Thu-Sat Food Frenzy

okay i have spent the left over bits of my July pocket money on 3 meals.
yes yes I still have pocket money.

Anyway as menny mentioned in the previous blog, we went to indulgz and tried out their new menu. All of which were their signature dishes.
I must say that the portions were really small, and the prices seemed to have risen.
And I WAS NOT GAGA over Indulgz right from the start OK!

Anyway Indulgz was on thursday, when I had lunch with menny.
I went to Brewerkz with Shawna, Yuelin, CJ, Kay Thir and Wei Loong on friday night.
Reached there slightly after 7 I guess. But it was totally packed so we put ourselves on the waiting list ( with like 7-8 people before us)...
And we walked around the whole of clarke quay. Burned so many calories.

We got a table by eight. the three of us ordered our main courses and a soup and 2 beers.
Golden Ale and Fruity Brewz.
Okay. let me fill you in on what I thought of these two beers. The golden Ale is supposed to be very easy to drink-smooth and light. I thought the beer taste was very distinct when it first enters your mouth. But then as you are going to swallow it, the taste just weakens and to me it just becomes some mild-tasting liquid that has the same consistency as plain water. I kept going on and on about how unimpressed I was with the beer... and it was driving kay thir and shawna crazy already. hahahahaa

The fruity Brewz on the other hand, was light and refreshing. albeit diluted, it was my preferred choice. It was Rasberry flavoured and personally, I thought the rasberry scent was extremely strong. But when the other guys came they couldn't taste it at all.

Later in the night we ordered a 4litre tower of beer(i dont know which brew) and after drinking that, the Fruity Brewz was bad bad bad. Tasteless and tasteless.
Yuelin joined us soon after and we had our main courses then after a long time wei loong and CJ turned up(that was when we ordered our tower of beer, and found out that wei loong can't take alcohol at all... ...)

I must say this restaurant has a lot a lot of dishes with beer in it. And you can really taste the alcohol in it. Now this is beer cheese soup. Sounds weird. Sounds gross. Sounds interesting. So I ordered it. Couldn't taste the beer at first but then it got stronger if you taste the soup right after a sip of water to cleanse your palate. It is rich and creamy. Not extremely cheesy in my opinion. Nor extremely high in alcoholic content. It was okay but Not worth the price. $8




damn i knew i should have worn a black bra.

anyway we left got chased out of Brewerkz by 1am.
We went to Mount Faber to hang out after that. Got home by 3am.
Read an sms frm menny: Bake a cheesecake for her by sunday morning.
SO...

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Saturday 28 July 2007

I had to wake up at 10.30am this morning, after going home at 3am this yesterday. All because of MENNY lah. Made a cheesecake upon her request. So I did. But it was for 20 people so I used my large spring form pan. And I had to wrap it with cling wrap once and 2 layers of foil to prevent water from seeping in. In the end it still did and the cheesecake base became soggy.
So I really hope it won't be that inedible. Or my reputation will be ruined.
Anyway I thought of baking a small cake for my family but I prepared too little cheese batter so I had another set of cheesecake base, which I turned into some mixed spice slice.

I just made a mixture similar to a muffin batter, then I added mixed spice. Layed the biscuit base with walnuts and candied citrus peel, then poured in the mixed spice batter then top it with sliced almonds. It was dense and sweet. Reminded me of banana cake. But I wonder how it will be like tomorrow.
But it looks pretty damn decent here right.. :)


Spent the afternoon baking and watching my tennis DVDs. The quality of some of it is really disgusting. I feel like calling the guy and abuse him verbally.
By the time I went upstairs it was around 5pm and I thought there was still time because I was gonna meet Charlene and Rachel at 8pm at clarke quay. So i was importing the CDs that menny bought for me onto my laptop then next thing I know it was 6.45pm and I haven't even showered...

What happened in the end was...
I called Charlene and she was at home. She intended to take a cab down. So she took a cab down, and went to fetch me first. Then I called Rach and she was at Changi road. So we went to fetch her too. We did meet at 8pm. But on the cab, not at Clarke Quay. SO we weren't late in the end.

Anyway we were very very very lucky to see the fireworks at 8.10pm when we passed by the city hall area on Shears Bridge. Then I wanted to take picture so the taxi uncle was very nice and he said he will drive slower. but so much for my fireworks mode. NO use lah.



We went to Sun With Moon @ Central.
We ended up sitting at the sushi bar cause those were the only seats available unless we were gonna wait a half hour. It was difficult to have an ongoing convo with 3 people sitting side by side, but we got to sit in front of the open-concept kitchen so it was still not so boring.



As usual we each ordered a main course, and we shared couple of starters.





After dinner at Sun with Moon, we took a nice stroll to Robertson Quay where The chocolate factory is located, for dessert. So I had a lot of chocolate for the night. I feel like I might die. My throat itches right now.
As you can read from the link, this place is owned and operated by a French chocolatier. Charlene swore by the Blackforest Cake, and that helped Rach decide between the blackforest cake and the bread and butter pudding.
So 2 Blackforest cakes it is. I got a Chocolate Souffle. It would be served with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce. Drinks- Iced chocolate for Charlene, Ice coffee for me, Affogato for Rachel.




Then it is gone.
The ice cream is the best ice cream I have ever tasted in this whole wide world. Really really sweet vanilla. No tricks. No essence. I don't even know how to explain it. It just surprised me when I put it in my mouth.

And I think I will start coughing. The Souffle was really really damn rich. And we poured ALL the chocolate sauce in.





Dinner cost me $45 tonight. Actually $25 at Sun with Moon, and $20 at The Chocolate Factory.
Pretty extravagant to move from restaurant to restaurant for different courses of the meal. but it was a good meal. I will definitely go back to both places. Which are always packed by the way...

2 comments Indulgz Experience

Contrary to what was previously blogged by Weiwei a few months ago, I am very disappointed by the food served in Indulgz.

I was very very very excited to try the food in Indulgz and I kept asking Weiwei to go to this restaurant with me. I was very tempted to try the fried cheese. it looks so Oooooomph yummylicious!!!

when I first stepped into the restaurant, I was already disappointed by the ambience. it looks neither like a cafe nor like a restaurant, it looks like a Yakun Kaya Toast outlet. but they have a whole row of cushion seats which look so out of place. no ambience. maybe its because we were there in the afternoon. maybe at night the ambience is better, i dont know.

the food they serve is TOTALLY expensive. the main course is at least $20. and it cost $25 for the steak etc. its like Hard Rock Cafe pricing. so we decided not to eat the main course and tried either their mushroom-bread hamburger or their fried pasta. but the filling of the hamburger is so so so ordinary, i decided that we stick to fried pasta. and tomato and basil soup. and the fried cheese.

when i first cut the cheese and saw the cheese melting out, it looked REALLY yummy. and the first bite was HEAVENLY. i loved it. but as i ate more and more and more, it started tasting really salty because of the cheese and sour because of the berry. mind you i m a CHEESE fan and i couldnt take the amount of cheese. it just tastes really weird after a few bites. i think you should enjoy the very first bite. it wont come back again lol. and it cost $12. i think it is totally overpriced for such small pieces of cheese.

Chef's Crispy Pasta with Chicken and Mushroom Sauce



the very fist bite already killed me. it doesnt taste like pasta a single bit. it tastes just like crispy noodle. really crispy. really noodle. but with chicken and mushroom sauce. it makes me feel that our money just went down the drain. horrible horrible horrible. i dont know why they ever came out with such idea. and of course, like weiwei said, if the italians ever eat this, they will murder the owner. its such an insult to PASTA. and we couldnt finish the dish.


Tomato and Basil Soup


well it tastes exactly like the name. tomatoish and basilish. i m never a fan of soups, i always think soups should be served free of charge haha. to pay $5.90 for soup was totally overpriced, especially with such little amount of soup. the plate was huge but it was so shallow i think there were only 15spoons of it. i cant say it tastes horrible, it is just nice and i think not bad for a soup. though i cant appreciate soups.


overall, i guess i wont come back to Indulgz anymore. except maybe when i am rich enough and i will try the main course like Butterfish Steak, Oxtail Stew etc. and maybe if you go there with a low expectation, you will be surprised by how nice or cool the food is. but i think i went down with too high an expectation, thats why i totally ended up disappointed.

0 comments My Chocolate Cherry cupcakes

My sister came back one night raving about the cupcakes her colleague made. She said it is the best. So rich and decadent. So much chocolate, and there were blueberries as well. and they were so preeeety. So on friday I decided I was gonna try to attain that as well. I modified a muffin recipe. I added more cocoa powder and one can of sweet pitted cherries(that turned out to be less than tasty) and i added dark chocolate couverture for the soft rich chocolatey bites.

So this is what I got... ...

Ingredients
310g Self-raising flour
60g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
180g Castor Sugar
1-1/2 cup full fat milk
2 eggs
150g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
220g Pitted sweet cherries
50g Dark chocolate couverture

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into bowl. Add in sugar. Make a well in the centre.
3. In a jug, wisk milk and egg together and pour into well. Add butter, then fold gently with a spatula, until just combined.
   
4. Add in cherries and couverture. Mixture should be slightly lumpy.
   
5. Fill the muffin moulds until 3/4 full.
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes.

I know I need to work on the frosting. yeah, i know the cupcakes don't look like a million dollars, YET.

anyways, my overall verdict:
Can add more chocolate couverture, as well as cocoa powder. Cherries aren't very tasty. Believe muffins would be better without cherries.
Best muffin texture so far.

Labels: cupcakes, muffins, recipes

0 comments Cooking fish WITHOUT any oil!!

I love being home alone. I get to have the whole house to myself. and I sometimes host my own tv programme while I cook my own lunch.

OKay.. fine.
I tried making fish today.
well, I had this bottle of Masterfoods marinade of Honey&Mustard. I bought it, intending to use it for Salmon. Then I realised it really should be for red meat. but we hardly eat red meat. so it was sitting there in the fridge for a long time.

Then today I cooked lunch for me. Stir fried some Veg... then I saw a small piece of defrosted fish from last night.. i don't know why my maid didn't cook the whole fish.. so anyway i decided to cook some for myself.

So I put a few pieces of yellow capsicum on a big piece of aluminum foil, then the piece of fish(marinated) on top, then I found some fresh sweeeet pineapples(from yesterday when I made the carrot cake) and I put that on top of the fish.
I always sandwich the fish because the top and bottom layers will protect it from burning when put in the pan.
Then I put it in the preheated(and still over small fire) pan and cooked for 5 minutes. Turned it over and off the fire. It sat for another 2 min before I removed it. Then drizzle some olive oil(extra virgin) for some flavour. Below is a picture of my lunch.

Well, the verdict, the marinade is really for red meat. But then its another recipe for the same method of cooking. It is really really great cause the pan remains clean. Just throw out the aluminum foil after using. and the best thing is it doesn't stick to the pan, no oil is needed!!!

I don't know what cooking method this is but I've been doing it since a few years ago. when i discovered the best way to cook salmon.
First, rub the salmon steak with black pepper grounds and salt.
Slice one giant onion, then lay them on the aluminum foil. Put the steak on it. Then layer with more onions. Seal the foil tightly so it forms a little packet.
Put it in the preheated pan(still over small fire) and cover for 5 minutes. Turn over for another 3 minutes. Off fire and leave to sit for a couple more minutes. Remove from pan and eat!!!!
realise that there is absolutely no oil involved?? really.

Labels: fish, healthy cooking, quick and easy, Salmon

2 comments

I baked yesterday, after what seems like a super long break... Made Amarula Carrot Cake

You know we're allowed to purchase one beer, one liquer and i think one bottle of wine when we arrive in singapore airport.
I don't really fancy alcohol... but because I have gone through this process every single time I pass through Singapore Airport (when travelling with my family), I felt like I shouldn't miss the opportunity when I return from Shanghai.
I was running out of ideas. Irish Cream. Bailey's Irish Cream ALL the time.
and Gin, Rum, Vodka blah blah. 40% too strong for my taste.
Then I saw this weird looking bottle.
Amarula Cream. The spirit of Africa.
with an Elephant right smack in the centre.
IIt is made from Amarula fruit of South African origin. and it can only be cultivated in the wild.
and the Majestic South African Elephant is also attracted to the fruit... (hence the pic i guess)


Anyway I tried the liquor and I love it. It is sweeter than Irish Cream. I like.
and maybe because of the additional sweetness, it seems milder than Irish Cream. Its alcoholic content is 17%.

I thought I could use this as a substitute for Irish Cream when I make Cheesecake...
then I visited the amarula website.
and I found a lot more recipes.

FOOD RECIPES

ULTIMATE CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:
CAKE
2 1/2 cups (300g) cake flour
2 t (10ml) baking powder
1 1/2 t (7,5ml) bicarbonate of soda
1 T (15ml) mixed spice
1t (5ml) salt
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/4 cups (312,5 ml ) oil
1 1/4 cups (300g) castor sugar
2 cups (500ml) grated carrots
1 cup (250ml) well drained, grated fresh pineapple or Granny Smith apples
1 cup (250ml) chopped pecan nuts
1/4 cup (62,5ml) AMARULA CREAM
1/2 cup (125ml) smooth apricot jam

CREAM CHEESE ICING
1/4 cup (60g) butter
2 cups (250g) sifted icing sugar
1 T (15ml) AMARULA CREAM
125 g cream cheese or smooth low-fat cottage cheese – see tip below


Method:

Sift dry ingredients twice. Beat the eggs until thick, add the sugar gradually (use an electric beater at high speed for about 3 minutes) until the mixture is very thick. Add the oil slowly and beat for another 2 minutes. Add carrots, pineapple, nuts, Amarula Cream and apricot jam and mix by hand. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture and fold in with a spatula until well blended. Butter a 28cm diameter loose-bottomed spring form ring, an angle cake tin or 2 loaf tins**. Either line the base with baking paper or sprinkle with dry biscuit crumbs to coat lightly. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake at 180 degrees (305F) 190 degrees [375F] – Gauteng area for 1 hr and 10min. Allow to firm and cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

**CAKE TINS: If using a 28cm springform tin with a hole in the middle as used on T.V, there will be a little too much mixture. Fill the tin 2/3 full and bake the rest of the mixture in a muffin tin will make plus/minus 6 muffins extra.
Angel cake tin – the mixture fits fine
Loaf tin – use one very large loaf tin – 30cm x 10 cm or 2 smaller ones

ICING: Cream the butter and gradually add the icing sugar. Gently stir in the Amarula Cream and the cream cheese. Don’t over mix once the cheese has been added as it is inclined to become watery.

Decoration:
Crystallized pineapple slices and pecan nuts

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first of all, I was very lucky to get some very good and sweet pineapple.
Make sure that it is ripe.
when I bake carrot cake, i don't usually squeeze it dry. So i left the pineapple with all its juices too. But I think that was too much moisture. So I reckon we should omit some of its juices.
Also make sure the Apricot Jam is not lumpy. HAVE to make sure it is well mixed.

and I substituted Walnuts for Pecans. Pecans are pretty expensive so if there is a budget constraint, why not? Just be sure to lightly toast the nuts before adding to the batter.

I loved the cake. It is very wholesome. Almost like a fruit cake with so many things going on- pineapple, carrots, apricot jam.. and then there's nuts. and Cream cheese frosting... totally fruit cake-ish!!

Sugar content is pretty high but doesn't taste very sweet... and If you don't have mixed spice, just use cinnamon.

On a scale of zero to ten for an everyday cake, I would rate it as seven. =)

* everyday cake is like a non-sinful wholesome indulge when your body just yearns for some. mmmm

Wei Wei posted at 10:05 AM

0 comments