Friday 28 February 2014

Bird's Nest

Ardon was coughing badly a few weeks ago. He had seen the doctor and took a few doses of the cough mixture given. However, he still had phlegm in his throat and was not able to get it out completely. The cough mixture would cause drowsiness, so he was reluctant to continue taking it as it would interfere with his daily activities. 

Then, I remembered bird's nest had worked wonders for him when he was a child. Since he had been coughing for about 2 weeks, I thought we should give the bird's nest a try again. 

Bird's nest is known to contain many antioxidants, amino acids, collagen, protein and many other nutrients. It can help to boost immunity.

So I began my search for more information on bird's nest and here's what I had found:

1. The best time to take bird's nest is in the morning before food or night time before sleeping (helps us to sleep better too). Next would be 2 hours between meals. 

2. The quantity of bird's nest to consume every day should be between 1 to 5 g. Below 1 g, it is ineffective. If we consume more than 5 g, the human body cannot absorb that much and hence, would be wasted.

After doing all the research, we went to Hock Hua Tonic. After checking with the staff on the different bird's nest options and efficacy, we decided on a set that contains 2 g of bird's nest in each bottle.  






After drinking 2 bottles on two consecutive mornings, Ardon said he felt that the phlegm had turned thinner and was easier to cough out. He drank another bottle two days later and, since then, he had recovered. 

Personally, I feel that bird's nest is one of those few tonics that are not bitter. They are usually double boiled with rock sugar which makes it even more palatable. It's a good choice to start for taking tonics. However, be careful not to "overdose". As with all food, eat tonics in moderation too (unless you have a prescription).



[S$89.00][HOCKHUA]HOCKHUA TONIC|金牛特级冰糖/泡参洞燕(配套)|Golden Cow Special Grade Birdnest with Rock Sugar and Ginseng Set|6 Bot x 150g|Store Pickup Available|
WWW.QOO10.SG

Sunday 23 February 2014

Yam Paste Dessert (Orh Nee)

I had about 200 g of yam left after using some to cook yam rice. So I decided to try and make some Yam Paste Dessert (Orh Nee) from the yam that I had left.


Ingredients:

200 g yam (cut into slices or cubes)
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
75 ml of coconut milk (I used the "kara" brand)
70 g of sugar


Steps:


1. Put the yam cubes on a steamer rack together with some pandan leaves and steam for about 15 min until the yam cubes turn soft. 





2. Once the yam cubes are soft, switch off the fire and mash the yam cubes.

3. Add cooking oil, coconut milk and sugar to the mashed yam. Place this mixture in a small slow cooker and brew it for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. This is also a good way to keep the yam paste warm. 

I prefer my orh nee to have some yam cubes in it for the texture, so I didn't bother to blend the mixture.

Orh Nee in slow cooker

Above is a picture of the Orh Nee with half the amount left in the slow cooker.

Tasted good. Maybe next time, I can add pumpkin :) .



Note: Most recipes require that we put cooking oil, the mashed yam, sugar and coconut milk in a cooking pan and stir the mixture constantly. I was too lazy to keep an eye on the fire and stir constantly. So I used the slow cooker instead. Using the slow cooker also means it takes longer to cook to the required consistency. 

Saturday 22 February 2014

Cast of 《信约:动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times"

The names of the actors and actresses who will be cast in 《信约:动荡的年代》"The Journey: Tumultuous Times" were released yesterday on xinmsn.com.

Jeanette Aw will be acting as Hong Ming Hui and Andie Chen will be acting as Hong Dang Yong - the children of Hong Shi and Yazi. Romeo Tan will be acting as Zhang Yan, the son of Zhang Tianpeng and Mingzhu. Felicia Chin will be acting as Zhang Min, the adopted daughter of the Zhang Tianying and Huiniang. The actor to portray the son of Zhang Tianying and Huiniang has yet to be confirmed. Click here for details.

As what I have expected, the story of《信约:动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times" will revolve around the children of the three couples ( Hong Shitou and Yazi, Zhang Tianying and Huiniang, Zhang Tianpeng and Mingzhu).

Tumultuous Times will be set in Singapore during the 1940s to 1960s and slated for a year-end broadcast in November this year. 

Looking forward to it. 




Tuesday 18 February 2014

《潜行狙击》 ("Lives of Omission")

潜行狙击("Lives of Omission") is a 2011 Hong Kong television drama produced by TVB that is currently airing on MediaCorp Channel U at 10 pm, every Mondays to Fridays.

One of the main characters in the drama was "Laughing Sir" (played by Michael Tse 谢天华). This character was a spin off from the TVB's successful television crime drama 学警狙击 (Emergency Unit), another drama that I had enjoyed watching.

In 《潜行狙击("Lives of Omission"), "Laughing Sir" was an experienced undercover officer and had returned to the Hong Kong Police Force force working as station sergeant of the Criminal Intelligence Bureau (CIB).

It was very interesting and exciting to watch the police officers going undercover, how they went about busting those crime syndicates and catching the criminals. 

Last night, Tarzan (a drug dealer) and his triad members were caught by the police just when Lajiang (a leader and member of the Yee Fung triad, played by Ben Wong 黄智贤 ) was leaving Tarzan's territory after striking a deal with Tarzan. In the meantime, Michael (played by Bosco Wong 黄宗泽), Laughing's informant, burnt the warehouse of Tarzan which contained the drug Ketamine. I had thought it was Michael who called the police to get rid of Lajiang. We were in for a surprise. 

The next scene, Harry Kung (played by Damian Lau 刘松仁), the senior superintendent of CIB, came into the interrogation room. Lajiang told Harry Kung that he just happened to go there to relief himself. Harry claimed that Lajiang's acting skills were too lousy. Lajiang further said that he was sent by Harry to go undercover in the Yee Fung triad for many years and nobody had ever suspected him. That was quite unexpected. Interesting! 

We wondered how many more undercover officers were there in Yee Fung triad that were not made known to us yet? We shall see... 










Monday 3 February 2014

River Hongbao 2014 and City Square Mall

It's been a long time since I last went to the River Hongbao.


This year, we did most of our house visiting on the first day of the Lunar New Year. So on the second day, we only needed to visit one relative's place for a lunchtime gathering. After the lunchtime gathering, we went to the River Hongbao.

Thee moment we reached the River Hongbao, we saw some rides available in the sheltered part of it. However, those rides seemed to be for smaller kids which was not suitable for bigger kids like Lynn. Anyway, Sera also wanted to ride on the bigger carousel, so we went to the open area. Before we found the carousel, we took some pictures along the way.





Surprisingly, there was no queue at the carousel ride, so the kids could start the ride almost immediately. The horses and sea horses were too high for them, so the staff helped to carry the kids up to the rides.


Next, the kids wanted to take the bumper car ride. There was a short queue there. So we waited for a short while before the kids could get on the ride.





After those rides, we just wandered around to take some pictures.






The good thing about going in the afternoon was the lighting was good for photo taking. The bad thing, of course, was the scorching heat from the sun. Sera couldn't stand the heat so she used an umbrella to cover her face even during phototaking, lol!

Later in the day, we went to City Square Mall. We were surprised to find these Chinese New Year decorations. There were pictures of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs and the outlook for each zodiac sign in the year of the horse. Sera posed with all the 12 Chinese zodiac signs. Here are just some of the photos we took of her posing with the signs.







Many shops were closed at City Square Mall on 1 Feb 2014. However, there were some books and shoes on sale on the first floor. We managed to find some items that we liked. :)