Purple Wheat Noodles Salad

As we have late and heavy Lunch today, I decided to whip up something light, simple but vibrant in colour. So this is what we have for our Special weekend Dinner Menu. With my "new ingredient" that I managed to grab from one of the Supermarket, I can't wait to try out this "new products" from KOKA Noodles.

I was attracted to an advertisement on Friday, 23 Oct 2009 in the TODAY newspaper introducing on this new Purple Wheat Noodles from KOKA. I was immediately captured by the word "PURPLE WHEAT" and I am also curious about the actual colour and texture of the noodles. According to the advertisement, the promotion will last for a week which you can read more at this link HERE.

After grabbing a packet of this Purple Wheat Noodles which is 1 of the 3 packets left on the shelf. Rey and I starts to look around for other ingredients to prepare our Dinner. Since this noodle is purplish in colour, I decided to use it to make a Colourful Salad Noodles Dish. Rey suggests to grab a pack of cherry tomato and breakfast ham while I think some curl lettuce will do a great job to enhance the colour and add extra crunch.

Other than the salad ingredients, I also made some garlic oil to act as the salad dressing.

Ingredients For Garlic Oil:
50ml Of Olive Oil
4 - 5 Cloves Of Garlic

Method:
1. Preheat a small saucepan with drizzle of olive oil, then add in the garlic cloves and saute it till fragrant.
2. Pour in the remaining olive oil and saute the garlic till slight golden brown, dish up and set aside for later use.


Ingredient For Salad: (serves 2)
2 Individual Packet of Koka Purple Wheat Noodles
4 Slices of Breakfast Ham
2 Hard-boiled Egg, halves
8 Cherry Tomato, halves
50g Fresh/Frozen Corn Kernel, blanched
Some Salad Lettuce
2 Tablespoons Garlic Oil

Method:
1. Cook the eggs in a small saucepan under medium-low heat for about 4 - 6 minutes from the time the water boiled.
2. Removed from heat, rinse and peel off the shell then cut into halves and set aside.
3. Bring another pot of water to boil, cook the instant noodles according to the packet instruction, rinse with cool water and set aside. (rinse with cool water to stop the noodle from further cooking and also to make it taste spongy)
4. You can either blanched the Ham with boiling water or you can pan-fry it under low heat for about 30 second on each side with some Olive oil.
5. Next, drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil on the cooked noodles, toss it well with the blanched corn kernel and cut tomato.
6. To assemble the dish, place some lettuce on the plate, place the noodles mixture on it.
7. Top with ham, hard-boiled egg and you can drizzle some extra garlic oil and serve it warm.


So after seeing this Noodles Salad, do you have the urge to try making some for yourself? This is indeed a very healthy and nutritious dish, if you can't find any Purple Wheat Noodles, don't worry, you can always replaced it with whatever you have in your pantry.

Prosperous Kitchen @ Sembawang Shopping Centre

Singapore Shopping Center has being located in Sembawang Road area among the Semi-detached estate for more than 10 years. I still remember vividly that I used to go there with my secondary school mate to enjoy the BBQ stingray, pizza hut pizza and the famous Thai Food stall. But today, after the 2nd major renovation, Singapore Shopping Center has changed most of its' previous shop/restaurant.

Today we are going to try this Chinese cuisine restaurant located at the second floor known as "Prosperous Kitchen - 天旺". They have mainly two restaurants in Singapore which another branch located at West Coast Plaza.

To start off, we order a bowl of their "Brazil Mushroom Chicken Soup" which served in small individual box @ S$5.00 each bowl. The taste of the soup is light, non-greasy and most important is full of flavour that is infused from the Brazil Mushroom. Next we have "Yang Chow Fried Rice", the rice is very fragrant and each grain is nicely fried and separated from each other. Although the price is slightly higher than normal "Zhi Char - 煮炒" stall, I guess it's still worth the price for the taste and its generous ingredients.

Em... honestly, we are very shock and a kind of disappointed with this "Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs - 京都排骨". First of all, we waited for about 20 minutes due to the dinner crowds, secondly when this dish arrived we thought the waitress might have bring the wrong dish as this look more like "Pai Gu Wang - 排骨王" to us rather than the one we saw and ordered from the menu. The one we ordered, is sort of like pork ribs, darker in colour for the sauce and there are also some extra almond/sesame seeds with it. So compare this to the one we saw it's really a big different.

From the myth, they used to say that the main ingredients to make this "3 Cups Chicken - 三杯鸡" is 1 cup each of Dark Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil and Rice Wine. This is rather a traditional Taiwanese dish but you can easily find this in most Chinese restaurants or Zhi Char stall in Singapore. While looking around the tables, it seems that about 6/10 tables around us ordered this dish. It is serve in a small claypot and you can smell the nice sesame oil aroma when the dish arrived at the table. Overall we find this is the best dish to recommend out of all we have ordered. The combination of the chicken, sauce and side ingredients like chilli, spring onion and etc plays a great part for this dish.

Next we have this "Scramble Egg & Prawns Hor Fun - 鲜虾滑蛋河粉" which comes with a serving of about 6 - 8 medium size prawns cooked in scramble egg sauce together with straw mushroom and thin flat rice noodles. This is a one person serving portion which cost S$7.50. I guess for prawn and rice noodles loves, this is sure a great deal to order. I personally love the combination of the egg sauce with the fried rice noodles.

Lastly comes our dessert of the day which is my favourite, "Mango Pomelo Cream - 杨枝甘露". This is kind of different from the usual mango pomelo with shaved ice. As you can see from the photo, this is sort of like a blended mango juice that is mixed with some cream/milk then served with some extra mango cubes and pomelo. Not a good choice you are looking for that kind of Hong Kong style Mango Pomelo with sago.

For your information, exclusively for UOB Credit Card Members, they are having a great deal promotion as follows:-

1) 50% off* à la carte food menu
Valid from 1 Oct to 30 Nov 2009

2) 1-for-1+ Set Menu lunch and dinner
Valid from 1 Oct to 30 Nov 2009

3) 15% off^ total food bill on à la carte menu
Valid from 1 Oct 2009 to 30 Jun 2010

Note:-
~ Except Beverages, Desserts, Dim Sum delicacies and Set Menu. 50% off is only applicable from 6pm to closing from Mondays to Fridays, not applicable on weekend and Eve of Public Holidays and Public Holidays.

Jin Long Seafood @ Bedok North

"Jin Long Seafood Restaurant - 金隆海鲜菜馆" is always crowded and reservation is definitely necessary or else you will have to wait for a very long time before you can get a place or till the food to be served. From the waitress, we heard that the stall is going to shift over to the opposite block whereby they will have their own air-conditioning restaurant in a couple of weeks time.

When it comes to Tofu Dish, making a choice to order this "Jin Long's Signature Chai Poh Tofu - 菜脯豆腐" will never disappoint you. The Chai Poh(salted turnip) - 菜脯 topping was so crispy and light that I thought it was minced garlic at a glance of it. The tofu itself is very smooth and silky which you can hardly imagine something after deep-fried can still be so yummy that will melt in your mouth when you eat it.

Egg Omelette or "Furong Dan - 芙蓉蛋" is one of the most commonly egg dish that is found in Zhi Char stall - 煮炒摊. A plate of good and tasty Furong Dan depends on the skill of the chef as how he control the fire while frying the egg omelette. The omelette served in Jin Long is just nice with it's slightly crispy outer layer that gives you a very special aroma when eaten.

This look similar to one of my favourite dish "Coffee Pork Ribs - 咖啡排骨". But according to the waitress this is known as "Baked Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs - 港式烤排骨". The pork ribs are marinated with their special sauce then baked it until soft and tender. To us the taste of the pork ribs is good but the meat seems to be a little tough for older folks to chew it.

Lastly comes the "Deep-fried Scallop Combination - 千叶带子" which is also one of their signature dish where you can enjoy a few taste and texture in one dish. The ingredients that found in this dish are: scallops(you can see from the photo, the scallop used are of thick flesh), prawns, banana and bak kwa. Each layer of the scallop is sandwich with fresh prawn and banana that topped with a piece of bak kwa and deep-fried with their special batter. We have waited for at least 30 minutes for this dish to be served until we almost cancel this order, but luckily the end products was still worth the waiting time. Do give this a try, it's definitely worth the price of less than S$20.00.

Updated New Address: January 2010
金隆海鲜菜馆
Blk 412, Bedok North Ave 2
#01-114, Singapore S460412
Telephone: 6442 9398

Curry Chicken With Longan & Pineapple

Since this is the Deepavali week holiday and last week I have being invited for a Curry Sampling at CURRY ON! I think maybe I can share a simple and healthy Curry Recipe with everyone here. So what come in your mind when you read the heading of the post and see the photo. LONGAN + PINEAPPLE + CURRY ? ? ? ? ? ? = NICE?

From the ingredients here, you can see that it doesn't required any coconut milk or cream. All you need to get is these simple and healthy stuff which can satisfy your taste buds on curry and also help you to watch your waistline. The main ingredient that provide the fragrance is the Kaffir Lime Leaves which makes give this dish a very refreshing taste and fragrant. I have use this leaf to cook another Chicken Dish a few years back. You can click on this link for more details.

The Longan used in this recipe is from can which contain syrup, you can easily grab a can of this Longan in syrup in any supermarket or convenient store.

You will be surprised with the taste of this dish, it is something like a cross taste between Sambal and Tom Yum Chicken. It is very easy to prepared without much hassle. All you need is to cut the chicken breast meat into cubes, marinate with instant curry paste. Furthermore you can even use canned pineapple to replace the fresh type. Overall, this is a very refreshing dish because the gravy is infuse with Kaffir Lime leave aroma and Longan. It is an very appetising dish that goes well with steam rice.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Tablespoons of Thai Red Curry Paste
1 Chicken Breast Meat, cut into cubes
1 Slice of Fresh Pineapple, cut into cubes
15 Longan In Syrup
2 Tablespoons of Sryup, from the longan can
1 Tomato, cut into wedges
2 Small Red Onion, cut into wedges
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
4 Small Kaffir Lime Leaves, shredded

Methods:
1. Clean and trim the fat from the chicken breast, cut it into about 2" cubes.
2. Marinate the chicken with about 1 teaspoon of Thai red chilli paste and 1/2 teaspoon of light soy sauce for about 10 minutes.
3. Heat up a small saucepan with olive oil, saute the onion till fragrant.
4. Next add in half of the tomato wedges and some shredded kaffir lime leave then continue to stir-fry for another 15 second or so.
5. Spoon in the remaining chilli paste and continue to saute until fragrance then add in the marinated chicken cubes and fry till the meat is cooked through.
6. Next add in the pineapple cubes, longan, remaining tomato wedges and give it a good stir till combined.
7. Lastly stir in 2 tablespoons of syrup juice from the longan can and bring the mixture to boil for about 10 seconds.
8. Dish up and served with some balanced broccoli and steam rice.



Note:
~ You can get those instant Thai Red Chilli Paste by "Asian Home Gourmet" in most supermarket.

You can served this as a side dish or as a individual Main Course like those in the restaurant with steam rice. This is the 2nd time I tried using Longan as a ingredient in the dish. The other dish which I used Longan is "Stir-fry Pork Fillet with Longan" which you might be interested to take a look too :)

Cuisine Paradise @ Radio 100.3

Today is a very special day for both me and Rey as we are very excited in having a chance to visit the Singapore Press Holdings(SPH) for the FM 100.3 radio interview.

At about 2 weeks ago, I received a message from Dainel Ang, a part-time DJ from FM 100.3 who hosts a food programme called "Food Dairy" on FM 100.3 everyday Saturday afternoon between 3:00 - 4:00 pm. If you are keen, you can read more about him and his "Food Dairy" blog at this link.

I was very shock and excited when I received Daniel's message on asking me to do a Radio Interview for my food blog. So after fixing a suitable timing with him, today we finally meet up at SPH to do the interview. And as there is no one around to look after Rey today, I decided to bring him along to the Radio station. And our little friend is even more excited than me when we were in the recording room. Guess this incident will be rooted as one of the memorable day for both of us who gets a chance to see what is it like to be in the recording room.

When the interview starts, I knew that I was very nervous and I couldn't speak well as what I have prepared before hand. But Daniel on the other hand was very friendly and kind enough to help me with the questions so that the atmosphere became a very friend like conversation rather than official interview. And I must thank God and praise Him that Rey didn't make any noise during the whole recording process. As for the bonus you can even catch Rey's cute voice on air too :)

This interview will actually be broadcast in two different Saturday, which Part I had already being broadcast on 17 Oct 09. So if you are interest to catch Part II of Cuisine Paradise on Air at FM 100.3. Stay tune on next coming Saturday 24 October 2009 from 3:00pm -4:00pm at station FM 100.3 with Daniel Ang's Food Dairy & Ellena's Cuisine Paradise.

Lunch @ Bakerzin

What is your best way of relaxing your body and soul after facing a hectic work week. For me, the best way to relax my mind is to have a fulfilling meal that satisfy my tastebuds as well as a great dinning environment that can calm soul and takes my mind off those workload. Most important there must be a "great" dessert after meal.............

Upon reading this Bakerzin, 1 For 1 Main Course advertisement(according to the leaflet, the promotion is only available at "Jurong Point" and "North Point" branch) from TODAY newspaper, I knew I must go during my off-day. They have a new branch which had being in my area for about 6 months or so. I have not dine-in every since it open, but I love their layout and design. So with this great deal offer, I must go and try out their set lunch with the opportunity to take a break off my hectic week.

The atmosphere is great with tall glass window all around the cafe that enables the late morning bright light to shine in. We arrived around 11am and the area is still quite empty with only two or three tables occupied. Rey prefer the cushion sofa seats which are more cosy and we start glancing through the menu. The waitress who serves us is very friendly and she is keen in introducing to us the what are the dishes that suits our preference. She also invite us to try on their Free flow of homemade bread that you can either dip with extra virgin olive oil or balsamic vinegar.


This is the MAIN reason that bought me into Bakerzin this morning........ I was attracted by this "Braised Pork Belly With Japanese Rice" because I love Braised Pork Belly and from the menu, this dish give me the feeling of a "Comfort Dish" which that luxury, soft and fragrance braised pork belly lingering in my tongue. Indeed when this dish is served, it didn't disappoint me and my mum. We are both impressed by the taste and the texture of the pork belly which is so soft and juicy. The gravy is not salty compare to the usual Braised Pork Belly and it goes just nice with the steam Japanese short gain rice.

As mum wanted to have something light, she ordered this Seafood Pasta which serves with generous amount of seafood like Prawn, squid and green mussels. The tomato pasta sauce is great, the taste is not over-power with extra herbs added and the sauce is light and tasty which suits mum's tastebuds.

After a hearty meal, here comes the "Profiteroles" which we are all waiting for. This Dessert serves in a plate of 3 medium size Profiteroles, each sandwich with vanilla ice-cream, coated with a layer of chocolate sauce on top and drizzle generous amount of toasted almond flakes which add extra crunches and fragrance to the dessert. Everyone of us who tried, agreed that their vanilla ice-cream taste great. It has a very light and aroma scent of vanilla fragrant and it won't leave you with that creamy taste of ice-cream that is fattening. But there is a little setback on this dessert, we find that the puffs are a little bit too dry and hard when bite but after all it do soften a bit when soaked with the melt ice-cream :)

When we are looking at the menu, the waitress did pass us a piece of this kid's menu for Rey. I didn't know that they have such a wide range of Kid's menu. So my mum was telling me that, nowadays the young kids are very fortunate. They even have their own choice of "Kid's Menu" to select from when dinning out.

Note:
~ OFFER ONLY APPLY TO
* Jurong Point Branch #03-58
* North Point (new wing) #01-44

~ TERMS & CONDITIONS
* Second main course is of lower or equal value, offer strictly for dine-in only.
* Valid from Monday to Friday, 10.30am - 5pm (Not including eve and day of public holidays)

Moriya Japanese Cuisine

Saw a food review on this Japanese Bento stall known as "Moriya" in this week "U Weekly(优1周) - 201". This stall is located in a coffee shop at Block 417, Yishun Ave 11. They offer a wide range of Japanese Cuisine from Bento set, Ramen to Omelette Rice which you will sure to find something that suits your taste-buds for the day. Since our family loves Japanese Cuisine, we decided to give this stall a try.

Moriya, occupied a corner at one end of the coffee shop. The stall is nicely decorated with a Japanese-style outlook and they even has a glass-panel that allow customers to have a clear view of what is going on in their kitchen. We reached the area around 7pm and upon looking at the stall from far, I am already attracted by it's layout and food menu. So without much delay, we decided to settle for these two items on their menu list.

We order a set of "Yakiniku Beef Set" which is worth for it's cost at S$5.70. It consists generous amount of Yakiniku Beef which is very soft and tender and it also gives a very fragrance aroma which I believed is sesame oil and spring onion. This Yakiniku Beef Set served with a good portion of seasoned Green Soy Bean(Edamame), Japanese short-grain rice, Chuka Wakame (seaweed salad) and a bowl of hearty Miso soup.

Other than bento set, we also order a bowl of "Mixed Seafood Ramen" which cost S$7.90 and you can have 3 Half-shell Scallop, 2 medium size Prawn, a decent piece of grill salmon and half a portion of Japanese-style soft-boiled egg. So far, this is can be consider as a decent bowl of good Ramen for a non Japanese restaurant standard. We love the soup base which is very light, fresh sweet in taste. Although the soup do taste sweet but I think it's not from the added MSG as we don't feel any thirsty after taking the food.

They about more than 10 different varieties of Ramen in the stall that you will sure to find something you prefer. As for the Ramen, they also provide a very special Chilli Paste which we love it. Their Chilli paste taste sort of like our "Belacan Chilli" but with extra ingredients that is great to add into the Ramen soup base.

Curry On @ Toh Yi Drive

There are so many different stalls and restaurants selling their own version of "Indian Curry" around Singapore range from Hawker Center, CoffeeShop, Food Mall to well-known Restaurants at "Little Indian" near Serangoon area. But no matter which place you like to patronize, there must be something interesting that caught your attention. Today, we are going to try this newly open stall called "CURRY ON!" which is located in a Coffee Shop at Toh Yi Drive. (about 5 - 8 minutes walks from Bukit Timah Community Club)

This is a very special food sampling outing that I have done so far. It starts about two weeks ago when I received an email from the stall owner, Mr Anil who personally invite me to go for a food sampling at his newly set up stall. I was overwhelming by his invitation and at the same time very excited in doing my very first food sampling through an invitation. Furthermore, I have being in love with Mutton Curry since young under my dad influences. So this invitation is indeed a "Bonus Treat" for me to eat my favourite food and do a write up to share our view on the food sampling.

"CURRY ON!" is located in one of the stall in 7th Miles Coffeeshop at Block 18, Toh Yi Drive. Kiren(Anil's sister) together with her mum(the chef of the stall) and her aunty will usually get all the dishes ready by 10.30 am. Anil starts this stall with the intention to feature his mum's SPECIAL RECIPES in making her very own 3 unique curry dishes which are prepared traditionally from scratch. So come, let me share with you what are the dishes that they have in their menu ..........

After having a short conversation with Kiren, she asked us to take a seat while she get ready the food for us. The first dish that is being serve on the table is their special "Briyani"that comes with a portion of their homemade salad and papadum. Kiren share with us that the Briyani are made using host of spices, Pandan leaves, Rose water and Ghee . The moment I saw the Briyani, I knew that I would love it because of it's vibrant colour combination. The rice itself is very fragrant, my mum and I both agreed that it taste sort of like the Hainanese chicken rice due to the ingredients like Pandan Leave, Ginger and Garlic. This Briyani is very different from the usual type that we had from other stalls, which you usually will find some trace of nuts, raisin, cloves and etc. But the one here that serves at Curry On! is definitely something worth to try and you will be surprised by it. The small setback that my mum feels is that if the rice can be a bit less greasy it will be Great to go along with the curry sauce.........

After the rice, let's proceed to the STARS of the menu. First to be on the list will be their Chicken Curry, you might be shock or backoff by the colour of the gravy which is very "RED" at first sight. Upon seeing this I check with Kiren will the taste of the curry be "VERY SPICY" because I am afraid that we might not be able to take the SPICY level :) She explained to us that it all depend on individual, some of her customers feel that the spicy level is just to their liking while others might have range it as too hot. So we take our courage to try and to our surprised, even though the colour might look "fiery" the taste was great, the spicy level is just nice for us, overall the chicken and gravy are very fragrant due to the "Spring Onion Paste".

We were all so curious to learn more from Kiren on using Spring Onion paste to whip up this special Chicken Curry. As you can see from the photo, there is still traces of chopped Spring Onion in the curry sauce. So if you like chicken + spicy curry, then don't hesitate, come and try this Chicken Curry which goes well with the Briyani rice or some French Baguette.

Next is my favourite Mutton Chop Curry which is the "Signature Dish"of the stall. According to Kiren, the mutton chops are marinated with spices before cooking. The curry is infuse with great aroma that serves with generous pieces of Mutton Chops and potato chunks. I love the consistency of the gravy which is just nice to act as a dipping sauce for bread such as French Baguette or even Roti Prata. This dish is very well mask-up with the use of spices that even my mum who don't take Mutton because of it "smells" takes her courage to try and give thumb up for this dish.

Lastly comes the Mutton Rib Dalcha (Lamb in Lentil Sauce) which is more diluted for its' gravy. This curry is cooked using very little of coconut milk, assam and lentils. To me, this curry is taste sort of like spicy, tangy and you can even drink it like one of those "Tom Yam Soup". Although Mum and D comments that the ribs are rather a bit tough for their liking compare to the Mutton Chop and Chicken. I was not in line with them, I find that the ribs is great because of the chewing texture maybe it is due to my liking for ribs.

Afterall, this is really a very great experience of food sampling for curry lover like us. So if you are staying around Bukit Timah or Toh Yi Drive area, maybe you would like to pop by one of these day any try out their very own Homemade Curry Delights that will spice up your tastebuds. We really thanks and appreciate Anil for his compliment of the above dishes and Kiren for her warm serving and sharing with us on the preparation of kitchen tales.

Note:
~ The operating hours are:-
Monday to Sunday from 10.30am - 8.30pm
(Rest on Alternate Monday)

~ Recommending Dish:-
According to Anil, their Chicken Curry is very popular with customers who don't take mutton. And I must comment that their Chicken Curry gravy is very special with the refreshing aroma from the Spring Onion Paste.