Tak Po Dim Sum

My family and I went to Chinatown for dim sum! It is pretty cheap, each plate costs about $3. At first we had wanted to head to Pavilion at Craig Place, but it was a little too pricey for us to bear even though we had a $50 voucher. We had to spend at least $100 to be entitled to use the voucher, and I'm sure we would spend more than $100 if we did step in. So we went to Tak Po, which serves Hong Kong dim sum at relatively cheap prices. The dim sums arrived in batches almost immediately after we ordered them, making me wonder if they just re-heat them, but most of the dim sum were pretty good, I was only really disappointed with one - crystal chives ball. It was too dry and the chives just didn't taste good.

Oops I forgot to take a picture of the prawn beancurd skin roll. Er it can be seen here on the lower right corner. It tasted good, as expected of a good prawn beancurd skin roll.

Mango spring roll (Only available on Sundays). A MUST TRY! Sweet and juicy mango together with savoury prawn, yum! 

 

Seaweed spring roll - not very memorable or exciting

 

Baked char siu bau - crispy and savoury on the outside, sweet on the inside.

Har gau - its skin was translucent, very thin. Approve!



Prawn siu mai! Better than ordinary siu mai!



Deep fried prawn dumpling - another forgettable dish

Prawn chee cheong fun on the lef and char siu chee cheong fun on the right. It's my first time eating char siu one and I thought it was a great combination.

Taking my prawn siu mai with their awesome chilli.

Ham sui gau - crispy and fluffy, sweet and salty!



Siu mai - I don't like siu mai but the one here wasn't half bad.



Spicy tofu - the chilli was more sweet than spicy, but the tofu was good. It had a thin crispy outer layer and was soft on the inside.

Raw fish - Drizzled in lime juice and sprinkled with chilli, the raw fish was not only fresh, but tasted wonderfully sour and spicy.

Carrot cake - tasted much better and crispier than the ones sold in wet market. Must be the oil they use. 

Bro and wife

Crystal chives ball - What I would never order again.

Scallop seaweed dumpling - I couldn't quite taste the scallop inside though...

Dad and bro (Mum refused to take any photos since she wasn't at her top form!)

Sis with food in her mouth.

Sis and me =)

I love the tea. Washes down the food completely.

 In the end, we ordered too much and had to pack some leftovers home. We didn't even have space left for dessert! Sad as I really wanted to try their dessert. The total cost of the mountain of food we ordered was about $90, but well we did order too much, and there was 6 of us, so it was really pretty cheap. Also, while the shop may be very cramped and not particularly hygienic, once you dig into the food, you will forget about the dirt aound you! So I would recommend this place for good and cheap dim sum!

Food:　★★★★☆
Ambience:　★★☆☆☆
Service: 　★★★☆☆

Tak Po
42 Smith Street S(058954)
(+65) 6225 03302
7.30am -10.30pm, Daily

Define your Eyes with Freshlook Illuminate!

Lately optometrists seem to love recommending contact lenses that enlarge one's pupils. Whichever optical shop I go to, they would be giving out these kinda lenses. Such contacts are probably popular amongst most East Asians as they can make one's eyes appear bigger. I'm not very fond of these contacts though, because they look rather fake. Maybe I'm just biased against them because they really do open up one's eyes, but coloured contacts are so much more fun and interesting to wear. I can always change my look with a different colour, but all this contact lens does is just to make my eyes bigger, which I, blessed me, don't have the need for. But the Freshlook Illuminate Dailies is very comfortable to wear, they can last me for almost an entire day before my eyes start to feel tight and dry.


My peepers do look brighter and larger with the contacts. Great for fans of the doe-eyed look.



Pretending to be a doll with messy stupid dry hair.

 

Taken with iPhone camera my pupils look so inky black.

Max Tan ~ max.tan / Liquid

My sister mentioned to me just a few days ago that Max was flying to Paris for a show, and I was totally green with envy. He is only 27 and he has achieved so many things in life. So I've decided to dedicate a post for him! 

max.tan was the FIRST Asian-based label invited to showcase at Modefabriek in Amsterdam in 2010. Max Tan himself is a local fashion designer who is known both locally and internationally; his label is stocked even in Sweden and Germany. Locally, his designs are well loved by artistes as well. 

One of his designs from LIBERATE Spring/Summer Collection 2012 (I love the hoodie)

Zoe Tay in one of his collections for Renci Charity Show 2010

Cynthia Koh wearing a custom-made fish-scale dress by Max. Apparently, I heard it's made from pony hair!

Paige Chua in SS 2011 for LOHAS ep 4

Max has branched out from his main label, max.tan, to a new line called Liquid. Liquid carries a clothing line targeted at OL, but it is definitely towards OL with substantial earning power. After all, a piece of dress averages hundred dollars. Last year we went for Liquid opening by max.tan, which is situated in Takashima level 3. My friends were so excited as they have heard of him and requested to take a photo with him. Which really delighted him! It’s so nice that he was equally excited and earnest about taking photos with my friends.

Max’s main label, max.tan, produces a line of androgynous geometrical clothing which costs double or triple the price of Liquid clothing. Nowhere near my earning power. But I got the chance to wear his design back when he opened his store at level 2 Parco in Millennia Walk! That time I still haven’t joined Upfront, so I was elated at this chance to be modeling for his clothes. What I had worn back then was a single-sleeved white shirt dress; I like the fact that it is one-sleeved which makes it very unique and new-age. I certainly felt very fashion-forward to be wearing his design!

Maquillage Brilliant Glitter Makeup Collection

Remember this shiny pink box? It's my birthday gift from Rachel!



I finally decided to give Rachel's gift a try, and used only the products in the set (ok, and bb cream and eyebrow pencil) to see how they will look on my face.

This is how the box looks on the inside. Items from left to right: Mascara, eyeshadow, lip palette, oil blotter



Purple Glitter mascara

I like the interesting shape of the mascara wand. The contour gives me easy application to lashes on the inner corner of my eyes.

Duo eyeshadow. I LURVE this the best it looks so natural and shimmery! The drawer concept to keep the brush makes it very tidy too! Now if the lid can be like connected to the container it would be perfect.

Lippie palette. Being conservative I only tried the two middle peachy shades which I think complements my skin tone and pale lips much better. It's very creamy and glides on smoothly over my lips.

Oil blotting paper, or what they call paper powder (ペ－パーパウダー). It not only absorbs the oil from the face, but the powdery residue actually makes the face more matte! No need for compact powder with this useful paper! The leather-like cover looks really cool too!

How the set looks on me.

Close-up of my eyes. See the glitter on my lashes?



The Most Beautiful Man in the World

Without a doubt the award goes to Andrej Pejic with his ethereal effeminate beauty that gave him the privilege of sashaying down both sides of the runway. He is a 20 year old Serbian Australian model who is generating a media storm in the modeling world with his androgynous looks.

Rihana wore this Jean Paul Gaultier couture at the Grammy's too! Sadly for her, Andrej looked far more beautiful and elegant in it with the long black gloves.

I first saw his shoot for a push-up bra ad by Dutch departmental store Hema which is supposed to be such a miracle that it can even give a man feminine curves (A very daring marketing concept which I give a thumbs-up to). It made my jaw drop. Literally. How can a man look so pretty? And a Caucasian at that. I can understand if an Asian male looks like a female, for Asian men do have softer features and less facial hair. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him, he looked so much like a woman.

Hema Mega Push-up Bra Ad

I would sooo LOVE to have his legs. SEXY man.

While he too can pull off a male look, it is an effeminate androgynous kind of look almost reminiscent of Japanese mangas bishounens.

A Seductress and a Casanova all at once. Love the guns.



So HOT!!



I sure do hope that Andrej Pejic would continue to model with his androgynous look and not undergo a sex change operation like Lea T to become a transsexual model, for androgyny is way more unique and versatile as he had stated in an interview. His androgynous style is what makes him truly stand out; he would be just another pretty female model if he eventually goes for a sex change. Please don’t no matter how much you would love to be a Victoria Secret’s Angel!

"In this society, if a man is called a woman, that is the biggest insult he could get... is that because women are considered something less?" - Andrej Pejic (I absolutely LOVE his quotes on gender. He would ace Gender Studies.)



Why does he has such shapely hips!?

Pretty boy.

"There are NO gender boundaries and no other boundaries of any sort. We don't like that." - Andrej Pejic