Homecooked dinner: Baby kai lan, salmon belly

Baby kai lan stirfried with garlic

Banana walnut bread-cake

Presenting my first cake: banana walnut cake. The receipe I used from Peter Reinhart's Crust & Crumb was actually for banana bread, and it asked for all-purpose flour to be used. --That is the same as plain flour, which I had a bag of (brand: PrimaFlour) in my fridge. Not knowing whether PrimaFlour's plain flour was bleached or unbleached, I decided to give it a shot anyway. How bad could it turn out? ;)

Da Paolo Gastronomia: Shepherd's Pie

This may look like a potato top hat, but it is not - it is shepherd's pie from Da Paolo. My family knows Da Paolo for its cakes, but we have never tried the savouries stacked near the cakes. Reminiscing the shepherd's pie my mother used to make when I was a child, I bought one from Da Paolo Gastronomia to try. 

Homecooked dinner: Sambal okra, meatballs

Okra with my mother's blend of chilli, garlic and shallots

Dinner at Tung Lok Classics

One of my uncles lives in New York and flies to Singapore once every few months on business. Every time he visits, we make an effort to have at least one dinner with him to catch up. On his most recent visit, my father wanted to treat him to suckling pig at Tung Lok Classics at Orchard Parade Hotel.

Semi-homecooked dinner: Chicken feet, bittergourd

Bought: Chicken feet

LÄRABAR: Carrot Cake and Banana Bread

Carrot Cake (Top) and Banana Bread (Bottom)

Have you heard of Lärabars? Lärabars were actually created by a person called Lara in 2000. According to Lärabar's website, they had considered many names for the bars, but everyone kept asking for "Lara's Bars". It was only in April 2003 that the first batch of Lärabars were available for sale. And one year later, by April 2004, a million bars had been sold.

Semi-homecooked dinner: Roast chicken, cauli-broc-carrot-peppers stirfry

Roast chicken

Poh Cheu

On our way to the Alexandra Village Food Centre carpark, we spootted a long queue snaking out of a coffeeshop. I peered to try and see what the people were queueing for, and from a distance saw the words "Poh Cheu" with pictures of soon kueh. As I rarely eat kueh, I had never heard of Poh Cheu. But my mother seemed to know of Poh Cheu's reputation, so that after she had her lunch at the Food Centre she asked that we walk to Poh Cheu.

Artisana Coconut Butter

When it comes to coconut products for consumption, the product that has received the most praise (to my knowledge) is Artisana's Raw 100% Organic Coconut Butter. You might be scratching your head at this point - is there a difference between coconut butter and coconut oil?

100% wholemeal cinnamon swirl

It was Cedele that first introduced my family to cinnamon swirl bread. Before Cedele, we had had our favourite sticky buns from a bakery next to Cold Storage Jelita, and cinnamon raisin buns from Delifrance, but never swirly cinnamon in breakfast-type bread. My mother enjoyed Cedele's cinnamon swirl a lot, but rarely bought it because of her preference for wholemeal over white flour.

Semi-homecooked dinner: Ayam penyet, cauliflower, chicken curry

Bought: Ayam penyet

Ala-carte dinner at Tung Lok Seafood

When I was younger, we used to eat crab about once every four months at either Long Beach or Jumbo. But as I grew older and understood the value of money, I felt that crab was too expensive and persuaded my parents that I did not want to eat it. Our crab feasts tapered down to once or twice a year, and when I lived abroad, none at all.

Phati Thai Food

It was due to a box of mango salad from Phati Thai that my uncle and aunt bought for us, that my mother and I travelled to Alexandra Village Food Centre to try more of their dishes. That day, as my mother wanted the claypot laksa for lunch, we agreed to take away the Thai food for dinner.

Homecooked dinner: Chicken, cabbage and tomatoes

Half a chicken in garlic and soya sauce mixed with oyster sauce

Search Engine Questions #1

 

Some people may not realise, but Blogger allows me to see the top search keywords that people used to get to my blog. Some people type in questions, and some questions are actually good ones that are worth discussing. So here goes...

Beng Hiang I

Beng Hiang is a 34-year old Hokkien restaurant situated in Amoy Street that is probably known to all Chinese Singaporeans, and definitely all taxi drivers. Since I was a child, my family has been visiting Beng Hiang about once every four months for its authentic, homecooked tasting Hokkien food.

Root vegetable chips (Trader Joe's)

Today, I reveal one of my secret weaknesses: root vegetable chips. Think plain potato chips going crunchchity-crunch in your mouth, with that filling blend of starch and saltiness. You know what? Root veggie chips offer so much more in taste.