Crab buffet!

Hi guys!

So sorry for the missing post last week! I was soooo busy with school:( but anyway, here's one for this week.

Apart from sharing my adventures, food places are second on the list of shares. So for a start, I'm gonna do a brief post on the restaurant that I just visited - Brizo.

I was there with my relatives for a crab buffet dinner, so basically you could see lots of crabs cooked in different styles - butter, pepper, chilli, salted egg, steamed, laksa, chilled, soft shelled... I'd tried all of them, except pepper, and you can find my reviews below:

Butter - the sauce was quite nice on its own (since I'm a butter lover) but it didn't really blend with the crabs (not harmonious). Butter does not have a very strong taste to start with as well, so it's something like pouring creamy butter sauce over a crab, that's all.

Chilli - chilli crabs are rather common in Singapore, so it's quite difficult for a specific restaurant's to stand out since they all kinda taste the same. However, the sauce here was a little thicker, compared to the watery (but not diluted) sauces outside. The chilli crab here is also a little more spicy than those I have tried outside but it should be a piece of cake for chilli lovers. I'm not fond of chilli; my tolerance level for spiciness is about... that of McWings? If that helps with gauging the level of spiciness. Haha.

*Salted egg - although the salted egg crabs looked dry both on the inside and the outside, they turned out to be rather juicy and chewy! The salted egg has really gone into the meat of the crabs, so the taste doesn't just stay on the outside like the butter crabs. I don't think it was due to the freshness of the crabs that the meat stick to the shell; I think it's because the crabs had already cooled off and the salted egg sauce dried up, making it stiff and all.

*Steamed - ranked as number one on other sites. it was served separately from all other help-yourself crabs; you have to tell the chef there that you want one. The best thing about it is the awesome broth that the crab was soaked in! But other than that, it's just a normal crab and it wasn't really fresh when we ate that time.

Laksa - it was served with a bowl of laksa, with noodles and all. Nothing special actually.

*Chilled - the chilled Alaska crab legs were huge!!! And it's very juicy (and salty). If you open it the right way (by cutting along the leg and open it like a book), you can take the meat out as one entire piece and just chew on it. The first few were heavenly but too much of it will make you sick because of the saltiness.

The starred ones are my recommendations, must-try!!! There are plastic gloves and napkins to shield yourself from the sauce-splashing.

Yupp, other than crabs, there are many others too, ranging from cooked food (chicken, vege...) to sushi to chicken soup (quite nice) to desserts. I wouldn't talk about them since they aren't much of a highlight, except for the desserts!

The first thing that caught my eye was CHOCOLATE FONDUE!!! *screams* well, it's always a weak spot of mine.

Together with that, there are fruits and a large variety of ice cream! Among all ice cream, there's one that is worth mentioning and that's Magnolia's passionfruit sherbet. Don't judge because it's Magnolia; it's very creamy, smooth and not too sweet. It feels chewy at the start but melts in your mouth, literally!!! It went out of stock before I could even get one myself! If you don't believe me, go try one yourself (not at Brizo, just go to NTUC and get one @$1.20. Haha!)

So, if you're interested and very fond of crabs, do go try Brizo. It's at Park Hotel, level 1. Take AYE and exit Clemenceau, and it's on your left. Prepare about $80 per pax but I would say, wait for some deals or go ask for staff discounts from relatives and friends.

Lots Of Love (LOL),
Jensylee

Phuket Day 3&4

Hi guys!

Sorry for the two-days-late post. School work and room makeover have been tough on me :( Yep, so let me continue and finish up my Phuket adventure!

As mentioned in the very first Phuket post, we managed to get a 1,000 baht per pax deal from Groupon to go white water rafting and ziplining. Yes, and that's what we did on Day 3. Since it's from Groupon, it's supposed to be cheap. We started the tour with a trip to the Golden Cave where monkeys could be seen on the outside (it reminded me of 'Hualian' Mountain that the Monkey King chill with his fellow primates) and  in the cave, there were lots of Buddha statues, one of which was a huge golden reclining Buddha. It was just a 20 baht admission fee, so no harm going in to take a look but frankly speaking, it's nothing much, really just plain looking around. Then, we set off for white water rafting!

Upon reaching, we were offered locker spaces to keep our belongings and waited for all guests to arrive. It took a while before we started getting into the life jackets, helmets and briefing. It was my first time doing this sport, so I was super excited! Although the trail wasn't as bumpy and thrilling as I thought, it's not a bad experience for a first time. At least it wasn't too scary that I wouldn't want to try it again, like surfing. :S The trail was quite short too and I would definitely go for one that is longer and more 'dangerous', like down a waterfall. Please comment below if you have any good white water rafting places to recommend!! :) I would love to take up the challenge. So is other adventures like bungee, theme parks etc. I might do a list of the top 5 thrills, that I've done, next time, and call for 3-5 challenges (if I have the budget). So anyways, we were brought to a small waterfall after rafting and had a good splashing time with my cousins. As the current was still rather strong, we didn't go into the water but stayed on the slippery rocks, enjoying the cooling river water. Last but not least, we did ziplining which was similar to the day before at Treetop Xtreme. 

 That, basically, took up more than half of the day. We dived right into the shower when we got back to the hotel and went along the beach to look for dinner. Even though the beach is just one traffic light away from the hotel, we officially stepped onto it only on the third day, which was quite a waste. It was very relaxing by the nice and clean Patong beach - so serene other than the waves crashing onto the shore, cooling sea breeze with the fading rays of a setting sun. There will be occasional fireworks, just some simple short ones, bought and fired by tourists. If you're lucky, you could watch about 3 to 4 times of it without costing a cent. It can be quite loud and sudden; please take care of your ears!

There were a stretch of restaurants along the beach, all seemed rather classy and highly chanced that they were costly too, so we went to the food fest instead. It was disappointing. We ordered quite a lot of food from various stalls but generally, the food was either too salty, too bland or overcooked/over-barbecued. Yep, cannot be compared to any other meals that we had :(

The night was still early by the time we were done eating and we were all worn out from all the walking, rafting and high elements, so we went hunting for masseurs. I can't recall the name of the street (there wasn't any road sign either) but on one side of it, you can find the cheapest massage. And it's not just one, but many, of them. You can get a 60 min foot massage (or any other massage) at 200 baht!!! What a great deal! Out on the main stretch of Bangla Road, it's usually at least 300 baht for the most basic massage. Walking down the street, you will see that they all have the same price and about the same publicity and all, so I would say, go with your gut feeling. That's what we did and we decided on Anahita Massage. For me, it's totally worth it. My masseur, One, was awesome! Some masseurs are too afraid to inflict any pain; some go all the way to make you scream; but not One. Although I usually go for the extreme pain, her skills make me realise that massage is not about how much pain you can tolerate. Her strength was just nice for me and her movements were so smooth that it's super comfortable! I almost fell asleep from her massage. There was this strange connection between us as well, like I felt close to her even though we didn't really talk much. I guess it's because of her grandmotherly look (not that she's that old but I think she should be in her 50s) and heart warming smile :D

Oh, and one more thing about massage, let your masseur know which part of your body requires more attention! Don't be shy and keep it to yourself; massage is supposed to relief muscle tension and aches. And I emphasize again, you should feel a soothing pain and not a teeth gritting pain during massage. Too much pain may not be good for you too; too much of anything is not good for health. Yep, aaaaand... that ends day 3.



Day 4 was quite a short day as our flight was in the evening and we had to leave the hotel at about 5.30pm (GST +7). In the morning, we were sent to a jetty for our snorkeling adventure. We island hopped among the Khai islands - Khai Nok, Khai Nui and Khai Nai - and snorkeled for half to an hour each. We got this half day tour package from Mia at 950 baht. I think no matter which snorkeling tour package you take, do bring along a picnic mat or just some plastic bags to sit on when you reach the shore (that's if you mind getting sandy, like I do). The beach chairs are chargeable and I can tell you, being able to sit down (not on a boat) is a luxury as you will be exhausted from all the snorkeling and boating. And, the waters around Khai islands are not very clear; you can see fishes and corals but it's obvious that the water is murky. Tioman island's water is much better, if you've been there before. The variety of fishes is rather limited too.

 

So, we got back to the hotel, went into the pool and chilled. Not long after, we washed up and had pizzas from The Pizza Company again for lunch. Before going back to Anahita Massage for our second round of massage, we were stomping into every Family Mart to look for Tom Yum Lays chips and other exotic flavours. In the end, guess how many packets we bought!

Tada!!! A total of 32 packets, big and small...

Yep, so I did a 60 min Thai massage this time and it was really good. There were two types of body massages, Thai and Oil. Thai massage is the usual pressing and stretching kind of massage whereas oil massage, as it's name suggests, makes your whole body oily. It's something like foot massage but now it's all over your body. Haha. Topped it up with a 30 min foot massage, which was a total of 350 baht, and we were just in time for our departure.

And with that, I end my Phuket adventures. Cheers!

Lots Of Love (LOL),
Jensylee


P.S. If you realised, we didn't watch the Fantasea Show, mainly because my cousin's review of it wasn't very good; apparently, it's quite boring and the buffet dinner wasn't really good. We did found a new show though, called Siam Niramit. We wanted to go and even checked the price but our budget was limited (because of all the shopping. HAHA!). So for your reference, if you're interested, the general market price is 1,850 baht but do note that there are different seating (refer to the seating plan below) and thus, different prices. We managed to find out that the lowest price for VIP (Gold/Platinum) is 1,400 baht and for Silver, 1,250 baht. Hope that serves as a good guide for your bargaining. Yep, so remember to clarify the seats that you are given before you purchase and make sure everything is written clearly on the receipt. The receipt is your ticket to all tour packages. All the best!