Ko Ryo Jeong at International Plaza

One issue about staying right in the heart of town is that the (more-affordable) dining choices on weekends are rather limited. The hawker centres and coffeeshops are mostly closed on weekday nights and weekends. So we often end up at shopping centres or fast food restaurants for dinner. 

After the Circuit Breaker, I started looking for more options nearby and chanced on this Korean restaurant that was not along the super busy stretch of Tanjong Pagar Road. The online reviews were not too bad and it has also been operating at International Plaza for a long time. The menu caught my eye as there were some Korean stews and dishes that are not often found at other establishments. We took the chance on this Thursday night to dine here on our own (as Y had to attend an enrichment class and had dinner earlier). 

We ordered an oyster pancake and a Cheonggukjang-jjigae (Extra-strong fermented soybean paste stew) 청국장찌개.  The latter was something I had only seen online, so I was curious how the taste would be like, as it would be much thicker than the normal doenjang stew. Even in local restaurants, I felt the doenjang stew tasted more soup-ish, compared to those home-cooked ones I see online (like on "Home Food Rescue" by Chef Baek Jong-won). This Cheongukjang-jjigae was packed chock-ful with the beans and vegetables, so much so that there was little liquid to drink with. Haha. For most palates, this is a strong-tasting dish. I would describe it as something close to what you would get if you cooked tempeh with an equal amount of broth. Thick, bean-y, substantial, and goes well with a full bowl of rice. 

Hubby gave the oyster pancake thumbs-up.  The oyster pancake was large, and the oysters were fat and juicy. While the pancake was greasy, it was crisp at the edges and not oil-logged.  What I really liked was the generous servings and taste of the side dishes provided. The spicy side dishes helped cleanse the palate after each mouthful of pancake and/or stew. And they were really well-prepared, not commercially-bought basics like potato-mayo salad or seaweed out of a box. 

The dishes were really quite authentic, compared to some of the so-called 'authentic' Korean restaurants in Singapore, which mostly only served well-known favourites like fried chicken and BBQ to go with alcohol. We arrived quite late (after 7.30pm) and I was famished, so I only remembered to take the picture of the side dishes as they were served first. 

This is definitely going to be one of my regular haunts. 

GOPIZZA (Tampines 1) freshly baked pizzas

We usually pop by Tampines Central on Sundays when we have family gatherings at my inlaws. And I chanced upon this stall in the former Kopitiam food court at the top floor of Tampines 1 (the food court is now renamed "Food Tempo"). 

GOPIZZA serves a variety of single serve pizzas with Korean-inspired flavours. The brand originated from South Korea and the pizzas are baked upon order. Talk about fresh! 

I ordered the spicy yangnyum and sweet potato mash pizza and I loved the contrasting flavours and textures, from the spicy-red marinate on the chicken to the soft sweet mash generously piped across the whole pizza. The thinly sliced onions and green bell peppers also provided a burst of crunchiness and freshness in each bite. 

Bingsu at Tampines 1

Mango Bingsu at Food Tempo (food court at Tampines 1). They were running a 30%-off offer for the month, so the icy treat only cost me $5.50 (small size). 

Foodie me: Devil Chicken

We usually spend some time window shopping around Tampines central on Sundays when we go to my in-laws place for dinner. We had been eyeing this specialty stall for the longest time, but we never had a chance to take lunch or dinner here. 

Today we finally decided to try this to 加料. I bought the original chicken ala carte ($7.90). Unlike the other Taiwanese style chicken cutlets we usually have, this is not a thin, flat style cutlet. The batter jacket was cooked to a golden brown colour and tasted crispy even though we bought it to go (and consumed only about 20 mins later). The seasoning was not overly salty and had a sweet edge too. We should try the spicy version the next time. 

Google Keep

I had been using a variety of note-taking apps for quite a while now. From the now-defunct Springpad (my first note saved was in August 2010!) to Evernote (which I exported all my Springpad notes in 2014). 

Plus, every other software/hardware manufacturer had their own version of note-keeping app, so I was inundated and had to choose one to maintain some consistency and portability (a key lesson learnt when I moved from using first generation devices like the Palm PDA, to iPhone 3/4, then to Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Huawei nova 2i)

I decided I would probably stick to the Android ecosystem, so I decided to try to keep all my content within the Google system. I loved Evernote (and still do) for its powerful search function but it was troublesome as I could not use it offline (esp during our quarterly daytrips to JB for shopping. Thus, I started to keep some of the info I needed on those trips in Google Keep instead, as the information could be accessed offline. 

In recent years, I added more stuff as I could easily share with other users (like my daughter, who has a Google account), as well as across multiple platforms that I was using (Mac Mini as my home desktop, Windows laptop for working at home, Windows PC in office, Android personal phone and Android tablet for entertainment) 😁  Here's my take on it. 

Pros: 

• can be used across multiple platforms, and synced almost seamlessly
• Color-coding helps me reduce the number of labels I need. I use different colors for different contexts (e.g. work-related, cooking/food related)
• takes a variety of formats. For example, I can keep a recipe with a picture and tick boxes for ingredients list.
• Turning on tick boxes allows me to use a single note as my shopping list-cum-kitchen inventory. I tick it off when I have used up the ingredient, so I can see at a glance what ingredients I have on hand to plan meals on the go. 
• automatically arranges multiple photos, which is helpful when I use it to keep track of items I have bought, say for my annual Christmas presents list.
• Best of all, I realised that I could use it as a handy OCR tool. I often take a picture of items to inventorise, but it takes too much effort to remember to transfer the photo to my phone, edit it and file it in wherever its supposed to go. By adding a photo to a Google Keep note, and choose "Grab Image Text", the text in the picture is added as text in the note itself, which makes it handy when doing searches. 
  
  

Cons: 

• search results cannot be filtered by more than 1 tag at a time 
• notes are arranged by latest edited note, by default.
• note size limit 

New gas water heater (Bye Rinnai, Hello Macro)

Our existing gas-powered water heater had been serving us well since 2010, but it started malfunctioning last week. It just didn't start up, despite me changing the batteries (that served to start the ignition). 

I called Rinnai Service Centre, but the lady advised that the model we had was very old and it was probably not worthwhile to request a Service visit (i.e. pay their service personnel to come take a look and tell us that it was not serviceable anymore) cos they themselves do not have the spare parts anymore. I was advised to contact City Gas at 1800-555-1661 (my Town Gas service provider) for options instead, as they would probably have suitable models that are cheaper than us buying from any other retailer or direct from Rinnai. 

The lady, Connie from City Gas requested that I email them a photo of the existing space where the heater is located, so that she could forward to their technician to determine if the newer (and larger) model could fit. 

We arranged for the delivery and installation this morning. The dimensions of the new heater were slightly bigger, so it had to be shifted slightly as the water pipes at the top were in the way. After drilling holes in the wall for the support, he proceeded to extend the water and gas pipes to bridge the gap.

Tadah! Our new water heater! Hubby is gonna feel the pinch as the cost of the heater (SGD180) will be billed to our next gas utilities bill. 

Foodie me: HappyCup at 100AM mall, Tras St

I was running errands at 100AM when I noticed the corner shop space at level 2 had finally been unveiled. Happycup seems to be different from the usual bubble tea franchises popping up all over Singapore. What was most interesting to me was the "Teaspresso" machine used in serving their products. 

Mystic Pop-Up Bar (Youtube playlist)

 I've been breezing through many dramas over weekends, thanks to Netflix. 

Skechers offer at OG

Chanced upon this National Day offer, and was able to buy two pairs for $110, when the usual price was $109 each. I already had enough shoes, so we decided to buy both pairs for YX. Pictured here are her pairs at size 6.  

미스터 션샤인 Mr. Sunshine OST

As promised on my earlier post on Mr Sunshine, I managed to find the video links for the OST. 

Parking the OST video playlist here, originals from Stone Entertainment. 

 

#1. 박효신 (Park Hyo Shin) - 그 날 (The Day) MV

Drama - Mr. Sunshine (Korean: 미스터 션샤인)

I just finished binge-watching "Mr Sunshine". It has been on my watchlist since it was first broadcast in 2018, but I could not find any sites to watch it free AND with subtitles. 

So when we decided to cancel our Starhub TV subscription (contract was up and we hardly sat down in the living room to watch anything, anyway), my hubby decided to subscribe to Netflix. I took the opportunity to watch those titles that I couldnt watch on VIU or other free platforms. 

I had watched Yoo Yeon Seok's works on "Mood of the Day" (movie) and "Youth over Flowers"(travel variety) & "Coffee Friends" (variety on cafe on Jeju Island), after suffering from the 'Chilbongie' syndrome from watching him in Reply 1994. But I hadn't seen Lee Byung-Hun and Kim Tae Ri in anything else. My interest was piqued as there were frequent instances in "Coffee Friends" when the cafe customers spoke to YYS about liking his role in Mr Sunshine. 

When I watched the initial episodes, I was blown away by the beautiful cinematography. It was something best enjoyed on a large screen, not on my pathetic mobile phone screen. The first quarter of the drama was pretty draggy and full of slow-mo scenes. I started questioning myself about whether I wanted to watch another Kim Eun-sook (KES) drama. Speaking of which, I really should pen down my thoughts on her works. That will be another post. What pulled me into watching the first few episodes were the scenes of the actor Kim Kang-hoon portraying young "Yu-Jin", who was the same child actor who starred in "When the Camellia Blooms". 

I am not adept enough in writing to be reviewingthe drama but I will just share my thoughts. Having watched KES' previous popular dramas like "Descendants of the Sun" and "Goblin", I would say that "Mr Sunshine" struck me as somewhat with deeper substance than the former two titles. It required audiences to think more about the plot and character analysis than just following for the romance of the 'One-True Pairing' (OTP). Being a drama set in the early 1900s, and about Joseon and the influences of Japan and America, I was totally lost in the history aspect. Notwithstanding the historical background setting, I enjoyed some of the witty dialogue that KES is known for writing, although some of it is likely to be lost in translation(on Netflix). I will probably have to re-watch the drama in parallel with some review sites (like dramabeans) to re-relish this aspect of KES' work. 

Strong females

One thing that was striking in comparison is that KES had managed to impress with the writing of several strong female characters in Mr Sunshine. Going beyond lead Ae-Shin, I also enjoyed the multi-layered character brought out by Kim Min-jong (portraying Kudo Hina) and the other supporting actresses like Lee Jung-eun (as Ae-shin's maid and mother figure) and other badass mothers(of Ae-shin, Dong-mae and Eugene), sacrificing their all. Looking back at "The Heirs" and "Goblin", which seemed to pay more(or sole) attention to the male lead, it must really be true that the writer likes to tailor her script for a particular actor in her past works. 

Pacing

The writing is not as tight as some other historical dramas I've watched (Six Flying Dragons and Tree with Deep Roots remain favourites in this aspect) and towards the end, I felt like there were some loose ends that were not tied up and wished that the plot hadn't been so draggy in the first half. Of course, that resulted in major heartache when our ensemble of patriots fell to the enemies in the last few episodes.

The Bromance

I loved the bromance, not just between the trio Eugene-DongMae-HuiSeong, but also between Eugene and the English translator Gwan-soo, Eugene-Kyle, Eugene- Domi. The comedic elements also served to lighten the heavy historical (and often violent & bloody) aspects of each episode. 

The OST by Stone Music Entertainment

I have not looked at the translation of the lyrics of the OST songs, but while I enjoyed the music and songs, it is not outstanding. Certain songs are able to convey the sentiment (to a foreigner like myself who does not understand most of the lyrics). I loved the instrumentals though.

박효신 (Park Hyo Shin) - 그 날 (The Day)

Video link

I will look them up on Youtube/Spotify when I have time. 

Stay Home for Circuit Breaker 2020

So many resources had been shared online, for keeping the young ones entertained, educated(!?!) and occupied, and to fight off boredom for the seniors (and everyone else in-between!!!!)

Just compiling my own list here. Leave me a comment below if there are links that don't work, cos I don't visit all of them... You know, in between cooking almost 3 meals a day, marketing and household chores, screaming at the kid, trying to catch up on some of my work, and keeping myself sane with Korean shows... Heehee

General 

Read/Listen

• Even before the Covid-19 situation hit, I have been a fan of the collection of e-books offered by the National Library Board, Singapore eResources platform. Just sign up for your 'myLibrary' account (if you are Singaporean or a NLB member), and you are set to read on a browser, or using the NLB mobile app, or download to read offline using the Overdrive or Libby app. See what you need here. 
• Amazon Audible has made Stories free available online for kids, as long as schools are closed.

Teaching and Learning Resources

• As part of a global initiative to support parents and educators through these times, Scholastic has been providing free access to digital resources which are developmentally-appropriate for children aged 4 to 15 years. 
• Cambridge University Press has also stepped up to provide educators with resources to support the teaching and learning during the school closure period. 

Nature

• Part of the #PlantOneOnMe series by the Gardens By the Bay, Singapore. This is a multi-episode series on tours in the Cloud Forest conservatory. We will be eagerly waiting for the day when they will be open again and we can actually use our membership...

The Arts 

• #GalleryAnywhere gives you a daily dose of art from the comfort of your home. Presented by the National Gallery, Singapore.
• The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. features two online exhibits through Google Arts & Culture. One features watercolour renderings on American fashion from the Index of American Design; whereas another is on Dutch masters of genre painting, or scenes of daily life. 
• 
  

Performing Arts

• Esplanade Offstage is provided for all to enjoy performing arts in Singapore and Asia. You can easily filter by your preferred form of performing arts, and enjoy one-stop page of links to their partners. Besides reading about artists, Offstage has also listed videos for us to enjoy the performances online via "The show goes on---line" since the national performing art's centre is closed.
• Of course, not forgetting the weekly full-length broadcasts of famed musicals via the Youtube page The Shows Must Go On!. We enjoyed The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.
• BroadwayHD is a subscription-based internet service that lets you watch musicals without getting to Broadway itself. It offers a free 7-day trial, so plan when there's a long weekend/holiday stretch coming up. 

Music 

Facebook live broadcasts are one of the ways musicians used to continue to showcase their craft.

• Compilations include the facebook pages 古典好好聽 Classicalmusic to go.

History

• This "Museum of the World" virtual museum tour of artifacts brought by the British Museum and the Google Cultural institute allows us to pick and choose the time period and cultural setting we want. 

Christianity-Methodist

• Even as The Methodist Church in Singapore celebrates 135 years in Singapore this year, we are constrained by the ongoing Covid-19 situation to stay at home as much as possible. But that doesn't stop us from continuing to come together to pray and worship online as a community. I signed up to receive whatsapp updates to receive the daily prayer prompt on whatsapp. 

Entertainment

Of course, it has been almost impossible to get Y to guai guai complete the never-ending list of chores (cos she doesn't complete them) and assignments set. All she hankers for is for her own game apps and the Xiaomi phone we bought last year. We have been considering whether to get on the Netflix bandwagon after our Starhub contract ran out and we decided not to continue (we hardly sat down to watch anything at all, since we all had our own choices of entertainment on our phone/tablet/laptop/desktop anyway). So I started looking out to see if the Netflix offerings were suitable. Some links/lists here for those who already have a subscription include: 

• List of Netflix Educational shows for Kids from variety.com.

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This post was first published on 20 May 2020. 

DIY Red Bean Pancake / DouSha GuoBing 豆沙锅饼

Had too much time stuck at home during Singapore's "Circuit Breaker", so I tried making something that I was craving for, but didn't want to buy/order from outside. There aren't too many places that do tasty Chinese red bean pancakes, and if they do, they usually serve it as a large serving meant for 6-8 persons to share as a dessert. 

I had some organic red adzuki beans on hand, but was quite sick of making red bean soup or red bean popsicles. I decided to try using frozen prata to replace the pastry encasing the red bean paste. The paste was easily cooked with the help of my pressure cooker. It did take a while to prepare this dish as I had to thicken the red bean soup to a thick paste, cool and spread it out as an even thin layer. This is a trick I learnt from watching ban jien kueh hawkers.