Food from Taka basement

We bought these snacks from Takashimaya's basement some time ago. Looking at them now is making me hungry.


California roll, yaki ika and "Emu Noodles" (instead of the usual emu rice...?)


Irresistible...


Fried Ramen for the SO


Yaki ika & smoked oyster salad

>_<" *stomach growling...*

Soups & Salad

Yummy and filling soups from The Soup Spoon are just the thing to eat for lunch when I'm feeling not particularly hungry, or feeling a bit out of sorts. There's a choice of thick soup, cream or tomato-based soups, or clear broth, with or without meat. It's not too heavy, easy-to-eat and yet not so light that it makes you go hungry too soon.

For a heavier lunch, one can always opt for the large portion, which comes in a bowl that's as big as the "碗公" (in Hokkien) that are typically used for soups in Chinese families in a communal eating setting. A small bun of your choice is served with each serving of soup.


The day's special - Chicken Ciacatore (sp?) with Sage, which was very yummy with a strong taste of ang moh herbs


Spicy Vegetable Gumbo, which was meatless


One can take-away either the hot soup or this package chilled soup and heat it up at home. I opted for this because it's easier to handle cold soup on public transport.


It contains some Japanese chicken soup/broth, enough for about 2 to 3 servings


Sweet and yummy!

On another occasion, I went back to Food For Thought one day to try its salads. This time, I chose to sit at its empty bar counter as I'd wanted to see the food preparation and what goes into their dishes of mainly salad and sandwiches.


The creamless brocolli soup was alright, though hardly exciting.

Now the Chinese Chicken (or was it turkey??) Caesar Salad was the one that bothered me. Instead of the usual Caesar dressing, it's dressed in a Chinese stewed pork sauce, which came from their special stewed 3-layered fatty pork (meant for sandwiches) and topped with fried ikan billis (anchovies). I knew this only because I'd asked them about the sauce.


Salad leaves with a layer of shiny oil

While I'm ok with the Chinese twist of adding fried ikan billis and a Chinese-styled dressing, what was not ok was that they had first added some oil onto the salad leaves, followed by the stewed pork sauce which also had a layer of oil.

Gosh! I wanted to eat a salad coz I wanted something light, so I definitely don't want my salad to be piled with so much oil! There was enough oil for it to drip below the salad leaves onto the plate, and I've had to try to drain out as much oil as I could from the leaves before putting them into my mouth.

Secondly, I really didn't expect anything porky to appear in a chicken/turkey salad, so why did they not mention anything about adding pork sauce, and a rather oily one at that? What if customers were on a white-meat diet? Furthermore, the sauce was not even fantastic.

And finally, I AM NOT A PORKY PERSON (I will only eat some pork done in certain ways), so I absolutely hated it that they'd spoiled my supposedly-healthy lunch totally with the very porky, pork oil-laden and probably cholesterol-laden sauce! Not wanting to waste food, I ate them up, but I was so put-off by their mis-concept that I did not bother to give my feedback.

Needless to say, that was my last visit to that cafe.

Herb Salad Pack

It's pre-washed and ready-to-eat.




Can be stored for up to a week or more, and enough for 3 to 4 servings

The types of vegies included





Nice to eat, but the herb taste is rather strong, especially from the cilantro (ie the Chinese "wang sui" 芫荽 ） and dill; better to mix it with some butterhead lettuce and/or baby spinach to even out the taste.

Pasta & Fish Dinner

I haven't been cooking much for the past couple of months. I used to cook about half the time, but one day I just decided not to waste so much time after work just to cook a dinner for two, which would be devoured within 20 minutes. I would use the time saved to do the relaxing things that I like to do, or exercise at the gym or just do nothing! :))

However, I decided to cook dinner tonight since I am on 2 days' mc for sore eyes. It's extra time given to me by the doctor, or 是 eye bacteria 赐给我的~！ Haha! :P

The ingredients for pasta, i.e. whatever that's available at home



Two pieces of salmon which had been sitting in the freezer



Finished product



Looks more like mee goreng...?!?


It was a bit dry, coz I didn't want to dilute the sauce

The extras - grilled salmon on a bed of baby spinach leaves



The SO's TV dinner


Now we're both TOO FULL !!

Now I wonder if I should cook tomorrow??

Super Salad

I had a super salad tonight - super luxurious, super delicious and in extra large portion!


It has the usual baby spinach, butterhead lettuce, celery, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, red wine vinaigrette dressing, with the addition of ...

... smoked mussels in BBQ sauce!



If that wasn't enough, I added extra 麻辣 white tuna (from TC Boy brand). :P


The mussels tasted sweet and creamy with a slight chewy texture at the end. The tuna was more sweet than hot...actually it wasn't hot at all to me. I've packed it in the plastic container (with a cover) so that I could take it to eat with Spud while cat-sitting at the same time.

Tortilla & Salad - where to find?

KSN was asking me about where to find the tortilla that I've been eating.

I first got this at Cold Storage at BJ, but I can no longer find them...maybe have to try the atas supermaket. These wholemeal tortillas are really nice to eat and the texture didn't become dry after having kept them in the fridge.


I like their extra large size which means I can eat just one piece of tortilla. It's the only one that comes in a proper resealable bag.

Next, I had to settle for this white flour tortilla which is common in CS and some outlets of the "aunty lucy" mart. They were salty, dry and breaks/tears easily (ref to photos of broken salmon wraps), and has a funny type of so-called "resealable bag"... by giving you a sticker which CAN'T be resealed again and again...


I will try not to buy them again if I can help it. Heck, I may even settle for the less palatable chappati (also in packet form) instead.

Then I found these house-brand wholemeal ones at this hypermart...yet to try them.



These wraps and pitas (below) are quite common at certain CS and AL outlets. I saw them at Heartland Mall's CS last Friday night. I think I've tried the pita before and it was alright.



Saw this at HM last Friday night too...



I buy this 250g pack of salad leaves (with butterhead, curly red Lollo Roso lettuce, radichio & endive) regularly, coz they are already in bite size, so I presume no need to wash (I lazy). I will also buy the usual whole head of butterhead lettuce, and also not wash them... just eat!



For something more nutritious (darker coloureds are usually better) and exciting, one can try the baby spinach leaves and wild rocket (this wild one is very bitter, be warned!) from CS or Carrefour.


Some CS outlets also have the beautiful oak leaf lettuce and curly lettuce from Cameron Highlands, but I've yet to try them. I almost did try, but those 3 packs left on the shelf didn't look fresh today.


Salad of baby spinach leaves, (bitter) wild rocket, romaine & butterhead lettuce, celery, alfafa sprouts and white fish tuna (canned with chilli padi).

Here's to good health!

Salmon Tortilla & Green Salad

My Dinner tonight - a very easy to make tortilla wrap, which requires no cooking.


Take leftover canned salmon, add a bit of lemon juice & black pepper and mix well.

I didn't add salt as the salmon was already salty since it came in a can of brine (made of spring water). Can add a little bit of chopped fresh dill, if available.


Place a piece of lettuce on tortilla, leaving about half an inch of border around.

I'm using mini-Romaine lettuce (from M'sia), which can taste a wee bit bitter when eaten raw.


Spread a thin layer of salmon on the lettuce leaf, but I spread too much.


Roll up the tortilla firmly.

Slice into half and eat!


There is a generous amount of salmon, so it ended up tasting a wee bit salty. Can counteract this by wrapping another piece of lettuce over the tortilla roll and eat.

There was also a green salad, before adding dressing.



I luv these alfafa sprouts, although they tend to absorb quite a lot of the dressing. :P


They are living sprouts and can be kept in the fridge for a few days.

Edited - Ps: I forgot to add 1 tsp of mayo into the salmon mix.

Salad days

Salad-eating days are here, what with the meltingly-hot weather nowadays.


The other reason for eating salads is to get rid of tummy bloatedness and this humongous water retention, which had stubbornly stuck to me for almost 2 weeks!

Er... I assumed and hoped that it's water retention and not weight gain...!?! :-( The SO doesn't mind eating more healthily and lose a few pounds, although nobody will say he's fat lah!

There was a saba (mackeral) salad, which we had last week, with red wine vinaigrette dressing.



The saba was purchased from Carrefour, already cooked, which I think is a great concept, coz they can then sell off whatever unsold raw saba that's leftover at the end of the day.



It was a big piece of fish, almost as long as my small oven.


I think the saba was pre-marinated coz it tasted savoury and sweet, with no need to add any sauce.

For lunch today, we had "chapalang" salad, ie the "anything-goes" salad.


There was broccoli and green beans (blanched in boiling water), celery, tomatoes, capsicum and onions...

...lightly dressed with Japanese sesame dressing.



The protein came from a can of "Whole squids in their own ink" - yep, that's what the packaging says in English.



Plus some wonderfully-fragrant Atlantic salmon, also from a can.


Whole squid in its own ink + salmon salad, topped with a dollop of black squid ink. I found the squid ink to be quite delicious, if you don't mind the whole black thing.

Of course, since we're not small eaters, eating a salad for lunch means we need to have snacks for afternoon tea, which we usually do, anyway. ;-)

Food for a lazy Sunday

Home-prepared prawn salad



Prawns tossed with sweet Thai chilli sauce



The other hidden ingredients


The salad leaves were tossed with red wine vinaigrette dressing.
The celery should not be there, as it dilutes the taste...probably better with a creamy dressing

Smoked salmon thin-crust pizza from Canadian Pizza


The salmon was salty...

Hawaiian thin-crust pizza



Moussaka



With eggplant (brinjal), minced lamb and lots of cheese...this was nice.