5th Anniversary at Ocean Restaurant

12 November 2013 was our 5th Dating Anniversary ♥.

To celebrate the special occasion (which i requested for both of us not to work), Mr. Tan brought me to Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora for lunch.

Ocean Restaurant 

8 Sentosa Gateway

Resort World Sentosa (RWS)

Tel: 6577 8888

Opening hours: 11am to 10.30pm

We were seated at the table just next to the Aquarium, yay!

The Lunch Menu

(Click to view details)

You can either go for ala carte or pay $60+++ for the 3 course set meal. We chose the latter as it seemed to be more worth it. I'm not sure what's good on the menu though and asked the waiter to recommend me.

My starter - 42 degree Sous Vide Salmon

(The salmon was very fresh)

His starter - Cabbage bacon soup

(Not bad, but not much of bacon taste)

My main - Roasted Lamb Rump

(The portion was pretty small but the taste is good! Love the sauce which went well with the lamb)

His main - Braised 'Boneless' Wagyu Short Rib

(this taste even better than my Lamb Rust. Love the sauce too!)

My dessert - Mont Blanc

(Not a fan of chestnut but I'm a sucker for hazelnut)

His dessert - Chocolate Passion

(No comments as I prefer my dessert to be sweet to sour)

We reached there at about 12pm and it was pretty empty with just 3 tables occupied (1 including us, 1 table with a couple and another with a family). Surprisingly at about 1pm, the place was filled up (mainly with bussinessmen).

I didn't really take many photos inside Ocean Restaurant as it was pretty dark. Love the ambience and settings inside though.

Happy 5th Anniversary my ♥

Despite my 公主病 (this sums up how terrible I am most of the time sometimes), I'm truly grateful that I still mean this in your heart.

Next month, same day will be our first wedding anniversary and I'm looking forward to celebrate it in Krabi (just another excuse to get out of SG :p).

Hai Di Lao Hot Pot 海底捞

I love eating steamboat especially eating home-prepared steamboat which taste the best (in my opinion).

I went Hai Di Lao few months ago with my colleagues and I fell in love with it. Told myself that I must bring Jeff there soon to try. Today is the day since we are both on leave and able to go during non-peak hours.

Hai Di Lao Hot Pot (海底捞）

3D River Valley Road

#02-04

Tel: 6337 8627

Opening hours: 10.30am to 3am

Do call in advance if you are planning to go on Fridays/weekends during dinner time as its always fully booked. Unless you don't mind walking in and wait for hours.

We reached there at 1.30pm and the place was 3/5 filled. 

There were many soup base to choose from (e.g. chicken, seafood, mala, tomato etc). I tried chicken + mala on my first visit and the mala gave me ulcers the following day. Guess it's too 'heaty' for my liking. 

We chose chicken + tomato ($20)

Jeff was skeptical about the tomato soup base as he is never a fan of tomato soup (I'm a fan though) but I'm glad that he enjoyed it as much as I did.

The chicken soup was boiled with black chicken and it taste so damn good (no doubt on the quality).

Happy lunch = Happy me

There are many things I like about Hai Di Lao. Apart from the quality of food and awesome service, another good thing is that most of the items on the menu comes in half portion. This means that you can still order a variety of food even though there are only 2 of you. 

Below is what we ordered (I think we over ordered. Opps) :

1) Handmade noodle (拉面)

2) Chicken 

3) Scallops

4) Beef

5) Pork Belly

6) Black Pork 

7) Luncheon meat

8) Pork intestines 

9) Crispy pancake 

10) Rice cakes

11) Quail eggs

12) Wintermelon

13) Meat ball platter

14) Mushroom platter

Do order the handmade noodle if its your first visit to catch the 'live performance'. Play the video below to view the recorded performance.

My BLOATED tummy expression

The bill came up to $123.58 for both of us, a little pricey but its WORTH IT. I seriously don't feel like eating steamboat anywhere else except for Hai Di Lao, Jpot (another fav) and home.

Hai Di Lao, I will be back for you soon! But please open more outlets in SG. 

Korea (Seoul) Trip Part III (Lotte World, Lotte Mart, Yoogane)

Day 3 (27 Oct 2013, Tuesday)

 OOTD:

Striped knit tunic - Fairebelle

Stocking - Korea

Sneakers - New Balance 574

Both of us wore our new kicks that we bought the night before

First thing on the itinerary for day 3 was Lotte World which is an indoor theme park. I'm a sucker for theme parks even though I'm not as brave as before. Was contemplating between Lotte World and Everland and chose the former becos:

• The reviews are better
• More accessible

Lotteworld 

 Direction: Located at Exit #4 of Jamsil Station on Subway Line #2 and #8

Operating Hours: 09:30 to 23:00

Full day passport: ₩44,000 (adult)

We met up with Melvin and Shenlyn (my cousin & his gf) to visit Lotte World together. Melvin highly recommend us to a sushi-look-alike- thingy which is selling at one of the stalls at Jamsil station. 

This is how it looks like when you tear off the aluminium foil

(I know it doesn't look appetizing) 

The fillings inside - crabmeat + corn

(the combi is perfect!)

We reached Lotte World at about 10am and there wasn't a long queue to purchase the admission ticket, phew!

Our passport to F-U-N

Halloween was approaching when we were there and the theme park was decorated according to Halloween theme

I was so happy to see lockers available at the theme park and immediately dashed to put my bag in one of them. I couldn't recall if the locker fee is ₩1,500 or ₩2,000. Anyway, take out the admission ticket and don't leave it in the locker cos you will be asked to produce the ticket every single time when you want to take a ride. Silly me happily chuck the ticket inside my bag and locked it in the locker. I had to unlock the locker to take out the admission ticket and spent money to lock the locker again

I didn't expect that the first ride that I take at Lotte World would be Giant Loop. It's a 360 degree turn ride. I felt that my blood vessels were going to explode anytime when I was hanging upside down but thank god it wasn't for too long.

The viking ship at Lotte World is the scariest one that I ever took in my life. The highest point that the ship can go is really high up. Check it out in the video below.

Random photo 1

Random photo 2

Random photo 3

We moved on to Magic Island which is an outdoor section which I didn't know about it at all. I didn't bring a jacket out and was FREEZING throughout while queuing for the rides.

The rides at Magic Island (outdoor section) are definitely much more thrilling as compared to the indoor rides. Not very ideal for me cos my guts have shrunk many years ago. The boys and Shenlyn were happy though.

Took me a lot of courage to take those not-for-the-faint-hearted rides but I'm glad I tried them at the end of the day. 

My must-eat at Theme Parks - Churros

I chose white chocolate dip to go with the Churros which is perfect for my sweet tooth

We spent about 5.5 hours at the Lotte World theme park and left  before 4pm to shop at Lotte World Duty Free which is a 5 mins walk from the theme park.

Lotte World Duty Free

Add: 10th Fl. Lotte DPT Jamsil, 240, Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul

Exit 3 of Jamsil station of subway line

Operating hours:  09:30 - 21:00

http://en.lottedfs.com/branchGuide/3/intro#n

My objective to go Lotte World Duty Free was to check out the MCM boutique. I paid for a bag with a Visa credit card and there was an additional 10% off. YAY! 

I'm a happy girl!

All the items at Lotte World Duty Free are priced in USD, however you can choose your preferred currency if you are paying by card.

We took a rather long walk to our next destination - Riverbom Cafe (a lookout cafe).

Saw this beautiful sunset view while walking

We finally reach our destination after walking for about 20 mins.

Riverbom Cafe

Direction: Take Line #2 to Jamsil Stn, Exit 7 and walk for about 10 min toward Jamsil Bridge 

Operating Hours: 11:00 to 23:00

I heard that the night view there is awesome, but due to time constraint we had to leave before the sky turns dark and head to our next destination.

We took the subway to Seoul station for junk food shopping at Lotte Mart (this is one of the destinations that I was looking forward the most. I'm a 100% junk food addict).

Lotte Mart

Add: 426 Cheongpar, Jung-gu, Seoul

 Seoul Station Exit 1

Operating Hours: 10:00 to 24:00

Lotte Mart is so prominent that you won't miss it when you exit from the station.

It a super huge supermart (similiar to Giant in SG) which sells almost everything. You can find beauty brands there too (e.g The Face Shop, Etude House etc). 

Hello Kitty!

Hello Kitty traditional Korean chopsticks + spoon + carrying pouch.

 I don't really like the grip of Korean chopsticks but I bought it in the end cos its too cute to say no to it.

Almost bought this but figured out that I'm not a fan of strawberry toothpaste. Okay, this is for kids actually and I'm too old for it :(

This is so damn awesome and I regretted not buying a few more back.

One of the must-buy at Korea (I personally like this very much)

Another must-buy 

Rice cake chips

(I love this but Mr. Tan said that its a little sweet for his liking)

Crispy peanut candy (I love this!)

This custard candy taste so-so to me

I bought some other snacks which I didn't take photo as I was too excited in grabbing snacks from the shelves. Hehe

Me with a trolley of happiness

Took a cab back to our hotel to put down our shopping bags amd grab our jackets to battle with the cold wind before heading out again for dinner.

Yoogane (유가네) 

Myeongdong outlet

Add:  66-6, Chungmuro 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-710 

Myeongdong Station, line 4, exit 6

Direction: Turn right after Uniqlo. Yoogane is on your left.

It's not difficult to spot the restaurant, just keep a lookout for bright yellow/orange signboard

Click to view details of the menu

 The interior of the restaurant

There are PRCs working at the restaurant we had no issue with ordering at all. We ordered marinated chicken galbi & marinated chicken galbi + octupus. 

Don't worry about dirtying your hands to fry the ingredients as the staff will walk around to help you with it.

When the ingredients were still uncooked

All ready to be gobbled down into our empty stomach

This is one of the best meal that we had during our trip. We wanted to go back there again but realised that we had no time and extra tummy space. I guess we have to wait till Mar 2015 when we are going Seoul again for our photoshoot.

We shopped awhile at Myengdong after dinner and I was convinced to buy ₩150,000 worth of things at Etude House for an additional 30% off the whole bill. 

It's quite easy to earn my women's money

We went Dongdaemun for late night shopping (Doota and Good Mornng City). I didn't really buy anything except a dress for work which I managed to find a shop which sells office dresses that are suitable for SG. I was quite disappointed with the shopping at Dongdaemun actually.

Loots of the day:

1) New Balance running shoes (hopefully I will be motivated to run more often)
2) Beauty buys from Etude House
3) Hera BB Cushion (bought it at Duty Free)
4) Dress from Dongdaemun
5) MCM bag

Stay tuned for part IV! :)