Honeymoon Dessert (满记甜品)

Honeymoon Dessert has arrived in Singapore in 2010 but I did not have a chance to try it until months later.  The Singapore outlets can be found at Vivocity (#01-93), Bugis Junction (#01-70) and 313@Somerset (#04-20 and #04-32).

The outlets' facet are similar to those at Hong Kong... Big brown signage at the entrance and cosy interior and yellow dessert bowls.  This dessert has come a long way since it started in 1995 at Sai Kung district in Hong Kong.  It has now expanded to mainland China, Indonesia and now Singapore.

Desserts ranges from cold to hot variations. Mango, durian, sago, black glutinous rice are some of the main ingredients. My favourite so far has been the Thai Black Glutinous Rice with Mango (Coconut Juice).  In fact, the best part of this dessert is the coconut juice, a light fragrant drink with vanilla taste.  The glutinous rice was "crunchy" and not over-cooked. However, the mango was a little sour.  Would have been perfect if it was sweeter =)

Since I'm spoilt for choice, would definitely be back to try the other desserts, especially the Mango Pomelo and Sago Sweet Soup with Ice Cream (雪山杨枝甘露) which is the most popular dessert accordingly to the shop.

MOF (Ministry of Food)

You can find green tea latte at Starbucks, you can find green tea gelato at Haato (and at many other Japanese ice cream outlets).  But, have you tried combining both in a beverage?

This is truly my preferred combination - green tea latte and green tea gelato =)  *drool* Has anyone tried this combi at other places, besides MOF??

驿站 (Yi Zhan) [Shop has Closed]

Was shopping around Tanjong Pagar MRT xchange one day and chance upon this Taiwanese food cafe 驿站.  It is located at basement 1 in the station and next to The Soup Spoon.

Decided to give it a try since I just missed the Taiwan Food Fair =(  Apart from their regular menu, there are also a few other chef's recommendation on their standee banner.  Although I can't say that the dish that I ordered was really authentic Taiwanese food, I fell in love with it afterall. It is 奶油鱼柳套餐 (Butter Fish Fillet set meal).  It comes with sauteed long bean veggies, potato wedges and rice!  Oh well, by the time i finish the fish, veggies and wedges, tummy definitely has very little room left for the white rice sprinkled with black sesame seeds =(

The best part of this dish is none other than the butter sauce.  It is buttery (that goes without saying), a little savoury, a little sweet and extremely fragrant.  Could they have added curry leaves?  Sounds a little weird but the dish suits me perfectly well!!  I am also suspecting that the batter used for the fish fillet contains some secret ingredients. 

But calories wise.... I think it is best to ignore it for the time being.

Since this is located at Tanjong Pagar, the office crowd wasn't there even at 7pm.  Suspect that they either are rushing home for dinner or still hard at work.  That makes it a good place to eat and relax, with a cup of chinese tea after the main course. =)

CNY 2011 - Pineapple Tarts

What's your favourite CNY cookies?  I've placed order for pineapple tarts, chocolate chips and almond cookies at Joyus Pastries (located at Tanjong Pagar MRT xchange) and collecting it at end Jan.  The pineapple tarts is $19 per tub and for the rest of the cookies, they are priced at $11 per tub (CNY price). 

What are you planning to get for CNY 2011?  Do share...

Claypot Sausage Rice

My first attempt in cooking Claypot Sausage Rice.  This is a relatively easy dish to prepare.  However, just like preparing many other dishes, the most amount of time is spent in cutting the ingredients =P

Ingredients:

-  Cooked Rice (portion for 2 persons)
- 1 piece of chinese sausage (lup cheong)
- 150g of chicken breast meat
- 1 piece of chinese dried mushroom
- 1/3 piece of carrot

Marinade:
- 1/2 tablespoon Sweet Sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon of Light Soy Sauce
- A few drops of Sesame Oil
- A dash of Pepper

Preparation:

1.  Cut the chicken breast meat into cubes.  Season it with marinade for 1 hour.
2.  Soak the mushroom in hot water for 10mins to soften it.  When it is soft, cut into cubes.
3.  Slice the chinese sausage into thin slices.
4.  Slice the carrots and steam it for 1 minute in microwave oven.

Cooking:
1.  Heat up cooked rice in claypot.  Add some water to give it moisture
2.  When it is heated up, add in chicken and sauage and continue cooking until chicken is thoroughly cooked.
3.  Add in carrots. 
4.  Simmer the rice until carrots turn soft.

During the cooking process, stir the rice often so that it doesn't get burnt.

Kiat Lim Vegetarian Food (Ang Mo Kio Central)

Looking for restaurant-standard vegetarian food (zichar), yet unwilling to burn a hole in your pocket?  Check out Kiat Lim Vegetarian stall located at Blk 728, Ang Mo Kio Ave. 6, Coffee City Coffeeshop.  Tel: 9693.2138.

During peak days ie. 1st and 15th day of every lunar month, expect the queue to be long (perhaps waiting up to 30 minutes) and claypot dishes will not be available.  Those are dishes that take longer to cook.  But then, there are a lot more dishes which you can try out.

Claypot Bee Hoon （沙煲米粉） comes with lots of ingredients (cabbage, yam, snow pea, cauliflower, carrot, capsicum, black fungus, fried bean curd and mock eat) and costs only $4!!

This is one of my all-time favourite - Hotplate Bean Curd (铁板豆腐).  The sizzling hotplate come with 7 square pieces of bean curd and loads of vegetables again.  The sweet and spicy black sauce makes the delicious looking dish even more appetising.  Costs $7.

One of the chef's special dish - Butter Fried Frog Legs (奶油田鸡）, is indeed good.  The battered abalone mushroom were deep-fried before frying in butter gravy.  I'm not too certain about the green leaves - which could be curry leaves, added to the fragrance.  The very slight spiciness from the chilli padi makes it even more outstanding.  Costs $8.

In all, I think there are at least 100 dishes available form their menu.  Will take a while for me to experiment them all.  But next on my list shall be cereal prawn, sambal fish, yi mian and mee goreng!  Stay tune for more updates!

Soft Shell Crab Tsukemen @ Ajisen

Ajisen has recently launched Tsukemen, a type of Japanese noodle similar to ramen but the noodles are served dry with the ingradients (in this case, with soft shell crab).  There is a separate bowl of soup, which we are supposed to dip the noodles.  The soup is made from seafood/pork broth which appeared to be a little salty and oily.  For those who prefers their soup to be less salty, just add in some white-coloured soup.

The noodles were a little dry but tasted alright after dipping into the soup.  However, the soft shell crab was not as crispy than I'd like it to be.  The crab sticks were fresh and juicy, the most satisfying ones I've ever tried.

The ala carte item costs $12.  Topping up to $15.80 would give you 1 drink and 1 side-dish such as fried tofu or fried chicken or fried prawn etc.  Besides soft shell crab tsukemen, on the menu is also cha shu tsukemen which costs $1 less.

Sandwich Obsession @ Coffee Club

Coffee Club is having a sandwich promotion now.  Selected sandwiches comes with a complimentary smoothie (regular price: $6.90).

I had a Norwegian Catch which comes in layers of warm smoked salmon, sliced eggs and toasted tomato.  It comes with a serving of french fries.  This sandwich-smoothie combo costs $15.90. 

The food finally arrived after a 30-min wait. The Holland Village outlet was terribly short-handed with only 2 service staff.  One of service staff was also the barista.  At one point, the cafe ran short of culteries and cups for take-away drinks.  My colleagues sitting at the cushioned seats were being asked (politely by the service staff) to give way so that they could get cups stored under the seats for our take-away drinks.  Under such stress, it was unevitable that the barista made a mistake for one of my colleagues' drinks, but she had to turn down the offer for a change because we had already exceeded our lunch time....

Korean Grilled Cuttlefish at Chinatown

If you've been to Seoul and tried the street food in Myeong-dong, you'd probably have seen a roadside stall selling buttered cuttlefish.  To my pleasant surprise, there is a stall outside People's Park Complex selling this delicious Korean streetfood.

In case you're not familiar or confused with the building names at Chinatown, People's Park Complex (PPC) is the building next to OG departmental store and accessible from Chinatown MRT exit.  Occassionally, there are some buskers performing outside this MRT station.

The flattened cuttlefish was first cooked in the machine on the left side for about 2 minutes. Thereafter, the cooked cuttlefish was cut using the orange-coloured machine on the right side. For this $5 portion, you get one and a half piece of cuttlefish.

Tada!  Fresh, juicy and chewy cuttlefish that is almost as good as what you can get in Korea! 

Astons Express

Astons Express
Blk 19 Ghim Moh Road
Wang Wei Li Coffeeshop
Tel: 6466 2325

Had craving for western food for lunch a few days ago and decided to check out Astons Express.  A few other people were already in the queue before me and I overheard their orders - mostly for the grilled items.  I thought that perhaps a better way to "cut-queue" would be to order something that isn't grilled so that the chef can prepare my food concurrently.  Sounds good?

Decided to order Crispy Fried Fish as the main coure and for the 2 side orders, I decided to go for hot side dishes - onion rings and french fries.  Sinful, isn't it?  All the deep-fried and unhealthy stuff.  Sigh...

For $6.50, I felt that it was really value-for-money.  The one big slab of fish was longer than the plate.  No complaints for the fish fillet, it was good enough for $6.50.  However, the fries was nothing to shout about.  Though it looked like it was sprinkled with seasoning, it tasted rather bland.  The onion rings were just passable too... BK onion rings probably tasted better.  But anyhow, how much can you expect from this price.  =)