Just Acia

Guess what?  We had been harping about Hotpot Culture being a value-for-money set at $8.50+++ with an individual hotpot, a piece of deep-fried chicken chop and 1 single (tiny) scoop of ice-cream.

Well, we found Just Acia and we're ditching Hotpot Culture.  For good!!!

Check out their link!

Starting from $5.90+++ you can get very good set meals (with ample portions of meat for carnivores like me) and free flow of ice-cream (they have one ice-cream fridge with at least 6 flavours at any one time), cappucino, hot chocolate and soft drinks!  Hotpot Culture loses out big time because for all Hotpot Cultures' set meals, you get measly bits of meat and tons of fake foods like crabsticks, fish balls and beancurd skins.

Since Tin Hang Zai agreed to let me try this place, we've been hooked!

Water Kefir Anyone?

I have recently become a Weston Price convert.  There is just so much information in there that I shan't bother to replicate it here.

If you know me, you would know that I am blessed with a slim (bordering on skinny) figure despite eating HEAPS.  Last few months, I began to get really fed up with eating all the time and never feeling satisfied.  Really!! (And I probably eat tons more than any of you reading this).

Then I found out about Weston Price and Nourishing Traditions.  Now, I indulge in traditional foods, nice bone broths, add plenty of healthy, saturated fats and good meat / proteins to my meals, and lower the excessive carbs I was practically binging on to stay full. 

I finally feel satisfied after my meals, and hardly ever crave potato chips or junk food in the late afternoon or before bedtime. 

But I digress.  Anyway, in Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon talks about every traditional culture (yes, even us Chinese!!!) eating fermented foods for healthy gut and great digestion.....and because I used to suffer from multiple food allergies, I concluded that perhaps my gut has never ever been all that well / strong and I sought a dairy-free source of probiotics (since yogurt and dairy is out for me).

So I found out about this wonderful thing called water kefir - it's THE solution for dairy-allergy people like me - and it's way way cheaper than any yogurt or Yakult or Vitagen I can buy.  Or any acidophilus supplements for that matter.


You can read more about stuff here, here, and here.  Well, I googled "water kefir Singapore" and didn't come up with anything.  After a lot of googling and trying out different search terms, I finally found Kefirbaby who lives in KL, who could ship her LIVE (!!!!) grains to me!

So here are my grains, and I make 1 liter of nice probiotic drinks for Little Pixie, Tin Hang Zai and I every couple of days, for easily less than SGD$1 a day.

Kawaii Brighten Up Wrinkle Solution Daily Defence (Eye Wrinkle Reducer)

I bought this last year during John Little's crazy 30% off and some further member discounts, so I ended up getting this at something like 40% off the original price, which was a ridiculous S$74.00 or something like that.  

Honestly, if it hadn't been on sale, I would not have wanted to even give it a try, S$74 is just too expensive for an eye cream, no matter how miraculous.  Besides, how miraculous can it be when its ingredient list looks almost the same as many of the other brands like Loreal, etc?

Granted, it's a huge tube (40g!!!), but way before I even finished the tube, it started to smell...bad.  Like something inside had gone bad.  The only fanciful ingredients inside are squalane and hyaluronic acid - and you can get higher concentrations of both from other brands.  Also, even Daiso now sells little vials of hyaluronic acid!!

Premium Bus Services

Airport sent me this link and I thought I'd share it here - for those of you who'd prefer not to squeeze on the MRT in the mornings, for a premium price!

How To Render Lard

I bought half a kg worth of "organic" lard from Meat The Butcher and rendered it!  Wow!  Now my vegetables can taste fantastic AND are nutritious too!! 

I learnt how to render from The Nourishing Gourmet. 

More links on how to render lard are found here:

1. Not without salt
2. eGullet
3. The Milkman's Wife
   

You can find out more about the benefits of healthy animal fats from the Weston Price Foundation here.

If You Are Eating Whole Grains.....

I used to be a really big fan of whole grains - the works - wholegrain brown rice, millet, quinoa, and oats.  And I would have them for breakfast every morning.

The fact is, I was always hungry on them.  And they didn't make me feel full longer as what the press suggests.  In fact, they made me feel even hungrier than I was before eating them.  And I lost weight on them!  (That's not a good sign on me).  

Well, I've stopped eating them on such a regular basis now.  Ever since I found out that if you don't soak them / ferment them / prepare them properly, they can end up as anti-nutrients instead - robbing you of the other minerals that are in the rest of your foods!

There are some excellent articles on the scientific basis here.  Check out the comments!  These people are serious!

It now even seems that if you don't have the opportunity to soak / ferment your brown rice, it's far better to eat white rice!  At least white rice doesn't have those anti-nutrients!

Beware Non-Stick Cookware!!

This shouldn't be new to any of you, but here is some scientific proof from the Environmental Working Group.  Please don't take any of this for granted, or don't say that "moderation is key" - I don't think anyone should cook "moderately" using non-stick!