foodsholic: eat, drink & be merry

Cook the stress away!

2009-10-17T22:08:00.010+08:00

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

2009-09-14T16:24:00.016+08:00

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

2009-09-14T15:08:00.012+08:00

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

2009-09-06T17:09:00.011+08:00

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

2009-09-04T13:55:00.002+08:00

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

2009-08-31T23:11:00.000+08:00

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

2009-08-29T16:37:00.000+08:00

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

2009-08-26T21:36:00.004+08:00

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

2009-08-23T20:42:00.000+08:00

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

2009-08-22T14:11:00.010+08:00

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

2009-08-21T00:19:00.014+08:00

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

2009-08-16T01:30:00.018+08:00

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!

2009-08-13T22:34:00.011+08:00

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

2009-08-10T12:24:00.011+08:00

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

2009-08-04T21:56:00.007+08:00

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.

Ponggol (not Punggol) Nasi Lemak

2009-07-31T21:10:00.014+08:00

Waiting is believing.

I am simply amazed by the idea that people actually spend their precious weekend's evening queuing for a plate of nasi lemak, and I am one!

Important notice stated:
Any nasi lemak food outlets that bears the name "Punggol" has no relation whatsoever with "Ponggol Nasi Lemak Centre"

The sambal lady's fingers were delicious

Just for non-Singaporean readers' information:
Otah looks like this in Singapore, or orange in color to be exact. Unlike the white types that people usually call "Otak-Otak" in Indonesia and Malaysia too i reckon

If I do the math,
the journey to Upper Serangoon Road takes 20 minutes by car
waiting and queueing take at least 10 minutes
eating usually takes only 5 minutes! (i know u can do faster than that)

Food is great but you'll have to wait.....

Bak Kut Teh - Chinese Pork Ribs Soup

2009-07-28T22:11:00.007+08:00

Crowded, as always

A Queuing place?? Seems more organized now

Bak Kut Teh

You Tiao, dipped in the soup before eating it

Our normal menu for two:

Pork ribs bak kut teh
Mixed kidney and liver
Green vegetables
You Tiao
Rice

Bak Kut Teh spices, requested by my friend's sis who lives in US

Popularly served in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, China and Taiwan which name literally translated to "meat bone tea". I am sure each of us has our own personal favorite Bak Kut Teh stall. It can't be argued whether the peppery (mostly in Singapore) or the herbal variant type (Malaysia) is more delicious because it's really a personal preference. I personally prefer the peppery type. The more peppery, the more delicious it is.

It's pretty ritual for me to spend my Saturday or Sunday morning at "Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup Eating House" at Rangoon Road. Nothing fancy inside, the eating house instead looks pretty old but big enough to accommodate more than 100-250 people (my rough estimation). Don't be surprised that the staffs there are not famous for their friendliness but I heard from a friend that most of them are loyal staffs who have been working for tens over years, and I can see they're all obviously busy..

Visitors vary from old to young generations, Singaporeans to foreigners and even tourists from Korea, Japanese, Taiwanese and Caucasians.

Tips: Don't go for the peppery Bak Kut Teh if you have cough/sore throat, it will get worse.

D talkin' bread

2009-07-27T19:35:00.009+08:00

Phoenix

Fire Floss, my favorite

Hen & Cheese

Japanese Cheese Cake

If you stay in Singapore, you probably have long been taking this for granted because you can get it almost anytime anywhere! but when you have to move far far away from Singapore, you'll definitely miss it.

What I missed the most when I stayed in Europe was the softness of the bread. Just felt like chewing something really soft and tasty at the same time, especially after a long tiring day and after eating some really hard bread or baguettes for months (which I quite liked too actually, so don't get me wrong).

Check out more at www.breadtalk.com

Olionized !!

2009-07-23T23:14:00.009+08:00

My piece - Seafood Aglio Olio Pasta

Garlic is definitely a must!

Spaghetti Pasta
Garlic (chopped and a lot)
Olive oil
Seafood (clam meat/prawns/squids/mussels)
Salt
Chilli padi
Capsicum
Italian herbs
Sugar (if desired and in small amount)

Just toss them!

Fyi, I've got praises for this dish! =)

Dian Xiao Er

2009-07-22T09:18:00.016+08:00

Soup of the day: Lotus soup with Pork Ribs

Roasted duck with ten wonder herb

Fried Kailan

Mongolian Spare Ribs

One of my friends claimed this was one of the best Chinese restaurants around in Singapore. I think the restaurant has done some magic on him. No, not that I think the food isn't good at all but i guess he's over expressing it. =) I would say, a worth trying one and every single dish is pretty much up to a certain standard. I love the herbal roasted duck of course!

Check out their website here at www.dianxiaoer.net

Enjoy the street snack of Taiwan

2009-07-21T11:00:00.002+08:00

Handmade Oyster Mee Sua

XXL Crispy Chicken

I am actually not the type who snacks but when I first tried the crispy chicken of Shihlin Taiwan Street Snack at their Far East Plaza outlet years ago, I was totally into it. This is probably not the healthiest snack but I would miss it once in a while (even though I quite get sick of it now honestly). I love oyster, i eat it cooked or raw so, definitely the oyster meesua is a must-try too!

I seriously think the business idea is brilliant. A product of two young singaporeans who paid a five-figure to a Taiwanese chef to learn how to make the snacks in the entire 2 months. Today, the franchise has expanded to neighboring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. My friend's brother tried to bring the franchise to my hometown in Medan, (Indonesia) and it probably will be opened soon if everything works. I hope so! this probably can bring new excitement to the town!

2009-07-20T15:33:00.005+08:00

SAL50F18
[courtesy of cnet reviews]

I've just sinned. I saw my cousin's husband using a 50mm lens less than a week ago, was extremely curious about it, went to a store with the intention just to check it out, but no question, ended up buying it.

Good thing is, I have a new friend hunting food with me now and this lens is supposedly good for portraits and food photography.

Chap Jae [Stir Fried Korean Glass Noodle]

2009-07-19T14:31:00.003+08:00

Introduced to the dish by a Korean friend of mine whose mom was some award winning chef in Korea, and who has made cooking as a hobby. She shared this recipe to me during our trip to Florence, Italy while chit chatting in the train. Well, yea, such a procrastinator I am! only tried it out a few days ago at a dinner potluck, which means almost two years later! Here's the recipe with a little bit of improvisation.

What I needed:

Korean Glass Noodle (the difference is, it's thicker and gives more springy feel)
Korean bean paste (i used Korean red hot pepper paste)
Chopped garlic, small/red onion
Red capsicum (improvised) - julienned
Chilli padi (improvised) - cut small
Vegetables: Big onion, Carrot - julienned, Bok Choy or any green veg suitable for noodle
Mushrooms, thin-sliced
Minced meat (i used beef)
Olive oil
Sesame oil
Sesame seeds (i didn't use)
Soy sauce
Salt, sugar

How to cook:

Boil water and cook the glass noodle for 2-3 minutes
Heat up olive oil, stir in the garlic and small onion until fragrant
Add the minced meat and cook til brown color. Stir in the mushrooms. Add bean/hot paste.
Next, add in all vegetables i.e. capsicum, bok choy, carrot, big onion. Add soya sauce while stirring. Add sugar. Add salt if desired.
Stir in the glass noodle, mix well. Add a little water and olive oil if it's too dry.
Add sesame oil, stir well.
Add sesame seeds and the cut chilli padi if desired.

Where to buy ingredients:

Korean Glass noodle & Red pepper paste: Seoul Mart, Parkway Parade
Other ingredients: NTUC FairPrice / Cold Storage

I received quite positive feedback on this dish recently. So, I hope you'll like it too.

Ananas Cafe Chicken Rice

2009-07-14T00:39:00.020+08:00

I wonder, what is better than lazing on a comfortable sofa, with the tv on, accompanied by a pack of delicious Singapore Hainanese chicken rice, after a long-day at work?

Was looking for food at Tiong Bahru Plaza after work and saw the newly opened Ananas Cafe. The posters and food display looked pretty tempting. I was just curious how would a $2 chicken rice be like? I mean, isn't that extremely cheap? and it surprisingly turned out to be better than expected. [Eggs, vegetables and chicken organs added at additional prices]

Check it out, I am sure you'll be curious too.

Fyi, Ananas Cafe also serves Halal food such as Nasi Lemak, Fried Bee Hoon, etc.

Hua Li Xuan Restaurant [Iluma @ Bugis]

2009-07-10T14:37:00.017+08:00

I've yet to try their other menus because I went there just for "fun" yesterday night, was a light supper to be exact. Attracted by the friendly staff and the mini-burger display which was pretty cute, we decided to give it a try. The price of the burgers is considered very cheap. Here's the deal, buy one normal-size burger at about $4.00 or choose 3 different types of mini burgers at about $4.80. You may like to upsize it to a set meal with choices of drinks and side dishes.

Creamy Chicken Soup

Black Pepper Beef Burger with Onion Rings

Initially I thought the burgers were just there to attract people. But turned out, they are actually considered the restaurant's specialty as they use mantou or Chinese bun instead of the normal bread. You can choose to have your burgers with fried or steamed mantou indeed! We ordered the Beef Black Pepper Burger with fried mantou (a little bit oily in my opinion, but its semi-crispiness was great), upsized it with Onion Rings and Root Beer. The creamy soup-of -the-day was normal but the garlic breads (more like garlic biscuits) tasted really good.

Mango dessert with sago and pomelo

Towards the end of our meal, a lady came over to ask us if everything was okay, if the food was good enough and introduced us their popular mango dessert. In my opinion, it wasn't really fantastic because I like the Hong Kong type mango dessert, which I usually ate at Liang Seah Street (I've yet to blog about this dessert house). This one tasted more like milky mango syrup with some mango cubes, sago and pomelo added. Tasted like the usual mango pudding before being solidified, if you get what i mean.

Overall, it's pretty okay, I will go back for second try.

Lunch: Rice with roasted duck & barbecued pork

2009-07-09T15:46:00.018+08:00

I have a very special love affair with roasted duck. I love the roasted duck at Crystal Jade Kitchen, at Dian Xiao Er, at Tiong Bahru, at Bugis, you name it. One of my lunch destinations with colleagues is Toh Guan Foodcourt. We just need to board the free shuttle bus from IBP (Int'l Business Park) and will be there in about 5 minutes time. The foodcourt can be quite crowded during lunch time and its opening hours should be the same with other HDB's foodcourts.

They serve roasted duck, bbq pork and Char Siew (another style of bbq pork) with either rice or noodles. Our favorite has always been rice with roasted duck plus barbecued pork. It comes with some pickles and what I love is its thick sweet sauce coating the rice and meat , which can be really juicy and tender at good times (yea, it's not always consistent). It's totally worth it for just a $4 meal.

If you're in the mood for exploring good yet affordable hawker food, pop by at Block 282A Toh Guan Road foodcourt.

Char Kwetiau (Fried Rice Noodle), Penang Place

2009-07-08T15:01:00.006+08:00

I've been craving for Penang food for the longest time. Since 2005. No joke. My favorite Penang dish has always been Char Kwetiau, which always came with big juicy shrimps. I even made a colleague from Penang promised to bring me one or two when she visited her hometown a few months ago, I seriously didn't mind if it would be less delicious or if I would have to heat it up myself again. But too bad, I had to be in Surabaya for work at that time.

So, today during lunch hour, we decided to go to Penang Place at the International Business Park (IBP) to temporarily fulfill my never-ending cravings for a plate of Penang Char Kwetiau. I seriously think my cravings for Penang food shall only be completely fulfilled someday if I make a trip there. I miss eating Char Kwetiau, Laksa or Lok Lok from the road-side stalls. They serve the best street cuisine!

Pop by Penang Place restaurant at IBP if you have the same cravings! They serve both Penang buffet and ala-carte menu.

Fun N' Easy: Home-Made Sushi

2009-07-07T21:54:00.024+08:00

Soya Sauce & Wasabi from Asian mart in Odense Denmark

Home-made Sushi. They actually tasted pretty decent =P

The sushi here was made for a bunch of friends during my stay in Denmark. We were having potluck dinner and everyone supposedly brought a dish representing our culture. Since I was the only Asian there, they requested me to make them Sushi as they're very curious about this famous food. Don't be confused if the toppings are a little bit twisted because it's not easy to find all the things I wanted to use in Odense (a small city in Denmark).

What I needed:

Makisu or Bamboo mat to roll sushi in
Sushi rice (Sticky rice)
Sushi vinegar (which contains sugar and salt)
Toppings (I prepared crab meat, omelet, cucumber, mayo & thousand island)
Nori or Seaweed Sheet
Soya sauce and wasabi
Sharp knife

How I made them:

Wash a few times and cook the sushi rice
Cool the cooked rice
Mix the cooked rice with sushi vinegar. Taste it.
Prepare toppings, slice the crab meat, omelet and cucumber, slice them thin and long.
Open bamboo mat and place on the table
Place the seaweed sheet on top of the bamboo mat
Spread the rice thinly and evenly, leaving 2 cm top edge untouched
Place a long thin strip of topping at about 2-3 cm from bottom rice edge
Spread some mayo, thousand island and wasabi
Slightly wet the 2 cm top edge, so that this edge can easily stick when rolling the sushi
Roll from bottom to top.
Warm the knife with warm water
Cut sushi into pieces
Dip into soya sauce before eating it (depends on preferences)

Don't you agree that everytime you cook, you actually cook all your stresses away?

The Mighty Marutama Ramen

2009-07-07T00:38:00.021+08:00

I am a Ramen lover, no question. I used to visit Ajisen Ramen quite often during school times. Have you noticed that recently, there are more ramen shops around compared to, say 3-4 years ago? Life is much more fun definitely! =P

Anyway, I always recommend everyone to try Marutama Ramen. Very simple menu, so you don't sit there wasting time deciding what to eat (but you'll probably need to spend time queuing). I like the noodle texture, which is a little bit different from other ramen noodles in Singapore. What is hard to resist is the soup and the half-boiled egg (one each was never enough for my siblings and I). Adding more char siew and seaweed will be perfect.

About foodsholic

2009-07-06T10:35:00.014+08:00

Started to blog...?

Once upon a time when I was a teenager (wait a second, i'm not old ehm -- still in my twenties-- ehm), I had so many thoughts that I told myself I should at least started jotting them down. If I start recalling, it has been 4-5 years since I started blogging in livejournal, but was never really so much into it and so I then moved to Friendster Blog (Oh, Friendster was still such a Hot Stuff at that time!). What Friendster Blog did was automatically updated my friends every time I clocked entries in and apparently, it felt much better to have my blog read than left there for my own-self. Of course! people need to be heard sometimes =P

Why foodsholic?

If there are two things I've always wanted to blog about, they will be about food and traveling. So, if I do the counting, it took me 5 years just to get started. Such a procrastinator I am! I started enjoyed blogging in 2007 during my stay in Odense, Denmark. Getting out of my routines in university life, it was totally different. I traveled very often. I started cooking there. I started taking pictures of my foods. I started writing blog entries about them. My bottom line is, readers are very interested in food. We all like to eat!

My partners in crime

If I happened to reminisce in this blog by posting old pictures. They will be courtesy of this Canon Powershot A80, which was my first-love digital camera.
My second camera was a gift which is the incredibly user-friendly Sony DSC-W120.

My newly received baby DSLR Sony A-200 will be taking over all jobs pretty soon. I've been using the 18-70 mm macro lens for sometime.

But of course, there will be times when it's almost physically impossible for me to bring big camera around, credits will go to my Blackberry Curve 8900. =P

Favourite Bites

I always have a soft spot for spicy foods. My favorite is Thai's but not to worry for non-spicy-food-lovers here , I have plenty of friends who can't eat hot stuffs, so more often than not I have to learn enjoying non spicy foods. I used to drink soups everyday when I was still staying with my mom (she made such nice soups), so I kind of miss it. Soups are real healthy! and I believe there's always a special room for desserts. I like trying new foods but too bad I did not take many pictures in the past. I promise I will do starting from today!

What is "Fun N' Easy Recipes"?

Once in a while I will post some recipes. It is therefore very important to put on some disclaimers here before I start =P. Well, I enjoy cooking so I do cook and I do receive both positive and negative reviews about my skills. The thing is, I have no formal trainings whatsoever so all recipes posted in this blog will be just out of my "fun trials". I am therefore not responsible if the dish turns out disappointing in any ways =P

Hope you enjoy reading foodsholic! Ciao Ciao...

Eat, Drink and Be Merry,

Dee