29 Apr 2014
The Public Izakaya by Hachi - Over Fusion??
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| The interior was furnished so beautifully that it felt so surreal! Am I still in Singapore? The streets along Tanjong Pagar where offices are located in almost every building? The dim lanterns hanging across the ceilings emitted an orangey glow that made the entire restaurant felt so homely. Too bad my friends and I had to dine outdoors due to the peak lunch period and the clash with the office crowd. (Picture taken after the meal.) |
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| There were free flow of appetizers, mainly salad that were not worth the mention since they were either soggy or badly marinated. It could be a wise move since office people are getting rather health conscious nowadays. Health is wealth! |
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| Certain food like this serving of deep fried chicken cutlets with wedges found in the lunch menu totally contradicts the Japanese style. Could it be a fusion that was overtaken by the western part? With the ketchup bottles as a backdrop, no one could tell this dish was from a Japanese restaurant. Tender juicy chicken but the ratio to the crispy batter was imbalance. Let's not talk about the processed wedges since I decided to skip them. |
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| My friend received a wrong order but he decided to take it anyway. I think due to the really huge pieces of ribs that were too eye-catching and difficult to resist. My stares could not be turned away due to the tantalizing gravy that drenched the rice. Gosh, I want to eat from that yummy bowl right now! |
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| I had the pork belly set which looked less appealing as compared to my friend's ribs. It was simple, tender and mildly salty, perfect combination with plain rice. Thankfully I had other dishes to whet up my appetite. |
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| ARH....Finally the most Japanese-like food that arrived at our table! A light bodied clear soup with certain unknown Japanese ingredients in it! Hard boiled egg, taro, fishcake filled with sticky flour and another spongy fishcake. Such enjoyable and real comfort food I would say. By the end of our catching up meal, the entire place was empty as people went back to their monotonous work life. How I wished I had more freedom and be stress-free! |
28 Apr 2014
The Corner Place Korean BBQ Buffet - In general, I would want to avoid in future
I don't usually fancy going for a BBQ or a Steamboat buffet meal since I knew that the quality of those frozen/raw food usually sucks. I am referring to those standard $20 - $30 range of buffets which I had tried that has been listed on the side column of this blog.
You may question why I go for yet another BBQ buffet then?
You may question why I go for yet another BBQ buffet then?
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| Such buffets are mainly for gathering purposes, be it for a huge group of friends or with a bff/buddy who got lots of catching up to do over a meal. Since my friend wanted to indulge a bit on those scary quantity of over marinated meat, I just have to agree. Partly because I was too lazy to decide where else to dine around Marina Square. |
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| These were the cooked food available while waiting for our meat to sizzle till cooked. Glass noodles were thick and tasted decent, egg custard had that turn-me-off eggy stench and we did not touch the korean rice cakes. I loved the Korean spicy-sweet marinated drumlets so much that I gobbled down 10 pieces of them. Being in a buffet also means that you need to learn to be selective of the food you consume! Just pick your favorite + what you think is worthwhile! |
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| Our 'BBQ pit' was constantly filled with various types of meat, especially those tender slices of beef! We kept complaining about using those Korean flat metal chopsticks that were kind of a nuisance since they were made without considering the ergonomics factor. The service was also prompt as the staffs would change the foil once it turned semi black. |
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| Not meaning to turn you off but looking at the amount of excess oil/waste dripping out through the internal sewage system, we can't help but to imagine those waste being deposited into our stomachs. Gosh, what did we just fed ourselves with? |
9 Apr 2014
Orh Nee Roll - My Rendition of Orh Nee
Decided to do up a post before going to dreamland to recharge my energy for a crazy day of work tomorrow! It is FHA week and the morning crowd is so CRAZY! Too bad my off days are after FHA and I could not go although I had complementary ticket from my chef. (Gave away the ticket already...) I posted about my last day of school and my presentation previously (click here to view) and below is the dessert I created. The recipe I used included if anyone want to try making it?
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| (Picture taken from my school instructor's album.) Nicely taken from his DSLR! |
A summarized version of my report (modified)
Orh Nee Roll is my rendition of the popular Teochew dessert
that goes a long way back.
Orh Nee in Teochew means Taro Paste and memories of this
dish come from attending
wedding banquets, where it is almost customary for it to be
served as the last course in resturants.
The main ingredient used is yam, which is one of the oldest
food plants known. It is also a common plant found around the rustic and rural
kampung environment in the past. Yams are a good source of potassium,
manganese, copper, vitamin C, dietary fiber, and vitamin B6.
The other secondary ingredients used are coconut cream, pandan
leaves, shallots and pumpkin seed (to replace the actual pumpkin flesh).
Since the
past, coconut cream is added to Orh Nee to enhance the flavor, giving it a
creamier texture. As for shallots, when fried, they produce a fragrant aroma
which would mask the undesirable smell of the yam. Pandan leaves are used as
additional flavoring for the skin.
To further depict the kampong style, I choose to present my
Orh Nee rolled up in light pandan fragrance snowskin, looking like a piece of
home made traditional kueh. It is also to break the monotonous habit of serving
Orh Nee in a bowl, looking like a pile of unappetizing dull looking gooey mess.
The spongy texture of the snow skin with fried shallots and pumpkin seed provide a slight contrast to the rich creamy texture of the yam paste itself. This sweet
as well as savory dessert is made from scratch, just like
from the kampung days.
Dessert name: Orh Nee Roll (About 100 pcs)
(Adjust oil and coconut cream base on your desired consistency.)
(Adjust oil and coconut cream base on your desired consistency.)
Ingredient List
Yam Paste
Fresh Yam 1200g
Caster Sugar
200g
Peanut Oil
300g
Shallots 15
no.s
Coconut Cream 600g
Salt
A pinch
Snow Skin
Fried Glutinous Rice Flour (Kou Fien) 600g + (100g for dusting)
Icing Sugar
750g
Shortening
180g
Water (Cold)
600ml
Green Colouring Few
drops
Pandan Leaves
100g
Method
1) Peel
taro and cut into thin slices. Arrange on a dish/tray and steam for 20-30 min
until soft.
2) Once
the taro slices are out of the steamer, mash them up with the back of a fork,
adding caster sugar at the same time. Taste and add more caster sugar if
required. Tweak the level of sweetness to personal preference. Cover with
clingfilm.
3) Peel
shallots and finely slice them.
4) In
a wok or wide saucepan, add oil and sliced shallots. Gently stir-fry on medium
low heat until the shallot discs begin to brown and crisp up. Strain the
shallots from the oil.
5) Return
oil back to the wok, turn down the flame to low. Add mashed taro paste and mix
until well amalgamated. Taste again and add more sugar if required. Also, if
coconut milk is used, it can be added at this point with a pinch of salt. Cut
back the oil by half if so and add accordingly until the desired texture is
achieved.
6)
Allow the taro paste to cool down considerably.
Transfer into a food blender and blitz until smooth. Chill the mixture till firm.
7)
Sift the flour
and mix with icing sugar and add into a bowl
8)
Blend the
pandan leaves for its juice, add into the cold water with a few drops of
colouring.
9)
Add shortening
and water to the flour mixture, mix together to form a smooth dough and keep
aside for 30 minutes.
10) Roll out the
dough into a rectangular flat surface, spread the taro paste across it and roll
it up like a swiss roll.
11) Chill before slicing into portion and serve.
(I had my reference from http://travelling-foodies.com)
2 Apr 2014
Graduated from At-Sunrice! Spice Odyssey 2014
This 18 months was like a whirlwind to me. I enrolled into At-sunrice and started my course almost 4 months after my army days. Even the pictures I am about to post felt like an aftermath of the whirlwind since I am at a loss of what sequence should I start my story line with!
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| Every story have a starting as well as an ending. I shall begin mine with the layout of my group's given presentation theme - Survival and Preservation. I further modified the concept to Kampong Survival and Preservation of our Heritage so that it would make things easier. I present to you our layout that day of our presentation! (Not the full layout actually) |
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| My team that comprises of 3 pastry and 3 culinary students. With kampung theme, we dress kampung style! |
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| Another group shot sitting on the floor like kids! I wore singlet that day although I know I do not have a perfect body. Who cares? I am known to dress anyhow as long as I am comfortable with. Note: For hygiene purpose, I did shave my armpit hair the day before. |
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| A selfie playing with a paper kite that day. Although badly taken but no choice as this was the only picture my friend sent to me.... |
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| My Orh Nee Roll which is my own rendition of the popular Teochew dessert. Shall post the recipe next time. Really survival looking right? |
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| We had to pack some door gifts for our guests and we bought some of these really old school toys and candies! Remember these? We also bought some other toys like five stones, paper balls and chapteh to play with during our presentation (not shown here). We wanted our guests to walk down the memory lane and re-experience the past. |
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| I know it looked quite cheapo in plastic bags but it is Kampung style! Each group was only given $100 to spend on whatever props and stuffs we need for our presentation. |
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| We had to present our concept and food 3 times to different batches of guests. We were only allowed one invite each. Taken a photo with one of my close friend's wife when she visited my group for food tasting. |
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| My classmates! We all dressed accordingly to our theme that day. My dressing is definitely the most 'CUI'! LOL! |
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| My close cliquey of friends! |
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| Guys only shot! One of them went for smoke break I think... |
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| Back at Sats, thank you chef for loaning me some of the equipment for my presentation! |
This is just a brief post and I did not have time to try my friends' food or to take pictures of other teams' layout/food. We all knew we did what we could and to happily graduate from our course, no matter whether we would want to continue this profession in future.
16 Mar 2014
Taking the path of a chef - 10 factors you need to consider before accepting the job as a chef
SingaporeanAlumni of At-Sunrice Global Chef Academy (Diploma in Pastry and Bakery Arts)
Date entered : 24th Sep 2012
Date graduated : 7th Mar 2014
My days of being a trainee has ended and my job as a full time chef has commenced. This blog would be my space to blog about my experiences and journey to be a chef since I have decided to stray away from my design diploma and pick this challenging career after attaining my 2nd diploma.
Being a trainee for a year at any apprenticeship site has its peaks as trainees are just considered as a helping hand (and we hardly get screwed). I was allocated to this not-my-choice company by the school's administration and the feeling definitely, seriously sucks big time. I was constantly relocated to different stations where I get to learn the basics of production line and also where manpower is required. Since the company focused on mass production, I got used to producing huge quantity instead of quality food. Worst still, the travelling distance from my house to my workplace can add up to one and a half hours long. How I dreaded stoning in the Mrt and bus, reading from my bought-for-that-purpose Ipad mini and yawning from time to time.
Just merely a year of apprenticeship, I felt that my story could go on and on. Dwelling about the past would be useless as right now, I should be focusing on the present.
About 2 months before my graduation, I have already started researching and hunting for my ideal job as a chef. Come to think of it, 2 months before is way too early and I think about 2 weeks before would be great.
As I mentioned, there are many factors which contributes to the meaning of ideal job and these are some of the common factors that you could refer to. (Provided that you also want to be a chef.)
10 factors you need to consider before accepting the job as a chef
1. Cuisine of Specialty
Pastry, Bakery, Western, Chinese, Japanese, or even more exotic cuisines such as Mediterranean are different and special in their own ways. They could differ in preparation methods and the ingredients used. I am not the right person to describe in details since I am not specialized in anyone of them yet. The best if you could continue that particular cuisine and master it.
2. Location
I consider this quite an important factor since I have to travel to work 5 or 6 days a week in future. One worst case scenario would be travelling from my house to my apprenticeship site which required me to change from red line to circle line, to green line and taking a bus again to reach my destination. Another reason is that if you are late for work, you actually pay lesser for your cab fares due to the shorter journey. With shorter distance, you would not feel that demoralizing going to work and enduring the overcrowding transport system.
3. Pay
Money makes the world go round. For fresh graduates like me, with or without culinary experience or certificates, $1500 is already considered decent to start with. Some places' salary could be as low as $1200 and after deducting your CPF, you get peanuts (<$1000). Unless you want to consider migrating to neighboring countries with exchange rates twice of Singapore's currency. For some places, you do get tips as extra pocket money!
4. Working hours / Shifts
It is either a straight shift, split shift or even a midnight shift. (You get roughly about $200 more from a split/midnight shift.) Even if yours is a straight shift, it could be morning this week and afternoon the following week. There could also be plenty of OT (overtime pay) when it gets busy during festive seasons or during the holidays period.
5. Brand
The same reasons why people go for Gucci or Louis Vuitton, I also picked a quite-new 4 stars hotel to work in. I felt that it is more of a satisfaction issue if the name of the establishment is of a certain popularity and class. Sounds better for resume purpose too.
6. Company Benefits
Different companies may have slightly different benefits. From what I have heard, hotels normally have more perks than restaurants. Up to you to find out.
7. Laundry Services
For lazy people like me, I would prefer laundry services to be provided. At least there is one less thing to fret about - ironing my own clothes.
8. Excitement Factor
This sounds rather random. It could be helping out with some banquet, the restaurant importing some rare seasonal products from other countries or even an ultra hot lady keeps coming into the restaurant just to see you. LOL
9. Learning Opportunities
A wide array of options from a menu that changes from time to time would mean more learning opportunities. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect!
10. Advancement Opportunities
I definitely would want to advance in my career and not stay stagnant. The chance to exhibit your skill is important, to prove your worth and not stay within 4 walls peeling potato for years. Promotion also means more responsibilities too.
Anyway, these points are just my personal opinion. Feel free to list anything I happened to miss out.
I can't guarantee I am able to stay in this industry throughout my career. Who knows? ...
2 Mar 2014
Finalized Bak Kwa
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| Quite an obvious delayed post on Bak Kwa since Chinese New Year had passed more than a month ago. Anyway, this was the finalised version which tasted as good as the actual commercialised ones out there! Tested and many tasted!! (For method 2b below) Satisfied! |
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| I guessed this was the final form... |
My reference for different types of meat for Bak Kwa trial can be found here.
The second post on the more complicated version using dehydrator and smoking of Bak Kwa can be found
Ingredients:
300g Minced Pork
1 tbs Thai Fish Sauce
1 tbs Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
120g Caster Sugar
1 drop of red food colouring
Method:
1) Marinated overnight (or a few hours, up to you)
2a) Spread on tray, placed into the oven for 10 mins at 100 degrees. Flip over and place back into the over
for another 10 minutes till a bit charred.
(Better Results)
2b) After spreading on tray (your desired thickness), dehydrate using your dehydrator for 3 hours, medium
heat about 55 degrees. (Want to dehydrate longer to remove more moisture also can.) After that, place
it over a bamboo tray (for better results) and cook/smoke over charcoal, which is about 200 degrees
for up to an hour. Remember to oil your bamboo to prevent sticking. Grill on pan a while before serving.
27 Feb 2014
Making Sugar Showpieces - An art that I enjoyed!
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| Posting this post about sugar showpiece would meant that my graduation day is approaching!! Like finally? Woohoo... Left a week more of school (basically examination week) before my final group presentation and I am out of there. I shall blog about my final presentation next time! Anyway, I had a 5 days module on sugar works and was taught to do sugar casting, sugar pulling as well as blowing. Among the entire 17 months course, this module was my favorite as I could express my artistic style through the showpieces. In a team of 2 throughout the 5 days, my friend and I created 5 showpieces, only to demolish everyone of them (except the last) at the end of the day. The 1st day was basically to hands on and get a feel of the extreme heat! Despite the 2 layers of glove, the heat could still penetrate through, making sure my hands were constantly in perspiration mode. Such heat would not stop us from assembling our masterpiece! Showpiece #1 - Fruit Farm Started blowing sugar in the first day itself! Dam difficult to blow but managed to get an apple done! My friend was practicing doing some twirls and leaves using molds. |
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| A bit too much text above? I shall go straight to the point then... Showpiece #2 - Fruit PartyMore blowing to practice my skill although the shapes were slightly (ok, very) mutated. Spot the lemon and bell pepper? A bit of rose petal design on the casting itself. Basically I handled the blowing part while my friend focused on the swirls and leaves. This is what I would call assigning specialization! |
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| Showpiece #3 - Do you want to build a snowman? Based on the recent trend of the Disney movie called 'Frozen' and one of the songs 'Do you want to build a snowman?', we too, decided to build a snowman! Not with snow and magic but with heat and sugar LOL! Practiced a bit of shape manipulation to create objects such as the broom. Damn difficult to blow up large regular sphere shape sugar pieces as the room humidity was not right in the first place. I did managed to blow one up as large as your face! |
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| Showpiece #4 - Into the depth Day 4 already and we got more enthusiastic and adventurous, so we decided to go for the underwater theme. That day was when I started to blow teardrop and oval shaped sugar pieces, creating whales mating and a bird..? Underwater? Trying out casting for irregular shaped base, with 4 rectangular blocks of water swirling design as backdrop. Not to forget a mesh of spiderweb-like extract for additional contrast. |
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| Showpiece #5 - Do you want to build a snowman? Again? The final day of our sugar showpiece module as well as our assessment day! A new improved version of 'Do you want to build a snowman?'. A very Christmas theme with the tree for extended height purpose and presents to showcase fine detailing of ribbons. Hi cute little snowman! It was so much fun and I bet it would be my first and last chance to do sugar showpieces. |
22 Feb 2014
Maison Kaiser - A filling high tea set
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| It was a rather random choice that day as I picked Maison Kaiser for high tea with my mum. Being tempted by a couple of other tables who had ordered the 3-tier high tea set for 2, I decided to go for the similar set as well. I am a typical follow-the-crowd person indeed! When the 3-tier stand arrived with 3 large plates of food, it basically occupied most of the table space and it was so annoying to eat with such limited table space. (See from the picture what I meant?) |
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| The set came with a pot of tea of our choice and we picked the Lemongrass and Verbena. (Free refill of hot water available but reusing the same tea bag.) I really disliked the cup design, as with such large surface area, the tea turned cold really fast unknowingly. |
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| We started off with the sausage quiche (quiche of the day) and we enjoyed it thoroughly! (My personal favourite from the entire set.) The savoury quiche had a somewhat firm eggy custard (not watery) with not- so-salty sausage chunks. The taste was well balanced and it was so addictive, especially for a fan of savoury food like me. The smoked salmon side and salad were refreshing and gave the savoury part a different texture. |
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| The desserts were sweetness overload to us, especially the eclair and the chocolate chip cookies. The icing coated eclair was filled with vanilla flavoured ; custard-like cream, thick and sticky. I did not manage to finish my piece of sugar-high cookie though. I loved the moist green tea cake with cream as well as the large slice of mixed berries cream cake. Eat it early or you would witness the meltdown of the gelatin set mixed berries compote (top layer). |
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| Last was not least, these assorted open faced sandwiches were decent and fulfilled their duty in filling us up quite a bit. With such a filling high tea session, my mum and I probably had a bit of problems having dinner at a standard 6+ timing that day. |
8 Feb 2014
Helping out at a VIP Event @ Marina Bay Cruise Centre!
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| Just a little update - My last day of internship ended over a VIP Event located at Marina Bay Cruise Centre. Fortunate for us trainees as it was our first outdoor event exposure that we get to experience, instead of being enclosed within 4 walls of our production kitchen carrying out our boring routines. |
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| Our job here as trainees would be to constantly refill the dessert spread whenever any desserts are running low in numbers. The next few pictures would definitely make you salivate and desperate to dig into the wide array of colourful petite portion desserts! I quickly snapped these pictures before the VIPs (about 800 pax) started swarming in with starving tummies. |
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| Some of the lovely desserts available! |
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| Colorful background lighting as well as sculpture decorations to enhance the overall presentation of the buffet line. |
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| More desserts! Too bad I did not get a chance to try most of them... I could if I wanted to, just that I did not want such high amount of sugar intake in a single day. |
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| Refreshing fresh cream with fruits! |
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| Different types of cheese, dried fruits, grapes and plain crackers. |
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Fact #1 - Do not be surprise if you see many people (ladies especially), going directly towards the dessert
spread before having their main course.
Fact #2 - Macarons were the first to be completely wiped out, including the countless trays of spare which
I had to refill constantly throughout that evening. Fact #3 - Some ladies really could eat up to 12 pieces of macarons (more is highly possible).
Fact #4 - Desserts could be ladies' main course instead.
Fact #5 - Top favorite macaron and first to run out was the nutella flavor (probably closest to chocolate
flavor). went at 9.00am in the morning to help out a bit. The experience sure was a load of fun, better than being stuck in a production kitchen (wanted to stress on that point again)! |
3 Feb 2014
Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons - Back again
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| I mentioned before that I would quit ramen dining somewhere in my previous post and I was back here in Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons again. Not that I did not stick to my words but it was my friend's decision to queue for it since he have not tried from this outlet before. We ended up queueing for more than 30 minutes while he kept sharing his recent 3 weeks of experience in Japan with me. He also mentioned that in Japan, many dining places required queueing too and he did not mind waiting at all. (Provided you don't faint from huger first.) As for me, it was my 3rd visit and I admit that this outlet was one of the better ones in Singapore. Like finally we could step into the restaurant and were given the counter seats. Interesting to watch the chefs in action but annoying to have smoke flying directly at my face while enjoying my bowl of ramen. |
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| I suggested the 'Autumn' ramen to my friend since he loves spicy food. He gobbled it hungrily and agreed with me that it was really delicious, one of the better ones he tried in Singapore, even better than Ramen Keisuke Tori King (its sister outlet). As for me, I tried the Tonkotsu King and it sure was addictive and I could have easily drank 4 bowls of such tasty broth. Another YUM factor was the thinly sliced tender pork with some fats and onions which provided an additional bit of sweetness. I really would not mind eating this bowl of ramen for a week! By the way, my previous posts on Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons could be found here and here. |
30 Jan 2014
Bak Kwa Madness for coming Chinese New Year??
Chinese New Year is justwith my friend since the start of January.
I came across an article on New Paper - 'Behind the scenes in a bak kwa shop' which featured Lim Chee
Guan. There was even a video to give public a peek at its HQ at Pandan Loop. Obviously the secret recipe
was not included in this article.
My eyes almost popped out of my socket when I saw that 1kg of Bak Kwa was going for $50.00 at the
shop! Gosh! Those people have been queuing for hours too and they mentioned that it was worth the wait.
Is it a tradition that Chinese New Year means Bak Kwa time?
The link of the article can be found here.
Another article which I came across last Monday with the heading
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
sparked my interest.
The recipe given was:
-1kg minced pork (shoulder butt)
-220g fine sugar
-1½ tsp salt
-1 tsp light soya sauce
-1 tbsp oyster sauce
-½ tsp five spice powder
-1½ tbsp Chinese rice wine
-Pinch of red food colouring powder
I guessed many people who tried making it would be greatly disappointed as it would never turn out the
same as those commercialized outlets like Lim Chee Guan, Bee Cheng Hiang or Fragrance Bak Kwa.
The reason of me writing this post was because I was a bit pissed off. I have already tried making Bak Kwa
even before this article's recipe was published, using the oven, even with barbecuing, and the results was so off! It could be found on my previous post here. Not to mention the texture was not right too...
Notice the article's recipe above contained sugar as the main sweetening agent? My friend and I did a batch
with only sugar and no honey (the recipe I used have), the taste turned out really flat! Honey not only
sweetened the Bak Kwa but also provides flavor. (Different brand, different flower, different flavor also.)
Be careful as honey is sweeter than sugar too.
Another thing that would happen when you place the marinated meat into the oven would be the oozing out
of marination which I experienced many times before. To prevent that from happening, I suggested using the
dehydrator which I did not expect my friend to actually buy it
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| The same dehydrator that could be used to make fruit and vegetable chips! It cost my friend about $250. Basically he dehydrated the marinated meat for about an hour, about 65 degrees (high). (Also have low and medium heat options.) |
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| After that, the marinated meat is smoked with his own-made smoker, made from a 3 tier Ikea rack, covered by some board used for artwork. (Sushi bamboo racks to place the marinated meat on.) |
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| (Top view) An opening for smoke to escape and and thermometer to determine the temperature of the smoking. |
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| Just a tin with hickory wood/charcoal to produce the smoke. |
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| Final outcome of the Bak Kwa! Do not use hickory wood but stick to charcoal instead as the smokey flavor was overwhelming. It made the Bak Kwa taste like Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages) instead. The Bak Kwa was also like a sponge, absorbing all the moisture from my mouth, making it dry. Almost there!!!! |
(Everything stated is based on personal opinion ; open to suggestions and advice)