11 Jan 2014
Prego Italian Restaurant - All that yumminess!
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| I guessed this would be my last post from year 2013! My 2014 food pictures would keep stacking up if I don't do something... Anyway, just a little bombardment of really yummy food before I jump right to the desserts part! |
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| More yummy food shared among my other 3 friends and I! |
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| Tiramisu would definitely appear in most of the Italian restaurants' menu and missing it out would not be an option! Prego's version of tiramisu was slightly different and I was not used to this different style which distinguished it from the rest. Besides not containing any alcohol, the ladyfinger sponges from this huge squarish block were dipped briefly with coffee, so that it retained its firmness and not turned soggy. The chocolate sauce at its base provided the necessary moisture to counter-balance the dryness. The only thing that I disliked was being choked by the over generous amount of cocoa powder dusting on the surface. |
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| The chocolate mudpie was easily an attractive target among us. Who could resist such sinful indulgence of both chocolate and ice cream in a single dessert? Although it looked a bit messy, it was still wiped clean by us. |
9 Jan 2014
Creamier - Totally packed
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| A super late post which had been stranded in my draft section for quite a long time. Finally it could be free from being a draft! I guessed it was my 3rd time patronising Creamier which was located about 15 minutes walking distance from Tao Payoh MRT station. I raved about how much I enjoyed my ice cream previously (when it was less cramped) but not this time due to the place being overcrowded. All I wanted was to rush finish my ice cream and get the hell out of that noisily cramped place. I picked the Thai Milk Tea ice cream (cone) that day and I loved the way it kept melting constantly and I had to keep licking while turning the cone around. The milky tea flavor was intense, and tasted exactly how the actual Thai milk tea was. |
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| After I did a tasting for the green tea flavor, I did not order because it tasted diluted and not intense enough. O well, my friend got the green tea flavor anyway. It was more towards the refreshing light taste instead of the usual intense matcha which I always loved. Maybe some people would prefer green tea without the bitter aftertaste. (Click to view my 1st and and 2nd visit.) |
*Update* (29/04/14)
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| Another time which I went to have waffle and ice cream with my friend. The crowd was still quite crazy....I guess they would be expanding sooner or later. |
Cake Spade - Light but still heavy
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| I made a trip to Cake Spade after reading about their highly raved strawberry tofu cheesecake from other food blogs. As I arrived an hour later than my other 2 friends, they had already finished their desserts. (So no pictures of their Red Velvet Cheesecake and Hummingbird Cake.) As their Strawberry Tofu Cheesecake was not available that day, I opted for its almost similar variation which was the Peach Tofu Cheesecake with a digestive base. Served on a tart pan, I stared at the wobbly layer of neon orange jelly that encased a couple of peach slices and went 'Cool'! Maybe my taste buds failed me that day as the jelly tasted like mandarin orange flavor. I dug into the a-bit-shiny tofu textured cheesecake, claimed to have no actual tofu added and I really loved it! The fact that I ate both the jelly and cheesecake elements separately, also unknowingly proofed that they were great on its own. Another interesting fact was that despite feeling 'light' during the eating process, the cheesecake was actually really filling. It was still cheesecake after all! |
7 Jan 2014
Yonehachi - Sticky rice in Japanese cuisine?
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| Located at Takashimaya basement, clustered with many food booth and squeezing through the streaming flow of people, I dragged my friend along to try Yonehachi which caught my attention some time ago. The attractive range of lightly-toned colourful sticky rice tightened into capsules was an unusual sight in Singapore. After ordering our set with the chosen type of rice, we waited like forever before being served. The presentation was so not appealing and only the Okowa was worth the mention. |
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| I tried the Chicken Teriyaki Set and topped up an additional $1.00 for the scallop Okowa. The set meal itself was purely a disappointment but I guessed the sticky glutinous rice was supposed to be the highlight. How often do you get to see sticky glutinous rice appearing in a Japanese outlet's menu? Although the scallop Okowa was lightly salted and tasty, it had only 2-3 miserable pieces of thinly sliced scallop on it. |
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| My friend had the Shio Saba Set with red bean Okowa (original rice). His original rice came with a good amount of red beans unlike my pathetic scallops. Slightly less flavorful but I guessed I felt a very mild tinge of sweetness in there. |
6 Jan 2014
Rive Gauche Patisserie - X'mas Potluck 2013 at Vivocity Skypark
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| Let me clear up my 2013 X'mas post before updating the rest......of the 2013 posts still. Despite enjoying my school holidays right now, my posts are still lagging behind! By the way, 'Noel' on that chocolate logcake is French for Merry Christmas as none of us is called Noel. Just a typical chocolate sponge spread with chocolate cream, rolled up into a log and coated with slightly gooey chocolate ganache. My friend bought it just for 'yi shi' (symbolic) only as Christmas always comes with a log cake right? Even if it was just a mini one. |
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| Another cake we shared was the Cheesecake crumbles which came in a rounded looking bowl. Nothing impressive to me as it was just creamy vanilla-tasting cheesecake mousse sprinkled with crumbles on top. Maybe after being exposed to air for too long, the crumbles were kind of moist. |
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| The food that my friends and I brought for our potluck picnic at Vivocity Skypark. It was quite enjoyable as we spend our entire evening till nightfall over there, chatting and making a lot of noise, especially laughter. The food were dam filling! |
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| A group shot before ending this post! Too dark to capture any good shots already... |
4 Jan 2014
Homemade meat jerky! Bak Kwa experiment for Chinese New Year!
My very 1st post for the year 2014 and I will be blogging about my homemade meat jerky process! I still
have a couple of 2013 posts which I have yet to update but this post was the priority since Chinese New
Year is approaching! My 3rd time experimenting with the seasoning quantity before finally settling with the
one below. (Note: Adjusted based on my personal preference!)
have a couple of 2013 posts which I have yet to update but this post was the priority since Chinese New
Year is approaching! My 3rd time experimenting with the seasoning quantity before finally settling with the
one below. (Note: Adjusted based on my personal preference!)
The recipe I modified into:
Pork 300g (A bit fattier would be better)
Sugar 3 tbs
Honey 3 tbs (I think malt syrup would be better, more caramelised flavor.)
Fish Sauce 1.5 tbs
Sweet Wine 2 tbs (I used a dessert wine)
Dark Soy Sauce 1/2 tbs
Char Siew Sauce 1 tbs (Removed after 3rd batch)
Five Spice 1/2 tbs
Sesame Oil 1/2 tbs (Removed after 3rd batch)
If anyone knows of any better tried-and-tested-before recipe, care to share with me so I could try?
I knew it would not be so easy to get close to the exact taste of Bak Kwa, if not everyone would be making
their own already.
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| The recipe would be for 300g of meat and I did X2 the recipe for 600g of marinated minced pork, beef and chicken. Best if you could add more fats into your minced meat as mine were all too lean! After marinating the meat overnight in the chiller, the minced chicken was a bit watery while minced beef was still rather firm. Pork was always in-between. |
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| I started off by portioning the meat into 100g - 110g so that all the jerky would be about the same size. (Too large piece would be difficult to flip over and would easily break apart.) I spread the minced meat onto an aluminium sheet, place a cling wrap over and using a rolling pin, flatten the meat evenly. About 2mm thickness for mine. |
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| After spreading evenly on the aluminium, either you could directly bbq the meat or place it into the oven to bake fully. I did half-half. About 200 degrees in the oven for 10-15 mins to firm up the meat before transferring to the BBQ pit to barbecue! I guessed that it was normal for the marination to leak out of the marinated meat during the baking process? Any ideas? |
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| Picture of myself barbecuing the meat jerky! |
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| Another selfie shot with my friend's barbecue pit! Thanks Glenn for letting me use his house to barbecue! |
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| The texture was way too smooth to be Bak Kwa and it looked more like ham instead. |
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| My friend did the baking to firm up the minced meat before I barbecued them. Kept flipping and barbecuing piece by piece as his oven could only bake a piece at a time. |
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| Glazed with honey when the meat was about to be done with a bit of charred parts appearing. Make sure the honey dries slightly or it would end up sticky. |
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| Done! Pork or beef ?? |
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| Another shot with only 2 pieces... |
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| Some of the minced chicken ended up like this, all broken apart because it was too soft to flip with tongs. |
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| Done with all the 1.2kg of beef and pork which took about 5 hours...? |
Final conclusion:
Beef - Jerky have quite a strong beefy taste and smell which could be quite unpleasant.
The meat was rather firm but soft and tender.
Easy to handle while baking and barbecuing.
Easiest to dry up and discolour after a few days in the fridge
Chicken - Became watery/mushy after marination and broke apart easily.
Tasted a bit like satay / chicken steak.
Pork - Texture a bit rubbery after a few days in the fridge.
More suitable due to having more fats (although mine still not enough)
All - Unusual smell and taste, something like hoisin sauce detected.
The texture too smooth to be Bak Kwa.
Overall taste still negative to me.