Tea with AK71: Maison Ikkoku.

Recently, a friend whom I have known for more than 20 years asked me out to have tea. We met at Maison Ikkoku which is owned by a friend of his.

I am not much of a food blogger but here are photos of what I had for tea that day:




Yummylicious ice lemon tea!





Melts instantly in your mouth tiramisu!






This was a total surprise. Kong Bah Pao!





It was so good! You simply have to

Seven money habits of AK71's.

This blog post is mainly inspired by a conversation with my mother on some of my habits. Recalling a popular book titled "Seven habits of highly effective people", I came up with "Seven money habits of AK71's". ;p

Habit No. 1:
I never order canned or bottled drinks when dining out.

Fresh food needs on site preparation but I can walk to a nearby supermarket to buy the same canned or bottled

Tea with AK71: Ipoh Hor Fun (Holland Village).

Some time ago, I blogged about a higher purpose in having passive income in our lives which, to me, is to be able to spend more quality time with family as we spend less time at work. Of course, being able to spend money more freely is a nice feeling too.

Since moving back to stay with my family, I have been spending more time with my family, especially my mother. We would go and exercise in the

Tea with AK71: Home made sandwich!

My last blog post on what I had for lunch was a cause of concern for some readers. I have to say that I don't eat instant noodles all the time and I apologise if I have given anyone the wrong impression. I am happy to note, however, that so many readers of ASSI are into healthy eating.

So, what am I having today for lunch? A home made sandwich.





Ingredients:
1. Wholemeal bread
2. Tuna flakes

Tea with AK71: Breakfast and lunch for 96c.

What did I have for breakfast and lunch today?

Breafast: Oatmeal! My favourite!





A 1 kg pack of rolled oats costs less than S$5.00 and is enough for 20 servings or more. So, each serving costs 30c to prepare, perhaps. I would cook enough for 3 servings each time. Keep them in the fridge and bring 1 serving to work daily for the next 3 days.

Lunch: Cup noodles!





I used to eat instant

Tea with AK71: Inflation hits fried bee hoon.

Today, I went to the "economic fried bee hoon" store near my office to buy breakfast. I like fried bee hoon a lot. It is inexpensive and tasty. However, I would try to restrict it to once a week or fortnight. It is still less expensive to bring my own food to work (e.g. oatmeal).

I would usually order fried bee hoon with a piece of tofu to make it a more nutritious meal. Price? $1.50. If I am

Tea with AK71: Tonkatsu, Saizen REIT, Mazda cars.

Many things happened in my life lately. Some good and some bad. Well, mostly bad, I feel. Anyway, all I can do is to soldier on and roll with the punches. Take the good with the bad.

Today, after going out in the morning for an extended family gathering, I detoured to Orchard Road to take in the sights and have lunch at a tonkatsu place in the basement of Ion Orchard which my sister brought me

Tea with AK71: Lipton, Twinings, TWG et al.

I think we would not have missed much if we stayed away from the stock market the last few days. So, we might as well take it easy and have a cup of tea once in a while. My usual is a cup of Lipton tea which is inexpensive and quite good, I feel.

I had Twinings before which is supposedly more atas. Is it really?

Then, when a friend from Hong Kong came to visit, he went into this very atas

Old Chang Kee: Holey curry puff.

Asked my colleague to help me buy a curry puff from Old Chang Kee earlier as I didn't want to leave the office. Weather is too warm!






No, I didn't take a bite before I took these photos. You can tell that the exposed egg white and potato chunks are rather burnt. This is a holey curry puff...

This is proof that every curry puff is hand made and each one is different. ;-p

Related posts:
1.

Tea with AK71: Another loaf of bread.

I blogged about how a loaf of bread could last me for days before. I like raisin bread the most and would usually buy when there is a special deal. Gardenia's raisin bread had a special deal going for a while but ended a couple of weeks ago.

On Sunday, I bought a loaf of softmeal bread from Sunshine. Usual price: $2.30. Special offer: $1.95.



Today, I finished the last few slices and had the

Tea with AK71: A lunch of barley and winter melon.

I have blogged about how I would boil barley water and later eat the barley for a meal as well. Today, I brought to work a container of barley and winter melon strips drenched in soya bean milk.

My sister boiled barley water over the weekend and she was going to throw away the barley and winter melon strips. I asked her to keep them for me in a container so that I could bring to work for lunch.

Tea with AK71: Macarons from ZUJI.

Today, I got a treat from ZUJI. They sent me a box of six macarons. What are macarons? I know what is macaroni. ;-p


Very nicely boxed and ribboned.

 
Wikipedia says it is "a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies."



Letter says to

Tea with AK71: Taste of Hong Kong.

Firstly, this has nothing to do with my recent trip to Hong Kong. This happened in Singapore. :)

I was at Illuma and had a new dining experience. Well, it was a new experience to me.



Taste of Hong Kong. Business was good!



Instructions at every table.



Waffle with bonito flakes, luncheon meat and something saucy. I loved it!

Inexpensive comfort food in an air-conditioned environment with

Tea with AK71: My weaknesses (Part 2).

Not too long ago, I indulged in one of my weaknesses... on two occasions... at Andersen's of Denmark.



Visit 1: Fondue for one. I chose this because there were bits of fruits and being the rational me who is trying to lead a healthier lifestyle, it was a healthier choice. Wait a minute, a healthier choice in an ice cream outlet? Hmmm... Nah, I am over-analysing. Healthier, it is! ;p



Visit 2:

Tea with AK71: Healthy and economical lunch.

What am I having for lunch today?


This is easy to prepare and to bring to work. Easy to wash up too.

This meal is high in fibre and full of natural goodness. Lower in glycaemic index than ground oats, I also prefer raw rolled oats to instant oats which are pre-cooked and dried.

Although instant oats are convenient, just add hot water and they are ready to eat, they are not as chewy,

Tea with AK71: Breakfast at Long John Silver's.

I think breakfast at Long John Silver's compared to McDonald's offers better value for money.



Thick slices of toast with turkey bacon, eggs and cheese. Yummy! I am not crazy about the hash brown though.



Iced Milo! Slurp!

Price: $5.10 with tea or coffee. Add 50c to upgrade to an iced Milo. :)

From their website:


Caution: Waiting time can be quite long if they are busy. I would usually

Tea with AK71: McDonald's shows us how!

We often come across signs at eateries which say "No studying." Although these signs do the job, they are not very friendly and they do nothing positive for the public image of the establishment as well.

We know the reason for these signs but couldn't they be worded nicely?



A good example of how it should be done!
Thumbs up for McDonald's!

Tea with AK71: Good food at good prices!

Recently, I had some good food at good prices:



Breakfast at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. 1 for 1. I paid $7.70 for two sets of the above plus two cups of tea. A great deal!



This was a treat because I always see a long queue at the Western Cuisine stall at Kopitiam, Bukit Panjang Plaza. I hate to wait too long for my food but there was no queue that day! $6.10 after discount! Not bad.

Tea with AK71: My weaknesses.

When it comes to junk food, I have two big weaknesses: ice cream and chocolates.

The atas and delectable stuff from Haagen Dazs:




This costs several times more than a strawberry sundae from McDonald's but it was so good!

Burp.

Tea with AK71: Sambal mooncake.

There was much talk about mooncakes in LP's infamous cbox over at Bully the Bear today.

Fancy having some sambal mooncake at tea time? This must be the most "innovative" mooncake I have ever had.



My parents got this in a box of mooncakes from Star Cruises.



Quite clever the way they separated the spicy centre from the lotus paste, using dried coconut as a wall.

The taste is