Cinnamon sugar pull-apart loaf

Knowing that my cousin and her family were coming from New York to visit, I wanted to bake something for her to welcome her arrival. It had to be something to do with bread, since I was not ready to venture into cookie and cake territory. It had to be better than plain wholemeal bread... something sweet, nice to have with a cup of milky tea or coffee. After Googling around a bit for ideas, I decided on a cinnamon sugar pull-apart loaf: sweet, aromatic, warm, comforting.

Homecooked dinner: Steamed chicken, sambal eggplant

Steamed chicken, to go with soya sauce and chilli.

100% wholemeal bread (Origins flour)

I am pleased to present the results of my second attempt at a 100% wholemeal loaf. As you may know, my first attempt was with PrimaFlour's wholemeal flour, which is coarsely ground. Coarsely ground flour prevents dough from rising much, because it cuts through the gluten strands. This resulted in the crumb of wholemeal loaf #1 being very dense - good for people who like hearty nutty bread, but bad for people who like soft bread.

Ayam Penyet Ria

Ayam Penyet Ria is one of the most popular ayam penyet cafes in Lucky Plaza. They have cafes on two floors in the building, and another nearby at Far East Plaza. We were lucky that we had our weekday dinner there early at around 6pm, because the entire cafe was soon filled.

Mini Soon Kueh from My Genie Gourmet

 

Soon kueh (upside down) with dark sauce and chilli sauce about to be eaten by mom

One night my father came home with a little box, saying that it contained soon kueh. His friend had given it to him to try. I must admit not having high expectations upon seeing the packaging, even though the box showed 5 out of 6 Makansutra chopsticks. However my mind was changed when I ate the soon kueh filling.

Paleo Chiu Chow Chilli Oil

Chiu Chow Chilli Oil is one of my favourite types of chilli to eat with blanched Chinese vegetables. For a long time I used Lee Kum Kee's chilli oil because it was the only brand of chilli oil sold in the supermarkets. What bugged me about it though was that the oil used by Lee Kum Kee was soybean oil, and that the chilli oil contained sugar and flavour enhancers.

Delifrance Chicken D'light

We have many good memories of Delifrance because twenty years back, it was pretty much the only western sandwich and pastry place in Singapore, and therefore the place to get sandwiches and pastries. My mother, sister and I loved all of their sandwiches - chicken, tuna and egg - and regularly ate many of their pastries as well.

Homecooked dinner: Pan-fried mackeral and baby bok choy

Pan-fried mackeral with sambal chilli

Mong Hing Teochew Restaurant

Recently, my father's friend invited us to dinner at Mong Hing Teochew Resturant. According to Mong Hing's website, it started rolling in the 1950s "at Singapore river side's new market". My father's friend was a child then, and was friends with the restaurant's chef, his family and the restaurant workers. They called him "fat boy" in dialect, and still recognise him today.

Comments ON now!

Some people had emailed me saying that they wanted to write comments but there was no comments box. After a bit of investigation I found out that there was a separate checkbox in Blogger to enable comments for each post, which I had not checked (oops!). Anyway, I have fixed it so that every post can be commented on now!

Red meat consumption and mortality

 Image from thesun.co.uk

"Red Meat Consumption Linked to Increased Risk of Total, Cardiovascular, and Cancer Mortality". Sweeping sensationalist headlines and articles like this get me really exasperated because they do not aid the general public's understanding of nutrition and disease, but mislead. It is the job of newswriters to grab attention, so never take summarised results of studies at face values. Instead, read the study if you can and try to understand it, and read the dissections done by trustworthy people.

Semi-homecooked dinner: Fried black pomfret, roast pork, baby kailan, stewed pumpkin

 Fried black pomfret topped with sambal chilli.

Sup Tulang from Ibrahim Mee Stall, Adam Road Food Centre

Unsatisfied with my sup tulang experience from Newton, I decided to try the tulang from Adam Road. For $6, I received five bones with much more meat on them than the almost meatless bones from Newton - compare the pictures and it is pretty obvious. With a bit of knocking on the bowl, each bone yielded a sliver of slippery marrow.

Chilli padi from Coriander Cafe

Snack: Kale with coconut oil and sambal chilli

If you are addicted to spicy food, the sambal chilli from Coriander Cafe should satisfy your cravings. I am a chilli padi eater, and this sambal chilli is really spicy. We have found it a tasty condiment with home cooking, and have also used it to fry fish in.

100% wholemeal bread (PrimaFlour wholemeal flour)

My mother is a creature of habit and must, every morning, have a slice of bread. As such, the next best thing I can do is to bake some delicious wholemeal bread that is at least in some way healthier than the quick-rise mass produced bread sold in supermarkets.

51 Soya Bean almond beancurd

$1.50 for original and almond flavours; $2.50 for strawberry, durian and mango.

In the spirit of beancurd pudding sampling, yesterday night my father brought home two tubs of almond tau hway from 51 Soya Bean for me to try.

Homecooked dinner: Soya sauce chicken and sambal okra

 

Chicken stewed in dark soya sauce with sliced ginger to "neutralise" the fowl-ish taste - this is an old receipe of mom's. If you eat potatoes, the dark soya sauce goes very well with them. When I was little I loved eating mashed potatoes mixed with lots of the sauce.

Pulled pork sandwich from Smoke Shack

My mother and sister love eating sandwiches, so when I hear something good about a sandwich place that is nearby my office, I feel like I have to buy one for them to try. Smoke Shack received most of its attention between 2010 and 2011, but I never managed to locate its Market Street shop. Therefore when my friend led me to Republic Plaza for lunch, I was surprised and excited to see Smoke Shack there.

Baked salmon belly

If salmon belly sashimi is too expensive, cooked salmon belly is a good alternative - the former usually costs more than S$100 / kg while the latter costs S$15.90 / kg at NTUC Fairprice. Compared to salmon steak, salmon belly is rich in good fats, which is exactly the nutritional purpose of eating oily fish. After tasting baked belly, I have never bought any other cut of salmon.

Resto Surabaya

Throughout my life I had rarely gone into Lucky Plaza. There were no reasons to go there - no shopping, nothing to see and no good food (or so I thought). So when my cousin told me that there was good ayam penyet there and suggested that we go there for dinner, I stepped into the building for perhaps the fourth time in my life, and the number of little Indonesian restaurants serving ayam penyet was surprising.