Lunch @ LavaRock

It was the last lesson of our conversational malay class and we intend to find somewhere with nice food for our lunch. Tab brought mi to a coffeeshop in hougang for lavarock. Nowadays its not difficult to find restaurant style food in coffeshop as the rental and food prices are much cheaper.

So many choices of food. Great menu!

Juz by looking at the signage makes mi drool!

Ooh....too bad i dun eat steak!

Value combo and receipt. Pay before u eat is the style of coffeeshop. haha....

Creamy mushroom soup with garlic bread. Soo...cheap, onli $2 and there were generous serving of mushroom bits inside.

Yummy~licious breaded mushroom.

Hotplate grill fish with spaghetti

Texmex chicken, super delicious, no wonder its chef' recommendation

Some sides which comes together with the main course, pasta salad, mashed potato salad and my favourite among all, creamy pasta salad.

The long plate presentation.

Our celebration feast.

Hey the food is cheap and good, total cost less than $12 per person, i will definately come back for more.

Goodies From China Chengdu

Auntie juz returned from her holiday in China Chengdu. She simply love China and I was so surprise that she bought so much goodies for me. Since auntie won't be able to catch up with me, she brought all these goodies to Dad's office for mi.

The goodies consisting of a box of dragon beard candy, key chain and a comb. Yeah.... presents for me. Hehe....

I was bz studying for my exams and dad brought home these stuff. Didn't reali managed to find any space on the table to snap photo, no choice but to place on my notes and books ba. haha...

Green bean flavour drangon beard candy.

Fried Spicy Mee Kia

Was feeling so so so hungry after i came home from class tis afternoon. Class supposed to end early, however i stayed back to do some revision for the upcoming exams.

Intended to fry some bee tai bak to stop my stomach from rumbling juz when mum was searching through the fridge and gosh that she's left with onli 1 bundle of mee kia, ask mi to cook noodle soup and finish it off. I told mum its ok, i will fry and finish it off later & she onli comment "CRAZY"
Ingredients;
1 bundle mee kia noodle, blanched and soaked in ice water
1 baby carrots, cut into sticks
2 leaves cabbage, shred
1 small fishcake, cut into strips
1 small handful beansprouts
1 stalk spring onuon, cut into 2 cm section
1 clove garlic, minced
Oil for frying
Nori strips
Roasted white sesame seeds

Sauce;
1 tsp spicy homemade chili paste
1/4 tsp tom yam paste
1/2 tsp tomato ketchup
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp sweet dark sauce
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp water

Method,
-Fry garlic in hot till fragrant, stir in carrots and fry for a min.
-Fry cabbage till soft, stir in fish cake and beansprouts and spring onions.
-When beansprouts are bout to cook, toss in drained mee kia and sauce.
-Mix till incorporated, serve onto serving dish.
Sprinkle with nori strips and sesame seeds.
-Enjoy!
Mum can't wait to sample. Dunno she's curious that i use mee kia to fry or she's juz hungry.

Mum keep on commenting that its sooo.... delicious but after she finished the noodles den she says that in actual fact she was hungry tt's was y she like the noodle. ya ya... wat crap, even Adam & I finds that fried mee kia is nice. Adam even commented that i'm so creative, would actually tot of frying mee kia. Oh yeah...seems like i'm not the crazy 1!

Jesper's B-day Supper

Its another hour b4 Jesper's b-day is over and I've yet to see him for whole of today. Yes, its whole of his b-day tis year. He went to work early tis morning, ooh....so poor thing, b-day still gotto work was wat mum said today. haha...aniwayz...i prepared supper for him, hopefully he will be back soon.

Sambal fried rice with deep fried prawn fritters, last but not least, with 1/2 a dozen of corona extra beer :-P

So glad that Jesper came home 45 mins b4 his b-day is over, erm...in actual fact he's rushing for the 2nd half of man u vs liverpool. Big match ya!

Pumpkin Abacus Seeds

I been craving for home-cooked hakka abacus seeds since last week, but due to my bz schedule, didn't have the chance to buy the necessary ingredients for the dish. Until yesterday after class, managed to stop by supermarket to shop around for groceries. Erm...by den my hakka abacus seeds crave was over, however decided to come up with a unique style of abacus seeds.
I'm always a pumpkin lover, thus decided to turn the dull abacus colour into a bright colourful dish with a mild touch if spicyness.

Ingredients;
Boiled pumpkin abacus seeds
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 clove garlic, minced
100g minced pork
2 baby carrots, cut into sticks
1 stalk celery, sliced
10g dried shrimps
2 mushrooms, soaked and sliced
Pinch of salt
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/3 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp chili paste
2 tbsp mushroom water

Abacus seeds;
-Steam 300g pumpkin slices, sprinkle with pinch of salt and mashed
-Mix with tapioca starch to form soft dough
-Roll into small balls, flatten with knuckles
-Boil in water with pinch of salt and some oil
-Drained and soaked in iced water until ready to fry

Method;
-Fry shallots in hot till lightly browned, add garlic and fry till fragrant.
-Add in dried shrimps followed by minced pork and carrots.
-After 2 mins, stir in celery and mushroom slices.
-Season with pinch of salt and sauce.
-Stir well and serve.
-Enjoy!

Lunch @ Brewbaker's

Tab and I decided to drop by Anchorvale CC for lunch after our sunday class @ Sengkang CC. Well, since its so near, might as well, cuz we been wanting to try Brewbaker's as its new in the premises.

The menu....

Cool water, wat a big bottle! and and we had 3 bottles. haha....

A hot tea which comes together with the set lunch.

Cream of mushroom soup. Erm...i should say its too starchy, can't reali taste the freshness and fragrance of the mushroom.

The carbonara is too salty, dry and sticky. Not my type, i will give it 1 out of 5 stars.

The fried fish platter is great. Crispy on the outside, soft and moist inside inside. And best of all, it does not of the fishy smell of stale fish fillet. I would say i might go back for more! Most important, its value for $$$.

Slice of "dunno wat cake" with plentiful of cream on top. Course cake texture. Thumbs' down!

Total cost less than $24 bucks after the passion card discount.

Not too bad lunch experience i would say but i feel that they should emphasis more on the service and the way the staff approach customer. Encounter that they need to close the register and requires customer to settle their bills. Under normal circumstances, they should ask customer any last order and explain the reason for doing so b4 providing bill to customers while they are still having their meal. However, as we were enjoying our meal halfway, 1 of the staff juz push the bill to us & we responded that we did not ask for the bill. He gave a very puzzled look and reply cuz we need to close our register mah. So rude of him :-(

Seafood Pizza Bread

I was suddenly in the mood to start cooking, preparing breakfast for my family b4 going to work, most importantly preparing my bento for work. haha... i been bringing bento for the past 2 days, erm...not a bad experience. keke....

Oh gosh, my house is overloading with bread. Bought a loaf of bread, comes with additional 4 loaf of small hotdog buns, means i gotto make something out of it rite? I decided on pizza bread, ah ha...seafood pizza.....
Ingredients;

Sausage roll or hotdog bun

Pasta sauce

Crabmeat sticks, shredded

Small shrimps, remove shells and veins

Squid, cut into rings

Olive oil

Italian herbs

Cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese

Method;

-Fry squid and shrimps in olive oil, add pasta sauce and italian herbs.

-Slice hotdog bun into half, spread fillings onto buns.

-Mix shredded crabmeat sticks with cheese, sprinkle on top of bread.

-Toast in oven toaster for 10-15 mins.

-Enjoy!

香脆叉烧酥

I sinmply love the way i roll them, especially with the small triangle overlapping on top. I baked some char siew today and since we won't be cooking dinner tonite, i decided to use some of the char siew to make a fillings for 叉烧酥.
Fillings aren't difficult to prepare, simply dice the char siew, fry with shallots, add sauce, sugar corriander power and some roasted sesame seeds, off heat when mixture dry. Oh ya, these are the same fillings for char siew buns.

Ingredients;
1 portion shortcrust pastry
1 portion char siew fillings
Egg wash
Some roasted sesame seeds

Method;
-Roll out shortcrust pastry, cut into triangle shape.
-Brush some butter over, place fillings at the broad end and roll up.
-Glaze with egg wash, sprinkle roasted sesame seeds over.
-Bake at 200 degree celcius for 15mins.
-Enjoy!

Pipping hot from the oven

Close up of the 叉烧酥

Limey H2O With Agar Agar

Agar agar~a kinda jelly alike dessert which i used to eat pretty often when i was a kid. The texture is firmer and less chewy like the konnikuya jelly. However, it still has its own target audience. keke...
Mum used to make the original colour agar agar with nothing. And its reali nothing with no canned fruits in it or any flavour. Hey i would love it if rose syrup was being added. But lucky dad has creative ideas, guess my "talent" and "creativity" was inherited by dad. haha.... Still remember there was once dad took the effort and trouble to make tis special drink for mi, thus after donkeys of years, its time for mi to recall procedure and make tis lovely drink for our family.
Cool, reali brings back sweet memories of my childhood days. I was happily sharing with Adam the lovely and interesting stuff dad used to make.

Ingredients;
Some pandan flavour agar agar
Juice from 1 lime
Sugar syrup
Water
Ice-cubes

Method;
-Cut agar agar into strips.
-Add ice-cubes, water and ice juice.
-Add sugar syrup to taste.
-Enjoy!

Method for agar agar;
-Boil pre-soaked agar agar strips into water, add pandan essence and colouring.
-Add sugar to taste.
-Pour into mould to set, chill overnite.

A close up look on the cool drink.

Celery & Sea Asparagus Quick Fry

I was surprised that Jesper came home with 1/2 a dozen of canned sea asparagus 2 days ago. Wonder wat's wrong with him as we dun normally buy canned seafood other than abalone. At last, was told that it was given as a gift to him.
Mum had no idea how to handle them in order to remove the stinky fishy smell. She ate direct from the can and was totally disgusted.
Well, i decided to make a dish out of it. Since there were 1/2 a dozen at home, means its gotto be a challenge for mi to create more dishes with them.

Ingredients;
5 stalks of celery, cut into sticks
3 baby carrots, cut into sticks
Some black fungus, soaked and shred
1/2 can of sea asparagus, drained
1 clove garlic, chopped
Oil for frying
1 tbsp oyster sauce
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp water

Method;
-Fry garlic in oil till fragrant.
-Add carrot and fry for a min.
-Stir in celery, continue to fry for about 3 mins b4 adding black fungus.
-Season to taste, add water.
-Fry till water absorb, stir in sea asparagus and fry for 30 seconds.
-Serve and enjoy!

This is how the canned sea asparagus looks like. Hey its not bad afterall, taste great!

Biscuit Sticks from Glico

I agree that when 1 is stressed, eating desserts or something sweet is the best medicine. I been eating gummiee, chocolates, raisins for the past few days as i was so stressed out by the end module exams and roll play session. Time seems never enough and how i wish i could buy time. Oh well, at least its over, but now gotto get myself prepared for the next module and do some aggignments which we were told to do so.

Haiz...time to take out the glico products which i bought from OG the other day.

Ooh...tis cheesey potato spicky sticks are yummy.

Oh....tis is cool, belgium chocolate in pocky stick? cool xia. Oh well, will try to post more tidbits if i happen to come across those i haven tried b4. Loves trying new tidbits in the market and how i wish i am able to find those childhood candies or tidbits which i used to eat when i was a child.

Cabbage Salad

I been so so so bz tis whole wk and hasn't been eating a proper meal for the whole wk. Munching on biscuits or bread during lunch time and b4 lessons. Finally i get a chance to eat a proper simple meal today. Though mum onli cook a pot of herbal spare-ribs soup for dinner, i'm happy enough.
I decided to toss a quick cabbage salad to add on for dinner.

Ingredients;
1 small beijing cabbage, tear into pieces
1 small fish cake, shred
Boiling water
Oil
Pinch of salt
1 tsp chili oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
Fried shallots
Chopped green onions

Method;
-Boil cabbage in boiling water, add pinch of salt and some oil.
-When cabbage are sofe, add in fish cake.
-Off heat, drained.
-Toss with oyster sauce and chili oil.
-Serve onto a plate, sprinkle fried shallots and onions over.
-Enjoy!