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.
31 Dec 2013
New Year Resolution for the Year 2014!
In about an hour plus time, it would be 2014 already! Omg so fast another brand New Year..
I want to thank my family members and all my friends who have been part of my life!.........(and so on)
Had experienced a full year in At-Sunrice Academy attaining pastry and bakery knowledge and skills, going
through a whole year of apprenticeship at SATS too. Basically my life is just school, work and going out with
friends for catching up sessions, eating yummy food and also made new friends from SATS as well as from 2
of the Omy blogclub events.
I should also state down my new year resolutions so that I could refer to them next year and keep in track
whether I had managed to fulfill them.
1) Work in a well known Japanese restaurant after graduating from At-Sunrice Academy (by March)
2) Perfect my knife skills
3) Learn as much as possible from my work place (not confirmed)
4) Pick up Japanese language (basic would do)
5) Improve my drawing skills and have a sketchbook filled with food sketches
6) Blog more engaging posts
Alright, 6 should be more than enough! Anyway...
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| Snacking on Sakura Matcha Kit Kat bars right now?? Yes, waffles coated with a layer of sakura matcha chocolate! Loved the unique flora taste of sakura although it was just the flavoring. |
29 Dec 2013
Menya Mushashi - All the way to the West
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| After this meal at Menya Mushashi which I ate with my friends at Westgate (a newly open mall beside Jem), I somehow felt the pinch of spending so much on a bowl of ramen. A bowl of ramen from any other restaurants could easily hit $15 to $20, more than enough to cover an entire day food expanses. Perhaps I should stop trying so many different outlets and stick to the same few favorite ones to prevent unwanted disappointment. Back to this bowl of Black Special Ramen Set which I ordered that included a choice of side dish. I was once again greatly disappointed about almost every major components this bowl contained. Murky looking broth that lacked flavor, only half a non-molten centre egg, average slice of pork belly and a boring piece of fried bean curd skin. I was quite pissed off about the extremely low amount of broth in my bowl too, not that I enjoyed it. The only thing I liked was the H-shaped noodles that were supposed to 'collect' a bit of broth along its grooves, just like the spirals of fusilli pasta. Thick, smooth, slightly chewy and I guessed mildly salted too. |
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| Dennis had the White Special Ramen Set that was the plainest among all. Simple thick broth with every ingredients exactly the same as what I had described above. |
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| Yong Xian tried the Red Special Ramen Set which looked more orangey than red and was mildly spicy. I hoped they did not choose different types of ramen just for my photography sake or I would be so touched LOL! |
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| Our mediocre side dishes with the gyoza standing out because of its juicy meat fillings. The maki was too cloying due to its tightly compressed rice. No more trying of new ramen outlets for me liao, unless I suffer a major crave! |
27 Dec 2013
Ramen Champion - Getting worse?
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| Before I begin typing this post, I was already questioning myself why the heck I choose to eat the same bowl of ramen the third time? The first time I randomly tried (out of the other outlets), I fell for it. The lovely thick and slightly flat noodles in the salty-savory broth with additional 3 huge spoonful of finely chopped garlic was so addictive. The second time I ate, it was less satisfying but still delicious. This time, I was utterly disappointed with this same type of ramen, but of far-fetched standard. The molten centred eggs were still acceptable but not the broth. There was an obvious layer on the surface (definitely oil), and the broth was rather bland and tasteless. What did I just paid for? |
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| My friend was searching for a bowl of ramen with spicy broth and the picture of Buta God Tonkotse Ramen caught his attention. The flaring red broth from all that chili flakes or spices prevented me from trying. He was thoroughly enjoying both his ramen, as well as the feeling of perspiring non-stop throughout his meal. So not my meaning/sort of enjoyment. |