Lydia's Beauty & Nail Studio

Yes I know.. This was suppose to go up yesterday but I'm only posting it today. 

I'm sorry guys! Anyways I want to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim viewers "SELAMAT HARI RAYA!". Love seeing the different colours of outfits on my instagram feed.

Can't wait to whack the awesome food at my relative's place later today! Hehe! :)

Coming back to today's post. Its going to be all about:

beauty . freedom . confidence

Ok, maybe not. But this is Lydia's Beauty & Nail Studio's motto!

On Saturday, 27th July , my cousin sister, her daughter and I went to a nail salon to get our nails done. It was super impromptu and we just went to the nearest one we could find around where I lived. Thats how we came across this shop. The boss, Lydia, was so warm and welcoming! The other staffs were also really friendly. At that point of time I had no idea what I was going to update my blog with. So my cousin sister actually suggested to do a review of this nail salon!

A shot taken from where I was seated at.

Taken from their Facebook Page!

Couldn't really take much pictures of the place but honestly speaking, I loved how it was decorated. Simple yet classy. Also has a very nice homely feel! Just look at the wall clock against the brick-like walls.

Also, Lydia was nice enough to explain to me why she only has 2 rows of O.P.I nail polishes. Cos most nail salons have their shelves filled with O.P.I only. She was telling me that her customers used to complain how it didn't last and would chip easily within the next few days. So thats why she only has 2 shelves of O.P.I.

The rest of the shelves were filled with nail polish brands I've never seen before! She said that those were much more long lasting and of better quality.

Here you can a see a range of ORGANIC gelish nail polishes! Who knew there was such a thing right? :))

Personally I would highly recommend this range to those who are doing MANICURE(fingernails) because sometimes we do eat with our hands and we don't want any harmful chemicals to be getting into our food right? ;)

I wanted something I didn't already own and unique. So I went for O.P.I's Jinx from the Bond Girls Collection.                                          

It's an orangey coral with tons of gold glitter throughout. Its also the new liquid sand formula which I have never tried before! Pretty cool! :)

And this is how my toes look like after some magic! Haha or not.. I couldn't get a manicure because I have practical baking classes every tuesday so yea.. Just got a classic pedicure. :)

The colour actually changes with different lighting.
Also when you touch the surface, it feels exactly like sand.

And here are pictures of my cousin sister's manicure and her daughter's pedicure!

Minion Nails! Super adorbs! She's 5 btw. ;)

Pink Gelish manicure with glitter tips. Soo pretty!

         

Ok so lets start doing some ratings! First would be ambience!
Absolutely loved the setting of the place. Very cosy and comfy!
So I would give Ambience 4.5 stars!

Next would be service! Super friendly and kind! Especially Lydia!
So I would give Service 5 stars!

Lastly would be the artisanship! They were really skilful with the minion nails!
And also my classic pedicure was one of the best I've ever had.
They put a lot of effort and you can clearly see it! Very professional! Really had a great time there!
So Artisanship gets 5 stars from me as well! :)

Here you can see Lydia seated right beside me
 telling me more about her business!

So that was my pleasant experience at Lydia's Beauty & Nail Studio! Now its time for yours! They also do facials as well! :) She gave me her name card so I'm just going to share with you the info on it!

Located at Block 304, Woodlands Street 31
#01-103, S730304

Operating Hours;

Tuesday - Friday : 10.30am - 8.30pm
Saturday - Sunday(inc public hols.) : 9.30am - 7.30pm
Closed on Mondays

THAT'S NOT ALL GUYS! She was nice enough to give me a discount code for all of my readers! Just quote my name,
'ANESHA' and you'll get 10% off ALL NAIL SERVICES! HOW AWESOMEEEE! :D

 I'M NOT DONE YET..... ;) On the month of your birthday, you will be entitled to a 20% off YOUR BILL! YAY!

For more enquiries on the prices and promotions, please contact them at
Tel: 63661211

The total bill for the 3 of us came up to $123 which I thought was reasonably priced! My cousin sister did both classic pedi and gelish mani! So if you were to compare with nail salons at shopping mall, its WAYYY more worth it. Cos at shopping malls, you will be spending that amount of money for just 1 person.

Honestly can't wait to go back to try Gelish pedicure! I've never tried Gelish before! :))

Oh and if you're wondering why I choose an O.P.I nail colour when Lydia told me what her customers experienced, its because I really liked the colour and also I wanted to see how long it would last on me.

So I guess thats it from me for now. Again, I'm really sorry for the late post.
Hope it doesn't happen again. Haha! :))

Feel free to ask me any questions on my twitter or just leave a comment down below! Take care and I'll see you on Sunday! :-*

For more updates:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/Anesha_Siva
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How To: Lemon Meringue French Macarons

Hey guys! Welcome back to my blog! How was your week? :)

Well, today I'm going to be doing something different. Instead of doing a cafe/restaurant review, I'll be sharing with you a recipe that I tried out yesterday! Macarons are getting very popular these days. Did you know that it's one of the hardest cookies to make? It requires practice and a lot of patience!

I've made these cookies about 3 times. The first time was a success and the second time was a complete fail. :)) 

It's ok to fail sometimes so you know where you went wrong and you can avoid that same mistake in the future! 

Alot of people get confused between macaroon & a french macaron.

I always cringe when I see people post pictures of beautiful store bought macarons and captions it as MACAROONS. Please please don't do that. 

You know how chocolate, salted caramel and pistachio macarons are so mainstream these days? I wanted something different. I wanted the sweetness of the macaron cookies to be balanced with a tart filling. So whats better than Lemon Meringue Macarons?! Haha! They remind me of a lemon meringue pie but in a macaron form. I named this recipe myself by the way!

Ok so lets start with the filling. I love how this recipe doesn't require any artificial colouring/flavouring! You want to start with this first so that there will be enough time for it to set in the fridge. 

Lemon Curd filling:

3 egg yolks

2 eggs

150 grams of sugar (3/4 cup)

100 grams of butter (about 1/2 cup)

Zest of 3 lemons

Juice of 2 lemons

A pinch of salt

(You only need 3 lemons. Use the zest from all of them but juice only from 2.)

METHOD:

1. Cream the butter, sugar and salt together with a whisk until all has been well combined.
2. Then, add in the zest and the juice. Now because you're adding acid to fat(butter) the mixture will separate. Don't worry just keep whisking it all together. :)
3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan. On medium low heat, you want to constantly stir the mixture with a wooden spoon/spatula.
4. You will know its ready when you can see it thicken and coats the back of your wooden spoon/spatula. This is also known as the Nape Stage(French). This usually takes about 10 minutes.
5. Pour the mixture in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Make sure it touches the surface of the curd so as to prevent a skin from forming.
6. Just let it cool completely and set before using/serving. 

And thats it guys! You can use this lemon curd for so many things! For tarts, pies and even trifles! So here are a few pictures I took while preparing it. :)

Becomes a beautiful rich yellow colour

Nape Stage

Macarons:

3 room temperature egg whites (Saved from the lemon curd recipe)

50 grams white granulated/caster sugar (1/4 cup)

120 grams almond flour/meal/ground (1 cup)

200 grams icing sugar (2 cups)

A pinch of salt

METHOD:

1. Sift both almond flour/meal/ground and icing sugar and set aside.
2. Beat egg whites until foamy, then add in the sugar and salt. Whip for about 9 mins until they form a peak that stands upright.
3. Now, add in the food colouring. Keep in mind that when it bakes, it loses a bit of its colour. So you might want to double the amount of food coloring.
4. The Macaronage. Time to fold in the the dry ingredients into the meringue. I do it in halves so I won't deflate the meringue as much. Use a rubber spatula. I did about 50-60 folds until I achieved the right consistency which will be like molten lava.
5. Transfer the batter into a piping bag. You don't need a round piping tip. Just cut the tip of the piping bag and pipe away! :) I used a silipat meant for macarons as it already had the perfect circles on it. After piping, you want to bang the tray on a table a few times to let the trapped air escape. This will give you a smooth shell.
6. This step is super important! Make sure you let your macarons sit out for about 30mins to form a skin. You want that skin so that your macarons won't spread when it bakes and will be forced to rise with the beautiful feet forming. You know its ready to bake when you touch it and it bounces right back without sticking on to your finger.
7. While waiting for it to form the skin, preheat your oven to 150 degree celsius.
8. Then bake for about 20 minutes. Once its done, let it cool before removing it from the tray.

Now I have to admit that Beth's Foolproof French Macaron Recipe's video helped me alot. Please do watch her video if you need more tips.

The moment I saw the feet forming on my macarons, I just felt so accomplished and satisfied. They should also have a crunchy outer shell and a soft, chewy, cake-like centre. So here are the pictures of the process. :)

Extra Fine!

Since I didn't add in flavouring, decided to top it off with some lemon zest I saved from lemon curd recipe.

Feet forming. :D

Freshly out from the oven! 

Cooled and placed on another tray. :)

Ready to be shared with my neighbour! :)

This recipe makes about 20 Macaron sandwiches.

So yea I guess thats it from me this week! I hope you try out this recipe! Why pay so much at bakeries when you can make it yourself? If I can do it so can you! Like I've mentioned earlier, it really does require practice and patience to get it right.

If you have any other questions regarding this recipe you can always leave a comment or tweet me!

Take care and I'll see you next week! :-*

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anesha_Siva
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Working Title & I Am Cafe

OMG. I can't believe it's Sunday already! Goodness, the days are passing by way too fast! 

Oh well, I'm still excited to share with you guys this week's episode!

It's going to be another Cafe review! Are you excited as I am?! :D

So I met up with 2 of my friends I made while working at Shangri La. One of them is an expert at cafes. So she led the way for the whole day, bringing us to 2 cafes. One for our mains and one for desserts!

So we went to Working title to have a hearty lunch first! They are located at 48 Arab Street, Singapore 199745. Opening hours is 10am -10pm daily except for Fridays & Saturdays, they are opened till midnight.
This is how it looks like at where we were seated:

Hmm I can't quite explain what the setting was like. The furniture were all very mismatched. Like I guess you could say that it had a rustic feel. You can either choose to sit indoors or at this cosy space behind the cafe. We sat here because it was really crowded indoors. It was also air conditioned so it wasn't too bad. The sun helped with the good lighting to take pictures. :) There was Indie music playing too. So I would give 3.5 stars for ambiance!

The menu was just a simple clipboard with the different items on each slip.

I actually don't take long to decide what to order. But here, I just couldn't settle on what I wanted. Not that they have a lot on their menu. It's just that everything sounded really good. 

So here is what I finally decided to order! :

Finger lickin' Fish & Fries. Cod Fillet Fish Burger served with Truffle fries. $11.90

The burger itself was pretty decent. Though the cod fillets did remind me of the frozen fish fingers you can get in a box at supermarkets. :)) Now I'm not a huge fan of truffle oil infused fries (Shame I know), but I have to say that this one was seasoned perfectly with a subtle hint of the truffle oil.


Pictures of what else we ordered! :

CURLY FRIES FOR THE WIN YO

I took a bite of their cheeseburger my friend got and ALMOST DIED! Definitely getting it the next time I come here!! Haha! So for food, I would give 4 stars!

This cafe does not charge both GST & SERVICE! You have to place an order at the counter, pay and then take a seat. Your food will be served to you once its ready. How awesome right?! Its hard for me to give a rating for service since I didn't pay for any. So no service ratings from me for this cafe! :) But they were all really friendly! If you're wondering if this place is halal, I would say no. They serve beer and all so yea.

      So thats it from this cafe! Moving on to desserts!

Now the next cafe I'm going to be talking about is pretty famous cos its the first cafe you see when walk into Haji Lane. This cafe is located at 674 North Bridge Road #01-01, off Haji Lane Singapore 188804. Its an European influenced HALAL cafe! Opened daily 11.30am till the latest at 1am on Fridays & Saturdays!

Now this cafe is always packed with customers. So we had to queue up for a table for 3. Once we got our table, which was actually in the middle of the road :)), we were given the menus. This cafe did not charge GST but they did charge for SERVICE. They had a whole section dedicated to mocktails since they didn't serve any alcohol. But I just chose Mint Iced Chocolate. My friend got a rootbeer.

And now, for the actual dessert :

Rainbow Crepes! $6.90

Mint Iced Chocolate $6

So the crepes were really super duper thin. I have no idea how is that even possible. But yea they were stacked and in between each layer was some rainbow themed whipped cream. We all felt like the chocolate sauce overpowered everything. Otherwise, I really enjoyed how light and fluffy it was on its own. The whipped cream complimented the crepes well. Very light and subtle. The drink was fine. Rich chocolate with a nice minty aftertaste. Love the combination of chocolate and mint.

Overall, this cafe is great for chilling with your friends while having a nice meal. Have not tried other dishes from this cafe but I definitely will some time soon I hope! So ambience wise I will give it 3 stars. Food gets 3.5 stars! Service gets 4 stars!



How can you be at Haji Lane and not take your #OOTD right?

The lady at the back ruined my photo with her monopod and all. -.-

There was also this Japanese tourist that thought I was a model so he decided to take my picture :))

So thats it from me this week! I hope you enjoyed the double cafe reviews! Next week will probably be something NOT related to food. Haha I need a break from all these glorious food (OR NOT). :))
See you guys next Sunday! :-*


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THE LINE Buffet Restaurant @ Shangri-La hotel Singapore

Hey guys! Welcome back! Today, I'm going to be reviewing one of Singapore's most popular place to have

 buffet. As seen from the title above, its THE LINE Buffet Restaurant. Its a five star hotel located at 22 Orange Grove Road, 

258350, Singapore. With 16 theatre kitchens you will definitely be spoiled for choices! Oh and its an 

International Buffet, so a lot of local cuisines are served here too! :) Now the restaurant is always packed and you HAVE to make reservations at least 2 days in advance.

I made reservations for 2 on Tuesday for Friday dinner. And since there are also walk in guests, be sure to

 be there on time or else your seats will be given up to them!

So this is how it looks like when you enter the restaurant:

My brother took the photo when we were about to leave thats why its so empty. :))

I actually work as a waitress in this restaurant and got to dine for free! This is because I actually received an

 award for the customers delight programme and got a voucher for 2 to dine in at THE LINE.

So I was pretty happy with the seats we were given because on our left were the japanese and seafood on ice

 counters (The 2 most popular counters), on our right were the desserts and barista counter and behind me

 was the italian and salad counters. How very convenient right? :)

Lets start with ambience! I will give this restaurant 4 stars! Though it was really convenient that all our 

favourite counters were really near to us, we found it a bit squeezy. What I mean is that the tables beside us

 were pretty close. And every time my neighbour wanted to get up, he had to say excuse me. Sooo yeah..

OK lets talk about food now!! Yay! I've actually tried most of the buffet food already( Benefits of working 

there :)) ) The only thing I was dying to try was the salads! They had so many varieties! From pre made

 salads to DIY salads! The choices were endless!

Did'nt get a chance to take a picture of the cheese platter beside the salads. There was one cheese in particular that took both my brother's and my breath away. I'm guessing it was ricotta infused with garlic and herbs. It was so smooth and creamy and was perfect with the salads.

Next was the Japanese counter! The only type of sashimi I eat is salmon! Have been craving for it way too   

 long so I had to dive right in!

The slices were so thick. It was so fresh. Together with the Soya sauce, AMAZING.

Also had some soba and sushi. :)

Next time for some Italiano! The pasta counter had only one type of pasta, Penne. There was a chef 

standing behind the counter ready to make you whatever you wanted on the spot. There were 4 different type of sauces:

 Tomato, Cream of Mushroom, Aglio Olio and Beef Bolognese. I chose the beef bolognese and the portion 

was a little too much for one person. So I shared with my brother. They also had 2 different types of pizza which were good too! :)

If you look at the picture closely, you can also see a plate of satay with a little bowl of the peanut sauce. 

They had Lamb, Chicken and Beef Satay. My favourite was the lamb. Super tender and juicy.

The sauce wasn't too sweet and complimented well with the Satay! 

Moving on to my favourite course: DESSERTS!

I've already tried most of the desserts here so I knew what I was looking for.

Vanilla Creme brulee

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

These 2 are a MUST TRY!





They had a huge variety to choose from but both my brother I were stuffed to the brim. We also tried their crepe with caramelized bananas, green tea Gelato, mango Sorbet and some freshly cut fruits like cantaloupe and watermelon. (super ripe and juicy!)
They also had like a chocolate fondue but we didn't try it either.

So in terms of food, I would give 4 stars as well! There's just too many to choose from! I didn't get to try the different types of chinese noodles, the indian food and the dim sum corner. I will only recommend this place to people who are able to really eat if not the price that you are paying for this buffet will be not be worth it.



Ok on to the service! Since I actually work here, I don't think it's fair for me to rate the service. Haha so no service ratings from me today! P.S. We did tip the waitress that served us ;)


We didn't have to pay a single cent since we were also given a complimentary car park coupon!

I asked my brother if he would come back to this restaurant with having to pay for the full buffet price and he said NO. Haha!

For my muslim friends, if you guys are wondering if this place is halal, its not.. However I do see some muslim customers with tudungs actually having the buffet. And also heard that the princess of Johor comes here often.

So here are more details if you want to make reservations! Oh you can also enjoy a 15% discount off your total bill when you make reservations online! :)  :

Lunch Buffet: 
Monday to Friday: $53++ (adult), $27++ (child)
Saturday & Public Holidays: $59++ (adult), $27++ (child)
Sunday Champagne Brunch:
$138++ (adult) inclusive Champagne and house pour red and white wines, draft beer, soft drinks and chilled juices 
$98++ (adult) inclusive free flow of soft drinks and chilled juices, coffee & tea
$27++ (child) inclusive of free flow of soft drinks and chilled juices

Dinner Buffet: 
Mon, Wed & Sun (International): $72++ (adult), $36++ (child)
Tues & Thurs (Marine Harvest): $92++ (adult) Inclusive of free flow of sparkling, white & red wines, draft beer, soft drinks and juices, $36++ (child)
Fri (International): $110++ (adult) Inclusive of free flow of sparkling, white & red wines, draft beer, soft drinks and juices
$82++ (adult), $36++ (child)
Sat (International): $82++ (adult), $36++ (child)


So thats it from me for now! Hope you enjoyed reading this post! More to come every Sunday ok?! 

Goodbye and Have A Great Week Ahead! :-*

Selfie!