Wan ton soup - revisited

I made Wan Ton soup today. It was a spur of the moment thing since I was already out and about and I didn't have the kids with me. It's hubby last day of leave and I used this opportunity to get myself a pedicure while I still can. Finally the first time I have nice toes and summer is almost over!

I managed to make a run to the Asian store and decided to try and make Wan Ton soup. I must admit that I haven't been very successful in making these dumplings because I always found the dumplings tasted bland. And I could never get my soup to taste authentic.

As a result, hubby never developed a liking for this soup dish and he preferred to have his dumplings fried - doh!

This time though, it was a HUGE success! I decided to make my own chicken soup from scratch and use the chicken broth to cook the dumplings and Chinese vegetables.

Hubby is finally a convert for Wan Ton soup! In fact he liked it so much, he said I can cook this anytime and he doesn't need anything else except the Wan Ton soup and Char Siew barbecued pork. 

I found that the noodles need improvement though! I think I'm going to ask my cousin in Singapore, whose father is an owner of a Wan Ton noodle store in People's Park what their secret recipe is! 

My recipe for chicken stock:-

- 1 whole Chicken
- 1 Onion, quartered
- 1 Tomato, quartered
- Handful of dried Scallops

1. Boil some water in a pot big enough to fit the chicken. Do NOT add too much water. You would rather have less stock and a stronger taste.

2. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium and lower the chicken into the water.

3. Add onion, tomato and dried scallops. Leave the stock to simmer over low to medium heat for about an hour. The longer the better.

4. Remove the chicken from the stock, sieve the stock and its ready to use.

Note: I chose to make my own chicken soup because I wasn't happy with the mushroom soup stock from the original recipe. 

Wan Ton recipe:- 

To make the dumplings, I followed the recipe from RasaMalaysia here. They tasted SUPERB! 

Gravy for noodles:- 

As I mentioned, I'm not satisfied with the taste of the gravy for the noodles. So I can't really recommend using the same recipe for the noodles. If you have any good recipes, please share!

Fried Carrot (radish) Cake - Singapore

My perennial all-time favourite breakfast food

I know my blog posts have been sparse. Do bear with me. I'm trying to blog more now that we're into our 6th week of being in our new abode.

Cooking with our new induction stove has been ...hmm.... a learning curve. Who would have thought right?

The induction stove heats up so quickly that garlic gets burnt really fast! I've had to discard garlic which I had painstakingly chopped because it charred in seconds after being thrown into the pan. I'm even unable to allow sauce to simmer without keeping an eye on it because the bottom of the pan burns so quickly!

For this reason, while I'm experimenting with the different levels of heat on my stove, I'm usually unwilling to cook fancy meals. The good thing is that there is a timer function for each individual hob so I no longer have to rely on a manual timer.

Still, after 5 weeks of eating quick meals I was starting to crave for real Singaporean meals. Facebook ain't the best place for a Singaporean living overseas, with the avalanche of food shots inundating my news feed. I have even blocked certain pages simply because I couldn't tolerate the whole seeing-but-not-eating feeling.

We finally made it down to the asian store recently and I stocked up on my necessities. One of the things I'd buy is rice flour because that's exactly what I need for my all-time favourite - Chai Tao Kway, or rather fried carrot cake done the Singaporean way.

I'm proud to say that Sammy loves it and he keeps telling me "Nice. Sammy likes it!" Gabriel is still not entirely convinced at its taste, but he's currently in a phase when he's simply not eating well and drooling a lot. His nights have been very tough too cos he would scream for no reason. We're hoping that it's just a phase of teething and that things would soothe itself out.

It was sooo good satisfying my craving. I had this with some sambal chilli.

If you're interested, this is my photo documentary of how I made the cake. The original recipe is here and I've adapted it for myself here.

Ingredients:

- 1 radish, grated (about 500 grams)
- 250 grams water
- 200 grams rice flour
- 1/4 tsp salt

1.  Puree the radish with a bit of water in a puree machine / babycook. Drain.

2. Mix the above ingredients and steam it over high heat for about 40 mins or until you get a smooth cake.

3. Allow the cake to cool before cutting it into small pieces to fry.


Ingredients:

- 5 cloves Garlic (chopped) 
- 2 tbsp Chai Por (preserved radish. Soak in water for 5 mins and drain)
- 3 Eggs, beaten
- Fish sauce to taste
- Tai Hwa sweet black sauce (I import mine directly from Singapore)
- Spring Onions (chopped)

3. Heat up some oil in a wok. Fry the carrot cake until crisp and a bit browned.

4. Add Chai por and chopped garlic. Add more oil if it gets too dry.

5. Add fish sauce to season.

6. Pour beaten egg over fried carrot cake. Allow egg to cook for a bit before flipping it over.

7. Add spring onions and fry. (I like my spring onions cooked)

8. Add sweet black sauce and coat. I add mine generously because I like my carrot cake sweet. You can omit this step if you prefer the white version.

Beef Hor Fun

Yeah, I know that I've been on a roll lately. A foodie roll that is.

Don't ask me why. It's just that I've been coming across so many lovely recipes online (thru Facebook) that I can't wait to try them out before baby #2 makes an appearance.

My latest accomplishment has got to be my favourite one thus far!

Beef hor fun is a staple at many Singaporean hawker centres. It's comfort food and hubby loves it. One can either cook it dry or wet (my version). The dry version is a bit difficult to replicate at home because the flat rice noodles break easily and when one does not have a fire stove, it's like a suicide mission.

The wet version on the other hand, is pretty simple to cook and I must say that I enjoy having my noodles with sauce. Sammy loved this dish so much, he slurped up spoon after spoon of noodles and gravy.

Oh, another advantage about cooking this dish by yourself? You get to add as much ingredients as you want, compared to measly portions one usually gets when one eats out. For us though, we don't have the luxury to get this at restaurants here, so home-cooked food is the way to go!

One can use beef fillet, but I opted for the slightly-cheaper rumpsteak portion which tasted just as amazing. It has a higher fat content but taste-wise I felt that rumpsteak suited this dish just as well. I didn't use any beef tenderizers either since a good steak cut does not need to be tenderized.

Ingredients:-

- 300 g of flat rice noodles (get the wide 10mm types)
- 300 grams of beef fillet / rumpsteak (thinly-sliced)
- 5 cm ginger (thinly sliced)
- 2 garlic cloves (chopped)
- 3 spring onions (cut into 6 cm lengths)
- 400 ml of meat stock

Seasoning for gravy:

- 1 tbsp light soy
- 1/2 tbsp dark soy
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- dash of sesame oil
- pepper to taste
- corn starch solution (2-3 tbsp corn starch mixed with a bit of cold water)
- 2 egg whites

1.  Marinate the beef slices with a little soy, sesame oil, pepper and corn flour.

2. Mix 1/2 tbsp of dark soy with rice noodles.

3. Fry rice noodles in a smoking hot wok with a little oil. Do not move the noodles too much to prevent breakage. Set aside.

3.  Fry marinated beef with a little oil until about 50% cooked. Remove from wok and set aside.

4. Saute garlic and ginger for 15 seconds then add in spring onions and continue to cook for a further 30 seconds. Add stock and seasonings and bring it to a boil.

5. Drizzle in the egg whites and give it a light stir.

6. Gradually add in the corn starch solution to thicken the sauce until desired consistency. Finally stir in the beef and allow it to cook completely without overdoing it.

7. Pour gravy over the noodles and serve immediately with green pickled chilli.

Cook's notes:

- You can save time by peeling the ginger using a spoon instead of a knife.

- I used Lacroix meat stock. Initially I was a bit concerned since this is a "western" meat stock after all. But after experimenting with this, I'd give it the green light for this dish! Super yummy and healthy (ie. no residual fat from boiling stock from meat bones).

Recipe adapted from here
Recipe for green pickled chilli

Tau Suan

The weather has been so cold and gloomy these days. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that we're supposed to be having spring when it does feel more autumn / early winter. Brrrr.

Hence, when we went to the asian store to stock up on chinese ingredients and I saw some freshly-made you tiao - fried dough fritters, I immediately bought some and decided to make myself some Tao Suan.

Back in Singapore, there are a lot of sweet desserts made out of beans. Tao Suan is one of my favourite and it uses mung beans as a base.

This is the only the second time that I'm making this dessert because hubby ain't a fan of the taste of mung beans and the first time I attempted it, I made the you tiao from scratch, which was way too time-consuming and tedious for my taste.

Hubby and Sammy ate up the you tiao with gusto. Hub refused to try the mung beans while Sammy tasted at least 2 spoonfuls of it before stopping. I shall just have to persevere in training Sammy's taste buds to like my Singaporean sweet desserts!

I realized that I didn't post any recipe the first time round, so this is my fuss-free and easy recipe. I like this recipe because it does not use as much sugar as most other recipes ask for. Plus I modified it a little by using pandan essence because I didn't have any pandan leaves and it worked just as wonderfully. :)

Ingredients: -

- 150 grams Mung Beans
- Some You Tiao (toasted in the oven till crispy)
- 1/4 tsp pandan essence
- 50 grams rock sugar
- 500 ml water

Thickening glaze
- 40 grams starch / sweet potato flour / tapioca flour
- 125 ml water

1. Soak beans in water for an hour. Drain, steam for about 30 minutes.

2. In a pot, add water, rock sugar and pandan essence.

3. Bring to boil, reduce heat and add the mung beans.

4. Prepare the thickening glaze and stir it in slowly until mixture thickens to desired consistency. You do not need to add the entire amount.

5. Taste. Add more sugar if necessary.

6. Serve hot with you tiao. Enjoy! 

Pork porridge

 

The whole family was sick last month.

The Chinese, as much as the Germans, believe in having light meals when one is sick. It's easier on the stomach and one has a higher chance of keeping the food down.

Of course our idea of what constitutes "light" food varies from culture to culture. In Germany, that would mean salt prezels, coke, plain bread, or plain biscuits. The Chinese version of "sick" or "light" food would be rice porridge, anything with soup, or mee sua - a type of thin noodles cooked in soup broth. I hated it when I was younger and my mom forced me to eat it. Even today, when I think of how it tastes, my stomach starts to churn. 

Bel and I were whatsapping the other day and exchanging porridge tips! If someone told me before I moved to Germany that I would be chatting with my girlfriend and exchanging porridge tips, I would have thought that this person was crazy!

But there we were, talking about porridge and what ingredients one could put in porridge to vary its taste.

We don't have the luxury of ordering porridge from eateries / restaurants here. Yup. There's not a single Chinese restaurant that sells porridge in Stuttgart. In any case, when one is sick, one is stuck at home and still has to somehow nurse oneself back to health.

I usually cook the standard chicken porridge from home-made chicken stock. Hence, pork porridge sounded like a very nice and tasty alternative!

Ingredients:-

- Brown rice (1 cup)
- Dried Scallops (About 12-15)
- Minced meat (200 grams)
- 1 Egg
- Soy sauce
- Oyster sauce
- Sesame oil

1. Soak the dried scallops in warm water until they are softened. I usually soak them for about an hour. Reserve the water.

2. Wash the brown rice and place it in a rice cooker with a porridge function. Pour in the water reserved from soaking the dried scallops and top it up with normal water.

3. Using your fingers, break the soaked dried scallops into smaller pieces and throw them into the rice.

4. Cook the porridge according to the rice cooker instructions.

5. While the porridge is cooking, marinate the minced meat with soy sauce, oyster sauce and a bit of sesame oil.

6. Once the porridge is done, pour it into a pot and turn on the stove.

7. Cook the minced meat in the porridge - You can either roll it up into meat balls, or simply stir the minced meat into the porridge (my preference because it's more fuss-free!)

8. Once minced meat is cooked, break an egg and either let it cook with the heat turned off (egg will be a bit runny), or cook the egg thoroughly before turning off the heat.

Sammy and I loved this porridge SO much! It was the first time I used dried scallops to cook porridge and oh boy, that made all the difference! I suppose one can use dried scallops for almost everything and it gives any dish the authentic Chinese / Cantonese flavour.

The idea of adding an egg is so innovative! Why didn't I think of that earlier? Thanks Bel! :)

Note:
Another alternative of making pork porridge is to make meat stock from pork ribs and use the stock to boil the porridge. I tried this once and it certainly tasted very good too. BUT pork rib stock does come with a whole lot of fat - which I reckon wouldn't be too easy on a weak tummy. Hence, this recipe is a healthier and faster alternative!

Winter melon soup

My food posts have been far and few between. I have been too caught up with my daily errands / toddler demands that I haven't managed to experiment much with new recipes.

I have however taken some photos of new concoctions in the kitchen and shall endeavour to slowly resuscitate the food part of my blog.

Soups are superb comfort food especially during winter. And the best part of it all? They require minimal effort. All one needs to do is to buy the necessary ingredients, dump everything in a pot and let it simmer for hours for that perfect homecooked stock taste..

I found winter melon in the Asian store the other day and decided to try it out since I needed some new soup ideas.

Am I glad I did! I randomly googled some recipes, made a mental note of the usual ingredients used and came up with a simple one for myself.

Even my German girlfriend told me that it was the best-tasting soup she has ever had. I wouldn't go as far as that to commend my soup but this recipe is definitely a keeper!

Ingredients:-
- 1 thick slice of winter melon (about 950grams, peeled and cut into wedges)
- Pork ribs (500 grams, cut into smaller pieces)
- A handful of red dates 
-1 honey date (optional)  
- Luncheon meat (I used half a can)

1. Put the winter melon, pork ribs, red dates and honey date in a pot. Cover it with enough water.

2. Let the water boil before lowering the heat to simmer for a few hours. The longer the better.

3. When soup is done, cut up luncheon meat and fry it (without oil). Season soup with salt if necessary.

4. Garnish the soup with luncheon meat and serve hot!

That was easy peasy right? This soup is very light and easy on the stomach. Hence, it also makes for great comfort food when one is not feeling well. Oh, hubby loves it too - much to my surprise. So you can try it on your non-Chinese friends / hubs. :)

Black carrot cake - Singapore

I'm so proud of myself.

After almost 6 years of living overseas and always craving for this one Singaporean dish, I finally got down to making it myself.

You know how thinking of a type of food never fails to transport you to homesickness-land? And you wish that the restaurants sell it so that you don't have to fly halfway across the world to satisfy your craving?

For me, it was always black carrot cake or "cai tao kway" as they call it in Singapore. I would dream of it, crave for it and each time I visit Singapore, it would be on my "must-eat -immediately" list.

And I don't even know why I took such a long time to muster the courage to try cooking it. I guess I kept hearing from others about how difficult it is to make the "cake" or how many times one has to try making it before succeeding.

In all humility, it was seriously not as tough as I had imagined it to be. Pandan cake is a whole lot harder to make. Compared to that, carrot cake is truly a piece of cake.

I have tried making it twice and I must say that the taste is pretty authentic while the consistency is about 80% there.

And guess what? I managed to find a short-cut method too. I used Sammy's babycook (food puree machine) to puree the radish with a bit of water. The end product was very fine and this resulted in a very smooth steamed carrot cake. :) This saved me sooo much time cos I didn't have to grate the radish from scratch!

So here's my photo documentary and recipe of my black carrot cake.

 Carrot cake after steaming

Carrot cake cut into half and removed from the pot

 That's half the portion cut into cubes and fried in oil

 Add eggs and chai por

Almost done

The final product! Now I don't have to wait for my annual trip to Singapore to indulge in this dish. What joy!!!!

Ingredients:

- 1 radish, grated (about 500 grams)
- 250 grams water
- 200 grams rice flour
- 1/4 tsp salt

1.  Puree the radish with a bit of water in a puree machine / babycook. Drain.

2. Mix the above ingredients and steam it over high heat for about 40 mins or until you get a smooth cake.

3. Allow the cake to cool before cutting it into small pieces to fry.


Ingredients:

- 5 cloves Garlic (chopped) 
- 2 tbsp Chai Por (preserved radish. Soak in water for 5 mins and drain)
- 3 Eggs, beaten
- Fish sauce to taste
- Tai Hwa sweet black sauce
- Spring Onions (chopped)

3. Heat up some oil in a wok. Fry the carrot cake until crisp and a bit browned.

4. Add Chai por and chopped garlic. Add more oil if it gets too dry.

5. Add fish sauce to season.

6. Pour beaten egg over fried carrot cake. Allow egg to cook for a bit before flipping it over.

7. Add spring onions and fry. (I like my spring onions cooked)

8. Add sweet black sauce and coat. I add mine generously because I like my carrot cake sweet. You can omit this step if you prefer the white version.

Stewed ginseng chicken

The Chinese have this one-month confinement tradition for new Moms. During this time, the Mom is supposed to stay at home and rest, eat only certain types of food and avoid taking a shower.

I'm no expert in confinement food but the only thing I heard is that one should use lots of ginger and sesame oil in the food. This combination of ingredients is supposed to expel "wind" in the body as well as to restore the health of the mom after a physically-tiring birth.

Well, I bought a book on confinement food but only tried a few recipes. And nope, I didn't follow all the do's and don'ts of confinement. If you recall, I even ate sushi on the day I left the hospital. haha.

Anyway, the point of this post is that confinement or not, some of the dishes are really yummy. They taste like the regular Chinese meals that I cook but even better, because I use sesame oil instead of the regular cooking oil.

This recipe uses both ginseng and wolfberries which can be found at Asian stores. Ginseng is a tonic used to boost energy levels and reduce stress while wolfberries are very good antioxidants and are loaded with nutrients.

Hubby, (hear this) LOVES it too! The first time I cooked it, I was pleasantly surprised that he told me that I could cook this anytime. The chicken meat is so tender that it falls easily off the bone. The rock sugar neutralizes the somewhat bitter taste of ginseng to result in a very aromatic and tasty meal.

And since this is a confinement meal, it's done in 3 easy steps - taking into consideration the amount of time and energy of a new Mom. Love it! :)

Ingredients:

- 1 whole chicken (cut up to the various parts)
- Sesame oil (4 tbsp)
- Ginseng (当归), 5 slices
- Ginger (sliced), 25 grams
- Water (500ml)
- Rock sugar (5 grams)
- Wolfberries (枸杞), a handful
- Salt

1. Fry ginseng and ginger in sesame oil until fragrant.

2. Add in chicken and stir-fry for a few minutes

3. Add in water, rock sugar, wolfberries and salt. Bring it to boil, then lower flame and simmer until dry. (Estimate about 1 hour)

(Or if you prefer it with gravy like me, let it simmer until sauce has reduced to the amount desired).


Source: Adapted from "Authentic Nyonya confinement food", by Chef Ricky Ng

Pork on lemon grass sticks

I'm back in Germany after 4 whirlwind weeks in Singapore. My luggage is almost unpacked but Sammy is still jet-lagging (ie. middle of the night wake ups and not wanting to go back to sleep).

Hubby told me that he's been having frozen pizzas to sustain himself during my absence and my wifey instinct felt so sad for him! I enjoy cooking, but washing up is another matter

Thanks to my friend Liz, who bought me a new recipe book, I decided to brush up my culinary skills again! I realized that since Sammy was born, I haven't posted a single entry on food simply because I haven't had the capacity to try out anything new!

Needless to say, cooking had become more of a chore / necessity rather than a hobby and I didn't find myself looking forward to it. Hence, I'm now on a mission to revive this aspect of my life that has been lying dormant for a while.

Hubby and I loved every bite of the pork sticks. The lemon grass added a subtle but tangy flavour to the pork mixture. This can either be served as party finger food or as a main meal (in picture).

 Completing the meal with some greens and sunny-side up egg

Ingredients:

500 grams minced pork

4 garlic cloves, chopped

4 coriander roots, finely chopped

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp Kecap Manis / soya sauce

Lots of freshly-ground salt and ground black pepper

Lengths of lemon grass stalk

Sweet chilli sauce / sambal chilli to serve

1. Mix minced pork, chopped garlic, coriander roots, sugar and kecap manis in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper. Leave in refrigerator for 2 hours.

2.  Mould the pork mixture into balls. 

3. Stick a length of lemon grass halfway into each ball, then press the meat mixture around the lemon grass to make a shape like a chicken leg. 

4. Grill the pork sticks in an oven at about 200degrees for about 20 mins (depending on your oven). At half-time, I turned them over such that the sticks are grilled evenly. 

Adapted from: Chinese recipes 500 by Jenni Fleetwood.

Homemade Kaya tastes the BEST!

So as part of my "nesting" season, I'm sorting out my recipes - which I'm proud to say is about 90% done!!! And this is when I realized that I have quite a number of recipes that I have printed out but have not tried yet. So I'm hoping to try out a couple of them before baby pops.

I'm usually reliant on my Kaya stock from Singapore because I haven't found any good ones in Stuttgart. However, after reading many recipes and hearing that it ain't that tough to make your own Kaya, I decided to get my hands dirty and tackle this one recipe!

Kaya is basically Singaporean jam. It consists of coconut milk, sugar, eggs and pandan flavouring. I grew up eating kaya on my toast almost everyday for breakfast. If it wasn't Kaya, it would be peanut butter with jam (Skippy!). Yeah, that might sound so disgusting for the most of you, but I tell ya, it was heaven for me!

 Slowly boiling the kaya mixture using the improvised double-boiler method

 All bottled-up! Now if only I can get the Germans to like Kaya, I could start a mini business!

 Close-up picture of the consistency of the Kaya. Other than the intense green, the texture and taste of the Kaya just screams out "Singaporean goodness!!!"

A breakfast that I really look forward to waking up to. I kid you not, when I say that it tastes better than any of those Kaya that I import directly from Singapore to Germany! 

Kaya Recipe: 

Ingredients:

- 5 eggs

- 550 grams sugar

- 500 ml Coconut milk

- 10 pieces Pandan leaves (or 1/2 tsp Pandan paste)

Instructions:

1. Process pandan leaves with 500ml of the coconut milk in a blender. Strain to discard pulp.

(OR: Skip this step and just add 1/2 tsp pandan paste to 500 ml coconut milk and blend). 

2. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat all the eggs.

3. Add sugar into beaten eggs. Use a hand whisk to stir mixture until all sugar dissolves.

4. Add coconut milk and pandan juice into egg mixture. Stir well.

5. Pour kaya mixture through a sieve into a stainless steel pot (to be used in the double-boiler method). 

6. Bring another pot of water to boil and place the stainless steel pot over the bigger pot. When the water is simmering (between low to medium heat), stir kaya occasionally for the first 25 minutes. When kaya starts to thicken, stir it every 5-10 minutes.

7. When kaya reaches the desired consistency, takes at least another 1 hour, remove it from the heat. Cool completely before storing it in a clean jar.

8. Keep refrigerated. Enjoy!

Notes:

- Make sure all the sugar dissolves before adding coconut milk.

- The purpose of pouring kaya mixture thorugh a sieve is to eliminate big air bubbles formed during the whisking process. Existence of air bublles will result in non-consistent or lumpy kaya.

- Kaya will turn thicker when it is cooled.

Fried Wan Tons - Chinese Dumplings

We usually have cell group on Tuesdays and being the only Chinese and non-German in my cell, I try to cook something Asian so that the others can have a taste of what real Chinese food is like.

I'm glad to say that most people in our cell are pretty adventurous, so its usually not a problem to feed them. :) And I think I'm beginning to understand how my pregnancy cravings work. I see a photo of a type of food, salivate over it, mull over it in my brain and at some point in time, I have this, "Oh boy, if I don't have this food now now NOW, I'm not gonna survive another second!!"

So yeah, I must have seen a photo of a fried wanton somewhere on the Internet and decided that its about time to make my own!

 
The finished fried wanton. I realized that folding them into triangular pieces saved way more time than folding them the traditional way.

But I couldn't possibly just feed my cell members with wantons for dinner. So I decided to fry some rice with ham, pork belly, tomatoes, mushrooms and eggs. I added some chopped chilli bits to give it a boost of flavour and oh boy, it certainly achieved its purpose alright! The ladies (including myself) were tearing at those spicy bits while the guys were like, "Oh yeah! More chilli!" Wahaha.

 That's what I did with the leftovers of the wanton. I made ourselves some authentic Singaporean Wan Ton Noodles!

For the Wan Ton recipe, click here:

Singapore 2011 part 5 - Meeting up with Bev at Marmelade Pantry, ION

We met up with Beverly when we were in Singapore. I've been following Bev's blog, since my friend recommended it to me. It's not that hard to when there are so many cute photos of her little one, Hunter and she writes a lot about food, which I'm also passionate about. Hunter's Eurasian and looking at his photos makes me so excited to see our little one in real life too.

Hunter in his Bugaboo Bee. He looks so startled in the first pix and he was completely knocked out in the second one. Would be lovely if our baby could sleep in public too! Look at those chubby legs!

Bev was kind enough to bring the Ergobaby so that hubby could give it a try with a real baby inside. Thanks Bev! 

Verdict: Its definitely more comfortable and better on the back than the Babybjorn. Now, we're still stuck between Ergobaby and Manduca - but that's a decision that we can make later.

I got the Green Peppercorn and Garlic chicken with crispy basil, kaffir lime rice, frazzled leeks and fried eggs (S$20). Absolutely drool-worthy!

Hubby went for the healthier version of warm spinach salad with mozzarella, bacon, pine nuts and burnt butter dressing (S$23). It was surprisingly good!

 Bev had the signature Crabmeat Linguini with pine nuts, tomatoes and chilli (S$23). Another winner.

Although I was already stuffed, I simply had to try the desserts for which Marmelade is famous for. I got the Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge Cake for S$7.80 a piece. It was sooo good, but really huge. Could barely finish half of it!

Bev opted for the Sticky Date & Toffee Pudding with vanilla ice cream (S$12).

 Finally meeting up in the flesh! Its so amazing how the Internet can be such a useful tool to get to know people! Ok I have to admit that having a blog is one thing and meeting up with people in real life is another.  But I am so happy that Bev is open enough to meet up with her online friends and I'm so glad we did! She gave me a lot of baby tips re: strollers and all. Oh boy, having a boy is like having a brand-new education!

Marmelade Pantry

Website

Singapore 2011 part 4 - Saboten Japanese restaurant

We met up with my immediate family, including Dad's girlfriend and one of his brother's family at a really amazing Japanese restaurant, Saboten.

Originally from the Shinjuku neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan, the restaurant specializes in tonkatsu with meals that include free-flow of thinly-shredded chilled Japanese cabbage, cups of Japanese rice and bowls of miso soup.  To cater to individual preferences, part of the dining experience is grinding sesame seeds with your personal mortar and pestle before mixing in the special tonkatsu sauce.

The deep-fried meat (either pork, chicken, oyster or salmon) are done to perfection. They are crispy, golden and there's not an ounce of oil found in them. Highly-recommendable. Service was immaculate and we even saw native Japanese people eating there. Our eyes were especially glued to a pretty good-looking Jap lady who was nursing her baby (covered of course).

 全家福 - Full family shot, minus my sister

The all-you-can-eat fresh Japanese cabbage. My brother loved it so much, he said he could just eat the salad as the main course! One has a choice of either a sweet or vinegar sauce as dressing.

I got the set meal that consisted of tempura prawns and pork katsu. The portions were pretty reasonable such that one is able to finish it without feeling too stuffed- very important for a preggy me who had to keep watching what she ate no thanks to limited stomach space!

 Hubby's meal was amazing. He got the Katsudon (pork tenderloin with egg). I liked that the egg added moisture to the rice so that it wasn't too dry.

Really like this photo. The guy in the middle is my youngest brother, Jacob and Isaac, the older one is on the right. Isaac has this  "I have no idea what to do with my little brother " expression written all over his face.

With Dad

 After dinner we decided to do some baby shopping followed by a game of pool. Needless to say, Isaac beat both of us hands down. I credit it to him having more time to practise!

 Hubby played pretty well himself. He possesses the skills but lacks the practice.

Okok, I know a preggy woman looks funny playing pool. But I did not too bad actually!

Saboten

Parco Marina Bay Millenia Walk

9 Raffles Boulevard #03-02

Tel: 6333 3432

Singapore 2011 part 3 - Hainanese Chicken Rice

Many people in Germany ask me, "So what's Singaporean food like?"

I'm usually stunned because Singaporean food is so versatile and there are so many different origins of Singaporean food that its hard to answer that question in one sentence.

Yup so I'm going to introduce you to some of my favourite Singaporean food. The first on the list has to be Hainanese Chicken Rice! 

A hot favourite among both tourists and locals, the chicken rice is so good that one can eat it on its own. Of course for added spice, one should savour it with its signature chilli garlic sauce and/or dark soya sauce. The chicken is usually available either roasted or boiled and one can also order a side dish of dou miao (a type of Chinese vegetable) and char siew (barbecued pork) with it.

Chicken rice is a staple in many food courts, but if you really want the famous types, you should go to those flagship stores that only sell chicken rice. I'm no expert for the best chicken rice in Singapore, but the one near my Dad's house is good enough for me!

Back home in Germany, I either rely on Prima Taste or make chicken rice myself - which I must admit has only been done once cos of the sheer amount of work required.

The entire meal that was enough for 2 people

 Hubby who likes durians, but doesn't like chicken rice, ordered fried beef hor fun (flat noodles) instead. It was beyond yummilicious. This store also sells regular zhi char (individual cooked dishes).

Wee Nam Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice 

275 Thomson Road  #01-05 Novena Ville, Singapore

Singapore 2011 part 1 - High Tea with my girly bunch / 26 weeks preggy

Ok, I know that I've been neglecting my blog. But I'm all ready to resuscitate it again! :)

Whenever I visit Singapore, my time is always so constrained and everything seems to happen in such a whirlwind that I find myself barely having time to catch my breath.

This is also why we tend to go for a short getaway so that we can have undisturbed couple time for each other. And I don't feel the constant need to check my Facebook or fill up my free time with appointments with friends.

Don't get me wrong. I love meeting up with friends, especially since I only get to see them once a year but its the rush that I don't like. I was only in Singapore for 2.5 weeks so everything had to take place in that short span of time. I started catching up with friends even in the first few days. That meant that I was jet-lagging through my first few meet-ups.

And how on earth do you catch up with friends in 2 hours after not seeing them for a year? Hence, I'm always grateful and thankful for friends who actually take the time to read my blog / facebook on a regular basis. :)

You'll notice that all my meet-ups are over food. Yup, food and shopping are the top two pastimes in Singapore.

My girly bunch, consisting of Jennifer, Charissa and Andrea are my closest girly pals who grew up together with me. I know all of them for more than 10 years and its been such a blessing to journey through life -  adolescence, courtship, marriage and now pregnancy with them.

We had buffet high tea at Pan Pacific Orchard which was having a 3-for-2 promotion with Citibank (3 customers pay the price of 2). Many credit cards have tie-ups with hotels such that customers are entitled to special promotions if they pay using these credit cards at specified hotels.

The food was amazing! They offered a variety of local / Malaysian specialities as well as a western selection of desserts that included a chocolate fountain and crepes. 

 

Look at the amount of food we shared among ourselves!  I was quite proud of myself though. I tried everything but didn't overeat, so I didn't have indigestion after that.

In front of the massive ION Orchard (one of the many gigantic shopping malls that mushroomed along Orchard Road over the past few years). That's Jennifer, who's a teacher just like me. But unlike me who teach adults, she teaches primary school kids.

  That's Charissa who's an SIA air-stewardess. Its funny that we took photos in front of Lido (a cinema) because this used to one of our regular hangouts as teenagers.

 An individual shot of myself at almost 26 weeks pregnant. Everything I was wearing was bought from Singapore. Nice maternity wear, isn't it?

A close-up shot of the 3 of us. Our 4th friend, Andrea later was in the U.S. when we first met up

Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel 

10 Claymore Road, Singapore 229540

Buffet link here