Showing posts with label Leisure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leisure. Show all posts

Friday 13 July 2012

Bollywood Veggies @ Kranji Countryside

Bollywood Veggies is locate in the rustic environment of the northwest Kranji Countryside where many farms are open to the public for touring. This countryside concept provides visitors with opportunities to learn and enrich themselves in the natural environment. So for weekend family getaway from the shopping malls or etc, you might want to consider to bring your family or loved ones to explore some of the beautiful natural agriculture farms in Kranji area.

In this post I would be sharing our recent visit to Bollywood Veggies and it's Bistro known as Poison Ivy. These photos are taken with my iPhone and more photos related to this post can be found in Cuisine Paradise Facebook Page HERE.

Although this is not our first visit to Bollywood Veggies but it indeed it was our first dining experience at their bistro. And upon getting our seats, we notice a colourful menu chalkboard at one end of the entrance displaying their daily special.

Since it was a rainy afternoon, we decided to settle for some hot beverage. Here we had fragrant Fig Tea (back) which had a similar taste to "red bean soup" plus refreshing Lemon Grass Tea (front) which both are their recommended beverages (served in either Hot or Cold). Personally I would prefer Lemon Grass Tea over Fig for it's lovely natural taste and aroma.
Price: S$2.00 each


Moringa Tempura is a signature dish from Poison Ivy Bistro which you must try at least "once" during your visit. These crispy veggies tempura is made with Moringa leaves which are an excellent source of calcium that contain 4 times the amount of calcium in milk and seven times the amount of vitamin C in carrot.

These will be great to served as afternoon tea snack or appetiser before meal. And even though these are fried stuffs, they are not grease to handle as finger food. Just love to munch them and it's quiet additive too! For your information the Moringa Tempura will be served with kacang manis (dark sweet sauce) and some pickled vegetables to enhance the taste of the tempura.
Price: S$4.00 per plate


Their Nasi Lemak was piled with lots of sides dishes but the portion was rather small for it's price. But for small eater or those who wants more varieties of the side dishes, this is something that you can try.

Price: S$6.00 per plate


As I was curious to try their items in smaller portion, I decided to get "The Poor Mans' Platter - For 1" which consist of 3 items + 1 side. From the photo above(top down), this platter comes with:-

~ Warrior's Chicken Curry taste great with tint of spiciness and great aroma of the spices used.

~ Stir-fry Long Bean with Banana is a very appetizing dish to go with even just steamed white rice.

~ Bolly Banana Curry was definitely something interesting to us because of the "banana" in curry. However these banana slices doesn't taste anything like the normal "soft bananas" that we used to eat it taste more like sweet potato or yam(taro).

~ Plus some Crispy Banana Chips at the side. These crispy chips are very addictive which makes you keep popping them one after another. And if you like it, you can also purchased some home at their counter which comes in a 2 sizes packing.

Price: S$10.00 per person (3 items + 1 side)


Just a note on dining at Poison Ivy Bistro, since there is "NO Service charge or GST" included in the total bill, they only accept "CASH" for payment. No credit cards or NETS.

At one corner of the Alfresco area, there is a push cart selling organic products such as Fig, Banana, cooking spices, potted plants and herbs as well as their well-known Banana Cake.

As the rain had stopped after our meal, we decided to take a slow walk and explore around the Garden. Below are a few photos showing some of the plants and herbs in the Bollywood Veggies garden. 

Common herbs such as mint, drill and oregano that we have spotted. And we also surprised to find Wheat Field during our last visit too.


BOLLYWOOD VEGGIES
100 Neo Tiew Road,
Singapore 719026 (Kranji)
Telephone: (65) 6898 5001
Website: http://www.bollywoodveggies.com/

Opening Hours:-
Wednesday to Sunday And Public Holidays; 9.00am to 6.30pm
CLOSED ON: Monday And Tuesday(except Public Holidays)

Note: Dinner is not available as they close at 6.30pm

Payment: CASH ONLY

How To Get There:
- By Driving, click HERE
- By Shuttle Bus, Click HERE

Thursday 5 July 2012

Gardens by the Bay @ Bay South

Gardens by the Bay((滨海湾花园))is a theme garden which comprises of three distinctive waterfront gardens such as – Bay South, Bay East, and Bay Central. And the first phase of the Gardens, Bay South Garden, was officially opened to public on 29th June 2012.

Last Sunday, we decided to visit join in the crowds and explore the gardens after our Sunday church service. And since this is an impromptus visit, all photos shown here are taken using iPhone so pardon me for the quality of the photos. At the meantime, hope you would enjoy the post and have a rough ideas on what's going on inside the Gardens By The Bay.

Bay South is the largest garden with 54 hectares in area and it is located next to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and a few minutes walk from Bayfront MRT Station.  This vibrant garden showcased the best of tropical horticulture and garden artistry, with a mass display of tropical flowers and iconic structures like the Supertrees, and the two conservatories (Flower Dome and Cloud Forest).


SUPERTREE GROVE AND OCBC SKYWAY


At the Supertree Grove, you can find 12 of these unique trees of up to 16 storeys in height while the the remaining six are placed in clusters of three at the Golden and Silver Gardens.

Ticket to the OCBC Skyway can be purchase near the entrance of the Skyway at the Supertree Grove for S$5.00 per entrance(re-entry is allow within the same day).

While up at the Skyway you a stroll along the 128-metre long walkway that connects the two 25 metre Supertrees at the Supertree Grove and take in a different view of the Gardens.

Bird's eye view of the 2 conservatories and theme gardens from the OCBC Skyway.



View of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel from the OCBC Skyway.


CLOUD FOREST


At another end of the garden, it compressed two different conservatories known as Flower Dome and Cloud Forest each showcasing different types of  forest trees, plants and from the Mediterranean and semi-arid subtropical regions.

The admission fees for both conservatories for Singaporean and PR is S$20.00 (Adult), S$18.00 (Senior citizen, 60 years and above) and S$12.00 (Child, 3 - 12 years old).

More details on the admission pricing and timing can be found HERE.

Enter the Cloud Forest, you see this 35-metre man-made mountain complete with the tallest indoor waterfall where visitors crowding around to get their best shots. The Cloud Forest portrays plant life from about 2,000-metres above sea level at the top of the mountain to around 1,000-metres at the bottom of the ravine.


View of the man-made mountain and walkways of the Cloud Forest from level 1. The structure look like two big ears on a mouse head to us.

Bird's eye view of the Tree Top Walk walkway from level 6 of the Cloud Forest.

Some of the beautiful flowers we spotted along the walkways in the Cloud Forest

View of the Cloud Walk walkway.

Another view of the man-made waterfall from the viewing deck.

Overall view of the man-made mountain from the Tree Top Walk walkway.

Beautiful flower and lake from the Secret Garden at basement level.


FLOWER DOME


The Flower Dome replicates the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean and semi-arid subtropical regions like South Africa and parts of Europe like Spain and Italy. It has a collection of plants from deserts all over the world as well as showcases the adaptations of plants to arid environments. (Flower Dome will be slightly colder than Cloud Forest)

Opening Hour:-
09:00am - 09:00pm (daily) with last admission at 08:30pm



Interesting Cactus that look like monkey tail.

White Crystal Garden

There are about a total of 3,332 glass panels of 42 varying shapes and sizes in the Flower Dome which are designed and equipped with light sensor shadings to ensure that the flowers and plants in the conservatories received maximum light and yet maintaining at temperature within 23°C  -  25°C.

There is a flower field located at the central of the conservatory specially designed to reflect different seasons, festivals and themes. And this 850sq metre flower field can hold up to 18,000 blooms at one time.
Some of the beautiful flowers we saw inside the Flower Dome.

Map extract and credited to Gardens By The Bay website
These are only 3 parts of the Garden attractions that we have explored. We would head back soon to check up more on the Heritage Gardens, Dragonfly Lake, World Of Plants, Dining Options (Pollen, Supertree Dining, Bakerzin, Satay By the Bay) and etc. So do stay tune for Part II of the Gardens update soon.

More photos on Gardens By The Bay related to this post can be found HERE at Cuisine Paradise Facebook Page.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

The Rink @ JCube

With the recent heat waves that hits Singapore these two weeks, the best thing to do is to stay in-door in a fully air-conditioning shopping malls. And since my boy is interested in Ice Skating ever since our trip back from Voyager of The Seas early June.

We decided to check out this Singapore’s first Olympic-size ice rink which is located at JCube. It has a 460 seat gallery and the 60 by 30 metre rink is designed to host international events and competitions for sports such as ice hockey, curling and speed skating.

JCube is a new shopping mall that is filled with retails, dining and entertainment scene in Jurong East which is about 5 minutes walk from Jurong East MRT station (you can see the mall from the MRT platform).

The entrance of The Rink is located at level 3 of the mall at one end where you can access it via the lift at level 1. Beside the The Rink there are also winter wears and skates shops where you can purchase the gloves, socks and etc if you didn't bring along.

Here is the break-down of the "timing" for those who wish to visit The Rink. (my advice is to either go early if you can)

At the ticketing area grab the "combination" that you prefer. For us as since we have brought our own gloves and socks (thanks for maameemoomoo advice) we took the "Combo E" which consists Admission Fee plus Skate at S$15.50(Kids, 4 - 12 years old) and S$17.50 (Adult).

Normal Price List

Combination Rates. You can purchase either "Gloves" or "Socks" at S$2.00 per pair if you don't wish to loot them along with you! I advise Socks are a MUST for personal hygiene as well as prevention of blisters and the thicker the better!

After getting the entry tickets, you can proceed to the Skates Rental area to redeem your skates according to your shoes size. (for your information, your shoes will be retained in-exchange of the skates) And from what I have read online the smallest skates size is about 27 for kids.

These are the crowds at the Locker Area waiting to redeem their skates for the 2nd session which is at 12.45pm.

If you need a locker to keep your belonging, they do have a decent size of locker which is similar to those at the swimming pool at Non-Refundable fee of S$2.00 per locker. But if you forget something half way through during your game and wish to open the locker, you would have to pay another S$2.00 to lock it back.

All set and ready to go into the Ice Rink!


Since we went during School Holidays, the crowds are more towards family with younger kids and teenagers. Some of them are really good skaters who can skate well while others who can't also enjoys themselves at the Rink moving along happily at the sides of the wall.

It's pretty cold during the morning session that we went, so you might want to bring along a light jacket if you are afraid of the cold air. And wearing of jeans or long pant is advisable instead of shorts and skirt. Hope you have fun and enjoy the cold environment.

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