fish n chips cookoff! October 9, 2010

My dad bought roti prata for my breakfast today. Didn’t really want to have prata since I’ve been feeling rather unhealthy lately but I didn’t want to turn down his good deed of buying me breakfast so I ate half of it, i.e. 1 prata.

Today is the day my grandmother is being discharged form the hospital. After tuition I went to Tampines Mall with my brother to find my parents and gramdma, who were shopping for groceries for dinner. We went to the Kopitiam Food Court at Level 4 for lunch. We were lucky enough to find a table right at the entrance of the food court. Convenient, esp since my grandma was in a wheelchair.

So I had dumpling ramen soup. Something light and less oily.

The food court had this Low Calorie campaign going on, encouraging people to order low calorie foods that is being displayed at the stalls. This ramen was one of them. lol. The receipt from buying any low-calorie food item can also be exchanged for a reduced-portion dessert at a cheaper price of $0.80. Quite interesting a campaign, though I wonder how many people will actually structure their meal according to what is recommended by the food court as low calorie.

I wanted to have something low calorie because I know dinner was going to be an unhealthy affair. My dad and brother were having a fish n chips cook off, to see who makes a better fish and chips. So that meant  a lot of fried fish and french fries.

As you can see from the picture, it’s a whole platter of fish filet, with sides of Cream of Pumpkin and Salad.

After the meal I felt the terrible need to detox. LOL. Maybe I’ll go on a restricted diet one day, having only water and fruits. Maybe. Somehow I get the feeling I wont be able to tahan the day hahahaha.

Modesto’s. October 7, 2010

Breakfast: Rice Flour Cakes with Chai Po bought by my mom from the market. It is probably only $1. Chwee Kueh are never expensive. But boy, was it oily. =/

Lunch: Had Smoked Duck with rice from the Ayam Penyet stall in the Upper Deck. Daisy has been raving about the smoked duck for weeks so finally tried it out! It was not bad. Tender smoked duck. But for 8 slices at $5, it isn’t something that can be eaten often.

Dinner: A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!

the 6 girls, including me, drove over to Vivocity for dinner at Modesto’s. 2 Appetizers, 4 Main courses and 2 desserts for $88 nett!!  I’ll let the pictures do the talking. :D

Cream of Mushroom

Caesar Salad

Thin Crust Pizza with Onions and Bacon

Thin Crust Pizza with Chicken Sausage (left)
Thin Crust Pizza with Lemon Marinated Shrimps (right)

Carbonara Pasta

Tiramisu

Good food + good conversation = good laughs and great bonding. :))

blah. October 6, 2010

For breakfast I had wholemeal bread with peanut butter. I like it chunky!

For lunch I had a double filet o fish meal with Li Chien. I don’t eat Macdonalds often so this was a treat! We both love filet o fish so to have it DOUBLE was pretty awesome. Somehow there’s this salty flavour of the fish filet that’s nice. The meal was S$5.65, cause I change my drink to Green Tea. I dont like gassy drinks.

Dinner was real real late cause I dated my best friend out but she only ends class at NTU at 7, so that meant 2 hours travelling time back to the east. Dinner was at Foodfare Food court at Simei at 9pm. I had fried fish beehoon soup. We chatted  a lot, caught up with each other. :)

Restaurant Hopping in Dempsey October 5, 2010

For brunch my mom cooked for me ramen with pork and vegetables. Cosy.

But the real excitement was dinner at Dempsey with my dear CNM Exco!

The 6 of us went restaurant hopping – Jumbo, Pamplemousse and La Fondue!

We bought meal coupons in support of our friend’s charity drive to raise money for his OCIP. We had a ‘Main Course’ and ‘Dessert’ coupons to redeem for food.

First stop: Jumbo.

We had venison, steamed sea bass, salted egg yolk prawns and stir fried baby kai lan.

The prawns were awesome! I’ve always loved stuff stir fried wth salted egg yolk and I finally got to trying Jumbo’s award winning dish. The prawns were lightly fried, giving it a slight crunch at the bite. The salted egg yolk sauce was not too salty, and tiny cubes of capsicum provided more texture and crunch. OH BUT THE PRAWNS WERE SO FRESH! and it was deshelled. Even better. :D :D :D

Both the fish and venison were also good. Fish was fresh and vension was very tender. We spent a total of $113. Not bad an estimation, given that our 6 coupns gave us a total value of $120 to spend. Heehee.

Second stop was Pamplemousse to redeem desserts.

Panna Cotta
Red bean jelly | Lotus cream | “Mooncake” crumble | Pandan frozen yoghurt

Background: Pear Terrine
White wine poached pear terrine | Red wine poached pear sorbet | Hokey Pokey

Foreground: Crème Brulee
Osmanthus crème brulee | Lychee sorbet

“Toast & Milo”
Brioche | Dulce de leche | Milo ice cream | Caramelized bananas | Nutella soil

Finally, it was La Fondue. One of our friends had two extra dessert coupons, cause his family members did not want to use it. Therefore, the bunch of us went to redeem $70 worth of chocolate fondue at the restaurant. AWESOME. On its own, one fondue cost $38. definitely not worth it. But the fact that we could redeem it for ‘free’ was simply amazing! Heh heh heh.

homemade goodness. October 4, 2010

e learning week is good because get some home-cooked goodness!

For breakfast my brother and his girlfriend made a open faced sandwich of bacon, cheese and scrambled eggs on a ciabatta.  It was quite nice, only that the ciabatta was too thick. Would have been nicer if it was sliced in half. Didn’t eat all the bread, but i did finish the toppings. I’m not one to eat real heavy for breakfast.

Lunch was even better. the couple made pizza. sounds normal? well, they made it from scratch! Dough and sauce! That’s pretty awesome by me yo. The toppings were button mushroom and ham. It was good, really. Simple and better than Pizza Hut cause well, its healthier! You realise that when your pizza in a pan (@Pizza Hut) arrives at your table, you’ll see this glimmering layer of oil at the bottom of the pan? That’s what needed to make the base of the pizza crispy, but also adds a few grams of unneeded fat. This home-made home-baked pizza didn’t have that, but was still delicious. Oh YUM. :)

Looks and tastes just like the real thing!

For dinner it was a sit down meal with my parents and brother. It’s been a while since the 4 of us had eaten together. On weekends my brother would be out working and it’ll only be my parents and I. So tonight was pretty nice, eating and making conversation. Commensality, as learnt. My mom stir fried cabbage, pan fried salmon belly, chicken and my dad made a cucumber+tomato+kimchi+sardine salad. The salmon belly was real good! I never really like cooked salmon filet but this salmon belly was moist and tender, due to the low meat to fat ratio. I spammed the goodness woohoo! And cabbage with homemade chilli rocks.

I’m standing and typing this entry cause I’m stuffed from dinner. Tomorrow it’s going to Dempsey for dinner with my CNM Exco and I am super looking forward to it!! Been waiting for it since like 2 weeks ago. :D

cooking tutorial! October 3, 2010

For breakfast I had a tuna pancake from Mr. Bean. Didn’t eat a lot because today was the day my group and I were gonna cook together! Ying Qi’s brother is studying a culinary course in TP and so he was enlisted to teach and help us!

The group met at 11am at Eastpoint Simei to shop for stuff at NTUC. There was an excitement in the air as YQ’s brother described what we could make; he was saying a lot of words that we had no idea what it was but it did sound delicious! We bought a lot of stuff, but it came up to only S$29.15. We bought tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, chicken breast meat, butter, corn, whipping cream, basil.. and i cant remember what. Haha.

We returned to YQ’s house at 12nn, and believe it or not, the entire food preparation process took us THREE POINT FIVE (3.5) HOURS. I swear we he took this tutorial a little too seriously. Lol.

–

The menu for the day was:

Chicken Saltimbocca with Tomato Coolis and Passion Fruit Sauce

Cream of Corn

Baked mashed potato

Glazed Carrots

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Sin Yee (SY) and I started making the soup while Yee Ning (YN) and Yee Chuan (YC) made the chicken. Ying Qi (YQ) was shaving potatoes and the brother started de-skinning and de-seeding the tomatoes.

The soup was NOT easy. I wouldn’t use the word difficult, I’d use the word tedious. We first shaved the corn of its kernels and diced celery and onions.

We had to cook down the corn over low heat, with constant sitrring. That took us about 1 hr!  Then we had to make roux, which is a thickener made of flour and oil. Following which, we cooked down the onions and celery, which took half an hour. Then added the roux, and stirred somemore.

On the other side, YN and YC had finished preparing the chicken and it was in the fridge. They moved on to cooking the potatoes and mashing it onto a fine pulp, which took about half an hour of continuous mashing. Along the way, the tomato coolis was also simmering in a pot. It also required a hell lot of stirring over low heat. (Hungry people have no patience *_* ) After mashing of the potato was done, YQ’s brother seasoned the mash and added milk to make it easier to pipe out. The piped mash was going into the oven to bake so that it’ll have a nice crusty skin. The mash also gets warmed up in the process.

Back to the soup. So after the roux and vegetables were done, water was added. We had to wait for the water to boil (over low heat, again) before adding the corn in. Along the way, YQ’s bro seasoned with salt and pepper and also added corn flour with water.

Once ready, we had to blend the concoction. Thereafter, the blended soup had to be sieved through a wire mesh to remove the solids, leaving behind a creamy soup. A dash of white wine later, the soup was finally done. x_x

Two and a half hours into making the dish (2.30pm), the chicken wasnt even ready. YQ’s brother heated up the pan and seared the chicken to give it a nice brown colour. Thereafter, the chicken was put into the oven to finish cooking it. This method ensures that the chicken breast meat remained juicy and tender. The initial sear on the pan was simply to give it colour and to make it look more appetizing. While the chicken baked, the carrots, already chopped in the beginning, were placed into the pan to cook till it was soft.

SO FINALLY 3.30PM CAME AND THE FOOD WAS READY!! Yq’s brother prepared us a presentation plate for us to take photo; the rest were just placed onto a big plate for communal eating.

Eating took A LOT less time than preparing. In less than half an hour, we had polished the food that took us 3.5 hours to cook. The sad thing was, the soup that we had spent so much time on was over-seasoned. After one mouthful I didn’t touch it anymore because it was simply too salty for me. :(

The chicken was well done though! and so were the carrots. I LOVED THE CARROTS. Soft and sweet. I think it helped to contrast the saltiness of everything else, so my palate made particular attention to the carrots. Haha. I always thought of chicken breast to be tough, but the correct cooking method makes it a better choice than chicken thigh apparently. The bacon wrapping around it also helps the chicken to remain juicy.

While I was full from the meal, I knew very well that I would be hungry at night, due to the lack of rice/noodles.

True enough, at 9pm, I found myself hunting for food in the kitchen. Had a small plate of fried rice that my parents brought home from an event the night before.

I did learn a lot from this cooking experience today. Cooking techniques and more knowledge of certain foods. :)

=/ October 2, 2010

For breakfast I made cheese omelette on a slice of bread.

melting cheese on egg is simply heaven. seriously.

Lunch was Pontian Wanton Mee (S$3.20) bought from Hougang’s Kang Kar Mall Food Court. I tabao-ed to my boyfriend’s house to eat.

Dinner was a plate of beehoon with 4 pieces of seaweed chicken and some romaine.

I’m really getting tired of blogging. =/

blue cheese mmmmm October 1, 2010

Dad made yong tau foo laksa for lunch today.

The day was dedicated to renovations in the house again. So my parents didn’t want to cook for dinner. We went to Ikea for dinner. I had roast beef.

It wasn’t fantastic. Meat was a little tough. My parents bought meatballs and chicken wings to have with rice. It was a meat overload for me. =/

Of course, the stuff at Ikea didn’t really satisfy my parents. So we had cheese and biscuits with white wine at about 10pm.

There was salsa, herring, blue cheese, gouda, cucumber, tomato, plain biscuits and archar. I love blue cheese! Many that I know don’t really like it cause it’s pungent but it’s actually really good if eaten bit by bit on a biscuit.

frolick. September 30, 2010

Breakfast: 2 pieces of pandan mantou. Plain. Usually I eat mantou with butter and kaya, peanut butter or nutella, but I decided to go plain today so the sake of health? lol.

Had a cup ofice milo during my first lesson bought from the Deck. I see my friends drinking it often so I decided to give it a shot. In the past I always had the warm dispensed version. But this cold version is SERIOUSLY SWEET. x_X. The taste of the milo powder and sweetness was intense! Probably never trying it again. :S While I do have a sweet tooth, overly sweet milo is not niceeeee.

For lunch I had yong tau foo cause my stomach wasn’t feeling too well.

After the lesson at Business, I bought cream pasta with prawns from the Deck’s Western stall.

First time trying it. I’ve been eyeing it for a while already but never bought it. The prawns were really crunchy, but I felt the batter masked the sweetness of the prawns. Grilled or pan fried prawns would be awesome!

After meeting the 7 of us squeezed into 1 car to go to Holland V for some ice cream! We always try to set some agenda for after the meeting so that we could work towards it and have a productive efficient meeting. We got frolick yogurt and ice cream from Cold Rock.

(clockwise) Strawberry, Lychee, Oreo, Oreo and Peach.

The frolick was definitely worth it cause it was free! We had some vouchers which expired today so we quickly utilised it. But the ice cream from Cold Rock really wasn’t worth it. S$9.50 for a small scoop on a waffle. And the cookie dough in it wasn’t well mixed in. The concept at Cold Rock is as such: you choose a ice cream flavour and your favourite topping. They mix the two on a cold marble slab before serving it to you. It’s a concept that a few ice cream parlours have adopted, such as Marvelous Cream.

They prepare your ice cream right in front of you so food preparation becomes a part of the ice cream eating experience.

SSC. September 29, 2010

Brunch: a big plate of ee mee with a spamming of  home-made chilli. When I’m upset or gloomy i spam chilli. I guess the kick from that sting on the tongue helps to take my attention away from some problems? Dunno.

Finally bought the large slice of watermelon from the Deck today. It is really a generous portion for $0.40. And the portion is definitely bigger now than the past.

For dinner it was soft shell crab. again. Had the set meal from Munchie Monkey that I blogged about previously. Seriously gonna stop eating SSC for at least 3 weeks after today. :S SSC overload is so terrible for my body.