Pray For QZ8501

2014 is a bad year for aviation - MH370, MH17, and now this. But you know, the impact is greater closer to home. I happened to walk past the holding area for the relatives of the passenger of the unfortunate flight, it was condoned off with police officers at the entrance. Reporters were outside waiting. The sight of it was just saddening.

Hope there's some concrete news soon!

Pray for QZ8501, MH370 and MH17.

~ZF

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Who knows that sparklers, a camera on long exposure and a few sporting friends can concoct so much fun?

~ZF

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve *Enhanced*

Recently I visited the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR). It is a common place for the bird-watching community, and a haven for migratory birds. The Reserve is also an ASEAN heritage site.

The reserve was recently extended to include the nearby mangrove, closer to Kranji Way. See the maps below! Anything to the right of the Buloh Besar River is the new extension.

The tracks were recorded my the My Tracks app by Google. Unfortunately, I am unable to export the photograph markers from the app, so I am going to share what you may expect when visiting this awesome place.

Total distance covered: 6.1 km. 

Time taken: approximately 3 hours.

The entrance was a clean and well-curated carpark. It was quite empty on a Saturday morning.

Entrance to the SBWR Extension. It is called the Kranji Carpark.

Near the entrance you may see a deck. It is called the Little Heron Deck. It has quite a view.

Little Heron Deck.

Mudskippers are common in mangroves.

Little Heron Deck. Nope, there's no Little Heron spotted, though.

The extension has some new structures installed that are meant for bird-watching. They are called pods and shaped like an onion. The Fantail Pod will be the first one you will see.

The Fantail Pod.

There is also one at the boardwalk, beyond the coastline, called the Eagle Point. You will see it if you take the Coastal Road. BTW there are two routes which you can take, the coastal road being one of them. The other is the Forest Route, which I think is meh~.

The plate says it all.

This pod is perhaps a good place to camp for larger birds. There were indeed some birds of prey flying that day, possible a kite or a sparrowhawk, but I did not manage to capture any of them in picture :(

The Kingfisher Pod.

Further down is the Kingfisher Pod. An elevated pod that lets you have a better view. Nice place to camp to see kingfishers in action.

There is an activity area for people to learn about the mangroves. A link bridge that actually let your feet get dirty. Adult supervision encouraged.

Activity area at the SBWR extension. Here, visitors can get their feet dirty to "feel" the mangrove.

Walking further you will reach the old SBWR site.

For those who are familiar with SBWR, this would be nostalgia after a walk at the extension.

The old carpark has been paved over and renamed Butterfly Trail. The new carpark is just nearby.

The Main Bridge at SBWR. Here you can actually see the new map.

There wasn't much changes in the older site, but Route 2 and 3 were closed for renovation when I was there. Possibly for the Phase 3 development to incorporate the nearby Kranji Marsh. So the loop shown in the map is pretty much the part that is still accessible to the public.

There were plenty of migratory birds but I did not take photos of them this time.

The Aerie Tower, somewhat a landmark of SBWR. Awesome view on top!

To me, the extension is very curated. I suppose that is one way to attract the urban dwellers to get in touch with nature. To me, older SBWR is still charming with its rustic ways,

Regardless, do visit SBWR soon! Admission is free BTW. 

**Bonus** OK, not quite. This is the map I snapped at the entrance. You can always go  the SBWR website to find out more.

All photos taken by the Sony Xperia Z1.

~ZF

How to Cook Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶)

A nice, piping hot bowl of clear Bak Kut Teh, 肉骨茶. 

Bak Kut Teh (literally "Meat", "Bone" and "Tea"), or 肉骨茶, is a broth with pork (usually spare ribs), and spices such as pepper and garlic. It comes in two forms, the clear peppery type, or the dark herbal type.

The BKT is a delicacy in Singapore. The clear peppery type is the most common here.

Now I shall share how to cook BKT, Singapore-style ;)

Ingredients:

• Pork - 100g per pax. Pork ribs is preferred, however, loin is also acceptable too.
• Garlic - 1 bulb
• BKT pre-mix - 1 pkt (see below)
• Seasoning - as required

Preparation:

• Clean and blanch the meat. This means you need a separate bowl/pot of boiling water. The duration is dependent on the amount of meat involve. My rule of thumb is 1 minute per 100g of meat.
• Clean the garlic, then smash it. It is not necessary to remove the skin, unless it is dirty.
• Prepare a pot of water (about 1L, or follow the instructions on the premix) and bring it to a boil using high heat.
• Add all the ingredients (meat, garlic and BKT premix) into the boiling water. Add additional garlic and pepper if you really like the peppery-garlicky taste! (I do!)
• Bring the mixture into a boil again. Stir occasionally. Note: When stirring, do take care not to break the bag. It happens!!
• Lower the heat, and continue cooking for at least 30 minutes.
• Serve with white rice. Suggested condiments: dark soy sauce with cut red chilli.

In general, the broth becomes flavourful with extended duration of cooking at low heat. You may need to add additional premix bags if the serving sizes increases.

Note: The broth might get salty with additional packet of premix. It might be a better idea to add in more pepper and garlic. They are the main ingredients of the premix anyway.

For the premix, there are many kinds available in the supermarket. I am particularly fond of this brand:

Simply because it is relatively cheaper and it is peppery to my liking :)

Enjoy!

Huat Ah!

Ah Huat's Bittergourd Soup 苦盅作乐！

Bittergourd soup reduces 'heatiness' and detoxifies the body. Surely a treat after a long day at work!

You'll need:

• Bittergourd, 1 Ea (about 15cm long)
• Pork Ribs, 100g
• Minced meat, 100g
• Red dates, 4 Ea

What to do:

1. Prepare a pot of water (approx. 500ml). Bring it to a boil
2. Cut the red dates into half and remove the seeds inside.
3. Marinate the minced meat with sesame oil, pepper and light soy sauce.
4. Wash and Cut the bitter gourd into segments to your liking. I prefer about 5cm each. Clean out the insides!
5. Fill the bitter gourd with the minced meat.
6. Once the water boils, put in the red dates and pork ribs. Bring it to a boil again.
7. Once the water boils again, put in the bitter gourd, and bring it to a boil.
8. Switch to small flame when the water boils again.
9. Cook the bitter gourd until it softens (normally this will turn the bitter gourd to dark green).
10. Add salt to taste and serve!

Enjoy!!

Huat ah!

How To Buy Stuffs From Taobao (淘宝) - Part 1

Taobao is a Chinese website for online shopping, very similar to eBay and Amazon. 

I've been asked many times about buying things from Taobao. They are namely the few:

1. How do you find things in Taobao?
2. How do you know if a merchant is reliable?
3. How do you pay?
4. How do you ship?
5. How is the quality?

I think most people are overwhelmed with the Chinese in the Chinese website, and by our limited vocabulary in Chinese. Also most people do not have much faith in things Made-in-China. (Note: Google Chrome provides auto-translate for the website, but I have tried and found that it is not that accurate.)

So I am writing now to share some of the things I know, and give some tips along the way. It's not everything, just things I know, because I have bought things many times from Taobao (I will share some loots in future blogs). But I hope it is useful, or at least it make shopping less daunting for you. 

I will breakdown the writing into a couple of posts. This will avoid over-information. I will start off with buying things in Taobao. This should address most of common the questions I listed out earlier, and so at least those of you who has an account with Taobao can start shopping already.

Here goes.

Click to enlarge!

First I hope you can see the screenshot. I have boxed and numbered the areas I want to describe alittle. 

1. At the top right hand corner is the search bar, like the one you see in web browsers. The search bar in Taobao has autosuggestion and it recognises English. I do not know if this browser dependent (I am using Google Chrome, by the way).

2. This is the shopping cart. If you shopped online in websites like Amazon before, it is similar. Here you will see a list that consolidates your loot.

3. This is where you see the things you bought. You can also track your items here too.

4. This is where you can view shops or items you have bookmarked (收藏).

Now, back to searching for items to buy. Here's a tip, you can always search in English, preferably by brands, or model numbers. The search result normally will show the description in Chinese.

The example here is I want to search for a camera bag, so I just type "camera bag" in search bar. Notice the suggestions are also in English.

Click to enlarge!

Now that I have searched for something, the website will auto-generate a list of items that may match my search. Browse through to see if the things you are looking for are available! Otherwise, you might have to find the Chinese equivalent description from the search results. 

Some things on the website that I wish to describe more:

5. There are filters, such as price range, to refine the search. In this case, the filters actually include external features and internal features of the bag!

6. Here the website will suggest some searches.

7. Here you will find some items that are probably on sale, best selling items, or the like, that are related to your searches. Some times you might find good deals here! 

In Part 2, I will share what I know about putting a purchase for the items. Stay tune!

BTW, I am not in anyway affiliated to Taobao, Like most of you, I like online shopping and I like to share knowledge. I hope this has been helpful in some ways.

- ZF

A Restart

I did something stupid today. I deleted all the photos in Google+ to lean the storage space used, and ended up deleted all photos that are linked to my blogs.

I guess it is a good time to start everything afresh....