Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Friday 9 December 2011

Celebrate Life This Christmas With nydc's Christmas Menu‏

Christmas isn't a time just to receive but also giving out our best to those who is in need. Here at nydc, for every Hearty Christmas roast platter or Captain’s catch seafood platter you order means a donation of S$1.00 will goes to the children of M.I.L.K(Mainly I Love Kids) and that applied to a donation of 50¢ for every Christmas Log sold too.

And with their new range of hearty selection of Christmas platters, Christmas a la carte dishes, Christmas log cakes, Christmas drinks, the nydc 2011 Christmas Menu promises to satiate the festive appetite of fun, cool and hip party of for your friends, colleagues and family.


HEARTY CHRISTMAS ROAST PLATTER
(Serves 4 @ S$98++)


The signature of the Christmas Menu must be the Hearty Christmas Roast Platter For Four: with chunky strips of succulent Australian marbled sirloin steak that are seasoned and grilled to mouth‐watering perfection; juicy spring chicken marinated over‐night with an in-house recipe and slow-­roasted with herbs; luscious pork cheese cracker and spicy bratwursts (German sausage which is usually made with veal, beef or pork) resting on traditional sauerkraut (German, "sour cabbage"); crispy beer battered onion rings with a bold BBQ sauce; creamy cheese baked Idaho potato gratin and a bed of fresh salad.

Out of all the items on the platter, we love the herbal spring chicken which is so flavorsome, tender and juicy. Their baked Idaho potato gratin was incredibly tasty with soft, creamy and cheesy texture that we kept digging for more. For your information this Hearty Christmas Roast also have serving for two person at S$56++.

Price: Hearty Christmas Roast For Four @ S$98++

All Christmas Platters come with this Passionately Fizzy Drink which is an invigorating mix of cranberry juice, soda and orange crushed ice.This is a very refreshing drinks which you could either stir-up the mixture or leave it as it is where you could taste two different flavour in a drink. Love the orange crashed ice on top which give it a zesty flavour.

A la carte price: Passionately Fizzy Drink @ S$4.80++ per mug

To end the meal, this Christmas Platter Set also comes with 4 slices of log cakes which you could choose from either "Yule love it" or "divine white chocolate-cheese".


TEA-TIME SPECIAL
(Monday - Friday, 2.00pm - 6.00pm)


If you are looking for something light with Christmas feel, perhaps this "Cinnamon Mocha Elephanccino" serve with a slice of Christmas Log cake will be a great choice to refresh your soul before continue with more festive shopping. Each slip of the drink is tinged with cinnamon and raspberries taste lingering in your mouth and for a glance you might mistaken this drink as those Hong Kong style milk tea that served with vanilla ice cream in it.

Price: Cinnamon Mocha Elephanccino(iced/hot) plus a slice of cake @ S$8.80++
A la carte price: Cinnamon Mocha Elephanccino(iced/hot) @ S$7.80++ per mug


CHRISTMAS LOGCAKE


Remember to get your log cakes early so that you won't have to worry when Christmas parties or gatherings are on the list. Here at nydc, they have two delicious Christmas Log Cake which are available on either 500g or 1kg size.

If you are a chocoholic, I would recommend you to order their "Yule love it" Chocolate Christmas Log Cake which is a decadents chocolate truffle log cake covered with Belgian couverture dark chocolate and twirled with velvety chocolate mousse.

Price:  500g @ S$32++; 1kg @ S$51++

If you don't fancy dark chocolate, maybe you can try their "divine white chocolate-cheese" log cake which is covered with a layer of smooth layer of white chocolate cheese plus a Philadelphia cream cheese center. Eat mouthful is filled with smooth and luxury chocolate cheese plus hint of savory taste.

Price:  500g @ S$37++; 1kg @ S$56++

For more detail on ordering the log cake, you could refer to their website or print out the order form HERE. Enjoy 5% early bird discount for orders placed by 12 December 2011.



nydc FACEBOOK EVENT


In order to join the Santa's Missing Stockings (a weekly draw by matching the serial number given during purchased of the Christmas Log cake) or redeem the "1-for-1" voucher (for Christmas Platters or Christmas a la carte items), please visit and "LIKE" nydc facebook fanpage before clicking the "Santa's Secret" link on the left panel shown above to "JOIN" or "REDEEM". Have fun and good luck.


nydc, New York Dessert Cafe
Bugis Junction
200 Victoria Street
#02-­‐47/48
Singapore 188021
Telephone: +65 6333 3161
Website: http://www.nydc.com.sg/

Operating Hours:
Sunday – Thursday and PH: 11.30am – 10.00pm
Friday - Saturday and Eve of PH: 11.30am – 11.00pm


GIVEAWAY - SINGAPORE READERS ONLY
(nydc's S$20 gift voucher)


For this coming Christmas I would love to Giveaway my 2 complimentary gift vouches (worth S$40.00) plus another 2 more (S$20.00 each) from the goodwill of nydc to 3 Lucky Winners so that each of you could bring your loved ones or friends to have a hearty Christmas feast or purchase the Christmas Log Cake at any of their 6 outlets at your convenience. (vouchers expired on 30 June 2012)

To participate:-
1. Leave a comment stating ONE of the Christmas items available in nydc's a la carte menu (answer can be found HERE) together with your name and a valid email address.

2. To double up your chance, you could also pop over to my facebook page HERE and "Like" this photo together with a comment stating "a main item that is found in the Hearty Christmas Roast Platters".

Closing date for this giveaway will be on Sunday, 11 December 2011(Noon).


Lastly I would like to say thank to Terence and Jackson from Calean And Sage together with nydc New York Dessert Cafe for the invited tasting.

~~~~~~~~~~~
(updated on 11 December 2011)


GIVEAWAY WINNERS


Once again thanks everyone for your participation and congratulation to the 3 Lucky winners. I would contact you shortly for your mailing address. Thanks.

Friday 2 December 2011

Christmas At IKEA

We are already stepping into December 2011 which bring us less than 23 days to Christmas. So if you are looking for some ideas to decorate your home perhaps you could stop by any of the IKEA outlets(Alexandra or Tampines) just like what we did. I am sure you could definitely grab something which you might need for this coming festive seasons ranging from home furniture, decorations, food and etc.


IKEA RESTAURANT AND CAFE


I saw their Christmas Platter Combo during my last visit to IKEA, Tampines a few week back on their behind-scene tour event. So early this week I bought my boy to IKEA in order to try out their Christmas Platter but sad to say they have run out of the "Pancakes and Swedish sparkling drink". On top of it they replaced the two items with spice muffins and apple juice.

The Christmas Platter consists of Turkey Breast, Turkey Ham and Chicken Cheese Sausage together with some fries and balanced broccoli. Their turkey ham was good and I love the cheese sausage too, but if it comes with some serving sauce the taste will be even better. This whole combo platter set cost S$13.90 or you could just get the Christmas Platter at S$9.00

Although this is my boy 1st time trying IKEA's Kid's Meal, Chicken Nuggets, he actually comments that it taste better than those served in his usual fastfood outlet. And also for the month of November till 24 December 2011, IKEA will also donates €1.00(S$1.75) whenever we purchased any kid's chicken nuggets meal to the UNICEF in order to help more children to have quality education.

To end the meal, we tried their Christmas Log Cake and Almond Cake with chocolate and butterscotch. The Christmas Log Cake comes with either Cappuccino or Latte at S$3.50 per set whereas the Almond Cake is price at S$3.50 per slice. I love the luxury and caramel taste of the almond cake with hint of nuts in it and it goes well with my cup of Cappuccino. 


TABLEWARE AND COOKSHOP


The Tableware and Cookshop area located at Level 3 of IKEA, Tampine has a wide varieties of Christmas design items ranging from plates to cups and bakewares too.


HOME DECORATION


You could also find some REAL Christmas Tree and plants at the Home Decoration area together with some wall ornaments and etc. I am sure there is something that suits your home for this year Christmas.


CHECK OUT


Near the check out area, you could see a lot of new designed soft toys that caters for this coming Christmas Season. Perhaps you could grab one or two of these lovely soft toys as Christmas Present for your love ones or kids and at the same time the IKEA foundation will actually donates €1.00(S$1.75) to help educate kids from UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund) too.


IKEA SOFT ICE CREAM


Before going back, we stop by the Swedish Food Market to exchange our token from the Kid's Meal(all kid's meal comes with a free ice cream cone). To get the ice-cream you have to place the cone on the slot in the ice-cream machine before inserting the token. Next press the start button on the machine and within less than a minute you would get your yummy soft serve ice-cream.

For more photos on this photo, you could click on the album via Cuisine Paradise Facebook HERE.

Friday 18 November 2011

Sweetens This Festive Season with Häagen-Dazs

Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

Celebrate the season of giving with your loved ones this Christmas and enjoy irresistible dine-in creations from Royal Fondue, Love in Paradise and Christmas Cassata which are readily available for order at all Haagen-Dazs outlets from 1 Nov 2011 - 2 Jan 2012. Plus you can redeem 2 complimentary tickets to enjoy a 45 minutes bus-ride along Orchard road on their specially-decorated Haagen-Dazs double-decker bus and indulge in free-flowing Haagen-Dazs ice cream and etc with a minimum amount spent(terms and condition applies).

If not you can also surprise and pamper your loved ones this season with the unexpected gift of Häagen-Dazs where you can make a selection between 2 sets of gift hampers to convey your message of love and joy to family and friends. The Royal Celebration (S$60.00 nett) gift set shown above comes with 3 pints of your choice, a Secret Sensations twin pack and a S$20.00 gift voucher. Whereas The Festive Treasure (S$34.85 nett) gift set comes in a limited-edition cooler bag with 2 pints of your choice and a Secret Sensations twin pack.

Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

Christmas Party can never go without a decent log cake for dessert. So for the chocoholics in the family, the luxurious Chocolate Colysee (S$80.00+) log cake which is deliciously rich with Belgian Chocolate ice cream and irresistible Macadamia Nut ice cream that topped with chocolate curls and marshmallow stars must not be missed from the party menu.

If you are looking for something special with festive colors that is bound to light up any party perhaps Rainbow Log (S$80.00+) might be an excellent choice. This log cake consists of many all-time favorite ice cream and sorbet flavours, such as Chocolate, Vanilla, Green Tea, Macadamia Nut, Mango Sorbet and Raspberry Sorbet which I am sure there is bound to be a flavour that you like.

Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

For those who chose to dine-in, the Royal Fondue (S$48.00++) that comes with four popular flavours (Belgian Chocolate, Caramel Biscuit and Cream, Chocolate, and Vanilla coated in almond nibs) and decadent accompaniments such as freshly baked waffles, marshmallows, brownies, bananas, kiwis and strawberries that you could never resist the temptation.

But if you prefer to take away your ice cream and enjoy it while strolling along the way, do try the Joyous Crunch (S$10.50 nett) that comes with rich Belgian Chocolate ice cream and decadent Crème Brulee ice cream. Or if you prefer something with coffee taste, go for their Christmas Delight (S$10.50 nett) with scoops of Tiramisu ice cream and decadent Crème Brulee ice cream. For your information these two take away choices served with crunchy waffle bits or in a cone depending on your preference.


Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

Lastly, in order to experience the “Journey of Indulgence”, customers have to spend a minimum of S$50.00 (dine-in only, before service charge and GST) at any Häagen-Dazs café to receive two complimentary tickets to the bus. There will be three rides a day at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm, from 19 November 2011 to 4 December 2011.

Each "Journey of Indulgence" will start and end at Häagen-Dazs Esplanade cafe with a 45 minutes ride along the CBD area and culminating in a trip down the beautifully-lit Orchard Road. Come onboard a specially-decorated Haagen-Dazs double-decker bus and indulge in free-flowing Haagen-Dazs ice cream, gourmet chocolates and bubbly champagne.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Aloha Tropical X'mas @ Crystal Jade 2011

Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

This year December, Crystal Jade is aiming to bring Christmas menu convenience to celebrations in both home and office where they injects local flavor into its festive take-away menu with dishes like Roasted Home Recipe Turkey, Smoked Duck Breast and Ham Wellington together with some pies, log cakes, desserts and etc.

The above Crystal Jade’s Roasted Home Recipe Turkey ($78.00, approx. 3.5-4.5kg) is prepared the day itself before collection with it right combination of east and west seasonings that include five spice, orange juice, oregano and more leaving you an exotic taste.

Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

As for the Christmas package, it comes in either Premium Tropical Xmas Package(S$128.00) for parties of 6 - 8 persons or this Deluxe Aloha Package (S$330.00) for parties of 15 - 18 persons. With these professional cooked dishes it will definitely leaves you with more time to catch up with your guests. And as you can see from the above it comprises of:

~ 1 Mixed Fruit Tropical Christmas Cake
~ 1 Roasted Whole Home Recipe Turkey with Herbs and Spices
~ 1 Honey Baked Ham
~ 2 plates of Aloha Fried Rice with Pork Floss
~ 16 pieces Fried Almond Fish Fingers
~ 16 pieces Pork Skewer with Teriyaki Sauce
~ 16 Mushroom Vol-Au-Vent
~ 16 pieces Sambal Crabmeat Vol-Au-Vent
~ 16 pieces Cheese & Bacon Croquette
~ 16 pieces Mini Spicy Minced Pork and Bean Pie


Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

Kids at the party will be thrilled with all these Tropical Cutie Cupcake(S$14.80/6 pcs) that are decorated with cute Christmas theme toppers. These cupcakes comes in 3 different theme at price ranging from S$12.80 - S$14.80 for 6 pieces which is a great treat for kids' party at childcare or Sunday school too.

For your information there is a also an exclusive 10 - 15% discount for CITIBANK Card members while making orders. All Christmas orders starts from Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011 - 02 January 2012(terms and conditions applies).

You can call their Party Hotline @ 6512 0800 (Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 6pm excluding public holidays) or visit their festive promotion website HERE.

Saturday 25 December 2010

Roasted Chicken With Brown Rice And Chestnut Stuffing

  Today is Christmas and as a Christian we do value this special and meaning day in December Calender. For the past two years, our church has planned outdoor Christmas Party in the neighbourhood area so that more residents can join us to celebrate this special occasion at the eve of Christmas. So since today is a rest day for family gathering, I decided to try my hand on preparing my very 1st Christmas Lunch.

To be honest, I seldom prepared western dishes because I do not own many of those spices or herbs which we hardly used in our daily Asian cooking. And this Roasted Chicken Lunch that I prepared is also not a fully western dishes too. As when you read the rest of the post, you would notice that I replaced the usual herbs stuffing with brown rice and etc.

Here are some collage photos to show the ingredients and steps on preparing the Brown Rice Stuffing which is quite similar to what I did a few years back on the Baked Pumpkin with Rice Stuffing (link HERE).

Ingredients: (for 1 quantity)
1 Cup of Uncooked Brown Rice Mixture
2 Tablespoons of Frozen Green Peas
6 - 8 Whole Ready to Eat Roasted Chestnuts
1 Tablespoon of Mixed Fried Fruit/Golden Raisin
1 Teaspoon of Minced Garlic
1/2 Teaspoon of Minced Ginger
1/2 Tablespoon of Oil
Seasonings:
Dash of Pepper and Sesame Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Light Soya Sauce

Method:
1. Rinse the rice mixture two to three time then soak in water for about 30 minutes before cooking.(soaking the brown rice prior cooking can decrease the cooking time)
2. Cook the brown rice in rice cooker with the usual method and once it is cooked through stand it rice cooker for another 10 minutes.
3. Next scoop the cooked rice to a place and let it cool off to room temperature while preparing the ingredients for the fried rice and get ready the chicken.
4. When done, preheat a non-stick pan with 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil, saute the minced garlic and ginger till fragrant then drop in green peas and give it a quick stir before adding the cooked brown rice.
5. Use the back of the spatula, loosen all the lumps of the cooked rice till grains are formed.
6. Stir-fry the rest of the ingredients such as chestnut and mixed dried fruits then follow by the seasoning till well mixed.
7. Transfer the rice mixture to a plate while handling the chicken.

Note:-
~ Mix 1/2 cup each of Brown Rice with normal Long Grain Jasmin Rice. (I do encourage you to try brown rice as it will give this dish a very nutty fragrant and taste)

This is the final Brown Rice Stuffing with Chestnut, green peas and dried mixed fruit mixture which is ready to be used. Since this is used as a Christmas theme stuffing you could realise that the colour that I used seems t be circling with green, red, golden and etc. I am sure this would be something new to you as to add dried mixed fruits into rice stuffing.

Here is another set of collage photos showing the ingredients of the roasted vegetables and steps on stuffing the chicken.

Ingredients For Roasted Vegetables: (Serves 4)
1 Medium Carrot, cut into 2cm thick chunks
2 Medium Potato, removed skin and cut into 6 chunks each
300g of Pumpkin, removed skin and cut into chunks
1 Fresh Sweetcorn, cut into 2cm thick ring, halves
Seasonings:
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Peppercorns
1/2 Teaspoon of Dried Chilli Flakes
1/2 Tablespoon roughly chopped Coriander

Method:
1. Mixed all the vegetables together with the seasonings in a bowl and set aside while preparing the chicken.


Since I still have some Seah's Spices available from their complimentary gift (link HERE) set, I decided to use one of this "Seah's Salt-Roasted Chicken Spices" for our Christmas Roast Chicken Lunch. There are two small 20g sachets of spices in each packet where you can roast up to 2 chicken of 600g each.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)
1 20g Sachet of Spices(Seah's Salt-Roasted Chicken Spices)
1 Sakura Chicken, around 1kg size
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 Quantity of Prepared Brown Rice Stuffing
Prepared Vegetables Chunks for roasting

Method:
1. Before stuffing the chicken, trim the extra fats, emptied and cleaned the cavity, removed the head, neck and feet. Rinse and pat dry using kitchen paper towel.
2.Next brush the olive oil evenly around the chicken before rubbing the powder spices all over the chicken include the cavity of the chicken and under the skin layers.
3. Scoop the rice stuffing into the cavity and pressed tightly using the back of the spoon until all all or most of the stuffing are used up.
4. Place the stuffed chicken in a baking dish, secure the chicken thighs and wings to its body by using some kitchen string.
5. Arrange the prepared vegetables chunks around the sides of the baking dish and roast in a pre-heat 220 degree roast for about 20 minutes.
6. Remove the baking dish from the oven, quickly brush over another layer of olive oil all around the chicken and also give the veggies a quick toss before putting back to the oven to roast for another 20 minutes.
7. To get that nice and crispy outer skin, you can switch the oven function to fan-force mode on the last 7 - 10 minutes of cooking time.



In about 1 hour time, we could enjoy a hearty Christmas Roasted Chicken Lunch with rice stuffing and mixed veggies at our comfort home without need to eat in rush and wait for the festive season queues in the eateries. You can also re-heat some ready served chicken gravy pack or festive cranberry sauce from the supermarket to go with the roasted chicken.

This photo shows the inner cut of the roasted chicken where you can see the colourful brown rice stuffing in the cavity. The rice is so yummy and fragrant by the spices and juice from the roasted chicken too.

Roasted Chicken will be great to serve with Caesar Salad that consists of the crispy romaine lettuce and croutons which dressed with Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil and etc.You can easily prepared this by getting some fresh romaine lettuce and ready salad dressing pack from local supermarket such as Cold Storage.

This is the 1 person serving portion of our Christmas Lunch. Everyone enjoys this simple and wonderful meal with accompany of white wine and sparking drinks.

Although this year Christmas has almost come to an end in another few hours time but I would still like to wish everyone of my blog readers a wonder and blessed Christmas. Hope you have enjoy this festive season with your loved to ones and Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

And also I am submitting this post to "Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010)", hosted by Passionate About Baking at this link HERE.


Thursday 23 December 2010

[Recipe] Decorated Festive Chocolate Cookies Together With Early Christmas Party

Last Saturday we have a small Christmas potluck gathering at my place with some of my old friends as well as the new friends from Twitter. Everyone has a wonderful time despite on the chaotic happening in the kitchen while some of us are busying with the food preparations.

And in order to make this a memorable gathering with Christmas atmosphere, Rey and I have decided to prepare some "door-gifts" for the guests which includes some of these mini decorated festive cookies in it. Can you spot Pooh, Minni and Tigger among these cookies?

  We made these Chocolate cookies instead of the usual one that is infused with spices because we are afraid that some of the guests might not prefer the aroma of the spice. So Chocolate flavor will be best for everyoe. These are some collage photos on the ingredients and steps on making the cookie dough.

Ingredients: (makes roughly 2 dozen)
90g Unsalted Butter
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
180g Self-raising Flour
2 Tablespoons Dutch Cocoa Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon orange liquor, optional


My boy and I are busy with the cookie cutout and get them ready for baking and icing decoration.

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy, add egg and orange liquor then beat till combined.
2. Fold in flour mixture (sifted flour, cocoa powder and salt together) in the egg till it forms a dough.
3. Turn dough on lightly floured surface and knead gently until soft dough is formed.
4. Divide the dough into two portions, flatten each portion on between sheet of baking paper and place in fridge for 30 minutes.
5. On floured surface, roll dough out to half a cm thick, cut into shapes using festive shaped cookies cutters.
6. Re-rolled leftover dough and cut again.
7. Baked in preheat 180 degree oven for about 8 – 12 minutes depending on the size of the cookies.
8. They will be soft when come out of the oven but will set as they cool.


After the cookies cool off and decorated with colourful icing, we packed them into individual packet and get them ready into the goodies baga together with some chocolate for the guests as "door-gifts".

Ingredients For Royal Icing:
65g Icing Sugar
1/2 Egg White
1/4 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
Assorted Food Colourings
Assorted Christmas Theme Sprinkles, optional

Method:
1. Sift the icing sugar and set aside.
2. Beat the egg white till foamy then add in lemon juice and icing sugar in a few batches till smooth. (about 5 - 8 minutes, it must be a spreadable consistency)
3. Divide the icing into a few portion then mixed with your desire colours.
4. Spoon icing into disposal piping bag, snip the tip off and pipe decorative outlines and design on each biscuit.



PREVIEW OF OUR CHRISTMAS POTLUCK GATHERING


Christmas Turkey prepared by Misstamchiak(Maureen) and Kai. Everyone is looking high and low for the roasted vegetables and sauce :p

Cheesy Ham Roll prepared by Yancai, Maureen and Rae. This is another way to present the sliced Turkey and it taste very yummy for us to snatch with just these limited rolls on the plate.

Stir-fried Fish Fillet with Thai Basil Leaves by me (Cuisine Paradise). This is something similar to the Chicken version recipe that I have posted HERE.

Spicy Egg and Cucumber Kerabu prepared by Rae(Shan). This cold appetiser consists of a lot of ingredients such as prawns, egg, cucumber, pineapple, belacan, dried prawns and etc.

Here is another main dish which is the "STAR" and highlight of the day too. Cioppino or fish stew that is prepared by Alvin and Lobs(Lobsterpaints) As you can see, there are big fresh prawn, mussels, clams and different type of fish that are stew together using tomato paste, red wine and many other herbs and seasonings. Very delicious pot :)

The whole table of food that are ready to be served. Yummy Chicken Curry by Susan, Grilled Chicken Drumlets by Joyce(ahpoohbear), stir-fried broccoli with mushroom, logcake, fruitcake and etc.

Thanks everyone for the hard work on preparing the food and travel all the way to my place in order to make our 1st potluck party a successful one. Thanks a lot pals.


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