Food Junkie

2nd Attempt at Baking Mango Yogurt Cheesecake

2009-07-05T15:05:00.013+08:00

A more successful attempt at baking a mango yogurt cheesecake, now that I go over to my aunt's house to do the baking. Below is the picture of the end product. Looks evidently more baked than my 1st attempt, although there aren't any mangoes on top to make it look more appealing. However, I added a tad too much liquid to the mixture and hence it turned out less firm than it should be. The crust was also not very successful this time round...think the crust was too thick hence it didn't come out too well. Plenty to learn from this baking session.

*New update: The texture is actually quite good after I freeze it! Looks like it's not as bad as I thought =)*

Recipe will be published soon...when I get down to typing it down =)

Yam Rice

2009-06-17T10:46:00.003+08:00

One of my favourite food is now available as a convenience food (Brand: YAMIE). Although it is simple to make, the taste can't be compared to the ones we find outside, but it does satisfy my cravings for yam rice (with some additional ingredients here and there).

The additional ingredients I add for 2 packets of Yamie Yam Rice are:

1 small yam (diced into small cubes)
3 small red onions (peeled and sliced very thinly crosswise)
5 large dried mushrooms (soaked in hot water & diced) *Retain the water for soaking the mushroom as it adds more flavour to the rice*
1 chicken breast
2 tbsp of dark soya sauce
2 tbsp of fried shallot oil (Use olive oil for frying)

Method:

Heat up 5 tbsp of oil and add shallots to flavour the oil. *It is okay to use more oil here as the shallot oil can be kept for other times*
Fry the shallots until it is slightly browned and remove it from the oil.
Leave some of the shallot oil in the pan and shallow fry the yam cubes until it is slightly browned and add the shallots back to fry them together.
Heat up 1 tbsp of shallot oil, add in mushroom and stir fry for 2 mins before adding chicken breast to fry for a minute or two till it is almost cooked.
Remove Yamie yam rice from packaging and pour into a rice cooker.
Add all the pre-cooked yam, mushroom and chicken into the rice, together with 2 tbsp of fried shallot oil, 2 tbsp of dark soya sauce and .
Add 620ml of water and 100ml of mushroom water to the rice and you can start cooking your yam rice.
Depending on your rice cooker, your rice will be ready in around 12 minutes or so.
To serve, sprinkle with spring onion and fried shallots.

Mee Rebus

2009-06-17T10:37:00.001+08:00

Bought 6 packets of Mee Rebus sauce from the stall that my cousin is helping out at the food fair and boy does it taste good! The taste was really intense and spicy too. Tried cooking it the other day for Marky's family and it seems like both his parents liked it. His dad ate 3 bowls and his mum said it was pretty good.

Mango Yogurt cheesecake

2009-06-16T00:00:00.002+08:00

Here's a picture of my attempt at making Mango Yogurt cheesecake but it was a failure as it tastes more like custard cake... sad =(

I wonder if it's the oven as the oven at Marky's house took forever to bake this cake and still it did not seem very solid after almost 2 hours. (Note that the oven was already set at maximum heat - 250 degree celsius)

I wanna get my own oven but not now as I don't have my own house yet =(

Mee Rebus

2009-06-15T23:56:00.002+08:00

Bought 6 packets of Mee Rebus sauce from the stall that my cousin is helping out at the food fair and boy does it taste good!

The taste was really intense and spicy too. Tried cooking it the other day for Marky's family and it seems like both his parents

liked it. His dad ate 3 bowls and his mum said it was pretty good.

Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town at Tampines 1

2009-06-15T23:28:00.006+08:00

This place is really overhyped...I had been wanting to try Botejyu's okonomiyaki for the longest time and when I really tasted it at Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town at Tampines 1, I was damn disappointed. The texture was nothing to rave about and the taste was just so-so.

The saving dish was the ramen that Marky ordered. The soup tasted not too bad and the noodles were springy.

The worst has yet to come...before that, look at the pictures...

All these beautifully decorated pies had us queuing for probably 20mins just to get our slice of Caramel Banana Fruit Tart and the resulting taste was a huge disappointment! Worse still, we had to pay $7+ for this slice and a cup of tea (The tea was even better than the pie!)

My verdict: I will just stay off this place for good.

Japanese curry and fried udon

2009-03-11T21:57:00.003+08:00

Bought the Japanese Golden Curry cubes (Hot) and cooked my first Japanese curry with potatoes, onions, carrots and chicken. It turned out so much better and sweeter than when I just add my favourite ingredients like crabsticks and hotdogs...lol.. Ya I know, definitely a lot sweeter. I just followed the recipe on the box and it's rather simple to do.
Anyway, I paired it with fried udon, chinese style --> Vegetarian Oyster Sauce (My FIL can't take oysters), black pepper, egg, broccoli and sausages.

It may seem like a weird mix, but Marky and I enjoyed it!

Cold noodles with creamy sesame dressing

2009-02-23T21:08:00.008+08:00

For those who follow my blog will realise that I have so many posts on Japanese noodles...either hot/cold or the different types of noodles.

This is because Marky and I are fans of these noodles and they are really versatile. I've made a slide show of all the different versions of the Japanese noodles and a summary of the different sauces that I've used before:

Cold Noodles

Traditional tsuyu
My own concoction:
3 tsp sesame seed oil
4 tsp light soya sauce
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 tbsp water
1 small chilli padi
Sprinkle of black pepper
Chopped parsley
Toasted sesame seeds
Non-creamy sesame seed sauce from Daiso (NEW!) -->$2
Creamy sesame seed sauce from NTUC (NEW!) --> $6.90

Fried Noodles

Okonomiyaki sauce + mayonnaise + Furikake (see picture) + Bonito Flakes

_________________________________

Cold Sesame Udon Salad
(Serves 4-5 people)

Ingredients:
1 packet of udon/hiyamugi /buckwheat soba/cha soba

3 Japanese cucumber, shredded
1/2 carrot, shredded
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 floret of broccoli, cut into small pieces and blanched
8 crabsticks, shredded and pan-fried
100g picnic ham/2 large sausages, shredded (Pan-frying is optional)
2 eggs, beaten and fried
Sesame seed oil
Creamy Japanese sesame salad dressing from NTUC (Alternatively, you can also get the non-creamy sesame dressing from Daiso)
Black pepper (Optional)
Japanese Furikake

Method:
1) Bring the water in the pot to a boil and add noodles. Stir occasionally. Cook for 5-8mins until al-dente.

2) Drain the hot water and place noodles under tap water to cool it slightly. Let it sit in ice water for 1-2 mins to totally cool the noodles.

3) Drain water from the noodles and add some sesame seed oil to prevent them from sticking to each other. Leave in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

4) Mix shredded carrot and cucumber with the noodles. Add salad dressing, furikake and black pepper according to your taste.

5) Lastly, arrange the broccoli, tomato, shredded crabsticks, ham and egg on top of the noodles and chill further before serving. (Best to eat it cold)

6) Just before serving, you can add a bit more furikake on top of the ingredients to make it tastier.

My first attempt at some Chinese dishes

2009-02-23T20:58:00.003+08:00

My 两菜一汤 wasn't that bad for the first attempt =) I have my 姜丝鸡肉 with egg, blanched spinach with oyster sauce and my preserved vegetable soup with tofu.

The best was the 姜丝鸡肉 with egg, which is my all-time favourite coz my mum cooks this sooo well...I think I needed to marinade my chicken longer and after adding abit more dark and light soya sauce, the taste was almost there! My most satisfied dish in a long time...My soup was almost spoiled as I didn't know that I needed to soak the preserved veg in water to remove the saltiness. I ended up with a super salty soup and I had to change the water so many times to get it right...

Overall, can be improved!

Pan-fried Japanese Thin Udon

2009-02-23T20:53:00.004+08:00

This was cooked some time ago when I had nothing to eat at my old home...Tastes great with my okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise! Pretty similar to Yakisoba, just that my version was Yaki-udon..lol

Exploding crab

2009-02-23T20:51:00.004+08:00

Captured this image of the crab with my hand phone after it exploded on the BBQ grill...

Obolo - Gourmet Cheesecakes • Pâtisseries • Desserts

2009-02-23T20:37:00.003+08:00

A little shop tucked away in a small corner of Joo Chiat, producing some eyes and taste bud pleasing pastries & desserts. Worth giving it a try if you're into these petite crowd pleasers.

Obolo - Gourmet Cheesecakes • Pâtisseries • Desserts
http://www.obolo.com.sg/
452 JOO CHIAT ROAD
SINGAPORE 427665
TEL: 63489791 FAX: 63487961

Himawari Restaurant

2009-02-23T19:01:00.005+08:00

Marky's Birthday Treat at Himawari didn't turned out as fantastic as all the rave reviews mentioned...Quite disappointed...

Sugar Cookies

2009-01-05T23:57:00.003+08:00

Made some sugar cookies for X'mas and these cookies belong to the test batch. Totally enjoyed designing my cookies but I've learnt not to make them too thick as I prefer a more crunchy texture =)

Mini non-bake strawberry cheese cakes

2008-12-09T01:45:00.017+08:00

The other day, my Mother-in-law came to me and told me about the strawberry cheesecake that her friend made in those cooking/baking classes and raved about it to me...The next thing I know, she passed me a recipe. An obvious way to get me to make some cheesecakes..lol

So a week later after our hectic photo shoot, I went to buy all the ingredients and embarked on my cheesecake making session. Now, I've made oreo cheesecakes and normal cheesecakes with McVities biscuit bases before, but never did I have fruits and jelly toppings on them. But the resulting cheesecakes turned out great! I totally love the taste of it (With support from Marky, my parents, relatives & my 3 yr old cousin who kept asking for more!) I haven't seen my MIL so I didn't get her comments but Marky mentioned that she'll prefer a thicker crust, which is quite impossible for my tiny cups as there isn't much space left for the cheese and jello. Also, the muffin cups are not the best containers for the cheesecakes as they're too soft but that is the best ones at the moment as I ran out of aluminum trays.

I'll make a big one the next time round so that I can put in more crust!

Anyway, below is the recipe for the cheesecake but I modified some parts:

Non-Bake Strawberry/Black current cheesecake (Makes two 9" by 6" by 1" trays based on original recipe/ 18 muffin cups)

Ingredients for:
Base
1) 320g digestive biscuits (I used 11 pcs)
2) 160g melted butter (I used 80g for the 11pcs)

Cheese filling (Approx. 18 cups requires 1 pack of cheese)
1) 250g or 1 pack of Philadelphia cream cheese (Only enough for 1 215mm X 40mm tray. Read below)
2) 2 1/4 tsp gelatine powder
3) 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp (70g) sugar (I reduced this to 60g)
4) 150ml of boiling water for melting gelatine and sugar
5) 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
6) 20 medium-sized strawberries (As I ran out of strawberries, I had to cut 6 strawberries into 3 parts & chopped up 3 strawberries to add into the fillings)

Jello topping
1) 3 packets of strawberry flavoured Tortally (, so I only used 1 packet)

2) 450ml of boiling water
3) 450ml of cold water (This recipe calls for too little water as compared to the instructions on the box, so I followed the box and added 250ml of boiling water & 250ml of cold water. I didnt my MIL's friend's jelly turned out too hard for my liking)

Method for:
Base
1) Crush biscuits and stir in melted butter (I did not melt the butter over direct heat, instead, the butter was put into a bowl which was placed over a pot of water).

2) Divide and press the crushed biscuit mixture into the base of the 2 trays. Chill for 15 mins or until needed.

3) Prick base with the back of a skewer before pouring in the filling. (I skipped this step)

Filling
1) Use a small heart-shaped cutter (1") to cut hearts out of strawberry halves and place on a plate lined with paper towel.
2) Place gelatine and sugar in a bowl. Pour 150ml of boiling water and stir until gelatine and sugar dissolves completely. If it does not dissolve completelly, place this bowl over a bigger bowl filled with boiling water.
3) Cream cream cheese and vanilla essence together. Add gelatine syrup gradually and cream till smooth. (You can add chopped strawberries or even black current conserve into the cheese mixture at this stage) Pour into the trays (or cups).

4) Place 20 hearts on each tray, partially submerged in cheese. Regrigerate until firm, about 2hours.

Jello topping
1) Dissolve Jello in boilling water. Add cold water and stir well.
2) Cool completely before pouring over cheese filling.

2nd Attempt

This time round, I made a whole cheesecake instead of mini ones. I bought the 215mm (Diameter) X 40mm aluminium trays from NTUC for the cakes but found that one 250g of cheese is not enough to make 2 cakes. I had to use 1 block of cheese for 1 cake instead. Luckily I bought 2 blocks of cheese. *Phew*

To make the side crusts, I increased the biscuits quantity to 1 whole pack of digestive biscuits + 4 more pieces. This time round, I added a whole lot more chopped strawberries to the cheese filling.

Bosses aka 黑色会

2008-09-23T18:24:00.006+08:00

Don't be intimidated by this restaurant's name as there won't be people carrying parangs or guns, waiting for your arrival.

I've heard about Bosses through my mum who went there for dim sum during tea time and they have a 50% discount off dim sum (2 -5pm), which is probably the reason why it was pretty much full house inside, despite an empty outside area. The decor of the restaurant is very unique, with its black theme and tastefully done upfurnishing. However, the dim sum wasn't all as fantastic as some raved about. Even with the 50% promotion, we spent around $35 ++ for 2 of us, which I felt was a tad expensive for the quality of food, but the ambience and scenic view made the dining experience more worth it.

First up, we were served a plate of glazed walnuts with sesame seeds. These were pretty good, with the right amount of crunchiness and sweetness. But they come at a hefty price of $3.50++ i think. We ordered chrysanthemum tea ($4++) which was served in a pretty glass pot, which made me enjoy my tea better =)

Next dish was carrot cake (萝卜糕) and the accompanying XO sauce look-alike stuff on the left. This was pretty decent but nothing really fantastic.

We had the zhu chang fen (猪肠粉) with deep fried bean curd skin wrapped around crunchy prawns. This was quite okay as the bean curd skin maintained its crisp despite being wrapped with the 肠粉.

The shrimp dumplings (har gow) had succulent prawns and they were pretty big in serving.

Our 2nd last dim sum was a very crispy roll with salad prawns. When you first look at it, it doesn't look that oily, but the oiliness came out when you bit into it, thus it gets very jelat after eating 1.

The most disappointing dim sum was the green tea xiao long bao. There was only a very subtle taste of green tea and the skin of the xiao long bao was the thickest I've ever eaten! I had to force a 2nd one down my throat & left Marky to finish the rest.

Overall, if you are craving for dim sum at Vivo so much, it's okay to visit Bosses, but then again, don't expect too much and you'll probably enjoy your meal more.

______________________________________
Bosses (黑色会) @ VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
#02-156/157 VivoCity

Tel: 6376 9740

Just Noodles

2008-09-23T18:08:00.003+08:00

If you're looking for a cheap and decent meal, I would recommend Just Noodles at Suntec. I usually have my reservations about such places but I changed my perceptions after the 1st time Marky brought me there.

They serve value for money meals starting from $5++ and they include free flow ice cream and drinks!

I was rather impressed with their teriyaki chicken and soft shell crab set (Should be $14 or so) which was a little steeper but definitely worth the money. The teriyaki chicken's sauce was very tasty and the chicken was tender. The soft shell crab was really the highlight as it was fried till crisp. Even their rice was pretty decent and not the normal hard rice you get at foodcourts.

Marky's set was some cod fish noodles which looked like they're those frozen food we buy from supermarkets. But the noodles was pretty decent.

Service wise, they're quite prompt everytime when I'm there so no complains for the time being =)

_______________________________________
Just Noodles
3 Temasek Boulevard
#B1-057 Suntec City Mall
Tel: 6238 7600

Operating Hours:
Daily: 11am - 10.30pm

Waraku restaurant (Part 2)

2008-09-23T17:53:00.004+08:00

Just went Waraku yesterday with my friends and I was so sad to know that my favourite Waraku branch at Starhub centre had closed =( But the good thing is that they opened another branch at Heerens..and the standard of the food is on par with the old Starhub centre branch!

And a piece of good news for Waraku fans is that they are having an opening promotion (Heeren branch) of a 50% rebate on your bill so that you can use the cash vouchers on your next visit!

My current 2 favourite dishes at Waraku are the first 2 pictures below! (Ebiten Maki and Waraku salad)

______________________________________

ADDRESS	260 Orchard Road #05-04 The Heeren Singapore 238855
TELEPHONE	6834-1123
FACSIMILE	6732-8853
OPEN DAILY	11:30am - 11pm (Last order 10:30pm)

Togi Korean Restaurant

2008-09-23T17:20:00.005+08:00

My first favourite Korean place, recommended by Eden and Jon. After the first time we ate there, I went back around twice within the subsequent week. Perfect place for Korean food with your family or a group of friends.

The best thing about Korean food is that we'll always get free flow of Banchan (side dishes) that are sooo good with hot piping rice! One grouse I have about Togi is the overly sourish Kimchi which I do not know how to appreciate but at the same time, it is Marky's favourite.

My favourite dishes there are the stir fried chicken with oh-so-delicious rice cakes (The big plate of red stuff in the 2nd pic), the potato pancakes (Just below the stir fried chicken), their beef bibimbap and last but not least, their purplish "brown rice" which has legumes added to them and it's really really soft and fluffy! (Yummy =Þ)

Service wise, it is quite ok when it is not that packed but when it's crowded, there will be a lack of man power and it will be quite difficult to get their attention. But don't worry as their food is served relatively fast and with the free flow side dishes, you won't have to starve while waiting.

Do note that if you're going down to Togi during dinner hours, make sure you reserve your seats so that you don't have to wait as it is usually very crowded even on weekdays.

_____________________________________
Togi Korean Restaurant
11 Mosque Street
Tel: 6221 0830

Operating Hours:
Mon-Sat: 12noon - 2pm, 6pm - 9 pm
Closed Sundays

Astons Prime

2008-07-25T02:09:00.008+08:00

Our unexpected dinner at Astons Prime as the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed, turned out to be a delicious one. After hearing all the rave comments by our friends about Astons Specialists, we decided that we should try the higher end of Astons.

Here at Astons Prime, the queue was not as bad as the Specialists. Probably because of the steeper price, but this doesn't stop the crowd from coming. We were lucky to get a seat early as the crowd started to come in around 6 plus -7pm.

Marky started off with a decent cup of coffee.

We shared a bowl of mushroom soup which is very normal & it was served with a warm bread roll & tasty garlic spread.

Actually the highlights of the meal seem to be the side dishes which came at a separate cost ($3 for 1 side dish)

The potato jackets were sinfully covered in what seems like cheese (but being someone who don't really eat alot of cheese, the cheese was really subtle) & bacon bits. I like the sauce so much that I kept dredging my potato in the sauce. The potato jackets were baked to the point that it was really crisp. Totally love this!!!!

The sauteed french beans with garlic & tomato was a hit with me too. Very tasty indeed!

We ordered the sirloin & some herb crusted baked chicken. My chicken was rather tender & even my least favorite part, the breast meat, was tender too. But taste wise, it's nothing to rave about.

Marky's sirloin was a tad overdone but the char-grilled taste was perfect!

We spent around $60+ for 2 & since our experience was pretty good, I would say it was quite worth the money.

We had the chance to try the Astons Express at Bedok the other day & although it was coffee shop style (similar to Botak Jones & e-blackboard), the food maintained a pretty decent standard. Their steak had the familiar char-grilled taste & my dory fish was delicious.

We were most impressed by their service as a guy even came over to ask if the food was okay (Remember that we're in a coffee shop).. So we told him that they mixed up the doneness & gave us well-done instead of med-done & he told us politely that we could have asked for an exchange as they will definitely do an exchange with no questions asked.

This is exactly how customers should be treated!
_____________________________________

Astons Prime
467 Joo Chiat RoadS(427678)
Tel: 63442447
Opening hours: Wed - Mon 11.30am - 11pm, Closed on Tuesday
http://www.astonsspecialties.blogspot.com/

Astons Express (Bedok)
Bedok North St 1 Blk 205 #01-357 Stall 2
(Kopitiam Coffeeshop)
Tel: 6443 8058
Opening hours: 1100-2200hrs

Soup Spoon

2008-07-25T01:01:00.006+08:00

I must say that Soup Spoon really serve some fantastic soups! I ordered the Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff which is the thickest and most 'mushroom-y' soup I've ever tasted. It is definitely good but imagine drinking such a big bowl of the rich mushroom soup and you will be able to see why I can't finish their smallest bowl of mushroom soup.

Marky on the other hand, ordered the Beef Goulash which comes with generous portions of tender beef pieces that simply melts in the mouth.

All soups are accompanied by a warm bread roll which is very white and soft.. Just how I like my bread rolls to be like!

As we ordered the "SouperValue Combo meals", they come with either a salad/sandwich & a choice of either a pack of chips or apple.

Price range: S$9.50 – S$12.10.

For me, I had the Asian Tofu salad which is made up of tofu, mandarin orange, snow pea sprout, carrot, sunflower seeds, wanton crisp and topped with Asian vinaigrette. I enjoyed combination of the fruits & veggies with the vinaigrette but fried hard tofu simply doesn't work for me...

Marky's Roast Beef Wasabi sandwich is made up of roast beef (but of course), red onion, gherkins, cheddar cheese, green salad and dressed with wasabi mayonnaise. Can't really comment on that as I'm not a fan of the combination.
__________________________________________

On our 2nd trip there, I had Tokyo Chicken Stew, which is my current favourite. This complex soup contains many ingredients like lotus roots, shitake, enoki mushroom, white radish and bamboo shoots. Not to mention, the chicken was simply delectable and melts in my mouth too! Somehow, the soup reminds me of my mum's chicken stew...

Marky's Boston Clam Chowder was very 'jelat' and even he couldn't take it towards the end...

This time round, I had the Indochine Prawn Wrap while Marky had the Herbed Chicken Caesar
sandwich. The refreshing taste of the Kaffir lime in my wrap & the delicious herb dressing in Marky's sandwich totally won both of us over!

Thumbs up for these 2!

Finally, we also ordered Breaded Buttons with Garlic Aioli to try.

Imagine button mushrooms stuffed with Mozzarella cheese and breaded before deep frying. The garlic taste in the Aioli is pretty mild & adds a lot of taste to the mushroom. Be careful when eating this as biting into the mushroom causes the melted mozzarella cheese to flow out --- A gastronomical experience!

However, this must be eaten when it's hot as the taste is not as good when it's cooled.

________________________________________

We've only been to the Tanjong Pagar MRT's branch & they haven't failed us in terms of food & service. So I foresee us going there again very soon..

Oh by the way, they sell their soups in sealed packets for people who wants good soups & are lazy to cook their own/have no idea how to cook.

The Soup Spoon

Website: http://www.thesoupspoon.com/
Branches' Location: http://www.thesoupspoon.com/aboutus_where.asp

Curry Omu Rice

2008-07-24T19:37:00.002+08:00

Another of my favourite Japanese dish...Omelette rice with Japanese curry. The mild spiciness & sweetness of the curry is what makes Japanese curry unique. However, I have not found out how to make the egg omelette as soft as what Ma Maison does. But this is sufficient to curb my cravings =)

Curry Omu Rice

Ingredients:

Japanese curry mix with vegetables (Available at supermarkets)
Japanese rice
2 Eggs
Additional meats/vegetables (I used meatballs & hotdog)

East meets West Pizzas

2008-07-24T18:53:00.007+08:00

My craving for pizza made me run out to buy a pizza crust to make my own pizza. Although the crust wasn't anything to rave about, I do enjoy putting my favourite ingredients on the crust.

With 2 crusts in a packet, I made 2 pizzas of different styles -- Japanese Style & Western Style Black Pepper Chicken pizzas. Both pizzas have the same base ingredients but they have different sauces for coating the crusts.

East meets West Pizzas

Ingredients:

Pizza crusts
Chicken thigh meat
Black pepper sauce (Singlong brand)
Capsicum
Tomato
Shiitake mushrooms
Crabsticks
Tomato Paste for coating the pizza crust (Western style)
Okonomiyaki sauce & Mayonnaise for coating the pizza crust (Jap style)
Furikake (To sprinkle on the Jap pizza)
Mozzarella cheese

The process...

Japanese Baked Pasta

2008-07-24T18:38:00.003+08:00

I totally love this recipe and it's rather easy to make too... As I do not have any oven safe bowls, I molded my own bowls out of aluminium foil & they worked great too!

Japanese Baked Pasta

Ingredients:

Any pasta of your liking (I used the seashell type)
Any meat & veg that you like in your pasta. (I used frozen mixed vegetables & my usual hotdog and crabsticks)
Minced garlic
Light & dark soy sauce
Black pepper
Okonomiyaki sauce (For topping the pasta)
Furikake (For topping the pasta)
Mozzarella cheese (For topping the pasta)

The 1st picture below shows the pasta after being stir-fried & the 2nd picture shows the pasta after adding the three toppings.

Healthy Vegetable Barley Soup

2008-07-24T18:30:00.004+08:00

Thinking of losing some weight and so I came up with this vegetable soup which has lots of vitamins and fibre.

Healthy Vegetable Barley Soup

Ingredients:

Dried Ikan Bilis
Peanuts
Barley
1 Corn
1 Carrot
1 tomato
1 Onion, sauteed
1 piece of tofu

Healthy Miso Vegetable Soup

2008-07-24T01:16:00.004+08:00

Healthy Miso Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

Miso paste
Tofu
Shiitake & Shimeji mushrooms
Assorted vegetables, stir-fried with sesame oil & sesame seeds (I used asparagus, carrots, corn)
Sautéed onions
Water

Close-up of the final product...

Cornmeal raisin cookies

2008-07-24T00:51:00.005+08:00

I found this recipe from The Lazy Chef and since I have leftover cornmeal, I decided to bake this for my friends & family. If you like cookies that have coarse textures, similar to shortbreads,
you'll love this recipe. The added orange rind adds a fantastic citrus flavour to the cookies. Thumbs up for this!

Cornmeal Raisin Cookies

Recipe from The Lazy Chef.

Note:

I reduced the amount of sugar to 90g & it is still reasonably sweet.
I only used 50g of raisins as that was all I have left.
Also, to make it easier to mold your dough, you can mold them in batches & keep the rest in the fridge.

Ingredients:

170 g butter, softened
135 g white sugar
1 egg
190 g all-purpose flour
60 g cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Grated rind of 1 orange(about 1 teaspoon- 1 1/2 teaspoon)
70 g raisins

Method:

In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and beat well.
In another bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixture. Add orange rind and blend thoroughly. Stir in the raisins.
Form dough into ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball between your palms. Place 1 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheet, then flatten slightly.
Bake in 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for 15-19 minutes or until edges are golden. Store in airtight container.

Lastly, you can place these cookies in gift bags & they make great gifts for your loved ones!

6 Treasure Salad

2008-07-24T00:41:00.005+08:00

Due to time constraints, I'll be posting all the pictures & ingredients of all the food that I've experimented with and only add the recipes one at a time whenever I'm free.

So in the meantime, FEAST your eyes!

6 Treasure Salad
Perfect filling for sandwiches, pitas and any other types of wraps when you are faced with leftover veggies.

Ingredients:
Cucumber, diced
Tomato, diced
Corn nibblers
Hard-boiled egg, diced
Hotdog, diced
Crabsticks, diced
Mayonnaise
Black pepper
A pinch of salt
A squeeze of lemon

Miso Grilled Chicken

2008-06-02T14:59:00.004+08:00

As you may have noticed, I'm always cooking chicken as I'm not a very big fan of other types of meats, although I do try to cook something other than chicken once in a blue moon. I'm not a very adventurous person you know...

And since I love Japanese food, here's my miso marinated chicken that's being 'grilled'. Another easy-to-make recipe to suit the busy urban dwellers.

The salty taste of the miso in this dish, combined with the fragrance of the spring onions and sesame seeds, makes this a great dish with piping hot rice.

Miso Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

2 tbsp miso paste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame seed oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

A handful of toasted sesame seeds

2 sprigs of chopped spring onions

4 Deboned chicken thighs (Easier to cook)

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients (except the chicken).

2. Pound the chicken with the back of the knife to tenderize the meat.

3. Put the meat in a ziplock bag and pour the marinade in it. Massage the meat. (I meant massage, really!)

4. Place the bag in the fridge to let the meat marinade for at least 1/2hr. Don't leave it for too many hours and it will be too salty.

5. Heat up your grill and grill the meat till golden brown.

6. Serve with rice!

Crispy Fish Fries

2008-06-02T14:04:00.005+08:00

Wooo.. I just love my fish! This recipe uses the frozen sutchi fillet (Catfish) from NTUC and deep fried with a crispy flour batter called 脆浆. I got the recipe for the crispy flour online and despite missing out some ingredients which were not available at the moment, the fish turned out crispy still!

As I cut my fish into small strips, the cooking time was quite short, thus the fish maintained a juicy interior.

Crispy Fish Fries

(a) Crispy flour batter
3 tbspPlain flour/All Purpose flour
1 tsp Rice flour (Omitted)
3 tbsp corn starch
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (Omitted)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
120ml or enough water

(b) 1 sutchi fillet
2 sprigs of chopped parsley
1 chopped red chilli (Optional)

Method

1. Mix ingredients in (a) together to form a thick consistency. (You can opt for a more runny consistency if you don't like thick batters)

2. Add chopped parsley & chilli to the batter and leave aside for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Cut the fish fillet into small strips.

4. Dip the fish in the batter & deep fry in hot oil until light brown and crisp.

5. Remove excess oil with kitchen towel.

6. Eat immediately!

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

2008-06-02T12:37:00.006+08:00

Since the closure of Marché, there has been a new kid on the block to replace them in offering a bazaar style of ordering food. Here we have Shokudo, the Japanese "Marché".

Every patron is given a shokudo card to charge your purchases to it and very important thing to note is not to lose your card! A hefty fee is charged for the lost of cards.

THE QUEUE
This is what irks me when I think about eating at Shokudo. The queue seems neverending. Luckily for us, it was rather fast moving when we went the 1st time.

Side Tracking...
Actually I was a little hesitant about trying this as my previous experience at Shokudo Pasta & Pizza (City Link) was horrendous. All 3 of us hated the food while Marky went on to clear them for us and even felt that they tasted okay.
We had to wait super long to get seats, waited even longer for our food & bill to arrive. The service just sux. Plus they serve the worst pasta & pizza ever.. I can't even remember the exact pasta dishes we ordered. It was some Wafu sauce pasta. The worst part was the thin crust pizza..Somehow, the cheese just smells of vomit. SO UNAPPETIZING.
Our horrible dinner experience was freaking expensive & left us hungry still...so off we went to New York New York for some small bites & desserts to make up for it.

The moral of the story is ... don't bother eating at Shokudo Pasta & Pizza (City Link).

Back to the main topic of Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar. It is way better than their sister branch (Shokudo Pasta & Pizza). We enjoyed every morsel of food that we ordered. At least their pizza didn't stink and the wasabi on the pizza wasn't that bad, being the non-wasabi eater that I am.

The yakitori which I forgot to take pictures of, tasted really good! Especially the Tsukume (Minced Chicken Ball) Stick ($2.50) and bacon wrapped quail eggs.

The unagi omelette was pretty interesting & tasty (when it's hot) ($5.80) and the BBQ Eel with egg on hot plate ($6.80) was mediocre.

If you're a fan of mushrooms, the mushroom tempura will satisfy your cravings. The portion is huge & they're really crispy!

The Katsu curry lacked some kick but the rice made up for it =)

It was my first time eating sakura ebi on fried rice & it does add flavour to the boring fried rice.

Overall, it was a good experience @ Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar despite the expensive price tag. I might just be back again on a weekday when I don't have to queue...

Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44E

Telephone:
6837 3793

Operating Hours:
11.30am - 10.00pm (Daily)

Shimbashi Soba

2008-06-02T10:19:00.006+08:00

Those of you who have been to Paragon's basement will be no stranger to the interesting sight of a soba master kneading and cutting soba noodles from a piece of dough through a glass pane. This is today's recommendation of the day --> Shimbashi Soba

The good thing about this place is the promise of really fresh soba as it's done on the spot. Good service was also experienced on both of my visits there. They even hired some Japanese waitresses there to serve their Japanese customers.

Below are the stuff that Marky and I ordered the 1st time we were there. I really loved their cold soba with vegetable tempura though I can't remember the name of it. I was initially attracted by the half-cooked egg in the middle of the dish and boy was it goooood! However, I found that the portion was too big...I would have enjoyed it better if it was a smaller portion as I felt very 'jelat' towards the end.

Their cold noodles are pretty good but I will never order their soba in soup which was what my mum ordered the 2nd time I went there. The noodles were too soft for my liking though mum likes it.

Something worth raving is their Tamago Yaki, which came with Marky's Cold Soba set (Bottom right). The sweetness and texture of this simple omelette left me craving for more each time I visit there...

Shimbashi soba also serve different types of teas in pots, other than the usual Ocha.

Pop by for afternoon tea as dessert and tea sets you back by only $5++ (2.30 to 5.30pm). It's a real cheap deal!

The Paragon

#B1-41290 Orchard Road (S)238859

Opening Hours
Daily: 11.30am - 10pm
Telephone: 67359882

Jacobs Cafe

2008-05-22T14:54:00.006+08:00

This laid-back alfresco cafe hidden in Changi Village serves really good bread rolls and Focaccia bread to pair with their very thick & tasty soups. I got to know about this place through Zoie's recommendation and I'm sure glad that I visited Jacob's Cafe =)

The boss makes sure that their bread are warmed before serving, which is not always the case for other cafes. One of the highlights here is the Oven Baked Dory which even Marky the red meat lover fancied. The portion was big enough to justify the $26 price tag and most importantly, don't be fooled by the pale outlook of the fish. The meat was really tender & juicy. Thumbs up for that!

The chicken cutlet is not the usual deep fried cutlets you see at western food stalls. Jacob's cafe's

chicken cutlet is pan fried till there is a crisp layer outside while maintaining a juicy inside. It is interestingly accompanied with fried shallots (My FAV!) & sits on a pool of mushroom like sauce. Totally awesome!

And not to mention, they absorbs the GST & service charge! Hooray!

If you're looking for a relaxed evening with your loved ones, do pay Jacob's cafe a visit =)

Jacob's Cafe
Block 5 Changi Village Road
#01-2049 Singapore 500005
Tel: 65431106
http://www.novabell.per.sg/

Ma Maison

2008-05-22T14:00:00.006+08:00

One of the highly recommended place for Japanese-western fusion food would be Ma Maison Restaurant. I've been to each of the two branches (The Central & Bugis Junction) and the food were pretty up to standard every time.

The interesting thing about Ma Maison is the English cottage setting in the restaurant which gives patrons a homely feeling as what it's name suggests in French (“My Home”). Check out the pretty table lamp!

Each table also receives a big brass key for billing purposes.

On the whole, the prices are pretty reasonable, service is average and the food...just look at the pics and you'll know. Yummylicious!

Highlights:
The Spring Rolls served here is rather different from the usual deep fried one we have outside. It's kinda like the Vietnamese types with vermicelli wrapped inside. Combined with a sweet & light dressing + lots of veg, it's a great appetizer to start off your meal.

The cold Cha Soba Salad is perfect for the hot summer's weather. The light taste of it refreshes and cleanse your palates for the heavier tasting main courses.

Another highly recommended dish is the omu rice in a light sauce (I can't remember the name) which seems like miso. The whole taste of it just works so well for me. The omelette was really light and fluffy + the rice was chewy & tasty. Although I have no idea what the sauce is, it is well paired with the egg & rice.

The hotpot hamburger steak was the most interesting. Imagine a thick beef patty soaked in the delicious special brown sauce, accompanied by vegetables, a sunny-side up egg & FRIES!

I even have a video to show! hahaha enjoy!

Give this place a try and I hope you won't be disappointed =)

The Central @ Clarke Quay
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-96
Tel: 6327 8122

Bugis Junction
200 Victoria Street #02-51
Tel: 6338 4819

Ministry of Food (Bugis)

2008-05-14T12:32:00.014+08:00

The first time I stepped into MOF@ Bugis with Marky, I was attracted by the appetite-whetting desserts. Especially the Imo Soft serve..It simply took my breath away!!!

The yam and sweet potato (The 2 roundish fried thingy beside the soft serve ice-cream) were so naturally sweet and fragrant is the word to discribe them. An interesting thing that I observed was the tips card that came with our desserts which teaches us the way to enjoy what we ordered.

After having 2 desserts, I made a decision...to sign up for their membership card..=Þ

Marky's Shiratama Kurian which is soft serve with red bean paste, fruits, mochi and Kanten jelly. It comes with some sweet honey like sauce for the sweet tooth. Pretty good stuff!

2nd Visit
Please bear with the following pictures as I didn't know how to focus my HP's cam at that time... The pics didn't do justice to the food. So here's a link for better pics of the food...

The Unagi hotstone rice is one of the items that kept me going back. As mentioned in the earlier posting, I love hotstone rice, bibimbap, claypot rice...Anything that results in my rice getting slightly burnt is good stuff!! The special blended sauce enhances the flavour of the rice, although I can do with bigger pieces of eel in it =)

This was my main dish, Chicken Katsu Hotpot accompanied by Chicken Kaarage. It was reasonable and interestingly, the chicken kaarage tasted rather flavourful...

Marky's Cold Seafood Ramen Salad of some sort was refreshing and most importantly, COLD. The seafood used were very fresh and succulent. The sauce on the other hand, was kinda like a wasabi based mayonnaise which was light enough for a non-wasabi lover like me to accept it.

Lastly, we shared a cold red bean paste with soft serve and mochi. It was rather decent, but could be less sweet.

Things to note:
Coffee/Tea is complimentary with all their set meals & a voucher is presented to you with no expiry date

Desserts (<$6.50) can be purchased at just $3 with every set meal ordered.

Overall, there is no reason why I wouldn't go back again =)

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Where is it?

Marina Square (Cafe & Restaurant)
6 Raffles Boulevard #02-128E
Center Stage S(039594)
Tel: 63342202

Raffles City (Takeaway Kiosk)
252 North Bridge Road #B1-49 S(179103)

Bugis Junction (Cafe & Restaurant)
200 Victoria Street #02-45
Bugis Junction S(188021).
Tel: 65-63386466

Website: http://www.ministryoffood.com.sg/ (Not very informative)

Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Cafe

2008-05-05T09:45:00.013+08:00

Hi everyone, I'm finally back after such a long while and I'm gonna start posting the super back -dated food places that I'm been to =)

First up, Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Cafe. I've tried their desserts at the Wheelock branch and it's both aesthetically attractive and appetising at the same time, though i didn't take pictures of those desserts. However, the focus here is its branch at The Central @ Clarke Quay.

Overall, I felt that the food was so-so and not exactly worth the money although I didn't try everyone's food. However, I would like to highlight their kamameshi which was kinda unique and it came with an hour glass at the top to indicate when you can start eating it. This reminds me of our Chinese claypot rice and even the Korean Bibimbap. Either way, I'm a fan of this particular way of presenting rice. So, thumbs up for this!

Here we have the ton toro yaki which I didn't try but the portion looks quite miserly.

The grilled oysters seems quite good as can be seen from the number of oysters eaten by Cheryl! LOL

The Cha Soba and Sashimi Moriawase was ordered by Ben. Didn't try these too but the presentation was good and the freshness of the sashimi was apparant.

Lastly, the soupy soba with tempura ordered by me was definitely a really bad choice. Needless to say, a look at the tempura tells you why. The soba lacked texture and taste.

The ramen ordered by Mark was much better with the delicious herbal taste to the soup. However, the noodle was disappointing as well.

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Where to find?

The Central
#01-170/71/72,
6 Eu Tong Sen Street, Singapore 059817
Contact: 65347784

Wheelock Place
#03-15/16/17, 501 Orchard Road,
Singapore 238880
Contact: 67336636

Aburiya @ Robertson Quay

2008-01-27T13:50:00.001+08:00

This was the surprise birthday dinner venue for Marky on his Birthday. I had to spend 1 whole day looking at online reviews before deciding on this place and it was difficult as the place must have a good variety of meat (Marky = Meat lover) and not too unhealthy at the same time (to fulfil my criteria).

After deciding on YAKINIKU as the theme for our dinner, I found 3 restaurants which had the most number of good reviews, namely, Gyu Kaku @ CHIJMES, Aburiya @ Robertson Quay & Yakiniku Daidomon @ KeyPoint. The sequence is in order of pricing =) So obviously, the most expensive and least expensive is out. Also, I thought that the ambience at Robertson Quay will be good too...(You can see from the pics below)

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However, getting there was really quite troublesome as I haven't been there before and the cabbie uncle dropped us quite a distance from the restaurant. So we had to ask around and try to find our way there..zzz

But it was all worth the cab fare and trouble! Both of us felt that the food was really delicious and fresh! Just look at the compilation of food that was included in the set meal. Although the meats looked really pathetically little, it was quite enough to satisfy us. It was fun BBQing the meats too, although Marky ended up doing most of the work coz my jelly hands dropped 2 chunks of precious meats into the charcoal! So I gave up doing it.

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My personal favourite was the mushrooms which were dribbled with some sweet sauce. They tasted FANTASTIC when barbequed. Juicy on the inside and a little crisp on the outside as we left it a little longer on the grill. The sweet tasting sauce totally complements the mushroom.

Something that I must comment on is that their Japanese white rice tasted much better than many restaurants.
Both of us finished up every grain despite our diet plans =)

Their meats were also very SHIOK! They are marinated with your choice of marinates and the ones recommended to us goes pretty well with the meats. The beef tenderloin and chicken were very tender and juicy while the prawns were big and succulent.

Another must try would be their Nikujyaga (Beef and potato stew). It is a sweet stew with generous servings of juicy, tender, tasty beef. Best accompanied with rice!

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All these 10 courses for just $70 ++. Their set meals are really value for money. If you are interested in other "high class" meats like Wagyu beef, you can order it ala-carte too.

I'm already looking forward to my next visit there...*yum yum*

Kitchen Mogu Mogu

2008-01-14T23:26:00.001+08:00

Kitchen Mogu Mogu, located at where the old Burger King was @ Far East Plaza is most likely the 1st Japanese fast food in Singapore that uses a machine to replace the usual "service crew behind the counter" way of ordering fast food. Nat was the one who brought me to this place as her friend, Shawn, is one of the shareholders. (Don't worry, this won't be a biased review.)

What's Cool & not so Cool...
1) Once we stepped into the place, we were greeted by very colourful Japanese clothed benches and the cloths were also used to design the walls. The whole feel of the place was rather pleasant and spacious unlike many fast food outlets.

2) Another fascinating thing about this shop is their food ordering machines which were situated facing the main entrance. We were quite excited about using the machines for the 1st time and as there weren't much descriptions of the food in their menu (1 of the drawbacks), we didn't know what to press. Luckily, there was a friendly and quite "lame" waitress (Bottom left pic) there to help the blur sotongs click and feed the cash into the machines. We were very honoured to have Shawn treating us dinner that night and entertain us with some facts on the shop.

3) A special service that Mogu Mogu adopts is the choice to gift wrap your bentos in exquisite Japanese print cloths (Furoshiki) for an extra cost of $4. This i felt was a really attractive offer, especially for people who are suckers for pretty things. As you can see, I can't help but got my bento wrapped up even though I'm eating my bento there.

4) Now for some feedback on the food:

Nat's bacon cutlet was quite an interesting and flavourful item. The smoky taste of the bacon is enhanced by the generous serving of the special mayonnaise-like sauce. ($8.90)
My teriyaki chicken was a bit dry but the sauce was quite nice. ($6.90)
One important thing that I mentioned to Shawn was that the rice was rather dry. To me, the quality of Japanese rice surpasses many things in Japanese food.
The miso soup was alright.
Lastly, the ice-pan burger was a steal! The azuki beans were imported from Japan and I just love the combination of the pancake, azuki beans and ice-cream! Priced at just $3.90, I would encourage you to try it as I don't think you can get an identical one outside that is cheaper than that.

5) Mogu Mogu really pays attention to details, thus all their beautiful disposable bowls and cups are all imported from Japan. These are definitely alot more expensive than the usual white foam bowls that we see at some food courts, but Mogu Mogu still insists on using these pretty little things to hold their food.

Overall, I think I will be back again soon to try the (ohh-so-cute) Kawaii Bentos (refer to 03. Kawaii Bento in the close-up pic of the menu) which we didn't try. Found a pic in an online review. Can't wait to dig into those cutesy bentos!

http://www.hungrygowhere.com/restaurant_gallery.php?recordid=5925&pid=3593&offset=&type=user

Kitchen MoguMogu
14 Scotts Road,
#01-07,
Singapore 228213

Egg mayonnaise and Gai krapow in wonton cups (Part 3)

2007-12-31T13:22:00.000+08:00

How to make Gai Krapow?

Ingredients:
2 shallots, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 skinless chicken breast, minced (Chicken thigh will be preferred)
2 chilli padi, cut into halves
8 kaffir lime leaves
Fresh thai basil (If you have, i substituted with dried basil flakes)
Juice from 1 big lime (Not the normal small limes that you use)
1 sprig of parsley, roughly chopped

Seasonings:
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp black soy sauce
Pepper

Instructions:
1. You may want to marinate your minced chicken in fish sauce, black soy sauce and white pepper for a few hours beforehand for better taste.

2. Heat up some oil in pan and add shallots. Fry till it browns slightly.

3. Add garlic and fry till garlic browns slightly.

4. Add in minced chicken and fry till almost cooked.

5. Add chilli, lime leaves and basil and fry till thoroughly cooked.

6. Next, add lime juice and seasoning and fry to mix it well.

7. Lastly, add in some parsley and just mix it around.

8. Serve it hot with steaming white rice.

I have comments that there's a nice tinge of lemon grass taste in this dish...but I didn't even put lemongrass in..hhaha.. It is likely to be due to the kaffir lime leaves.

Egg mayonnaise and Gai krapow in wonton cups (Part 2)

2007-12-31T12:57:00.000+08:00

HOW TO MAKE EGG MAYONNAISE (Enough to fill 30+ wonton cups)

Check out how light and fluffy the egg mayonnaise is!

Ingredients:
5 hardboiled eggs
2 pinches of salt
Mayonnaise
Black pepper
White pepper
Juice of 1/2 a big lime (You can add more if you like the tangy taste)
6 crabsticks (Cut into small pieces - You can boil or pan fry it)

Instructions:
1. Remove egg shells and press down on the eggs with a fork to break up the eggs (As seen in 1st pic)
2. Add a pinch of salt while the egg is still warm.
3. Cool the eggs for awhile before adding 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, black pepper, white pepper and the lime juice. (You may want to add these bit by bit and adjust according to your preference)
4. Mix well and add in the pieces of crabstick. Mix the egg and crabstick pieces.
5. Chill for an hour and you may serve it cold in the wonton cups or even in sandwiches.

Egg mayonnaise and Gai krapow in wonton cups (Part 1)

2007-12-31T11:00:00.001+08:00

Thinking of what to bring for your potluck gatherings? Try making wonton cups! Its really easy to make, versatile and comes with an elegant presentation.

I made my 1st batch of wonton cups using the oven bake method as most ang moh websites did and I'm rather disappointed in the lack of wonton taste although it is definitely the healthier choice. (Some of my friends became my guinea pigs when I brought those wonton cups to Cheryl's house...Sorry :Þ )My 2nd batch of deep fried wonton cups were perfect as only deep frying brings out the wonton taste.

The egg and crabstick mayo was a hit among my friends and family and it goes really well with the cups. I'll post the recipe for my dearest friends as requested..

My version of the Thai Gai Krapow without the fresh basil (Minced chicken with basil) didn't go that well with the wonton cups although I was quite pleased with the refreshing taste of the lime leaves and dried basil in the dish. The downside was that the minced meat was rather tough as I used breast meat. Will try thigh meat next time. Anyway, Gai Krapow is perfect with some steaming white rice. Do try it next time =)

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First up, HOW TO MAKE WONTON CUPS?

1. If you like to lead a healthier lifestyle and don't mind compromising on the taste, you can bake your wonton skins in the oven. All you need is a muffin tray and oil to brush on your wontons. *Important: Brush off excess flour from wonton skins before baking*

2. Else, you can choose to make the deliciously cripsy wonton cups by deep frying them!

You can choose to use another ladle to press down on the wonton skin when frying to retain the shape. Otherwise, use a pair of chopsticks to hold the wonton down while repeating the actions of lowering and lifting the ladle with the wonton skin, in and out of the oil. This ensure that the wonton doesn't get burnt.

Take note that wontons cook super fast. Less than a minute.
Once the wontons is slightly brown, turn it over to cook the edges as in Picture 5 for 3-4 secs. Then remove it and place on kitchen towels to soak up excess oil.

See following post for Egg Mayonnaise recipe.

See next post for Gai Krapow recipe.

Kinara Restaurant @ Holland Village

2007-12-27T22:56:00.000+08:00

My trip to Kinara restaurant was in October when we went there for a celebratory dinner for Char's birthday. Having eaten enough of the usual western, japanese and chinese food, we decided to go for North Indian cuisine. Luckily for us, Kinara was a really good choice of place, except for the fact that they did not have enough seats inside and we had to be seated outside (it was really hot at first!).

Although I didn't go inside the restaurant, the interior ambience seems rather nice. Most importantly, the waitress was patient enough to explain each dish to us. The downside was that it seemed rather hard to get the waiters' attention when we need something.

As for the food, I felt that it was quite satisfying and quite value for money. Without a doubt, I would definitely visit Kinara again.

Location:
24 Lorong Mambong
Holland Village

Telephone:
6467 4101

Operating Hours:
Mon-Thu: 11.30am - 2.30pm, 6pm - 10.30pm
Fri-Sun: 11.30am - 2.30pm, 6pm - 11pm

Some crispy heavily salted and spiced cracker (Should be poppadom if I'm not mistaken) that was served immediately when we were seated. This came with 2 types of dips which I didn't fancy much.

Our 3 different flavoured lassi drinks ($5.20), , which are basically yogurt drinks. My mango one was the best tasting among the 3. The blueberry or whatever berry one tasted like vitagen.

The Naan Basket ($14) consists of plain, butter, garlic and kashmiri flavoured naan. The most interesting one would be the kashmiri naan as it has dried cherries and nuts sprinkled all over the dough, which makes it sweet =)

We ordered 2 types of curry, lamb curry and I think chicken curry. Perfect with the naan.

My personal favourite -- Calamari. Wasn't expecting their calamari to look like this as I was visualising deep fried ones. Yet, I love the way they do this dish.

Another favourite of mine -- Tandoori chicken. It is moist and tender, unlike what I usually eat outside.

Okonomiyaki

2007-12-27T10:40:00.000+08:00

One of my favourite Japanese food is Okonomiyaki, which is something like a Japanese pizza and is mainly made up of cabbage. You can add in whatever you like if you are making it on your own.

The "must have" ingredients for me are crab sticks and egg. Trust me, the egg really makes a difference to the taste!

So, in order to custom make my own okonomiyaki, I bought the okonomiyaki flour from Daiso (Somehow I only found it there), which wasn't the best of choice, but enough to satisfy my cravings. I also bought the okonomiyaki sauce, japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes from the supermarket to complete the okonomiyaki.

Since I can't read the Japanese instructions at the back of the packet of flour, I had to estimate the amount of flour to use. (Which apparently was too much for a one person's share). Despite that, my first okonomiyaki was still quite successful and good tasting too! The trick is not to have too much flour mixture in your okonomiyaki.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup okonomiyaki flour
1/2 cup water
1 egg (Separate the yolk and white)
1 bowl of cabbage, chopped
2 crabsticks (1 halved and the other shredded)
Okonomiyaki sauce
Japanese mayonnaise
Bonito flakes

Instructions:
1. Take flour and mix with water to get a thick batter consistency.
2. Add egg white and mix well.
3. Next, add the cabbage and shredded crabsticks and mix well.
4. Brush some oil in your pan and make sure that it is hot before adding a huge heap of your cabbage mixture.
5. Using a flat spatula, shape the mixture into a round shape and ensure that the mixture is well distributed.
6. Make a dent at the top of the mixture and add the egg yolk in the middle.
7. Once the bottom of the mixture is nicely browned, turn the okonomiyaki over carefully with 2 spatulas. (The egg yolk will break at the bottom)
8. Brown the other side of the okonomiyaki and you may then serve it with the okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes.

A step by step illustration of how you can dress up your okonomiyaki =)

Doesn't this just look sooo good?

My wedding blog is officially up!

2007-12-27T00:17:00.000+08:00

Dearest friends,

My wedding blog is officially up but it is currently rather devoid of posts. The link can also be found under "My other links".

Do visit it some time later when Marky and I post more stuff on it. Thanks! =)

Basil Alcove

2007-12-25T01:02:00.000+08:00

Ever had fine dining by the roadside? Here's a value-for-money fine dining place which has rave reviews by people who had been there before. Presenting Basil Alcove, which is tucked in a small shop space in Fortune Centre. Just imagine fine dining without the comfort of aircon and a lack of a nice ambience, yet the quality of the food is not compromised by the prices.

I've been there for X'mas dinner last year with Marky's friends and it was a pleasant experience. Just recently, I had dinner with my parents and Marky and last month, I brought my dearest womenz there to celebrate Mel's birthday. Here's some of the pics that I took when I went with the womenz.

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Address:

190 Middle Road

#01-07 Fortune Centre

Tel: 6336 1318

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Sauteed Shiitake Mushrooms with vinegar
Great tasting stuff we have here! The vinegar goes really well with the garlic infused mushrooms.

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Grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and spinach
My favourite!! Perfectly grilled chicken and the cream sauce wasn't too rich (I don't usually take cream stuff).

Bratwurst with sauerkraut
Don't really fancy this much.

Prawn aglio with a touch of orange taste
Another of my favourite because of the generous serving of fresh succulent prawns. Spaghetti was done al dente too!

Strawberry shortcake? Can't really remember...
But it was decent and has a frozen berry layer at the top. Quite refreshing I would say.

Even my sotong was feeling full after the meal =)

Party Time Eclairs

2007-12-25T00:45:00.000+08:00

I'm going to recommend the chocolate eclairs that this shop sells. Forget about the usual bad tasting eclairs that many shops sell. PARTY TIME's chocolate eclairs are best eaten cold and the chocolate filling will have the texture of ice-cream. YUM YUM! Perfect for parties and gatherings. You can visit their website for more products and prices.

Here's a pic of how the delicious eclair looks like before and after Marky takes a bite.

You can find them @

Blk 465, Crawford Lane

#01-18

Crawford Centre

Singapore 190465

(Behind ICA - Immigration and Custom Authority)

Cookies Galore

2007-12-24T17:45:00.000+08:00

These are the cookies that I made with Wani during Hari Raya at her house. We made 3 different types of cookies till the wee hours of the morning and had to skip school as a result.

These cookies are oh so nice and crunchy too...However, our chocolate chip cookies didn't turned out well in the beginning as there wasn't enough flour (her expert neighbour told us) and we had to add some flour to every single cookie dough which we moulded.

On the whole, my favourite was the Minty cookies (not everyone likes mint) and the cocoa crunch. The latter was super easy to make and delicious too!

Here goes the recipes:

Beware: Makes 4 dozen cookies (Recipe given by Shufang)

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar (white sugar)
2 large eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, or double-chocolate chunks

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together, butter, sugar and eggs.
3. Mix in remaining ingredients. Blend well.
4. Drop by teaspoonsful onto a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8-9 minutes. Cookies will be soft. Cool about 1 minute on cookie sheet then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ingredients:
220 gm plain flour
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (Sifted together with flour)

50 gm almond pieces/slices
180 gm butter
85 gm castor sugar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
150 gm coco crunch (ground)

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Mix ingredients A together with the coco crunch and almond. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter, sugar, honey (1 tablespoon), and vanilla essence. Add ingredients A into the mixture and mix to combine thoroughly.
4. Shape the dough into small balls and cover it with ground coco crunch. Bake for 15 minutes.

Opps! I lost the recipe for this...

Busy busy busy...

2007-12-24T13:09:00.000+08:00

I thought that I'll be free to blog during my holiday and I'm so wrong...There're so many things to do and finally I can sit down and blog.

Since I have so many things that are pending in the list for bloggin, I won't be writing alot for each of them as I can be quite naggy at times =)

My Secret Garden

2007-11-03T11:28:00.001+08:00

Secretly tucked away in a corner of Middle Road is this quaint and cosy place called "My Secret Garden". Although the name really kicks up curiosity, but the food is just mediocre. But be prepared to burn a big hole in your pockets for their mediocre food.

Marky dearest brought me there for dinner on my birthday and I only have the time to blog about this now...

Here's a picture of the place. Ambience was quite good but service was just so-so. Waiting time for food is really a killer there even though there's only a few tables filled.

Here's what we ordered:

Lime juice and I can't really remember the other drink, think it's some fizzy lime thingy.

Calamari was quite nice and goes well with the Thai Chilli. But then again, what can go wrong with fried food?

Next up, my seafood aglio. The seafood was fresh but I didn't think that there's anything special about the taste and the serving definitely didn't make up for it's price.

Last of all, Marky's steak...Good thing about it was that the doneness was exactly what Marky requested for and the taste was alright too.

Then came the bill and...

ARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!! So expensive lor! Can't help but take a pic of the receipt to blog about it.

An additional surprise for Marky...

2007-10-20T16:34:00.000+08:00

It's cool, it's refreshing...

and best of all, it's healthy*!
*Depends on ingredients added*

This was the surprise dessert for Marky after our lunch on my birthday. It is extremely easy and can be very healthy depending on what you add.

Ingredients:

Strawberry yogurt
Mango yogurt
Chocolates, crushed lightly
(chocolate rice crispies are recommended)
Nuts, chopped
Fruits (if you want to make it healthier)

Method:

1) Find any shot glasses/small glasses

2) Pour a layer of yogurt into the glass.

3) Top with crushed chocolates/nuts and pour another flavoured yogurt.

4) Repeat procedures in any way that you like.

5) Once the yogurt reaches the top, cover the mouth of the glass with a piece of cling wrap and poke an ice-cream stick into the middle of the glass.

6) Freeze for a few hours till frozen.

7) Immerse the glass into warm water for easy removal of popsicles from the glass.

ENJOY!

My Birthday Lunch (for Marky)

2007-10-20T14:49:00.000+08:00

Don't ask me why I am cooking on my birthday for Marky when it should be the other way round. Haha...I just missed cooking, so he was in a treat when I made him grilled chicken on the IKEA grill pan (Marky bought it for me on my request =) ) I mentioned to him about the soba salad that I made the other day and he asked me to make that for him too, as he hasn't eaten my soba in a long time. (IN the end, I made udon salad for a change. It turned out great!)

So there I am, busy preparing everything on my birthday...

In my grill...

1 Yellow capsicum
1/2 Carrot
3 deboned chicken thighs (Marinated overnight in teriyaki sauce, chopped garlic and ginger, a sprinkle of sugar and a splash of sesame oil)

*Teriyaki sauce and black pepper are added to vegetables as they are being grilled*

What's in my udon salad...

2 bundles of dried udon sticks (duh..)
Japanese cucumber, julienned
A small bunch of edamame, remove peas from pods
Salad dressing (Double the amount from my previous post + additional chopped parsley and toasted sesame seeds)

What can be easier than to just toss everything together!

The resultant plate of food...

Let us zoom into...

The grilled chicken. Perfect combination of the sweetness of the teriyaki sauce and flavourful ginger & garlic.

Udon salad
Tinge of spiciness, sweetness & saltiness from the sauce to add an extra oomph on the originally tasteless udon & greens. The addition of sesame seeds & chopped parsley makes this version even better than the previous one.

Grilled vegetable
Brushing on teriyaki sauce on the vegetables brings out their natural sweetness. At first I thought that I'll just put the carrots as garnish, but I ended up eating up all my carrots. =)

Finally, I had a positive feedback from my dearest Marky! That makes all efforts worthwhile. (Yuppie!)

Awon BBQ and Steamboat Restaurant

2007-10-18T12:54:00.000+08:00

Tucked away on the 4th level of Excelsior Hotel is a family style Korean BBQ and Steamboat restaurant, Awon, which was recommended by my dearest woman, Char. She got to know this place through the fantastic online reviews , thus it was chosen for my birthday dinner.

When I first stepped into the place, the first thing that caught my attention was the mouth watering smell of BBQ meat and this further confirmed Char's choice of place! Despite having very simple decor and not much ambience, I would say that it is really worth going. Why? Simply because of the value-for-money food that's healthy yet Mashinun! ("Delicious" in Korean)

Awon BBQ and Steamboat Restaurant
#04-01 Excelsior Hotel
5 Coleman Street 179805

Opening Hours:
Mon - Sun 12:00 - 3:00 pm and 6:00 - 11:00 pm
Tel: 6336 7337

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We were first greeted by unlimited flow of authentic Korean appetisers e.g. Kimchi, Ikan bilis, green vegetable, Chilli beancurd cubes and an unknown vegetable (above ikan bilis). They were so appetising and hungry us just kept on eating them with soft white rice. The hit among Char, Eileen and I was the beancurd. My personal favourite was strangely the green veg.

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The BBQ Steamboat was served together with the appetisers and it came with all the ingredients as you see in the picture. Stupid us didn't know how to BBQ as there wasn't any butter/ fats to spread b4 BBQing the meat. So as not to appear stupid, we didn't asked for help either. In the end, we charred the "metal hump" and the friendly waiter had to change it for us. He even showed us how to do it the right way.

The right way: Spread meat on the "metal hump" and pour the soup over the meat to cook it as well as to prevent charring. The soup that flows down from the meat also flavours the soup. The resultant soup is really tasty and sweet!

The downside: Although this is a buffet, the choices are really limited. There's only chicken, pork, beef, special vemicilli, vegs, mushrooms prawns and fishcake.

Something to rejoice about: UOB credit card is entitled to 50% discount off the buffet and you just need to pay around $13 per pax.

All the smiling faces after finishing dinner.

Must try!

Simple Cold Soba salad

2007-09-25T15:49:00.001+08:00

Made this for lunch today =) Haven't been cooking for a longggg time.

As usual, there isn't much ingredients at home, so I have to take out the frozen food to add to my plain soba noodles. (Sometimes I really think I'm really a JUNK + ie, always cooking out of leftovers LOL) But I'm rather happy with the resulting taste of the dressing -- A combination of sweetness, saltiness and spiciness. The crispy strippy crabsticks adds a crunch factor to the noodles and the sweetness of the taiwan sausage is just so...Mmm...nice!

Here goes the the recipe:

Simple Cold Soba Salad (Serves 1)

Ingredients:
1/2 a bunch of soba noodle sticks
Frozen vegetables or any other vegetables (Eg. broccoli or cucumber)
1 Taiwan sausage (Optional), sliced into thin pieces
2 crabsticks (Tear into strips and fry as shown in Strippy Crabsticks)
Olive oil/other healthy cooking oil
Sesame seed oil
Black pepper

Noodle dressing
3 tsp sesame seed oil
4 tsp light soya sauce
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 tbsp water
1 small chilli padi
Sprinkle of black pepper

Method:
1. Bring the water in the pot to a boil and add soba noodles. Cook for 3-4mins. Stir occasionally.
2. Drain the water and place noodles into ice water. Let it sit for 1-2 mins to cool the noodles.
3. Add sesame oil to frying pan and fry veggies. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pan fry taiwan sausage slices until glazed.
5. For the dressing, add all seasonings and condiments into a small bowl and stir briefly. (Press on the chilli padi if you like it hot.)
6. Lastly, pour dressing onto noodles. Add taiwan sausage and strippy crabsticks as garnishing. Serve!

Food tasting at Hyatt

2007-09-13T12:03:00.000+08:00

Had food tasting @ Hyatt the other day. Service was great yet the food was so-so. I guess you can't have the best of both worlds. Hotels give you the ambience but not the quality of food. Here's a peeps of the pics.

Alternative Keropok

2007-08-24T22:47:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, here's another short post before I start studying again =)

Keropok -- Pronounced as /Ker Row Pohk/. This is the Malay name for deep-fried crackers. The usual flavours are prawn, fish and vegetables.

Don't be mistaken, I'm not going to teach you how to fry these keropok chips today. Instead, I'm going to share this recipe for an alternative keropok which I kinda invented (Don't know if there's such things outside or not).

This recipe came from my love for imitation crab sticks. However, most of the brands sux and I only stick to 1 brand...(Can't remember the brand, update another day..lol) So please make sure that you only buy the best!

Strippy Crabstick Keropok

Ingredients:
Crabsticks (Depends on how much you like. Beware: It is extremely addictive)
Corn starch
Parprika (Optional)
Black pepper (Optional)
Oil for deep frying (Deep frying is best with more oil as the end product will be evenly cooked and more crisp)

Method:
1) Tear the crabsticks into strips using your fingers or a fork.

2) Pour enough cornstarch onto the shredded crabsticks to cover them.

3) Sprinkle parprika and/or black pepper if you like.

4) Leave the shredded crabsticks to absorb the flour for around 15mins.

5) Following that, heat the oil and fry the shredded crabsticks in batches. This will prevent overcrowding.

6) Scoop up the shredded crabsticks when they turn golden brown. Drain off the excess oil and place them on kitchen towels to soak up the remaining oil.

Maki Sushi from leftovers

2007-08-13T17:39:00.001+08:00

I have been busy lately, stressing about what I haven't studied and how far I'm lagging behind my friends...This is really affecting me ALOT! But I still think that I should squeeze in a little time for this short post which has been on the hold for some time.

As mentioned in the title, I made my maki sushi out of all the leftovers from the previous night's dinner. It was light, delicious and rather healthy (Brown rice was used instead). Most importantly, I had fun rolling my own sushi (although my Maki Sushi wasn't of the right shape, but I couldn't care less)

I don't have a recipe for this as this is rather easy and you can be creative and try it with your favourite ingredients!

手拉手，一起走...(Beware: Very long review, picture intensive!)

2007-07-24T21:06:00.001+08:00

I remember my parents singing "手拉手，一起走..." (to a tune which I have never heard before) whenever my dad drives past 手拉手京华小馆 (Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant) which was originally situated at 263, Geylang Road. (However, it has moved to a bigger place at at Jalan Besar, near to Sim Lim) It was very funny because somehow both of them will sing the song at the same time. However, we never ever thought of eating there because of the restaurant's very "Cheena"(China) outlook.

Our encounter with this restaurant was only after recommendations by my sis and Jeff. They kept singing praises of the restaurant and my parents went there without me the 1st few times...*Humph*

Finally came my chance to experience the food there and boy was that gooood! That is why I MUST recommend this family restaurant to all of you out there.

The restaurant is run by a Chinese national couple, the husband's the chef while the wife handles the servings and cashier. My family's quite familiar with the lady boss and she's always very friendly and chatty. Despite moving to a new location, business is still brisk with the support of old customers.

*Take note of word circled in green. Don't you just love them?*

Let's move on to the food... First up, we have the braised peanuts in star anise and other spices. Note that this is not the commercial canned peanuts that you eat with porridge, but homemade ones. Although you might just think that this is pretty common in Chinese restaurants, but one mouth and you can tell the difference. The perfectly braised peanuts, all soaked in the goodness of the sweet sauce, is just so perfect that we can't help but to order another plate of it.

Next, this is something that we never fail to order each time we dine there ---> 蒜泥白肉 which is a really simple cold dish. The thin slices of fatty pork melts along with the flavours of the non-spicy chilli oil and garlic, which is the main ingredient which gives this dish it's unique taste. The slices of pork lie on a bed of shredded cucumber which provides an extra crunch to it. Even a "I'll never eat fatty pork" person like me can't resist this dish.

Another cold dish which we ordered was cold tofu with century egg and pork floss. The unique combination of the 3 ingredients fuses perfectly together. This dish has a very light and subtle taste to it and I just can't stop putting this into my mouth!

XLB or 小笼包 is pretty delicious at Hand In Hand restaurant. The skin is relatively thin and each XLB is filled with a good amount of superior stock. I feel that their XLB is comparable to Crystal jade and Ding Tai Fung's ones. Do try and tell me =)

You must be thinking what the hell is this flat piece of thing with 8 rectangular browned parts in the middle.

This is the yummy and eye catching 三鲜锅贴 (at least that's what I remembered it as..hehe) Another dumpling dish, just that this is pan fried with a thin crust attached to the bottom. The crust doesn't really have much taste but that is also the most sought after part. My mum actually tore out a large part of the crust to eat while I stared at her with my mouth agape and asking "你拿了那么大块的皮，我还剩什么？"

Next up on the list is fried shredded potato (土豆丝) which is not meant to be eaten on its own but accompanied by approximately 8 pieces of handmade "thicker-than-popiah skin" kind of wrap. Talking about the wrap, it has a more elastic texture as compared with popiah skin. It is made on the spot (takes quite awhile to arrive) so that customers are able to enjoy piping hot wraps and did I mention that they smell really fresh and good, though their just made of flour...I would say that this dish is pretty bland and not for people who likes strong flavours. However, I like it for its lightness and dipping it in the chilli sauce really brings out the flavour.

Our 6th dish is non other than the deep fried crispy spring chicken. Looking at this picture alone doesn't do any justice to the real thing. The chicken that they serve is SUPER crispy on the outside and extra moist and juicy on the inside. Definitely the best fried chicken I've eaten. Especially when you dip the tender meat into the pepper and salt mixture, the whole experience is heightened to the max! 赞！

This plate of fried rice may look just like any other ordinary fried rice. But what you can't see is the aromatic 'Wok Hei' that this dish exudes when the plate arrives. I just can't resist food with 'Wok Hei'. And more importantly, fried rice can be easy to cook but mastering it isn't an easy feat. An interesting point to note is that this fried rice is not as oily as most fried rice that we find at other places.

Last but not least, something that we have to order everytime is the 拔丝地瓜, which is sugar glazed sweet potato. This is a special dish and not easily seen in Singapore. If you want to try this, you will have to inform them beforehand so that you won't have to wait too long for this dessert after your meal.

As my series of 3 pictures show, the way to eating it is to first separate out a piece of sweet potato as they are all stuck together by the sticky caramalised sugar. Next, dip it into a bowl of ice water to solidify the caramalised sugar. This creates a cold and crispy texture on the outside and a hot and soft texture on the inside. You should try this dish at least once in your life. It's really very unique!

*NOTE*
The quality of the sweet potato directly affects the quality of this dish. Out of the 3 times that I have tried this, only the last round wasn't as good as the sweet potato wasn't sweet enough.

On the whole, we felt that this restaurant is "Shiok" as what Marky said. Definitely good value for money. WIll go there again to take more pictures of their delicacies, especially their fried fish that I did not have a chance to feature in this post.

Anyway, the receipt below shows the breakdown of the cost of the featured dishes.

蒜泥白肉
Tofu with century egg and pork floss
Roast chicken
土豆丝
Orange juice (which we didn't order at all!)
Yang Zhou fried rice
Xiao Long Bao
三鲜锅贴
拔丝地瓜

The restaurant which "changed" our appetites

2007-07-19T21:50:00.000+08:00

Here I am, moving away from my markings for a while to blog after so long...However, today's featured restaurant ain't got anything to rave about. This restaurant is that I'm talking about is "Changing Appetites" at Marina Square. This place has quite a nice interior and a surprisingly long queue outside the restaurant. We thought we can just fill ourselves up there but...we ended up wasting more food than we ate.

Quoting Jo who was there with us that day,

"Changing Appetites really changed our appetites!"

Our starter of Onion bloom. Though I thought that it wasn't that good at first, it turned out to the best item that we ordered in the end.

Quoting Jo again,

"Fried food never go wrong when you are trying a restaurant for the first time"

Part I of the horrible spaghetti that was shared by Stone and me.

Black pepper chicken spaghetti - We definitely have never eaten any black pepper sauce that tastes like this before.

Rachel gave up the remaining strands from the 1 bite that she took.

Part II was some skewered prawns aglio olio with an overdose of parmesan cheese. The whole thing just taste of the parmesan. I'm not the only one who said this (although I'm not a big cheese fan) The only nice thing was the prawns only.

Now, this is the HUGE burger that I can't remember Cher or Rachel ordered. Anyway, they both ordered burgers. According to what I saw, the portion was too big for them as there is quite a substantial amount left. And they mentioned that it is very "Jelak". You'll get tired of eating it very fast.

However, I thought that the battered onion that was on top of the cheese is quite interesting.

Other things that was ordered was:
Seafood Chowder --> Taste just like chunky potato soup with micro seafood

Some Mexican Taco thing with lots of melted cheese on top --> Pearl took a real long time to finish that. Didn't try it so I won't comment on that.

Overall, I'm sorry to say this but this is one place I won't go back again.

Swa Garden Part 1

2007-07-02T09:14:00.000+08:00

As promised, I've taken a pic of Swa Garden's Fried Kway Teow. Just ate it yesterday with Marky and his parents. It was a struggle to take photos of the food. I didn't want his parents to think that I'm Siao, every single dish also must take a pic...So I only took the Kway Teow and the Orh Nee (芋泥). I'll make a trip down soon and post more mouth watering pics. =Þ

By the way, yesterday's dinner was great! The first dish to arrive was Kai Lan with Ti Poh (Dried Sole Fish) and although I had some reservations about the Ti poh (because I don't really eat them when they come with Bak Chor Mee), it kinda tasted not bad. And before I know it, I was munching these crispy, yet not very salty fish pieces, one after another. The Kai Lan on the other hand had a good 'wok hei' taste and wasn't very salty too.
Damage: $12

Next to come was their 招牌豆腐 (House special Tofu). Although Marky's mum didn't think the tofu was very nice, both of us simply loved this dish. And to add to the fact that Marky is definitely NOT a tofu eater, it shows how nice the tofu is. The tofu seems to be homemade and the fried skin has a tinge of fragrant garlic taste which I find appealing. The slurpalicious thick egg sauce that the tofu swims in comes with bits of crab meat, mushrooms, shreds of chicken and green peas.
Damage: $14

Third dish was deep fried crispy whole chicken which I wasn't crazy about because the breast meat is quite hard and dry, which didn't appeal to me. I still think that "手拉手"(I'll do a review on this soon!) makes a better version of crispy chicken which you will definitely not regret eating.

Damage: $14

Following the disappointing chicken, came another house special, Fried crayfish. I don't really know the exact name for this but who cares? You just gotta know that this is good stuff! The deep fried crayfish meat is stir fried in a black sauce and accompanied by fried 九层塔 (Basil that is commonly used in Taiwan). The meat is tender and not overcooked and the 九层塔 is a good mix with the crayfish.

Damage: $18

Second last dish was of course my favourite Swa Garden's Fried Kway Teow, which I have the picture to show you. (Finally) Swa Garden's version of the fried Kway Teow is superb, with the pieces of mildly salted Chye Poh and lots of kai lan, all pan fried to perfection. As you can see, their version has the kway teow slightly crispy, which is the reason why I like. However, Marky on the other hand doesn't like it so dry. But he still likes the kway teow for its unique taste. This is definitely a 'must try'.
Damage: $8 (1 bowl each for the 4 of us)

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Last but not least, how can we end such traditional meals without orh nee. A perfect ending to the meal. With its appropriately smooth yam paste, delectable pumpkin paste, surprisingly nice gingko nuts (I hate gingko nuts usually) and chopped chestnuts in clear sauce, who can resist this?
Damage: $10 (Ard 2 bowls each for the 4 of us)

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Traditional food are being phased out nowadays and it is a pity that these delicious food prepared by the older generations are faced with so much competition from the 'New-Age' food. I hope everyone can give these traditional, yet humble food places a try to bring back the nostalgia of the good old days.

What's more? There's NO service charge!

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Swa Garden Restaurant
No. 540-542 MacPherson Road
Singapore 368223
Tel: 67445009
Business hours: 12noon - 2.30pm & 6pm - 10pm
(Taken from Viv's blog. Hope you don't mind, Viv!)

Noodles: Hor Fun Wet and Dry

2007-06-28T15:57:00.001+08:00

My mum told me that she was going to cook Wat Tan Hor 滑蛋河 (Hor Fun swimming in smooth egg gravy) for dinner that day and she bought 2 packets of thick rice noodles. Suddenly an idea struck me!

Jess thinking to herself: "AHA! Maybe I can do something with one of the packets of rice noodles. Since I have been craving for **Swa Garden's fried Chye Poh Kway Teow, I shall try to recreate my version of that. "

So I went ahead to fry my version of the Chye Poh Kway Teow without any experience in frying Kway Teow and some advice from mum here and there.

End result----> It definitely didn't look any bit similar to the Swa Garden's version except that I added Chye Poh (Preserved radish) and I fried it over high heat to make it dry. The colour was totally different as I added dark soya sauce and I didn't have kailan to bring out the flavour of the dish. I also added alot of other ingredients as you see later.

So it was a marriage between Swa Garden's Chye Poh Kway Teow and Dry Hor Fun and Char Kway Teow. Although 3 is a crowd, my version didn't taste as disastrous as I thought it would be. It actually tasted not bad!

But dad, upon hearing me say that I was recreating Swa Garden's Chai Poh Kway Teow, had an impression that my fried hor fun will taste like Swa Garden's. So his first remark was "都不象!" （It didn't even taste the same!）ZZZzzz...

**Swa Garden is a Teochew Restaurant at MacPherson Rd. I'll try to give a review on it soon! Can't wait to eat their Chye Poh Kway Teow

Wat Tan Hor 滑蛋河 (Hor Fun swimming in smooth egg gravy)

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Ingredients:
1 packet thick rice noodles
Cooking oil
Light and dark soya sauce
Fish sauce (Optional)
Garlic, minced
Prawns
Pork slices (Mum didn't added pork)
Water (Depending on how much gravy you want)
Cornstarch mixed with a little water (For thickening the gravy)
2 Eggs, beaten
Bean sprouts
Fish cake, pan fried and sliced
Spring onions, chopped as per below

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Method:

Hor Fun
1) Heat wok at high heat and add cooking oil.
2) When oil is heated up, add rice noodles to fry.
3) Add light soya sauce (to taste) and dark soya sauce (for the colour) to the rice noodles. (We realised that the hor fun tastes better with more dark sauce)
4) Stir fry to mix the sauce and let the rice noodles sit for a while before flipping them. (Do the sitting and flipping a few times. It enhances the taste.)
5) Dish up the rice noodles and set aside.

Egg gravy and other ingredients
1) Fry the garlic till fragrant (Just a little brown)
2) Add prawns and pork immediately to stir fry.
3) Pour approximately a cup of water into the wok for the gravy. (Depending on how much gravy you prefer)
4) Add fish sauce (Alternatively, light soya sauce) to taste and some dark soya sauce if you like some colour in your gravy.
5) Pour some cornstarch water in to thicken the gravy.
6) Add beaten eggs slowly as you stir gently.
7) Finally, add hor fun first, then the bean sprouts and spring onions. Stir a little and you can serve now.

Jess' version of Fried Chai Poh Hor Fun

Ingredients:
Cooking oil
Garlic, minced
4 tbsp Chye Poh (soaked in water for a while to remove saltiness then empty the water)
Spring onions, chopped
1 packet thick rice noodles
Light and dark soya sauce
Bean sprouts
1 Egg, beaten (Optional)
Prawns, stir fried with garlic beforehand
Fish cake, pan fried and sliced

Method:
1) Heat wok at high heat and add cooking oil.
2) When oil is heated up, add chye poh and fry for ard 2 minutes till colour turns paler and it looks crisp.
3) Add garlic and spring onions to the chye poh and fry till fragrant. (Just a little brown)
4) Add rice noodles to the garlic and chye poh to stir fry for a minute.
5) Add light soya sauce (to taste) and dark soya sauce (for the colour) to the rice noodles. (Add more dark sauce)
6) Stir fry to mix the sauce and let the rice noodles sit for a while before flipping them. (Do the sitting and flipping a few times. It enhances the taste and makes it drier.)
7) Next, add bean sprouts and stir fry for a minute.
8)Then add beaten eggs over the rice noodles. Let it sit for a while before frying.
9) Lastly, add the cooked prawns and fish cake. Stir them around a little.
10) Serve.

鸳鸯河
Consists of wet hor fun and dry hor fun.
Proudly brought to you by Mum and I.

Interruption to my foodblog: Wedding Bells are ringing, Ang Pao box for SALE!

2007-06-25T00:40:00.001+08:00

Wedding bells are indeed ringing soon. But it is not my turn to say "I do.." yet. Hehe..I will be attending my sister's customary dinner in October and here I have a hand-made Ang Pao box for her.

Actually I'm taking this chance to do some advertising too. This is my 3rd attempt and I am pretty pleased with the outcome. Do leave a message for me if you are interested in my ang pao boxes. Prices are dependent on materials used. =)

What I started with...

My finished product...

Seafood: Bo Hur Hei Ma Ho (But I have both.. hehe)

2007-06-11T17:09:00.000+08:00

Bo Hur Hei Ma Ho (Loosely translated from Hokkien as: If there's no fish, prawns will do as well)

I've recently cook up this seafood dish with Pearl and it took us eons to just think of what to cook for dinner. It was such a headache and we just walked up and down the aisles of NTUC trying to find what to buy.

Finally, we settled for salmon and prawns. It was a good choice but the cleaning of the prawns was torturous. My dear friend who hates the small, wriggly legs of the prawns, left the important task of trimming to me. And poor me, not having lunch earlier, felt nauseous after being exposed to the smell of the uncooked prawns for a prolong period of time. (YUCKS) But all these were worth it. We had a wonderfully delicious and (overly) filling meal! (Death by the salad!!).

......

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Surf N Turf (Serves 2)

...

Pan Fried Salmon
Ingredients:
1 portion of salmon fillet cut into half (We got it at around $7 at NTUC)
Salt
Black pepper and black pepper corns
Olive oil

Method:
1) Sprinkle salt, generous amount of black pepper and some black pepper corn over both sides of salmon. Spread evenly.
2) Leave in the fridge for 15 - 30 mins.
3) Heat a frying pan with olive oil. Place salmon pieces on the pan and fry each side for 2-3mins till brown. You may leave the middle part a little raw for better texture.
4) Squeeze a little lime for better taste when digging in.

Oven Baked Mayo Prawns II

Ingredients:

12 prawns (Cut a slit at the top of the prawns and de-vein it)

Mayonnaise
Tomato ketchup
Chilli sauce
Chopped parsley (Good to have)
Black pepper

Lime

Method (Done in an almost similar way as the mayo prawns in earlier posts):

1) Mix mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, chilli sauce, black pepper together. Add a squeeze of lime.
2) Preheat oven to 220°C.
3) Lightly oil the tray and line the prawns with the slits up on the tray.

4) Use a teaspoon to pour the sauce onto the slits of the prawns. Bake until cooked.

Sauteed mushrooms

Ingredients:
1 packet of brown button mushrooms, sliced into thick pieces
1 tablespoon of butter

Salt
Pepper

Method:

1) Melt butter in a frying pan.

2) Add mushrooms. Fry for a minute or two.
3) Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

What we think...

...

The natural taste of salmon was enhanced by a touch of salt and black pepper. It had just the right amount of firmness on the outside and I left the inside slightly raw. I think that this is the best way to eat salmon as I hate overcooked salmon!

The brown button mushrooms that were sauteed by Pearl were very tasty and goes well with everything, but it will be better if she can hold back on the salt a little. (I know you have a 'salty' tooth, Pearl)

As for the prawns, they were slightly overdone but the taste was not affected -- Still yummy

The most important side dish --- Salad! Lightly dressed with mayonnaise (Not the healthiest choice but there weren't any other dressings at Pearl's house), black pepper and lots of lime juice for the tangy effect.

We then topped with raisins for added sweetness and toasted sunflower seeds for extra crunch!

Rice: Chicken and peanut congee with conpoy

2007-05-24T17:08:00.000+08:00

Marky and I were having congee cravings the other day so I invited him over my house yesterday for a congee dinner. It was not just any normal congee because of the additional conpoy. (Yum yum) Conpoy is great with congee as it add a tinge of sweetness to the congee.

As Marky is a self-proclaimed carnivore, I had to add in generous servings of meat to satisfy him. Chicken thigh meat was choosen as that's my favourite part of the chicken too =)

As my mum was at home, she can't resist not helping me with the preparations and cooking (Typical mum - Can't leave her usual tasks to others. Must get her hands on everything.) And so, both of us prepared dinner together. (With lots of nagging here and there.) However, it was good that she helped out as there was quite a bit of preparatory work to be done.

A tip from my mum
Adding some oil and salt into your rice when cooking will ensure that your congee will have a good consistency.

The end results ----> Thick, sweet and tasty congee which blends well with the ingredients. Great for days when you feel like having something light. CCC

Chicken and peanut congee (Serves 5-6)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of rice
Chicken stock (Instructions below)
2 chicken thighs, shredded
1 can of braised peanuts
A small handful of dried bee hoon, deep fried
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped
Dough fritters (you tiao)
Egg (1 per person)

Method:
1) Season the chicken thighs and bones with salt and leave them for around 1/2 hr before washing off the salt.

2) Cook the chicken stock by boiling chicken bones, chicken thighs, conpoy, 1 carrot and 1/2 a chicken stock cube together.

3) Boil for at least 1 1/2 hrs.

4) Take the chicken thighs out and season with sesame oil (Sprinkle light soy sauce if the meat is still bland.)

5) Place washed rice in a pot and pour chicken stock to cover the rice. Add in the conpoy and some carrots to increase the sweetness of the congee.

6) Cook the rice over small fire and stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking.

7) When the congee reached the last stage of cooking (3rd picture), stir continuously to make the rice grains break up further to give a thick consistency.

8) Ensure that the congee is boiling before pouring into a bowl and crack an egg directly into the congee.

9) Add the ingredients and garnishing.

From far left (clockwise): Dough fritter, deep fried bee hoon, shredded chicken thigh meat, braised peanuts, spring onions, egg

Interruption to my foodblog: Practicum and thoughts

2007-05-18T16:49:00.000+08:00

After completing 10 weeks of practicum, I could finally heave a sigh of relief. Although it was a period full of ups and downs, I was glad that I've put in all I have to teach them because I know that they recognised my efforts.

The rewards of teaching didn't come until the last day when I read all the cards given to me by the kids. It was then that I feel much appreciated and touched by them...I really miss teaching them but at least I can still look forward to the chalet that was organised by Adeline for them.