Dim Sum at Wah Lok, Carlton Hotel

Met up with 2 of my buddies, J & J, for dim sum at Wah Lok Chinese Restaurant in Carlton Hotel over the weekend. Have not met my buddies for a long time, so it was a little catching up time.

I could not remember if I had dined in Wah Lok before. I think many many years ago, we did had a birthday celebration for Grandma there. Now Carlton Hotel is newly renovated and quite posh.  I remember when we just started working years ago, my buddies and I would meet up and sometime we went to the cafe at Carlton Hotel for buffet or late night coffee and spent the entire night there chatting till the wee hours of the morning. 

Here's the dim sum spread....... appetiser was French Beans with Dried Shrimps with a sweet tangy chilli taste and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun or Char Siew Bo Luo Bao which were luckily smaller in size than the usual Bo Luo buns. These are one of the restaurant's signature dim sum dish.

I like Bo Luo buns... and the char siew (roasted pork) inside was not too excessive which was just went well with the pastry. 

Fried Prawn Fritters with Salad Cream.

This is one of the recommended dim sum dish in Wah Lok - Steamed Carrot Cake. It was a wetter version than usual with the sauce.  It must be taken when still hot.

Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf. Inside was chopped small pieces of char siew, chinese mushroom, and diced meat stuffed inside the glutinous rice. Again this must be eaten hot, otherwise I find it a little too hard for my liking.

What is dim sum without Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings) and ......

..... Siew Mai (Steamed pork dumplings with prawns and topped with diced salted egg yolk).

This was a little unusual, Steamed Chilli Fish Head which came in little pieces which buddy wanted to try. Not bad, slightly different from the usual Sauteed Chicken Feed. We were supposed to relish sucking at the bones, I think.

The other buddy, Rich Friend, wanted a veg dish - Spinach With 3 Types of Eggs (Century Egg, Salted Egg and Chicken Egg). The gravy was very flavourful. Yummeh! 

For desserts, these were miniature Egg Tarts which had fluffy and flaky pastry. Nice egg fillings which were not too heavy.

These were Baked Custard Pastry and sprinkled with icing sugar. Nice ending to a relatively filling dim sum lunch.

Buddies gave me an early birthday present, chunky necklace with bracelet.  Classic and nice, eh? I love them and I'll try to wear them. Just that nowadays, I'm a little too lazy to put on too many accessories. LOL!

Rich Friend showed me a pix of her Muffy, whom I've not seen for some time. Still as nua and mild as before, and he hardly barks. 

Thanks buddies, for the dim sum treat and gift!

Received with thanks!

Received a nice personalised email from Amitabha Buddhist Centre, an affiliate of FPMT. This is what CRM (customer relationship management) should be about.... except they didn't have to be so precise of what my age is. Hahaha! This is especially meaningful to me because it is from ABC, and not from some insurance company or spa.

.

Dear (my name),

For your XX birthday, we wish you long life, superb health and every happiness!

To celebrate your special day, you are included in our prayers and dedications for our monthly Animal Liberation.

Wishing you many happy and auspicious returns! May you receive the blessings of the Three Jewels always!

With prayers _/|\_

Amitabha Buddhist Centre

BTW, thanks to all who sent me sms, emails, tweets and Facebook messages (and they're still coming in). I'm not one who likes to celebrate my birthdays, as I do not think it should be a great deal and I'm shy. I even disabled my 'wall' in Facebook so that nobody can write on my wall, and so that not many people will know. Keeping a low profile (almost all the people in FB do not know about my blog actually). But instead, friends and even some celebrities sent FB private messages to me, which surprised and touched me greatly. Thanks to all my friends and acquaintances, may they all receive the same blessings I received in return and many times more!!!

Happy Birthday to the Living Buddha!

Today 6 July is His Holiness The Dalai Lama's 75th birthday. 

Whenever I listen to His Holiness' teachings, or just by looking at him, I would feel so touched by him. One can feel his compassion. Inevitably, most times there will be tears of joy.

My guru, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche always reminds us that it is through the kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama that we have been able to meet the teachings of the Buddha. His Holiness' 75th birthday is a wonderful opportunity to recall that kindness and to offer prayers. May His Holiness The Dalai Lama continue to enjoy good health and a very long life. May this Living Buddha, a manifestation of Chenrezig (Kuan Yin), the Bodhisattva of Compassion, remain with us till samsara ends. 

Said His Holiness:

"It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act. There are two aspects to action. One is to overcome the distortions and afflictions of your own mind, that is, in terms of calming and eventually dispelling anger. This is action out of compassion. The other is more social, more public. When something needs to be done in the world to rectify the wrongs, if one is really concerned with benefitting others, one needs to be engaged, involved."

Oh, and today is my birthday as well. Heheh.... I share the same birthday as His Holiness. I am sincerely grateful for his immense blessings, in one way or another. Om mani padme hum!  _/\_

Me receiving blessings from my root guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.  I am happy with the dream I had of Rinpoche a few weeks ago where he gave me lots of gifts, which included some Dharma pills, a red string (we normally receive this blessed string from the lama), a white khata, and some books. ;D

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."

My mom has finally stopped working about a month ago. Even though she had officially left the civil service  about a decade ago, mom had continued to work in other places which were open to employing retirees. My mom is a mild mannered person who worked diligently serving some top ranks of people in the civil service in the old days.

Mom is not someone who likes to or plays politics at work, so more often than not, she would be the one being bullied if anything else. Hence we supported her decision to stop working, even though she likes to work (to keep the mind active). 

As her children, my sis and I would not allow my mom to be bullied by anyone. However, my mom is a forgiving person, and she does not like to 'stir up' things. Otherwise I would have insisted on 'voicing out' to the higher authorities, to see justice be done for her and also to ensure the same plight does not happen to other victims who may be old retirees who do not know how to fight for their own rights. In true Buddhist fashion, in this episode, I have learnt from my mom, to be willing to forgive someone who made us really angry (despite all the sabotages and pent-up frustrations), and instead, be extra nice to our said enemies.

Anyway, she had a nice farewell by her fellow colleagues and the students, who wrote her letters, cards, made stuff for her, and bought her little gifts.  Sometimes, adults have a thing or two to learn from kids. Kids do not hide their feelings, and are more sincere.

Sweet writings of thanks and their thoughts.... they made my mom smile and so happy and touched with their innocent gestures. At least mom knows that her efforts at work have not been in vain.  At least the students appreciated her.

One of them made this little wood carving and painted on it....

..... and the behind "we will miss you"..... awwww..... so sweet... There was another handmade gift - a personal photo and frame - for the memories. 

Now that my mom has retired (again), she is going to enjoy life in her twilight years, going out and meeting her friends, more time for her hobbies like beads and flower arrangement, and she now has time to go for early morning walks. And sometime this week, she is going on a cruise again with her friends, to ... ahem..... try her luck at the jackpot in the casino, just for the fun of it. 

Oh and with mom at home nowadays, I do not need to cook anymore and I get to enjoy her home-cooked dishes instead. :D

Like they say... "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."  (quote by Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes).  Here's wishing my mom a sweet retirement.

Rich & good rollin' in!

This is a scheduled post. I'm so busy! 

I was a little surprised when I heard of the name of this shop " Rich & Good Cake Shop". It is such a simple sounding name, and as the shop owner said, they are just a simple cake shop located in Kandahar Street.

Rich & Good specialises in swiss rolls with many different flavours - Kaya, Blueberry, Chocolate, Coffee, Durian, Green Tea, Mango, Strawberry, Orange and others.  Above 2 photos taken from their Facebook page.

The best seller is the Kaya roll. Sis made bro-in-law drive her down to Kandahar Street just to buy a few rolls of the delicious swiss rolls. The packaging is a long and simple looking box.

Kaya was fragrant and not too sweet. Such a nice hue.

They make very good tea time snacks or for parties.

We also tried the Durian Roll, oolalaa...... the creamy paste was thick and bursting with taste of real durian. It is best eaten when chilled.

Here's the address if you would like to try these delectable swiss rolls.  A nice change from the usual bakeries and Bengawan Solo swiss rolls.

Shipshape for better or worse?

It was raining heavily again today as I passed by the newly opened Marina Bay Sands Hotel / Resort / Convention and Casino. Can you see the Sky Park at the top of the hotel? Don't you think it looks like and is shaped like a ship? 

This Sands SkyPark is designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and it floats atop the three soaring Marina Bay Sands hotel towering 200m in the sky.  And have you wonder why Singapore has been having unbelievable floods these few weeks, which coincided with the opening of the Marina Bay Sand? 

I heard somewhere a fengshui master mentioned because this gigantic roof top looks like a ship so high, it would make the rest of Singapore land appear to be below sea level, and hence, that is why we are getting floods, which is something that rarely happens! Morever, usually in the middle of the year, Singapore should be the hottest during the May - July period. Instead it has been raining cats and dogs, with floods!

I wonder who did the fengshui for the Marina Bay Sands?  From the fengshui angle, if the cause of the floods is indeed due to the 'ship', are we going to be "drowned" soon?  Hope the people at the higher level do something to avert this or have a fengshui cure in place soon. 

Maybe they should convert the 'ship' into a 'plane', soaring up the sky! More auspicious, ain't it?! 

In my opinion, they should have designed the 'ship' on the ground level, as well as a 'plane' on the roof top sky park.  Anyway, Singaporeans are known for being 'kiasu' (unwilling-to-lose spirit), right?