Wednesday 30 September 2009

Sakae Buddies

Children Day is one of the special holiday that kids of all ages look forward to. They enjoy all kinds of treats, food, goodies and gifts that is given to them on during celebration. So this year we are having our early Children's Day lunch @ Sakae Sushi.

Look at the range of "Froggy" goodies that Sakae offers. They have all kinds of item made in the shape of that green frog which is so adorable in the eyes of both kids and adult. Rey have a few collection of these items and his wishing list is to get all of them and display them in his playroom just that what they did in the Sakae Sushi outlet.

Rey's classmate tried this Salmon Skin(鮭皮) Inari Sushi which consists of sushi rice filled in a pouch of fried tofu and topped with crispy minced salmon skin that blend so nicely with the sushi rice. We have never tried this before and at the 1st glance, I still thought it is minced beef or tuna :)

Although we have tried countless of the Chawanmushi from Sakae, but I must confess that this is the first time we order this Unagi Chawanmushi. Imagine have a few pieces of tasty grill eel on top with a cup of smooth and silky steam egg custard. Both Rey and his classmate enjoy this little treat which they called it "pudding".

I knew Rey and his buddy love the combination of "meat floss" with rice. So I specially order this "Fruitti Maki" which is coated with a layer of floss on the outer layer of the roll and some extra colourful fresh fruits on top of it. The choice of the fruits give this sushi an extreme appetizing look.

As you read from my previous two Sakae related posts, there are always "Temaki"(Temaki sushi is a form of rolled sushi, created in a cone or roll shape) available in our list. I am always fascinated by its vibrant colour combination. So start from top right to button left to right we have:-

1) Manago Avocado: Decent amount of sushi rice wrap with a layer of nori sheet and top with crunch of lettuce, slices of green apple, mango and avocado. Mum love this combination.

2) Ebi Fry: Rey's buddy choose this as he loves the combi of deep-fry prawn with rice and wrapped with nori sheet and he finished it in less than 2 minutes..... So I guess it must be really nice, must get hold of one on my next visit :)

3) California: This round, I order the California Tamaki which consists of cucumber, imitation crab stick, avocado and a spoonful of fish roes. Yummy!!!

Dragon Roll is wrap with a inner layer of deep-fried prawn and nori sheet while the outer layer are covers with a generous amount of avocado slices which has a buttery taste infuse in it. This is definitely a healthy choice for weight watcher and I love anything that has avocado in it.......

Ajituske Idako is a combination of sweet and savoury baby octopuses that is place on top of sushi rice wrapped with nori sheet. My mum will always pick up a plate of this from the convey belt as she loves the crunch and taste of the baby octopus in their special sauce.

Look at this hot and spicy Kimuchi Hotpot, does it spice up your palate to order 1? This soup is infuse with some hot and spicy taste from the Kimchi, sweetness of the seafood and great nutritious of the vegetables used. And since Rey's buddy mummy love to try something which is unusual, we recommend her this dish which is value for it price that consists of so many ingredients in one pot. We all love the taste of this soup which is just nice for what we are looking for.

Finally it's dessert time that everyone is looking forward too... Too bad the branch has run out of Tempura Ice-cream so the kids will have to settle on other choices. One of the waiter recommend us to try this "Strawberry Smiles" which is fresh strawberry stuffs with frozen ice-cream. Everyone of us love this, as the frozen blend just great with the strawberry. The colour is really sweet and eye catching for the kids.

Another dessert that we venture is this Lychee flavour "Mochi Ice-cream". Being a fan of Sakae sushi for so many years, I have not actually try their other dessert range than the Tempura Ice-cream. So today, we really benefit a lot from trying all these cute and interesting dessert that they offer. Their mochi is wrapped with the Lychee flavour ice-cream which makes the dessert very light and refreshing taste.

Look at the kids, they really enjoy they visit at Sakae and it is really fun and heartwarming to give a treat to those who have similar taste. And since, Children's Day is around the corner, this is the best treat to reward them :)

And Candice, thanks for your recommendation on being a Sakae E-journalist too. Now we have more excuses to visit Sakae for our favourite dishes. Thank you :) So readers, if you are reading this post and you are interested to be like one of us who can eat and blog with Sakae at the same time, do click on this link to find out more :p


Friday 25 September 2009

Din Tai Fung - 小笼包

Din Tai Fung(鼎泰豐) starts with a small shop, located on the intersection of Xinyi Road, in Taipei City. It has become a symbol of Chinese delicacies with its "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包". This small shop has venture out into international market where they have many branches in countries such as Taiwan, Japan, USA, China, Singapore, Korea and etc.

Din Tai Fung(鼎泰豐) has about 5 branches in Singapore located at Paragon Orchard, Bishan Junction 8, Tampines Mall, Wisma Atria Orchard and Raffles City. They have a many varieties of Steamed Dumplings varies from Savory to Sweet. Other than steamed dumplings, they also have a few choices of La Mian.

My mum and aunt love to order this "Appetiser - 小菜" which is on a mixture of seaweed, tofu, bean sprout, chilli etc whenever they visit Din Tai Fung. They always kick off with this signature appetiser before starting their main course.

This is one of our favorite dish called "Pork Chop Fried Rice - 排骨蛋飯". I love the way they seasoned the pork chop which the spices and the combination of the pork chop goes well with their fragrance egg fried rice.

First time ordering this "Glass noodle soup with fried bean curd and pork rolls - 油豆腐粉" which is one of their recommendation dish on the menu. The soup base is great and overall this dish is light and healthy with their self-made Pork Rolls. But if you do not fancy "Glass noodle - 冬粉" then don't expect too much from this dish.

The distinguishing feature of Din Tai Fung's dumplings is that the chefs would make 18 folds to seal the dumplings. I love dumplings especially the "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包" which I will use the chopsticks to poke a little hole in the skin of the dumpling to let the soup flow out onto the spoon and sip the soup. Then I will add some julienned ginger (soaked in black vinegar) on top of the dumpling before eating it.

Other than their signature "Steamed Dumplings - 小笼包", we also ordered their special promotion "Steamed Chili Crab Dumplings" which is one of the Food Festival Award dish. Although the dumplings that serves on us is not what we expected it to be, it still have it's unique taste. The combination of chilli crab gravy with the soup base of the usual steam dumplings makes this festival dumpling a special dish to venture on.


Thursday 24 September 2009

Fancy Delight - Assorted Egg Tarts

Come across this bright orangy colour stall known as "Fancy Delight" at level one of IMM Building where they display many different varieties of unique Egg Tarts. The tarts are very different from the usual one that we had at Dim Sum restaurant. Their tarts are shaped like a little cup that comes in around 20 or so different flavours range from sweet & savoury. So after some discussion we decided to settle with these 4 flavour.

Banana Tart - which topped with slices of fragrance fresh banana gives it an irresistible Goreng Pisang taste. This is Rey's favourite compare to the Double-Chocolate Tart that he pick because of the sweet and tasty aroma of the banana that is infuse in the custard.

My pick is this Green Tea Tart as I was attracted by the bright green colour of the crust and also I love the fragrance of any green-tea products. And true enough, the tart shell is very fragrance and it match well with the inner custard which release a very refreshing taste when consume.

This Double-Chocolate Tart is chosen by Rey but in the end he prefers the Banana Tart over this. It has a chocolate marble tart that is filled with chocolate milk custard and top with extra chocolate chips.

We keep this Durian Tart for the very last as we are afraid that the taste of the Durian might over power the rest of the tarts. But then we are kind of disappointed with the taste as we think the amount of durian flesh added is still not enough to bring out the flavour of the tart.

But overall, it is still worth to try out these tarts and I will sure to get back with some of their new flavour like pepper chicken, gula malak, orange chocolate and etc.


Outlets:
~ IMM Jurong
2, Jurong East St. 21, IMM Building, #01-K05.
Monday to Sunday. 10.30am to 10pm or while stock last.

~ Suntec City
3 Temasek Boulevard, Suntec City Mall (Tower 3), #01-140F (near Carrefour).
Monday to Sunday. 10am to 10pm or while stock last.

~ Tanjong Pagar
Block 1, Tanjong Pagar Plaza, #01-04.
Monday to Friday 7.30am to 7.30pm
Sat 7.30am to 5.30pm.
Closed on Sunday and Public Holiday.


EAT! REVIEW & WIN

Come Come!!! Join us on this Food Review submission event organized by OMY.EAT to stand a chance to win a two nights accommodation package at Bintan Lagoon Resort worth S$888.

So what are you waiting for! Come let's find and upload(click link to upload) the most delicious and mouth drooling food that you have tried in Singapore so that we can make the reader drool over what we had tried too.

Note: In order to participate, you have to be an existing OMY member to login use your "userid and password" or you can "Sign up" as a new member.

Wow.. look at the Bintan Resort.... now we are all drooling over the package....... :p So let wait hop over to the site and submit our special review. Good Luck to each and everyone of you who participate :)

Here are the terms and condition of the event:-
- Reservations (redemption of stay) will be subject to availability and resort's closed-out dates (eves of and on Singapore Public Holidays)
- Excludes ferry tickets, fuel surcharge, security tax and other surcharges related to ferry transfers.
- Advance reservation is required


Monday 21 September 2009

Cordyceps Militaris Chicken Soup

I have read about the usage of this Cordyceps Militaris in some Chinese Soup Book some months back but I didn't give it a try because I thought we might not be able to find this in Singapore as it is not a common soup herbs. But my view changed when I chance upon a soup recipe from FOOD 4 TOTS called Chicken & Cordyceps Militaris Soup. Thank LK, for sharing this herbs and a wonder soup recipe :)

She mentioned about this herb and how she got it from her mother-in-law. So without hesitate, I also try my luck in one of the Chinese Medical shop in Chinatown where I managed to get hold of this herbs at $11.00 (during their promotion) for "一两 (38g)".

Ingredients:
1/2 Chicken
5-7g of Cordyceps Militaris (虫草子实体)
6 Big Red Date (红枣)
1 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞)
5g Yu Zhu (玉竹)
1000ml water

Method:
1. Clean, remove the extra fats from the chicken then cut it into half if your double-boiled pot is too small.
2. Bring some water to boil in pot, blanch the chicken for about 2 - 3 minutes, rinse and set aside.
3. Rinse all the herbs and set aside.
4. Next bring the 1000ml of water to almost boil, add in the rinse herbs and bring to boil for about 2 minutes then add in the chicken.
5. Let it bring to boil again then simmer for about another 3 minutes.
6. Transfer to the double-boil pot and place it in a slow-cooker with hot water in it.
7. Double-boiled for about 2 - 2.5 hrs.
8. Serves with rice or you can drink before meal.

Note:
1) I just season the soup with pinch of salt before consume. The adding of herbs do makes the soup taste sweet and fragrance so it's ok if you omit the salt seasoning.

According to the shopkeeper by adding some Yu Zhu (玉竹) can nourishes Ying and stimulates saliva to quenches thirst. It also can be used to heals coughing and clears the internal Heat as well as pain the the throat. And there also also a few types of Yu Zhu available is most of the medical shop which I have shown two types over here. The 1 on the left which is darker brown in colour is more towards the fresh cut without being press thin and dry compare to the whiter colour 1 on the right.


Recently I also spot another type of vacuum sealed packing of this Cordyceps Militaris from Fook Huat Chinese Medical Shop (福华). But I am not sure how it taste and look like compare to this type that I get from the Medical Shop in Chinatown. So do give this soup a try if you managed to find this herbs. It really add extra flavour and fragrance to the soup which make it taste great.



Longhouse Food Centre - Thomson

LongHouse located at the busy street of Upper Thomson Road where it is very hard to find a park lot during lunch/dinner peak hours. Recently, they have an open air car park that one street before the food centre which can accommodate more parking spaces for foodies to enjoy their favourite food.

There are about more than 10 stalls in the Longhouse food center, ranging from Chinese, Korean, Malay and etc. Most of the people are attracted to the famous Bugis Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow and Pisang Goreng. And you can hardly find a place during the lunch crowd timing.

There are too many choices of food to be choose from. So after much discussion, we settle for these few dishes below. While ordering the Fried Oyster Omelette - 蚝煎 and Char Kway Teow, Mum happen to spot one of her friend helping around at the stall. In this case, we have extra ingredients in our orders :p Look at the fat and juicy oysters that are being wrapped in layers of omelette, isn't this taste great despite of all the fats content :) We all love this dish ad it is not as oily compare to some other stalls and the omelette is nicely done with a golden and crispy texture.

The Char Kway Teow is of average standard, as we find that it is still lack of something which brings out that special flavour which compare to some of those famous Char Kway Teow stalls around Singapore. From the photo, you can see that the rice noodles is being fried together with some dark sauce, with the adding of beansprouts, spring onion, egg and some cockles. While some of other stalls, might have prawns, fish cakes, choy sum or Chinese sausage and etc....

Apart from the oily stuffs, we also ordered one pot of the double-boiled soup which is the "Du Zhong Ji Tang - 杜仲炖鸡汤" because I was attracted by the stunning soup photos on the menu. But to our disappointment, this soup does not taste as what we expected before of the ingredients they add. Mum and I both feel that the soup taste kind of odd with the adding of pepper and Chinese parsley. As these two ingredients actually mask up the herbal taste of the soup.

Lastly, after a nice and comfort meal. We decided to order a few of these to settle our sweet tooth. Since this is my favourite snacks/finger food, I cannot resists the temperation and buy more than half a dozen of different items on the shell. As you can see, the outer skin is so nicely fried with a golden and crispy layer which makes you crave for more after your first bite.


Sunday 20 September 2009

Astons Specialties @ East Coast

Astons has many branches located in different parts of Singapore range from Shopping Center to neighbourhood coffee shops. So I am sure no matter which area you are from, there is always a Astons outlet near you. Today we are visiting the outlet at East Coast Road which is opposite Katong Mall after hearing a lot of good comments from friends, especially on their Wagyu Beef Set.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is great with it's furnishing and warm and prompt services. First to be served is their Cream of Mushroom soup which is very good. The soup itself is very thick and creamy which is towards our liking.

From a quick glance on this post, you can see that we have actually ordered 3 different "Beef" set which are "Porterhouse Cut", "Prime Ribeye" and their famous Grade 6 "Wagyu Beef". This Porterhouse Cut served with Potato Salad and Garden Veggie which gives it a brighten up colour contract from the cut.

Medium Well cooked Prime Ribeye comes with Onion Rings and Pasta Salad. The beef is nicely grill and it is still soft and juicy when cut through. This is sure worth the price of S$16.50 including two side dishes.

Finally comes the STAR of tonight dishes which is their Grade 6 - Wagyu Beef. This slice of 200g beef cost S$38.90 with 2 side dishes of your choice and a drink. It is kind of high for such a pricing to enjoy a small piece of beef but if the chef has done it well, I am sure it will worth it price for that.

Finally here is my Salmon Spaghetti which I was kind of disappointed with it. This seems to be like a chunk of fish meat coated with tomato sauce placed on top of the cooked spaghetti. Overall it is kind of an affordable restaurant for Western food as there is no extra GST or 10% service charge in the total bill as in you only pay for the price that you see from the ordering menu.


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