Really Really Free Market @ Gilman Barracks x Exploring Alexandra: Bukit Merah Food Centre (Soon Lai BBQ Fish) x Queensway Shopping Centre x IKEA Alexandra - 22 Feb 2020 - mitsueki ♥ | Singapore Lifestyle Blogger

Calling my Saturday a very eventful day can be considered an understatement, read on to find out what I was up to on this day!

FAME.SG Gym

Let’s start off with heading over to my gym sponsor (FAME.SG) for a super duper quick gym session / workout cos I knew I’ll probably be feasting during lunch and tonight!

Also paired it with a 10 min HIIT session x2 instructional video and workout done for the day!

Limbang Shopping Centre

I found myself at Limbang Shopping Centre all the way at Chua Chu Kang later that afternoon as my mom and I were walking around looking for a chair she was eyeing. We ended up getting groceries instead though.

The retro / old school vibes at this shopping centre definitely brings the nostalgic feel back to the past don’t you think so?

Really Really Free Flea Market at Gilman Barracks and Exploration

Met up with Bear after that to head to Gilman Barracks cos I wanted to check out the Really Really Free market just for kicks and out of curiosity as it was a pop up event that I’ve been meaning to check out for awhile now.

We arrived pretty late so all the good pickings were already gone. Nonetheless, it was still interesting to be able to see what are the free wares available for the taking.

Will be back again next time for the next pop up and probably contribute some of our stuff too!

Anyways, since we were here at Gilman Barracks, we took this opportunity to explore the area and other blocks.

One thing to note is that Gilman Barracks is connected to a few walking trails leading to Henderson Wave / Hort Park / Mt Faber / Telok Blangah Hill Park / Kent Ridge Park so you can definitely explore them on foot.

We were unfortunately not in the right footwear nor state of mind (plus the piercing sun rays were merciless) but we will definitely be back here next time for some exploration.

Other than that, there a couple of places and exhibitions you can check out here including the NTU Contemporary Art Centre with the free exhibitions that I shared on SG Lifestyle alongside a number of food joints such as the Handlebar, Hopscotch, The Naked Finn, Creamier, burgerlabo and many more!

On the list to try next time for us: burgerlabo cos their burgers looked and smelt amazeballs!

Exploring Alexandra: Kuehs and Snacks

Moving on from there, we headed down the road to Alexandra/Bukit Merah area!

First stop was at Kuehs and Snacks to pick up some handmade ang ku kuehs for $1 each!

We were torn for choice and in the end, opted the assorted pack of 8 to try the different flavors ranging from peanut to red bean, durian, yam and the like!

Sadly, they were out of soon kuehs or or I would have gotten them for my mom!

Nonetheless, can’t wait to try them to see how they compare to my favourite Ji Xiang Confectionary!

Exploring Alexandra: Bukit Merah Food Centre (Soon Lai BBQ Fish)

The original plan to check out both Bukit Merah Food Centre and ABC Brickworks Food Market – especially the latter since it was closing for renovations next month BUT…our attention got caught by a couple feasting on some delicious looking sambal stingray and we caved in immediately hahhahaha.

For $28, this is what we enjoyed at Soon Lai BBQ Fish.

Sambal Stingray

You can go wrong with sambal stingray and their rendition comes served on a banana leaf on a hotplate. This is a small sized version for $12. Great sambal and plenty of meat on the stingray!

Sambal Sotong

The sambal sotong was a surprise as they use a different sambal sauce instead of a generic one. Their version comes with plenty of onions and ikan bilis and I really loved the sauce very much. Goes well with the stingray too! The sotong itself however, was just alright – the sauce is the winner.

Kailan

Definitely not your usual kailan. Very fresh and Bear absolutely adored the accompanying sauce that came with it. Recommended.

2 bowls of rice

Price of $28 excludes our drinks below btw.

Before.

Aftermath. #fatdieus

Will definitely be back here at Bukit Merah Food Centre as there were so many other food stalls that we wanted to try!!

Note: We believe that the stall uses ALOT of MSG as we felt super thirsty after this meal so just a heads up as an FYI!

Exploring Alexandra: Queensway Shopping Centre

In a bid to kill some calories, we proceeded to explore the surrounding area on foot, starting off with Queensway Shopping Centre.

It sure brings back those nostalgic feels once again with this old school mall and reminded me very much of Holiday Plaza in JB, except this is much smaller of course.

The mall’s also doing what it can for the tenants with free popcorn and candy floss fyi.

Generally only the food stuff caught my attention here namely the famous laksa and Queenstown curry chicken as well as this Taiwanese bento shop.

Bonus random photo of me and this really possessed looking panda hahaha.

Exploring Alexandra: Anchorpoint and Alexandra Central Mall

We then explored Anchorpoint and Alexandra Central Mall (next to Park Hotel Alexandra). I actually like the laidback vibes and old school vintage design of the restaurants there at Anchorpoint, but we mainly spent most of the time at Mr.DIY hahaha.

Meanwhile, Alexandra Central Mall is a confused mall but that’s pretty common for a strata mall in Singapore I guess. The key difference here is that all units are successfully rented out if I’m not wrong.

Exploring Alexandra: IKEA Alexandra

And of course, you can’t NOT make a visit to IKEA when you’re around the vicinity.

This also marked our first time visiting IKEA together AND successfully walking through the entire showroom 😂

That was really fun and I enjoyed it 🙂

Alright, and that was the end of our #grizzlypandadates for this Saturday as we went around exploring Singapore. It’s fun as well to become a #touristinsingapore and explore what we have to offer and I’m really glad and lucky to have a really sporting partner in Bear to bring me around and indulge in my whims.

Of cos, this itinerary above would not be possible without the use of a car to ferry us around so I’m really glad and blessed that we can use the family car over the weekend.

Anyways, onwards to more weekend explorations as a #touristinsingapore together with Bear and thanks always for reading!

P.s curious to find out where we explored on Sunday? Stay tuned to the next installation of #weekendswithmitsueki coming to you tomorrow at 1228pm GMT+8!

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