Happy National Blogger Day and Happy Deepavali

27 October 2008 is the first anniversary of Indonesia's National Blogger Day. Therefore, I would like to wish all Indonesian bloggers a very happy National Blogger Day.

And since this very same day is also a Diwali day (which is a public holiday here in Singapore), I also would like to wish a very Happy Deepavali to all my Indian friends who celebrate the festival of lights.

Azmi's Raya Open House and Alysha's Birthday Party

Date: Saturday, 25 October 2008
Location: Azmi and Ayu's residence, Bright Hill Drive, Singapore

Claypot Chicken Rice

My first encounter with claypot chicken rice was in Malaysia. I immediately fell in love with this dish, rice cooked in a claypot together with all the additional ingredients such as diced chickens, vegetables and, most importantly, the spices, thrown in. Cooked over charcoal stove, and served with the pot while still hot. Wonderfulicious. :)

Since it's a Chinese traditional dish, it's quite difficult to find halal claypot chicken rice in Singapore. Normally, I would go to Johor Bahru to look for this dish, notably the food courts at Johor Bahru's City Square and Tebrau City. Therefore, it was a very delightful surprise to see this dish in one of the stalls at Banquet halal food court, located on the basement two (B2) floor of VivoCity shopping mall, Singapore.

On a side note, Banquet VivoCity is one of our favourite Banquet outlets, other than the Bagus by Banquet at IMM and Banquet Jurong Point. In Banquet VivoCity, the kids would normally go with the chicken rice, other than fish and chips or chicken cutlet from the western stall. For me, another favourite dish there is the cockles kway teow.

Julie's Biscuits also Tainted with Melamine

Picture courtesy of Channel NewsAsia.

I was very surprised (if not shocked) when I read from today's Weekend Today newspaper (which I get for free in my doorstep everyday, by the way) that some (or all?) of Julie's biscuits made in Malaysia are also tainted with melamine.

This is because our family (myself, my wife and the kids) has been buying Julie's biscuit products all this while. Inka is a great fan of Julie's wheat crackers (see above picture) while Julie's Cocoro crispy chocolate wafer rolls are also one of our family's favourites.

Yes, the Agri-Food and Vetenirary Authority (AVA) has reassured that the levels of melamine in the affected products are very low, and one has to consume large quantities of the contaminated products over a prolonged period of time before it can affect his/her health. But this still cannot much relieve our worries, especially since we have been consuming the affected products for quite some time.

Flickr-ku sayang, Flickr-ku malang...

Since I use Facebook quite often now, I'm a bit "neglecting" my Flickr account. Especially since I now has less time in front of my computer for my personal activities (since mostly they are for work-related). I also just realised that I have not been uploading my pictures, let alone "photo-blog-walking" there, for couple of months!

Actually, I felt sorry in neglecting my Flickr account, since I met quite a lot of friends there. For example, I knew and met Satya, Chandra, Ivan, Tata/Wati and Mdamt through Flickr. With the exception of Tata and Wati (whom I always can find everywhere), the others are not really active on any other photosharing and social networking sites such as Multiply and Facebook, so I kinda miss them quite a lot. :)

So, Flickr... here I come... again... :) :) Hopefully I will have the time so that I won't neglect you too much... hopefully... :)

Tang Tea House

Date: Sunday early morning, 19 October 2008.
Location: Tang Tea House, Simpang Bedok, Singapore.

Last Saturday night, I took Irza out for supper, while Inka has already sleeping. Since were were not too sure where to go, I decided to go to Tang Tea House.

This MUIS-certified halal Chinese "makan" place is recommended by my friends from the IMAS community. Its specialty is the tim sum, although it also provides any other types of dishes such as chicken rice, seafood and even shark fin soup.

It was past midnight when I and Irza reached there. It's located at Simpang Bedok, along Bedok Road, opposite the Bedok Market Place. It provides a very nice and cozy alfresco seating arrangement. It's just a short 15 minutes walk from Tanah Merah MRT station, although if you don't want to walk, you can also take bus number 2 or 9 from Tanah Merah MRT station, or bus number 10 from Tampines bus interchange.

I ordered four (yes, it's FOUR) dishes of tim sum: my favourite chicken feet, siew mai (siomay in Indonesian), har kow (shrimp dumplings) and chicken pau, which is requested by Irza since it's his favourite.

However, Irza loves the chicken rice, which I specifically ordered for him. His comment is that even without the chicken and the soup, the rice itself is very nice. He also loves the har kow with the shrimp inside.

The price is, surprisingly, reasonable. A dish of siew mai (3pcs) and har kow (3pcs) costs $2.50, chicken feet costs $2.20 and chicken pau (2pcs) costs only $1.60. My longan drink only costs $1.80 while Irza's milo dinosaur costs $2.80. His chicken rice (a set of rice, chicken and soup) costs only $3.

Bowling at The Chevrons

Date: Sunday, 12 October 2008
Location: The Chevrons, Jurong East, Singapore

Bowling is one of the kids' favourite pastime activities. Orchid Bowl, which is located at the fourth floor of The Chevrons in Jurong East, about 15 minutes' drive from our home, is one of our favourites.

Another favourite bowling alley of ours is the new Orchid Bowl at e!Hub Downtown East, which is located in Pasir Ris. It has automatic gutter barriers so the kids can bowl with the barriers while we can bowl without the barriers, on the very same lane. Unfortunately, it's quite far from our home since it's located on the other side of the island.

"Maksiber" Indo-Sing Photographer

Date: Saturday, 18 October 2008
Location: McDonalds, Junction 8, Bishan, Singapore

This is the second Indo-Sing Photographer gathering I attended after the lighting workshop conducted last April.

Again, since I am just a "penggembira", I chose to take pictures of the event (with help from Inka and Irza) while the rest are discussing about photography and their SLR cameras. And yes, I am the only one coming to the event with pocket cameras. :) :)

Unfortunately, Frans (Salim) needed to leave early so I didn't manage to take his picture during this event.

PS:
1. "Maksiber" stands for makan siang bersama, or lunch gathering, in Indonesian.
2. Some of below pictures are taken by Inka and Irza.

Chai Chee Seafood Restaurant

Date: Saturday, 11 October 2008
Location: Chai Chee Seafood Restaurant, Changi Rd, Eunos, Singapore

After the gathering event at VivoCity, I picked up my wife and Irza at Raffles City and then proceeded to Chai Chee Seafood Restaurant for dinner.

It is a halal seafood restaurant located along Changi Road, around Eunos/Kembangan area. It is on the same side of the same road where Mak's Place Hawkerant is located, just further blocks down the road.

Except the shark fin's soup for Inka, we didn't order any other signature dishes. I ordered sambal beef kway tiauw (spelling?) while my wife ordered crispy noodles. The restaurant is not really packed on that Saturday evening. Could it be that most Singaporeans are now a bit cautious in spending their money because of the imminent economic crisis?

One Saturday Evening at Coffee Bean VivoCity

Date: Saturday, 11 October 2008
Location: Coffee Bean, VivoCity, Singapore

Earlier this evening, I and Inka went to VivoCity to meet mas Rino, my ex-colleague, ex-supervisor and ex-mentor at RADNET, who came from Batam for a short 2D1N trip to Singapore with his wife.

Tebakan: "Nongkrong" di Orchard

Was driving along Orchard Road with my family yesterday (Saturday 4/10) evening when I spotted this happy family, consisting of my friend, his wife and their two twin sons, were relaxingly sitting down on the stairs in front of The Atrium @ Orchard, Dhoby Ghaut, just next to Plaza Singapura.

I took the picture using my PDA-phone camera and from within a distance, inside my car traveling along Orchard Road, on the middle lane. Therefore, of course you can't expect a good high-quality picture. :)

Can anyone guess who is the happy family? :) :)

PS. Yang merasa ada di foto ngga boleh ikutan nebak, hehehe... :) :)

Halal Bihalal in Sengkang

Date: Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Location: Anchorvale, Sengkang, Singapore

After performing Shalat Ied prayer and attending Hari Raya Open House at the Indonesian embassy, we went straight to Anchorvale, Sengkang to attend the biggest halal bihalal event for Indonesian community in Singapore.

This halal bihalal event is hosted by the IndoSing-Mums community, particularly from those who live around what they call "gang senggol", which is an acronym derived from Hougang, Sengkang and Punggol. :)

This is the first time the halal bihalal event is conducted in Sengkang, after conducting them in Tampines in the past two years. It is a resounding great success, kudos to the organisers of the event. Food is aplenty, and the guests even managed to take some of the food back home.

There were supposed to be family photo events being conducted by two appointed official photographers, Pak Ahmad Dasuki and Pak Wawan Setiawan, however it turned out that it's quite difficult to gather each family together, especially since the kids were playing around everywhere. Most of the family photos were taken without the kids, and even om Rio and tante Eva would have to "borrow" Kinara for their family photo session. :) :)

Please help to fill-in the missing captions whenever possible, I couldn't remember all of the names, especially the mothers and the kids. :)

Other pictures can also be found here:

Halal Bihalal Ied Fitri 1429H
Halal Bihalal di Blok 314 Sengkang 2008
Halal Bihalal Iedul Fitri 1428H
Halal Bihalal Iedul Fitri 1428 H - upload kedua
Halal Bihalal Iedul Fitri 1428 H - upload ketiga
Halal Bihalal Iedul Fitri 1428 H - upload keempa
Lebaran Sengkang 01102008
Eid! .. eit, jangan salah ...
edisi lebaran
Lebaran 2008
Halal Bihalal@Sengkang
Eid 2008
Ied 1429H: Gang Senggol
Ied Fitri 1429 Gathering @Sengkang
Lebaran 1429H
1 Oktober 2008, Sengkang, HBH
Lebaran 1429H S'Pore
Lebaran 2008
Ied Mubarak

Shalat Ied Prayer and Open House at KBRI Singapura

Date: Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Location: Indonesian Embassy, Chatsworth Road, Singapore

This year would be the second time we celebrate Hari Raya Idul Fitri in Singapore. Unlike two years ago when we performed Shalat Ied prayer at a nearby mosque, this year we went to the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore, located on Chatsworth Road, to perform the Shalat Ied prayer as well as attending Hari Raya Open House there.

We left home at around 7:15am and reached the embassy at around 7:45pm. By that time, the Istiqamah mosque located within the embassy compound have been filled up, so I and Irza chose the location inside a tent which is set up just next to the mosque itself.

After shalat which is followed by the sermon/khutbah, we put our shalat equipments in the car before joining others to the Hari Raya Open House event. Surprisingly, we met Pak Budi Rahardjo, a prominent Indonesian blogger who came to Singapore to celebrate Hari Raya with his daughter who is currently studying in Singapore.

We met some of our friends at the Open House event, and had a late breakfast before proceeding to Sengkang for a halal-bihalal event for the Indonesian community in Singapore, hosted by our friends from the IndoSing-Mums community (foto-foto menyusul).

Other pictures can also be found here:

Ied 1429H: KBRI Singapore
Kembar Group
Shalat Ied@KBRI SIngapura
Lebaran GA MUDIK