One of the special days that we did extensive search for some nice food in the heartland of Bedok.  This was a place which my partner and I grew up in many years back.

1st stop after visiting parents: Bedok Mall!  It's a large mall which integrated the entrance to Bedok MRT station, the new bus terminal and also a shopping mall which sits above it all.  Being a short building, it's developed downwards, ie, more basements than above ground level storeys.

We stopped by Fruit Paradise as it was a little earlier before dinner, but by then, we were already hungry.  Hence, we ordered a slice of cake each, with an interesting tea called the Lemon Mint.

Lemon Mint Tea by the pot.

Caramel Nutty Tart by the slice.

Mango Strawberry Tart by the slice.

The store is quite comfortably furnished with a few patrons already there.  Cakes already look so delicious with the display models (no touching) right at the entrance.

After a short fuel up at this store, we moved around the place to explore, before heading off to the town near by the town centre.

A Service 227W brought us there after a short ride, which was less than 1/2 hour.  There are 2 routes for this: W and G, which routes different parts around the nearby town.  W dropped us behind the famous food centre, which was also a familiar place as I used to walk to nearby to catch a bus to secondary school.

Passing the row of shophouses brought us into the recently renovated (probably a few years) hawker centre and we got a seat pretty near the famous western food stall!  Orders were taken after a short wait as the lady boss was dispatching orders to her helper.  After about 15mins wait, our tasty chickens are here!

Chicken Cutlet from Jet Winds Western Food.

Chicken Chop from Jet Winds Western Food.

While ordering this, we also ordered a pig kidney vermicelli from Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup.  It has the local unchanged, traditional taste which we can't find in many food stalls in modern times of Singapore like this.

Pig Kidney Vermincelli from Seng Kee Black Chieken Herbal Soup.

Finished off the food trip with fresh juices from a fruit stall nearby.  While on the way to the bus stop home, we saw this fluffy cat which has a very long tail; it's given food by a very nice old lady:

Big fluffy cat!

Stay tuned for the next update!

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22:00

Another dinner made tonight!

I decided to do a variation from the traditional bolongese, which uses only 1 type of meat.  For this receipe, I combined chicken and pork.

Spaghetti Bolongese of chicken and pork

Below is the recipe:

Ingredients (serves 2, you may change quantity based on preference):

• Minced Chicken 75g
• Minced Pork 75g
• Spaghetti 200g
• Large Tomato x 1
• Garlic x 6 cloves
• Shallots (small) x 3 
• Tomato Puree x 3 spatula scoops (about 1/2 cup)
• English Parsley x 2 stalks

Preparation:
Pasta
Add 1 scoop of corn starch (1/2 tablespoon), salt (1/2 teaspoon) and oil (1 teaspoon) into water and boil  Cook pasta's duration as per instructions indicated in packaging.  Usually 8 - 10mins is fine; do the "cook-test" after about 8mins.   You won't want to overcook them else they'll turn soggy.  Once cooked, drain al-dente, dress with a little olive oil, mix well and set aside.

Bolongese
Slice garlic and onions - not too fine else you'll barely taste them.  Mix chicken and pork together, season with salt and pepper.  Add a portion of sliced garlic and onions into the meat, set aside.

Cooking instructions:
Sauce
Dice tomatoes, set aside.  Lightly fry the remaining garlic and onion slices and pour in diced tomatoes.  Simmer on low heat for about 5mins till they turn soft, add in tomato puree and stir well.  A pinch of salt will do for this round.

After the tomato dices have turned gooey and soft in the wok, add in seasoned meat, quickly breaking them into small pieces so that they'll blend in with the sauce.  Remember, do not use high heat as this will make the meat too hard without absorbing the sauce.  Keep stirring for about 10mins.   Add a little water if the sauce is turning too dry.


Lay pasta on serving plate, dress it with sauce, add some parsley, serve.

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12:59

Good baking evening everyone!

Having baked salmon to tenderness successfully, I decided to do a variation with additional flavors.  Check out the recipe below:

Baked Salmon with diced potatoes, dressed with grated cheese.

Below is the recipe:

Ingredients (serves 2, you may change quantity based on preference):

• Salmon 200g
• 1 Large or 2 Medium sized potatoes (I used 1 large in this instance)
• Cheese, grated 50g (I measure by using 2 grasps)
• Garlic x 6 cloves
• Shallots (small) x 3 
• Salt & Black Pepper (1/2 - 1 teaspoon each) 
• Butter or Margarine

Preparation:
Salmon
Rub salt and pepper all over the salmon, set aside.  For cut, I would recommend to choose a slab, but avoid taking too thick a slice as those can be quite boney.

Potato(es)
Skin off, dice to about 8 sections each.  Season with butter or margarine, and pepper by stirring them evenly into the diced potatoes.  Do not add salt else potatoes will turn watery.

Seasoning
Slice garlic and onions.  Cut them into small, but not too fine pieces.

Cooking instructions:
Preheat oven to 175degrees Celsius.  Lay salmon into small casserole.  Spread garlic & onion onto salmon.  Round it with seasoned potatoes. 

Cover the top of the casserole with tin foil.   Make holes evenly on this for ventilation purpose.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Serve, dress with grated cheese.

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Unknown

13:19

This dinner is a little different as it is a mixture of Asian and Western cuisine.  As there are requests to know how these are made, I will be listing out the steps here:

Penne in tomato base with grated cheese
Boil the penne in water tuned with salt and corn starch - this will make the pasta smoother to the taste.
For the sauce, you may use ready made Prego tomato based sauce and add ingredients such as celery in for the crunch, or the regular minced meat.  I chose diced carrots.  100ml of sauce for each serving and a little water can be added if a less thick flavor is desired.   I usually make this at the end of everything so we still have piping hot sauce fot the pasta.

 






Mushroom cream sauce
Heavy cream with alfredo sauce for base.  To add fragrance to the taste, you can add a little Parmesan cheese into it and cook it under low flame.  
Toss in the sliced mushrooms and cook for about 5mins.

Iceberg cabbage in oyster sauce topped with raw garlic
Slice the iceberg cabbage - you may want to consider using 1 whole cabbage as they are generally smaller than regular cabbage and water contents evaporate when cooked, resulting in smaller quantity.   
Fry garlic slices till fragrant before tossing in the vege.  Stir till they are half cooked and put in oyster sauce (1 blob and mix with equivalent amount of water as they are very concentrated).  
Stir till the vege becomes soft.  Sprinkle raw garlic slices when served.

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Unknown

22:02

This is the 2nd attempt of making this brunch on a Sunday.  Ingredients are pretty much the same, but an incorrect portion of the chicken was selected, so the meat portion wasn't that tasty.

Curry powder, diced potatoes, carrots go in first with curry powder.  Add tamarind sauce (these are usually packed and contents is gooey) and boil for about 10mins.
Add the chicken, to be boiled for about 30mins, before adding spices (cloves, cinnamon and anistars) as we don't want to spices to be overpowering the whole dish.

Serve when the chicken is tender.

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21:44

A late morning hence we decided to do a brunch today.

Part 1

American style breakfast; pancakes, sausages, nuggets and scrambled eggs.

Ingredients:

Eggs

Sausages

Pancake Mix

Nuggets

Pan fry the nuggets and sausages in light oil till they are dark.   To prevent burning, toss them over periodically and ensure medium frame is used.

For pancakes, follow instructions on the pack and use a saucepan which helps to mould the shape.   Not much oil is needed.

Eggs may be tasted with light soy sauce - mix in before cooking.  Oil can be light on pan.

So here we are; the completed meal.

Part 2 of brunch -

I had additional dishes for this meal.  Not to much preparation as these are relatively easy dishes:

Stir fried mushrooms

Lightly oil pan and toss in mushrooms.   Garlic may be added to enhance fragrance.   Stir till mushrooms darken and turns a little golden.

Potato wedges with garlic

This dish is relatively easy.  Skin potatoes and cut them into big wedges.  Salt may be added to season or taste when served.

Chop garlic finely.  Stir fry them till it turns fragrant.  Add potatoes, stir till they turn semi-transparent.  To make it a little sticky, corn starch with water may be added as a wet base to this dish.

French beans with garlic

Remove the ends of french beans, chop into halfs or thirds as desired.  Stir fry chopped garlic till fragrant and toss in the french beans.  Cook till it becomes soft and darkened green.

So here's the compendium for the completed meal!

Completed meal compendium!

 

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22:11

A busy week is finally over and we decided to dine at this place since it was an easier way to get home via public transport in this manner.

The restaurant was nicely tucked in the upper level of White Sands.  We've not been here for a long time but there were considerable changes going on; 1/2 of the mall was under revamping; surroundings still as usually packed with NSFs who booked out for the weekend from the nearby military training island.

We decided it was ramen day, so we ordered 2 ramens; kimchi ramen and curry katsuju.  For some reasons, Sakae Sushi has been escalating their pricing over the past few years.

I love the thickness of the gravy for the katsuju, but being noodles, the fried pork were not mixed with the sauce, hence the heavier oily taste.

Noodles were served in considerable time and the quality of food is still well cooked. 

The chawanmushi took longer than expected as they were stocked out when we placed our order; we were about to leave and the service crew told us it would be ready in 5 minutes, hence we decided to hold on to that order.

It's still good, and well piping hot when served.  Nothing disappointing:

 

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Unknown

21:00