Groupon: Arrirang Korean Restaurant + Group therapy cafe

Hi guys, I am finally backed to blogging! Have been a really hectic week with love ones celebrating birthdays for me! Am definitely going to post about my birthday soon, I have decided to forgo blogging on my KL and GuangZhou trip as there are simply too much to blog about and I couldn’t remember much. Oops. But no worries I will sure make it up to you by posting other interesting stuffs too, especially review on skin care products and deals I have bought from Groupon! 

So on 16/02 I finally met up with my love after 2 months! So sweet of her to give me such a cutie sunflower and handmade card! It is damn pretty! So it was a lazy afternoon spent with my girl to chat up on our lives and of course some gossips! Wahahaha

Thanks to my love who is always there for me, being more supportive she could ever be! Am so lucky to have you in my life: )

So for lunch we went to Arrirang Korean Restaurant in Tangjong pagar then went to the Café Group Therapy because it is nearby.  

Bought the Groupon for Arrirang a while ago, I always have a thing for Korean so when I saw the place is not that far away so I have decided to buy it. Thought it was quite worth it with the value of the voucher and free flow of side dishes and ice tea. 

 Waiters are Koreans so normally we have to repeat in English when we want something from them but they are all very polite and service was quite good. Guess it is a family run business as we saw an ajjuma cooking. LOL they serve Koran bbq too but our voucher won’t allow so we ordered dishes instead.Surprisingly the side dishes are more delicious than the food -.- 

 The ice tea which was really iced, so we have to wait for it to melt and honestly it is a not so smart move.  

 Kimchi Pancake $15, pricey for just handful of 6 pieces, they tasted quite normal but too much flour were used and little Kimchi inside.

 Meat with Chinese cabbage and kimchi $45, from the menu it was or of their signature dish or something. It was another disappointment. The meat, being eaten with the Chinese cabbage and the pile of kimchi there is tastier on its own. The Chinese cabbage is too sweet, I still prefer the traditional Korean bbq pork with their green cabbage, or its just we are not used to this taste.

 That how you are supposed to eat it, it wasn’t just normal, wasn’t that bad but just not flattering, it’s better to just eat the meat, the dish is a little bit on the pricey side but since there’s meat so I guess it’s quite okay.

 Next is this Kimchi cold noodle $13, love and I had very high expectation of this. The soup was quite refreshing at the first mouth but eventually it just tastes like so sour cold soup afterwards, there’s no kimchi inside, the noodle is just normal ramyen. Not yummy.

 Last but not least is this soy bean paste soup $16, none of us tried that but always seen Koreans eating in drama so decided to give a try, thought it would be something different. Turns out it taste just like Japanese miso soup with other ingredients. Okay, at least we tried it. If you asked me whether its tasty I would say normal its exactly like jap. Miso soup.

Overall impression: honestly I will not buy the voucher nor visit the place again because the food does not justify for the price. I understand that most Korean restaurants are of the same level with their pricing but I guess, but I guess this restaurant is on the pricey side. Imagine without the groupon we won’t have to spend over 80 plus dollars there without counting the GST and service charge. Yup, but the environment of the restaurant is quite cozy and comfortable; waiters did serve us quite well. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad after all, just that we have ordered the wrong things. 

So after our sort of disappointing lunch we walked about 10 min to the café Group Therapy which is at somewhere near!  

 A cute small little bucket to indicate our table number and acts as a container for stuffs!

Ice Latte $6 and Ice Mint Mocha $7.50! A cup of refreshing drink to cool of the horrible heat outside! 

Love’s peach punch $5, super sweet and taste like syrups from canned cocktail :/ lol 

 4 layered carrot cake $8.50, first time trying a carrot cake. It is super yummy, even the plate carrying the cake was cold. The icing on the cake was not too sweet, almost couldn’t stop eating! Hahahaha

 Belgium waffle with vanilla ice cream and fruits $13, another super yummy dessert! Waffle was not too hard to cut; the coldness of the ice cream complements the warmth from the waffle so the sensation when you put the combination in the mouth is sort of perfect! Best for sharing with friends!

 Overall impression: a cozy café to laze the afternoon off, the café is to the small side but it was quite quiet for friends who would like to chat up over a cup of coffee and cake! Didn’t manage to take pictures of the interior as I was lazy, lol. But guess the price for the drinks and dessert are justifiable as the quality is good. Great dessert to make up for the bad lunch! Will visit again : )

So yea, my day was spent like this, I have decided that since I have more free time I will go to more cafes and some restaurants to enjoy life! Haha please wait for my nxt post! Bye!  

Short update

Hey guys, sry for the lack of update as I have spent a month in china for Chinese New Year! And I can’t access blogger there as they blocked it T.T so no choice I have to wait till I am back! Didn’t manage to finish my KL post before I go so guess I am a few post behind! But no worriers will catch up soon!

So since its Chinese new year I shall post something auspicious! I wish everyone a merry and mega prosperity year ahead, money will fall like rain in front of your, success will be your foot steps and may your health boom like the business in the two casinos in Singapore hahaha 

I have a feeling this will be a really special year for me as I feel that I will be going into a phase of a more meaningful and exciting life! So do keep a look out for my nxt post! See yall soon! 

Yes mam its the Phillipines! DAY 3 & 4

DAY 3

Okay I shall just stop procrastinating finish posting pictures of my manila trip! Guess I will put more pictures than words, lol easier for your eyes. It’s like 2.30 am now but NO I have to finish this blog post no matter what as I have many other things to post!

So the third day was another sight-seeing day, we will be going to see an active volcano inside a volcano. What….. haha yes that was my reaction when I heard that. But apparently it’s possible for a volcano inside a volcano to be formed when an volcano erupts. Okay whatever, honestly, I don’t really care about volcanoes -.- but it’s part of the tour we signed up for so we just went for it. lol

So it was a 2 hour drive to the destination, this is the volcano in the volcano from far! Lol okay I don’t think u can identify but anyway I like this shot :) 

Some plantation the car went past, pineapples? I am not too sure.

Tropical fruits, but ended up my mum bought a kilo of imported mangosteen. What the hell. Let all clap for her.

AH HA! Saw the volcano? It’s the one inside a volcano so at the place where I was taking the pic it was already a volcano. To get there, after a 2 hour drive, it’s another 2 hour boat ride that was the boat we sat. It was motherly hot and the sun was shining bright like a diamond that day -.-

Again, my generation Y peeps!With our hair all over our faces. 

So after the boat ride, we reached a small island where we have to rid a horse up the mountain to see the volcano. Actually it was quite fun as it was the first I ever sat on a horse. It was another 20 min on the horse back. It was real exciting but scary at the same time, both uphill and downhill, it was so steep. The whole journey up, I was so nervous that I was holding onto some small handle down tightly the whole time and all tensed up as I was afraid the horse I was riding will suddenly do stunts and I will end up flying off to nowhere and die in a foreign land. But luckily, the horse was damn obedient and steady the whole way up, though the journey was abit dusty and the sun is like trying to cook me. 

Taken on the horseback down, downhill was much better as I know that my horse, bronzo, is very steady so I was there taking pictures casually and even cam-whoring but the pictures suck so… hahaha actually I would say this horse riding thing is sort of the highlight of out manila trip as it was really special though a tiny bit dangerous but overall it was a good experience and program. 

Everyone in the tour group, on top of the mountain with the volcano in the volcano behind us! Lol Ikr, nth special -.- but its for the experience. Lol 

Me and mum with our horses! 

So that’s about half a day of our itinerary, after that we went to have lunch at the play where the boat service was provided. It was home cooked meal and it tasted quite delicious! Afterwards  we visited some local shopping centers hoping to be shop for sth but even though we visited a few of big malls in manila, there was nothing to buy so we sort of went back to the hotel early and rest as it was a tiring day! 

DAY 4

 So on day 4 we went to do some shopping in a shopping Centre call Greenhills , unlike things in other shopping malls, the things here were much cheaper and you can even bargain with the owners, though not much deductions but it’s definitely cheaper than those in the super huge gala shopping malls. I managed to get a few tops from there at a quite low price! At night, we went to a seafood market where u buy the seafood u want in the market and then u can go to any restaurants nearby and ask them to cook them for u! And it was pretty cheap.

As the picture shown above, we ate quite a lot of high class seafood, crabs , lobster, prawns, abalone and some clams plus other dishes like vegetables and pineapple fried rice! The total bill is onli 200 plus sgd. Yup cheap like mad! 

There was a Korean mart near the market and we couldn’t help ourselves but bought back popsicles for desserts! Most of them can’t be found in Singapore especially the banana milk popsicle! It was so damn yum! Look at all the happy face on in the picture! LOL

Finally tried their rice wine! It’s much cheaper there! Erm I tried a bit and didn’t want to touch it anymore, though the alcohol content is only like 15 %? But it tasted like it can corrode my stomach away! The after taste is damn strong; I wonder how Koreans drink it until so shiok in all those deceiving dramas. Liars.  Look at my friends face and you can roughly know how it tasted like! 

Couldn’t help it but I have to post this! Le wild mum on the horseback with scarf on her head, I don’t understand how she managed to pull through this style but it was freaking funny! HAHAHAHAHA

Our loots! Me, sis and mum! Food plus some clothing and etc. all I can say is they looked a lot but actually not really lol 

This is me with the cutie doggie in our hotel; he was so obedient and does not bark at all! So friendly and excited when u touch him!

Okay let me just briefly summarise my trip and end this post here and my eyelids are really really closing. Overall, this trip was fine. Yes fine, just fine. Honestly, the last min change of plan was damn sudden and our trip happened before we have too much time to think of what we wanted to do. Pity. I mean there’s no harm going to another country. And I have friends who are telling mi that I sld be happy as at least I am getting put of Singapore. So yea, I treated it as a weekend getaway. I sort of enjoy talking to the locals and being with them as they are real polite! Everywhere you go they will “hi mam and sry mam” u, yes even to themselves and u can feel that they are very friendly and pure just a look at their faces. Manila is not as dangerous as u all think. If you ask mi whether I would recommend manila to other tourists, I would say there’s more place to visit. So yea, here’s my 2 cents on my trip! Now I have to get to my bed! Byeee! 

Yes mam its the Phillipines! DAY 2

It’s the second day in manila, my flu recovered after getting enough slp! Today the rough itinerary is to go shopping in the malls near our hotels, go for a short city tour and have dinner at a famous buffet restaurant that serves a wide range of local and international cuisine. 

So for the rest of the day that we stayed in somerset millennium we had our breakfast there, I have to say their spread is pretty good with different dishes everyday but some standard dishes for breakfast fixed like scrambled eggs and pancakes. It was a cozy little restaurant so it makes u feel very comfortable eating there and will enjoy ur breakfast, which one of my tour mate reckon as the most impt. meal of the day in a warm ambience! 

Taken in one of the shopping malls near out hotels, all the ‘elders’ in our group, there are like ard 10 shopping centres at that area? Or more I don’t know didn’t manage to visit all as they are too huge and our schedule didn’t permit. It’s just like orchard roads in Singapore, malls after malls and they are linked but most sell the same thing though, with labels like Uniqlo, cotton on and zara. Actually nth much special, it’s just quantity there.   

This is the garden of a huge cluster of shopping malls near our hotel with the name Greenbelt, just like suntect city , they have 5 buildings which they call Greenbelt 1 to 5. Again, we didn’t manage to visit all as everything in the mall is the same so nth interest us so we chose to forgo them. This is the middle of all 5 malls, those who think manila is still a third world country who practice barter trade, u are wrong, okay I don’t not say other cities of Philippine is so advanced but at least manila is with numerous shopping centres .

So in the afternoon we went for the city tour, I forgot the name of the places we went, so please just enjoy the photos XD 

 In the car, a statue in the middle of their central banking district.

 First local tourist attract we visited, some fortress I guess XD one unfortunate thing is I don’t know why my camera didn’t capture much nice pictures due to the lighting reason, that day It was cloudy and was abt to rain, or maybe is I noob and don’t know how to adjust my camera T.T

 Hahaha sorry I just had to do it.

 I was trying to take a picture of this kitty that stopped suddenly beside me, I was quite surprised it didn’t run away when I was going nearer to him and take the picture. It turns out he was shitting so he didn’t move -.-

 Le wild tourist.

 My 2 generation Y tour mates!

Sorry I just couldn’t help it XD

 With my mum!

Second stop is the oldest church in manila or sth built by a Chinese and yes I gained some weight.

So for dinner we came to this restaurant I found online that is quite famous apparently for their wide spread of buffet dinner. It’s called kamaiyan, I think: / didn’t managed to take pic of the wide spreads as I was busy eating. It was quite yummy just like those international buffets u can get in Singapore without local Philippine food, but I actually don’t know what their local food is and don’t dare to eat them also.

 So there are performers who sings in front of every tables, when I stopped in front of our table it was so awkward I don’t know what to do, I couldn’t eat cause its quite rude to eat when others are performing for u so I just stoned until the performance was over.

 Roast pork is famous in Philippines, I just find it interest so I took it but after that I realized its quite gross :/

Anyway guys next time when you visit the Philippines you have to try this drink naming ‘ four season’ apparently it’s made of fruits of different seasons, like watermelon, orange, banana and mango! The taste is so fresh and unique! I really like it, not to mention it’s pretty appearance!

So here’s day 2 of my trip! Have been procrastinating to post the rest as work is killing me! But I will try my best!  So stay tune!