Monday, March 31, 2014

It was a great exhibition held at a fantastic venue – #ArtScience #Museum! Once we got out of the lift, a beautiful #dinosaur gave us a big welcome!

 
It was so realistic that Ansley was very scared of it! As a mother, I tried my very best to shoo the #dinosaurs away!

 
BUT TOO BAD! No matter what I do, Ansley is still afraid of them!

 
The greatest part of the exhibition is not showcasing our most familiar and popular #Jurassic dinosaurs. It walked us through from billions of years ago called #Precambrian, whereby organics are like particles. Going through another millions of years of evolution, it enters into the Jurassic era with the development of dinosaurs. After millions of years of domination by the dinosaurs, it went into gradual extinction stage, called #Cretaceous.

 
So much about the history of dinosaurs, but the exhibition is not boring at all! Some of the walls will have the scenic view of the dessert where the fossils or specimens are discovered from. Look at the photograph! It looks pretty real!

There is a load of variety of exhibit. You got information, pictures, video, sound effect, #artifacts, #fossils, mechanics, and realistic and life size #replica of the dinosaurs.

The way the exhibits are placed together with the lighting, it simply looks like a piece of art! Totally Amazing!

 
Despite the exhibition place is very dimly lighted, the place still give us a very cozy feeling with all the exhibits widely placed in the huge hall. At each area, there is an #exploration station, which is something very interesting for the #kids and #adults.

 
And Ansley had slowly let down his guard, and tried to take a close look at the dinosaurs.

Not long after, he started to say “Hello” and “Bye-bye” to them too!
 
It is not a bad place even for those under two years old!

 
SEE!!! Ansley is enjoying himself! Not even afraid of the large mouth and huge teeth of the life-size #T-rex!

All in all, I love “#DINOSAURS #DAWN TO #EXTINCTION”! Hopefully, the exhibition will come again to Singapore when Ansley is older!

 

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Yesterday, we went for our usual dessert session before Ansley’s class at Bugis. As we are SUPER EARLY, and our usual dessert shop is yet to open, so we decided to venture out!

We passed by Dessert First (糖水先) and was checking out the menu before we decide. To me, the variety was not that much as compared to the other two dessert shop along Liang Seah.


Despite the lack of variety, the salespeople are very friendly! They kept inviting you into the shop and since the shop is pretty packed, maybe it is worth a TRY!

We ordered two different dessert that is suitable for Ansley to share together with us! And Ansley is so excited to give it a try!


 
Double Boiled Pear with Chuan Bei and Red Dates


 
Black Sesame Paste with Tang Yuan


 
What is my sentiments for this shop? The desserts are not to my preference! IT IS SUPER SWEET! Too sweet for my liking! I can’t even let Ansley taste this at all! The after taste sweetness is not soothing!

But maybe we ordered the wrong thing! Their cold and ice cream dessert took out half of their menu and most of the customers are having those desserts. I guess their signature might not be the traditional kind of Hong Kong dessert.
 
Address:
8 Liang Seah Street
Singapore 189029

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

You can find Jason Marketplace at #SAVOUR and it is an exciting shopping place! You can sample a lot of interesting products and see things that you have not seen before.

Last year, we bought a lot of spread from #SAVOUR, and this year, we bought a lot of fruits – #Tomatoes, Strawberry and Grapes!

 
And one very interesting thing that we bought is a French #Tomato. Yes, is only one and this one French tomato cost us $6.50! We were told by the salesperson that this tomato is grown from a 100 year old seedling and it is a very good #cooking material. Haiz…. As a sucker for new things, WE BOUGHT IT!

 
As you can tell, the shape looks weird…. The colour is different from the normal tomatoes that we see in the market…. And interestingly, there isn’t a lot of seeds in the tomato!

 
The tomato is pretty big so I used half of it to make Tomato #Tuna #Spaghetti. And the other half, I sliced it, added some shredded cheese on top of it and baked it in the oven.

Here’s the recipe for my Tomato Tuna Spaghetti:
Serving for 2

Ingredients:
- 1 bundle of spaghetti or any kind of pasta

1 red onion, chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

- 3 heirloom tomatoes, diced

- A handful of cherry tomatoes, diced

- A can of tuna

6 big stalks for mushroom

Seasoning:
- Half teaspoon of salt

A little sugar

Method:
1) Bring to boil a pot of water with some salt, and add in the pasta

2) Heat up some oil in the pan and add in the tuna, onion and garlic

3) When fragrance, add in the mushroom and tomatoes

4) Add in the seasoning when the tomatoes softened

5) Toss in the al dente pasta and one small bowl of pasta water, and let it simmer

6) When the pasta soften, dish out and serve

Under the ingredient section, I have indicated 3 heirloom tomatoes to replace with the French tomato that I have used. The size of 3 heirloom tomatoes should be justifiable for the replacement of the French tomato. As for the taste, the French tomato tastes very good! It is more flavourful as compared to the normal heirloom tomatoes, so there might be some difference in outcome.

The original recipe I added around half a bowl of #pasta water, but the pasta is a bit too dry. So I adjusted the recipe a little, instead of half, I added a full bowl of pasta water to simmer. If you prefer something less dry, you can add more!

We enjoyed our pasta dinner! So hope you will enjoy this recipe too!

Monday, March 10, 2014

SAVOUR 2014

Last year, I had attended the very first SAVOUR event in Singapore and was blown away with the food and the things to buy! And this year, I MUST and attended SAVOUR again! This time round – I managed to get in for Friday dinner and Saturday lunch!


More SAVOUR Dollars and can EAT MORE! Yummy…. Yummy…. Yummy….

There is this food truck outside of SAVOUR event on Friday evening, called The Travelling Cow! They will be located at Promontory for the whole month of March. I didn’t manage to take a clear picture of the burger that we bought – Wagyu Beef Burger – Ansley loves this! (That’s why can’t take a clear picture! He was literally trying to snatch!)

But we managed to find their signature on Facebook – Ramen Sliced Wagyu Beef Burger. And luckily, we tabao the Ramen Wagyu Beef Burger home, it was super delicious! I considered the burger my favorite dish for the night! The ramen remains crispy even though we brought it home to consume. The sweet mayo sauce for the burger is superb! I hope I can get a bite of it again… Yum…. Yum….
 
Then here comes the Stellar Grill which is always a long queue when we are there. They offer a Stellar Grill platter where you can taste 3 different types of meat – Roast Pork (so juicy and crispy – Ansley’s favourite!), Braised Short Rib (so flavorful) and Grill Beef (so tender)!

 
We also had Crab Linguine. Oh my Gosh! It is mouthful after mouthful of crab! My mouth is empower by the crabby taste, this is definitely not one crappy dish!

We tried Éclair d’ Escargots too. This is something that I wanted to try while I was doing my research on the internet as it is so interesting to have Éclair in a savory form. However, it is overly savory, TOO SALTY, so I was pretty disappointed after my first bite!

Fortunately…. The dessert ends our day on a good note! Mao Tai has a very interesting taste and a very nice fragrance. It is a mixture of Calamansi, Kaffir Lime, Lemon and Preserved Kumquat, and you can find popcorns in it too and Mao Tai foam. This East meets West concept is very refreshing and quenching in such a hot weather.

It was a great Friday night and looking forward for Saturday’s lunch! Too bad, didn’t take much pictures for Friday night except on my cutie boy!

Despite the weather is super hot on Saturday, but it is also another fruitful day for food! We managed to get some pocket recommendation from the staffs the night before, so not much time are wasted in thinking what to get!

Foie Gras Terrine Tempura is the highly recommended dish! And after tasting it, it became my favourite for the day! The tempura crust is very fragile, it breaks when you gently bite on it and the Foie Gras melts in the mouth. You can have it plain or you can dipped on the lobster mayonnaise which is not too much!

 
At the same store from Chef Emmanuel Stroobant, we also ordered a platter which consists of two different dishes.

This is a perfect dish in such a hot and sunny day – Low Temperature Prime U.S. Beef Rib Eye! Very interesting to serve beef in a salad form! Cooling and refreshing with the asparagus and carrot served together!
 
 
The other dish is Organic Lamb Short Ribs Crusted with Five Spices. I’m okay with it only! Not much of a WOW factor! So can skipped!
 

 
I picked a beautiful looking dish from a Michelin chef -- Crispy Roll of Barramundi! Looks like a dessert, but it is not. It is pastry rolled with some fish in it, served with mashed potatoes and fruits. Other than the colours are popping, the taste did not really popped!
 

 
Molecular “Xiao Long Bao” is not something new to me! I had this last year at SAVOUR, and just have to get one this year again! It’s the gastronomy food – no meat inside, no vinegar and ginger at the side. But when the skin burst, you can taste meat, vinegar and ginger in the liquid. Unbelievable sensory experience!  THUMBS UP!
 
 
Another recommendation by the staff is Triple Cheese Truffle Toastie. Simple comfort food that brings lots of comfort! The bun is soft in the inside and crisp on the outside! Cheese and truffle never goes wrong! TOTAL CLASSIC!

 
Tentative end with Apple Mousse. To me, it is a bit too sweet, so I didn’t really enjoy myself!


 
Our final ending Sashimi and grilled Wagyu Beef before we head home! Familiar food, but of super good quality! Just eat it the natural way! No seasoning required!
 
 
There’s too much food, and we couldn’t try every single one of them. However, we managed to snap some foodie pictures.


 
Other than eating, there are also classes available for the guests. And we only managed to attend the class conducted by Nespresso and we got caffeine high after fives cups of espresso from the class.


 
 吃饱喝足! A super fantastic weekend! Darling, Ansley and I can’t wait for next year’s SAVOUR 2015!


 

Thursday, March 6, 2014

I was recently at Orchard to collect some lucky draw gifts! After collection, Darling and I were both loitering around trying to find a place for dinner. We are so sick of eating outside that we are not sure what to eat! And finally, we got tired of walking and thinking what to eat…. We went straight in to the nearest restaurant….

 
And YES, it is TONY ROMA’S! It is a restaurant that has been around for the longest time ever! There should be nothing much to talk about??

Actually! YES, I have something to say! It is MY FIRST TIME eating Tony Roma’s…. So bear with me!

First, we ordered some appetizer – TONY SAMPLER ($26.90)


In this dish, we get to sample 3 different types of finger food, but the serving is huge. We didn’t manage to finish it!

Spicy BBQ Boneless Bites – The chicken is a bit spicy, but after dipping it in the salsa sauce, it balance off the spiciness.

Spinach Artichoke Dip – This is my second favourite! Nacho chips are served at the side to have it with this dipper. It is very flavorful with cheese added in it, and yet it is not overwhelming, as the blended vegetables fuses with the cheese perfectly.

Onion Loaf – My ULTIMATE favourite! It is onion rings, JUST ONION RINGS! Simple and classic! It is not very oily, but contains the sweetness of the onions! To me, it is a MUST TRY!

And Darling got himself The Original Baby Back Ribs (24.90)


It looks really good and appetizing! Overall, it tastes not that bad lah, but I personally felt the meat is a bit dry. And Darling ordered coleslaw and fries for his sides, which I find it pretty disappointing. Colesaw is a bit too salty and the fries is a bit soggy, so you can try other sides offered in the menu.

As for me, I ordered Sirloin Cheddar Grille Sandwich ($20.90)

 
This sandwich is their new addition in the menu and it looks pretty good on picture and in real! And to me, it tastes much better than the ribs. The meat itself is already pretty juicy, and BBQ mayonnaise makes the burger more juicy and saucy! And the onions give it more crunch, together with the cheddar cheese, the burger is very flavorful.

Overall, it was a pretty decent meal! It is a WHY NOT kind, but not the MUST EAT kind of place! So you decide if you wanna to give it a shot!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Supposed to post this recipe last week, together with the Radish Cake. BUT Ansley fall sick again! So no time to churn the recipe out!

This second dish that I managed to whip it out is Sprite Chicken Wings, or you can also called it 7-Up Chicken Wings.

I have gotten this recipe from my Philippine helper when I was young and she will cook this dish for the family quite frequently. It was said that it is a very common home-cooked dish in the Philippines.

Ingredients:
- 1 packed of Chicken Mid Wings (about 800g)

Marinade:
- ½ of a Lemon
- 1 can of Sprite or 7-Up
- 1 tablespoon of Light Soy Sauce
- 1 tablespoon of Dark Soy Sauce
- 1½ tablespoon of Oyster Sauce
- ½ tablespoon of Sesame Oil
- 1 teaspoon of Corn Starch
- A dash of Black Pepper

Method:
1) Wash the Chicken Mid Wings and mix in the ingredients for marinade
2) Marinate for at least 2 hours and toss it occasionally for the chicken to be evenly marinated
3) Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius before grilling the chicken
4) Line up the Chicken Wings on the tray and drizzle some marinade on the wings
5) Grill the Chicken Wings in the preheat oven at 200 degree Celsius for about 20 minutes
6) Flip the Chicken Wings after 10 minutes and drizzle some marinade on the wings
7) After 10 minutes, remove the Chicken Wings from the oven and serve it

As I have not attempted this dish ever since she left! Hmm…. Which is like almost 20 years go…. So couldn’t remember what the exact recipe is J

So I gave it a little Singapore twist or Mabel twist :P

And thank goodness, the Wings turn out to be not that bad! The guests like it and most importantly, ANSLEY LOVES IT!

 
And you will love this recipe too!