Strolling the Streets

I only had one full day in Singapore and I reserved it to shop with my sis. I'm not on a big shopping spree but I just love walking, window shopping, eating, more walking and also 'cuci mata'


Walking is good, it burns calories. LOL !


We started the day early, and left the home for China Embassy where sis had to pick up her visa. Then we took a slow walk to Orchard Rd, stopping by at St Regis for toilet break. . . .


and I had to take a pic of the plush toilets :


I could take more pics but I really dun wanna be like so 'ulu', taking pics of 6 star hotel toilets ;)



Then I spotted this Gingerbread Village, all edible, pretty hor ?

Entrance to Orchard. A lot has changed since my last trip. A few new malls cropped up, Plaza Singapura, ION, Vivo City and couple more I forgot the name.

ION Orchard. Just open recently. Read as "eye-on-orchard"

I only browse the household and children section of the departmental stores like Tang, Isetan and Robinsons. What to do, 'aunty' already, due to lack of time, I zoom in to the 2 sections I love best. I like household departments, there's always so much to see and so many cooking demos on, new woks, etc .. and many food samplings too. :)

My friend suggested I try Food Republic at Atria, one of the better food courts and better seating space than Takashimaya.

I love Food Republic at Pavilion KL and I can't wait to try my favourite Thye Hong fried prawn noodle from it's main oulet.. at Food Republic Atria :

Stall opens at 11am and by 11.05am, a long queue has formed.

Verdict : Not any better than KL Pavilion's except they add fried pork lard to the noodle. I

personally prefer Pavilions.

We also had Yong Tau Food (really good, yummy and not oily at all) and fried prawn noodle

We also went back to Food Republic for dinner and had beef noodle and Cantonese Noodle. Very nice too, full of 'wok hei'. In fact, Singapor is a real foodie place, it's easy to get good food at reasonable price and clean surroundings. I must admit, their food court are run by local Singaporeans unlike our Bolehland, walking into any food court now, you'd think you're in Myanmar ? Bangladesh ? Medan ? haih..

Above pic was taken from a rooftop of another new mall, can't remember the name tho but it was next to 313 Somerset. Nice view from the top.

There's even a roof garden built at the top. Picture don't do justice here but it's really high up at the top, something like 17 levels ? Gosh! I've been to so many malls, I forgot the name and details !

The night scene at Orchard

A little bit of here and there.. all very Christmassy feel.

These sexy reindeers were parading in front of Ngee Ann City. I tot it was cute.

We walked till our legs dropped. By the time, we got home, it was almost 10pm and sis had to drag out her OSIM and OTO food massager to pamper our hard laboured legs...

Pu Tien @ Parkway Parade

Once I got myself rested and settled down, it's time to hit the streets. I had an 'appointment' to meet my very good friend, Sei Yee, at Tg Pagar MRT. Our initial plan was to join a Christmas party somewhere in River Valley but she cancelled it and brought me to her beautiful home instead.

Gosh, I could kick myself for forgetting to take pics of her beautiful home and beautiful princesses. Her new home is very modern, contemporary and chic. She's my very dear friend from school days and I'm really happy for what she has achieved today.

She, being a real dear friend, took me to 'Pu Tien' for dinner. She knows I'm of Hinghwa descent and I was elated to finally try Hinghwa food in a comfortable and modern ambience too (there's a couple of hinghwa restaurants in KL but all are very run down and slowly dying off)

I would certainly vote for Putien !


Ahhh.... food from my ancestral land.. Putien..




So, what did we have ????



Deep fried pig trotters with pepper. They made this meaty and masculine dish look so dainty. Each piece of trotter is about the size of 2in x 4 in. So unlike the trotters I have at KL, one big chunk and gotta cut and stretch the meat while being careful not to hit those seated next to you with your elbows ! :)

Fried lala, hinghwa style. True to the style of hinghwa cooking, the clams are exactly the size as described by hubs of his grandma's cooking. Somehow, I could not get this exact size of lalas @ KL. Either bigger and meatier, or much tinier.



Shredded meat with sesame mantou. Another dainty dish and the mantou is delicious. Does not give you the jai feeling at all.

Best of the lot. Hing hwa lor meen. Fine wheat noodles in starchy gravy with choy sum, mushroom, lala, prawn and scallops. A little bit of every ingredient without one overpowering the other. I told hubs I had this dish and he was so 'jealous'. Now, my task is to replicate this dish for him at home. SY encouraged me to try cooking this dish at home too. Thanks for having faith in me and I hope I don't disappoint you !

A closer look at the lor meen.

Hinghwa fried bihun. Another very nice dish but this one, I dare not take the challenge to cook. Not easy to fry such thin vermicelli on wok without getting most of it stuck and burnt on the wok. Another 'a little bit of everything' dish, garnished with toasted seaweed. I noticed there's some cut up taufupoks too. Maybe I can attempt a fried bihun with a 'semua tarok' ingredients. LOL !

I came back to KL and told my Papa about this place, he can't remember much on Hinghwa cooking but I'm sure he'd like to savour his ancestral food too. Hope there'll be a chance to bring him to 'Putien' restaurant one day, as Putien, his motherland is way too far away.

I really thank my friend SY and her husband to let me experience Pu Tien food. SY, if you reading this, use yr entrepreneurial skills to convince the founder to invest with you to set up outlets in KL. You have me and hubs as your regular die hard regular patrons !!!

I Can't Believe It's BUTTER !

Guess what's her favourite snack ?

Everytime I bake, she'll dig her fingers to the batter and lick .. and I scream coz the batter has raw eggs and flour. I recently found out she actually likes butter. Just like hubs when he was young.

Behind my back, while I was busy baking cupcakes, two of them 'curi makan' my butter. Hubs took a slice, shared with her, she ate it clean and asked for more..


Caught in the act...


Yummy, yummy !


Chern hao wei !! (pssst... ignore her vampire look nailjob !)

Hubs cuts thick slices and both of them will be savouring away. Not me, I find it 'jelak'.

My favourite butter for baking and glazing my cakes. Hubs and Amber's favourite for snacking too. Golden Churn, pure Australian Butter. SCS comes on par and no other butter comes near.

Golden Churn retails around RM8-9 at our supermarkets. Look out for offers. Jusco is offering them at RM5.49 from 10 -13 Dec. I just grabbed 10 blocks for RM5.99 y'day and I'm gonna get some more today to B&K.

P/S B&K is 'BUY and KEEP', a term my sis use for stuff we buy that we don't really need but cannot resist the offer and may come of use in future. LOL !!!

Do you B&K too ?

'Me' Time Getaway

I made a short trip to Singapore over last weekend. To visit my sis and her family, to visit Orchard Road and mainly, just to 'get away'. Been wanting to do it since June and Amber came up with HFMD and then this and that came about and my trip was postponed. I needed to go before the maid leaves and hence last weekend was a good time.

I took Air Asia, price is reasonably cheap, ard RM270 return (cheaper if I had booked earlier). I don't like taking buses. Sitting alone on a 5-6 hour ride.. ahh... I can't take the boredom. Taking a fllight doesn't save me much time but at least there's more to do, transit, walk, wait, board.. etc.

I took KLIA Transit Express to Sentral (will blog abt it later) and reached LCCT very early, had my breakfast at Old Town ( I hate OTWC but at LCCT, lack of choices and I don't want to pay premium for McD, I think OTWC is the best choice there, in fact, food quality and service is much better than the few KL outlets I've been to)

My si mut lai char.. Wuah... It's just so nice.. me, myself, my lai char.. waiting to board the plane.


I ordered a toast too since I'll be arriving past lunch time... Egg's nicely done, the way I like it. Sprinkle pepper and soya sauce.. yumzz !!!



Ehh... got to watch over my bag while I took photos and eat. I travelled light, only one hand carry above, my handbag and a wine bag with rolled up wall stickers for sis. 80% of the stuff in the bag is for sis (bakwa, winter boots, winter jacket and I stuffed in 2 guavas for BIL)

Boarded plane, landed on Terminal 1 Changi, transfer to Terminal 2, take MRT to Clementi (xfer at Tanah Merah) and took a short taxi ride to sis' house.

Hmmmm..... it's been a long long time I did this, travel on my own, walking at very fast pace (VERY verry fast).... without Amber or hubs in tow.. I do feel very good. Very liberating. I can vaguely remember the last time I travelled as a single.. long ago, ard 9 yrs ? Well, I must say, I didn't miss them as much as I thought I will because I'll be back home in 2.5days and they are in good hands. ;)

I'd love to bring Amber with me but the thought of her throwing tantrums at Orchard Road, complaining of tired feet, itchy buttocks etc... I'd better leave her home. Maybe next year, I'll bring her along.

So, after a couple of hours on flight & train, I'm at my sis home.

Then she came home from the cake shop where she works with this :


Multi layered crepes. Yummzzz.. Never seen such at KL but one of her patrons said a shop in Malacca has this specially made layer crepes.

Then I unpacked the stuff for sis :

Thin Heong bakwa from Jalan Imbi. Previously Wing Heong but they lost the lawsuit. Anybody knows the story, apparently both Wing Heong at Jalan Imbi were battling over the use of 'Wing Heong'. How the are related, I don't know. .but I do know, I'm going for Thin Heong now. The best bakwa in town.

After unpacking, I'm ready to hit the streets of Singapore......

Panmeen with a twist - Lala Pan Meen

Not much cooking photo on this one, I forgot all about snapping photos until lunch was served.

The recipe is pretty simple. Follow the usual pan meen basics : flour, an egg, pinch of salt, a little oil and water, knead until firm consistency, keep some flour for dusting. I used the pasta maker to roll the dough and roll it to strips.

My little assistant at work :


Working, very hard ....


Then for soup base, I cooked the following :

1kg tiny baby lala (baby clams), soaked in salt water and rinsed till water runs clear
shreds of ginger
1 chicken breast
chives (kuchai or kow choy)
*fishballs - optional

Make stock with the following :
fry ginger in little oil, add in lala, fry till lala starts starts 'open'
add 1.5 liter of water
salt to taste
Turn off fire when stock boils up. Do not overboil lalas otherwise they'll turn out chewy

Remove lala shells and discard. Separate meat and set aside.
Add chicken breast to soup base and boil in slow fire till cooked. Shred meat

Boil pan meen (fresh wheat flour noodles) till al dente in a separate wok with kuchai, drain
Scoop in soup, add de-shelled lala, chicken shreds and drizzle with onion oil.


Like it ? See the tiny clams ?

A simple n nourishing noodle. Lala makes very tasty soup base, you don't even need ikan bilis or chicken bones for your soup base. My only gripe is getting lala when I feel like eating this dish. Lala is seasonal and it really depends on tides and fisherman's moods.. If you chance upon tinny lalas, do try out this dish. Yumz to the max. My favourite among all types of pan meens.

The Char Siu Challenge

WARNING - Another porky post.

This incident of making char siu is just accidental. I was shopping at the butchers and the lady kept asking me if I needed anything else.. Wong Tai.. oi mat yeah ar ? mai lei kor pei yuk lar.. hou leang ah.. bla bla bla.. and so, I came back with few strips of meat for char siu.

Hubs was surprised. I last made char siu about 6 years ago and it was a flop. Not sweet, not savoury, more like just a piece of meat cooked in soya sauce.

Then, there was no food blogging. I depended only on recipes from word of mouth, a little bit from the wantan mee lady who makes her own char siu and a little bit from aunts and friends and a little bit of common sense (sorry but not much cooking sense then). I bought so many tubs of malt sugar to try the recipe until I got fed up and threw it all away.

Now, there's 'food blogging' and wonders of the internet. I can browse more than 20 char siu recipes in a run. Fantastic isn't it ?

Anyway, hubs wasn't too enthusiastic when I told him I'm gonna make char siu. He's a bit skeptical and said he'd prefer roast pork instead but I think I've had enough with siew yuk. I've gathered all information I could from the net and pieced together what I thought was right and in my mind, I mantra-ed Meng Kee char siu form Tengkat Tong Shin. Think positive, it'll happen, I told myself. HA HA HA !!!

And so, here goes, you judge for yourself if you want to give this a try :

Ask the pork seller for best cut of meat for char siu. They know best, trust me, forgive the fattiness please, you can always opt not to bite the fat parts but you do need it to give your char siu the princely look. I also added some red cochineal coloring. A little bit of approved food coloring won't harm and I believe char siu should be slightly red (like I said, think Meng Kee char siu, , think hard.. and believe mine will turn out almost like theirs.. )

Rinse and pat meat really dry ( I used kitchen towels). I mean really really dry, you really need to sauce to be absorbed to the meat. Marinate with (amount 'agak agak' only, I didn't expect it to turn out blog worthy and I didn't bother noting it down :

4 heap tbsp sugar
2tbsp tomato ketchup
half cube red fermented bean curd (nam yue) and 1 tbsp of it's sauce
2pips of garlic, chopped finely
1/2 tsp fish sauce
2tbsp soya sauce
2tbsp abalone sauce
1tbsp chinese rose wine (mui kwai loe)

marinate overnight

Bake in foil covered tin for 1hour at 200c



Then open and drizzle with malt sugar on the fats.. grill at 200c

Turn fat side up to grill and get the 'charred' look. During the grill function, the sauce will sizzle and thicken.

Grill for about 20-30 mins or until meat looks charred like this :

And when you cut the meat, it should look like this :

So how ? You think this is a pass ?

Some recipes calls for pan frying the char siu but I think that'll make the meat tough. I personally would prefer a slow meltdown on the fats to render a savoury and melt in the mouth char siu. I may try this recipe using the pressure cooker for a faster and simpler cooking time. If it's good and blog worthy, I'll post it up. That's my December project !

Cleaning Your Oven

While we were doing up our house, I had the freedom of choosing my kitchen layout, equipments and everything else from size to voltage. Hubs left it entirely to me. That doesn't mean I am on a spending spree, I made my choices on the following order : 1)practicality, 2) user friendly 3) value buy.

I was excited to finally choose my own oven. I consulted the kitchen appliance supplier on functionality vs budget and finally settled on a Bosch oven and so I was a happy baker starting from my chinese new year cookies, then experimenting, roast pork, roast chicken, cakes and what nots ...

Someone asked me the other day how I clean my oven. "Maid lor" I replied. Then I remembered the few times 'maid' forgot to clean the oven ,leaving pans of dripped oil overnight and sometimes over 2 or 3 days. Sei Mou ? Anyway, I have instructed her to wipe the oven only and spefically do not use any abrasives to clean it.

So, last Sunday, after a long weekend, I was in the 'mood' (this kinda mood doesn't come by very frequent!), I sat down to clean my oven, removing piece by piece.

**One word of advise if you plan to get a built in oven, get one which you can remove the doors and has pyrolictic or self cleaning. Self cleaning parts, the stains will be removed over time by continuos baking over high heat, dirt will turn to ashes.

Ok, getting started on my 'big messy project' , I got this ready :


Cosway cream cleanser (for stains on racks), multi purpose cleaner and vinegar solution for oven floor and enamel coatings.


Soak the side rails and racks in hot soapy water.. stain removed easily. If this doesn't work, rub a little non abrasive cream cleanser (I use Cosway's)

Use a damp cloth and soap water for oven doors.

Then comes the tricky part, the enamel coatings. I tried hot soapy water and vinegar solutions but still could not remove the stains.

I ordered hubs to get this for me from Ace Hardware :

RM22.99 per canister

Spray it on, leave for couple of hours and wipe off.. easy peasy.

From this :

To this :

There's still a few specks of stain there, I could remove all of it if I wanted to , just a few more spray and wipes.

And the mother of all stains. No soap or vinegar could do the trick :

On the oven floor, after rounds and rounds of wiping with hot soapy water, vinegar, no improvements. I suspect this stain was from one of the roast, not properly wiped off before another long bake and the stain happily set home in my oven !

Then just after 3 or 4 spray-wait-wipe with my oven cleaner, it's gone, abracadabra, like this :

Just a tiny speckle left. Just a few more spray-wait-wipes, it'll be gone.

So, don't worry about cleaning the oven. It's actually quite easy. Just go ahead, utilize it, bake, roast and grill with it !