#buffetlicious
Mum’s home-cooked Spicy Chicken with Caramelized Onions and stir-fry hairy gourd (Benincasa hispidavar.chieh-qua) or 毛瓜 in Mandarin. The matchsticks sized hairy gourd is cooked with minced pork and prawns to give it sweetness.
After dinner snack of Durians though I can’t remembered what varieties they belonged to. The king of fruits is creamy and sweet, just the way my mum like it.
Recently, colleague did a group buy for Mr Baguette’s mini baguette buns with over 12 types of lava filling. I tagged along and ordered two each of Adzuki Lava, Tiramisu Lava and Cheese Lava which cost S$12.50 + 5% service charge.
Received the snacks still warm to touch and immediately sliced the Adzuki Lava into halves to share it with my mum. As you can see, the matcha lava is still molten enough to flow out which make eating it kind of messy. One way to lessen the mess is to not share and just devoured the whole bun yourself. :D And that created another issue, the lava is just too rich and creamy that consuming one is enough to cause the jelak (cloying) effect stopping you from reaching out for the next piece. :(
Toasted the other two pieces over the weekend for about 10 minutes, just enough to warm up the exterior but not cause the lava to be viscous. The Tiramisu Lava has a light coffee and cocoa flavours with a section of coffee soaked lady finger buried in the cream/cheese filling. The snack seems to lack the familiar profile of the classic coffee-flavoured Italian dessert. Could it be that I can’t taste the mascarpone cheese as the cream seems to overpowered my tastebuds or the use of Marsala wine if at all.
TheCheese Lava considering that it is made from four types of cheese, lack the cheese flavours and is unnecessarily sweet. It would be nice to have that stringy cheese effect or cubes of cheese mixed in with the cream/cheese filling for another layer of texture. Both my colleague and I are disappointed with the way this item was crafted.
As echoed by some of my colleagues whom had eaten the baguette buns, it is just too Overly Cloying Creamy as the chef concentrated on presenting the flowing lava effect but neglected about the overall taste and texture. Beside, as acknowledged by some of us, flowing filling makes eating it a messy process.
Some pictures from Mr Baguette
From the hole in the wall economy rice stall in Chong Pang Food Centre, came this pack of Cai Png(菜饭). I always love their gorgeous and delicious fried chicken drumstick which is still warm and crispy. Also in the box are earthy stewed mushrooms and an over easy egg.
Mum frequently buy the Pork & Shrimp Dumpling SoupfromChoo Chiang Roasted Meat Noodle House(珠江烧腊面家). I love sinking my teeth into the firm and plump dumplings filled with seasoned minced pork and crunchy shrimps. Yum, so satisfying…
Had to run an errand at Sun Plaza in the late afternoon so might as well buy back dinner. Mum is not hungry so I bought Vegetarian Rice takeaways from the food court for my sis and myself. Picked the usual dishes of mock sweet & sour pork, curry chicken & potato and assorted vegetables stir-fry for sis. Me, I chose crispy fried dumpling, mock rendang chicken and vegetables stir-fry. The staff even offered me a bowl of herbal vegetarian soup.
Also new on McDonald’s menu is this Yubari Melon Cone. A lots of us know that Japanese cantaloupes are one of the most expensive fruits in the world. They are so intensely sweet and juicy that it cost S$5 for a thin slice and up to thousands of dollar per fruit during auction. Now, for just S$1, you can have a taste of it without going to Hokkaido. :D I have eaten melon soft serve ice cream in Hokkaido and I can say that this McDonald’s version is as good as those in Japan with a fruity melon flavour that doesn’t taste artificial.
Topmost picture from McDonald’s Singapore
Mum asked me to settle my own dinner outside so I bought back McDonald’sHokkaido Salmon Feast (S$10.90). The set came with a Hokkaido Salmon Burger, medium Fries, Chocolate Pie and a regular Jasmine Green Tea drink.
If I had to choose between this seasonal Hokkaido Salmon Burger and the Filet-O-Fish, it will definitely be the former. The crispy panko-crusted patty made with Hokkaido salmon is topped with white cabbage, sliced onions and roasted sesame mayonnaise sandwiched between a black and white sesame seeds bun. This is an upgraded version of the classic Filet-O-Fish and a delish one.
For dessert, it is molten Chocolate Pie. The crispy warm pocket is filled with gooey lava of milk chocolate which is rich but not too sweet. When this item was first launched a few years ago in Singapore, it went out of stock in last than a couple of weeks.
Topmost picture from McDonald’s Singapore
Packed home a bowl of YoutiaoRojak (S$3) from Dough Culture(小麥家) at the basement of Sun Plaza. Despite the price increase, the container is only half full and they are also stingy with the prawn paste dressing. :( Since I had a slice of pineapple sitting in the fridge, might as well slice it up and add to the dish. The tangy sweet pineapples and crispy youtiao coated in savoury sweet sauce made for a yummy before dinner snack.
Mum’s pack of Economy Rice(菜饭) from Chong Pang. She only picked two dishes of sweet & sour pork and sautéed bok choy. For me, she chose the same sweet & sour pork dish with a steamed fish fillet drizzled with shallot oil over white rice.
Next morning, I popped this small Chicken Pie into the oven to reheat while I poured myself the less sweet milk tea mum bought for me. Like it bigger cousin, this single person serving of pie also comes with half a hard boiled egg along with the flavourful potato and chicken meats.
Sis bought home a big and a small Chicken PiefromChicken Pie Kitchen (formerly Don’s Pie & Cake). With a new operating location and a rebranded name, the price of their chicken pies had gone up too. The personal sized one now cost S$6.30, up from S$5 while the large pie was S$24 but is now selling at S$28.80.
As seen from the photo, there are six humps on the top crust of the large Chicken Pie. These are the six halves of hard boiled eggs which also marked how you would slice it up. Inside it are creamy and chunky potato with cubes of flavourful tender chicken meat all enclosed in a crispy and buttery pastry shell.
Dinner is Fried Rice with Specially Marinated Pork Chop(招牌猪排蛋炒饭) from Feng Food(台湾味“丰”) at Northpoint City. To encourage more customers to buy home to eat, there is a 10% discount for all takeaway meals so this dinner cost S$11.05 instead of the usual S$12.30.
My mum’s and my Birthday are just one day apart so sis bought two 15cm cakes (S$18.90 each) from Emicakes to help us celebrate the occasions. Well, I guess most of you already know which cake is mum getting and which one is mine. :D
TheD24 Durian Fantasy Cake comes with two bite-size D24 durian puffs sitting on top. I messed up during the slicing processing but it does comes with a thick filling of D24 durian between the two chiffon layers. The cake is light and fluffy soft with a strong scent from the king of fruits.
TheFudge Madness Cake has a glossy finishing of chocolate along with edible pearls and white chocolates. It has three denser chocolate cake layers sandwiching two layers of chocolate fudge filling. This cake is rich but not overly sweet with a strong chocolaty flavour from the chocolate fudge. Yum, my kind of a sweet treat… :D
Since mum went to the market early, most of the economy rice stalls were still preparing the dishes so she bought home half a Roasted Duck. Rather than getting the flavoured rice, she opted for the healthier plain white rice which has no oil in it. I preferred their more robust dry chilli paste rather than the watery version which they always try to include in the takeaway.
Dinner is from the Vegetarian stall in the recently opened food court in Sun Plaza. Here, you got mock sweet & sour pork, stir-fried gourd and a braised bean curd. The next box comes with preserved Chinese mustard (梅菜), stewed potato and mock curry chicken & potato.
Also from the same stall is this VegetarianRojak. I wondered what they substituted for the usual prawn paste used in making the sticky sauce here as this local snack tasted as good as the real McCoy.
Sister’s friend offered to buy takeaway dinner for us and these are the dishes he bought back. This Sambal Stingray is first pan-fried on a hotplate with banana leaf underneath it to give it fragrant before smothered in a spicy reddish brown paste of sambal chilli sauce. The end result is a succulent fish with a spicy kick that is oozing fragrance. And to go with it, Cincalok which is fermented small shrimps or krill mixed with chillis, shallots and lime juice.
Next up is a Bean Curd Stew with seafood and vegetables. We also gotten Sambal Sweet Potato Leaves which was tender but unfortunately lacked the spicy oomph to elevate it to the next level.
For the carbohydrate, it is Fried Rice with eggs, prawns and squids. Here is everything plated up for the final photoshoot before I gobbled it up. :D
Sister’s friend bought this box of old school Buttercream CakesfromLove Confectionery(愛的西菓店) at Bukit Merah Lane. According to him, the shop sells old fashion traditional buns and cakes and is a popular place with many customers. Of course one cannot compare the quality to those fancy looking confections at the posh cafés or bakeries but hei, it only cost S$1.50 per slice and is decent tasting too.
Noodles Soup with an assortment of yong tau foo and pork ribs for two. Yes, it is just the two of us eating so a one pot dinner minimized the cleaning up later on. When you are ready to eat, just heat up the soup and add in the lettuces then pour over the noodles.
It’sDinner Time and here are what I had for the evening meal. After slicing the bitter gourd into thin slices, mum seasoned it liberally with salt, leaving the mixture to stand for a while before washing away the excess salt. Here she stir-fried it with eggs, prawns and minced pork. Three pieces of fried hand shaped fishcakes; one of each of us.
I normally shown you the chopped up Fried Boneless Chicken Cutlets so here are the uncut dish. Mum buy these deboned whole chicken legs, marinate them for a few hours in the fridge. After that she dust the meat with sweet potato flour and deep fry it. She will also prepare a ketchup based sauce, made with adding a little sugar and water to dilute it for drizzling over the fried chicken.
TheMoji Bakery located on the premise of Sembawang MRT Station has good baked pastries items. These Seremban Char Siew Buns(芙蓉烧包) cost S$1.50 each and are filled with savoury sweet and juicy char siew (叉烧) or savoury barbecued chicken.
Sis bought online from Emicakes this 15cm (500g) Milo Fantasy Cake. For the cake’s decoration, it is a simple chocolate shavings in the centre with a dusting of Milo powder. On the inside, it got two layers of Milo mousse in between three layers of choco chiffon cake. While the chiffon is soft and fluffy, one cannot help but think of this as just a plain Jane chocolate cake minus any surprises. Decent tasting but not something I would buy again.
