Singapore 2023

Chinese new year in Singapore 2023

 Fountain in Jewel Changi Airport

Finally Singapore has lifted all covid constraints and Bill joined me for a trip to Singapore for Chinese new year. 

Jewel Singapore

It has been a couple of years of covid shutdown and my family hasn't gathered for 2 years. 

Mum's family got together on the first day of Chinese new year

Ya, this is just half of my family =) 

Took about 3 tables to Lou Hei (see Wikipedia explanation for adult playing with food =))

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng

The idea is the higher you toss the salad, the more fabulous is the upcoming year. Needless to say, we all moved outside and gave plenty of room for the mess

3 tables for Lou Hei fun 

This is my immediate family with my youngest uncle, minus my 2nd brother family as he was late. 

The red color certainly stands out =) 

Bill and I also had a chance to take a trip to Singapore Republic Yacht Club to visit the facility as they have reciprocal privileges with San Diego Yacht Club. We also did a burgee exchange with them so that we can fly their burgee at Oasis. 

Republic of Singapore Yacht Club

Our Lunch with a view! 

Bill and I took lunch one day at Skar which is the 70th floor of Stanford Westin hotel 

Our 3 course lunch

https://www.skai.sg/

It gives a nice view of the Marina Baysands and Collyer Quay 

SDYC Burgee at Marina Baysands and Merlion

We also went to the science museum in the Baysands and it's pretty trippy. It's meant for kids but we had fun in there

Science museum in Baysands

In Singapore, one must visit the National Orchid Garden and we survived the humid trip through the botanical garden to get to the Orchid display. 

Beautiful orchids

Only picked a few out of my photo collection to showcase here

Hey it's a lawn mowing rebot! 

And seafood esp Chilli crab and Black pepper crab are national dishes that Bill has to eat before he leave Singapore

Jumbo.. Yum

The fried fritters, scallop yam ring

I also took the chance to try all kinds of local food that I miss in Singapore. Japanese food is always a favorite of mine and going back to Singapore I try to get as much of it as I can

Kiwami Ramen in Singapore Jewel with Catherine.. good soft shell crab bao too!

A foodie friend enjoying Jap Izakaya 

Good toro Sashimi, Uni sashimi and yakitori. Will pass on the tofu and kama next time

And yes.. a night out with Kim Hwee for wine

Kim at Paya Lebar for wine

Meeting with my first HP team for our annual meet up after 3 years. 

RoadRunner and Montmelo Team Meet up

 

These are little local dishes that are not easily found in the US. 

Kao Yu with my brother's family 

Kway Chup.. and yes, it's braised pig intestines 

Prawn noodle and Gor Hiang at Mosque street

Beautiful little cafe 

Cakes and coffee places

Vegas baby! 2022

Vegas trip 2022 

Back to Sin City again...

Iconic views of Vegas from Bellagio Fountain

 

Bellagio fountain

It's always fun, easy to drink too much and no lack of good food. 

Went with another couple (Dave and Jenn) who booked the Grand Hilton Vacation Club Elara and invited us on the trip. So off to Vegas again! 

Jenn and Dave in the piano bar @ Fremont

This is the room/living room/kitchen in Elara. Very trippy red tinted windows that is fun to look through, but everything starts to look green after a while outside the red zone. We have the view of Paris and Planet Hollywood on one side and Aria & Cosmopolitan on the other. 

Elara room and view from the room 

Before checking into the room, we went straight to a birria place that was on Tacos Chronicles Season 2. El Campo Birria. https://www.facebook.com/birriaelcompalv/

Great Jalisco style birria, fall-off-the bone meat that make great tacos. Good consommé too. 

Birria at El Campo and lamb tacos

After that we tried to walk around the art district and poke our heads into the different art gallery/Artists studio in the artist factory. There are a lot of places not open, maybe it's winter season and maybe it's too early.

The art district area in Vegas

I think they still have more to develop in the area esp in the day time. But it's nice to do something in Vegas that's not related to Fremont or the Strip and involve drinking. 

Some art and paintings and photos in the Art Factory

That night we went to Fremont and listened to concerts, watch the street performers and hang out at "Don't Tell Mama" piano bar and had a good time. It's the first time that i had Tokyo Tea. Twist to Long island tea with the Japanese melon liqueur.. I need to make this. 

https://www.liquor.com/recipes/tokyo-tea/

Having a good time at "Dont Tell Mama"

Street performer balancing on 1 finger in Fremont

We had pizza first at a bar call Evel Pie. Turns out it's a memorial to Evel Knievel so they shows his stunts on tv and a logo "Live hard ride fast eat pizza" lol.. But they have very good pizza including a vegan one with mushroom. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

Had Evel Pie that is a restaurant named after evil 

The other entertaining thing about Fremont is how frequently people got stuck in the zip line. And need to be rescued. This time there's a rescuer that needs to be rescued. So a 3 person tow line =) 

Anybody else need a ride?

The next morning we went to Hoover Dam via Lake Mead.

Panoramic view of Lake Mead

The hike is quite cold.. Brrrr... 

It turns out Lake Mead is a national recreation area and has a marina. So we went there for brunch before heading for a hike to Hoover Dam from Lake Mead. 

Decent brunch, view priceless, dead bodies - didn't find any

Lake Mead is at one of the lowest point in history and it's interesting to see how low the water is. There are news of dead bodies being found as the water level keeps getting lower. 

We also think the marina has to shift every time the water gets lower. 

The hike is interesting as we go through 5 old train tunnels that used to bring building materials. 

I love the perspective of 2 train tunnels behind me

But it was certainly a good 8 mikes round trip hike that took over 3 hours. Great view of the lake too. 

Not ready to give up yet!

The hike ends at Hoover Dam and we can get a good view of the dam and the bridge. 

The view at the end

Random pics of the hike, including hat on car!

After the hike, we went to Buddy V restaurant in Venetian as we were quite impressed with the food when we did the last food tour. So wanted to try more of their normal menu 

https://www.venetianlasvegas.com/restaurants/buddy-v-ristorante.html

Great dinner at Buddy V

Bellagio has their xmas decoration up this year and it's fun and super crowded. Looks like a toys theme this year and a train running around their huge Xmas tree. 

Bellagio Xmas Decoration

The next day is World Cup Finals! Woke up early to catch the game and it's a pity that France played less stellar but Argentina certainly deserve to win the game. 

After the game we went to the Mob Museum before heading back home. 

The entrance of the museum which used to be an old post office

I was half distracted by the extra time into the soccer game so didn't take as many pictures. But the museum is interesting that it tells the story of the rise and fall of organized crime in USA with the Prohibition increasing the profits of alcohol smuggling. Subsequently they came to Vegas as casino is legal and a "cleaner" profit. 

We ate a quick lunch at Pizza Rock before heading home. 

Fun weekend in the valley with friends

Another good food and good wine weekend in the valley 

This time we got to share it with friends!

Cathy Citbit, Joe Citbit, Bill, me and Cristina at Adobe guadalupe food truck

Day 1: First stop coffee and lamb tacos

A early day to cross the border without traffic. So the first stop is a local coffee place for a caffeine boost!

Cool picture @ the front of the coffee shop

Lamb tacos still great as ever. They are doing good business as usaul and have expanded canopies for seating. 

The best lamb tacos in the valley

2nd stop Santo tomas

Then we went to Santo Tomas 

They still have a pretty tasting room and breath-taking views on the property. 

Santo Tomas

They have changed their wine to promote new wine and pursue younger palettes. Unfortunately it's not quite to my liking. And there is no more chocolate pairing as they are remaking the formula. They also remove the wine bottles signed by artists who had performed at the property.

Adobe Guadalupe food truck 

The tapas are still great and we ordered a bunch of things to share

We tried a new dish that's tongue and shrimp and potatoes. Really flavorful and will get that again. 

The croquette got Cristina's approval who is from Spain. So that's good. And the shrimp and mushroom are still good. Yum. 

Adobe Guadalupe food truck

Xecue

The name literally mean love and they have wines featuring local tribes language. We tried the tasting and Joe/Cathy give thumbs up for their desserts. Not a lot of pictures as we are all having food and wine coma. 

Xecue

Fashion show at Wendy and Nick's art gallery

Very good picture of Wendy and Nick's property (Courtesy from Joe)

They are friends who are living in the valley. Both are artists and have a gallery on their property.

Innovative way of using their property as a runway

The fashion show is open with poetry reading, music and then 4 sets. First set is to showcase the glass necklace. 2nd for the monochromatic flow design that I really like. 3rd set has lights embedded and 4th sets has leds. 

Collage of the fashion show

This showcase the art pieces created with enamel and glass

They also got 2 pigs roasting for food in this show and yum, that's flavourful, together with Wendy's vegan pasta.

How many ways can we take pictures of the 2 pigs?

It's Cristina's birthday and she treated us to a nice coffee cake for dessert

Day 2

Alveolo

We started the day with breakfast at Alveolo. They have great pastries and fantastic main course

Giselle is a very nice hostess and we really enjoyed it. 

Yummy breakfast at Alveolo

Bread? anyone? 

 They also have a room full of goodies that's local. Shopping! 

Pijoan winery

Haven't been back since before pandemic. Their wine is still great and the place is quiet and relaxing. Arturo still looks the same and gave us a good summary of the wine. Their port is still our favorite and we stock up for the holidays. 

Pijoan wine tasting

Vintango

Enjoyed rose wine at Joann winery/shop while we chatted and shop for books and jewellery

JoAnn's Vintango ... yes, a unique little place

Vinos Plata

Tasting at Erick's winery never disappoint and we did his usual tasting. He's also bottling wine so we also tasted a bottle of white wine that's still settling. I want to preorder for them in aluminum bottles as it would be great to bring on a trip

Erick's tasting room is a container equipped with AC

El Asadero

Closing the trip, we had dinner at El Asadero and the meat platter is great. The view is scenic and quiet Sunday night. 

Beautiful meal at El Asadero

A great valley trip with some good friends and made some nice memories 

Good food, good wine and good memories