very special name for this dish that comes with a 300g of grilled beef steak in chef's special spicy sauce.
Price: S$48.00 per plate

Ladies you should not missed out this fruity taste of “Godmother” beef steak if prefer something light and fruity.
Price: S$48.00 per plate

"Sun and Moon" is indeed a very innovative name for this dish where you can see the colour contrast between the kimchi fried rice and the sunny side up egg that is served in a hotplate style. Wonder how it taste like if I would to scramble them together.
Price: S$8.80 per plate

If you prefer something light perhaps this "Ginseng Porridge" with mild ginseng taste and chicken would suits your taste. For me this is quite tasty and fragrant but overall I find it a bit towards the gluey texture which makes it taste like Cantonese “congee”.
Price: S$6.80 per bowl

If you love to take photos of your food, Orchard Central would likes to invite all public to submit their best photographs of food taken at any Orchard Central food and beverage establishment between 21 November to 30 December 2010. Submit your photographs to "http://www.orchardcentralfoodies.com/" to join the contest. I have submitted mine too so please help to give me your valuable supports by clicking on the "LIKE" at this link HERE. Thanks.

The prizes for the winning entries are:-

* Grand Prize: $400 cash + $50 OC F&B voucher
* 2nd Prize: $300 cash + $50 OC F&B voucher
* 3rd Prize: $200 cash + $50 OC F&B voucher
* 4th Prize: $100 cash + $30 OC F&B voucher
* 5th Prize: $50 cash + $30 OC F&B voucher

Guest Judge of the contest Mr Leslie Tay(ieatishootipost) will select 5 lucky winners almong all eligible submissions based on the following criteria:-

~ Creativity/Originality (50%)
~ Quality of Composition (30%)
~ Public Voting/Comments (20%)

Lastly I would like to thank Eunice Lim from Smarter digital marketing & communications and Sarang Korean Restaurant for the invitation.

Sarang - Heartbeat of Seoul
181 Orchard Road
#07-01 Orchard Central
Singapore 238896
Reservation: +65 6773 1322
Website: www.sarang.com.sg
Email: ask@sarang.com.sg

Go Green with Tupperware TaPau Set

BYO (Bring Your Own) TaPau Set is Tupperware's latest innovation which is designed to hold anything from Noodle-soup to Economic Mixed Vegetable Rice, muffins and snacks for tea-break or family picnic which could helps t0 promote an Eco-friendly environment by using own our own containers. Previously I used to "TaPau (takeaway in Cantonese)" or packed my own lunch to work(sample HERE) in order to avoid the peak hour lunch crowds in CBD (Central Business District) area. As sometime it might take more than 10 minutes just to look for a seat and another 10 - 15 minutes queuing up for food. So in order not to waste the precious 1 hour lunch time I always prepared my own lunch using microwave reheatable containers.

Yesterday I have received a complementary 3-tier TaPau set from Tupperware which comes in my favourite bright "yellow" colour that makes it look so trendy compare to those metal type of tingkat tapau containers. In exchange for the complementary set, they would like us to try this new launched product and share our views about using it. Surprising my mum also has a similar 2-tier "TaPau" set which is square in design that she bought about 10 years back. But compared her set with this latest improved design, the new TaPau set that I have possess a better quality of material as well as a vent cap on each covers.

So today I decided to try out this beautiful and handy Eco-friendly container by going around my favourite stalls to “TaPau” some breakfast before heading to work. As this is my very first time bringing along such a “modern” design container I could feel some people in my queue and the stall owner tend to give me that odd “look”. But despite of that I told myself at least I am doing my part to reduce the usage of plastic containers and bags to help a bit on saving the environment.

Finally without much hassle I managed to pack two different types of breakfast using the "dish" container and when my colleagues saw this handy “TaPau” containers they are pretty impressive with the design and function. From there we realise that actually most of us do have a set or two of Tupperware containers at home which we could make good use of it to promote Eco-friendly environment. But still there are many people around who dislike the idea of bringing their own containers due to the extra washing up after meal or carrying around some big bulky container to and from work which they might felt unglam.

Below are some benefits of bring your own Tupperware containers to stay SAFE and at the same time help to SAVE the environment:-

SAFE
* It is made from food-grade materials which is toxin-free.
* Colours conform to the strictest international standards.
* Tested and proven that it do not leach chemicals into food.

SAVE
* Replaces the need for plastic bags and styrofoam containers.
* Using Tupperware containers reduces landfills that leach toxic chemicals into the soil and waterways.
* You can USE and REUSE for a lifetime as it is backed by Tupperware Lifetime Warranty.

For your information, each container is attached with an air-tight cover to prevent linking of food as well as a cute little round Vent Cap on the side.

This vent cap on top of the cover is meant for the steam to escape while reheating the food in the microwave.

This handy TaPau Set comprises of Crystalwave Dish(x2) in 1-Litre capacity, Crystalwave Bowl(x1) in 2-Litres capacity, Noodle Holder (x1) and a Grip-n-Go Cariolier. You could easily assemble the containers from the steps shown below and some help from the photo above.

1. The Tupperware logo must be facing up to ensure proper assembly of Grip-n-Go Cariolier.

2. To secure the Grip-n-Go Cariolier, slotting one side of the handle into the hook from the bottom and push in the other side to snap and lock.

3. Adjust the side handle of all the containers in same direction with the Tupperware logo facing up on the Grip-n-Go Cariolier and snap on all the handles.

4. The fully assembled set which is ready to go.

For those who are interested to know more about this product, recently there is an event organised by Tupperware on "Bring Your Own (BYO) TaPau Campaign". In this campaign there will be a “Be Spotted” event to spot and reward those who brings along their own container during lunch hour between 12.00pm - 2.00pm at the following Banquet Foodcourt starting from:-

~ 26 Nov (Vivo City)
~ 03 Dec (Parkway Parade)
~ 10 Dec (City Square Mall)

If you are working around that area do drop by with your own “tapau” containers and get spotted and reward with Tupperware goodies by a special celebrity guest. I am sure everyone of us can help to do a little bit by bringing along our own container when ordering takeaway as this will to cut down on the usage of disposal containers, utensils and plastic bags which are harmful to the environment in long run.

Preview on Tupperware TaPau Set - Part II:

Other then the two Crystalwave Dish containers shown above, BYO TaPau set also has a bigger size container that is specially use for noodle with soup and is divided into 3 parts such as:- the Crystalwave bowl Noodle holder (with holes that can keep the noodles warm and moist from the steam of the soup), and a Cover with a Vent cap for steam to escape. I would share with you in details on how to use this bowl on the next upcoming post on the "Tupperware PaPau Set".

Till then, remember to drop by on the above mentioned Banquet Foodcourt on the dates shown with your own food container and get spotted to win some fabulous goodies by Tupperware. Good Luck!

Note:-

This post is sponsored by Tupperware Singapore but the opinions expressed are 100% mine. No photos or text may be reproduced without seeking prior permission.

Cruise Like A Royal with Royal Caribbean

It has being more than 2 years since our family went for the cruise trip to Malacca. And when I received the invitation from Omy.sg a month ago regarding this cruise preview I was very excited and looking forward to the event. And finally on Monday, 22 November I was there together with a group of over 50 local bloggers to onboard the “Legend of the Seas” which is under Royal Caribbean.

After some long waiting time at the boarding area for the staffs to do some verification of our IDs and issusing temporary boarding passes, we finally managed to board the cruise 40 minutes behind the scheduled timing. Below are some of the photos that I would like to share with you on our preview tour onboard.

This is part of the welcome lounge area at Deck 5 located at "Anchors Aweigh Lounge". Passengers can enjoy their welcome drinks, photo taking session with the cruise captain as well as enjoy the beautiful scenery along the window seats area. I am sure this will be a great place to relax with a couple of drinks and music.

Window view seats at the Anchors Aweigh Lounge.

When onboard the cruise you could also enjoy some “Duty Free” shopping at their “Boutiques of Centrum" at level 5 which is near the Anchors Aweigh Lounge. They have many duty free items such as “Jewelry & Gift”, “Perfume”, “Liquor”, "Toys" and etc which is of cheaper rate compare to those the shopping malls.

For a light refreshment or sweet treat in the afternoon, you could pop-by to “Café Latte-tudes” at Deck 6 where the kids can enjoy wide range of premium ice-cream from Ben & Jerry’s.

While for the adults you could always indulge yourself with a cup of freshly brew coffee and a slice of cake or cookie. For your information this café is equipped with WiFi too but you have to check with the staff on how to get the network up.

In the middle of Deck 7, there is also a cozy Library and Card Room available for those who want to have some quiet time with a book of their choice in the afternoon. But if books are not your cup of tea, perhaps you can gather a few friends for some card games or mahjong over at the card room that is opposite the Library.

At the cruise preview we also have the chance to view their different types of staterooms available on the “Legend of the Seas”. Here I would like to share with you some photos of their “luxurious suite” that most of us would envy on. (for more photos on the different types of staterooms, you can click HERE)

Above photo shows the separate main bedroom of the "Royal Family Suite" with private balcony and living room. There are only two similar Family Suites available on Deck 8 with a sq. ft. of 526 and balcony area of 74 sq. ft.

Since this is meant for family, there is another separate room with 2 single beds that can be cater for young children or attached family members.

Compared to the small and cramp washroom in the normal Staterooms this one with personal bathtub and separate washroom is definitely a bonus for a luxury family usage in terms of queuing for turns.

This is the ONE and only “Royal Suite” available at the end corner of Deck 8 which everyone of us are curious about it. For me I don’t think I would ever have a chance to stay in such a luxurious suite so the moment we went in I was shock to see the layout and spacious room space.

Although the interior set-up might not be a posh as those shown in movies such as Titanic but I am sure this is consider to be "Grand" compared to the Interior Staterooms or Ocean View Staterooms.

Ivory white Baby Grand Piano.

Private bathroom with whirlpool tub, shower, hairdryer and vanity area.

Separate bedroom with King-size bed that makes you feel like a "King".

Private spacious balcony with breathtaking view of the ocean for you to relax and enjoy the afternoon breeze or sun bathing.

For outdoor activities you can always go for the Solarium and whirlpool on the Deck 9 or early morning or evening jog on the jogging track at Deck 10. But if you prefer something indoor then perhaps you can go for the indoor pool or video arcade.

Most of the onboard entertainments are free which includes the live music and comedy shows, 9-hole miniature golf course, Casino Royale, Rock-climing wall and etc. I am sure there is always one that suits you and your family members.

On Legend of the Seas, you will experiece culinary adventure that satisfies all tastes and appetites. You can choose from the wide varieties of buffet style food at Deck 9 of "Windjammer Cafe". Here you would enjoy all kind of cuisines, finger food, pastries, salad, fresh fruits and etc.

 
Lovely wraps and sandwiches.

 
Array of cakes and pastries available at the buffet line.

Our complementary lunch was served at the elegant "Romeo & Juliet Dining Room" located at one end of Deck 4. This English like two-tier dining room served fine dining and wine which as a food blogger I would of course shared with you some of those food that we had.

For appetizer we can choose either "Asian Style Chicken Soup" or "Shrimp Cocktail Royal". Wine of your choice of red/white is served together with the food too.

My main course is "Chef's Halibut" which is boiled fillet presented with Spanish soffrito and truffle scented polenta. The fillets goes well with the sauce but I find it rather a bit dry maybe due to the delay of our lunch hour. But the truffle scented polenta was great and I hope I could replicate it at home too.

There are another two main course which is "Shrimp Ravioli" and "Lamb Shank with Rosemary" where you can view the photos HERE.

I love dessert especially Western type with creamy texture so this "Ivory Chocolate Fondue" which comes with sweet berries in white chocolate mousse certainly has filled my day with joys. The sweet and sour taste of the chocoalte fondue goes pretty well with my white wine too.

There is no shortage of excitement onboard where you can enjoy all the facilities and be completely spoilt like a "Royal". Depending on your number of days onboard, if you stay slightly longer you could also join their shore excursion trips lead by professional licensed guides too.

So are you ready to be onboard the "Legend of the Seas"? For more details on their promotion you can refer to Straits Times advertisement or check it out on their website at:- http://www.royalcaribbean-asia.com/

Promotion Details:-

~ YES 93.3FM 21st B'Day Bash Promo (link HERE)

~ Malaysia and S.E Asian Cruise (link HERE)

If I have chance I would definitely give this "Royal Cruise" a go, perhaps a reasonable package with suitable dates for a family of 4 would be a great steal of us. Let’s hope I would have some detail posts on the cruise soon as I still missed out some places and good shots too. But for now you can check out these related photos on this preview tour at Cuisine Paradise Fanpage HERE.