Japanese Popin Cookin DIY sushi kit (Candy)

Hey guys!

So I always see these cute Japanese jelly things all over Singapore but never bought them because it never came in English instructions. I've started to notice the increase of these boxes in asian stores here in Perth as well so I decided to give it a go.

I bought a sushi one from Kong's in Victoria Park. As expected, all the instructions are in Japanese but there's a lot of diagrams in the back so I tried my luck anyhow!


The moment I opened the package I could smell the familiar lollies fragrance. It came with a mould that had letters and numbers to make it easier to follow the pictures in the back yay.

I poured the 'rice powder' in the tray marked 1 then poured water until it created a fluffy cloud looking shape.


I later realized that the dip meant that you should fill the water to the marked lines before adding the powder. Whoops.

The others pretty much followed the same procedure. You filled it up to the line with water and mix it with the powder. The instructions were actually quite easy to follow. Much easier than I expected.

The coolest part of the kit was making the fish balls. I had SO much fun doing this. You basically mix the two powders in the respective 'A' and 'B' mould and you transfer the orange solution into the blue solution with a pipette looking thing that was provided. The moment the orange liquid hit the blue liquid it instantly made tiny circular fish eggs!

There was a seaweed dough that you rolled out as well, and yup I did a horrible job at it. There was also soy sauce! It's awesome how they go into such details with this set.


Overall putting the set together was so much fun. I only tried the fish eggs and it was sweet and popped in my mouth just like a real fish egg! I didn't really try the rest because, well I don't know it was powder and I felt weird eating it for some reason.

Definitely going to go and make some other sets of these. ^^

♥ Jess

New year's resolution | 2017

I think it's great to have a list of goals you set yourself yearly since it helps you improve on yourself! Not only that but goals means that you have something to look forward to and it gives you another reason to celebrate when you actually achieve them. This year, I decided to post my goals on my blog so that it motivates me to achieve them even more and makes me accountable to them. I decided to have 12 goals this year, not too little so there can be challenges this year and not too much that I don't complete most of them.

1. Write a blog post at least once a month

Yes, I always get super busy when uni starts and neglect my blog but I'm hoping to change it around this year!

2. Drop down to 48 kgs

I was never a fat kid, I do however have a lot of fats around my stomach/thighs/arms which I could and should lose. Last year around christmas time I was 48kg, and I haven't grown any taller since so that's all fat gains right there! I'm currently 56 kgs and 155 cm tall so I'm looking to trim down a bit to fit into my old size 8 clothes. Hopefully I succeed in achieving this year because toning down and losing weight seems to be my goal every year that never succeeds haha!

2. Do a 30 day fitness challenge

I love fitness challenges! There's so many out there and I love doing them, the only problem is.... I've never successfully finished one. I mean I've done the 30 day shred challenge and 30 day abs challenge but I lasted 28 days and 22 days respectfully. TWENTY EIGHT days, Jess why why why it was only two extra days. I'm going to account my next challenge here so that I *hopefully* won't back out!

4. Get 6 hours sleep a day

Uni life usually leads me to sleep under 6 hours a day, which is horrible, I know. So this year I'm hoping to be more organised and balance my social/work life so that I can get a decent sleep every night!

5. Be able to jog for 5km

This is going to be a big goal for me as I'm really really bad at running. I don't think I can run for two minutes straight without dying.

6. Start a hobby

Right now I'm not sure what it will be, but I'm looking for some sort of hobby that is fitness related like maybe rock climbing, aerials or who knows maybe even kick boxing.

7. Visit my little sister once a week

My little sister is moving to Perth in January! She won't be living with me as she's younger than 18 and I can't be her guardian since I'm not a resident or citizen of Australia :(
So I'm going to try to visit her at least once a week to take her around.

8. Travel Travel Travel!

I want to experience more of the world, so this year I aim to visit a country that I have never been before!

9. Lose my concert virginity

Yup, I've never been to a concert. I've always imagined that my first concert would be Taylor Swift (Swiffie fan woo) but let's see if she tours Perth this year!

10. Get vacation work for the summer break.

I'm going to graduate in two years so I'd like to get as much connections/experience as I can so I can make my mark in the industry. Oh, and money, I want to make the cha-ching in summer too haha.

11. Maintain a distinction average.

Grades are important to me, and I want to keep my grades where they are at despite my other goals of travelling, working to save, etc, etc.

12. Have $50,000

I'm aiming to save enough in the next two years so that I can pay for my little sister to go to university here in Australia. I'm ending 2016 with $30,000 in my savings account since I've been saving for my baby girl for three years already. So $20,000 with jobs this year should be attainable? I don't know, let's hope!

So those are all my goals this year, come at me 2017.

Hope everyone has a good celebration tonight, Happy New Year!

♥ Jess

A visit to the Miracle Gardens | Dubai

So Dubai decided to open a flower garden for tourists after I left to Australia. Now that I am no longer a resident of United Arab Emirates, I thought of seeing what this place is all about.

It costs 30 dhs per person to enter and children under 3 enter for free. You can grab a good deal if you are planning to visit both the miracle garden and the butterfly garden that is located beside it. It is quite spacious place with a lot of various flower arrangement that is said to change every year.



Most of the statues (if not all the flower structures) seems to be made out of the same type of flowers. If you've seen one flower house there, all the other houses pretty much look the same. It is a lovely place to take pictures in, especially if you're a selfie whore like me! Also, they have adorable flowers beside the houses.




The food court is covered with upside down umbrellas which is taken from the concept in the village at Dubai mall, it is so cute and makes the day much more fun and brighter.

Oh, almost forgot to mention. If you want some super cheesy lovey dovey photos with your one and only, this is the perfect place. It has plenty of instagram-worthy backgrounds from heart archs and heart benches to a heart walk away. Let's face it, what's more romantic then getting a snap with a bunch full of flowers? My parents couldn't resist snapping a quick shot.

If you are coming here, I do suggest eating beforehand or bringing your own food since the food that is sold here is not exactly wallet friendly. I bought a cup of watermelon for 30dhs (the price of the ticket!) and it was not worth it.

Definitely come down for a look, it honestly would not take you a whole day so fit in more things in your agenda while going all the way up to visit this place like global village or the outlet mall for instance.

Enjoy your Saturday!

♥ Jess

Food discovery: Lotus Biscoff Biscuits Review

I'm not sure if anyone saw my instagram photo of the lotus biscoff minibons I had last month from cinnabon.. but those things were out of this world. When I was offered to try the new minibons I remember thinking "just what the hell are lotus biscoff's?" I've never heard of them.

Luckily for me, I tried it with a friend who explained that they are some sort of biscuit. After cinnabon discontinued the biscoff series, my sister and I searched for these biscuits everywhere.


For those who live in UAE, I got mine at Ajman city centre's carrefour (They don't sell it in every carrefour though, Deira city centre and Sharjah city centre for instance did not sell them). I got them at 8.50dhs a pack, I don't know what overcame me but I bought 4 packs in an instant.


So it is actually called biscoff and the company that sells it is called lotus (here I thought it was called lotus biscoff the whole time). Each pack consists of 25 individually packaged bicuits, good for portion control. It is a caramelised biscuit which claims:

To have no colour

No added flavours

Suited for vegetarians

Each biscuit is 30 calories.

It has a cute pattern border around the biscuit with the company's name in the middle.

It has a crispy texture to it. As for taste, it does remind me of digestive biscuits, perhaps gourmet digestive biscuits but with cinnamon and something extra I can't lay my finger on it. Also if you have tried the speculoos cookie butter, it's basically that in biscuit form. I heard they sold a lotus biscoff spread but unfortunately, I was not able to find any.

These are now my favourite biscuits (if cookies don't count), thank goodness I bought a lot because my sister and I are going through them like crazy!

The ingredients are : Wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oils (certified sustainable palm oil, rapeseed oil), candy sugar syrup, raising agent (sodium hydrogen carbonate) soya flour, salt and cinnamon.

I give these biscuits 8.5/10

♥ Jess