Popiah (Yi Kou Wei)~

This popiah tasted so much better than it looks ya. It's from Yi4 Kou3 Wei4, located at tampines mall, basement 1. There were many ingredients in the filling ya; boiled turnip with carrots, chinese lettuce, beansprout, 1 small prawn, scrabble egg, grated hard boil egg, chopped peanuts, crispy bits, sweet sauce, garlic paste and chilli ya. It's $2 per popiah ya. Other then the slightly soggy appearance, it was yummie ya~ However Yi Kou Wei's popiah is still only second to Qi Ji's. ya

(oops! A broken picture link and the original picture was deleted, so no picture for now.)

Cream Crackers (Biscuit)~

i have been making a few attempts to bake cream crackers. They didn't turn out to be like Jacob's wheat biscuits. Instead, the first batch had a slight crunch with alittle tinge of sweetness ya. After some modifications to the recipe, the second batch was crispier and tastier ya.

Cream Crackers recipe from recipezaar

Ingredients

• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2/3 cup heavy cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Use an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl, stirring with a fork.
4. Slowly add the cream while continuing to stir; mix well until the dough holds together in a ball (if the dough is still too crumbly, add another tablespoon of cream).
5. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Using a cookie cutter or a large drinking glass, cut the crackers into 3 inch rounds. (i used a knife to cut the crackers into rectangles instead)
6. Place the crackers on the cookie sheet, and prick the center of each cracker twice with the tines of a fork.
7. Bake on one side for 8 minutes, turn the crackers over with a metal spatula, and bake for 6 to 8 minutes more, or until the crackers have several golden spots and are slightly colored on the edges.
8. Remove and place on a rack to cool.

For the 2nd batch of cream crackers, i only made changes to the ingredients and followed the baking method according to the recipe ya.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon milk powder
• 1/3 cup corn oil (for the added crunch to the crackers)

Rojak~

i made rojak for lunch today~ It is different from the rojak that is sold at the stalls ya. My version (limited to whatever ingredients i have at home) had pineapples, turnip, cucumber, dou miao, guava, grounded nuts and tossed in a little ready- made prawn paste (to taste) ya~

Haagen Dazs, again~

Had a really crazy weekend ya~ But it was all worthwhile :) Oh! i had haagen dazs, again ya~ This time it's a scoop of strawberry and rum & raisin with almond flakes and banana toppings ya~ :p~

The hawker stall located beside Heartland more (near Kovan Mrt station) has quite a number of popular food stalls i.e. Hainanese economic rice, chicken rice, nasi lemak, carrot cake...etc. There were a couple of long lunch time queues at the stalls this afternoon ya. The popiah stall was closed, so i had Shredded Chicken Porridge instead.

i added chilli padi to the porridge. Mmm... 'pedas' (hot & spicy), just the way i like it~

Chinatown~

Chinese New Year is less than a month away ya~ Stalls selling CNY goodies have already been set up along the streets in Chinatown. All sorts of candies, waxed meat, assorted melon seeds & nuts, CNY cookies, pineapple tarts, taiwanese mua chi & jelly, CNY decorations...etc. It rained last night, so the place was not crowded ya. It will definitely be jam-packed with people in the next few weeks to come ya.

It's Popiah savouring time again~ Keke... this was for supper last night, popiah at food street. It was average ya. i like the addition of thin cucumber slices in the filling, it adds a refreshing mouth feel and enhances the overall taste ya. However they could have gone easy with the garlic paste ya. There was a really strong garlic after taste ya. Each piece of popiah costs $2.

Ice-cream~

Ice-cream~ chilled, sweet, smooth, it's simply irresistible ya~ It is a dessert that i call 'Happy food'~

Haagen-Dazs: Wild berry & cream, macadanian & strawberry ice cream with almond flakes & banana toppings~

Haagen-Dazs: Belgian Chocolate & vanilla ice cream with chopped almonds & strawberry fruit toppings~

Azabu Sabo: Green Mint with chocolate chips

Azabu Sabo: Rum & Raisin (1 of my favourites). The good thing about Azabu Sabo Hokkaido Soft ice cream is that they are not too sweet ya. It is sufficiently sweet to give alittle sugar happy high~ :p Oh! i like the way they serve the ice cream with the vibrant colour, cute little spoon ya~

Oh, check out what my friends bought~ Play Choco, Marshmellow 'condoms' ~

The marshmellows are packed individually ya~

Sophie marshmellow 'sanitary pad'

How is it like inside? The marshmellows were not shaped like sanitary pads ya, instead they are just plain rectangles ya.

i had some Vietnamese rice rolls from from Food junction at Junction 8 yesterday. They were kind of disappointing ya. The rice flour wrap was thick, the fillings were not fresh and the dip was so-so only ya. Eeks!

Ang Mo Kio S-11~

i was so engrossed with CNY baking this evening, i forgot to take pictures of the finished products before delivering them. -_-

Hmmm... i think most of us are familiar with the S-11 (24 hours) Hawker center, a good place for a satisfying meal at any time of the day (or night) ya. They have pretty good western food ya. My bro had a plate of fish and chips and i ordered rojak.

The fish and chips was served together with coleslaw, bake beans, and a piece of garlic bread toast at a price of $5. It must be good ya, cause my bro cleared his plate clean (or maybe he was just too hungry~).

The rojak was served with a reasonable amount of chopped nuts and thick prawn paste. Other then the usual tau pok, you tiao, cucumber slices, turnip and pineapple, there was a generous amount of mango slices too. The rojak is sold at 3 sizes, at $3/$4/$5. The rojak was average only, a far cry from the rojak stall at Boon Keng Market's, 'Eat May Know'.

Vivocity's Food Republic~

Madness... It was extremely crowded at vivocity this evening... mass of people everywhere, long carpark queue, long queues for food... gosh...madness! Nevertheless, i managed to take some pictures of the food before chomping them down ya (was super hungry by the time i reached food republic).

The food there was rather pricey, luckily there are some stalls that sell nice, good food ya (i.e. Hakka thunder tea rice, Fried hokkien prawn mee, Char Kway Teow...).

Century egg porridge ($2.50)It's pretty tasty with bits of shredded chicken an century egg

Mushroom crystal dumpling ($3)

The mushroom filling was too peppery.

Har Kau (prawn) with baby scallop ($4)

The prawn with scallop combi was good; Great 'mouth-feel'.

Popiah ($2 each)

The popiah was disappointing; the filling was a little too soggy, the sweet sauce was diluted and tasted different from the typical popiah.

P.S. if you want a nice, decent, stress free meal at Vivo's food republic, try patronising the stalls on a weekday afternoon ya~

Trial Run~

A little trial run before baking the cookie goodies for the up coming CNY ya. First up are the corn flake cookies and the mixed nut cookies (gram nuts, cashew nuts and walnuts).

i like the cornflake cookies ya~ they have a nice initial crunch, followed by a slight melt in your mouth textual.

Cornflake Cookie Recipe by Florence from Do What I Like blog

Ingredients:

• 110g butter (room temperature)
• 50g - 60g castor sugar
• less than 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 - 1.5 tsp orange zest
• 150g cake flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 50g cornflakes
• Raisins or cherries for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Sieve flour together with baking powder and baking soda. (i used top flour instead of cake flour)

2. Cream butter with sugar and salt till creamy.

3. Add in the egg yolk and vanilla esssence and cream till well combined.

4. Stir in the orange zest. (i added 1/2 teaspoon of lemon paste)

5. Fold in the sieved flour mixture and cornflakes. Mix till you get a soft dough.

6. Divide dough into equal pieces of about 12g each, shape into flat rounds.

7. You can stick a raisin into the middle of the cookie before baking. (This step is optional). (i excluded this step)

8. Bake at 175C for 18 - 20 minutes or till golden brown.

i couldn't decide which type of nuts to select. There's why i used all 3 of them ya~

NIE canteen~

My friends and i went over to NIE canteen for lunch again this afternoon. It was the lunch time peak period ya, and there were long queues for most of the stalls ya.

The infamous NIE Bak Chor Mee that has made many customers go back for their delicious, meaty, irresistible meat balls.

Spicy Prawn soup with extra meat balls~

They sell Lor mee too~

Spaghetti with chicken chop

Spaghetti with grilled fish

Yong Tau Foo~

My favourite Yong Tau Foo can be found at the stall owned by an old couple at the NIE canteen.

Most of the Yong tau foo are hand made and of a generous serving size, the vegetables are washed thoroughly and the soup that is boiled with yellow beans is simply wonderful ya (not too salty, oily or blend). Other then the usual kway teow, bee hoon, yellow/white noodles, there's also a choice of yam rice or laksa gravy to go with the Yong tau foo~ The price is very reasonable at about $2.20 for 7 pieces inclusive of noodles or rice ya~

Tasty yam rice with lots of yam cubes and dried mushrooms.

Lots of veggies~ Yong Tau Foo, the way i like it~ Yong Tau Foo soup with a selection of 8 pieces at only $2 :p~ The size of their seaweed is a quarter of the the original full piece ya, double or almost triple the size of those sold in most stalls ya.

Definitely a healthy, satisfying and filling meal~

P.S. There's always a long queue at the yong tau foo stall ya~

Macpherson Kopitiam~

A simple dinner at Macpherson Kopitiam (operates 24 hours)... Teochew Porridge, BBQ chicken wings and popiah (yes~ popiah again~).

Sweet potato porridge with 3 dishes; stir-fried chye sim, tofu with cabbage and steamed egg-tofu, from the 'Macpherson Teochew porridge and rice stall. It was nothing fantastic, just so-so ya.

BBQ chicken wings

At $1.30 per popiah, it's slightly more expensive than other non air-conditioned eating places ya. That's because apart from the usual, chinese lettuce, boiled turnip, beansprouts (tau-gay), eggs, ground nuts and crispy bits. they included prawns and chinese mushrooms too. The blend of the ingredients together was good ya. However, the popiah skin was alittle dry it would have been better if they used only 1 popiah skin ya~.

Mixed Fruit & Chocolate Bread~

Oops! i forgot to include part 2 of the 'project bun/bread baking' in the previous post. i separated the bread dough into 2 parts; half for the kaya buns and the other half for the mixed fruit & chocolate loaf ya.

i allowed the dough to poof for 50 minutes before adding in the mixed fruits (similar to those u see in fruit cakes) and chocolate chips and left the dough to poof for another 50 minutes in a loaf pan.

It is like a healthier version of fruit cake ya, instead of the buttery and rich cake, this is the light and tasty fruit cake bread infused with chocolate~ (okiez... maybe not exactly that healthy either~ :p)

Kaya Bun~

i didn't have to attend the lab session this morning, so it was yet another opportunity to do a 'lil baking~ (gotta cease every opportunity there is ya :p). It's project bun/bread baking today. i found some kaya spread in the refrigerator, so i decided to bake kaya buns ya.

They're nice and soft~ Definitely satisfy any bread cravings ya! :p~~~

i followed the basic pandan buns recipe from 'little corner of mine' for the bread dough but made some modifications by adding vanilla essence (instead of pandan paste), wrapping the kaya fillings with the dough balls after the first poofing step and allowing the dough to poof for another 50 minutes after that. i left out the milk or egg wash step too.

Mini Butter Cookies~

i manage to squeeze some time out to bake mini butter cookies this evening~ i did a quick search on the internet and found a recipe for melting moment cookies before baking the buttercookies.

Maxwell Food Center~

Here are some foodies from Maxwell food center ya~ They're well known for their 'ondeh-ondeh', 'UFO', curry rice, chicken rice, goreng pisang... etc... And the place is usually crowded with people ya, especially during the lunch time peak period.

Yong Tau Fu soup with lots of veggies~ (just the way i like it :p). It costs $0.40 per piece, minimum 7 pieces and an additional $0.40 for rice/noodles/beehoon...

Miniwok noodle (Xiao3 Wan3 Mian4). The texture of the noodle is sufficient "q" and tasty with a generous serving of ingredients in a miniwok at $4 a set.
Keke... a popiah addict like me will never resist to try out the different Popiah stalls ya. It costs just $1 a piece. It's pretty good, not as tasty as Qi Ji's popiah but definitely satisfying ya. There's a nice refreshing tinge to each bite (i think it's something they added in their sweet sauce or the boiled turnip and carrot filling) and doesn't leave a strong garlic after taste in the mouth.

Fried Rice~

i cooked fried rice for dinner today. i used the japanese short grain, which was the wrong choice because the fried rice turned out soggy ya. So in order to make up for the less appealing soggy appearance, i shaped the rice using flower moulds, to give a flowery appearance (keke...).

Mr Bean Ice-cream~

My favourite ice cream, Mr bean's soya cone ice cream~ The soft soya bean ice cream is reduced in sugar and fat content, and also a nutritious dessert ya. It costs $1.20 for the soya ice cream (cone) and $1.50 for the soya ice cream (cup).

i bought some japanese mochi at toa payoh bus interchange today. They are sold at 5 for $3.00 or 10 for $6.00 and comes in 5 different flavours, peanut, red bean, yam, green tea and black sasame. i like the green tea mochi best ya~ I'd give 3/5 stars, because the glutinous skin was alittle too thick ya. Besides that, they also sell mua chee, dragon beard candy, assorted kuehs, cakes and chinese pastries too.

(1,2,3,4! oops~ the missing piece was already in my stomach :p)

i had a disappointing experience with the popiah from the local delights stall at the Koufu food court at toa payoh HDB hub. The popiah skin was soggy, the 'mouth-feel' was unsatisfying, a far cry from Qi Ji's popiah.

Durian Cream Puffs~

Finally bought some eggs from NTUC today, not to bake cake but cream puffs instead ya. This is my second attempt with choux pastry. This time it's not cream custard filling but durian flavoured whipped cream ya.

It's really amazing to watch the dough puff up in the oven ya...keke... :p The cream puff shells look thorny, don't they? Ha~ it's because of the way i dropped them on the baking sheet before sending them into the oven ya~

The original recipe is from All recipe - Cream Puffs. As usual, i made some modifications to the recipe.

Recipe (makes about 20 small cream puffs)

Ingredients

Puff shells:

• 1/4 cup butter (i used planta margarine)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (i added top flour instead)
• 2 eggs

Filling:

• 3/4 cup sweetened whipping cream milk (i used phoon huat's whipping cream)
• 1/2 teaspoon durian essence (fresh durian puree will be much better ya)
• 1/4 teaspoon yellow food colouring
• 1/4 cup icing sugar (Optional-For dusting onto the shells.)

Method

Filling:

1. Beat the whipping cream in a large mixing bowl for 2 minutes. Add in the durian essence and food colouring and continue to whip the cream till stiff peaks are formed. Refrigerate it for at least 20 minutes before pipping into the puff shells.

Puff Shells:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl.
3. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 18 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
5. When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells. Dust the icing (powdered) sugar onto the puff shells (optional). Keep refrigerated.
   

Keke...mum loves them ya~

enjoy~ :)

Japanese Curry Rice~

What's for lunch today? Yummie-licious japanese curry rice~ It's an easy dish to prepare ya, that is because i used those instant japanese curry mix ya.

All i had to do was to dice the potatoes, carrots, onions, cut the chicken fillet to bite size, and chop up some garlic, then stir-fry them in alittle oil, add 6 Cups of water, bring them to a boil, add in the curry mix and stir for 5 minutes under low heat. Ha~ there~ my curry rice method in brief~. Most curry mix pack will provide detailed cooking instructions at the back of the box ya~ So as long as you follow the steps, you will definitely cook up a wonderful jap curry meal ya~

And if you prefer a lighter meal, the rice can be substituted with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes instead ya(shown in the picture below).

Itadakimasu~
:p~