Free Pastry with Any Beverage at Starbucks!

What a bargain! Take a look at this:
I decided to check it out this morning, and yes it is true! The offer ended at 10.30am, and I was there at 9.30am++, and it was not crowded, and still had plenty of pastries left, beautifully displayed. :-)

I ordered the signature hot chocolate, but they ran out of it, so I got myself the regular hot chocolate (which is less rich than the signature one), Tall, for $2.85. All the pastries such as the raspberry scones, muffins, bagels etc look so pretty, and I got the prettiest one, the "Cheery Cherry Pie" which was billed as 'Tart Cherry' $2.25 as you can see in the green box, followed promptly by the next line that it was 100% discounted because it was Free Pastry Day.

But frankly, it was not a free pastry day? It was just a few short morning hours which ended at 10.30am, not a full day event. ;-) Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

I tried to check online what the price of a Tall Hot Chocolate in Singapore would cost, but "check here check there" cannot find leh. Tricky Starbucks... Can someone check the price, and post it in the comments please? I wanna compare! Hehehe.
One thing I know though, Starbucks here is trying to promote it's pastries by touting it to be real good food made from real fresh ingredients. I wonder if it is this year's new idea because it says (C) 2009. Here's what the front and the back of the paperbag says (someone check if Sg is having the same promo?):

Front: "REAL FOOD. SIMPLY DELICIOUS. We've got good news. We removed the artifical transfats, artificial flavors, artifical dyes and high-frutose corn syrup. Now your food not only tatstes better, it is better. We hope you enjoy the difference."
Back: "Hi, We're making a change. Using simpler recipes and taking out artificial ingredients. So your food not only tastes better, it is better. It's a start. But we think it's a good one. Hope you do too. Enjoy. Your Friends at Starbucks P.S. More to come."

Maybe that's why they're giving away free pastries this morning. And it's true, it's pretty good. The shortcrust melted and crumbled well, and was not too buttery. The cherry fillings inside had whole cherries. Definately not maraschino cherries from a can, possibly fresh cherries made into a cherry jam preserve/filling. Good healthy morning. :-)

Problem: Miss Home. Solution: Prima Taste Chicken Curry.

What to do when you miss home? Turn to Prima Taste for an instant fix! As my brother once told me, "even if you're a bad cook, your cooking would taste good with Prima Taste".
The ingredients are:
- Yukon Gold Potatos (they sell many types of potatoes),
- Carrots (because they're cheap),
- Chunks of chicken breast meat (I used the skinless meat from 2 chickens),
- Long loaf of french bread, and
- A pack of Prima Taste Singaporean Chicken Curry.


We did think about asking people to ship over some Prima Taste Packs and sauces for us...but after discovering from another Singaporean friend in NYC that Prima Taste is sold in some supermarket in Manhatten, we're not so desperate. ;-) Hahaha

I wonder how Prima Taste is doing in the current economic landscape. There is a famous (well, at least it is famous online, with many raves) Prima Taste Restaurant in Vancover Canada (lots of Asians there right?), and *gasp* it is closed! Is it 关门大吉closed? Or Relocated? That I do not know. According to Prima Taste Restaurants etc, they continue to have branches in Ho Chi Mihn, Sri Lanka, Shanghai, Beijing, and Indonesia.

Is there a Prima Taste restaurant in America? Yes! Check this out! It's in San Jose, CA. Too bad it's on the West Coast, and not on the East. I'm especially craving for the deserts like Chendol, Ice Kachang and Bo bo cha cha. How much does it cost? US$3?! Singapore Chicken Curry is US$8.75 for one serving?! Yikes! I wonder what gold and precious stones are placed in there. (More likely it's shipment and labour costs...)

Luckily I lugged over some Prima Taste Packs from Singapore which only costs SG$5.60 a pack, and I can have about 4-6 servings of curry from one pack (ate it over 2 days). Not only is it super delicious, and a quick remedy when you miss home, it also provides items that are not convenient to find here like Coconut Milk.

Is anyone from Singapore coming to visit me soon? *grin*

trying again, this time adding on other application logons.

I hope this works. you should be able to see a twitter sign on, and a whole plethora of other works.

Testing New Post and new Comment System

Testing new post and New Comment System.

So what did we see during along Hudson River on the 4th of July?

Yes, the 4th of July weekend is over, and it's back to the blog! Let me tell you about how we spent the holiday. :-)
First, we decided to explore another state, and since our car doesn't sound very well lately, we decided to take public transport to the nearest state outside of NY: New Jersey, and specifically Hoboken because we haven't been there before. I was bugging hubby that I was hungry before we even left Manhattan, so we got ourselves an Italian sausage $8 (it's a slice of the coiled one, served with a long bun, peppers and onions) from one of the weekend street market.

We arrive in Hoboken, and here you can see the Hoboken Clock Tower, and that this little city is beside the river. It was 3pm+, and the restaurants were still selling Brunch! So ok, we went into the 3 Forty Grill and had Truffled Eggs "Benedict" $12 - prosciutto di parma, black truffle hollandaise, toasted english muffin is what the menu writes. It was the truffle oils that made it quite nice! And now we know that "Eggs Benedict" is like Half boiled eggs that we enjoy in Singapore. ;-)Hubby ordered a Grilled Hanger Cheesesteak $14 - aged provolone, caramelized sweet onions, wild mushrooms, horseradish mayonnaise, fresh baguette, which turned out to be a tastier version of the Philly Cheesesteak. The provolone cheese really made a difference. We saved some sandwich to be eaten as dinner later around 8pm before the fireworks, and it still tasted good.

We walked as far as we can along the banks of Hoboken towards Washington Bridge, and midway we stopped around 5.30pm and found a place to sit and wait along one of the piers. You can see the skyline of Manhattan across the river.

At 6pm+, Macy's barges start sailing up river, loaded with tons of gunpowder for the fireworks. There they'll stay, floating in the middle of the river in safe distance from the spectators. I think there are 5 barges in all. I used a green arrow to point out the barge in the photo for you. :-)

Later in the evening, perhaps 7pm+, NYC Fireboats paraded near the shoreline. The spew of water is sometimes colored red or blue.
By 8pm plus, the sky finally turns darker, and you can see the Empire State Building highlighted in patriotic colors of red, white and blue. And soon comes the fireworks!
You get elliptical shapes (and smiley faces which we did not catch on camera).

You get outlines of cubes.You get lots of color, and last but not least...

You will get large blossoms of gold chrysanthemums and the Star Spangled Banner's colors of red, white and blue in the sky.
I hope you enjoyed the photo-experience of 4th of July, here with me in NYC. Have a great week!

Waiting for the 4th of July Macy's Fireworks

Hi everyone, it's been a busy week, and finally we get a long weekend (fri,sat+sun) this week because Independance day falls on a saturday, making the eve a holiday too.

By chance, my hubby and I wanted to explore Hoboken this weekend, and found out that the fireworks are gonna be along the hudson river this year, rather than the east river (that's where we caught the fireworks last year)

So we found a front row spot along the river, and have parked our butts here 4 hrs in advance.The fireworks will start at 9.20pm and will last for 26minutes non-stop. I'm posting this from a handphone right now. First time doing that! I would love to show you pictures too, but I don't know how to attach pictures with this phone. :-/! Hehehe