Home cooked Sunday

For nearly the entire of this month, we having been eating out, eating out... and eating out. I'm sick of eating out !!!

Well, actually no. But that's not the point. The point is, eating out costs money. And money, is hard to come by when a certain dumb organization pays you an amount so puny that a garang guni man would snicker at. So much for slavery...

So we decided to stay home and cook today since it's been a long time since I've seriously cooked dinner. Don't get me wrong here, Mr. Yummy dummy ain't no chef, but his dishes... uhm.. still can pass! :)

All these for 10 dollars:

Stir-fried dou miao



I simply boiled the dou miao till its 80% cooked. Next, fry 1-2 tbsp of chopped garlic and add the dou miao in when the garlic start to exude its fragrance. Add in 2 tsp of oyster sauce and 2 tsp of light soya sauce and approx 2 tsp of fish sauce and viola!

Next, I bought this vegetable from the supermarket. I'm not really sure what it's called but I can vaguely recall having it before and I think it's quite common in chinese restaurants.





Sweet and sour chicken



I'm quite proud of this dish because I came up with the recipe myself! No online searching or whatever and it really taste good. Not like your usual sweet and sour chicken of course but it's worth a try :)



1) Marinate chicken pieces (breast or thigh will be fine) with 1 tbsp light soya sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp corn starch.
2) Stir fry garlic and onions
3) Add in chicken and cook till 60%. Alternatively, you may fry your chicken beforehand if you like it to be more fragrant and slightly crispy.
4) Add in chopped tomatoes and sauce.
5) Let it cook till sauce is reduced to a paste.

This is a simpler version, you can also add in capsicum, chillies, pineapples etc.

Sauce recipe:
2 tbsp maggi chilli sauce
4 tbsp maggi tomato sauce
2 tbsp Sweet n Sour sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp water

Lastly, stir-fry tempeh.



I'm still refining the recipe for the tempeh and I hope I'll be able to cook it well and publish the recipe soon!

I love cooking actually but I never ever seem to get it "right". My mum is such a wonderful cook but I guess I just don't have the chef genes in me Haha!

Btw, Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you had a great day and a wonderful steamboat! One more year older, don't swing so hard on the golf course okay? Haha, to the world's best Dad, Cheers!

Comments please?

Hello dear readers!

I, the Mr. Yummy dummy, am requesting your help or rather, your recommendations.

Qin and I will be celebrating our birthday next month and we are thinking of going to an international buffet. Currently, we are considering Melt at the Oriental.

Therefore, anyone who happens to pop by and has any recommendations for good buffet (any kind)or opinions on Melt at the Oriental please do leave a comment!

Requirements: Below $55 per pax
MUST HAVE A KICK ASS DESSERT SECTION (Very important!)

Good food. Good price.

Any guesses which cafe this wall decor belong to? No prizes for guessing tho :)

Although I'm preeetty sure most of you may already know which cafe I'm talking about.



Yup! It's Miss Clarity Cafe which is often blogged about by thebakerwhocooks for their reasonable prices and good food.

Being around the Bugis area with a growling tummy and a need to try something different, Miss Clarity Cafe came to mind. Of course, it definately helped that their prices are reasonable when our wallets are already running out of cash.

The first thing that caught my eye were the desserts at the front of the cafe. I'm not sure of the names but the chocolatey ones really looked tantalizing. Proceed in and you will be greeted by a table filled with magazines for your reading pleasure.

The interior of the cafe is quite narrow and is decorated with pictures of uhm... just look at the first pic. The menu is also written and designed in a cheerful manner with bubble wordings and bright colours. Being such a small cafe, it's quite suprising that the menu offers such a wide range of food! And not the usual boring spaghetti and sirloin steak mind you. They really do have interesting items which I can't really recall now. Plus, I think their desserts are quite affordable too with a warm apple pie going for $2.50 or an added $1.50 for a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

We initially ordered Oxtail stew, Beef baked rice and Chicken Ballotine but unfortunely, they ran out of Beef Baked Rice so we just went ahead with the remaining two.



This is the first time I'm having Chicken Ballotine and I seriously have no idea what Ballotine means. Any clue, D? :P Well, anyways, it's oven baked (really healthy) chicken thigh stuffed with golden mushrooms and served with baked potatoes. the chicken and sauce are quite well made but what I love about the dish were the baked potatoes. I think they boiled it, baked it and then pan fried it. Umm, yummy.

The Oxtail Stew was not too bad either. Qin said it was good but I felt that it's just average. Btw, you can choose to have it served with either bread, pasta or rice.





Quite a good meal I might say and guess how much the bill came up to?

$17! I think that's pretty cheap for two person eating out. And the food is good too! If you guys decide to drop by, they do have a new menu which features some pretty interesting stuff which you can read on thebaker's blog. Plus, they also have a new website, www.missclaritycafe.com,so feel free to see what they have on their menu.

Address:

Miss Clarity Cafe
5 Purvis Street
Tel: 6339-4803
Open 7am to 11pm

Healthy Brekkie

Bet you've heard of the phrase "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day". Well, it is! A good healthy, hearty breakfast never fails to start your day in a good way and makes you more energetic even. Not mentioning that people who eat breakfasts consume less calories for the rest of the day which in turn results in weight loss! So if you are looking to lose some flab, eat your breakfast *Wink*

My daily breakfast usually consists of cooked oats with honey and the occasional packet of raisins. Last Friday night, however, Qin and I were shopping in Carrefour when we spotted this.



Tortilla wraps! It looked pretty interesting so into the grocery basket it went!

So for the next three days, this was what I had for breakfast. Yup, I didn't know what tortillas were supposed to contained so I just threw in some eggs, spinach, onions, tomatoes and topped it up with some Lingham Chilli Sauce and Dijonnaise mustard.



Ahhh, Dijonnaise mustard, a 50% mix of mayo and Dijon mustard but without the fat. A worthy indulgence.

Today, I also added semi-dried tomatoes which went suprisingly well with the tortilla! Adding some of the slightly sourish yet flavoursome red pieces simply made my breakfast even better.



Unfortunately *tears rolling down cheeks*, after three days of tortillas my skin broke out in rashes. Its got to be the wheat! Darn, now I've to cut back a little...

Granny: Back from Japan!

Yes, dear readers, I'm more than glad to announce that my grandma is back from her trip in Japan and is once again whipping up nice and scrumtious dinners for me! *Huge grin*

Look at what awaited us when we popped by on Thursday!



Oooo, look really good doesn't it. Lets break them down individually shall we?

First and foremost, roast duck which she always buys. Goes great with the chilli she makes!


Next up! Steamed prawns with egg and tomatoes specially for Qin cause grandma knows she love prawns. Therefore, she always cooked an entire plate for her everytime we pop by!


Steamed red snapper with plum and tomatoes and topped with chilli. I love the broth, really yummy and not too salty. I dip it with everything.


Fried fish balls and prawn paste in ngoh hiang skin.


And of course, some mixed vegetables for the veggie boy in me :)


Lastly, Yong Tau Hu soup.



To compliment the food, she made this kick ass chilli which never fails to whet my appetite. It's made from green mangoes, dried shrimps, chilli and sugar. It's sweet-sourish and is really good. I even eat it own it's own!

Other than the food, guess what she brought back from Japan for me?

Hokkaido red beans!



Check out the size of those beans, they're humongous!

After dinner we went to make some red bean paste and glutinous rice balls. It's interesting how her method of making red bean paste differs on what we find on the internet. Firstly, the red beans are soaked overnight and cooked till soft. Next, over a sieve, use hands to mash the red beans while adding water. This will leave you with the skin left behind and a watery red bean solution in the bowl below.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Rather than stirring the solution over low heat like commonly called for, the solution is poured into a cotton sieve and the water squeezed out of it, resulting in dry blocks of red bean.



Next, simply add the same weight of sugar to the blocks (I used approx. 30% lesser) and cook it over medium-low heat whilst stirring constantly till all the sugar melts. You can then add in some oil to improve the texture.




Tada! A good big tub of red bean paste which we made glutinous rice balls with. Oh ya, don't forget to let the red bean paste sit for a few days to let the flavour develop!





Oops! Gotta run now, heading to granny's place for some home-made mee siam. Cya!

Kok Kee Wanton Mee

Wanton mee has always been one of our favourite food and Qin is totally crazy over it. Needless to say, we do have our own favourite stalls which we patronise from time to time and a huge list of wanton mee stalls which we haven't tried because we were always procrastinating!

Besides, I don't really know how to drive to most of the places anyway *grin*.

I still remember sometime back when Qin's dad bought a packet of wanton mee home. Due to the mee being kept in the packet for a long time, it was already "fattened" and softened after soaking up all the sauces. However, it still tasted superbly good! What struck me was how good the sauce was, after being soaked into the noodles and making it so flavourful, something I have never tasted before.

Sadly, we never really had the chance to try it upfront as Qin's dad don't know the actual name of the place and all attempts at describing the place simply left me more confused than ever.

So it was quite a coincidence that thebaker posted a post on Kok Kee Wanton Mee located at Lavender Food Square and Qin recognised it as the one her dad went to!

Bingo!

As mentioned in thebaker's blog, the queue was long because of people ordering multiple packets. The noodles are also quite pricey at $3 with only a small handful of noodles. But, it's definately worth it.


This is the $5 plate after adding extra noodles and cha siew. The clear sauce is a gem in disguise.

Noodles are firstly cooked in hot water and then soaked in cool water and then back to the hot water it goes before finally landing on your plate. I guess the different temperatures make the noodles more springy and not mushy when cooked for too long.

In this case, however, the sauce is the speciality. The usual sauces are mixed into the noodles and then drained out again and a "special" stock; which we spotted having soy beans and ikan bilis, was added. Upon tasting, I could declare that it was the best wanton mee I've ever eaten. The sauce was seriously good with a slight sweetness and a hint of Hsing Tao wine in it.

Total distinction.

The noodles were bouncy and smooth and the wanton was smooth to the bite. The chilli was also good but lets just put it this way; you don't even need chilli for this wanton mee.

Wanton mee lover or not, just try it once and you'll be a fan. I'll definately be going there again and friends of mine, don't worry cause I'll surely bring you there!

Address:
Kok Kee Wanton Mee
Lavender Food Square, #01-06
380 Jalan Besar
Opening hours Noon - 2am, closed every three weeks on Wednesdays and Thursdays

The French Stall

Believe it or not, I have never tried French cuisine before and I think the closest I've ever come to are French fries. So I was pretty excited for the whole of yesterday because Qin was going to treat me to French Cuisine for dinner. And an authentic one at that! My first thoughts of French cuisine were small pieces of food on ridiculously large-sized plates with sauce dribbled sporadically accompanied with sky high bills! But glad to say, the place we visited yesterday serves up authentic French cuisine at a reasonable price with appropriate portions.



The French Stall, located at 544 Seragoon Road, is opened by Mr Xavier Le Henaff and is a cross between a French Restaurant and a French coffeehouse. Before that, Mr Xavier was a chef with a 5-star hotel in Madina with customers including the President and the Prime Minister. Woah, quite impressive huh?

First impression of the place gives me a feeling of a club-house kind of non-air conditioned restaurant with orange lights giving it a comfortable feel. Not bad. The walls were also "decorated" with various publications the French Stall had been featured in including AsiaOne, Elle, 8-days etc. Service was also good and the staff will gladly explain the menu which is written in both English and French.

So lets get down to the food shall we? Qin had the set meal ($14+) which lets you choose from 3 main courses and comes with Soup of the Day and Creme Caramel for dessert but we had it changed to French Onion Soup and Chocolate Souffle. This can be done but at an additional price. We also had Mussels in white wine sauce ($6+) and I ordered Steamed Marinated Salmon with Sun Dried Tomatoes ($18+) since I've been longing to try sun dried tomatoes.

The French Onion Soup was very interesting and its the first time I saw something like that! Two slices of baguette with mozarella cheese were soaked in the soup which was filled with stir-fried onions. The soup tasted great and didn't had an overwhelming onion flavour. The bread, having been soaked with soup, was flavourful and soft with the cheese still being soft and stringy.




I didn't really like the Mussels in White Wine Sauce cause of its strong taste. Qin said they were fresh though.



This was Qin's main course which was Chicken Leg with Rosti and some sauce (I forgot the name). The sauce was a little sourish and went really well with the Rosti which was really really good. Crispy at the bottom and soft at the top and not too greasy. Uhmm... even I who wasn't a potato person kept sneaking in a few mouthfuls. The chicken was too dry though and wasn't that nice.




Finally, my Salmon with Sundried Tomatoes. The salmon didn't really tasted like it had been marinated and tasted quite bland actually but the sun dried tomatoes, being a little sour and quite refreshing, added flavour to it. Eating the tomatoes with the spinach was also suprisingly good!



Ah ha! Dessert! I've read about Chocolate Souffle but never had the chance to try it before. Sad to say, I didn't really like it. The spongy top gives way to a mousse-like center which tasted like cocoa powder to me. Nah, not for me.



All in all, the bill came up to just $50. Not too bad for 2 right? Do pay this place a visit, especially now during Deepavali when you can walk to Little India and visit the various street stalls. Qin even got herself a Henna done :)



Address:
The French Stall
544 Serangoon Road (near Sturdee Road North)

Tamako Part II

Yes, after many repeated visits to Tamako, here I am again ranting and raving about their food again. These few times though, rather than being conservative and ordering the usual as I wrote in my previous post; teriyaki don, bento set etc., we went ahead and tried other kinds of sushi and dishes. Glad to say, we have found another gem!

The other time round, I chanced upon the best Inari sushi ever in this restaurant. This time, I found something even better! Please allow me to introduce you the best Unagi Tawara (or Gunkan for some of you) I have ever eaten.



I dislike unagi. Really. Whenever I have them at some other restaurants the unagi are usually filled with pricky bones and the meat is so rubbery that it's impossible to bite them into half. In addition, the impression unagi leaves me are thin, white slabs of tasteless meat due to stingy amount of sauce used. This Unagi Tawara, however, had me at the first bite. For $2.20, you get a huge, thick piece of well marinated and generously sauced unagi atop sweet, sufficiently vinegared Japanese rice. Thats not the focal point yet. Check this: When you pop the whole sushi into your mouth, just push it against the roof of your mouth and the Unagi is sooo soft that it simply smashes into a paste. No kidding, thats how soft and good it is. Combined with the sweet, juicy rice and generous amount of sauce which sometimes flow to the bottom of the sushi, it is a gastronomic climax. Not exagerating! Even Qin who was skeptical became a convert after the FIRST bite! Besides, they really took the time to remove all bones so what you get in the end is a good, tasty, fuss-free piece of sushi which I simply can't stop complimenting (and ordering!)

Just yesterday, we popped by the place again and ordered Soup Gyoza, California handroll, Ebiko special, Sake Mayo Sesami and of course, Unagi Tawara which has become a main staple in our orders.



The Gyoza soup is very tasty and have been brewed with either pork or beef as there are bit of meat in the soup. Very thickly flavoured. The gyoza was also quite good although I can't really make out what's inside. I suspect that its mashed up vegetables with shrimp as the gyoza was very soft. Soft skin and soft filling. Yes, I like soft and melt-in-your mouth stuff :)



I felt that the rice yesterday deteriorated though, it was abit drier and the vinegar added was not enough therefore not producing "sweet" rice. I realised that the amount of rice vinegar is very important. Put enough and you get moist, heavenly "sweet" tasting rice, too little and you get dry and slightly sourish rice as with most Japanese restaurants. The rice had an impact on the California roll and Ebiko special which tasted just average. The Sake Mayo Sesami still tasted very good though. Cooked salmon mayo at the center and the entire rice roll covered with sesame seeds making it slightly crunchy to chew and very flavourful.



Ah ha! Luckily the Unagi tawara saved the day. This time we were smart enough to order 4 servings at one shot rather than ordering them one by one. The dry rice did not have an impact on the Unagi because it's so moist and wet that it literally just soaked the rice! We had to agree (again) that its the best Unagi sushi ever.



So the rice in Tamako may vary which happens very, very seldomly (I actually think it's because of the huge amount of customers yesterday). Doesn't matter because I still love the Unagi and Inari there and its the only place I'm going to have sushi at :)

All things Japanese

Ohayo! Goooooooooooooood morning to everyone! Ooo, don't those mochi balls just look so tempting? Their soft, delicate skin wrapped around sweet, savoury red bean paste waiting to melt in your mouth when you bite into them. Ummmmmm... :P



Those cute little brown marbles are mochi balls I got from Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant at $3 for a packet of 6. Up till now, I consider mochi balls from Ichiban one of the best you can find in Singapore. Sure, it comes from a commercial restaurant but the the mochi really has it standards quite high! Unlike other mochi balls which are usually thick and chewy outside, these mochi balls have a very thin skin. Moreover, the skin is very well made resulting in a very soft layer which blends together with the fillings very well and almost melts in your mouth. Yes, I realise that I have a thing for food that melts in the mouth :) There is also a generous portion of filling wrapped up inside unlike some mochi which look large but only 20% of which is the filling. Oh yah, the mochi is also small-sized enough to pop into your mouth and they come in three different fillings; peanut, red bean and green tea . However, I do find that quality of the mochi differs from different branches and I have so far found that those from the Wisma branch are the most well made.



Thats not the end! After having our fill, we popped by Holland Village to check out a Japanese bread shop recommended by a friend. This shop called Provence is located just opposite Holland Village's Nasi Lemak and churns out fresh, piping hot, French-style Japanese bread and French-styled sandwiches. They also serve drinks like hot chocolate and cuppachino etc. to compliment the bread. Tables are also positioned indoors and outdoors to suit your individual prefrences. First look, the variety of bread may look normal. Look closer though, and you wil realise that Japanese ingredients are used; red bean (w/ or w/o skin), mochi, Japanese curry etc.

Brown rice Anpan w/ Skin

We went quite late so most of the bread were already sold out including their best seller Wassant; mini crossaint-like bread with chocolate or custurd fillings. We did however, try their Brown rice Anpan, Cinnamon bread, Milk bread, Chocolate scones, New York Chocolate Bread, Apple bread and mini crossaint. I wouldn't go into detailed description here because there are simply too many of them but I would recommend the Milk bread and Chocolate scones.

Heres what we had:


The milk custurd filling was simply yummy! Not too sweet and very tasty. I'm sure it'll be heavenly when eaten right out of the oven when the filling is warm and soft.



This is the first time I've tried scones and I really love it! Hard as a rock on the outside but when bitten into, it simply crumbles and melt in your mouth. The chocolate bits also add to give a nice chocolatey taste.




There are simply too many types of bread to individually recommend but please do pay the place a visit and try the pastries out yourself. I'll be definately dropping by again to catch the freshly baked bread just out of the oven!