SI TIGUN CAFE

Instead of having our usual weekend catch up at the coffee chains, today we decided to try out somewhere different, hence we were at Si Tigun Cafe on Nagore Road, next to New World Park. It is situated along a stretch of beautifully preserved pre-war buildings.

Whenever I see tiramisu (rm7.50) on the menu, the other cakes will automatically become second choice! haha... I'm glad we went for this, it tastes as good as it looks. The alcohol in the cake packs a punch too! Goes so well with a cup of strong Turkish coffee (rm4.50).

I'd come back here to try out their different types of coffees and cakes. Overall, it's a nice & relaxing place to hang out. Nothing pretentious, prices are reasonable and just somewhere nice to spend an afternoon.

Here are more pics that I took today....

HKD SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

This is a belated post for my birthday dinner this year! Just 2 months overdue, don't worry, the menu of this restaurant is still current! hahaha... Now as usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking, while we droooool over it! Here goes:

This is a "must order" whenever you come to this restaurant - Peking Duck!

It comes with a second dish by using the leftover meat on the duck. So order a dish, you get another! This time it is stir fried with mung beans. Or you can order "Sang Choi Bao"... where the duck meat is stir fried with other veges and you eat by wrapping it in lettuce leaves.

Since it was my birthday, my dear friends surprised me with this dish!!!

Thank you!

LOBSTER YEE MEIN!!!

Deep fried blue cod, very fresh and aromatic - so nice just with plain white rice

Homemade tofu, crispy on the outside, silky smooth inside!

Deep fried prawns balls coated with salted duck egg. Sinful (who cares!) yet yummy.

Feeling so hungry now that you want to eat the monitor?? hahaha.... See below for restaurant details :)

HKD Seafood Restaurant

928 Dominion Road

Mt Roskill

Auckland

09 - 620 8928

PIC OF THE DAY 05/09/2008

Please excuse the reflection in the glass... saw this at a bus stop by Downtown Auckland.

SYLVIA PARK

Just recently had the chance to properly explore Sylvia Park, this new mall not far from my home. Quite impressed with the design and atmosphere at this mall. Especially quite keen to walk around the new Warehouse Extra which sells groceries along with the usual Warehouse products. Here's a few pictures which I managed to snap while exploring this huge mall.

Walkway from the carpark to the mall

The outside

This is the sign that you can see while driving along the motorway

Cute!

The atrium of the mall

Warehouse Extra from the road

Overall it's a nice mall, everything is still shiny & new. Will go back soon to check out their Borders Bookstore!

NO. 1 BBQ RESTAURANT, COMMERCE STREET

I haven't been here for a long time now so it was a good idea when my friends suggested this place. The last time we were here may be a year or so ago, the restaurant was clean and food was delicious. This time is totally opposite of our previous encounter.

The first thing which would come to mind as you enter the restaurant is THE MOST SLIPPERY FLOOR ever! As my friend said, it felt like being in a ice skating ring. I have my sneakers on and it felt like walking on oil! Even the staff there have to be so careful when serving the food. Ridiculous!

The dishes were nothing to shout about. My roast duck and BBQ pork combination on rice was marginally OK. The meat were not hot and duck skin certainly wasn't crispy.

Other below average dishes which we ordered were....

Certainly won't be coming back here in a hurry!

PIC OF THE DAY - 04/07/2008

This the view of Downtown Auckland taken by me last week. As you see in the picture, they are adding a couple more floors to the previous Air New Zealand building. Slightly to the right is the Vero building which is currently Auckland's tallest office tower.

What a beautiful day!

JOLIN SHANGHAI RESTAURANT, DOMINION ROAD

Had dinner here over the weekend. Here are some pictures to show some of their dishes if you've never been there. Could only get a table close to 8pm since they can get really busy most nights. Their service is good, restaurant is clean and food is delicious! Definitely one of my favourite places to dine.

Welcome to Jolin Shanghai Restaurant! As you can see the menu has pictures of the dishes available. Especially useful if you're not too familiar with Shanghai cuisine.

You can see the portion of the dishes are quite large as well.
One of my favourite dishes, the braised pork ribs. The meat is so tender. The sauce is superb to go with a BIG bowl of plain rice.

Another signature dish here must be their xiao long bao. The skin is really thin and soup inside is full of flavour. This is a must-order here.

They have deep fried dishes such as salt & pepper prawns, chicken or pork.

Hungry yet? Go give it a try and tell me what you think of it :)

PIC OF THE DAY - 28/06/2008

This one is for my number one fan who is not in NZ at the moment. So, here's something to remind you of home! Our usual Friday night gatherings at Dorothy's Sister, Ponsonby :)

P/s: Please excuse the ashtray full of cigarette butts behind... don't know where that came from... hahaha.

PIC OF THE DAY 26/06/2008

Snapped this with my new Canon IXUS 80 which I just got yesterday! Was on my way to the bus stop after work when I saw this "bubbles & flame" fountain just outside Downtown Shopping Centre.

HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG?

Wow, looking at the date of my last post, I started asking myself, "Has it been that long, since September last year?"

Anyway, just a little update here and there to keep my blog alive. Hmm... what have I been up to for the last 9 months or so?? Well, there was the Xmas & New Year holidays, I have completed all my examinations (YAY!!!), completed all my practical objectives sign offs (for my qualification YAY!), went on a holiday to Malaysia and Singapore, ate heaps (obviously, and not just on the holiday), started swimming, doing some weights at home, a lot of coffee sessions, movie nights, tvb series nights, gain & loss heaps of weight, reading other people's blogs and of course, work.

Yup, that sort of sums up what I have been up to since my last post :)

BANGKOK - THE FOOD

Ah... this shall be the last part of the Bangkok series. The Food! My taste buds have had such a wonderful treat! Let's have a look what was devoured.

I was really craving for durian and mango with sticky rice. So naturally we had this less than 2 hours after we touched down. YUMMY!!!!!! Look at the yummilicious durian. Isn't it sinful???

At the local coffee shop, we also ordered chicken rice (boneless and so so smooth chicken meat), satay, fried eggs with oyster, rice noodles soup.

At chatuchak weekend market, we had fried quail eggs, fragrant fish cakes, fried pineapple rice, interesting looking fried thai rice noodles and juicy chicken pieces in yam basket, fleshy coconut juice and miniature cute looking burgers.

In the Silom area, Alex brought us to this really nice cafe called Bug & Bee. Didn't know they are so famous until all the reviews from my web search of this cafe. This is a small sample what we ordered as I too busy digging in to take more pics. Hahaha..

Fish cakes with wasabi mayo

Chicken Salad

Hong Kong Fried Rice & Prawns with Crepe Noodles

Crispy Prawns

Chicken with mango

While waiting for our cabaret show to start at the Asia Hotel, of all things, we had mooncakes! hehe.. why not since it's not too long to go before Mooncake Festival. We had a durian flavoured and lotus seed mooncake. Can't say it's the best mooncakes I've had but still a good experience nonetheless, eating mooncake in the hotel bistro with full cutlery! How luxurious!

On the last day, after all $$$ has dried up, we ate at a fast food kinda place at MBK mall called Santa's. Very good value as all the meals are 39 to 49 bahts (approx NZ$2!). Here's one with fried chicken strips, eggs and fried rice. See what I mean?

So this concludes this series of my Bangkok trip:) Of course there are still loads of food which we tried over there but if I were to post all of them, I think Blogger will be overloaded! Hehehe. Look forward to more travels in the near future!!!