HELLO KITTY ORCHID GARDEN SINGAPORE - CHANGI AIRPORT TERMINAL 3

Bond with the trending and there I was at one of the most (if not the most) talked about new cafe in Singapore at the moment: Hello Kitty Orchid Garden cafe in Changi Airport Terminal 3 (first floor). I arrived at the airport exactly 4 hours before my departure schedule just to have a glimpse of this, and hopefully I can understand the vibe, well I guess I pre-understand it because it's Hello Kitty for goodness sake, the fact that it's Hello Kitty and the overall cafe is cute and well-decorated.

My cousin happened to be on the first day of its opening and she told me the queue can go up to 4-5 hours. Geez I wonder if some people actually slept over in the freaking airport. Talk about Changi, it's indeed my number one favorite airport in the world, it has always been so charming and I like the mall-vibe making it just the right hangout spot to kill time.

The funny thing about my life is that when I look back to it, I must admit I have always been pretty lucky when it comes to queueing wherever I, and no I did not get special treatment or whatsoever! I was there around 6 PM and the queue was modest, I got a table for three right away but 30 minutes after we was seated and having my meals, the queue suddenly got longer and longer and there were around 30 people waiting to get in.

I couldn't really compare this particular outlet to our very own Hello Kitty cafe in Pantai Indah Kapuk as I think the two are very different, but I must say that they did spend a good effort in decorating the venue to bring the garden-like ambiance to the cafe, anyway if you're wondering why orchid and not any other flower? Well that's because Orchid is Singapore's national flower!

First thing you'll see after the entrance: a gelato bar and a souvenir station placed in this Hello Kitty shaped drawer. I heard the plushies they're selling is running out quickly that it's limited to two pieces for each person. Each costs S$50

PRETTY!

Cafe tour in pictures!

 The whole cafe is filled with hanging plants and Orchid flowers above the ceiling, on the wall, the glasshouse or just anywhere possible. I like that the overall look is not too feminine and still fits men in a sense.

The menu mostly consist of Western comfort food all cuted up and all HALAL, expect to find various kinds of all day breakfast, soups, salads, rice dishes, sandwiches, wraps and pastas. Mentioned earlier that they have a gelato bar so you can totally have ice creams and sundaes for desserts, as for the drinks, nothing really special as they sell common stuff such as tea, coffee, soft drinks and mocktails. Eating here is not the cheapest, but it comes with the territory obviously, price range for food starts from S$16-S$25 and drinks starts from S$2-S$8. I like the fact that they sell the bottled mineral water for S$2 only yaaash!

I went with Coke Light and Mineral Water for beverages.

Rose I Love you - S$17.5

Cute presentation but not out of the world cute to be honest. The pot dessert consist of sponge cake topped with chocolate soil and buttercream flower. The buttercream was the meal for my eye as I am not a big fan of buttercream, and the sponge cake was an utter disappointment, it was very hard and far from the kind of moist I was expecting and the chocolate soil did not help much either. As I am writing this post and look at the photo now, I realize that what it did was covering the sponge cake.

On the other hand, the peanut butter ice cream was really nice with the right amount of sweetness, rich peanut butter flavor and perfectly creamy! It was served all cold and man it did not melt (literally at all) even after sitting around for five minutes, while waiting for the other course to be served as I wanted a group shot. 

 Somehow the sponge cake looked stiff here, and for a S$17.5... it's expensive.

Let's Do The Salsa - S$16.5

I asked for recommendations and the waitress told us that the either the sandwich, the Cowabunga Wangyu and the Land of The Rising Kitty pasta are the main best sellers here. I looked at the picture online and noticed that the sandwich looked cute and photogenic so I went with this. The sandwich consist of toasted focaccia bread with shredded chicken in Salsa sauce, cheese, jalapenos, lettuce, tomatoes, Japanese cucumber, olive and dressed in homemade taco mayonaisse. The chicken was pretty tender but the seasoning was just not salsa enough for me, it did not make my palate dance or whatever I was expecting to feel. This dish was not bad, it was just not out of the world good.

Waffle fries are always the saviour!

Cheese cheese cheese!

The Hello Kitty Orchid Garden is undoubtedly cute, that's one thing for sure, I absolutely love the place, but when it comes to food, I feel like the one in Jakarta is better: both sweet and savory. If my Jakarta readers who have been to the one in PIK notice, the PIK outlet features local dishes creatively presented with Hello Kitty ornaments, I am hoping to see some local Singapore food inside the menu anytime soon. Fortunately, I showed up here not expecting to have the best meal, but I can't help comparing what I ate here to the one in Jakarta. I tried not to but I just couldn't. The food menus here are not exactly the same as Jakarta, but some menus are indeed look-a-like.

...and oh, DID I MENTION THAT THIS CAFE OPENS 24/7? IT DOES! and if you notice, the Hello Kitty mascot here has two bows on its head, and it's THE ONLY Hello Kitty with two bows IN THE WORLD!

If you've been following me on Snapchat, you should know that I was super duper exhausted or should I say I "suffer" from a mini-stress due to the ginormous amount of work scope I have to deal with this month. I was really overwhelmed yet super grateful to God that this month has been such a busy one yet filled with a lot of blessings for me and family. I secretly booked the tickets for us three and hotels without my mom and dad's knowledge (they did not know I was about to take them to SG with me) and I told them exactly one day before the departure date so it was a very very impromptu trip and we packed very quickly! I am so fortunate to have parents that are very supportive with what I do, this is the least I can give them. They're the best.

In this post I also want to thank my Snapchat followers (or should I say friends, I don't like the word "followers") who have been very supportive and caring to me. Tons of you continuously send me cheerful snaps, send me random happy pictures, songs and quotes. I literally got teary eyed some time ago in the middle of the night reading everything. 

...and Singapore you're always awesome!!!

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Hello Kitty Orchid Garden

Arrival Hall Central #01-22

Terminal 3, Changi International Airport

Singapore

Opening hours: 24 hours daily

PHONE RESERVATION SERVICE UNAVAILABLE

Average spending for two: S$35

Dresscode: casual

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NG AH SIO BAK KUT TEH SINGAPORE: THE BEST BAK KUT TEH IN SINGAPORE

If you follow me on Snapchat or Instagram, you probably know that I am currently in Singapore, and at the very moment, I am trying to sleep but I can't, and I feel like talking to people, you might not respond to this blog post, but as long as I know you are reading this, I am still pretty happy :)

In this very post, I am going to briefly share you my experience dining at this Bak Kut Teh shop that has been my mom's favorite forever. It's my second day here in Singapore and my mom told me that she wanted to have bak kut teh and revisited Ng Ah Sio, so we did. This was my first experience going here and must admit I was a bit excited even though I am not a big big bak kut teh fan to be honest. According to their website, Ng Ah Sio has four outlets in Singapore, but I went to the one in Rangoon St. It's relatively easy to get here and I would suggest MRT (with a little walk), just drop at Farrer Park station and exit B, then you'll have to cross the street and take a 5-7 minutes walk depending on your pace all straight until you see Ng Ah Sio towards the end of the road and before a turn.

First of all, if you guys don't know what Bak Kut Teh is, it's actually a traditional Chinese soup and the name itself actually means "Meat Bone Tea" and yes the broth was made from pork ribs bone (it's NOT halal), Oolong Chinese tea and some spices like: anise star, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, fennel seeds and ginseng, that's probably why the soup was savory and rich in spices, you can actually smell the scent of the spices on every sip of the broth, and there are two kinds of soups: the lighter one (with garlic and pepper) and the darker one (with medicine).

Ng Ah Sio has been around since 1977 and they are one of the pioneers of the peppery bak kut teh soup, yes it's the soup I guess that makes them very special if you ask me.

Signature Spare and Pork Ribs Combo Soup - S$7.50

Can I just cut to the chase and honestly say that this is probably THE BEST bak kut teh I've had so far in my life? I've had Founder, Song Fa and Ya Hua Ra Gu Cha in Singapore, but this one impresses me the most, particularly the quality of the soup. We shared one bowl of Signature Spare and Pork Ribs Combo Soup (S$7.50) and one bowl of their Signature Pork Ribs Soup (S$6) along with some condiments such as Fried Yu Tiao (cakwe - S$2), Tang-O (S$4), Braised Pig Skin (S$2.5) and Braised Pig Trotter (S$9).

Signature Pork Ribs Soup (S$6)

The base soup is light but tasty and strong on the pepper note (my Indonesian palate told me they can go deeper with a little more salt), each and every sip of the soup was very refreshing, and the beautiful common? You can refill the soup as much as you want, and I was really glad that they were very attentive in refilling the soup searing hot, and please have the soup while it's still very hot otherwise the character of the flavor would change. For the Signature Spare and Pork Ribs, I found myself liking the Spare part (not motorcycle element) better for it has a bit of fat in it making the texture a bit more tender, but the ribs was honestly not bad at all, it was actually a tad more tender that I expected.

Braised Pig Trotter (S$9)

Nah not my favorite, there wasn't much to dig in from the trotter, it's mostly bones and $S9 is sure a bit overpriced, I realized I forgot to snap of a pic of the braised pork skin but that one is surely a must order, it was saucy and soft!

Fried Yu Tiao - S$2

You can't go wrong with fresh and warm Yu Tiao with semi-crispy coating and moist center. Dip or no dip, your choice.

Tang-O (S$4)
From the picture, we actually hoped that it would be served raw, but turned out it was cooked along with the pepper soup, and as expected, when you cook a soup with lots of veges, the soup in a sudden has this vegetable infused flavor to it that's surprisingly fresh and in a way, healthy.

Ironically, my mom told me that the bak kut teh used to taste better than what I just had, but I found this very pleasant already! Wonder how it tasted 4-5 few years ago hmm. We arrived here around 9 AM and it was pretty packed already, compared to few years ago my mom told me that people used to wait for one hour just to dine here, but considering they now have several outlets in Singapore so yeah.

Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh

208 Rangoon Rd

Singapore 218453

Opening hours: 7 AM-10 PM

+65 6291 4537

Average spending for two: S$25

Dresscode: casual af

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Map for Ng Ah Sio

HAPPYFRESH #BULANJARAMADHAN

A while ago I attended the press conference of HappyFresh. To be honest, I have never heard about it until they invited me to come to the press conference and the curious me wanted to know more about this. The press conference was held in the Ogilvy office in Senayan, talking about Ogilvy, it's a digital agency which I personally has been collaborating with for some projects then and now, they're just professional and I love working with them, this was my third time visiting their office, I don't know if "office" is even the proper word because it's almost like a creative working space and they even had their own slides in it (in case they're too lazy to take the stairs LOL).

Of course before I actually attended the event, I briefly looked online for informations about HappyFresh, turns out it's actually a professional grocery shopping service and as this post is written, it has been around the scene for one good year and also active at countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Philippines. Their service is aimed primarily for working housewives and moms who have hard time sparing time to do grocery shopping, so just by downloading the app or do the transaction via website, they will be helped by professional grocery shoppers to do the chore. Honestly ABC easy.

Before we get to the event, I want to quickly show you how to use HappyFresh service, simply a part of their "I GROWcery with you" campaign that has been running for the past a year.
1. First, you must download the "HappyFresh" app from either AppStore (iPhone users) or Google Play (Android)

2. Before you start ordering, your basic information is required including information of the nearest supermarkets around your neighborhood. HappyFresh is teaming up with top supermarkets so their range should be huge!
3. Place your orders and pay after they hand you the items (cash on delivery)

I know some of you might wonder what exactly is the main quality that differentiates HappyFresh to their so-called competitors to let's say GoMart? After listening to the explanation throughout the talkshow, I think the main quality of HappyFresh is the appointed professional grocery shopper, and how they guarantee your products to be delivered to your house for one hour after you submit your orders and the right for you to object the items if you're not happy with certain items.

In the event, they played a very touching video (which I hope I can embed here) about family quality time, so the video was basically separated parents and kids interview and there was only one main question: "if you want to ask anybody to break your fast with, who would it be?", the parents' answers range from their favorite celebrity to certain characters, but the kids' answers were plain "parents". The emotional part came when the parents watched the kids' video and found out that all this time the kids really want to break the fast with the parents, have some quality time but realizing that their parents are too busy outside.

Ms. Maria Hermina, Head of Offline Marketing and Partnerships HappyFresh Indonesia giving a brief speech. She is a beautiful preggy woman and she was so energetic.

The talkshow brought Elizabeth Santosa, a family psychologist who's also a mother of two. She claimed that it's normal for adults to have the desire to go outside and hang around with old friends, but when it comes to kids, adults really need to know how to spare some quality time with their kids, simply because everyone's not getting younger, and childhood is the most precious time of the life, also the moments where kids start to understand the surrounding.

Elizabeth then told us that when it comes to quality time, even a two-minute meet up is a quality time, only if the two communicators locked eyes to each other and actually talk, and she loves referring that 2 minute and quality time as undivided attention. It's not a quality time when you are with your friends for two hours but both are stuck to their freaking mobile phones without any conversation. Kids need that and kids appreciate that gesture. There are a few other forms of quality time together with your kids (and I believe more): cooking together, helping them with their school chores or dining together, or simply these five forms: eye contact, touches, motivational words, humors or listening.

In this month of Ramadhan, some forms of quality time include breaking the fast with your family (with no phone or gadget on the dinner table), praying together and deep conversations, but when it comes to the idea of breakfasting together is a struggle here in town. Face it, we live in Jakarta where traffic is bloody hell, breakfasting is at 6 PM daily, office hour starts at 8 AM and ends at 3:30 PM daily (during Ramadhan), and sometimes it's almost impossible for arrive before 6, and to cook or even to shop added pressure to your mind, and you don't just cook food in the morning and heat them at night and mirroring from the unfortunate possibilities like this, in this month of Ramadhan, HappyFresh is offering a solution for housewives and moms out there with their fresh daily grocery shopping matter and they call it "BulanJaRamadhan". It's honestly just clicks away.

Also on the show, a mother of two and a celebrity Herfiza Novianti (who happens to be the wife of famous Indonesian actor Ricky Harun), she shared with us that her busy schedule often took the biggest burden to have quality time with her big family, in laws, husband and kids at home, or simply to make the best out of Ramadhan, but with the help of HappyFresh, it's now even more possible, at least for making her less tired.

Q&A session, good questions at this session. I love how the press is so critical. I am a good listener (at least).

After the talkshow session, a little game was on, it was quite easy as the contestants were asked to place their order of the mentioned items by the MC. The fastest won shopping vouchers from HappyFresh hmm.

I think the object was "Es Buah" and they were asked to input some fruits like mango and strawberry (as seen below).

Group picture: Ms. Maria Hermina, Herfiza Novianti, Elizabeth Santosa

Herfiza Novianti and her kid <3

...and then of course the event was closed by breakfasting together! Quality time lol.

I don't know about most people, and I am not a parent yet, but taking what my friends told me (those who are married and have kids), they all told me that being a parent is fun, but it's a real struggle, especially the early days of the kids where you can't control their emotional explosions and they learn more than we think they do, but my POV of friendship and relationship is pretty much the same, yes quality time two-gether is important and communication is everything. I think it's one of the most sacred formula of long lasting relationship.

All this time, maybe the ultimate modern luxury that everyone's been looking for is simply spending quality time with the family over material possesions and holidays *smile*

SHOPPING WITH HAPPYFRESH

Moments ago I actually tried shopping with HappyFresh (and do note this is a sponsored shopping spree) to measure their specifications. My order came less than one hour, it was like 40-45 minutes. I ordered from All Fresh Puri Indah and boy do I recommend shopping because they were indeed all fresh!

 Shopping bags!

 All fresh! How can I not enjoy the service, ordered quite a lot and flawlessly delivered.

 Enoki mushroom and cucumber

 Melon, vegetables and lemons

After all, I would definitely recommend HappyFresh for my readers, logically speaking it's not hard to explain the advantages it can do to us, or me personally, I HATE doing grocery shopping, and I always have people doing it for me, so as simple as that, it's a total yes for me. DOWNLOAD THE APP NOW AND HAPPY SHOPPING!

MORE DETAILS ON HAPPYFRESH -> CLICK HERE

and oh, I forgot to greet you all on the previous posts, so here it is...

SELAMAT BERPUASA TEMAN-TEMAN!!! Gotta make the best of everyday, but let's make this month even more special. Blessings for you.

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