Monday, August 31, 2009

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.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

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 s
poon 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.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

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

Sunday, August 23, 2009

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.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

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.

Friday, August 21, 2009

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

Sunday, August 16, 2009

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!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

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