Foodie Tales: July 2007

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Weekend at the Empire

Kids in sea.

Kids feeding fish.

Kids posing.

More posing.

And now I'm heading there for breakfast and Sunday Splash. Have a great Sunday all.

p.s But first I may drop into one of the many garage sales going on today to hunt down more books. maybe.

Hooray for C! He has put up 2 shelves for me. On the left is my side which has all the books which I have not got round to reading. The little basket contains all my remote controls (4 - DVD/TV/Astro/ac) and my glasses. This means I do not have to hunt them down each time I need them and because the books and lamp has been raised, there is plenty of room for cup of green tea and more in a little pot which I must have before I sleep.

Weds, 25th July 2007

We braved the storms on Wednesday evening just to get to Hua Ho Manggis to pay a visit to HH, who has been doing this to Hazel since she was 4.

HH was in the midst of having her hair done by one of her girls but doesn't she look like her in those robes? :D

Thurs, 26th July 2007

I had lunch with Z today, something we have not done in ages. Oh no, look what we ate...... After lunch, we left with 4 boxes of takeaways for a very happy C.

Tom yum soup

Fish cakes

Basil chicken

Red curry beef

Papaya salad

Pineapple rice

The food standard is definitely not as it was before. I thought the soup was overly sour and the seafood had been cooking in it for a while, resulting in broken up pieces of 'rough' fish, mushy prawns and tough squids.

Fish cakes - I love fish cakes but where's the fish in this? The final straw was when I had to continuously remove fish scales from my mouth. nooooo.....

I could go on and on and dissect the quality of each of the dishes but I wouldn't as the primary purpose of this blog is to celebrate good food, not diss it, so I shall just shut-up here!

p.s I won't be back here for a while. Thank you very much.

Thurs, 26th July 2007

Hazel and I went shopping in Kiulap and she had her dinner of roasted chicken with rice.

I haven't had one of their laksas in ages so I had one and was quite pleased to discover that it tastes exactly the same as it did when they started their first restaurant at the then newly opened Seri Complex.

Theirs is quite a unique laksa, it's very tumericky, with runny coconut gravy but yes, it was yummy, and I was good enough to remove 3/4 of the meehoon and did not finish the all the soup. It does not taste like Kuching, Penang or Singapore laksa at all so I think I would classify this as a light curry laksa.

p.s Just a point to add that I tried to remove as much oil as I could before eating.

Tues, 17th July 2007

J and I haven't met up properly for lunch for ages so we went to a restaurant in Gadong after I decided to buy myself this.

We had oxtail soup

nasi lemak

fried chicken

gado-gado

and a beef rendang set (it was rice with rendang and a soup).

I want a real nasi lemak with soft coconutty rice, simple spicy sambal, a nice piece of beef and chicken and hard boiled eggs - where can I find this? The soup was the best of all, it was tasty and had some generous sized pieces of meaty oxtail inside.

Fri, 13th July 2007

I like Singapore laksa so much, I must confess I had it twice during my recent short trip. Here is the second laksa which I had at the airport before I saw this.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Sun, 22nd July 2007

Tonight I made chicken chops with mashed potatoes for the children's dinner.

Debone some whole chicken legs (drumstick/thigh), trim fats and marinate with light soy, oyster sauce, garlic, black pepper & some herbs.

Fry in very hot pan skin side down, without oil, turn over when skin is lightly charred.

Make mash, pile onto plate, stack chicken on top.

Garnish plate with lightly sauteed beans with garlic, tomatoes, parsley, little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and serve.

Mark ate with Harry Potter, Hazel with Tin Tin,

and I ate my mangoes & pineapple watching them.

Sat, 21st July 2007

Took Hazel to the clinic for her asthma review and she's doing very well I'm pleased. Then it was off to pick-up the long awaited book which needs no naming.

We then went on to have cake and hot choc. Hazel had a slice of black forest cake and I had a crumbly scone with cream and jam. Nice lazy morning.

Thurs, 29th July 2007

Hello Sash!!!

This is how you make braised mushrooms.

1. Enoki mushrooms - cut tail ends, soak to remove grit, separate them into bunches.
2. Black mushrooms - soak in hot water, remove stem, half, marinate with sugar, light soy & sesame oil. (I added a bit of Chinese cooking wine too).
3. Another type of mushroom which looks like a magnified version of the Enoki (just wash and separate).

Method

1. Heat wok, add minced garlic, add all the mushrooms. Stir fry till fragrant (at this point I added a bit more Chinese cooking wine) and a bit of sugar, oyster, light & dark soy sauce & white pepper.
2. Stir till all well combined but be gentle - we don't want the mushrooms to break up.
3. Add a cup or so water and lower heat and braise gently for 25 minutes.
4. Adjust seasoning and thicken with very little corn starch. You want quite a bit of gravy so that this can soak into the tofu and vegetables.

In a separate large pan, stir fry all the vegetables very lightly (half cooked) with a bit of garlic and salt, top with fried tofu pieces. Pour over the hot braised mushroom mixture. Let the braising liquid soak into the tofu and vegetables over low heat.

Serve from the pan.

Good luck!!!!

Friday, July 20, 2007

Thurs, 19th July 2007

Last night I cooked a simple meal for everyone.

This is a HUGE vegetarian dish which consisted of sugar beans, French beans, mangetout, young cabbage, baby corn, tofu, 3 types of braised mushrooms.

I also made ginger chicken, and fried a plate of lettuce with garlic and oyster sauce and opened a can of sardines and cooked them with onions and chilli.

Pre-dinner drinks was most pleasant.

Thurs, 12th July 2007

After the afternoon's appointment, I was free for the rest of the day so I went to Ngee Ann City and hey, a food festival at Takashimaya! A very nice hour spend browsing through the stalls.

At the entrance and my favourite stall