Monday, August 17, 2015

我下厨的日记 Diary of my homecooked food (12, 13 and 15 August)

Simple dinner at home with dear and Phyllis - tomyam pork ribs, chawanmushi and stirfry kailan. 
Chawanmushi was simple, with eggs added to chicken stock, and I also put in some crabsticks.

Such a pity that I got duped by the aunty at the market and bought kailan instead of baby kailan. But thankfully, the awesome pork ribs (only marinated it for 20mins with tomyam sauce) saved the day!

Prawn Noodles soup which had an awesome punch of prawn taste coz the soup stock was made with prawn heads, shells and tails. It was supposed to be stirfry but coz the soup looked too yummy that I had to pour in all of it! Only ingredients were prawns and sotong. Hubby loved it totally, and both of us finished all the sinful soup in our bowls!


First time I did an all vegetarian-friendly meal (no garlic too!), coz Shih Wee preferred not to eat meat and since all guests were alright with it, I started doing research and prepared this meal - which won praises from Maggie and all.

The tofu soup was boiled since morning with bak choy, red dates and carrots - about 20mins high heat and then 3-4hrs low heat. Off the fire and let it rest till about 2hrs before dinner, and added in the japanese mushrooms, enoki and tofu.

Mushrooms dumplings were made in the afternoon. Had chopped the shitake and portobello mushrooms into small chunks, then stirfry them with some sesame oil and vegetarian oyster sauce. After they had cooled down, I wrapped them in dumpling skin and kept in the fridge for about 2hrs before airfrying them (180deg for 7mins, then 200deg for 3mins)

Stirfry naibai was norm... added some huatiao wine and vegetarian oyster sauce for flavouring.

Japanese cucumber kimchi was done by mixing them up in the morning then keeping them in the fridge until dinner time.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

cafehopping adventures ~ Craft Bistro, Orange Thimble and Fat Cat

It was a Monday, not Sunday, but we went off for our cafehopping adventures - simply because of two reasons: 1) it has been like 6weeks since our last cafehopping day (OMGGGG) 2) it was a PH and we had no plans on hand (like, finally!!!)

Went off for our first stop, for our brunch. It was Craft Bistro, a simple place set up in Holland Village with not too elaborated furnishing and pretty good crowd. Our only grievance is the noisy customers sitting beside us (both left and right)... Else, I would say the drinks and food all tasted good - good toast, fluffy rainbow cake, proper size of smoked salmon with salad and bread. I thought the baileys latte was not bad, with a slight yet obvious tint of baileys in it.
Just before the downpour arrived, we reached Orange Thimble (just next to Tiong Bahru Bakery). Quite full from our brunch, we only ordered a beef rendang stew to share. Dear and I ordered tea to "cleanse and digest". The lemongrass tea was refreshing though it was not to their credit since they used a tea bag. The rendang tasted alright, but too watery to my liking. Phyllis felt it was just curry actually. Luckily, the bread that came with it saved the day!
Final stop of the day was Fat Cat. A painful wait/ queue outside the cafe was enough to let us deduct many many marks from it. It was a humid day, and there were very few seats (no fan or cooler) outside though it was apparent to me that a queue was inevitable. Ok, I know I sound spoiled but you can interview those who queued along with us - some waited more than 45mins!

The smokey magnum was pretty interesting and tasted (like a magnum) while the charcoal gourmet waffle was not bad (but not the best we tried). It was the torturous wait for the waffle that convinced us not to head back again! Queue numbers 14 and 13 got their waffles before us (we were 12) and only after they attempted to serve us (looking frantically for 14 but could not find it as our order had been served to the two gals instead!), then they realised the mistake! Well, to me, it was strange that the two gals did not realise they were being served ice-creams which they did not choose... 

Of coz, being located at Bedok gave us a final closing that we will not travel so far east again for this. 

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The SG50 Jubilee Weekend (7 to 10 Aug)

As Singapore hit her 50th birthday, we were given an extra public holiday (7 Aug) called the SG50 Jubilee PH. Oh well, I checked the calendar and realised that in 2013, we also had a 4-day long weekend coz Hari Raya Puasa fell on Thursday and National Day on Friday! haha... no matter what, we have to appreciate holidays - giving us a moment to slack, a chance to recuperate from work and play as well as an opportunity to have gatherings and meet-ups!

Here are some of the pics taken over the four days and short caption on how the day was spent!

Friday 7 Aug
Potluck Lunch - with pals from more than 10years! Simple lunch with overwhelming menu like fried beehoon, curry chicken, homemade nuggets, bacon with enoki mushrooms and portobello stuffed with minced pork.

Karaoke at neighbour's place, followed by vegetarian dinner at Nature Cafe (Tradehub21) with two families staying next door and then desserts at McDonald's!
Saturday 8Aug
Family from e SHG Jurong team met up for potluck picnic at Botanic Gardens, followed by partying at our tiny place ~ first huge gathering where we had more than 20 pax there at the same time! Yes, we fit in!
Sunday 9 Aug
Stayed at home to prepare dinner (while e hubby went to work) ~ awesome gathering with sisters Kelly and Phyllis. Homecooked simple dishes for dinner, followed by Llao Llao bought by Kelly!
Monday 10 Aug
Met up for dinner at Mischief with the birthday kakis for Jiehao's birthday... followed by camwhoring at the floating platform with the Singapore Icons - Marina Bay Sands

Singapore Icons - Fullerton, CBD area and abit of the Esplanade

Singapore Icons - Singapore Flyer and Double Helix Bridge

Saturday, August 8, 2015

我下厨的日记 Diary of my homecooked food (30 July, 4 and 6 August)

Dinner for Li Lian and Mandy - baked salmon, steamed minced pork and white radish soup
These two weeks are prolly "salmon spamming" weeks... have cooked salmon twice and will be doing it again on 9 August. Salmon is an excellent source of vitamin B12, vitamin D and selenium. In addition, it is a good source of niacin, omega-3 fatty acids, protein, phosphorus and vitamin B6.

Also, I cooked white radish soup coz the health benefits of radish are also awesome!

4 August is the eve of Mattea and Keona's birthday, I was off and hence prepared happening dinner for them again. This time, I explored chawanmushi and was happy with the results (especially when the girls asked me to cook 10 for them next time) hahaha...
Dinner for Shirley and her three lovely children
On the night before jubilee long weekend, it was simple dinner at home. Because the mushrooms smelled abit weird, I threw them away instead of cooking them. Hence, it was just two dishes for three of us. It was my first attempt at making cereal prawns, and thus I was really inexperienced at frying the cereal... but well, the guinea pigs kinda like it so good lo... haha
Dinner for Phyllis and Jiahong