Gift of Life

To raise funds for the China Sichuan's quake victims, BreadTalk (local bakery chain) came up with these sad-looking panda buns for sale. Each costs $2 and it seems all proceeds will be donated to the cause.



The bread tasted buttery and fragrant, and there is sweet red bean paste filling inside.


Nice to eat. Eat and help a cause at the same time... why not?

Meiji collagen

If I remember correctly, cat aunty once asked me if this thing works. I think I said it depends on whether it was a good or bad day for me. :P



That was then. After having consumed it for > 6 months+, now I can say : perhaps it does work... kind of. I think.

I stir it into my morning coffee, which is slightly sweetened by it. It contains some shark materials... cartilage or something, so it won't be suitable for vegetarians.

Recent grocery sighting

Bought these apples during the lunch hour at Cold Storage:

Ambrosia apples, from Canada (grown in BC)



The apple producer's website has some interesting information on a variety of apples, pears, berries and fruit-related recipes.

The apple is sweet and just crunchy (not as hard as the Washingtons)

Other grocery sightings. :

Is this langsat??



Interesting new product - blended herbs in a tube!


There's blended coriander, mint, basil, rosemary, etc. in a gel-like form, but all have rather short shelf lives (expires in Jun '08). How to use up all within such a short time?

Recent makan

Some of the food we've had recently:

Chicken chop from Crazy Ang Mo


It was tasty - well-marinated and moist. I like their fish n chips too, which I find is better than the average western food from food courts/hawker centres, but I don't know why our guy friend kept complaining about their food. (Well, if he can like the Balinese pushcart mee bakso, then I guess there's no accounting for taste! :P )

Indonesian style mee goreng from the new Indon food stall - very yummy and the sambal with ikan bilis was delicious. It's got 4 medium prawns too...not bad for $3.



Ayam Penyet from the same Indon stall, which is more average.



Guo Tie (pot stickers) from the hand-made noodle stall.



Breakfast (a bit overbaked) from Breadtalk - my favourite is the cranberry with cream cheese bun, but from Four Leaves Bakery.



Ahh...the surprise of the month. It's "grilled fish with breadcrumbs & herbs".


I didn't know what it was, but the way it turned out was really nice, with a dash of Italian herbs, I think.

The hidden mash with gravy underneath the egg...yummy!



Fried half spring chicken from A-Star coffeeshop.


I agreed to let them chop up the chicken but didn't expect them to also "batter" the pieces with the flavoured flour. It's as good as (if not better than) KFC.

*Slurp!*

The festive air of Chinese New Year (2)

Celebrating festive occasions is never complete without food, and there probably isn't more eating and drinking on any festive occasion than CNY!

These are just a teeny, weeny sampling.


Pineapple tarts from the cake shop; got lots of pineapple filling and very little pastry...I like.

Even before CNY starts, we start eating and sampling already. Who can resist those yummy CNY goodies that appears so abundantly during this time? Hehehe!


LCG bak kwa - this is NOT my favourite brand, but my father likes to go and queue up for hours just to buy kilos of burnt bak kwa *roll eyes*

I threw all these burnt bits and pieces away....lousy, lousy, lousy LCG bak kwa!!

It took a lot of resistance so that I could take home less of it...coz still on diet. Actually, my fave bak kwa is the brand with the "Ah Pek" face - Kim Hock Guan.


Pineapple tarts from Spud's mom...hers got more pastry than pineapple filling has a milk powder taste in the pastry.

More yummy goodies from Spud's mom - Kueh Lapis. :)



I have yet to really buy the goodies, and I think it's better not to buy too much, or else we'll end up having to eat them ourselves later or throwing them away.

The festive air of Chinese New Year (1)

Tung-tung-tung ciang!
Tung-tung-tung ciang!
Tung-tung-tung ciang-tung ciang-tung-ciang!



Pretty lion set up by the stallholders at the shops nearby



More grand this year



Another pretty lion above!



The stall sells mostly the stuff for Chinese festive prayers and CNY decorations




Elsewhere, there are pretty, pretty flowers sold at the DIY shop



I can never resist putting them near my nose to take a whiff...be they flowers or soaps, or toiletries. :P



The flowers give out a very strong perfume!



So they're from the Hyacinth family.

Lovely!

Miscellaneous food and snacks

Some of the foodstuff I'd eaten recently. :)

Fish luncheon meat, anyone?

This Ayam brand product came out just in time during the shortage of the very comforting Maling pork luncheon meat from PRC; comes in original, spicy and black pepper flavour (as shown). It tastes ok lah...that is, after piling on the butter, cucumber and tomatoes in a sandwich!


Taiwanese vegetarian stuff made of mushroom, from this emporium I discovered at People's Park Complex that imports lots of its own Taiwanese foodstuff. It tastes like 肉酱 (meat paste), and great with porridge, though a bit salty.




I've been wondering about the English name of this fruit for ages.


I've seen the supermarts and sellers calling it 太阳瓜 （sun melon?) and honey melon or honey sun melon. They're really good, sweet and crunchy when in season (which this one is not; skin too thick) and cheap too (when in season). It's my 2nd fave fruit after the Hamid melon which we ate in Xinjiang, China (not the unripe, imported ones though).

I bought this pack of crisps at the ozzie section of "Aunty Lucy" mart when it was at the intro price of $2.95, and my, it tastes great! Best of all, it's baked and supposedly low in fat, so I can eat lots of it without feeling guilty (self-consolation only).



I've since bought 2 more packs in different flavours, but they're more pricey than even Kettle's potato chips, at $3.50 for 100g nia. I've to refrain from eating my fave Kettle's chips since I'm on a diet...coz once eat liao, can't stop!




A reprisal of my vegetarian aglio olio pasta...this time with less oil.



My fave Subway "cold cut trio" sandwich...which is great as a diet food dinner.



But I started to feel hungry around bedtime...which is a very dangerous thing...


I always ask for everything from the salad counter, plus extra olives...and usually on oregano parmesan bread, non-toasted please.

Spud's mom had just given me more of her home-baked goodies...will post next time. :)

Oops...there goes my diet!

Food tip: Sprouting tubers can't be eaten

From the Japanese curry & cabbage post, I realised I might have given the impression that I cooked the sprouting sweet potato in the curry. *Oops!* My apologies for the miscommunication. That sprouting "alienated" sweet potato was an old photo and I threw the tuber out afterwards.

Tubers (like potatoes and sweet potatoes) that begin to sprout conspicous eyes and shoots MUST NOT be eaten, as they can be toxic, according to traditional Chinese "general rules or principles" of food preparation and healthy eating. You know we always hear about how certain food is cooling or heaty, or that certain food should not be eaten with others or it may negate the positive qualities, etc. - these are "principles" that I'm referring to.

Another general rule that I distinctly remember is that green beans (乌龟豆 in Hokkien) and 金针(flower) (Kim Zarm in Hokkien) must be properly cooked for if uncooked, they are toxic if eaten.

The answer to "Guess the fruit"

Ta daa!!

Though the package says "Fresh fruits with syrup", I thought it was a mis-spelling, as I didn't see any syrup, what!?



I got a mild shock after it came out of the bag, coz I'd thought it was those Japanese sorbet dessert, coz the surface really looked like it; shocked because I had left it out on the table for several hours after I brought it home.

Then I thought: it can't be what...coz the fruit seller also didn't keep in in the fridge. *Phew!*



The inside was hard...



The skin had been peeled off, and the fruit soaked in syrup.
Ahhh...so, that's what they'd meant by "fruit in syrup"!



The skin tasted a bit like ...sweet, fruity, with a slight fermented taste...as if it had a tinge of alcohol...
I'm not sure if the fermented taste was supposed to be there, or the fruit had really started to ferment coz it was left outside of the fridge for hours!

I was a bit worried for my tummy after I ate it...



Anyway, just anyhow whacked it with some sour plum powder lah!



Verdict: It's got an interesting taste, and the white flesh inside tasted like normal fresh guava, though I'm not really keen on that syrupy exterior. I'm sure whatever syrup it's soaked in was sure to contain additives or preservatives.

So, I would still prefer to eat fresh guava fresh, without the syrup, but I would definitely dunk in into the erm...preserved sour plum powder...which er...in most likelihood, also contains preservatives and lots of salt. :P We choose our own sinful foodstuff, eh?


Guess the fruit

Guess the fruit

Just for fun, guess what fruit this is?

The package actually says "fresh fruit in syrup". :PP





I bought it at the market yesterday, but haven't tried it yet. While at the market, I had this exchange with the fruit seller (in Mandarin):

Me: (Intrigued, confused and peering intently at the fruit package) What is this?
Seller: This is good. It is xxxx (name of fruit).
Me: Got seeds inside?
Seller: I don't know, I haven't tried it yet.
Me: You haven't tried yet, then how you know it's good???
Seller: *speechless....*

*cues comedy music*
Gwa gwa gwa gwaaaaa!

" Tortoise beans "

Dear ksn, this is "Tortoise beans" aka 乌龟豆 in Hokkien lor.

According to Wiki, they are called green beans....so I understand. :P




I read in a Chinese cookbook that says these beans must be properly cooked, or they may be toxic or contain undesirable substance (or something to that effect), and definitely not to be eaten raw.

By the way, there is now a slimmer version of these beans which are more crunchy and faster to cook...very nice to eat.

Eat & eat trip (part 1)

When it comes to food, our recent short sojourn to Thailand can be considered a pretty good trip. While we did not splurge on lavish meals (can't afford to), I had my fill of some of the yummy Thai (or Thai-Chinese) food that I like, so much so that within a day of returning home, I had started to miss the food in Thailand already. :(

Our eating started even before we left Singapore. Well, we didn't have a good breakfast, and lunch on board the plane would be late. So...

Here's Mee Rebus and Teh-C from Wang Cafe and Spinelli's coffee at Changi's Terminal 1. The mee rebus was surprisingly good, and better than those sold at many hawker centres. SO also had kaya & butter toast which was good too.



We'd booked air tickets for Economy Class. While checking-in, somehow, we got upgraded to Business Class, but who's complaining?!? *Grin*



Almost immediately after we sat down in the plane, the air stewardess came by to offer us welcome drinks. Look mom! A real (non-plastic) glass! ;P



Our legs felt very comfortable on that flight.



There was a very attentive, clean-cut young steward serving our whims on that flight. At one point while I was reading the Today paper, the young steward came to me, squatted down (I think he's not kneeling bah) so that his eyes were level to mine, then asked me what I'd wanted. I was like "Huh?" and looked at the steward with a blank look. Then we realised the SO had accidentally / keh-kiang pressed my seat's "call button" with his elbow! :-[

Then there was another round of drinks - the pre-lunch cocktails. I had a non-alcoholic cocktail with a dreamy name which I'd forgotten. It's the airline's specially-concocted cocktail with its own non-generic-cocktail name.

(ps: the green drink's got mint, lime and coconut juice in it)


We did not have to tear our own packet of almonds.
(On the return flight in Economy Class, peanuts were not even served, much less almonds!)

The SO had the Pacific Sunrise, the airline's specially-concocted alcoholic cocktail. It's got bubbly champagne, drambuie and citrus peels in it.



Then came lunch, served on a small table-cloth and with (real) ceramic utensils, and a (real) cloth napkin.



Here's the dessert and appetiser which I didn't like. I'm not a fan of chocolate or the prosciutto ham, so I just ate the pieces of fig, salad and cheese, and just a bite of dessert.



The 2 pebbles weren't paper/cloth weights, but salt and pepper shakers. They are like... so elaborate until a bit overdoing it hor? Haha!



I didn't like the main course at all. It was a choice between beef steak (which I don't eat), or seafood laksa. Normally, I like laksa, but only when it has hum (cockles). Worse, I could tell the laksa was made with packet coconut milk. I took a mouthful of it, just to try. The SO (with his not-so-discerning palette) found the laksa tasted ok.


The air stewardess (who addressed us by a salutation+our first names, by the way) did offer me a fish dish from the Economy class, but I didn't want to be troublesome and declined. It's only airline food afterall, and I'm sure I can have nicer food at our destination.

And oh ya, we were given real cutlery and real knives to eat our meals with...as if terrorists don't take Business Class??

(to be continued...)

Thai food, Thai food, I luv you!