The Horse Year @ Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple [洛陽大伯公宫]

The lunar new year is a huge event in Singapore and like many Chinese all around the world, it is celebrated for the first fifteen days, most of which are sessions after sessions of visitations to the houses of relatives and friends!

Another popular activity is to visit the temples and the first one i went to was the well known Loyang Tua Pek Kong, which moved to its current premise in 2007.

I had been to the temple countless times but i have never encountered a time when the open space next to the temple was converted into a huge carpark to accommodate devotees! There were even traffic marshals engaged to direct traffic! 

A few highlights were installed to celebrate the start of the horse year; one of which was this gigantic status of the fortune god who is always a great favourite among Chinese. 

It's a pity the statue wasn't given the mechanical component to sprinkle gold paper with 4D numbers. If it does, i can guarantee a much bigger crowd surrounding it and waiting patiently for the papers. 

Many people are curious on how they would fare in the horse year and you can find out via the panels that were sorted according to the animal zodiac sign you fall under! 

My fortune (i am a Monkey) seemed to be quite bad for career and wealth. :(

For the benefit of my Indian friends, you can share this with your family and friends borne in the monkey year! Sorry i was unable to take pictures of the write up for the other zodiac signs! 

Aim for good luck by ringing the bell using any coin you might have in your pockets. A fool proof way to beat the system is to change A LOT of coins and throw them all at the same time!

Panels lined the narrow road that led motorists to the temporary car park. I thought they were just for decorative purposes and provided a different "view" for drivers like myself.

They were photo backdrops!! I cannot understand why the committee would want to place them so near to the main ingress / egress to the car park! Tsk tsk tsk, no sense of safety consideration!

I mentioned one highlight just now. The other one came in the form of two living things in front of the big vertical banner (featuring galloping horses) to the left of the above photograph! 

Two live horses!!!!!! Oh my god, that's so bloody appropriate for the horse year and maybe that's the reason why there were so many people on the night i visited!

The Chinese character for horse is 马. The Chinese character for on is 上. The Chinese character for money is 钱. Those two aforementioned characters, when place side by side as in 马上, mean immediately. 

Hence, the Chinese came up with their own symbolic interpretation by literally placing money on the horses (马上有钱) which can be translated as "immediately have money"! 

Entering the main temple compound! I can so imagine the size of the crowd that stopped by the temple on new year's eve and it would definitely be a lot more than what you can see here. 

A bigger table was even set up to accommodate the expected increase in praying items! 

Devotees lighting up the incense sticks. The temple has "ten" stations in total with each station commanding a patronage of one to five incense sticks. 

What i totally didn't expect was the long queue of devotees, with their hand grasping a thick bundle of lighted incense sticks, trying to get in! Environmental activists would not be happy to see this sight. 

The internal section housing the central altar would likely have a PSI that exceeded the record Singapore experienced last year. Air pollution aside, it was the smoke that frustrated me; i was tearing quite badly!!

Another two pictures to show how bad it was! 

Tua Pek Kong statue! From my understanding, this deity can only be found in Southeast Asia, mainly in Singapore and Malaysia. You may check out the wikipedia page for more information.

Regular visitors to the loyang tua pek kong would know what this is for. Those who are unaware might have waved it off as a stone with no value and wonder incredulously why someone would put a stone on a pedestal.

Unlock its secret by purchasing a special incense and placing it right in front of the stone. Take a step back and observe. For those lucky ones, they would be able to see numbers appearing against the rough stone surface. What is the use of those numbers? Buy 4D or TOTO lah! The stone is supposed to be very efficacious!

There is another way to strike it big although it is not as effective; vandalise the poor horsey by writing down the numbers you wish to be the winning numbers for the next lottery and then, pray. 

Pray really, really hard.

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Location

20, Loyang Way

Directions

Once you exit from Tampines Expressway to Loyang Avenue, drive straight and turn left once you see adoring lights enticing you to do so. 

Note

I believe (no, i cannot guarantee) the live horses and gigantic fortune god statue would stay until the 15th day of the horse year which means you would have 14th February to catch them at Loyang Tua Pek Kong temple!

Original KL Hokkien Mee - The Real Deal (Lian Bee Hokkien Mee 联美福建 面) @ Kuala Lumpur [Malaysia]

The great Kon was insistent that i have gone to the wrong place when i blogged about this supposedly authentic KL hokkien mee at Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur known as Kim Lian Kee. 

He remembered clearly the shop he went to was extremely dirty and the environment was far from being a "restaurant" concept. I thought he could have recollected wrongly until a reader commented the same thing as well!

Hence, in my most recent trip, i was determined to find out the actual location of this original KL hokkien mee shop and came upon Lian Bee after checking with a few friendly locals in the Chinatown vicinity. 

At first glance, i admit i was almost hesitant to step further. 

It was nestled in the back lane, sandwiched between two rows of shophouses; one of which housed an eatery. That should not pose a problem; if not for the fact that i was nearly splashed with dirty water by one of the kitchen staff from that eatery! There were also quite a couple of black flies that seemed to have made the street stall their home. 

Thankfully, Dad didn't complain (a rarity) and i happily plonked myself onto the plastic chair after ordering two items; the signature KL hokkien mee and bee hoon.

Bee Hoon

I have no doubt the wok essence was intensely infused into the vermicelli but at the back of my tongue, it was a tad too dry for my liking. Most tze char stalls in Singapore would make it wetter coupled with a savouriness that was more irresistible!

KL Hokkien Mee

This was just EPIC!!!!!!

The noodles didn't feature that overwhelming alkaline taste detested by many friends, the texture complemented perfectly with the thick glossy black sauce and the wok hei was obviously a key player in upping the taste / smell factor! 

I did complain about the pathetic serving of crispy pork lard in Kim Lian Kee. It was another story altogether in Lian Bee; i had the good  fortune that day to bite into many enormous pieces of extremely yummy yet terribly sinful pork lard! Maybe that's why the mee tasted so so so so so good!

The best KL hokkien mee so far! 

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Location

Along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lok, 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Map

As above.  It's actually very easy to find; just remember Lian Bee is opposite the Chinese style arch along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lok; cross the traffic light (if you are at the main entrance of Petaling street) and turn to your left. 

Opening Hours
Open daily from 4.30 till 10.30pm.
Closed on Tuesdays.

Menu

As above

Price

Small - RM 6.50

Medium - RM 11.00

Large - RM 13.00

Arnold's Chicken in Yishun! @ Yishun Ten Complex [Beside Northpoint]

I like deep fried chicken and frequently mentioned to my friends that KFC is seriously overrated in this contemporary time we live in when there are just too many worthy competitors like Popeye and Texas.

My favourite, in case you are unaware, is still Arnold's Chicken. However, it only has a few branches in Singapore, none of which was near to my home or workplace. 

Until recently! 

There is now a new outlet in Yishun 10 that opened its business just a few weeks ago! Knowing that the queue would be crazy, i opted to visit during the supposedly lull period at close to 5pm.

The queue was as long as i expected; at least not on the same, torturing scale we often encountered at its original branch at City Plaza.

However, what we didn't expect was that this queue was only for us to make our orders. A number would be then be given for us to WAIT for payment at another counter; hence the significantly larger group loitering outside the eatery.

It was another delay of ten to fifteen minutes before we made payment (upon seeing our queue number on the LED display) and a table was assigned to us. Business must be roaring as the waiting game continued for an additional twenty minutes before our two persons combo meal was finally served!

Soup of the day was mushroom soup - despite its bland and watered down appearance, it had a thick texture and tasted pretty flavourful. For that pricing though, i would have anticipated more slices of button mushrooms. 

Arnolds fried chicken has two major selling points; one, its assurance that the farms chickens are delivered fresh everyday to the outlets. Two, the superbly thin and crispy chicken fat that was a big plus point for me.

I should have been satisfied. 

But, i am not. 

There seemed to be a significant thicker layer of fats with a soggier feel to it that kind of put me off. Was there something inherently wrong with the recipe or it has something to do with the outlet being too new (as my mom said, the fryer might not be "seasoned" enough)? 

Guess i have to visit City Plaza soon... :( 

After CNY, for sure. 

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Location

51, Yishun Central 1, 

#01-04, Yishun 10

Price

2 Persons Combo Meal - S$23.70

Soup of the Day - S$3.20

[Nett as GST is already included]

Menu

As above

Review of NS Golden Green Serviced Suite @ Berjaya Times Square [Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia]

Berjaya Times Square, with its more than ten levels of retail therapy and Malaysia's biggest indoor theme park, is no stranger to many frequent visitors. I have been wanting to stay at the hotel wing since it started operation ten years ago but budget consideration was always on the back of my head. 

Travelling with my parents this time, i decided to splurge a bit more by checking out Berjaya Times Square hotel (which also has the added advantage of being very close to the place where we would take the coach back to Singapore).

Imagine my confusion when i clicked on the map function for Agoda.com; how come there are so many hotels WITHIN Times Square?! Many of them were in fact clusters of service apartments located in the East Tower (otherwise known as Tower A). 

Since i have to book for a three-bedder anyway and the indicative price was pretty reasonable, i opted for the superior suite at NS Golden Green Serviced Suite!

Let's start with the good things; first of which was the fantastic, panoramic view at the suite assigned to us on the 28th floor! Even my parents were kind of taken aback by the breathtaking scene since they knew i am a miser when it comes to overseas accommodation. 

The suite was large and even came with an attached living room! 

In addition to a fridge and wash basin, there was even a microwave oven! Honestly, we didn't use any of them although i believe i might likely fill the fridge with ice cream, yakult and soft drinks if i went with the Gang of Four. 

A comfortable double bed and a single bed! I admit the furnishing could do with a bit of touch up although decoration, or the lack of it, has never been much of a problem for me, 

Bathroom and washroom were separated - as you could probably gauge from the above, it was a good sized washroom rarely found in hotels without paying top prices. 

Even the bathroom came with both shower and long bath facilities! 

Complimentary wifi in room could sometimes mean a few rooms sharing the same wireless signal. In this serviced apartment, you are guaranteed to have your own router which means surfing was WAY faster! 

You are also given access to the swimming pool and fitness centre; none of which i made use of. In fact, i didn't even have the time to check out the fitness centre! 

Young kids might also enjoy the small playground next to the pool. Older kids should consider paying Cosmo World indoor amusement park a visit instead! 

Just to give you a basic understanding of the suite, you may refer to the not-to-scale floor plan i drew for your easy reference. 

Now's the time to rant about the bad things we encountered. There was no physical counter for you to check in and you MUST make a phone call to a Malaysian number printed on the hotel voucher. Someone would then meet you OUTSIDE Tower A aka Berjaya Times Square East (not Tower B, where the hotel's check in counters were located).

This same person would then bring you up to a non-airconditioned hotel room on the 22nd level where there is a counter for you to pay your deposit and collect your room cards. 

The sight that greeted us as we entered the suite was shocking; bed that had not been tidied up, rubbish bin was filled up to the brim and litter was everywhere! This is the first time i have had such an experience!

Bad luck continued with issues like CRT television wasn't working (due to a loose cable), no towel, password for router was incorrect etc. Thankfully, the Bangladeshi worker was able to rectify them when we returned to the suite a few hours later. 

Another problem was one of inconveniences. The use of access cards for rooms is common practice among hotels. However, it has a much wider use here and you NEED it to enter the main lobby, exit to the shopping centre and even to press the 28th floor button in the lift! 

Most people would disregard the terms and conditions sheet. I happened to glance through and you know what i found? Daily housekeeping is from 9.30am till 5.00pm and there is no such service on Sunday! I could only wish clean freaks all the best if they happen to book for NS Golden Green Serviced Suite...

p.s. i am unsure if this is the same situation with the rest of the serviced suites in Berjaya Times Square that are operated by different companies.

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Location

East Wing (Tower A), Times Square,

No 1, Jalan Imbi, Bukit Bintang,

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Price via Agoda.com

One night stay on Saturday - S$93.48

[no breakfast and includes all taxes]