Pizza Nite

Monday has always been a challenge to get fresh food from the market, it is almost impossible to get anything from the wet market.

We had cravings for pizzas the other day, so I thought I would simply make them myself. Not many places in Singapore make good pizzas. And even if they do, they charge a fortune.

Attempted my very first Angel's Hair with Mussels in White Wine. Not particularly proud of it but it was still pretty good.
Note to self: Need more tomatoes, add a little tomato paste to thicken and flavour the white wine.

We celebrated Mum's 60th early, mainly because Alan would not be able to take leave till Feb/Mar 2010 due to his project opening in Dec 2009.

We have a group from Sunshine Coast, and another group from Newcastle. It was really nice to catch up with our families & friends.

That day was also Ita's birthday... so we had a double celebration too.
Happy Birthday Ita! :)

How often do we get food samples & trial samples these days?

I got a sachet of (3-in-1) latte in our letterbox, and I was so eager to make the latte immediately. Then, I thought... nah... keep it when I go travelling.

And how often do you have Wagyu beef patties in your fridge? Samples, maybe not.

Well, I have been spoilt with Wagyu beef burger for the last few days. I don't think I will crave for BigMac or Whopper anytime too soon. :)

We celebrated Mom's birthday at our place, the first party with our family. We did not have a housewarming, so this was the first time we all got together at our place.

I prepared most of the food, well... at least 80 percent of the food. Some of the items we had were:

Vietnamese Rice Roll (Pork)

Vietnamese Pho (Chicken or Pork)

Chicken kebab

Grilled Prawns

Grilled Mushrooms

Sausages

Satays (Mutton & Chicken)

BBQ Chicken Thai-style (Gai Yang)

BBQ Crabs

Otah Otah

Thai Mango Salad

Lemongrass Drink

And of course, the Mandarin & Passionfruit Cake topped with fresh fruits that Alan made specially for Mom.

Angel's Hair with Wagyu Beef.
Alan had a party last night & there's a huge tub of macademia pesto (3kg) sitting in our fridge.
I believe it is now left 1 kg, I should consider transferring to a smaller tub. :P

A pleasant surprise when I received a call from Sarah in the morning asking if we could meet. Sarah & I go way way back, we were classmates since Secondary 1, and we have remained the best of friends. I was delighted to see her, and of course her new look - after getting her LASIK done a few weeks ago.
It was about 11am, and I wasn't sure why I was so keen to make pancakes but we did. I showed her how easy it was to put all the ingredients together. We were supposed to have lunch, but we ended up eating the pancakes. Sarah asked if I would normally have pancakes for lunch... LOL... I didn't think about it till that evening, it was quite funny actually.

I hope to catch up with Sarah again, this time for a proper meal. :)

Eranga's brother, Ranil visited Singapore on 4 July. I didn't know of his visit till Eranga updated us. Bad news from Eranga, he was burnt while working preparing breakfast at the resort in Maldives. Gas leak was the cause of the accident, and thus he has returned back home to Sri Lanka to seek treatment. His face was burnt & covered, and both his hands were burnt as well. I hope he recovers fast.

Anyway, I caught up with Ranil & took him out to eat his first McDonalds at Plaza Singapura. Unfortunately, Ranil was another victims scammed into paying hefty sum of money to an Agent who promised him work in Singapore.

In any case, it was nice to catch up with Ranil & to extend the hospitality that he & his family showered upon us when we were in Negombo.

Alan & I went to The Helping Hands & bought a high bar table with marble top, and a couple of high chairs for our verandah in the bedroom. We were hungry, and walked to the Hougang (Kovan) market. I couldn't resist but bought 2 packets of Wee Brothers Nasi Lemak (for myself) & a cup of Selegie Soya Beans drink. Two of my favourites.
Alan had duck rice & iced-coffee.

I think I have made Laksa most frequently since coming back to Singapore, I don't remember making that in Sri Lanka actually. And the reason for making it regularly is because I have a big tub of Laksa paste to use up, I mean industrial size that is kept in the fridge. It's really easy to make too, just a couple of spoons of laksa paste to boiling water, then add coconut milk... and that's it.

Note: If you use chicken broth, the Laksa has more flavour and depth.

For all those sausage lovers, I have all these in the fridge...

I have been wanting to cook them for breakfast during weekends when Alan is at home, but never really got around to cooking it. We normally head out for makan, easiest & simplest way & without the mess in the kitchen.

Not really much of a sausage lover myself, I must say these premium sausages are really good.

WOW... couldn't resist not buying the durians when I was at the supermarket, the shape was almost undeniably the bitter-sweet type & I really couldn't not buy & try. LOL

When I saw these yellow-orange flesh, I could only wish that Chi & Kung were still here.

Alan came back 7ish & was not keen to go out to the nearby food centre. So I started making pizza base, and prep all the ingredients. And using the huge prawns that Alan brought home, the pizza was piling up with so many ingredients.

It was just Yum Yum... :)

I have finally made my first homemade pizza here in Singapore. I was going to make this for Chi & Kung before they departed on Tuesday but I wasn't game enough to attempt this without first trying it.

Pictured above was a seafood pizza, and it was pretty good. But if I could add basil onto it I think it would have been better. I haven't any luck growing my own basil, I think I need to get some good soil for that.

You can find other homemade pizzas blogposts from this link: pizza

I tried buying ready-packed 8-Treasures Tea, but were less than impressed with what's available in the market. So, I went to the Arab Street market & bought these items to make Otoko's own concocted 8-Treasures Tea. Spent about $50 on these items which weighed about 3kg. Well, at least I know I am using the good quality stuff in my 8-Treasures Tea.

I brewed the first pot for Alan to try and he liked it. I tweaked slightly for a more balanced flavour, and pre-packed about 20 of these for Chi & Kung to take back to Taiwan, and also whenever I want to brew for ourselves or even when we have guests at our place.
Anyone coming over for tea? :)

This is almost like a Must-Have food whenever I have visitors to Singapore.

Loy Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice.

So glad to share this with Chi & Kung. I remember Garrett & James love this very much too. :)

(Picture above, courtesy of Alvin from his Facebook Album)

Full of surprises here...

I made a rather surprised trip to Kuala Lumpur for Shan's birthday. Shan & On, Yvonne (Shan's sister) & Tao Tao & Fung Fung flew in from Hong Kong for vacation in Kuala Lumpur; Alvin & Joey have also made their way from Johor Bahru to see them. Mine was only a 45 minutes flight from SIN-KUL, but Alvin & Joey drove for a few hours. They definitely deserved the ultra-Friendship award. :)

Jia Jia & CK & Baby Tao Tao also joined us for the dinner at Cititel MidValley, they drove all the way from Nilai for the gathering. They have put in great effort to make it too, considering CK had to wake up at 2am for work (we left the restaurant at 11.30pm). Jia Jia is also helping out now with CK's business, and thus would have to be up by 5am... still not factoring in the fact that she had to wake up to check on Tao Tao's needs at night.

And another surprise came, Yee Hsia & KC also made it for the party. They arrived at 9.15pm, straight after Yee Hsia finished work. It was good to see them both again too. :)

As usual, Siew Leng planned the dinner & the itineraries for Shan & her family. Siew Leng is such a Champion, she always managed everything & doing a really great job. Our group is lucky to have her, and there's no doubt that Shan's family are enjoying the hospitality from Siew Leng & Teng.

On the day of my departure, I almost missed my flight as I went to the wrong terminal. JetstarAsia use the KLIA terminal, not the LCCT terminal. I wouldn't have been able to board the aircraft if not for CK's help in coming back and taking me to the right airport. Thanks Jia Jia & CK! :)

It's been a really looong time since I last made the pan-seared chicken thigh with some really yummy marinate...

Well, made it today and added to the noodle soup. Wow... great taste... still has the yummilious factor.

Previously when we had this noodle soup with chicken, we always missed out on bean sprouts & coriander as they were rather difficult to get hold of in Sri Lanka.

Now in Singapore, while bean sprouts and coriander are readily available, the mint and basil tend to be difficult to source in regular markets.

A view from one of the tallest buildings in Singapore...

UOB Plaza, standing at 280 metres
(Singapore River on the bottom left)

The tallest hotel in Singapore (top left), Swissôtel The Stamford, at 226 metres.
Our Uniquely Singapore.... Esplanade - Theatre on the Bay (bottom right)

These were taken from the restaurant on the 60th floor at UOB Plaza.

What is unique about this place is that the Xiao Er (Waiter), with a long spout brass teapot, serves you the 8 treasures tea (八宝茶) in a gàiwǎn (盖碗). Not many restaurants do that these days, I think.

I read some of the blogs & was told that this place was good for their dim sum. To be honest, the food was only average.

The junior waitresses were good & prompt in their service, but the senior waitresses were disappointing & quite rude.

We got our fortune cookies at the end of the meal.

Guess what my lucky scroll said...

"You need not worry about your future"

The meal was only average, service was not very good. Almost SGD100 for 2 of us...

Would I return? Maybe not.

We had Dim Sum just about 2 hours ago, we went to The Furniture Mall searching for a possible display cabinet but to no avail. So, we walked to Kampong Glam Food Centre in search of a possible pizza place that opened there. Found it!

ROC Pizza
The menu was simple, manageable on a one-man operation basis.

The owner is really young too, late-20s if I could safely say so.

We order Beef Salami, and it was simply:

1) 12"very thin crust

2) tomato base

3) 2 types of cheese

4) beef salami

Though it was good, I can definitely say that Rasika & I have done better homemade pizzas.