speedy spaghetti

okie, this was done out of leftover stuff. mostly stuff i got last Sunday but didnt have the chance to finish using or use at all.


i love the coral lettuce and this came with the soil. it's damn cool and costs only around $3 something at Cold Storage if i am not wrong. i had left over tobiko and knew i had to finish it soon. so i decided to conjure up this spaghetti salad or vege spaghetti or whatever you call it.


remembering the incident last Sun which fatally reduced the temperature of my spaghetti and couldn't warm up my mashed pea mentaiko mayo sauce, i did the same this time round. primarily because this was supposed to be cold or erm cool not hot coz lettuce cannot touch anything warm, they'd wither ugly plus no cooked tobiko for me too.


so the only thing which i really needed to cook was the spaghetti and nothing else. so i used the salad sauce (shaken) so that the oil and the sauce mix and tossed the chopped lettuce with the spaghetti first. i then put in the tobiko and then the mentaiko cream sauce and tossed it again.. i then threw another bunch of chopped lettuce.

done in 10 mins!

closer shot for better view

the tobiko and lettuce and sauce.. always a good combi!

hmm.. i think it's damn refreshing! done in 10 minutes damn cool! :D

Dinner @ Oriole

havent met Cece for weeks and wanted to make the best use of this meet up. so instead of our usual movie then TCC sesh, we decided to have dinner to catch up. i read on Brad's blog that he went to Oriole recently and had good reviews about the place. so i thought, ok better remember to make reservation and then meet Cece there.

the no frills menu

was heng, for the fact that i made reservations coz it was damn full and noisy by the time i reached the place. i guess it's the overall ambience of the place, it's cosy and warm. instant relaxation mode! i think the lights of the restaurant was quite pretty. brighten by single light bulbs all over the place, the designs of these lights are really simple and i love them all! very pretty.

picture was taken in error but i like the effect

the service staff are really very friendly and all so ready to help. product knowledge is wonderful and they make sure everything is being taken care of. Cece had the fish and chips, i was contemplating between the beef cheek tagliatelle and the seafood blue cheese risotto. as i was told the risotto is a seasonal item and the seafood is being flown all the way from Japan, i decided i'd just have that. we also ordered a starter of NZ mussels cooked in white wine with garlic.

couldnt resist..

we chatted as we waited for the food. pretty loudly i supposed coz everyone else was talking at the top of their voice too. it was quite noisy but i guess everyone's very comfortable with the settings and the crowd so that's why.

Our yummy NZ mussels

NZ mussels arrived first and i took a first bite. the mussels were juicy, succulent and taken out from the pot just at the right moment. it's not rubbery, nor too tough. it's soft and one bite and i tasted the essence of the sea all flowing sweetly in my mouth, i think i can finish 1 plate of mussels. yup, it's that good and the best i have had so far! it cones with warm bread. baguette style but does not have the hard crust. in fact, the crust was so crispy like eating potato chips crispy and the bread is super duper soft! when dipped in the sauce.. phewz, amazing! Just that the chef should probably reduce the amount of salt in the dish. nevertheless, it's a MUST TRY!!!


not long after our mains arrived. we waited a while before we consumed our mains coz just couldnt stop eating the mussels. my only complain is that our mains should have been served after we finished our mussels. coz it started to turn cold.

the seafood risotto

the seafood risotto is not as wet as the one i had in porta. the flavour of the blue cheese didnt overwhelm, in fact, the flavour slowly disperses in my mouth and i could taste just a nice tinge of it. the scallops were pretty big, but because they were grilled and also i took a longer time to eat it, it was not as juicy i expected. as for the prawns, no complains. definitely fresh and crunchy. however, i still like the mushroom risotto from porta, i couldn't forget that!!


Cece's fish and chips were definitely better than the one from double bay. primarily the batter is very light and very crispy as well as flavourful. the chips which came along with the fish was seasoned in some crushed ginger or something.. it's good. reminds me of my ah ma's fried ginger! damn nice.

the very pretty white sangria

for drinks we ordered the sangria. it was quite strong and have a good serving of chopped fruits like green apples, lemon, orange and strawberry. there were quite a bit of mint leaves inside as well. over all the drink was very refreshing except the fruits were too sour. we skipped dessert as we wanted to have the ice cream from Gustimmo.


i will definitely visit Oriole again to try every other dish in their menu also the price was pretty reasonable!

green pea sauce spaghetti

okie, so i finally cooked up the dish today. hmm.. i'd say it's a flop. primarily, it's not savoury enough for my palette and it became pretty gerlat towards the end. probably due to rusty cookery skills, haven't really did experimental cooking for ages other than making salads which doesn't really require much cooking.


the process took longer than i expected and i made the portions a little too big, perhaps that's why the dimishing returns set in as everything felt kinda creamy.


cooking the green peas was a breeze, just boil it and when all the peas float, you know it's time to take them off the cooker and drain. i then cook the mussels (in place of prawns coz it was only 87 cents for like 20?! damn cheap and very fresh fortunately!!) in another pot, but in the midst of washing them, i forgot to boil the water to cook them (i think it's best to cook them in boiling water instead putting them in to boil with the water at the same time.) so that took sometime. i had to boil another pot of water for the spaghetti. a lot of things were happening at the same time.


i think the toughest part of this whole process was to 'sieve' the green peas. i knew i had to take away the skin so that 'sieving' it into a paste like substance would be easier, but i didn't. so it took a long time. i had to mash the peas with the skin and had to do it batch by batch. i think the whole thing took about 15 to 20 mins!!


by then my spaghetti was cooked just right but came out to be quite a bigger portion i had in mind and i absent mindedly ran it under cold water when it was supposed to be hot! i tossed in some oil from the japanese salad sauce which turned out pretty good! and there were mussels which i need to take out from the shells. good thing they were cooked just right too.

before adding the green pea sauce. think with the salad sauce tossed in and eating it with the mussels would have been nicer.

when everything was done, everything was cold. the presentation was not what i wanted either. anyway, i just tossed the green pea paste with the mentaiko mayo sauce and a little bit of wasabi which unfortunately did not save this dish. topped it off with some tobiko and it was done.

that's how the green pea mentaiko sauce looked like.. erm still a brilliant shade of creamy green!!

after tossing it with tobiko and the sauce. the final outcome.

i finished everything, didnt want to waste it. i think the sauce would be better off as a dip or a starter.. spreading the sauce on top of sliced toasted baguette, add a mussel, some tobiko and some chopped tomatoes would probably be nice. well, will try harder next time.

D & D @ 1 Caramel

today's the return visit to 1 Caramel in less than a week. went with Cece for a major catch up sesh which was partially overdue. we stayed there for 5 hours. from 7 ish to 12 ish.

customised cupcakes selling @ $6 per cupcake and min order is 12. very pretty!

thought i saw a family having pizza the other time i was there and told Cece that yes, they served mains. however, after studying the menu for like countless times, we didn't see any pizzas! in the end, we resorted to asking the waitress if they served other savories. surprisingly, they did. 3 kinds of pizzas: Margarita, hawaiian and parma ham. so we opted for the parma and mushroom soup. we didn't order cakes at the point in time coz we were going to revisit the display fridge after the mains.

the mushroom soup arrived first and had two slices of crispy toasts. i like the just nice richness of the soup. it's thick with generous bits mushrooms blended to just the correct size adding a good texture to the soup. unfortunately, the were bits of leaves (i think dried basil leaves? Dunno) in the soup and it sort of marred the last few moments of drinking the soup. overall, i'd order it again coz it's savoury enough and not overly creamy!

the pizza arrived thereafter and it's quite big. divided to 8 slices, it can feed at least 3 people or even 4. it's definitely not as good as the one i had in Skinny P coz the toppings weren't that generous and the dough was not exactly fantastic. it could also be because we had too much. we didn't finish the pizza. 2 slices were left behind though we finished the rocket leaves and the parma ham.

if you don't want to visit the fridge, which is something you should do, they also have a menu. i counted, there were a total of 27 different kinds of cakes!

we ordered tea too. mine's the fruit mountain. not too strong, it's quite light but not as light as Cece's Geisha something. the butter cookie is yummy too!

by then we were pretty full, took a walk to the gigantic see through fridge to finalise the cake of our choice for the night. initially we were pretty optimistic, that we will be able to eat 4 cakes in total, but we ordered 2 different cakes first, just in case.

cece ordered the Chocolate Praline Cake. As described in the cakes' menu, quote: '1 Caramel's Cocoa signature with varying layers of chocolate mousse and hazelnut praline feuilletine.' when i ate the cake, i thought it was sweet. cece didnt think it was. i guess we have different levels of sugar tolerance. to me the cake tasted like kit kat again. i very much prefer the CBL coz of the balance of tart and sweet.

i ordered the Nid d'abeilles. Don't ask me how to pronounce it, but quote again: 'Layers of honey chiboust cream and strawberry jelly sandwiched with crispy almond dacquoise.' hmm yet another cheem description. i thought the cake was quite sweet as well. Though the strawberry jelly is sour, it's still sweet. overall, sweet. i didnt taste much honey but the cake was really soft and the chiboust cream was light a fluffy. almond dacquoise is also sweet. hmm.. everything sweet.


i think we had a bit too much sugar that we went on a sugar high and was hyper for a short 30 mins and started to seh for the next 30 mins. we got back to our original state by drinking lots of water that coupled with lots of laughter as we chit chatted. it was so therapeutic and i missed her company. it's always nice to chat with her when there are things i find it hard to understand and needed someone who bothers to analyse and unafraid to tell me her thoughts in a evaluative manner. she didn't need to provide solutions, it's just great to hear what she has to say.


food though not as amazing as the first experience, company was great and the place was so nice to nuah!! i didnt feel like moving from the long bench with that huge fluffy brown pillow. felt damn shiok! it was a wonderful friday night and i look forward to meeting up with my dear friend soon :)!

难忘包

hmm.. i had wanted to attempt to blog this mandarin, thought it would only be appropriate. Unfortunately, standard not there. stopped within 1 sentence.


happened to chance by this dim sum place at raffles city shopping centre at the basement where Donut Factory used to be all the craze but the queue is no longer there. anyways, it's located opposite the supermarket, near guardian and also Celede. it's really not difficult to find and it's the only dim sum take away stall there.


i saw some stuff which they recommended and had wanted to get the chicken abalone bun, but it must be the best seller coz twice i was there, twice it was sold out. is it coz it's that's good or is it because it's value for money coz for that price one can get abalone. hmm.. i'm still wondering, until i get my hands on that bun, i'd still be trying damn hard to get it.


i got a couple of buns from this place, but today's blog is devoted to this 难忘包 (unforgettable bao). it was one of the 'MUST TRY' item on the signboard. Well, the name of the bao definitely caught my attention, to call it 难忘 it must have that element to it if not, it's just a marketing ploy. i wondered how unforgettable it will be and it was also recommended by the staff. i asked him if it's sweet and what's inside. he told me it was sweet and that it's filled with egg custard which oozes out when you bite it.

还真的蛮难忘！

hmm.. egg custard and bao, i wondered how magical the combi would be. so along with the rest, this would be my dessert for that night.


i left NWB to the last. half wondering if it'd be as magical as the name suggests or will i be disappointed. the bun is pretty. it has this yellow pattern which i deem as the yolk in the midst of all the white flour bun. it's rather cute. simple in appearance.


i soon found out that the name suits the bao appropriately. it was indeed 难忘. maybe coz i have yet to taste something like that and since it's my first, i'd remember it deeply.


the magic started on my first bite. as the staff had mention, the filling oozed out when eaten. in my case, the bright emperor yellow filling burst out when i first bit the bun! it kinda splattered on my plate. yes, the taiwanese call it 爆浆 (literally translated as 'burst juice') or something. i was like, wow! so happening ah! so at that point in time, i didn't exactly tasted the filling yet coz i was all awed by what had happened earlier.


after getting over the filling bursting out, i tasted it. it's gluey appearance didnt look like custard at all. solidified it isnt. it's thick and sweet with bits of egg yolk. the slow flowing yellowish lava was very appetizing. it actually looked like normal egg yolk flowing out from a poached egg. Ooohhh.... :D


so you think the yellow yolk actually represents that of a normal egg yolk? hmm.. if you did think that, then like me, you are wrong. that gluey paste was actually made of salted egg yolk. yes, it was that! sinful as it is, the powdery texture as the filling touches my tongue was rather magical and the reward came when i managed to taste bigger bits of the salted egg yolk! i like salted egg yolk and have never tasted it sweet this way. let's not talk about salted egg yolk with lotus paste in mooncake, you cannot compare this to that. there is no comparison.


if it's not coz how sinful this can be, i think i'd head to that stall everyday. i might be able to eat 3 of these. anything more, i think it will become forgettable bao. as they say, it's good to eat things in moderation. unfortunately, i never had the chance to take photo of the filling coming out. i will try next time, but i don't want to waste it. oh and it's best eaten HoT!


the name of the stall is very long indicated on their plastic. it's called 手工香港点心 i think. the small counter of fried stuff also looked very appetizing but i am trying to keep away from deep fried stuff which i failed over the weekend. anywayz, this is one stall i will return to again soon! hopefully unlike it's predessesors of the location, this stall will stay for sometime. :)


p/s: if you are wondering if there's any taste to that yellow pattern thingy, hmm.. better to discover it for yourself :p

Dinner @ 陶's restaurant

met up with ET and Jacelyn for dinner and movie on Friday. as usual, tiredness started to set in slowly as the night passed by.


okie, i am digressing. needed to figure out where to eat prior to friday and Tao popped into my mind. i have been wanting to eat there for sometime, and LC reminded me about it recently. agree for the price of $35 for a 7 course dinner, i think it's pretty worth it. i was pretty full by the end of the meal.


there were 2 items which were standard for everyone, the rest you get to choose from a variety of choices.



the bacon mushroom gratin was a fixed item. personally, it sure looked sinful. as you can see from the photo, this layer of oil just slowly flood the specular as it slowly sunk downwards. as with all sinfulness, it makes eating it very satisfying.

Chicken terrine - it tasted really like pate or hmm, it's actually pate!! nice with the crackers and the noodle sticks would have tasted wondrous if the powder sprinkled were more savoury and spicy.

Jacelyn's fruit salad - it's a tad sweet, but i think it's pretty refreshing! :D

ET's salmon salad

Then came our 3rd course monster oyster mushroom in some sweet, savoury and sour sauce. i like how they grilled the stalk of the mushroom, slightly burnt and very tasty. it's already flavourful by itself!!

refreshing iced rose apple tea - i like the subtle flavour of the rose with every sip and it blends well with the apple tea. nice!

sharkfin melon herbal soup - looks damn worth it. ET said it's quite nice.

my fish consumme - tasted like dashi stock, not much happening here...

Jacelyn's mushroom soup - looks yummy and thick. bad photo though.

another bad pic due to shakey hands... this snapper in japanese sauce is darn good! it's juicy, fresh and uber fleshy! good choice!

and here comes my lamb cutlet. 3 pieces only 2 consistent. i thought 1 smelt really foul than the other 2, but finished it anyway coz i quite like the seasoning. the 2 which passed were cooked just nice. pretty soft but no melt in the mouth kind of experience.

Jacelyn ordered the grilled chicken and i like the marinate too. slightly spicy and very fragrant with smell of chilli and curry mixed. the meat is very tender too! and i super love the mashed sweet potato and the pickled tomato!! it's good and something different! i can eat these two endlessly!

then came desserts and ET chose the Yangsheng poached pear. tasted like my favourite snow pear tong sui but without the tong sui. it has a pretty strong chinese almond taste which i like (well it's almond) but pity they didnt use the correct cutlery for this dessert. Poor ET had a hard time taking apart the flesh of the pear..

tofu cheese cake was what Jacelyn ordered and it was quite ok. my grouse it that the base is too hard, so it doesn't break away easily. other than that, it's quite light though i don't think i tasted tofu at all.

creme brulee was my dessert to end the meal. i like the burnt caramel coz it's crispy. other than that the creme brulee was a bit thick. i prefer the one from Indulgence which melts in my mouth instantly.


in short, Tao's restaurant offers value for money 7 course meal. the staff are friendly and very chatty. polite and courteous, they have a good knowledge of what is good and popular in their restaurant. not bad for a place which i thought would be only so-so coz of the advertisement. :p

Din tonight

so i said my blog is getting boring coz it's lacking pics.


show you all what i had for dinner today.

pumpkin

golden mushroom
woodear mushroom
cabbage

and this shoyu soup stock which is damn super duper good!


chop and slice everything, it's done within minutes. the only chore is cutting the pumpkin, it's very tough but worth it entirely after you taste that sweet and soft flesh which gets cooked within like 10 mins surprisingly!. this is the first time i cook pumpkin. i like the taste.


still have a big wedge. need to think what i can do with it.. hmm...

salad with passion fruit dressing

this was ad hoc. i couldn't put the leaves back in the fridge, err.. actually i didn't want to coz i didn't have dinner. so i had baby spinach and Red Coral lettuce. i had 3 passion fruit at hand, but i needed protein somehow. Well, i have ham? Hmm, but i didn't want repeats since it's going to be for tomorrow's menu. Checked the fridge and i found my bag of bonito flakes and some leftover walnuts!


so my ad hoc salad consist of these:

1) walnuts
2) red coral lettuce
3) baby spinach
4) bonito flakes


the dressing is made of these:

1) passion fruit
2) 1 teaspoon of honey
3) QP Chuka dressing which consists of sesame seed oil, vinegar and some other stuff and something spicy


incidentally, though i like passion fruit quite a bit, i have never exactly eat it from the actual fruit itself. so this was the first time. Guess what? i had problem cutting it open. Apparently, though the outer layer of skin is quite tough, the inner layer is a bed of cushion for the flesh and seeds! so interesting! i have seen how the innards look like, but today is the first time i see the whole fruit in its entirety! so cool!

this is how a passion fruit looks like.. before it's being cut

after it's being cut

after it's being emptied

i tasted the juice which dripped, it's pretty sour so i knew i needed some sweetness to it if i am going to make it into a sauce. i had honey, one teaspoon is really sufficient (well, for me at least coz my level of sourish tolerance is quite high). thereafter, i added the Japanese salad dressing to give it more oomph. mix them nicely together and then drizzled on top of the salad. i gave the leaves and walnuts with the dressing a toss and finally added the bonito flakes.

the salad leaves

prepping the dressing

close to completion

here's the bonito salad with passion fruit dressing!

my conclusion? Surprisingly, the whole salad is very refreshing and quite yummy. The savoury bonito flakes with its little bit of burnt smell, mixed together with the crunchy red coral leaves and the more intense taste of the baby spinach gave the whole salad a lot of texture. with that little bit of sourish and slightly wettish dressing gives the salad quite a punch. best of all, the seeds of the passion fruit gives that crispy bite in every mouthful.


hmm.. one thing though, it feels like i am eating yummy paper.. err you know what i mean right?? Bonito flakes have that papery feel to it! hee hee.

weds dinner indulgence

check out the size of the claws!!

i was hungry last night and asked my mum to help me packed back some food. she asked me what i wanted, i couldn't decide. i finally decided to settle my crab craving. i asked for white pepper crab. unfortunately, the stall's not open and so i settled for the crab tang hoon (glass vermicelli). Crab's sweet, juicy with very firm flesh and uber yummy. Can't say the same for the tang hoon as usual, it's bland to the max. i wonder why the stall doesn't add more flavor to the stock in cooking the tang hoon, it would have been superb...

the very bland tang hoon with too much chopped garlic...

dinner with the girls

how long has it been? these days we hardly gather for dinner or drinks. no one jio people to come out to celebrate the coming of the weekend. so yesterday's small meeting between Jenny, Cece and me was precious. small as the group may be, we were looking back during the crazy uni days where we did the craziest things and had the funniest moments. what was served during dinner didnt matter, we sat in Double Bay for i think about 4 hours or more reminiscing the good old days.


it was nostalgic really. we haven't look back to those days for quite sometime. good food or not, we sure laughed like mad, catch up on the latest gossips and updates of one another's life. spending time like these are made difficult in that Jenn's away in Hong Kong, Cece and me busy with work though we try to come out every Friday when she's not having exams. JY and Ann occasionally when they have the time.


glad we met up and had perhaps a partial good meal? We laughed about our experiences with budget airlines and flights in general eg, cece and me doing the amazing race to catch our flight twice. think Vietnam and Bangkok. For me, the trip to taiwan was no different. we nearly missed our flight!! Jenn's episodes of non wellness when boarding the plane.. hee :D


i had a great time babes, hope you both too. next meet up, CNY celebrations @ SK Chalet?? Hmm.. Mdm Chang, if u read this entry, please respond when we can visit hor!!! :D


below the pics of the food we ate.



Jenn came back with bad tummy coz of the raw oyster she ate prior to coming back. so she ordered a cesear salad which i thought looked pretty tempting coz of the poached egg. alas, she didn't finish coz she didnt feel well still.

kurobuta pork belly

i liked the sweet sour apple raisin sauce with sundried tomatoes. it was zesty and very appetizing. the pork, hmm tasted like the normal roast pork we eat @ roast meat stalls in hawker centres. the skin was crispy, the meat tender, the fats was it.. hmm non existent or i was just fooling myself? hahah.. one thing for sure it's not that bad. oh another thing to mention is the dressing for the salad. i think they melted some scs butter into the dressing and it smells damn good and mix pretty well with the vege!

beer batter barramundi

when the F&C appeared, we were skeptical. reason being, the batter looked too dark. it took quite a while for the mains to arrive also. we had to ask the waiter what happened to our dishes. after asking, the mains arrived. i like my barramundi. it was moist and juicy. tender and flaky. it wasn't too tough when i ate it until i arrive to the end of one portion, the flesh was kinda tough and a little dry. the batter was light and broke into pieces easily when 'attacked' though i can't exactly taste the beer. in all, it was ok food. maybe coz i aint exactly the fish and chips person. Also served were 3 kind of sauces on the side for the customer to try, i like the one in the middle - vinegar. i skipped most of the tartar sauce and occasionally dipped the ketchup for the chips. the same side salad repeated itself in the F&C.

Lemon meringue pie

it was recommended by many people and so cece and i decided to try even though cece much prefer chocs related dessert. hee. first bite i thought the lemon was tad sour and smelt like the lemon cream in those kong guan biscuits. the meringue was soft and fluffy which was different from my initial idea of meringue. the ice cream was vanilla bean and i thought there wasn't much punch perhaps coz it was from haato as one blogger mentioned? i ate almost the whole pie coz it got really addictive. cece stopped at 1 quarter. not exactly super for me.


time to head to elsewhere in search of more yummy food.