Welcome to the Savvy Housewife's Journal!

Just Acia

2010-04-14T10:27:00.000+08:00

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?

2010-01-23T15:40:00.000+08:00

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)

2009-11-24T15:02:00.001+08:00

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

2009-11-19T21:45:00.002+08:00

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

2009-11-16T14:01:00.003+08:00

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:

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

If You Are Eating Whole Grains.....

2009-11-11T22:04:00.004+08:00

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!!

2009-11-11T21:46:00.000+08:00

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!

Germinated Brown Rice

2009-10-28T18:39:00.002+08:00

I was pleasantly surprised to find this germinated brown rice selling at NTUC Fairprice for $5.95 for 1 kg!!! What a steal!!

There are various health benefits for taking this - apparently germination makes the rice more alkaline and nutrients more available to the body or something like that. (That's what I read in one of these whole-foods encyclopedias I have sitting around at home).

And the only reason I heard about this was I found it selling at a whopping $30 for 1 kg at Fancl!!!!

Kelly the Kitchen Kop has a very informative post here. There is also some information here and here.

Hotpot Culture

2009-10-28T18:24:00.002+08:00

Some months ago, we wandered to Marina Square in search of a cheap and comforting meal and found this place.

For $8.50+++ or so, you get

a mini-steamboat for yourself, with a dish of vegetables and a selection of your choice of meat / protein
a side dish of fried breaded chicken about 3/4 the size of my palm,
and a tiny lettuce salad
and a scoop of ice-cream.

You can choose the flavour of the steamboat (chicken, tom yam, herbal and something else which I can't remember), and you can choose between seafood / pork / beef / chicken for the meat.

What can get better than that? You can also choose different dipping sauces - they have plain soy sauce, chilli sauce and some minced garlic, chilli padi, spring onions and coriander for you to choose from.

What a steal compared to Coca! (which we used to frequent before I found out I was allergic to the sesame in their sauces!

Sunscreen / Sunblock FAQs and Links

2009-10-16T17:33:00.033+08:00

After a sun-and-sea holiday in Langkawi last year, I came back with these frightening patches on pigmentation on my cheeks.

Since then, I have been obsessive about sunscreens. And then, I learnt that there are sunscreens and there are sunscreens.

I discovered there is such a thing called photostability. Guess what? Not all the sunscreens that are so common in our market are photostable! They break down in the sun and will not provide you with the kind of protection that they promised! For eg, something labelled SPF50 can break down in as little as 30 minutes!!!

Check out the Environmental Working Group's sunscreen press release here.

They have a sunscreen guide here too.

I also discovered another concept in sunscreens / sunblock : cosmetic elegance. It means that if your sunblock makes your face greasy, or leaves a whitish cast on your skin, making you look like a ghost, then it's not "cosmetically elegant".

Photostability and cosmetic elegance don't always go together.

For those interested in the technical details of photostability, here are some links for you.

Makeupalley's FAQ on sunscreens

List of sunscreens reviewed by someone on Makeupalley

You will also find that we should avoid this ingredient called Benzophenone-3 / Oxybenzone (reasons all at the link). It causes your skin to pigment more (!!!!!!) and worse, is highly PHOTOUNSTABLE. So don't be fooled by the high SPFs!!!

Here are the brands in our shops that have this ingredient:

1. Neutrogena
2. Nivea (only 1 or 2 formulations don't have this).
3. Banana Boat
4. Coppertone
5. Kiss Me / Sunkiller

More listings to come later....

Some Useful Online Bookstores

2009-10-10T15:10:00.004+08:00

I rarely go out to buy books in the bookstores because I can never find what I'm looking for. And I don't have the time to keep browsing the shelves!!

I also tend to buy books that are sometimes unavailable in Singapore, like out-of-print Christian titles, cookbooks, health & fitness type of books.

Anytime I needed some books, I'd just give Kinokuniya a call and either have them deliver it or reserve it. If we happen to pass by during the weekends, we'd collect it along the way.

Otherwise, they are pretty cheap for delivery - S$5 per delivery (minimum purchase of S$10) and if you purchase above S$50, delivery is free. Sure beats the hassle of driving to Takashimaya, paying the crazy parking on the weekends or even taking 1 hour each way to go to Takashimaya via public transport. Value for money eh?

Few months ago, ST published some useful links for getting even cheaper books!! And I have tried out a couple of them, here's the result:

Kinokuniya - As above. They have an online catalogue, so you can compare prices and decide. But prices are in the same range as Amazon. So ever since I discovered the online stores, I have given Kinokuniya up.
Amazon - They charge a lot for shipping to Singapore (US$12+++ per book or something like that), and it's the roughly the same when you choose Amazon Marketplace. You can lower the shipping costs somewhat if you choose the Super Saver option - where you order above US$X amount of books and get free shipping to a USA address, and make use of Globeshopper or something similar to ship to Singapore. However, after I discovered the following few websites, I gave up Amazon for good, and only use it to check out book reviews!!
Better World Books - I bought some really cool out-of-print books at a crazy discount and the delivery is awesome - Free Shipping in the USA, $3.97 (per book) Worldwide. Reaches Singapore within a week, much shorter than Amazon.
Open Trolley - This is Singapore-based and I am very impressed by their range of books. I found an out-of-print Christian title here at a price that beat all the rest! Tin Hang Zai also found a health book here at a price that beat the rest. Delivery is roughly S$5 per order, and S$0.80 if you self-collect from Plaza Singapura. Very competitive.
Acmamall - This is also Singapore-based and they have an impressive range as well - they were able to provide titles that Kino could not. Delivery is also S$5 per order, and free above S$80. They sell beauty products, flowers and gifts too!
Book Depository - Their prices are competitive as well - and Tin Hang Zai also bought some books from them that were priced lower than Better World books. Singapore is included in their Free Delivery Worldwide!!

If you are looking to buy some books, I would say, compare prices between 3, 4, 5 and 6. And go with the cheapest. Forget about Kino, and visit Amazon only if you need to read book reviews before buying a book.

Korean Cosmetics, Skincare & BB Creams

2009-09-30T22:40:00.003+08:00

I really don't know what's the fuss about Korean cosmetics, skincare or BB creams. Those of you who know me know that I'm a religious label-reader. And Korean cosmetics / skincare are NOT good.

I have been to all these sales (John Little, Robinsons, Beauty Language, etc) and religiously read every single label I have come across. And invariably all of them seem to contain the same few chemicals (regardless of the miracle they promise to your skin) and the same toxins that are bad for your skin.

Alcohol - most Korean moisturisers and toners contain alcohol. (read the label for yourself if you don't believe me). I feel it's drying for skin and exacerbates sensitive / acne / oily / combination skin conditions. Even if it's not mentioned on the label, some of these contain so much alcohol that you could smell it once you open the bottle.
Aluminium / alumina / aluminium hydroxide - there are articles that associate aluminium with neuro-diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinsons. So I don't personally like applying aluminium to my face / body every day. I wouldn't put it on Little Pixie either.
Parabens - everyone knows that these are bad - that's why there are so many lines of skincare in Watson's that claim they are paraben-free. These are hormone disrupters, and my general advice is, minimise the use.
Dozens and dozens of unpronounciable names which can only be found in the Environmental Working Group's database.

Ditto for the BB creams. There are a few BB cream queens out there and I read a lot of Kimoko's entries. She has tried just about like every single cream on the market, and she was kind enough to post the ingredients on them.

Did you also notice that very few, if any, of them, promise that they are "non-comedogenic"?
That's because most of them contain stuff like petrolatum / mineral oil which are pore-clogging. Which makes me wonder why they are Blemish Balm Creams in the first place - since BB creams are supposed to heal your skin.

They too contain the same nasty stuff that's found in Korean skincare as I mentioned above.

And when I read the labels of those that promise SPF XXX, some do not even have the usual sunblock active ingredients! (See other post on sunblocks).