Ayam Penyat Ria @ Far East Plaza

A friend of mine have never eaten Ayam Penyat before and I decided to bring her to try it. Originating from Indonesia, the chicken is marinated in different spices and subsequently fried. It is smashed (“Penyat”) and served with a fried bean curd, fermented bean curd and chilli.

The outlet we were at was the branch from the original one at Lucky Plaza. Though the outlet was small, there was no long waiting time and service was prompt.

The chicken was crispy and juicy but to my dismay, it looked rather small and did not satisfy my hunger.  However, it was well seasoned and you could taste the turmeric powder. The chilli sauce was spicy and packs quite a punch. But be warned for those with a low tolerance, or you might end up a fire breathing dragon!

Fried and oily aside (which my friend loved it), I think the way how the chilli is prepared makes or breaks this dish, and it is something to excite the taste bud.

Paul Hollywood’s Chelsea Buns recipe

 

I am not putting the recipe for these here since you can find them here and here. I simply followed everything Paul instructed in the video for these. (I think I am becoming a really big fanboy!) The only difference is the lack of dried cranberries which I substituted for with more raisins and apricots.

The basic idea is to make an enriched dough, prove it, roll it out, put the filling, roll up like you would for a cinnamon roll, cut, second proving, make icing, bake, spread jam, drizzle icing and serve.

The results are mouth-watering. Simply mouth-watering. I mean just look at that apricot jam glaze. So tempting.

Cups and Canvas @ Selegie Road

Although I really wanted to order the Sweet Potato Latte, I resisted because I knew I needed the caffeine for the overnight prayer I was about to attend. Oh my. Where are my manners. Welcome to Cups and Canvas.

The cafe consists of an art studio and a cafe area thus it boasts new artwork almost every other day! Beyond that, the cafe’s ambience is really quite cosy with a wide array of seating options. It’s even laptop-friendly! Wifi and plugs and all. Cups and Canvas also offer set menus, which is totally awesome since you buy into the illusion that you are spending lesser since you are getting a set. They even host art classes there.

Everything in the cafe is baked by the people behind the cafe so that’s really impressive. However that being said,  I was pretty disappointed at the Banana Walnut Muffin they served. The texture was too dry and far too dense. It wasn’t the moist, slightly dense and tender consistency I was looking for. Sadly, it was also lacking in flavor. Maybe I am just being harsh as my baker myself. Maybe. Just maybe. The coffee is fairly good though.

They aren’t known for their Banana Walnut Muffins so just don’t order them if you go there! Haha I only ordered it since I am just a sucker for everything Banana and Nut.  Well! Cups and Canvas is definitely worth visiting, whether if it’s with a group of friends or  you are there to mug. Who knows? I might bump into you there.

Paul Hollywood’s Bloomer

Okay like the bloomer above, I haven’t been in the best of shape. Honestly, a bloomer isn’t that difficult to do. The only reason why it’s burnt and weird-shaped is because I was in a foul mood that day and what I really wanted to do was to vent my frustration by kneading some dough. Really, the recipe is dead simple.

I don’t know about you but I guess my mood just translates into my baking. The saddest part about this bloomer is that no one ended up eating it and it just went stale after a couple of days.

I managed to salvage it by preparing bostock though. Sigh.

Krispy Kreme

The highly anticipated first Krispy Kreme outlet has finally hit our shores after all these years of buying these doughnuts back from far flung places like the UK or the US! Evidently, Singaporeans will do anything for these, being the slaves to food that we are. If 13 hour flights and the possibility of these little rings of dough getting crushed won’t stop us, neither will a 30-man deep queue that Sam and I encountered at the newly opened Tangs outlet. Not that we had any intention to queue for them anyway. Thankfully (and yes, this blog is all about being thankful for everything we eat, ain’t it?), my dad had the foresight to buy these back from Jakarta, where apparently people don’t queue feverishly for doughnuts, and where these sweet treats come cheaper. Thanks Dad!

Original Glazed Doughnut

To be honest, I wasn’t terrifically excited to see a box of Krispy Kreme in the kitchen. I’ve never really had a good impression of doughnuts, probably due to the oily, sugary neighbourhood bakery types I got fed as a child – not that every neighbourhood bakery does bad doughnuts, but. Despite my incredulity over these sugared rings of fried dough, I was dead curious: What was the hype all about? Weren’t these just doughnuts? So I decided to heat an Original Glazed Doughnut, Krispy Kreme’s signature, up for breakfast.

A couple of minutes in the toaster and the sugar glaze melted into a happy sticky mess while the doughnut remained soft and fluffy despite being left overnight. What struck me was that there was none of that oily smell that often comes with doughnuts. Not a bad start! One bite into it and all inhibitions were gone. I finally understood the 13 hour flights and the 30 man deep queue. The doughnut was light and not cloyingly sweet. It was barely even oily and the doughnut was deliciously airy. I finished it much faster than expected and found myself wanting another. Do they put some addictive component in those things?

Coffee Kreme Filled Doughnut | Chocolate Kreme Filled White Chocolate Glazed Doughnut

To be honest I’m not too sure what the next two are called because they don’t appear on the Krispy Kreme site. Products do vary from country to country and these may or may not be available in Singapore. When Sam and I checked the local store out, we found a red velvet variation not mentioned on the website!

I highly doubt it would be possible to get doughnuts for breakfast before work in Singapore. Not with the 30-man deep queue! But do try them at least once because you’ll never think of doughnuts the same way ever. Speaking of which, maybe I should join the queue since I’m getting a craving from writing this post…

Expresso Butter recipe

The other night, I ended up in Drury Lane with Sam and she happened to be eating banana bread with expresso butter. That drove me to perfecting my own espresso butter recipe. It’s relatively simple and you can use it for toast, bagels, muffins and whatever spreadable.

INGREDIENTS : 
3 tsp of instant coffee granules
2 tsp of hot water
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
110g of butter (the spreadable type)
1 heaping tbsp of icing sugar

 
RECIPE : 

DISSOLVE coffee granules and vanilla extract with hot water in a small bowl

CREAM butter and sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy

COMBINE the two mixtures
BEAT until smooth
SPREAD IT.

 

Bread Society @ Suntec City Mall

Cinnamon Roll x Chocolate Pistachio Pretzel

From the people who brought you BreadTalk comes Bread Society, a bakery led by artisan baker Chef Atsushi Murata. I think the photos speak for themselves. The bread here is simply mouth-watering. The selection of bread reminds me of Tiong Bahru Bakery but I guess that’s just the whole artisan baker thing going on. They also serve not so commonly seen bread in Singapore such as the brioche, dark rye bread, tarte tatin, cinnamon rolls, pretzel and so much more! As a fan of the Great British Bake Off, these are some of the things you see the bakers bake on the show that you have never tasted before thus, Bread Society does help a whole lot by introducing these to Singapore!

All the bread there are baked on the premise thus ensuring it’s freshness. The bakery is also a cafe and some of the things they serve definitely caught my eye such as the  Salted Caramel Lava Cake and All Day Brunch. I definitely see myself visiting the place far more often in the future and perhaps even working there for a short stint just to gain some skills!

구이가 Guiga Korean BBQ Restaurant @ Tanjong Pagar Road

Banchan 반찬 (clockwise from top)

yeongeun jorim | nakji bokkeum | deodeok muchim | sigeumchi namul | gamja saelleodeu| baechu kimchi| kimchi oisobagi

It looked like a scene straight out of a movie: rainwater surging towards us from all directions and, horror of all horrors, we had nowhere to seek refuge.

Caught in an unexpected flash flood, all we wanted was something hot. Something right off the grill. Something… Oh, something like a good ol’ Korean barbecue. We found ourselves stuck along the five foot way of the row of shophouses, trapped between rising water levels along the main road and what other than a homey and inviting looking Korean barbecue restaurant. Of course, we couldn’t resist.

Guiga Korean BBQ Restaurant is the new kid on the block among the row of Korean eateries you find along Tanjong Pagar Road, and we find, being new is not always a bad thing.

We ordered the chicken in soy sauce and were served an array of banchan to kick start the meal.

There is always much anticipation as raw meat hits a hot grill. The sizzle of the meat; the smoky aroma that wafts into your consciousness; the sight of the meat turning from pink to a dark caramel colour, with slightly charred bits at the tips; the heat rising off the grill; the explosion of flavours and textures as you bite into a lettuce-wrapped bite-sized piece. This moment of gratification, knowing that the short wait for the food to cook (certainly felt like an eternity to us) and the sacrifice made to smell exactly like what we just ate was all worth it.

The chicken was tender and well seasoned with soy sauce. Every bite delivered a combination of the juiciness of the meat with a hint of the charred grilled flavour. Eaten dipped in a little tangy and savoury dipping sauce, wrapped in a lettuce leaf, every lettuce wrap we had was a parcel of crunchy, meaty textures. As is the Korean custom, the helpful service staff laid out the meat on the grill for us although we could have very much done it on our own. This gesture is what good service is about, since customers definitely wouldn’t want their hands dirtied with raw food.

Guiga is definitely worth a visit for some good quality Korean barbecue in a homey, family business setting. If you are a night owl looking for food, this place is open till 6 am! What we appreciated most was that the banchan were considered as ‘service’ and we did not have to pay for them as a result. Of course, you could always say that the cost was accounted for in the price of the food, but it always helps to think of the cup as half full, no?

Cooking With Dad : Chicken Puff Pie recipe

Normally when I end up cooking with my dad, we tend to have no recipes. My dad’s style of cooking is mainly instinctive so pretty much everything new he cooks is based on his experience and experimentation. Likewise, I do the same. We got it from my granddad. He figured out how to prepare roti prata and fish curry simply by tasting it. He would even come up with his own versions of japanese seaweed chicken (yes the ones you spend $0.30 on in school) after he saw how much my brother and I loved toasting them as sides for lunch.

And so this post is just me preparing chicken puff pie with my dad. Just plain o’ pictures and a tribute to family. Dad did the chicken filling. I did the pastry. Tag-team.

I used two basic pastry recipes for the pie. One for the base and rough puff pastry for the top.

INGREDIENTS : 
(for rough puff pastry)
150 g of plain flour
150 g of butter
pinch of salt
splash of water* (i normally just use just about 20 ml of water?)

(for tart base)
160 g of plain flour
90 g of butter
pinch of salt
2 tbsp of water*

*you normally want just enough water to get it into a dough

RECIPE : 
MIX everything in a food processor
BAKE for 200C for 15 mins for tart shell and 25 mins for puff pastry
USE eggwash for puff pastry’s top.

It’s great to cook together with your friends and family so please do. There are more tag-team/collab recipes coming up so stay tuned!

Bananareo Icecream recipe

Yes it’s banana + oreo icecream!

It’s really simple. The texture isn’t quite like icecream but it does have a smooth consistency. Some people told me to add milk in order to get that icecream-like texture so I will experience with my next batch of bananas.

Maybe this time, I will do a nutella version.

INGREDIENTS: 
4-5 frozen bananas
6 oreo cookies

RECIPE : 
CUT the bananas
BLEND bananas in food processor
ADD mashed cookies
FREEZE again for at least a day
SERVE