Collins Grill and Bento @ Hougang St 11 Foodloft

So glad this shop opened nearby. It sells inexpensive western and Japanese food. Western one is so so only but the Japanese menu, taste and quality is so much better than those you find at typical food courts. All 3 dishes below only came to a total of $14. Bargain! And let me tell ya, the Udon soup on the right, they used the good japanese udon that has that slight chewy texture, not the cheaper version you can find in the cheaper normal supermarket fridge. The curry was really good too. The only really bad food at this joint, and it's been twice already so I know it's not a  one off, is the corn. It's overcooked and very very tasteless! I'm a corn lover and both times unfortunately I couldn't even finish the corn...that's how bad it is.....The Aglio Olio spaghetti accompanying the grilled black pepper chicken was overcooked - so was not al dente. My guess is the noodles have been cooked earlier and have been sitting around too long. They should perhaps cook it less than al dente earlier, then finish it off when they get an order.

Japanese Ebi (prawn) curry rice, Udon soup, Grilled Black Pepper Chicken with Aglio Olio spaghetti, corn and coleslaw.

Shabu Sushi Restaurant at Hougang Mall and NEX

I like the concept of this restaurant where the items for your steamboat comes around a conveyor belt just like the sushi places. Would could be funner than that! We've eaten at the NEX outlet several times. It's inexpensive especially for kids and senior citizens and students. Which would explain why it's getting more and more crowded these days and since it's a buffet waiting for a table can take forever. The NEX outlet is also a bit cramped.

You get to choose from 2 or 3 different stocks - sukiyaki, Tom yum and chicken I think it was. Nothing fantastic really, standard stock, we usually choose sukiyaki and Tom yum.

NEX outlet

Recently we tried the Hougang Mall outlet. It was TERRIBLE! Not sure if it's always like that but you can bet we'll never go back there again. Staff attention was pretty lame and they ran out of ice for the drinks (at 8pm!). The sushi and other 'hot food' was pretty crummy too. One of the worst things there is the lighting. They have this horrible disco light affect overhead that changes from green to red to yellow to blue. Argh it was horrible, gave us a headache.

NEX outlet. Lots of dipping sauces available.

Fresh prawns are available at both outlets.

So in short, try the NEX one and avoid the Hougang one if you can!

Angry Birds fish cakes,

some other shaped fish cakes....these were tough

happy camper :)

Tom Yum soup base with the overhead funky lights reflecting off the soup (at Hougang)

Faulty Indesit oven Thermostat (in Singapore)

I have a built in Indesit oven that's been around for about 9 years. For a couple of years now it hasn't really been working well. It's always too hot and my Mum kept blaming it on the grill heating elements on the top part of the oven. But I kept on telling her it's normal for the oven to turn on the top heating element too as that's how it heats up the oven. But more often than not, it keeps burning my food or if underbaking whatever cake or bread I'm making, so much till I've pretty much given up baking altogether.

Like I said, it's been a couple of years not that it hasn't been working well, and only now did I decide to research as to what the problem could be. From looking around at different forums and sites etc, it seems to be that the thermostat is faulty, that's why no matter what temperature you put the oven on, it's always at its hottest. Unfortunately there's nothing much on how much thermostat repairs would cost in Singapore. So I've written this to share with anyone else who's got similar problems. I've called up a couple of repairman and their basic transport cost to come take a look is $35-$40 and then if there's need to change anything, the spareparts alone would cost a whopping $200-$400!!!

So I've decided I'm just going to just replace it with a new oven, you can get a brand new oven for just a little bit more. Better than getting it fixed and a couple of years down the track there's some other problem with it!

Hot Tomato at NEX

Not a bad place to eat. There's not many places that offer steaks for under $15 in a restaurant setting. The food quality was quite good, only wish there was more of it but hey for the price you're paying I guess can't complain much. I ordered the steak and prawn combo plus the lunch set which included a drink and soup of the day. Including gst and service charge all up was about $18.

Kids dentist in Singapore Part 2

Today we took my little darling back to GPA Dental to see Dr Jason because I felt that the abscess was returning. Despite the fact that Dr Shafiq from Q&M told us that it's ok and the medicine he put in the tooth would make it better over time. I am super glad to have listened to my Mother.s instinct or intuition. For days I had kept on checking her tooth and I really didn't feel right about it. Dr Shafiq had assured us that it'd be ok till after our two week Holiday. When we saw Dr Jason we found out what a botched up job Dr Shafiq did. Not only was my little one traumatised by his very bad treatment of the situation and what I can only perceive as inexperience, but upon further checking, Dr Jason said there didn't seem to be any medicine inside the tooth that was supposed to treat the infection!! WTH! I couldn't believe it and it also turns out that the pulp wasn't cleaned properly during the so called baby root canal! To add further disbelief, we were really shocked to find out that a stainless steel crown isn't necessary on her since the tooth isn't damaged!! How could Dr Shafiq have been so wrong in his approach to her case??? You should've seen the look my husband and I shot each other, it was shock, disbelief and relief. I really really thank God. Maybe in some way through C's ordeal, we were able to find the best treatment for our child. God knows how everything would have turned out had we let him continue treating C. It makes me so mad to know that medical professionals whom we put our trust in actually in the end can't be trusted. How are we supposed to be able to discern what is right or wrong? So here's a warning to other parents looking for a good dentist for the kids. Do not go to Dr Shafiq at Q&M city square. Go to GPA Dental, it's worth the extra penny you pay. Money you can always earn but the trust of a child can be crushed with just one visit to an inexperienced dentist and may take many years to rebuild.

Kids Dentist In Singapore

As if being a parent isn't hard enough, bringing your kid to the dentist and being told she needs this and this work done just adds more to your feelings of inadequacy at being a parent. So I just wanted to share my experiences with all of you on bringing your child to the dentist, from finding a suitable one, to our experiences with them. And if you're like me, who obsess over things that's beyond your control, and research after research just to prepare yourself and to make you feel better, than I hope this posting can help in some way.

My daughter who is now 5 years old has always had a lot of teeth problems, and no she doesn't eat sweet stuff or drink from a bottle. But when she was younger she hated brushing her teeth (still does now but is more strictly enforced). So as a consequence she had lots of cavities on her teeth and I can tell you that sometimes dentists can make you feel horrible about yourself and what a terrible job you did as a parent in taking care of your child's teeth. So if anyone's feeling down about what the dentist has said to you, I know how it feels.

The first time we brought her to the dentist was because she chipped her front tooth when she fell down. For a while we actually left it thinking it would just fall off eventually anyay since it was a baby tooth. But we were wrong, the tooth started showing signs of decay so we no choice had to bring her to the dentist.

Finding the right dentist that suits yours and your child's needs is basically trial and error. We visited DP Dental at Kovan because it was close to our place and also because I visited them before too and thought overall it was a good professional practice. Generally, and not because I'm up myself, I avoid going to dentists located underneath HDBs that look a little too run down for me to be convinced that they'd have adequate modern equipment. Perhaps i'm swayed by the nice facade of modern dentists in the malls. The first visit to patch up the tooth was fine and went smoothly. We went back again a year or two later when the patch on the tooth fell off. That was when a big cavity was discovered. But unfortunately the dentist wasn't competent enough to deal with my kid when it came time to drill because she kept saying her tongue was in the way. And you could tell she was getting exasperated. So they said they can refer us to a pediatric dentist. But I didnt think it was necessary to go through pediatric dentist, thinking of how much the costs would be, consultation alone with a specialist would be like $80. Plus I had called up a couple and their appointments were booked up usually for several weeks.

After much research we went to GPA @United Square because it had a kids room. I can say that I'm satisfied with GPA only because I think the dentists are very professional and experienced in dealing with kids and that their consultation fees is reasonably (around $35). They knew how to handle them, talk to them nicely to put them at ease and they are able to complete the jobs quite fast (compared to our experience at DP Dental). Also the equipment they use are scaled down to children's size, including the seats. There's also a tv overhead that the children can watch while work is getting done on their teeth. But on the downside they are on the expensive side if you can't use CDA account to pay. One filling was $120 not including gst!

On a recent visit to get fillings, it was discovered that she had a swelling on her gum right underneath her molar. This is called an Abscess and is basically a pocket of pus from an infection in the tooth or root of the tooth. Usually it's accompanied by pain, but my girl didn't feel any pain at all. Worst thing was when the dentist asked, did the previous Dr drill very deep into the tooth last time. How are we supposed to know, it was done at your clinic...so are you saying your Dr caused this, I wanted to say. Anyway, to treat it they gave a course of antibiotics to see if the swelling would go down and if not then she would have to do a root canal. A root canal on a 5 year old! Extraction isn't recommended if the tooth can be saved because she won't be losing the tooth naturally till she's 12. Apparently this is quite common (though we'd never heard of it).

So we went for a second opinion at Q&M at City Square (also based on the fact they had a kids room). The dentist also confirmed she needed a baby root canal. I figured ok since we were there already might as well get it done there and probably cheaper too. They quoted $300 for the root canal and $300 for the stainless steel crown to be done in a second procedure. Price wise I figured it would probably be cheaper than GPA. But after it was done, I really regretted going there. The Dr was insensitive to my child's needs, when she cried halfway because she said she felt pain from the drilling, he kept saying she shouldn't feel any pain as the tooth is dead and rather sternly said to her Why you crying?! I know for a fact that kind of talking doesn't work on my child. It was very heartbreaking. How does he know her surrounding teeth don't feel the pain? After a week, we came back to have the tooth patched and crown put on it. But because the swelling hadn't fully subsided he wanted to take out the temporary medicine filling in the tooth, which meant drilling the tooth again. My child was already traumatised the first time and cried immediately and said NO and refused to open her mouth and said she wanted to go to the other dentist. I tried to persuade her as best as I could while the Dr looked on and glanced at his watch. After about 20mins it was concluded that he won't be able to do it in this state and that was that. What annoyed me was they still charged us $50 for consultation fee! Just for him to watch me for 20mins trying to calm my child down! All in all, I was really disappointed with them. For DP Dental and GPA, both took photos of her teeth before and after the procedures for record keeping. I felt like they were better equipped with good technology and showed us her teeth on the computer screen before proceeding with any procedures. On hindsight this was probably a red flag I should have picked up when the Dr at Q&M didn't do any of that.

So although I can pretty much guarantee we will end up paying much more in the end at GPA dental, I think they are the best for us. Had we not been so concerned about finding a cheaper dentist, we could have saved ourselves a bunch of trauma and heartache. Now I can only hope that when we go back to GPA, she will cooperate and not cry......I'm scared she's so traumatised that we'll have no option but to put her under.....

Doing the Dukan Diet in Singapore

I have in all honesty never ever gone on a diet before. Growing up I was a stick thin kid, it wasn't till after Uni that the weight started to pile on...little by little....then marriage and pregnancy happened....and then well I pretty much physically turned into a different person. I don't know how anyone in Singapore can stay so thin, ok perhaps they have an active life etc, which was what I had in oz, but not here, but there's so much good food everywhere you look! It's not food is just found in shopping centre food courts, it is literally within reach here. Sometimes shopping centres have 2 food courts AND  a basement dedicated to the selling of food!

So after my recent trip to US, stepping on the scales when we got back I gasped and literally stared in disbelief and horror. I won't tell you how much I weighed cos it's just far too embarrasing. On the plus side, I am tall for a Chinese girl (I think), I'm 1.7m - but I am sadly overweight. But if I were short, I would look completely pudgy at the weight that I was at.

I desperately wanted to lose weight and was wishing that there was a Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers in Singapore. I wasn't going to fork out thousands of dollars at slimming centres that just leech off your wallet. And by chance I came across an article about the Dukan Diet in some magazine and it mentioned that Kate the royal and her mother had gone on this diet prior to her big shin dig, and JLo was also a big fan of the diet. So off I went and ordered the book.

Now diets really terrify me, just the thought of having to restrict yourself etc...I didn't think I had that kind of will power. But after reading the book, it seemed 'easy' enough and vowed that I'd stick to it. So to make a long story short, I started the diet 16th December and since then I have lost 5.5kgs and about 9-10cm off my waist. The difference is incredible, I feel so great because I know I look better. The diet was definitely hard to begin with, I did pure proteins for 5 days and tried to stick to the book as much as possible. Cheated here and there with tomato sauce etc that you're not supposed to have. And I endured Christmas and Chinese New Year (where I did cheat many times) and have kept the 5.5kgs off. I haven't reached my target weight yet, but to think how far I've come, I'm really proud of myself.

You'd think doing a western diet in Singapore would be difficult, as most of the recipes they offer is western. But surprisingly you can find a lot of the things you need for this diet at the regular supermarket. For example, Oat Bran, No Fat No Sugar added Yogurt and low fat cottage cheese and you can even find 0.01% milk at the bigger supermarkets. Now days they even have Fat Free cream cheese and in some superrmarkets you'll be able to find Non Fat, No sugar added Jell-O....although the price is a little bit more expensive, it's worth it if you're craving sweet stuff. Just too bad in Singapore there aren't much variety on Diet drinks which are permitted on the diet. So you're basically stuck on just drinking Coke Light/Zero or Pepzi Light/Max...which gets boring after a while. Sugar substitutes are also a bit expensive, I found that Equal was the cheapest amongst the brands. Beef is also more expensive here than in the west, but if you go to certain Cold Storages you can find marked down beef cuts which helps on the pocket.

In terms of exercise I don't do much simply because I don't have the time, I only walk my kid to and fro school which amounts to about 40mins a day. Perhaps if I did more exercise I would be able to lose more weight? But anyway, I am happy with the results and have realised it's also about changing habits and the way you normally eat. You do get used to it...but temptations are always there especially if you have a family.

Oh and another thing that I think might make this diet difficult for Singaporeans is you do HAVE to cook on this diet. There is no way around it since it is a High Protein diet which means you have to cook your meats, chicken, seafood etc - unless you survive on sashimi all day long....And when it comes time to Protein and Veg days on the Cruise Phase, you either have to eat a salad which I know is not favourable by a lot of singaporeans simply because they're not used to eating raw veg, or you'll have to go and cook your green veg like Kangkong, Wombok, etc....So it can be time consuming if you're not used to cooking.

If you are thinking of trying a diet, this diet really does work, give it a go, what have you got to lose? :)