Great Singapore Cook Off & SIS Fun Day

What are you planning to do during the coming National Day long weekend from 07 - 09 August 2010? Perhaps you might want to mark out 07th & 08th August in your diary for a fun-filled family day at Palawan Beach, Sentosa. With the new Integrated Resort (IR) that lines with many great activities and eateries, you can even take a break off to pamper you and your family by have a short stay at any of the resort hotel.

Remember a few weeks back, I have shared a post on the “FairPrice Family COOK OFF” and now the big day has come and they are going to have the live filming of this “Cook Off” program at Sentosa. There will be lots of free activities including face painting, arts and crafts, games, sand sculpting and many prizes and giveaways throughout the day. You can read up more on their official website HERE.

The organizer of this event would like to invite all readers and bloggers to join this upcoming event where SIS Sugar (click HERE for details) will be laying on lots of great activities for you and your family such as:-

10.00am
~ Icing demonstration: 10 – 20 kids can participate in this
~ Registration for Cupcake Decoration contest opens

11.00am
~ Cupcake Decoration contest begins

12.30pm
~ “SIS Jingle Jam” competition – live performance (spot prizes)
~ Candy floss
~ Giveaway Kids making sprinkle messages on Sticky lollipops

13.00pm
~ End of Cupcake Decoration Award for most decorative cupcake

13.30pm
~ “SIS Jingle Jam” competition – live performance (spot prizes)

14.00pm
~ SIS Trivia: fact-sharing session about SIS Sugar (spot prizes)

15.00pm
~ Kids making sprinkle messages on Sticky lollipops

15.30pm
~ “SIS Jingle Jam” competition – live performance (spot prizes)


So hurry! Plan your day on 07 - 08 August 2010 with your family to enjoy these interesting programs where you might take a glimpse on the filming of the "Great Singapore Cook Off". But for meanwhile, you can also participate with their online Jingle where you can show off your talent and creativity in design your very own jingle to stand a chance to win attractive prizes as such S$1,000 CASH.

For more details on creating the Jingle event, do hope by to their facebook website at:-
http://tinyurl.com/2f2n6r7

Till then, hope to see you around at Palawan Beach, Sentosa during the upcoming Events and Good Luck to you if you are joining the Jingle Jam too :)

p/s: All photos used on this post credit to SIS Sugar & Cook Off Singapore.

SuperNature Sunday Organic Fair

If you have missed out the first SuperNature Super Sunday on 27 June 2010(click HERE). This last-Sunday-of-the-month organic fair is back again this Sunday, 25 July 2010 between 10:00am – 6:00pm. This time round it is back with a new lineup of organic offers, special buys and sampler taster dishes for their valuable customers.

At this Sunday fair, the tasting station has gotten bigger with Roasted Organic Turkey Breast Sandwich, US grass-fed lamb chops and a selection of juices and teas to tempt your taste buds upon your visit. Do take note, tasting session starts from 11:00am -1:00pm or while stock last.

Best value buys for this Sunday fair will be featuring these three items such as:-

~ A bag of carrots at $5 (Usual Price $9/kg);
~ A three-piece bag of Nashi pears at $15 (Usual Price $19.50); and
~ A pack of Heidi’s Hens Fresh Roasted Organic Turkey Breast at $10 (Usual Price $15.90).


To get there by public transport, you can take SBS Bus 111 from the bus-stop opposite Orchard MRT station and alight at the second bus-stop which is opposite Four Seasons Hotel. From there walk straight towards the junction of Tomlinson and Orchard Boulevard Road and you will see Park House Condominium. Or you can drive and park at the public carpark outside the store.

SuperNature
21 Orchard Boulevard
#01-21/23 & 27 Park House
Singapore 248645
Tel:(65)6304 1338
Fax:(65)6735 0366
Email: sales@supernature.com.sg
Website: www.supernature.com.sg

Note: During the Sunday Fair, visitors or customers can also a two-can pack of Llanllyr Source Sparkling Water (Usual Price $3.35 per can) between 10am – 12pm.

Official Opening of Singapore Food Festival & Clarke Quay Food Street

Finally the official opening of this year Singapore Food Festival (SFF) was held concurrently together with the Clarke Quay Food Street from 16 July - 24 July 2010. Come let us embark on a mouth-watering journey on this year Singapore Chinese Dialects Heritage Food to stimulate your senses for an unforgettable experience.

But before you enter into the food street to start off your feast, remember to get a SFF Kopitiam stored value dining card from the cashier counter at either side of the entrance at a minimum of S$10.00 value. This stored value card will allows you to enjoy fast and convenient transactions at all the 30 participating stalls at the Clarke Quay Food Street. And remember, "CASH" payment are not allow at the Food Street so do get ready this card before you step in to avoid any inconveniences.

Due to the Opening Ceremony today, there is this long table with a few plates of similar items that symbolised the different Dialect groups and their culture. Eg. The beancurd represent the Hakka yong tau foo, the mee suah represent Hokkien, Fishball for Teochew, Wanton for Cantonese and Beef for Hainanese.

Let's walk through some of the stalls in this year Singapore Chinese Dialects Feast at Clarke Quay Food Street.

Near to the right side of the main entrance are some delicious traditional Hainanese dishes and snack such as Chicken Rice, Chicken Curry, Pork Chop and etc. All these items look so heart warming as it reminds me some of my mother's family traditional Hainanese cuisines.

Talk about Cantonese delight, Dim Sum is always one of the good choice to start off with. I am sure these traditional Cantonese delight such as Cha Siew Bao, Har Gao and Siew Mai can be also found in some western countries too.

If you want something more different from the above dim sum, perhaps you can try out some of these Hokkien and Cantonese delight by Gim Tim. Above is their signature Traditional Hokkien Fried Topical Roll - 招牌大茨粉 which I have review in another SFF post (click HERE). Whereas on the second photo is their Cantonese snack known as Steam Glutinous Rice Roll - 糯米卷. This is a special dim sum dish whereby the seasoned glutinous rice is wrapped with a white skin that is similar to "Bao" skin which is soft and fluffy.

Ngoh Hiang Prawn Cracker is some kind of assorted deep-fried snacks that you can pick from the choice of items such as fishball, cuttlefish, sausage, prawn or fish roll, prawn fitter and etc. These deep-fried items are often served with some sweet/spicy dipping sauce with crushed peanuts.

Lim Hai Sheng Carrot Cake is one of the stalls that is always surrounded by people queuing to get their famous fried carrot cake. Although this dish might look simple with just steam carrot cake fried together with beaten eggs and salted turnip but you must really give it a try which will makes you crave for more. You can read more about this stall at another SFF review post. (click HERE)

I saw a lot of people eating this snack along the way while I venture the stalls. When I asked around, some of the folks told me that this is a Must Try item as they actually prepared the freshly made Popiah skin on the spot at the Food Street.

Without hesitate, I went over to the stall and ordered these Popiah and Kueh Pie Tee. I must admit that those recommendations are good because the ingredients are very fresh and the taste of the filling is very fragrant and with the right amount of seasonings.

Tian Jin Hai, Teochew stall caught my attention with their traditional Fried Black Olive Rice instead of the Cold Crab. This is not the usual fried rice that we used to order from local Cze Cha stall. The fried rice sold here is fried with black olive which makes the rice infused with a special fragrance and taste.

Kew Gardens offered some of their traditional Hakka dishes such as Chicken with Wine Lees - 红糟鸡, Abacus Seeds - 算盘子, Soon Kueh - 笋粿 which is made of yam instead of the normal white soon kueh skin. Other than the above-mentioned, I also discovered the Hakka Black Bean Kueh - 黑豆糕 which I had never seen my in-laws whom are Hakka prepared in any occasions before.

Other than local Chinese Dialect food, you can also find some Malay or Indian food stalls around selling their traditional satay, otah, biryani, curry, and etc.

If you prefer something sweet, perhaps you can try the Four Seasons Durian stall where you can get some durian products such as durian cream puffs, durian tarts, durian kueh and etc.

These are some of the yummy food that are available at the Food Street market. But we are quite disappointed that there actually isn't any dessert stall around except some ice-cream from Four Season Durian and cheng teng from Gim Tim.

The beautiful night view of the Food Street together with the crowds that are busying with the choice of food to buy and also tried to sample as many as possible on those delicious food.

You can also sit along some open air cafe to enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or drinks and look at the beautiful view of the Clarke Quay river after the feast at the Food Market.

If not you can take a walk along the Street Market to pick up some clothing or stuffs which you might be fancy of. Teochew Hand Puppets show is also available the Central's River Promenade from 8:00 - 8:30pm and 9:00 - 9:30pm from 16 - 25 July 2010.

Lastly for all the Media and invited guests, each of us get to take home a very traditional and unique 8 Treasures Box - 八宝盒 from Mandarin Oriental Hotel as a gift. It consists of some traditional sweet candy treat such as malt sugar, candied lotus, candied melon and etc.

So if you love to eat all these dialect dishes, do drop by the Food Street from today till 25th July with some friends or family to sample some or all of these delicious cuisine. And if you are interested on the Chinese Dialect Heritage Feast on 25 July 2010 where there are more than 100 over dishes served. You can drop by this website (HERE) to book your tickets online.

Clarke Quay Food Street
Date: 16 July to 24 July
Time: 4pm to 11pm
Venue: Clarke Quay Read Bridge
Pricing: Payment via Singapore Food Festival Souvenir Card
Official Website: http://singaporefoodfestival.com.sg




p/s: For more photos on the SFF Food Street, you can click on this link (HERE) at Cuisine Paradise Facebook Fan Page.

Häagen-Dazs Cocktail Party @ Clarke Quay

I was so excited to attend the offical lunch of Häagen-Dazs Cocktail Menu on Wednesday, 14 July 2010. According to the spokesman, Häagen-Dazs Singapore is the 1st country in Aisa to launch this Cocktail Menu that is available exclusively at its Clarke Quay cafe. The menu features an inspired combination of exquisite tastes such as their signature ice cream cocktails, sorbet-blended cocktails and liqueur coffee.

This cocktail reception is held at the Clarke Quay Central Fountain area, which is just a stone throw distance away from their Haagen Dazs cafe. And you can see the cafe crews are all busying preparing cup after cups of different flavour of cocktails to satisfy our taste buds.

These are some of the yummy finger food to go with the Cocktails. Other than these, there are also some chocolate cubes and strawberries that are dipped with melted chocolate available for your pick.

At a glance, you can find the trace of Roman Romance either scattering around the tables or on the hand of some guests. With it's sweet and attractive colour I am sure it has being crown the "Queen" of the night. It is also a romantic fusion of Raspberry Sorbet, sparkling lemonade, lime juice, fresh strawberry and a shot of tequila that makes it a perfect drink for the night out in town with friends.

For chocolate lovers like me and Joyce, Venetian Velvet definitely makes our dream come true. It is blend with a smooth concoction of Belgian Chocolate ice cream, fresh milk and Bailey's Irish Cream which gives this cocktail it's rich, decadent and divine.

On the other hand, for those who prefer something light and sweet, perhaps you can start off with Santorini Sunset, a combination of Mango Sorbet, vodka, lime juice and pineapple juice. The three of us agreed that this is more fruity like taste compare to the two drinks above.

During the 2nd hour of the Cocktail party, Mr Yiannis Karaolides, Managing Director for General Mills Singapore said that this is part of their 'Slow Melting in Progress' campaign, which was launched in November last year. They wanted to continue building on the Häagen-Dazs experience where everyone can enjoy quality time with their loves ones or friends and at the same time enjoy the world finest ice cream.

After the speech given by Mr Yiannis Karaolides, all the guests continued to move around while enjoying their cocktails and catching more conversation with each others. The three of us felt so relax and we really enjoys the atmosphere, drinks and companies.

We almost missed out this Irish Illusion at the party because according to the waitress it is only available in the cafe. This sure will give your taste buds a twist with it's rich and silky concoction of Vanilla ice cream, Espresso and Bailey's Irish Cream. After sipping it at the same time, the 3 of us find that its rather interesting to have a mixture of hot & cold sensation tickling in our mouth.

Out of the 5 drinks, we didn't managed to get hold of this Manhattan Moment which is blend with rich Vanilla ice cream, fresh milk and Bailey's Irish Cream. (photo credit to Häagen-Dazs media kit)

If you are interested to try out either one or all of these new items, do drop by the Häagen-Dazs cafe that is located at: -

Häagen-Dazs cafe (Clarke Quay)
3A River Valley Road
#01-07
Merchants' Court Clarke Quay
Telephone: 6337 0846

From the 5 different cocktails and liqueur coffee which is available in their Cocktail Menu, I am sure there is one that will help to unwind yourself after a long day at work.

Flavour Fiesta @ AMK Hub

For those who stay around Ang Mo Kio area or frequent passes-by of AMK Hub via the Bus Interchange I am sure you will have notice this “Flavour Fiesta @ AMK Hub” which starts from 05 July – 18 July 2010 at the basement 1, Exhibition Hall.

This Flavour Fiesta Food Fair enables you to enjoy various dialect delights from the participating stalls and at the same time catch up with some experienced chefs from Society of Chinese Cuisine Chefs (Singapore) in action. These chefs will also demonstrate various dialect cuisine right in front of your sight and you are also given a chance to try the end products before trying them out at home with the recipes.

Yesterday, I was happened to be around that area to another Food Festival event and I am glad to be able to catch up some cooking tips with Chef James Aw Ah Lee (Executive Chef, National University of Singapore Society) who is whipping up these delicious Cantonese Cuisines. The two dishes that Chef James shared were "Tenderloin Beef Cubes with Black Pepper Sauce" and "Crispy Stuffed Chempulak with Scallop". I will be trying out the above dishes thought the given recipe soon and will share it on my recipe blog too. So stay till for it if you are interested to know more....