The Queen decided to kick my ass in the kitchen

I tell you, if I was a rude b&stard, I would have kicked up a big fuss. Well actually, even if I AM one, I would still have my tail tightly tucked behind me. The mother decided to cook up a storm today, a simple dish that has not been served for the longest time and indeed, I have missed this dish so much that every mouthful of it was a feeling to savour. It's a simple Chinese Javanese Dish called: Nasi Bakmoi or Nasi Tim (pure Javanese style)

- mince prawn / chicken or pork (we used turkey + pork this time)
- deep fry tofu and dice
- add sliced hot chilli to elevate the Indonesian flavour
- stew them together into a light stew making sure to add KECAP MANIS (Indonesian Sweet Sauce)
(this is a family dish and Queen has not agreed for me to elaborate too much on this dish)

Serving can be done as above or with crackers. The image above included pork rinds, or you can use deep fried chicken intestines. If you have deep fried shallots, use them and KA-POW!!!! Hope you guys enjoy this as close as it can get. :)

Why waste good X'mas food?!

I hate wasting food, well as in making something out of nothing. As the official chef of the family, I thought of not wasting food and always re-using leftovers as much as I can. In this instant was the good ol' turkey and shoulder ham. When my 3rd brother said he was buying a small bird.... I assumed it would be a runt of a turkey and maybe, it would be SMALL? I guess, they feed turkeys with steroids?! Same goes for the porkie... they should have a new definition - KAMPONG TURKEY and KAMPONG BABI.

Having said that, this dish today is just a simple one, but easily made gloriously without shame for it to look like some pile of a party goer's puke. Let's call it: X'mas Lefties Meatloaf

- shred 300g of turkey and 300g of shoulder ham, MINCE them all!! Work that wrist baby!!
- add 4 table spoons of BBQ sauce
- add 2 table spoons of mustard (I used Dijon, if you don't like the taste, whack in some Honey Mustard instead)
- add 2 table spoons of Olive oil
- 5 slices of white bread .... SHRED!!
- 2 slices of RAISIN bread also to be shreded
- 1 egg
- 200g of cheese (Mozza if you like for it to be sexy, Cheddar if you like it to be tasty, Blue if you like it to be classy)
- all the above.... MIXING TIME!!!!! Just mish and mash them into a disgusting pile of mush. (Initially, it looks the pits, but I tell you..... YUMMYLICIOUS 'lorrrrr'!!)
- Olivize a baking pan for easy removal of meatloaf later and place the mushy mixture into the pan
- Place this into an oven and cover the top with Alu foil and cook mush for 45 mins only removing the alu foil on the last 10 mins (brush melted butter on top surface in the final 10 mins)
- I had some left over turkey sauce and I decided to make it more de-lish: just pour the whole bowl and (I think its about 1 personal chinese soup bowl portion), add half a bowl of water and add 2 table spoons of KECAP MANIS and just continue to blend together in a mid-heat pan. When the colour is all consistent, reduce the heat to lowest and let it slowly cook (this is how you make reductions) This will make the sauce strong and thick and can be diluted later by adding more water.

Serving is simple - you can dress it up as I did above or you can have it Full Monty (relax! its only food!) Make sure that you drizzle some Parma Cheese and dashes of Chilli Flake Olive Oil to elevate the taste after lacing the meatloaf with the sauce that we made with the leftover turkey sauce.

Christmas.... PROS - family, good food, drinks, merry making, jolly good time / CONS - I am now 4 kg heavier!? DANGGGG!!!!!!

On the 1st day of X'mas

Singapore is just Singapore, you don't get very much of the X'mas feel. Somehow this year is the same as last year and the year before and so on so forth except for when in England. It's either age or drinking is no more my cuppa. But anyway, the Eve was great with family and X'mas day dinner was at Ming Xiang Resto @ Amoy Street. Fantastic Hokkien Mee!!! Earlier on for lunch however, we had a simple leftover meal.

After X'mas fellowship in the morning, we decided to get back home and continue to kill the leftovers that we have. We still like have a ton of Turkey, Pork Shoulder and some Knuckles left and so, looking around for bread and taco shells to complete the meal. We did however, NOT have vegs..... simple, a quick walk and a bag of mixed salad leaves were purchased.

Knuckle Taco with Greens

- Clean the greens and shred them
- Shred the knuckle meat

Serving: for the meat, you can either pre-mix them together with the BBQ sauce or if not, just lay the sauce above the meat. Taco shells in hand, place the greens into the shells, whack a healthy, X'mas portion of meat unto the greens and dress it with mustard, BBQ sauce, chilli or whatever you want to make it yummy to your palette.

X'mas Dinner on White

Perhaps, some of you don't the Mexicana side of 'gastronomic' delights. How about a simple ALL IN 1 sandwich meal that will still have you thinking of X'mas dinner again.

- Cut all the meat that you can find from last night and reheat
- Prepare some greens for that healthy touch (yeah and the pork fat will just suddenly disappear huh? I wish)
- Get some sourkraut for the topping as well
- Toast some bread on high for 2 mins each side

Serving: bread is first and with a yummy spread of Mayo, lay it on the white bread! Next will be the meats and the veg and in no particular order. If you like sourkraut, add them on as well. Lastly, the rich goodness of BBQ sauce, mustard and salad cream to be added as well. If you have cranberry sauce, a sexy helping of it will just create a celebration of taste in the mouth with every bite that you take into the sandwich.

So why throw away perfectly good food?? Waste not..... want not. HO Ho ho!!!!!

X'mas Eve Dinner

I had a good dinner tonight with the family. We said our prayers and decided that the food were waiting for too long and not wanting the glorious spread of mouth watering goodies to wait for us, we tucked in without care for glam... well we were at home anyway. Here's our spread:

    Turkey from Pauliner @ Marina

    Pork Knuckles, ditto location

    Beer Battered Shoulder Ham, ditto location

    Cheese Hotdogs, ditto location

    Italian Salad, self-made

    Honey Glazed Ribs, Cold Storage

    Log Cake complimentary of the Mrs' supplier


    Home Made Sangria (Sherry direct from Spain YAYYY)

For all readers: MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL. MAY ALL YOUR PRAYERS COME TRUE AND YOUR FAMILY REMAIN HEALTHY.

All I want for X'mas.....

Well not really, but I had to buy one of these - glass pan lid (universal). I have been taken the piss by the spitters of oil that lands boiling hot when I do fried dishes so this lid will help my woes. Where did I buy it? 105 Eunos Avenue 3. It's a good place to shop for kitchen equipment. It's huge enough to house all the product ranging from soup bags to HUGE ASS stainless steel soup pans even I could fit in and I am not small. No pictures allowed sorry.

After this shopping spree (if I may call it that) I had lunch with a friend at the nearby Canteen. It's an Industrial area and thus the food is cheap as chips. I could not take a good picture of the SGD 3.30 meal that came with sexy, soft, moist and tongue waggling SOY SAUCE PORK RIBS.... like WOW. I added some side servings of Long Beans and also 'CHAP CHAI' (suppossedly a Nonya ethnicity dish) And the way it's served is simple, like a buffet style where the shop owner will fill your plate with rice and you help yourself to the serving. I took a big rib and I thought it will be costly, but SGD3.30 is a breathe! Below is the map and the canteen is indicated with a RED STAR. The name of the stall is errrr.... I forgot, but if you do go there, it's right at the end of the canteen, near the drink stall.

With the tummy filled, it's time for coffee. And where else but yet boringly enough for me.... VIVO CITY. Hey, I love that mall. It's fantastic! Easy parking (most of the time), good view (some of the office ladies are hot), ample smoking area in restos, car park can be partially redeemed, cinema etc etc.

5 of me Uni mates joined me and as tis' the season to be LAZY... fa la la la ..... la la lazyyyyy...... we all met up at 3pm and had coffee / tea at Modesto's. Fantastic place for hanging out and with the view of the upcoming Resorts World Casino, it reminded us of our lazy days in Uni back in Leicester, England. Bitching about some of our mates, we were just thinking back of our times and laughing our bullocks away. All these made us naturally hungry (laughing is a good fat burning activity, so I was told) and decided to order the Nachos to share. It was a huge helping but I did 1 before and at a fraction of the cost at Modestos, mine is better?! :)

'Having-fun' dish: Nachos with fresh Salsa

- Dice tomatoes until they are fine

- In an Olivized pan, on high heat, start to add garlic and then start to cook the tomatoes and add half a bottle of tomato ketchup (Heinz just gives off a better taste) Continue cooking until the diced tomatoes get softer and tattered. Add some herbs like dried basil and parsley and a pinch of salt for better taste.

- Cut olives and dice them

- Nachos, I would recommend DORITOS Lime Nachos. Adds the zing in every bite

Serving these is like breeze! Rip out a bag of nachos and place them in a huge plate. Lace them with the home made salsa and sprinkle the olives on top. Squeeze salad cream as well over the nachos and lastly, beautify the dish with crunchy bacon bits and mozza cheese. (some may want to add Jalapenos) With the infusion of all the ingredients..... OLE!!!!!!!

4 hours later, we all had to leave our seperate ways... (what? only women bitch? Hell NOoooo) It's X'mas Eve tomorrow. I hope that you all have a good family time and fantastic dinner. I'm having a family dinner too and maybe, if time permits, I'll make a sandwich that has rocked my world before.

A DAY in the life of Indo Leisure Chef

Had some errands to do today so I had to hop unto the 1st flight out and take the last flight back to SG. I am as we speak in the Priority Lounge typing this.... Air Asia should give me a frequent flyer card!! I am bringing in 50 Stuffed Chicken HENIS Buns. FANTASTIC!!! They are as soft as Bread Talk but only slightly cheaper. Costing about SGD 0.80 each, they make good corporate gifts. They come in an assortment of minced beef, minced chicken, chocolate and cheese.

For lunch, I had the sexy GADO GADO and AYAM PANGGANG of Ayam Presto. Fantastic and simply melts in your mouth taste of the chicken and boiled veg salad that has been drizzled by the natural goodness of flavoured peanut sauce. WOW!!

They are not difficult to prepare actually. Here's how to prepare the GADO GADO.

- steam veg like long beans / bean sprouts / leafy veg (like kai lan leaves)

- deep fry a clump of tofu and cut them to cubes (tofu takes a short time to cook, so on high heat for 2 minutes on each side of the tofu will be sufficient)

- peanut sauce is prepared with blitzing a handful of pre-fried peanuts. Add 2 table spoons of olive oil / 1 teaspoon of salt / 1 table spoon of sugar. Add water whilst blitzing - about half a cup so as not to make the sauce overly watery

Serving is very simple with placing the steamed veg unto a plate, add diced cucumber and lace them with the peanut sauce. For the finishing touch, add a fully boiled egg and cut it to half. Sprinkle crushed prawn crackers if you have them! Adds crunch to the dish.

This is a very simple and relatively healthy dish and it's the true Indonesian dish. Hope you folks enjoy this!

Ok, time to have a puff or 2 before boarding the plane. Wait..... did they just call my name on the public annoucement?! HELLO..... what do you mean by EARLY BOARDING!?!?!? I'm lateeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

Cooking like many things, comes from the heart

A friend on Facebook posted that his lovely wife bought him an IPhone. I for one don't like IPhones..... long story. But we were commenting away when a comment stated:

So now you have to love your wife MORE.

Really? More gifts = more love? I beg to differ. A joke it may be, but it just shows the mentality which I feel is not right. My Mrs does not love me more when I get her designer bags or watches, she loves me ALOT as is!

So I think, cooking is the same... it should be from the heart. A simple meal can mean many emotions as well and does not necessarily mean that more imgredients = more love. A simple dish comes to mind: Korean Instant Noodles with Oodles of Goodies.

- Mushrooms cut to strips

- Shoulder Bacon cut to strips

- I don't need to teach you folks how to cook instant noodles now do I? But what you may want to add, is that extra chilli power and a touch of corn statch mixture that will add volumes to the soup

- Egg is plopped into the pot during cooking and left for 1 minute to allow for it to be cooked but yet have a soft yolk. The pan lid is required to maintain convection heat flow for the egg to cook in short time

Serving is simple with care not to break the yolk and just loosely place the bacon and shrooms in a tidy format. Last but not least, add the dried flakes given with the noodles and let the diner infuse them with the soup.

'Cooking is a gift from the heart, you can tell when the food is cooked with love and not asking back for anything in return. Cooking is an art of the heart.' ~ ILC

Shall we March'e' down to Vivo?

Happy Birthday Old git! It's my 3rd brother and he is 44 this year! Wahahha.... OLD MAN!!!! Hehehe.... But anyway, God Bless you and hope that all your hard work pays off and finally you will help me clinch a deal. (you tight bast*rd)

Since me mumm just came off the Star Virgo, we decided that for everyone's convenience, Vivo City again for lunch but this time, at Marche. I guess it was just my luck that I had one of the worst service encounters from Marche. She (her name is Ana) was manning the entrance till and boy was she CRAP! Luckily, her colleague, Dayang was fantastic. 1 rotten apple does not spoil the whole bunch is correct. Having built such an angry appetite, I single handly killed the following dishes..... (the mrs helped and so did me mumm and oh yeah, so did the 3 teenaged nephews) These dishes I think I can replicate.. will try soon enough since the oven is now working!

It's been a long time that I had so much food stuffed in me mouth, or was it only Saturday? Any-hoo, this dinner was meant to tie us over till AVATAR ends, with the start at 5pm, actual screening time will be at 520pm and understand that it's a journey of a movie long lasting 2hr 45min a filled tummy will not growl during the movie. It was AWESOME..... AWESOME... AWESOME. The plot is rather OK, but the CGI was like WOAH........ it could have done better with the addition of more human interaction with the CGI.... but that's me. AWESOME.

I was only wishing that the OST would have included......

I'm blue

Da ba dee da ba di x7

I'm blue

Da ba dee da ba di x7

6 days to X'mas

Hey all..... I have nothing to provide for today, but I guess I have a bit of food to share with you, however, not my cooking (feeling lazy today)

We arrived in Ngee Ann City after having to queue for car park like FOREVER!?!? Actually, only 20 minutes...... it was already 130pm, so I guess, it's only right that our tummies were GROWLING?! Well, after walking around for another 30 minutes.... we decided to dine at the Jap Resto at B2? I can't remember the name ( I think its AJITEI) but the tummy can sure remember the good serving of Salmon Skin and Tofu 'something'.

After that comforting lunch, we had to 'swim' on legs away from the other shoppers, Taka as usual is like a melting pot of shoppers!? As we were almost out of the food area, I went past this Bakery. It's called PECK. It's a Milano Bakery as it cliams. I diverted myself into the bakery and looked at the good spread of breads available. And get this guys, the costs were not at all over the top like some other bakeries that I have been to. They had some mini Calzones of different contents but did not buy and now I am regretting!!! Well, to stop my tummy from revolting, I promised the gastric juices that I will be back! Easy guysss....

Let's take a dash to Wisma shall we? Wait, we wanted to dash but were made to CRAWL...... PEOPLE!!!! Too many of us there but with 6 days before X'mas, I guess it's only natural. Let's wait till CNY (Chinese New Year) shall we? Mind you, 13th Feb 2010 is CNY!!! Any poor sod who will forget to get that Valentines Day gift EVEN THOUGH some may have extra ' Ang Pao' (red packets) money, TOUGH!

This picture shows the definetion SONG BIRDS...... sans the real birds. Wisma was filled as well and we had a short tour of Isetan. FULL! But the good thing was that many of the brands were on discount! 50% for Armani / Paul Smith / DKNY but we were not in the apparel shopping mode so just filled our eyes with visual treats of designer wear. Guess what?! We were hungry again. Food Republic.... HERE WE COME!!! Minced Meat Mee Pok and Hokkien Mee were stuffed in our faces and I do mean STUFFED! Oh well, they were good so it was worth stuffing the mouth with them.

We were on our way home and the as we were about the leave, I noticed a new watch shop. DING DING DING! I LOVE watches.... LOVE!! So when we were inside the shop, 1 watch caught my eyes.... this Revue watch was nice and simple. I wanted to buy a pair but they don't have the smaller diameter. Apologies to the Mrs yah? :) The salesperson was good as well and he was not pushy. Good job for MASTERPIECE @ 3rd floor of Wisma. Not good - my wallet is now thinner. Well it's X'mas right?

Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin smokes all day.....

She feels like Chicken tonight!!!

If I were given a dollar everytime the Mrs says this, I will be a rich rich man..... but alas, I don't get that dollar, so no wealth beyond my wildest dreams. She just had a good interview today and I hope that she gets that position and when she does, we can get good chocolate cakes... for now, I'll just try to remember the taste that I know so well of that cake..... hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Remember when I made the sandwich yesterday? Well, a good mate saw it posted on Facebook and 20 minutes later, he was at my doorstep with a hot plastic packet of 'Kopi Siu Dai' in exchange to be the 1st out of the family to try that..... and I guess the image below tells a thousand words.... :)

Last night, after having fed the family with the oversized sandwich, I was told to go meet a friend who is THE DADDY of anything computing. Having known him from Uni days in Leicester, England, he was the gent who got me started on DIABLO! Now, I am just wishing that Blizzard will release Diablo3 in Jan 2010 rather than Dec 2010....... ARGGGGGhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. :(

Anyway, this comp whiz told me a thing or two about writing this blog and hopefully, my not-so-comp inclined brain can catch up with his words of wisdom IN EXCHANGE for a Fillet-O-Fish Meal @ East Coast Macs. Here are his BlogS..... (and I have only 1...crap)

http://traxtoratore.blogspot.com/

http://sglnx.com/

At 11pm we parted ways with him picking up his lovely Mrs from her D&D event whilst I went back home to.... sleep. My Mrs had to entertain her friend who is visiting from Australia.... ahhhh.... the WHOLE KING BED to myself... although at about 445am, the Mrs was sleeping diagonally and eating into MY 1/3 of the bed!!!

Anyway, Chicken Wings. Let's dwell on this fowl topic shall we ( FOWL and not FOUL.... geddit? geddit?! WAHAHA I kill me....... *crickets chirping* funny guys....funny) The Mrs is feling rather PECKISH (punt soooo intended) so she is thinking of having a Wings and Beer night! Woo hoo! Except, I don't really drink beer.... the odd Kilkennys here and there. She mentioned that she will buy from Scruffy Murphy's in Marina area BUT was delayed due to the mobile X'mas Deco that had a barrage of Police escorts.

I did tell the Mrs to buy from Pasir Panjang Food Village thou, at $1 a wing, it's cheap and cheerful? I reckon she will buy from both locales... we'll see. But for now, let's talk about Old El Paso Tex Mex Chix Wingx.

- Chix Wingx(s) maybe about 500g of it mixed into a regular satchet of Old El Paso Tex Mex dressing and of course to add more flavours like pinch of sugar, pinch of salt, tablespoon of soy sauce and garlic powder. Mix them well... very well to allow the infusion of the mix into the chix wingx. Let it rest for 2 hours.

- Frying the wings can be done via deep fry or pan fry. When deep frying, please be careful and not let the heat be too much else, when you plop in the wings..... KA BOOM.... (Mythbusters on Nat Geo) So I rather pan fry them babies. Make sure that you toss these suckers over alot to prevent them from being overdone. When they are slightly dark brown as image, they are done. (the soy sauce and the satchet mix will not give off that GOLDEN brown look but more dark-ish brown)

Serving, what can I say? Let me tell you the steps:

1) Pick up wing
2) Blow to cool
3) Dip into Chilli Sauce / Ketchup / Mayo
4) Open mouth
5) Sink them incisours into the meat
6) Chew
7) Swallow
8) Repeat Step 1

ARIBAH ARIBAH ANDELEH!!!!!!!!!!! Now, where is the Mrs with the alleged wings?!

The age old battle of Man VS Food

I have 2 people who I can think of..... Dom and Mel. These 2 mates of mine can almost kill about anything that stands in thier way between their mouths. The former at a medium frame of 1.74m tall and weighing in at about 80kgs... he's quite normal built. But his insidious appetite for food..... WOW. The latter, now he is a GIANT, just like those American Oak Trees that towers over others things but not that old. Built to a prime 1.86m tall and thundering around in his 130kgs frame. His stomach is a force to reckon with.

I saw this on TV and I was thinking that it's not that difficult. Well, the timing to make it is a pain since starting almost 90 minutes ago!? :( But it was worth the wait. This is a 5 inch towering sandwich that will fill your tummy at the 1st bite. This, my friends, I shall call: WHO'S YOUR DADDY

- Home cut fries that were stripped at rough cuts and boiled for 15 minutes and then deep fried for about 5-7 minutes. Dressed with Italian 5 herbs and salt dressing.

- Cut the cabbage into strips and add some red onions if you have or prefer. Pour 3 tables spoons of Italian dressing and let the veg do some ROCK AND ROLL!!!! (what I mean is to mix them properly and thoroughly)

- 4 slices of honey ham to be cooked in the pan and after 2 minutes, lay cheese unto them and you will know when to remove when the cheese starts to melt

- Sunny side up eggs on high in an oiled pan, for 2 mins and cover with lid for about 1 minute and the egg will be done

Serving is a breeze with simple layering of each portion one of top of another as the image above.

Last but not least, EVERYBODY SQUEEZEEEEEEEEEEEE.....

I hope that you guys will like this..... now, to attempt a bite in a mouth. *RPFehhmmmphhg mmyhhhppff

Reads: Really Enjoying Myself

Dinner at Shutters Amara Sanctuary Sentosa

The lovely people at Amara, more than made up for what they did wrong on my wedding dinner night when they gave me mumm one of the BEST dining expereinces we ever had in any establishment. Just check out the spread!

Duck that melts in your mouth.
Wild Shroom Soup that made you feel like you were in France.
Beef Cheek Steak which I cannot find words to describe except that I thought I died and went to Beef Cheek heaven.

Sorry about the image of the beef, when I saw it, I was just......... shivering with delight?!

Anyway, the mumm had a great B-day and thanks to all the help from Kelvin and his Banquet Crew. http://www.amarasanctuary.com/

Wan Sui, Wan Sui, Wan Wan Sui........

At 66 years old I don't think me mumm looks any older than 45. I swear, the stuff she takes to maintain herself these years must have cost a house. Vanity..... I guess that's the most expensive maintainance 'tool'? Cars can cost an arm and a leg whilst in repair, but VANITY? Sheesh..... anyway, it's her day today, so I guess she basically can do what she wants to. (wait.... she is the mother.... of cos she CAN.... at ANY time for that matter) We are going to Shutters Resto @ Amara Sanctuary tonight.... hope they will do what they said they will!

Harbour Front is getting crowded, the human traffic of construction workers, white collar workers and that odd few Sentosa heading Bikini babes..... (excuse me, what do you mean UNCLE?!?) Hmmpff..... I came here to meet a good friend and we were discussing about work and also what he will be doing to his new flat and when it will be done. I just can't wait!!! :) He said I could cook in his new kitchen.... CHRISTIANING!!!! Only this time, I'm doing it with the pots and pans!

The phone went off: yes mum..... ok..... can..... now? Ok....... fine....... a while more..... hello? hello? (uurrmm does not equate to BYE)

Ahhh.... finally, she wants to eat my sandwich... hehe..... welcome to the BREAD side of life. Actually she called me to buy lunch for her.... but I was lazy... heh..... I know that we still have food at home, so why buy when I can create: Mango Chutney Sandwich with Ham + Bacon

- Bread, simple innit? Just toast them!

- Simple way to cook this. Cut shrooms into small bits or strips / cut mangoes into dices, not too much / cut red onions into long strips. Lay the bacon and ham into an oven tray and then plop all the mangoes, shrooms, onions above the meats. Drizzle olive oil and add a knob of butter. Cook for 10 minutes on high heat. At the 5 minute mark, toss and turn the mixture in the oven and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.

Serving: 1 of the bread to be bathed in mayo (that's how I like it) and place greens on it. Lay the shrooms first and then the meats then the shrooms again and meat as the top most layer. In between, get the chutney in there and then finally the cheese (I used Easy Cheese again. God Bless Kraft)

No candles to be stuck on the sandwich but I think me mumm loved it, I never seen her finish a plate of sandwich or anything for that matter in 30 seconds! :) Bless you mumm...... eat slowly and again... HAPPY BIRTHDAY! A look from her and I gulped..... her right hand reaching out to me and palm facing up. A smile and these words exit her mouth: So, where is my Ang Pao?

Announcing the arrival of....

9am in the morning and I was on the way to the airport to pick the family up. AGAIN I am back at the airport... getting bored of this building. Anyway, it did not take long before the family were visible and waiting for their luggage. They brought Harum Manis Mangoes! SWEET.... Chitter chattering away in the car and before we knew it, we were home. Quickly unpacking the luggages and off we were again. Next stop: Jurong Point.

The nephews like Jurong Point due to the long bus ride that they will normally take had they gone out themselves, but since Empress Dowager aka Mega was with us, 15 minutes later and we were in JP. Not as bad I thought it would be, no lunch time crowd? The family wanted to have the Mee Pok at EAT, it's just outside of JP and facing the MRT Station. I was also craving for some Mee Pok. Did I say that there was no crowd...well, my eyes lied. EAT was packed. Sigh... we dragged our disppointed feet to B1 and went to LAI LAI instead. Honestly, 'SUP SUP SOI LA' ......

With our unsatisfied tummies in tow, we decided to go home as the flight here was a horrendous 7am departure from Jakarta. But I think I pity myself more. 9am to be ready?! [FYI... I had to get up at 845am to brush my teeth and do my hair and take a dump and all the other stuff a guy has to do to look good. Oh yeah, I wore a cap today actually. :) ]

Since we did not have noodles, I decided to make noodles for dinner: Beef Rib Soup Noodles (fusion style)

- Beef Short Ribs were marinated for 2 hours in KECAP MANIS... it's an Indo sweet sauce that we all know so well but do not get any other brand except for Cap Bango (read: chap bung-oh) also soy sauce

- 2 hours later, transfer all the dressing and the ribs into a soup pot and fill it with about 750ml of water. Add a table spoon of chopped garlic and cook in high heat for 30 mins. After that, reduce to simmer for the next 90 minutes. After this the meat will be soft enough that the slightest movement will seperate the bones from the meat.... (all I had to do was walk into the kitchen and I guess the vibration caused the bones to automatically slide away from the meat -_- )

- Remove the ribs and place them into an oven and on high heat for 5 minutes, cook them babies!! Add the Golden Mushrooms into the soup and add some Cherry Tomatoes into the oven as well. This will add that natural sweetness and a tinge of fruity sourness.

- Cook the noodles at this stage and whilst cooking the noodles, in the same pot, boil the eggs as well. When the noodles are done, the eggs will be too!

Serving style is simple with the noodles going in first, followed by the soup and then the sliced meat and half-cut eggs, the grilled cherry tomatoes on the side. I also added a small satchet of Japanese Seaweed rice topping (meant for rice normally, but I am not normal... so) To top it off, add a dash of Paprika to the dish for that tango in the mouth and a squeeze of Jap Sweet Sauce on the Beef Strips will make this dish a warm welcome to a rainy evening. So I made enough for the family.... wait... where's MY bowl?! OIIIiiiiiii?!?!?!?

Advice for the young at heart

Monday.. oh Monday.... tis a beautiful today! I thank God everyday for giving me 3 of the most beautiful things: Me Mumm, Me Mrs, My Today! I got up to the sun and a good cup of milk... (what?! It's for calcium in the body) I had to go the bank to make some transactions and I decided to head to Holland Village. Nice cuppa and a nice eye-candy :)

A call came thru and it was one of my good mates, he had just about completed his house reno and asked me if I was free to help him run thru some defects (being in the interior fit-out industry before, it was second nature to me). I decided to take a quick drive back and gave him one of my Eames replicas with orginal Italian Grade A leather.. KA CHING!

As we were looking around for defects, he took a picture of me..... BENDING OVER!?!? (easy guys.....) I gave him a pose WITH THE FINGER and now it's immortalized in Facebook and here. We spent about 90 minutes there and discussed on what the defects were and took a smoke break or two to enjoy the peace and quiet of his new development overlooking the Pandan Reservoir. At the corner of my eye, I noticed the gas run BBQ pit by the pool! AWESOME! I will try cooking there some day..... just not today. We left at about 130pm and headed for Jalan Merah Saga, his office, for Da Paolo's but not meant to be as they are closed on Mondays, so Sarpino's will be a good substitute.

Do you guys know Amos? He is this photographic genuis and I happen to be his friend! :) (can you see the glee?!?!) http://www.amoswongphoto.com/ Well, Dom, who was the sick pervert who took that pic of me bum are colleagues. Amos having taken good photos of products and food was naturally my target for questions on how good food images need to be taken. He showed me some websites that were amazing! Envy is the word when I saw those websites as I compared them to mine. Makes this blog pathetic. But for you readers out there, thanks for taking time to read this. The pizza came and down went the bites of Country Chicken as well as Honey Wings. A can of Coke later.... B U R PPPPP. (that was Dom by the way)

Whilst browing thru other websites, I saw this Shroom Linguine dish and DING DING DING..... I prepared a Shroom dish before: Mini Portobellos with Spicy Corned Beef and Bell Peppers

- Not all Portos are huge, they sell small ones in Giant and I used them to make bite sized starters. Clean the shrooms and make sure all the grit are removed. Tissue dry them and let them rest

- Cut Red Bell Peppers into small cubes and cook them in an 'olivized' pan. Just use mid heat and cook them till they are soft

- whip out a can of Corned Beef, any brand will do, as we will be adding more flavours into it. In the same pan where the Bell Peppers are, toss them in and add half of the can filled with water to loosen the processed meat. For some readers who hates corned beef, used minced beef but just make sure that it becomes stew-like. As corned beef is already full of salt, add pepper and a tinge of sugar or honey. 1 tablespoon whould be enough. I also added some diced Chilli Padi for that fire in the tongue.

- Put the Portos gills up and grill them in the oven at mid-high heat for about 10 mins, then add the corned beef mixture to the gill-side. Grill them again for another 5 minutes on high this time. Done.

Serving will be a piece of cake with direct placement of the Portos on a plate and scooping what the Portos have sweat in the oven, use that liquid to drizzle unto the Portos.... FINITO! Add herbs if preferred. A simple dish in easy to eat bite sizes, I hope you'll enjoy this as much as my brother who then, ate almost half the plate.