Bossy Flossie
It’s me again – number one chocolate fanatic in Singapore! Earlier this year I fell in love with bean-to-bar chocolate. I started a new video series called My Chocolate Journey on YouTube to share my passion for quality chocolate with you all. Ahem…. okay. The video series is also a convenient excuse to eat more chocolate. So, this month, I indulged in some yummy chocolate balls called Balleros by Zotter.
In July, the Bossy Flossie Family went for a luxurious two-night staycation at the Sofitel Hotel in Sentosa. The Sofitel, a French chain, is apparently a five-star hotel and our stay wasn’t exactly cheap at around $400++ per night. But, we figured that we deserved a bit of luxury. Our last staycation was nearly a year earlier at the Oasia Hotel back when I was still pregnant! We had an enjoyable time. The shower was oh so magical and the swimming pool was fab. However, due to the location, our mini staycation felt more like a four-star experience.
What is a donut? Deep-fried cake with a hole in the middle and perhaps a dusting of sugar. Nothing more. Nothing less. Well, that was what I thought until I discovered City Donut. They take deep-fried cake to a whole other level!!! Their donuts are all inspired by classic Singaporean dishes. They even do a Singapore Chilli (No) Crab donut. Whoa!
Every weekend I go out trekking Singapore with my baby. I am on a mission to discover every pram-friendly walk on this island nation – from the beautiful, to the touristy, to the wild and grassy. There are more than you think!
It usually starts with a photo; one awful photo of yourself looking fat and horrible, which is your wakeup call. For me, that photo was from my recent holiday to Gili Air. I was standing in front of the pier wearing a yellow t-shirt and some elephant-print pants (the typical female backpacker uniform). It made me realise just how much weight I have gained since coming to Singapore. It also made me reconsider my diet and lifestyle.
Do you know the hardest thing about being a food blogger? It is keeping the calories at bay! However now that Haritts donuts and coffee from Tokyo has come to Singapore they have made my sugar addiction just a little bit easier to handle. Haritts Japanese donuts taste lighter than traditional donuts and are lower in calories.
A shapely woman with coffee colour skin stood at the front of the auditorium, facing a crowd of fifty eager young women. She wore a sleeveless, white cotton dress with wide navy stripes that accentuated her round figure. Her full lips were immaculately coloured red. But there was something not quite right about her face. It was masked in too much white powder. She looked like a porcelain doll with brown arms.
Hand in Hand is my discovery of the year, as it is an amazing little restaurant dishing up delicious Chinese dumplings on Jalan Besar road. Even more, I can say it is the best Northern Chinese fare in Singapore. Whilst that is a big statement, it is not an exaggeration. The dishes are made with high quality ingredients and care… and you can taste it. Hand in Hand’s mission statement is to serve customers with love and sincerity and their selection of dumplings rivals the nearby Swee Choon in variety, deliciousness and price.
For those that know me well, they understand my poison of choice is wine. After 10 years of working in hospitality and attending numerous wine tastings I have developed an appreciation of European and New World wines. So when I came to Singapore I struggled at first to find my feet. Alcohol is expensive here and if you don’t have the budget or know any better, you can easily end up drinking cheap and nasty Australian chardonnay every time you go out. I first discovered Ginett quite by mistake. Ginett is a French wine bar and restaurant that is part of the G Hotel brand located close to Bugis. This is where I go for shopping and I decided to pop in for a glass of wine when walking by one weekend. Ginett offer a fantastic wine menu at reasonable prices, with good French wine for as low as $6 a glass, which is a bargain in Singapore.
Misty and Mochi are my two clever kittens that live with me in Singapore. They hold many hopes and dreams for the future but they also experience trials and tribulations that are easy to relate to. Misty is the elder and more mature sister. Some people describe her as the most cerebral member of the household. Her MBTI profile is ENTP and although she comes across as shy initially, she is actually very bossy.
For many years I was a crazy cat lady without any cats until I took home my two grey kittens Misty and Mochi this weekend. I was searching for sibling kittens to adopt for several months and everyone insisted I should rescue stray cats who were most in need of a home. I might add, most people who volunteered their opinion didn’t own pets of their own. From the moment I first met Misty and Mochi I knew they were to be my kittens but nonetheless, I have spent an inordinate amount of time defending my decision to adopt home bred kittens.
Sydney Harbour is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Those sweeping, white waves of the Opera House juxtaposed with bright skies and the bluest water you have ever seen. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the crown of the harbour, sitting proudly atop passages of expensive yachts and cruise liners, and linking one city centre to another. Yet Sydney Harbour is an iconic site reserved for tourists, hospitality workers and the rich and famous. It is a cunning disguise to divert attention from the shit fight Sydney has become with its multitude of social problems and forever haemorrhaging main roads. The question begs, how has Sydney become Shitney?
A-Roy Thai Restaurant in Novena is always full of customers and for good reason, the food is delicious and this humble establishment is one of the best cheap Thai eateries in Singapore. It can be difficult to find delicious and reasonably priced Thai food here, which is surprising given its geographic proximity to Thailand. In Singapore, many Thai restaurants compromise on fresh ingredients to reduce prices otherwise the recipes are not authentic and heavily influenced by Chinese cuisine. A-Roy Thai restaurant in Novena stands out because you can taste the food is freshly prepared and only good quality meat, fish and produce are used. Whilst the recipes are not always authentic, they are close enough and the service is above average by Singapore standards.
Today it seems the ever popular mantra is foreigners are taking our jobs. It is heard in every first world city and news headline and this fear has helped bring about historical events such as Brexit in the UK and the election of Trump in the US. However since I have moved to Singapore and started travelling the region, I have been surprised by the number of white people working in low end jobs in southeast Asia. Whilst we let the first world governments stir up emotions and convince us that foreigners are bad, it seems we also feel entitled to exploit the cheap prices and available opportunities of the very countries whose nationals we want to kick out. But is it really bad to steal jobs, or is the movement of people better for everyone?
Victor’s Kitchen on Bencoolen Street serves amazing Har Gow prawn dumplings. It is a bold statement, but in my quest to find the best dim sum in Singapore I can’t go beyond the Har Gow at Victor’s Kitchen. It is a humble establishment that first setup in 2004 inside the Sunshine Plaza. The place looks rustic with its cheap metallic tables and tightly packed plastic chairs, but we don’t come here for the ambiance… we come here to eat cheap and tasty dumplings!
Swee Choon Dim Sum Restaurant is an unassuming, little place along Jalan Besar road in Farrer Park. If it wasn’t for the street-facing take away counter displaying row after row of delicious egg tarts, I may have walked passed and completely missed this little gem. Swee Choon has been serving Shanghai and Hong Kong style dumpling and noodle dishes in Singapore for more than fifty years. It is always busy and it stays open until the wee hours of the morning (6am) to feed both dinner and supper cravings. Their signature dish is the Mee Sua Kueh, a deep-fried vermicelli cake however everything from their steamed prawn dumplings to Shanghai chilli dumplings tastes good.
Old Hen Kitchen has the best breakfast and brunch menu in Farrer Park. Their avocado on toast is award winning and the coffee is made with care and precision. You also gotta try the Singapore Chilli Crab Fries for the novelty factor.
Alcohol in Singapore is expensive. One thing I hadn’t appreciated before I moved to Singapore was how much alcohol I drank. In London, where I used to live, there is a big pub scene. In respect of the culture and to assimilate into British society, I fully immersed myself and drank a respectable amount of alcoholic beverages. A typical week living and going out in the East End would include enjoying £12 bottles of wine on Wednesday at the Good Samaritan happy hour, prosecco and pizza at The Stable on Thursday, wine with dinner on Friday followed by more drinks at at Indo, and Saturday heading over to Bethnal Green for cocktails and brunch at Bistrotheque or some other trendy joint. For the days in between, you could always rely on Tesco for £10 bottles of perfectly drinkable wine and prosecco to enjoy at home.
109 Teochew Yong Tau Foo is a hawker style restaurant in Singapore specialising in fish balls and Teochew yong tau foo, which is tofu filled with fish paste and served in a fish soup. I had passed this place at lunch time many times and it always has a long queue, so I made a point of eating here for dinner when there were slightly less people around. It was my first time trying Yong Tau Foo in Singapore and I paid less than $5 for a filling meal.
Adventurous brunch lovers will appreciate Hoshino Coffee at Plaza Singapura. Their specialty is Japanese hand drip coffee and fluffy soufflé style matcha pancake. On my recent visit I ordered the matcha pancakes and my tastebuds were seriously in matcha heaven!
The beautiful Parkroyal on Pickering is a five star hotel in Singapore. It has become an iconic feature of the Singapore skyline and won numerous sustainability awards due to its unique garden in a building concept. The rooms are modern and comfortable and the food at its signature Lime restaurant has great variety and quality. The beautiful Parkroyal on Pickering is a recommended alternative to the more famous Fullerton Hotel for visitors to Singapore who wish to stay in style.