Home-cook Cap Chay (Mixed Vegetables)

I realize that most of my home-cook foods are so typical of my hometown foods. It just appeared on my mind and then hit me with the feeling "I missed it". So this time was about Cap Chay which I felt not easily found in here (or maybe only for me?). 

Cap Chay is one of the easiest foods to cook with simple preparations and steps. I could mix lots of vegetables and meats that I want. Put them all together in the wok with high heat, add the spices and mix them, then serve it with warm rice! It is so simple, isn't it? :)

Ingredients 

Prawns

Fish cakes

Baby corns

Tomatoes

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Lettuce

Cai Xin

Carrot

Fava beans

Mushrooms

Onions and shallots

adding some spices like salt, sugar, pepper, shaoxing wine, and sauces

And, proudly presented Cap Chay :)

Awfully Chocolate from Sis

Sis bought me this as I was craving for chocolate that day. Thank you. Luv luv.

It is so yummy! Just that I can't finish one whole piece at a time b'coz the chocolate is too much, slowly enjoy it then ;)

Our Review : Baba Win's peranakan

Came across this peranakan food when I was searching for food deals, and finally decided to try it out last weekend. From so many recommendations I read from websites, we decided to order their Sambal udang, Ayam keluak, and Fire Kang Kong.

Sambal udang
We agreed that it tasted more towards sweet and sour rather than spicy. I love my own version better :)

Ayam keluak
The spices were not strong enough for us, but this food was not too bad.

Fire Kang Kong
We had requested it to be extra spicy but it came out not spicy at all. From these three foods, this kang kong tasted better.

We concluded one time trying was enough. Considering the experience, price and travelling time, it's not worth for us to go back there again. :)

Baba Win's Peranakan Cuisine

Located at : #01-23 The Star Vista

                  1 Vista Exchange Green

Open from 1130 till 2130 daily.

Our review : BBQ Chicken

It's a happy day and we decided to celebrate it. So, I gave them a chance to choose, where to eat? Limited to choices near home as hubby need to standby before US open, we finally went to Greenwich V. Cut it short, I gave them three options : BBQ Chicken, Cedele, or Mai Thai Restaurant.

After checking here and there, we decided to go for BBQ Chicken. Understand that BBQ (Best Believable Quality) Chicken is using 100% extra virgin olive oil for its deep frying, igniting our curiosity to try them.

So we ordered Olive Luxury Chicken, Paris Chicken, and Seafood Pizza. Because of its strong ingredients on Paris chicken, we found olive luxury chicken not nice at all and its crispy too hard to crush. We loved the paris chicken and the pizza (its cheese so yummy!).

Will we go back? The price is not worth for the chicken, but I don't mind to go for the Pizza.

Olive Luxury Chicken

Paris Chicken

Seafood Pizza

 

Located at :
Greenwich V
1 Seletar Road #02-07
Singapore 807011
Open from 10:00 - 22:00

Our review : Long Phung Restaurant - Vietnamese Food

As I said before, when our food hunter spirit kicked in, we don't care how far they are, we'll go and find them! This time, we decided to try Vietnamese food. After searching and reading reviews from some bloggers and comments on the websites, we chose this place, Long Phung Restaurant, which located in East side of Singapore and known to be one of the best Vietnamese Restaurant in Singapore by the community.

The place is considered 20-30 minutes walk from Paya Lebar Mrt (this depends on how fast you can walk). It is only one level with spaces fit to 30-40 people, I guessed. From the readings, better be earlier to avoid the long queue, and it is true! We reached there by 6pm and it had been full house with some people were queuing outside. By the time we had our seats, the queue started to get longer and longer.

Seeing the menu and with my limited knowledge about Vietnamese foods, we finally decided to order Shrimp noodle soup (Hu Tieu Tom), Chicken noodle soup (Pho Ga), and Vietnamese spring rolls (Goi Cuon) with Cafe Sua Da (Milk coffee with ice) and Da me (Tamarind juice) drinks. Both noodle soups were very yummy and the drinks were absolutely nice! Sis and me have fallen in love with the Cafe Sua Da. For us (especially me) who can't take raw smell of vegetables, will find the spring rolls were just ok. 

Meanwhile, our friends ordered Special noodle soup (Pho Dac Biet) and Spicy Beef stew noodle soup (Hu Tieu Bo Kho) together with orange juices (she is pregnant, so can't take any coffee or tea). From their reviews, both noodles also nice. We couldn't try as we avoid taking any beef. 

Overall, we are very satisfied with the foods and drinks after the long journey to reach there. Sure will be back again when we miss these foods! :)

Shrimp noodle soup (Hu Tieu Tom)
$5.5 each

Chicken noodle soup (Pho Ga)
$5.5 each

Spicy Beef stew noodle soup (Hu Tieu Bo Kho) 
$5.5 each

Special noodle soup (Pho Dac Biet)
$6.5 each

 Vietnamese spring rolls (Goi Cuon) 
$9 for 6 pieces

Cafe Sua Da (Milk coffee with ice)

$3 each

Da me (Tamarind juice)
$2.5 each

Here is the address :
Long Phung
159 Joo Chiat Road
Open from 1300 till 0200 

Enjoy! :)

Our review : Char Kway teow at Coffeeshop BLK266 Compassvale Bow & Koufu Rivervale Plaza

We have a favourite Penang Kway teow at one coffee shop located in Changi Road area which is now a bit too far for us to eat there and they open until 2pm only (closed on Sunday). Searching around for nearby coffee shop, we finally visited the one near to Ranggung Lrt. So far, we have good reviews on all the foods over there (zi char, wanton mee, western food, hand made timsum, and kway teow). There are some new stalls just opened in Koufu Rivervale Plaza, and we have tried the new hokkien mee, kway teow and steam foods. :D

Comparing the different style of kway teow through pics :

Char Kway teow @ Coffeeshop BLK266 Compassvale Bow
ps. we like this one better than Koufu's one

Char Kway teow @ Koufu Rivervale Plaza
ps. We prefer their Hokkien mee

My own char kway teow (hometown style) :)

2013.07.16 : Midnite nonsense talk

Clock ticked towards midnight and suddenly his phone vibrated *incoming message*...

Me  : Who's that sms so late?
Him : CNBC, euro closing
Me  : How dare u have an affair with CNBC?!!
Him : No, i don't. It's him keep sending me a message
Me  : Ok, then why in the first place you gave him your number?!!
Him : *speechless*

Both of us kept laughing for this nonsense talk. However, laugh is the best medicine in the world. Not only giving us a healthy mind but also a healthy relationship :)

Have a good night and sweet dreams.

- Wen

2013.07.06 Our review : Eng Ho Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

Hubby asked me to save all the hawkers which listed in competition of Gordon Ramsy vs Spore's Hawker this year. Thinking to try all of them when having free time (like our old times favourite, hunting foodies). So yesterday, we decided to try hokkien mee nearby and from the list, we got Eng Ho stall in AMK.

The fastest way we could take from our place was taking MRT to Sgoon then getting into bus 45 for 6 stops to reach the Food centre. After finding the stall, hubby went to order (thinking should be quite fast as not much queue over there). When back to our seats, he told me that we needed to wait at least half an hour to get our hokkien mee. Slightly starving, we looked around and this satay&chicken wings stall looked so tempting. Since there was a minimum of 10 pcs to order Satay, we ordered Chicken wings instead (only two of us). For chicken wings, minimum order is 2 pcs. Fortunately, these chicken wings also needed to wait for another half an hour. -.-'

One good thing of this food centre that we find is we don't need to stand and wait at the stall after ordering. We only need to give our table number when ordering so that they can deliver to us when it's done and as I know, this is very rare to find in Singapore hawker. That's why we don't see long queue on most stall there.

Review on both foods, thumbs up! It's worthed after all for the effort put. Definitely we'll go back to try other stalls also (western & chicken rice).

ps.
Hokkien mee available in $3, $4, $5, $8
Chicken wings $1.3/pcs
The sugar cane is also very nice, not too sweet :)

Address : 

Teck Ghee Square Food Centre, 409 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10

Old cucumber soup

Haze has persisted to hang around Singapore since last Tuesday. It's kind of true what people said, it looks like stock market and the movement is very volatile. Seems like all in Singapore keep checking the figure every hours (can feel the excitement of watching the stock market).

Welcoming my weekend, haze firmly positioned itself in figure above 300 in the morning. I decided to cook my curry stock, but when I read one post from my friend at facebook, it mentioned for us to better avoid the spicy kind of foods. So I told hubby and changed my mind, looked for other recipes and found the cucumber soup. It's been long time I wanted to try cooking this. So, after having our bfast, we went down to buy flowers (for praying on 15th day of the lunar month) at wet market and my ingredients for this cooling soup.

Ingredients :
Old cucumber
Carrots
Pork ribs
Chicken breasts (since my sis didn't take any pork)
Dried scallops
Dried cuttlefish (didn't manage to find one, so I skipped this)
Red dates (slicing a bit)
Salt
Sugar
Water

I also added in : chopped garlics, shallots, and wolfberries (not cooling herbs)

How to cook :
1. Scrub the old cucumber's skin clean and cut it in pieces. Take out the seeds.
2. Marinate the chicken and keep it in the fridge while waiting for others to be done.
3. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water for few minutes, then drain them and set aside.
4. In a soup pot, add in all the ingredients. Water, cucumber chunks, pork ribs, marinated chicken, chopped shallots and garlics, carrots, dried scallops, and red dates. After 10minutes, add in salt and sugar with own's taste preferences (I added the wolfberries around 20minutes later). Boiled it for about 45mins to 1 hour.

The cooking is easy, just spent more time in preparation. Enjoy! :)

My hubby

My hubby :

* the one who only had few hours opportunity to date me before asking me to be his girlfriend

* the one who kept memorizing the first date of our first meeting at Starbucks, Clarke Quay

* the one who said would buy me a dinner at Chijmes on our the first date, but instead we went to Thai cafe (actually he never thought it would be fully booked that day :p)

* the one who left me to Bali after a week relationship

* the one who left me alone in Singapore twice in 2008 for his trips and promised never ever leave me alone again (which he still keep it till now)

* the one who persist to stay besides me through my up's and down's stage

* the one who proposed me in the same date, time and place of our first meeting with a surprise. Truly suprised me.

* the one who willing to wait two years after proposing me (asper my request)

* the one who have brought me to see some new places 

* the one who married me last year

* the one who fulfilled my dreams to go and taste Japan's life

* the one who give me a sweet and homey place as my current home and full of authority to take care of our home :D

* the one who always messaged me "luv u" bfore going to sleep last time and now, hug and give me a gud nite kiss plus saying "I luv u" before we go to sleep every night.

* the one who always pamper me since I am with him

* the one who always give his shoulder and chest everytime I cried

* the one who always hug and send me to lrt before I go to office, and fetch me at lrt when I go home (applicable whenever he's not going to town area on daytime)

* the one who accompany me patiently whenever I go out for shopping

* the one who always bring me to eat at my favourite places 

* the one who never complained about me 

* the one who always eat and finish my cooking with satisfying face
* the one who always give me hand in doing core housework even without I'm asking 

* the one who always keep couraging me for everything I want to do

* the one who never doubt about me

* the one who always trust me

* the one who never said nice promising words but always told me "I do my best"

* the one who never said "I would never leave you" but always said "future is uncertain."

* the one who never said "I would never cheated on you" but always said "I'll keep the five precepts"

* the one who make me feel so safe, peaceful, and trusted in our relationship 

* the one who always said to me whenever I was frustated "I was sent by goddess to take care of you, so there won't be anybody else can handle your emotion" :p

* the one who always let me to choose things

* the one who always checked on calendar and said "almost half month, near timing alr" whenever I was easily irritated and emotional (how come not to laugh everytime I heard this) 

* the one who instead saying "why are you doing that?" but he always asked me "what can I do for you to make you happy, honey?"
* the one who keep awake at nights just to watch and hug me whenever I am unconsciously crying on my sleep 

* more to come..

And, I love everything about him with his special spices :

* forgetful (except financial things)

* emotionless

* always farting 

* always laugh and smile

* his unique eyes
* smart and have many ideas
* think before talk (man type huh :p)

I'm writing all the above is to remind me how grateful I am having you as my life partner. As you said, future is uncertain and people can easily change and forgetful. So I decided to write down everything I can remember about you before I forget, and I can look back in the future to give me fresh memory how lovely you are instead of complaining you. :p

Thank you for coming to my life, hubby!

ps. will add other things once I remember 

Haze!!

My news' menu for today : Haze!

Whether I opened yahoo, facebook, instagram, twitter, or news, the only main topic showed up was "Haze". I admit it, current situation is the worst one compare to previous years since I've been here. I keep following up to the PSI updates released from NEA website, and the next it posted, higher and higher the number showed. :(

Can I wish if we all could work from home tomorrow? *wishing*

These Pictures I found from various websites, showed how bad the haze's doing right now in Singapore. Hope it will subside very soon.. 

Last but not least, I hope this one can leave you with a laughter before reading ends ;)

Our Birthday @2013

I am so grateful that we are still the same, so caring and passionate each other, as years passed. Keep it up! :)

The Fifth!!

This date 25.04.13 has been our fifth year after the first meeting in Starbucks and the third year of good memory proposal day.

"Hubby cio dating" at clarke quay today, had a nice Ramen dinner at Santouka and a romantic sharing drink at Starbucks :p

Pictures have always been one of good ways to keep sweet memories ;)

Buffett's documentary

How I deeply wish to meet him someday.. One of my inspiration!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eRflufmkwbw#!

Parent's love

Watching this video from friend's sharing on facebook.. However, It's so touching and I do cry to :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpOhlGiRTM

I think this lil lily is super cute :D

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yitcOucfDc

2013.03.29 : Creamy crabs

Ingredients :

3pcs of crabs
1 small bottle of fresh milk (I don't know where to find the evaporated milk)
curry leaves
Butter
chopped garlics
chopped shallots
small red chillies
flour
white egg
Water

Method :
1. After cleaning the crabs, steamed them for a while. I add 'frying step' after cooling the crabs for few hours and coated it with flour and egg.
2. Set aside the fried crabs. Heat the wok and add in the butter. All the amount for the ingredients depend on own's preferences. After the butter melt, add in the chopped garlics and shallots and stir it until it is fragrant.
3. Mix all the curry leaves, red chillies and stir it together for few seconds, then add in the crabs.
4. Once all the crabs are coated with the ingredients, add in the milk and stir them together. Add in a little bit water then cover it for 5-10minutes.
5. Move the cover and add in the white egg. It will dry up the milk. Stir up for seconds then place them to the plate and served it immediately.

29.03.2013 : Blackpepper crabs

Ingredients :

3pcs of crabs
ground white pepper
ground black pepper
five spices powder
Oyster sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee)
Chinese Rice Wine (I used Shaoxing wine)
Butter
chopped garlics
chopped shallots
Water

Method :
1. After cleaning the crabs, steamed them for a while. I add 'frying step' after cooling the crabs for few hours.
2. Set aside the fried crabs. Heat the wok and add in the butter. All the amount for the ingredients depend on own's preferences. After the butter melt, add in the chopped garlics and shallots and stir it until it is fragrant.
3. Mix all the oyster sauce, rice wine, spices and peppers, and stir it together for few seconds, then add in the crabs.
4. Once all the crabs are coated with the ingredients, place them to the plate and served it immediately.

Sis early lunar b'day celebration :)

She's a fan of crab and has been craving for crabs since leaving hometown. We knows that getting crabs on restaurant will be quite pricey, so I have been thinking to cook these for her when we celebrate her lunar bday. We have planned to do this on 6th April in the first place, but she has a colleague's farewell on that day. Having of long weekend (good friday) on this month, so we plan to have it on friday as she needs to work on saturday.

Menu for the day : blackpepper crab, creamy crab, mayonnaise fried prawn and chili asparagus with dried prawn.

~ Preparation time 

~ All are ready ..

 

~ well done! :p

1st Wedding Anniversary

I have postponed for posting this long enough, kept dragging from weeks to other weeks (looks like I am so super busy lady, doesn't it? :p ). It's actually my preference to do other things than posting blog which made it hibernated for a while.

Let me start the story. It has been our one year marriage life. I feel, wow time really passed by so fast. It has also been one year of moving to our own home :)
Thinking about it and everything that we have gone through so far, all were amazing things and times.

So, I started to search for venues to celebrate it. I always love romantic nuance, in this case there were two requirements : a dining with nice place and fit our budget. Since we had tried some asian and western styles of fine dining last time, he proposed to get a Japanese theme again this time as he didn't really like with the food presented in western (too much of meat and we both agreed not to take any foie gras, beef and snail things).

After searching for few days and proposing few places to him but still we couldn't fine a place that we're really like, then one day I recalled there was a place I kept passing by when I did my job at Club street and everytime I passed, I looked at this little house with words "Goto" in front of the door. The shop was always closed and looked like nobody was there. When I read the small advertisement near the door, it said only 'by reservation'. Then we both decided to visit the place when he had lunch near my office, walked to the place and then he's agreed with me to celebrate it there. Finally!

They didn't open on Sunday, so we reserved our dining on Saturday instead. When we reached there, as usual the door was always closed, but we knew that it's opened inside. From outside, it looked very dim, glow, but once we were inside, it amazed us. The decoration of the room, so modern style! Only few tables were there, and the atmosphere of the place was so peaceful. Both lady boss and the assistant wore traditional Japanese clothing 'Yukata' which I loved it very much. Read from reviews, this place was run by both husband and wife (they are Japanese), I assumed the chef was the husband then. All the food were very well presented, tasted nice and we both were very satisfied. :)

Hope the pictures here could depict it ;)

All the foods presented have their own meaning.. the prawn, the egg, the fish, etc but I forgot what they meant exactly -.-"

This was the special dish for celebrating the event :)

Happy 1st Anniversary to us! ^.^

Place : Goto Japanese Restaurant

             14 Ann Siang Road #01-01

             S (069694)

             Tel : 6438 1553