French Breakfast

Taken with iPhone and edited on photography apps

Woke up 6.40am this morning to cook breakfast.

Incredible isn't it? I woke up much earlier than I normally do on weekdays. And what I did? Just making breakfast, and enjoyed it together with the Man. And when he set off to work, I turned on the laptop that had been in rest for a few days and started surfing as usual.

It's wonderful sometimes, to wake up early, having some extra time that I don't usually have.

Now, I'll just be waiting for my laundry, listening to Adele in Royal Albert Hall. Maybe, some yoga practice later.

Have a nice weekend ahead peeps!

Oh, by the way, it's really kinda French breakfast that I cooked. It's not a typical French breakfast the French will have. (At least not what I observed when I traveled to France) I named it French breakfast because, I learned the omelet from "French Food at Home", the toasts were French baguette. And the toasts were supposed to go along with the canned food that I bought from France last October :)

Pasta with Bacon, Mushroom & Peas in Creamy White Wine Sauce

Ingredients:

1. Pasta of your choice

2. Streaky bacon

3. Button Mushrooms

4. Peas

5. Garlic

For the sauce:

1. Cream

2. White wine

3. Grated Parmesan Cheese

4. Butter

For dressing and garnishes:

1. Garlic salt

2. Pepper

3. Parsley

Method:

1. Cook the pasta to al Dante

2. While cooking the pasta, sautee the chopped garlic with butter

3. Add in the roughly chopped streaky bacon when the garlic turned brownish

4. Add in the sliced button mushrooms into the pan when streaky bacon turned slightly crispy

5. Cook till the water secrete from mushrooms are slightly dried up

6. Throw the peas into the pasta pot at the last minute of your pasta cooking while cooking the mushrooms and bacons

7. Add in cream, white wine, garlic salt and grated parmesan cheese and stir well

8. Drain the cooked pasta and peas

9. Immediately pour the pasta into the pan and stir well to make sure every strand of your pasta is coated with the wonderful sauce

10. Serve on your plate and dress with freshly ground pepper and parsley

Simple and Delicious!

Nando's Chicken

The last day of my home trip was spent for 扫墓 at Penang Island, my grandparents. We woke up early morning, packed everything needed for 扫墓 as well as my bag pack to fly back to Singapore.

It was unearthly 6am when we departed from home. I didn't bring my camera up to the hill along as I thought my mom will scold, but ended up she didn't scold my sister. Next year, I'll bring.

After扫墓, there's no point to go back to BM and then came out to airport again. So we had our breakfast dim sum then shopping at Gurney Plaza. Didn't get anything, but I've got my long missing Nando's Chicken in Gurney Plaza before I flew to Singapore.

There's no Nando's Chicken here in Singapore, but there's one Nando's alike, called Barcelos. I don't quite like it, it's more expensive, and definitely not as tasty. Things back home, are always the best.

We're all full from our breakfast, so mom and dad ordered the half chicken set to share. Looks yummy isn't it?

Ah En, YY and I shared a platter. YY and I couldn't stop taking photos, but the food were so tempting, my dad just had to make us act faster! Hahaha.... It's really hard for them to have a good meal when YY and I brought our cameras along. Pity...

A meal at Nando's before departing to the Lion City, real good. But it's never as good as dining at home.

Mom's cooking is still the best in the world.

怡保明阁点心

民以食为天。我们全家人都是爱吃之人。爸爸在我们小时候，可以开半个小时的车，带我们吃一碗据说很好吃的粿条汤。小时候当然是怨声多多，不过长大了，我们都续爸爸的脚步，一样到处“揾食”。

在我中学的时候，怡宝一日游是常有之事。我是家里唯一一个在怡保出世的小孩，在那里长大，直至小学才搬回槟城。怡宝一日游，纯粹为了满足我们家人对怡宝食物的怀念。其实除了吃，就没什么的了。怡保行程，往往是早餐吃富山点心、午餐吃海外天、下午茶喝白咖啡吃鸡丝河粉、晚餐吃芽菜鸡，才打道回府。

这趟回家，妈妈建议不如和我同毓豪一起到怡保吃点心，我们上金马轮，他们才回家。姐姐就这样请假，载妈妈和弟弟到怡保。爸爸因为公事太忙，没得和我们一起癫……那就，下次吧！

到了明阁，姐姐和弟弟对对面的新开张富山蠢蠢欲动。其实说真的，三间店面，三层楼，美丽的装潢，还真是吸引人。可是，我坚持我是为了明阁的芝麻糊和花生糊而来的，大家只好顺一顺我这个大粒人。

花生糊卖完了！每次来都没吃得成，不过，芝麻糊已经让我很开心！明哥的芝麻糊，一直是我的最爱！滑滑的……又不太甜，真是想了都会流口水。

明阁另外一个不可错过的，就是“芋角”。明阁的芋角，是最有芋头香味的芋角。我们点了很多次，但是由于坐在点心楼的一角，一直没被注意到。还好，吃得到~

有到怡保的话，可以吃吃明阁点心。

32,34,36
Jalan Leong Sin Nam,
30300 Ipoh, Perak.
Tel:05-2557143

Close On Every Thursday

回家吃饭最高兴

妈妈说，这样的普通菜肴，我都拍到这样爽！

其实，对于一个住在外地的游子，妈妈煮的家常便饭，就是最好吃的菜肴。管他是一碟蒸鱼，还是一碟青菜，吃起来，就是家的味道。

我每逢遇上什么假日，就会回家。有时候一阵风一样，来也匆匆、去也匆匆，别人总是很不明白。为什么花那么多钱，坐一趟飞机回家，又不请假？我的年假是够少了……再请就完蛋了。可是，回家的时间是无价的，一趟来回机票百多块，也不算太贵，开心就好。我回家，爸爸妈妈也开心。一家人围着吃住家饭，其乐无比。

妈妈是烹饪高手，这一点相信大家早已在姐姐的博客见识了不少。每回回家，妈妈都有新菜肴上桌，幸福到没话说！这回，妈妈从电视上学来的，用冬瓜夹着培根，蒸一蒸，嗯……美味极了！味道清淡，培根带点咸味，冬瓜的甜味，混合在一起，淡淡香香，色香味俱全！

你说，我怎么有可能不爱回家呢？

Pancake for Breakfast

Ingredients:

1. Plain flour
2. 3 Eggs
3. Milk
4. Salt
5. Sugar

Dressings:

1. Banana
2. Mixed berries jam
3. Butter
4. Honey
5. Ham/Bacon
6. Whatever you like

Method:

1. Beat the 3 eggs in a bowl
2. Add in plain flour (amount of your liking, I do not like a lot of flour, so I only mixed in 4-5 big tablespoon of flour into 3 eggs)
3. Mix them well
   (*I do not have a sieve at home, so I have problem to sieve my flour, hence, big problem in mixing the flour into the eggs. However, I accidentally discovered that, by mixing all the ingredients and slightly beat them then let them sit in the fridge overnight would help in mixing at the next morning. Yay!)
4. Pour in some milk (No specific amount because the milk is just to help your mixture to be more pourable, hence, do not add in too much)
5. Add in a pinch of salt and sugar
6. Mixed all the ingredients well (you'll have some muscles after that >.<)
7. Heat your pan, melt a little bit of butter on the pan
   (*Note: Remember, the butter is just to slightly coat the pan so that your pancake would not stick. Too much of oil or butter makes the pancake soft, oily and ugly. If you have fried bacon or ham before that, you do not need any more butter. You can even try to make the pancakes without any oil or butter at all)
8. Pour the mixture into the pan and fry them till yellowish brown.
9. Flip the pancake
10. Serve

A wonderful breakfast for weekend~

Love it~

Tuna Pasta Salad

(Pardon me, I can't explain why the photo keep rotating by itself at the wrong side when I uploaded!!!)

Yes, back to normal life means back to pasta eating habit again.

It's a new year, so I started my first cooking of the year, with a new recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Pasta of your choice
2. Mint leaves
3. Cherry tomato
4. Tuna (intended to use shrimp but didn't get it)

Dressings:

1. Butter
2. Garlic salt
3. Parsley
4. Pepper
5. Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Cook your pasta to al Dante
2. While the pasta is cooking, cut your cherry tomatoes into halves and pluck mint leaves to wash
3. Heat your tuna in the pan, season the tune flakes with garlic salt and pepper
4. When the pasta is cooked, mix the seasoned tuna, cherry tomatoes and pasta together.
5. Add butter to the mixture, the warmth of pasta and tuna will melt the butter.
6. Mix all the ingredients well
7. Dress with chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese
8. Finally, dress with mint leaves
9. If you like, you can add sliced hard boiled egg too
10. Served

Yum yum, a healthy tuna pasta salad. I personally think that the shrimp pasta salad will taste even better. I shall get shrimps to cook!

Orchard & Fondue

After the meal at Itacho, we took a stroll along Orchard Road with Christmas mood.

A picture taken at the huge Christmas tree outside Ion Orchard.

And that's the interior of the walk-in Christmas tree. It was so bright I thought I need a pair of sunglasses.

My weaknesses when I go shopping, jackets, hats, sunglasses. I like this hat, it feels like MJ :P

I saw the fondue set on offer, so I bought one and immediately shopped for the necessary ingredients. I can't even wait any longer, I started to make one immediately after I got home. And it was a success >.<

Chocolate does make one happy, doesn't it?

(PS. I tried to make one for my friends last night and it failed, I was so sad and so Paise...)

Itacho Sushi

To cheer the naggy-moody-braces-patient like me, Yee Hau said we should go out to walk walk after work on Friday. So we went to Orchard, to walk around with all the X'mas lights and have some soft food that I can dine in with.

Walking around ION Orchard, we realized there wasn't much choices, and Japanese food appeared to be the most suitable choice. Yee Hau had heard about Itacho from his friends and so we decided to give it a try.

The queue was very long but since I wasn't too hungry yet (ever since the tooth extraction, my tummy was very well trained to be not hungry), we followed the crowd. There are some crazy promotion going on like: Toro sushi $8 per piece (I had once in Miraku in Penang that cost Jie Jie's bill RM30 per piece), and some salmon sushi $0.40 per piece! Yum, I'm hungry now!

We had mostly very soft food:

1. Crab meat chawanmushi

2. Crab meat salad

3. Salmon sushi

4. Salmon fried with soy sauce sushi

5. Japanese egg roll

Yum, I was satisfied. The sushi cut wasn't too thick, which is just nice for th salmon texture. And the Salmon was actually bigger than the rice roll, just like the size of sushi I had in Narita Airport. Man, how I missed that >.<

And the happiest thing of eating at Itacho, is the bill. Having around 14 pieces of sushi in total, and so many other side dishes, the bill was only $28. Of course, we ordered a lot from the promotion items, because we're very clever consumers :P

For the price and its quality, Itacho deserves to be in our star list. Lets hope it will continue running business with the same quality in the long run.

Black/Grey Listed #1

Yee Hau and I have been talking about creating a list of black listed eat outs in Singapore. Ever since we started to cook, we find that a lot of food outlets in Singapore are just unacceptably pricey and not serving the good food.

We have a few in mind like:

• Pastamania (seriously, I'm cooking better pasta that this franchise do)
• Secret Recipe in IMM (we saw cockroach there and we also find that the cheesecakes are no longer smooth and soft as long ago)
• Ikea fried chicken wings (We used to order this every time we visit Ikea but no more. It's no longer as delicious as it used to be)
• Barcelos (Not really a black listed item, but it's pricey and not as good as Nando's Chicken)
• Shokudo (A japanese restaurant that is not serving japanese food, pricey and not delicious)
• Sakae Sushi (the grilled items in the menu are not really grilled, they simply put into the oven)
• Nasi Lemak at Food Republic Vivo City (super pricey, simply a 3 dishes nasi lemak can cost you up to $6-8)
• Red Lacquer Penang Peranakan (Char Kuay Teow that doesn't taste like one)

The latest outlet that came into the list is Wong Kok Cha Can Ting. Yes, they have celebrity that advertised for them, they have interesting menu like Ku Tin Lok. Seriously, they have Ku Tin Lok!

But the food are extremely pricey, a toast bread that cost me $5.40! That's outrageous. And the toast bread wasn't toast enough. A simple lunch that both of us wasn't too full, cost us more than $24! So, it's a No No!

Of course, we'll have a Star List too. So stay tuned~

(Disclaminer: This is not an advertisement. The comments are made based on personal experience.)

丰富的幸福早餐

话说我上一趟回家，碰巧是十五，姑丈总是在初一十五抓螃蟹，听说那时候的螃蟹比较好吃。姑丈抓了螃蟹，便把7只送来我家。妈妈一直没想到该怎么烹调那7只螃蟹，该煮黑胡椒呢？还是粥？还是牛油？

有天晚上，妈妈问：“不如明天早上我们吃螃蟹粥当早餐？”

“哇！”我惊讶得看着妈妈。

“作嬷，不可以麽？不要吃就算！”妈妈说。

“没有没有，只是有点吓倒。”（差点没有好料吃。）

所以我离开家的那天早上，我们吃螃蟹粥当早餐。哈哈哈哈！

中秋节快乐

上回趁马来人新年回家，赶上妈妈做的公仔饼，好好吃！

慈母多败儿，我本人只会吃不会煮。公仔饼好吃不好做，功夫要好，才能够烘一手不软不硬，恰到好处的饼。这小鱼公仔饼是kosong的，是我最喜欢吃的。妈妈还作了黑豆沙和咸豆沙的，连馅都是亲手做的哦！多厉害！咸豆沙是我妈妈独创的公仔饼，外头没得卖！

我实在是太幸福了！！哈哈哈！

涂上一层薄蛋，准备烘咯！

哇！出炉咯！

这几天烟雾特别浓，你说，我可以拍到美丽的月亮吗？

但不管怎样，先在这里祝大家中秋节快乐。得空就看看月亮，想想嫦娥吧~

Comfort Food

On the day I flew home on Raya, I didn't have time to grab a proper lunch until I checked in at Terminal 1. I grabbed something quick from Toast Box like 10mins before my boarding time.

Among all things, I least expect myself to blurt out THIS when the cute waiter asked me what I would like to order.

A comfort food maybe?

试一试

一直想买Macro lens，可是又很穷，怎么办？

这次回家，在姐姐相熟的相机店败了这个Hoya close up +4的filter，以区区的RM60假假冒充macro lens。虽然不及macro lens的效果好，可是“无虾鱼也好”。

放了这个filter，发现颜色变得很淡。我不知是否同我的olympus在low light condition拍照不太好有无关系，看来下次等外头艳阳高照的时候再试一次。

我的法式面包晚餐，加上scramble egg和bacon。

一时贪吃，还弄了几片配nutella。

吃完法式面包后，来点yogurt。

好饱啊，我看我还是泡茶去~

Orange Sunday

If my title is misleading, please forgive me. I'm a colour person, not a vege person. So I named my title with the colour of the day, not the fruits/vegetables that I made into juice :P

On Sunday morning, I decided I want some carrot milk.

And it was match made too! >.<"

My orange bubbles told me carrot milk is good for your skin. So, don't be lazy, drink this more often :D

Green Saturday

I bought a juicer just Tuesday, finally.

I've tried making juice from blender, and it's a lot more hard work! So, I think I better use a juicer, especially if I'm planning to do more fruit fasting.

A glass of apple celery juice, good for people with high blood pressure.

And you know what, I don't feel so guilty from my oily prata breakfast after this glass of healthy juice :P

Boobs Pasta

Back in San Francisco almost one month ago, we saw this in a shop at Fisherman's Wharf. After which, Hui Nee posted the photos on Facebook and we started to joke how would the pasta looks like if they were cooked.

Hui Nee took it so seriously, she actually bought them for me!

And I promised her, I'd take pictures and show her how do they look like.

Before cook. Oh, you saw the nipples?

Cooked. Slightly deformed but can still see the shapes.

But after stirring with my ingredients, I can't find the boobs??!! They became a plate of normal pasta...

Oh... There they go, a deformed boob.

Banana Pancake

一整天呆在客厅里看书，看得我的头都有点疼。晚餐时间到，又不想到外头。翻翻厨房里，发现还有材料做点banana pancake，于是就做了。虽然有点像早餐，可是管它呢！我喜欢就行。

在厨房里用慢火煎着刚刚搅拌好的材料，整个厨房都飘着蛋奶的香味。“屋友”从房里出来，不说一声的就出门去。我也特地别过头，不想正面招呼。孤僻的要命！难得周末不用entertain任何人，我就是这幅怪僻样！招不招呼已经不成问题，反正平时也没看见他们。

废话少说！把香蕉切成块，配上一点点的蜜糖。嗯……这个简单的晚餐，美味极了！

Food

It's been some time I never uploaded some photos of the food that I had. Well, I had some Korean style BBQ chicken last weekend in Cineleisure, Orchard. I don't really remember the name of the shop, but the shop is located at the basement of Cineleisure. The rice isn't great, but the BBQ chicken is well marinated, hence, yes, quite delicious. However, the salad is just "maa maa desu". Nothing special.

Chicken Soup, a drumstick and a Shitake mushroom >.<

Sweet Chili Prawns

Bean sprout, carrot and fishball with XO sauce ^_^

It's been a while since I cooked my own lunch. Finally, I did it again. Went to the nearest NTUC to buy some groceries last night. It's SOOOOOO crowded! I thought the whole population of Jurong came out to squeeze in NTUC! Crazy... However, I still manage to get myself some food.

Not the best meal in the world, but satisfied :)

Hamoru Japanese Food

周五下班后，我和毓豪在Suntec City见面，为的就是我一直吵吵嚷嚷的书展。参观书展前，当然是要添饱我们的肚子啦。我建议我们吃food republic food court。他看见Hamoru的日本餐档口，就问我要不要试一下。我当然是说好啦，我喜欢吃日本餐。

我选定了座位，就是面对着厨师给我们表演功夫的位子。很饿的我，点了一个bento set，而毓豪则点了一个“Shiok Maki” 和 “Softshell crab handroll”。

我的bento set

shiok maki，鲑鱼的sushi,上面还有一堆，真的是一堆哦，鱼卵

没多久，我就被我面前的那位师傅吸引了。他看起来满年轻，刀法很快。看他切着那一片片又肥又美的鱼肉，我恨不得那一块就是我的。听见服务员叫他老板，我才恍然大悟。

看看那鱼！老板在后面切鱼。

老板不只切得好，他可以眼观四方，耳听八方。他偷听我们讲话，还偶尔回应几句。不时，还看看做得比较远的顾客，如果有人看起来好像需要帮忙，他就叫手下上前看看。

不仅如此，他还鸡婆的educate我们一下。什么东西，冬天才会有。什么东西，好吃等。

在新加坡这种忙乱的生活，我们已经很少同陌生人有这么多的交流。而这日本餐厅的老板，却让我感觉很亲切。

这时，我突然突发奇想，老板不知可不可以像hero里的餐馆，什么都有。不知道如果我随便乱问一通，他会不会说：“aruyo”。我幻想着，眼睁睁的看着老板，竟然被发现了！哎呀！该死！老板竟跟我wink了一下。真的是很paise……

建议大家若到hamoru可以尝试shiok maki。一定要看看师傅如何准备这个shiok maki哦！很特别的。还有，鱼肉很新鲜，sashimi很不错的。价钱和普通的连锁日本餐馆不相上下。一个bento，$15.90。有冷面、sushi、tempura，很大分！如果上hamoru，记得选个可以和老板交流的位子哦！

吃饱后，老板亲自为我们清盘。离开的时候，我俩都对他赞不绝口。而且后来我才知道，毓豪也同样地想起hero的画面。哈哈哈！

毓豪一直不停地说，那shiok maki的味道，还存留在他的舌尖，陪他逛书展……

食物并非五星级，可是感觉很好。我肯定会在光顾的那种。连锁日本餐馆，不够他棒！

（照片是手机拍得，照得不好别见怪。）