Ann Siang and Around!

We finally made our way to Dim Joy on Saturday! Its been a huge procrastination since April. Dim Joy, located in the atmospheric Chinatown (80 Neil Road), serves refined Hong Kong-style dim sum in a casual shophouse setting. I enjoyed my time there and the food is much better than average, one of the more unique and tasty dim sum I've tried. I'll definitely return for more! By the way, the restaurant is opened by local actress, Michelle Saram, and a partner!

The alfresco dining area greets you at the entrance.

The interior with typical shophouse's sky light.

Now here comes the long-awaited dim sum! :D

点聚虾饺皇 King Shrimp Har Gao. The skin is neither too thick nor too chewy and best of all, the 3 prawns inside each dumpling is succulent and fresh! 3 prawns! Yes! 3 in 1 dumpling! This is definitely one of our favourite dish, and I believe it will be so for prawn lovers alike!

香芹叉烧肠 Barbecued Pork and Celery in Rice Roll. Frankly speaking, this tasted ordinary - BBQ pork cubes in translucent skin. I prefer the same dish from Victor's Kitchen in Sunshine Plaza.

冰花锅贴 Savoury Glutinous Dumpling. I am no food guru but when it comes to 锅贴, you gotta have 101% faith in me! This dish tastes as good as it looks! Not to mention that the skin is really thin to wrap a generous amount of pork stuffing, it is also very affordable at $3.50 for 8 pieces! I have no idea how the 'web' on top is integrated to the dumplings but it is delicious on its own! I thought it tasted like those typical brown ice cream cone. HAHAHAHA!

皮蛋瘦肉粥 Century Egg with Lean Pork Congee. I thought this was quite bland and disappointing. It was slightly more tasty after we added soy sauce and pepper. I think I can easily get better congee from Crystal Jade, or even Bedok's 85 market!

岭南鸡蛋挞 Lingnan Egg Tart. Its been a long time since I had egg tarts this nice in Singapore!! The crust is warm and delicate when served while the core is soft and bouncy! HAHAHA! I can't find a more suitable word for it, you gotta try it for yourself!!!

金牌流沙包 Custard Bun. If you are the kind who loves to have hot custard oozing out of the soft and fluffy bun, this is definitely the dish for you! I find it especially tasty because you can feel the texture of the castor sugar as though they are really “流沙” (sand)!

桂花绿茶糕 Osmanthus Green Tea Jelly. The dessert was a fresh combination of the strong-scented Chinese Osmanthus flower, rich green tea and slightly sweetened jelly. It wasn't spectacularly good, but unique is the word. I think its worth a try for first timers since its recommended by the Chef after all!

The bill came up to be $45. Expensive or not, you decide :D After the hearty lunch, we explored the eclectic Ann Siang Hill nearby before going up to The Pinnacle.

One of our agenda that day was to visit The little Dröm Store. I've heard raves about this shop a few months back from word of mouth, websites and magazines but I never thought that the world would be so small - it was actually opened by David's friend!

The store sells stationery, vintage knick-knacks and toy cameras. Their in-store Kki Cafe is also very popular I heard. It was almost full-house on a Saturday afternoon. Our stomachs nearly exploded after the dim sum so we gave the desserts at Kki's a miss. Its a pity because I heard that they are good!

Muahahahaha!! My radiant smile after buying a polka dot tote bag from the store. hehehehe!

The lady at kKi thought that it was our 2nd visit there because she saw a couple dressed exactly like us previously. David and her started chatting from there and realised that she is from the same church too! Tell me about a small world, a smaller Singapore I say!

Ann Siang Hill.

And then we saw BooksActually, a quaint little book store selling books, toy cameras like Holga and Superheadz, and their own line of stationery and vintage knick-knacks under their imprint Birds and Co.. The store owners handpicked each and every book in this store - what a personalised service and tedious effort!

Not far away from BooksActually, we spotted this cool metal body parked along the road! Being a car-idiot, I can only say that this precious machine laid very beautifully and suitably on the nostalgic Ann Siang Hill.

Can someone tell me what car is this? Its looked mysterious like a bat! Fyi, I call the orange Lamborghini cockroach and the green ones grasshopper. I always believe that car designs evolve from animals/insects!

A short walk later we saw a makeshift 'hair salon' in the back alley! The barber was an old man in his 60s I think. This reminded me of the 'roadside barber' I saw outside some construction site on my way to Marina Barrage. Classic!

It was a good day for photo-taking with Ixus and Diana Mini! We snapped along the way, stopping here and there under the hot damn sun.

We proceeded to The Pinnacle @ Duxton in the late afternoon. We wanted to catch the sunset on their 50th storey but it was a cloudy day. Anyway, if you are still unaware, The Pinnacle's 50th storey sky bridge is opened for public access at a nominal fee of SGD 5, payable only by your CEPAS card. There is also a quota of 200 visitors per day.

if only the Simei estate is this nice. HAHAHAHAHA!

Views of Chinatown and Keppel Harbour area from the Sky Bridge.

There were several professional photographers (or at least they looked like one with their mega big DSLRs) on the bridge too!

We were dead beat by the end of the day but a great dim sum and tons of beautiful photos make up for the messy hair and sweaty bodies! I can't wait to collect my photographs tomorrow :D