Goodyear Seafood Village

This place has not yet been fully discovered by many as it rests in the outskirts of Old Tampines Road, where not many travel along.

One of my ex-colleagues, Sarah, chanced upon this restaurant when she and her hubby accidentally made a wrong turn and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Went to the place last Friday with my ex-colleagues Sarah, Julie and Thoh Papa for my god pa's belated birthday celebration. When turning into the lane near the restaurant, you would think you are in Malaysia.

This place is good for its curry fish head and Pontian JB Bak Ku Teh.

4 of us, we ordered curry fish head, seafood beancurd, bak ku teh as well as sambal sweet potato leaves.

Every dish was good and tasty. The service was also very prompt.

Especially like the array of condiments to go with the food- raw garlic, sambal chilli, big cut chilli, chilli padi, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce. I went straight for the raw garlic as I have always loved eating my rice and dishes with raw garlic soaked in soya sauce.

Total bill amounted to only $68 for 4 adults which was only about $17 per person. Very reasonable for so many dishes especially the huge pot of curry fish head!

That's me and Thoh Papa who is exactly 40 years older than me! Happy belated 73rd birthday Thoh Papa!

You can check out the address from the receipt above!

Opening hours (Mon-Sun):
Lunch: 11am - 2pm
Dinner: 5pm - 11pm

Cooking Time

Having been away for a week without my family, I miss home and cooking for them! So, immediately when I returned, I decided to cook for my family the very next day! Here's what I prepared for them...spread over 2 meals. Stewed pork with radish and carrots

Sweet and Sour prawns

French Beans with salted egg

Red Fermented Chicken Wings with taupok (Bought the red fermented paste from the Taipei Wet Market)

My hubby was definitely happy to be fed by me as he was getting sick of my helper's cooking... I do get sense of satisfaction from watching my loved ones enjoy their food.

Cooking during the holidays

I do miss cooking during normal work days as my helper would cook instead since I come home late almost everyday or I would be too tired to. So I would usually either cook weekends (which has been more rare now) or during school holidays.

Here's what I made..

Pork short ribs stew with pumpkin, onions, carrots, tomatoes. My first time cooking this and it was purely my own recipe and concoction. Very nice! Would def cook this easy one pot meal again!


Linguine with lemon, garlic thyme mushrooms (all thanks to Nigella Lawson's cookbook given to me by my students.



And Country Beef stew (using beef shin)


Cooked these on separate occasions. After each cooking, I always have this sense of satisfaction from watching my hubby and children dig into it and finish it all up. My cooking also helps break the monotony of my helper's cooking as she keeps cooking the same old stuff. After a while, I purposely arrange to eat out.

But nevertheless, I do wish for myself to put in more effort in preparing meals for the family so that eventually, my kids could join me in cooking together! That's really my dream.

Preparing for Christmas

I cant believe tomorrow is Christmas...Have been busy with buying presents and travelling that I do not FEEL its Christmas tomorrow. Hmm, but is Christmas just a FEELING?

Of course not! No matter how many Christmas parties you attend, or how many times you go to Orchard Rd to view the lights to get into the atmosphere, or receive tons of presents from friends etc etc...Deep down, you will always have an empty feeling about Christmas if you do not find out the real meaning and purpose behind it. It will just be a day when we eat alot or just a day when we can get off from work.

If it is really just any day, or a festival for Christians, then why are millions or even billions Christians and non-Christians across the world celebrating it? What makes this day so special?

I know my two children sure doesnt understand the true meaning of Christmas at this age and I'm sure Caleb thinks Christmas is about Santa Claus, Christmas trees and presents as he's sure seeing lots of those around him!

Anyway, since I just came back from Malaysia, and being so busy running around for the past week buying presents, I feel that I should just stay at home for Christmas Eve, step back and reflect once again what Christmas is all about.

Yesterday when I went to Woodlands Factory to buy some Christmas party food, the atmosphere in the factories seemed like it was Chinese New Year. It was packed with people, jostling about and grabbing their last minutes stock of food! It was a mad house! I was just thinking to myself, how many of these people actually know what they are celebrating?

So anyway, today, Caleb had a hair cut as his hair was getting a little too messy for the start of his school next year.



Caleb has always been cutting his hair at home since birth and he has come a long way-he used to cry as he doesnt like the feeling of his hair all over his body. But today, he has learnt to just sit back, relax and get his hair cut without crying. So proud of him! Amazingly at his age, he can still fit in his Bumbo seat! So useful!



I also decided to cook lunch and dinner for the family today. For dinner, I prepared a dish which I learnt from one of my favourite local program,"3-in-1", which its a competition between 2 pairs of celebrities in preparing 3 dishes and 1 soup.

This dish is basically twee bah with dou gan beancurd and leeks. Quite tasty with rice!


I have also been trying to master cooking chye sim. I know many would think what's the big deal in cooking a plate of veggies? How difficult can it be? Well, its true that it is easy to cook chye sim as you can simply throw it in, add oyster sauce etc etc and just fry a bit till it cooks. But what I want is not just the taste but texture. I want my veggies to still be bright green, crunchy, but cooked and very tasty! And I also do not want to add any gravy to this dish as I want all its taste and flavour to come out from the natural sweetness of the prawns and vegetables.

Most veggies are tasty but because they are left in the pot for long such that the dish becomes sweet. But the texture is compromised because the veggies will become soft and overcooked. The colour will not be brightly green anymore.

So what I did with this dish was to boil the chye sim in a pot of boiling salt cum sesame oil water first till its 3/4 cook. Then remove it and run it over cold water. Then I heat my wok with oil, and lots of garlic, I throw in the prawns first (which was marinated with XO, salt, pepper and soya sauce), stir the prawns till its almost cook. Then throw in the veggies and stir a couple of times, add oyster sauce and quickly switch off the fire.


I feel I still havent perfected it as the veggies still fall a little short of being as crunchy as I wanted it to be. But nevertheless, was satisfied. Will work harder next time!

After dinner, I prepared my potato cheese and bacon dish for tomorrow's Christmas party at my sister-in-law's place! This dish can be prepared in advance to allow me time to cook other dishes tomorrow. Will only need to microwave and grill this tomorrow.




Also spent time doing some art and craft with Caleb after dinner. Here's the outcome of it!


Caleb was busy helping to paste those stickers to decorate the tree.



It was fun! I cant wait to wake up tomorrow to open all the presents below my Christmas tree!! Its nice to always wait in anticipation to tear open the presents on Christmas morning...just like when I was young.

There's always a reward to those who wait...(arghh...I am tearing my hair out inside me just waiting and waiting to open those presents. Its tempting)

Trip to Desaru- our first day!

This would be our first trip together as a family to Malaysia. Its also CT's first time driving up there. So we were all pretty excited and probably nervous as to the safety aspect of it and whether we can find our way around. I also borrowed my friend's GPS for more security...just in case! We left Singapore at about 10am.

We first stopped at "Ah Soon Bak Ku Teh" (N1°29.323' E103°46.049') located at Jalan Keris 1 of Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor Bahru. I have a 'bad' habit of finding where are the good places to eat whenever I go for holiday so as to make my trip worth!


I like anything traditional and tasty! Here were the must-haves for any bak ku teh meal- the salted veggies and tau pok!


We also ordered yellow rice wine claypot chicken which was recommended from the internet. Caleb just ate this dish with rice which was good enough! It was so tasty as the gravy was thick and savoury!



And the claypot bak ku teh. Not the usual thick soup base but its still tasty and yummy!



Total price was about $40 plus ringgit! Will definitely be back again!

After lunch, we went to pump our CNG for the car which only costs us about 8 ringgit for a 200km long journey! Its that dirt cheap! We then made our way to Pulai Springs Desaru Beach Resort. It was about an hour half to 2 hours drive. Not that bad!

The kids were entertained by my netbook which I brought. And guess what? It actually fit in between our car seats. Great way to save money, instead of installing a DVD player in the car! The children were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Moreover, we had the cable to plug the netbook into our car stereo system. So the sound was coming out from the car speakers. How cool! haha.



After a while, they fell asleep..how peaceful. Oh by the way, Danielle's 'new' car seat was bought from Salvation Army for only $12! It was supposed to be $16 as what the price tag stated but there was a further discount! What a steal! We just needed to take home and washed the covers and I sterilsed the plastic with dettol. Thats all! Its as good as new!



We arrived at the hotel at about 2pm. Caleb headed straight to the Kids Club area to play as it was right at the lobby!



We ordered a pool view deluxe room. Here's our view from the room.


The children slept for a while and after their afternoon nap, we went for a swim!


Caleb seemed to be more fearful of the water now than Danielle.




But I do not believe in letting Caleb's fears get in his way. Instead, I took him up to the waterslide and slide down with him.




I believe very strongly in facing up to your fears than to avoid it- the more my children is scared, the more I will do it with them until they are not afraid anymore. Seems harsh but they will probably thank me for them in future when they have learnt to enjoy every activity to the fullest without being afraid of anything.



As we were about to finish playing in the pool, it started to drizzle. So we hurried back to the hotel to bathe the children!


After a nice shower, we went for dinner at Sungei Rengit! Its a great place for seafood! I asked the reception and they recommended eating at Jade Garden Restaurant. It was about 40km to the destination- half an hour drive. Thank God the skies cleared...



As we headed to the restaurant, we saw a number of Singaporean cars, which probably reaffirmed that the food here was good and reasonable priced.


I found it rather interesting that Malaysia high chairs for kids look so traditional, unlike the Ikea typed ones found in Singapore.



We ordered 2 extra big lobster ( I ordered this because I heard Sungei Rengit is a place famous for lobster), home made bean curd, kurau fish and vegetables.



Because there werent a lot of us, the waitress suggested serving us few slices of fish instead of the whole big fish.



The highlight of this meal was really the lobster! It was so sweet and tasty!! I think just having this and veggies would suffice as the gravy went so well with the rice! Even Caleb loved it!



We ordered the food without a menu. That was a mistake as we didnt know how much each dish would cost us. We just assumed Malaysian food would be very cheap and there is no cause for worry. Big mistake. The lobster came up to be very expensive (according to my standard). I have never really ordered lobster before and did not know the market rate. So I was very surprised when the bill came up to RM$210 (that is S$100!!!)

Here's the break down of prices

1) Bean curd (RM $8)
2) Kurau Fish (RM $30)
3) Veggies (RM $6)
4) Big 1.2 kg Lobster (RM $144)
5) 2 cups of Lime juice (RM 4)
6) young Coconut (RM $4)
7) Towel (RM $0.90)

Its really the lobster that killed us that night. But still, I did not regret eating such a wonderful dish! Moreover, I heard that the price of the lobster was already considered cheap! Guess I was just not used to seeing such price coming from a "bigger version of prawn"!

After a satisfying dinner, we went back to the hotel where CT and I played darts while the children were playing in the kids club.I was so glad this hotel has kids club as its really a good place to dump our kids there where CT and I could be on our own.



After playing for a while, we went back and got ready the children for bed.


What a tiring but yet enjoyable day!

Mum's birthday treat

My mum had been craving for suckling pig and so way before hand, my dad got the menu from the Chinese Restaurant to see if the dishes are ok.

We went to Dragon Phoenix Restaurant at Novotel Clarke Quay. Its our second time there. The last time we were there was 2 years back when Caleb was very young and inactive. Remembered the last time when Janine was pushing Caleb around in the pram, but now, they walked into the restaurant holding hands.


And 2 years later, there are 2 more additions to the family- birth of Danielle and Joyanne! So its quite interesting to see how much changes have taken place just within 2 years.



The chef from Dragon Phoenix Restaurant was actually the guy who served Singapore's first Chilli Crab. He is also popular for dishes like Kyoto Pork Ribs, Yam Basket and Phoenix Spring Chicken.

The food was not too bad. I liked the spring chicken because it was very juicy and tasty.


The yam basket was also probably one of the crispiest I have ever tasted.


The suckling pig was slightly disappointing because we felt there was a very strong pig smell when we ate. The pig was probably a bit too old for us to eat. Ha.




Then the chef took the remainder pig to fry with ginger and onions, which I felt still had that distinct pig smell. Sigh. What a waste.


Ended our dinner with a small birthday cake bought by my aunt! Very nice and light!


We had an enjoyable time..


And my mum did her birthday speech before we cut the cake. Her message was telling us to appreciate and cherish one another as a couple. (By the way, its Chung and Chloe's wedding anniversary today and they still came to celebrate my mum's birthday!)



Happy Birthday Mum! May you remain healthy and joyful!