Bitter Gourd Soup

My hub always asks for bitter gourd soup. I  don't know how to cook for it and also I am lazy to search for the recipe from the internet. Until one day an aunty who is good in cooking shares with  me a bitter gourd soup recipe and she claims that the soup is very tasty and even kids would love it. So I have give it a try.

I am glad that the soup turned out to be very tasty as what the aunty described, and my hub and kids love the soup. A comment from hub that he asked me to put more bitter gourd to add more bitterness to the soup.

The ingredients for the soup :

1. Pork ribs
2. bitter gourd ( half bitter gourd)
3. red dates
4. carrots

My first  bitter gourd soup.The kids love it too because it isn't bitter at all.

I whip up another dish with the other half of the bitter gourd. I also got the recipe from the aunty.

Pan fried bitter gourd with garlic. I am the person that wouldn't touch bitter gourd but I have to admit this dish is a appetizing dish.

Hong Kong Disneyland Family Trip Day 3

Day 3 was the day we spent almost 10 hours in Disneyland. We reached the park at around 10.20am.

 The Star Recognition Pack distribution session started at 10.30am was happening but we didn't join the long queue to grab Star Guest badge. For your information, the Star Guest badge are for free, but these treats run on limited numbers each day. A Star Guest will encounter countless surprises and star experiences that are completely unexpected during your visit in the park. I am not sure how is the surprise though. But you can actually pay for certain special and exclusive star experience ( optional) which includes Star Princess Tour, Star Fireworks Dinner, Star Photography Package and more. It is very exclusive and the price isn't cheap so we didn't take any of these optional program.

Let's see how we spent our day in the park.

Meeting princess first thing in the morning at Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Toy Story Land, the park’s latest attraction.

Toy Soldier Parachute Drop was fun and thrills! It was so good that we reached there early and no need to queue for the ride. We played for 2 rounds.

Slinky Dog Spin

RC Racer. It looked thrilling and speeding with the U-shaped track. We didn't try for it :)

Meet and greet session again. This round we met up with Mickey and Stitch.

Mad Hatter Tea Cups ride. It was all about spinning the tea cups.

The Golden Mickeys, A musical celebration of Disney's film and character.

 It's a small World cruise ride.

We continued to look for more fun at Tomorrowland. We went  for Stitch Encounter where we could play and talk with mischievous Stitch at the Space Traffic Control center. Next we went for Space Mountain, a high speed roller coaster. You would  be surprise to know Yan Yan and Heng Heng also join for this adventurous ride. Heng Heng just reached the minimum height of 102cm for this ride. The staff there reminded us the ride is full of exhilarating hairpin turns, quick dips and worry little Heng Heng or Yan Yan would get frighten. The two kids insisted to try the ride.  It was a blacknes ride I have ever had.  It was indeed exciting and yet scary. I screamed like no body business and I wondered why the two kids could stay so calm throughout the whole ride. The hairpin turn was really scary for me and I kept holding Heng Heng tightly worry that he would get fly away. Asked them if they were scared but they said NO. Anywhere when I asked them if they wanted to play it again they both said NO, hehe.

A proof that showed  we had took the interstellar roller coaster, haha.


We had our lunch at Starliner Diner.

After lunch was the Flight of Fantasy Parade.

 We left the park and went back to hotel to freshen up.

Back to the park at 6.30pm. The weather was getting colder and windy. The kids requested to take the train again.

One last attraction, Mickey's PhilharMagic, a show featuring 3D effects, scents, and water as well as a number of characters from Disney movies.

Another round of fireworks display and last call to shop for Disney's souvenirs before we left Disneyland.

Happy Easter

How was your Easter celebration? Hope your Easter Day filled with hope, joy and warmth.We are not Christian but we still did something for Easter. We had bought some Lindt Gold Bunny chocolates from Hong Kong.

Heng Heng says :" What better way is there to enjoy your Easter than indulge your taste buds with Lindt Gold Bunny Chocolate. '' He loves chocolates just like mummy.

The kids brought back Easter crafts from school. Yan Yan's craft ( left) and Heng Heng's ( right)

We also did some crafts at home. The two kids had fun and enjoyed the crafts session - Coloring Easter eggs.

Hong Kong Disneyland Family Trip Day 2

Our plan for day 2 was Disneyland park. Initially there was no special plan for breakfast of the day. However I read an article in the flight last night and they recommended  a famous dim sum restaurant. It is Tim Ho Wan,  Michelin-starred restaurants that I actually read some reviews about it when I was searching for Hong Kong trip  information not long ago. Famous dim sum that would not cost an arm and a leg so why not give it a try. So we off for our first agenda, Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Restaurant. With map and the address in hands, we took MTR to Mongkok and did some walking to look out for the restaurant. I get a shock when hub pointing at the crowd in front of a small shop. Aiyo... 
The restaurant is full of people inside and a long queue ( mostly tourists)  were  waiting outside. I get a number, which is number 38 and the staff told me we got to wait about 2 hours before we could get into the restaurant. We were not going to wait for that long. So mission fail and we settle our breakfast somewhere else. We have breakfast at a ' Char Chan Teng'. 


After breakfast, we strolled around at Mongkok area and continue for hunting food. We had some famous street food which included my favorite curry fish balls and 鸡蛋仔 . We packed some nice food and then back to the hotel to change and off we go to the Disneyland park.

Tim Ho Wan menu, just too bad no chance to try this Michelin-starred restaurant

The kiddos couldn't wait more to start the magical journey and Disney friends. Disneyland has not much changes compare to the first time I was here which is 5 years back.

The kiddos with their Minnie and Mickey outfit.

The weather was warm today. It was around 20-24C.

The must take picture spot.

See their happy face, I am satisfy already.

We took the railroad to the Fantasyland station. Fantasyland is way too crowded even though it was lunch hours. We proceed to Adventureland and had the kiddos's first ride which was Jungle River Cruise.

Both the kiddos enjoyed the cruise ride.

Bumped into some characters  at Adventureland.

Next we went on to take the rafts to Tarzan's Treehouse before we moved on to Fantasyland.

Dumbo the Flying Elephant at Fantasyland.

Ving Yan riding on Cinderella Carousel. It was about to start the Flights of Fantasy Parade so the queue wasn't that long compare to what we saw earlier. We decided to skip today's parade and just to cover the rides to cover the rides at Fantasyland and so on.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, one of my favorite ride.

Snacking time. We left the park at 4.30pm to let the kids took a rest in the hotel room. Me myself no need whatever rest and I hopped over to the MTR to the Citygate Factory Outlet in Tung Chung. It was a fast trip as I only wanted to check out a few clothes' brands. And YES I got to buy something.

The kids didn't take any nap but for just playing in the room with daddy and of course splashing the in bathroom. We returned back to Disneyland park at about 7.00 pm.The weather was colder by then.

So we were all restless but we still in the park to wait for the firework display at the Sleeping Beauty Castle. Ving Yan and I went into some souvenir shops to choose presents for herself as what I promised to her earlier for her good behavior.

The beautiful Sleeping Beauty Castle. Just when the fireworks display was about to start, Ving Heng already dozed off at daddy's lap. It was a waste not to view the awesome fireworks so we called him up and glad that he was awake after a while.

Not easy to get a perfect shot but I personally like the few shots that I posted here though you still can see a lot of 'heads' in the picture.

All of us enjoyed the spectacular fireworks. We left the park and took MTR to Tsing Yi to have late dinner. We went to Maritime Square again and settle for a steambot dinner.

The steambot was good and not expensive. Only Ving Heng didn't eat much as I believe he was too tiring..... So I packed Mcd food for him to eat at the hotel room later.

It was time to call a day and we took the MTR back to Disneyland Hollywood Hotel. Just a side note to add on here Ving Yan is really a true traveler as she hardly complaint of tiring or asking us to carry her as to compare to the brother. She was still eye wide open when we back to the hotel. If you were to ask her to continue the day with some more activities and I can bet she would say YES! Bravo Ving Yan.