Wendy's @ GV Yishun 10

Em... if you are just given this photo to guess where are these baked potato from, can you score bingo for it? I am sure for those who always love to venture new food are bond to recognised some of the signature items from each restaurants at a glance. I have posted a similar photo at the Facebook Fan page and surprisingly all the 5 person who comments guess it correctly(click HERE to view). These baked potatoes are indeed from the new fast food restaurant known as “Wendy’s”.

Last Saturday, Joyce and I decided to drop by Wendy’s that is located in Golden Village Yishun 10. This newly opened outlet has replaced the Burger King that had being an icon fast food outlet there for more than 10 years I guess.

The queue at Wendy’s is pretty long during weekend evenings and I have to queue for about 30 minutes before I can get my orders done. To survive in these fast food industries, Wendy’s indeed has a wide range of items from different varieties of burgers to deep-fried chicken pieces, assorted baked potatoes, chili and array flavour of frosty. So after running through their menu, these are what Joyce and I settle with.

1/4 Pound Single Combo which comes with a 1/4 Pound Burger, small fries and drinks of your choice. You can also choose to upsize your side and drink with additional 50cents or S$1.00 for medium or large. Each bite of this 1/4 pound burger, you will get to taste the delicious patty that is grilled to juicy perfection and it is served with fresh toppings such as tomato and pickle. For a combo set like this with regular fries and drink it cost S$6.85 per set.

Next we get a set of their Fried Chicken Combo at S$7.40 each because we are curious to try out how different it taste compare to other fast food restaurants that serves fried chicken too. The outer layer is very crispy and the meat inside is surprisingly not dry or tough but tender. But if compare to other fried chicken, this taste rather mild without the usual herbs and spices taste.

My choice of "Broccoli & Cheese Baked Potato" @ S$3.30 each which is a huge serving that can be shared between two person. The piping-hot baked potato that is straight from the oven is topped with tender pieces of broccoli and a creamy cheese sauce. For me as a cheese lover, the cheese sauce taste rather a bit mild but in another way it will be less greasy and great for those non-cheese lovers to pick up this choice.

Joyce pick wants something less cheesy so she settle with this "Sour Cream & Chives Potato" that cost S$2.90 each. The sour cream topping goes well with the blend baked potato and makes it a rather healthy choice among the 5 toppings that are available. Although this taste great, but we thought if they have some extra fried bacon bits on top of the sour cream it would be perfection for this dish.

Wendy’s offer 4 different types of “Frosty” which are Original Frosty, Frosty Float, Frosty Shake and Twisted Frosty. Here we order one of their “Original Chocolate Frosty” that taste cool, creamy and refreshing. The texture is very smooth and it does not taste too sweet for those without sweet tooth. I am sure a small cup of this will satisfies your palate after hearty meal.

Other than burgers, fried chicken, baked potatoes and etc. Wendy's also have Breakfast Sets, Garden Salads, Chili, Kids' Meal (comes with a toy) and etc. Perhaps we will drop by another day to try out their breakfast set again.

There are a few Wendy's outlet around Singapore from the main branch at Lau Pa Sat and the rest locating at Jurong Point, Holland village, Liat Towers and Yishun 10. According to them, there will be another two NEW outlets coming up soon at Plaza by the Park and NEX Mall.

Double-Boiled Durian Chicken Soup - 榴莲炖鸡汤

Durian is known as the "King of all Fruits" and in Singapore we can have Durian almost throughout the whole year. And among all the varieties of durian in the stalls, I am sure most of the people will go for either "Cat Mountain King - 猫山王" or "Red Prawn - 红虾" which are bonds to make people crave for more. In recent years there are so many special and delicious products that are made from fresh durian flesh available in the market such as: durian moon cake, ice-cream, muffins, and etc.

Today I am not going to use durian to make any cakes or dessert but rather I will like to share with you on how to make a pot of simple and delicious Durian Soup. From what I have read up, in Thailand many woman or confinement ladies will make this soup to strengthen their body as Durian is consider to be one of the best ingredient. There are different method on making this soup, some of them will use the durian shell, soft white flesh inside the shell or the durian meat itself. But here, I will choose to use the durian flesh together with the seed.

Since you can always find all sort of varieties of Durian at the local Durian Stalls or some supermarket. If you wish, do pick up some and try out this double-boiled durian chicken soup which will surprised you and your family. This soup has many therapeutic effects, including circulating of the blood and qi in your body, nourishing yin and it is also suitable for everyone to consume. For those who loves durian, this soup gives a little hint of durian aroma and sweetness but if you prefer something stronger taste, you can always mixed the soup with the flesh to make it more tastier and creamy texture.

Durian is also rich in protein and contain good source of nutrition in the fruit category. It has a special aroma, which are appetizers to promote the effect of appetite, including dietary fiber which can promote bowel movement. But you should not over consume it because of its rich nutrition that your stomach might not be able to fully absorbed it. And if you eat durian, you can always have a few mangosteen which is the "Queen of Fruit" to cool down your body from eating too much of durian.

Now let's take a look at today's ingredients which only consists of 4 items: -

Ingredients: (serves 2)
6 seeds of Durian Fruit
1 Chicken Drumbstick
2 - 3 Pieces of Pork Ribs
800 ml Chicken broth or Soup stock

Tips:

~ When getting the durian, try to choose those flash that is dry and not too ripe that it can be kept whole throughout the cooking.
~ You can also add in 2 slices of ginger to enhance the flavour of the soup.
~ The natural sweetness and taste of the soup is good enough to consume without any extra seasonings.

If you don't have slow cooker, you can always double-boiled it in another pot over the stove on low heat too.

Method:
1. Trim and cut the chicken drumpstick into pieces, then bring a pot of water to boil.
2. Blanced the chicken and ribs in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, removed, rinse and set aside.
3. Next arrange the Durian neatly into the bottom of the double-boiler pot, then top with chicken and ribs on it and place the pot into the inner pot of the slow cooker.
4. Pour the chicken stock into a small soup pot, bring it to boil then slowly add into the durian ingredient pot.
5. Remember to use boiling water for the inner pot of the slow cooker to double-boiled the soup.
6. Set the slow cooker to AUTO and cook for about 1.5 hours and serve it warm.

After looking at this interesting Durian Chicken Soup recipe, if you are interested in reading more on other related durian recipes such as: Durian Fried Rice, Durian Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Durian Tiramisu, Durian Cheesecake with Chocolate Fudge and etc. Click here (HERE) for more recipe articles.




p/s: If you will like to read more on the chinese version of this recipe, do hop over to my blog at Omy HERE.

Fish Slice & Bitter Gourd Porridge

In Singapore do you know where to eat the best fish soup or fish porridge? I believe for those who loves fish soup, you must have tried those stalls located at Amoy Street (厦门街) food centre, level 2 such as "Piao Ji Fish Porridge - 標記鱼粥" and "Han Kee Fish Porridge - 漢記鱼粥". But have you thought of cooking your very own version of Fish Soup with your desire ingredients. Today let's take a look on how easy we can prepared a homecook fish soup within 30 minutes by using some bitter gourd and fresh fish slices to cook teochew style fish porridge.

Bitter gourd clearing and refreshing which helps nourishing Qi, kidney and spleen, liver and improve eyesight effectiveness. It also has certain treatment effect on sores, heat stroke, fever, and other diseases. On the other hand, bitter gourd has high content of vitamin C, with prevention of scurvy, protect cell membrane and prevent atherosclerosis, improve stress ability such as the role to protect the heart. You can even use this as beauty products to achieve fairer skin with its moisture, calm and moisturizing the skin, especially in hot summer, apply it icy cold bitter gourd slices on the face can immediately lift the skin irritation.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
250g of Fresh Fish Slices
100g of Bitter Gourd, cut into thin slices
2 rice bowl of cooked rice
1 Tomato, cut into wedge
2 stalks of Spring Onion, cut into section
2 slices of Ginger
4 Stalks of Lettuce
800ml Water
Salt or Chicken cube for seasonings
Chopped Spring Onion and Parsley, garnish
Dry Shallot and Shallot Oil

Tips:

• You can use any kind of fish slices that are suitable for making soup such as: sheng yu, grouper, red snapper, mackerel and etc.
• If you buying the fish in the wet market you can also seek advice from the stall helper to get some good choice.
• f you are hesitated to eat bitter gourd due to it taste, you can rubbed some salt on the cut slices give is some squeeze, rinse it in water so as to reduce the bitterness taste.

From the steps below, you will notice that this is a very simple and nutritious soup which can be easily done in less than 30 minutes. And if you have time, you can prepared a pot of fish stock using fish bone and anchovies as main ingredients which will gives the stock an even more flavorful taste.

Method:
1. Prepared all the ingredients, preheat the soup pot with 1 teaspoon of oil, add spring onions and ginger and saute it until fragrant then add in bitter gourd and continue to fry for another 10 seconds, pour in 800ml of water.
2. Bring the mixture to boil again, add in fish slices and tomato cook for another 1 minute on medium high heat.
3. Turn off the heat, season with salt to taste.
4. Place each bowl of rice in a big soup bowl, scoop the hot soup mixture over the rice.
5. To serve garnish with some spring onion, coriander, shallot oil for extra flavour.

But if you prefer to have the soup and rice separately like normal fish soup with rice, you can always go ahead without adding the rice into the soup. For more information if you wish to read the Chinese version of the fish soup recipe, please click here. (Click HERE for recipe)

The Handburger @ 313 Orchard

Remember our Burger Hunt outing, after sharing the post with you on Burger Bench & Bar(read more HERE), now let me continue to share with you our 2nd stop of the food hunting at "The Handburger" which is located at the end corner at Basement 2 of 313 @ Somerset.

3 best friends, Anna Lim, Andrew Chan and Benedict Leow who want to offer quality, artisan burgers that are priced reasonably so that everyone is able to enjoy them regularly, own “The Handburger” restaurant. Other than burgers retail, they are also the owner behind the popular western soup restaurant known as "The Soup Spoon" that has varies outlets in Singapore.

Since we have just finished our 1st hunt over at "Burger, Bench & Bar", we decided to order something more unique over here. After going through the menu, the few of us (Alice, Lobster, Alvin & I) agreed on this "Tandoor Chicken Burger" and "Duck Confit". I love the Indian Tandoor Chicken so I have much higher expectation on this burger.

According to the menu the chicken thigh is cooked in tandoor style that is marinated in yogurt, cucumber, red onions, hand cooked masala sauce, mint mayo. It is then topped with sweet mango chutney on some coral lettuce and tomato and sandwich together with toasted spinach and Parmesan bun. The greenish bun does look appealing to us but the taste of the tandoor chicken was kind of plain perhaps of the sauce and overall it does not really suits our liking. But for those who don't really like the strong Indian spices taste, you might wish to give it a try at S$10.80 each.

Duck Confit Burger is something rare to be found in most common burger outlets so it is worth to get a set of this. They actually grilled the whole boneless duck leg confit in handmade orange sauce then topped with baby snow pea sprouts and mandarin orange on a bed of coral lettuce and tomato together with the toasted caramelised bun. The duck itself is very tender when bite and it combines very well with the handmade sauce and orange topping. Recommend to try this if you have eaten too much of chicken burger.

You can create a set meal with either S$4.00/S$6.00 top up for extra side and drink (ice lemon tea/hot green tea) together with a burger of your choice. So for this set, we choose the "The Works Burger" that consists of 100% New Zealand ribeye beef patty that weights 150g, this patty is nicely grilled and topped with battered onion rings, crispy bacon, sunny side up egg, sauteed basil pesto mushroom, sweet onion jam, cheddar cheese and etc on a bed of coral lettuce then sandwich with toasted caramelised onion bun.

Can you imagine when you bite this burger, it will be burst with all kind of flavour such as juicy beef, onion, runny egg yolk, cheese and etc. For beef lover like me and Alice, we do agreed that this beef patty is far much more better than the previous one that we have tried especially on the seasoning and sauce that makes a great different. As for the side, we have a Caesar Salad to go with the burger while drink, we top-up extra to have the Lychee Mint Crush instead of the usual ice lemon tea.

Lychee Mint Crush is definitely a very interesting drink. The sweet fragrances of the lychee and the refreshing cool mint blend together with crush ice ineed makes this a great choice to go with those burgers. Most of us are guess what are the ingredients blended in it which makes it taste so addicting. Some mention about kiwifruit and cucumbers, but I will leave you to try this out on your next visit to the outlet. A glass of this cost cost about S$5.50 which is good enough to share between two person.

This restaurant also offer some Kid's Friendly meal for either "Mini Mister Meal" or "Mini Miss Meal" where you can choose between Cheeseburger or Fish Burger to go with chunky fries, buffalo winglets, a cup of freshly blended apple juice and a cupcake for dessert. All these only cost you S$9.50 per set which I am sure your kids will love these combination. But somehow or rather, we find they should change the drink to something else instead of fresh apple fruit because tends to oxide before consume which makes it look rather not appetising to the kids. (Above is the "Mini Mister Meal" with Fish Burger where you can find a slice of lovely lotus root in it)

This is something new to us, sweet burger which they known it as "THB Dessert Burger" which sandwich a 70% dark coverture chocolate patty filled with macadamia nuts, topped with apple crem cheese filling on a bed of butter icing and strawberries with fluffy donut bun. We love this, the chocolate patty is so rich and fragrant that it makes you crave for more. If you like chocolate and with something special rather than the usual meat patty, I suggest you go for this S$6.50 dessert burger with a cup of tea or coffee.

Overall we have a great time on our second food outings for this Burger Hunt event. But however we did not managed to try the 3rd places which is included in our schedule at Ice Rockz, located at Scape because they are running out of rice patty when we get there. So I guess, we have to go back another time or perhaps another BURGER OUTING!!! Our next outing will be something more exciting so do stay tune for our outing updates in September.


The HandBurger
313 Orchard Road
#B2-17/18/19
313 @ Somerset
Singapore 238895
Telephone: 6509 6214
Website: www.thehandburger.com

Opening Hours:
Daily: 11.30am – 10.00pm

Note:

1. You can read more related posts on this outing at Misstamchiak, Amanda and Lobsterpaints site too. Stay till for our next outing updates in September challenge ourself on eating "Crocodile Paw".

2. Or you wish to take a look at more photos on Cuisine Paradise Fan Page Album HERE.

Burger Bench & Bar @ Cineleisure Orchard

Last month we have our 1st Blogger's outing at Chef Daniel's Kitchen @ Illuma (click HERE for post) where everyone of us share some great time together. And this month, we have organised a Burger Hunt on 14 August 2010 as our 2nd outing event. Initially we have planned to try out different burgers from 3 places along Orchard area but end up we only managed to set our taste buds for 2.

This post I will share with you the 1st stop of our Burger Hunt which is at Burger Bench & Bar opened by ex-lawyer Willin Low, owner of Wild-Rocket, Wild Oats and Relish. This store was located at level 1 of Cineleisure Orchard since last year December and it has another name known as "B3" which derived from "Burger, Bench & Bar".

They have 8 different flavour of burgers that you can choose from the range of Beef, Pork, Poultry, Fish and etc. And if you feel like having something extra, you can also try some of their yummy snacks such as russet potato crisps and golden chicken wings. For this outing, we have ordered 6 different burgers and 2 snacks from their menu to try out.

I am sure if you like Japanese Food such as Sashimi you would have tried Wasabi before. This is "Sasame Wasabi Butter-Fish Burger", deep-fried fish fillet which is cripsy is crispy and burst with juicy flavour when bite. The fillet sits on top on some some shredded cabbage and top with chef special wasabi sauce which is combined with some addition of mustard and roasted sesame seeds. And according to one of stuff, they adjusted the original level of spiciness after feedback from some customers which cannot take the "spicy kick" from wasabi so this burger is still manageable for kid who can take a bit of spicy food to consume.

Soft-shell Chilli Crab Burger is a new items on their menu which cost S$8.20 with a rather huge piece of soft shell (from the photo) sitting on some shredded cabbage and top with some paste. From a glance the paste look like sort of similar to normal tomato paste but it is actual chilli crab sauce but some of us who tried it comments that the sauce is actually too overpowering which covered that taste of the soft shell crab.

The look of this "Saute Mixed Mushroom & Cheese Beef Burger" seems to tasty and juicy from the photo. When Alice and I tried it, we find the beef patty taste rather ok with it's seasonings and mushroom topping. But it is not those kind that you will go "WOW".

I have tried a few Curry Chicken/Pork Katsu Don before, but the idea of combining a Japanese dish into burger this is the 1st time I have saw and tried. The "Japanese Curry Chicken Katsu Burger" at B3 cost S$7.90 each which is pretty reasonable for the price to have the same ingredients sandwich with 2 slices of bread inside of rice. But you might be surprised with the taste of the sauce which is not what you usually have in your Katsu Don dish.

Compared to the above Mixed Mushroom & Cheese Beef Burger, this "Cheese Burger With Mayonnise & Sundried Tomato Relish" taste much better with it's sundried tomato relish. This is slightly cheaper which costs only S$7.80 but the overall taste is much better if you love "Beef Burger".

Amanda wish to try this "Grilled Chicken Burger With Relish & Jalapeno" which look pretty healthy due to the grilled chicken breast meat and Jalapeno toppings that makes it look less greasy and light, this cost S$8.50 each. Each mouthful, you can taste the tender and juicy chicken meat chew together with the tangy relish and spicy jalapeno.

This is one of their signature side dishes that are freshly made from their kitchen instead of those usual pre-packed potato chips. Their hand-cooked russet potato crisps are surprisingly crunchy and filled with an authentic potato taste that you can’t resists on nibbling more on those chips.

Snack number 2, we ordered two plates of this "Golden Chicken Wings with Chef Gino's Deadly Chilli Sauce" that comes with 6 pieces serving per plate at S$5.00 each. The wings taste a bit spicy itself so if you cannot take spicy food then don't go with that dipping sauce. But with that extra chilli sauce, it will definitely enhance the taste more.

After the meal, we tried this "Gourmet Dark Chocolate Soft Serve Ice-Cream" for dessert. According to their poster, this is the 1st Home-made soft serve Ice-Cream available in Singapore. A cup of this will cost you S$3.00 and it's pretty worth it for it's rich chocolate taste too.


BURGER BUNCH AND BAR
8 Grange Road
#01-02
Cathay Cineleisure Orchard
Singapore 239695
Telephone: 65- 6737 9947
Website: www.wildrocket.com.sg

Opening Hours:
Mon - Thurs: 12:00pm - 11:00pm
Fri - Sat: 12:00pm - 2:00am
Sun: 12:00pm - 11:00pm

Note:

1. You can read more related posts on this outing at Misstamchiak, Amanda and Lobsterpaints site too. Stay till for part II on "The Handburger" post soon.

2. Or you wish to take a look at more photos on Cuisine Paradise Fan Page Album HERE.

Homemade Kiwifruit and Apple Jam

Recently I have posted a "Blueberry & Banana Jam - 蓝莓香蕉果酱" (click HERE) over at my "Omy blog" which is written in Chinese. And since I have some extra Kiwifruit in the pantry which mum bought it from the recent kiwifruit promotion at the supermarket, I decided to use it to make this jam.

Spreading some lovely homemade jam on warm toasted bread is definitely a wonderful things to start off the day for morning breakfast. My mum loves to have jam on either toast or plain cracker for her morning breakfast so whenever there is extra fruits in the fridge I will make some lovely jam for her.

To start with we will need some fresh kiwifruit, apple and lemon together with caster sugar. There are a few types of kiwifruit available from the fruit stalls or supermarket depending of which countries they are from. I am sure you have tried the green kiwifruit and golden kiwifruit which is yellowish after removing the outer skin.

You might like to take this photo as reference to shows the steps and changes that took place while cooking the jam.

Ingredients: (make about 1 cup)
2 Medium Size Green Kiwifruit, about 150g
1 Apple, about 150g
220g Sugar
Rind of 1 Lemon
Juice of Half Lemon

Method:
1. Bring a pot of water with jam bottle in it to a boil and boil them for 5 - 8 minutes or so to sterilize them, removed and invert for them to dry.
2. Peel off the skin from the kiwifruit and apple and chopped them into fine cubes.
3. Place all the above ingredients in a heavy-duty saucepan(choose a slightly higher saucepan as the mixture will rise as it boils) and bring to boil over medium high heat and stirring occasionally.
4. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly and skimming foam as necessary.
5. Cook about 10 minutes, until mixture begins to look syrupy and thickens slightly.
6. Once the mixture is stiff enough with a glossy outlook remove the pot from the heat and start filling the jam bottle.
7. Fill the jam near to the rim, screw the cap on and leave it to cool.
8. The jam needs to be refrigerated to prevent mold from forming and it can be kept in the fridge for 2 - 3 weeks.

Note:

1. The jam will look rather watery when done, but don't worry it will thicken up when it cools down to room temperature.

Kiwifruit consists of twice as much vitamin C as there are in oranges so in fact you need one kiwifruit each day to get that amount to replenish your daily intake. But if you or your kids don't prefer to eat the fruit as it's own, perhaps you can consider to some kiwifuits to make some smoothie or jam like what I have shared above.