Chicken Stew

Dinner on a Saturday was chicken stewed with zucchini and chickpeas in tomato sauce, topped with coriander and feta cheese.

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Recipe

Zucchini 1 medium
Chicken 500g
Tomato Paste 1 can
Diced Tomato 1 can
Onion 1 medium
Chickpeas 1 can

1. Cut the chicken meat into pieces, season with salt and pepper to taste, and brown in your pan. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Dice the zucchini and onion and cook till soft.
3. Pour the chicken back into the pot. Add in the chickpeas, tomato paste and diced tomatoes with all the juice.
4. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
5. Serve with a sprinkling of herbs or parsley and crumbled feta cheese.

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Ootoya 大戸屋

Back to Ootoya at Orchard Central, but now there's no longer as much crowd as before.

Shared this salad dish, which was a mix of seaweed, egg, taro and okra. Actually, it came with natto too, but we requested for it to be omitted as we were not quite into that. This was very light in taste and probably extremely healthy too.

Took the Sweet & Sour Chicken. I was a little disappointed that it did not come with the braised pumpkin side dish that I had the last time I was here. But the chicken pieces were fairly large and well coated with the tangy sauce.

Once again, we bought the waffles from Marvelous Cream. This time we tried the Tiramisu and Mandarin Orange Mango & Pineapple Yogurt. The Tiramisu was great, and the chocolate within was soft yet intense.

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Pizza Kun

I probably passed by this stall at the basement of Bugis Junction for years, but never bothered to try it until 2 weeks ago.

It basically sells pizzas and you can choose to have either the usual dough crust or a base that is made of rice. There is a variety of preset toppings to choose from.

I cannot remember the name of this that I chose, but basically it's Japanese flavoured with baby octopuses, bonito, green peppers and cheese. It was a slightly unique taste with the rice base which was rather aromatic.

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Funan Weng Hor Fun & Once Upon a Milk Shake

Was just trying to settle lunch as this was not the main reason we were in the area, so we went to Funan Weng at Maxwell Chambers.

I took their signature hor fun, which came with prawns and chicken. The hor fun was very thin and soft, which I rather like. The chicken was all meat, yet very tender. Prawns were succulent and fresh, although it looks a little deceiving here as they were in fact sliced in half.

Next we went round the building to our main reason coming to this area - Once Upon a Milk Shake. The decor was interesting with some lower than usual stools and tables.

Was contemplating taking the Litchi or Rum & Raisin initially. At the last minute, I changed my mind and decided to try the chocolate which was supposedly the most popular. It was indeed very creamy and chocolate-y, although somehow it tasted a little like Milo to me. My friend took the Rum & Raisin, which was pretty intense.

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Tampopo @ Ngee Ann City

Tampopo serves ramen and a variety of tonkatsu dishes. But my favorite order over here has to be the yuzu infused tonkatsu.

This is something different from the usual tonkatsu, and is eaten without the usual tonkatsu sauce. It is seasoned with salt and drizzled with yuzu, giving it a slight tang. Served on a bed of mizuna or Japanese mustard, which was crisp and light. The only downside was that the meat seemed a little tough compared to the first time when I had it at the Liang Court outlet.

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Din Tai Fung

I have not been to Din Tai Fung for a long time. Frankly, while the food isn't all that bad, I prefer places where I can be spoilt for choice.

Ordered the sour and spicy soup which turned out to be not spicy and only a little sour. I think the stall below my workplace serves better soup.

I had the Fried Rice with prawns. A tad too oily and while still fairly aromatic, did not seem to be as much as what I remembered it to be, although I have to admit my last visit was years back, so maybe it's my memory that's fuzzy.

We ordered the prawn and meat dumplings. I have never been crazy over the dumplings, so they tasted as what I expected them to be. I did feel that the insides could do with a little more fillings than what they provided as seen in the pic below.

This red date dish was pretty nice in my opinion. Basically, it's red dates stuffed with mochi in the centre. The dates were a little sweet, although I'm not too sure if it was the natural sweetness or just having been sugared. The mochi in between did however balance well with the sweetness, and was not overly chewy. Overall, its texture was pretty unique, but this is definitely not for people who do not like herbal-like stuff.

Pay your bill with a Citibank credit card and you can get a free basket of 6 of yuanyang dumplings. This is a dessert dish with yam and red bean paste inside the dumpling. I thought this was quite nice and not too sweet.

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Caffe Beviamo

Had lunch at Caffe Beviamo at Tanglin Mall, where my friend said there was good Sticky Date & Toffee Pudding.

The cafe serves a variety of sandwiches, pasta, salads and pizzas. I was adventurous and tried the Kumera sandwich. This basically consisted of sweet potato, lettuce, cheese and tomato pesto. It was quite a unique blend of tastes as you seldom find sweet potato in sandwiches, coupled with warm melting cheese oozing with every bite.

Finally, the reason why we were here in the first place - Sticky Date & Toffee Pudding. This was presented slightly differently, as it came in squarish slices with the vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between. The pudding was moist and soft, and in my opinion, does not lose out to Marmalade Pantry's. The vanilla ice cream however seemed pretty ordinary, and if I recall correctly, Marmalade Pantry's vanilla ice cream had a richer taste.

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Spinach Quiche

I always did like quiche, and I did try to make one long, long time ago. Decided to go meatless this time round and make something a little healthier - quiche with spinach, tomatoes and brie cheese.

The problem with my baking is that I am using the convection function of the microwave oven. The heat source emanates from one side, which usually results in the center of my cake/pie taking longer to cook, and when it does the sides may be a little over-done. A conventional oven would probably fare better since its heat source is either from the top or bottom.

I think this turned out to be pretty alright; just that I did not put enough salt, so it was slightly bland. You can taste the spinach and on the whole, it was not over-baked. However, I think I can actually bake it on lesser time so that it comes out a little more moist and soft.

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Recipe
Printable Recipe

Pastry Base
Flour 250g
Unsalted Butter 150g
Salt 1tsp
Milk 1tbsp
Egg 1

1. In a bowl, mix the flour and salt together.
2. Cut the butter into cubes and rub the flour into the butter cubes until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour/butter mixture, and mix well until you form a dough.
5. Roll the dough into a ball or disc shape and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.
6. Roll onto your pie tin. Using a fork, make a couple of holes at the base of the crust and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Filling
Onion 1
Olive oil 1tsp
Spinach 280g
Tomato 1
Eggs 3
Heavy cream 1cup
Milk 1/2cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Cheese of your choice

1. Dice the onions and sauteed it.
2. In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream, milk, salt and pepper and whisk lightly.
3. Dice the tomato, then add it together with the spinach (squeezed dry of water) and sauteed onions into the egg mixture.

Assembly
1. After baking the pie crust, allow it to cool.
2. Place cheese of your choice at the base of the crust.
3. Pour your filling in, and bake at 180 degrees C for about 30-35 minutes.

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Marutama Ramen @ Liang Court

Been patronizing Marutama Ramen since they first opened at Central, and I am glad to say their standard is still there after so long.

I took the Aka-Ramen, which is soup base made from seven nuts, and which has always felt unique to me compared to the usual tonkotsu stock. It is not overly salty and the tang from the pickles and lemon made it appetizing. The egg was runny on the inside as always. Marutama's egg has never disappointed.

We also ordered the yaki char siu, which was as flavourful as before. Slightly crisp at the edges and soft at the centre. The only time when I eat meat with fats and all.

The gyoza while looking fiery is not spicy at all. After all, Japanese food is never really that spicy.

Ended off lunch with a brief stop at Cedele Depot, where we had cakes. I took the Orange Chocolate Cheesecake. Unfortunately, the flavours of this did not blend as well as what I had at other places. The bitterness of the orange came through and spoilt the overall taste. Chocolate taste was lacking as it was only that thin layer at the top. The cake was also a little too soft for my liking. I should have tried the Chocolate Truffle cake instead.

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Oriole's Cafe & Bar

My second visit to this place, and I decided to try some other dishes.

I went with the set lunch at $20. For appetisers, I had the smoke ocean trout salad. It was the first time I had smoked ocean trout. Essentially, it tasted like smoked salmon, however, the texture was more like that of a cooked fish.

Next was the ribeye steak. Steak was very tender and the slightly tangy sauce went well with the meat.

On the way out, we passed by Marvelous Cream and they seemed to have a new range of desserts which were soft waffles sandwiched with many different kinds of flavoured creams.

We tried the Hokkaido Caramel and Rich Milk flavour. Sorry, no pics as we devoured it quickly. However, the cream did not give me the queasy, oily feel. It was not overly sweet and the slight bitter of the caramel balanced with it overall.

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Applebee's

Applebee's is a casual dining chain from USA focusing on mainstream American dishes such as salads, shrimp, chicken, pasta, and ribs. They serve alcoholic beverages as well, and is located at Singapore Power Building at Somerset.

As their portions are huge, we decided to share 1 appetiser and 1 main dish.

For the appetiser, we chose the sampler set which consisted of buffalo wings, quesadillas, mozarella sticks, nachos and served with 2 salsas, a ranch-like dip and their signature spinach and artichoke dip.

Special mention goes out to the quesadillas which were very tasty with the minced meat and onions. The mozzarella sticks were good as well as they did not come across as being overly chewy. The dip tasted more of spinach than artichokes, but it was a unique departure from the usual dips.

We did succumb to our appetites and ordered a half-sized serving of prawn salad. The prawns were crunchy and succulent, and sprinkled with cajun spices.

Finally, our main was the Lime Chicken which was covered with cheese, served with salsa and pilaf. Chicken was rather tender and had a slight grilled taste to it. The texture of the pilaf was nice, although there was a particular unidentifiable spice in it which I did not quite like.

Overall, I think their food is rather good and their large portions can easily fill your tummy. But as these are pretty heavy stuff in terms of flavours as well, it probably will not be a place I will return to too often.

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The Salad Shop

Salad places have been sprouting up at Raffles Place recently - helps make you and your wallet slimmer at the same time.

Latest one I tried is The Salad Shop somewhere behind UOB building.

Here, prices start at $6.00, where you have your greens + 4 main feeds which are the cheaper ingredients, I guess. Or you can have the Zebra size ($8.00) which is greens + 4 main feeds + 2 supplementary feeds which are a little more pricey than the main feeds. Lastly, there's the elephant size ($10.00) which is greens + 4 main feeds + 4 supplementary feeds.

In all, I think there were almost 50 ingredients to choose from. However, I think their system of ordering whereby you first ticked all the things you wanted, are issued a number and stand around waiting for your number to be called, seemed somewhat chaotic. I think I will just continue going to my usual salad place at OUB centre.

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Chicken Pau

Attempted to make Hong Kong style steamed chicken pau with mixed success.

It started with making the starter dough the night before, and allowing it to proof for 12 hours.

Next morning it looked like this:

I cooked my chicken meat which did not taste too bad.

Pleating the paus were a challenge, as the dough would not maintain its form and shrank each time. Maybe I did not knead long enough.

I packed my first batch too tightly and they did not have space to expand as they steamed, leading to these weird shapes. I allowed more space in my subsequent batches and the turned out more rounded.

Inside my pau:

Unfortunately, the dough was a little dry and turned a little hard when cooled, although heating it before eating made it a little better. Still, it did not turn out as fluffy as I hoped.

Well, I still have some Hong Kong flour left, so maybe I try another method of making the dough the next time.

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