Salmon panfried in...

Guess what animal's fat I panfried these gorgeous pieces of salmon in?

.....duck fat!

Homecooked dinner: Wombok meatball soup, bittergourd

Soup flavoured entirely from wombok
and ground pork meatballs (with egg binding)

Tiong Bahru Pau

Compared to my history with Teck Kee Tanglin Pau, I had only discovered the wondrousness of Tiong Bahru Pau about two years ago. We had been visiting Tiong Bahru Food Centre for its pig stomach soup, chwee kueh, oyster omelette, nonya dumplings, desserts and so on, and one day my mother decided to take-away some char siew pau from Tiong Bahru Pau to snack on the next day.

Teck Kee Tanglin Pau

Teck Kee Tanglin Pau is one of the old school char siew pau shops that has been around for ages... well "since 1948". I have many nostalgic memories about it, about stopping by the roadside in Serangoon after visiting my grandmother to buy some char siew pau, char siew sou and char siew buns (yes back then they had char siew buns that tasted gorgeous fresh out of the oven!). Just the image of the fat man holding a pau above sends a wave of nostalgia over me. It is the reason I wanted to write about Teck Kee's paus.

Teck Kee Tanglin Pau vs Tiong Bahru Pau

Can you guess which is which?

Semi-homecooked dinner: Poh piah filling and rotisserie chicken

Well... not the poh piah filling, but turnip and carrots steamed poh-piah-filling style with some ground pork. We had been eating leafy greens almost everyday, and mom wanted a change.

Weekend baking: Mini 100% wholemeal loaf

I used the same Peter Reinhart's whole wheat sandwich bread receipe to do this mini loaf, halving the prescribed ingredients and using precisely half the amounts in weight. The top of the loaf browned nicely even though I did not use any washes.

Cocoa-nut Dinosaur / Godzilla

You may have drank milo dinosaur or milo godzilla, but have you tried cocoa-nut dinosaur / godzilla?

iherb.com - Get $10 off your first order

Just wanted to do a quick shoutout that iHerb, the U.S. supplement website I order from that has great prices and reliable international shipping, is allowing for US$10 off orders more than US$30, if you are a first-time customer and use the coupon code XOJ002. iHerb usually gives only US$5 off, so this is a good time to offset the costs of shipping plus get a discount on your order.

Homecooked dinner: Salted vegetable duck soup, eggs, cabbage

Salted vegetable duck soup

Dinner at Garuda Padang

This is a review that I have put off writing for many weeks, and that I have been on the fence with regards to its publishing. The reasons... will become apparent below. 

One Sunday, my family was craving Indonesian food and we wanted to give ourselves a little treat. Instead of going to our usual Tambuah Mas or Grandma's Restaurant, we decided to try the Garuda Padang at Far East Square.

100% Wholemeal Rosemary Focaccia

After a long week at work, I was eager to do some baking - my new stress relieving activity. So far I had baked just ordinary wholemeal sandwich loaves and wholemeal cinnamon swirl bread for mom. I wanted to try some other kind of western bread. After leafing through Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, I settled on giving his whole wheat focaccia receipe a shot.

Semi-homecooked lunch: Pig intestines, bok choy

Pig intestines mom bought for me

Da Paolo Gastronomia: Black Forest Cake

Why is Black Forest Cake called Black Forest Cake? I had always wondered this. The cake is more brown from the chocolate shavings and there certainly is not a forest on top of the cake, unless you are supposed to imagine the cherries and chocolate shavings as a forest. Hmmm.... still does not make sense.

Homecooked dinner: Seabass, kai lan, ground pork

Steamed seabass with fried garlic and ginger,
and drizzled with oil and light soya sauce

Old Punggol Satay

Pictures with celebrities hanging below their signboard

Chicken satay is one of my all-time favourite foods, something that I could eat once a week every week and never get sick of it. Who does not like BBQ'd meat on a stick? The problem was that besides Indonesian restaurants like Tambuah Mas, I did not know where to find good cheap satay. Most hawker centres near my home did not sell satay. East Coast Lagoon Food Village and Chomp Chomp were too far. Newton Food Centre was the nearest, but that place is a rip-off.

So when my family and I discovered Alexandra Village Food Centre, especially Old Punggol Satay, I was ecstatic at the possibility of good satay nearby at a reasonable price.

Artisana Coconut Oil

Besides that jar of Artisana Coconut Butter that my cousin had brought back for me from New York, she had also brought a jar of Artisana Coconut Oil for me to try. For a few years I had been hearing praises from the Paleo and CrossFit community for Artisana's products, and naturally I was excited to try it out.