Experimental cooking of a bored "chef"

Cheese cake

2009-06-22T11:54:00.002+08:00

Yes the exams are finally over. Actually they've been over a while now but I haven't had the time to update my blog. Plus my internet has been down for the past few days. It's actually still down so I had to go to the school's learning hub to get internet. Anyway I haven't actually posted much recipes lately and I finally took a picture of my cheese cake before it got devoured by my friends so I figured I'd just blog about it. It's a really simple recipe that still tastes pretty good. The topping is optional and I'm actually still kind of working on that to make it taste better.

Cheesecake Recipe

2 blocks of 250g cream cheese, softened (I use philadelphia cream cheese)
2 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla essence
Biscuits, crushed (I usually sure short bread or digestive)
Butter, melted

1. Mix the crushed biscuits together with the melted butter. Line your baking pan with baking paper. Press the mixture to the bottom of the pan. This makes the base of your cheese cake. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees c. You can put it in the oven for a few minutes to let it bake if you like.

2. Mix softened cream cheese together with eggs, then add vanilla essence and lastly the sugar. Mix it until smooth.

3. Pour the cream cheese mixutre over the base and spread it out evenly.

4. Bake in oven for about 30-40 minutes. The cake will start to rise after a while and may start to brown and crack if left in the oven for too long. I guess it doesn't look so nice that's why I normally try to cover it up by putting a topping. I should actually work on it cause maybe it doesn't need to be baked for that long? After its done leave it to cool and then throw it in the fridge for a few hours till its nice and cold.

(Didn't have enough cherries to cover the whole cake =X )

Anyway the topping is pretty simple. I normally use canned cherries or blueberries with syrup. I just heat up the syrup in a pot over the stove and add in sugar and some thickening agent like cornstarch. Don't let it boil cause it tends to create bubbles. I normally throw in the cherries or blueberries at the end and mix them in before I take the pot of the stove. Leave it to cool and then put it in the fridge. Pour over your cheese cake and viola! Alternatively you can use something like cherry pie filling. Works the same I reckon.

This recipe can be used to make small cheese cake tarts too. Great for serving at parties. Just get some cup cake cups and fill them up with the biscuit and cheesecake mixture and bake. Don't fill the cup to the brim since you need some space for it to rise. Should be able to fill about 30 cup cake cups or so depending on the size of the cups.

Bento Japanese Restaurant

2009-06-05T14:11:00.002+08:00

Ok yet another place I was supposed to blog about a long time ago yet never got around to doing it. Bento is a Japanese restaurant located in Launceston city just behind the food hall located next to the Village cinema along brisbane street. It's a small shop that serves relatively cheap Japanese cuisine. Went there for lunch quite a few times when I was in the city. If I remember correctly, they have three types of bento boxes which range from about AUD$7-13. They also serve different types of sushi and sashimi, as well as a variety of side dishes like chawanmushi and agedashi tofu. I've never been there for dinner but there is a dinner ala cart buffet which costs about AUD$18? Should be pretty good for poor and hungry students. Haha.

Above is the teriyaki beef and chicken bento. It is served with some seasoned seaweed and coleslaw. The beef is tender but do note that the sauce is quite salty. I think this applies to most of their beef dishes. Their chicken dishes tend to be pretty good though. Rice is soft, a bit sticky and fluffy, which is good compared to some other places over here.

The next bento was the tempura and tofu bento. The tempura was decent, two pieces of prawns and some vegetables. Guess you can't really go wrong with tempura in terms of taste unless you over-fry it, leave it out for too long or get something thats gone bad. The tofu was supposed to be agedashi tofu, but I think they served the wrong kind of tofu. Kind of looks like the kind of tofu they use in yong tau foo which they stuff fish paste in, which is more firm like tau gua (is there a english term for this?). Also served with rice and coleslaw.

For some reason most asian food is expensive in Tasmania and Japanese food is no exception. A sushi roll normally costs between AUD$1.60-$2.50 in Melbourne and Sydney, but it costs AUD$3.50 at Bento. You can also get sushi boxes which costs AUD$7. Well compared to other Japanese restaurants in Launceston, Bento is something students would definitely frequent more because of the price. It's not the most authentic kind of Japanese food but its still pretty decent. Good for the budget conscious that still want a decent meal.

Singapore Chom Chom Melbourne

2009-06-03T18:51:00.004+08:00

G'day from down under! I realise it's been like 4 months since I last blogged, guess its just been me being really really busy + lazy + lousy internet connection that takes forever to load pictures that caused my long absence. Anyway, although I haven't been actively blogging, I have been actively cooking so I guess if I can keep this up I will be blogging quite a bit. I have been living in Tasmania for the past two semesters, and it's almost time for me to head back to Singapore. Can't believe how fast time has flown this past year, its quite amazing when you suddenly think about it and realised you're leaving for good. I kind of have mixed emotions about this place really as there have been good memories as well as some not so pleasant ones. But overall I think this Australian journey was a good experience for me.

Surprisingly this semester I have been rather adventurous in cooking, trying my hand at some local Singapore dishes such as chicken rice, hor fun and roti prata. I will blog more about those in my future posts so stay tuned. This time round I'm going to blog about something I ate last year in December before heading home to Singapore for the christmas holidays. Yes, it's a long time ago but since I have some backlog I reckon I should clear it up first.

This restaurant is called Singapore Chom Chom, and as it's name suggests, it serves Singaporean cuisine. It's pretty popular as it is always quite packed at lunch time. I never went there for dinner before though so I'm not sure about the dinner time crowd. I guess if you miss home and crave for some char kway teow or ba chor mee, this is a place to go to. Don't expect Singapore hawker quality food or prices, but at least some of the dishes are decent. My friend Cow brought me here on my first day in Melbourne and we had chye tao kueh (carrot cake), ba chor mee and claypot rice.

The chye tao kueh was apparently a new addition to the menu or so Cow said. Pretty small portion with not much ingredients except for some egg for about $5-6. Taste wise was ok though. Would have been better if it wasn't so sweet and a bit more spicy.

Next up is the ba chor mee. Again as I mentioned earlier, you can't expect the food to be the same as our hawkers back home. You get to choose the kind of noodles you want, like meepok, mee kia, kway teow, chor bee hoon etc. It was topped off with bean sprouts, minced pork, pork slices, fish cake slices and an egg. What I did like about this dish was the noodles as it had a nice texture and bite to it. It was also a large portion as compared to the chye tao kueh for $8.80 or something like that. Only thing was the chilli which was a bit lacking in its "oomph" factor. I asked for it to be extra spicy but it was quite disappointing as it wasn't spicy at all. The "chup"(sauce) was kind of sweet in fact.

Lastly, Cow ordered the claypot rice which was quite good. Had the burnt bits of rice stuck to the claypot that I know a lot of the older generation like my parents love. It was served with pieces of chicken and some vegetables. I think that there was some lup cheong (chinese wax sausage) as well. Claypot rice was tasty and pretty nolstagic. Careful when eating though, its pretty hot!

Subsequently when my family came to Melbourne we visited this place a few more times and I did get to try some other things like their laksa, char kway teow, fish ball noodles and prawn noodles. I think of the lot the the prawn noodles was probably one of the better dishes served. A rich stock with big prawns and pork ribs and some slices of fish cake. Can't compare to my favourite Wah Kee but still good nonetheless. Enough to satisfy me till I got back to Singapore. Sometimes like in summer you can also get desserts like ice kachang and chendol I think, though I didn't try any of those.

Singapore Chom Chom
188 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Ying Thai Restaurant

2009-02-03T18:00:00.003+08:00

Greeting everyone! Happy new year and Happy Chinese new year! A bit belated and its been a month since I last blogged about anything. Been slacking off recently haven't I? Many things were happening this past month or so since I've arrived back in Singapore! Once I arrived back there was christmas, then new year and more recently Chinese new year. Not to mention I have summer school as well so I had to spend time doing my assignments. Anyway this time round I'd like to talk about a Thai restaurant I went to while I was in Melbourne called Ying Thai.

Located along Lygon street, I guess not many people will think about going there to eat Thai food since Lygon street is known for all the Italian restaurants! But being away from home brought about cravings for food that always satisfied my taste buds and hence one day my friend brought me here and the rest is history. I think I ended up going back to this restaurant about four times to satisfy my craving for spice! =X

Anyway, Ying Thai is a pretty authentic Thai restaurant and you will find many popular thai dishes served here. On my first visit to the restaurant we just had tom yam soup (obviously a must have at any thai restaurant!), khao pad nam and pad thai.

When ordering the tom yam soup you can choose the level of spiceness, and there are a total of 4 levels of spice. I never tried the most spicy one before, but third level of spice is quite spicy already. I think getting the most spicy version will prolly kill my taste buds, but the hot version is just nice for me. Caused me to break out in sweat while eating it but shiok nonetheless! Spicy and sourish, you could also taste the subtle hint of lemon grass in the soup. It was also full of yummy seafood like fish, prawns and calamari, as well as mushrooms and tomatoes. Great for getting the gastric jucies going for the main course!

Next up is another familiar thai dish called pad thai, which is a type of stir fried stick noodle. It's sweetish and sourish, and is served with chicken, egg and some vegetables and topped with nuts. The stick noodles are pretty similar to kway teow which is a type of flat rice noodle, though their stick noodle is thinner. It was a big portion, and even though its meant for 1 person I think it's pretty difficult for your average asian to finish such a dish. It was delicious though!

Lastly we ordered khao pad nam, which is a thai fried rice that is fried with luncheon meat I think. It was very tasty as well though I guess it's not something I would really order all the time as its mainly just rice and luncheon meat. Also a very big portion even though its meant for 1 person. Luckily my friend is a big eater so we didn't have a problem finishing all the food.

I also managed to try other things which were pretty awesome too, but I forgot to take photos. The pandan leaf chicken, fried fish and vemicelli salad were all noteworthy mentions. Overall I think this is a good thai restaurant to visit when you're in Melbourne and craving for some thai food. Of course, after you finish your meal you can also cleanse your palate or cool down your burning tongue by having some gelato at Freddo's which is just a couple doors down!

Lord of the fries

2008-12-29T10:57:00.005+08:00

And now I present to you.... the lord of the fries! As it's name states, the fries can be considered the King. Lord of the fries is basically a fast food take out shop that serves fries! They do have some burgers and hot dogs as well but I think the main highlight is still the fries. There are two sizes for the fries, either in the cone (smaller) or box (bigger) and you have a variety of sauces to choose from to add on your fries. Of course you gotta pay for the sauce though. If I'm not wrong they have normal sauces and premium sauces so there's a slight price difference. In November when I was in Melbourne they even created a special sauce of the month called Obama sauce to celebration his victory. Haha they're pretty creative but too bad I didn't get to try that sauce.

Anyway the magic of these fries are that they are only cooked once you've ordered them, so they come out fresh and hot! They are also the thick cut kind of fries unlike the thin skinny things you get a macdonalds and burger king (hungry jacks in Australia) so there's a lot more potato inside. Caution when eating cause it can burn your tongue. The sauces they serve are also yummy and there were so many different types that I didn't have time to try all of them. Maybe when I visit Melbourne again I will? Pretty fattening though! The sauce above in the picture is a Vietnamese sauce or something which is supposed to be sweet chilli mixed with mayo and something (which I can't remember what). Sorry I think my memory is failing me!

I'm not sure how many outlets they have in Melbourne and whether it's available in other parts of Australia but you can find one stall at the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders street next to the doughnut shop and another just outside Flinders station.

Koko Black

2008-12-27T00:48:00.004+08:00

If you ever visit Melbourne, make sure you pop by Koko Black. It's first shop opened in 2003, and since then they have opened another 6 more shops I reckon, mostly in Victoria. Anyway, I'm not much of a chocolate person, chocolates are things I can do without as I don't get those chocolate cravings. I don't mind eating them, but I don't necessarily need them and won't kill for them. But this is a bit different. After this I will never look at hot chocolate the same way again!

After finishing my school term I was in Melbourne for a month and a half. My brother told me about Koko Black insisted that I have to try it, so my friend Cow brought me there for my virgin experience. I reckon I visited Koko Black at least 5 times if not more. I guess that's how good it is? The first time I tasted their hot chocolate my eyes suddenly lit up! There is definitely something different about it. The rich taste that tickles your taste buds and palette is just amazing! It's not too sweet either and doesn't make you feel too thirsty after drinking it unlike some other chocolate drinks. It was simply divine so to speak. It certainly is great on cold days like many of the days I spent in Melbourne. Why is it so cold in summer?? Doesn't make sense! The ice chocolate is also another hit. Think hot chocolate plus a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate ice cream with chocolate shavings on top. It's equally good I tell you. If you have two people you can get the combo, forgot what it's called but it includes 2 hot chocolate plus a chocolate platter which consists of chocolate ice cream, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, chocolates and chocolate short bread(or something like that). Prices for drinks are about the same as how much you would pay for a frappe at Starbucks or Coffee Bean. Ah this place really is to die for, so remember to visit it when you go to Melbourne!

website address: www.kokoblack.com

Honey Garlic Soy Fatty Pork

2008-12-26T18:47:00.003+08:00

Apologies everyone for my long absence! I lived through the past month more or less without internet access so I could not update my blog. However, I do have many things to blog about now, so stay tuned!

Before I left Launceston we were trying to clear up all our stuff in the kitchen and so my friend passed me a bottle of Honey Garlic Soy Sauce from Master Food. I just cut my pork rashers into strips and marinated them before pan frying. I cooked them for some time so the outside is a bit crispy and the inside is tender. Tasted pretty good and went well with rice. For some reason it reminded me of zhi char, in particular this guiness stout pork thingie I ate before though the taste is different. I should experiment with the stout next time. Need a bigger fire though.

Ingredients:
Pork Rashers
Master Foods Honey Garlic Soy Sauce
extra garlic if you like
onions are optional

Thai Express Launceston

2008-11-30T22:04:00.003+08:00

Long time since I blogged about something I ate. Anyway this is long overdue, I just never got around to blogging about it. There is a food court in Launceston called Food Hall along Brisbane Street and there's this stall called Thai Express. I doubt it has any affiliation to the Thai Express in Singapore though. Ate there quite a few times but after awhile I always seem to eat the same dish. Maybe because I'm a poor student and it's the cheapest one on the menu, but it also tastes good.

It's just called Thai soup noodles and you have a choice of chicken meat or fish balls. It's served in a clear broth with bean sprouts and pad thai noodles. The noodles are soft and slippery and you just slurp it up with the soup and meat. Great for a cold day! After adding the chilli flakes the soup becomes spicy yet some what salty. Not sure if it's MSG or something that makes it taste good but I just drink up all the soup anyway! Haha.

It's best when you add the chilli flakes to it to make it really spicy. Shiokness! Asian food is kinda hard to come back in Launceston so this is one of the kinds of comfort food for me. And at a steal of just AUD$6. I've never eaten something like this before back in Singapore or Thailand for that matter, so I'm not sure how it stacks up to food back home but I think this dish is still decent for Asian food in Launceston.

"Zha Jiang Mian" minced pork noodle

2008-11-29T12:00:00.005+08:00

Hi Folks! Exams are over and it's been a really long time since I last blogged about food. Haven't had the time to do so till now. My friend Benny and I were quite bored and decided to experiment on making our own kind of zha jiang mian while we were in Launceston. Of course you can't compare it to the types you get in restaurants or anything but I think the taste is still pretty good. This was a real experiment as we just threw in all kinds of sauces and substituted the noodles with somen.

Ingredients:

Minced pork
Shitake mushrooms (dried or fresh should be fine)
Somen noodles
garlic, minced
Sweet dark soy sauce (or normal dark soy sauce, just add some sugar)
Light soy sauce
Sesame oil
corn flour
chilli powder (if you want a bit of spice)

1. Heat up pan and add oil. Fry garlic till a bit brown then add in minced pork and continue frying till colour changes.

2. Add in dark and light soy sauce to taste. The first time we made this I think we also added in a bit of powdered chicken stock and fish sauce (might not be so important though). Also add in sesame and chilli powder if you like. Add in some water for the sauce.

3. Throw in mushrooms and continue to stir the mixture. Allow the sauce to bring to a boil and let it boil for a while. Mix some corn flour with water and add it to the sauce to thicken it, making sure that you continue to stir the sauce while mixing in the corn flour. Concurrently while you're doing this you should be boiling water to cook your somen noodles.

4. Once your noodles is cooked and the sauce has thickened, mix your noodles with a bit of sesame oil, then pour the meat sauce mixture over it and serve.

Kimchi Fried Rice

2008-11-03T18:54:00.004+08:00

Yes one exam down! Time to take a break and blog about some more food. This time round I have a guest showing me how to make his version of fried rice. In the kitchen we have Jay or Jin Kyu from Korea showing me how to cook kimchi fried rice using the left over kimchi which I made the last time.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Kimchi
1 cups of Rice
2 eggs
1 onion, sliced

optional items:
carrots
baby corn
potatoes
tuna
other meats

1. Heat up pan and add oil. Cut up the kimchi into small sized pieces and fry.

2. Fry for a few minutes before adding in your rice and mix together.

3. After frying rice for awhile start to throw in all your other ingredients like carrots, potatoes and corn and continue frying.

4. Crack eggs into bowl, add in onions and beat it up. Jay actually wanted to do something like what we call pattaya in Singapore which is to fry an egg and wrap it over the rice but he was lazy and tried a lazy man style but failed so he ended up just mixing in the eggs with the rice. Once eggs are cooked you can take it off the stove. Alternatively you can remove the rice from the stove and fry an omelett and then put the rice back in and wrap the egg around it.

(Hugh trying to be helpful in the kitchen)

And finally the end product as shown below! Presentation looks good huh?

Basically the process is pretty similar to how we would normally cook fried rice. It's just mainly the ingredients put inside, the core ingredient being kimchi of course, which is enough to flavour the dish. It's important to add the sauce from the kimchi into the rice of course, and you can also add in some gochujang for more heat. You can top it off with some tomato ketchup. Thanks Jay!

Dark Sauce Pork

2008-11-02T14:46:00.005+08:00

My first exam is tomorrow but I decided to take some time off to blog about something new I've learned here in Tassie. Picked up this recipe from a Singaporean friend of mine called Linus who got it from his mother I believe. Lets just call it dark sauce pork or dao yu bak.

Ingredients:
300g pork (I used pork rashers which is basically 3 layer fatty pork), cubed or pieces
dark soy sauce
pepper
salt
approx 1/2 to 1 tbsp of sugar
chilli powder or flakes
10 whole clove herbs
10 cloves of garlic, smash it a bit

optional items:
hard boiled eggs
firm tofu, cubed
shitake mushrooms, sliced
onions, sliced

1. In a bowl mix together the pork with dark soy sauce and some pepper, making sure that all the pork is coated in the soy sauce. Leave it to sit and marinate while u prepare your other ingredients. If you want you can leave it the marinate for a few hours to allow the pork to soak up more flavour.

2. Once you're ready to cook, add some oil in your pan and fry your garlic till they start turning brown. Add in your pork and continue frying till it changes colour.

3. At this point, add in some water. Depending on your preference you can make this dish more saucy or watery. Add in the cloves, chilli flakes/powder, a bit of salt and sugar. (Adjust the amount of chilli or sugar according to your taste preference, some people prefer it more spicy/sweet whereas others don't) You will probably need to add in more dark soy sauce as well. Cover and leave it to simmer on lower heat. Stir occasionally.

Linus said that how long you leave it over the fire depends on you. The longer you leave it on the softer the meat should be I reckon. If you don't have the luxury of time then just make sure the meat is cooked and you can take it off the stove. I keep it over the fire for about an additional 30 minutes after the initial frying.

4. Approximitely 15 minutes into the simmering process you can add in stuff like hard boiled eggs, firm tofu and shitake mushrooms. Throw them in earlier if you don't intend to keep it over the stove for so long. On my most recent attempt at making this dish I also added onions which I thought were quite nice, but that's because I love onions. Be sure to stir it around now and then throughout the process, this will also allow the sauce to coat the eggs and tofu and change their colour and enhance their flavour.

Essentially this dish should have a somewhat salty, sweet and spicy flavour to it, with a hint of the clove herbs. Great with rice or you can do those kong bak bao kind of thing too I reckon. I'm just wondering if next time I should try adding some corn starch to thicken the sauce further... As well as trying to let it simmer for an even longer time, might taste even better! Well, experiment another time I guess! Hope I did justice to Linus mom's recipe. Thanks for this great recipe man!

Potato Salad

2008-10-20T17:12:00.004+08:00

Since I have the time now shall blog about another dish as well just in case I might not have time to blog about these things for a while more since exams are looming. Just a simple potato salad dish to serve as a side dish or appetizer.

Potatoes, wash (skin on or skin off is up to you)
Bacon bits
Eggs, smashed or cut into tiny pieces
Spring onions, chopped
Mayonnaise
Crushed black pepper

1. Boil your potatoes till they turn soft

2. Drain the water and let them cool down

3. Cut the potatoes into bit sized pieces

4. Add in bacon bits, eggs, spring onions, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix well and serve. You can also keep it in the fridge if you want it cold.

Alright that's all from me today. Over and out!~

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

2008-10-20T16:47:00.004+08:00

Hola! It's been a long time since I last blogged, partly because I keep forgetting to take photos of stuff I cook, the amount of assignments piling up and the sucky internet in my room. Well, time to blog about another simple dish you can make to impress the girls! Haha. I'll just call it stuffed portabello mushrooms. What you need is....

5 Portabello mushrooms
100g Bacon, cut into little pieces
garlic, minced
spring onions, chopped
mozzarella cheese

1. Heat up pan. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and fry garlic till it starts turning brown, add in your bacon and spring onions. Fry till bacon changes colour. (Doesn't have to be totally cooked, but you can fry it longer to get it crispy) Alternatively if you don't want to fry the bacon you can just put it raw on the mushrooms and cook it in the oven.

2. Now just lay the bacon on top of the mushrooms.

3. Next put the mozzarella cheese on top and place them on a baking tray or dish.

4. Pre-heat your oven to abt 180 degrees for about 10-15mins. Throw in the mushrooms.

Once the cheese melts it's done but you can leave it in longer so the cheese will brown nicely. Just be careful not to let it get burnt.

Kimchi Jjigae

2008-09-29T21:41:00.004+08:00

Now that we have made kimchi, we can use it to make kimchi jjigae or kimchi soup. I forgot to take pictures of the kimchi jjigae i made, but heres the recipe I tried. Proportions are based on single serves so just multiply accordingly.

Approx 1 cup of kimchi
1/2 tbsp of gochujang (korean chilli paste)
1 to 1 1/2 cup water
Meat (beef or pork or chicken)
tofu
vegetables like onion and leek
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of chicken stock (my korean friends use this korean beef seasoning I'm not sure what its called)
A little bit of sugar if you like (my korean friends sometimes use coke or sprite instead)

1. Fry garlic and meat till meat is turning brown.

2. Add in veg and kimchi and continue frying. Add in gochujang when veg has slightly softened.

3. add in water, stir and taste. The soup should be on the sourish side, you can add in the chicken stock and sugar to balance out the taste. If you want it more spicy, add in some chilli flakes or chilli powder. As long as it tastes good to you thats fine, do your own fine tuning if you like.

4. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to allow it to simmer. I like the veg to be soft so I normally cook it quite long. Throw in the tofu at the end, allowing it to cook for a few minutes before removing from the stove.

And there you have your kimchi jjigae! Serve it with rice, or you can cook noodles and throw it in.

Kimchi

2008-09-22T01:28:00.003+08:00

Having made quite a few korean friends here in Australia, and seeing that kimchi is expensive here in Tassie, I decided to experiment making my own kimchi when I had free time. The result? Well my korean friends said it's good! So I shall post up the recipe that I used to make the kimchi.

1 Chinese Cabbage
Leek
Spring Onions
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 knob ginger, minced
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup chilli powder (gochugaru)
1/2 cup fish/prawn paste or sauce (I used chinchalok prawn paste)
1 heaped tbsp corn flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup salt to 1 litre of water

1. Soak cabbage in salt water for at least 5-6 hours, if not overnight.

2. Remove from salt water, rinse in fresh water 2-3 times.

3. Mix corn flour with water and heat over stove till the mixture thickens. Allow mixture to cool.

4. Add in chilli powder, sugar, prawn paste, garlic and ginger and mix well.

5. Cut cabbage, add in leek and spring onions and pour chilli mixture over the veg.

6. Mix well. I heard that the traditional method requires you to use your barehands. My korean friends say this gives it more flavour. Of course you can always use gloves to leave out the extra flavouring.

7. Store in containers for 3-4 days in cool place, after which put it in the fridge.

Above is me using my barehands to mix the kimchi. Someone commented that thats gross, I shall not mention names. But well, its traditional man! Maybe to add more flavour next time I shall not wash my hands first! Hahaha =X

And after mixing everything together... There you have it! Your own kimchi to wow your korean friends. Haha. Store the kimchi in containers and keep in a cool place for 3-4 days before putting it in the fridge.

Apple Crumble Pie

2008-09-14T15:36:00.004+08:00

It's been a long time since I last posted an entry, realised my blog is collecting dust! My bad cause after finishing all my assignments I took a well deserved break. Well, it was a good thing too because I was cooking more and actually fine tuned this apple crumble recipe which I've been wanting to post. I also took the opportunity to make kimchi! I will post the recipe next time though. By chance I think I have made my crumble more delicious, more like those you see at cafes. Not sure if I was lucky or something, I actually just went by agaration (estimation) for the crumble bit.

Apple Crumble Pie

Filling
8 Apples, skinned and sliced thinly
1/2 cup raw (brown) sugar
3 tbsp of flour
cinnamon (up to you)

Crumble
1/2 block Butter, melted
2 cup (approx.) Flour
1/3 cup (approx.) Raw (brown) sugar
cinnamon

1. Skin all your apples, remove the seeds and slice thinly.
2. Mix apples in a bowl with the flour, sugar and cinnamon
3. Lay the mixture on your baking tray or dish, spreading it out evenly.
4. Mix melted butter with flour and sugar. I roughly used about 1/3 a cup of sugar and about 1 cup of flour I think. Basically when you mix the ingredients together it should not be too wet, and should start to get sort of clumpy and crumbly. You can add more flour to the mix if you think it is still too wet.
5. Pour crumble mixture over apples, making sure it is evenly distributed
6. Pre-heat oven to 190 degree
7. Bake for roughly 35-40 minutes

And viola! Yummy apple crumble that is best served with a scoop of ice cream! I used my handphone camera to take the picture so it's not so clear, my apologies for that. But the end result is certainly very very yummy, of my 3 attempts I've tried here in Australia, everyone said this is the best. =) Finished in an instant!

Praties

2008-09-01T23:35:00.004+08:00

In the heart of Mowbray you will find Praties, the ideal potato meal. As it's name suggests, this shop serves potato fast food. I'm not sure if we have this in Singapore, except for at delifrance? I'm not really sure.

Anyway they have about 10-15 (cant rem e exact number) different types of potato topping to choose from, in three different sizes. If you don't have a big appetite, don't be big eyes like me. I thought the portions looked small so my friends and I ordered 2 large potatoes and one small serving of nachos. The 3 of us couldn't finish it and had to ta bao (take away). Haha.

This dish above is the rajahs curry potatoes. Was slightly spicy, but tasted more like japanese curry rather than an indian curry. But the taste was still good. My mind's abit fuzzy but I believe the curry contained carrots, potatoes and beef. Lots of filling as you can see from the picture.

The nachos were good too, was served with something like a bolognaise sauce and topped with melted cheese and sour cream. Really sinful man! I wonder if the nachos were like those bought in super markets or home made, but I reckon it's like those in super markets. But still very yummy!

Well, this is probably healthier than regular fast food, but I just wonder how much healthier. The food is good and so are the milkshakes! Thick and creamy, reminds me of macdonalds milkshakes back home when I was young. The ones they serve now are horribly disappointing! Expect to pay something anywhere from 7-12 dollars for a meal, depending on the size of potato and if you order drinks or not.

Hostel Food

2008-08-24T13:44:00.002+08:00

Gee it's been a long long long time since I last updated my blog! I'm sorry guys I've been so busy with assignments I don't have time to enjoy, cook good food or even have enough sleep! Think I'll die of exhaustion soon! Haha. Anyway, I haven't uploaded some pictures yet so when I do that I'll blog more. Once I submit my assignments next week I guess? Well lets just talk about hostel food for today.

The picture below is what you get during dinner times at the hostel. Soup, mains, dessert, coffee and soft drinks. You can have stuff from the salad bar too but I'm not a big fan of raw veg. This meal here is thai chicken curry. All our meals are served with rice and winter vegetables, normally carrots, peas etc.

Well you can't really complain about the food I guess? It's pretty decent and the desserts are usually quite sinful cause you have all the cream that goes with it. And you usually have a choice of mains so it's not that boring, but after a while you will have eaten everything that's been served I guess. I gotta be careful man, the desserts are making me fat!

Me Wah Restaurant

2008-08-08T23:41:00.002+08:00

Haven't had much time to blog lately, deadlines for assignments are drawing nearing. And I'm actually studying really hard for some reason, I don't think I've ever put in this much effort into my studies before! I'm quite proud about it! Haha. =D

Let's blog about a restaurant this time. Actually went to this place when I first arrived in Tasmania this time round. Dad said we were at this restaurant the last time we were in Tasmania too. I'm not sure, some how mom and I couldn't remember but he was quite insistent. Well anyway, Me Wah Restaurant is supposed to be really famous for good asian food in Tasmania. Some of their awards include Tasmania's best asian restaurant from 1999-2007 and Tasmania's best overall restaurant in 2007. They're quite crowded on weekdays and usually fully booked on weekends. So go early or make a reservation if you intend to patronize them. It's a really popular place.

It's weird that the whole time my parents were with me in Tasmania, we only ate chinese food. Think it suits my parents tastes better, but they also said as a poor student I won't be able to afford all these luxuries when their gone. Haha. Well I can't complain I think I'm really lucky.

First up we have some sichuan hot and spicy soup. It was not bad but I guess you can compare it to what we get back home? Not as spicy and it's lacking the vinegar I think. But I don't think you can get it better at other asian restaurants here.

Next up was the salt and pepper pork ribs. This was really good! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. And the balance of salt and pepper was perfect. Not too salty or anything like that. Mom loved it too.

I love seafood in Australia, it's always so fresh. Well most of the time at least. Every seafood dish I've had so far in Tasmania has been great. This seafood combination was no exception. It was full of scallops, fish, prawns etc.... Man just makes me drool thinking about it! Sweet seafood in a savoury sauce. Best on rice man!

Last dish was stir fried duck with snow peas. This dish was a let down I think. It was way too salty. The duck meat was a little tough too. Didn't go down well, had to drink a lot of chinese tea to curb my thirst.

Overall I think the food here is pretty good, except for the duck which was too salty. Even though it was almost a full house but the food still came pretty fast. The staff were really friendly too. Oh yeah, for some reason rice in Tasmania is expensive! A bowl of rice costs $2.50 here! 5 times the price we normally pay in Singapore! And this is in AUD. Sometimes I wonder if I can BYO rice. Haha. Well, till next time! Later~

Stir Fried Pasta

2008-08-05T00:11:00.003+08:00

Next up on the menu is stir fried pasta. Another one of the dishes I adapted from the restaurant where I worked at. It's a bit like aglio olio I think. And basically you can throw in whatever you feel like eating, its up to your creativity I guess?

Ingredients needed:
Pasta, cooked al dente
Red and green capsicum, sliced (for more colour add yellow too)
Button mushrooms, sliced (fresh or canned)
Meat, sliced (up to you, I used sausages though)
garlic, minced
onion, sliced
chicken stock (powdered or liquid)
crushed black pepper
oil

1. Oil pan and fry garlic, once browning throw in your onions and fry til translucent.

2. Add in your capsicums, mushrooms and meat. Fry til meat is cooked.

3. Add in your pasta. Add in chicken stock and black pepper to taste. Mix well and serve.

If you want a vegetarian alternative, substitute chicken stock with salt or vegetable stock and omit meat from dish. Can be served as a one meal dish. Total time taken should be last than a 1 hour.

pan fried potatoes

2008-08-02T16:38:00.004+08:00

This is a dish I adapted from the restaurant I used to work at. I cant get it to taste exactly the same but I think it's another simple easy to cook dish.

Ingredients needed:
Potatoes, thinly sliced ( I normally soak them in water for a while but you don't have to )
onions, sliced
butter
crushed black pepper
chicken stock powder
sugar
dark soy sauce

1. Boil the potatoes in water for a couple of minutes to cook them a little. You can also put them in the microwave for like 3 minutes or so with some water. Sometimes I omit this step if I'm lazy, the potatoes will just have a harder texture.

2. Heat pan and add butter. Once melted add the onions and fry til they become translucent.

3. Add in your potatoes and continue to fry. Add in a bit of sugar, chicken stock powder (or liquid), dark soy sauce and crushed black pepper to taste.

Well that's all there is to it! It's also great for snacking. Enjoy!

Cheesy mushrooms

2008-08-01T10:09:00.002+08:00

Hmm lets move on to simple dish part 2. This time its cheesy mushrooms. I based it on the same concept as how you would do your portabello mushrooms.

Ingredients needed:
Fresh button mushrooms, sliced
Mozzarella cheese
butter

1. Butter the bottom of your pan and lay mushrooms on top. Add cheese on top and bake until cheese turns brown at around 150 degrees.

And it turns out.... Viola!

Easy? Well its just a very simple dish but I think it's pretty yummy! You can add in some bacon to add move flavour and bite to the dish.

Tom Yam Chicken

2008-07-28T15:17:00.004+08:00

Ok lets start talking about food I've cooked for a change. It's been a really long while since I last posted a recipe on my blog. And since I've been doing quite a bit of cooking while I'm in Tasmania, it seems befitting for me to share some simple to cook recipes with everyone. Today I'm gonna blog about tom yam chicken. This dish is simple to cook and can even be made into a one meal dish if desired. Anyway I always use a lot of estimation in my dishes so I don't really have exact figures. I'll try measuring next time so I apologize for not being able to give figures now.

Ingredients needed:
Tom yam paste
chicken, cubed/diced/strips (you can use breast meat for a healthier alternative)
chilli, sliced (depends on how spicy you like it, I like it really hot)
bamboo shoots
coconut milk (I suppose you can use yogurt or coconut milk substitute, but I've not tried those)
button mushrooms, sliced (canned or fresh, its up to you)
onions, sliced
garlic, minced

1. Heat up your frying pan. Once hot add some oil and fry garlic, adding your onions once garlic starts to turn brown. Fry onions till they change colour.

2. Add in your mushrooms and bamboo shoots and fry for 2 minutes before adding in your chicken.

3. Add in tom yam paste and coconut milk, followed by your chilli and continue to cook until chicken is done.

If you want it to be a one meal dish you can throw in other vegetables like cabbage, xiao bai cai, bean sprouts etc, and serve on top of rice or noodles.

This dish can easily be done in 15-20 minutes including preparation time. Of course to save time you can buy cans of pieces and stems mushrooms, cut up chicken pieces, minced garlic in a bottle etc to reduce your preparation time. Simple and delicious!

Food Hall Fish and Chips

2008-07-27T01:07:00.000+08:00

I used to think that food courts were something associated with asian societies but I guess I was wrong. In Launceston we have what we call Food Hall! Located along Brisbane Street, just after Village Cinema, it serves a variety of food there. You can choose from western grill to thai to chinese and indian. Of course, who will forget an angmo classic... Fish and chips!

Tasmania is supposed to be known for their seafood by the way, they export a lot of their produce. And this stall supports the local industry. So gotta try something right? Angmo land must eat some ang mo food. Well, I didn't exactly settle for fish and chips because the seafood platter caught my eye.

When you order food here, they give you a queue number. So you wait around for your number to be called and you go collect your food. Seafood platter looked pretty good when they served it. Came with a large portion of fries and salad and coleslaw. You also get stuff like calamari rings, breaded scallop, breaded prawns and fish.

Well can't determine how fresh the seafood is if it's deep fried, but its good and sinful man! The fish was a thick cut, the scallop even had it's roe and calamari was well... Calamari! Just note that food courts in Singapore you'd probably spend about SGD$5 or so for a meal but here it's different. The seafood platter cost me AUD$12 if I'm not wrong. At least it was satisfying. Couldn't finish the fries though, was too much for me. Lucky I had friends who helped me finish it up.

Hoong Fatt Chinese Restaurant

2008-07-26T22:43:00.005+08:00

Ok short post this time. Just going to mention this chinese restaurant located in Launceston. Called Hoong Fatt, it's probably one of the only few chinese restaurants in Launceston. Up til now I've tried 5 chinese restaurants here and I reckon that's about all they have. I might be wrong though, would need to explore more to get a definite answer.

Anyway, Hoong Fatt Chinese Restaurant is a small restaurant located close to the city. Can't remember the exact name of the street but it's next time Brisbane Street. The cute thing apparently is that the father and mother run the grocery store next door, and the son and his wife run the restaurant.

I'm not sure how their meals cost at lunch time, but at dinner time it's an all you can eat buffet for AUD$8.90. That's pretty cheap actually, hard to find such value elsewhere. And if you like, they have an add-on to your buffet meal which allows you to take their dim sum (they call it dim sim), a soup, dessert and a drink for just AUD$12.10. It's a bit like an Angmo zhi char stall. Don't expect a lot of variety though, probably only abt 12 dishes to choose from. Surprisingly a lot of Angmos go there to take away food. And they all usually go for the fried rice... Anway, food here is not the best, but for hungry students such as myself, it represents great value for a low price. Eat ahhhhhh!!!

Puffy

2008-07-19T22:03:00.003+08:00

I forgot to blog about this place while I was still in Sydney. At the Hurstville train station there is this shop called Puffy I think? Can't remember the full name but anyways, every time you walk into the train station you can smell the aroma coming from this shop. A very alluring smell telling you to go and try their stuff.

Anyway, after walking past the shop for so many days, finally on the 2nd last day of my stay in Sydney we tried their puffs. Don't be surprised but they have durian puffs here!

Well ok it's not exactly a puff. The pastry is more like a biscuit, kinda crispy. And the durian is actually durian ice cream but the you still get the strong taste of durian. It's not everyday that you get to eat this kinda asian stuff, though I've heard that you can buy frozen durian or something like that. This puff was not bad, they actually have a lot more stuff on their menu but I didn't have the luxury of time to try other stuff. Maybe next time when I'm back in Sydney. Quite shiok eating this while walking the streets in winter!

Noodle House

2008-07-18T22:49:00.003+08:00

Ok while I was in Hobart for one night, my parents and I went to look for food after checking in at the motel. So we chanced upon this shop called Noodle House. Better eat all the asian food I can first before no chance right? Heard that there aren't many asian food shops in Launceston.

So popped in and found the place to be a popular place for take outs. It's just like in those dramas you watch where the actors eat from the boxes. Not many tables in the shop anyway and I realised that Angmos like to take away and eat at home.

After taking a look at the menu we decided on what we want to eat. Portions in Australia are super sized and usually we can't finish one dish by ourselves, so we normally share. Makes more sense and we don't waste food this way anyway.

Always nice to have a hot soupy dish in a cold country. Feels shiok when you drink the soup. That's why we ordered tom yam noodles. It's not authentic tom yam, don't have the taste of lemon grass and not very spicy. But still quite sour and tasty. Can't expect too much from an angmo country right? Lots of ingredients inside and the noodles are also pretty nice.

The other dish we ordered is called the Hotbox. I thought it might be spicy or something but it turned out to be like hongkong mee or something. The shop did have a nice and spicy chilli sauce that complemented the noodles though. The noodles had chicken and pork inside and was a bit on the sweet side. Noodles had a springy texture which was good. Though I was disappointed that it wasn't spicy but at least I enjoyed it.

As they always say, don't expect food in Australia to be cheap. Each plate of noodles costs an average of AUD$8 here.

Noodle House (Hobart)
Along Argyle Street if I rem correctly

Ser Seng Herbs Restaurant

2008-07-17T17:33:00.003+08:00

Ahhhh I have finally come to blog about my beloved turtle soup! Just a couple of days before I was due to depart I met up with some of the nsfs from my old office and Angie for a farewell lunch at Ser Seng Herbs Restaurant. Ser Seng is just located a few shops away from River South Nam Hoe Prawn Noodles.
For some reason I really love this place, ever since Daryl (dawg!) brought me here a couple of years back I have not failed to come back for their wonderful turtle soup. The only draw back about this place is that it's rather inaccessible, or rather, I'm just pretty lazy to go sometimes unless someone drives. Anyway, I like going with Daryl also because he has a bottle of XO there, when you add some to the soup, its heavenly!!

So some important points to note when you eat here. If you want to be adventurous you can get the internal organs and eggs. They have 2 types of eggs available. One is a larger, soft creamy runny yolk like textured egg, and the other is small and hard like hard boiled eggs. I prefer the runny ones, those are really rich and delicious. Of course thats a personal preference. Also, I'm not sure how it works for the XO and whether you can just bring your own over there but since Daryl is a loyal customer he gets to keep his bottle there.

Reasons why I love their turtle soup? Because their soup doesn't have the fishy smell like turtle house, their meat is nicely cleaned so you don't get weird fatty bits and their soup is probably the best I've tasted! Very rich and full of herbs flavour. The only draw back? They're quite anal about topping up soup. Even for loyal customers like Daryl, the boss only allows one refill of soup, and they only top up about a third or half a bowl of soup. You could try asking for more, but their standard answer is.... The soup is very heaty, cannot drink too much. So you have been warned, don't keep your hopes up about multiple refills of soup. As with all turtle soup stalls, food here ain't cheap. A small bowl sets you back $13. 3 runny eggs costs $2. For the more squirmish, you can have black chicken soup instead.

Ser Seng Herbs Restaurant
Tai Thong Cresent (Near River South Prawn Noodles)
Opening Hours: 11am to 7pm
Close on Monday

Miki 24

2008-07-16T22:12:00.007+08:00

Ok another backlog entry, this time to Miki 24 at Joo Chiat. This place doesn't open till very late, think they close around midnight or so. Anyway, their bak kut teh and fish head is supposed to be pretty good. Had to give it a try before I left Singapore.

So went there with Terence, Krystal and her little sister. At first the plan was to eat the bak kut teh, but we realised they have a 4 person set meal so that made more sense. You get to choose 4 bowls of either bak kut teh or kidney soup, 1 ter kah, preserved vegetables and beancurd skin.

Bak kut teh was nice! The meat was tender and the soup was nice and peppery. And as with most places you get free top ups of soup! Yum!

Krystal and her sis had kidney soup but I managed to swipe a piece of kidney from Krystal. Tasted pretty fresh. Some how I like kidney more than liver. Less porky taste i guess. The texture is also nice. The soup tasted different from the bak kut teh one though. Not so nice, I reckon the lettuce in the soup kinda spoiled the taste.

Ter kah is fatty as usual in a rich and salty brown broth. The meat was pretty tender, some places tend to over cook their meat, resulting in it being tough or chewy. Certainly very unhealthy though.

Tau kee and mei cai also very standard items served with ter kah or bak kut teh. Nothing much to say about them actually, except that the mei cai wasn't very salty which is good.

Waiting time was quite fast and service was also pretty efficient, but it was pretty late and not many people at the stall that night. Heard they can get quite crowded during dinner time. I also like the fact we can keep adding soup, drank so much that night that I was just full of liquid! Haha. Should try their fish head next time, Terence said it's pretty good.

Miki 24
Located at Joo Chiat, next to Mellben Seafood
Opening hours: Lunch and dinner till midnight

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

2008-07-11T23:22:00.005+08:00

Ok after a long long time away from my blog, I'm finally back to blog again! I'm now in Tasmania freezing my ass off but got so much back log to blog about. So instead about talking about some of my current eating escapades I shall backtrack to a few weeks ago before I left. Went for lunch with my relatives to Shokudo. It's a pretty neat place, actually you can say it's a Japanese styled Marche.

So you're given a card some what like Marche which you use to make purchases, and after which you check out at the cashier at the end of your meal to pay. They have many choices of food so you can slowly walk around and take your time to decide what you feel like eating.

Above is the oyster omelet, japanese style! Can't say much about this, because you can't compare it to the hawker style as it's different. Quite hard to go wrong with eggs too, unless you're a really bad cook. The oysters were not bad.

My brother said these kinda drinks were around since a long time ago but honestly I've never seen them until recently. Was pretty fascinated after watching those japanese anime and drama so I bought one to try. It's a peach soda by the way. Nice stuff!

Then we had pan seared tuna, cooked on the outside and raw on the inside. I like this dish, very unique. Had this kinda wasabi sauce on top of it or something. Tuna was thick cut and fresh too.

This is beef hotpot, slices of tender beef with vegetables and a kind of noodles. The stock was pretty sweet but it was quite delicious!

Spicy ramen was pretty standard, nothing to shout about as there wasn't much ingredients though I quite like the soup stock even though its not very authentic jap. It was pretty spicy. Noodles were just so-so only.

We also had our sushi and sashimi platters which were pretty decent. Raw fish is quite fresh. Thinking about the sucky sushi I ate in Australia makes me miss home. =(

Tempura was light and crispy. Everytime I eat tempura I am reminded about the painstaking process that goes into preparing these food stuff. When I worked as a cook in a Japanese restaurant many years ago I had to massage the damn prawns to get them straight!

I didn't get to take photos of some of the other stuff we ate, like the chawanmushi or rice stone pot but those were pretty good too. We ended the meal off with some sweets and I did capture a photos of their choco banana crepe. I think their crepes are not bad, very thin and soft.

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar is located at the basement of Raffles City and opens for lunch and dinner. Gets pretty crowded at dinner time so go early or make a reservation.

The Palms Cafe

2008-07-03T19:48:00.005+08:00

After a whirlwind week or so... I've finally arrived down under! Currently in Sydney and the weather here is cold. Can't imagine what Tasmania is like since it's sposed to be even colder! Taking a shower at night is not funny man, you shiver like crazy! Gotta get used to this stuff soon.

Actually I have quite a bit of backlog to blog about but I decided to blog about this cafe I went to eat at today with Aunt Rosemary and my parents. Called The Palms Cafe, its located in Stanwell Park.

Its a cosy cafe which serves your western type meals. Mom and Dad decided to share the Moroccan Carrot Soup and French Dipped Sandwich, while Aunt Rosemary opted for the Meat Loaf and I had the Spaghetti with Tiger Prawns.

The moroccan carrot soup was very thick and rich. It has an indian curry taste to it. Sort of like dhal or chutney, so you can taste the herb and spice flavours. It's also quite tangy, and has a smooth consistency. Served with a side of toasted bread which made a good entree.

I didn't get to taste this one. This is the french dipped sandwich, filled with steak, cheese and mustard, and served with a side of greens. It was quite long so my parents shared it. You gotta dip your bread in the sauce served with it, so hence the name french dipped sandwich. Quite duh right? Haha...

The spaghetti with tiger prawns was cooked a sort of dry fry style. Something like what I've made before in Singapore. It's fried with garlic, chilli and tomatoes. There were also some croutons inside. The spag was al dente and they were very generous with their prawns. I think I had like 7 prawns there. The dish wasn't spicy even though there were chillies. Had a slight tangy taste too because of the tomatoes.

I took a swipe of Aunt Rosemary's meat loaf too. It was served with some tomato based sauce, bread, mash and greens. It was very juicy and tasty. Went well with the sauce.

Dessert time and after browsing through their desserts we ended up with their Apple and Mixed Berry Crumble and Lamington. Apparently this is the original kind of crumble, whereby the mix all the topping with the fruit to get this messy mixture. It was very tasty and yummy though I must say. Topping was made of rolled oats, and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Wasn't too sweet and had a hint of sourness to it. Great thing it was served warm!

Their lamington is really unique. Normally the lamingtons I've eaten before are all very sweet and quite dense and rich. This one here was more of a sponge cake coated with chocolate and coconut. Really good though I must say. At least you don't find it so sinful. Haha.

They have really good coffee in Australia. At least at the places I've drunk at so far. Their latte here was not overly bitter, and not weak either. Good stuff cannot bluff! Argh all I've been doing the past 2 days in Australia is eat and eat!

Don't expect prices of food in Australia to be cheap. A meal here would prolly cost you an average of AUD$15-$20, but the food served is good. Not sure what time they open until, but they're pretty popular at lunch time.

Mahamoodiya Restaurant

2008-06-25T02:27:00.003+08:00

Met up with Steven the other day for dinner since we both didn't have dinner at home. Steve had his craving for muslim food again so we ended up at simpang bedok. This time we went to Mahamoodiya Restaurant, which is actually a solitary stall by itself, on the opposite side of the road. I like to come here because it's usually less crowded, though its been noted that at night a lot of things are sold out. Popular place? Well I'm not sure...

I've been looking for nice nasi goreng ikan bilis so in my quest for nice nasi goreng I decided to give this place a try! Steven settled for sup kambing (mutton soup), which he always has a liking for, and 1 plain prata.

Maybe cause this place has less people, so the food actually came pretty fast. Prolly less than 5 minutes. After my horrific experience across the road the last time, the nasi goreng didn't disappoint at this particular shop. Rice texture was in between grainy n soft which was ok. Taste wise was much better though.

Sup kambing is normally a very rich and salty dish. This version sold here though, was surprisingly not as such. Maybe they opted for the healthier choice, so the soup wasn't very salty. It still was quite tasty, just not as tasty as some others I've tried. Wasn't very thick either, but I guess I pretty much enjoyed it. When it's too tasty you feel so thirsty, plus its bad for you. The mutton was tender too. Not for those purists though I reckon.

And of course, to finish the course, what else but to drink teh cino peng! I really think they're going for healthier choice here at this stall. Even the teh cino peng is not so sweet! Still quite milky but prolly about half the sweetness of other stalls I've tried. Guess its better for those that don't enjoy extremely sweet drinks, and those worried about getting diabetes.

Quite satisfied after the meal, especially since I drank quite a bit of Steve's soup since he's more of a purist. Haha...

Mahamoodiya Restaurant
Simpang Bedok (on the opposite side of the road, next to the lan gaming shop)
Opening hours: 24 Hrs

Al-ameen Eating House

2008-06-23T01:10:00.005+08:00

Ok updates again. Sorry I haven't been regularly updating the blog in the past few days, been busy. And when I get home I usually feel too tired to do so. Anyway, a few days ago I made a trip to the west for supper after a fruitful mahjong session. Winson are you reading?? I went to the west to eat ok? Just for you! Though I'm sure you've been here before. Haha. Anyway its pretty standard that supper beckons after a late night mahjong session, and since Sean stays in the west, Terence and I had to be accommodating.

Made our way to Al-ameen eating house. It's pretty standard that we come here for supper since food is always pretty good and it's opened like 24hrs?

Sean ordered 2 kosong (plain) pratas while I settled for my usual telo bawang (egg onion) prata. My reasoning for always ordering telo bawang prata is that the prata is usually served to you hot since not many people order it so they have to make it fresh. It's my standard whenever I go to any prata shop.

Anyway, the prata here is pretty standard la, hasn't gone wrong whenever we eat here. Its a bit crispy on the outside and some what fluffy. Quite a lot of onions inside too! Great for farting or belching. Haha! =X The fish curry served that day was rather disappointing though. Don't know why it was so so so salty! Maybe it was over simmered or they accidentally spilled a whole bag of salt inside. Need some QC for that man but otherwise prata was pretty good.

Terence ordered his usual fried chicken too. Its a set meal that consists of chicken, fries and some salad. Being greedy, Sean and I also had a piece each. Chicken is nicely fried to a golden brown. Be careful when you take your first bite, its usually very hot and can burn your lips. The chicken is nicely marinated and battered before being fried, giving it good flavour and fragrance. Meat is tender and juicy. I guess you can't really go very wrong with chicken wings. Fries and salad were SOP, nothing to shout about. I remember getting more fries last time though.

Another one of my standards is the teh cino peng. Seems like I always drink it when I'm a muslim food stall. Their teh cino was sweet and creamy, pretty good for a sugar rush but can't drink too much of it. Will be quite jelak.

Overall, food here is pretty standard except for the curry which let me down. Service was ok though a little slow, plus they got our orders mixed up a little bit. Guess they were quite busy that night. Prices are quite ok as well. $0.80 for kosong prata and $1.50 for telo bawang prata. The 2 piece chicken set is $3 and teh cino is something like $1.60? I think prices are Simpang are a little more expensive.

Al-ameen Eating House
2,3,4 Cheong Chin Nam Road (Opposite Beauty World)
Opening Hours: 24 Hours

Breakthru Cafeteria

2008-06-19T22:33:00.004+08:00

Ok my bad I've been quite busy the past few days haven't really had time to update my blog. Been out catching up with friends and relatives, when I get back quite tired and lazy to update the blog. Got quite a bit of backlog to blog about actually. Well lets start with something rather interesting. Went out with my aunt and her friend the other day for lunch to this place called Breakthru Cafeteria. Breakthru Cafeteria is run by Breakthrough Missions, a Christian organisation that helps ex-convicts. The cafeteria is fully run by ex drug addicts. They show videos of the testimonials of the ex-cons in the cafe as well. A pretty interesting place! They serve stuff like dim sum and nasi lemak. Quite an extensive range of food I must say.

Seriously, for just the 3 of us I think we over ordered. There was so much food we had to tao bao some. First up was nasi lemak. The chilli was good man and the rice was fragrant. Too bad it got cold really fast because we were directly under the air-con.

We had many different kinds of dim sum dishes and there were all pretty good too. All the dishes are freshly steamed and served hot. It would be a pain to individually describe all the dishes cause they were all good so I'll just make mentions of certain dishes.

Above is the siew mai

The xiao long bao had soft tender skin and a juicy centre with soup. Great with the vinegar!

Yam Cake steamed with some sauce

Chicken Feet. Not really my kind of thing. Didn't eat it but my aunt said it was good. I trust her taste because she's quite a foodie herself.

Chee Cheong Fan with prawns. They also have it with char siew or scallops.

I liked their char siew baos because the outside is soft and fluffy. What's inside is usually secondary to me, but the char siew also tasted pretty good.

Century egg and pork porridge was a big bowl. Leans more to the grainy kind of porridge so it's doesn't have such a smooth consistency like crystal jade but it still tasted pretty good. You get the creamy taste of the century egg along with bits of minced pork. The spring and fried onions also make it very fragrant.

Har Kow

On their tables are nicely laminated newspaper articles that put something like: "Last time I used to get charged by them in court, now I serve them food in court." Quite a fitting statement for these waiters and cooks at Breakthru Cafeteria, and it's great to see them being accepted back into society. They may look a little scary with their tattoos and gruff exterior, but they are friendly and service is pretty prompt and efficient. Even the famous defence lawyer, can't remember his name.,Supras or something like that was there for lunch. Prices here are also inexpensive. Dim sum items usually cost between $2.50 to $3.80. They also serve good coffee shop kind of tea and coffee.

Breakthru Cafeteria
People's Park Centre #01-02c(opposite subordinate court)
Opening Hours: Mon to Fri 7am to 7pm, Sat 7am to 3pm
Closed on Sunday and public holidays

Mellben Seafood Restaurant

2008-06-16T01:50:00.005+08:00

Once again went for supper with Krystal, Uncle Steven and Terence. This time we went to Mellben Seafood Restaurant. Its just a stone's throw away from Rabbit Brand Seafood. Apparently this shop is some famous crab bee hoon place that relocated recently from Ang Mo Kio. At least that's what Krystal said. It could just be a branch that spawned off the main outlet.

When I took a photo of the sign board the grumpy shop aunty said that I'm not allowed to! -.-" After I told her in my broken chinese that I was sorta like advertising for her on the internet she just kept quiet and walked away. Hmmmmm....

Another lady (she looked nicer, did I mention younger too?) took our orders. We were pondering over what to order, partly because Krystal couldn't really eat spicy food. We already knew that crab bee hoon was the order of the day, but what would accompany it? Finally settled for dua tao (some kind of mussels or clams) and luo han chye (mixed vegetables).

The luo han chye was a really small plate. Can't believe we paid like $8 for such a little amount of vegetables! It did taste nice though, no complaints about that.

Next up was the dua tao. The sauce was a little spicy but nothing we couldn't handle. The clams were abit rubbery though, not sure if the texture is meant to be like that or if it was overcooked?

And finally at long last the crab bee hoon came. This was served by the grumpy aunty. Surprisingly this time she suddenly became very nice! She told us to let her know if we wanted to add soup. Later she even added extra bee hoon for us at no extra charge! Wonder if it's because of what I told her in chinese... Now what exactly did I say? Haha.

Anyway the dish was served in a claypot, though I scooped out a bowl and put the crab claw there to take the picture. We ordered 2 crabs and they turned out to be huge! Not sure if they were sri lankan crabs or what but they were big and had a lot of roe underneath! The crab was fresh and the meat was firm and sweet. The soup was milky, slightly peppery and very tasty. Not sure if its the MSG though, but it was really satisfying!

The whole meal worked out to be about $70, considering that we had to large crabs, I'd say was pretty worth it. Anything for crab bee hoon man! Don't suppose I can find this kinda good food served at "Mellben" if I go to Melbourne right? Haha ok bad joke. =X

Let the feasting before I leave continue!

Mellben Seafood Restaurant
Corner Coffee Shop along Joo Chiat Road (Next to Miki)
Opening Hours: 6pm to 3am

Sinma Seafood Restaurant

2008-06-15T23:21:00.000+08:00

Frog chronicles part 1

Since I'm going overseas soon, I figured that I better eat whatever local delights I can before its too late. So.... I started my search for good frog legs to eat. Terence said we should try this place called Sinma since his friend recommended it. So we ended up at Sinma Seafood Restaurant to check it out!

The restaurant has 2 shops located opposite each other so it's quite common to see their workers shuffling between the 2 shops to serve food and drinks. Once again we were stumped when ordering food because the waitresses are all from China. Couldn't really understand what she was saying, especially when she was trying to recommend some dishes to us. Thankfully menu had english so we just point and ordered from there.

First up was the sambal (a type of chilli paste) potato leaves. It is stir fried with garlic and hae bee (dried little shrimp). Dish was quite spicy but I loved the taste. Potato leaves have a nicer texture than kang kong, though that's my personal preference. Its less stringy and slightly softer. Love it man!
Next up was the special made tofu. This dish was really good man. The skin outside was crispy and the tofu inside was soft and silky. It was topped off with this minced meat and hae bee mixture, and drenched in sauce. Very tasty and great to eat with rice! Just thinking about it now is making me drool.

And last but not least was the chicken essence frog legs. Wah this was heavenly man! In fact the soup tasted just like turtle soup that I always crave! Very strong herbs taste and very rich. In hokkien they always say "jiak por" (add heat i think). Frog legs are great la, so soft and tender.... Why must they be so expensive???? =(

At the end of the meal we were super satisfied la, can't imagine we ate so much for supper. I was even contemplating having a second bowl of rice! Supper was a little pricey as the frog legs costs $24 but I guess it was worth it. Terence almost ordered fish la, that would have just killed me financially. Thankfully I stopped him and ordered the tofu instead. I think this is a good place to visit! Must try!

Sinma Seafood Restaurant
Geylang Lor 3 (It's the 2 corner coffee shops)
Opening Hours: I think they open from 6pm to 3am
website

Cafe Oliv

2008-06-13T14:43:00.005+08:00

Some time back my family chanced upon a newly opened cafe along East Coast Road. Cafe Oliv is a small homely restaurant. By the looks of it, the restaurant is a family run establishment. They even have a young boy barista. Haha. Business surely has been picking up for them. When we went there last sunday the cafe was fully booked. Luckily we made a reservation!

Cafe Oliv serves western food, drinks and desserts reasonable prices. They also have their set meals which are value for money. Going there with family is great because I get to try everybody's food! Haha.

The only disappointment of the night was the pan fried cod fish as shown above. The fish wasn't so fresh so it tasted a bit weird. Fish was a bit slimy or sticky, didn't leave a good impression there. The presentation was nice though.

The grilled chicken leg was marinated with bbq sauce. Very tasty and juicy. Plus it was such a big piece! Skin was also some what crispy on the outside which is a plus point!

My brother orderd the tenderloin steak set meal as it was supposed to be less fatty than rib eye, or so the waiter said. I have no idea though. The tenderloin steak was done to a medium done-ness. It was quite a thick cut. Meat was tender and juicy as well.

Just FYI, set meals come with soup of the day, the main course, dessert of your choice and coffee or tea (you can also change your drinks to one of their iced versions or something for a small price).

Beer battered fish is one of the specialties of Cafe Oliv. A big piece of battered fish served with wedges and garden greens. One of the better fish and chips I've eaten. The batter was crispy and you could savour the wonderful flavour of the beer batter and fish. The wedges were a good compliment to the fish as well.

This was my main course. I had the half rack of bbq pork ribs set meal. The sauced used for the pork ribs were the same as those used for the chicken leg. The meat was surprisingly soft and tender. Didn't take much effort to cut or remove the meat from the bone. The taste was also good. It was served with some boiled vegetables like carrots and long beans and those cute mini potatoes.

Because my dad, brother and I all had set meals we were entitled to 3 desserts. So far Cafe Oliv only has 3 types of desserts which are the mud pie, brownie and creme brulee. Or you can just have ice cream. Ice cream served is from Uzumaki, the japanese brand you see at some shopping centres.

Their mud pie consists of 3 flavours. Vanilla, coffee and surprise surprise.... Red Bean! The red bean is sandwiched in the centre of the pie. The ice cream was good, but I must say the ice cream was literally kinda "hard" to eat! Got to use quite a bit of force to cut into the pie.

The brownie on the other hand was really soft! Not to mention that they heat it up so its warm and moist, and served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. My dad's favourite! He can finish it by himself if we don't stop him. Haha.

Lastly, we have the creme brulee. Creme brulee is actually supposed to be burnt cream. The top layer is burnt caramel while the underneath is a soft and creamy custard. The custard wasn't too heavy nor overly sweet. Very nice!

One can expect to pay about $10-$15 or a meal here, and set meals cost anywhere between $20-$25. The coffee served is also good. Probably a cheaper alternative to starbucks or coffee bean! Cafe Oliv also has other interesting stuff on their menu like the mini trio burgers and a range of pastas and such. Be sure to check it out!

Cafe Oliv
220 East Coast Road S428917
Tel: 6344 3114
Opening Hours: 1130am to 1100pm

Coconut Macaroons

2008-06-11T23:54:00.001+08:00

Here is a recipe I found online for a non egg based coconut macaroon. The ratings were very good which prompted me to try it out. Anyway just in case you're wondering what's the difference between a macaroon and a macaron, please click on the following links.

Macaroon
Macaron

Anyway I might have to give up on making macarons because it's too difficult to make. I can't even get the conditions right because Singapore is very humid, and I don't have air-conditioning in my house either to regulate the temperature. Maybe when I'm in Tasmania I can try it out. It's tough work but any brave soul that wishes to try please let me know. I'll give you all the macaron recipes I have. Anyway this is probably way macarons are so expensive!

Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut and salt. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla using your hands until well blended. Use an ice cream scoop to drop dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about golf ball size.

3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until coconut is toasted.

Above is the mixture after I have stirred in all the ingredients and mixed it up well.

Instead of using the ice cream scoop as advised in the recipe, I follow what some members said to use your hands instead. I think I made a mistake of compacting it too tightly though. I was thinking more of the shape so I could dip it in chocolate than to realise too compact might make it hard.

The done product before putting it in the oven! They look like fish balls or sotong balls! Haha. The mixture was enough for 22 golf ball sized macaroons, I think next time should make them smaller though, so it's easier to eat.

After baking in the oven, this is the result! Top was quite nicely browned. The smell was really nice and fragrant, guess it's because of the coconut.

After which I melted semi dark chocolate and coated some of the macaroons. Wah these are really decadent desserts man.... You only have to eat one to get the jelak (too rich) feeling. The macaroons were sorta crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside. My test subjects/guinea pigs tell me that it was a little too hard because it was so compact. Gotta take note of that next time, as well as to make it smaller so it's easier to eat. Overall I'd say it's not bad but got room for improvement in my technique.

Really cannot eat too many seriously jelak! Haha.

Rabbit Brand Seafood Restaurant

2008-06-10T22:09:00.007+08:00

One must always plan ahead when it comes to supper. Need to map out the feasting route for the days ahead and be focused on the task at hand. Tough work right? Haha. Anyway, saw Rabbit Brand Seafood Restaurant quite a few times when driving past joo chiat, and found out that they serve supper till 3am! So I had to mark it down as one of the places to try out. Apparently Krystal likes this place so this time round supper was a bigger group. Krystal and her dad (uncle Steven) came along with Terence and myself.

This restaurant has it's own website which I was viewing prior to going for supper, gee was pretty surprised that they offer cheap meals. They even have their set dinners for one person which costs from $5.50 and onwards. How's that for a cheap seafood dinner?

Above is the mini buddha jump over the wall. Priced at a reasonable $8.50 it comes with abalone, sharks fin and some other delectable goodies. I've never eaten buddha jump over the wall before but this wasn't thick or starchy.

This is the braised sharks fin with bamboo fungus soup. Also not thick or starchy, and had quite a lot of bamboo fungus, sharks fin, crab and mushrooms. Decent stuff for a reasonable price of $5.50!

Crispy fried shishamo is battered and deep fried till it was very crispy yet juicy when you bite in. Shishamo is basically a type of fish with it's belly full of roe. Went well with the chilli dip.

Hot and spicy sea cucumber didn't really have much sea cucumber actually, just a lot of celery. But where can you really find sea cucumber dishes for $6? And it was not bad too. Chilli was quite spicy.

This dish above is what they call spicy skinny lobster. It's like bigger than a cray fish but smaller than a lobster. Not much meat inside even though it looks quite big. This is really spicy, very peppery but shiok. I bet anyone can eat one serving or more by themselves though, since there was not much meat.

Salt and pepper soft shell crabs were also nicely deep fried. Crispy on the outside but soft and juicy on the inside. Served with a mayonaise dip.

This last dish was a bit disappointing though. Fried mian xian (mee sua) was tasty, but didn't have any ingredients at all except for the green and red peppers! And it was kinda pricey for this too. The only thing that sorta spoiled the supper I must say. Everything else was pretty good.

Rabbit Brand Seafood Restaurant has dinner set menus as well as supper specials. Good for cheap seafood dinners or those hunger pangs in the wee hours of the morning. Do note that supper specials starts after 10pm. If you're feeling richer you can also check out the ala carte menu for more pricey stuff.

Rabbit Brand Seafood Restaurant
325/327 Joo Chiat Road S(427582)
Tel: 6348 8772
Opening Hours: 6pm to 3am
website

Hong Ji Yun Tun Mian

2008-06-09T22:25:00.005+08:00

After church yesterday, was headed to parkway with my parents. They needed to do some grocery shopping and I needed to fix my watch, and most importantly, we needed lunch. Popped by to the Marine Parade Food Centre just next to parkway to get some chow. This food centre is home of the famous Apollo Char Kway Teow, though I must say it's a matter of personal preference because some people swear by it and others hate it. Well today wasn't about char kway teow, it was about wantan mee. Located further in the food centre is Hong Ji Yun Tun Mian. It's not everyday you can have cheap meals anymore and this is one such place. A plate of wantan mee only costs $2, or you can have an upsized version for $2.50.

You will be surprised that even for a mere $2 you still get a decent amount of ingredients! The amount of noodles is substantial enough, and there were quite a few pieces of char siew. The char siew is quite lean but thankfully not dry and flaky like some horrible ones I've eaten before. Not the juiciest but still decent and pretty yummy. It's only $2 after all! Noodles are not bad either, chilli has got kick and the noodles are quite springy.

I must say the wantans were good though! Tasty and a generous amount of meat in each wantan. And for $2 you get 3 wantans, which is pretty generous. Soup is not super tasty but at least you don't feel thirsty like some others which put a lot of salt or MSG.

Another worthy mention is their home made barley. You get a real big cup for only $0.70. Wah yesterday really was a budget meal man. Total damage only $2.70! Budget meal but pretty satisfied. =)

Hong Ji Yun Tun Mian
Marine Parade Food Centre #01-142
Opening Hours: Not sure (I think they cater more to the morning crowd though, probably not open for dinner)

Beach Road Scissors Cut Curry Rice

2008-06-08T23:04:00.002+08:00

At the request of my dear pal JY a.k.a Cow (yes this is his nick, I have relinquished that nickname), Terence and I set out to look for the Hainanese Curry Rice he was talking about. He gave a rather vague description, just telling me that it's Hainanese chup chye peng (mixed rice with food). Thankfully with the internet and search engines, I visited some foodies blogs and managed to find the answer! So we set out to find this place, also to see whether it's as good as some people claim.

Upon arrival at around 1am, we notice a long queue waiting to buy food. You gotta stand in line and wait for your turn to order. You can see lots of taxis parked alongside while the cabbies stroll here for their supper fix. This place is very crowded even at 1am! Ok so we waited for our turn to order and took our picks. There were quite a few dishes to choose from.

Terence ordered 3 things while I was a bit more greedy and ordered 4. I did ask for less rice though! Anyway, it's literally scissors cut curry rice la! The guy serving will ask you what dishes u want, use his hand (with a glove of course) to pick the items, cut them up with a scissors and splash curry over it. Looks damn messy and the curry seems like it's gonna spill over so hurriedly paid the casher and shuffled to the nearest empty table by the side of the road.

I guess it was due to my greediness that my food cost me $4.60. I had mussels, fish cake, long beans and ngoh hiang. It was a really big plate of food which kinda made me regret ordering so much. See la big eyes.... Cannot waste food, must think of the starving people around the world!

Chow time and I took my first mouthful of rice. The curry here tastes different. It's thicker than normal curries, more starchy. They actually have a few sauces so I'm not sure if they mix them up because you notice it's not a pure curry colour. Curry not very spicy but I guess that's just my taste buds, others might think otherwise. It was rich and flavourful, unique I must say. And it's more like eating curry porridge or curry soup instead of curry rice. Haha. All the food was nice, simple and more home cooked style which I like. Which explains why the cabbies like to come here. They know the best makan spots anyway! I also noticed that a lot of the people in front of me only ordered a couple of dishes and it cost them like $2 or $2.50. Pretty cheap for a good supper meal. I reckon this can be considered comfort food for some people. Ok so the mystery of the Hainanese chup chye peng is solved! So where to next?

Beach Road Scissors Cut Curry Rice
229 Jalan Besar
Opening Hours: 1100-0330

Beijing Delights

2008-06-06T17:22:00.004+08:00

Revisit to Lavender Food Court, a place where there is lots of good food to savour. This time I'll be talking about Beijing Delights. Basically it's a stall which sells a mixture of items. You can get noodles, some zhi char items as well as stuff like xiao long bao. Question is, being a jack of all trades, will it be a master of none?

My mom likes to eat the chicken cutlet noodles served at this stall, somehow she always ends up eating this dish when we come to Lavender Food Court. Her stand is that the noodles are nicer than Kok Kee Wantan Mee, which is a few stalls away. And she also says it's more value for money since you get a big piece of chicken, compared to the few pieces of char siew and small wantans Kok Kee offers. Honestly, I've never tried Kok Kee Wantan Mee before, so I won't know what all the hype is about it. Always see long queues for their noodles though. Should try it one day, I know they're about til like 2am in the morning.

Anyway back to the question at hand, is this chicken cutlet noodles really all that fantastic like my mom claims??? Taste test reveals that the noodles are quite springy, texture is quite nice though it's a bit softer than what I would find to be ideal noodle texture. The sauce with the noodles is somewhat sweetish but the chilli sauce that goes with it will smooth that out. The chicken is freshly fried and served hot and crispy. Nice, juicy and tender! Overall it's a very satisfying meal that at $3, proves to be great value for money! If you want an alternative to chicken, there is a pork cutlet version available as well.

Ok where to next?

Beijing Delights
Lavender Food Court
Opening hours: 11am - night time(not sure what time they close)

Apple Maple Cinnamon Crumble Pie

2008-06-05T15:49:00.005+08:00

Last year before christmas I was tasked to make dessert for my family's christmas celebrations, hence I set out to find a apple crumble recipe that was easy to make and could "WOW" the chicks too. Haha. Anyway, the crumble in this is not like the type you might eat at cafes. This is a oats version but it tastes just as good and maybe slightly more healthy than just the buttered flour in those commercially available types. I will be trying out another apple crumble recipe soon though.

Apple Maple Cinnamon Crumble Pie

Ingredients

For filling

5 apples - peeled, cored and sliced ( I used Granny Smith Apples)
2/3 cup maple syrup (you could use 1 cup instead to make it a little sweeter)
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For crumble

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup rolled oats

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Mix apples with flour and cinnamon. Place the apples in an 8x8 inch baking dish. Pour the maple syrup over the apples.
In a bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Stir in the flour, salt, cinnamon and oats. Spread the oat mixture over the apples.
Bake in preheated oven 35 minutes, until golden and bubbly and apples are tender.

Best served hot with a scoop of ice cream! Some people also add a bit of nutmeg, as well as raisins for more flavour. It's totally up to you though, experiment all you want! =)

Megumi Japanese Restaurant

2008-06-04T13:51:00.004+08:00

I like Japanese food, it's something that I've always enjoyed since I was a annoying little tart. Started out with only the cooked food but over time I have started to enjoy sashimi more and more. Whenever I go out with my parents I always try to psycho them to eat at a japanese restaurant. Haha. Too bad my mom doesn't really appreciate sashimi like my dad does. So when mom is not around, dad and I will always have our boys night out and go eat japanese food.

My family is quite stuck in the mud, we normally find a place, and continue to patronize it till we find that it's too expensive or the standard has really dropped. So we were patronizing this japanese restaurant at East Coast Park called Sento, later on they changed their name to Waraku, which would be more familiar for most people. Sadly their food standard has dropped and prices have also increased significantly. Luckily we've found another japanese gem, closer to home in fact! Yesterday I went back to Megumi Japanese Restaurant with my parents to savour their japanese cuisine.

Megumi Japanese Restaurant is located at upper east coast road, in between Pasta Fresca and Big Fish. It's a small homely japanese restaurant that serves all our favourites and more. Apart from their comprehensive menu where you can have your standard fare of sushi, sashimi, bentos and what not, they also have their specially imported fish. The types of fish may vary but you have a wide choice, a lot of which I have never tried before!

Last night dad was pretty greedy, think he made mom a little angry by ordering so much, partly because he always complains that he's fat and needs to lose weight. And who else to complain to other than.... Mom! Haha... Anyway it's quite common that my dad will say he doesn't wanna eat so much and end up ordering more than we can handle. Haha.

First up we had saba shioyaki (grilled mackerel). It's a very oily fish, eat bite you take you can taste the fish oil oozing into your mouth. It was quite juicy, with the fish oil and some lemon juice, yet it is a plain and simple dish that doesn't require much seasoning to taste good. Mom found the fish flavour too much for her liking though.

Next up was the Sankai set. This is a platter of assorted sushi and sashimi that is available from Mondays to Fridays (Not available on the eve of public holidays and public holidays itself). This included salmon, tuna and tako (octopus) sashimi, as well as inari (beancurd skin with rice). The last time we ordered this I think we had hamachi (yellow tail) instead of tako, so I guess the sashimi can vary from time to time. The sashimi here is very fresh, don't really know how to describe it to you, you just have to do a taste test for yourself!

Dad ordered zaru soba noodles for himself. I'm not sure whether it's more authentic, or if its following a certain style of japanese cuisine, but some restaurants actually give you a raw quail's egg to crack into the dipping sauce. Megumi is one such restaurant, I've only seen this at one other japanese restaurant in Singapore so far. The noodles here have good texture, more chewy I guess (which I prefer), not like the soft mushy types you get at Sakae or Sakura. Dipping sauce is unique tasting due to the egg. Very refreshing and good for hot days. They normally eat this kinda stuff during summer in Japan.

Mom chose the Ebi and Zuwa Gani Ishi Nabe. Wah damn long and "cheem"(complex) name ya? Basically it's a prawn and crab rice dish in a hot stone bowl. It's sort of similar to the Korean Bibimbap, or closer to home, the claypot rice dish. The prawns are done tempura style, light and juicy. Crab meat is also shredded inside the rice, along with pickled vegetables, seaweed and what not. My mom likes the bits of rice that get stuck to the sides of the bowl, tastes just like the rice in a claypot. Nicely flavoured and not too salty like bibimbap.

And lastly, I opted for the shoyu char siew ramen (soya sauce based soup). Rich shoyu broth and ramen noodles topped with lovely char siew slices, naruto (japanese fish cake), bamboo shoots and vegetables. The char siew here is soft and sort of melts in your mouth, maybe because of the marbling. Noodles are done "al dente", a term normally used to describe spaghetti noodles. Very yummy and very satisfied after the meal!

Meaning of Al dente

Click on the above link to find out what al dente means.

Anyway, Megumi serves good food at decent prices. Service is also good, the staff are pretty friendly. Not much on their dessert menu though. The tea served also has a unique flavour. You can taste a sesame flavour in the tea, which not commonly served at japanese restaurants. Expect to pay about $15-$20 per person when eating there, although the uncommon types of sashimi can easily set you back $20-$30 per plate.

Megumi Japanese Restaurant
77 Upper East Coast Road #01-03
Tel: 6243 0700
Opening Hours: 1130-1430 and 1730-2230

89.7 Eating House

2008-06-03T21:59:00.004+08:00

Yesterday Terence felt like eating some malay food, so we landed up at 89.7 Eating House at Simpang Bedok. It's one of the many food stalls located at Simpang. 89.7 Eating House occupies 3 shops' space and offers many different types of food. You can have western, zhi char stuff, prata and regular malay cuisine.

On weekends the whole stretch of shops are usually damn crowded. Weekdays though the place is only half full. Anyway, lately I have this thing for nasi goreng ikan bilis. I ate this particular nasi goreng ikan bilis a while back and have been looking for a stall which replicates the same taste. So no guesses then, that I ordered nasi goreng ikan bilis. Terence went for the maggi goreng. One thing I also like when I visit malay stalls is their teh cino or teh cino peng (localized version of latte?), I always drink it when I get the chance.

The verdict.... This nasi goreng didn't meet up to my standard. Some how it lacks something though I can't really put a finger to it. Rice was just salty, and not much ingredients either.

I never knew what all the hype about maggi goreng was. Always thought that if you want to eat maggi mee just eat it at home, but I guess it's different though. Took a taste of Terence's maggi goreng, tasted like stir fried instant noodles using the seasoning from the packet. So I still don't see whats all the hype about.

Ultimately was kinda disappointed yesterday. Didn't really have a good meal, I think the shop opposite the road serves better food. Maybe I was just unlucky yesterday? People normally tell me that they serve good food, better than the shop opposite. Hmmm I don't know, maybe will review it again some time. The only highlight for me was the teh cino which was good.

89.7 Eating House
Simpang Bedok (near Tanah Merah)
Opening Hours: I think its 24hrs

Yong Hua Delights Fish Ball Noodles

2008-06-02T19:36:00.003+08:00

It's been awhile since I last had supper that I could blog about. So finally yesterday managed to try something new again. This time Terence and I went to Eunos to find Yong Hua Delights. Its located near the Eunos MRT at a coffee shop at Block 7.

At first I thought this stall only sold fish ball and minced meat noodles but it turns out they have different kinds of porridge too. Shall try it out next time I'm there. They also put up all their past achievements and awards they've won.

I ordered a bowl of dry mee pok (flat egg noodles) with extra chilli and vinegar while Terence opted for the soup mee kia (skinny egg noodles). The noodles arrived pretty quick and I was surprised that for $3 you get 5 fish balls and 2 meat balls. Normally stalls give you less ingredients. They don't have fish cakes though.

Noodles were not bad, had bite to it and it was quite spicy since I asked for extra chilli. Overall taste was decent, can be improved though. Not sure about Terence's soup noodles though, reckon it should be ok.

The highlight though, were the fish balls and meat balls. While we were ordering our food we could see the man making the meat balls. Looking at these balls you can tell that they were hand made. They not so round like those machine made ones. The taste and texture was also very nice. The meat balls had bits of spring onions inside, and you could taste the hint of pepper with every bite. They weren't exactly very meaty because I think there is some fish paste inside, but they were unique and nice. Both types of balls were tasty and springy, so there was a nice bite to it.

Overall these were above average noodles, partly because of the great balls served. Can come back again when I have the fish ball noodle craving. Especially good because its open 24 hours and there is a carpark conveniently located behind the coffee shop.

Yong Hua Delights
Block 7 Eunos Crescent #01-2665 (located inside a coffee shop)
Opening hours: 24 hours

Kin Turtle Soup

2008-06-01T23:32:00.001+08:00

Battle of the turtles is on! Today had round 2 of my turtle quest. After my quest to turtle house, today I visited Kin Turtle Soup at Lavender Food Court. Kin Turtle Soup used to be located at the Lagoon Food Centre at East Coast Park but they relocated quite a while back. Not sure if they moved to Lavender food court immediately after leaving Lagoon but they've been here for quite a few years already. The uncle in the picture is very friendly and speaks good english, so no hassle when ordering food. Haha.

Short wait later and the uncle delivered the good stuff. Piping hot and ready to eat! Unlike Turtle House, the soup here has a stronger herbal taste. You also do not taste or smell the strong turtle smell, the smell can put people off, just like for some other strong odoured meats like lamb.

Turtle tends to have a slightly chewy texture, I think most places are the same. Haven't eaten tender turtle before. You also get the jelly like cartilage stuff which is soft and slippery. Not much taste to it though. It's like slightly chewy agar agar.

The good thing about this place? The uncle is nice and friendly, when I asked for a top up of soup I passed him an empty bowl and he filled it up to the brim! Extra serving of yummy soup! The cheapest bowl of soup here costs $10, which is $4 cheaper than Turtle House. You can have yam rice or normal rice. The yam rice is quite delicious I must say, more flavour and a bit sticky. If I had to compare between the two shops, I'd say this is a better Turtle soup stall. Prefer the herbal taste and less turtle odour. More value for money anyway. They also serve crocodile meat if anyone is interested.

More turtle soup reviews to follow? Maybe maybe...

Kin Turtle Soup
Lavender Food Court stall #01-27
Opening hours: around 1130 till night time (not sure what time they close)

Kheng Nam Lee Eating HouseTeochew Porridge

2008-05-31T22:34:00.000+08:00

Wah it seems like it's been a really long time since I updated my blog. I've been quite busy these past few days. Well no matter, I've been trying to find new places to blog about, and upon my cousin's request, I shall soon blog about some muslim stalls I guess.

A short while back when Terence and I were supposed to pick Sherry up from Zouk, so we ventured to this coffee shop nearby to try their teochew porridge while waiting for her to be done. It's a small corner coffee shop by the side of the road, and it only serves, what else but teochew porridge. We were there at about 1.30am and people were starting to stream in. From old folks to young guns, can find them all here. Must be quite popular since there's such a crowd.

We stepped into the shop and took a look at what was available. Your standard teochew porridge fare I guess. After fussing over what we should eat we decided on pig's trotters, fish cakes, hae bee hiam (small prawns), mei cai(preserved/salted vegetables) and tau kee (beancurd skin). With teochew porridge you never really have to wait. They just dish out the food and serve you on the spot, so no waiting time.

I took individual photos of all the food but I was lazy to upload all of them so lets just have a group photo. I felt that the food was decent. The pig's trotters and fish cakes were notable mentions though. The fish cakes had stuff inside, crunchy bits you could call them. Like spring onions or something. Nice added bite. Pig's trotters was soft and not too fatty. Don't really like it when there's too much fats jiggling around. Haha.

The meal set us back $16. I thought it was alright considering that we had so many dishes including the pig's trotters. Worth a try especially if after clubbing at Zouk.

Kheng Nam Lee Eating House Teochew Porridge
715/717 Havelock Road
Opening Hours: 1000 - 0400

Chai Chee Pork Porridge

2008-05-28T16:47:00.004+08:00

Normally when you mention Bedok 85 to someone, the first thing that will come to their minds is ba chor mee. Well, that's what made this hawker centre famous anyway. Flocks of people go to Bedok North Block 85 for the famous ba chor mee. And it's always highly contested about which stall is better. Well, today we're not gonna talk about the ba chor mee at Bedok 85, instead we're gonna talk about something slightly different. It still has pork in it, but no noodles.

Located inside the famous bedok north block 85 hawker centre, is this porridge gem called Chai Chee Pork Porridge. Run by an elderly couple, they have won numerous awards and been featured on various television programmes. Now what makes this porridge so special? Terence and I had to find out.

We both ordered pork porridge with egg. Took awhile to arrive. They're pretty popular, even at 2am there are still a lot of people ordering their porridge. Upon arrival I scrutinized the porridge, doesn't look much different from normal porridges you eat elsewhere. It was garnished with fried dough fritters(you tiao or you zhar kway) and lots of spring onions. The egg is cracked and poured into the bowl before the hot porridge is poured over it. Gotta give it a good stir to break up the egg and mix it in with the porridge.

Ok! Taste test time! First mouthful.... I was like "WOW". The flavour just fills your mouth! People associate porridge with bland food, but this porridge here is way way tastier than bland. It's got a semi smooth consistency and is full of juicy homemade pork balls and pork slices. The pork balls are basically minced pork clumped together. It's usually seasoned with oil, cornstarch, salt and pepper. My mom personally likes to add chestnuts to it to give it more bite. The meat is so soft, very easy to bite even if you're using false teeth. The spring onions also complement the flavour.As always, I like my food spicy so I added lots of pepper to give it the kick I like.

They have a few types of porridge like pork, fish and century egg. A normal bowl of porridge costs $3 and it's $0.50 to add an egg. You can also add ingredients for another $1 or $2. Bedok 85 is not only about ba chor mee after all, this is definitely worth a try.

Chai Chee Pork Porridge
Bedok North Street 4 Block 85 Market and Food Centre (next to Bedok North Police Station)
Opening hours: 1730 to 0300 (closed fornightly, no fixed day)

Kim Moh Restaurant Beef Noodles

2008-05-27T22:29:00.004+08:00

Maybe not many people have heard of Kim Moh Restaurant, but lately they've been gaining more popularity for their Hainanese cuisine. The word has been spreading around and people are even travelling from jurong and woodlands to eat at this homely restaurant. Even makan sutra featured this restaurant. Located in the Laguna Park Estate along marine parade road, not many people would know about the restaurant unless through recommendations from friends or the internet etc.

Although they serve hainanese zhi char, in the afternoon you can also have their hainanese beef noodles. It's one of their specialties, and they proudly put up past newspaper articles on their beef noodles. Note that this beef noodles is different from their beef horfun so don't order the wrong dish!

It's available in both soup and dry versions, and served with thick bee hoon. I always eat the dry version when I'm there though. Like most dry beef noodles we eat at food courts, Kim Moh's version is also a served with a thick starchy sauce. However, the sauce tastes very different from the regular beef noodles. It's got a herbal and nutty taste to it, very unique and different from other beef noodles. The noodles are nicely done(can't really go wrong with thick bee hoon right?) and the beef is not too chewy or tough. The soup served also has a herbal taste to it. Lastly, the chilli served with the dish is very powerful! It's super spicy so eat with caution. I usually like to throw my chilli into the bowl and mix it together with the noodles, gives it the kick which I love.

A bowl of their dry beef noodles costs $5.50. Not sure if the soup version costs the same because I've never eat it. You can also get other yummies like the stomach and tendon to add to your bowl of noodles. That costs $6.50 per bowl. Food here can be a little more pricey than your regular zhi char fare, but the food served here is good, plus it's an air conditioned restaurant. If you're in the east, specifically marine parade, give this place a try. I'm sure you won't regret. Lunch is not that crowded, but dinner can get quite packed. Best to make reservations if you're coming on weekends. I will blog about their hainanese cuisine the next time I eat there.

Kim Moh Restaurant
Laguna Park Block 5000F Marine Parade Road #01-22/23 S449289
Tel: 64428900
Opening hours: 1130 - 1430 and 1730- 2130

Olive Rice

2008-05-26T21:57:00.006+08:00

Ok its been a long time since I last posted about something I've cooked. So today I shall share with everyone my mom's olive rice recipe. Its a really simple recipe that is cooked in a flash. A great one meal dish, especially if you're having friends over and don't have enough time to prepare elaborate dishes. Here's what you need:

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice
10 cloves garlic, minced (you can add more if you like)
1 tbsp oil
300g minced pork (can use chicken but pork tastes nicer)
2 slightly heaped tbsp preserved olive vegetables

A
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
pepper to taste
1 tbsp oyster sauce

B
roasted cashew nuts
chilli padi, sliced

For those wonder what is preserved olive vegetables, here's a picture:

I'm not sure what it's chinese name is, I just know it as preserved olive vegetables.

First, cook the rice in an electric rice cooker. Use slightly less water than normal.

Heat oil in a wok. Fry garlic till lightly brown. Add in meat and preserved olive vegetables and fry till meat is almost cooked. Add in the ingredients listed in A and stir-fry until meat is cooked.

Add the ingredients to the cooked rice.

Mix the ingredients with the rice.

Make sure the ingredients and rice are thoroughly mixed.

Serve and garnish with ingredients list in B. (I didn't have roasted cashews today so couldn't use it to garnish, and I ran out of chilli padi so had to use normal chilli)

There you have it, a really simple dish to make which is guaranteed to be tasty and yummy. Easy to make, even for people who seldom cook. You can make it in advance and just leave in the rice cooker to keep warm.

Recipe serves 4 people

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles

2008-05-24T16:07:00.003+08:00

Singapore is small and thankfully so, seeing that people will go anywhere for food. If there's one thing that brings most people together, it is food anyway. Most of us enjoy food anyway, agreed? So it's no surprise that a popular shop like Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles has customers from all over Singapore. This shop is so popular that they even have a group of Japanese business men that have been regularly patronizing their stall for the past 15 years!

I've been psychoing Terence to try this prawn noodles as I swore it is better than Beach Road Prawn Mee and River South Prawn Mee. Finally yesterday Terence and I went to Pek Kio market where this prawn noodle gem is located. We thought we couldn't make it as this shop closes pretty early, thankfully we made it just in time(We were one of the last few customers). And we were privileged to get to speak to the owner of the shop. A friendly man who is already hitting 70, he shared with us about the time he started out after taking over from his father, to his loyal customers and even his kids. Wah Kee is tradition, when this uncle took over his father's business it was 1968, so I wonder when his father started the business? After World War 2 maybe. So they've got over 40 years of experience in making prawn noodles!

Business for them starts at 5am when they start to prepare the stock. It is boiled for several hours(not sure what are the exact ingredients though, he didn't say). They start selling their prawn noodles at 7 plus and are usually done by 2pm. The uncle told us that he doesn't keep any left over soup, it is all thrown away at the end of the day and he makes a new batch the next day. He insists everything must be fresh or else it will not taste as good(what a waste of good soup though, can give me la haha)

If you're gonna take in all that cholesterol might as well go all the way right? So we ordered the $10 bowl of noodles. It arrived in 2 portions, the noodles in the bowl, and the prawns in the mini wok. Note that the soup served with the noodles and the soup served with the prawns taste different. The soup served with the prawns is much richer and fragrant. The auntie was nice and offered to top up our soup. =D

Having tried some of the better prawn noodles out there, I must say this one has a unique taste to it's soup. It is tasty in its own right, but not as salty as the others that kinda make you feel thirsty after drinking it. The uncle said that he did not believe in using MSG to flavour his food, and that he wanted his soup to taste special so that people will always come back for more. I couldn't agree more. He also joked that some people often ask him if he put something funny in the soup, like a chemical or drug, because if they go without his noodles for more than a week they will feel weird and will pop back to his stall for their regular dose.

For $10 you get 3 hugeass prawns! These prawns seriously out of this world. I didn't manage to capture it, but there's like a lot of prawn roe on these things, not to mention that the prawns are really fresh and succulent. The uncle revealed that why he can offer so many prawns for this price is because he has set up shop for so long, and is under the old rent scheme. Not to mention that he doesn't want to short change his customers.

Besides their wonderful soup and prawns, the noodles served are also very good. It is available in both soup and dry versions, and there are a few types of noodles to choose from. I will definitely be back. Ok this looks like a pretty long entry, but I just had to blog about what the uncle said la. =)

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles
Blk 41A Cambridge Road Hawker Centre (Pek Kio Market)
#01-15
Opening Hours: 7am - 2pm

Cheng Mun Kee Pig's Organ Soup

2008-05-23T23:14:00.000+08:00

In the past while I was still in Polytechnic I only visited the same few places for supper. It was usually prata at simpang or mee goreng pattaya at siglap. Some how never got around to trying other stuff. Likewise, before I entered national service(NS), I never ate all the weird stuff like pig offals. Tried them before and found them kinda disgusting. Suddenly during NS though my taste buds started to change. I started to appreciate the kidney, liver, intestines etc. And that when I started to truly enjoy pigs organ soup!

Cheng Mun Kee Pig's Organ Soup has been around for a while. They're pretty popular amongst Singaporeans and have a few branches. You can find them at places like Lavender and Macpherson. Went to the Macpherson branch on Thursday for some supper. Even at 2am this place is still pretty crowded. It's one of the few stalls left open so late and night and there are a lot of people sitting in the area, mostly eating their pig organ soup.

The soup arrived hot but the rice was kind of cold. Oh well, just pour some soup over it I guess. Inside this yummy bowl of salty broth you can find pieces of meat, stomach, liver, pork balls, tofu and salted vegetables.

Note to self: Cannot eat this stuff too often. The liver is good for you because it contains high amounts of iron but because the soup has a high sodium content, not so good for stuff like high blood pressure. Eat in moderation I say. Or you can just eat the liver and don't drink the soup, but that would be the same now would it?

If you enjoy eating pigs organs this is a real treat, lots of juicy yummy stuff inside, coupled with a good bowl of salty broth, and a slightly sweetish dip of chilli sauce. Everything was gone really fast, not even a drop of soup left! One of the better pig organ soups around, unhealthy but gooooooood. My only complaint? That the rice was cold.

Cheng Mun Kee Pig's Organ Soup
Macpherson Food Centre (Along Pipit road)
Opening Hours: 1200 to 0400

Empress Place Beef Kway Teow

2008-05-22T20:33:00.003+08:00

Yesterday went for dinner at LTN Eating House. Somehow we always end up eating there because it's close to home, but there are some great stalls there. One such stall is Empress Place Beef Kway Teow. Run by David Lim, who I affectionately call Uncle David. He's a damn nice guy la, lets me freely walk into his kitchen and help myself to his soup every time. One day people might mistake me for his worker! Haha. Can see Uncle David using his mobile phone in front of his shop in the picture.

Uncle David offers both soup and dry versions of his beef kway teow. You can also choose from meat, beef ball, tripe etc. If you're greedy or just like all the beefy stuff you can have everything. Just costs you more thats all. Oh yes Uncle David only serves kway teow, he doesn't have any other types of noodles. Normally when you go out and eat beef noodles at a food court and you order dry beef noodles what you'd get is a starchy sauce with noodles. His version though, is some what different. There is no starchy sauce, instead uncle David uses chilli sauce, oil and what not to make his dry version of beef kway teow. What you get is a spicy and fragrant bowl of kway teow.

The great thing about Uncle David's beef kway teow is the beef! It's super tender unlike the chewy and tough beef you normally get at normal beef noodle stalls. Not to mention that he makes his own chilli sauce which totally compliments the meal. And last but not least is the lovely rich beef soup. All the yummy goodness and taste of beef. Takes days to make his soup man. Luckily can always ask him for refills of soup! He will gladly oblige all the time.

Damage for a bowl of dry beef and ball kway teow is $5. A bit more pricey than normal beef noodles but I think it's totally worth it. His beef is so good! His soup version is also very good.

Empress Place Beef Kway Teow
LTN Eating House along siglap (I don't know the exact address)
Next to NTUC and starbucks is just opposite
Operating hours: 1200-Night time (usually around 2200)

The Coffee Showcase

2008-05-21T22:43:00.003+08:00

After dinner we wanted to go to Ren Ren Desserts for some almond cream or something but sadly by the time we reached it was already closed. Since Terence already paid for parking, better not waste it. Decided to go to the Hong Kong Cafe at Roxy Square but while walking there this shop caught our eye and so we ended up at The Coffee Showcase a short walk down from Katong Shopping Centre.

The Coffee Showcase is a small cafe/bistro serving western food and drinks. They also have cakes and other desserts like chocolate fondue. Terence ordered an american cheesecake and root beer float while Wanjun ordered a coffee alfredo(its basically a affogato) and I ordered a coffee float.

First came the cheesecake. The presentation was pretty nice, but I guess sometimes it doesn't really matter cause it ends up in your stomach anyway! But some people can be quite particular about this kinda thing though. Cake was pretty good. Your standard heavy and rich cheese cake.

The coffee alfredo is their shops version of an affogato which is basically an espresso shot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Theirs is served with mövenpick ice cream which is quite yummy. The coffee float as show below is somewhat similar, just that it's a double shot of espresso with a scoop of mövenpick ice cream, and is served cold whereas the alfredo is hot. Their coffee is good, not too bitter without sugar and it's got a pretty good aroma. If I'm not wrong they use Illy brand coffee which is a pretty good brand for brewed coffee.

Not sure how Terence's root beer float tasted but I'm sure thats pretty standard anywhere you go. Though we were only there for drinks but we saw some teens eating, looked pretty appetizing and portions were of decent size. The average prices of drinks are about $3.50 and food is abt $6. Chocolate fondue is $8. This is a cheaper alternative to coffee bean or starbucks, but the coffee served is just as good or even better!

The Coffee Showcase
45 East Coast Road S345765
Opening Hours: 1130 to 2130
Closed on Monday

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee

2008-05-21T15:40:00.003+08:00

This last week or so has been a some what healthy week man. Ok for those wondering about my expanding waistline, I have been exercising ok? Though not the most intensive kinda stuff but still doing my bit to watch the weight. Can't believe I exercised so many days in a row. Played tennis, golf, jog and swam for like 5 days in a row? I've even done 2 sports in a day too. So can still afford to eat suppers for now. Haha.

Anyway went to Hong Kong Street Chun Kee at bukit merah for dinner yesterday with Wanjun and Terence. Seemed like telepathy as all of us thought of eating their fish meat been hoon and sum lau hor fun. Arrived at around 7.15pm and was quite crowded as usual, though we still managed to find seats. This place is a zhi char shop but it's quite famous for it's fish meat bee hoon and sum lau hor fun. I think they have a few other outlets as well.

We ordered our standard trio which is fish meat bee hoon, sum lau hor fun and hong kong kailan with garlic, but they have other nice dishes like prawn paste chicken(har chong gai).

First up was the kailan. It was served hot man, sorta burnt my tongue while greedily trying to shove a whole stalk in my mouth. The vegetables are prepared well, not overcooked so its nice and crunchy, plus the garlic sauce is very tasty! We like to take out the vegetables from the fish bee hoon and coat it in the garlic sauce. =)

Next came the sum lau hor fun. This dish usually arrives earlier than the fish bee hoon, guess the soup takes longer to prepare due to the longer cooking process. But it's a good way to get the ball rolling, curbs our hunger for a bit before the main dish! Fresh fish slices cooked with lots of beansprouts(tau geh) and hor fun kway teow. It's a very neutral tasting dish, simple and not too tasty. Can appreciate the fresh fish! At this point Wanjun claimed that she was very hungry and that she could finish the whole bowl of fish bee hoon when it came. She also declared that she will never and I mean NEVER be full. We shall see.....

Finally the main dish arrived. Since young I've used to wonder why the soup was a white milky colour. I realised that some stalls use evaporated milk when making the soup, which gives the soup sweetish tinge and milky flavour. Some people like that though I'm not particularly fond of the sweetness. Later on however my brother told me that milky colour is actually caused by the cooking process. He said something about using a very high heat to cook the stock and fish that causes this to happen. I read the famous food blogger ieatishootipost's blog and he reviewed this place before. Apparently the high heat cooking the stock and oil causes emulsion thats why the soup turns white! Somehow this method seems more authentic to me than adding milk to the soup. Takes more skill anyway. The chunks of fish are lightly fried and juicy. Some pieces might have small bones though, but that's quite rare. The soup is good stuff man... They add chinese rice wine to it that makes it even more delicious. Now that I know how it's made, can't say its very healthy, but still very yummy!

So far this is probably one of the best fish bee hoon soups I've had. I always patronize this place, either the bukit merah outlet or the one near bedok camp. They serve good food and the prices are decent. Yesterday's dinner set us back $24, which equates to $8 per person. Not bad for the amount of food we ate. Towards the end of the meal Terence and I were already very full and couldn't eat anymore. Wanjun on the other hand was still going strong. She had a point to prove and couldn't lose face to Terence after making those claims. Finally though on her last bowl of bee hoon, she succumbed to what I call "bursting to the point of merlion" or "buttpom" for short. She fell short of her goal but I must applaud her for her ability to eat so much and never grow fat! Why can't I be like that too? =(

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee
Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1 #01-90
6271 8484 / 6272 8484
Opening Hours: 1130-1430 and 1700-2200 (I think)

Lai Lai Beef Noodles a.k.a Lai Lai Family Restaurant

2008-05-20T23:34:00.001+08:00

I'm running out of places to go for supper at the moment! Need to look for new places to try before I run out of things to blog about. Haha. Well this next supper session brings us to the bugis area. Liang Seah Street to be exact. A popular area now for all those steamboats since marina bay is now defunct. Once again my "brilliant" photography skills and wonderful 2 mega pixel handphone camera don't do the pictures much justice so please bear with me. If someone is willing to volunteer to take photos for me I'd be more than happy. Haha.

I read about this place online, can't remember if it was through someones blog or some food directory. Anyway, we ended up at Lai Lai Beef Noodles/Lai Lai Family Restaurant. They've got a cute menu, very colourful and well detailed. I'm surprised they actually have a lot of things to eat and drink. Prices are a bit steep though, guess maybe cause its located somewhat near town area.

A friendly guy approached us and took our orders, not sure if he's mainland chinese or local. He didn't have a china accent though, and spoke a little english so I'm not sure. Thought it might be another horrific experience trying to communicate with him (remember our visit to Cai Gen Xiang?) but thankfully with him able to speak some english and a well illustrated menu we were able to get by. Terence ordered pork cutlet curry rice while I opted for, as the name of the shop suggests, the beef noodles. I reckon its their specialty anyway otherwise what for call it Lai Lai Beef Noodles.

The beef noodles is available in soup or dry, and you can choose from a few different types of noodles like kway teow, taiwan noodles and potato noodles. The guy recommended the taiwan noodles as he said that was their specialty. It's available in 3 sizes, small medium and large. You can also have it with a set meal that consists of the beef noodles, a drink and a side dish of your choice. You can also add extra stuff like egg and some other beef stuff.

Short wait later and the food arrived. On first glance, it's something like the braised beef noodles Terence ate at Cai Gen Xiang. Ok soup taste test first! Very important that the soup must taste good. Had to take 2 spoonfuls to confirm. It's a clear beef stock which is a little spicy. Quite rich and tasty! I like! Noodles were like those handmade noodles, quite firm texture so the bite is quite good. Hong Shao = Braised right? I'm not sure but the beef chunks were nice and tender. It might be beef shin or something I'm not sure. Anyway some of the beef chunks have these sinewy bits inside. Its kinda like gelatine or something. Some people like my dad like this a lot. No preference for me though. Overall I think this was a good bowl of noodles. Had the small sized bowl but it was still very filling. Can't afford to eat it all the time though.

Terence's curry rice was basically a japanese mild curry with pork katsu. Had a few carrots and potatoes in it too. Terence noted that they served it with japanese rice instead of normal rice which is a good thing. The cutlet was also quite big and was a thick juicy cut too. The curry was SOP instant japanese curry though, tastes like something everyone can make, maybe that's just the way japanese curry is. Should go to Japan one day and see if their curry tastes the same. Saw some jap dramas and they also use the instant curry blocks to make their curries. It was quite worth it in my opinion though as it costs just a dollar more than just having the cutlet alone without anything.

Lastly I ordered a really expensive ice blended bubble tea. The norm nowadays at street side stalls range between $1 to $1.50 but this thing here costs a whooping $3.80! Well can't blame la its a restaurant anyway. Instead of being served with pearls its served with konyaku jelly instead. Quite standard fare like most bubble tea shops so nothing to shout about.

My final take on this place? Can return again but not too often la, quite expensive for a supper joint. Was very satisfied with the beef noodles. Food costs anything between $5-$15 bucks and drinks cost an average of $3-$4.

Anyway anyone got any supper joints to recommend? Please let me know ok? Thanks so much!

Lai Lai Beef Noodles/ Lai Lai Family Restaurant
20A/B Liang Seah Street
Opening Hours: 1130 - 0300 (last order 0230)

Ren Ren Desserts

2008-05-19T21:59:00.003+08:00

Mention Katong Shopping Centre to people nowadays and normally people will remember it as the place to go for cheap lan gaming or pool. The older generation will probably fondly remember it as the hip place to be in like the 70s-80s. It is also the place where they filmed a scene for the movie "The Maid" by Kelvin Tong if I am not wrong. But there are a few places to eat in Katong Shopping Centre too. The food court where they filmed the scene for "The Maid" has some cheap and good food. And nearby we have Ren Ren Desserts, which is just a few shops away.

It's just a small air conditioned stall with a few tables. I think the stall is less than a year old and I've been wanting to test their stuff for awhile now but never got the chance to. So since I was at Katong having dinner with my parents, managed to coax them into having dessert with me! Can see the back of my dad's head in the picture. Haha.

By the time we got there it was almost 9pm and most of their desserts were sold out! Gee I guess they're pretty popular huh? Anyway they sell those traditional chinese desserts like almond cream, tang yuan(glutinous rice balls), orh nee(yam paste), seasame cream etc, and some non traditional desserts like pulut hitam(unpolished black rice) with ice cream and mango ice.

Quite a few desserts on the menu to choose from. They actually pasted all the pictures of their desserts on the wall but I forgot to take a picture of that. I did get a shot of their banner though. Any pictures on the wall pasted with a red circle with a X means the dessert is sold out for the day, so at least you know what is available.

At the side of the shop entrance is a poster which states that they are recommended in some Japanese and Taiwanese magazines or newspapers. There was an article was in Japanese so I couldn't read what was written. Guess they have some good publicity overseas. Gee they must be kinda popular huh? Well we would soon know the verdict. A friendly old man who greeted us in cantonese took our orders. Mom ordered red bean cream with ginko nuts, Dad ordered longan with white fungus and I ordered sesame cream.

Once again I was lazy to take individual shots, anyway just using my handphone camera to take all my pictures so can't expect too much la huh? Verdict on their desserts? If you have a really sweet tooth, you probably wouldn't take well to their traditional chinese desserts cause it's not too sweet. Mom and Dad love it though, they prefer stuff thats not too sweet. I don't mind either, seeing that my taste buds these days have kinda changed.

Lets start with what I had, which was the seasame cream. Apparently this stuff is good for your hair, supposedly makes your hair darker. Good for people with white hair! First taste and you might find it a tad bit bitter(its sort of sweet with a bitter aftertaste), but it kinda grows on you. With each mouthful I took I seemed to enjoy and appreciate the taste more. The cream was very smooth like a thick soup. It's also got toasted seasame seeds inside for that little bit of bite. Ended up enjoying every last drop of it.

The red bean cream with ginko nuts was sweetish with a taste of mandarin so it was a bit tangy. Consistency wasn't as smooth as the seasame cause you can taste the red bean bits, it was also thicker than the seasame cream and probably more filling. It also had lots of ginko nuts inside which is good for the brain! Mom was quite pleased that it wasn't too sweet like some others we've tasted before.

Finally we have the longan with white fungus. It's essentially like cheng tng because the soup is a longan based soup, just not so sweet like the normal ones. Tasted a bit different from the normal cheng tng but was refreshing. It also had a lot of munchies in it just like cheng tng, though not the same kind of ingredients though.

The damage for all of these above mentioned desserts? Less than $6! That's bang for buck eh? Well I thought so la, cheaper than some places like ah chews and just as nice. The average price of desserts there are about $1.80, so its very reasonable. Definitely must come back to try their other desserts next time.

Ren Ren Desserts
Katong Shopping Centre B1 (near the air conditioned food court at the corner)
865 Mountbatten Road

Wan Dou Sek 126 Dim sum

2008-05-18T23:10:00.000+08:00

Geylang is a treasure trove! Why I say that? Not because of all the hidden "gems" lurking around Lor 6-20+ but because of the great amount of good food you can find in the area! Beef horfun, tau huay, pig organ soup... The list goes on and on...

Friday night went with Terence, Wanjun, Sherry and Adrian to Timbre for drinks and some live band music. And to cap off the night we made our way to Wan Dou Sek (126) at Geylang for dim sum. Apparently everyone is trying to watch their weight. All scared to grow fat! Me included of course. Haha. Wan Dou Sek not like those traditional push cart dim sum we used to find (those are really rare now by the way), or the classy upmarket restaurants like Crystal Jade. It's just a small air conditioned coffee shop that serves pretty darn good dim sum. Sure it's appearance may not look appealing to some but still the shop is packed full with people all waiting to appease their supper cravings. Actually wanted to check out the place a few days earlier but Terence was saying it's kinda bo hua(not value for money? is there a closer translation? can't think of any) if just the 2 of us ate there. Can't sample more food without spending more money, plus we expand our waistlines too due to all the excess eating. Need to share the joy with others!

One of my favourite dishes at dim sum places is century egg porridge. Thought it should be something I should try but sadly was forced to try their duck porridge instead. Well to be fair the duck porridge was pretty good. Should have swiped some of Sherry and Adrian's century egg porridge though.

The duck porridge came served in a mini claypot. It was still bubbling when served, not sure if you can see the bubbles from the picture above. Burnt my tongue while tasting the darn thing! Must remember to let it cool a bit more the next time before eating. Porridge was pretty good. Very tasty with lots of bite sized pieces of duck inside. Got to mix the sauce and porridge well to balance out the flavour. It doesn't have the smooth consistency like the porridge at Crystal Jade, but most places don't make their porridge that way anyway. It's still all good, goes down easily without much biting. =) The portion is kinda small though, not something you'd have for dinner unless you have like 2 bowls or something?

These 3 dishes came together, was lazy to take individual shots cause everyone was hungry anyway. All the hungry people were hovering over the food with chopsticks in hand waiting to strike while I took this photo. A lot of pressure to get it done quickly! Haha. Anyway it's carrot cake, chicken wings and "tennis balls". Interesting name eh "tennis balls"? It's actually deep fried chicken & cheese. Very nice but sinful! Adrian is a chicken wing man, loves the stuff so he had to order it. Another sinful/oily dish. Yet it was really crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside! Nice seasoning gave it good flavour. The carrot cake is also fried if I'm not wrong. Or pan fried? Soft and moist and goes well with the chilli sauce given. I think it also had bits of hei bee(small dried shrimp) inside for extra bite and flavour.

Siew mai is one of Terence's must haves along with carrot cake. He always orders it when we go to dim sum places. These siew mais were great. The skin didn't turn hard even though it was left there for quite awhile. I had the honour of devouring the last one! =D Made with juicy pork and prawns I thought it was absolutely yummy!
Last but not least, one of my favourites! Prawns wrapped in beancurd skin. Wah this was a treat for me. Haven't had such stuff in awhile. It was deep fried to perfection! So cui cui(crispy?) on the outside, and the rush of flavours that go into your mouth when you sink your teeth in.... MAN!! Shiok! The prawns were good man, very firm and crunchy. Argh I'm like salivating now....

In conclusion, if you ever need to have your dim sum cravings satisfied in the wee hours of the morning or any time of the day for that matter, Wan Dou Sek is a good place to come to. Don't expect it to be cheap just cause it's a coffee shop located in seedy geylang though. Average price per plate is about $4. Even when we went at around 2am the place was still very crowded, so you can see their pretty popular. Seems like its always crowded. They're opened 24 hours a day 7 days a week!(don't they need a break? I have no idea man) Oh ya they serve their drinks in those round plastic recyclable containers so the drinks are pretty large. Though it was kinda cute serving drinks that way.

Wan Dou Sek (126) Eating House
126 Sims Ave
Opening Hours: 24 hrs daily

Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodle

2008-05-17T22:12:00.000+08:00

At east coast park you can find quite a number of good food stalls at the lagoon hawker centre. One such stall is Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodle. They're pretty popular and have been around for a long time. They've won numerous awards too and have been interviewed by newspapers and tv programmes like Makansutra, Coffee Talk & Hawker Woks etc. They normally open for business around 1200-1230. If you were to go around that time it shouldn't be so crowded. But normally you will find a queue waiting to buy their wantan noodles at most times of the day.

Though most people will eat the normal wantan mee, I always order the shui jiao char shao mee. More shiok to eat the shui jiao than wantan la, its bigger and has prawns in it! Haha. The thing about Hwa Kee's noodles is that they add a sweet sauce on their noodles. Something like e char siew sauce you have with your char siew rice. You can ask for less sauce or no sauce if you don't like a sweetish tinge to your noodles.

Overall their noodles are quite nice. It's not overcooked or soft, and their chilli is good. Not that spicy so I normally ask for more chilli. Other than the noodles, the two other important elements which is the char siew and wantan are also good. The char siew is juicy and sometimes when you can get ends with the slightly burnt bits its a treat. Very tasty! The wantan skin is not thick or doughy like some others I've eaten before, and there is a decent amount of tasty pork inside. But I still prefer shui jiao to wantans.

It's $3 for a regular plate of wantan mee and $4 for the shui jiao char shao mee. They have other things on their menu too but I always have the usual. Definitely a must try if your at East Coast Park!

Hwa Kee Barbeque Pork Noodle
Lagoon Food Village Stall no. 45
East Coast Park
Opening hours: 1200-2200(I think)
Closed on Wednesdays

Turtle House Seafood Restaurant

2008-05-16T22:55:00.000+08:00

After ice cream at ice cream chefs, Terence and I proceeded to Guillemard road for dinner at Turtle House Seafood Restaurant.

As the sign board states, it's a turtle soup shop! And I've been craving for turtle for a while now. Many previous attempts made to go to my favourite turtle soup restaurant at Tai Thong Cresent have failed so since there was this chance to eat turtle, though not at my favourite place, I grabbed it immediately!

Both Terence and I have never been here before. Essentially it's a zhi char restaurant that specializes in exotic meats like turtle and crocodile. You can still get your normal stuff like fu yong omelet, hotplate tofu etc. But as the sign puts, "Turtle House", so should eat the turtle soup right? Wah they have many different variations of their turtle soup man. You can get everything from just the meat and cartilage to the intestines/offals and turtle eggs etc. I think the most expensive turtle dish is like $60! Probably includes everything inside though. We just settled on the cheapest fare though, didn't wanna break the bank on one meal.

Lo and behold!~ After a short wait the turtle soup came! Shared a bowl of rice because we were contemplating on having supper later. Soup was piping hot when served. Took a taste before deciding to add some wine into the soup. The soup was not bad, but doesn't have much herbs taste. Also, it has quite a strong turtle smell/taste to it. Maybe they didn't clean or prepare it very well. Wasn't overawed by the meal but it was decent I guess.

Well everything was still devoured and you couldn't find a single drop of soup left in the bowl. I like soups. =) The meal set us back almost $40 cause each bowl of soup was like $14, plus a plate of veg, drinks, wet towels and rice. Not the best I've had but if you want a quick decent turtle fix later in the night I guess this is one of the places to go. A bit more pricey than most other turtle places though. It opens til midnight everyday.

Turtle House Seafood Restaurant
403 Guillemard Road (off Lor 36)
Opening hrs: 1130-0000
www.liveturtle.com

Ice Cream Chefs

2008-05-16T13:16:00.000+08:00

Ok have been visiting a lot of places but haven't had the time to update my blog. Past few days were very eventful. Aside from a lot of eating, met with quite a few peeps that I haven't seen a while too. On Thursday went to Ice Cream Chefs for coffee and ice cream with Terence and Sherry. Ice Cream Chefs has been around for awhile now I reckon, always tell myself to go try it one day whenever I pass by in the bus or car. Finally the chance came when I managed to "psycho" Terence, who in turn forced Sherry to go. Haha.

Ice Cream Chefs is a small shop located near siglap. Not much seating area, just a few tables inside and outside the shop. We were lucky to get the last table when we got there. Quite popular with students (the shop was filled with them there). There were a lot of takeaway patrons too. Ice cream is a universal crowd pleaser, people of all ages love it and its great comfort food too. I forgot to take a photo of their shop cause I was too busy going "gaga" over all the different types of ice cream and toppings. They can "smash" in your toppings into the ice cream over their "chef's rock" btw, it looks pretty cool. Terence and I just went for the plain double scoop ice cream, while Sherry made her usual "I'm fat" comment and refused to order ice cream.

Terence ordered milo peng and cookies and cream while I opted for passion kiwi fuz and blueberries. Terence's ice cream was already devoured by Sherry by the time I took this shot. Tsk tsk wonder who didn't want any ice cream hmmmm. The passion kiwi fuz I had was a refreshing sherbert ice cream, good for weight watchers cause it's low fat. The blend was nice and you could taste the kiwi bits. Not too sweet as well. The blueberries was a full fat ice cream, very creamy but didn't have that hint of tangy-ness like most other blueberry ice creams I've eaten. It's got bits of blueberries in it too. Don't know which you prefer but personally I'd prefer that bit of tangy-ness in my blueberry ice cream. I got a taste of Terence's cookies and cream ice cream, was really good with chunks of oreo cookies in it. Oh and they serve decent coffee too. Pretty strong but good flavour.

Anyway it's $3.10 for a single scoop and $4.80 for a double scoop. Toppings are $0.70 each. Will be back next time to try their "smashed" ice cream on the rocks. =)

Ice Cream Chefs
520 East Coast Road #01-06 (Ocean Park Building, along main east coast road)
Tel: 64466355
Opening Hours:
Mondays - Thursday: 1pm to 10pm
Friday - Sundays & Eve. of PH: 1pm till late
icecreamchefs.blogspot.com

River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House

2008-05-15T14:41:00.011+08:00

Once again Terence and I set out on our quest to find more supper places. We're running out of time as the date for my departure to Australia looms. Hence this explains why we've been having supper for 3-4 days straight now. Next stop is River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House for some prawn noodles.

Before we stepped in we thought it was only a stall at a coffee shop, turns out the whole coffee shop is run by them. It's just two guys running the show at night. One to prepare the noodles, the other serves. They do have a drink stall helper though.

This is a picture of the side of the stall. Basically all around the coffee shop you can see pictures of the prawn noodles and what not. The picture below is their menu. They have all sorts of prawn noodles you can imagine. From your regular small prawn noodles, big prawn noodles, big prawn and pork rib noodles, big prawn and pigs tail noodles, pig intestine noodles etc. A whole wide range to choose from. Was stuck for awhile when I was ordering cause I didn't know which type to choose.

Ok I ended up choose the normal big prawn noodles and Terence chose the big prawn pork rib noodles. I like a beehoon mee mix and Terence went for just yellow mee.

(Big Prawn Pork Rib Noodles)

(Big Prawn Noodles)

They're pretty quick, food arrived shortly after we ordered. How's that for efficient 2 man service? I think Terence made a better choice, seeing that for $1 extra you can have pork ribs. He said the pork ribs were good. =( Anyway the noodles were topped off with fried garlic which kinda compliments the soup. Well I like this kinda stuff. Soup was sweetish due to all the prawn heads and pork bones boiled to create the soup. Definitely good but always tastes better with chilli powder and some chilli padi! Love that stuff man. With the chilli powder and padi in, that hit the spot. Should have asked for more soup but paiseh la. Haha. The noodles were decent, not the best though, a bit overcooked. Prawns on the other hand were fresh and firm, with a nice bite. Terence said the soup wasn't thick (gao) enough but I thought it was good enough. Overall a better than average bowl of prawn noodles. Don't see many prawn noodle shops open till the wee hours of the morning so this place is good when you need your prawn mee fix for supper.

As you can see from the picture above, that's their operating schedule. They're opened like almost 24 hrs everyday except monday. Place was pretty crowded when we went there, and more people were streaming in when we left. Guess the place is pretty popular huh? They seem to have many regular clients, saw quite a few people chatting up the noodle server and asking for their regular stuff. Hmmm hmmm, even middle aged men with mid life crisis driving sports cars also patronize the place.

River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House
31 Tai Thong Cresent (Along Macpherson Road, near Potong Pasir MRT)
Operating hours: 0630 - 0430
Closed on Mondays

OH and did I mention that it's just a few doors down from my favourite turtle soup place? Too bad turtle soup closes early or I'd have that instead!

Cai Gen Xiang Northen Seafood Tavern

2008-05-14T14:04:00.008+08:00

Next stop on our supper trail leads us to the "Land of Chickens". Terence and I ventured into the depths of the unknown..... Haha yeah right. We just ended up at Geylang Rd next to Lorong 40. Not a seedy area at all, just a lot of old school housing. This time we're trying northen chinese cuisine at this restaurant called Cai Gen Xiang Northen Seafood Tavern.

They seem to have won some awards and stuff, and have displayed them on their glass door. Didn't really bother looking though, the pictures on display looked pretty good. Head on in and we're greeted in chinese by their staff. Oh boy not a good sign! Terence and I both suck at chinese, well... Terence is worse off though. Haha. The waitress gives us the menu and starts speaking to us in chinese with a strong china accent. Looks like the restaurant is run by mainland chinese. Thankfully the menu has english words, but there were still some things that we didn't know what they were. Tried asking the waitress but couldn't really comprehend what she was saying! Haha oh well, we just placed our orders after painstakingly trying to find out what was what.

Terence's braised beef la mian came first. Managed to swipe some soup and I must say the taste was really good. A rich and tasty broth which was not overly salty. He said the beef was nice and tender too.

Then came my Mala Seafood La Mian. I like spicy stuff so I asked for a recommendation from the waitress, and this is what came. I don't know why my bowl looked so full compared to Terence's la, maybe the waitress find me cuter so gave me more noodles. Haha. Wow the Mala is really Mala man! Drank the soup till my tongue became numb. It was really spicy! It was supposed to be a seafood la mian but the only seafood there was were only 2 prawns and some fish cakes, oh and some seaweed since they come from the sea too. Maybe they should call it prawn noodles instead.

Anyway the disappointing conclusion Terence and I came to was that the noodles were unlike la mian. It was more like handmade noodles that we eat at ban mian stalls. La mian is usually quite fine, somewhat thin noodles. Their noodles were not consistent. Some parts were thick and flat like mee pok, others were fat like the yellow egg noodles, and then you'll find some strands that look like normal la mian. The noodles were a bit too chewy and sticky.

And finally, the xiao long bao arrived! I totally forgot to take a picture of this before it was devoured. So hence you only see one xiao long bao left. They have both pork and prawn xiao lao baos so we ordered the prawn one to try for a change. We were so looking forward to the xiao long bao but we were greatly disappointed after eating it. The skin was dry and tough, plus there was no soup inside! The most important thing of a xiao long bao, to me at least, is the soup in the darn thing. This xiao long bao had none! Out of the 6 xiao long bao, only 1 had soup inside.... and Terence was the lucky one to eat it. DAMN! Best part was that it wasn't prawn xiao long bao! It was the pork one....

To compliment the meal we had chrysanthemum tea(is that the correct spelling? I'm not sure). The tea was pretty good I must say, helped to wash down the food we ate. And the tea pot was kinda cute.

The aftermath of our meal.... I couldn't finish my food because there was just too much noodles. I stuffed my face to no avail. Cannot means cannot, better not force it before I merlion. Haha.

In conclusion, the meal was alright I suppose. They need to improve on their noodles because the soup is great. Ingredients were good too. And it's not very pricey for a restaurant. Most of their noodles cost between $4.50-$5.00, except for stuff like the da pai chicken noodles. Xiao long bao was a big miss too. They do sell those zhi char kinda stuff too, but two of us couldn't eat that much. Maybe next time when we have more people. Some of the things on the menu looked interesting, like the funny taste chicken. Maybe next time then. Where to next??

Cai Gen Xiang Northern Seafood Tavern
666 Geylang Road (Near Lor 40)
Operating time: 1130-0400

Seng's Wantan Mee

2008-05-13T15:49:00.006+08:00

On my next adventure with Terence to explore the supper delights of Singapore ended up in us landing up here:

Dunman Food Centre! It's located opposite Joo Chiat Neighbourhood Police Post. It's a small hawker centre, not much opened at night except the wantan mee, char kway teow and tau huay stalls. Oh and they had Tekong drink stall! Nostalgic for the men who have served NS and been to tekong for training, although I don't know if they actually relocated from Tekong Island or not. So decided to have Seng's Wantan Noodles. Actually wanted to eat the shui jiao but they were out so no choice had to have wantans instead.

I couldn't really get good shots as I was just using my handphone camera. Anyway you can see they proudly place their food hygiene standards cert on their display. This means food should be very safe and clean I suppose? Haha.

Food arrived shortly and I started to tuck into my supper. The texture of the noodles is quite good. Not soft or soggy, so it didn't clump together. A bit more bite in it which I kinda like, sorta springy. Chilli was also very good. Quite spicy and not sweetish like some of the wantan noodles I've eaten before. The big disappointment was the char siew though. It was dry, flaky and not very tasty. Have tasted better char siew before. The wantans were decent thankfully, they gave 4 wantans! At least you can taste the pork inside the skin, rather than some wantans where u only taste flour. The soup was also very tasty, not sure if it's because of a lot of MSG though, but it didn't make me feel thirsty. Washed it all down with a cup of "teh" from Tekong Drink Stall, the tea was a bit too weak though. Next time if I'm back here should ask for "Teh Gao" i guess.

Overall the wantan mee was decent, if they improve on their char siew I'm sure it will be much better. For $3 it's not bad value for money. Decent amount of noodles and ingredients. Quite satisfied after supper. If only they have better char siew.....

Ok I'm still having my cravings for turtle soup which hasn't been satisfied. I've already listed out a few turtle soup stalls which I'd like to try on top of the few I always patronize. Why don't they have any turtle soup stalls near home??? =( Hopefully I can satisfy this craving soon. Haha ciaoz!

Mother's Day part 2

2008-05-12T13:17:00.005+08:00

Ok I blogged about mother's day half way because I didn't mention what we had for dinner. It's quite a SOP that when we need a seafood fix, we will always head down to Roland Restaurant at Marine Parade. So no surprises that day when we ended up at Roland's for dinner. It was quite packed so lucky we made reservations. =)

Anyway the restaurant owner Roland is my dad's long time friend since army days some 30+ years ago? So my dad has been patronizing his restaurant since the days when it was still located by the beach, then over to the indoor stadium, and now finally to marine parade. Those days it was still called Palm Beach though. Dad always prefers to go to Roland's because service is good, it's value for money and food is of better quality. Might not be the best, but it's my bench mark for seafood. Was quite disappointed when I went to certain places like Jumbo a while back. Maybe they were too busy or something but food served was kinda cold and a tad bit too salty for my taste buds.

Once again my photography skills kinda suck so pardon the lousy pics. I did learn something about food photography yesterday though! Should try it out the next time. The link is below:

The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips

First dish is one of my all time favourites! Yu Char Kuay or Cruellers they call it. Basically it's deep fried dough fritters stuffed with squid paste. Very crispy and yummy! Goes well with the chilli sauce.

Then we had a standard vegetable dish which is stir-fried baby kailan with garlic. Its something we can never replicate in our home kitchen because we don't have a big enough fire to get the same taste and texture. The veg is moist and crunchy so it wasn't over cooked.

One of Roland's signature dishes is this homemade tofu(beancurd) with ginko nut. The homemade tofu is very smooth and soft, and is seasoned with something to make it tastier than normal tofu. The challenging part of making this dish is probably when they fry the tofu, they have to be careful not to break them since it's so soft n delicate. The dish is topped off with ginko nuts, veg and sauce.

Next up was steamed prawns with garlic. Uncles and aunties always tell me, the way to tell if a prawn is fresh is to eat it steamed, and the shell must be on. They always say it's the best way to eat prawns so you can savour the flavours and texture of the meat. Well if that was any indicator to go by then at least we didn't murder the prawns by deep frying them with cereal or something, though we did have them with garlic. The prawns were good! Fresh and succulent with that garlic-ky oomph! I like prawns a lot, and last time whenever my family goes to a restaurant and orders prawns, I'm sure to whack a good portion of it. Haha =X I guess it's partly because my mom never cooks prawns except for on rare occasions once in a blue moon. So prawns were like a delicacy for me. Of course nowadays I don't horde the prawns anymore la, must make sure everyone gets a fair share. See so nice right? Haha

Another one of my BIG BIG favourites is the Black Pepper Crab! These things make me go crazy last time man. It's a must have for me whenever I eat seafood. Even better I can have both black pepper and chilli crab! Hahaha greedy guts ya? I love the spicy-ness of this dish. I have a liking for spicy stuff so I guess this really hits the spot. The crab meat is done just right. Not soft and mushy nor hard and rubbery, just nice in between. Man I'm starting to drool.....

This final dish we ate is something pretty new to their menu. You may not be able to get it every time you patronize Rolands Restaurant so you gotta ask them first. It's their version of Crab Bee Hoon. I think we only knew that they had this dish like one or two years back, but once you've tasted it you'll think it's shiok shiok shiok! A rich broth simmered with the crabs, very tasty and probably high in cholesterol but well worth it. It's served in a claypot but they'll dish it out for you into individual portions if you like. I prefer to remove all the crab meat from the shell and just dunk it into the soup and slurp it up with the noodles n roe.

Roland serves both seafood and traditional chinese cuisine. You can even have dim sum during lunch time. Dim sum is made fresh so quality is guaranteed. Try out their specialties like USA Duck, Chilli Crab, Steamed Tofu with salted egg, Asparagus with lingzhi mushroom etc. More details at their website.

Roland Restaurant
Block 89, Marine Parade Central, #06-750 S(440089)
Operating Hours:
Lunch: 1130-1430(last order)
Dinner: 1800-2230(last order)
Sundays and public holidays opens earlier at 1100
Website: http://www.rolandrestaurant.com.sg/index.html

What a way to end mother's day man. Good food for the whole day! Luckily I had a 2hr session of tennis before dinner. Well that's it from me now. Laterz!

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T22:58:00.009+08:00

Ah so the day has finally come. I've been anticipating this day for a week now. Some how just kinda excited to be preparing a surprise breakfast for my mom. I'm quite the spoiler really, when I was young I could never keep secrets. Every time there was a secret to be kept, I'd be the 1st to blurt it all out and... "TA DA!" no more secret. Then I'd get scolded by my family members. So had to keep my mouth shut for this lil' secret this time. After all it's my own secret! Though I had my dad n bro in on it too. 3am in the morning and I started to prepare all the ingredients for breakfast. Had to get everything ready early and start cooking by 530am cause my mom is usually up at 6am.

Menu of the day is:

****

Starter
Omelet

****
Main Course
Stuffed Green Pepper

****
Dessert
banana crepes
*****

Sounds impressive huh? haha but the recipes are easy to prepare.

Here we can see the green peppers after I removed the centres. I put them in the oven for 15mins 1st to sorta cook them before I added the stuffing.

And the rest of the ingredients I needed for the omelets... Also used the onions and mushrooms in the stuffed peppers.

After I finished preparing all the stuff I needed for the food, it was time to stone and wait for the time to come to cook the food. Was done by about 345am. So I left all the food in the kitchen and went to hide in my room to play sudoku to pass time. But cruel fate would deal me a lousy hand! 4+am and it started to rain! Wah sian.... whenever it rains my mom sure wake up to close windows and take in the clothes. Damn all my food is lying on the kitchen counter! Oh well... bo bian I guess. just pretend I don't know anything ba. Haha...

Finally 5.30am came....! But!........ I fell asleep.... Wah spoiler right?? Even though I set my alarm i just switched it off when it rang. Haha. Next thing I know my dad woke me up, luckily he did though, otherwise there goes breakfast! Was already 615am and my mom woke up le. Oh well, sheepishly walked into the kitchen and start to prepare the food... Mom didn't say a word and neither did I. So guess both of us were pretending we dunno what each other is up to? Hahaha...

Finally after slogging in the kitchen for awhile, breakfast was served!

The omelet looks a bit burnt huh? But actually it wasn't la, tasted pretty good in fact. Bet I fail for presentation though, the dish looks really plain without any sides or sauces. Well no matter, wished my mom happy mothers day and got a hug and a peck on the cheek from my appreciative mother. Pops joined in for breakfast too, and saved my brother's share for when he woke up a bit later. Mom said it was a bit too filling for her though, with the meat, egg and what not. Oh well, everything was gone with no scraps left! Either they really liked it... or.... they were just being nice by finishing everything. Hahaha I believe its the former rather than latter la. =)

Was sposed to do the crepes too but didn't have time, had to get ready to go to church already. Man by this time I was dead tired. Haven't had my 40 winks yet! Ended up bathing and falling asleep on my bed. =X

Made the banana crepes for tea though and everyone raved about it. Apparently it was a damn delicious! Didn't have enough to go around later on cause I only made a small portion of batter. Not enough bananas too cause everyone wanted more. So I guess overall my mother's day meal was a big success. =) Didn't know which pic to post so I shall put both.

Well enough of my long winded story la time to list down the recipes.

Stuffed Green Peppers

Serves 4

200gm ground beef
4 green peppers
chopped onions (see how much you wanna put, I used about 1/2 a big onion)
mushrooms ( I used fresh white button mushrooms but you can use canned ones, I used 5 mushrooms)
spagetti sauce (I used about 1/2 a bottle of stromboli sauce)
mozerella cheese

Cut off the top of the peppers, remove the insides. Cook the peppers. Some people cook them in boiling water, others roast them over an open flame. I chose to stick them for 15 mins in my oven. Remove and leave to cool.

Heat up the pan and add some oil. Fry onions til they turn colour, then add in beef.

Fry til beef changes colour, add in mushrooms and fry a little while more. Season with some salt and pepper.

Add in spagetti sauce and cheese and cook till cheese melts. I realised stromboli sauce is not so thick so I should have added some tomato puree to the mix. Might have made it thicker instead of being so watery. Other spag sauces like leggos tends to be thicker.

Fill the peppers up til almost full of the stuffing. Top it off with a hearty amount of cheese and bake in the oven on 150 degrees for about 15 mins or until the cheese starts to brown.

Omelet

Don't think i really need to explain this dish right?

Serves 1

2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
salt
pepper
filling (up to you. i used green peppers, onions and mushrooms. It's all up to your own creativity)

Whisk eggs with milk, salt and pepper.

Heat up and oil your pan. Pour in the egg mixture and spread it out in a circular motion. Throw in your fillings. Once the egg cooks you can fold it in half and serve. Be careful with your spatula when you're trying to remove it from the pan though. Has a tendency to break the omelet if you're not careful.

Banana cream

Already posted the crepe recipe, so here's the filling

Enough for 4 crepes or more.

4 bananas, sliced (Can add more bananas because there was quite a lot of sauce and not enough bananas)
1 bottle of heavy cream ( I used bulla heavy cream 300ml)
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp cinnamon

Heat up all the items except the bananas over low heat.

Once the mixture starts to boil throw in the bananas and allow it to cook. Stir occasionally. Once it comes to a boil again remove from heat.

Dish out onto your crepes and fold. You can leave extra bananas or sauce on the side.

OK! That's it for me for today. I think these recipes were pretty easy. Not too much preparation time involved either. Some things can also be done in advanced like the crepe batter so it makes it easier. Shall blog about some makan I had tmr or something. Over and out!

Pig organ mee sua

2008-05-10T14:44:00.004+08:00

Every now and then we all have cravings for supper don't we? And as much as we know we have to watch our expanding waistline.... well sometimes we just don't care! And so yesterday, ventured to one of my favourite places for supper... Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup!

This place operates from evening onwards til the wee hours in the morning. It's quite popular and can get very crowded during dinner time. It can be crowded during supper time too! Well luckily every time we go for supper there's always a seat vacant. Anyways, they sell all your regular "zhi char" stuff like sambal kangkong, hotplate beef, hotplate tofu etc. Haven't really tried those stuff though. I'm always here just for the pig organ mee sua!

Actually took a couple of bites before I took this pic, so you can't really see what's in it. Basically it's full of yummy ingredients like pork liver, kidney and meat. The broth is rich and tasty, just throw in a few slices of chili for some "oomph"! For some reason their chili is like really hot, but that's just the way I like it. Most of my friends who have eaten this with me always complain that the chili is too hot for their liking. So just take note in case you bite a piece of chili and start begging for water. Anyway it's like one of the best kinda suppers you can have in my opinion. Especially when you're kinda sick of prata or nasi goreng. It's my kind of comfort food man! Accompanied with my favourite ah pek drink of "diao yu" a.k.a chinese tea, longan luo han guo or botak coconut just makes my day. =D Did I mention its damn shiok on cold or rainy days too?

Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup is located along changi road, just after "The Trumps" Condo and opposite the shell petrol station. A bowl of mee sua costs $3.50, which is pretty good value to me! Now the hunt for more good places to eat supper.....

Crepes

2008-05-09T16:30:00.001+08:00

Ok mothers day is coming, and being the sweet son that I am, decided that I shall cook something for my mom to surprise her! Was searching on the internet for easy recipes to make the whole of last night and finally came up with a few which I think I'll use. So today I experimented on this crepe recipe I found online. Had to test it out before I feed my mom, don't want her to be eating horrible stuff! I tweaked the recipe abit because I want it to be a dessert kinda crepe. So here goes:

Makes approx 4 crepes, you can double the recipe to make more.

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp sugar

Mix the eggs, milk, butter and water together

Sift in the flour. Add in sugar and salt. Mix well until smooth.

Basically thats all for the batter! Easy ain't it?

Then just heat up the pan on medium heat, oil it abit and just ladle about a 1/4 cup of batter into the pan. Spread out the batter by tilting the pan in a circular motion until the batter coats the surface evenly. Cook until the crepe is starting to brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side.

Voila! That's it! My 1st attempt wasn't so good because I didn't spread out the batter evenly enough so the crepe wasn't exactly very round. But the taste was pretty nice, sweetish and crispy at the edges. Will go gd with fruits, chocolate sauce and ice cream! Lets see how it goes this sunday when I make it with bananas and sweet cream sauce!

First post!

2008-05-09T15:33:00.007+08:00

Hoho guess I've finally been bothered to start blogging! High time some ppl might say. Well, I don't want this blog to be like most conventional blogs that blog abt their daily lives and what not. Basically I'm just gonna blog abt the food I cook or eat outside, post some pics and leave recipes. Hopefully I won't deviate from the purpose of my blog! Haha =)

I'm not a professional cook or chef, though I did have some experience working in a restaurant kitchen some time back. I'm just fuelled by my love for food and passion for cooking! (Which explains why I've grown horizontally over the years!~) With that said, I hate cleaning up after cooking! It's the worse part of cooking man! While I was still working at the restaurant it was the best, I just cooked and didn't have to bother about the cleaning up! Just dump everything into the sink. We had professional cleaners to do the dishes. Now if only I could find some slaves now.... hahaha! =X

Well, hope this blog will motivate guys and girls alike in this modern day to drop their pens and keyboards every now and then, and try having some fun in the kitchen. And of course, also to just appreciate FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD. Can't live without it! When you start cooking, then you'll start to appreciate the time and effort taken to prepare such tasty meals. Thats why we shld appreciate our moms and dads, hawkers, cooks, chefs etc who prepare food for us. Love ya mom! =)

Alright hope you enjoy the blog! I'll try to keep the recipes simple. I apologize in advance in case my photography skills suck or if presentation looks awful. Ultimately as long as it tastes nice thats most important! Will try my best! Please feel free to drop comments, give inputs or suggestions and share your recipes.

Well time to explore the culinary wonders of the world!~