The weather for the past few weeks had being so hot and humid that we really need to have some cooling soup to cool down our body system. While chatting with one of the mum of my boy classmate, she was sharing with us on some of her daily soup that she made for her family. One of the key ingredients that she often use for soup is "
Winter Melon -
冬瓜", which we rarely cooked in our household.
Accordingly to some housewife myth, Winter Melon is used to boil soup with pork ribs or other herbs for cooling purpose such as quenches thirst and expel summer Heat. Whereas Huai Shan whets the appetite and strengthens the Spleen while Gou Qi Zi improves eyesight and promotes blood cell formation so these two mild herbs are suitable for the whole family. The use of carrots can also lower the blood glucose, invigorate the Spleen too. On the other hand, Corn is rich in many kinds of Vitamin B and C, thus preventing vascular sclerosis.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 Round Piece of Winter Melon(冬瓜), around 150 - 200g
300g of Pork Ribs
100g Fresh Huai Shan(淮山)
1 Small Carrot, cut into 1" thick
1 Corn(玉米), cut into 3 sections
5 Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon of Wolfberries(枸杞子)
1.5 Litre of Boiling Water
Method:
1. Roughly peel off the outer skin of the winter melon, scrap off the seed, rinse and cut into 2" rectangle cubes size.
2. Repeat the same procedure for the fresh huai shan and set aside.
3. Blanched the pork ribs in boiling water for about 30 seconds, rinse and set aside.
4. Bring the pot of water (1.5 litres) to boil, add in the pork ribs, winter melon, huai shan, carrot, corn and red dates to boil for about 5 minutes.
5. Transfer the pot of soup to slow cooker and cook on AUTO for at least 2 hrs. Add in wolfberries 30 minutes before cooking time.
6. Or if you don't have any slow-cooker at home, you can simmer the soup on the stove for about 45 minutes on low heat.
So why not try to whip out this cooling soup for your family during this hot and humid weather to quench their thirst as well as build up their immune system. I am sure this will be a great soup for kids as the adding of carrot and corn gives this soup it's nature sweetness as well as that extra flavour. 
There are a lot of Thai Restaurants in Singapore for those who fancy hot and spicy Thai cuisine that range from budget to high-end spending. But no matter which type you are targeting for, I am each restaurant will have some of their special dish that will capture your taste bubs. Today we will be trying this Open-concept style Thai restaurant that is located on the ground of Woodland Civic Centre which is known as Lerk Thai.
The 1st appetiser to be served is this Vietnam Spring Roll which is accompany with their special "peanut dipping sauce". These spring roll are stuffed with “rice vermicelli - 米粉”, “assorted vegetables” , “cooked prawns” and etc and it is wrapped with a layer of Rice Paper wrapper. It is a very light dish which can be served as appetizer or finger food.
Next to come is this “Yam Som O – Pomelo Salad with Shrimps & Peanut” which is a very popular appetizer amongst the Thai Kampong Folks. I was attracted to the presentation of this appetizer where the chef used the orange peel as a “serving cup” for this dish to give it an extra critic flavour. This appetizer is rather towards a bit of salty dish due to the adding of "Fish Sauce - 魚露" and I find the adding of small onion(shallot) has actually overpower the taste of this dish.
This “clear” seafood Tom Yum Soup comes with a generous amount of assorted seafood like fish, prawn and squid together with some straw mushroom. Although the soup look clear without any chilli oil or so, but it does taste hot and spicy with a light critic fragrance which makes it absolutely refreshing. You can either have it with some steam rice or you can order this soup to be served with rice noodles.
Here comes my favourite “Deep-fried Pandan Leaf Chicken” which is a popular dish in Bangkok. The Pandan leaf is used to keep the juices of the chicken in a parcel so that you will still able to taste the tender & juicy fried chicken.
"Pad Thai - Thai Style Fried Kway Teow" is one of my favourite noodle dish on the ordering dish. I love the texture of these thin rice noodles and the combination of the side ingredients such as lime wedges, peanuts and chilli powder. This is very different compare to the usual "Char Kway Teow" that we have in Singapore which is stir-fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, belachan, tamarind juice, prawns/deshelled cockles, bean sprouts and chinese sausage.
After a hearty meal, it is time for some sweet refreshments. From the list of desserts that they have in the menu, we select these "Colourful Mini Dumplings" which is cooked Tapioca dumplings served in coconut milk. But we are kind of disappointed as the dumpling is hard and not chewy and it seems rather tasteless too.
As for the "Mango Pomelo Sago", the mango cream looks dull and it seems to be lack of the mango taste which compare to those that we have tried in other restaurants. Personally, we don't find the these two dessert worth to try on, perhaps their "Mango & Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk" is much more worth it than these two. 
