Orlando: Day 6

We woke up a bit later on this day as we thought that Busch Gardens, the safari-themed theme park we were going to opened at 10am and was only a short drive of 30 minutes away, according to the information from the guy who sold us the tickets. However we were sadly misinformed and when we finally got there ( 1.5 hours later!!!!) we found out that the park not only opened at 9.30am, but closed at 5pm ( as opposed to the 6pm we thought previously--> Kudos to the ticket seller-.-) No thanks to him, we reached at about 11+am, close to noon and only had a mere 5 hours to play at the park.

First glimpse of one of the park's roller coasters ( some of which are world famous and highly ranked in the roller coaster arena)

Do you see a lion?

Signboard at the entrance when we first walked in.

Do you see alligators? At first I thought they were fake :P

Initially we had already planned to take the tram ride around the safari first, but when I spotted this roller coaster, the newest addition to their coaster family known as the Cheetah Hunt, I couldn't resist and rushed to take it with my mom :)

Oh boy it was as scary as its namesake as pictured ^. At the beginning the coaster suddenly sped up from 0km/h to 60km/h in a split second. In case you don't know how fast that is, IT IS FAST. Even though I expected the sudden increase in speed, it still came as a surprise to me and for the split second I could actually think, I was like ' Why did I get on this ride???!!' But it was good fun and I really enjoyed it, and it gave me lots of confidence to ride the other coasters later on this trip :P And luckily I insisted on riding this coaster as it was the only coaster out of the 5-6 coasters in this park that I managed to ride ): (due to time constraints)

'Oh I'm just a cute fatty hippo, happily munching on my grass...'..ZOOOOOMMM!!!!AHHHHHHH!!!!! * human screams*

That was one of the issues we were discussing about this idea of merging a safari with a theme park.. it doesn't work out too well. The animals hardly have any silent time due to the constant shrieks of thrill-seeking homo sapiens and the loud screeches of the roller coaster rides.. plus the opening times are so short, one simply does not have time to ride all the rides AND see all the animals.

we did get to see some gorillas though

and their asses

and I even got to ride one! :)

Passed by a kangaroo feeding station where entrance was free but a cup of feed costs US$5.

Being the cheapskates we are, we went in and fed the kangaroos with the scraps picked off the floor :P ^ it actually ate from me!!! :))

So cute <3

Passed by some flamingos as well

And passed by a 'Sesame Street' section of the park where we were lucky enough to take a pic with the sesame street characters!! ( we were one of the last to :P)

All these pics were taken before my brother and I took a water ride and got absolutely DRENCHED at the end. I also didn't take a picture of our late lunch at Zambia Smokehouse, where we had the most AMAZING smoked meats ( namely brisket, ribs, chicken)

Oh wait, I momentarily forgot the existence of google images. Picture above is not mine :P

The soft fluffy bun pairs so well with the various meats, which are all done to tender juicy perfection, and doused with an addictive sweet sauce. And the fries.....ohmigawd. We officially declared there and then that these were the best fries we had eaten so far. Still piping hot, and crispy on the outside but soft inside <3 It was so good my dad went to buy another platter. ( On hindside however, maybe it just tasted so good because we were standing there sopping wet from the above mentioned water ride haha :P )

All too soon however the park was closing so we made our way back without having tried many of the rides. No regrets though, it was still a great day :)

And the early closing time was a blessing in disguise, as we got to eat at Olive Garden, one of the restaurants I wanted to go to in America! I decided to order a soup as my aunt ( who also ordered the same) highly recommended the particular soup, and it was free flow so the greedy and kiasu Singaporean in me couldn't resist :P Besides, I love the classic combination of hot soup with bread <3

My parents ordered a set ( which was 2 for US$25) and came with an appetizer and entree of choice. Thank god they only ordered 2 portions instead of the originally intended 4 as the portions were HUGE.

Deep-fried lagsana as one of the appetizers. Well what do you expect, lagsana is a classic italian dish and put an italian restaurant in America and you just get it deep-fried ;) This were good though. Just don't think of the calories.

When I think of breadsticks, I think of puny little cheesesticks small enough to finish in a bite. THESE ^ however, are not breadsticks contrary to their name in the menu, but breadBRANCHES! They were enormous and long and even though they were supposed to be free flow we couldn't even finish the first basket among the 5 of us O:

This is Zuppa Touscana, an italian sausage soup recommended by my aunt, who always eats this when she dines at Olive Garden. It comes with bits of italian sausage, small cubes of potatoes and some veggies, and sprinkled with grated cheese upon request. While I liked it for its mild peppery taste and wholesomeness, I felt that it was a tad too salty for my liking. And even though I had previously envisioned myself chugging down bowl after bowl of soup ( greedy singaporean speaking), I pretty much gave up after two :P

House Salad! Came in a huge glass bowl and had a tangy dressing.. free flow as well but we only refilled it once as the bowl was so bigggg.

* I didn't manage to take pics of my parent's meals but they were HUGE as well.*

Overall a great dining experience ( apart from the fact that I was so STUFFED at the end :P) 

Last day in Singapore

Before leaving for America tonight, that is. So excited!!! We'll be flying via United Emirates airline and transit after 9 hr 25mins at Dubai Airport, then board another ride to some USA intercontinental airport that will be about 16 hour ++. I hope i survive the ride with no neck ache, back pains etc from sleeping in weird uncomfy positions. And I hope we can good plane food :) Oh well I just hope we have a safe ride~

Anyway yesterday was just SUPER boring, even my brother agreed and we spent our whole day lazing around... only thing vaguely blog-worthy is the sushi prepared by my parents at night for dinner!

Ingredients

Chopping up the omelette into slices

'

The crabsticks too

Before rolling

Avocado salad at the side ( to use up veggies)

Done :) In the sushi : egg, pork floss, cucumber, and a special ingredient-avocado!! Just for last night ;)

So yummy!! I love sushi <3 Then we watched korean dramas the whole night.

Breakfast: Sultana Danish

Lunch: super-toasted ciabatta with luncheon meat/ham, boiled broccoli and airfried sweet potato wedges. 

I was damn hungry before this but I got really full after..my small-eating mom only ate half her sandwich..

Ok anyway ran out of things to write but just wanted to write one last post in Singapore and here's to a good trip! *raises beer glass*

kbyeeeeeee ;)~

Happy

I'm happy now cos I managed to successfully do 2 recipes which I wanted to do and have recieved positive feedback from my family yaaayy. Life's simple joys haha.

The first is one that I mentioned yesterday, jacket potato with tuna fillings.  I made it for last night's dinner, and luckily I did as my dad initially wanted to order pizza ( he was lazy to cook) but we'll probably be having loads of greasy unhealthy fast food next month so we should be as healthy as possible meanwhile :)

oh and the chinese dessert of the day was red bean soup! Somehow the beans were softer and fluffier than usual ^^

The potato family

Rubbed them with coarse sea salt and poke holes all over em' , then pop em' in the oven to bake at 220C for about 1 hour!

'Gourmet' sea salt used don't play play

Next for the toppings~  used leftover tuna mayonnaise light 

Also used the leftover salad veggies from lunch, chuck em' in a food processor 

Did I mention my 'stand mixer' also comes with a food processor ;) heheheh

Before pulsing^

After processing^ 

Actually wanted to leave it as that but I felt that something was lacking... so I boiled some packet corn!

to add that 'crunch'

After an hour the potatoes were done!

Crinkly crispy skin, you can see that the skin darkened where I poked my fork in before baking :P

Split open the potatoes and dished out the fillings on top

told my dad about my 'poached egg' made in the afternoon that he didn't get to try, so i made for him for dinner! ( he requested for 2 :) )

I accidentally broke the yolk of my first one so only the second one is fit for photography ):

Close up on the fillings!

My family liked it and my dad described it as 'sinfully good'... it isn't sinful at all!! Much healthier in fact ,( and cheaper) compared to pizza >)

Jacket Potato:

Ingredients:

1 floury potato per person (e.g. Maris Piper, King Edward, Estima, Desiree)

About 20g coarse sea salt

1. Pre-heat your oven to 220C.

2. When the oven is up to temperature, wash the potatoes well, and prick each in a couple of places with a fork. Allow to dry slightly, while you tip your salt into a shallow bowl. Roll each potato in the salt to give an even coating, and then place on the middle shelf of the oven, preferably directly on the rack.

3. Cook for around an hour, then give them a squeeze – the potato should just give, and the skin should be distinctly crisp. If not, leave them for 10 minutes, and check again – if you overcook them, the insides will be dry, so it's important to be vigilant.

4. Take out of the oven and put whole on to plates: they shouldn't be opened until you're ready to eat, and then preferably by hitting them sharply so they burst, for maximum fluffiness. 

*Recipe from: this site

Fast forward to this morning. I woke up filling pretty grumpy for some strange reason and got even grumpier when I saw there was only wholemeal bread left for breakfast ( cos my family aims to clear up most of the 'stock' at home before leaving for USA). So I was complaining to my mom about the lack of food and she offered to go buy what I needed/ wanted: butter ( we had no more left and without it I can't bake anything!), pumpkin/sweet potato ( had no idea but I craved for either one of them, so i wrote down in the grocery to buy either one but my mom bought both in the end heh<3), and tau kwa aka. firm tofu ( craving for the air-fried version of this as well!) 

I decided to make lunch for 3 of us again today with all the new groceries bought, so pumpkin wholemeal ham-and-cheese pancakes were born! (whew such a long name) Keep pestering my parents to bring my bro to the new branch of Strictly Pancakes at Siglap, which are having a half-price off for all pancake stacks till end of november as #1 they have never tried the pancakes there and #2 siglap is much nearer to my house than prinsep street and #3 HALF.PRICE!!! But at this rate they'll never go so I better make my own version of savory pancakes for them heheh ;)

one bowl with the flours ( wholemeal+self raising), salt and sugar, and the other with oil, egg and milk

And the 'secret' ingredient hoho ^^ ; steamed beforehand

Before mixing everything together I added in a good-sized chunk of pumpkin

This is how my mixture looked like in the end, I thought it was a tad dry so I added in a splash of milk more

I wanted my pancakes to be 'stuffed' with ham and cheese so I cut em' up, but in the end i gave up with the 'stuffing' part and just mixed them all in

These are ugly pancakes! But who cares, its the taste that counts and its all going into my tummy in the end anyways~ Look at the cheese oozing out!

My first pancake! Abit browner than I'll have liked it to be cos I turned the fire on too high... next time must use low heat!

This is me trying to be ambitious and cooking 2 pancakes at once (i know both are ugly haha)

Sorry for the blur picture but I just wanted to show the oozy cheese!!

Done! My stack of pancakes which look horrible but whatever don't judge!!

At least I didn't burn any!

Just wanted to show the gorgeous natural orange colour of the pancakes from the pumpkin! 

Thumbs up!  I wasn't counting on it to be much of a success but it was, and my mom and bro liked it :) The sweetness of the pancakes ( from both the sugar and pumpkin) complemented the saltiness of the ham-and-cheese perfectly. Yummy and filling ( I was VERY full after this, ham and cheese kinda does that to me ;P )

Pumpkin wholemeal ham-and-cheese Pancake: 

(recipe adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover)

Ingredients:

120g Self raising flour

30g Wholemeal flour

50g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

130ml milk

3 Slices of ham; cut into smaller pieces

3 Slices of cheese; cut into smaller pieces

50g-100g of pumpkin ( up to personal preferance)

Method

1. Mix flours, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

2. Mix egg, milk and corn oil.

3. Add into flour mixture along with ham, cheese, and pumpkin, stir well. Do not overmix.

4. Spoon batter onto a non-stick pan (without oil) to pan fry until golden brown on both sides

.5. Serve hot with maple syrup/ butter ( optional)

Countdown: 5 days to USA. Wish time will go by faster ( ok wait, scratch that)

kbyez~