What I saw, what I did: Singapore Part 3

Our second day in Singapore was dedicated to Universal Studios. I've been to Universal Studios in California so I wasn't too excited about this. Plus I've been reading people's blogs and its seems not all rides are operational yet. The cost of the ticket per person is 66 SGD.

We went through Vivo City again to ride the train to USS. You can feel the soccer craze even in Singapore.

I'm not going to discuss what we did there in detail. That would spoil the surprise when it's your turn, right? :p But the first thing I did before we even got through the gates was ogle at Garrett's Popcorn shop. It says it's "One of Oprah's favorite things", so how come I've never heard of it before?? Does it have anything to do with the fact that I don't follow Oprah??

This was one of the thrilling rides. It's like a roller coaster except your feet are dangling in the air. We had to remove our shoes except for those wearing sneakers. We weren't allowed to bring cameras as well, but Grace had the gall to video the whole ride with her digicam! I enjoyed this short ride but half the time I was worried about her camera and scenes from Final Destination kept coming to mind. When we berated her for it, she gave us an evil smile and said, "Well say your prayers!" What a friend!!! :D

USS is divided into a lot of sections. At the time of my visit to California, the hype thing was Shrek and Robocop (!!!). In Singapore, one of the most worthwhile rides was in the Mummy Returns section.
You enter through here and the maze gets deeper and deeper as if you're entering a pyramid, just like in the movie. If you're claustrophobic, you might have a problem keeping your act together as the anxiety just piles on and on and the queue never seems to end. It doesn't help that there are signs all over warning people that the ride is not for the faint of heart. The worst thing about queueing here is being stuck with middle eastern men and Indian families. Man do they stink! Thankfully my friend has a vial of White Flower oil which saved us.

Once you try the ride, it's not that scary after all. The warning was just to hype it up, which worked with a lot of people because the line kept getting shorter as we returned. Yes, we returned 4 times. We even bought the souvenir picture where we choreographed our poses! :D

After more walking, stopping to watch shows, conducting our own photoshoot and a couple more rides, it was dusk and we were ready to leave the theme park. We passed by the souvenir shop first to use our vouchers. The ticket includes 2 vouchers of $5 off each for meal and merchandise. In effect, our ticket cost only $56. :)

Of course we couldn't leave without a picture of the Universal Studios logo!
I promised that I would check Garrett's before we leave. Fortunately my friends had the same idea. Inside, the smell of buttery popcorn was overwhelming. My friends ended up the ones buying even though I love popcorn the most. With flavors like Buttery, CaramelCrisp, Pecan CaramelCrisp, Cashew CaramelCrisp, and CheeseCorn, Garrett's selection was more on the sweet side; I'm more of a plain salted one kinda gal. Also with the price of one bag, I can buy 3 Chef Tony's. Some of my friends brought the popcorn back home. But it was only our second day. Predictably, by the time we were going home, the popcorn was either eaten or no longer crunchy.
I cannot deny however that the pecan variety was really really yummy. The CheeseCorn was powdery and a bit sour since they use cheddar. I didn't like the combination of cheese and butter.
We went to Orchard Road to meet a college friend who is now based there. We were going to have dinner at Din Tai Fung!

Back in Australia, I always hear about Din Tai Fung from food bloggers. I didn't try it because Chinese cuisine is not one of my favorites. Now I regret not filling up on xiao long pao as much as I could when I had the chance to hog one order all by myself for months!!! We waited a long time to get seated. It was worth it though. This was my best meal in Singapore.

Stewed Beancurd with Honey Sauce

This is one of Din Tai Fung's appetizers. I love it! I love beancurd and it was very flavorful with the sweet and salty sauce. It felt like eating meat because of the mushrooms. You wouldn't believe it's healthy.

Braised Beef Soup

This soup is also very tasty though too salty for my palette. The beef melts in your mouth and the vegetables are crisp. You can see the oil over the broth but you can't stop drinking it all! :) This is perfect over steamed rice or with noodels, but somebody ordered fried rice already. It was interesting how my friends who are all Filipinos were the ones who ordered the food and I didn't contribute anything. Haha!

Fried Porkchop

I had never tasted porkchop as good as the one served to us then. Maybe I'm exaggerating already but everything was really perfect. The pork was not chewy; it's almost like long strips of chicken nugget without the bread crumb and with some sweet sauce. Yummy with fried rice!

At last, the main event of the dinner! The award-winning xiao long bao. We ordered two trays of this and still we were barely satisfied. I taught my Filipino friends how to eat it. At last I showed some Chinese knowledge! I am getting hungry posting this.

This was my dipping sauce. Lots of chili. :) There's ginger and black vinegar in that soy dish. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. But before that we passed by FairPrice to get food and Tiger beer for the soccer game we were going to watch in our hotel's common room that night. I didn't stay for the live telecast of Germany vs Spain anymore though, which finished at 3am.