Dazzling Cafe

Another Tuesday off is here and this time I was supposed to volunteer with Hui Min at CDAC to cut strings for their upcoming event SG50 celebration aka 50,000 Heart Knots tying event.

Was informed by Wei Ting the day before that we were not needed as there were enough volunteers on Monday to cut the strings. Hence we arranged to meet for lunch instead (at SK Cafe in City Plaza). After that, Hui Min and I went Dazzling Cafe for  tea.

It is located in Capitol Piazza, a new mall in Cityhall which is yet to open officially. Hui Min shared that she tried to visit it twice on weekday evenings but the long queues made it impossible.

The waiter showed us our table, handed us the menu and informed that most of the honey toasts were unavailable because they ran out of vanilla ice-cream. We ordered mango with coconut ice-cream honey toast in the end.

It was really pretty and so we had to take pics of it before we could start eating. haha... in addition, we had two waitresses coming to our table asking if they could show us how to eat it. Very helpful service! Though the toast was indeed good, we could not finish it since we just had lunch.

So glad my creme brulee latte came with very yummy caramelised biscuit. The mug is also very pretty!

Initially, I thought my latte mug was huge. But well, Hui Min's tea was even more drama! See pic above...

Her conclusion was that the standard of food was on par with Taipei's outlet. For me, I think it was worth a try!

Found a gem nearby ~ dimsum

Saturday was fully packed and the whole day's events went like this:

Lunch buffet at Parkview Apts' pavilion - 2nd uncle's 70th birthday. Spread was ok, food was so-so (not really nice actually) and I had more fun fooling around with Mattea and Keona.

Left at 2plus to go to Dennis's daughter's baby shower. This time round, Jamie did not get her name from our group of friends (unlike her elder brothers Jayden and Joven). Ate the very nice ang ku kueh (available at all previous baby showers too) haha... and stayed on till almost 5pm.

Went to get durians from Geylang and ended up spending $200 there! Luckily they turned out to be quite good (or maybe nobody dared say not nice)

Reached Shirley's place for dinner - Darren went to tabao zichar, which included crabs again. Ate salted eggs crab and crab tung hoon. Yummy!

Left at 8pm to go off to meet SHG folks for tomorrowland at Jem. Reached there just in time to go into the cinema... haha. The movie was not bad but did not have climax. Most of us were disappointed while some even fell asleep! We sent Zijian and Jasmine home before fetching Phyllis to go our place for mahjong and sleepover.

Did not play with chips or cash coz the mahjong set does not have animal tiles so we used points system and winner gets to come up with forfeit for the loser. I did not lose any of the rounds... 

Sunday morning (or rather noon) we went to have brunch at e dim sum stall opposite Pei Tong Primary School. They actually do handmade buns, which were really good. All of us loved the 流沙包!

In the afternoon, I had to work on the publicity flyer for my work. So we only munched snacks... 

Dinner was more happening - at Dancing Crab. Will write about it next time!

Chillax while dinner is being prepared (on its own!)

With today's technology, it is so much easier to cook coz you can prepare everything, leave it to self-cook and then voila! it's done! Dinner is ready!

Coz hubby requested for steamed fish, so I went to the supermarket after work to buy sour plums, chinese parsley and tomato for the steaming (already had half a spanish mackerel in the fridge). Got free labour to carry stuff home since I was done by the time hubby alighted from the mrt.

Placed the fish on a plate, surrounded it with two sour plums, half a tomato (it was too huge), chinese parsley, shredded ginger and some chilli padi. Then I added in soya sauce n sesame oil... haha don't ask me how much to pour in, I just estimate and go by feel

This is how it looks like, before steaming...










The next dish is portobello mushrooms stuffed with minced pork. Had marinated the pork in the morning and so it should taste perfect. Place them in the airfryer and it spent only 10mins to be done.

Haha all these do not require me to use any oil, or fry stuff with wok. I simply sit back on my swing chair, watch tv and chill until dinner was ready!

End results are above - and best of all, hubby love both dishes ttm! haha when asked to decide the better one, he simply couldn't! The steamed fish was fresh, springy and very tasty (though a little spicy from the chilli padi) while the pork and mushroom blended well, succulent and juicy!

Marvellous Dinner (with help of Dancing Chef)

Last Saturday (16 May)'s dinner was pretty interesting coz I had already thought of what to cook, but lacking the ingredients and practice. Most of the dishes were my virgin tries.

Was up early in the morning ~ 7am to set off to the wet market for purchases of the fresh ingredients. Made friends with the seafood stall uncle who chose a small but pretty looking "beh kar" (spanish mackerel) and two heavy flower crabs, struggling while he caught them. Went to my regular chicken stall to buy midjoints and was told "fresh chicken comes in 3-joints-wings only". Learnt something new! Then to my regular pork stall to buy huge chunks of lean meat (with some fats) for sweet n sour pork and very lean minced pork (which uncle need to mince separately).

After that, it was the search of Dancing Chef premix paste which made me spend the longest time! Went to three stalls and still did not manage to locate it. Finally, I went to NTUC (hubby joined me after he queued for a long long time and bought his carrot cake and my chwee kuay) and got three packets of pastes - curry chicken, sweet n sour pork and shrimp paste chicken.

Luckily the chicken and sweet n sour pork were marinated from morning. Had invited dad, mum and Phyllis to come over for dinner at 7pm. So I started cooking from 6.30pm (with help from hubby) and finally sat down to eat ONLY 1hr later. 

End results pic is as follow:

Tofu soup with Korean wongbok, carrots and minced pork balls - the wongkok and carrots made the soup very sweet, especially since I also added in red dates and dried scallops! The carrots were so soft they melted in my mouth.

Steamed flower crabs with huatiao wine - the wine made the crabs taste sweeter while on the other hand, the balance wine in the bowl was sweetened by the crabs. My first try at it - was quite satisfied with the results.

Homemade otah - recipe was copied from ieatishootipost facebook page but I used Dancing Chef's curry chicken paste instead of thai seafood paste (coz NTUC has no stock). Verdict: all prefer the steamed version vs the airfried one.

Shrimp paste chicken - used Dancing Chef's shrimp paste... not crispy enough coz I had no time to continue airfrying it at 200deg. Tasted not bad yet not too salty (which I was worried of initially).

Sweet n sour pork - great decision to go downstairs to grab pineapple and tomato coz the colour really made the dish more vibrant and tasty looking. The Dancing Chef sweet n sour paste is simply marvellous! Mum helped to clean the plate and left no traces behind!

Recommendations: Dancing Chef premix paste are yummy, contains all natural ingredients and best of all - does NOT contain msg!

(will not be including recipes in this blog. However, if anybody is interested, you can email me and I will reply you personally with the recipe)

Moving forward...

It is a little late to start now, since I have already been staying at our new love nest since February 2015.

However, I shall start blogging from now on (and maybe #throwback for some highlights)

Main topics which I will touch on, will be food (that we cook and/or eat), places that we go to (travelling stuff) and things we do (having fun).

Stay tuned!