Happy One Month old, Baby L

Another achievement for myself in doing Iris folding for cards. First time doing a card for a friend's baby shower. Google a bit on how to do work on the card. Found iris folding for baby pram and thought it is quite a good idea. 

Set my mind on the pram and worked on the card. As the iris folding is only at the wheel and the cover, it took me less than half an hour to complete this card. Simple and nice for the baby girl, I hope. 

happy One month old

Here's the link to get more ideas on prams designs.

Topokki

Cooking again and this time round, Topokki, or commonly known as Korean Rice Cake. It is really very simple to cook. I bought the Rice Cake and the Hot Pepper Paste from the Shine Korean supermarket at Marina Square. Initially, I only intended to buy the Hot Pepper Paste to prepare Kimchi Soup at home. After walking round the supermarket, I saw the Rice Cake and decided to buy it as well since I can cook it with the Hot Pepper Paste.

I followed the recipe behind the packaging. But since I am not cooking the whole packet, I was trying my luck to estimate the quantity of the ingredients to be used.

1. Rice cakes - number to your liking
2. Water - Estimate it to your best ability. I guess 100ml for a cup of Rice cakes is fine
3. Starch - I used corn starch and add a bit of water
4. Hot Pepper Paste - according to how hot you want the topokki to be

Wash the rice cakes using cold water. Mix all of the above except rice cakes in a bowl and stir it. Make sure they are well mixed. Heat the mixture using a plan and when it is boiling, add in the rice cakes and stir. Scoop them up when the rice cakes absorbed the sauce.

The ingredients

Here's my Topokki. Not too bad for a beginner. Maybe it is time to look for some other ingredients to go with the Topokki. For information, I think this dish needs to be eaten while it is hot. Otherwise, the sauce will start to clot. 

My Topokki

Croissant set @ Maison Kayser

Due to work, I was around Orchard area early in the morning. When I was done with work, it was only 9 plus in the morning. I was cracking my brain for a place for a nice breakfast to reward myself for waking up so early and to complete the first task on hand. I thought of Maison Kayser at Scotts Square. My friend recommends this place for their croissant  before. 

Maison Kayser

Was pleased that the shop is opened when I reached. The seating capacity is quite small. With only a couple of tables occupied, this is a nice place for me to chill in the early morning while waiting for my next task. Croissant was what I set to eat and was pleased to find this Croissant Menu they have. I chose Set A since I already had my first round of breakfast at home. As for the drink, you can choose from their drinks menu. I got the Cappuccino. Seriously, this set is worth the price. The Cappuccino is already priced at $6.70+ in their menu. Thus, it was like getting an almost-free croissant. 

Croissant Set Menu

They serve really fast. Within minutes, the set arrived at my table. The croissant has the crispy flaky exterior while the inside is soft and chewy. With a strong buttery taste, you can simply eat it plain. I really like this combination of taste.To save any fuss, eat it with your hands! The cappuccino, on the other hand, is just normal. I guess their specialty is still about their pastry.  

Croissant with Cappuccino 

Will come back to try their other pastry and food!

Maison Kayser
Scotts Road, #B1-09 Scotts Square

Beauty Pot [美人锅, Bijin Nabe] @ Tsukada Nojo

Another gathering with a friend whom me and BFF M will always meet up with once a year to celebrate our birthdays. Yes, an annual event. I am not sure why this is so, but I'm still glad to keep in touch with A in such a manner. 

We decided to meet at Chinatown Point where it is sort of a midpoint from where we live. Not knowing what to eat, we then decided to settle it on the meeting day itself. M reached first and she decided on Tsukada Nojo as it was a rainy day and she wanted soup. How glad I was for her decision. I have always wanted to try the Bijin Nabe at Tuskada Nojo when it first opens at Plaza Singapura. However, it does not take reservation and the queue is forever long. Thus, I never have the chance to step into the shop for 'BEAUTY'.

Tsukada Nojo

We were all late though and thus, they decided fast after seeing the menu. We order 3 sets of Bijin Nabe ($25 for 1 pax) – a “Beauty Pot” of collagen-rich organic chicken broth with prawns, minced chicken, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, black and white fungus, winter melon, yellow zucchini, yuzu, tofu and noodles.

First came the Chicken broth. It looked totally like pudding. I was a bit stunned but slowly, as the 'pudding' melted, it became a pot of delicious soup. 

Looks like pudding

The waitress served the raw ingredients and went off.  Not knowing what to do, we decided to put everything into the pot. 

3 person share of ingredients

And our final product was this:

Bijin Nabe ready for consumption

As the noodle was not served, I signaled the waitress. To my 'horror', she mentioned that when the ingredients was served, the person should have asked when we want the noodle to be served and that someone should be helping us to put in the ingredients. Oh man, I wondered what we had missed out on by doing it all by ourselves. So People, please note that they will SERVE you and you do not have to be too anxious, trying to put everything into the boiling soup! Nonetheless, we asked her to serve the noodle. 

We also ordered the Nikumaki Onigiri each. It is actually rice ball wrapped in pork and baked with a special sauce. There are four flavours to choose from and we ordered three. Each costs around $3.50-$3.80. I think I had the spicy with yuzu sauce. It is like sushi but wrapped with bacon instead of seaweed. 

Nikumaki Onigiri

Finally, at the end of the dinner, we were served complimentary desserts. It tasted like chocolate caramel pudding. Just a bite size and my friends love it. We asked and they gave us a second helping. They are not selling this as part of their menu but just a gesture to thank the diners. Oh, this complimentary desserts change daily. So I guess it will be a surprise the next time I visit. 

Complimentary dessert

Oh by the way, they have this reward card system that is designed like a business card. The more you eat, the faster you will be 'promoted' by the shop and if I never heard wrongly, you will be given complimentary food items. 

Quite a nice place to dine in but I think the service crew are not very attentive. Or rather, they should have informed us that they will be helping us to cook. Overall, not a bad experience and I had a great time there!

Chinatown Point
133 New Bridge Road #02-37

My Travel Plans for 2013!

Travel Guide in Library

I like going to the Library and this is my favourite section. This would mean I will be travelling overseas. 

As mentioned in our earlier post, I have 2 confirmed trips, Bali in Oct and Taiwan in Nov respectively. Thus, it is time to read up about the places of interests and to plan out itinerary especially for the November trip. 

A rough itinerary for the 4D3N Bali trip has been planned with discussions and seeking other friends' opinions. Here it goes:

Day 1: Reach Bali and chillax. Walk around the hotel area to get ourselves familiarize with the place and to the beach for some relax moments. Shop around and EAT!

Day 2: Highly recommended by friends to go on a cycling tour to visit the padi field, villages and the road less travelled (I guess by their word of mouth, these bike tracks have been travelled more by now). 

Day 3: Highlight will be Water Rafting and Tanah Lot Sunset. In between, I guess we need to work on it to beef up the day. 

Day 4: Mount Batur Trek at 2am in the morning and back to hotel by noon. Get ready to bid Bali farewell. 

Not forgetting, we need to do some spa and massage, to eat some authentic food and to enjoy the beach. 

Guide book on Bali

The Taiwan trip will be a bit tough to plan. It is a 12D12N trip. Sounds illogical? This is because we will be reaching Taipei at 6am in the morning and departing after midnight on the last day. Thus, technically speaking, that is the number of days and nights we will have in Taiwan. With the number of days and that my sis has been to Taiwan twice, I guess we need to plan a trip where both of us can enjoy and she would not feel bored revisiting. Rough stretch for now:

Day 1: Reach and head to Beitou and Danshui

Day 2: Taipei (CSk, Wu lai, Longshan, )

Day 3 - 6 : Kenting and Kaoshiong

Day 7 : Yeliu, Shifen, Jiufen, keelung

Day 8: Yang Ming Shan

Day 9 : Taipei (101, wufenpu, raohe night market)

Day 10 -12: Yet to think

Any suggestions for me? Sis wants to skip Hualien, Alishan, Sun Moon Lake this round! Or should I venture out myself? 

Guide books on Taiwan

I guess I need to do more research and more research!

Popiah @ home

Mummy loves to prepare Popiah, otherwise known as spring roll. I guess she just has to prepare all the ingredients and it will up to us to decide what we want to eat. However, preparation of the ingredients is not easy at all. Mummy needs to cut and grate the ingredients and cook them. I guess the preparation time for this dish is equivalent to cooking a proper meal and it requires more effort. 

Mummy stewed the radish with carrot, boiled the prawns, bean spouts and crabmeat, fried the egg and beancurd and roasted and pounded the peanut. As for sauce, there are sambal chili and prawn paste and not forgetting the sweet flour sauce.

The ingredients

And then, it is up to the individual to decide what goes into our very own popiah. Normally, I will be very greedy and will add all the ingredients into my popiah. This is how the freshly wrapped Popiah looks like. 

The finished product

And when there is leftover ingredients, this is what Mummy would do. She will prepare the spring rolls and have them deep-fried. This is how versatile this dish is. We can eat it the healthy way where we could taste the freshness of the ingredients. Alternatively, we can have them deep fried to enjoy the crispness of the popiah. I love both the cooking methods. They each have their own uniqueness. Eat this fried version with the sweet flour sauce - is nice! 

Fried Popiah

出海了！！！

A hot sunny day out to the sea. BFF W hired a Yatch for half a day to celebrate her 30th Birthday. I had work appointment on that day and was hesitating if I should rush to attend the Yatch Celebration. I'm glad I made the decision to make it in the end. 

It was the first time I stepped into ONE°15 Marina Club and onto a Yatch. Spending time with friends, relaxing on a Yatch was great. Surrounded with just the sea and the sky, we just have to enjoy sun-tanning. The scary outcome is getting SUNBURNT. A price we paid to stay under the sun for hours. When the Yatch anchored in the middle of the sea, we were allowed to jump into the sea to enjoy the water or to use the pedal board to stay above the sea while enjoying sea sports. 

Here are some of the pictures I took. Just let the picture tells it out:

It was quite expensive to rent this Yatch but I guess it is an experience that we all shared for life.

One-dollar Ice-cream

Ice cream is a simple delight for us under the hot weather in Singapore. It is a trend to see many ice-cream carts along Orchard Road. For a dollar, you can choose any available flavour of ice cream, sandwiched between biscuits, bread or in a cup. A simple delightful way to walk along Orchard. 

Ice cream cart

Craving for such ice cream, and I did my own version at home!

Claypot Laksa and Avocado @ Alexandra Village Zhen Shan Mei Claypot Laksa

Alexandra Village Food Centre is considered a great place with many good food. Situated in a neighbourhood, it is also near to Queensway Shopping Centre, Ikea and Anchor Point. 

Happened to be nearby during lunchh time and thus, decided to head there to look for good food. Queues always attracts me to take a second look at the stall and this time round, it is the stall with a bright yellow signboard. "Claypot Laksa" is what the stall is selling. I have my fair share of laksa but this is the first time I saw Laksa served in a Clapot. Laksa, one of the local hawker delights in Singapore. This high-calories but indulging bowl of noodle dish has captivated the tastebuds of many Singaporeans. I made my decision then, and joined the queue. While waiting, I saw that this stall has many newspaper cuttings and photos with celebrities.

Zhen Shan Mei Claypot

I have to say, the laksa gravy is thick and nice. The tau pok absorbed the gravy and made it very nice to eat. Besides tau pok, there are also cockles, fishcakes and shreds of chicken. You can decide how spicy you want the gravy to taste by adding the additional chilli. The combination of taste is really good. I guess with the claypot, it kept the dish hot throughout. 

Claypot Laksa

Had Avocado shake for desserts. Reasonably priced at S$2.50, this thick avocado is really great.

Avocado Shake

Alexandra Village, Singapore 150119
Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Claypot Laksa (Bukit Merah Lane)
Stall #01-75
Exotic Juice
Stall #01-19

Songfa Bak Kut Teh

Songfa Bak Kut Teh is often a lunch meet up place with my friend. She loves Bak Kut Teh and always has cravings for it. The lunch crowd at Songfa is always huge and at times, we might need to queue up to 10 minutes just to get a seat. 

Yesterday was a lucky day. Though they have implemented a 'Please QUEUE here" system, I was ushered to a table within seconds. Seriously, it is a more brilliant choice to keep lunch group to minimal so that we do not need to spend time looking for seats. Anyway, the weather was hot but it did not stop people from patronizing this soupy place.   

Menu

For the two of us, we ordered the Pork Ribs Soup, the Braised Pig's Trotter, Dough Fritters (You Tiao) and Salted Vegetables together with 2 bowl of plain rice. The soup is tasty and not that peppery, with garlic and star anise flavouring. Dip the You Tiao into the soup and let it soak up the soup. Great way to enjoy the You Tiao as it is a bit dry to eat it on its own. No fuss eating the Pork Ribs as we can easily tear the meat off the bone. The meat is not tough and it went well with the chilli and black sauce. The soup was refillable and the service crew are observant enough to top up the bowl. Great service on their side. 

As for the pig's trotter, it is totally soft and tender. Though a third of it was fats and skin, we do not feel sinful eating it at all. The fatty part was nicely braised to give it the softness that would melt in the mouth. It did not taste oily at all. By the way, you can ask for a bowl of the bak kut teh soup even if you only order the pig's trotters. This is how great their service are. 

1. Pork Ribs Soup
2. Braised Pig's trotters
3. Salted Vegetables
4. You Tiao (Dough Fritter)

The Environment is nostalgic and the service was good. Do drop by if you are around Clarke Quay are. By the way, they are closed on Mondays and they have another shop just a few units down the street that is air-conditioned. Avoid the lunch crowd though!

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh
11 New Bridge Road #01-01
Singapore 059383
7.00am - 10.00pm
Closed on Monday

Green Tea Latte @ Dripz

Tiong bahru is near to my place and it has become more and more popular for coffee time in Singapore recently. With more cafes brewing up in the vicinity, Tiong Bahru is getting a quick makeover, an old estate with a tinkle of a new look. So it is time for me to revisit this childhood place of mine.

Not knowing where to head to for coffee after lunch one fine Saturday, Sis recommended Dripz at Tiong Poh Road. It is at the other side of Tiong Bahru, far away from the well known Forty Hands. I'm glad she made the choice as there were not much of a crowd at Dripz.

After a heavy lunch, I decided to order the Green Tea Latte. It's Sis's treat by the way. I love Latte Art - Amazed at how a design could be 'drawn' onto a cup of latte. I love this cup of green tea latte. Seldom see this choice of latte elsewhere and if you like the taste of matcha, I'm sure you will love this too.

Green Tea Latte

Annyeonghaseyo Kimchi

Kimchi from South Korea

Bro bought back a packet of Kimchi from the Kimchi motherland. A big pack of Kimchi that could last us for a few meals. We tried the Kimchi fresh from the packet. Fresh and nice. Though it is packed from Korea, it did not lose its freshness. Crunchy, sour and spicy is all to describe this kimchi. 

Kimchi

Love it but we are not like the Koreans who will eat Kimchi at every meal. Thus, we got to think of ways to cook the Kimchi such that we will not feel sick of it. We have thought of cooking Kimchi Tofu Soup, Army stew, Kimchi instant noodle etc. Now here, mummy went to fry rice with kimchi. Something that we did not thought of cooking.

Here we go. Mummy's own version of Kimchi Fried Rice and I added some seaweed to it. Delicious and nice. The kimchi is really fresh. Sour and spicy but refreshing taste added to the fried rice.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Here's the Kimchi Yong Tau Foo Soup with noodle. Kimchi added a bit of favours to the already delicious yong tau foo broth that Mummy cooked.

Kimchi Yong Tau Foo 

Pretty sure Kimchi can go with any kind of dishes and we aren't sick of it (yet). I think the Koreans really succeed in inventing this kimchi.

I guess there will be more kimchi dishes coming out of our kitchen soon!

My very own version of Big Breakfast!

Woke up early in the morning and decided to do up a breakfast for sis and myself. I decided the menu to be scrambled egg, toast bread and hotdog. 

I have not tried cooking scrambled eggs before and had to Google for an easy to follow recipe. I love the technology when I need instant search on something. Luckily I have all the ingredients it needs for cooking scrambled eggs at home.

For the toast bread and hotdog, just put them into the oven or microwave. As simple as that. Who says preparing breakfast is tough?

For the scrambled eggs, I looked at the recipe and improvised a bit. For 1 person's serving, the ingredients required are:

1. 2 eggs

2. 2 tablespoon of fresh milk

3. A pinch of salt (to my liking)

I did not add any ground pepper as I thought this should be added according to each person's preference. So we added the pepper when we were about to start feasting. 

Directions:
1. Whisk the eggs and milk using a fork and add a pinch of salt.

2. Heat the pan over medium heat. Pour the egg mixture in and wait for 5 seconds. Then I started stirring and cutting up the eggs as I am afraid that it will get burnt on the bottom. Continue until you find that the eggs are cooked to your liking.By the way, I use Olive oil instead of normal cooking oil.

And here we go. Our breakfast is ready!

My very own version of Big Breakfast

Cooking isn't really that hard, but I guess the cleaning and washing up is the dreadful part. Got to thank Mummy for helping to clean up the mess. After the scrambled eggs was done, she had cleaned up the utensils I used during the preparation. 

Anyway, here's the actual scrambled egg recipe I improvised from. And maybe, I should start preparing breakfast (at least once a month) for the family soon. 

Cooking Journey - Muah Chee

One of my all times favourite snack from childhood till now is Muah Chee. It is a simple snack made of glutinous rice flour with peanut powder. We can always buy at the pasar malam (stalls at night market) or at the carnival stalls. It costs around S$2 for a small packet and you can never get enough of it.  

Bff L, suggested cooking muah chee after stumbling upon a simple recipe. 'It just takes minutes' was her reply. I wondered if that was true but we decided to go ahead with her plan. We have got nothing to lose but lots to gain if we manage to master it. To our surprise,  it is really easy to prepare muah chee at home. Trust me. All we need are ingredients and a microwave.

While enjoying our delicious homecooked muah chee, we chatted about opening a stall to sell it. We dreamt of making big bucks together and at the same time, able to enjoy our favourite snacks. Great bonding session with bffs!

Seriously,  it never occurred to me to prepare this snack at home. Maybe that's why we always look forward to getting it whenever we pass by such stall. Went home and told mummy about it. And guess what. She mentioned that when grandfather used to be around, he loved to cook it at home too but was using the wok and not microwave. Oh man, I don't recall eating the homemade muah chee by grandfather.

I guess maybe it's time that I asked Mummy to cook this for me soon or rather maybe I will do it for her instead. 

Muah Chee

You can find the recipe here.

Hup Kee Wu Xiang Guan Chang @ Maxwell Road Food Centre

It has been 4 years since I last stepped into Maxwell Road Food Centre. Used to patronize the food centre when I was working around the area. There are many food varieties to choose from and the quite popular and I guess have gained more popularity stall will be Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice - where Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay visited for the Singtel Hawker Heroes challenge. And Yes, Tian Tian won Gordon!

But I wasn't craving for chicken rice but Hup Kee Wu Xiang Guan Chang. A simple bee hoon with some side dish. Normally I will go for the set as I believe that all the 'best selling' dish will be in it. For S$3.60 (ok, I remembered 4 years back, it was less than S$3), you get a big plate of bee hoon with 4 different dishes. This stall has many newspaper cuttings and photos with celebrities - this shows how famous it is!

Hup Kee Wu Xiang Guan Chang Set - S$3.60

I have to say, the ngor hiang (五香 / Chinese Five-Spice Pork Roll) is really special as it is red in colour on the inside. I guess it got to do with the spices that the stall owner uses. The ngor hiang are really tasty but small in size. Next is the deep fried fritters on the side. I always wonder what it is made of  as I could not really taste it. I thought it was potato or sweet potato but to my surprise, it is actually deep fried egg. A nice surprise though. Last, is their specialty -guan chang (贯肠) which is their pink pork sausage. It is handmade by the stall owner. It is tender and nice and goes well with the sauce. 

The accompanying  sauce is actually a thick gluey sweet sauce with chilli. Please let the owner knows if you do not take chilli so that he can give you the sweet sauce instead. When mixed, the spicy sweet sauce is lovely. All in all, the bee hoon has got the right texture that went well with all the dishes. 

This dish from this stall brought back memories of me and my ex-colleagues. Is time to ask them out to revisit our favourite Maxwell  Road Food Centre. 

Maxwell Road Food Centre
1 Kadayanallur Street #01-97

NeNe Chicken @ Star Vista

I have always heard my friends telling me how tasty Korean Chickens are and that they always patronize Four Fingers at Ion. And recently, they were telling me about NeNe Chicken at Star Vista. The name of the fast food chain does sound a little awkward but Nene actually means Yes Yes in Korean. Language differences do not deter me from popping in to try their chicken.

NeNe Chicken

Not knowing what is good and not feeling very hungry, I ordered the 2-piece Chicken set meal. This set meal comes with 2 pieces of Chicken, 1 regular Buffalo Sticks, 1 Pickled Radish, 1 Coke and 2 sauces. For the chicken, you can choose either of the 3 flavours: Original, Swicy and Hot. I chose the Original flavour so as to taste the freshness of the chicken. Instead of the normal Chilli or tomato sauce, the set came with the Swicy and Green Onion Sauce which we could dip in. 

The chicken is very tender and you can easily pull them apart to eat. I tried the chicken with both the sauces and I prefer it with the Swicy sauce which tastes sweet with a hint of chilli. The Green Onion sauce gives me a wasabi feel which I like to dip the Buffalo sticks in it. Buffalo sticks is actually shoestring fries. I do not remember other fast food restaurants selling shoestring fries. Like all korean food stalls, they also have pickled radish as the side dish. The sour taste of the dish is refreshing especially when we are eating fried food. 

2 piece chicken set meal

One good thing about eating at NeNe Chicken is that they provide plastic hand gloves. We do not have to eat the chicken with our bare hands, making them oily and sticky. No more ''finger-licking good". And they gave wet tissue too. And there are small bins on the table for us to throw our 'rubbish' instead of making the whole table messy. All these small little things make the whole eating experience a great one at this fast food joint. 

Plastic Gloves 

NeNe Chicken has only one store in Star Vista now but I guess if it is gaining its popularity, there will soon be more outlets popping up. The fast food joint is relatively small and there are limited seats. So be prepared to wait if you want to dine-in during meal time. 

And I guess I will be back for their other food!

NeNe Chicken
1 Vista Exchange Green, Star Vista #01-24 Singapore 13861

Char Siew Wanton Mee @ Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre

My current job allows me to travel around the western part of Singapore and one of my colleagues was recommending a wanton noodle stall at the Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre. But he did not tell me the name of the stall and mentioned that the queue for the stall is always long. So today, I happened to be around the area and I just went to look for the 'long queue wanton noodle' stall. 

I hope I queued at the correct stall. The name of the stall is 'Hao Hao Noodle House' (好好面食之家). It was around lunch time and there were a couple of patrons in front of me. The waiting time is not long at all despite the queue.  

Guess what, for just $2.50, you can get a plate of noodle in Singapore. I think it is quite hard to find such an affordable price in Singapore. Inflation is going up but not from this stall. The man preparing the noodle flip the noodle up in the air before putting it on the plate. Not sure why he did that action but I guess it must have a purpose behind it. Perhaps to improve on the texture of the noodle. 

The noodle is chewy and springy and the portion is relatively huge for just $2.50. I think at other stalls, this plate of noodle could have cost up to $3.50. But I guess the trade off is the quantity of char siew they gave. Though not a lot, but the char siew is tender and nice. There are three wanton (dumplings) in the soup. The ingredients in the wanton is fresh. The dish is good and when mixed with the chilli, soy sauce an lard, the flavours and texture is very well balanced.

Char Siew Wanton Noodle

Will pop back to this stall to try their other type of noodles if I happened to be around the area. 

Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre
Hao Hao Noodle House
118 Commonwealth Crescent #02-83

Duck Meat Lover, I guess I am!

Looking through some of the food photos I have taken for this year (till now), I realized that I often order "DUCK" as my main course. Why? I am not sure of the real reason behind it, but most probably, it is not common on the dining table at home. My mummy seldom cooks dishes with duck unless there are special occasions. Thus, maybe subconsciously, my eyes will be 'attracted' to "Duck" dish on the menu. Here are some of the dishes I had so far:

1. Duck Confit Pie @ Pies & Coffee

Situated at Rochester Mall, Pies & Coffee is a great place to eat and chill with a couple of friends. The water feature wall right beside the cafe makes me feel like I am currently in a foreign country. Not much of people watching though. This place serves both savoury and sweet pies.

I had the Duck Confit  - As the pie needs to be heated, the waiting time was around five minutes. Pipping hot pie with tender duck meat. The crispy crust is just nice and there isn't any hazzle to cut through it - no worries about making a mess while eating the pie. The mash potato is marvelous with small chunky potato and the gravy is great.

Duck Confit Pie with Flat White

2. Duck Leg Confit @ Saveur

Where's for cheap and decent french food? The first place that comes to my mind is Saveur Restaurant. But the queue is always long. Good that they open the second outlet at Far East Plaza and I manage to visit the place on a weekday for lunch and there is not much of a crowd.

Had the Duck Leg Confit - the whole duck leg with a large portion of smooth and creamy mash potato. The potato was simply melt in my mouth and it really complements the duck meat. The orange sauce was interesting and it brought out a refreshing feeling when I ate it with the meat. The crispy skin on the outside makes the dish looks a bit overcooked but guess what, the meat is actually tender. No big fuss in trying to cut the meat into smaller pieces. The mushrooms were juicy and great too.

Duck Leg Confit

3. Duck Ramen @ Menya Musashi

Menya Musahi has an interesting menu. Identical type of Ramen dish but with three soup bases (black, red and white) to choose from. Not knowing which soup base is nice, I went for the Black Aburi Duck Ramen. Waiting time wasn't long. The ramen is chewy and nice. The tender duck meat is thinly sliced which made it easy for chewing. The soup is actually quite normal, nothing special about it. Went to goggle about what is in the black soup base and it turned out to have fried garlic and onion. But I could not really tasted that. Should have gone for the original white soup base before trying the others.  And I guess the half boil egg is abit overcooked and does not give me the 'watery' feeling when I ate it. 

Black Aburi Duck Ramen

Shokudo Japanese Coffee House

Sister's treat to Shokudo Japanese Coffee House last week. A fusion concept cafe and I like their motto on the menu "For Foodies and Fun Times". Situated at the ground floor at Bugis Parco, it is quite a convenient place for meetups. Their menu is quite extensive ranging from starters to main course, pasta to desserts. The drinks selection is not bad too. Since there were only the two of us, we each ordered a main dish. Did not try any of the starters which I guess I will be back soon to try it out with my friends. 

Shokudo Japanese Coffee House 

Sis ordered the Hotate Mentaiko Wafu Aglio Olio Pasta. According to the menu, it is tossed in wafu sauce. Shokudo is very generous in their ingredients and there are really quite a handful of scallops. Unlike some other cafes/restaurants, they are really not stingy in giving their best to the customers. The spicy cod roe gave the pasta a crunchy feeling. Nice dish but I found it a bit salty. Sis loves it though.

Hotate Mentaiko Wafu Aglio Olio Pasta

I ordered the Shiromi Fish Steak and I chose it because of the yuzu butter sauce. Yuzu butter sauce sounds interesting to me and I have not tried any food cooked with yuzu before. The fish fillet is tender but I am quite puzzled that since it was served on a hot plate, the fish fillet was not hot at all. Not that it was served cold but it was slightly lukewarm. The yuzu sauce was special but I wished they could have given more of the sauce. The butter rice was just a small scoop. So for people who want to eat rice, you will be disappointed. This set came with the Japanese seafood soup and a bowl of french fries. The soup is simply seafood miso soup. The big chunky fries was served hot and ok, for the matter of fact, I love potato. And I am glad that they served the side salad too. Simply cannot go without vegetables for western food!

Shiromi Fish Steak

Not a bad eating experience and I think I will be back for more!

Shokudo Japanese Coffee House
Bugis Junction #01-53

Happy Birthday, BFF J!

BFF J's birthday was over and we had yet to celebrate the day with her due to the working schedules we all had. Finally, we decided on 10th Aug which was over the long weekend. Decided to have a BBQ at L's place but due to some mis-communication, we did not manage to get a pit. So L decided to cook for us instead. Not a bad decision after all, since she is a GREAT cook. 

We met up before the dinner for a swim. Really need to get rid of the fats in order to load more later on during the dinner.

Menu was out a just before the day. And here we ate:

1. Baked Salmon with herbs

Heard from her that the salmon was brought back from Germany by her daddy. The salmon is really fresh tender and it tasted slightly like smoked salmon. Wonder what went into the marination process! Have to admit that baking is really a great healthy cooking method. 

Baked Salmon with herbs 

2. Pesto Pasta with mushrooms

Not into the different types of pasta, but I guess L cooked the Fettuccine this time round. Normally I do not go for this pasta as it is flat and in my opinion, it does not give me that chewy feeling. However, I was wrong. This pasta was chewy and great. The mushrooms were well hidden beneath the pasta and it was stir fried with garlic earlier on. With the pesto sauce, all ingredients were then mixed together to form this dish. 

Pesto Pasta

3. Broccoli Soup

What's more to say about the soup. Does not have the broccoli taste and it is thick and nice. This soup was the 'HOT' item on the table and the last person had to scrap in order to enjoy the last spoon of it!

Broccoli Soup

4. Millie Crepe with Nutella

Baking is fun and non-oven cake is really amusing me. I always wanted to try some of those non-oven baked cake but I am getting lazy to get my hands started. Maybe I should really start to try out some recipes before I hit back the normal office hours work. 

Okay, back to the Millie Crepe. I read it up and it seems simple but time consuming. It takes a bit of patience to get the crepe ready. How many crepes to cook depends on how many layers we want the end product to be. This is a great dessert after the sumptuous meal. L never fails to wow us with her desserts. I love this!  

Millie Crepe with nutella

Time for home, time to depart. Goodbye till we meet again for home cooked food!