Aahh.. Pastries

I love bread and i think i've had an earlier post about bread as well.. so i'm just filling in on some delicious newbies. I'm not sure if they still have this around but i had it when i was in Singapore last month. Its .... SALMON ... have you ever heard of a salmon bun? Its a thick slice of salmon, that's breaded and deep fried, topped with mayonnaise and cheese.. sitting gloriously on a beautiful sweet bun. It just grabbed my attention because salmon is not an item you would expect to see in a bakery, its more like something you would see in a restaurant, like herb crusted salmon fillet on a bed of watercress or something.

Nevertheless, this was sold in Four Leaves Bakery at Bugis Junction.

Salmon Bun

Another delcious treat from Four Leaves are these tiny danish pastries which are sold at 3 for S$1.50 .. i think.. but they're tiny treats that are gorgeous. I love the chocolate one.

Am i seeing double ?

Mos Burger

Mos burgers are delicious but really small and since i can't take beef, i cannot have many of the burgers. Only the teriyai chicken ( which is also really good ) and this one above, the vegetable croquette burger. I must say i had to wait for quite some time before i got it but it was well worth the wait. The patty was delicious and it was perfectly fried. Crispy on the outside whilst warm and soft on the inside. It was not oily at all. After having one i so wanted another one.. guess next time i'll buy two.

Yaba daba doo...

Sometimes i wished i lived in Bedrock, not because i love Fred Flinstone or anything but because i want the huge slab of ribs he orders at a diner.. its in the beginning of the cartoon... anyways i'm a big fan of ribs, especially the meaty ones.. the worst kind of ribs are the ones with no meat in it.. period

Whenever i'm in Singapore, i have to visit Cafe Cartel as they have the best BEST RIBS EVER !!! St Loius Pork Ribs... yum... there is so much meat which just falls off the bone... its tender and succulent and oh so flavourful. It also has a generous slathering of Cafe Cartels special rib sauce, which is sweet and peppery. Comes with chips and coleslaw but i also attack the ribs...

The other time when i visited Cartel, Dad came along and so we ordered a starter.. nothing special really just fried stuff with dip that was probably bought in bulk... but i have to say the potatoes were good... Dad loves pasta and i love the seafood pasta they serve.. it has a ceamy base and has clams in it as well.. aawww.. delightful... anyway so he had the pasta with mushrooms and fried fish... it was okay .. dad said it was very peppery and when mom tried it she started coughing and needed some water..she had something relly safe for dinner ... chicken and linguini.Its basically chicken thats been grilled and the same sauce for the ribs was used. When i tried it, the meat was once again really juicy but i think the sauce tastes better when paired with pork. It just did not hit the spot with the chicken.

We finished dinner and i ordered dessert.. which is a must for me because for me.. what's life without desserts.. ( in a dramatic tone ) what's the point of living... ahh sigh... heeheehee

I got a slice of chocolate mudcake with vanilla ice cream.. did not enjoy it... because i found it too ordinary.. next time i guess i'll be more adventurous.

Pizza and Cinnamon buns

This is probably the easiest recipe to remember for pizza dough and really simple. And the best part about homemade pizza is that i can put however much i want on it... i usually pile on the cheese.. heeheehee

Basic Pizza Dough

1 sachet ( 7 g ) active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
2 tbs oil ( vegetable or olive )
pinch of salt


Put the first three ingredients into a bowl and leave it at a corner for 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure the water is not too hot because it might kill the yeast.

Sift the flour into another bowl and add the pinch of salt.

After the 10 minutes, add the yeast mixture to the flour and add oil as well. Mix everything with a wooden spoon just enough to hold the dough together.

Tranfer the dough out and knead it on a floured surface for about 2 mins or until the dough is smooth and free of lumps. ( Never knead dough for too long )

Place the dough into an oiled bowl and let it rise for about 1/2 hour. ( It rises better in a warm place )

Presto pizza dough done.


I made too much pizza dough, so i used up the rest to make cinnamon buns. Just roll the dough flat, spread butter and sprinkle on cinnamon and brown sugar. Roll it up so that it forms a long swiss roll and cut them into pieces. Place the pieces ( spirals facing up ) into a tin and bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 C.

Simple Chocolate Cake

I love chocolate and i cannot imagine anyone not liking it. Anyway it was one of those days when you don't feel like making a complicted dessert but just a simple chocolate cake. So that's what i did .. and i love this recipe becuase there's no beating involved and its all done in one bowl. Yum

(will post recipe soon )

Tony Roma's Lunch

Me, G and mom have been planning to eat lunch at Tony Roma's for the longest time and we finally did. Eversince someone special treated me there , i have always wanted to go back. The ribs are delicious and the best part of it all is that it's pork.. hahaha .. which means i can eat it....

We started with the appetizers... potato skins with cheese and bacon, buffalo wings and fried cheese sticks... They were all yummy .... especially the potato skins with sour cream... for main course, mom had a chicken sandwich whilst me and G shared a full slab with fries and beans. The beans tasted like some curry dal my mom would have made... i did not like that... but the slab was good.. meaty and tender... and all the meat just fall off the bone...

Onion Loaf

We ordered dessert but were still sorta hungry so i ordered half an onion loaf... you see Tony Roma's is an American diner and the portions are gigantic... woah.... so we waited and out came our loaf and the apple crumble with a scoop of vanilla.... The onion loaf was basically onion rings coated in a batter and deep fried to look like a loaf ... after some time the oil just gets to you.. and you're crying enough....

The crumble was good.. i ate everything but the apple... someone should come up with a plain crumble... that would be yummy....

Tony's is a great place to dine and for those who are worried about the portion, you can take away your leftovers as they have take away service.

I Love Macaroons

Taka ( Takashimaya ) basement is one of my favourite eating spots... it has everything.. sweet .. savoury..crispy ... crunchy... smooth... doughy... hot .. cold.. oh ...i love it...so one day i felt like having a brownie from the brownie factory.. as i was getting my brownie.. i noticed a new stall beside.. BAKERZIN... and they had such a delicious display.. almost like one in Paris...since i already had the brownies.. i did not want to get any cake.. and then i saw it... macaroons... i have always heard about them but never tried them..



i'll have one packet thank you... i said and became the proud new owner of a bag of multi coloured macaroons.... starting from left, pistachio, chocolate, rose ( yum ), lemon and coffee. They were divine .... i thought they would be crispy like meringue but it was the opposite.. they were airy and almost fudgy and each was filled with its matching buttercream.... Gorgeous creatures...

S$20 Chicken Rice

Chatterbox Chicken Rice

I have always heard about the $20 chicken rice served in the Mandarin hotel and it has always made me wonder why would anyone pay so much for dish that can be bought for $2 at a hawker stall.. yes the fact that it's a hotel and the service has crossed my mind... but is it all worth it ?? What better way way to find out then to try it out myself..so one day when i was with my mom and G, i dragged them to the Chatterbox ( the restaurant that served the chicken rice)

Me and Mommy

The ambience was honestly great... the colour combination was not only reflected in the surroundings but also in the cutlery. One tick. Each table is assigned one waitress and they are all friendly and polite. Second tick. Our waitress recommended the baby kailan in oyster sauce ( bless her soul wherever she is ).. the kailan is probably the best i have ever tasted... beautifully presented and it came bespeckled in fried garlic bits... oh my god were they scrumptious !!!.... Third tick. Then came the chicken rice itself...the rice was nice and fragrant... the chicken was good as well but they only served boiled chicken so for those who don't like it ... too bad i guess... the soup in my opinion was weak.. some say the soup should be mild so as to not overpower the rice and chicken but i like my soup to be as tasty as the others ... the condiments were good especially the ginger which is the green thing.. but since i'm not a 'chilli' person.. i honestly cannot comment.. so half a tick.

On the whole it was a great meal, the portion was huge and the experience rich. Still a bit too pricy but worth the extra bucks.

Remnants of my meal

Seafood in Singapore

Aah.. seafood in Singapore is such a treat.. my uncle Rajan.. well i call him Chachi gave me a treat for my birthday and we had such a spread. The classic favourites in my family are sambal kang kong, which is vegetable cooked with a spicy dried prawn paste, tofu hot plate, where a cast iron plate is heated, coated with a thin layer of egg and topped with a thick stew of tofu and vegetables and you tiao or yew char kuey stuffed with prawn, deep fried and served with a sweet mayonnaise dip ( but we did not get it this time )

This time Chachi ordered some other things, there was baby squid,fried to a crisp and coated in a sweet and spicy sauce, sweet and sour fish, deep fried fish and soup that had a fried fish head in it. Aaaaw ... the soup was sooo goood... absolutely delicious. There was cabbage, fish, squid and so many other ingredients in the soup.

Although its called seafood, the menu always has meat dishes and so on. Other famous seafood dishes are black pepper crab, butter prawns and roasted chicken wings... the list goes on and on...

Baked Alaska

I attempted to make a baked alaska for dinner once. Well i wouldn't really call it a great success because i did not have cream of tartar and thus my egg whites were not glossy.. furthermore the recipe called for me to freeze the ice cream and the cake and i think that's not a good idea because the cake freezes and after baking the alaska for about 5 min ... the meringue was browned but the cake still frozen.. so guess if i try it again next time.. the sponge is going to be fresh...

Off to see the new baby

Today we decided to go see Ramu uncle's new baby ( who has been named Ruthran ) ... so we took Mani uncle's car. He's a great friend, iw ould not call him our driver because he is more than that. He would always point out some new vegetation or crack jokes and just making the journey much more enjoyable. The scenery in India is also so beautiful, there is just vast land everywhere.

The ride seemed to go on forever until we came to a village temple and we turned right. A few minutes later we at his house. We gave them some sweetmeat that we had bought earlier and mom held Ruthran for a little while. i love looking at baby's feet and fingers because they're so soft and are like miniature versions of ours.

Then our hosts got some coconuts .. the young ones for us to drink. It was so refreshing to have coconut water on a hot day. After drinking it , the shell can be spilt open to eat the flesh. Yummy

I think we each must have had at least 2 coconuts each and that was just us at the back of the house drinking and talking and all that sort of stuff.

A trip to the market

We had to change our whole plans when i couldn't go to the temples. So today we wanted to cook for ourselves non vegetarian food. We all woke up early and we headed towards the market. Just as we were about to leave a fishmonger drives up to the main gate. It was really simple. He rode a bicycle and had a basket behind. The fish were in the basket and they were so fresh. There was no smell no flies whatsoever. But these fish were caught in a lake and these would have a lot of bones, so we didn't buy any.

This was the stall at the market. The fish was fresh as well but the only difference is that after you buy the fish you have the option of handing it over to some boys stationed a few metres away from the shop to help clean and gut the fish.These boys have to paid as well .. but its not that much at all. The place where the boys were working was filthy. All the guts were on the sand floor and there were probably millions of flies. Its not that i was disgusted or anything but the boys were really young and most likely in a 'schooling' age but they have to work in such a place.

After purchasing our fish, we went to get chicken next. The stall was pretty big and where there's chicken there's always eggs. This picture shows a stack of eggs in their cartons.

The fish was cut really well but the chicken was not. The so called butcher was just chopping up the chicken without any proper method. It's almost as if he chopped the chicken blind folded.. hmm forgot to check if he had all ten fingers.. heeheehee.... anyway what i mean is that the chicken was not properly cleaned. He cuts up everything, the skin the fats and sometimes the chicken bones have sharp edges and these bones are dangerous.Anyway, after the chicken we got some mutton and then went to the vegetable shop.

The vegetables looked so good and fresh. Yum, i can truely understand why those who come to India can become vegetarians for life. The vegetables in India are just so delicious. So full of colour and flavour and everything else that is good for you.

The weather was really hot and Guni was sweating by the buckets. I had to take a shot of that river.

We had not had breakfast all this time and so decided to eat before leaving for home. Everyone was okay with vegetarian and so we went to Vasanth Bavan. We had Thosai and sathukudi juice.Yummy. The rest of them had coffee while i notice that Chinese items was spelled wrongly.. heeheehee..Then we went home. Mom cooked and we had a big feast. My favourites were the chicken curry and the crab. Oh we got crab as well.. my goodness the crab was so good.. it was AWESOME.. juicy and soo much flesh. YUM YUM YUM

Trip to Karavakurichi

Trip to Peraiyur

First Day in Grnadma's House

When i woke up the morning air was just filled with smells of breakfast and the chitter chatter of my loved ones. i stepped outside and saw Mom, Guni and Thanam having mornig breakfast in the Mutham ( The roofless courtyard of the house) . Atha was beside them washing the dishes. Breakfast was simple yet yummy. Thosai and some dal curry. I also had some paalkova, a milk sweet that Atha got for me.

After breakfast,Mom started the preparation for lunch. She was going to cook banana flowers. Yup, we can't eat the whole thing. We have to obtain those pointy yellow things and take away some vein. Then chop it all up and it becomes a vegetable dish.

Anyway, while mom was busy cleaning and working in the kitchen, i and Guni went to fool around in the backyard. Atha has got quite a few plants there, Papaya trees, banana trees, tomatoes and so on. I tried to fetch a pail of water as well and boy was it difficult. Guni gave it a shot as well. Hmmm i'm pretty amazed he didn't fall in.. heeheehee

First night In Manargudi

My Grandpapa's house is in the South of India, Thiruvarur district, Manargudi. The car ride from the airport to the house seemed like eternity but eventually we made it. Atha(Grandma) had made idly and sambar. i don't remeber being hungry but ate anyway.

That's my Atha and Ramu Uncle. Ramu uncle is Letchu uncle's brother. Both of them are twins but they don't look alike at all.

After eating i had to take a shower and so Atha burned some wood to boil water. i mean talk about saving energy. Instead of boiling the water over the stove using the gas, she prefers the natural way because it practically costs nothing and its environmentally friendly.

The nights in India are always calm, relaxing and most importantly beautiful. It's a time when the hustle and bustle of the streets slowly vanishes and every living being .. even the earth takes time to rest.