Christmas Presents 2015

Receiving presents during Christmas was such a joyous affair when i was younger but as i grow older, i wonder on the contemporary purpose for giving out presents; is it an act of gratefulness, expectation or maybe something else? 

To me, it has always been a gesture for showing my thanks to people whom i treasure and value. At this stage of life, i no longer crave for presents and i am not those who put a ranking order based on monetary value for those gifts. It's truly the thought that counts. 

Hence, many thanks to those who took the time and effort to buy me presents! I know how tiring it can be to buy presents and even i am contemplating if there could be a more meaningful spin to it; for example, donating the money to a charitable organisation like Action For Singapore Dogs. 

The Eye Popping Treasure Realm @ Diablo 3 [Reaper of Souls]

I finally got my hands on the Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo 3 during the Cyber Monday sale and the only regret i have is not buying it much earlier! 

Remember the colourful rainbow realm of Whismsydale? That's nothing compared to the treasure portal in the Adventure Mode of Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls; fitting to its name, the portal displays a shimmering golden aura that bedazzled me after i silenced the treasure goblin.

Known as "The Vault", you can just imagine the amount of treasures and gold coins that can be found in its vicinity. I have a rough inkling but it still didn't prepare me!

The gold coins can hit up to as much as over 100,000 coins and i wasn't excessively equipped with treasure hunting which would have increased the rate for more coins and rare items.

Treasure piles were located randomly throughout the map. Scroll your mouse over and click it to break it open. Alternatively, kill the minions that were scattered over the place; in my case, the arrows would likely hit something. 

See how much gold coins and jewels i have in my taking! At that point, i had less than 200,000 coins and by the time i exited from the realm, i have more than 7,000,000 and this didn't include the legendary items, plans, items and jewels! 

Like in a bank, there were a few protections although i was glad it didn't require me to do any serious thinking by solving difficult puzzles etc. What i did was just to click to open the door. 

Last section of the map, the inner sanctum, was the most interesting.

I totally didn't expect a "boss" level monster to reside there! 'Greed' was his name before i mercilessly killed him off to satisfy that anticipation of what i could gather from his death. 

Greed' Strongbox - our dear friend's most treasured possession. 

With three legendary items and over a million coins in a single pile! There's one item that you could not get from anywhere else except from within "the vault". 

"Boon of the Hoarder" - to be inserted into socketed jewelry, it has a 25% chance of having an explosion of coin golds when you kill an enemy! Now, i just need to find a high level socketed jewelry that doesn't reduce my overall damage. 

======

Map of "The Vault"

As above.

Check Out The Persimmon Plantations @ Guilin [Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China]

Impressive karst formations would slowly take over the landscape as our coach exited Guangdong province and entered into Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. However, there's another sight that would no doubt attract your attention! 

Along the way at a specific region, you would find many houses with trays and trays of orange-like fruits that were put out to be sun-dried. I noted from the signboards along the expressway that we were quite near a city known as Gongcheng (恭城).

It only took me mere seconds to realise why that name rang a bell in my memory! Those who follow my postings on the Lunar New Year bazaars at Singapore's Chinatown would have seen quite a few pictures of the dried persimmons that were on sale and they often had the label "恭城柿饼"! 

When the coach stopped at a petrol kiosk for us to have a toilet break (and for the vehicle to have its meal), many of us couldn't resist crossing the road to a small persimmon plantation next to the roadside. 

Still pictures can only do so much; with my very own eyes, i have seen entire hills filled with trees with ripe persimmons ready for picking! My younger sister should move here, given her deep love for the fruit! 

A few differences i noticed from the persimmons in Korea; the ones at Gongcheng were larger and the trees were a lot shorter. I didn't try any persimmons that day but i did manage to buy some sun-dried ones when we were at Yangshuo. 

=====

For the itinerary of my tour package (guaranteed no shopping stops) to Guilin via Chan Brothers, please check out the link here.

Old Airport Road Hawker Centre Western Barbeque Chicken Chop 2015!

The problem with frequent blogging is the risk of forgetting that i have covered a place before and write about it again; this post for the western stall at Old Airport Road Food Centre shall fall under the aforementioned description as i managed to pull out the review from here! 

Nevertheless, it was a "fail" visit four years ago and i guess it would only do the stall justice if i give it another chance. As mentioned previously, food taste can deviate with many factors affecting the experience; be it chef's mood, your mood, difference in ingredients etc etc. 

Have i mentioned before that i miss the good old days when such buns were slightly toasted and smeared with a layer of delicious, melted butter? I absolutely dislike the commercial "ready to eat" version commonly seen in such Western food stalls nowadays. 

This time, i was way happier with the taste of the chicken chop and thought the stall had gotten back its magic touch with the honeyed marination i personally preferred and encountered a long time ago. 

It would have been a good meal if not for the fact that a small section of the chicken chop was served raw! Unbelievable and a total wet blanket even though Alex had perfectly fine chicken chops the past two times he dropped by! So, this brings to mind another factor affecting taste; luck. :(

=====

Location

Block 51, Old Airport Road, #01-53, 

Old Airport Road Market & Food Centre 

Pricing

Chicken Chop - S$6.00

Instant Tteokbokki - Korean Rice Cake in a Convenient Cup! @ Big Box [Jurong East]

Tteokbokki, Korean Rice Cake, isn't something i crave about even when i was in Korea but Alex's very good table tennis kaki could not stop singing praises on the Line chat group about an instant Tteokbokki cup he found at Jurong East Big Box.

He eventually bought like over twenty in one go and kindly passed us one to try. Actually, it was for me since our poor Alex doesn't know how to enjoy spicy stuff. 

Inside the cup were just two packs of ingredients; one contained hard, uncooked pieces of rice cake and the other was supposedly the sauce that, in my honest opinion, either make or break a serving of Tteokbokki. 

Now comes the problem; there's no English instruction on what i should do!!!! And being the good and efficient Singaporean that i truly am, i am at a fix when there's a lack of direction! How can!? 

Thankfully, i remember Alex's friend had posted the English instructions for us on the Line app and i took quite a while to search for it! As i am not into microwaved food, i opted for the second option! 

Do the pieces of rice cake remind you of something? For me, they kind of looked like plastic pieces and indeed, their texture was like plastic. 

I poured hot water in and instead of the recommended two, three minutes; waited for more than six minutes before i opened up the top and drained out excess water. 

Next would be the sauce! 

I greedily used my fork to pierce through a piece and popped in into my mouth. Expression was unbelievable; bloody thing hadn't softened!!! 

Mom came to the rescue and heated up the entire serving on the stove! Damn, the traditional method is nevertheless still the best. 

The texture improved markedly after mum's intervention although i could not quite agree that i enjoyed the tteokbokki. Guess the key issue was that i didn't drain out more water, resulting in an extremely diluted sweet and spicy sauce. 

Xeldon, can buy me another one? :P

=====

Where To Buy

From Big Box @ Jurong East

Pricing

One Cup - Less than S$3

Waan Waan Thai Coconut Ice Cream @ Old Airport Road [Singapore]

Go to Chatuchak Weekend Market at Bangkok and the one thing you die die must do is to indulge in an authentic serving of Thai style coconut ice cream served in a coconut husk! 

With Singapore being a melting pot of a wide variety of international cuisines, you don't even need to travel out of the country nowadays; at least not for the Thai coconut ice cream and it could be found in a place that's right smack in a common Singaporean heart. In this case, Old Airport Road Food Centre! 

The stall i patronised was Waan Waan Authentic Thai Coconut Ice Cream - frankly, the bright, cheery facade was a key motivator for me to give it a try as i had a heavy meal right before this! 

Standard order would be the classic with two scoops of ice cream (either coconut or mango) with five toppings (ruby, corn, chendol plus two other toppings of your choice) and i thought it should be sufficient for mom and i. Furthermore, i am on diet and doubt "the jumbo" would be beneficial to my never-ending crusade. 

At more than double the pricing, there was one notable difference from its original cousin back in Bangkok; size of the portion which was obviously much smaller here in Singapore! This translated into a reduced satisfaction although as a whole, it was still visually appealing and i have nothing to complain about as far as freshness of ingredients was concerned. 

Oh! Another teeny weeny complaint; the coconut meat could have been softer and sweeter! Before i travel to Bangkok again, i guess i don't have any choice but to continue paying the significantly higher price in order to enjoy the dessert. 

=====

Location

51 Old Airport Road #01-51, 

Old Airport Road Food Centre

Operating Hours

11.30am to 9.30pm

(Closed on Mondays)

Menu

As above (badly stitched photo). Aside from Thai coconut ice cream, you can also find another Thai-favourite dessert; the mango sticky rice!

Price

Classic Thai Coconut Ice Cream - S$4.90

Sky Facing Fruit / 向天果 (Xiang Tian Guo) - Said to be a Miracle Fruit that Can Cure Many Ailments!

It was my maternal grandfather's anniversary and i was tasked by my mom to visit my small uncle's place to pay my respects. With my stomach grumbling from a lack of food, i instinctively look around and noticed a canister of chips alike on the table.

From far, i thought they could have been freeze dried or deep fried banana chips although on a closer look, they seemed to be more like flower petals. 

Whatever the case, the tummy cannot wait and i was about to sink my teeth into a piece (biggest one i can find) when my cousin suddenly exclaimed: Wait!!!!

Oh, i was supposed to break it open and ingest only the "meat" inside; somewhat like eating melon seeds! Damn did i feel stupid even though most people would attempt to do the same as i did. 

The very much smaller "meat" - extracted from the sky facing fruit (or known simply as sky fruit), it's not your usual nut! Initially, it had a taste similar to ginseng but once you start to chew, be ready to have the bitterness imploding in your mouth! Never had the taste buds at the back of my throat been so energised!!! 

You may check out the expressions by my sister when she tried it. Note, it's recommended to have them after meals. If need be, prepare a glass of honey water to douse the bitterness once it hits you. 

Unless you have a penchant for the bitter taste, i would not have imagined anyone who is willing to have them. However, it was said to be a miracle fruit with numerous health claims; including the ability to counter high cholesterol, high blood pressure, impotency, bad breath, health disease, dementia and increase immunity. 

Are the claims reliable / proven? I am unsure but most people would not hesitate to give the fruit a try so long it isn't poisonous and isn't banned by the health authority. For more information (in English), check out the link here. 

=====

Where To Get Them

You can buy them from Chinese medicinal halls. Alternatively, the trees (Mahogany) can be found in Singapore and you may pick the fruits from the ground (once ripen, they would drop from the trees). One location is at the open air carpark in between block 424B and 423, Yishun! 

Note

Remember, you have the remove the "meat" from its inedible shell.