Brunch At Little Diner

Just a simple review on Little Diner, which is a casual cafe located at bukit timah. It's actually quite difficult to park nearby as the road in front of the shop is not exactly wide enough therefore in the end of the day is about luck haha. We were really lucky as the second we drove in, a car parked right in front of the cafe was leaving. Hooray! Not difficult at all lol.

Anyway the interior of the shop is quite dim which is not really my cup of tea. However, the waitress serving us was really friendly. The time when we reached there isn't any table available for us so they actually set up another table for 4 for us at the back of the shop, which is actually really thoughtful. As we are extremely hungry ( at least I AM extremely hungry), we decided our order real fast. My bf is so hungry that he decided to mimic British slang while speaking English. Ya I know, make no sense at all.

The food was served real fast and because I was too hungry, I forgot to take pic of the very delicious fluffy omelette stuffed with wild mushrooms and truffle oil. I remembered Gordon Ramsay once said that he hates truffle oil but oh well I am not so professional so I'm good haha.   The toasts served at the side is also very good, soft and crunchy, love it!

These were what we ate, including supernova Benedict (New York style egg Benedict with smoked salmon), crab cake Benedict and red velvet pancakes. 

I find the toast under the eggs Benedict is kinda hard as it's a flat toast. However the crispy bacon in the crab cake one is nice. Also the crab cake is very Asian style which makes me feel like having a Vietnamese pho or some noodle soup haha. 

Close up of the red velvet pancakes. Served with honey/maple syrup, cream cheese, whipped cream and strawberry slices. Not exactly a wow but still good. Find the pancakes not fluffy enough. 

Overall is quite good in terms of the food, speed and services. As for the price, I think it's quite average for above average singapore cafe. Each dish costs about 10+ dollars. Hope you all enjoy :)

2nd visit: Passion Food Cafe & Bakery

Yes I visit this place again for lunch lol. This time I manage to get the say cheese burger haha! 

Not too much about the ambience and other stuff this time as I have already talked about it on my previous post. Just gonna focus on the food today :)

Cafe latte ordered by my bf. The small cookie was delicious! Very buttery which I like lol. Love the effort they made for the different foam art for every customer. 

I ordered the green tea latte. It tasted a bit weird at the beginning maybe because I never drink a proper green tea latte before. The previous experience was bad as it tasted like green tea flavored milk without any taste of coffee. Don't worry, it wasn't from here. Anyway, after a few sips, I tasted the light green tea taste together with my usual latte taste. And I got a different foam art from my bf's latte haha.

 

Egg Benedict ordered by my bf. It was very good actually. The poached eggs were nicely done with the right amount of sauce on top. When the dish was served, the eggs move like a really bouncy pudding haha. Love it. 

And finally the say cheese burger! However, it was a little bit disappointing. We both think that the le burger was actually nicer and juicier. The herb taste in the chicken was slightly too strong for us and therefore overpower the meat. However the bread was nice and soft. I like this bread more. 

As usual, we bought lots of cakes from here again lol. This time I tried strawberry soufflé cheese cake. It was nice. Very soft with sufficient taste of the cheese. Equally good as the strawberry garden cake. My bf's father said the white forest cake was too sweet for him as it was a white chocolate cake lol. As for the durian boat, the durian taste was not rich enough. 

I think they really make great strawberry cakes and tiramisu. But for the others, might still need to explore a little bit more.  Not really feel like trying their macaroons as I find them to be too flat. Doesn't look as nice as the one I ate before. But oh well, the one i ate was from Pierre Hermes which is like the branded macaroons in Europe lol. 6 pieces for 15 pounds. They have to be great lol. 

Anyway, just realize passion food they sell breads in weekdays too. Might go and get it some day when I have chance to go there next time :)

Passion Food Cafe & Bakery

Went to PF last weekend with a few people and had quite a good experience there. It was quite easy to find, just look out for the bright pink board haha. The interior is not very big but is suitable for a cafe. Kind of similar atmosphere at patisserie love but more food there. 

Staffs are very friendly and helpful. They actually provide afternoon tea during weekends and Friday. Didn't try that as I was looking forward to get some proper meals there. Unfortunately the say cheese burger was sold out that day so I ordered the le burger instead. 

The dish is very filling and the beef was extremely juicy. Overall it's a 10/10 for the burger. The onions in the burger was sautéed too so it was very nice. 

This is the crab pasta ordered by a friend. I tried a bit and for people who love pasta, I think the chef did a good job . Not over cooked and with sufficient amount of crab taste which is not too cheesy. 

We also tried the escargots but find it very disappointing as the meat was very very little. I guess they over cooked the escargots therefore the meat shrinks. 

The cakes were nice. We ordered the strawberry cake I bought last time, still the best among all haha. Also ordered strawberry pie, salted caramel and lychee martini. However the last 2 cakes were not as good as expected. The salted caramel tasted more like chocolate cake lol. Anyway they still do a better job on strawberry cakes haha. 

Crystal Flakes Pan Fried Dumpling

Today I'm gonna teach u all how to make special pan fried dumplings which has the shape of ice crystal flakes surrounding them.

This is an extremely simple dish which everyone can make at home. It takes about 10 minutes to get the dish done. I used the frozen dumpling bought from supermarket. You don't even have to defrost the dumplings so a lot of time can be saved. 

First step is to pour some oil in the pan and heat it up. Then switch to small fire and assemble the dumplings like a flower in the pan. It takes around 6 dumplings to make the shape. Stick one of the edge of the dumpling in the middle of the pan to form a circular shape. Then switch to medium fire and let the bottom of the dumpling to be fried until light golden colour. It should take around 1-2 minutes.

Then make a mixture of water and flour (or cornflour) with the ratio of 10:1. Pour the solution into the pan until half of the dumplings are soaked. Then cover the pan and let it boiled under small or medium fire. This process takes about 5 minutes. You can pour more solution and let it heat longer if you scare the dumplings will not be cooked. 

Lastly, open up the pan and see if the flour water is almost dried up with the golden crystal flake crisps on the pan. When the water is completely dried up, invertly pour the whole thing onto a plate. 

 

This should be how it looks like. The top layer is crispy with nicely steamed dumpling underneath. Overall a great success :)

2nd Year Anniversary In SG

Today is my 2nd year anniversary dinner with my bf and we celebrated it at One Rochester, singapore. We never make any reservation and still were able to get the table. 

Foie gras with salads and crunchy bread stick. The foie gras was superb. 

Main course baby chicken which is their signature dish. Needs 30 minutes time to prepare which is just nice for us as we both have small apetite therefore need time to digest. The meat was tender and the potato cubes were good too. But I would probably prefer a more crunchy potato or French fries instead. 

Aglio olio spaghetti with king prawns and tomato and asparagus. Love the asparagus, very nicely cooked and provide a refreshing taste as the spaghetti is quite spicy. Prawns were fresh and delicious too.

Strawberry frozen margarita. Little bit too sweet so I think the classic version could be better. Also it melted really fast and I end up having a warm margarita lol. 

I also had the dessert which is the freshly baked soufflé. However, I was so eager to eat and therefore didn't take any picture of it haha. I had the hazelnut soufflé with vanilla ice cream. It is exactly the same as the one I ate in Australasia, Manchester but different flavor. Also it didn't provide any sauce to pour into the soufflé compared to the passion fruit soufflé I had in uk. But, the ice cream was good if u love milky stuff. I love it haha. 

The atmosphere is overall great. We sat outdoor which has a shelter so won't get wet if the rain pours. They have different area of outdoor seats so one area will have approximately 2-4 tables or sofas. Also they have a few big fans that make minimal sound. My bf find the fake waterfall sound very soothing and calming haha. 

That is all the updates I got for now. Hope you guys enjoy! :)

Dishes From Last Week

I'm happy that i was managed to improve my cooking skills in last week. And today, i'm gonna just give a recap on my everyday meal for the past week hope you guys enjoy =)

Sesame sauce udon with vegetables and meatballs, garnished with chilli flakes and herbs.

Pork porridge with shredded cabbage and carrot.

Toasts with scrambled eggs and mushroom soup.

Omurice - Soy sauce base fried rice with corns and anchorvy.

Chicken soup base linguine with meatballs and cabbage, garnished with wakame.

Linguine with sesame dressing, japanese egg roll and mushroom soup.

Honey and korean wine pork.

Japanese egg roll, korean kimchi and stir fry pork with shredded cabbage and carrots.

Snap beans with spicy vegetarian dried shrimps, dumplings, pickled lettuce and fried eggs.

That's all the stuff that i cooked last week, so proud of myself! Well, hope my dad enjoyed too since he hasn't said a word about my cooking skills yet haha.

SS: Easiest Way of Making Omurice

Good day people! I'm so excited as i just made a real perfect Omurice for lunch =) So ya, i'm gonna talk about my victorious attempt on making Omurice hahahah. It's actually not as difficult as it might look if u follow my tips lol.

The fried rice can be done in whatever way u like. I don't really like tomato base so i switch it to soy sauce with pepper. 

And for the egg, it is quite similar to making scramble eggs, but without the milk. Whisk the eggs and pour ALL into the pan under low fire. Then quickly scramble the eggs using the whisk, when it is 60-70% scrambled, leave it for few seconds for the base to form. Then, fold the egg into half with a spatula. Then slowly move the egg to the side of the pan by knocking on handle of the pan. It also help to slightly flip the egg. Lastly, when you think the omelette is nicely formed with no broken "skin", slowly pour the egg onto the rice. 

In japan, they will cut open the egg by gently drawing a long horizontal line with a knife. In my case, i cut the egg using the spoon, which achieve the same goal too.

I'm so proud of myself of making this dreamy omurice hahaha. Always wanted to eat a perfect omurice with nice fluffy eggs and here it is! 

SS: Japanese Egg Roll With Normal Round Pan

Hey people, I'm feeling kinda low today. Called the company i applied for and they told me the director is on leave so can't proceed my application, wtf. Therefore, i start calling to ask for part time jobs around my area. Which makes me feel kinda suck as my bf keep asking me to be piano teacher cos the job earns more. Well, i really don't like applying job just looking at the pay, if i can't enjoy the job, i feel like crap. Oh well, i can't talk much at this moment as i havent got any of the job. Waitress/sales assistant job is easy, just need to go there and get interview. Only the piano job needs further communication as i'm not sure how it works.

Oh well, end of the bad mood and let's start talking about the dish i'm sharing today.

Yes, another egg dish. Japanese egg roll! It looks so similar to the one selling in restaurant, this makes me feel proud as i used the normal flat pan instead of an egg roll pan to make it.

The steps were easy. I used 2 eggs with pinch of salt for flavour. Japanese sometimes also do sweet egg rolls so depends on what you like actually.

Pour 1/3 of the eggs into the pan under low fire. when it's 50% cook with some egg liquid on top, start folding the egg using the spatula. Gently fold it with the residue egg liquid as the glue. If you afraid it will be totally cook, you can remove the pan from the fire when you folding it. After you get a roll, pour in another 1/3 of the eggs and lift the egg roll at 45 degree to let the egg liquid go under the egg roll, then repeat the folding process. Lastly pour in the remaining eggs and repeat the process. When the roll is done, you can let the egg roll stay in the pan for a while to make the top looks a bit brownish as well as to double confirm the egg roll is cooked.

When serving, cut the egg roll into few equal portions so that you can eat it in easily. As the pan i used was round, both ends of the egg roll are relatively more flat than the middle part.

Another tips is to incorporate enough air into the egg liquid during the whisking process. This will make the eggs more fluffy.

And yes, i really love eating eggs therefore i love making egg dishes.

SS: 5 Minutes Perfect Scramble Eggs

Hola! Today i'm going to teach a very simple way of making scramble eggs, which takes only 5 minutes to make it.

As i love scramble eggs so much, i've been experimenting the best way of making it including trying out the Gordon Ramsey's method which is relatively tidious but nice. I mean, you won't go wrong with a Michelin chef right.

Anyway, i made scramble eggs for my brunch yesterday and i would love to share the recipe as the result turns out real good. What you need is 2 eggs, 1-2 tablespoons of milk (i substitute it with soya milk as i have no milk left) and seasoning including salt and pepper.

First, break the eggs and add in the milk and little pinch of salt for seasoning. Then, whisk the eggs vigorously to incoporate air so that the final product will be fluffy. However, be careful not to overdo and produce too much foam.

Heat the pan and put some butter or oil and turn to low fire. When the pan is not that hot, pour in the eggs. If the pan is too hot, the eggs will be cooked too fast and become omelette instead of scramble eggs haha.

Ok, COOKING TIPS! Straight away use the WHISK to scramble the eggs by gently stir clockwise/anti-clockwise. This will produce very nicely scrambled eggs. Also, the eggs will not stick to the whisk compared to a wooden spatula. Therefore, easy cleaning process =)

Serve the eggs when they reach the texture you desire with pinch of pepper on top.

I made toasts and mushroom soup as well! Toasts can be done by oven since i have no microwave at home. 200 degree celcius for 3-5 minutes will make perfect toasts =)

SS: 15 Minutes Dinner - Stir Fry Udon with Sesame Sauce

So, i cooked dinner for my dad last night. Fried udon with sesame sauce.

The ingredients were extremely simple, which include udon pack, the vegetables leftover from lunch, frozen meatballs, Japanese roasted sesame dressing, pepper and salt/soy sauce for the taste.

And this, is the final product. Looks colourful right? It's really easy to cook this dish, you just need about 15 minutes to get it done.

So first, what i did was to defrost the meatballs by putting it into the water and cut half when it is defrost. This will help the meatballs to get cooked evenly in a faster way. Then i cut the garlic and onions to small pieces. The amount is dependable on personal flavour. I don't exactly like garlic and onions so i just put a considerate amount to flavour the noodles, which is around 1 clove of garlic and half an onion.

So, pour oil when the pan is hot and put in the garlic and onion. Stir fry until the garlic turns golden and the onion starts smelling nice. Then, put in the meatballs and continue to stir fry the mixture. Then pour in some water to sort of simmer the meatballs to speed up the cooking process. When the meatballs are 80% cooked, pour in the udon noodles. I will advice to separate the noodles after taking out from the pack as they normally tend to stick together in the pack. You can also separate it after putting into the pan but that will be more difficult to achieve evenly cooked noodles.

When the udon noodles are almost cooked, put in the vegetables and 1 or 2 tablespoon of the sesame dressing. Also, little bit of pepper plus soy sauce (or salt) to flavor the noodles. Gently stir fry for few seconds and off the fire. If the noodles start sticking to the pan during the process, add in more water to separate them.

And that's done! As the vegetables are already cooked, you don't need to spend much time on cooking them. Lastly, put some garnish on top e.g. herbs and chilli flakes.

Well, my dad didn't say if it is nice or not, but he did finish all so i guess it tasted ok haha. Tomorrow, i'll let you all know what i cooked today =)