My TCM experience

The most in-thing in my family lately (hubby’s side) is Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM for short).

My mum-in-law swears by it. My dad-in-law listens to no other doc but this one. The other-in-laws are amazed by his diagnosis.

Well, so my mum-in-law (who started it all) ‘evangelized’ the ‘good' news to me and brought me with her to the sinseh @ Sin Nam Medical Hall which is located all the way at Yishun (yes Yishun) St 71.

My MIL says the sinseh, who has a stylo name- Jeremiah, will not see anyone who does not make a prior appointment. Whoa.

When I reached the place, there were chairs outside the clinic. We had to take a queue number too. Ok…Pretty impressive.

Jeremiah also does not allow the ‘patient’ to attend his consultation accompanied. His logic? So that he can focus on the ‘patient’… or is it because the ‘patient’ would not be distracted…? Something along that line…

Anyway, it was my turn to see him. My greeting was returned with a ‘Hmm'. Ok, no nonsense here. WITHOUT A WORD, Jeremiah felt my pulse on both wrists, one at a time and he also took a hard look at both my palms. Strangely, he finally lightly scratched at my wrists and watched the effects. Maybe the faster the scratch marks faint away, the healthier I am? Hmmm….. Meanwhile, Jeremiah scribbled away while he looked at my hands.

Well, I know that TCM practitioners claim they can check the state of one’s health and internal organs by looking at the palm.

Finally the words were spoken. A couple of stuffs he said was really accurate. Some stuffs I do not know cos I can’t see! The rest, he ‘prophesized’ will happen (yikes!).

He also banned some foods on my food list, eg: No cold and fruit drinks (Gosh!), no cabbage (huh?), eat tomatoes and carrots cooked, no pancakes etc etc.

Therefore, my first consultation ended with a rather substantial bill for one week’s worth of medicine, yukky medicine that I had to take 3 times a week,

and a whole list of banned food….

So do I believe and persist in TCM? We shall see….

Jerb

Healthy eating

I feel really blessed this week. My mum-in-law has been preparing my meals and delivering them to my house (thank God she lives across the street) for the last few days.

Boy, I’ve never eaten so healthily for such a long stretch of time before! Because I was unwell, I had nothing fried, no snacks, no chilli (my MIL thinks it’s bad for my health… but that’s because I eat ALOT), no cold drinks…

Almost everyday, I eat porridge or soup with rice. My MIL even cooks brown rice porridge for me a couple of times. Everything is boiled and steamed. I think I am starting to radiate with good health! Keke… I hope so.

Tonight, my MIL was unable to cook for me. But she so nicely bought the raw food and asked me to cook them myself! HAHA! I haven’t cooked for such a long time!

Here’s my very healthy dinner….

Dish #1 Steamed rice

Dish #2 Pomfret+chinese mushrooms+ginger+garlic+sesame oil+soya sauce

---> steam

Dish #3 Vege

Tomatoes+broccoli+carrots+salt+mushroom oyster sauce+garlic

I was thinking whether to pan-fry this dish… But since I was already so healthy, I might as well be healthy all the way!

So….

I steamed the dish as well!

And ta-da… presenting my home-cooked dinner (you are right, Jared had none of this)…

Verdict: The fish was nice… I love pomfret.

But the vege was … it was… kinda raw…

Lesson learnt: It’s better to pan-fry my vege. And I should leave the cooking to my MIL.

Well, I do hope I keep up with healthy eating anyway…!

Hong Kong – Shopping Paradise :)

Not for Jared… but for me!

Day 1… Just by walking around TST area near our hotel, I picked up some stuffs…

I bought the clothes at a shop called Maple, located at Tsim Sha Tsui, Hankow Road. They have a few branches in HK. The best thing about this shop- They open till MIDNIGHT!!! Dream shop!

We also bought stuffs for Jared’s nephew and niece @ H&M

The kids’ selection at the TST branch at I think Salisbury Road, is amazing! They have 7 cuts of jeans for the little boys and girls!

After visiting 2 H&M branches in HK, we now conclude that H&M is much cheaper in America and Europe. So we got nothing from H&M HK.

Loot from Day 2…

We went to Arglye Centre (Wang Jiao Zhong Xin) @ Mongkok. It’s like the Far East Plaza of HK.

Even though the shops are starting to sell thicker clothings for winter, I could still get many great stuffs for sunny SG. :)

I bought 4 leggings/jeggings this trips! For now, I am preferring to wear the oh-so-comfy leggings than jeans.

Day 3, we went to walk Temple Street. We heard it’s like a giant pasar malam. It’s true! But it was quite fun to walk around and see the interesting stuffs they stock. Cute bedroom slippers, all sorts of toys, pretty nice jewellery (I bought a bunch of bangles here!), fake branded stuffs etc etc.

Felt peace when we walked here because…

Cool!

We also went to HK Industrial Centre @ Lai Chi Kok. It’s like the City Plaza of HK. But too bad I was there on the stock arrival day- Monday… Retailers were there haggling with the wholesalers, and men were unloading HUGE BAGS of …. clothes/bags/shoes!

Many of the shops did not entertain customers like me that day. Either that or they would mark up the price by ALOT more for customers as compared to the price they give retailers. So, in the end, I only managed to buy from 2 shops. :( 

In a sense, that’s good too…. if not, my wallet would have been FURTHER drained.

So if you are interested to visit the shops there, as advised by 1 of the wholesalers, go on a Saturday. Sundays are closed.

Another thing to note about the shops in HK (with the exception of departmental stores) are that they generally do not allow customers to try on the clothes. Most of them sell free-sized clothes though. So you either buy clothes that you are v confident of fitting into or else risk giving away lotsa X’mas presents!

So for me, this was indeed a FRUITFUL but quite a tiring trip! :)))

Hong Kong – Food Paradise?

Honestly, we think HK food is quite bland as compared to SG’s. Alot of noodle soup and porridge here.

One of the nicer wanton noodles we ate was at Good Hope Noodles shop located at Mongkok, opposite Argyle Centre.

The uncle who cooked porridge in the same shop… So Old style right?

But what’s really Delicious is their Dim sum & Dessert. :)

We had our Dim Sum @ the Tao Heung restaurant at Carnavon Road at Tsim Sha Tsui (TST).

My favorite century egg porridge! Jared does eat… without the century egg….

Chee Cheong Fun… this one, the skin was kinda thick.

Har Kow… Must eat while hot.

And the juicy succulent prawn inside looks like this….

Hmmm….

My favorite dish up next…

‘Feng jiao’ or chicken feet!!! I ate the whole plate. It was so delicious, I ordered it the next day, without the pork ribs.

Very good siew mai.

Mango pudding. Nice!

We had 8 dishes for less than SG$20. Cheap!

Jared got tired of soup noodles so we found Jap food- Azura Sabo @ TST near our hotel and ate there for 2 of our meals. It was cheaper than SG’s cos in HK, they do not charge taxes and service charge.

Jared, very satisfied with his fruit crepe.

Finally…. Something spicy for me!!! :)

Now… let’s drool at the dessert. A famous place is Hui Lau Shan or ‘Xu Liu Shan’ in Chinese.

They offer take away too. Very rich dessert with many selections with mangoes! Yum!

We ordered take away 1 day, and sat down to have proper dessert the other day.

My mango and pomelo dessert.

Jared’s fruit platter and mango with glutinous balls dessert.

They were DELICIOUS!

We also visited Charlie Brown cafe. The food was NOT nice and the price is steep. Only good for phototaking.

Cute cartoon characters on the way up to the cafe which is on the 2nd floor.

 

The cafe itself. Even the ceiling is ‘cartoonized’.

The most handsomest man waiting for his b’fast. :)

Hungry!

Cute cappuccino. I like woodstock!

I’m famished!

Take a closer look at my toast…

Looked like snoopy got slapped. :(

Photo-taking time after b’fast!

My favorite table.

But Jared prefers….

This cafe even have a party room just like Mac Donald’s!

So, that’s all for the food in HK!