Birthday Breakfast For Shawn

We had a fabulous Saturday morning. We celebrated Shawn's b'day over breakfast at Canopy with our lovely cousins, nephew and dog. :D

Our two babies, Koka & Jarius were in such great mood. :)

Following our strong recommendation, everyone had egg benedicts with Hollandaise sauce. :)))

Jarius had his own special menu. ;)

Thank God for the perfect weather. The morning was so relaxing. :)

Koka enjoyed taking pics with all her loved ones... ;)

while Jarius enjoyed viewing all the pics we took. :)))

What a better day to try chilled Mandarin sorbet? :)

Shawn loves rasins. So this apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and rasins work well for him! :)

Here's wishing Shawny boy a blessed birthday. :) We will have another celebration this coming Fri with Yahui. ^.^

Details of Canopy@Aramsa:
1382 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1
Bishan Park 2
T: +65 6556 1533

Wendy Turns XX! Happy Happy Birthday!

It was an eventful Fri! :D We headed straight to Wendy's b'day celebration after our kimchi making lesson. We went home only to pick Koka up. :) Lin & I finally found a zu chao (zi char) place that not only serves great food but is extremely dog friendly. ;) It's very difficult to find such a place in Singapore. And so, the guests list was as follow:
1) Wendy - b'day girl
2) Angie
3) Tina
4) Pauline
5) Lin
6) Myself
7) Koka :D




























The service was impeccable. Even the usual difficult custy like Angie seemed pretty pleased! lol...

Wendy was given complimentary noodles as it was her b'day. We expected a small bowl and were pleasantly surprised by the huge serving! :D

The cabbage with garlic was plain looking but good. :)

I'm not a fan of pork ribs but these champagne pork ribs were irresistable! ^.^ They were so tender and flavourful! I can't remember how many I had. Per Wendy's request, our pork ribs came without the ribs. :D

The name Volcano Tofu caught our attention. We just gotta try it. The volacno crater was made of tofu, minced prawns and waterchestnuts for extra crunch! Yum! :D

Angie gave Koka a high chair mid way through dinner. :))) She's a professional baby sitter. ;)

Next's up was crab with salted eggs. Tasty. :)

Black pepper crab... :)

and chilli crab... :)

What's chilli crab without our all time fav, deep fried mantous? :D Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. We had to order a second helping. ;) Bye bye diet. :D

The prawns done in "French" style was yum. No id how French this is? :))) The prawns were fried and drizzled with custard sauce. They gave it a swanky name but fortunately this "French" dish did not come with a swanky price tag. :D

Angie loves rice so we order fried rice. Only to realize she likes plain rice??? :))) She's an ultimate fussy eater.

The fried rice was in Pauline's words "tasted like claypot rice". Nice!

I thought the figurine was carrying a teddy. But Pauline said Chinese figurines do not carry teddies and "chided" me for my once again, creative imagination??? Hahahaha :)))

Wendy, Angie & Koka love durian. Hence we ordered deep fried durians. :) It's similiar to goreng pisang except it's not bananas.

Angie got Wendy a chocolate b'day cake from Awfully Chocolate, marking the end of our dinner on an ultra sweet note. Happy Birthday Wendy! :D

Details of Moonstone Seafood:

Moonstone Coffee House

41 Opal Crescent

Tel: +65 9030 3383/ 6295 2838

The Art of Kimchi Making

We like kimchi! :) It's great on its own, it's great with rice, noodle, soup, pancakes and the list goes on. Lin, Yvonne & I went for kimchi making lesson on Friday at the Korean Tourism Office. We were pleased that they actually teach you to make kimchi from scratch! And more thrilled when we got to bring it home! All these for FREE! ^.^

Pardon for the so so pics as I was trying to multi-task...listening to the teacher for what to dos, tips, and capturing her in action etc etc least we suffer memory lapse when we get home. Then while I was driving home, it daunted on me that our camera has video recording function??? *_*

Ingredients:

1.5-2kg of cabbage (choose the greener ones as they are sweeter) - Cut into quarters
1 white radish (choose the whiter ones) - Sliced into strips
Spring onions - Sliced into 3cm in length
5g of chopped ginger
40g of chopped garlic
15 red chilli
Coarse salt
Water
Glutinuous rice flour
Thai fish sauce
Sugar
200g of Korean chilli powder

Method

Step 1

• Split the cabbages in quarters. Start cutting with a knife at the root of the cabbage to its midpoint, then use your hands to split the remaining portion. This will prevent making little pieces of cabbages. 

Step 2

• Place cabbages face up in a basin.
• Sprinkle coarse salt evenly between all the cabbage leaves, layer by layer. Do not rub the salt. Add about 1 cup of water. Let the cabbage soak for about 4 hours, turning it every hour. Alternate the positions of the cabbages for even marination.

Step 3

• Rinse the saltier cabbage at least twice and let it drain, face down, for about 1-2 hours. It is important not to salt the cabbage too much. The leaves should remain slightly crisp. If the process is overdone, the spicy seasoning will not be fully absorbed.

Step 4

• Add 1 cup of water to a pan. Add 1 full tablespoon of glutinous rice flour. Cook till it becomes gluey. Side aside to cool. 

Step 5

• Blend chilli, garlic, ginger & Thai fish sauce
• Add the blended puree into the gluey paste (if it's too sticky, add water)
• Add sugar
• Add chilli powder
• Add radish & spring onions. Mixed well in a circular motion
• Taste the seasoning with a small piece of cabbage. Adjust the above till it suits your palatte

• Coat each cabbage leaf with appropriate amount of filling, making sure it gets to the core and between each leaf 

Step 6

• Wrap the cabbage
• Place a coated cabbage on your hand, with the inner portion facing upwards
• Leave the last leaf on the side
• Flip the rest of the leaves backwards, covering slightly more than half of the cabbage
• Use the last leaf to wrap the flipped cabbage
• Compress the wrapped cabbage

• Place the wrapped cabbage in a box
• Cleaning up process... : I Use the left over cabbage to clean the basin. Place the coated left over cabbage into the box
• Add a little water to rinse the basin
• Pour the liquid into the box
• Let it ferment for 1 day before refrigirating. And there you have it, your very own homemade kimchis! :D

The kimchis can be kept for up to 3 months.

Tips for storing kimchis:

• Use a tall container with narrow opening
• Do not open the container too often
• If you cannot finish the portion, keep it in a seperate container and not the main container as you do not want to contaminate the fresh ones.

Have fun making your own kimchis! ;)

Sunday Lunch

We had lunch at Serangoon Garden Food Centre after church. :) Here's a peep at our spread. ;)

Starter: Black carrot cake.

Somehow Lin and I like to have black fried carrot cake in the day, and the white version at night. :))) We like this particular stall that sells fried oyster & fried carrot cake. They serve carrot cakes in tiny stripes with eggs & lots of preserved radish.

Main: Kway chap, braised meat, tofu & eggs.

This is from the famous Balanco Court kway chap stall. :) Their kway chap is yummily smooth. :D

The braised meat's tender & well marinated.For health & weight reasons, Beanie, Lin & I removed the fatty parts. Lol. :))) Mom's the only one who ate the fatty bits. :O

We love braised eggs! :D Don't they look good? ;)

Dessert: Ice longan (it was such a hot day, we consumed it before I could take any pic)

Details of Hock Kee Fried Oyster (which also sells fried carrot cake):
Stall 19
Details of Garden Street Kway Chap:
Stall 21
Serangoon Garden Food Centre
49A Serangoon Garden Way

An Early Mother's Day Celebration Dinner

We had an early Mother's Day dinner last evening, at the Canopy. :) This is a fab place cos it allows Mom to celebrate this special day with her 3 daughters (i.e. Lin, myself & Koka) lol...:)))

Koka was irritated with the 'rocking' chair (due to the uneven floor). She was restless & refused to sit on her own. We tried changing seats with her, but it didn't seem to cease her fear of falling off. At the end of 15 -20 mins, Mom's lap offered her great comfort & security. She couldn't wait to dig in! :D

Beanie's breaded chicken thigh with cheese was done to perfection. Crispy on the outside, tender & cheesy on the inside. ;)

The grilled steak with black pepper sauce is tender. Yum! :)

I don't really like the crab meat aglio olio though. It's kind of fishy...Prawn aglio olio might have been much better...

The tiramisu & chocolate profiteroles were surprisingly good. Fortunately we shared. Otherwise Lin will make me swim 50 laps with her on Mon! :O



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 








Details of Canopy:
1382 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1
Bishan Park 2
T: +65 6556 1533

Au Bon Accueil

I am for French cuisine...I feel like doing lunch at Au Bon Accueil...:) Besides having a clear Eiffel Tower view, the food's fabulous! :D

Lin and I like to start our meal with soupe. :) It warms our tummies.

Fish fingers served in a fine manner. ;)



















We didn't take much bread as we always have difficulty finishing the mains. : I
I like how our bread was served in a rustic basket. :)

The beef was deliciously tender. *.* It was better than Corrigan's.

We like the ambience of the restuarant. It's small but extremely cosy. The service was top notch and Lin's apprehension from our inability to speak the language was put to rest. She had a great 1st impression! Hahahaha... :D

The fish's tasty too. :)

Lin makes a fabulous travel companion. She's a planner, she picks up after me and she halves my guilt by sharing food & desserts that are too tempting. We love chocolate molten cake... :D

But the Au Bon Accueil's signature citrus terrine with passion-fruit sorbet won us over! It's so refreshing. We wanna have it again! Please, please, please... ^.^

Details of Au Bon Accueil:
14 rue de Monttessuy
75007 Paris
T: 01 47 05 46 11
W: http://www.aubonaccueilparis.com