Dian Xiao Er

Interior of Dian Xiao Er

My all time favorite restaurant in Singapore is Dian Xiao Er located in Vivo City. My hubby and I actually chanced across this restaurant when we were wandering aimlessly for the first time in Vivo City. Since then, everytime we make a trip down to Singapore, we will stop by Dian Xiao Er to have lunch before we leave for home. Again, I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant shop front (I was too busy taking pictures of the food), so please visit Dian Xiao Er's website here to learn more.

This restaurant's specialty is Herbal Roasted Duck with either Angelica Herbs, Ten Wonder Herbs or Wild Ginseng. If you ask people who know me, I do not typically like to eat duck at all. But something changes in me when I'm at this restaurant and I can eat a whole lot of duck! This time, we ordered 2 portions of duck (each portion is a quarter of a duck). One prepared with Ten Wonder Herbs and the other with Angelica Herbs (or Tong Kwai). The food looks too good to collate into one picture so this is going to be a 'long' posting.

Herbal Roasted Duck with Angelica Herbs

Herbal Roasted Duck with Ten Wonder Herbs

The ducks are uber yummilicious of course, but also very tender and juicy. If you are not fan of Chinese herbs, then you might want to skip this one. But if you are, try it and you will not regret it.

We also ordered 'Dong Po' pork this time (we were just too greedy) as it was supposed to be a Chef's Recommendation on the menu. I found the pork to be fatty (as it has to be for this particular dish) but there was a lot of lean meat as well.

Dong Po Pork

And finally, we must have a vegetable dish right? :) So we ordered Baby Kailan with Salted Fish. This was also very well prepared and was very tasty.

Just look at what we ordered just between the two of us!!! So sinful!!!

Oh, did I mention that all these dishes took less than 10 minutes to arrive from the time we ordered?? That's the other reason I love this place. Good food, great service and efficient as well!

If you are the first 10 diners between 11.30 a.m. and 12 p.m., they will give you 15% off the entire bill.

The restaurant has many outlets but if you're in Vivo City, it's on the 2nd Floor next to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Parlour. It's opening hours are as follows:

Monday to Friday : 11.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

(last order is at 9.30 p.m.)

Weekend and Public Holiday : 11.30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

(last order is at 9.30 p.m.)

Bon Apetite!

New Collection by Edera Jewelry

Clemence Earrings

Anya Earrings

Thetis Earrings

Delphine Petit-Four Earrings

I was so excited when I found Edera Jewelry as it was exactly what I had been looking for. Edera Jewelry is the brainchild of Ivy Long, who has been creating unique and meticulously handcrafted jewelry for ten years. Her signature craft involves meticulous interweavings of silk, gold and silver thread, embroidery, semi precious stones, vintage beads and handcrafted chains.

Edera Jewelry has created 4 pieces exclusively for Serenity Gemz (as pictured above) and is currently not available for sale anywhere else in Asia. For more information about the individual pieces and for the prices, please visit Serenity Gemz.

You need only to have a closer look and see all the work and love that has gone into the weaving and beading of these creations. Truly an exquisite, one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art.

New Collection at Serenity Gemz

Serenity Gemz has just added to its list of quality handcrafted jewelry, a collection by Lotus Jewelry Studio flown in all the way from USA. This collection basically consists of sterling silver round tags which are either hand stamped with initials in script font style or with words such as 'Peace', 'Hope', 'Faith' and 'Luck'. 16 inch chains are included with the tags.

Each necklace is priced at RM 175.

20% discount is given on ALL items until 30th September 2009!

Well Cook Gourmet

Isn't that an interesting name for a restaurant? I wonder what the owner was trying to express..Why wasn't it Well Cooked or Cook Well? Hahahhaa. Anyway, this restaurant is located in Subang Jaya and was actually featured in The Star newspapers a couple of weeks back. The restaurant is predominantly famous for its Fried Laksa which is essentially your normal Assam Laksa, but in dry form. I found it to be very tasty since I've never had sort of noodles in fried form before. Hope that makes sense. However, although the Fried Laksa is the specialty, the menu has a pretty decent variety. We also tried the Claypot Curry Laksa which I thought had enough oommph in it and was tasty without being too spicy. So hard to find good curry laksa nowadays. :)

Fried Laksa

Claypot Curry Laksa

The other things on their menu are nasi lemak, fried rice, fried kuay teow, claypot yee mee, prawn noodles (soup) and others. I'm so sorry but I still forget to take down details!!! It's pretty much your normal hawker fare but the pricing is reasonable and what is important, is that the restaurant is clean. :) The individual dishes are probably priced around RM6-RM7 per plate/bowl.

Details as follows:

Well Cook Gourmet

No.74, Jalan SS14/2, 47500, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Opening hours : 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.

You can also see more pictures at their own blogspot at www.wellcookgourmet.blogspot.com. :)

Benefit Powder Pop! Palette

This posting is about my impulsive purchase recently from Strawberrynet.com. I found out about this website from a few friends and also some literature that I had come across. It is a website that sells skincare, haircare, perfume and also cosmetics. This is a Hong Kong based website and it ships FREE WORLDWIDE for most items. If you are a loyal customer, your discount on items increases with the number of times you purchase from them. My package came in about 5 - 7 days from the time I ordered it.

I recently purchased the Benefit Powder Pop! Palette from them as it was only retailing at USD15 and it had 3 shades of the Benefit Powder, namely Dandelion (a brightening face powder), Hoola (a bronzing face powder) and Dallas (an outdoor glow for an indoor gal face powder). But when the item finally arrived, it was much smaller in size than I thought. Each square that you see in the picture only measures about 3 cm x 3 cm. It also comes with a miniature version of the actual brush but since it was so small, I wanted to try using my normal face brushes. Alas, the square is so small that my other brushes simply cannot fit in it to pick up the powder! Hahahaha. So I guess I'll have to settle for using the small tinny bitty brush!

Angsana Bintan

This posting is about a trip I made to Bintan, Indonesia in November 2008 with my two girlfriends. It's a little bit outdated in that sense, but I really liked the place so thought I should blog about it. There are no flights from Malaysia to Bintan, so you would have to get yourself to Singapore, then leave for Bintan via ferry from there. The ferry ride only takes approximately 40 minutes from Singapore to Bintan.

My friends and I decided to stay at Angsana Bintan. It's not one of those hotels where rooms are in chalet form but the rooms are nice enough. Even with triple sharing, there was ample space to move around.

View from hotel room and picture of room from different view

View of hotel and entrance of Angsana Spa

The beach strip along Angsana is clean and the waters are crystal clear. I'm not someone who normally likes swimming in the ocean but I would gladly do so at this place. :) I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures so you're gonna have to take my word for it! :)

If you are a spa enthusiast, you will be able to pamper yourself at the Angsana Spa. The ambience was lovely and the therapists are friendly and helpful. When you decide on any specific treatment, you also have the option to choose to have it done either in an outdoor environment, i.e. in a sort of pagola type of area or indoors where there is air condition. I did not have a massage but did have a foot massage, pedicure and paraffin wax treatment for both feet.


I only have one complaint based on my experience. The therapist was trying to detach our (my friend and I) skin from our feet!!! I have never had paraffin wax treatment and was always apprehensive because, I mean, it's hot wax!!! So anyway, the therapists started with my friend and she was grimacing in pain as they asked her to put her whole feet into the tub filled with the hot wax. In the end, she just could not do it, and the therapist used a brush to brush the wax onto her feet. It was still agonising! Needless to say, I looked on in horror as I knew it was my turn next.

When it came to my turn, the wax was still HOT HOT HOT!! I thought they were mad for asking me to try to soak my whole feet in the tub! I refused and they started brushing the wax onto my feet. I swore that I would never try it again. It was just SO NOT WORTH it for the price I was paying. Hahaha.


However, on a side note, I thought I would brave it again at my usual nail salon. And what do I find?? No PAIN!! The wax was just warm and the effect after was really good. It effectively seals in the moisture in your feet. So that's how I know they were trying to kill us in Bintan!!


Back to Bintan...the only downside for Angsana is that there is only one restaurant in the resort. You could opt to have dinner on the beach but that would be a special arrangement for which you would have to fork out extra. There is supposed to be another Pantai Grill & Bar but for some reason, we did not have any meals there, nor do I remember ever seeing it.

Angsana Bintan is located right next to Banyan Tree Resort & Spa Bintan. The two hotels share the same beach but you would pay an arm and a leg to stay at Banyan Tree. And if you are a guest of Angsana, you can dine at any of the restaurants in Banyan Tree and they would just charge the bill to your room in Angsana. But you will not be allowed to use the facilities at Banyan Tree.

I don't remember doing much else but I do remember that the price of the room was reasonable and it would be a nice place to go again, maybe with my hubby the next time. :)

Thai Aromatherapy Massage

Massage is one of my favorite words of all time..Hahaha. When I was working, I used to have a massage once every week to de-stress and get all the knots out of my aching back. Since I stopped working, I feel guilty whenever I go for massages since I'm not supposed to have any stress! But I feel that massages are good to improve your blood circulation so that's my excuse now to go.

My favorite place to go for a massage is Touches de Siam located on the 2nd Floor of Centrepoint, Bandar Utama. This is my favorite only because the masseuse there has incredible massage skills and will loosen any knot you might have! I've been going to her for some years now. Previously, the centre only carried out aromatherapy massages for women, but they have now extended the service to men as well. Now my hubby can experience the fantastic massage I've always told him about. :)

The centre also offers foot massages, half body massages, traditional thai massages, thai herbal therapy massages and sports massages. For full price list and range of services, please click here.

Touches de Siam is part of the Thai Odyssey group which has branches everywhere. It's flagship outlet is located in Tropicana Golf and Country Resort with 6,000 sq ft of space, but is currently undergoing renovations. Read more about the Group here.

Touches de Siam's contact details as follows:

S13, 2nd Floor, Centrepoint Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya.

Telephone Number : 03 - 7710 7866

Masseuse's Name : Nim

Enjoy!