Mia's Review: Pompompurin Cafe [Halloween Theme]

Yes, I finally visited Pompompurin Cafe, all thanks to Sa's special treat for my birthday! 

We visited on a PH, at an off-peak timing of 3pm, and there was still a queue, albeit a short one. Special request for the booth seats will require a longer wait as there really isn't much booth seats available and the cafe doesn't set a time limit as to how long their patrons can stay in the cafe. 

They've already changed into the autumn setting by now, but when we're there it was still the Halloween theme! 

The entire cafe was just filled to the brim with cuteness. 

Love Love Hot Marshmallow Latte

This has got to be the cutest coffee I've ever drank. Can someone tell me if the white female dog is Cinnamon Roll? 

Coffee wise, it's just pretty average coffee (hence you can say it's overpriced) but the cuteness (and IG-worthiness) kind of makes up for it. Anyway, be sure to NOT stir the marshmallows into the coffee, because they're jam filled kind. It's better that you eat them instead. 

Bacon Mushroom Shoyu Pasta

I actually cannot remember the actual name of this pasta (and google came up with nothing!) but there's definitely both 'bacon' and 'shoyu' inside. 

Although not eye-widening fantastic, it was definitely above mediocre for a pasta dish. The spaghetti wasn't too hard nor too soggy, and the bacon slices added a nice savoury taste to the pasta. Well, it's near impossible to go wrong with bacon, agree?
I didn't try out the salsa sauce (served in the cute pompompurin mini-mug) but ate the toasted baguette plain. They were good enough as they were. Yes, I'm totally a bread person.

BBQ Spare Pork Ribs with Rice

This dish is definitely more IG-worthy compared to the pasta, but slightly lacking in comparison at the taste factor. 

The spare pork ribs has the strong 'pork smell' which they've failed to mask over with their BBQ sauce. They're also quite mediocre in terms of the tenderness factor, as I've definitely tasted better. The rice, in order to attain the cute Pompompurin-sitting-in-a-cup look, was made slightly soggy and 'mashed up', like a lontong (malay rice cakes). 

Well, 10 out of 10 for IG-worthiness, but barely a 5 for the taste factor. 

Banana Caramel Pancakes

This scores like 11 out of 10 for IG-worthiness, no?

Although hardly comparable to those popular souffle pancakes that's oh-so-fluffy and light, this is still a decent pancake with top-rated cuteness, and quite a huge price tag as well. They're rather generous with the whipped cream and banana slices though, for we had to 'shift' the white whipped cream aside to minimise our empty calories intake. The banana whipped cream, although still too much, was pretty good though. 

Pompompurin Cafe has now started their Autumn Theme and they're located at 

Orchard Central, #04-08

For more information, visit their FB HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Bakes: Wholemeal Rye Bread (Mayer Bread Machine Recipe)

I've recently purchased Bob's Mill dark rye flour and buckwheat flour off iHerb (again!) to try out more variation of wholegrain bread loaves. 

However, it was really disappointing to find that the results were less than acceptable, for my bread turned out extremely short, dense and crumbly-cakey, like they've hardly risen at all. 

My wholemeal-dark rye-buckwheat loaf was made with the flour ratio of 2:1:1 (2 parts wholemeal) and with NatureGlory's organic Bonsoy and though extremely tasty with the distinctive nutty flavour from the addition of dark rye flour, the texture was just.... mehh. 

And then I realised, I might need a change of yeast.

And so, chucking Saf-Instant, I returned to Bake King's Instant Yeast and decided to give my dark rye flour another try. 

Well, I read somewhere saying that rye flour and bread machine doesn't do well together as a rye dough might be too heavy and tough for the bread machine to knead, but... let's just give it another shot!

So for my wholemeal rye bread, you'll need:

150g wholemeal AP flour

75g low-carbs flour

25g dark rye flour 

190ml milk 

3tsp vital wheat gluten

1 tsp ceylon cinnamon powder

21g raw honey

30g unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 small mayer tsp instant yeast (about 5g)

On my Mayer BM, I first added the wholemeal flour to the milk and let it sit for 20 minutes before adding in the rest of the dry ingredients and honey and starting the mix dough function, which will mix and knead the dough for 25 minutes. 

After which, I restarted the machine on multigrain setting and added in my butter cubes. And then about 75g of raisins and a few handful of chopped almonds at feeding point (which I regretted). 

Probably due to the dark rye flour, which made the dough heavier than denser than it would have been as just a wholemeal dough, the BM was unable to knead in the raisins at feeding point and I ended up with tons of raisins left behind in the bread pan and just a few of them sticking onto the surface of the bread. 

The chopped almond did get kneaded a little more into the dough, though still pretty much at the outer rim of the loaf. 

Although still denser and heavier than a refined white loaf, this time round my wholegrain loaf turned out much softer and chewier with the new yeast as compared to my previous bake(s). 

Just a reminder to self, is to add in the raisins during initial mixing whenever I add in dark rye flour to prevent high raisin wastage. 

Do you have a go-to recipe for a yummy wholegrain loaf? Do share them with me!

To get the wholegrain and low-carb flour I've used for this recipe, hop over to iHerb right now! 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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PRIMERO's ErgoSilver Laptop Riser [Advertorial]

-credits to www.northtexaschiropracticservices.com-

Are bad sitting posture in front of your computer giving you pains?

Before we get to the main topic of this post, ask yourself. How many hours a day are you seated at your desk, using a computer? 

Well, personally I spend minimal 9 hours seated at my desk, using the computer, at work. And when I get home, I usually spend 2 to 3 hours watching some dramas or youtube videos on my laptop to unwind, or draft out my next blog post. 

-credits to fairlesshillschiropractor.com-

And frankly speaking, even with my chair lowered to the lowest height possible, it's still impossible to be seated at eye level to the computer and slouching at the computer desk gradually became a norm for me. 

Well, that's until PRIMERO sent over one of their flagship product, the PRIMERO ErgoSilver Laptop Riser, retailing at $34.90 at laptopstand.sg

Suitable for laptops up to 17 inches, this riser is extremely lightweight and portable, suitable for use anywhere.

The riser also comes with rubberized silica gel pads on the top and bottom surfaces to increase friction and prevent slipping and scratches on laptops. 

You might notice that this riser is quite similar to their other flagship product, the PRIMERO ErgoSilver Laptop Stand, and might be a little confused with which is better for you. If you do not have an external keyboard and mouse to use with your laptop, the stand will not be ideal for you as it completely lifts your laptop off the desk. 

And thanks to the riser, I can now admire Lee Joon Gi watch my current favourite Kdrama in a more comfortable position!

PRIMERO will also like to share a little tip with you on alleviating the pains of that pesky backache and how to help with your slouching problems.

It'll just take 5 minutes of your time daily with this Locust (yoga) pose! 

For more information, visit the infographic HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Focus Hairdressing: Getting my C-Curls!

Well, I'm terribly sorry about the bad quality pictures. Left my Samsung NX Mini at home and the Samsung Note 4 has thoroughly failed me with her (I insist it's a she, since mine is pink) camera that always give me grainy, blurry pictures. 

So, please bear with me. 

-credits to beautyundercover.sg-

And anyway, if you still didn't know, Focus Hairdressing has opened another (smaller branch) at Chinatown Point, located at Level 2 right beside Din Tai Fung and above McDonald's. Stationed at this smaller, more easily accessible via MRT (Chinatown station) branch are Ken, Jane and Louis. 

Well, frankly speaking I would prefer heading to the Cuppage branch (I'm not very into the Chinatown vibes, somehow) but since Ken has moved over to the Chinatown branch, I decided to visit this branch as well. 

And yes, after so much talks of wanting to perm my hair, I finally did it! 

YAYY!

Initially I couldn't decide if I wanted C-Curls or S-Curls, and so Ken recommended that I go for C-Curls as it's more manageable for a perm-newbie like me. And yes, as you can see from the photograph, that he has chopped off about 1/3 of my hair as C-Curls wouldn't look as nice when the hair length is too long. 

The session started with a quick, 5 minute Olaplex hair reparative treatment, which serves as a form of 'hair insurance' to strengthen my hair. Well, 1/3 of my hair has been snipped off, but part of my (damaged) bleached hair from the past balayage hair dye session still remains at my new hair ends. 

And of course, having unusually thick hair always means having an extra pair of hands working on your hair at the salon. 

As I've opted for Mucota Omega Therapy (read my previous experience of it HERE) to rebond my curly roots, my day at Focus started out pretty much the same as all my previous Mucota rebonding sessions with them (read my Mucota Opera review HERE).

Until the curlers came in. 

It was just a little worrying because the curls seems to be... quite high? 

And I was greeted by this glorious ahjumma-curls when the curlers were first removed, which also reminded me of naruto. The Japanese fishcake, not the comic. 

Then Ken came back with the flat iron again, to loosen up those tight curls into the way he wanted them to be.

And after another 10 minutes with the 2 different neutralisers (cream for the rebonded part and liquid ones for the curled part)

TADAA~! 

(taken 1 day after the salon visit)

As usual, the Mucota Omega Therapy left my hair feeling soft and smooth, with the exception of a specific bunch of the curled ends, which was the bleached part (oh, how long more will it take for me to get rid of you nasty bleached hair?), that felt a distinctively different, less soft and smooth. 

And you'll be glad to know that Focus Hairdressing is celebrating their 7th anniversay this October! And to commemorate their 7th year in business, they're having a special promotion for the following Mucota hair services:

Mucota DYNA

Mucota OMEGA Therapy

Visit their FB page HERE to find out more about these October promotion and hurry, because there's only 1 more week left to this awesome month (it's awesome because I'm an October baby). 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Get Glowy Skin with Avalon Stem Cell Beauty Drink! [Advertorial]

Dryness, dullness, wrinkles, sagging. Are your poor diet and living habits costing you your chance of having glowing, younger looking skin? And as if that's not bad enought, time is liken to a thief, slowly and quietly stealing our youth away, leaving behind signs of aging on our faces. Wouldn’t it be good if we can turn back time and lock up our youth so that we can look younger than our biological age?

And what if I tell you, you can easily achieve that by solving 6 different skin problems with just 1 small bottle a day?

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink can help us to restore our youthful, healthy complexion by giving us 6 benefits:

1. Rejuvenates our damaged skin cells

2. Helps reduce wrinkles and fine lines

3. Helps tighten sagging skin by restoring skin's firmness and elasticity

4. Helps brighten dull skin

5. Helps tighten pores

6. Hydrate dry skin by locking in moisture

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink the first beauty drink in Singapore that contains Young Orchid Stem Cells. Enhanced with Litchi Seed Extract, Premium French Marine Collagen and a combination of Fruit Extracts, where taken together helps to repair and rejuvenate our skin cells, retain skin’s moisture, brighten skin tone, tighten pores, improve skin firmness and reduces appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, resolving 6 major skin problems with just one product!

Orchid symbolizes luxury, love, strength and beauty. It represents refinement and perfection. With more than 25,000 species of orchids and over 100,000 hybrids growing throughout the world, these exotic flowers have been a part of many cultures since a long time back. Orchids were used to promote good health and cure diseases by the ancient Chinese, ancient Aztecs brewed a strength potion from its flowers to obtain power over their enemies, Europeans used it in Love potions and the Geeks used it for fertility. 

Today, Orchid extracts (the flower as a whole) are use in multiple varieties of products including hair care, body care, and skincare products. However researchers have found a breakthrough in an untapped part of Orchids; its stem cells. 

And guess what, unlike other beauty drinks in the market with thick texture and strong flavour, AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink is made with Sparkling Water that not only adds a refreshing twist to conventional beauty drinks, but in fact sparkling water actually helps to boost nutrients absorption & promotes skin metabolism! The result is a beauty drink that tastes awesome: both tangy and sweet, light and refreshing. 

It's a common myth to think that taking collagen alone is sufficient to fight signs of aging and keep our complexion youthful. However, taking collagen alone is actually insufficient to fight signs of aging. Fundamental to having good skin is maintaining healthy skin cells. To fully benefit from any oral beauty supplements or skincare, it is important to have healthy skin cells to fully absorb and locks in the skin beneficial nutrients. Researchers has discovered that the Orchid Stem Cell is a powerful antioxidant and possesses strong anti-inflammatory properties, particularly young orchid stem cells, which protect the skin from environmental damages while hydrating and renewing our skin cells thus making it an excellent youth revitaliser which works on almost all skin types.

I highly recommend that you store these drinks in the fridge and drink them chilled for an even better taste enjoyment, before bedtime. For 1st timers, drink 1 bottle every night for 7 consecutive nights for maximum results. 

In 7 days you can feel your skin being more supple and hydrated, and in 28 days (our skin renews itself every 28 days) you can see your skin tone brightens up looking more radiant, pores appears to be tighter, wrinkles and fine lines will also look lighter now that your skin is more supple. 

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink retails at only $69.90 for a box of 10 and is available at:

Watsons, Unity Pharmacy, ALT, OG, Robinsons, Yue Hwa & www.hibeau.com

You can get 20% OFF by entering code TSS-20OFF at checkout on hibeau.com 

20% OFF when entering code TSS-20OFF at checkout. Only for purchase online at HERE 

Do head over to SampleStore's FACEBOOK as they are running a giveaway today (17th October) and giving out full sets of AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink to 5 lucky winners! In the meanwhile,  head over to Sample Store to read more reviews of AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Media Invite: Cha Thai Food Tasting

Many times, when we see the word 'Thai food', we naturally think of street food and hence, very inexpensive, cheap food. However, Cha Thai is here to debunk this by bringing to us the best of fine Thai food.

Cha Thai's founder, Leah, was trained in culinary schools in both Thailand and France, and hence is able to bring together the best of both the East and the West, by adapting the West's technology with the East's traditions, to bring Thai food to a whole new level. Using premium quality ingredients with traditional (but not authentic) recipes cooked with modern cooking techniques, Cha Thai is able to bring out a new dimension in the taste of Thai, so that their patrons can experience the best of Fine Thai food. For instance, all their meat are sous vide before cooking, and takes a lot of time and effort to prepare in order to ensure that the meat is always tender.

And it's so cute that they store their condiments in drip bottles!

Hot Salty Plum Drink - $2.50

Well, somehow it naturally registered as 'sour plum' instead of 'salty plum' and I got a little shock at first sip. It was indeed, salty plum and not sour plum, alright. It's a little of an acquired taste and might need a few sips to get used to. You know those 'sour plums' you popped into your mouth and immediately think, "what kind of sour plum is this? This should be salted plum!" Yeah, this drink tasted exactly like that. 

Not bad, but takes a while to get used to it. 

Green Tea Latte Smoothie (Middle) - $4.50

Love, love loveeeee this! I highly recommend this drink for all green tea lovers out there. Milky, slightly sweet, strong tea flavour with the distinctive bitter aftertaste, this is a definite must try! But take note of the huge serving. You might be full from just this smoothie alone. 

Crispy Prawn Cake - $15

I know this sounds pretty pricey, but these prawn cakes were all made from scratch (thus the irregular shapes) using tiger prawns! You can expect a mouthful of springy tiger prawn flesh with a fresh sweetness that's well flavoured to taste. Crisp on the outside, yet tender and juicy on the inside. 

How can you not like this?

Creamy Crab Roll - $15

Thick, creamy crab sauce served with crispy fried springroll skin that's light as air. This is the perfect appetizer to kick off your meal. 

Lemongrass Prawn Salad - $28

Once again, tiger prawns! The prawns were fresh and succulent (and fat, too!) and topped with a generous serving of lemongrass minced meat that tasted rather similar to the flavour of basil minced chicken. A little salty on its own, but would have been a perfect match with a bowl of white rice. 

Signature Tiger Prawn Panang Curry - $28

Creamy, slightly sweet and a little spicy, and stuff full of fresh and juicy tiger prawns! The sweetness in the curry gravy doesn't just come from the fresh prawns, but also from the lychees as well. The yumminess from the fat juicy prawns aside, I still found it a tad too creamy and not spicy enough for me though. 

Tom Yum Vegetarian Dumplings - $18

Not acutely sour nor tongue burning spicy like the usual tom yum goong, the first taste was even slightly sweet and very pleasant. And the spiciness comes shortly after, so do take note to sip at your soup in case the spiciness might be too much for you. The handmade dumplings, didn't taste very vegetarian (the distinctive raw vegetable taste) as well, so feel free to try this out even if you tend to avoid eating vegetables. 

Saute Kai Lan with Roasted Pork - $16

The kai lan were fresh (obviously from the jade-green colour you see) and saute just well enough to retain the vegetable's crisp texture and yet remove the bitterness. The fresh vegetables were also a good balance to the otherwise oily (fatty pork belly) roasted pork that was extremely well flavoured and tender. 

Garlic Chicken with Bird's Chilli - $18

The best choice of food for those on an #eatclean diet. HAHA!

The chicken bits were all chicken breast meat so while they're not the toughest chicken breast I've ever eaten, they're also not the most tender piece of chicken meat you can get, Stir-fried with a generous dose of chopped garlic, this is a must try for those garlic lovers on a healthy diet. The bird's chilli can get really spicy, so do avoid biting on them.

Simmered Pork - $22

This feels a little like the saute kai lan with roasted pork, but with the ratio reversed. The kai lan here is still fresh and slightly crisp, while the simmered pork packed a lot more of the savoury flavour and tenderness in comparison to its roasted counterpart.

Premium Giant Tiger Prawns Claypot Glass Noodles - $159

Tiger Prawns Claypot Glass Noodles (for 4 pax) - $55

Note: Giant Tiger Prawn is about 34 - 40cm

The glass noodles were springy and flavourful and topped with another 5 fat juicy tiger prawns. Though recommended for 4 pax, you can still gather more folks to share this pot of glass noodles so as to free up more tummy space for the other dishes. 

The springiness of the glass noodles combined with the savoury, slightly spicy flavour might be addictive, though. 

Pad Thai - $22

By this time, there was definitely a tiger prawn overload. So the 2 tiger prawns were sadly ignored at the table while we went for the noodles.
The rice noodles was chewy and flavourful and I liked how they placed the beansprouts, chopped peanuts and leeks (I think?) at the sides so you can choose to mix them in or not.

Charcoal Toast - $8 

This is DA BOMB! 

Pardon me if I sound like I'm over-reacting, but you absolutely have to go try these out for yourselves! The toasts were extremely crispy and yet fluffy at the same time and its toasted fragrance paired with either the pandan or the milk tea dip, just taste heavenly and extremely addictive. Most of us were already entering foodcoma / waving white flag by the time desserts were served, and yet we were all eyeing for second helping for this toast because it just taste so good! 

And for the rest of the dishes, which I (sadly) didn't get to taste due to limited stomach space.

Pomelo Salad - $16

Top right, clockwise: Red Ruby, Sweet Corn Herbal Jelly, Melon Sago, Emerald Jade (Green Ruby) - $8 each

Summer Potato (Sweet Potato) - $8 

Berries Toast - $8

Mountain Milo - $8

At Cha Thai, there's one thing to note is that the portions are usually huge! As it is the Thai's tradition and culture to gather, hence their food always come in portions large enough for sharing. Hence, I strongly recommend that you visit with a group of friends to combine all your tummy spaces in order to try out more yummy dishes! Well, food always tastes better in good company, yes? 

Cha Thai is located at

80 Telok Ayer Street

#01-01 Singapore 048466

(Far East Square)

For more information, visit their website HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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