My little chef and my granddad

There are a few dishes that always remind me of my granddad. Baked beans with mince pork, Cantonese-styled pork and potato/carrot soup, and black-sauce pork. He used to be cook in a restaurant, and he would whip up the most delicious meal every Sunday as that's when everyone -- my uncles, aunts, cousins, and us -- would gather to catch up. Attendance was compulsory.

After I got married and moved out, I asked my mum how to make black-sauce pork. It is so easy; throw dark soya sauce and light soya sauce over the pork pieces together with some crushed garlic cloves and a few pieces of rock sugar. Every time I smell the wonderful aroma of the sauce cooking with the garlic, I would always, always think of my granddad. How he pottered around the kitchen, said hello to us, and retreated to his room when dinner was over. He was a man of few words.

Today, as I was preparing the ingredients (and thinking about my granddad again), my 6yo asked if he could help me prepare dinner. Sure, why not. I had decided to add carrots to the recipe because Kit LOVES carrots. So Kai peeled the carrot and, with my help, chopped the carrots. I showed him the ingredients and he poured the sauce in for me, threw in the crushed garlic, carrots, and the rock sugar, and stirred them around and around.

It was the best black-sauce pork we've ever had together. I don't what it was. Maybe because it was made with love. Maybe because it is now a recipe passed down through four generations. Suddenly, I miss my granddad. But because of this dish, now my son knows a little bit about his great granddad. How bitter sweet.

Would you like it braised or grilled?

Asians eat almost everything. We push the envelope of strange eats. Fish head? Fantastic; the cheek is the best part of the fish. Fish eyes? Yup, love suckin' the juice out of 'em. Chicken feet? Yum, great for making soup.

Waku Ghin's Tasmanian abalone with fregola and tomato

Do we even find anything strange anymore? Yup, throwing a fresh abalone on a grill. Now that's strangely different. For the uninitiated, an abalone is a type of sea snail. A delicacy in some parts of the world. Most of the time, we braise (canned) abalone or sometimes, we use them to cook porridge. But throwing a fresh abalone on a grill is most uncommon if not, almost unheard of. We didn't think it would even taste good, until we tried it at Waku Ghin in Marina Bay Sands.

We were just blown away by the taste and texture.

Terence's take on Waku Ghin's dish

And so Terence tried to replicate it at home on our BBQ. Our guests have never heard of grilling (or BBQ-ing) a fresh abalone, and they were pleasantly surprised that it tough or overly chewy. (Terence cooked chicken stock instead of a tomato-based stock that was used in Waku Ghin's dish.) The abalone wasn't all that expensive either; we bought ours at S$10 a piece.

So game for grilled fresh abalone anyone?

HFMD Day #5 Update

Kit hasn't had food for five days. He just didn't feel like eating. What will Day #6 bring?

Happy weekend everyone.

Muffin transforms: Bright side of the moon

Kai picked all the chocolate buttons off his chocolate/banana muffin and left this thing on his breakfast plate. It was a perfectly nice looking muffin when I bought it and after he was done, it looked like the craggy, pocked mark face of the moon. There was a lot of muffin left and it would be such a waste to throw it away! *sigh* I ate it for breakfast instead of the yummy cheese muffin, which is still sitting pretty and perfect in the fridge.

Osteria Italia

We just discovered a delightful Italian joint near our place tonight -- Osteria Italia. The food was unpretentious, which is what you'd expect in an osteria. The service was personable and prompt and the prices very reasonable. (An osteria is an Italian-style eating establishment where the emphasis is on maintaining a steady clientele than on haute cuisine.)

Thumbs up to its squid ink spaghetti (S$21).

And two thumbs up for its beef lasagna (S$21).

I haven't felt so relaxed for such a long time. Maybe because the two boys are growing up (or maybe it's the bottle of Prosecco, sparkling Italian white wine, that we ordered). Kai is so much fun to be with and Kit is now doing toddler things at 18mo. I put Kit to bed before we left for dinner, which gave us time to bond with Kai. Lovely....

Where:

Osteria Italia

201 Telok Kurau Road

+65 6346 3970

Opening hours: 11.20am - 2.30pm (Weekdays); 6pm - 10.30pm (Weekends)

Plan B

Kai was very excited about walking above the trees at the TreeTop walk (accessible from MacRitchie Resevoir) on Sunday. But right after we dusted off the MacPac Possum, I found that Kit was running a low grade fever, possibly having caught a cold from gor gor.

He was quite disappointed, and at the same time adament about visiting a 'treehouse'. Luckily Terence remembered he had fun at The Tanglin Tree, which features a wonderful playground right next to the cafe. It has a house on stilts, which satisfied Kai's desire of playing in a treehouse.

The food there was superb, and Kai was so absorbed in his play that we managed to sneak in a leisurely breakfast. The Mac and Cheese (S$26) isn't just any normal Mac and Cheese; it has a whole lobster in it, which makes it real good value for money.

The portions there are huge. My Egg Benedict (S$14) came on a bagel and a generous serving of spinach. Yum! The Tanglin Tree was definitely a perfect Plan B for us. But if you plan to go there on a weekend, you should go there early or make a reservation well ahead of time because it gets filled up mainly by expats really quickly.

Where
56 Tanglin Road
#01-01 Tanglin Post Office

Vegetable 'soup'

The weekend is here, which means it's time to cook up a new batch of baby food for freezing. Here is an Oaty Vegetable Puree, which smells and tastes like a creamy vegetable soup! It's easy to make, and it is one of Kit's favorites.

Serves 4 portions

Ingredients
2 tbsp porridge oats
1 small leek, finely chopped
2 tbsp canned sweetcorn, drained
1 medium tomato, skinned, seeded, and chopped
Small knob of unsalted butter or magarine

Method
Steam the leeks for 10-15 min until tender.

Meanwhile, cook the oats based on instructions on packet using half portion of water and half portion of milk. Cook until soft and creamy.

Combine cooked leek with the oats, sweetcorn, tomato, and butter. Stir until heated through.

Puree or mash, depending on the desired consistency. (You may need to add a little extra breast or formula milk.)

Yummy pasta for baby

We didn't have the luxury of time to cook all of Kai's meals when he was a baby. I was working fulltime then, so Kai's weekend diet consisted mostly of bottled baby food. (Thankfully he had homecooked porridge during weekdays as my MIL took care of him while we worked.)

But since I am now a SAHM, I have time to experiment with baby food and it's been pretty fun! It's also satisfying to see baby tuck in the food that I cook for him. Here's a recipe that's a favorite of Kit, and it's really easy to do. It's suitable for freezing too, so just cook up a batch over the weekend and you are all set to go for the week.

(Adapted from Marks & Spencer Baby & Toddler Meal Planner's Minestrone Soup recipe:)

Serves 4 portions
Age: The recipe is for 6-9 month old babies, according to the book, which means it'd be better to puree the final product. But Kit is eating this at 12 months, so I didn't puree or mash the final product.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
300 ml no salt vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
4 tbsp tomato puree
55 g small pasta shapes
25 g spinach, washed and thick stalks removed, finely chopped (I halved the amount as 25 g seemed too much and I wasn't sure if baby would like the taste.)
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Method:
Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and carrot and cook over medium-heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened.

Add the bay leaf, stock and puree, then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, boil water in a separate pot and cook pasta until soft.

Once pasta is cooked, drain, and add to vegetable sauce. Mix well.

Add the spinach and cook for further 2 minutes or until the spinach is tender. Stir in the parmesan cheese.

If necessary, puree or mash the mixture.

Separate into 4 portions and freeze.

Homemade vanilla ice cream

We saw a recipe for vanilla ice cream in a local magazine, and it looked fantastically simple. And it was! No need for any fancy ice cream making machine, and you can easily find the things you need in the kitchen. Best of all, Kai had fun helping.

Ingredients:

200ml of whipping cream (tasting note: we would recommend heavy/double cream to make it creamier)

200ml of fresh milk

50g of castor sugar (tasting note: you can reduce this to about 30g to make it less sweet)

1 vanilla pod

100g of salt

1kg of ice

Also prepare:

1 quart-size zip lock bag

1 gallon-size zip lock bag

Steps:

1. Cut open the vanilla pod, and remove the vanilla seeds.

2. Mix seeds together with the cream, milk, and sugar. Pour mixture in a quart-size zip lock bag.

3. Put salt together with the ice in a gallon-size zip lock bag, and mix well.

4. Put ice cream mixture, which is in the quart-size bag, in the middle of the ice/salt pack.

5. Continuously knead the ice cream mixture through the ice/salt pack, until it turns firm.

6. Once the mixture is firm, scoop and place in the freezer.

Voila!

An apple a day

Kit has recently taken a liking to apples. He gets upset if he drops an apple, and he'd crane his head over the table looking for the 'lost fruit'. Our little baby is growing into a little boy. :-D

My poison, coffee

I love the smell of coffee brewing. There's also something therapeutic about the brewing process. Then the final act of drinking it. Ahh...

And sometimes I look down into my coffee, and see interesting textures and colors created by the froth. Hmm... it's nice to take some downtime during the crazy morning rush to smell the er, coffee.

Happy weekend everyone!

La Petite Cuisine

La Petite Cuisine is the type of place you go to if you want good French bistro fare that's friendly to the pocket. My steak (medium rare) with potato gratin was just S$13.50 and came in a serving size that's well, petite. I've no complaints regarding the serving size though; I was full, but not too full.

But seats are limited and fill up very quickly. So either go there early (or late), or be prepared to wait. And because they are popular, the service staff can afford to be rude. Someone behind me at the ordering counter asked: "How long is it going to take?" The reply: "You want fast? There's McDonald's around the corner."

I couldn't believe my ears.

That aside, the food has so far been great. Worth a try if you are in the area.

Where:

La Petite Cuisine

10 Jalan Serene

#01-05 Serene Centre

Simple pleasures

It's amazing how just by adding anchovies to a simple dish like spaghetti aglio e olio can 'upgrade' the taste and bring restaurant dining into a simple weekday lunch at home. (Just toss some anchovies when frying your garlic and chili.) It didn't seem like Tuesday after that. :-)

Baked-banana moments

(Thanks to the Chows,) I discovered another interesting blog featuring lovely photos and yummy home-made baked goods--Happy Home Baking. While reading through her blog history, I stumbled upon a baked banana with chocolates recipe that reminded me of my days as a girl guide.

For a particular cook-out, we slit some bananas, stuffed chocolates in them, wrapped them in foil, and threw them into the embers. It was a quick, simple dessert that was shared around the fire. Never mind we still had mass tins to wash and area clean-up to do, the caramelized sweetness of the banana mixed with the gooey, melted chocolate really hits the spot. And as I slowly came out of my reverie, I thought what a neat project it is to do with Kai on a weekday night. It's quick. It's fuss-free.

Kai loved stuffing the chocolate chips into the banana (and snitching a few chips in the process). The result was nice, but somehow... the baked banana and chocolates tasted nicer in my memory than what's actually sitting on my plate. Maybe it was the camaraderie that spiced things up and the friendship that a group of teenage CHIJ girls shared back then that made a deep impression, not the baked bananas?

I'm grateful for my baked-banana moment. Never mind if I was actually consuming empty calories.

Urban Bites

Tabbouleh--a salad comprising parsley, crushed wheat, onion, tomato, and fresh mint in lemon juice and olive olive

Since it's Friday (and mid-afternoon at that), I think it's most appropriate to blog about food. It helps you plan for Friday date-nights and weekend meals. These images have been sitting in my camera for weeks, and looking at them sets my salivary glands into action again.

Mixed grill--smokey, tender kebabs. YUM.

With a name like Urban Bites, you wouldn't have guessed that it is a Lebanese restaurant. It is located in Telok Ayer street (diagonally opposite the Thian Hock Keng Chinese Temple), right smack in one of Singapore's busiest business districts. We went there on a Saturday afternoon which meant we didn't have to fight with the usual office crowd and get frustrated trying to look for parking.

I'm not too hot about the Tabbouleh (S$7.50), as chewing a mouthful of parsley was just too much for my palate. But if you stuff it in the Lebanese bread (3pcs for S$2.50), it can be quite refreshing.

We both loved the mixed grill (S$22.50), which feeds two people very nicely. It is a plate of lamb, chicken, and beef kebab served with saffron rice and salad. The kebabs were smokey, tender, juicy. *thumbs up*

Some people thought the service wasn't great, but I don't have any complaints. Perhaps because I went on a weekend and so they weren't as busy? Or (as a newcomer to the restaurant scene) they have finally ironed out some teething issues? I don't know, but I'll definitely go back again if I have a meat craving.

Where:

Urban Bites

123 Telok Ayer Street

(It seems they open daily; 11am-2.30pm; 6pm-9.45pm)

Obsession with pie pots

For two weeks or so, I've been looking for pie pots. I've tried the kitchenware section of big department stores and the baking section of supermarkets.

Nothing. And I refused to make pies using any other pots other than the pie pots. I was adamant.

I finally found them at Sia Huat. It is THE place to go if you want to outfit your kitchen, restaurant, or food store. They even sell mops, buckets, and yellow signs that warn of slippery, wet floors. And even chef hats, aprons, and uniforms.

I didn't make the pie in the end. Terence did using Nigella Lawson's Chicken, Mushroom and Bacon Pie recipe. Sweet, sweet Terence. I wanted to make the pies for him, but he did it himself. :-p

Weekend pastry chef

We have been baking almost every weekend mainly to engage Kai, and he loves to help. It can get pretty messy with egg shells in your liquid ingredient, flour all over the floor/table/chair, and one must be quick enough to stop toddler from throwing an ingredient that's not required into the mixing bowl.

There are plenty of instant cookie/muffin/brownie mixes available, but nothing beats making them from scratch and Kai has more to do. We haven't baked the perfect muffin which everybody loves yet. But Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin disappeared rather quickly, though I would prefer it to be more moist.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy!

(Serving size: 12)

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

Half-teaspon bicarbonate soda

2tbsp cocoa

175g caster sugar

150g chocolate chips (plus more for sprinkling later)

250ml milk

90ml vegetable oil

1 large egg

1tsp real vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and fill a 12-bun muffin tray with paper cases.

2. Weigh out the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a separate bowl.

3. Mix both together. (It will be a runny batter.) Then spoon them into the muffin cases

4. Sprinkle more chocolate chips on top and bake for 20 minutes (or until the muffins are risen and springy)

The perfect Ang Ku Kueh

I haven't had Ang Ku Kueh for a long time. Wait. Hang on. No. The truth is, I haven't sunken my teeth into a good Ang Ku Kueh, ever. The skin is either always too thick, too thin, or not springy; the peanut filling (my favorite) is either too thick, too sweet, or the peanut bits too chunky.

I found my perfect Ang Ku Kueh in a quiet, quaint neighborhood--Everton Park--that lies just at the edge of bustling Cantonment Road/Tanjong Pagar stretch. Ooh... the kueh at Ji Xiang Confectionery has a soft, chewy skin that is not too thick, not too thin, and the skin has a nice spring to it. The peanut filling is just the right amount, not overly sweet.

They sell Sesame Balls that are just as divine. But I'm an Ang Ku Kueh kind of gal through and through. They sell the kuehs with other types of fillings too (e.g. bean paste), but I don't like to compromise. It's peanuts for me.

Where:

Ji Xiang Confectionary

Blk 1 Everton Park

#01-33

Poster boys for Pocky

Ian with banana Pocky and Kai with his perennial favorite flavor, strawberry

I still remember the Japanese TV ad, the jingle, and their Engrish pronunciation for strawberry and chocolate. I had Pocky when I was growing up and I still like to snitch a stick or two from Kai. It's nice to know Pocky never lost its appeal among kids, and they managed to stay relevant with new flavors.

Farmers' Market at Loewen Gardens

Everything you see at the Farmers' Market at Loewen Gardens is reminiscence of weekend markets in Europe and Australia. The only difference is the heat and humidity that can make an outing to the market rather unpleasant. Despite that, I quite enjoyed it.

Yummy pastries from The Pantry--organizer of the Farmers' Market--double up as eye candy.

Paella is cooked on the spot, and you can buy a serving of it at S$10. (It's expensive but it's not often we get to eat paella, so what the heck....)

To entertain the kids, there is a playground, a trampoline, and free face painting services. There is definitely lots of photo opportunities for photo enthusiasts at the market, but it was hard for me to concentrate as I had to turns with Terence to mind the boys.

By just looking at the vendors and their wares and the crowd that turned up, it's hard to imagine that you are still in sweltering Singapore. The only thing that gives it away in the photograph would be the fans on the ceiling of the marquee tent.

Even Kit enjoyed lolling in the heat.

I didn't expect us to buy anything from the market, but we went home with four bottles of wine, one loaf of focacia, a bottle of homemade chicken liver and brandy pate (YUM), and cupcakes. The market is definitely recommended but please, go there early before the heat wave hits.

When and where:

Loewen Gardens

Every first Saturday of the month

9am - 2pm