Rain & Thunder @ Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi

The Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi, with a size of 235,000 sqm, is located at the end of the Corniche. As it is, it is a mall. With about 400 stores, it houses a decent number of international brands such as H&M, Zara, Marks & Spencer, Forever 21, Gap, Bebe, La Senza, Body Shop, Locittane, Bobbi Brown, Bath & Works, Woolsworth, etc  There is also a Carrefour located at its basement and for those interested in skating, there is also a skating ring inside the mall.

Inside the Mall

Skating ring

Despite being tax-free, I find the products in Abu Dhabi generally priced higher than Singapore. So not much shopping can be done unless there is a genuine sale. I'm saying this because e.g. I saw in Bebe store a tee that went on sale at around 159 AED still - which is not a sale to me at that price.

As I wandered around the mall, I spotted a foodcourt which is relatively small compared to Al Wahda Mall. Fastfood located at the foodcourt include Popeye and Burger King. 

All these aside, that was something that surprises me though - raining and thundering in Marina Mall! Yes, it happens around 4.30pm every day (from my understanding) at a particular area in the mall. And the cleaners would be there on stand-by to mop the floors after the rain. What an idea! 

Wet floors outside the shops after "rain"

Where: Abu Dhabi
Website: www.marinamall.ae/

Qasr Al Hosn Festival @ Abu Dhabi

The Qasr Al Hosn Festival was running last week and my brother got us the VIP tickets to catch the afternoon performance. We thought we were late as the timing showed "3.15pm" on the ticket. However, on arrival, we realized that the performance only begins at 4.15pm! *Phew*

The show lasted about an hour and I must say that I was impressed by their performance. They even had a real horse participating in the performance as well - no idea how they actually trained the horse since it wasn't reined! The effort put in showed in the performance delivered.

Besides the performance, there are on-going activities at the festival such as camel ride, henna drawings, desmonstration of dates preparation etc.

 

Road closed and converted to parking lots for the festival

 

 

Snap of the performance

 

 

 Snap of the performance

 

Snap of the performance



 

 

At the Festival

 

 

 At the Festival

 

 

At the Festival

 

Camel rides

 

 

At the Festival

Free basic henna drawing at the festival

 

 

For 300AED, you get to go "onboard" a ship and open an oyster with pearl to keep

 

 

Resting point?

 

Marmalade Pantry

Met a friend 2 weeks ago and we decided to check out the Marmalade Pantry at Ion Orchard since both of us haven't been there!

It was our first time there and we didn't regret it. The cheesecake and cupcake we had were marvelous!

Above: Granny's Apple Cupcake

For those who enjoyed spice and cinnamon would enjoy this Granny's Apple Cupcake (above). Isn't it pretty? Almost couldn't bear to eat it! Next - the sea salt caramel cheesecake! Awww the cheesecake tasted just so right and light that makes you want to have more!

Above, left: Sea salt caramel cheesecake

Above, right: smoothie

A flip over the menu I noticed that they also served afternoon tea set from 3pm - 6pm daily. However, there is a requirement for minimum order for 2 which I hope they can do away with it.

Glimpse of menu

 

 

Glimpse of menu

Afternoon Tea menu

(Bugis St) Ming Kee Chicken Rice

This is my favourite chicken rice stall. Be prepared to queue if you are going during peak hours - lunch & dinner time. I usually try to go abit earlier to avoid the crowd. The chicken rice not only tastes good, the portion given is also generous compared to other chicken rice stalls. The rice is flavorful and their chicken meat is a little cold/cool and tender. They actually chilled their chicken in cold/icy water which I seldom see that practised in other stalls.

 

 

Where: Coffeeshop at Blk 511 Bishan Street 13, Singapore 570511 (near to Bishan interchange)

 

 



Tze char at 彩虹城 (2)

Again, I pop over at 彩虹城 Tze Char for dinner and this time we had Curry fish (garoupa), Indonesia prawns, sambal Kang kong.

There was no fish head supply that day so we had curry fish instead! The curry is rather different from the usually curry fish head. The curry was flooded with garlic, dried red chiillis, and what I think should be skinned brinjal, and something else that gives the curry a very slight sour taste.. I seen that before but just don't know what it's called... (no it's not assam) Although the curry smelled strong (in a good way) but it was not as potent (spicy) as I thought it would be. The curry was rather mild. I liked that there were a lot of brinjal and the fish was fresh to tender. Overall I gave it a 4 out of 5.

The damaged for the dinner came up to RM 60 for the 3 dishes, 2 plates of rice, and 2 glasses of chinchow drink.

Lastly, I must add that their chin chow drink is nice- they are generous with their chin chow that it  filled every mouthful that I took! Yes I mean it! (Most of the time, hawkers give you more syrup/ sugar water than chinchow.. BUT not here!)


Address: Stall no. 11, Taman Serene Food Centre, Jalan Biru (opposite the famous San Low seafood restaurant)

Operating hours: 6pm - 12am
Cons: limited veg choices (no sweet potato leaves)