Indo Leisure Chef

Been a long time yes?

2010-07-12T13:22:00.000+08:00

Alrite folks? How's it been? I hope all is good in your land there.

I decided to upload some new photos of me food.... sigh, it has been a while yes? Well I hope that you'll enjoy the images and the thought of eating them. :)

Ok, first up, Crabs.... this is the Crab in Padang Sauce, its a spicy combi of taste that will leave a tender puzzled linger in your mouth, its slightly sour / sweet / spicy at the same time.

I also made some regular steam fish, pop it into the steamer but not before smuthering with shrooms / ginger / garlic / oyster sauce / chilli padi. Tin foil the dead aquatic animal and steam it for 30 mins, depending on how powerful your steamer is.... but when you hear that DING... you know that the finned creature is now ready to be consumed...... not under the sea..... IN THE TUMMY!

You know how when we go have DIM SUM.... its always NOT ENOUGH? Especially the steamed pork ribs? I mean, ribs, to me its the essence of life, ok, maybe so its money / car / watches / women..... but ribs... I get a real high thinking of ribs.... So! I thought, let's try this puppy and it was not hard at all!! I mean, the Mrs taught me how to do this and DANG! It's easy as 1-2-3.... huge portion and delish tasting dish to boot. And the best deal is that I can eat as much ribs as I want to!!! WOOOOOOOOO

This next dish is a fave of the Mrs... guys, c'mon, MARMITE?!?! VEG EXTRACT? Please... YULK! But hang on there! 2 teaspoons of Marmite + 2 teaspoons of good honey + 1 sachet of caster sugar + teaspoon of soy sauce.... mix it together and you have yourself a blistering sauce that is wicked. Taste test with the pinky (not the one that you dig your nose with please) and I am sure the Marmite taste is masked away very well? :)
Deep fry chicken parts first and make sure that they are de-skinned and have all the fat removed. You may want to pan fry them instead but deep fry is better. In high heat for 3 mins will be more than enough (after the oil is in the boil yes?) So just dap some oil into the frying pan and a teaspoon of chopped garlic and also some onions, 30 sec later.... plonk them fowl parts into the frying pan and start to infuse the garlic flavour with the chix. 1 minute later, you want to add the Marmite sauce into the frying pan and another 1 minute of mixing pan, make sure to reduce heat to 50% and cover the dish for 1 minute. You know what, prepare your tongue to be wow-ed by the glorious taste of cooked Marmite sauce... well actually its more honey and sugar to mask the damn, I mean ACQUIRED taste.

How can, in a typical Chinese meal, we not have the greens of life? Vegs. It was a generous helping of spinach and wolfberries. How shall i describe the taste? It's sweetness was natural, the firmness of the spinach was undestroyed by the control of fire and the overall lightness of the meal was a WeightWatcher's delight (I would know, cos I am trying to loose weight). As tasty as it is, all you need to do is to pour BOILING HOT water unto the veg for 30 sec (it's enough to render the veg - cooked to be honest) and then remove and let it rest. In a pan, you want oil and garlic. Till the pan is hot, add the veg into the pan, constantly moving them stalks and leaves........ 1-2 minutes later, you add the dried wolfberries (which had to be soaked in water 1st please!!) and with the watery content of the bowl, drip every single sweet drop of the mixture into the pan and continue to mix them together.
At this moment, you will be most likely to be thinking of your other half, just in an apron and dripping this sweet fruit suace unto themselves ... HOLD UP! Sorry all, that was what went inside MY mind...... back to cooking - in the pan, mixed well and all, cover the pan with a lid for 30 secs in high heat and sweet sensation of leaping veges..... its done!

Anyway guys, it's been sweel today writing about food again and as bad as my instructions are, I hope that they help you in a way? Part of cooking is the knowing how to cook it and the trial and error part soon becomes the past when you know now the how-to and the not-to. Enjoy all and till I cook again, hopefully in the very near month.

Practice for Tuesday

2010-02-07T22:33:00.000+08:00

OK, so stingray is best eaten with sambal .... well not really. Today I decided to cook stingray but leans more to the French way of cooking.... with BUTTER! :)

Anyway, today's cooking is for my practice as some mates would like to take professional photos of me food and I was sooooo happy!! Come Tuesday, I would be able to make this even better.

How simple is this dish to make:
- clean the stingray
- rub some salt on both sides of stingray
- sprinkle some herbs as well
- put a slice of butter on top of the stingray
- lace some olive oil as well
- dilute some honey and 2 tablespoons to be drizzled
- whack into a grill oven at 200 deg for 30 minutes and 250 deg for another 10 minutes for that crackle

Buttered Stingray with Honey and Herbs

In a shallow serving plate, lay the stingray in the center and just drip all the juices into the plate and you are done.

A glass of white wine accompanied this dish and on a cooling evening night was total bliss. Ahh.... it's a good Sunday evening :)

Eggs again and again and again....

2010-02-06T13:48:00.001+08:00

I've got nothing much to say today. Still at home and just lazing around watching TV and will be swimming very soon.... need the sun to make me healthy although all my mates said I am now very tanned. Well rather be tanned than fair as a guy... to me that is!

Before going for the swim thou, the tummy asked for a small meal. I decided to pop my head in the fridge again and what else do I have but eggs?! I had 3 eggs yesterday, and the day before!! Really!? Is slimming this tasteless!? So I decided to party up the egg dish. I also found some leftover Old Chang Kee fried fish fillets.

Parma Cheese Egg Pouch

All you need to do is to mix and steam the following:
- 2 eggs beaten in an oiled bowl
- 1 tablespoon of parma cheese
- 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of full cream milk
- 2 tablespoons of water
- mix all together and put in a steamer for 10 minutes (cover the bowl in the steamer)

When done, use a teaspoon and pour that amount into the bowl and encricle the circumference of the egg for easy removal. In a shallow bowl, after carefully loosening the eggs, overturn it and place it unto the bowl. As a garnish, a splash of ground chilli, dried chilli, parsley, pepper. If it sounds tourblesome, trust me, it's not! :) All these care is required so that the eggy center does not break and for you to enjoy at the last minute.... it's worth it! You may want to company this with some toast.

OK! The sun is back!!! time to cook myself. I can't find my babyoil for tanning thou... now, do I have enough olive oil....... yup... babi guling in human form = ME!

This is the wife's comfort food

2010-02-05T19:16:00.001+08:00

Firstly, a big THANK YOU for all of you who come and visit my blog often enough to help me attain 500 hits!! Thank you very much for your support. :)

My Mrs is a simple person who likes simple things in life and that goes the same for her taste for food.
Tired and stressed out from work, she said she wanted something light and comforting. Well she likes kang kong and she also likes Szechaun soup and these are what I happen to have in the fridge :)

Sambal Belachan Kang Kong

This is really a simple dish:
- cut the kang kong into smaller strips ( we had 2 clusters)
- take ready made sambal belachan in the count of 2 tablespoons into a bowl
- add half a cup of water into the bowl
- plonk in a teaspoon of honey
- a tablespoon of soy sauce or more based on your preference
- broil the kang kong in boiling water for 1 minute
- in an oiled frying pan, add a teaspoon of chopped garlic
- add the kang kong now and cover the pan for 2 minutes
- stir the mixture together and at this time, add the sambal mixture and add cut chilli padi
- cover the pan again for another minute or so and done!

Home-made Szechuan Soup

I made this with what I had also and it's quite simple:
- 500ml of water into a pan
- 8 table spoons of dark vinegar (depends on your ability for sourness....I suck....geddit? ;p)
- 1 teaspoon of Tobasco
- 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
- 1 beaten egg
- small bits of dried shrimps (put in bowl and add boiling water and leave for 3 minutes, it'll be done)
- wasabi seaweed bits
- tablespoon of corn flour (pre-mixed with water)

What you can add to make the soup better:
= strips of salted veg
= strips of carrots
= dried scallops
= chives

To make this soup, all you need to do is to whack all of thge ingerdients into the pot. Just leave the addition of the corn flour and beaten egg to the last minute! Simple yes?! :)

Into the mouth went down the soup and also the kang kong.... took me about 1 hour to make all but 1 minutes to finish all..... wow.... she is a whale shark in a body of an ikan bilis (asian anchovy). But yet she still looks like a chopstick! Damn.... I'm still on my diet!!

protein no carbs... just protein...

2010-02-03T10:25:00.000+08:00

Honestly.... i actually hate to do the daily run, swim and sauna. it's painful!!! but thats slimming i guess?
Still, last weekend, we decided to eat something light and cardless! so we decided on seafood again. No fats but i am sure my cholesterol has spiked up faster than petrol prices here in singapore.

Anyway.. here was the spread that we had and they are all either grilled / steamed / boiled / lightly stir fried.

Egg panckes with shrooms and ham drizzled with teriyaki sauce.

Broccs with diced prawns and xo sauce and 3 eggs laced freckled with salted fish

Squid and shrooms melody with black pepper

Grilled sambal stingray

All simple dishes and cheap too. Our muscle head friend was there to lend his tummy and all the food was killed within 30 minutes. No carbs slogan stayed true and we did not feel hungry even by dinner time. But truth be told, i still have my carbs... once a week. Sigh, food is cheap to eat but damn!! do i hate the slimming process!!! arrggghhhhhhhhh

Under the Seaaaaaaa..........

2010-01-21T20:25:00.000+08:00

Hey Folks..... a quick update on what went down the tummy just now.
The Mrs naturally jumped for joy and whilst I was blasting Bad Romance Remix... she came skipping up the stairs and looked at the food like little girl in a Barbie shop.

Gastromically speaking....... I did GOOD today... :)

Garlic + Ginger with Milk Gravy Greens

Drunk + Spicy Glass Prawns

Salt + Pepper Fried Squid

Grilled Sambal (Chilli) Crayfish

Ok guys.... I guess this is it for tonight. The Mrs just burped and DAMNNNN did it smell foul!? -_-

you want SEAFOOD? I'll GIVE you SEAFOOD!!!

2010-01-21T14:12:00.001+08:00

Well maybe not in that an angry a tone but you get the drift... :)

The Mrs was hopping around mad with request of yet another seafood meal. My burnt pocket smelling its ashes, I give in. If you know my wife, she has a face that the word 'NO' cannot be given to. So unwillingly, willingly I agreed to cook that seafood dinner for her tonight.

Prawns in XO again she said..... she IS an alcoholic actually... WHAHAH but hey... what can I say? She is my wife afterall... I just need to hide all the alcohol in the house, but her nose, trained to sniff out the slightest even of alcohol, will be able to find out where the stash is hidden. So I'm not even going to try.

Uncooked... yes, these are just the prep pictures, but I know they will turn out great! Well, I hope they do or else, I have deproved. Next is Crayfish with Sambal sauce. These puppies will be grilled and then served with thier own juices. Simple enough preping - mixture of sambal + honey + soy sauce + garlic + a bit of water and there your have the dressing, simply laced all over the crayfish and let the marinate get into them buggers and grill..... you'll be crayfish heaven.

Squid, I love squid... LOVE. I decided to strip these suckers down and no more pigments on them but just the white, fair sexy meat of the tentacled wonder. I cut them to size and diamond cut them. Give this a slight dash of oil and let them rest. Later, they will be dipped into a batter of egg + flour + water + dash of sugar. Quick fried in DAMN HOT OIL.... and then removed and cooked again with salt + pepper over high heat with a LITTLE.. and I do mean LITTLE bit of oil and toss these suckers until the smell of burnt salt + pepper fills the air.

This rice dish is a simple dish. The tenticles of the squid, I sliced them and added them into a rice cooker with garlic, teaspoon of the following - soy sauce and chinese black vinegar. A drop of sesame oil, 1 sliced chilli padi and add a table spoon of white wine. Let the rice cook on its own and when you hear the 'click' of the rice cooker, you know it's done!

Sprinkle chilli flakes, dried chives and dried garlic bits. Serving? What serving? You see the spoon? Right, pick it up and open your mouth. There you go... now scoop the rice and shove the spoon into your mouth. Now, tell me..... you mentioned serving style? Not all is about serving it nicely, sometimes, it's all about enjoying what you have in front of you... :)

I'll post the cooked results of the above mentioned food. Well, I have tried the prawns before, but the other 2 dishes? Fingers crossed, they will turn out as per my normal standard.... EDIBLE!

Weekend as a freeloader...

2010-01-18T12:12:00.000+08:00

I can't help it, I admit, it does feel good to be a freeloader... :)

A freakin loaded mate asked us for Nonya Buffet and what can I say? NO?!? Of course I jumped on the offer... so did the Mrs and also another friend.... now he is a different story altogether.

Anyway, we had a good dinner at King Coperthorne Hotel and my goodness... what a dinner. The food there was great and the company was also enjoying. Chatting and laughing made us loose track of time but made our memories of school in UK immortal.

After the dinner we went to Sopranos. It's at 7 Portsdown Road. The pictures that I took here were during the afternoon but of course, we went after dinner. But the place is as relaxing in the afternoon as it is at night. We had thier house red which was smooth to the taste and as I prefer Medium bodied wine, this bottle was perfect. Get this... it's SGD 29 / bottle. WHAHAHA...... How can we not order it?!

Anyway, Sopranos has an awesome array of Pasta. Pages and pages of pasta (mind you... it's not like the crap from Pastamania). The different styles of cooking and types of pasta as well... lovely! Inspired, here is a pasta spegg dish that I made from before:

1 Squid 1 Portion Pasta

- Pasta is simple ya? Just make sur eto boil to al-dente
- Clean and cut a whole squid.. make sure you remove the beak and clean the ink sack properly (we are not cooking squid ink pasta today)
- Making the sauce by adding 5 tablespoons of the pasta water and add a teaspoon of pesto sauce
- Quick fry the squid in a little puddle of olive oil
- Add garlic and the the pesto mixture. Add parsley into it as well and a dash of pepper
- Add the al dante pasta to the mixture

Serving this dish is not rocket science and just add parmesan cheese and more parsley.

Did I tell you guys that the whole was FREE for me as it was me mates who paid for the dinner and the drinks!? :) If only every weekend was like this.... perfect and I'll save tonnes!

A friendly stranger came knocking at 1230 AM!!!??

2010-01-13T18:15:00.001+08:00

10:38PM -

James: dude you at home?
Eric: yup...
James: I come now.
Eric: Ok

11:45PM -

Eric: where the hell are you man?
James: I am leaving now from home actually.
Eric: wah lau!!

12:25AM -

James: dude, where to make that U-turn ah?
Eric: after the traffic light when you get down from the viaduct.
James: you have food or not ah?
Eric: what you want?
James: anything also can, I haven't eaten the whole day....
Eric: my problem?
James: ........
Eric: I cook something fast with what I have.
James: ok ok thanks.... hehehe
Eric: (due to adult nature and coarse language that I had used, I shall refrain from typing what I said)

The above dialogue says it all right? A d!ck of friend wanted to come over and I had to wait for freaking 2 hours!? Sheesh..... Anyway, how can I disappoint? I did offer to cook him something nice for his b-day 3 days earlier anyway..... But what do I have in the fridge?! Hmmm.... let's see:

- Pasta
- Parmesan Cheese
- Cheese Hot Dogs
- BBQ corn from last night

I was thinking - Skinny freaks like you can take carbo at night and nothing will happen......

Pasta with what-I-have-in-fridge

- Pasta to be made al dante
- I sliced the cheese hot dog and put them into the steamer for 7 minutes and they are ready
- Same goes for the BBQ corn which I steamed as well
- Sauce to be made after the pasta is done: 5 table spoons of the pasta liquid. teaspoon of olive oil. Garlic + cut parsley + dried chilli flakes make for the starting of the making for the sauce. In high heat, heat the pan and olivize it. Add the garlic + parsley + chilli flakes. Lift the pan off the heat so as to not overcook the initial ingredients. Add half a cup of FULL CREAM MILK! (I mean.... LIVE life!! :) Plus it's not me eating at close to 1am ANYWAY!) Add the 5 table spoons of the pasta liquid. Bring the mixture to a boil, Add the Parmesan cheese the last and lower the heat to medium. It should then become milky and slightly sticky. At this time, add the sliced hot dogs and cook for a bit before adding the pasta and cook in low heat.

Serving can't be anymore easier!! Just place all unto a plate and done! Corn on the side and the sliced hot dogs at a side too or if you want, to be sprawled all over the plate. Dashes of parsley / chilli flakes / parmesan cheese......

Ok, I asumed he was near since he asked me about the damn U-turn. Stupid $%^&* I am sleepy!!! DINGGGG DOOONNGGGGG........ freakin c*nt! Me mumm's sleeping you shit on a stick!!!!!!

Colours..... bright colours

2010-01-12T16:47:00.001+08:00

I went to JB last week with some mates and it was fun..... dinner and such (no hanky panky - had an episode with the JB police). Whislt waiting for one of the guys to get his hair done, I had time to do what I liked amongst the 3 most common activity in Holiday Plaza - Hair cuit.. NO. Foot massage.. NO. Padi / Mani.. YES. It was 70 Ringgit about 29 SGD so I guess it's ok. Now my nails are bling bling from the polish... wow! Thinking about this, it reminded a nail bar owned by the Mrs' friend - Blk 407 ang mo kio ave 10, #01-757.

We went there before for the opening and as any nail bar, it was BRIGHT... very nice and colourful. This is not big but very homely and I would guess that the nail artists will know the customers from thier families to what thier dogs had eaten?! (gossip.. what else can they do when the nails are being done?)

This brings me to the dish which I made with bell peppers - colourful and tasty, healthy too! I am now on a low carb diet and have been walking for 90 minutes per day and swim about 300m. Let's hope that by the time I go to UK, I would have lost enough weight so as not to look like a puffed up humanoid wearing winter gear.

Tri-Pepper Salad

- cut and dice into small cubes, 3 different coloured bell peppers
- cut and dice also a cucumber
- boil some quail eggs
- cut squid into strips as well and boil them in salted water for 1 minute max in high heat
- make your own Vinaigrette dressing by mixing 3 table spoons of Olive oil + 2 table spoons of Balsamic Vinegar + sprinkles of salt + 1 teaspoon of Honey

Serving is simple, just put everything in a bowl and done! It's fast and easy to do, not much cooking needed. Make sure that the dressing is mixed well and the taste will be glorious. Mind you, this is also healthy! Last ingredient would be diced chilli padi as well. If you may not know, chilli is good as an anti-oxidant as well as good for generating higher metabolism. :)

Ok, it's raining now, so maybe I'll walk later.... the bed and the pitter patter of the rain is like a lullaby.....ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So not everyone likes what I cook

2010-01-07T11:27:00.000+08:00

It's hard to please everyone I guess? The signs were there.... how initially I was invited to cook, to how the direction changed to someone else. Well, everyone has different tastes right? But what I don't appreciate is the patronizing. And I CAN cook Chinese food too yah..... Maybe it's not even about the food?! It's about me? Oh well... slightly taken aback by the comment but I'm still cooking anyway... :)

Comfort food... I need comfort food!! I can think of one. I made this sometime back but not as comfort food, but if I were to make comfort food, this will be one of them. It's a simple dish that requires cheap ingredients - cabbage / corned beef / bread.

- Use a whole can of corned beef and add half a can of water into the beef in a pan. Cooking it for 5 minutes on high heat
- Clean some cannage leaves and put them into the pan after the beef is put to rest after cooking it for the past 5 minutes
- Lastly, tear off the bread pieces and soak them into the cooked beef
- Transfer the mixture into an oven pan and bake in high heat for 20 minutes
- After 20 minutes is up, lace cheese over the baking pan and let it rest for several minutes in the grill

Serving of this dish is as simple as can be. Just scoop out a portion and serve it. Of course, other garnishes can be added - herbs and chilli flakes will be great. Drizzle olive oil and add dried chopped garlic. Ummmmm mummy........

I just went to the British Border Agency yesterday... I hope that I can get it to go UK for my honeymoon!! :)

Chinese Food pig out with the mates

2010-01-04T15:57:00.000+08:00

I just realised that Chinese food is actually cheaper to cook, yes I know we have the shark fins and stuff BUT having bought food for chinese cooking over the weekend, to feed 8, I only spent 100 SGD to cook the dishes. Now I know why Chinese Resto owners have huge a$$ fat wallets..... damn it!

Anyway, the Mrs decided to cook and wow did she cook a storm! My goodness.... I have tasted good food, but DANG! The dishes that she cooked were DA BOMB!!!! In today's edition, I'll just be describing the taste of the food to you all...... WHAHAHHAHAH gLee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pissed Drunk Prawns

Man! Oh WOW! The prawns were swimming in a full glass of Camus XO! A touch of garlic, parsley, white wine and oil were added to add flavour. Quick cooking these suckers for 5 minutes were enough to deliver a sucker punch to the tongue with the explosion of liquor, garlic and original sweetness of the prawns! Sucking the heads of the prawns made the world seem like a better day for just that few sucks that we all made. Bliss in a small package..... sucking prawn scum from its head. What better way to spend the 2nd day of 2010?!

1000 Herbs Chicken

I don't know what the Mrs added in this dish but I felt 'STRONGER' if you get the drift.... the intensity of the herbs made the chicken thighs go mad with full bodied flavour. And the stock that derived from the steaming of this dish for 5 hours made it SPOT ON.... I think, I can only compare the softness of the meat to the tenderness of a certain anatomy of a woman's body. The dancing of wolfberries, ginger, cordyceps, garlic, dried chinese scallops and black fungus in the mouth would make any weak human jump with joy.

Japanese Shrimp Rice

Where do I begin? The saltiness of the japanese shrimps infused with the wasabi seaweed strips just makes this rice dish a simple joy to eat. The fluff of the rice was perfect and mated with half a cup of chicken stock as its cooking liquid added sheer delight to this oral pleasure. The picture perfect mating of greens and orange of the shrimps made this simple yet delicious rice dish a good reason for rice haters to put a huge serving into the mouth.

Minced Pork Stuff Squid

Beauty comes in many forms and in many ways. This beauty of a dish comes in the form of succulent squid stuffed till its about to pop with marinated minced pork mated with chopped chinese shrooms and chillis. The sauce that came with this dish was a relatively fussless sambal blachan mixture of 1 tablespoon and chicken stock with 6 cut chilli padi. Combined with garlic and 1 tablespoon of canola oil into the baking tray, this squid will squirt its black cloud no more if it were to taste itself. Squid don't come close to being a beautiful dish, but this one is!!

3 Eggs and A Veg

To put in one word of how delightful this dish taste - SEXY. Looking at the colours that are finely mixed; orange, yellow, brown, green and golden drops (fried mini anchovies), the sheer joy of stuffing one's mouth with this healthy combination of salted egg, chicken egg, century egg, veg and mini anchovies automatically makes you healthy! A quick douse of hot water unto the veg with a teaspoon of salt and leaving it to cook like that for 3 mins on the side w/o flame will get the veg tasting astonishingly perfect. In a pan of hot oil, fry the garlic and add some chicken stock / beef stock into it (1 cup) and then put in the beaten duck's eggs first. Constantly stiring for 1 minute and adding the chicken eggs next with the heat reduced to medium cook the concoction for another 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest at the side. Whilst you quickly put the veg into the serving bowl, make sure that the eggs are not over cooked so add 1/3 cup of water into the pan, after which you pour in the cooked eggs unto the veg and garnish it with century eggs and sprinkle the fried mini anchovies. Just like my Mrs, this is a DISH!

Ribeye Dices with Baby Oyster Shrooms

Who said that ribeyes must be used as steak only? This combination of teriyaki marinated beef with baby oyster shrooms almost made me hear MOO with its freshness. The beef was stir fried to perfection in canola oil and let to rest before the shrooms were quickly allowed to sweat and cook in its own canopy of juices. Gorgeously mixed together for another 3 minutes, this allowed the ribeye to maintain its plump and veluptious sensation with every bite between the teeth. Please sir.... can I have some MOOrrrreeee?

Squid Tenticles with Roe in Black Pepper Sauce

Shock, shock, horror, horror at the sight of tenticles (reminds you of a scene from 20,000 leagues under the sea) These suckers were quite big in my book (I know of some mates who are also suckers) and they are normally fried in batter. But what we made was different - we dicided to mate these with minced pork and black fungus and fry them in black pepper sauce. The roe sacs of the squid made the overall taste that little bit more interesting and different. Closing my eyes, I felt like I was taken unto Atlantis with the excellent mix of tenticles / squid roe / minced pork / black fungus. At this moment, I felt like I was AQUAMAN (not AH KUA - tranny)

Pork Pig Just Got Slimmer

No Chinese meal is complete if you do not have the fatiness and heart dangering addition of stewed black soy sauce pork bellies. The fats of this dish simply made the Heart Foundation go ballistic. Having cooked this poor slab of a victim for 5 full hours, the fats were gone (yeah right.... who am I kidding). Enjoy! Food is afterall meant for enjoying!? Slow cooked to sheer Planet Fitness horror, this dish is traditionally a helping tool in many Chinese households as winter food. In our case, we were just a bunch of fat arses that wanted to gain weight! Ehr-be-deh... Ehr-be-deh... Deh-ats all folks!!!

New Year Dinner with the mates

2010-01-02T18:04:00.001+08:00

Heyyyyy ALLLLLL!!! I hope you all had a great New Year and also Christmas yah! Well it's 2010 today and what better to spend the 2nd day with mates. The Mrs decided to do some Chinese cooking! Woooo HOOOOOO........ The menu are as follows:

1) Pork Belly in Stew
2) Stuffed Squid with Minced Pork
3) 3 Eggs Spinach
4) Squid Eggs with Minced Pork
5) Shrimp Rice
6) XO Glass Prawns

The images will follow suit tomorrow. For now, I'll just pass you a day I had with the nephews last week and an insperation to a dish which I made.

It was on an evening when me and the kids had a walk to West Coast Park and we went all the way to end of it. What I saw was something that I did not expect honestly. It's just nice to know that in this cosmopolitan country, simple sights like what I saw was a nice change.

I have never seen this in Singapore so maybe yes, I am a tad 'sua ku', meaning ignorant / naive / mountain goat / dumb-a$$ (in my understanding). With that refreshing view, I remembered of a fish dish that I have made before and so fellow foodies, read on to my: Pesto Fish draped with Cheese.

- I used Salmon for this. Pat the fish into Japanese Crumbs by dipping the fish with egg first. In an Olivized pan, fry the fish crumbs down for 1 minute and lift the other side and grill it on the un-crumbed side.
- Grill some bacon strips as well, 3 will be good for presentation (always use ODD numbers of food for presentation, it looks better)
- Tablespoon of Pesto Sauce and add 1 teaspoon of Olive oil to it and 1 table spoon of water. Add a drop of Honey and in a medium heat pan, cook to the boil.
- Lay a slice of Cheese above the crumbed part of the Salmon and in its own heat, the cheese will melt. Cover the grill pan with a lid and turn off the heat and remove from the stove to prevent from over cooking.

Serving is easy as the image above and in the steps.... bacon / fish / pesto dressing. You can use any fish like Cod or Dory as well. Sprinkle herbs on the fish and also a press of lemon to bring the zing!

Did I tell you that I won in 4-D. SGD 30 thou.... pathetic huh? Well at least it's a win? Good fortune this year? And Fish as well? Year Year Have Fish in Chinese saying means - fortune every year!

The Queen decided to kick my ass in the kitchen

2009-12-29T20:55:00.000+08:00

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?!

2009-12-28T18:18:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-26T11:33:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-24T23:24:00.002+08:00

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.....

2009-12-23T21:51:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-22T19:55:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-21T15:06:00.003+08:00

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?

2009-12-21T13:57:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-19T23:52:00.000+08:00

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!!!

2009-12-18T19:08:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-17T15:16:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-17T13:55:00.000+08:00

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........

2009-12-16T16:14:00.003+08:00

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....

2009-12-15T21:56:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-14T18:50:00.000+08:00

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.

Thank you for flying with us.....

2009-12-13T23:38:00.008+08:00

"I'm leaving on a jet plane.... don't know when I'll be back again......" really, I don't 'cos I only got a 1 way ticket to Singapore. I'll be back in Jan I guess, just that, I really don't know when..... X'mas in Singapore with the family from Indo here will be a blessed one though! :) And oh! 3 more days to celebrating me Mumm's b-day in Amara Sanctuary @ Shutters!! Hope that they will do a good job not like what they did for me for my wedding.....

I stated in Facebook the following:

Everytime I'm heading to airport in JKT... I always get that adreneline rush!! Jammed? Flooded? Riots? Demonstrations? 530 departure and I'm still potentially 2 hrs away! :) as thrilling as bungee jumping only you know that you'll still be alive after ordeal :)

However, being a Saturday, the roads were empty for easy and happy travelling. I was from Grand Indonesia, 1 of the bigger and nicer malls in Jakarta after having celebrated my nephew's 16th B-day.... boy is he TALL.... towering at 1.83m... I don't know how these kids grow so fast! We were at Kenny Rogers and what took me back by surprise was that they gave out CHOCOLATE or BANANA Muffins instead of the CORN Muffins that they do here in SG. (choco or banana muffs don't go well with chicken and savoury sides..... well not to me they don't)

The night flight back to SG was nice, it was a half full flight on Air Asia and I was given the emergency seat. HOT SEAT for FREE!!!! Thanks Air Asia! :) I have been using Air Asia for some time now and God forbid that they have delays in the future but for now, they have been quite punctual.

GET OUT!!! Changi Airport was SOOOOOO crowded! The DFS after immigration was swarming with customers.... so when I saw a gap in the cashier, I slid my Choya (for me Mrs) and Kilkenny (for me Mrs too.... -_-) Collection of the check-in luggage later, my beautiful Mrs was there looking like the bombshell she is (I was lucky.. her contacts were not clean when she said yes to being my girlfriend and eventually my wife)

In the car we got and my tummy went: FEED ME!!!!! ok... so I reckon we had to go for dinner but as it was already quite late, I thought that a light meal would be good (of course, when you are 8 Kgs off your ideal weight, you tend to want to watch what you eat....) so, I decided to get back home and whip something light and easy.

Japanese Cabbage and Cheese Omelete With Japanese Shrimps

- a head of cabbage to be thinly sliced and put into boiling salted water for 30 seconds

- 2 eggs beaten and garnished with salt + pepper + fine chilli power (if you have them)

- in a well oiled non-stick pan, on high heat, pour the beaten eggs into it and start to swerve the pan in rollies so that the egg will be evenly distributed unto the hot surface of the pan. If you have a cover for the pan, cover it and let it cook for 1 minute. After a minute, make sure that you test the toughness of the egg so that when you flip it, it will not tear..... on the new side, turn the heat to medium and place cheese if you have unto that upside and let cook again for another minute (by this time, the egg will be solid enough not to be broken easily)

Serving is simple with placement of the sliced cabbage unto the plate, add a dash of fine sugar into the cabbage, if you have Japanese vinegar, add a dash of that too, lay the cheesed side of the omelete down facing to the veg so that it will infuse together. Lastly, splatter Salad Cream or Jap Mayo with Jap Sweet Sauce (you can get both Jap Mayo or Sweet Sauce from DAISO for SGD 2 each.... ) and last but not least, drizzle it with some Dried Jap Shrimps..... YATAH!!!!

Easy peasy meal and light. A quick skip to the weighing scale.... WHAT THE HEY?!?!? WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN IT POINTS TO 83?!?!?!? (Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.... sobssssss) oh well...... slim don't suit me

Busy day but rewarding dinner at PIZZA HUT?!?

2009-12-12T13:58:00.001+08:00

It was a busy day for me on Friday, had many places to go and things to do, but it was worth it and I achieved all that I needed to do.... bills, shops, delivery, abit of shopping :) (what? only gals shop!?)
I woke up late thou, but thankfully, the traffic in Jakarta was kind to me and thus, I was able to get around OK.

I accompanied a friend to the nearby mall and we had a good walk around. He was looking to change his BB trackball, but couldn't find the colour that he was looking for and decided not to change it to a black trackball.... he was looking for a PINK one?! EWwwwwww....... there are some things that will be nice in pink.... like you know....certain parts of the female anatomy.. (sorry ladies.... not trying to be rude)

I had a sudden urge for Pizza and the nearest was Pizza Hut. Well it may be a turn off for some readers, especially in the USA as I know that they serve better pizzas there, like the 1 dollar a slice ones that drip with its oil but tastes like a sweet piece of heaven, but here in good 'ol Jakarta, Pizza Hut dominates and also a fantastic price to boot!!! I mean, a medium Crown Crust Pizza going for SGD 8 and its Prawn Bruschetta costing only SGD 2.50.... HELL YEAH!!!!!

Well the total damage for the meal was a not-so-painful SGD17 for 2 and our tummies were filled! Time for round 2 of shopping; we headed off to another mall, it's near my friend's resto - Pluit Village. It's shapped like an airport with its never ending length. What do you know! It has a Singapore food court on the 3rd floor and is huge! I had a quick tour of the food court which had NO SMOKING SECTION!?!? That's Singapore style for you! Hmm..... maybe it's just me but I didn't know that Singapore is famous for its SEMBAWANG Yong Tau Fu?! I heave heard of Sembawang records, but for YONG TAU FU!?!? Hmm.... clearly, the owner of this food court has BEEN to Singapore, I give him that much. Sadly, some of the Indonesians are 'ignorant' enough to think that the food here is replicating Singapore's best!? (Minister Mentor, IF.... and I do mean IF and in my dreams, you read this..... me thinks you should TM the name SINGAPORE...... this food court will render actual Singapore food as CRAP!)

Anyway, enough of my bantering, let's dwell into Bruschetta shall we? I made this before and I was inspired to share with you all due to having sunk my teeth into the Prawn Bruschetta in Pizza Hut. This is Vegetarian Bruschetta with Salsa Topping.

- cut baguettes into 1 inch thick portions

- take tomatoes, bell peppers, onions and dice them

- open a can of mashed tomatoes and cook it with oilve oil and onions.... add dried chopped basil into this and continue to cook in mid-high heat until the mixture is totally mashed. Remember to add salt + pepper to taste

- heat a pan and 'olivize' it (as in use olive oil to lay the pan..... easier to type heh) put in the bell peppers + onions and cook them for 3 minutes on high heat and then add the tomatoes last for another 1 minute, let them rest after

- if you have garlic spread, spread it thinly unto the breads OR use the garlic itself and rub it unto the pieces of bread. After this, distribute the cooked peppers / onions / tomatoes on the bread. Some may like the salsa to be above the vegs OR above the cheese. Which ever way, you know what? It will taste sexy! So after or before the salsa sauce placed unto the cooked vegs, sprinkle Mozza Cheese and grated Parma if you have them.

- lay them unto alu foil and chuck these puppies into the grill oven and on high heat for 1 minute.... that's all folks!!

Serving is simple on a nice large plate and sprinkle more herbs after they are done and add spits of olive oil above them and that's all there is to it! Open your mouths and enjoy the blast of vegs / herbs and the bread itself......

Back to SG I go and I will be attempting a local dish next, 'Iga Penyet'........ :)

A Bottle of Johnny Walker and A Jug of Long Island Tea Later.......

2009-12-11T14:35:00.000+08:00

A fav hangout of mine in Jakarta would be Mulia Hotel at Senayan. I don't know why, but I love the bar there... CJ's. I guess it's the band, the drinks, the crew that I know so well.... but the price, not cheap. The crowd there is also much to be desired I guess..... (it's a but like KFC, if you get the drift) The Christmas decor is not too shabby, in fact it's quite grand, sorry about the pictures taken thou, Blackberry has to do something about its camera! http://www.hotelmulia.com/

Anyway, we were there to bid farewell to a friend who has decided to get back to Singapore after 3 months in Jakarta. Well, at least he tried to get used to this place, but it was meant not to be? Anyway, it was a good night out.... 5 glasses later and that friend was sleeping at the VIP area like a baby.... WEAK!!!!!

I have always been interested to make food with shot glasses, being cool looking and you know... kinda 'in' using shot glasses as a serving utensil. Well, I did 1 from before about 2 months ago. Salmon Puree with Celery in a Shot Glass.

- salmon fillet to be grilled for 1 minute (depends if you want to have your salmon well done or semi-cooked, my advice is to have it semi-cooked for a better colour)

- cut the fillet into smaller pieces for blitzing

- cut some strips of celery as well for blitzing (if you want to grill the celery strips, it's better for that extra taste)

- in a Blitzing device, I am using the Phillips Blender ( heh... cheap and good) add the salmon fillet, celery, a teaspoon of salad cream, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil. (add a teaspoon of White Wine as an option) Blitz the contents together - if you want chunky pieces, not too long about 5 presses of the blitzer; 10 presses of the blitzer to smoothen the mixture more.

- grill or blanch some prawns (shell-less... and yes ladies, its TRUE.... no skin is better) with olive oil and chopped garlic, salt and rosemary. In my case, I blanched the prawns in salted hot water for 1 - 2 minutes.

Serving - cut strips of celery, about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. In the shot glass, oil the inside and just tip the blitzed salmon and celery in. Garnish with crushed black pepper and put the prawns above and stick the celery into it and it's done.

This is a simple dish, easy to make and can be done a day before with storage in the fridge as this can served as a cold dish or normal temperature dish. Seafood shot! DOWN it!!

Italiano..... but not really

2009-12-11T00:06:00.000+08:00

It was pissing like no tomorrow.... yesterday but the silver lining in that was it stopped the suppossed mass demonstrations in parts of Jakarta. ( PHEW)

I had to meet a friend and I was told to go to this Resto in Niaga Bank Tower... it's called PEPENERO. It's an Italian Resto with outlets in some parts of Jakarta, but this one is very chic... If I were to have a resto, I would make it to replicate Pepe's, Very Nice! I didn't bring my camera with me and taking pictures of the place and food with my Blackberry will do it much injustice. But if you would like to have a good meal and at a good price (about SGD10 / dish) and with such a chic ambience, get your asses here!!!

After a bread basket and a pork belly main dish, I was filled. The cuppa was also typical Italiano.... MIA BELLA......perfecto. Chatting continued and a handshake after, we parted ways.... I swear the pork bellies called me back, but I had to go off. It was still raining!!!

<-- the building on the LEFT

I swear I will try to make it back in SG, so watch out for it all.

A friend on facebook wrote to me about this blog and she commented that she liked the way I did some of my abalone dishes, so I'll share with you lot 1 of the dishes. Abalone with Kailan and Shitake Shroom in Oyster Sauce.

Abalone is a delicate shellfish. Its going to taste like a deflated basketball when cooked wrongly (trust me I know, I had a bball smacked to my face when I was in secondary school). Anyway, it's actually not that difficult, its all in the timing.

New Moon (no ladies, there will be no Camp Edward nor Camp Jacob) is my fav brand for abalones and I had 1 stacked away in the cupboard and since the Mrs loves Abalone, I decided to cook for her some time back.

- Abalone, remove it from can but keep the brine, it will be useful. Rinse the abalone with water and paper towel dry it.

- Oyster sauce, 2 table spoons of it would be enough. Add a tablespoon to dilute it. Leave that for now.

- Kailan to be soaked in boiling water for 1 minute to retain its hard and crunchy texture. Add oil and salt to the boiling water.

- Shitake Shroom takes some time to cook if it's the dried type but I suggest using the fresh one. Blanch it for 1 minute and then on a grill pan, grill it over high heat for 1 minute on each side. There will be the sweat of the shroom and that is sexy when mixed with the oyster sauce to give that extra 'ka-pow' to the taste!

- Oyster sauce to be reduced in a pan over mid-high heat and add the shroom juices to the pan. Add olive oil and also some chopped garlic to make the taste better. A touch (1 teaspoon) of honey will make the suace flowing with saltiness and sweetness at the same time.

- Back to the star of the dish. In the same water that was used to blanch the Kailan, turn off the heat of the stove and slide the Abalones in. Let it soak in the hot water for 1 minute. Toss it around in the hot water. Remove after 1 minute and lay it over the veges as in the image.

To top it up, add a teaspoon of olive oil when serving and drizzle some dried chilli flakes to add colour and slight taste. Well guys, hope that this will remind you of that sexy abalone dish that you have tried in many restos..... Buon appetito!

Jakarta Bound for a week

2009-12-09T16:54:00.000+08:00

Well, it's time again to go back to the motherland..... just for a short trip. To oversee some things actually and to pay some local bills.

I can't cook in this country, the kitchen is the territory of the trusty maids, so I shall give a past dish for you today. I did cook this here in Jakarta, but I had to borrow the kitchen from a friend who has the ORIGINAL SINGAPORE STYLED YONG TAU FU. For those who like Yong Tau Fu, take a visit to this resto when you visit Jakarta. It's only 15 mins away from the airport and they serve 100% AUTHENTIC Yong Tau Fu! Get into thier website for more details and branches in Singapore and Jakarta: http://www.tanglinytf.sg/

Well, in Jakarta, the Carrefour is MASSIVE!!!! Even the one out of town is huge! The whole basement of the shopping mall - Pluit Emporium is Carrefour. Well, food here is cheap, but only certain types. The topside steak was a cheap SGD 5 for 650 grm! I bought 4 of those and also some Bell Peppers and potatoes to make Spicy Teriyaki Mash.

Grilled Mid-Rare Topside with Bell Peppers and Teriyaki Sauce Mash:

- boil the potatoes till soft and then msh them together. Use some butter to highten the taste. Add a touch of salt to taste. To make it more creamy, add 4 table spoons of FULL CREAM MILK (that's right all, FULL CREAM! You want healthy? Just eat salad then....) Let this rest on the side.

- for the peppers, cut them into strips and just grill them. Lay the grill pan with Olive oil and just grill them peppers! Make sure to allow some char-ing as this will add crisp and enhance its sweetness. About 10 minutes and on high heat with constant turning to make sure that the peppers are not over burnt!

- I bought ready made BBQ sauce and just soaked the raw meats into it for 4 hours. After its done, I let them rest for awhile before putting them on a hot and olive oiled grill pan. As the meat is thick, we have to make sure that we time the cooking properly. 3 mins on 1 side of the steak and then add a knob of butter for when we turn it to the uncooked side. Butter is for taste, so it's going to make the meat explode with its own juiciness and the salt from the butter will make the kitchen smell like heaven. for 3 mins on the other side and then turn the heat to mid and for 1 min on each side, continue to cook the meat.

Serving - make sure that you re-grill the peppers to ensure heat. The potatoes are meant to be covered with alu foil / cling film to maintain its heat as well. The BBQ sauce to be made warm for dressing. As above picture, serving can be done as above. For the mash, use a table spoon and create a semi-scoop sized helping of the mash and place 1 scoop on top of the other. Lay the grilled peppers on another part of the serving plate and lastly, the steak. Scoop a helping of the BBQ sauce and lay it above the steak. From the grill pan, there will be remains of the juices of the steak, use some and lace it above the steak as well. Lastly, dress it with pepper and a teaspoon of olive oil. READY TO EAT!!!

MAKAN!! Ayo! Makan dong!! :)

A Seafood Dinner

2009-12-09T15:48:00.000+08:00

It was one of those days you know... lazy but full of cooking inspiration. Especially after a failed attempt for a seafood dinner on Friday, when we realized that the seafood was incomplete bad to boot. I mentioned this right? Crappers... all day long?

Anyway, Sunday was a good day to give the palette a better taste of seafood comprising of prawns / oysters / scallops / tuna.

From these I made soup for the prawns and scallops infused with white wine and garlic.

I also made tuna steak (well-done) with rockets and laced with caramalized red onion reduction.

Here is the grilled garlic prawns and scallops.

Oysters as is with chopped chery tomatoes and olive oil with lemon.

Let's just do the grilled prawns as this is a simple way of preparing this dish:

- clean the prawns and gut the black stuff at the back. Some people say its poop, some say its the veins... whatever it is.... just gut the buggers!!

- stuff garlic into the slits (SLITS ok..... you sick perverts)

- for the scallops, dress it with oregano / basil / parsley

- chop some onions and put them unto the grilling pan for the grill contraption (not a grill pan).

- lay the prawns, the scallops and some chopped cherry tomatoes above the onions and drizzle olive oil to it and chuck them into the griller. On medium-high heat and for 15 minutes. Remember to turn the scallops after 10 minutes onto the other side.

- after its done, serve the prawns and the scallops beside each other and squeeze a touch of lemon over it, add a bit more of olive oil and dress it again with salt, pepper and flash some chopped parsley over the dish. Do not forget to place slices of lemon (for some who like the zing). The last touch must be to use the juices that have flowed out from the prawns and scallops and dress that over the dish for a better taste.

For those other dishes, just drop me a line and I'll share on how to make them. :)

Hope you enjoy the prawns!!

Rain rain go away

2009-12-05T23:31:00.008+08:00

Saturday morning and the rain kept me awake... the pitter patter of sky juice!?! Argghhh.....

To make it worse, the Sambal Kang Kong from Pasir Panjang New Hong Kong Street 'Che Char' gave me the crappers!!!!! OUCHHHH......

To appease the tummy and my rectum, I ransacked my Samsung Fridge to see what I can find from before. Not so much as left overs, but ingredients for a tummy cooling soup... Cucumber / Wolfberries / Golden Shrooms / Tomatoes / Egg.

As the Mrs was still asleep, I could be on time for a soup-in-bed Saturday morning surprise. Wait... the crapper called (the agony!)

Back to the kitchen and my legs were wobbly from the 'tai-chi' controlled release. Knife and chopping board out, Cooling Soup here we go:

- Cucumber are diced into cubes

- Tomatoes are diced into small cubes

- Wolfberries are soaked in water

- The stock, now the stock is tricky, well if you want to start from scratch but I decided to use the good 'ol Indo way..... RYOCO! :) Easy and quick, a small satchet of this 'taste enhancer' will do the magic, but of course, do add water to taste. Add into 750ml of water to this satchet into a pot and bring it to a boil.

- Golden shrooms are to be washed and just spread apart

- An egg to be beaten in a bowl for pouring into the pot later

- Corn starch if you like your soup to be thick (I know for the ladies, it would be among OTHERS, but let's revert our attention to the dish shall we and I mean culinary dish)

Method: to be honest, just dump all the ingredients in. But best to let the cucumber 1st, shrooms + wolfberries 2nd, 3rd tomatoes (this is in accordance to toughness of these ingredients in soup) and lastly corn statch else beaten eggs to thicken the soup. When done, add a dash of pepper and done. Warm and cooling for the body..... ahhhh......... CRAPPERS AGAIN!?!?!?

Some new toys....

2009-12-03T17:42:00.015+08:00

A visit to Vivo City to get all my personal banking done and suddenly, the itch was there..... how about some new toys... (no! not THOSE toys you foul minded gents! Vivo doesn't sell them, elsewhere.... I'll tell you next time) ANYWAY..... I was refering to shopping in Daiso.... cheap as chips!!!! Damn.... but they did not have what I wanted - a splatter cover but I got myself an electronic timer and a peeler each @ $2! Yeah ok... cheap thrill.... but literally!!

Did I mention that I just got a new Phillips kettle? WOOOOO HUUUU.... It's brushed Alu look matches with the kitchen so well that I HAD BUY IT! Of course, it did set me back $25 (with the help of $50 Best Denki Voucher) but hey.... it looks the DADDY in me kitchen!

A Facebook post by me: what to cook, what to cook, what to cook.
Responses were not many, 1 said to cook chicken curry, while others spoke jibberish but 1 came back to cook Rack of Lamb / Agilo Olio / Roasted Pumpkin Soup. WOW! I had all the ingredients for a wicked Agilo Olio!! Of course, that can wait, cos I'm still in the SHOPPING ZONE!!!! Well..... if you consider shopping in Giant - s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g....

3 fags (puffs / 'batangs' / curuts / 条 - god damn it! It still don't sound right.. but you guys know what I mean right? *RIGHTTTT!!?!?) and a cuppa after, I set off for home which took no more than 7 minutes... WEST SIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! Bolted to the kitchen and got all the things I needed for that Aglio Olio.

Aglio Olio:

- Speggs + garlic + parsley flakes + Indo Chilli Padi + chilli flakes + cherry grape tomatoes

1) Speggs are to be cooked in its normal method: in hot salted water and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. About the standard 10 minutes will be enough.

2) Cut the tomatoes into halves and grill them red suckers!! 5 minutes on each side either of high or mid-high heat. Grill the skin side first....

3) When the speggs are boiling, get 5 tablespoons of the liquid and seperate into a small bowl for later use

4) In the meantime, cut your garlic and also chilli padi and parsley OR you can use dried parsley leaves.

5) When the Speggs are almost Al-dante, start on another pan: olive oil, garlic and cut chilli on mid-high. Once the speggs are done, drain them over cold tap water. Transfer them straight to the other pan and start to ruffle the mixture together. It won't take long, 1 minute at the max and then you finally add the parsley.

6) To serve, use a thong (I said... USE... I didn't say WEAR) or a pasta scoop, and in a shallow plate, stage the speggs at the center of the plate then add the grilled tomatoes and place them at the side. Dress the plate with 1 table spoon of olive oil, a dust of black pepper and some dried chilli flakes... and there you go! Of course, add Parma Cheese if your tongue calls for it and enjoy!

Other substitutions to the parsley can be diced basil leave, orengano or even rosemary. Also, some diners do like to add prawns to this dish, white meat fish or even ham / bacon.

Chinky chink and the chinky bunch

2009-12-01T20:37:00.004+08:00

True enough, with me mumm's presence, there was little cooking and more eating out. We went to Lao Beijing @ Plaza Singapura for dinner and the food was great. It was because we were there that I decided to share my Chinese creation.... of sorts.

Baby Bak Choi with Wolfberries and Black Fungus.

I have always regarded Chinese food as a pain as they require stir-frying, I clean my own kitchen and that is stressful with all the oil splattering in Matrix fashion i.e all over the place! But I had a friend who also asked me to cook more Chinese food. Well wrong dish though as he is more of a flesh eating carnivore.

- A bag of Baby Bak Choi to be placed inside boiling water but not during cooking the water. Just 1 minute with the lid on the pot and the veg is done. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water, this will be absorbed into the veg.

- Black Fungus has to be prepared in advance as they are normally in dried form. Place them in hot water and let them soak for about 15 minutes. Remember to rinse them afterwards. They would be done by then.

- Wolberries are also treated the same as the Black Fungus; a tablespoon to be put into a bowl of hot water and let it soften. 5 minutes will suffice.

Cooking:

Warm up the pan and add a tablespoon of vege oil. When the oil is hot enough, a teaspoon of pre-cut garlic to be added and stirred around the pan. At this point, add the vege into the pan and stir around, making sure that the leaves are not burnt. Add the black fungus and continue stirring. Lastly, put the wolfberries into the pan and then add a tablespoon of light soy sauce. Continue to stir to infuse the taste of the sauce into the veg. Lastly, add a teaspoon of diluted oyster sauce*. Continue to stir and when done, add a bit of corn flour** to thicken the sweat made by the veg and the fungus. When the sauce thickens, the dish is ready to be served.

Add a dash of pepper and cut chillies (to add that ZINGG) when serving..... 吃饭!!!

* Diluted oyster sauce is simple. In a small bowl, add a teaspoon of oyster sauce and add hot water, normally 3 times the amount of the oyster sauce. Stir the potion until the water is fluid and without lumps.

** Corn Starch is relatively used in many Chinese dishes. Add a table spoon of corn startch into a normal sized rice bowl and add water until it fills 1/3 the bowl. Stir the mixture until there is no lump as well before pouring into the pan. NOTE: when pouring the corn startch mixture into the pan, make sure that you stir the contents of the pan, else, the starch mixture will clump. Also, to take note that the mixture is to be properly mixed prior pouring into the cooking pan!

Previously on.....

2009-11-30T15:45:00.007+08:00

Sunday was a good one, watched a movie with the Mrs and had my weekly family dinner... relaxing and enjoyable (wait, I am relaxed! I have no job!)

Anyway, with the mum visiting from Jakarta, I don't think I will be cooking that much, so I'll post a previous dish that I made.

Focaccia Hamburger on Rockets and the all magic ingredient.. EASY CHEEZEEEEEEE by Kraft; wasted how they only sell the American Cheese... but nevertheless, it made the burger taste... EASY....

Focaccia bread by Gardenia was tasty and lightly toasted for 1 minutes on high heat will suffice. And it's huge size makes for sharing fantastically possible.

The meat is simple - 400g of beef is all thats needed. Marinate it with a small pouch of Old Del Paso dressing. Punch the meat and make sure that all the marinate is evenly distributed and also add an egg halfway thru the bashing and continue on your relentless persuit to blend all that goodness together. Add a table spoon of olive oil before stopping.

(The meat should then be let to rest for about an hour and after that, shape them into flat burger like sizes, I made mine rather thick, about 3/4 inch thick each.)

When the grill pan is already hot, a dash of olive oil to the pan and let the meat dive unto the grill.... the sizzles of the pan will start to make your tongue do the Rumba! 2 minutes on high heat for each side to make the meat cooked and add a dash of pepper afterwards. If you want the meat to be fully cooked, 2 more minutes before you remove them from the pan.

Now to transform all the components to 1 hell of a wicked burger:

- Spread some mayo and place rockets (or any other greens that you like) on the bottom side of the bread and place buffalo tomato slices unto it
- Lay the patties unto the tomatoes and top it with that EASY CHEESE
- Finally, the top slice of the Focaccia to complete this huge burger and its ready to eat!!

Fast and easy, not too expensive as well and feeds 4 (unless you are the size of 1 of my mates)

CHOW TIME!!!!!!!

Birthday Dinner

2009-11-28T23:30:00.007+08:00

Alright all.... dinner is served!!!

BBQ Hickory Pork Ribs

Grilled Squid with sambal reduction

Asparagus with Eyrngii Shrooms

Teriyaki Chicken

Sweet and normal potatoes with olive oil, grilled

Sorry all, no pictures of the Garlic Focaccia Bread

I'm knackered!! Good night all..... ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE

2009-11-28T14:46:00.009+08:00

9:30 am wake up call led me to go to the West Coast Wet Market to do some major dinner shopping. After a quick brush of the teeth and a swift face cleaning later, cash in hand, I was only 10 minutes away from the market.

Instantly, luck was on my side with an available carpark spot just a spit away from the market stalls..... we headed straight to the pork ribs and loaded in 2kgs of it. Next stop was the beef steaks, 1kg of it seemed to make my arm overwork?! Chicken thighs were next and about 1.5kgs of that 2 legged fowl, I was taxing myself with 4.5kgs worth of meat (my mates are all carnivores you see). Passing the seafood section, the Mrs jumped and screamed like a kid.... SOTONGGGG..... $8 poorer and 1kg heavier, my flacid left arm is giving way soon.

To balance out the sea of meat, we went for the vegetables and 40 stalks of asparagus, 3 bags of Eryngii Shrooms, 2kgs of sweet and normal poatoes later... my right arm was trembling like it has seen a ghost (yes, I am not your 100kgs bench press kind of guy). We quickly went to the car to offload that burden! (The Mrs was just being pretty and pointing out what she wants to eat -_- )

<-- had this for the first time in Taiwan and the Mrs loved it ever after...

A cha-cha in the carpark later, we reached Sheng Siong and we were greeted with cheap food (well most of them were). Condiments and other loose items were purchased to add unto the flair of the food fanfare :) I found the right partners, and I normally use these boys.... McCormick brand dried herds. Although not a huge range, I was still like a kid in a candy store!? (Key 50 Cent ... I'll take you to the CANDY STORE)

When done with Sheng Siong, we left for the car again and dumped everything in the boot..... BREAKFAST here we come! Regrets came with every mouth of the Egg Prata that I choose and the Dim Sum that we ordered, the only saving grace was our 'Teh Peng'. I could not wait to get back home to prepare the food.

Another 10 minutes of drive time and back to the house we were. Lugging the bags of food like limping lemmings, bliss was when all the food were on the kitchen top. We easily made shreds of the packaging and started to prepare all the food.

Menu:

- Japanese Teriyaki Chicken
- Black Pepper Beef Steaks
- Honey Hickory Pork Ribs
- Garlic sautéed Asparagus
- Grilled Eryngii Shrooms
- Roast Sweet and Normal Potatoes
- Focaccia Garlic Bread
- Spicy Chilli Squid (or Sotonggg as the Mrs calls them)

just marinated all of them, 2 hours only though..... not that long

Sorry guys, but due to the boredom that I may cause you lot if you were to read on how to make these dishes, I decided not to write down any recipes for this time round. But if you want to, email me and I'll pen you guys a note.

After marinating and preparing these dishes, I had a quick flash in the mind for a simple and delicious dish: Squid head with slices of Eryngii Shrooms in Spicy and Sour base.

How to cook this? GOD DAMN EASY that's how. No fuss and just quick cooking! Sweet!

OK, bowl an alu foil and ensure that there will be no leaks yah, add the squid parts (I added the head bits and the the squid roe of about 10 of them invertebrates), Eryngii Shrooms, 1 teaspoon of sambal belachan, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, a dash of pepper, a dash of light soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of chinese vinegar. Wrap up the combi in the alu foil and just place it into the baby oven for 10 minutes and on high heat.

When you hear DING! that means the dish is ready to be served and in a nice serving bowl or soup plate, pour all unto the plate and add freckles of dried Oregano.... the explosoin of spicy, sour and herby tastes in the mouth will leave the tastebuds dancing for more!!! MAKAN guys!!

Missing Leicester

2009-11-27T17:30:00.007+08:00

Nothing beats the sound of this bird when it squawks.... if I had a gun on me, I'd shoot it and make it into a dish. It was only 9:45am that I woke up to the terribly loud 'ka-waaaaaakkk' of that damned bird....

Birds aside, I was itching to cook something nice for the Mrs. No particular reason, but just looking at the fine Holiday morning, it was a good morning to cook a good brunch and what better than to cook the delicious British breakie that me and my Uni mates loved to order in Dry Dock (the pub right outside our hostel back in Leicester, UK).

Taking a few steps brings me to the doors of the Cold Storage near my residence and in a jiffy, I purchased the required items:

- Johnsonsville Cheese Sausage
- Ayam brand Baked Beans
- No Frills Eggs
- Danish Bacon
- No Frills Button Shrooms
- Malaysian Giant Tomatoes
- SIS Butter (Butter just makes food taste that much better?)

Cooking the items were a breeze, not much preperation needed just plain cooking them in the typical way that they needed to be cooked.

Sausage - Pop them in my mini oven for 10 minutes on high heat and they are crisp on the outside and perfect within.

Baked Beans - Whack the can into a steamer for 10 minutes will suffice (add chilli sauce if you want the beans to be a tad spicy)

Shrooms - cut them into thin slices and grill them. Shrooms sweat, so no need for water, just oil the pan and add a small knob of butter. A pinch of salt will not overdo the shrooms. In high heat, stirring the shrooms around for 10 minutes, and they will be more than done.

Tomatoes - Cut them thickly and place them in the grill (no need to wash the grill pan, let the tomatoes absorb the flavour of the shrooms from the previous step) When the tomaotes show grill marks, they are done.

Bread - Cook them at the same time with the tomatoes and they will be grilled brown to perfection at the same time that the tomatoes are done; flavour will be great too as the bread will suck in the tomato juices left in the pan. You may want to spread butter onto 1 side of the bread to enhance flavour.

Bacon - I can never understand why they are normally FRIED, but I like them grilled; the juices of the bacon will start to sweat out and if you want to add a step to better tasting food, whilst the bacon is still cooking and sweating, remove the juices for later but continue to cook the bacon until you can see grill marks on them. This will normally take 3 minutes for each side on high heat.

Eggs - Sunny side up today, just like the gorgeous morning! Simply crack the babies open, 2 at a time into the frying pan and on high heat. Make sure to use butter for that tasty addition to the tongue. It would be better if you have a lid for the frying pan, a glass lid would be perfect (so you can voyuer the eggs...) When the lid is on, lower the heat to 3/4 strength and for 1 minute only. Perfect cooked whites and soft yolks.... ALRIGHT MATE!?!

Serving is a delight with these items and easy too boot! The colours will be magnificent; yellow, white, brown, red... a rainbow to the oral palate!! (don't think otherwise OK!?) You may want to garnish the dish with some parsley or tinges of dried basil to allow for the collection of sweet/salty/herby taste to collide in your mouth. Remember the bacon 'sweat'? Well, drizzle that unto the plate when you have finished with the placing of the food items on the plate (anything unhealthy is always good once in a while ehy?). I added Mozza on top of the shrooms to give it that tug-a-war feeling when you dive your fork into that section of the plate, MORNING BLISS! :)

A cup of Kapal Api coffee (FANTASTIC I might add!!), a half awake Mrs and a fantastic breakie to start the day! Dinner? I might miss that out.... for today! It is a holiday today as well.... INNIT?!?

Day of Meatballs

2009-11-26T23:47:00.006+08:00

Coffee with mates brought me to buy a Diablo book.... damn its thick! But I think it'll be good to kill time, hopefully.

Whilst chatting along, I was as usual, compelled to get unto Facebook thru my BB and viola! I saw a friend who posted - Meatballs, meatballs, meatballs!!

*lighted bulb above my head* Let's make today a Speggs and Meatballs day!

Tagging along with my best mate since Poly, whilst he was shopping winter wear (make that long johns) for his Japan holiday (lucky bast*rd), I was thinking on how to cook the speggs and meatballs. Shall I just buy off-the-shelf Ragu Sauce or make the sauce myself? Well, what the heck, I decided to do it myself. :)

NTUC @ Tampines Mall, huge and I love it! Easy shopping - 200g of minced Pork, 200g of mined Beef, a bottle of Del Monte ketchup, a can of diced tomatoes, house brand speggs..... SGD10, enough to feed 4!

Upon reaching home at 8pm, me and me mate started to prepare for dinner..... by 8:35, it was done!! Easy peasy.

Tomato sauce - pour the whole can of diced tomatoes (400g) into a deep pan, fill 3/4 of the can with water and add to the pot. A tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of garlic, a teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper, cook it for 20 minutes over mid heat. Do add herbs like basil and oregano (dried or fresh) to highten the taste. If you want the sauce to be thicker, add corn starch solution. In the meantime....

Meatballs (1) - mix the beef and pork mince together in a big bowl and start pounding dem!!! Just imagine that boss you hate, the co-worker you want to kill or the live in mum-in-law you want to choke (kidding... I love mums); add salt and pepper, that's 1 teaspoon and dashes respectively. Continue to pounce on the meat and add a spoon of olive oil. As your hands will get dirty, ask someone else to do it for you.... (my mate did it heh heh) Lastly, add a full egg into the meat and continue to pound! After the mixture is properly mixed, you can now shape them into balls. (LOL.. I can't help it) Ok, easy way is to just tear the meat and round them using your palms else you can use a spoon to scoop up the meat and with only 1 palm, round them with the spoon as well. Make sure that the balls are slightly smaller than a golf ball (it's up to you actually).

Meatballs (2) - frying is the fastest way and just quickly, over high heat for 2 minutes will do the trick and making sure that you constantly move the balls around (snigger). Remove them after 2 minutes and let them rest for a minute (remove excess oil). Now, if you want, you can bake the balls for 3 minutes on high in the toaster thingy, which I did. After the balls are done, put them into the sauce whilst the sauce is slowly cooking.

Speggs - In a pot, add salt and olive oil (so that they don't stick together), cook the speggs until they are 'al dente', that's about 4 minutes on high heat and 3 minutes on medium heat. When done, rinse the speggs in cold water... this is to make the speggs more springy. Make sure that the water in the pot is boiling before you put in the speggs. (Not insulting you all, just in case... just in case)

After all is cooked and done respectively, add them all into the sauce; that's speggs, meatballs and sauce of course. Add half a normal drinking cup of the spegg water (that's starch) to the sauce to thicken it slightly. Stir them all together for a bout 2 minutes in medium heat and DONE!

Serve them in a plate and distribute evenly. Finishing touch is to add mozza cheese and not parmessano cheese (it's just different in taste and texture and adds 'stretch' to the dish).

Just nice, the cousin came to the house and the Mrs just came back from work.... Buon Appetito!!

Oh! Oh! A quickie garlic bread.... (what?! as in quickie recipe). Toast the bread for 3 minutes. Mix a table spoon of Mayo and a teaspoon of pre-cut garlic until even. Spread this unto toasted bread and cut into halves.... serve and enjoy.

Day 1

2009-11-25T18:55:00.005+08:00

Hey all! Welcome to my cyber kitchen!! This is my first food blog. Well, its actually my 1st blog ever.

I have been thinking of writing a blog for a long time, just that I don't know what to write about.... days of my life, moments of my life, my life in general..... but then, why would anyone want to read about my life? What makes me think that my life will be special, different from the rest?

So I decided to write about my passion..... COOKING. However, as I am a cheeky fella as well, dribbles of a certain X-rated nature may sometime rub in..... cos that's me, in real life I am like that too. :) so i hope, I do not offend anyone.

I have been in love with cooking since I can rememeber and now, as I am recently jobless, what better way to relax then to cook?

I am sure that other people have other means of releasing thier stress / pent up frustrations / boredom on shopping (oh... I love this too....) / sleeping (waste of time) / reading (yawnnnn...) etc, but cooking, it's a love affair; when you prepare the food, when you cook the creation, when you look at the finished dish.... it's about the effort and love that went to making that dish.

My kitchen is simple, a Teka stove, a Gazz grill / bake contraption, Tefal pans, WMF knives, WMF pots and my trusted IKEA grill pan (love this thing! its cheap and good) These are my faithful partners in crime. (the Moulinex kettle leaked on me last week..... any sponsors?) And oh.... my trusted Nikon D60 for taking pictures of my dishes, badly need to get good macro lenses but DANG! It's the price of me camera!!! Sigh.....

I have tested on my faithful lab rats (no bribes needed, neither were abusive force implemented) and they have so far loved it.... so I hope that some of the readers will like my humble creations as well.

I will put up my other earlier creations soon, but for today, let's start with a simple challange... SGD8 bucks to make a dinner sandwich:

- tuna in brine 1.92 (on the can, in the ingredient box, it stated: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS FISH. Gee, I guess not many people know that TUNA is FISH)

- no frills bread 1.52

- golden mushrooms (mushrooms guys... not shower....) 1.00

- grated mozzy cheeeeeeze (aka Mozarella cheese) 2.99

- a small head of cabbage 0.98

Of course, you will need your regular olive oil and other condiments already (yes... it's a tad cheating but c'mon..... i was refering to the main ingredients!)

Why did I choose to do this dish? Well, I guess, buying food from Cold Storage @ The Village Centre, I didn't have much choice? Nah.... I was thinking of a light dinner for me and my mate and since I have putting on some weight, I decided, let's try LIGHT.... or so I thought.

TO THE KITCHEN!!

Golden Shrooms - simple as pie! Just rinse them and then place them straight to the grill pan! TA DAH! Oh, its just for 3 mins on high heat too. Done? Let them rest too.

Tuna - filter the brine and put the tuna into a small bowl (depends on servings ok, mine is just for 2 so 140g of tuna is more than enough), I decided to add a table spoon of Materfoods Honey Mustard, a dash of pepper and a pinch of salt. Just mish and mash them together.... done!

Cabbage - shred them leaves!!! As thin as you can, and then, in boiling salted water (2 teaspoons), just dip them in for about a minute.... done! Its still crunchy enough but cooked enough! (I know some of you rather other greens, try rockets, lettuce or whatever you fancy.. hey its YOUR dish!) Drain the leaves and let them rest.

Bread - do we really need a toaster? NO. The ribbed grill pans does the same magic..... (oi... its ribbed GRILL PAN, not that ribbed latex thingy). Ok, high heat on each side for 2 mins will do, and if you think to add a bit more flavour to the bread, add a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and salt.

Heat up the grill / toaster contraption for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, place the cabbage on a bread, then place the shrooms, then the mozza cheese. On the other bread, give a good dullop of tuna on it and mayo if you want to. Place them both side by side into the contraption and close the lid, usually, the heat retains and thus, you can turn off the device, leave the bread in for 1 min or until the cheese melts; you can also leave the heat on if you like......

And there you go, cut in half and serve with crisps or as it is and enjoy........

Ahhhh..... my 8 bucks sandwich for 2. VivoCity with the mate.... till next time folks!