And a ice creem!

And a noo bag!

And a sweets!

Yumz!

Not so long ago, my aunt, who runs two curry puff stalls in Ang Mo Kio, branded her curry puffs.

She’s been selling homemade curry puffs for years now, so it was a delight for me to learn that she’d started sort of a franchise thing going, although it’s currently just two stalls and limited to family.

Naming her brand Lucy & Family, she has her own logo and customised apron, which was kind of exciting for me to see.

And the curry puffs themselves?

I have to be frank and say that they tasted better in the past. I guess it’s a bit hard to maintain quality when you open up more stalls (they had three at one point of time).

I did quite enjoy the sardine puff because it is spicy and has tons of onions and fresh chilli, but I won’t exactly die for it.

Apparently, though, the crowd favourite is the potato because the filling is tasty and generous, and the potatoes are nicely mashy.

I would have preferred both to be more salty, but that could just be me; I’m a scary salt eater!

The puffs are good when fresh out of the fryer. Otherwise, the dough tastes kind of iffy when cold. It’s a bit hard and not crispy or flaky like most people expect curry puffs to be.

If you’re ever around the area and need a snack, peak hours would be good times to get some because they move really fast then, so you’d be sure of getting freshly fried ones.

Lucy & Family offers other snacks too, such as prawn fritters, goreng pisang and spring rolls.

That’s a lot of stuff!

My aunt loaded me with tons of snacks to bring home and share with my friends. It turned out that the sardine puff was the most popular.

In fact, I’m kinda missing it now. I love sardine puffs! (I used to eat them at least three times a week when I was working at Raffles Place. There was this stall in Clifford Centre that had awesome sardine puffs. I wonder if it’s still there.)

By the way, Jaywalk, a curry puff addict, visited my aunt’s stall like a day or two after I mentioned it in Plurk, and then wrote a review on it. It’s quite funny, so check it out! I love the way he is so Singaporean and insists on calling it “curry pok”. I’m surprised he doesn’t go all the way and call it “kalipok”.

I’m also a mini curry puff addict, actually. Talking about it is making me crave curry puffs again, oh no!

You can find Lucy & Family at these two locations:

Blk 226C Ang Mo Kio Ave 1
Blk 4011 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 (Techplace 1)

Actually, make that quite a lot.

But we’re talking about things that make the knees go soft.

In this week’s Star Blog, I talk about my fear of falling and the sacrifices I’ve had to make for my work.

I also talk about a certain kind of men who turn my knees to jelly.

Find out more…

Advertorial

First, take out your calendar and look for Dec 19, 2009.

Then put a big red circle around it because it’s going to be a fun, fun day!

Dec 19 is the day of the Garmin-Asus Live-Navigation Challenge so I’m challenging you to a race! Well, it’s a race of smarts and resourcefulness so I’m sure you’ll do very well. I know I have smart readers! ;)

On the day of the challenge, you’ll get a clue that will lead you to the first pit stop. There, pass a challenge to receive the clue for the next pit stop. Get through challenges at all the pit stops to reach the end.

Speed is of the essence! Be among the first to navigate your way to the final pit stop to win a host of fabulous prizes!

The prizes

1st Prize: A pair of air tickets to the Maldives
2nd Prize: $1,000 cruise trip voucher
3rd Prize: Garmin-Asus M20
4th Prize: Garmin-Asus G60
5th Prize: 2D1N Weekend Stay at Fullerton Hotel
6th-15th Prize: $50 Takashimaya cash vouchers

Such awesome prizes, yes?!

I’m not eligible to win any prizes (boohoo) but I’ll still be taking part cos I think it’s going to be fun. I hope you’ll take part and win some prizes on my behalf! I’d be so happy if my readers win something!

Who knows, we might even bump into each other at the pit stops. That’ll be cool, ya?

How to take part

Click here to register before Dec 19, 2009, 12 pm.

The clue for the first location will be sent to you via e-mail on Dec 19 at 1 pm. Make your way there, complete the challenge, get the next clue and so on. Be one of the first to reach the final pit stop to win!

Hint: Having a Garmin-Asus M20 or G60 would help.

(You will need to familiarise yourself with the functions and features of both the G60 and M20 smart phones to help you complete the challenges. Find out more via the emulator and demo videos found here!)

More contests

Besides the Live-Navigation Challenge, there’s also a weekly Facebook Memorable Experiences contest here, where you stand a chance to win a set of M20/G60 each week till Dec 18. Become a fan to take part.

Hope to see you at the challenge, then!

Last week, I went to the hair salon. I told my stylist I wanted to re-colour my hair and maybe perm it because I was tired of spending 30 minutes with the curling tong every day.

I asked for some hair magazines so I could choose something I liked. But my stylist said, “No need! I already know what I’m going to do for you.”

O_o

I decided to let him. I knew I was going to have a hard time choosing if it were up to me, anyway.

I kind of regretted it because I ended up spending five hours in the salon. He gave me the whole works — cut, colour, perm, treatment and countless washes.

If you’d followed my Twitter or read my Plurks, you would have witnessed my ordeal real-time.

It was 8:30 pm by the time I was done. I wasn’t ecstatic with the result. I thought my face looked fatter and older with my newly poofed-up hair.

Well, it’s been five days now and the curls have tamed a bit, so I’m a little happier with it. And, of course, I’m very happy with the fact that my hair is not silky smooth anymore.

Contrary to popular opinion, silky smooth hair is NOT GOOD. It’s limp and flat and slippery and a horror to style.

Once, I had to do a waking up scene and my director was horrified that he couldn’t get my hair to mess up so that I looked like I had just gotten out of bed. It just refused to be anything but straight and limp.

So I love my newly damaged hair! Now I can mess it up so easily! And I can twirl it with my fingers and it will actually remain twirled when I let go!!

Well, the twirls will undo a little very slowly throughout the day, but I get enough hours of having cute hair before I have to twirl it again with my fingers.

You could never do that with silky smooth hair!

My stylist advised me not to blow-dry after washing. He said to just twirl the two sides quickly and then leave it to air dry.

Wet look!

I thought that was great news because it would save me 15 minutes of blow drying every day. But then I realised some parts become frizzy when left to air dry, which I don’t like, so now I have to blow dry my hair very carefully, trying not to disturb the curls too much.

Which takes more time to blow dry than my straight hair did.

O_o

Hair is so troublesome!!

Nevertheless, I’m quite pleased with the change, even though I look like a monster when I get out of bed now.

I don’t really like the colour, though. I’d prefer something more cocoa-brown than orange-brown. But my stylist says this is the latest trendy colour. He also says light colours are passe now, so it’s best to get something darker brown.

This is with professional film-set lighting. It looks purplish! Oh, well, anything is better than black!

I wish he didn’t cut my fringe short, though. Now it’s a bitch to manage. Grrr!