Pineapple Tarts!!

After slogging by the oven for 3 days... Here is the fruit of our sweat and aching muscles... Still so good.. Mmmm mmm...

32 pineapples... 6 hours non-stop stirring over the fire....
18 斤of flour... wakingup 6 30 in the morning.. and non-stop baking till 5pm everyday...

Great pineapple tarts... priceless... (tt's why.. we only give them out as gifts... not for sale...)

Why... why do i have to get sore throat now... :(

Carbonara.. Now u see it... Well u dun...

After watching "I am Legend", acting on impulse, my bf and i decided to cook our own dinner tonite. I have been toking abt trying to make the carbonara after seeing how simple it was form Jamie Oliver's show... So out of memory, we went to NTUC supermarket, grabbed a couple of ingredients and head straight home to fire up the stove.

As simple as it looks on tv... within less than an hour, we finish preparing and cooking our bacon and mushroom carbonara... And it taste pretty decent too!! Though i found it a little too eggy... while my partner tot it was too creamy... Basically it was a little rich and i would say it is best served warm. But tt's coming from 2 person who actually preferred tomato based pasta sauce in the 1st place. We just tried carbonara My brothers found it okay... Maybe the portion was a little too much. we cooked for 2 but i think there was enough for 3... regular eaters... Still, it was rather successful, for cooking something without a proper recipe... i din even really know how much of wat to put in... haha...it all by "feeling"...

To accompany the carbonara, we also bot a bottle of Hardy's Chardonnay... It's pretty easy to drink and fruity too... finished the entire bottle in a meal. hehe...

It was only at the end of the satisfying meal that i found out in horror that i forgot to take a picture of my beautiful carbonara.. So as u can see... i can only show u the empty plates and bottle of our little cooking adventure... But i hope in the near future, i can supplement with a picure of my second attempt and i would like to add a grill salmon fillet on top of the pasta... hmm...

Fav. Dessert @ Raffles Place

This is a tribute to my fav. dessert at Raffles Place. hahha.... Since very soon my company will be moving to our new home... I won't have much chances to eat it.. :(

I LOVE MY BLACK SESAME PASTE WITH PEANUT FILLING DUMPLINGS!!!

芝麻糊加花生汤圆!!!

(must be from "真姐" @ Amoy Food Center)

The thick sesame paste with the refreshing frangance and wholesome goodness of black sesame, but it's sweet enough for me to complete my meal. The tang yuan is like little packages of surprises during my dessert ritual., chewy and bursting with peanut filling in every bite.

I will miss u... sob sob...

Cooking Mama Mia~

During my long break from the working life... one of the things i really enjoy doing was COOOKING...

Below are just picture for my attempts... mostly a spur of the moment... involving suddenly printing out recipes from the net and rushing out to the supermart to grab the ingredients...

Usually occuring during periods of time when my parents are overseas... so no one freaks out when i mess up the kitchen... But i always clean it up okay!

So in chronical order...
1) A simple dinner of saute mushrooms and bbq meatballs...

Mushrooms were a little salty, a little too much oyster sauce... but good on rice. The meat balls were made from scratch, with a little punch of charred flavors.... u get wat i mean... but still i get thumbs up from my bf and brothers... (with persuasion of course) hahaha

2) My Glorious Cheesecake and Rasberry sauce!

Made from scratch... cookie base, sauce and all... found a fabulous recipe... though i had to bake double the instructed time because my oven was not hot enuff... The center was too wet at first but soon set after sitting in the fridge for half a day... dun worry, its common. End result a really good cheezcake i must say... I will sure make it again. Erm.. maybe when i quit the next time.. hahha...

And i really LURVE the rasberry sauce... So simple.. just frozen berries... sugar, cornstarch and water.. boil and simmer.. It will go well with yogurt or icecream... sara lee pound cake... shortbread, scones, endless combi...

3) Cupcakes

Rolling along with my momentum on desserts, i decided to make golden butter cupcake with buttercream frosting... No quick mixes... but still it was fairly simple. The hard part was the decorating without proper tools...
Everything turned out ok.. taste a little sweet but really depends on if you like sweet... (its a dessert for godsake... so fuck diabetes...) Next time i will really want to improve on the looks though...

4) Ja-pa-nees Ka-ri & Sweet Potato Croquette
Actually this is my second attempt on this dish... Well i use the packet jap curry u can find in supermart... U can't go wrong with tt.. just follow the instructions on the box. But i kinda jazzed it up. I use Chicken Thigh meat (coz i think they are the best!), I cut out the meat to put in the curry. Use chicken stock made from the thigh bones instead of plain water. Added onions to make it sweeter. Pre-seasoned the fresh ingredients to add more floavours... Sauteed the ingredients separately for diff duration instead of all at the same time.. coz they do cook at diff time...
The 1st time i kinda messed up the jap rice by adding too little water... this time it was nice and fluffy... the trick is after ur rice cooker is done cooking open it up and air the rice for a while... it will seem really soggy at 1st sight... but after ard 10~15 mins... it will it just nice to serve!

The Sweet Potato Croquette is something i thought of... not from any recipe.. well fine... ok i adapted from the original Potato Croquette, only i made it with japanese purple skin sweet potatoes... (the best!). But i actually adopted the preparation steps from the DS game Cooking Mama... haha.. its too simple... so u can't to wrong.. It takes quite a while to prepare... esp when i was particular to make each of them the same size.. and perfectly circular hahhaa.. They were a hit with my brothers and fq's gf... it happens to go really well with the curry... Yippie for me... Will sure make them again someday...

Well.. so much for my cooking adventures... I really enjoyed them... esp when they all turned out so well... :) Good for a glutton like me.. at least i can feed myself hohoho...

BTW, anyone interested in the recipe I am glad to post them out upon request! hehe....

Cupcake Momma!!

At the Art Market, besides the fun of performing in the great outdoors, I also stumble upon some amazing CUPCAKES!! haha... They are absolutely pretty and yummy too!

At first glance, they look like some kids play-doh project, their vibrant colours and cute design may be too much to swallow. I bot them becoz i tot they were pretty, din really xpected them to taste half as good as they look. But fortunately enough, i was proven wrong.

They were made of butter rich spongy cakes topped with sweet and sinful butter frosting. [Warning: Very Fattening! Do not attempt if you are unable to live with the guilt]

The cupcakes come in delectable designs to choose from. I bought 2 cupcakes back form the Art Market on Sat, ate them at home and realized how nice they were. So on Sunday, i went all the way back to Fort Canning Park to buy another 8!

About the "disfigured" cupcakes above, i apologize for KH, who have accidentally knocked the boxes of cupcake off the table during dinner... This box suffered less damage. The other box... i would rather not tok abt it.. sigh...

About the Cake:

• Buttery Vanilla Sponge. Reminded me of the 60 cents butter cream cakes we used to be able to get on our local confectionery. So full of flavour and buttery richness, with a tint of saltiness make it very appetizing.
• In also came in Chocolate Sponge, a dark brown moist cake. Not too sweet, but very chocolatey. nice... kinda reminded me of the birthday cake u get at McDonalds if you throw a party there.
• Blueberry Cake, a new flavour according to the owner. Not to my liking, because of the somewhat artifical blueberry flavouring. (like they added too much blueberry essence or something.. strong smelly) Also the cake was too sweet when eaten with the sweet frosting.

About the Frosting:

• All Butter and Sugar! Best kind of frosting in my opinion. It is wat that makes the cupcake my "Happy" Cake... like Space Cake...
• The butter is smooth but the sugar is a little coarse. A good butter frosting will have its sugar melted and combined with the butter. But in this frosting you can still bite the sugar crytals. I suspect its the kind of butter they used. Strangely, i left the cake over night without refrigeration and the frosting din melt at all by next morning. (Mind you: Singapore room temp is between 27 ~30 degrees celsius) If it's butter, i would expect it to melt or at least see some oil separation from the frosting...
• Then again... it is hard to find butter frosting these days... this is good... in controlled amount tt is... too many of them at a go will make you feel oozy...

So if you are interested they are from Cupcake Momma. You can check them out online, coz they dun have a shop haha...

Cheesecake Cafe

It was my mum's birthday yesterday. Like every other year, i went around to search of good cheesecake for my dear mama... A different place every yr, target to try all the good cheesecakes we can find...

This yr, based on some recommendations from forums and online critics, i decided to try out The Cheesecake Cafe. Usually i would go down and taste the cake b4 i order them, but i was too bz lah... So based on popular vote, i bought the "Peach Jelly Cheesecake"

It has 2 layers of light cream cheesecake filled with bits of peaches, separated by a later of peach flavored jelly.

What to Like about this cake:

• Very light and fruity, the kind of cheesecake u can enjoy even after a hearty meal.
• Most of us find the jelly being the best part of the cake.. (hmm.. should this b a compliment?)

What NOT to like about this cake: (now i'm warming up...)

• Too light, with the citrus taste of the peaches, it tasted more like peach yogurt than cheese. Dun get me wrong, i LIKE cheesecake with fruits, (raspberry, blueberry, i would even eat NY cheesecake with jam sometime) but the peach stole all the limelight from the poor fromage...
• Did i mentioned i din taste cheese? I'm a American-Cheesecake supporter. When u eat Cheesecake.. there better be CHEESE in it. so i kinda felt cheated... sob...
• The cracker base is quite a disappointment too. (It usually is my Favourite part) It is a no-bake cheesecake, so the cracker was not baked with the cheesecake, thus explain the lack of flavour in the cracker. It is hard and dry, but the top surface of the cracker was amply drench in the peachy cheesecake moisture. The blend cracker did not fit in with the fruity taste of the cheesecake. Most of us would just leave de cracker base uneaten. Sigh...
• It's a little too pricey, 72 bucks for a 9" cheesecake... i could get a better one from a hotel. In my opinion, not worth it

Okay... Maybe i'm a little harsh on the cake. Please understand it is my MAMA's Bday... I promise her nice cheesecake every yr, and this yr... it's the worst. Sorry mama.. i letcha down...

Well, my conclusion is... IF you are not a die-hard cheesecake fan, and u usually find it hard to finish an entire slice on ur own ([cough]*~Lo~Ser*) den this is the cake for you. IF you like yogurt, you have to try this then.

Alrite, i'm not here to bring down Cheesecake Cafe... besides the peachy cake i bought for my mum, i also bot a slice of their "Rum & Raisins Cheesecake". Just to try...

This is a baked cheesecake (kinda like NY style), filled with "rummed-up" raisins.

What's to like:

• TGIC (Thank God Its Cheese), a cheesecake with more soul
• It is drench with Rum, if you like rum tt is... think if u stuff the whole cake into your system in 10 sec... u might get drunk
• The Raisins are nice.. *hic
• The cracker base is tastier too

What's Not to:

• PGMC (Please God, More Cheese)... i think i'm a mouse...
• It is 6 bucks a slice... kinda ex loh... i can get a decent one under 5...

I would think that the Rum & Raisin is a nicer cake than the peachy thing... But the truth is, i dun think i will eat their cake anymore. But for those who haven tried themselves, well... you can still give it a try coz 1 anal cheesecake lover's poison can be another's ... i can't think of a positive word... Well just do what u like... dun take my word for it... Geesh.. like who am i rite.. u probably just stumble my blog by chance... (All the best...)

Curry Favour

KH and I went to this Japanese Curry Restaurant last evening, called "Curry Favour". I always wanted to eat there, but never remember it before meals.... only after when later I passed by the place. (Very frustrating one u know...) So finally, i get to eat there.

The Food:

I've always been a small fan of Japanese curry. So test how good they are I ordered the classic Rosu Katsu Curry (Fried Pork Cutlet Curry).

It came with 2 medium sized Ton Katsu (Pork Cutlet, pretty generous), rice and a jug of spicy curry (no mild please! R u singaporean?!) The Spicy Curry, to my liking, was rich and peppery hot. Not too sweet like some curry served in other places. Though I wished they served more curry, i guess you can always ask.

I wasn't too crazy abt the Ton Katsu, they were thick but a little tough too. Perhaps the Chicken katsu would be a better choice if you dun like tough meat?

KH had the Stew Beef Curry (Not Steew-Bid). We both agreed that it was the better one. They gave a generous cut of Beef. Each piece was perfectly medium rare, thus you get a burst of juices when you bite into one. The curry sauce is the same but less sharp because of the added carrots and the beef. I think I will eat that the next time...

We also orders 2 sides, Age Chikuwa with Cheese and Mushroom Fry (yes... Fry... that's wat on the menu... engrish).

The Age Chikuwa was a little blend, not my recommended way of eating the chikuwa. It's either the chikuwa was not so good, or the frying and cheese had robbed it of its sweetness.

On the other hand, you can't go too wrong with Mushroom Fry. Each shroom was densely wrapped with japanese bread crumbs and fried to golden brown. Careful when you bite into one, you may be overwhelmed by the juice squirts out from the big shroom. Yesh.. it's rather big, you are advised to cut and eat. It is served with Japanese BBQ sauce, very appetizing.

The Location:

The restaurant along Stamford Road in Stamford House. It's beside a cafe called Moonriver. In fact, you have to go through the main door of Moonriver to get to Curry Favour.

The deco is classy yet pretty cozy, fusion of east and west. Warm red walls with contemporary spanish paintings on one wall and cute japish styles doodles on the other. According to the waitress and doodles were by one of the ex-employee of the place. (i guess he is an EX becoz he has too much free time doodling...)

Despite its classy look, we found ourselves dining to Jay Chou's latest album... ( i expected jazz...) Perhaps its to do with the crowd that tends to hang there are younger. Around my age... hohohoh... (17 ~29)

Overall:

The place is quiet to hang, food is pretty ok. In all, we spent ard 50 bucks last night, and we were really full... I would go back again but maybe not too soon.