Anyeong Noona

"Do not focus so much on the future you lose the importance of today" is probably the verse that I need to hear the most recently. I do not know the future and yet, I keep to think so much about it. I wonder if I lose my focus on enjoying the present moment. Sometimes in order to refocus back to what's important in life, you need to chill a little bit with your best buddy in tow to accompany you or listen to your random crap in life. If that's what you want to do at the moment, you may want to come to Xiao Ya Tou at Duxton Hill in Tanjong Pagar.

Xiao Ya Tou is a hipster restaurant which looks like it came straight away from the retro era of China (or Hong Kong, maybe?). The interior design of Xiao Yao Tou is like Central's but times two. I wonder if my parents used to come to this kind of restaurant when they were dating each other.

Xiao Ya Tou at Duxton Road Tanjong Pagar

Xiao Ya Tou starts serving dinner starting from 6PM. Sliders are interesting but only available after 9PM. I suppose Xiao Ya Tou offers them as accompaniment to alcohols. My dinner buddy is actually looking forward to Xiao Ya Tou's unagi benedict but unfortunately the dish is only served for Sunday brunch. Oh well, probably I will only come here for brunch on Sunday when I don't feel like laying around on my bed, which is highly unlikely. Besides the unagi benedict, Xiao Ya Tou offers other quirky dishes such as Crab and Lap Cheong Omelette (SGD 9) and Spicy Brussel Sprout (SGD 12).

Menu from Xiao Ya Tou at Duxton Road Tanjong Pagar

Checking out the utensils which looks like Blue China, while waiting for the drinks to come. Xiao Ya Tou has a pretty extensive selection of alcoholic drinks and cocktails. Some of the interesting concoctions include Milo and Yakult as the ingredients but the serving for these drinks is definitely not for two people (we are not heavy drinkers either) so yeah, too bad...

...we ended up coming back to a fix of caffeine, wherever we go. Hahaha. The chai latte (SGD 6.50) is served in the way that I like, not too sweet (I'm a fan of Chai) and my dinner buddy enjoyed her matcha latte (SGD 6.50) too. We just wish the cup can be a bit bigger with the price tag of SGD 6+.

Green tea and chai latte from Xiao Ya Tou Tanjong Pagar

We ordered one dish from the small plates section, one dish from the big plates section and one carbo dish to share amongst the two of us. The Cheezy Pork Sausage (SGD 10) are a combination of sausage, rice cake, spring onion and lettuces drenched in garlic soya sauce. Not bad at all, although anything that have rice cake inside will make me happy nonetheless.

Based on review in Burpple, one of the most order dish in Xiao Ya Tou is its XYT Ayam Percik (SGD 26), which is a cheeky rendition curry chicken by Xiao Ya Tou's chef. The curry is rich and yet, not spicy so you can definitely take it if you don't like spicy food. It taste better than it looks, we finished the whole plate of chicken. #chicoverdose

Being Indonesian, I love to devour all types of fried rice, especially those which come with fried shallots. Goes well with the ayam percik as well although on second thought, white rice is probably more suitable to pair with ayam percik as the chicken dish is quite rich and strong in flavour.

Xiao Ya Tou's address:

6 Duxton Hill, Tanjong Pagar.

Xiao Ya Tou's opening hours:

Monday and Tuesday: 11AM - 11PM

Wednesday and Thursday: 5PM - 11PM

Friday: 11AM - 12AM

Saturday: 9AM - 12AM

Sunday: 9AM - 5PM

Anyeong! As you can see from previous few posts, Noona has been trying to religiously key in her calorie intake in a health app named MyFitnessPal. After a month of logging in, unfortunately, she does not see any weight loss despite the target of losing 0.5kg per month. Hmm...

Based on Noona's personal observation, these few points may be the main reason of why MyFitnessPal does not work for weight loss:

(1) The misconception of you can burn your over-consumed calories

While this is technically true if you are looking at it from mathematical point of view, Noona tends to eat higher calorie food for dinner especially when she sees she has enough calorie "quantity" left to consume for the day. So yeah, most of the time after gym session, she will see a whopping available calorie of 900 - 1000 kcal. Instead of sticking to the plan to eat healthy, she usually succumbs to food such as this bowl of fried rice. Uhm...

(2) The calorie database in the app may not be accurate

Some of the portion used to count the calorie in MyFitnessPal are quite vague, to be honest with you. A cup/ a bowl depends on the size of the cup or the bowl. There is no way to gauge the calorie accurately unless you can weigh your food intake (which is not convenient at all). So most of the times, you may end up under-estimating your calorie intake from food. On the other hand, you may also end up over-estimating your burnt calorie from exercising.

(3) You cannot always find the food in the apps' database

Some of the food that Noona consumes are not available in the database and she has to log in using similar food to key in the calorie intake. The thing is, while both food may be named as "fried kway teow" or whatever, they may have a way different calorie numbers contained in the dish. Because after all calories do depend on a lot of factors such as the way the food is cooked, the condiments used in cooking, the sauces, etc.

With those reasons being mentioned, MyFitnessPal seems to be able to give more accurate calorie data on more popular food such as McDonalds' or hawker food (if you are living in Singapore). So yeah, while it is not foolproof, you can still check estimate number of calorie for those popular dishes. Hopefully, it will help you to choose healthier option when you are eating out.

Meanwhile, the weight-loss journey continues. Let's just hope we can find a better way to reach our ideal body weight.

Fighting!

Anyeong Noona

Oink Noona: Xiao Ya Tou, Tanjong Pagar

Why MyFitnessPal does not work for weight loss?