|
. My Tasting Palette .
|
|
|
. In celebration of food and dining experiences . |
|
Exploring and discovering new restaurants Dining and chilling out with my loved ones Baking and cooking over the weekends Sharing my love for food with others
Vanilla bean pods (one can never have enough) Valrhona Cocoa powder Valrhona chocolate Macarons from Laduree and Pierre Herme Madelines mold Pretty cake stands (I only have one and only one) YUZU from Japan! (They taste great in almost anything) A food tour to Italy and France Opportunity to study at Le Cordon Bleu |
Sunday, August 26, 2007 Thai lunch at Sawadee For a quiet, peaceful sunday lunch, I decided to bring Grace to Sawadee for thai food with my family. This little restaurant is well hidden away from the city and I only got to know about this place through my dad. It's situated at Sembawang Gardens Arcade.
What I love about this place is that it serves up simple, authentic thai fare at a very affordable price. Much better than the pretentious thai food outlets you find in town. The thai mango salad is a good appetizer to wheat your appetite. Thai mango salad uses green mangoes instead of the ones we normally eat. I love the way it is combined with roughly chopped peanuts. It has well-balanced flavours- spicy from the red chillies, sour from the lime juice and mangoes, and sweet from the sugar added. My favourite dish has to be the olive rice. It is served with shallots, chicken strips, dried shrimps, lime and chilli. I don't know how to cook such a fragrant rice dish but this one is a sure winner. I have to order this one every time I come here. The other must-try dish is the stuffed chicken wings. The stuffed chicken wings has mushrooms and chicken in it and it is served with sweet thai chilli sauce. It's a delight to eat it cause it's warm, crispy with tender filling. We shared the mango glutinous rice(without coconut milk) for dessert. Grace and I aren't fans of coconut milk and we think that the original taste is better. The mango was sweet enough and went hand in hand with the mild, glutinous rice that was topped with the sesame seeds. A taste of Thailand. It's perfect since I much prefer to relax in a place that isn't overly crowded, or pretentious for the matter. Especially when I'm looking for a quiet, Sunday afternoon.  Thai mango salad  Olive rice Stuffed chicken wings Greenwood fish market and BBQ dinner We planned to head to Borgo for lunch but we missed the time because of our haircuts. So we headed back to our favourite haunt at Hillcrest Road for fish and chips. As I was a little full from the yam cake and chee kueh breakfast, I settled for a pan-seared tuskfish. ( I wanted some other fish but they didn't have it. So the waiter recommended me the tuskfish) I don't even know what a tuskfish is but I was willing to give it a shot since I have plenty of pleasant experiences with the food served at Greenwood Fish Market. However, it was a bad move because the tusk fish was not only tough, it was pretty tasteless. Maybe that's how the fish is but I think the chef didn't do anything to help that. Anyhow, J shared half of his battered fish and chips with me which was as good as I remember. It's good that I didn't overeat because we were having a mini-bbq at my place in the evening. The bbq was fod my family, grace and J. (Really mini huh) Anyway, we got the beef from Cold Storage and bought the rest of the stuff from the market. There's not much preparation except for chopping, marinating, skewering. It's the first time we used our mini bbq pit(It's called a smokey joe. How cute.) The food was like no other bbq that I went for. You know how bbq often consist of sausages, overcooked/undercooked chicken wings, lots of bee hoon, and much more burnt food. We got big prawns, squid, japanese sweet potato, steak, bell peppers, leek and baby carrots, and pineapple. Sounds like a feast? It definitely was. Grilled pineapples taste brilliant. The heat from the fire brought out the sweetness and the juicy-ness of the pineapples. Dad says that we should dip it in honey the next time. We shall see if it's good. The bbq squid was really yummy cause the butter just made it extra rich and sinfully good. The steak was just marinated with sea salt, freshly ground pepper and red wine (cabernet sauvignon). Making a good steak is all about the timing. And I think we did a pretty good job by searing the top and bottom of the steak and cooking the center to medium. The chicken was the first thing that cooked and the fire was raging for some reason so it got a little too charred. But it still taste ok after removing the charred skin. I can't wait for our next bbq. My dad is pretty excited about it and he's thinking of having a bbq dinner for the family every month. And he's thinking of buying wagyu beef for the coming one!  See his shirt- Workaholic! yes I bully him and make him do all the work while I just sit and eat!
The pepper shaker and the jam promoter?
Hard at work before dinner
Chicken on fire!
The butter squid, grilled pineapples, fresh prawns and leek! Friday, August 24, 2007 The Orange Lantern Grace and I met for dinner on thursday evening. I suggested going to The Orange Lantern because it's convenient for us, being at Killiney Road. Plus, I haven't gone there since the last time I was there with Sam.
We ordered the set dinner for two and it came with a platter of rolls(literally). I still like the Imperial Roll and the rice paper roll. These rolls were served with two types of sauces- the first was a sweet sauce with chopped peanuts, the second was a tangy and refreshing sauce. While the other two rolls were good, the spring roll came across as pretty ordinary. So I would suggest ordering double portion of the Imperial Rolls. (cause they are so crispy!) One dish I particularly like of the Vietnamese cuisine is their pho. These are flat rice noodles in beef broth. A lot I have been going to Pho Hoe at Holland village for their beef pho. I love the stock. The one at The Orange Lantern is really not bad too. It seems like they take a long time to simmer the beef broth. No wonder the soup taste especially good. The pho is served with the usual Vietnamese garnishes like green onions, coriander leaves, thai basil, mint and lime. Grace ordered the grilled beef and fried spring roll with vermicelli. At least she's more adventurous than I am. I just can't help but order the pho when I eat vietnamese food. I really hope that I can travel to Vietnam to try their cuisine because what I know about their cuisine now is limited by those that I try in Singapore. I don't even know if it's authentic. Anyway, Vietnamese cuisine is really interesting because their food varies in the three regions. The North region is where the pho originated and it serves more traditional food. The South has influenced from Chinese immigrants. And there is Central Vietnam that has its own distinct spices. There's so much to learn. Hopefully, I can take a trip there soon. =)  The rolls The Imperial rolls  Beef slices and beef ball pho Grilled beef and fried spring roll with vermicelli Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Tom ton and macarons  Tom Ton at The Central  My katsu mealBack to the katsu. The one I ordered was shio katsu on a bed of salad leaves with yuzu juices. The taste of yuzu reminded me of Japan and how much I miss that place. The katsu was really one of the best that I’ve eaten in Singapore. Though katsu is easy to make, just dip the pork into breadcrumbs, flour and eggs, it isn’t easy to make a good one. The batter for the shio katsu was light and crispy while the pork remained tender and full of flavours. I really enjoyed my katsu dinner though I didn’t order anything else to complement it. However, I didn't really think that their in-house miso paste tonkatsu sauce was really good or maybe I just miss the one from Kyoto too much!  Salad with sour plum sauceJ ordered the curry katsu which came with shredded cabbage. The sauce that was sour plum sauce and I thought that it was a tad too thick to go with the salad. I think its best if they just stick to ponzu sauce (made from yuzu). I would definitely want to head back and try out their other dishes.  Macarons from Pierre Herme After that, we took a walk at Robertson Quay and headed to Canele to buy their macarons once again. Cause I was craving for some macarons. Must be the picture that I have on my computer screen! Pierre Herme macarons! I wish, and hope that my dad will be able to buy some back when he goes to Paris. While the macarons from Canele are acceptable, it’s still a far cry from the ones that I’ve tried from Pierre Herme in Tokyo.The more noteworthy ones from canele is the chocolate, and rose flavour macaron. The others are really so-so. For now, I shall just content myself by staring and drooling over my computer wallpaper or pray for a kind soul who can bring me macarons. Monday, August 20, 2007 Italian dining at Prego We headed to Prego at Swisshotel for our dinner. I’ve always liked Italian cuisine though I often rave about French and Japanese food. Italian food is very misunderstood; people only think of pizzas and pastas when they do have a lot more variety. One of my favourite part of an Italian meal is the antipasti (starters) that they serve.  our antipasto platterThe antipasti are usually cold cuts and they emphasize on using the best quality ingredients- such as parma ham and good quality extra virgin olive oil. We couldn’t decide on which antipasti to order so we settled for the antipasto platter so that we could have a little of everything. I particularly liked the prosciutto with cantaloupe. Prosciutto is simply dry cured ham but it’s a tedious business because it’s a long process which takes an average of three years! Parma is the epitome of prosciutto and its saltiness complements the sweetness of the cantaloupe (or rock melon). I also liked the tomato served between buffalo mozzarella; I love its simplicity yet it’s awfully delicious, with the olive oil and basil leaves over it. zoomed in photo of the prosciutto and pasta salad  Farfalle with salmon and peas on a vodka based cream sauce with zesty lemon
The grilled snapper, on the other hand, wasn’t that fantastic, simply because it lacked flavour, secondly, it was not fragrant enough (should have grilled the top slightly longer over higher heat). It was alright but very mediocre. My dad ordered the folded pizza, just because he is a big fan of pizza. The pizza was really good-with interesting ingredients and well- baked in the wooden oven.  Tiramisu with the symbol of prego- the waiter with a pizza on his handThis tiramisu had a layer of bitter cocoa on the top, while the mascarpone cheese center was really light, smooth and creamy at the same time; the ladyfingers were soaked with the generous amount of coffee liquor and aromatic espresso so the dessert was a hit! By the time I finished dessert, I was feeling so bloated. I had way too much food but well, I did conclude my Sunday with a good ending and I’m all prep up for the week to come. Dim Sum at Peach Garden, Thomson Plaza
Crispy prawn with sesame on toast  Deep fried yam puff  
The former had coconut milk which I particularly detest, plus, I am not a big fan of the tasteless black glutinous rice. The latter was disappointing as well but it reminded me of my favourite childhood dessert, mango pudding- something that I’ve not eaten in a long, long time. Thursday, August 09, 2007 Lunch at Crystal Jade Golden Palace On this national day break, my family and I headed to lunch at Crystal Jade Golden Palace, Paragon, with our friend from Beijing. Though I made reservations, we still had to wait for 10 minutes before we were led to our table. The restaurant was just too busy and crowded on a public holiday. I understood why when the food was being served to us. This is not your typical Crystal Jade outlet where you are served mediocre and expensive "zhu cao tan food" in J's words. This one had a couple of interesting dishes which made me changed my opinion about the Crystal Jade group of restaurants. We ordered 3 dim sum dishes while the rest were dishes to share. The dim sum dishes that I chose was the more unique ones that cannot be found at other restaurants. The first is the one below: pan seared goose liver wrapped in layers and layers of maggi-like noodles pastry. This was really special. It was really crispy and when you got to the center, you could taste the juiciness of the goose liver.  Goose liver dim sumWe also ordered deep fried silver f ish though I thought that the ones from East Ocean taste much better. This one was slightly bland. The braised duck below was not bad too and it was served with vinegar sauce. Interesting huh? plus I generally like vinegar in most of my food.  My favourite dish of the meal ought to be this one: deep fried prawns with salted egg. Sounds dubious? Maybe. But it taste great. See it's golden yellow colour? The salted egg flavours the prawn and this is one prawn that you wouldn't want to dip in mayonnaise.  Prawns deep fried in salted eggThe next dish was fish served on a field of fried mint in butter. I would not talk about the fish because it's pretty simple fried fish. What made this dish unique was the field of mint that the fish were lying on. The mint leaves were pan fried with lots and lots of butter- so much so that you can't really taste the strong flavour of the mint, but only feel it's crispy-ness and the rich butter taste. I know it's really sinful, but I can't help eating most of it.  Fried fish on a bed of crispy mint leavesThe last memorable dish was a dish that I first tasted during a trip to Macau. This dish is called Portuguese chicken. I was pleasantly surprised when I first tasted it. This time was no different. This is a little like curry served with a deep fried sweet bun. Lovely and different I would say.  Portuguese chicken I know this is slightly out of point, but I kind of miss North Indian food! The garlic naan with daal. Hope Grace manages to get her share of Indian food and some for me too! Brunch with my favourite people at The Cellar Door The Cellar Door has always been one of my favourite place for comfort food. First of all, it's a cozy, and warm restaurant along Bukit Timah road. Second, because J used to work there, the people are extra nice to us when we go by.
Grace, J and I were thinking of a place to go for Sunday brunch. We thought of going to P.S cafe at Tanglin Village but somehow, I much preferred The Cellar Door for it's New Zealand/Aussie inspired food. I was in fact anticipating the taste of the Eggs Pacifico ( Poached eggs with salmon on toast drenched with hollandaise sauce). Actually, J volunteered to cook brunch for us. He couldn't because he didn't manage to buy hollandaise sauce and it was too troublesome to make our own sauce. Anyway, I had my Eggs Pacifico while grace had Eggs Benedict. J was more adventurous (or rather because he knew I was interested to try their new dish) and he ordered a ratatouille tart with bell pepper coulis. This dish sounded really fascinating right? I thought so too. Ratatouille(not the rat) is basically stewed vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes and herbs. The sauce was made from the puree of bell peppers and the yellow and orange colour just makes the dish a delight to eat. For dessert, we shared a baked apple pastry with cream. This was really below my expectations. Though I did not expect anything fancy, this one was merely a few slices of apples on top of a puff pastry. I'll stick to my Kapiti ginger and lemongrass ice cream or vanilla bean ice cream anytime. =) It's one of the better brands of ice-cream out there. On the whole, it was an enjoyable brunch with my favourite people. =))  Eggs Pacifico- my comfort food Interesting mix of salad greens, ratatouille pastry with bell pepper coulis Apple pastry Carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting I don't think I did treasure the luxury of time I have for cooking and baking till I started work. Right now, cooking and baking seemed like far away entities. Weeknights are spent having dinner, relaxing before I fall into deep slumber. Weekends are so precious; I have a whole list of things to do and baking and cooking can be rather time-consuming and tiring. Nonetheless, I hope to squeeze in time for my favourite activities whenever possible. Now, I shall savour my last effort at baking before the start of work: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. I got the recipe off Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess. After comments on how my burnt butter cupcakes could taste better with cream cheese frosting, I've decided to please everyone by baking these old-time favourites. I love how the cupcake puffs out. I love that the cupcake alone is not too sweet. I love that the cupcake has extra zesty frosting cause I added an additional lime to the mix. I love and adore my cupcakes! On another note, I've finished using my pretty, checkered cupcake paper holders. (The ones that I bought from Japan) I knew that I should have gotten more. Then again, my supply will still run out. It's definitely a valid excuse to go back to Japan. To get more adorable cupcake paper holders!  Single puffy cupcake  Rows, and rows of cupcakes!
|
