Cook the stress away!

Everyone has bad days for sure, those days when you're stressed at work, frustrated with friends, in a fight with someone, full of anger for some reasons. Try to deal with it by cooking! Okay, unless cooking frustrates you even more, then that's another story. You don't have to be good, you just have to cook! Cook away all the frustrations mixed with the stresses and eat them up. At one point, you'll forget everything and start cooking with love.

I cook. During bad days and good days. And here's what I got on one of the days. =P

Steamed Pomfret

What you need:
Pomfrets, Sliced Tomatoes, Sliced Mushrooms, Sliced ginger, Chilli Padi, Parsley, Soya sauce, Fish sauce

How to cook:

• Marinate & massage pomfrets with salt.
  
• Arrange in a container. Top it with sliced tomatoes, mushrooms, gingers & cut chilli padi.
• Spread evenly 2 spoons of fish sauce and 1-2 spoon of soya sauce
• Top it with parsley
• Steam for 5-6 minutes at medium-high heat in microwave-oven which can be used for steaming.
  

Sambal Goreng (Sambal prawns cooked with fried tofu & petai beans)

This was easy as my mom happened to bring us very delicious sambal with petai beans. All I need to do was just to buy shrimps, fried some cube tofu, added them to frying pan and tossed with salt & sugar.

Ingredients: Chicken fillets, Capsicums (green & red), tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, onion, olive oil, pepper, salt, sugar, basil

Chicken cooked with Thai style

How to cook:

• Fry the garlic with olive oil over medium heat until fragrant, not brownish. Add onion and stir for 20 sec. Toss them up with tomatoes and capsicums.
  
• Now, add all the chicken fillets in until 70% cooked.
  
• Add 2 spoons of fish sauce, add salt, sugar and pepper. Continue cooking.
• Add basil, stir and cover it for a while.
  

Disclaimer: Recipes are my own inventions, I cook just for fun.

Togi Korean Restaurant

This entry is totally long overdue. Thanks to my tablet pc which just refused to be turned on and my laptop which screen has just spoilt (yea, i know! how sucky that is! no contact to the outside world at home after work).. but today, is a good day for sure, as I managed to get them both fixed.. =)

Okay, let's talk about my all-time favourite Korean restaurant in Spore, and that is, Togi Korean Restaurant. First of all, don't expect to get fantastic and fancy Korean food from there. Instead you'll be served with very authentic home-made Korean food (wholly owned and managed by Koreans and indeed many Koreans dine there after work or in the weekend). Also, nothing grand about it in terms of its ambience, instead be prepared to have your clothes a little bit smelly afterwards since there'll be a lot of grilling and frying going on inside the restaurant.. but yea, it's a fun place to hang out with your good friends after work. ;)

They serve great side dishes. Look at the mashed potatoes and fried tofu skin, i can assure you, they tasted really good.

The first time I ate Kimchi pancake was in Odense, cooked by my Korean chef friend. She cooked us a big size version, this is a small version, but thicker and tasted equally good.

They truly serve d-best Seafood Soon Doo Bu Jigae I could find in Singapore =). I'm very sure I can walk in one day just to order a bowl of rice to eat with this soup.

Jap Jae, Korean fried vermicelli. It's not bad, I've tasted better one though.

Very typical dish from Korea, raw pork (or beef sometimes) grilled with potatoes, onion and garlic.

Cut them small and ready to eat

Full house in the weekend. So be patient while queuing...

Try their food at 11 Mosque Street! Ciao...

Quick Dinner -- Korean Ramyeon

Brother, sis and I just started calling ourselves "The Three Musketeers" this weekend because we spent almost the whole of it together, and of course gathering always involved food and everything fun about it. We're at Cheng's apartment and there's this random show on TV we're watching very mouth-wateringly (i know there's no such word) at, about Korean Ramyeon which was cooked in so many different ways. Just imagine, tthe noodle was used to make Pizza, Spring Rolls even a plate! Who thought of that? Very creative indeed!

Let's zoom in and talk about instant Korean Ramyeon which for sure, is one of the Korean daily favorites. I still recall how happy my Korean friend was when her mom sent her a box of instant Korean Ramyeon to Denmark and 5 of us celebrated it by cooking 6 packs of Ramyeon in one big saucepan, broke 6 eggs in and added some veggies. Really, it was fun. And that's not done yet, don't forget to eat the leftover soup with plain rice, that's how the Koreans do it.

So, our brilliant idea yesterday was to have a very simple Korean Ramyeon dinner.....

What we bought:

• Korean Ramyeon
  
• Prawns
  
• Squids
• Japanese Xiao Bai Cai
• Eggs
• Pepper
• A lot of Chilli Padi (and napkins of course)
  

How to cook:

Do I even have to tell you? =P

Turned out, this brand tasted really good ;)

Spicy Soup Ramyeon with seafood and some veggies added

It's delicious, hot and quick!

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh

It was a rainy day and we all thought eating something soupy would be great!

I recommended Song Fa Bak Kut Teh, the one opposite Central Mall @ Clarke Quay since I've been pretty intrigued to try since long time ago. How can I not? I heard many good reviews about their Bak Kut Teh from some friends and whenever I happened to be around the area, what I always saw was an eating house full of customers, both day and night.

Pork Ribs Bak Kut Teh
Honestly, this peppery type tasted pretty good, almost identical to the Bak Kut Teh at old Havelock Road. We ordered 1 big bowl and 2 small ones.

Pigs Trotter
My siblings and I kind of grew up eating this so we kind of missed it. I must say, it's well-cooked and the meat was soft and juicy.

Mixed Kidney and liver. I like it boiled completely well.

Salted Vegetables
This is my favorite and I think it suits to be served with Bak Kut Teh the most .

Kailan stirred with Oyster Sauce

You Tiao, good to dip it to the soup before eating it, as always.

SONG FA BAK KUT TEH
11 New Bridge Road #01-01

Yet, my favorite so far is still Ah Sio Pork Ribs Eating House.

Chocolate is not just about taste -- Max Brenner

Max Brenner @ Esplanade Mall

The Menus

Display at Max Brenner

Alice, the drink

About ALICE

Chocolate soufflé

who dares to deny that chocolate makes you happy and your heart healthy?

Thai Foodholic

Central Thai @ Orchard Central

Yes, it's actually pretty official that Orchard Central has kinda just become my favorite hang-out place recently. Have been there for 4 to 5 times within the past 2 months or even less, what a record. The place is not too crowded and you can easily find a place to just hang out for a drink or meal over a chit chatting.

Thai Grilled Beef Salad
This is pretty good actually even though it wasn't really something I wanted to order.

The ordinary yet special-in-some-ways Sambal Kangkung

Glass Noodle with Tom Yam Soup
I personally prefer the clear type tom yam soup, like the one served by Thai Express.

Beef Hor Fun
This is okay, it's just that I am not really a Hor Fun lover.

And check out our choices of desserts ;)

The tapioca was pretty fresh, soft & sweet.

Mango Glutinous/Sticky Rice
The mango was good, but we're too full to finish all of the glutinous rice.

I heart Thai food.
There's always a feeling of happiness every time I eat Thai food.

Home-made Watercress Soup

Watercress Soup

My mom used to cook at least 3 dishes for every of our meal. One of them had to be soup, any kinds of soups; spinach soup, fishball, chicken, beef, mutton, lotus pork ribs etc. Now, if you live in Spore and working, chances are, you take away your food or dine out every night (perhaps every meal to be exact =P) and somehow I don't really drink soups that often anymore nowadays unless I go to Chinese restaurants in the weekend.

I promised to cook soups at least once in a week when I first stayed with my siblings like a year back (i used to stay in NUS dormitory for 4 years). This promise is just to myself and of course has also been falling and failing apart =(. I am not a very discipline person to begin with, and that's just my biggest problem I suppose. =(

To cut the story short, last week when I saw watercress in the supermarket I decided to cook watercress soup for my siblings, which was a pretty good start.

Ingredients:

• Watercress -- I bought 2 packs for 3 big servings.
  
• Chicken wings
• Chinese wolfberries
• Salt
• Sugar
• Pepper
• Chicken Block (1/4 or 1/2 pc only)

How to cook:

Boil water

Wash 8 pcs of chicken wings.
Cook them in the boiled water and spoon away the oil at the water surface after chicken wings are almost cooked.

Wash watercress a few times.
Cook together with chicken wings.
Add Chinese Wolfberries (good for eyes and organs) and cover for at least 5-10 minutes
Open the cover, add salt, sugar, pepper (if necessary) and half or a quarter piece of chicken block. Stir it.
Taste the soup. Boil for as long as you want. Some like it crunchy, some like it soft.

Hangari Galbi, Orchard Central

Hangari Galibi at Orchard Central

Okay i must admit that ever since i started this blog, every time i go for a meal with friends, they're kinda obliged to wait for me to take photograph of each dish with different angles and stuffs like that, which I hope nobody finds it annoying. =P ok well... think about it, i do it only with my closest people, so i don't bother anyway.. Haha..

I heart Korean food, especially ever since being introduced by my korean friends in Denmark. They enjoyed cooking a lot and what they did looked kinda fun, like they had this easy-going way of cooking in my opinion. And since I came back to Singapore, I've been trying out Korean restaurants here. I found two pretty authentic ones at Chinatown and went there regularly ever since. Recently found another one at Orchard Central and gave it a shot. Let's take a look at the dishes we ordered at Hangari Galibi.

Some kimchi pickles/vegetables as appetizer

Salad

Side Dishes
I don't usually order them in Korean restaurant, they're automatically served

Spicy Korean Pancake

Korean Seafood Soup

The raw meat to be grilled

The grilling stove

They actually still use charcoal and, I am not very sure but i guess the metal thing on top kind of acts as a fan.

Grilled meat cooked by the waitress

Wrap the grilled meat with these veggies

The bill cost us about SGD 115 but it's a pretty good deal with 15% off by Amex credit card

Ham & Egg

Two things I should always have in my fridge: eggs and ham. Okay even though nowadays honestly, i dont stock up as much and as often as i used to anymore because well, i'm not supposed to eat eggs that much for cholesterol reason (I still can't believe how hard it was for my mom to beg me to eat eggs when i was a kid!) and secondly processed meat, I heard, is very unhealthy =P.

Let's see how easy it is to make this:

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Ham
  
• Salt
• Frying oil/margarine
• Pepper

How to make it:

• Heat oil in frying pan for 30 seconds. Arrange the ham nicely.
• Break the eggs on top
• Cover it with pan cover for 30 secs
• Open it and take a pinch of salt and spread it
• Pepper it.
  
• Cover for 15 secs and done.

Non alcoholic drinks at 2 AM

Lychee Jazz - mine and refreshing

Cookies Mint - fyi, i don't like mint with chocolate or coffee or ice-cream and stuffs, even though i know some people claim mint chocolate is the best thing in the world.

Green Apple Refreshing Tea - surely it is =P

www.thecoffeeconnoisseur.com

I had a good catch up with two good friends of mine. One is my best friend since I was a baby, like from kindergarten, the other one used to be my high school classmate. Went for a dinner and drink over a pretty mature chit chatting =P until 3 AM in the morning at Orchard, which was of course, still happening somehow and crowded by human beings. Well, we decided to have non-alcoholic drinks because they somehow came up with a serious topic to discuss so we need to be sober all night long.

Boon Tong Kee

One of my life secrets is that I eat hainanese chicken rice alot! I can't even afford to name the exact figure how many times it actually is per week because i really feel guilty for the chicken, but yes, it's so often that i need to cut it. I eat it on weekdays, during lunch time at work or dinner somewhere (even take it away sometimes) and i eat it too sometimes in the weekend. So yea, it's that often and that unhealthy. =(

It was so quick when i felt in love with it, i was 6 and fed by my grandma in one of my trips to Singapore and that's how it began! So yea, I have to admit that the chicken rice in my home country is a different version and less delicious.

Introduced to Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice about 5 years ago at its Upper Bukit Timah outlet and went there afterward like every now and then as if it's a very important weekend ritual, traveling from PGP (NUS' student residence) to my brother's place at Upper Bt Timah and asked him to accompany me for lunch and the conversation pretty much went on like this

Bro: "So what would you like to eat?"
Me:"Hmmmm.... anything" (pretending)
Bro:"Hm, let's go to orchard then..."
Me:"Hm.. but I am quite hungry now.. oh, why dont we go nearby to grab something first?"
Bro:"Okay i dont mind"
Me:" Let's go to Boon Tong Kee then, it's very near.."
Bro: "Ok" (trapped)
So, that's how I did it...

Steamed chicken -- I always prefer the steamed ones than the roasted ones!

Deep fried tofu with mayonaisse
The flour coating the silken tofu is fantastic, yes that's the word. My friends would always make sure they buy the flour before leaving Singapore every time they're here for holiday.

Spinach with 3 Egg combination, normal egg, salted egg and century egg
Well, not everyone is a fan of century egg. My grandma for instance, feels that it's disgusting. Read this and you'll know why.

Seafood seeweed soup -- this is just ok

www.boontongkee.com.sg

Ebisboshi Shotengai

Ebisboshi features 7 Japanese dining brands under one roof in a food amusement street setting

Okay, let me be very honest that I wasn't interested in this Japanese restaurant at all, like every time I happened to be at Iluma and passed, I was like "This is a one weird restaurant.." even though the overall design looked really nice, it's just, there were some elements of japanese animation. No no, not that I have something against japanese animation but i just thought it was kinda redundant. So i went there and figured it out eventually. The idea is to transport us back to the old Japan as we step into the restaurant. Yea, you know, probably ninja and all that. I can say I am officially a fan now, the food was good and they're indeed unique in their own way.

A unique way of ordering your food
Use a talking pen!
Curious?? Go and check it out yourself =)

And here,presented to you all the food that we ordered (minus 1 set of sushi which was eaten by my brother when we're away for a few seconds), oh, and there were only 3 of us there =P

Beef & Seafood Set, came with rice, soup & salad -- great juicy meat and fresh seafood!

Chicken Fried Noodle -- pretty ordinary

Sashimi -- was good

Caterpillar Roll -- was literally melting in my mouth

Saiko Roll -- the Saiko sauce was really good that we had to eat our next order (grilled squid) with it.

Grilled Squid

We haven't tried its desserts under Sweet Brothers brand because we're tempted by the ice-cream nearby. I will be back!

Check out more @ http://www.ebisboshishotengai.com/

Be a vegetarian!

Vegetarian Yang Chow Fried Rice

Vegetarian Broccoli stirred with Abalone

Vegetarian Sambal Kangkung

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Vegetarian Ham & Cheese Prata

Avalokiteshvara a.k.a Kuan Yin is one of the most famous boddisattva in Buddhism. Quite a number of people actually celebrate Kuan Yin's birthday, and this includes my mom. It is usually not a very happening celebration but people mainly visit temples and offer prayers. For most people that I know, they celebrate it by being a vegetarian for one or half a day, and so on last Saturday, vegetarian we were! =)

Restaurant located at Upper Serangoon Road, one of the Shophouses @ Teck Chye Terrace

Sweet Sins

Thai Chendol from Central Thai @ Orchard Central

Thai Chendol has always been one of my favorite desserts, the one I have grown up eating in the past 5 years is certainly Coca's Thai Chendol. This one tasted pretty good with Vanilla ice-cream on top.

Praline flavor, YUMMY!!

the freshest ice-cream on earth
by
MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY

Seriously tempted by the wordings "the freshest ice-cream on earth", which means you definitely have to try, or like a friend said, die die must try =P.. the concept is similar to Cold Rock, which I will probably blog about soon

Peanut butter flavor, even more YUMMY!

don't tell me you've never eaten Skippy peanut butter from its bottle?

surely we all have, yes! this is almost as heavenish

"Once your desired flavor has been selected, the magic begins. We scoop the ice cream onto a frozen marble slab, where your choice of fruits, nuts and candies, known as Marble Slab Creamery "mixins," will be skillfully blended in with the ice cream, then finally piled high on the delectable waffle cone of your choosing. The result is your very own, one-of-a-kind dessert. From there, repeat as desired, which will probably be often." quoted from Marble Slab Creamery

1 for 1 Fizz at only $5.50 @ AC2 Cafe, Far East Plaza

Pretty much have been indulging myself with sweet things, which of course, was a real sin because they're usually cold (and I have the tendency to easily catch cough afterward) and fattening =(.

Garuda Padang Cuisine

Garuda Padang Cuisine at Cairnhill

Rendang Sapi / Beef Rendang

Ayam Gulai / Curry Chicken

Sambal Udang Petai / Shrimps stirred with Chilli and Petai

Sambal Telur / Eggs cooked with Chilli

Ayam Goreng / Fried Chicken

Sambal / Chilli

I still remember how pissed I was when I wasn't allowed to eat Padang food during one of my recent trips to Indonesia. My friend's dad who happened to bring us around thought the way the food served was not hygienic at all. How could somebody who lives in Indonesia bans Padang food from his life? I don't get it!!!

So anyways, padang food is usually cooked once per day and the idea is customers get to choose from those dishes displayed until no food is left. Usually in Padang restaurant, the table will quickly be filled with small portion of many dishes and customers only pay for what they eat. So, yes there's a chance that someone actually touches the food , doesnt want to admit it to avoid paying more and the food is then served to subsequent customers. So,my friend's dad is right, that's how fun it is. =P

Garuda Padang Cuisine by Tung Lok Group in Singapore serves pretty authentic Padang food as Garuda itself is a pretty big player in Indonesia. But since this is Singapore we're talking about, the authentic way of serving the food is totally unacceptable so here, you get to choose what to be served on your table and you pay for all of them.