Brews And Bourbons

Hey everyone!
A very happy new year to you!!

I will be posting mini reviews on the items I have used and emptied. These reviews are going to be brief and very subjective and will talk about how the product performed on me.

I will talk about toners today. Do you know Toners are one of the important factors in prepping your skin? There are many steps which could be avoided while building skincare routine but not toning. So why is it too important to be avoided in a skincare? Let’s see - Firstly they help in readying your skin for further steps, secondly, they act as a moisture barrier, but most of all, they balance the pH of your skin bringing your skin from acidic / alkaline to neutral.

Skin’s pH level determines the type of the skin - oily or dry or normal. pH topic is a deep well, if you stare at it, it will stare right back at you. So I am going to dive straight into reviews. For fair knowledge on pH, check Ben Neiley’s YouTube channel.

So let me just quickly put in my two cents on the toners I have used and emptied.

Faces Hydro Toner

Suited my skin well. But it was sticky when sprayed. Even after drying, it was bit sticky on my skin, hence the whole day my face felt sticky. So I put it to use at only night. The ingredients list looks fairly simple. Contains Hyaluronic Acid, Niacinamide. Both are hydrating acids, so there is mild tingling sensation when sprayed on the face but that fades away soon. Also contains phenoxyethanol, an alcohol variant, which is not ideal for dry skin. The time I used, it didn’t cause any negative effects on my skin. The skin got better with less comedones. I liked it but not sure if I would buy again.

~ Faces Hydro Toner ~

Lushveda – Organic Vetiver Facial Toner

For my day time use, I used Lushveda’s Vetiver Water. The brand has two offerings – Rose Water and Vetiver Water. Since I belong to dry skin type, I chose vetiver water. This is 100% steam distilled, no chemicals, no fragrance added. It just felt like applying real vetiver on your face. Actually, it is! So if you are in search of a natural toner, go for this guys. Ingredients are clean, hand-made, fresh, alcohol free and most of all cruelty free. So, I would definitely buy again.

~ Lushveda Organic Vetiver Toner ~

What am I using now?

The time I was travelling, I couldn’t carry my toner bottles, hence I made a home-made one. One part of ACV with 3 parts of filter water. This suited by skin very well I am planning to continue this for a while. ACV is anti-bacterial, has hydrating acids, vitamins and it maintains the pH level of the skin. It has a mild tingling sensation but that fades away within seconds. So for now, I am using this home-made one, this helps with my closed comedones and I am liking this too.

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Hey guys!

Thank you for your patience.

Day 4:

The first 2 days, I couldn’t explore the neighbourhoods of Singapore. So on Day 4, I decided to explore Chinatown and hawker street of Chinatown. So I hired cab to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown, one of the main cultural heritage site. It is believed that the place houses the artefact of Buddha’s tooth relic. Thus the name, duh! The temple has array of stupas lined on the wall and each of them individually lit. One of the main tourist attractions, people across any religion can offer prayers inside the temple. There are some workshops ‘Discovering Buddhism’ that’s held for the public.

Adjacent to the temple are the Chinese eateries and souvenir shops. I walked across the street to Maxwell Food Centre. This is full of food outlets selling mostly Chinese and Singaporean Cuisine. A visit to this hawker food street was already there in my list. So I showed up hungry and 70% out the outlets were open. The best time to visit this place is 12 PM when all the outlets are open. I had Hainanese chicken rice at the Tian Tian Chicken rice stall. This place is world famous, thanks to Anthony Bourdain who covered this food shop in one of his documentaries. The plate is just $5 and the food is amazing. The rice is cooked in chicken broth, accompanied by pieces of juicy boiled chicken and veggies and sauce. Hainanese chicken rice is so tasty that, it is declared as SG’s national dish. Ah!!! I am drooling, just thinking about Hainanese chicken rice!!!! Ah Tai food stall, I heard, is even tastier than Tian Tian but to my bad luck, it was closed. Porridge at Zhen Zhen and Noodle soup at Marina South Delicious should never be missed at Maxwell’s. At the end, finish the meal with sugarcane juice.

After strolling around Chinatown for a bit, I met Will at Orchard Road. This road is full of malls and is a shopper’s paradise. We had prepared our list of items to buy; time to take out the list! So in our list, across each item, we mentioned their Indian price, just in case we needed comparison. And that’s when did I realise SG is actually VERY expensive. The same items were priced double and sometimes triple in SG. Like, what?! A simple Paco Robane perfume costs around 6 grand while in SG it was 11 grand. The same was the case with Samsonite travel suitcase to Under Armour shoes to The Body Shop facewash to basically everything. By now you should know what happened next! Anyway, after buying couple of soft toys for Bagheera, we went to a café at Tangs for sandwich and coffee.

Day 5

I started out early to explore the main attraction of Singapore, The Merlion Park. The landmark of Singapore, Merlion is an absolute beaut of its own. The statue is the face of a lion on the body of a fish. This overlooks the sea and very touristy.

From Merlion Park, I walked a couple of miles to Singapore Flyer, a giant Ferris wheel. The ticket costs $33 per adult. The flyer stands 165 feet above the ground and the entire city can be seen from the top once you are inside the capsule. One complete rotation takes 35 minutes and you don’t even feel that the giant wheel is moving. Gardens by the bay, the sea, the Merlion Park, Marina Bay sands, everything can be seen from the top. It was exhilarating to stand at that height and overlook the city. After 40 minute ride, I had some Satays from the food court at SG flyer. It was tasty as well as cheap. I started walking to Cloud Forest but had to cancel because of heavy rains. I took cab to hotel to check out.

So I checked out the hotel and Will joined me after office and we headed to airport with 7 hours in hand for our flight. Once we entered airport, we put the luggage in baggage room and started exploring the airport. We moved from terminal to terminal exploring major shops. If you hadn’t shopped, Changi Airport is the place to shop. It houses over 140 brands across four terminals and is a shopping mall of its own. We bought some grocery items which we normally don’t find in Indian grocery shops. We bought skincare items for our moms from Sum:37. The best part is when you buy skin care goodies, they give you loads of samples that would last for 1-2 months. It was time to check in. After checking in, we shopped some alcohol for friends and perfume, duty free. By then, it was time to board.

Until next time, SG!

Hotel Jen Tanglin

Some of you had asked about the place of stay. It is Hotel Jen Tanglin. Also it’s not fair from my side not to mention them. Their hospitality is top notch, the breakfast even for a complimentary one, the spread was huuuuuuuge. The lunch and dinner spreads were even huger. The spas, the pool, a mall attached to the hotel, I guess it should take another day to completely explore them. It was an amazing stay after all.

Much love,

Sindhura

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Day 3:

It was Day 3 and Will had to attend his conference, the main reason of this trip. I was alone at hotel in a dilemma between shopping or visiting Universal Studios, Singapore. I chose the latter. I was excited, got ready, smeared loads of sunscreen, hired a cab and after 15 minutes of cab ride, Viola!, I was standing in front of Sentosa Resorts where Universal Studios, Singapore is located.

This better be a guide to solo visitors who are visiting Universal Studios, Singapore (USS). Make sure to avoid USS on weekends and public holidays because crowd could be huge and you don't want to miss any ride. USS opens at 10 AM and I was there waiting in line for tickets. The best part about going solo is, there is a separate queue for solo riders and mostly it is empty and you can just storm to the front.

The tickets cost $76 per adult which includes all the rides. There are some websites offering discounts on the tickets such as Klook and Sentosa's official website.

So after checking in, I enter this happy world, no exaggeration. People are happy, laughter everywhere, you are greeted by big structures of Hello Kitty and Minion, bubbles flying in the air coming from nowhere, colourful carts on the road, Jurassic Park theme playing at the background, sound of those roller coasters, etc. I was excited.

I wanted to ride all those adventurous rides at the very start itself because queue would become long as the time passes. The first ride was Transformers the ride. It was a 3D ride, once you sit in the Evac, you are inside the world of transformers. The ride is thrill, fun-filled one.

After Transformers, I went to the world of Mummy through the ride Revenge of The Mummy. This ride is also a thrilling and extreme one. The girl next to me took a minute to come out of the shock or might I add, awe. It was that good. To me it was THE BEST RIDE.

Then the much awaited Battlestar Galactica - Human and Battlestar Galactica- Cylon. These rides are roller coaster ones in open setting. Since I am an avid fan of adventurous rides, I didn't miss this one. It looked so thrilling from outside but Mummy won the best for me. Nevertheless this is a must-go ride.

Then I entered the world of Jurassic Park. Probably Jurassic Park Rapids this is the only wet ride in USS. So I gave it a miss and went to Canopy Flyer. A light, not-so-thrilling ride.

Then I strolled around for a bit and reached Far Far Away Castle to the world of Shrek and his love story.

USS is full of food courts and you can munch on your favourite items ranging from milk shakes to churros to chicken wings and parattas. Make sure to have your lunch after 2 PM so that you get to ride all the extreme rides before horrible wait time up to 50 minutes.

After my lunch it was just breezy and light rides covering Sesame Street, Magic Potion Spin, Merry Go-Around, Madagascar, etc.There were shows (Lights, Camra, Action! where Steven Spielberg explains how movie effects are made), live shows happening all around USS at a particular timing. So during strolling I almost covered all the stage shows. Hey, I even took a pic with Marilyn Monroe!

Since I had finished all rides early, I had enough time to go to SEA aquarium and Maritime Museum. Before that I took enough videos, photos. So I came out of USS, bought tickets to SEA aquarium. The ticket cost $34 per adult with free access to Maritime Museum. This museum explains the ship route, how maritime expeditions took place, goods handling, etc. I guess Will would have found this more interesting since its his area of expertise.

The SEA aquarium just makes you feel you are inside the ocean witnessing those beautiful corals, sharks, jelly fish, turtles and various other fishes in all sizes. I think it brought a calm end to the day.

But hey, I went back to USS and gave another round to all the extreme rides excluding Battlestar Galctica, thanks to the wait time up to 45 minutes. So glad, I tried those rides in the morning itself when there was no queue at all.

Thus my day at Sentosa came to an end with lot of smiles and memories :)

Tips:

Begin the day early.
Wear comfortable clothes, shoes or flip-flops. If possible, carry another set of clothes.
Smear lots of sunscreen.
Tie your hair into a tight bun or ponytail.
Wear hat. A MUST.
Carry water bottles to save money. There are water-booths everywhere so you can re-fill and rather not spend $2 for half-litre of water.
Plan your rides well. Try rides first, then sovereign shops, and then you get enough time to take pictures.

Stay tuned for Day 4&5!

Much love,

Sindhura

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Hey guys,

What's up?

Why have I been MIA, which is very bad? I got very busy with my work? Nope. I was lack of inspiration to write. I didn't want to write anything random just for the sake of it, because it would be visible in the post and I can't afford to do that to my small set of readers, yes, You.

So last week, I went to Singapore for a 5-day trip with William. Actually, it was his work trip and I tagged along coupling the weekend for the trip.

Before the trip:

We made a huge shopping list mentioning their Indian price converted to SG dollars.
Prepared a Must-Visit in SG list with some guidance from Matt's travel tips vlog.

Day 1:

So we landed at Changi International Airport at 6.30 AM and it was such a beautiful, enormous terminal with cafés to chill and relax with free WiFi. We hired cab to our hotel and it was around 25 minutes travel. We checked in, relaxed in our room and headed to breakfast lounge. Oh my God, I should mention that the breakfast buffet was huge and the spread included mostly continental and Singaporean cuisine. I started looking forward to breakfast for the remaining 4 days. It was so good.

After breakfast, we took nap and got ready to go out for lunch. Will's friends were meeting him. We headed to this beautiful hill called Dempsey Hill for lunch. So this hill is basically a food village, a village full of restaurants, pubs and cafés serving all authentic cuisines ranging Chinese, Italian, English, Indian, Singaporean, etc. The place is colourful, vibrant at the same time, cheerful and calm. We had lunch at Muthu's Curry, an Indian restaurant, with vast outdoor setting.

~ Dempsey Hill fountain ~

~ Muthu's Curry ~

After lunch, we headed to Suntec city in Marina Centre. The place has a huge fountain in the middle of it, surrounded by malls. We didn't find anything to shop in the mall since everything was pricey. We just went to the top of the mall for the view and the city was getting ready for F1 race the next day.

~ Fountain of wealth at Suntec City ~

~ Suntec City Mall ~

After the boring Suntec experience, we went to Arab street. The place sells Indian cloths, Arabic drapes, etc. The Haji lane in Arab street is filled with colourful, pinterest-y cafés. The bright walls, the colourful lane would contribute to your Instagram feed. Next time you are in SG, make sure to visit Haji lane and have coffee at one of their cafés. Singapore's coffee culture (Kopi) is strong and they have many varieties of coffees and shakes.

~ Kopi ~

~ Haji Lane ~

From Haji lane, we walked to Bugis junction. This place is for the ultimate shopper in you. It has almost all brands catering in all price range. We strolled around for a bit and spotted Innisfree store. Since I am well versed with their prices in India, I found their prices to be much lower. We shopped our skin care goodies. Its Skin, Laneige, Tony Moly are all located at Bugis Junction. Bugis village, next to Bugis Junction has interesting line of small shops selling dresses, makeups, sovereigns, foods at throwaway rates.

~ Bugis Street ~

It was dinner time and we went to Le Noir at Clarke Quay. Since it was weekend, the place was very crowded as is the Quay itself, thanks to live bands and loud music. Clarke Quay place is very touristy and has lots of international restaurants. It was buzzing with tourists and F1 enthusiasts and there were interesting events being conducted by F1 sponsors.

~ Clarke Quay Central ~

Day 2:

Day 2, we had breakfast at hotel and went to Dempsey hill again for lunch. This time we went to P.S. Café at Harding Road. The café is very cute and filled with colourful flowers. I have a thing for quaint cafés and I was busy admiring the beauty of the café. The cute tables, the hanging lights............ I loved the ambience. We walked to Jones, the Grocer for desserts. This place sells age old wines, exotic noodles, bread spreads, etc. The ambience was bit laid-back, so was their service. But their sticky date pudding was to die for.

~ P.S. Cafe ~

~ Death by Chocolate at Jones the Grocer ~

After Dempsey Hill trip, Will and his friends got ready to go to F1 while I retired at the hotel.

Day 3, 4 and 5 were the most happening for me since I explored the city all alone and totally loved the experience.
Stay tuned for that!

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Hey y'all,

Breakfast for me is always Dosa and occasionally semiya/sevai/upma. And very rarely do I take cornflakes/chia seeds pudding/maggi. It has been so very long that I wanted to go out for breakfast on a Sunday. But I have to get back home after church before the closing of my favorite mutton stall. Last time when I went out for breakfast was in Darjeeling at the legendary Keventers. There are many cafes in Kolkata, which provide scrumptious breakfast - The Whistling Kettle, Soul cafe, Eat me good and it would be a sin if I miss the legendary Flury's. There is even a book about this tearoom.

So this week our Sunday started on a crispy note, as we were getting ready to go to St. Paul's Cathedral after almost 2-3 weeks. After finishing our mass, we headed to Flury's for breakfast (Mutton was taken care of!). Coming to this cafe, this cafe was started around 1930's by the Britishers and this place still has a vintage aura around it.

I have been to this cafe thrice in the last 2 years, once with William, once with my mom and once alone. But every time I go, it feels like visiting the British era all new, thanks to those big round pillars, black and white chequered marbles, the glass walls overlooking the street, the chandeliers,etc. The place serves you authentic English breakfast with Ham and Cheese stuffed omelette and beans on toast as their Heritage favorites.

What we ordered:
Will ordered English breakfast and Assam tea for him and I ordered French Toast with watermelon juice for me. Coming to the menu, English breakfast has 2 toasts with butter and jam, 2 eggs - sunny side up, 1 roasted tomato, 2 hash browns, 2 bacon rashes and 2 sausages. The rashes are long, medium-rare and juicy pieces. The sausages are one of the best I have ever had. They don't taste like old frozen cuts, instead they taste fresh and tender and very soft. I would have loved mashed potatoes with this but hash browns filled the spot.
My French toast had 2 long egg battered cinnamon cakes with some fruits and maple syrup. When I saw what was on my plate, I was so sure it would not be a filling one. Alas, when I finished my first toast, it was almost filling! I had to share the next one with Will.

Experience:
The experience was not that great mainly because of the waiting time. After being used to 20 mins waiting time at Flury's, 40 minutes was exhausting. You read that right, 40 bloody minutes!! You might want to argue about the vibe of the place but enjoying the vibe for 40 minutes is little too much. There were many angry customers who left the place after waiting for a ridiculously long time. So this time my experience was not pleasant, but very irritating. The careless waiters don't seem to notice even if you wave at them. I already started dreaming about my soon-to-be lunch Mutton Biryani :( When I started getting this irritated stares from William, even I wanted to get out of the place but thankfully the meal came before that.

If paying the bill could be counted as an 'experience', let me warn you about burning hole in your pocket. The prices are insanely expensive. English breakfast was for Rs. 580 and French toast was for Rs. 450. After GST, it felt like having the breakfast with Mr. Modi and Ms. Didi.

Overall, it was good food if the experience is ignored. Once in a while, there is nothing wrong in treating yourself at this tearoom. Flury's as a bakery is top notch and no body in this city can compete with the pastries of Flury's, but, as a restaurant, Flury's should not sit back relaxed and enjoy the legacy. There are other vintage cafes catching up with better hospitality and cheaper price. Whistling Kettle serves you authentic English breakfast all the way from Darjeeling's Keventers. Serafina offers you original Italian breakfast with great hospitality. The Country House Cafe doesn't burn a hole in your pocket. Milee Droog cafe and Bistro offers are good. So Flury's should keep this in mind and serve their customers with a happy grin :) :) Would love to visit this place again but not in the near future.

Much love,
Sindhura.

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Hey peeps,

Long time, no see! My sincere apologies!! This is an unintended food post again,thanks to my food cravings. A post about my favorite meal has to go up on my blog! So let's do this.

Tasted penne pasta for the first time in life at Hardrock Cafe, Bangalore. Man, it was heavens!! The white sauce oozing out of the penne, the luxury of parmesan cheese mixed with tender chicken, its a different feel. From thence, chicken penne in white sauce is my must have at all the Continental/Italian kitchens I go to. In Kolkata here, I chanced upon visiting this small vintage cafe called "The Country House Cafe" and there I built the order Chicken Fettuccine in Alfredo with herbs and corn, broccoli and mushrooms; took me to a different world. #VeraLevel. We are regulars now there just for the Chicken Fettuccine and the watermelon juice with mint syrup. And one day I was tired of visiting the place (only because, my schedule was too tight), a bizarre idea struck in mind. Why not making the pasta in your own kitchen, instead of shelling out lots of money? I was too scared of cooking the pasta sauce myself; what if I ruin the sauce and hate pasta forever? So I went to market and bought the readymade pasta sauce. I think its Alfredo sauce from Dr. Oetker's; came home with all the excitement, I was ready to roll. I asked my maid not to enter kitchen for a while, Concentration boss! Started cooking pasta by myself erm,,,, follwing the instruction on the carton actually. Yes, in between I came out of the kitchen to remind William how grateful he should be, coz his wife is saving his money opting to cook some exotic Italian dish in the kitchen by herself. So after all this tantrums, I finished cooking, dished out the food in a nice glass bowl and tatsed it. Reaction after my epic meal: My eyes watering, my tongue looking for honey, pasta turned out to be sooooo sour as if tasting the buttermilk after 4 days. It was so bloody sour. Looking at my reaction, William ran away fearing the offer. It was a colossal failure :(

Now after 2 months after seeing lots of videos, I decided to make pasta again, this time without store bought pasta sauce and making the sauce by myself. If you are following me on IG, you would have seen the dish that I made. Yes, it was a huge success. I didn't follow a particular recipe. This is sourced from tens of Italian cooks series with my customization. I am glad that it worked well this time. So let's do it.

No. of servings - 2
Ingredients for sauce:
Butter - 2 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Refined flour - 1 tsp heaped
Milk - 1 cup
Mixed herbs ( thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano) - 1.5 tbsp
Cheese ( processed/cheddar/parmesan/mozarella) - 3 tbsp grated
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Chilly flakes - 1/2 tbsp
Leftover starch water from cooked pasta - 2 tbsp
Parsley - 2 tbsp chopped
Salt to taste.

Ingredients to cook chicken
Butter - 1 tbsp
Boneless Chicken (either small cubes or thin long strips) - 200 grams
Orange juice - 3 tbsp
Mixed herbs ( thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano) - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Chilly flakes - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

I. Lets cook pasta first.

First bring water to a rolling boil
Add salt
Add pasta of your choice (penne/fettuccine/shell/macaroni)
Let it cook for 6 minutes
DO NOT add oil.
Strain water and set aside. Do not drain water, save the water, you might need it later.

Cooked Pasta

II. Lets cook chicken now.

Add butter
Add chicken pieces and other ingredients except orange juice. Let them cook for 6-7 minutes.
Whenever the water given out by chicken dries out, add orange juice. This gives out a sweet citric fkavour into your chicken. Cook for 5 minutes.
Now chicken is fully cooked, spoon out the chicken and use the same pan to make pasta sauce

whisk whisk

Cooked Chicken

III. Lets cook sauce.

Add butter in the same pan you cooked your chicken
When it starts to bubble, add garlic paste. Cook for under a minute to avoid the burnt taste of garlic
Add refined flour and saute it with garlic paste.
Add salt to taste.
Its time to add milk; while adding the milk don't forget to whisk the pan to avoid any lumps. Keep stirring, keep stirring, keep stirring.

Soon after adding the milk, add herbs and cheese of your choice. I used cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese.

Shredded Parmesan and Cheddar

In goes, herbs, chilli flakes, pepper and cheese

Stir until the cheese melts away. Now mix your chicken and cooked pasta in the pan with cheese. I have also added cooked corn into the pasta.
If you feel the sauce is thick, add the starch water to thin the consistency.
Sprinkle some chopped parsley for extra flavour. Your pasta is ready to serve.
Enjoy!!

Chicken Alfredo Mac & Cheese

Foot notes:
Why starch water?

When you use normal water to thin the consistency of the sauce, the flavour reduces, you might have to add the little salt and in this tiny step, your dish could collapse. So use starch water.

Starch water helps in gluing the sauce to your pasta. It gradually brings sauce to your desired consistency - thick or thin.

Why I used Parmesan and cheddar?

I personally prefer parmesan since it's rich in taste. Feel free to use any cheese. If you like it gooey chewy, then go for mozarella. If you like it bit sharp, go for cheddar.

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