Care Bears Marshmallow Pops!

Care to have one? This was from the Netherlands, courtesy of Eileen. I cannot imagine eating these adorable looking bears without filling guilty.

I have translated the instructions from Dutch to English: You can start by chewing from ears, followed by the head, then the belly, then the arms/paw.... argh!!!! Once you finished the whole bear, your body can almost feel the sugar overloading on all your senses! Everything you hear or speak now is in Care Bear language. Care Bear Stare!!

Lol. Merry X'mas to all! ;op

Savoury Cheese Muffins

I am jumping for joy as I took the muffins out from the tray last night. This was my first attempt in baking something savoury and I must say I like the smell, taste and looks of it. Gab did not want any sweet bakes anymore because I told her that I wanted to try out olive oil brownies. I thought of a cheese muffin immediately and I really cannot remember the source of recipe.

I have added a few things to the muffin batter and initially wanted to name this as the Cheese & Chives muffin but after much consideration, I think this generic name suits it better as I may just change a few ingredients in the future.

Savoury Cheese Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
1 cup fresh milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 level tbsp raw sugar
bunch of chives*
chilli flakes*
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and set aside.
• I used Kraft's Cheddar Cheese and grated them to a little more than a cup.
• Set some grated cheese aside for use later on top of the muffins.
• Mix flour, grated cheese, chilli flakes in a bowl.
• Beat 2 eggs, raw sugar with a fork until it bubbles.
• Stir in the olive oil, followed by the milk and chives.
• Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the egg mix into the well.
• Use a fork and stir everything until it is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners and spoon until it is 2/3 full.
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Garlic mustard sauce
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tsp of English mustard sauce (I used Coleman's)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 tbsp of mayonnaise

• Mix them well and you get this wonderful sauce!

Notes:

• I made about 11 muffins. You can get 12 or more if the mixture in each cup is lesser or the liner is smaller.
• *You can substitute the ingredients with other alternatives like stronger cheeses, or replace the chives with scallions or chilli flakes with paprika.*
• The sauce can give you dragon's breath because of the raw garlic but it is absolutely delicious!
• This muffin is not very cheesy so it is suitable for many people.
• The tangy sauce can actually make you eat more than one muffin at a go.
• You could use them as a side dish.
• Thanks Gab & Anna!!! For simply everything!!!

Light, golden fluffy goodness!!

Fish & Co

I ordered the usual Garlic Butter Mussels. It came with a herby foccacia for dipping into the wonderful sauce. I remembered it came with plain bread and we could ask for more if we wanted to but I think it has changed for the past few years. I still think having a plain bread with the garlic butter sauce would taste better.

Oh, did you know? I am a raw garlic convert now. Slowly picking up. Heheh...It makes me have dragon breath but I am slowly appreciating the need for raw garlic at meals. I feel like a middle age uncle wearing gold chains and eating raw garlic. Lol...

The calamari was not bad. I think it is still a little different from Italian restaurants (duh!) and I prefer da Mario or Porta Porta's version.

Dinner set at Ohsho, Cuppage Plaza

Order this if you are really very hungry. This value for money set (S$16) could be easily shared among 2-3 small eaters. It comes with a plate of gyozas and a bowl of watered down soup. This set has fried rice which I absolutely like a lot, omelette, stir fried pork, coleslaw, croquette and ebi fry. Yum....I almost could not move away from the seat after dinner.

Note to self: Remind them not to put ketchup on the egg because it does not match.

House of Tau Sar Piah, 603 Balestier Road

One day I spotted a box filled with tau sar piah and decided to sneak one out for tasting. It looked bigger than the usual tau sar piah so I thought I would eat half first. Before I realise what was happening, I found myself picking up the crumbs on the tissue that I was eating from. Yes, I finished the salty pastry.

I liked the slight warm and crispy crust, the salty and sweet mung bean (tau sar) filling and the box. Lol. I'm a sucker for nice packaging. It costs 60cents each and there are other flavours available but I am not tired of this yet so, erm, yeah, not trying other flavours until I am sick.

Mmm....

I need one only...really...

Key Lime Pie from California Pizza Kitchen

Next!

My last encounter with key lime pie made me very curious to try the version at CPK. I think I still like PS. Cafe's version. This one is too sweet and milky with the pie crust soggy with a strong honey taste which made the whole dessert taste weird.

Where to find nice ones?

Beef Pho at Madam Saigon

I like their version of beef pho. Since discovering them on Liang Seah Street a few months back, I have gone back and had repeated orders of their pancakes and beef pho.

One turn off this time was their spotty service which made me feel irritated. Most of the time when we were there, coriander was never present in their dishes and we were assured that they do not add coriander in their food but the last time we went back, they had coriander everywhere. I was lucky that I liked coriander enough to finish them off. Someone else was not that lucky as the mere sight of them would just be simply revolting.

The pancake is filled with beansprouts and some slivers of prawns and meat. The appetising tangy sauce is the key to such a tasty combi so this was a must order item everytime we are here.


The beef pho's soup is very tasty and after a good squeeze of lime, I was ready to slurp the whole bowl. ;o) I liked their big bouncy beef balls, onions and tendons. Yum yum...

I am ready to overlook the service and go back there again to try other items on their menu.

X'mas assorted cookies

Assortment of shortbread cookies!

I have to credit Vanna White first because without any assistance, I would not be able to complete this almost impossible task.

I followed 2 recipes and hence have 2 types of dough. Recipes were taken and adapted from Exclusively Food & Joy of Baking. The only thing that I have substituted for both recipes is the vanilla extract with the organic vanilla pods that I have on hand. Feel free to use either one.

Melting Moments Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Dough was pretty soft to work with so I had left them in the fridge for about an hour before working with it. I needed quite a bit of flour to prevent them from sticking.
• The oven and baking tray was a little small so I had to bake them in many batches hence the different flavours because I was bored.
• Instead of baking at 150 degs, I baked the cookies at 190 degs for 30mins each batch as they did not get cooked after 20mins.
• They will not change colour.
• They had a milky taste to it and crumbles in your mouth.
• I could change the butter to a better quality one the next time.
• Flavours: Original & Cinnamon sugar.
• My melting moments cookie does not have the lemon icing in between.
  

Shortbread cookies Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Same as above except that this was easier to work with because of more flour.
• For the Jam Drop cookie, just use your thumb to make that little "well" for the jam.
• The strawberry jam needed was very little so be aware and careful when spooning the jam onto the little "well".
• I used the strawberry milk choco bits that I got from Phoon Huat and scattered in the dough.
• Can increase the flavours for all the cookies.
• Shortbread tastes drier and more crisp.
• Flavours: Star Shaped Shortbread, White Chocolate chip cookie, Jam Drop Cookie, Strawberry Milk cookie.
• Can keep up to 2 weeks when refrigerated.

I can take orders for up to 3 flavours @ S$13.

Thank you. Cheers!

Bamboo Charcoal Sandwich

It was as black as the herbal jelly!!! Was on the way back to Singapore when we passed by the popular Lavender Cake Shop. They are quite popular here in Malaysia or JB at least. I spotted a black loaf whilst happily browsing through their bread section. It was panther black. Lol... I wonder does it have a charcoal taste? All the benefits listed in their brochure seemed too good to be true. Do you dare to eat this black bread?

Herbal Jelly at Koong Woh Tong

Koong Woh Tong Sdn Bhd (恭和堂) is a chinese herbal tea shop which has quite a number of outlets in Malaysia. I tried this at the Genting Highlands outlet. They specialise in Herbal Jelly (Guilinggao) and herbal teas. They are quite popular despite the limited choices. I suppose each of the outlets have similar interior designs like gold coloured pots containing the herbal bitter teas and the big gold container which is actually a steamer in disguise, steaming the herbal jellies. I got the hot herbal jelly to try.

It came with a pot of diluted syrup. For some, they may find the jelly too diluted or watery for their taste. For me, it was perfect as the ultra smooth and wobbly jelly slided through my throat and went straight to my tummy. I liked that the syrup was diluted as I can just pour a lot of it and slurp it straight from the bowl. There was a bitter aftertaste which I did not mind. I could just drink their bitter tea the next time.

Prices: RM8 (small), RM10 (big).