Food and Activities within Sentosa (Outside of the hotel)

Honestly, initially I did feel that Sentosa is quite a captive market. I did bear a bit of grudge when I noticed the hotel buses usually skip the lunch/ dinner rides. (The thought dissipated when I realised how close we were to the monorail.) I thought they wanted to strand us within their compound for a meal, which was terrible. I naturally assumed the hotel food was overpriced and disgusting. With me having dietary restrictions, this sounded quite a bit of a nightmare. 

In terms of food option, the Mess Hall had quite a bit of variety. It was like the next buidling to Village Hotel Sentosa, making it a very convenient choice. On the first day, we enjoyed Le Faubourg, which serves very affordable French brunch. We were attracted to it because it had a cute seating area in the outdoors for the kids. My son pretty much sat there (with occassional visits to ours) throughout the meal. 

My parents chose to sit indoors to enjoy their brunch platter (Sorry, forgot to take photos!) Overall, I would describe it as Cafe food (a bit more unique because of the French twist to it). If you are a points person, you can accmulate points on both your Far East app and Sentosa Islander Membership. :)

As we were so close to the monorail, we ventured out already on the first night to VivoCity. Do try to go out early because some of the restaurants were full/ not accepting more diners by the time we reach there. Fortunately, I was a high-rolling spending member with Elemen and they made an exception for me. By the way, Elemen serve delicious and exquisite Vegetarian food in the format of courses. You will definitely be wowed on your first visit. 

If you ever step into VivoCity, you should check out my favourite soya milk place too - Chinese Tofu Magician. Every time I am there, I never fail to buy a cup to enjoy! I think it is really good but my family is not particularly keen in it. 

If you don't want to travel out of the island, there is also quite a decent food selection near USS area (near the monorail station). We had our first taste of Duckland, and dang the food was really good. The ribs were really tender and the duck was super yummy! I saw most diners ordering the fried rice as well, but that too much for us 2. Too bad the nearest outlet to me is the one at Resort World Sentosa. :'(

The good thing about dining at USS is the shops around it. The price has been adjusted to be more local-friendly and  I ended up shopping at Lego and Candylicious. We also took some silly tourist shots because for a while I forgot I wasa just in Singapore. Haha!

If you are not into shopping, you can also check out the manmade beaches at Sentosa. The beach is still as clean as ever and is not as crowded as pre-Covid times. I am no beach person but we decided to bring our LO there to re-introduce him to the beach. We also found some of our old beach tools so that he can build some structures in the sand. 

Despite the effort, he still hates the sand, but hey we found a seashell! Hope this post helps you guys if you plan to visit Sentosa (even as a parent) Hehe. 

Kwee Zeen: Royal Maharaja Feast

By now, most would probably presume that Kwee Zeen is one of our favourite dining places in Sentosa given the number of times we have reviewed their food. The husband and I deemed this place to be serving quality food and the quantity is always massive, which makes it value for money.

This time round, we are there for the Royal Maharaja Feast, which I would describe as fitting for a Sultan. Even for 5 pax, we could barely finish the food for 4. It was that much. Any fans of the Indian cusisine should drop by a visit. 

The spread is massive as usual (you can take a look at the menu here) We agreed the Biryani rice was absolutely divine, it was definitely the best rice I have had in my whole life and I could just eat it with the curry itself. My personal favourites include the Salmon Tikka, Roasted Cauliflower, Mushroom Chat Masala and the Garlic Naan. And I am a fan of their Masala Tea. 

My husband was wild about the salads. I won't consider myself very well-versed in the Indian cuisine so I had a lot of fun trying out the desserts. If you have a special occassion coming up, no harm coming with a group of friends to experience the "wow factor" when the dishes is first served on the banana leaf. 

This is not always on the menu. It is only from Sundays to Thursdays from 6pm onwards. Usually, we are there at Kwee Zeen in the noon so this was also our first time enjoying the night scene. In terms of pricing, it is S$88+ for 2 pax and S$168 for 4 pax. Please book 24 hours in advance to avoid disappointment!

It can be pressurising if you are not familiar with Kwee Zeen's food quantity, so I just want to tell you guys that you can actually take away food you can't finish. No wastage here, so don't feel pressured to finish everything. Just enjoy the ambience! And the food actually taste good after re-heating. Till date, my BIL still talks about the food we took away at the Ultimate Champagne Festive Brunch. (You can read about it here!)

Kids-friendly Staycation: Village Hotel Sentosa

This wasn't our first staycation so we more or less had a sense of what we are in for. I have heard a lot of good things from parents who have stayed at Village Hotel Sentosa, but after staying there ourselves, I would agree it deserves every compliment it receives. 

1. Just because it is child-friendly doesn't mean it compromised on the resort vibes. The truth is I haven't been overseas for a real long time (first Covid then pregnancy) and I really miss the feeling of being thrown to a nice chillaxing place. This place is awesome because it has this nice lush greenery, colonial buildings, beautiful pools. I just felt so fuzzy, it felt it was for me as well as my kid. 


2. The room is spacious, clean and still aesthetics pleasing. The last staycation scarred me, there were cobwebs in the boiler and we had to rush out to buy packet milk and mineral water. This was very clean. We took the family room (2 rooms connected), there was enough space for a tiny cot. We didn't need it, so we place our stroller there instead. 


3. It was well located, just a 5 minutes walk to the monorail. This meant that we were not just trapped in the hotel. We could go to Vivocity (back to the mainland) or just explore the rest of the Sentosa island. My kid was wild about the MRTs so the multiple rides pleased him endlessly.





4. The pool is made for kids. There were like 3 pools of 0.5m depth, so super safe! It is a bit double edged sword for the husband because he wanted to do some laps. Since he is looking after the kid at the pool most of the time, there isn't really spare time to do other stuff. Separately, I forgot to bring our "insanely large" floats but thank god Village provided floats for the kids and adults alike, so our fun was not compromised. 


5. There are lots of in-house activities planned. This was really good for rainy days contingency plans. We didn't really do most of it cos our boy was too small to sit still for moderate periods...even though the Hotelier Experience seems really intriguing. Our kiddo does get involve in a lot of cooking and cleaning at home, so we thought this may not be as interesting for him. 


6. My only grouse would be the food. The breakfast was horrible. Aesthetically, Native Kitchen looks beautiful and they serve mini size food that was adorable. But I did find myself struggling to find food that I like. Even the bacon was too salty. There were enough food to feed a toddler, cue scrambled eggs, pastry, yoghurt, porridge, waffles,  nuts and fruits. 

Nonetheless, the overall experience was AWESOME! And the effort taken to surprise the 2 birthday people (yes there was more than 1 in our pack) was very much appreciated. There was truly a surprise element. Will do another post on the food and activities outside Village Hotel otherwise the post will be too content heavy hehe. 

New Phone: S22 Phone Review

To usher in my newborn, I decided to get myself a new phone. I mean I really wantd to take better photos of her and I reckon I would be too busy after she arrives to handle all the administrative matters of a new phone (including figuring out how the corporate plan works). And also, I was sort of baited by the sale price. 

I decided on a Samsung again because this made the transferring of data easy. Actually S22+ was more "value for money" with a bigger discount, but I felt the size wasn't right for me. My last phone was a +, but it was so heavy sometimes I drop it on myself when I am using it in bed, LOL! So no + it is and I chose a nice girly pink to mark the arrival of my baby girl. 

Usually, I don't use my phone until I have all my protection gears in place. This includes a cover and screen protector. I wanted to go Spigen for all. But the scren protector's price difference was too great so I went cheap instead. I also realised for the new Samsung phones, they no longer give the charging head and earphones. Most people probably don't use it anymore, but I actually still use them. Have to admit that I was pretty bummed at the loss. 

I am definitely loving my new phone, just that it is the same size as my husband's so it gets a bit confusing whose phone is whose from afar. Cheers to an era of sharper pictures :)

Italian Film Festival: Ennio

At this rate, a lot of people might think the Hubs is Italian. No he isn't, it is just that we feel a strong affinity with Italy and hence we are sharing a lot more lately on their events, culture etc. I think a lot of people are unaware about this cool event, but the Italian Film Festival is currently ongoing from 14 to 25 September. 

I am not sure about you guys, but I love watching foreign films in theatres. My reason is actually quite simple, it is because it will never be shown on TV. And also, it is such a niche market, it is unlikely to be streamed online as well. Miss it, and you might never really get to see it...ever. 

We went to catch Ennio during the weekends at the super interesting - Projector. (By the way, the triple sandwich there was so amazingly delicious.) I wanted to watch a few more - Superheroes (Supereroi) and The King of Laughter (Qui Rido Io) but time wouldn't allow it. Maybe next year, if they screen it again (fingers crossed.) Or maybe I will have better luck on the plane. 

I am sure many of you don't know who Ennio Morricone is, no shame because the husband also only knows his music and less so of the man behind this iconic music. The documenatry movie had such a deep impact on me that I couldn't stop listening to his cinematic music on replay. If you love your cinematic music, please go check it out!

I felt like I got this at a steal because we even managed to attend the Q&A to know more about the art scene and distributorship. The movie was initially 6 hours long and I really want to see it turned into a series. The movie focus a lot on the music composition technicalities but I also wanted to know more about Ennio as a human and how he lived his life daily. 

And somehow, maybe because I am a wife myself, I wanted to know more about his wife too. The whole movie is mostly in Italian so you really have to focus. I stepped out twice (dang my bladder and hungry tummy) and I really regretted missing some portions. (The queue for food may take a while depending on what you order. I chose hot food.) 

Can't wait for the next Italian event by the Embassy of Italy, I am so in love with what they have in store for us so far.

Milestone Unlocked: Teeth Brushing

I feel so proud of myself someway or another because I have successfully motivated my kid to brush his teeth (again). Initially, I did managed to make him brush his teeth without toothpaste (Read here!) but because of my nausea during the first trimester, I lost momentum and so did he. 

It was particularly worrying because our little one actually had a full set of teeth. And I was scared with all the sweet munching (yes he has a sweet tooth like me), he might end up loosing his teeth or even worse with unsightly teeth decay if we didn't put in effort to help preserve them. 

It started off with him fiddling with his Busy Book (You can read more about our review from Hi Buy Mama here!) I noticed he was very keen in helping the Hippo brush his teeth so I thought this could be time. Coincidentally, there was a sale at MotherCare and I picked up some adult looking toothbrushes and flouride-free toothpaste recommended by a random mother. 

To not lose the momentum this time round, I quickly set up his toothbrush and toothpaste in a nice cup. He would step on his stool every night and morning to brush his teeth with me. I realise he enjoy brushing with me and would imitate my actions. This also became a bonding session. Hope this article helps other parents who are struggling to instil a teeth brushing routine. 

Tineco - our lifesaver

With #2 on the way, one of our consideration is how to maximise time. By that, I mean using lots of gadgets. We invested in a dishwasher previously (read all about it here!) and it was life changing. So we decided to investigate further on other technology/ electronic products that would make life easier.

One of that was the wet and dry mop. We were considering this and a robot mop, but we felt the technology of the latter may not be that established yet. For the wet and dry mop, we were deciding between Xiaomi and Tineco. Both had great reviews from my Mummy chat groups. But we went with Tineco because during the sales, the price differential was minimal and I felt that Tineco had a stronger branding.

We tried it out and we really love it because:

• We could basically clean up the whole house with refills of the water and don't have to go through the multiple cleaning/ drying of the traditional mop. It felt very effortless.
• The machine is intuitive to set up and use (even my 2 YO knows how to turn it on), which is perfect for targetted areas. If your kid does BLW, this is a lifesaver. I used to mop with a cloth the area, but this just makes life so much easier. 
• It provides daily convience. The husband really loves using it which means he is cleaning up the house more often. Oh and even just using plain water, this baby keeps the floor pretty clean.
• It is not very heavy even when it is fully filled with water. 

One of the consideration we had was between the S3 and S5. We went for the S3 because the battery run-time were similar and the additional functions (disinfecting) didn't run high in the top of my priorities. The price differential was also pretty huge. 

If there was anything that could be done better, it would be the cleaning of the edges of the floor and area near cupboards/ walls. Overall, I am very pleased with this product. It has saved us so much time and the house is so much cleaner ever since we have it. Would really recommend this to anyone with a hectic lifestyle or someone who just wants more me-time. Sharing one of the review videos which convinced me take the plunge. 

Lights by the Lake 2022 @ Jurong Lake Gardens

Finally, there is something more happening in the west. We decided to go a bit earlier (before dinner) to avoid the crowd on a weekday too. Good thing we did cos it was crowded and it took a while before we managed to get a parking lot. In retrospect, it seems to make more sense to cab down or just take a train down. 

It was also in good sense to go on an empty stomach because there were pasar malam booths set up serving some of my favorite delights such as the mock sharkfin, Ramly Burger (which had a long queue) and tutu kuehs! Yums! I ended up NOT buying anything because they only accept cash and I didn't bring my wallet along.

Personally, the mid-autumn festival is one of my favourite Chinese festival. I love the mooncakes, pomelo (but nobody bought any this year) lanterns and also solving riddles, also my birthday usually fall around this period. I also like gathering as a family to look at the moon. 

Lights by the Lake is definitely worth going to once (can't imagine myself going twice). There is a lot of effort put in to set up the giant lanterns and that pre-Covid crowded atmosphere there is awesome. The walk to see all the lights installations is just right, not too exhausting and there is quite a bit to see.  

There were also quite a bit of Charity Booths set up for the President Challenge. Surprisingly, the booths are selling quite reasonably priced products. We ended up buying some plants for the house (sadly my plants in the office and not our home cos the husband always neglect them.) Most people also set afloat the wishing lanterns which I thought was a fabulous charity idea.

First it looked really pretty in photos. Secondly, it was recyclable. Third, for the Buddhist, this holds special meaning. Am super stoked about the other NParks event and generally most events since Covid has locked me up for wayyy too long.