Singapore Food Festival 2011 - Official Opening 15 July 2011

Although it was a raining evening, it did not reduce the number of visitors gathering around Clarke Quay Read Bridge to discover the journey of this year Singapore Food Festival 2011(SFF11) "CURRIES AND SPICES" theme during its Official Opening on Friday, 15 July 2011.

Introducing different types of ground spices for making curries and cuisines near the main entrance.

From the name "SPICE IT UP!" you are able to discover Singapore ethnic curries and cuisines using different kinds of whole or ground spices found in their cuisine which they will showcase it on most of the participating stalls. Example: These are the spices and ingredients used for making Chinese Herbal Mutton Soup from one of the stalls.)

As compared to last year(read more HERE) statistic of 30,000 visitors, this year we have over 35,000 visitors crowding at the stalls on the Clarke Quay Read Bridge during yesterday night official opening.

Before the Guest of Honor arrival at the Singapore Food Festival Village, there is a short 5 minutes band performance where the drummers dressed in chef outfits accompany by two dancers to SPICE up the HEAT for the event.

This year Singapore Food Festival logo is given an updated look to reflect to the theme of SFF11 after 17 years. The brand new logo is a colourful amalgamation of Singapore’s Best-loved Spices in a traditional mortar and pestle. Every member of the launch party will be given a piece of a puzzle to fit onto the “Spice Backdrop”. These 5 pieces of puzzle will form the new SFF Logo when pieced together and at the same time officially launching SFF11.

The order of the pieces of puzzle are:-

~ 1st Piece: Cinnamon Stick (by Ms Le Thi Thanh Thao)
~ 2nd Piece: Chilli (by Chef Milind Sovani & Mr Shanmugam)
~ 3rd Piece: Ginger (by Mr Ng Yong Hwee)
~ 4th Piece: Cardamom (by Ms Melissa Ow)
~ 5th Piece: Coriander Leaf and Star Anise (by Minister S.Iswaran)

After Minster S.Iswaran and the rest of the launch party finished touring the "Curry and Spice Street", they headed to the cooking demonstration area to observe SFF Consultant Chef Milind Sovani prepares a Fish Head Curry dish.

Zalina's Specialties has a good range of local Malay Cuisines where you will indulge with the sambal chilli, rendang, chili prawns and etc. Our set meal consists of :- Turmeric Rice, Rendang Chicken, Sambal Prawns and Egg which cost S$6.50. 

Local favourite Ngoh Hiang that you can have it anytime of the day with a accompany spicy dipping sauce with hint of crashed peanuts.

Spice Sutra offers a range of North Indian food such as Butter Chicken, Assorted Skewers, Mutton Curry and etc.

Other than spicy curries you can also try the Chili Crab from Jumbo Seafood, Claypot Fish Head Curry from Chng Kee, and Fried Carrot Cake from Lim Hai Sheng. But if you keen in trying some Indian food, look up for the stalls occupy by the Indian Restaurants Association Singapore(IRAS) where they offers array of Indian cuisines.

For those who love Ice-Cream there is an Gelato stall that sells a few types of "spiced ice-creams" such as Wasabi, Vanilla Saffron and Chocolate Chilly(where you will get to see real red chili in it) for a single scoop at S$4.00 per cup.

If you are someone who love SPICES and SPICY food, do come down to the Singapore Food Festival Village and experience your journey with all the different types of curries and cuisines are you can find there.

SINGAPORE FOOD FESTIVAL VILLAGE

Date: 15 - 24 July 2011
Time: 4.00pm - 11.00pm(weekdays) / 12.00pm - 11.00pm(weekends)
Venue:Clarke Quay Read Bridge And Along Central River Promenade
Admission: FREE (Pricing of the food starts from S$2.00 onwards)
Website and Details HERE.

Hearty Breakfast From Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf

Breakfast is my most favorite meal of the day. I love the smell of scrambled eggs and bacon whenever these two are served on our weekend breakfast. As you know staying in food paradise like Singapore we are all pamper with wide varieties of breakfast choices range from either the traditional Fried/Steamed Carrot Cake, Century Egg Porridge, Fried Fritters(you tiao) with Kopi or more westernize choice like Oat Porridge, Bacon and Sausage.

Sometime it might be good idea to pamper yourself with a cup of freshly brewed coffee/tea, served together with a set of hearty breakfast without you sweating in your own kitchen. Usually I would like to ordered Brek 'O' Day which served with scrambled eggs, toasts, sausage and salad.

I love their freshly made salad with crisp lettuce, generous amount of flake almond and cranberries served; with sourish and sweet tangy dressing that perk up my day.
Pricing: S$7.70(include a cup of freshly brewed coffee/tea that is FREE to refill daily till 11.00am)

Above shows the range of Breakfast Menu items from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf which I am sure you will find something your preference.

New Zealand Natural $1 OFF Hot And Cold Lunch Treat plus "The Launch"

Apart from my recent post about New Zealand Natural(NZN) promotion on their FREE 1 PINT Ice-Cream(read more HERE) there is another new promotion for the month of JULY (01 July - 31 July 2011) which I saw from their Facebook page. This promotion is ONLY at their HarbourFront outlet which is great for those who work or hang around HarbourFront Shopping Mall

As you can see from the promotion leaflet above there will be a S$1.00 OFF when you make any purchase of hot food such as pasta, pizza or hotdogs (including a Free cup of either hot of ice coffee) OR regular-sized ice-cream which makes it a perfect deal for your lunch/tea break.

Furthermore I heard from a few friends who loves NZN ice-cream, there will be a GREAT LAUNCH on their 6 Most Popular Flavour ice-cream from this July onwards at appointed supermarket outlets. With this launch it means we can easily purchase NZN Ice-cream at a more convenient locations spreading across Singapore other than their 9 ice-cream parlous(location HERE).

SIX MOST POPULAR FLAVOURS

New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream

These premium no artificial flavouring and colouring ice-cream which from New Zealand comes in 473ml tubs with new packaging distinct from those available at the local ice-cream parlours.

Forest Berry:
~ 97% Fat free yogurt made with real boysen berries and 3 other berries

Hokey Pokey:
~ Crunchy butterscotch balls, folded into creamy honey-combed ice-cream

Classic Vanilla:
~ Smooth vanilla ice cream made with fresh cream

Mango Sorbet:
99% fat free, non-dairy luscious mango sorbet, made with real mango

Cookies and Cream:
~ Crushed chocolate cookies dunked in creamy vanilla ice-cream

Chocolate Ecstasy:
~ Rich chocolate fudge, swirled through NZN’s famous chocolate ice-cream

For your information these NZN ice-creams are "EXCLUSIVELY" available ONLY at Cold Storage Supermarket's 40 over outlets island wide at S$12++ per 473ml tub. So start to spot and grab a tub or two of these new eye-catching New Zealand Natural premium ice-creams on your next visit to Cold Storage. Now I am excited to try out one of their 6 Most Popular Flavour like Hokey Pokey.

[Durian Feast] Durian Pancake vs Durian Steamed Cake vs Steamed Durian Egg Custard

Despite of the hot and terrible humid weather going on for the past weeks I am still craving for these "Durian Treats" instead of some cooling stuffs like herbal jelly, ice kacang or cheng teng. Durian is one of my favourite fruit since childhood and I have use it to create many different recipes in this blog such as Durian Fried Rice, Double-boiled Durian Chicken Soup, Durian Chocolate Chiffon Cake and etc.

And in this post I will be sharing 3 quick and easy recipes on snack and dessert using Durian as one of the key ingredients. Do let me know which your favourite Durian Dessert!!!!

I am sure most of you love the Durian Pancake from either Four Seasons, Emicakes, Teng Yu (鼎优) or etc. To be honest I am also one of the fans from Four Seasons who loves their Durian Pancake and Durian Puffs. Here I would like to share a simple recipe where you can either make a thin and crispy or thick and fluffy pancake wrapper for your durian pancake.

Ingredients: (makes 6, 12cm diameter pancakes)
100g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Double Acting Baking Powder
200ml Thick Coconut Milk/Fresh Milk
1 Egg, 60g
70g Caster Sugar
Pinch of Salt

Filling:
200g Fresh Durian Pulp, seeds removed

Method:-

1. Sift plain flour and double acting baking powder together.

2. Beat egg and sugar until creamy and fluffy (about 3 - 4 minutes) before stirring in the flour mixture.

3. Next add in remaining ingredients, mix well to form a smooth batter.

4. Set batter aside in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

5. Heat up a non-stick pan, lightly grease it with cooking oil and add in 1 1/2 tablespoon of batter, swirl pan and cook the pancake skin over medium low heat. (for thin and crispy wrapper reduce to 3/4 tablespoon and swirl it as thin as possible)

6. Turn the pancake over when you see large air holes appearing on it(refer to the photo above) and cook for another 1 minutes or less depend on its thickness.

7. To serve, scoop some mashed Durian pulp onto pancake skin and fold into half to form semi-circle. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for cold version.

*Note:-

~ If using Fresh Milk, reduce the amount to 150 - 180ml and stir in slowly to achieve pancake batter consistency.

~ You can prepare the batter the night before and use it for breakfast with other fillings such as jam, honey, peanut butter and etc.

Durian Pancake

On the other hand if you want something more filling for tea-time or morning breakfast perhaps you could consider making some of these Durian Steamed Cake using a packet of instant pancake flour mixture to whip up these soft and fluffy steamed cake in 15 minutes.

A few weeks back while looking around the food section at Daiso, I happened to see one of it's Japanese Recipe Books featured a similar steamed cake that I would to try using Japanese Pancake flour. So with my limited knowledge on Japanese words and the help of some photos illustration I managed try out the recipe translated before with this pancake flour shown above.

Ingredients: (makes 4)
100g Pancake Flour
1 Large Egg
3 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
2 Tablespoon Corn Oil
50ml Fresh Milk
Fresh Durian Pulp, toppings

The end result of these steamed cake are very close to FourLeaves, Japanese Steamed Cake texture which is light, soft and fluffy. And you can always mix and match with different ingredients such as Matcha, Cocoa Powder, Orange and etc.

Method:-

1. Using a balloon whisk, beat egg and sugar till foamy and pale (about 3 minutes).

2. Stir in Oil and Fresh Milk in sequence then follow by the pancake flour till well combined.

3. Lastly toss in 1 tablespoon of durian pulp, mix well. Spoon mixture into prepared foil/ramekins cups that are lined with paper liners.

4. Top each cup batter with some durian pulp and place the cups in steamer/wok(with boiling water in it), cover and steam over high heat for about 10 - 12 minutes(depending on the size) or until a skewer inserted into one of the cake and comes out clean.

5. Alternatively, you can add some corn kernels together with durian pulp as topping too.

Finally for something smooth and creamy, if remember a few months ago I have shared a recipe on the "Steamed Milk With Egg Whites"(recipe HERE) with toppings such as Purple Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin. For this post I will be using a similar recipe to make a Durian version for all the Durian fans.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
200ml Fresh Milk
2 Large Egg White, (60g egg)
2 Tablespoons Sugar
100g Fresh Durian pulp
Extra Durian Pulp, for topping

Method:-

1. Add milk in a microwave safe bowl, heat on HIGH powder for 60 - 90 seconds (depend on microwave voltage) till milk is warm. Add in sugar and stir till dissolved. Set aside

2. Gently beat the egg whites till a bit frosty. Sieved it over a fine sieve into the milk mixture.

3. Give it a few stir using a fork or chopstick to mix well.

4. Place 1 to 1.5 tablespoon of fresh durian pulp into each rice bowl (size about 250 - 300ml) and use the back of a spoon gently press and spread out the durian pulp evenly in the bowl.

5. Next slowly sift in the milk mixture into each bowl. Wrapped it with microwave safe cling-wrap.

6. Steam over medium heat for 8 minutes, open the clear wrap, add extra durian pulp as topping then continue to steam on medium heat for another 1 - 1 1/2 minutes till slightly firm.

7. Remove from heat and serve warm or cold.

Above photo shows are my collection of recipes using Durian as one of the Main Ingredients. If you are interested to read more about it, you can click on the related link HERE. Lastly I hope you would like the 3 NEW Durian recipes above and do share with me your feedback if you try.