Thursday, April 9, 2009 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Really Nice Food

Easter is approaching soon, so I thot I would make some Easter Eggs from scratch for family members… Turned out ok I suppose!! Hope you have Happy Easter!

Saturday, January 24, 2009 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Really Nice Food

With CNY around the corner, my family members here – namely Mum and Gavin are busy tidying and shifting stuff around the house and garage…

So I thought I’d do my part by washing the dishes and cooking lunch!! Yip, you heard me right – cook!!

Actually, so that you are also aware, I cooked from scratch last night for me and Gav! Nothing spectacular – just did a sort of wok stir-fry dish which included leeks, carrots, potatoes, onions and frankfurters… added a bit of vegetarian oyster sauce and served it over boiled rice! Voila!!!! I thought it tasted ok, although it did look a bit mushy!!!

Well, after rummaging through what ingredients we had at home – I thought it would be good to cook special fried rice… Well, my own verison of SFR!

Ingredients included:
Peas
Sweetcorn
Diced onions
Diced carrots
Chopped pork frankfurters
Chopped spring onions
Diced garlic
Freshly boiled rice

Basically, to simplify the procedure – I wok fried the garlic and onions until golden brown, then chucked in all the ingredients except the rice until nearly cooked. After that, mixed in the boiled rice, added salt and soya sauce. In addition, the last step was to add some salad cream!! Yip, you heard me, salad cream! Believe it or not – it tastes quite good… I suppose, cos no egg was used?!?! Oh well, at least Gav loves it!!!

I must admit, the major problem I did and do have is estimating the portions!!! I was supposed to be cooking for three… But, my final portions could feed much more than that! It completely filled the whole wok!! Well, atleast that’s lunch and dinner sorted!!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Really Nice Food

Today, the “cousins” met up for Christmas Italian Brunch Buffet at Prego Restaurant at Raffles The Plaza.

I must say it’s the best Italian I’ve tried so far in Singapore!! Totally authentic and lots of variety!! The high ceilings and warm maple wood panels with open kitchens on site made the vibe and ambience so warmly and welcoming… The service was also very good – I don’t think I have any complaints about this place!!!

Although it was a tad expensive for brunch buffet – but it’s def. worth a try…. $51 per person – the menu consists of a cold antipasti section, a variety of hot dishes, live cooking, a carving station, pizza counter, dessert counter, free flow of soft drinks and smoothies….

After enjoying the food – it was time for the traditional lucky dip exchange of pressies!!!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing Dividends board game in Pacific Coffee at the Red Dot Design Museum… Had fun and am totally full today!

Saturday, December 13, 2008 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Really Nice Food

A friend recently recommended Dallas Chicken & Ribs cos he thought it was really delicious and cheap. It’s a UK based halal fast food chain and it’s opened its first outlet in Singapore! To be honest, I haven’t really heard of it in UK cos I’m not a fan of fried chicken, but then again, most of the outlets are based in the London area – which is hardly close by!

Anyways, my Huppy’s boys and some of their girlies decided to give it a try! The outlet is located at 12 Upper Cross Street (near Chinatown MRT station). It’s a small location but I suppose it’s sufficient…

The menu wasn’t vast and there were many items unavailable… Maybe because it’s still new? Who knows!? Someone asked me a qn – if they are halal – then why do they call themselves Dallas Chicken & Ribs? My first instinct was to think pork ribs (I assume, so did the person who asked me!!??) – but then, I checked and in UK it would have been halal lamb or beef ribs!!! However, there were no ribs on the menu here!

According to Hupps, the chicken drumsticks were succulent and juicy – however, the chicken breast was a tad dry…. I had a fillet fish burger and it was OK… nothing to rave on about… But I must say – I lurrrrved the onion rings though!!! I’m not a fan of very potato-ey chips, cos I lurve the air-filled McD french sort of fries… but these chips were pleasantly nice… I suppose, what was good was that no salt was added to the chips – so you could add your own salt and make it as salty or less salty as you want! My overall summary: so-so….

After our meal – it was home-time for our regular board game sessions… This time, it was a new game called Dividends. Summary of the game is to make your fortune on the volatile stock market through buying stocks, to earning dividend payouts or selling it for profits (capital gains). The aim is to make the most money from each stock purchase (maximizing return on investment) while taking into consideration the effects of supply and demand on stock prices (market economics)….. Guess who won?!?!? Me ofcos!!! hehe… If only in real life I was that good eh! Oh well!

Sunday, December 7, 2008 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Really Nice Food

Today is the day where we show off our culinary skills… Yeah whatever!!! Our house is the venue, main dish being the turkey… Looks fab – right?!?!?

However, due to non-popular demand by the elder relatives and a different palate – we had to improvise and incorporate the chinese palate into the western theme… Hence, the westo-chino christmas turkey lunch!!!

On our list of foods included the chino section: fish balls (the hot favourites!!! Everyone seemed to be stuffing their faces with these things – c’mon, you have them on a normal day!!!), fried chicken wings, mee siam, curry puffs and misc snacks from Old Chang Kee, chilli sauce, agar agar, durian cmas log. The westo section: turkey, pork knuckle, ham roll, gravy, roast potatoes, salad, assorted sarnies, cup cakes, choco cmas log, ice-cream, crisps, apple pie.

Had a fab time preparing the turkey here though!! *On a side note: I’m not a great fan of turkey in general cos it’s too dry (at home in the UK, our main Cmas meat is leg of lamb, with maybe a small roll of turkey for tradition’s sake!)…* Going back to the preparation of turkey in singa – the turkey here is bought already cooked and then all you have to do is pick it up and reheat it!! Similarly, same with the pork knuckle and ham roll…. However, we were supplied with the stuffing – which came in a sausage shape… so we thought why not stuff the turkey whilst it was getting reheated!! It was like – how much stuffing could you squeeze into the poor turkey’s insides and on top of that, it was how many people could take part!!! Fun though!!!

Entertainment included mah jong, film watching and wii. At the end of the evening, we had a lot of food remaining but the DnA household managed to pack goodie bags for relatives.. so most of it was “gone”!!!!

Sunday, October 19, 2008 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Really Nice Food

Today, DnA and some relatives decided to for lunch and try out this new Dim Sum place in Novena Square 2, called Old Hong Kong Kitchen. It was highly recommended by one of Allan’s work colleagues – whom used to live in HK… Apparently, the cooking style was similar to that found in HK! Really?!??! This I must try!

For those whom know me well – my favourites are sushi… and dim sum!!! It’s a shame cos I’m preggers that I can’t have sushi at the moment cos there are many fab restaurants here…. However, as for traditional dim sum – until now, I was yet to find a good dim sum place…. So when I tried this place and although not 100% HK style – some dishes were close enough!!! Anyways, it’s the best I’ve tried so far in Singapore! Beats “Yum Cha Restaurant” any day!!! (People say this restaurant was fab – but when DnA tried it, no way hosay!!!

Some of my favs:
-The cheung fun was quite good cos the flour roll was smooth, thin and glides in your mouth…. I love it when that happens!
-The egg tart was traditionally like HK style (flaky pastry and soft egg centre – note, not the Portuguese type) – but the best I’ve tried so far is at Bugis street stall!!!
-Steamed sponge cake – I don’t normally eat this – but it was rather nice!
-Steamed chicken claw with black bean sauce – worth trying
-Rose tea – nice nice!!!

Summary:
Overall, a very pleasant experience cos it’s the closest to HK dim sum so far… Will definitely go again.. Maybe next time, try their hor fun/noodle dishes or try a different outlet?

Sunday, September 7, 2008 by Daisy in Baby, Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Holiday, Really Nice Food

After lounging around at home until midday, mum and I ventured out in the heat with our umbrellas and bottles of water… We were off to get glasses done for other family members, as they gave us their prescription…. They trust our judgement of styles of frames…. Ummm!!!

Everyone around us, walked really fast. Whereas us, we walked REAL slow… I can’t walk too quickly these days – correction, I like to walk really slow and not rush these days!!! Got to our destination at Prince Edward and to do the glasses with transition lenses were super-duper cheap!!!

We passed my mum’s local “Cha chaan teng” – (basically a local chinese tea restaurant serving up local affordable foods. Nice… esp the “chee cheung-fun” and congee… So far canes Uk and singa!!!

Then it was off to visit Gran and have dinner with her and the aunts… I was glad to see that Gran’s health had improved after a visit to the doctors – becos before Mum came to visit me, Gran had not felt well and Mum had to take her to see Doc. When our little baby will be born, she will be a Great-Gran!!! Happy Days!