Taobao Haul #6

I realised that though I've been buying from Taobao for so such a long time, I've never really posted my haul up on my blog. Perhaps a few of them but not really in details. So...I decided to share my joy and also let other Taobao-lovers know of some good buys ^^.

This batch, I ordered hell lots of iPad sleeves! Can't really blame me since iPad's my latest new gadget and I really love to protect it! I also bought a clutch bag embossed with my favourite skulls on it!

Girl in Snow, by far my most commonly used sleeve for iPad. This sleeve cost me less than 6 bucks only! Durable and pretty!

The skull clutch bag that only cost me less than 8 bucks! ^.^

Isn't it punky? I love it sooooo much, especially I bought it at such a steal! great for functions or parties! It also come with a chain strap so I can sling it if I ever feel tired or holding it!

This is another iPad Clutch sleeve I ordered. Likewise to the clutch bag, this iPad clutch sleeve cost me less than 8 bucks only. The striking neon pink simply captivates me.

Frankly, this is a really good iPad sleeve, only that it is too small to fit an iPad which already has a casing in it. I'd really hate to carry my iPad without a casing, thus, this clutch sleeve was rather wasted. However, since I already bought it, It'll be wise to use it creatively for another purpose rather than leaving it in my cabinet to rot. And so, I decided to use it as a clutch, for real this time!

Of all my iPad sleeves bought so far, none of them beats the beauty of this...

Isn't it gorgeous?! It is so elegant and lacey! I have to admit, I didn't expect this to be of good quality (looks good on picture only). However, it surprised me with the fine details of the lace design, the material of the pouch, and the thickness of the whole pouch. Though this cost much higher than the rest, it is definitely the best catch out of those iPad sleeves from .

These are not all I've ordered from Taobao of course, but since most of the items I ordered are iPad sleeves, I shall leave apparels post till next time :)

Now I can't wait to order the next batch!

Chiso Zanmai @ The Central ~ A Japanese Buffet

Back in June, I was browsing through all the various food sites looking for an affordable buffet restaurant as requested by my dearest for his birthday treat (he rejected my suggestion for Melt the World Cafe!) and stumbled onto this restaurant - Chiso Zanmai.

Maybe I had not been going downtown for so long, I honestly didn't know there was this restaurant situated within The Central. Based on what I've read from its website, it stated that it is the cheapest Japanese buffet from Osaka. After showing photos from the site to him, we made up our mind to go there for his birthday treat (finally!).

Chiso Zanmai is located on the 2nd floor of The Central, and customers are required to take an escalator to the actual main entrance. As we drove there and got to the restaurant from the other end, we went in through their 2nd floor rear entrance instead, hahaha...

Chiso Zanmai has a really nice decor - simple, minimalist and spacious. The buffet spread is being displayed in a linear way so anyone can hardly miss any single selection.

The very first and favourite dish I love from Chiso Zanmai is their hotpot soup! It is so tasty, and full of seafood within!

Usually, people might have patronised cold cuts first followed by the main dishes but somehow, I always like to do it the other way round. Other finishing most of the main dishes lined up on the opposite of cold cuts, I made my way to scan them through briefly before I started digging.

Frankly, I am not exactly a lover of cold cuts so I only took a few which I believed I could take and they tasted really good! On the bottom right of the photo above, it was a cold dish comprised of broccoli, mushroom and cooked salmon. Though the salmon was cooked, it was served fresh and cold. Odd perhaps, but yet delicious enough.

Last but not the least, dessert section could never be a section to miss, not matter which buffet restaurant you go! Their buffet section has all the usual desserts and pastries, but what made me pay more attention had to be the black tart placed alongside the rest.

From what I read on their food tag, this is called 'Seaweed tart'. With its look so black but yet captivating, I felt like eating it too. But poor me, I couldn't have a piece of it at all since it's made of seaweed. *shrucks*

Given its price and food selection, I'll say that Chiso Zanmai is a very affordable buffet restaurant for those who feel that going for buffet means spending a bomb. What disappointed us was the lack of sashimi (they don't serve sashimi at all) and cooked food was a bit less than warm. Overall, Zanmai gave me an affordable price for a buffet lunch, a cozy dining experience and a decent food spread.

With $19.90++ per pax (not inclusive of drinks) on a weekend afternoon, what more can you ask?

SUPRÉ Haul

Temptation never fails to circle around me, especially when it comes to online shopping! With a successful instigation from my colleagues, I've come across an online shopping site - SUPRÉ. Its products were all on sale and seriously, with my colleague's discount benefit and sale, how am I suppose to turn my back against this?

And so, I ordered a few pieces of items from SUPRÉ. I wondered if I'm becoming more and more daring cause for this round, I've purchased outfits which I do not usually wear at all.

Outfit #1 - A sleeveless dress, coloured 'poppy'. It was so freaking bright and outstanding, not to mention it is in the colour of peachy-pink. I really didn't know what went wrong in my mind to have ordered this but somehow, it looked just splendid when I wore it. Phew! Oh, I also forgot to mention that since it's on sale, I only got this piece of dress for less than 8 bucks! Good quality, cheap buys!

Outfit #2 - Sleeveless black dress with floral prints. Alright, this is really the type of outfit I would never dream of wearing, nor wanted to wear. Like I said, my mind could be malfunctioning for all I know cause all the outfit I ordered were not my normal style! However, when I first wore it to work, many colleagues of mine who saw this dress said it looked nice on me. Guess it wasn't such a bad attempt afterall, hehe...and...this dress only cost me 12 bucks!

There's one more dress I've ordered from SUPRÉ but till date, I do not have the opportunity to wear it yet. It is a black laced dress which in my opinion, was my best buy from SUPRÉ. Let me have the ocassion to wear it (it is more of a formal type of dress), and I shall post it up here!

 

Blue Dotty Art Manicure

I've been pretty slacked doing my nails due to my recent addiction in certain dramas. Too many dramas of my liking had surfaced and I simply couldn't take my attention away! However, that doesn't mean I've stopped!

This time, I put on my latest nail polish haul from Rubi - 'Blue Suedes Shoes'. As usual, I added a little art in addition to the blues for some design, polka dots!

Above photo was taken under white light.

I love how vibrant this shade of blue looks on my nails, and reminded me of ocean. Vibrant as it looks, application for this nail polish wasn't easy at all. It dries pretty fast, almost at the point when I just took a brushful of it onto my nail. Thus, I nearly re-dip everytime I applied once on my nail. Oh, and a test of speed as well, haha! This nail polish definitely requires a minimum of 3 coats in order to ensure its beauty.

Above photo was taken under warm light.

It was pretty amazing to see how different the blue tone has changed in accordance to the lighting. It seems so neon and bright under white light yet dark and navy-looking under warm light. Still, I like its colors and effect alongside with the dots I applied!

Well, as I mentioned above, the application for this nail polish might not be the most successful or smooth compared to others but honestly, I couldn't complain much either. This nail polish haul was by far the cheapest haul I've gotten for it only cost me $1! Such effect cost at only $1, I should say it is a good bargain with pretty result!

Now, all I need to do is to clear all my dramas so I can focus back on my nails!

Todai @ Marina Bay Sands

Today, I am going to blog about FOOD. Yes, FOOD!

I've heard reviews about Todai many times, good and bad. Being one who likes buffet (though I don't really eat that much), I always hope I would have the opportunity to patronise Todai. That said, it is often true to the saying, "Be careful what you wish for, for it may just come true afterall". During my partners' visit to Singapore, I grabbed the opportunity and arrange a dinner at Todai.

For one, I didn't expect the restaurant to be so...blue-ish. It gave me an impression of a Seafood-oriented restaurant. Well, it is somewhat true since it serves international cuisine. Once seated, something on the table caught my eye.

How thoughtful of them to place a "map" of their restaurant on their dining tables so customers will have ease of navigating within their restaurant! During my visit, I was arranged to sit at the "Chinese Zone" shown on the left of the photo above.

Todai serves quite a wide selection mainly Seafood, Sushi & Roll, Chinese, Deep Fry, Churrasco, Oven Food, Korean, Italian, Cold Food, Noodle and lastly, Pastry. The 1st place I "attacked" had to be the Sushi & Roll section! I took plentiful salmon sashimi and some sushi to begin my dinner at Todai~

Sushi & Roll section

Sashimi & Seafood

As you can see, there are simply too many varieties just for the sushi & roll section. I almost didn't know where to start when I got there. On the other hand, their varieties for Seafood were quite little compared to other buffet restaurants. Yet, I gotta thumbs up for their prawns. They're so fresh, and huge!

Next section, I moved on to the "Cold Food" section~

Cold Food & Italian section

This section displays mainly salads and cold cuts. Further end shown in the picture displays Italian food. Rightfully speaking, I should have started from here to amplify my appetite but the sushi section just got to me first.

The "Churrasco" section is one nasty section for meat-lovers. Oh, and when I said nasty, I don't mean it's bad, it's just filled with many choices of meat!

Ribeye, beef striploin, chicken and sausages are all in this section. How could the meat-lovers not love them? However, yours truly aren't exactly a big lover of meat, thus I just took a wee bit of chicken and mushroom. They taste equally delicious though!

 As I explored further within Todai, I found myself standing in front of the "Korean Food" section.

Korean Food section

What's the chef cooking? Korean Fish Pancake of course! They also serve Bibimbap (my fav!) but if I took that into my stomach, I definitely wouldn't be able to stuff other delicacy anymore. Other than those, they have bulgogi, spicy pork, kimchi and more. Took a little of each (except for beef) and headed back to my seat.

The "Chinese" section has quite a wide variety as well. Those who just can't stay away from Chinese cuisine may simply fall in love with this section.

Chinese section

The bestseller from this section will have to be the Chilli Crab. From what I saw the queue was always very long and the staff would need to refill it every 10 minutes. I skipped this dish due to the long queue...

Alas, we reached the final but the most sweetening section - Desserts & Pastry! This is one section no one should miss!

Desserts & Pastry section

Todai's dessert & pastry section is very impressive. They have so many different types of desserts & pastry, it took me quite some time to decide what to take first. In this section, I feel that the way they display the macaroons is very innovative (shown on the picture above). I felt kinda guilty taking them down from it, hehe.

Thanks to my colleague who was with me that day, he took a pretty good shot of me ^^.

To conclude, Todai is a pretty good place for buffet if you are looking for an exceptionally wide spread of cuisine, internationally. Priced at $42++ (Lunch) $58++ (Dinner) for weekdays, and $54++ (Lunch) and $58++ (Dinner) for weekends, I would say their price is pretty reasonable for the number of varieties they have.

However, do come on an empty stomach if possible. There's too many for you to indulge and you will not want to miss any of them. I made a mistake by having a high-tea session before going to Todai for dinner and I believe I only ate 50% of what's available over there. :(

Rating: 3/5

Address for Todai:
#B2-01 The Shoppes @ Marina Bay Sands,
2 Bayfront Ave Singapore 018972
Phone: +65 6688 7771