Happy New Year Eve - Wrapping up in 2021

Well, space and time had been running very fast especially during this pandemic year. More unhappy events had been happening from the 2nd quarter of 2021 and lasted till end of 3rd quarter of 2021. Ever since, I had already deleted all my social media accounts and to speed up with the recovery of life. End of third quarter of this year, I started AmateurCraft to focus on more important stuffs. Ending of last quarter 2021, I made more crazy proposal and executing more crazy stuffs out of my comfort zone. For my own forecast, I think the better days will start from 2nd quarter of 2022. 1st quarter of 2022 will be tough and more time to juggle both work, AmateurCraft and my personal matters which I will share with due course.

Gotten some spare money from Singapore Pools from my winning. Basically just misses some more numbers and I would get more thousands more to end the year. Well better than nothing. I will need to improve more Singapore Pool (SP) luck next year since I also studied at Singapore Polytechnic (SP) for several years :P

Nevertheless, 2021 is a year that made us grow strongly from the lowest ground of our life. Thanks to some of my close friends who really listen me out and there is nothing much I can do to salvage the loss. Everyone have their own UPs and DOWNs at different stages of their life. Hope all my readers have the guts and strength to face and resolve problems anything and anywhere. 2021 will always be remembered and looking forward to 2022 ! Wishes happy new year eve to everyone and enjoy your last day of 2021 to be the best and better than the previous years !

M&S Milk, Dark & White Selection Box [1KG]

A wonderful, 1KG and "atas" worth of Chocolates to pamper ourselves. Bought this box for $39.90 at Vivocity to start eating from Christmas Eve till now. Still could not finish the box as it is abit too sweet for our bodies now, so need to spend quite some time to spread out the intake. Overall i think it is a good box to enjoy during the festive season. If i am not wrong, when you head to M&S, this box is listed to be one of the top 10 chocolates to get.

In this box, there is a total of 10 different flavors of chocolates. I will give my personal rating of the chocolates as follows:

Honeycomb Crunch: 7/10 | Molten Toffee: 7/10 | Raspberry Cream: 7/10 | Chocolate Truffle: 8/10
Strawberry Cream: 8/10 | Lemon Cream: 6/10 | Flat White: 8/10 | Millionaire's: 8/10 | 

Coconut: 8/10 | Hazelnut Praline: 9/10

There are more costly editions in store, but so far this box is pretty good. Worth trying !

Newly Released McDonald Signature Burger - Angus Mushroom Supreme

Take Out their newly released McDonald Signature Burger, Angus Mushroom Supreme. They also have Sea Salt McFlurry. The Sea Salt McFlurry is not bad. Potato Wedges was good also.

But when it comes to the Angus Mushroom Supreme. It is totally different as compared to what they had market from their posters and media. It is so small that, the cheese is one slice, while poster show two. The mushroom i hardly can see or have in the burger. However, the beef is good. But somehow it defeat the purpose of being an Angus Mushroom Supreme. Should just name it as new CheeseBurger....

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee @ Killiney Rd

Ordered their Prawn Noodles and understand the reason why they got the Michelin Star. They really deserved it. The prawn noodle soup is really good ! I have not tried their "big big big big prawn noodles" yet, because i wanted to attempt on their basic prawn noodles first. Its quite pricy, but it is good. Suggest to add noodles or extra ingredients if you can eat alot. I saw staffs will add soup for customers. Observed that the customer order soup noodles, but I ordered dry one. The staff did not ask or approach to add soup for us. SO not sure whether does it apply only for the soup one. But seriously the soup base is very good. Very rich in taste. Gotta come again for the bigger prawn bowl in my next visit !

Wholemeal Molten Milo Lava Pau

For all the Milo lovers ! SMH Food launched a Wholemeal Molten Milo Lava Pau on 01 Oct 2021. It had since sold out a lot with many good reviews on this product. I tested it and wow its really good. Didn't expect Milo could blend in with Pau, because it doesn't seems so. But after trying, really understand why it is selling so well. But it quite pricy at $4.20 a pack. Milo filling is good portion though.

Ho Fook Hei Soy Sauce Chicken (好福气豉油鸡) @ Suntec City

Ordered the Half Soy Sauce Chicken with Rice and noodles for my wife. Smell and aesthetic looks of the dish is great. Apparently it is prepared with Specialty Rose Wine Soy Sauce, but maybe its just us. Don't really like the taste. I initally thought the chicken will taste like hot Soy sauce soaked with the chicken =X
However, i love the texture of the chicken, because its very tender, soft and silky ! The egg noodle although i didn't expect much, but it was actually good. So can still try it. Might be good depending on your taste preference.

Merry Christmas and Enjoy the Eevee Dance @ Sentosa

 

Merry Christmas to all viewers ! Enjoy this Pokemon Eevee Event at Sentosa which ends on 19 December 2021. Shot this one day before the last day and managed to complete my shooting before a heavy downpour. Enjoy the holidays and spend time with your family and friends !

Exploration of City Square Mall + Expensive Lunch xD

Quite a decent mall with many restaurants and retail shops. The iconic ones are Decathlon, Uniqlo, Don Don Donki, NTUC and a Golden Village Cinema. They already decorated the mall for Christmas with Pokemon theme. Many eateries and places to chill at.

Went up to have a simple lunch. Wah I got chopped xD This plate of "Cai Fan" cost $10.50. Ok lar, people will often say is because you have premium meat. Aiyah, actually there are many food court with different prices. I usually will ordered two meats, one egg and one vegetable. But still cannot beat my record =D The best record i had is having "Cai Fan" at Marina Bay Sand for $16.50, the same day I collected my iPhone 12 on the first day of launch and the new launch of Apple Store at MBS, so the $16.50 didn't dampen my feeling xD

Zion Road Fried Kway Teow @ Zion Riverside Food Centre

Personally not a fan of Fried Kway Teow, but because I'm at the area. While queuing, saw many people ordered the $8 plate which is like a lot ! Queued and waited around 20 minutes. I ordered the $5 plate and try it. Wow, its so good. Their Fried Kway Teow is the darker kind. One thing different from other fried kway teow was that they are very very generous with the number of ingredients, especially the fresh cockles. Its sweet and definitely have the "Wok-Hei" in this well cooked plate. Worth trying !

Happy Winter Solstice on 21 December 2021

Happy Winter Solstice or 冬至快乐 to all ! So I just had these as dinner yesterday to celebrate the festival. Actually there are many do and don't on this day, is for you to find out more as some is quite sensitive to younger children. According to my wife, when eating tangyuan, they must be eaten in even numbers and not odd numbers to have their desired effect on good fortune. So I am very concerned on this and I ate 20 and my wife ate 10 :) Wanted to get the peanut one that I preferred, but all were sold out. Bought 2 packets of this at a discount, as i think they are clearing stock.

Signature KOI with Alcohol :)

Finally got the chance to order their signature VSOP Chocolate on the right and Baileys Earl Grey on the left. Just to share the pricing, the Baileys Earl Grey is $8.10 and VSOP Chocolate is $10.60. There are currently only 5 premium KOI outlets at this point of writing namely - Jewel Changi Airport | Star Vista | ION Orchard | TANGS | Suntec City. You can also request for additional shot of alcohol if you want at additional cost. But i think it is enough as it had already overwrite the overall taste. For the VSOP Chocolate, the alcohol with chocolate combined have the thick taste. Baileys Earl Grey is not bad. Its light and smooth. They have quite a number of special drinks, non-alcohol also which is different from their normal branches. But its great to chill with these drinks at night.

[Long John Silver] 3 piece chicken meal

Been awhile since I had eaten at Long John Silver. Still remember the time I ate this same 3 piece chicken set 26 years ago at its first few outlet at Parkway Parade. It was $3.80. Now 26 years later, the same 3 piece chicken set is $6.90. 81.5% increase of the price. Inflation had comes so far. But so far, LJS had been maintaining their standard till date. In the past, i remembered they filled up your box with very generous amount of fried "crumbs". But at $6.90, still a decent fast-food meal to fill up your hungry stomach :)

McCafe Iced Americano @ Canberra Plaza

I think the best way to test the brew of the coffee beans is Espresso. But Espresso are usually drunk in the morning to give the ultimate kick to start off the day or Barista's breakfast. So for an afternoon tea, I still preferred Coffee, but mixed with either milk or water. I am having McDonald Cheesecake and Iced Americano to calm down my nerve. As a fast-food chain, one cannot expect too high. I felt McCafe Coffee is not that bad, but not fantastic. But its enough for anyone to enjoy.

Each A Cup - Purple Plum Tea & Cranberry Apple Fruit Tea

Happened to be at Holland Village at that time to whack the Kota Tinggi Bak Kut Teh, but turned out to be quite disappointing. Still preferred the Serangoon Outlet one. Ok back to main topic. My wife ordered the Purple Plum Tea and I order my regular Cranberry Apple Fruit Tea. I ordered the XL version, so its 1 litre. This Holland Village Each A Cup is good ! Not every Each A Cup drinks are made best at every outlet since it is largely franchise. So far, Holland Village and Wisteria Mall is good, the bad one i tried is at Jalan Kayu one. 

Pan-Fried Butter Salmon with Mayo

Just found out that the SCS Salted Butter i bought is not for spreading on bread T_T
Hence I got to utilize it somehow. Decided to make pan-fried salmon steak as dinner. Bought each raw Salmon steak per pax. Dry the salmon with kitchen tissue. Put butter on the frying pan, heated up the pan and slowly placed in the salmon. For myself, i prefer half-done, so I remove it earlier while cooking the other part longer for a fully done one. Add my beloved ajinomoto mayonnaise on it and really shiok :)

The Durian Lab @ Bukit Merah Lane

For the Durian and Dessert lovers, here is a very great place to be at. When I visited the place, i saw many people ordered and collected the whole cake. So seeing these, must be nice right? We ordered Mao Shan Wang Short Cake and Kueh Salat Cake. For drinks, as a coffee and durian lover, I ordered the Affogato and my wife ordered the Iced Shakerato.

Both of the cakes we tried are really tip top standard. However, there is one more best selling item we did not order or tried yet. Their best selling is still the Mao Shan Wang Burnt Cheesecake ! For the drinks, Iced Shakerato was fine, but the Affogato was very good ! Their Expresso shot is brewed on the spot from their Coffee Machine. When poured over the ice-cream, the bitterness with the sweetness is just bittersweet (Arbuden). Its perfect and really recommended to order their cakes !

SpringLeaf Prata Place @ Yishun Safra

Came to SpringLeaf Prata Place at Yishun Safra early morning. I ordered one Egg & Cheese, one plain, and one Plaster prata. SpringLeaf Prata Place's prata is on another level as compared to regular prata shop from kopitiam. I think is due to their dough and ingredient, they might be using the more premium ones. The curry sauce is also great. Definitely recommended !

Whats more interesting is that in their menu, they have the ultimate series which I think they compete in Prata competition. Their award winning ultimate series ranging from 2012 to 2020. My colleague ordered the Ultimate Series, 2020 - Das Pratwurst. From their menu, it is chicken sausage made from scratch, together with sauteed onions seasoned with currywurst sauce, sprinkled with curry powder with a serving of sauerkraut. My colleague said was very good ! Guess I shall try it soon ;D

Working on last Deepavali Public Holiday - Option for a quick Breakfast at Bugis 6am

All right, so as I was scheduled to work as early at 6.30am on a Public Holiday. I reached Bugis at 6am trying to find my quick breakfast. I know Bras Basah Complex have a 24 hours Coffee Shop, but lazy to eat noodles there. The coffee shop opposite Bugis Junction all is closed. Wanted to have like Roti Prata. Mcdonald also not opened. Even the 7 Eleven diagonally opposite the National Library is closed.

Fortunately, i saw another 7-Eleven outlet opposite Bras Basah complex is open. Went over and got the newly released Iced Milo in the form of 500ml Bottle. Got an Egg and Cheese Sandwich too, wanted to heat up from the microwave. But changed my mind after reading the wrapper stating that it is best consumed straight from the fridge. The iced Milo is not bad, but still far from the quality from the Milo Van usually available during my primary school days like Sports' Day event. The egg and cheese sandwich is not bad either as a quick breakfast. SO 24 hours 7-Eleven is quite important i guess :D

My Favourite Beer Can - Asahi Super "Dry"

Personal Preference -> Definitely one of the best beer in the world. Got this 2 cans for $10 at 7-Eleven. Cannot drink much anymore. Probably 500ml once a month. The beer is as smooth as draft beer. Can see most people drinks Carlsberg, Tiger, Heineken, quite boring. So far, I felt Japanese beer is not bad.

Irvins Spicy Salted Egg Fish Skin

Bought Irvins Spicy Salted Egg Fish Skin at $9. In SG, unfortunately fish products are always expensive. But let's just try this premium snack for once. Mmm, its always heart wobbling to open a Irvins snack package, not because of the smell or what, is because I do not want surprises like dead lizards inside. Seems that there is some incidents in the past, but hopefully don't let me encounter it =D

So after trying it. Not really spicy, but the salted egg infused fish skin is indeed the real deal. Its delicious and is seriously addictive as printed on their packet. Unfortunately, please do not share as this is only enough for one pax =D Worth trying it.

Arnold's @ Bedok during Weekend Work

Happened to be at Bedok while working in the area and its lunch time. Everywhere is crowded especially in the local hawker centres in the area. So looking for a quick meal with less crowd and chanced upon Arnolds there. Decided to order a half chicken set meal. Drinks doesn't go with drink :/ So ordered an additional Ice Lemon Tea. Apparently not a good cup of Ice Lemon Tea and its quite expensive at $3.50. Arnold's Chicken is great for its juicy and tender chicken. Not sure it is because of the outlet or timing, the chicken was not as great as the Yishun Outlet. So perhaps just a reminder that I try to avoid this Bedok outlet. Another interesting thing is the receipt had a toilet code, perhaps also to prevent Non-Ordering Customer to visit the toilet. Not sure whether is true to visit the toilet with a code as I did just finish my meal as quick as possible to rush to other places.

St Michel Madeleines - Traditional French Sponge Cakes

Bought is from local Supermarket NTUC. Its all individually packed, perfect for picnics, road trips or a simple high tea at home to go with Coffee and Tea. Price is around $3 to $4, but this is always out of stock. Quality is good where you usually see this for your high tea sessions at cafes. Worth to give it a try and enjoy your afternoon tea :)

Famous Malaysia Winner's Fried Chicken @ Bukit Merah Lane

 Went to try this Fried Chicken stall located at 119 Bukit Merah Lane 1, Singapore 151119. As the signboard goes, its a "Famous Malaysia Winner's Fried Chicken" store established since 1987.

Ordered a set of mixed parts chicken i think is 5 at $8.80. Their menu consists of different parts at different price. Well honest opinion is that it did not taste as good as it seems. Its not very marinated and do not have much taste. To describe it, it seems like placing raw chicken to just flour, egg and just deep fried. To be frank, ikea which just located opposite their store taste a lot better. Perhaps their quality of fried chicken had lose pace of the fierce competition in many fried chicken stores in Singapore. I still hope they can improve and the people here are always looking out for better taste food. Not recommended at this point of writing.

My Favourite Brand for Tomato Ketchup and Chilli Sauce

For western and finger food, my number 1 choice to go with is mayonnaise. But if we are talking about both Tomato and Chilli sauce, my favourite brand to go with is Farmland. From my Hans visit for the past 3 decades, they always uses Farmland Tomato and Chilli sauce. Throughout my childhood life till Adult life, I tried like SinSin, Maggi, Heinz, Lingham, Singlong, Woh Hup, and Nandos, still preferred farmland. Fortunately, farmland taste had been consistent throughout the years. SinSin garlic chilli sauce is the next best, its similar to McDonald's garlic chilli sauce. Nandos choice of sauce is best to go with meat, rather than french fries or potato wedges. 

Pho Street Vietnamese Cuisine @ Canberra Plaza

There are around 17 outlets in Singapore at this point of writing. Basically selling Vietnamese Street Food Cuisine in a comfortable setting. I had tried ordering a few dishes at their Canberra Plaza's outlet. Their menu is quite interesting and have many dishes to try. We ordered Dry Rice Vermicelli with Roasted LemonGrass Chicken, Spicy Pho Shredded Chicken Set with Roasted Chicken Skewers. For Drinks, we got the Vietnamese Three Colour Dessert and Iced Lemon Tea.

It does taste very authentic and the quality is certainly there since their "secret" broth is cooked for 8 hours. The quantity is almost there and priced all right for their sets. As they have many street snacks, I think this is good for having it as dinner or supper. Snack Platter is a great choice as finger food session with family and friends.

Heap Seng Leong | Speciality Kopi Guyou

First of all, a pretty nice and vintage place. Seats are limited and the queue is quite long when I reached around 9am+. Most people that are eating there will take their own sweet time even if they had finished their food. Food wise, is not as fantastic as most people reviewed. Ultimately, recommended to go there for the old classic looks.

 

The eggs are undercooked and not really consistent. He will beat the first egg onto the plate, undercook and he will place the beaten egg plate beside the basin while other people use to wash plate with soap there. After a while, he will beat the other egg which is more ok to add into the plate. Toast Bread seems normal. The coffee added with Butter does not feel rich as the one I went to JB several years ago. I got to be very honest with this. Do try it there. Its decent, but certainly not the best as it is not consisent. May be good or bad when you go there at different time. Of course price is very reasonable.

Li Xin Teochew Fishball Noodles @ Chai Chee

It's a simple meal and since I am going to Chai Chee early morning around 8am. I went to order a bowl of dry Fish Ball Noodle with chilli sauce. I got to say the fishball at Li Xin is really good. Its big and goes well with soy sauce chilli. Its a little on the pricier side and quantity of the noodle is little, but you will be able to add noodles, so no issue. Fishball is generous for 5 because its the big version instead of the regular size you get at local fishball stall in the hawker centers. The sauce is on the heavier side, thats why I love it. For those who prefer the lighter version, you can opt for the soup version. But certainly, is a good bowl of dry fishball noodles.

Willms Bockwurst German Sausage

Bought this for S$8.90 at local NTUC Supermarket. There are 5 pretty large and juicy sausage in this package. At times, they do have good deals at both NTUC and Cold Storage for this.

I pan-fried without oil for awhile and added abit of oil. As it is quite big, this is good for 2 to 3 people. Taste wise is good if compared with the other frozen alternative. If you want abit in quality, certainly can go for this.

Vitagen Pineapple [Limited Edition]

Okay to be frank, I'm not a fan of Vitagen, but its good for us. I preferred Yakult which have more sugar content I think. So for this Limited Edition Vitagen, i felt that the pineapple flavor is quite overwhelming. For Yakult, normally I will enjoy while I sip a little at a time. But for this limited edition Vitagen, I actually drank the whole bottle in one go, because the taste ;/ Think someone else might like it, but certainly not for me :(

Noodle Fellas @ Beauty World Center

When I see noodle stall and abalone, I will have highly get a bowl of Sliced Abalone Mee Kia. So over here at Beauty Center, I noticed that there is a chain store selling various dishes. Happened to get myself a bowl of Sliced Abalone Mee Kia ($5). Tasted and its quite bland. 3 slices of Abalone slice and its not that tender. Well, definitely a normal bowl of noodles. If compared with ah lam abalone noodle, still have much improvement to be made.

[Special Edition] Getting out of Mainland Singapore to other little islands

 

It took me 6 hours of shooting both photo and video contents throughout the tour. Most of it were one-shot take. Because the planning was in my head, from my experience of viewing other people's youtube probably like 50000 hours of watching youtube again and again. To handle from planning, video and photo shooting, editing and going through frames and frames to ensure every part is well executed.

As my first longest editing video (42 minutes 02 seconds), i learn as I edit to rush out the production in 3 days . Of course, 27 Nov is just shooting day. 28 Nov, resting whole day due to body ache and sunburn. Dedicate 3 hours each at night on 29 Nov and 30 Nov for editing works. To myself, its an achievement. I still have to quickly improve and create better video and website contents, this is to make content becoming valuable asset. 

Do enjoy and provide more constructive feedbacks so that i can take note of it and provide a better viewing experiences for all. With this, please enjoy the video the AmateurCraft way.

All products used for the overall production: iPhone 13 Pro Max, Samsung S21 Ultra, Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 and Youtube Studio