Thursday 24 September 2009

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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