our second family trip : singapore!

yey!! finally we are going to singapore!! we had bought the plane ticket long before idul fitri.. so i was a little worry when i found out that my residency's schedule would be faster than it was supposed to be. but turned out that everything was okay. i only skipped a few class. fiuh..

#1 departure date
i was worried that my son will be having trouble in his eating again, like back in idul fitri. in the morning he ate his oatmeal as usual, and then his fruit as usual. but then i bought chicken porridge for his lunch. he has eaten the same chicken porridge before, so i thought he would eat it. but turned out he refused to eat. only eat 3-4 spoonful. then i made him another oatmeal. he also refused it. only ate half of it, but i was relieved, at least he had something in his stomach. on the way to airport, he was asleep so he could drink his milk, another food for him. but he was awake at the airport, while we were going to eat at AW. since the chicken was too hard for him, i only gave him rice and chicken skin, at least he ate something more. this was his first trip by plane, so i was worry that he would be uncomfortable during take-off and landing. my parents told me to give him something to chew or his milk if he was asleep. when it was time for take-off, he was not asleep, so i gave him his biscuit to eat. take-off was fine, fiuh.. he was a bit afraid when he saw that we were flying above the ground, but then everything was okay. and then he was asleep for the entire flight, so no fuss during flight. he was awake when landing, since it was very noisy. he refused to drink or eat during landing, but fortunately, he was okay. he held on to me so tight during landing, but he was okay.
at the airport, i gave him some biscuit and milk again, while my husband ate burger. he asked for the fries which he refused back at home. surprise..surprise.. but i let him, since we tried to let him eat everything. he was soooo excited at the airport, so he was doing funny things that made people at the airport laugh at him. hahahaa.. adorable son..

the hotel was okay, i could work to bath him and stuff in the bathroom hotel. and his portable high chair fit perfectly. fiuh. everything that we've prepared paid off. after taking a bath, we went to dinner. another trouble. he only ate a quarter of the rice porridge, but i wasn't worried. he ate his fries, and some of our ramen. ah well.. maybe he was excited trying something new. and he was happy seeing my sisters. hehehe..

#2. zoo time!
breakfast : oatmeal as usual. done. and then his snack. all done without any trouble. then we were off to the zoo. he wore his hat for a quarter journey around the zoo, but when it was hot, he threw the hat off. hahaha.. he was excited watching the giraffe, zebra, dolphin and stuff. he ran everywhere every time he could. he was excited when my sister told him that he could ride a pony, but the officer said that he was too young to ride a pony. *sigh* the weather was so hot so we decided to stop to eat ice cream. what a nice treat before we headed back to have our lunch. trouble came at lunch. he refused to eat anything. he ate some but threw it out later. i gave him his banana, he ate it alright, but soon he threw out everything. and then i decided i had to cook his own porridge, since the consistency was inconsistent.  luckily he was asleep in the taxi, so i could give him his milk. and he slept for almost 2 hours. and the first try-out for my homemade porridge paid off. he ate it. well, not all of it, but most of it, so i was relieved. my nightmare was him being sick on our holiday, that's why i had to do everything to make him eat. and then we were heading to the mall. he was running around, he was so excited watching something new, but the mall was crowded so we had to carry him to move around quicker. and then we ate at another ramen restaurant. at the restaurant, he ate his porridge with some dumplings, while watching hi-5 on my ipad. and there was this funny thing. he watched the same songs again, and suddenly he danced along the song! it was funny. he did it spontaneously. and the resto owner was surprised. he gave my son a candy, probably because he was too cute, with his dancing and stuff, hahaha.. oh we tried some singapore best ten ramen, but i will write about it in another blog post.

#3. S.E.A aquarium
morning routine went out fine. and off we go to sentosa island. i was planning to go there with the express train, but my husband said that we should try the cable car. it was my son's first cable car ride. i was worry that he might be frightened when we were above the ground, but turned out he was frightened, but still consolable so we could arrive at the sentosa safe and sound. he was afraid to look down and around on the cable car, and every time i moved around inside the cable car, he was holding tight to me. hehehee..  and then we still waited for the bus. another officer smitten by his cuteness. but unfortunately, he couldn't make the bus came faster, so we still had to wait. then we arrived at the resort world close to his lunch time, so we ate first. again, when he was eating plus watching hi-5, he danced again, and amazed some japanese tourist on our next table, hahahaa....and then the aquarium. we saw a lot of fish. the cute thing was, matthew was asking about penguin, since at the zoo, the penguin also inside the seeing glass, like in the aquarium. hahhaha.. he thought penguin was some kind of fish. he was super excited, watching all of those fish, most bigger than him, hahaha.. he ran around in front of the viewing glass. before we even reached the exit door, he fell asleep.. hahaa. too bad, since he was asleep, we couldn't see the merlion and headed back to the hotel. in the afternoon, we tried italian food. this time it was harder for him to eat since there were no soup beside his porridge. so, we fed him pasta and pizza too. and everyone in the restaurant were attracted to him. there was this one waiter, she even teased my son by giving her phone number, but only two numbers at a time. hahahaa.. when we were leaving, she said "i love you" and was hoping that my son would say the same since most kids echoed what we said, hehehehe.. pretty funny actually. everyone loved matthew and his cuteness. hihihi..

#4. going back home
yep. our holiday was over. we went back home. we managed to arrive at the airport early to eat brunch. matthew ate porridge in the morning and his banana for his snack. but when we ate, he wanted some, so i fed him some noodles and soup. and then my husband found this playground at the airport. he was excited..running around like crazy, but it wasn't designed for toddlers under 2 years, so matthew had a hard time. he couldn't reach the slide since it was pretty difficult for him. but he managed to have fun. and then when it was time to wait, he was running around along the way to the waiting room. by the time we was inside the waiting room and boarding time, it was also near his lunch. so he screamed, wanted to eat my burger. i planned his meal on board, but since he was asking for food, i tried to give him some of my burger. but turned out he was starving and kept asking for more. by the time for take-off, he was asleep even before it was the safe time to unfasten the seat belt. fiuh.. i was worried that he might had trouble on the second take-off. he slept for the whole flight again, and woke up right on time for landing. and this time i was a little bit confidence  that he would be fine even though he didn't eat or drink during landing. thank God everything was okay.. he could eat and drink, slept as usual, and had fun. fiuhh... we were excited for more trips to come. but first i have to graduate. *sigh*

food review : alessandro

last sunday, we were going out for dinner at PTC. at first, we intended to eat chinese food, but then we came across this new eating place named alessandro. it was supposed to serve italian food, but they had other food in their menu, like chinese and indonesian food. so we were hooked.

the restaurant was a regular restaurant, no special thing in their interior design. and yes, they are kids-friendly (read: they had baby chair). we tried the pizza (it was supposed to be their star) and lasagna. my husband tried their tom yum soup and chicken terriyaki fried rice. my nanny tried their asem2 iga or like they said "kiyer-kiyer soup". both the chinese and indonesian food turned out great. and pizza was okay. it was similar to pisa's. thin crust pizza with fresh (tasted fresh) tomato sauce. but the lasagna was a little bit disappointed for me. i compared it to pizza hut's. i was hoping for a decent pasta with beef fillings with fresh tomato sauce. they had the beef with fresh tomato sauce, they even had some tomato slices on the side. but the pasta was thin and slippery, made it difficult to cut the lasagna. and the beef was not satisfying.

well, overall it was worth to try. the price? i could accept it, since the food was delicious. go ahead and try it if you wanted to try italian food but your special someone or other people didn't like italian food and prefer chinese or indonesian food instead.

food review : sushi tei

yep.. another japanese food. this time, it's a high-end stuff. sushi tei is pricier than other japanese restaurants i've reviewed before. you can find them mostly inside the shopping mall, TP, galaxy mall, and ciputra world. they all have similar interior arrangement. in the middle there's a space for their chefs to prepare the sushi. and there's a walking belt surrounding that space that served some sushi and salads. you can pick one that you like directly or order it from the waiters/waitresses. they used different color for their plates to differentiate the price. so you must be careful in case you didn't want to pay a lot!

i don't want to talk about the restaurant ambiance since all three places have similar ambiance. even similar interior design too. let's talk about the menu! most of it are sushis and sashimis. mostly raw sushi. i can't remember which cooked sushi that delicious.. huuuuu... didn't like raw food? you can order tempura, ramen, or bento. their ramen was okay.. some of our med rep had tried it and they said it was okay. i didn't know for sure since i always eat their sushi. but i do have one recommendation for beverage : sushi tee sunset something.. hahaha.. i can't remember the exact name, but if you said that clue to the waiter, i'm sure they'll understand which one.

their sushi was okay, but i like their raw sushi better. unfortunately, their servings are small. mostly 2 sushis in one plate. the cooked one usually only 6 pieces. while in sushi hana or peco-peco they could serve 6-8 pieces per plate. and they charged more for smaller portion compared to sushi hana and peco-peco. *sigh* that's why i seldom eat here. but.. if you wanted to splurge, indulge yourself in good food.. then you couldn't miss this one if you are japanese food lover.

update: i ate there yesterday, and i tried their fuji roll (cooked) and ebi tempura maki (cooked). i als ordered salmon don (raw). both sushi were okay, but i couldn't eat fuji roll much since the sauce was spicy. the salmon don was so-so, i liked the one in new zealand better.

https://foursquare.com/v/sushi-tei/4b9f140bf964a520be1237e3 (sushi tei galaxy mall)
https://foursquare.com/v/sushi-tei/4c0a52c2bbc676b0449349d5 (sushi tei tunjungan plaza)

food review: hachi-hachi bistro

another japanese food review! i loovveedd japanese food. okay, there were 2 kinds of hachi-hachi. hachi-hachi bistro and the other hachi-hachi. hachi-hachi bistro was on citraland and TP. and the other hachi-hachi was on Supermall. the only difference was the menu. the bistro one had more complete menu.

what to order? i recommended their sushi. when i was craving for sushi, i went there and sushi hana. i had 3 class of sushi, the high-end one (sushi tee), middle class (sushi hana and hachi-hachi), and lower end (peco-peco). all of them was good for their sushi. what's the difference beside the price? the portion. here in hachi-hachi bistro, they had 8 pieces for their sushi, while sushi tee sometimes only 2-4 and sushi hana ranged between 4-6-8 pieces. if you wanted to eat sushi in big portion with friends, then this was a good choice.

and place. citraland gwalk was well known foodish heaven. though it was almost secluded in west surabaya, but it was worth trying. hanging out with friends and family.. it was nice. the bistro had a good vibe too. you could choose indoor or outdoor. and they were children friendly too. they had baby chair and even toys for them to play! the bistro in TP was located on TP3 (i forgot which floor, but it was the food level, the upper one. it was across penang house).

menu: sushi, like i told you before. for salmon, right now my choice was their club salmon roll. and the other was their dragon roll. they provided other dish like ramen, udon, bento and steak. my husband loved their spicy seafood ramen/udon, but it was SPICY! other dishes i didn't know. i noticed there were difference in the menu from the first time i ate there and yesterday. i'll inform you guys again when i was sure about the other menu. what not to order: my husband once ordered their seafood something, and it was blah...