Afternoon Tea at Tiffany's @ Tsim Sha Tsui

My first time stepping into a Tiffany Blue Box Cafe <3

Hong Kong opened the first Asia's Tiffany Blue Box Cafe and it was a dream to be able to dine in here hehe. When I first heard about the Tiffany's Cafe in HK, I thought that I MUST make my booking to dine in here. And everything and all the interior plus tableware were decked out in Tiffany blue.

We ordered the Tiffany blend tea. Refillable for free.

We also got the Tiffany cocktail. The blue cotton candy is to be dissolved in alcohol.

It will turn out to be this gorgeous Tiffany blue colour.

Enjoying my cocktail in the afternoon =)

We also ordered the Signature Toast Box.

Surprisingly, all food and beverages were of good quality. I really thought that only the appearance will be impressive but mind you, they have quality! The lava toast were delicious and made me feel like coming back to try the other food in the menu.

Really enjoyed the 'tai-tai' life for a short afternoon break in this cafe <3

If you're a fan of Tiffany & Co, all the more reason to dine in this cafe!

Hada Labo’s We Care For Society Campaign

Hada Labo in partnership with Women of Will (WoW) and Watsons is in its third year running the ‘We Care For Society’ Campaign. This year, Hada Labo will be supporting both the B40 women tailors as well as the B40 women bakers in their business in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

12 B40 women entrepreneurs in the Community Sewing Centre at People’s Housing Project Lembah Subang will be assigned to sew 1,500 customised face masks while ten B40 women entrepreneurs from People Housing Project Batu Muda will bake 10,000 pieces of cookies for distribution to 500 families living in five different People’s Housing Project around Klang Valley.

According to WoW’s Chief Operating Officer Lakshwin Muruga, WoW runs a variety of projects to help improve the lives of underprivileged women by empowering them with skills and teaching them to be self-sufficient.

“We are grateful to have Hada Labo as a long-term partner in supporting the B40 entrepreneurs. For the past two years, the donation from Hada Labo has assisted 230 B40 women entrepreneurs to sustain their business, which in turn helped them to support their families as well as benefited 300 families from three People’s Housing Projects with the Raya cookie distribution project. This year, the donation will continue to spread cheer to the B40 communities and the women entrepreneurs,” commented WOW Chief Operating Officer Lakshwin Muruga.

Lim Mei Yuen, General Manager of Rohto-Mentholatum (M) Sdn Bhd said that the campaign, held in conjunction with the Hari Raya celebration aims to contribute to the well-being of the B40 women entrepreneurs by empowering them with entrepreneurship skills so that in the long term they would be able to generate a sustainable income to support their families with a better quality of life.

“Through Hada Labo’s ‘We Care for Society Campaign’, we will continue to support the B40 women entrepreneurs with the funds raised. We believe businesses are still affected by Covid-19 and with the current market inflation, it is not easy to sustain a business. So we hope the funds provided will offer some relief,” she said.

The public who would like to support this campaign can head over to any Watsons store to purchase any Hada Labo Premium Whitening product. RM1 from the sales proceeds of every Hada Labo Premium Whitening product sold at Watson’s outlets nationwide starting from 5th Apr 2022 – 9th May 2022 will be donated to the campaign fund.

Hada Labo Premum Whitening products include:

There's face wash, whitening lotion and water gel in this range.

For more information or to support this campaign, log on to www.hadalabo.com.my or follow their Facebook page: MyHadaLabo.

Our apartment makeover in HK

 It took us awhile to really find an apartment that suited us within our budget. Firstly, the size must not be too small for our comfort. We need to have at least 2 rooms- 1 bedroom and 1 wardrobe room. Secondly, the location must be near the MTR station and thirdly, the apartment must have lift because apparently, there are many walk up buildings and it's a huge no-no for us.

We initially thought that we will just view up to 10 apartments and choose the best 2 to put an offer. However, we ended up kept looking because nothing suited us and up until the very last day we almost put an offer for another apartment, we found this apartment which we ended up renting! And this was after viewing close to 20 apartments(the process was dead tiring!) We were soo happy we found this one because it fitted all our 3 criterias and it's quite below our budget as well =) It's a 560sqft apartment and to Hong Kong-ers this is considered big for 2 people! Talk about a win-win situation hehe

Btw, I totally stinged on furnishing this apartment because we spent so much money and effort renovating and furnishing our marital home back in Malaysia, that I didn't want to do the same because technically we are still unsure how long we're going to be here in HK. So, we still want to make it a cozy and comfortable home without breaking the bank. Budget Barbie alert! And so I searched and sourced most of our furniture from Carousel, Asia Expat, Facebook Marketplace and the remaining ones from Ikea. Ikea is considered one of the cheapest furniture brand in HK. The second hand vendors sometime gave away the furniture for free or at a very minimal price. All we have to do is to find a mover to move the furniture from their place to ours.

Let's do a house tour!

The living hall.

The landlord already has a huge built in cabinet so we just needed to buy our own sofa and TV.

AFTER.

Our first 55 inch TV hehe...they said, go big or go home LOL Bought this from a second hand shop in the street of Sham Shui Po. There's a bunch of stores there selling second hand TV and we found this cheap Smart TV, a fraction of the price of a new smart TV and immediately grabbed it and ordered an Uber to bring it home on the very same day LOL there's super great deals around there and the TV was really new.

Our sofa bed! First time having a sofa bed as well. This sofa was the most drama. Due to HK apartments and its small sizes, we miscalculated the size (or rather didn't even think of taking into account) of our staircase because it couldn't fit the lift. We initially purchased a HUGE ass sofa second hand from Asia Expat and when the mover arrived, it couldn't go up the stairs due to it's bulky size. You know what happened? We had to dispose it off...OMG! What a nightmare. First time purchasing a sofa which couldn't go through the stairs. Btw, I mean the sofa is not even that huge because how big can it be to fit a 560 sqft apartment LOL it's just that it couldn't dismantle into pieces that's why. And after that nightmare, we were soo careful and calculated each and every inch of the staircase, the small ass lift and the apartment doors just to see if it fits. Luckily, this Ikea sofa bed could be dismantled to fit and finally we had our sofa bed! All in all, eventhough we had to dispose the previous sofa and wasted our money, we still managed to save money because the total price does not even equal to a newly purchased sofa bed from Ikea. It's still very new looking but because it's 2nd hand, I put a sofa cover (bought from Taobao) on top for hygiene purposes. And now, it looks just as good as new =)

The dining area.

AFTER

Our stuff from Malaysia took so long to come! Finally it arrived and we could have a proper dining table with ergonomic working chairs. We were working with bad chair and postures for quite some time LOL

The kitchen

AFTER

I bought quite a lot of things from Taobao. Gosh, my relationship with Taobao has greatly improved ever since I came to HK hahaha...I have never bought anything from Taobao back in Malaysia because firstly, I cannot read and write Chinese and since there's Shopee and Lazada, why do I need to go through the hassle of Taobao, right? But in HK, Taobao is hugely popular and it's the only delivery platform here. There's no Shopee etc here. So I have no choice if I needed anything cheap for the house, Taobao is the place to go. At first, I just tried to buy 2 things from Taobao through Google Translate just to have a taste of it. Imagine my excitement when it really arrived to my doorstep hahaha...I was really just prepared to buy some cheap stuffs and burn my money if it didn't actually arrive. But it did! And then I bought more things and then more things and before you know it, most of the small items in my house are from Taobao LOL

The wardrobe room.

AFTER.

All 3 wardrobes were purchased from Carousel. The corner hanging rod from Ikea. 

Table from Ikea. This would be a study room cum wardrobe room if any of us needed to do a conference call in a quiet place.

The washroom is also a decent size and love that the landlord also provided a washer & dryer for us.

Our master bedroom. 

This got us sold because on the day of viewing, the Landlord informed us that the previous tenant could fit a King Size bed into the room and we were like, okay this is the winner! When we saw other apartments, all could only fit at most a queen size and our Loplus serviced apartment's only con was having a queen size bed which was a torture LOL because we were so used to sleeping on a King Size bed and the first few nights in Loplus were us adapting to a smaller bed LMAO! Even our 21 days quarantine in Holiday Inn was with a King Size bed!

AFTER.

The hubs was very insistent to get a Sealy mattress this time around. Because at that time in Malaysia, we didn't want to splurge so much money on one although we loved the Sealy mattress in an expo. But we ended up getting a Napure due to a better deal in Malaysia.

We were ready to splurge on this final item and get a brand new Sealy for about HKD20k together with the bed frame. But...Budget Barbie saved the wallet haha...I was thoroughly browsing through every platform to find for a Sealy King Mattress and a King size bed frame. Lucky me and our manifestations secret (LMAO!) that we managed to find 2 different vendors from Asia Expat and Facebook Marketplace for the Ikea King bedframe (with storage somemore!) and the Sealy 2nd hand mattress which looks like new. We were damn lucky because this was the very last item that we sourced high & low and in fact, we even went to the Sealy showroom twice and was ready to purchase it. Anyhow, this saved us the bulk of money and I can buy more bags after this =.=

That's all for the cozy house tour!

Loplus @ Hennessy Serviced Apartment Hong Kong

Right after our quarantine in HK, we stayed in our temporary serviced apartment provided by the hubs' company. I have never stayed in a high rise residential before, neither have I stayed in a serviced apartment this long (2 months) but after 2 months here, I must say, this is the best experience-ever! 

We stayed in Loplus @ Hennessy Serviced Apartment and the service there was impeccable.

We stayed in the Premium One Bedroom Plus. It was around 669 sqft big, it'll be the biggest apartment we will stay so far in HK haha because the apartment sizes in HK are generally small. I won't include the price here because it's provided by company but from what I've seen in their website, the price is definitely something we couldn't afford to stay longer when our lease expires>.< FYI, rental in HK comes as shocker number 1 especially for Malaysians LOL

Let's take a home tour!

There's a kitchen for me to cook. And all utensils and pots were provided! So happy especially after our quarantine, I could finally boil some soup or cook some comfort food for us hehe

Pretty good size!

Fully equipped with hood and hob.

There's even a microwave oven and also a toaster provided to us.

There's a hidden washer & dryer in the kitchen. Gahh, after hand washing our clothes in quarantine, I could finally use a washer & dryer HAHAH There's also iron & ironing board provided so everything needed were already there.

The living room with a dining table.

The washroom is of a good size as well.

Loccitane toiletries =)

Walk in wardrobe for me. Too huge for me because most of my clothes are still on the ship from Malaysia LOL Absolutely love this. Totally didn't make me miss my own walk in wardrobe in Malaysia. The interior designer is definitely so clever with designing the space here.

A cupboard for the hubs hehe

Bedroom with a small vanity table. There's a lot of storage everywhere.

There's another TV in the bedroom. We have like 2 TVs and 3 airconds which also acts as a heater in a 669 sqft room! This was definitely premium!!

The hubs working table. There were dividers for the study room and the bedroom so that we could each have our conference calls in peace LOL

The package includes free wifi, maid services, utilities, free breakfast(coffee/tea and bread) in the lobby, and the use of other facilities within the apartment such as gym, laundry room & rooftop garden. The maid throws our rubbish daily except Sunday and clean our sheets & towels twice a week. I really love it because when they clean, they also wash our plates & pans. OMG, I'm totally living the tai tai life hahaha

So, in a fully furnished serviced apartment, you literally just bring your suitcase in and you can live here without needing to purchase any extra furniture. Although the apartment is smaller than our house back in Malaysia, but this size felt good enough for the both of us. We are adapting to the HK cozy sizes hahaha

We went to the gym a few times but then the curfew happened due to Covid and it was shut down after that =( So, we could only run outside in parks.

The location was also great! I will definitely miss staying in Causeway Bay. When you go down, there's a pharmacy to get all the personal toiletries, there's supermarkets to get daily groceries & snacks and the wet market is super nearby too to get fruits and raw meat. Everything was so convenient.

Now that we shifted to our permanent residence, the next post will be how we furnished our permanent residence because we rented it unfurnished and now made it our cozy home <3

Haco Suiss Dry Culinary Mix

HACO SUISS Culinary Dry Mix is a variety of cooking stocks to the retail market. Made from a careful selection of the freshest and finest ingredients to enhance the flavour of your cooking, the HACO SUISS culinary mix is an intricate innovation made to elevate the enjoyment of cooking at home in the most convenient, flexible, versatile, and healthy way.

OMG, how I wish I was in Malaysia to accept the delivery of these flavourful broths for cooking. It's okay, I'm sure my mother in law will enjoy these broths as much as I do.

HACO SUISS Culinary Dry Mix products are manufactured by HACO Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd. The HACO SUISS, a 100-years reputable producer in premium food in Switzerland since 1922, innovated the Culinary Dry Mix, a cooking stock which comes in three types, namely Chicken Stock, Beef Flavoured Stock, and Lobster Bisque Stock.

These cooking stocks is without a doubt a healthier option, as it contains no added MSG, no trans-fat, no added preservatives and no artificial coloring. The HACO SUISS Culinary Dry Mix is made entirely from finest and freshest food ingredients. It is simple and versatile in application, have flexible adjustment to cater to your own taste, and also promotes zero wastage. Truly, the HACO SUISS Culinary Dry Mix range encourages all to eat healthier with its fast & easy preparation compared to boiling the broth from scratch.

Since 1922, HACO SUISS has been consistently producing premium and healthier choice products in the market, as HACO SUISS thrives on catering to the needs and well-being of their loyal consumers. HACO SUISS is well aware that the consumers within the Asia-pacific region have a broad taste palate and an inkling for valuable, delicious dining experiences, hence the increasing demand of more value-added products, an example being products that are in collaboration with chefs or could create chef inspired recipes gaining interest and public traction nowadays.

With the tagline “Making every ordinary meal special”, QSRT endeavors their customers to use HACO SUISS products which are a healthier choice, convenient, and provides versatile cooking options.

The lobster bisque has always been a fancy dish that one rarely prepares at home, but now with the award-winning HACO SUISS Lobster Bisque Culinary Dry Mix, anyone can indulge in the rich and exquisite taste by simply preparing it yourself at the comforts of your own home. The first HALAL and only one of its kind products in the retail marketplace in Malaysia, the Lobster Bisque has been awarded Culinary Innovation Award 2021 by Professional Culinary Association, Malaysia.

The Chicken stock on the other hand, is made from real chicken meat, using non-GMO poultry. It also has no artificial colorings and no added preservatives in its ingredients. Whilst the beef flavoured stock has a full-flavour beef taste, it does not contain any animal raw materials, making it a vegetarian-friendly option that is suitable for people who wish to have a bowl of beef soup or noodles, minus the beef.

The HACO SUISS Chicken Stock 100g is RM5.90 per packet and the HACO SUISS Beef Flavoured Stock 80g and HACO SUISS Lobster Bisque 60g are RM6.30 per packet.

The HACO SUISS Culinary Dry Mix products will be available on the shelf of major hypermarkets, supermarkets, and QSR Trading official store in Shopee Mall and Lazada Mall from January 2022 onwards to offer consumers a healthier choice of products. 

New Year 2022

 2021 was let's just say, life changing! For everything that happened from the start of the year to the end of the year, it was a complete 180 degrees of adventure- way different from year 2021 haha. In the closing post of year 2020, I mentioned that I wanted to travel overseas. Well, I guess that dream came true *laughs*

Half of the year 2021 was spent half quarantining at home- because we could still go to work but just couldn't go out for entertainment due to Covid. So we were in and out of MCO because the government kept tightening and loosening the rules. I spent my birthday celebrating turning 30 at home as well.

On top of that, the scariest thing happened when my husband contracted Covid and was the most sick of his entire life. Plus, I couldn't even go near him and it totally messed up my household for the entire month. Thank God, he is fully recovered and kicking well.

And before that, I got so sick from the Covid vaccine. I was also the most sick ever after the jab. I popped close to 12 panadols in a span of 2 days. In that month when I was sick and my husband got Covid, just the both of us popped close to 50 panadols due to fever. Gosh, panadol company earned a lot from us that month LOL (well, now can laugh, but really the suffering was crazy)

We still managed to sneak in a few staycations. When the rules were relaxed a bit, we went for a short staycation at Shangri-la, KL and totally enjoyed a short stay from all the quaranti-ning at home haha. After that, we went to Villa Samadhi, KL when the borders re-opened after the Nth MCO. Finally, we managed to squeeze in some time to One & Only Desaru Coast right before we flew to Hong Kong.

I also honed a lot of my cooking skills during MCO. I probably cooked and baked the most in the last 2 years! Staying at home made me more house wife-y >.< I never knew I had it in me that I could actually cook on a daily basis LOL

On top of cooking, towards the end of the year when I had many farewells before leaving, I had so much good food as well! Luckily, I had incorporated some exercise routine into my life otherwise I would have put on so much weight this entire year. 

And then of course, we migrated to Hong Kong with my first ever time in business class and spent 21 days quarantine in a hotel. Yup, as I said, this year was life changing. Never in a million years, I thought we would actually migrate especially during Covid what more spending 21 days quarantine in a hotel LOL

I'm very grateful and blessed to be where I am today. I would not want to change a thing about my year in 2021. Everything happens for a reason and it has brought us to where we are today. 2021 came wrapped with full of surprises and I'm grateful to live through it all. 

2022 will be another year full of surprises. A new year living in a different country, different culture, different environment and without our families and not knowing when we would be able to go back to Malaysia to visit. Yup, going into the unknown is scary but adventurous. Well, I like to YOLO so 2022, bring it on! To new, joyful memories in the coming year <3

Here's hoping each and everyone of us will have a new hope in the coming new year and towards better beginnings. 

Hong Kong foodie

Yay! Now we can properly explore Hong Kong. The first thing we absolutely craved for was Five Guys! Haha this is because Malaysia just opened it's first Five Guys restaurant and we couldn't go in time to check out. And when in quarantine, I kept seeing people's social media eating Five Guys so we were firm that we also needed to eat Five Guys because we FOMO lollzz....kidding, it's because we tried in Paris and absolutely loved it.

This is the best milkshake combo-ever! No kidding. Must try this combo...and it's not too sweet.

Cajun fries-surpringly don't even need sauce haha

Beef cheeseburger with customised toppings...I kinda added 3/4 toppings off the list in our burger HAHAHA

Beef patty so soft and though it's pricey but definitely cravings satisfied!

I have the sweetest friends from Malaysia who delivered yummy desserts to me =)) We haven't even used any delivery platforms in HK but my friends were the first to deliver sweet treats to me *cries*

Christmas desserts from Sift Desserts.

The yoghurt flavour was my absolute favourite. Not too sweet and it's a bit sourish to balance the taste =)

There's yoghurt filling inside some of the cupcakes as well...so yummy!

First tong yuen festival without tasting mummy's tong yuen.

So have to make do with store bought ones haha

Korean alcohol & snacks in HK are surprisingly way cheaper than in Malaysia and there's a Korean snack shop just below our serviced apartment hahaha

But of course my most favourite pastry is polo bun and to have it in HK where it originated is the BEST!

We have tried a few shops and they never disappoint. Their generous amount of butter with crispy pineapple crust is just the perfect afternoon tea treat.

Their egg tarts as well are super soft, creamy and and melts in mouth! So yummy!

Left- pineapple lemon tart and right is normal egg tart. They do a lot of pastries with pineapple toppings.

Their toast is also not normal toast. It has filling in it and we had the cheese toast. Soo good!

Roasted goose rice shops are everywhere!

Roasted goose with siu yuk.

Roasted goose with char siew.

I loveeee roasted goose rice. I'm craving for it every alternate days haha. Their roasted goose are to be eaten together with sweet plum sauce. Soo yums!

It is also our target to try McDonalds in every country haha...and HK is no exception!

McShaker fries. I lovee McShaker but unfortunately in Malaysia it's seasonal.

Beef and egg burger.

They even have Ovaltine boba milk haha

Honey chicken.

But they don't have chilli sauce *sad* haha so had to bring our own LOL...but love the HK McD..suit our taste hehe...so far I dislike Singapore and Thailand's McD LOL

We went to Stanley to see the Christmas Market. It was raining yet people were queueing up to go into the market. We took quite a journey to Stanley so we had to YOLO.

But first, a hot French onion soup by the Blake Pier to warm ourselves before we brave under the cold weather to queue to enter the market LOL

Had a glass of beer as well. The beers in HK are so far all seem light.

I also found sushi in supermarkets super affordable in HK! Way cheaper than in Malaysia haha

I was super craving for sashimis because it's been a whole month since I had anything Japanese hehe

HKD16 only OMG

Mmm...totally satisfied my cravings with its freshness.

Never bought suckling pig before but it's quite famous here so decided to takeaway suckling pig for 2 pax and I cooked rice myself. OMG, skin so crispy, so fat, so sinful and so yums!

My husband saw that 1 crate of this beer is only HKD30 and got a shock because it's wayy too cheap. And so we bought a crate back =.= But it tasted not bad! Mixed with soju as soju bomb and goes well with the suckling pig hehe

Saw that there's a bakery around my area that serves croissant made with certified French products and it's apparently famous so we went to check it out. It's Urban Bakery in Hysan Place.

Salted Egg Yolk Croissant.

Oh my sooo good! HKD 23 for one and HKD36 for 2...always go in the evening for the combo price coz I think it's near closing.

Croissant egg tart. HKD15.

The most expensive egg tart we ever eaten haha but sooo goood!!!

Pineapple croissant. Like polo bun only this is croissant. Served with butter and with the crispy crust especially after heating with microwave, it's sooo delicious!

So far Hong Kong food did not disappoint hehe will venture more and try more because there's so much more to try here!!!