More soon..

I ate here.

I’m taking forever to finish half written posts.

So look out for-

1. Hana’s 1st month updates

2. More cloth diapering updates

3. My latest kitchen gadget..

Just to let you know, I’m still here

Photo from here

 

Whenever H and I troop down to Sunlik, usually for my stash of Valrhona (by the way what was I thinking, buying a 1 kg block of Guanaja 5 days before my due date, I’m not sure how my pregnant mind thinks), we pop by Raffles Hotel which is just across the road and walk thru their gardens and shopping arcade. Its such a relaxing place in the heart of the city. I love the traveller’s palms and ornate garden furniture. We always drop by the Raffles Creamery for my ice cream and his cappuccino which is as reasonably priced as any cafe in town. We’re usually the only ones there and we enjoy the solitude and quiet while feeling a little worried that the creamery might close due to it being underpatronized. Other items I picked up at Sunlik was feuilletine flakes for a simple chocolate tart as I still have some sweet almond pastry in my freezer which I feel I have to use up or its fate would be to remain in the depths of my freezer forever. I’m thinking of a simplified tart based on this recipe.

 

I picked up some Cajun spice mix, it looked quite pretty. Probably make some spicy wings. Bought some Valrhona cocoa nibs, no ideas for that one yet. As you can see I’m on an unhealthy junkie roll.

Eating out

H and I have generally come to a consensus that Arabic food in Singapore is pretty much awful unless you are willing to pay thru your nose for meagre portions of meat at a high end restaurant usually with a huge and colourful bar, blasting Arabic music and a fat belly dancer. Having said that, there are places which we do go to and quite enjoy though they have received mixed reviews from food bloggers.

Having had to increase my meat intake due to iron issues and anemia in pregnancy, we’ve been having more than our usual dose of kebabs lately. I am completely intolerant to chilli right now due to heartburn and a growing belly so spicy Malay meat dishes are ruled out. Its been kebab, kebab and more kebab eating out, much to H’s carnivorous delight.

Our usual haunts are:

Anatolia Turkish Restaurant

-I actually secretly go for the kanafeh, rather that the meat, a sweet shredded phyllo pastry filled with stretchy turkish white cheese and drenched in syrup. I usually ask for the syrup to be served separately and get a huge bowl of it served on the side. The chef tends to be a little generous. I asked for some tomato sauce and yogurt to go with my kebab once and got two huge soup bowls of each sauce. If you don’t ask for the syrup to be served separately, its really drenched with syrup, it is literally swimming in it and is really really sweet.

Photo from a greek food website

-The service has improved over the years. We didn’t go for a long time as we were really disappointed with the slow service and cold food. But things have changed recently and service is prompt, the food is good and the portions fair for the price paid

-I discovered that they started selling Turkish cheese in the small display counter by the cashier. Haloumi is so much cheaper than at Cold Storage and they sell Turkish white cheese which I’ve not seen sold elsewhere in Singapore. The cheese is sold in 250g-1kg packages and all have turkish words on them. Ask the manager and he’ll recommend their best sellers, which I still have not figured out the names, he describes them as mild, a little stronger and similar vague words. You’ll find it helpful to ask him, which cheese goes on the pide, and which is in the kanafeh, to get a rough idea how the cheese tastes. They only accept cash for the cheese and use a separate invoice from the main restaurant’s so be prepared. We didn’t have enough to pay for the stash we bought, so the manager actually let us take the cheese without paying at all asking us to return when we had the cash. We came back a week later to pay.

Kebab Station

-we usually go to the Parkway branch so I can’t comment on the one at East Coast Park which is the main branch. You can check out this review

-At Parkway, they have a makeshift kiosk which is open air so would be hot in the midafternoon

-I love this dish called the “gravy potato” which is slices of kebab drenched in toamto sauce served with mashed potatoes covered with cheese on a hot plate. Its always well done by the same chef, this young turkish guy who seems to run a one man show in the tiny open kitchen.  You have to be prepared to wait for our order though. H always runs over to buy some fries from Macs to go with the meal. Fries isn’t on their menu if I remember correctly. Since we’re quite regular, they don’t seem to mind us eating something not bought from the kiosk (we’ve not been kicked out so far..).

 

The above food kiosk is currently closed ?due to surrounding construction works outside Parkway when I last passed by on 11/8/09

Shiraz

-this restaurant at Merchant’s court also owns two small kiosks in Merchant Court. One sells kebab and is just a couple of shops down and opposite the Hagen Daaz. The kebabs are good though a warning, do NOT order the spicy chicken kebab, it is so spicy, it kills the taste of the entire kebab.

-the down side is there’s no proper seating, its a place you grab the kebab and go. There are a few tall chairs and 3 small round tables in front of the kiosk but its almost always occupied. Though the kebabs are good and the portions generous, the location is not such a pleasant place in the evenings. They start selling only at 7 pm and as the night progresses, this place gets packed with pub crawlers and blasting music.

 

These are my random thoughts on places that we often visit and a reply to the question I’m always asked, where can we eat good Arabic food? Let me know your thoughts if you’ve tried any of the places.

Chocolate fix

I’ve been having terrible salty chocolate cravings. I need salt in my chocolate. I’ve been eating lots of these:

Bakerzin Sweet Pleasures: Layers of hazelnut praline dacquoise, Jivara milk chocolate ganache with fleur de sel, topped with chocolate mousse. There’s a super salty layer somewhere in there.

Beard Papa’s Chocolate Fondant: Valrhona chocolate molten chocolate cake on a biscuit base. And its salty!

And you know how much I love awfully chocolate’s ice cream

 

On a separate note, I think I’m addicted to Mt Sapola’s lemongrass range. Picked up a tube of lemongrass handcream and bought mom a whole hamper for her birthday.

backdated stuff

Giant beef pide my mom made and brought over for lunch. She’s the source of a lot of our meals lately as we’ve been busy, then sick, then tired in that order.

I promised Damien Pignolet’s recipe for roast chicken, but its really really long, so here’s an alternative tutorial

I didn’t have cooking twine and obviously not an expert at trussing chicken as can be told from the bird above. I dug into my craft box, I can’t remember the last time I did any craft, and pulled this out.

The mess in my tiny kitchen post roast chicken.

No roasting tray so I used a rack suspended above a baking tray. My oven was in a mess though with lots of splaterring and spluttering

Remember that Sherry Yard chocolate pudding cake?

This is how it looked like inside. Leave me a comment if you’re dying for the recipe and I’ll try to slowly type it out. Its 3 pages long! And I can’t seem to find it anywhere on the net.. The cake itself is nothing special, it was a little dry to me. The pudding filling was quite delicious and a nice change from the usual ganache or butercream frosting.

About potatoes and salad

One of my favourite shows on the Asian Food Channel is Chef at Home. Besides that, I’m totally addicted to the River Cottage series.  Chef Micheal Smith gives lots of recipe ideas and infinite possibilities of twists and variations to a recipe. He recently made a potato salad with smoked salmon and talked about how you can make variations of a potato salad by using different potatoes, different dressings, different herbs and different add ons to a salad.

I had a really good potato salad recently and I was intrigued at the combination of potatoes in the salad. It had waxy local potatoes, red skinned potatoes and Russet. There was a combination of textures, creamy from the russet, whole and starchy waxy potatoes and the red potato was slightly crunchy.Last weekend it was my turn to cook for the family so I kept it simple with tenderloin steaks, steamed corn and a potato salad.

For this variation, I stuck to the classic combination of eggs and potato, using russet and waxy potatoes. I added finely diced celery for crunch and green onion for some bite. In the dressing, I used a combination of sour cream and mayonaise in equal proportions with freshly grated black pepper and salt. To make your salad extra tasty, here are some tips:

-season at every stage, season your water well while boiling the potatoes and season the dressing, then season the final salad if need be

-beat the eggs with the dressing first to dissolve the yolk in the dressing and gives it a richness from the yolks rather than chunks of yolk in the salad

-dress the salad while the potatoes are still hot, this causes it to absorb the dressing better

-potatoes are really tasty with their skins on, but this depends on the potato. Red skinned potatoes are fine, the “washed” potatoes from Cold storage are good with the skins on too. I tend to peel my Russets as they have a thicker skin.

-cut the potatoes in large chunks, larger than you’ll like them because they break up slightly during the dressing process

-think texture in your salad, different textures from different potatoes, the slight crunch of shallots or celery, the springiness of the egg whites, the creaminess of the yolks

You can find a basic recipe in a post I wrote last year and make it your way, potato salad is very very forgiving.

Preweekend on my balcony

Yes, we do! Erm, a predinner snack just in time to catch the sunset on the balcony. Truffle chocolate cake from cedele, a bakery I always enter and wish so hard I have more time to spend in the kitchen baking! Its so inspiring, I just feel like whipping up scones and almond slices each time I step in. I love their almond sugee slice, buttery almond goodness on a tart base that’s to die for. The Frankel Avenue branch is a little secret I share with my mom, we sneak off for a cup of coffee whenever I have an afternoon off. Its along a row of shophouses and mostly filled with stay at home moms and their girlfriends in the late afternoon. Its a little disppointing they close at 6pm.

The one thing I can’t get used to is the noise of traffic. I found it so stressful initially and really enjoyed going back to our parents and the in laws for some respite. But I’ve kind of gotten used to it, and the later it gets the louder the sound of the insects from the field in front and thankfully the traffic slowly diminishes..

Thanks Alia for dips which were wiped out pretty quickly with doritos. Now someone should bring this in to Singapore.

 

This weekend will be spent having the last official house party. The next event planned in the house would be Mel’s Hen’s PArty, I can’t wait!

Tartare sauce

Tonight I have a completely unrelated photo for this recipe. If smothering babies was an art form, H has it down pat.

For dinner tonight we had fries. Yup, fries. Initially we thought of skipping dinner having had a chocolate tart each from my favourite chocolate cafe. (Its Friday, we deserve a treat right..) But, I had this sudden urge for some homemade handcut fries with tartare sauce that I think I’ve almost perfected. Its loose and chunky and not something you can get from a jar. For the faint hearted, if eating greasy fries with himalayan salt sprinkled on with creamy tartare sauce and Thai chilli sauce at 10pm isn’t your thing, stop reading.

Now you all know that sour cream in anything makes it taste better, scones, cakes and yummy dips. I had no sour cream but a tub of greek yogurt. Mixed with a little mayonaise, some chopped capers for sourness, diced shallots and a sprinkling of dried dill (this isn’t classic), I made a moreish sauce which regretfully made H and I fight over the chips. I promis I’ll get my routine in the kitchen figured out and start actually taking pictures soon!

 

Here’s the rough recipe

Tartare sauce, my way.

2 tablespoons yogurt

2 tablespoons mayonaise

1 small shallot, diced

1 heaped teaspoon capers, diced (mine was Carrefour’s house brand)

A good sprinkling of fresh or dried dill

 

Mix all together and serve immediately or leave to sit in the fridge for the flavours to develop. Keeps for 5 to 7 days covered tightly in the fridge.

 

For those wanting a getaway in your mind, check this out

Nectarie

Things have been busy with 3 calls, 3 weddings and lots of cooking this week till the new year. I just want to say a huge thank you for all the little thoughtful gifts I’ve received. Sheerin, thanks for the sweets from India, you know the way to my heart. Mel, thank you for the Indonesian coffee and my staple: teh prendjak! I can’t live without it. Quizas for the thoughtful Christmas card and always making me feel that we’re close though we always struggle to find a time to meet! Its hard we both have crazy schedules. Mama, for good stuff from Saudi Arabia: olives, feta, dates, figs, pistachios, you’re the best! I know you struggled to hand carry the load on the plane! Mama (mom in law) for the loot from Vietnam: rice paper, vietnamese coffee, custard apples, the coasters, the kitchen accessories, the scarves, the silk.. Thank you for everything! With all the nights I’ve been working, days are merging into each other and I feel like I’ve been working continuously for days. I feel that Sturday night with H and Mel at Marrakesh for moroccan food and Nectarie for coffee and dessert and loads of people watching was just yesterday.

Photo and text from hungrygowhere.com: …

“..Caramelized bananas with chocolate (S$7.50) here is good. In fact, it ranked among the top 50 cakes by Sunday Times. Undoubtedly the best cake Nectarie has to offer, the banana and white chocolate mousse was velvety and rich. But that wasn’t the best part, eaten together with the crunchy base, the taste was divine. And all of us unanimously agreed it was the star.”

Its a good thing I passed over all my pita during dinner for H to finish. That left me lots of room for dessert. The caramelized bananas in the mousse layer of the cake was a local banana so it held its shape beautifully and were really banana-y in flavor. I found the scribbling on the plate a little strange because it didn’t taste raspberry coulis but more like a waterred down strawberry jam.. For drinks, please have the tea that Mel had, peony jade tea which was served in a beautiful press with white tea leaves and peony flowers floating at the botom. Sugarless and hot, it went perfectly with the sweet cakes and the cool night air. Next Saturday night Mel?

Bollywood veggies part 2

I’ve sorted out more photos, I think there’ll still be a part 3 though.. Here is a little booklet about the Kranji countryside. Did you know there’s an eco farm resort in the area? With the rain, we didn’t get to explore much but its definitely mentally bookmarked.

 Spiky unknown fruit.

Banana flower in the cafe

Figs on the tree

And hanging off the trunk

It ended up in the fig tea I had. Home brewed and fruity

H and his cappucino

Pitcher plant and pandan bushes to take home.

Droplets everywhere

More droplets of rain

Don’t u feel lucky you live in the tropics?