She who comes first, eats first...

Merry Christmas

a mini christmas feast we had last weekend...

Fudge

Everyone says, "oooOoo damn good!"

STEEPLE's DELI (Western)

#02-25

Tanglin Shopping Centre

A FRIDAY NIGHTOUT

BBQ at East Coast real fun. What sparked off this eventful night was someone's craving for satay, then zoom to the supermarket and we have a spread!!! Egg Plant, Button Mushroom and Toufu were my favorite!!!

We did some creative experiment by creating a "pot" with aluminium foil, then simmer asparagus and straw mushroom with beer. It was good. Try it!

WHOLE MEAL CHOCOLATE, HAZELNUT & COFFEE CAKE

I got inspired after after reading The Baker's blog. So I found some and baked a cake. Do click on the link for the original recipe. I made some changes to the original recipe such using cooking oats (to flour liked texture) instead of wholemeal flour, added more coffee and using less sugar. And the result was really good.

The texture was moist and the cake wasn't too sweet. Guess the extra coffee and chunky chocolate masked the lack of white sugar. But the common complaint was that the cake's a little too nutty. Anyway, response was so good there was only once slice left for the blog. Everyone got excited when I told them the cake was oat-filled hence alot more healthy. The chunky chocolate bits made the cake heavenly. Go ahead, try baking it. Play around with dried fruits, chocolates, nuts, anything you can find in your kitchen!

250g butter
125g soft brown sugar
25g white or raw sugar
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons nescafe gold instant coffee
250g grind cooking oats (as fine as possible)
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
200g almonds
250g dark chocolate - coarsely chopped

Method:
1. Line the 8inch round baking tin with greaseproof paper and set the oven to 180deg.
2. Cream the butter and sugars until fluffy and pale.
3. Add in eggs one at a time, beating lightly between each addition. Don't worry if the mixture curdles. Stir in the coffee.
4. Add the flour and baking powder and fold them in. Now fold in most of the hazelnuts and chopped chocolate, keeping a little back for the top of the cake. The mixture should be quite firm.
5. Spoon the batter into the lined tin and smooth the top. Scatter over the remaining nuts.
6. Bake for about 1h 20 minutes or until the cake is springy. Test it with a skewer - it should come out clean.
7. Let cool for 30 minutes before cutting. This cake is best served warm.

~ German Sausages ~

Chance upon this at the basement of Takashimaya... serving German Sausages.... With a list to really decide on... can't really remember what else was on the menu, my eyes was glued to just 'one' particular section. Well, we finally settled on this promotional set meal, which looks ohhh sooo goood, when the waiter serving it walked past(...Whiff..ahhhh..smells good..)
What you can get are 3 types of sausages two pork and a chicken, sauerkraut and mash potatoes on a plate, which comes with a choice of soup, and a soft drink - Price $13/-

Our say: " Nice tasty and succulent sausages. Giving compliments to the mash potatoes, fine and smooth with a tasty great sauce to go with. It will do better if they were more generous with the sauerkraut, or probably some mustard to spice it up a little. Rather a steal to curb a sausage craving, minus the queue and reservation you get from a restaurant."

A food-filled weekend

We finally stepped into one of our most talked-about, hyped, anticipated yam cha session at one of the good-old traditional, push-cart dim sum restaurant, Red Star down at Chin Swee Road. People associated Red Star with queues, so we arranged to meet at 9am on Saturday. Lucky us, got a strategically located table right smack in the centre of the restaurant without queueing.

The restaurant was rowdy - aunties pushing their respective carts filled with bowls of shrimp dumplings, char siew bao, roast meats, desserts etc went by us, and they almost never fail to stop at our table to promote their goodies. We ordered the usual favorites such as char siew bao, siew mai, har gao, chicken feet, porridge, fried dough almost more than what we can stomach!

I SAY, "Blame it on the over-hyped, over-promised, over-anticipation & great expectations of "Red Star". I was rather disappointed with the food. Not that the dim sum was awful, it just wasnt as great as I expected. Instead, I thought Tung Lok's Teahouse served better stuff. Just a tiny rant - the siew mai wasnt well steamed - the skin was hard, the fried dough was cold and oily, the porridge was tasteless, carrot cake too flourish for my liking... Taste was alright, prawns were too-crunchy (read: corn flour filled), nor too salty."

Nonetheless it was an experience. This is one of the few surviving push-cart restaurants around. Here, you might notice a stage erected in one part of the restaurant (people might have held wedding dinners here!). Look up and the ceiling is decorated!

I say, do checkout this place if you havent already done so. Look forward not only to whatever's on the table but also the push-carts, the Aunties and ambiance. I wouldnt mind going back to Red Star for breakfast.