I'm not a bad cook, really. But with H being such an anal cook, he makes me look bad beside him. Recent case being, we were gonna have stir-fry mee tai mak with eggs, chicken, mushrooms, green veg and lup cheong for dinner. He insisted on cooking the mushrooms first because Masterchef said so. Apparently the smell/taste of mushroom is too strong. Hence, if cooked together with chicken, the chicken pieces will be tainted with mushroom's smell/taste.

Of course I beg to differ.

And with good reasons.

Just last week, I stir-fried a dish of broccoli + chicken + an assortment of mushrooms with oyster sauce AND there was no hint of mushroom in the gravy/chicken/broccoli so obviously I voiced it out.

He stubbornly refused the fact I presented him with and cooked his mushrooms first... followed by the lup cheong... and chicken... and left his famished girlfriend on the verge of fainting with hunger.

Oh well.

Some Sundays ago, we decided to make pancakes for brunch! We had all the ingredients available at home and pancakes are relatively easy to make (or so I read), so why not?

We haven't made pancakes prior to these and I would say they turned out not too bad!

The recipe we used was Jamie Oliver's.

Ingredients:

1 cup (135g) plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon caster sugar

2/3 cup (135ml) milk

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoon melted butter, and then some for cooking

as many/little blueberries (or anything else you like your pancakes with!)

maple syrup!!

You can follow the instructions on his webpage. One thing not mentioned was, after every one batch of pancakes in the frying pan, you need to melt butter before you pour the batter else your pancakes will get burnt!

We didn't measure the amount of batter we poured into the pan, we went by... feeling. Hahaha!

When you're done, garnish with MORE blueberries and drench in maple syrup, the way I like it!

Andddd, updated SHOPTIPPYTAPP!

HOKKAIDO! First stop: Lake Toya

I'm sure most of you who follow me on Twitter/Instagram saw some snippets during my trip to Hokkaido (Toya -> Furano -> Sapporo -> Otaru) and Tokyo last month! It was an 8-day trip and everyday was soooo packed and we spent half of each day on transportation from one city to the another and it was a mad rush every waking day with our luggages. So yes, I would recommend going with tour groups or DRIVE because omg, Hokkaido (most cities) is like a VILLAGE. Super rural, laid-back, and they have very limited bus/train timings.

H and I decided on Hokkaido because

1) It was my birthday! I've been travelling out of Singapore for my birthday ever since my 18th? 19th? birthday and the tradition continues. I don't need a cake with candles or an expensive dinner, as long as I can afford an air ticket!

2) I've always wanted to go there and H just wants to visit Japan again.

3) It is lavender season between July-August!

So anyway! We didn't join a tour group because we don't fancy the idea of waking up at 6am, then sit in the coach for a few hours to go to a place we might not enjoy or visit an attraction that wouldn't even be on our itinerary if we had a choice. And there's also the problem of having restricted time allowance at each destination.

And we didn't drive because...

We did not apply for an international driver's licence.

That was a total bummer! 

We had everything settled at the car rental counter and when the lady asked for the international driver's licence, H handed her his SG driver's licence and she said we needed an international driver's licence.

.......

Apparently, it's required in Japan BUT based on my research and H's friend statement, we do not need to apply for one.

SIGH.

NEVER MIND.

We had no choice but to live on.

So we went for lunch first!

How good does my bowl of rice look???

I love ikura and as I'm typing, I'm craving for a bowl of this >:(

H had some grilled fish which was a little too salty for me

Then we started our journey to Toya.

We bought the 5-day pass which allows unlimited train rides around Hokkaido.

Much, much, much more worth it than buying single tickets, and there's no hassle!

The sun was BURNING but it was reallyyyy cooling in the shade

We finally arrived at Lake Toya Station!

It was a pretty dead town hahaha.

There weren't much cars and we didn't see many buses either.

Besides pretty flowers dotting everywhere in the town,

there are very pretty houses too!

Every lawn has a variety of flowers grown and it was so beautiful!

Waiting for the bus to our hotel

And then the bus dropped us off at the last stop...

This road where we stood for 5 minutes and didn't see a single cab 

and probably less than 10 cars drove past.

WHERE IS OUR HOTEL OMG

H was fretting out very badly at this point of time hahahaha

and the only lady at the information counter wasn't exactly friendly 

probably due to the language barrier.

Thankfully we managed to get a taxi at the bus terminal which was changing shift.

And we were greeted with this view at the hotel lobby

It was so pretty!!!
The famous Lake Toya.

We opted for a traditional tatami style room and this was the entire room haha.

The view outside.
I love peaceful, tranquil view like this.

Changed and we went for a walk!

It was very peaceful, we didn't miss the sound of vehicles at all.

That's the beauty of staying at somewhere rural.

We walked a distance and decided to turn back because there was NOTHING in sight haha

So we changed into our yukata and headed down for dinner + hot spring 

I don't know how the staff knew we went out since the hotel was fully booked,

'cause when we came back from the hot springs, our bed was ready for the night!

Okay, let me talk a little bit more about my first hot spring experience.
Obviously cameras are not allowed since everyone is naked inside.

I still felt a little shy having to strip down to my birthday suit
and walking around with nothing on
even though I didn't know anyone inside.
I felt like I didn't have enough hands.

I looked at what everyone else was doing but tried not to stare too long
 for I didn't want them to think I was gawking.
I still have to meet these (naked) women at breakfast the next day!

So I hopped from one hot spring to the other,
one hand covering my top, and the other, my bottom.
At the same time,
I was trying not to look out of place or too obsessed with covering up haha!

My favourite was definitely the outdoor hot spring.
Not because there was no one else sharing it with me,
but because of the fact that it overlooked Lake Toya,
the air was chilly,
and I was so, so comfortable and relaxed soaking in the hot spring water,
in such a rare quiet place, on a beautiful night.

After fireworks by the lake,
H and I ended the night.

Needless to say, we slept like logs.

This month's beauty talk!

Remember my last beauty post where I was reviewing Bioderma's Cleansing Water here?

(Anyway the cleansing water has been given away please don't email me about it anymore thanks.)

At the point of that entry, 

I thought Fancl's Cleansing Oil was still the best makeup remover I've ever tried.

Until I got introduced to Biore's Aqua Jelly makeup remover a couple of days later,

and I completely stopped using my bottle of Fancl.

That's why I say Biore never fails haha.

The texture is jelly like, cooling on the skin, 

and makeup is removed easily with little rubbing!

I was truly impressed after using it for the first time.

Fancl's Cleansing Oil has finally found its contender.

If you're looking for a cheaper alternative,

you can definitely count on Biore!

Think you can get this from Watsons/Guardian for less than $20?

And that's all I'll be sharing for this month's beauty talk!

---

Moving on, 

here's what gonna be on TIPPYJESS this Sunday :)

A very sweet and dainty piece,

we named it the "Sunday's Best Frock".

I loveeeeee this!

The green floral dress has the same cutting as 

Sunday's Best Frock and we named it the...

Saturday's Best Frock!

Haha your weekend's outfits are completed!

We also brought back the Pearly Brooch in limited pieces!
And the shorts!
I love both!

See you at the launch tomorrow! :)

New food haunts!

H and I took the chance to check out a couple of new food haunts we've been wanting to go to, over the last long weekend!

First up, Parco Caffe! This restaurant is located at Raeburn Park, which is reallyyyyy out of the way and kinda ulu but let me tell you, the food is worth travelling for!

I love the menu! It consists of basically everything I like to eat so everything sounds absolutely yummy to me! But I already knew what I was going to order beforehand so we wasted no time looking through the menu haha.

My eggs benny with foie gras and wild mushrooms!!!

JUST LOOK AT THIS!

I mean, I don't just love it because of the foie gras 

(but that alone already makes this a winning dish)...

The eggs were perfectly poached and I love my hollandaise sauce 

with an obvious flavour of lemon so that was great!

On the other muffin, 

I thought the combination of hoishimeiji mushroom and foie gras was perfect!!

I enjoyed my dish thoroughly!

H had the scrambled eggs with black truffle!

I'm not usually a fan of scrambled eggs 

as some restaurants add milk/cream to it and I don't like dairy products.

But Parco's version was absolutely delicious!

They were pretty generous with the black truffle and the fragrance of it, HMMMMM!

I'm also a fan of (any) mushrooms and bacon so I'd recommend this!

And then on another day, we made blueberry pancakes for brunch!

I never knew pancakes were THAT easy to make!

I see us having lots of pancakes in future ;)

I'm a big lover of bak chor mee and my current favourites 

are the bak chor mee sua at BK Eating House (Boat Quay) 

and the bak chor mee tai mak at... 

Changi Airport Terminal 3's food court.

Yeah, I know right.

I've been eating at airport's for years 

and there's always a long queue during peak hours and it never fails to satisfy!

So when I got wind of all this rave about Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee,

I HAD to go try it out myself.

We had a really late lunch, think it was a Saturday and omgggg we waited for an hour!

AN HOUR!!!

It was insane!

Although the ingredients are important, 

I think the noodles (in this case, mee kia) are Equally important.

The pork balls and liver, everything was fine, 

and I especially love the fried fish thingy.

BUT

the noodles were a total letdown :(

It was soggy (H said uncooked) and I didn't finish it in the end.

I noticed the lady on the other table also left her mee kia untouched.

Such a disappointment, definitely Not worth the hour wait.

Ten minutes, probably.

Anyone knows of any yummy bak chor mee anywhere please let me know! :>

p/s: we've updated TIPPYJESS over the weekend
and I've added some items for sale on SHOPTIPPYTAPP!
Hop over for a look! :)

My sight, taste, touch, as well as arms and legs.

Two weekends ago, 

H and I were invited for an engagement shoot with Smittenpixels Photography!

We were BEYOND excited as this was going to be our first professional photoshoot! 

We had no idea if were going to have any chemistry during the shoot 

or were we going to look natural 

or how were we going to pose.

All I knew was I wanted something like the end product of Jose Villa's work.

He's a very talented photographer specialising in weddings and engagement photoshoots. 

He rarely uses props, mainly focusing on the couple with simple and beautiful backdrops.

I'm a HUGE fan of his works.

I conveyed all of that to Fiona (the brainchild behind Smittenpixels!) 

and also told her that we wanted nothing cutesy hahahaha!

And the end result?

THE PICTURES TURNED OUT BETTER THAN WE EXPECTED!

We shot at two locations and this was at the first!

Hahaha the sun was too glaring!

H said he can win 最佳男配角 

because he's in the background and slightly blurred hahahaha idiot

After this we moved on to our next location to catch the sunset!

TOO MANY favourites from this set of photos 

it's impossible to choose just ONE that I adore.

Same goes for H.

All of them look so good, we love too many! ;p

When we were thinking of our next pose, H suggested "Let's dance",

and these set of pictures ended up becoming one of my favourites :')

And the entire time I was laughing stupidly like this...

Because H couldn't stop making me laugh!!

Kinda spoiled the vibe we were going for, you think?

So...which one do you like best???

It was a very fun and relaxed shoot for H and I!

Fiona has such an easygoing personality, we clicked instantly!

She made us feel very comfortable during the shoot and if you're an amateur in poses (like us), 

fret not as Fiona has lots of ideas (just look at us hahaha)!

She gave us directions but left H and I to talk among ourselves 

so she can capture our most natural reactions.

That is very important as we didn't want those "look ahead and look far far" photos haha!

Lastly, look at our DVD!

H and I were pleasantly surprised when we saw it hehe ;)

If you're looking for a couple/engagement shoot, family photoshoot, lookbook for your online store, 

or any outdoor shoot, contact Fiona at fiona.sng@hotmail.com!

Photos by: Smittenpixels Photography

Dresses: Both from online (can't remember where)

Hair cared for by Essensuals Bugis (@essensualsbugis)