It’s the first in the world and New Zealand Natural piloted their cafe concept here in Singapore! New Zealand Natural first entered Singapore in year 2000 by Delinatural, after 10 years we now have a cafe serving wholesome, healthy and value for money food.

The center of attraction at the cafe, a NZ tree - Pohutakawa

The cafe is decorated and infused with much taste of New Zealand and New Zealand Natural. A cosy cafe for shoppers and ice-cream lovers to sit, rest and chill. Serving yummy soups, wraps filled with goodness, mouthwatering sandwiches and more.

Classic Cream of Mushroom Soup, S$3.90/ S$6.90

What can possibly go wrong with a classic cream of mushroom? But this, as shared by Chef Roland, its even harder to go wrong as its a combination of many premium mushrooms! A must try for mushroom lovers out there. Get the bowl as the cup size just isn’t going to be enough. If you’re there with a friend, give the Fabulous Pumpkin Soup a try too! You won’t regret.

Chinese Duck Wrap, S$10.90

Chinese Duck Wrap, the oriental taste amongst the choices of wraps at New Zealand Natural Cafe. Diced duck meat mixed with plum sauce and wrapped with cucumbers and green onions. Just like how its described on the menu, utterly delicious and highly addictive.

Chef Roland, consultant for New Zealand Natural Cafe

Chef Roland is the Executive Chef at Shangri-la Singapore and at other renowned 5-star hotels. Friend of the boss of New Zealand Natural Cafe, he personally crafted, planned and designed the menu, bringing 5-star quality food at affordable price. Roland trains and supervises the chef and kitchen staff at New Zealand Natural Cafe to ensure the quality is delivered.

Ice-cream Sundae

While you’re at New Zealand Natural Cafe, of course you got to wrap up your meal with some ice-cream or sundaes!

Ending this with a short clip created by team at Rediscover Singapore for New Zealand Natural Cafe.

New Zealand Natural Cafe
NEX, #02-12
Join them on Facebook
http://www.nzn.com.sg

A 3D2N staycation at Meritus Mandarin Singapore started on Friday, 10 June. When we were planning this, we did not check the event schedule and not sure if its good or bad, that’s the PC show weekend at Suntec! We had to battle with the crowd around the hotel. The stay could have been better if the shopping crowd wasn’t so crazy then.

One thing that got me quite upset was the room we were given. Upon check-in, we were upgraded to an executive deluxe room (we booked a deluxe room) and when we entered the room, stayed for awhile, we realized the air-conditioning wasn’t working. The room was warm even after like 20minutes of cooling. We called the reception and the technician came to check, he insisted that we didn’t turn-on the aircon hence its not cooling. Truth is, the first thing he did upon entering our room was to touch the aircon control next to the bed and HE turned it off! Not wanting to argue, we let the matter past and he said the aircon was working fine, left and we waited.

After 30 minutes, the room was still as warm, we requested for a change of room. Wasted more than an hour of our precious staycation trying to solve the aircon problem. This was the first time we encountered such problem. Quite a disappointment since Meritus Mandarin is an established hotel. Hope it’ll never happen again.

We spent both nights chilling in the mineral pool. First time we got into one and we love it! No chlorine smell! The pool is viewable from our hotel room and the view by the pool at night is pretty good too.

We didn’t have any meals at the hotel as our package didn’t come with breakfast; rather sleep in till late instead of waking up to catch the breakfast serving hours.

Overall the hotel stay was alright, the mineral pool was the main attraction for us; room and toilet were spacious and that’s about all I’ve to say about our experience at Meritus Mandarin hotel. Hope our next staycation will be a better one.

Where should we try next?

Well that’s really just a very tiny wee bit of what the 10 videos have. Do catch the first video of Unseen/Unsaid on Rediscover.sg come Wednesday!

Oh! And there will be a new look too! So exciting!

Pictures speak a thousand words, and I believe videos speak much more than that. Publishing a site with eye catching photos and short bites of the topic in video isn’t child play. I’m very proud of what the crew have done and achieved. And now, shortlisted as one of the Top 10 finalists in OMY Singapore Blog Awards 2011, it shows that their hard work is being recognized. Winning it is going to be a bonus for the crew.

Please do go take a look at RediscoverSG and see why this group of young Singaporeans deserve our support and votes. If you love it as much as we do, hope you can spare a few seconds everyday from now till 3 July, to vote for RediscoverSG for Best Photography Blog in OMY Singapore Blog Awards 2011.

I’ll be voting everyday. Hope you will too. :)

If you haven’t met the crew behind RediscoverSG, here they are… Song, Jeremy, Derek and Lizzy.

The crew behind Rediscover Singapore spent time brainstorming and conceptualising this video. And with their tight schedule, still able to produce one that touches hearts of Singaporean. Its not about winning the highest votes (a little hard since those who submitted earlier gets more time to rally for daily votes) nor winning the most creative video award.

Its really about sharing the things and reasons why we call this Home.

If you like this video, please help vote for it on thisishome.sg. You can vote everyday! 20 days to go before the contest closes. So go watch and vote if you can relate to it.

The night was short and sweet for me. My body was aching and screaming for attention even before midnight. It was still an eye opener for this mountain tortoise who’ve never stepped into ZoukOut for the past 9 years. When I finally get to step into one, its already their 10th anniversary! Can’t believe the Mambo Queen in me waited 10 years to realised how much I’d missed out on. And now I’m just too old to boogie much. Boo!

At my first ZoukOut, of course I got to milk as much as I could and ended up experiencing it with Citibank and popped by Heineken tent too and got a cool fan which you can read text off while its spinning. Cool to look at but doesn’t keep me cool. If you can’t imagine how the fan looks like, here’s a video of the spinning fan.

Since I was there partially for work, I spent more time walking back and forth along the long stretch of beach from the first entrance to the actual ZoukOut entrance which I think was about 200-300m? Damn shagged I tell you! But seeing all the party goers waiting helplessly in the queue was even more tiring. They would have been able to get in through the priority queue if they had a Citi Clear Platinum Card loh!

The three dance zones were all packed with dancing and jumping people at about 10.30pm. This was the first time I see so many dancing at such early hours! Thanks to the happening people, I got to do a little boggie at the Mambo tent for about 20 minutes before I surrendered and left.

Since I’m hooked to the simplicity of creating a trailer with iMovie’11, here’s one I compiled for my debute appearance at ZoukOut! :P

Hope Citibank keeps their Facebook Page updated with news like this so we the card holders can milked as much out of our credit cards!

For the first time, I’m naming my new toy! Sol, my new Canon S95 will arrive in full glory next week. Shall wait patiently for his grand arrival.

My favorite shot taken that night when I fell in love with Sol’s twin brother.

Take a closer look.

Thanks Canon for hosting us that night.

These switches were spotted around the former Supreme Court and City Hall. Thanks to Walter and Kevin, I got to go for a mini adventure inside one evening before they close it for the major overhaul to transform this place to the National Art Gallery, Singapore.

More photos from that day can be found in my flickr here.

The sound of the place already got me thinking how much the meal would cost. But it was a lunch date I cannot miss. Have not met this group of friends for more than 2 years? Though not everyone could make it that day, it was still great catching up! And not forgetting the pressure and stress they’d imparted in me! Wedding plans, selecting and queueing for house, the pain and how to fight all the way to milk as much as possible for the wedding banquet and at the bridal shop. Thanks ah!

Stepping into the hotel lobby already took my breathe away! I can’t remember when was the last time I stepped into such exquisite and posh looking hotel here in Singapore. NEVER I think. The high ceiling and luxurious furnitures and decor makes my Threadless Tee, Uniqlo Tights and Muji Bag look like a joke can! But *coughs* I wasn’t alone. If I’d the chance to, I would love to experience living there for a weekend staycation just to feel high-class for once. *coughs*

I got carried away! I haven’t started talking about the food! Guess the hotel made a bigger impact on me than the food I had for lunch!

Waterfront dining with view of the historic remain of the preserved Clifford Pier. Okay! This photo does no justice to the sight I had that afternoon! Bad control of lighting, my bad.

Roasted cod fish, saffron-chorizo risotto, parmesan emulsion, $36

I am a sinner tasting this. For more than 7 years, I’d avoided and left the meat untouched. With the lack of knowledge in the language, I failed to learn that chorizo is actually made from several types of pork sausages! Removed every single bits (even the slightest hairline of it) from the risotto. (Sorry Abang, I really didn’t know!)

If you do not have such problem like me, please go try this. It’s good.

The two items I would 100% order again if I return for another visit will be these…

Truffle French Fries, $9

Yes! I will pay $9 for this small serving of awesome fries! No! Not just any ordinary frech fries. Its filled with truffle goodness, and its the real stuff not just some truffle oil. These fries were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. These fries are to be savored slowly and please do not rush to finish them. The awesomeness stays the same even eaten after saving it till after the mains.

Dessert sample (for two), $28

Not sure which of the desserts to try, we checked what the sample consists of, and we gladly ordered two servings of the dessert sample since it’s of every one of their desserts! And its oh-so-divine! Great way to end the meal.

Starting from the most identifiable, we have the “Dark chocolate fondant”, “Passion fruit rum baba, mango tartar, yogurt sorbet”, “Sugar crusted profiteroles, hot chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream”, “Creme brulee” and “Lemon tart, raspberry gel”. Each has its own goodness and we almost did the “ohhh-stand-turn-and-turn-and-turn-around” dance each time we tasted the dessert samples. My favorites were the Dark chocolate fondant, Sugar crusted profiteroles and creme brulee. I’m salivating just writing about it now!

If you’re feeling happy and in need to splurge and indulge in some yummy goodness, you can give Clifford a try. Great place for a afternoon tea with good friends or just a good book. I can so picture myself doing something like this when I retire. *chuckles*

Clifford
The Fullerton Bay Hotel
80 Collyer Quay
Tel: 6597 5288

Photo from Kevin

A meetup at the library? Isn’t that boring? On the contrary it’s quite an experience. Not all the time you get to cheer, clap and laugh out loud inside a library right?

Two main highlight took place that night. First the launch of myLibrary, a Facebook app by the Public Libraries Singapore. More about this app another day (after I try it myself!). If you are curious, click on over to http://apps.facebook.com/nlbmylibrary to find out more. This nifty app allows you to check your account, renew your library loans and also able to search and browse library resources. No more excuses for not reading enough cause you’re too busy replying to messages on your Facebook wall!

The other highlight was sharing by N. Sivasothi, otherwise known as @sivasothi on Twitter. He shared his experiences with social media, mainly on how he integrates blogging into his teaching at NUS.

There were a few points shared that hit me. One of which is how shallow many of us, including myself, have been using loosely the term blogging. We rant about our daily lives, load a whole lot of random photos that don’t mean a thing to the readers or blog nothing but advertorials! *coughs*

On the other side of the blogging world (puts on my serious tone), there are research papers compiled with the help of posts from years ago, or evidences of the change in this world that’s being collected from content created by you and me. Blogging has been used by professionals to share their knowledge and experiences. And there are serious topics out there that are being thought and discussed online through the use of blogging platforms.

So the next time when someone say he/she is a blogger, ask which topic he/she blogs about. Being a blogger may just mean that the person is a passionate writer who writes about serious topics such as scientific knowledge, theories and other educational posts. Perhaps the next time before you start a blog, ask yourself, how is this blog going to help make it relevant and useful for the others on the net. How the type of content you post going to help shape the way search engines crawls on it. And how these posts will get referred to or shared through the other social networks. To blog means to write. There are different types of blogs and blog engines out there. Some use it to curate content, some to create new content and some to just record one own’s life. Either way, as long as you’re posting with passion, one way or another, your blog content will be found, read and referred to. It takes minutes or hours to craft a post, but it may take up to a year before someone needs information chance upon it.

Blogging can be a serious hobby (or even a career) when one loves to write and is passionate about the topic discussed.

Ending off with a random video. And I think my thoughts in this post is also somehow random too! Anyway, I flipped that night. And was caught in the act by Kevin. Hence the lack of photos!