Love of food, food of love

Sometimes what you need is not glorious sumptuous dinner, but simple home cooked dinner ♥

Bliss on a weekend morning

What is bliss on a weekend morning apart from glorious bacon, ham and cheese toasted sandwich?

Toast the bacon for 15mins first at 225 degrees. Slap on some magarine on a slice of whole meal bread, emmental cheese, ham , pre-baked bacon and pop it back to the oven for another 10mins or until cheese has melted.

and, now, reward your tummy!

Drools. what a simple sandwich for breakfast, finished with a glass of cold milk.

That was my bliss last sunday morning.

What's yours?

Food for popeye

A couple of dishes created with spinach tonight

Spinach never fails to remind me of popeye the sailorman, and how his muscles will immediately bulk up after eating a can of spinach.

Why did cartoon creators want to create a cartoon to promote spinach? Because this power packed food is hated by many kids, and what's a better way to promote it then to make it the staple for a strong man? Apparently the plan worked as the 2 spinach growing towns have popeye's statue to honor him for boosting spinach's sales.

But as many of you know, broccoli is also a power food, but why wasn't Popeye eating broccoli but spinach?

The answer is a mistake. Though spinach is one of the healthiest foods to eat, it wasn't the most nutritious one. Spinach was mistakenly believed to contain 10x more iron than it does when Popeye was created. But Popeye was eating spinach since the first creation of its comic strip in 1919 and he couldn't possibly change it!

By the time this mistake was discovered, Popeye was already known for eating spinach and kids all around the world are giving spinach a 2nd chance

credits

Preorder pretties

Hello darlings,

I'm doing a little pre-order for gorgeous babies for the hands on my store. Do check them out!

Cartier inspired  bangles.

Imported from Korea.

This has to be my absolute favourite.

Sophicated.Elegance.

Ordered one to test the quality and am really pleased with it.

Love the intricate diamonte and the shade of gold

Rope woven bracelet

Imported from Korea.

Heart Locket diamontee bracelet

Imported from Korea.

Unique chain and diamontee studded heart shape

Strawberries and Macs

An indulgence once a while is always okay (:

Kko Kko Nara Korean

Having heard of all the raves about this place from my colleagues, we finally managed to make a trip down together after work. hoorays!

So what's on the table?

What else but the popularly raved fried chicken! We ordered half a fried chicken, one fried chicken sweet and spicy flavoured, kimchi pancake and army stew.

But I think it wasn't worth that much raves as I didn't find it that good. Perhaps standards had dropped with all the publicity. Comparatively, I preferred the fried chicken as compared to the sweet and spicy flavoured one as I do not fancy sweetly flavoured main dish.

Heh. It's also my first time trying army stew. Guess what's in there? 

Baked beans, luncheon meat, sausage, beancurd, vegetables, rice cakes in spicy paste base.

 Cheap stew, as one of my colleagues like to call it. hahha. But it's honestly not bad! 

Apparently I heard other places served it with ramen but not this stall.

The kimchi pancake was  not bad. It had a pretty strong potato taste and tasted more like potato pancake. But I quite liked it (:

With another 3 bottles of Soju and and 2 hite beer, the bill amounted to about $210 for 6 eaters. At about $35/head, it's kinda not worth it to me. boos.

But oh wells, it was a great session to relax and chit chat after work!(:

Kko Kko Nara Korean Restaurant
57 Tras Street #01-01 Singapore
Tel: +65 6224 8186

Sponsored fashion blogger

After like super duper long due to work and stuff, I've finally sent out the jewelry to my sponsored fashion blogger- Erika Barbato from Italy! Yayys!

It all started when I received this sweet little collaboration mail in my inbox one day. Can't wait to have my items featured on her in Russia for her events!

And my earlier sponsor to my other fashion instagrammer from Texas (:

The ultimate roasted potatoes set

Another one of those days that little tummy says it doesn't want rice for dinner.

And I spotted really pretty tiny potatoes at giant yesterday which beckoned to me to buy them home!

What else is better than roasted potatos? :p Totally can't forget how awesome the potatoes tasted in Europe, which kinda started my flame of love for roasted potatoes.

Aren't the brastagi baby potatos absolutely small and cute?!

nuff said.

Let's start with the modified recipe of the ultimate roasted potatos I found here

Retailing at $1.25 from giant. A good deal considering this portion is sufficient for 3 human's potato consumption

1. Scrub clean and hard the surface of the potatoes to ensure all dirt, mud and soil has been removed. Roasted potatoes taste better with the skin on. Besides, vitamin A resides on the skin of the potatos!(:

Some extra pork ball, hotdog and mushroom to whip up some pasta for the 2 hungry men at home who needs more carbs

2. Evenly coat the insides of the metal tin used for baking the potatos evenly with margarine and place them in the preheated oven of 200degrees for 5-10mins.

 Modified from the original recipe of using fats.

3. After washing the potatoes, put them in a pot of water that barely covers the potatoes, boil till the bubbles are roaring, before bringing them to a simmer for 2 minutes. Drain these little cute things and shake them in the sieve to fluff them up.

4. Coat them with a thin layer of flour( to increase crispyness when they are baked). I used potato flour at home since it was the only available flour I can find in the fridge.

5. After baking them for 15 mins on one side, take the potatoes out and give them a few gentle tosses. Add some minced garlic and all purpose herbs ( mine's from Mc Cormick) and put them back into the oven at 15 mins

6. After you are satisfied with the texture of the potatoes, add a pinch of salt and shake em well.

shake it baby, shake it

7. Eggs for sunny side up. Heat up the pan, add some butter, and crack in the egg.

8. Heat up some butter, throw in the sliced button mushrooms and saute them until golden brown. Sprinkle all-purpose herb powder for some herbish taste

9. Cut some slits on the sausages and pan-fry them using butter.

Pardon me on lack of photos of the others as they are quite easy, and my main focus is really on the ultimate roasted potatoes! 

*drools*

Dinner is served! 

yum yum tum tum.

Brother totally loves the roasted potatoes. He says my platter looks good enough to be served for $18. I think it's kinda over-priced. He's too kind :D I'll give him sibling discount. $15 will do :p

But he says the potatoes are done better than some of those outside. YAYYS.

Not bad for a first timer of the recipe. But also, the recipe was easy to follow, though I modified some of it and was struggling with cooking the pasta, and ensuring that everything is well heated to be served at the same time.

*pats my own shoulder*

Good job!

Summary of the ultimate roasted potatoes set

Ingredients:

-Tiny potatoes

-Sausage

-Mushroom

-Egg

-Minced garlic-Mc Cormick (optional)

-All-purpose herb-McCormick (optional)

-Flour 

1. Scrub clean and hard the surface of the potatoes to ensure all dirt, mud and soil has been removed. Roasted potatoes taste better with the skin on. Besides, vitamin A resides on the skin of the potatos!(:

2. Evenly coat the insides of the metal tin used for baking the potatos evenly with margarine and place them in the preheated oven of 200degrees for 5-10mins.

3. After washing the potatoes, put them in a pot of water that barely covers the potatoes, boil till the bubbles are roaring, before bringing them to a simmer for 2 minutes. Drain these little cute things and shake them in the sieve to fluff them up.

4. Coat them with a thin layer of flour( to increase crispyness when they are baked). I used potato flour at home since it was the only available flour I can find in the fridge.

5. After baking them for 15 mins on one side, take the potatoes out and give them a few gentle tosses. Add some minced garlic and all purpose herbs ( mine's from Mc Cormick) and put them back into the oven at 15 mins

6. After you are satisfied with the texture of the potatoes, add a pinch of salt and shake em well.

shake it baby, shake it

7. Eggs for sunny side up. Heat up the pan, add some butter, and crack in the egg.

8. Heat up some butter, throw in the sliced button mushrooms and saute them until golden brown. Sprinkle all-purpose herb powder for some herbish taste

9. Cut some slits on the sausages and pan-fry them using butter.

time to TUCK IN!

Self pamper

Ironies of CNY: Barley and candy jellies

What's better pamper then to steam your face and give it a good hydrating mask?

Snagged it from watson's 1for1 sale of the Naruko mask.

awesome.

Poon Choi round 2

A little tutorial for myself on my second attempt ( 2 days ago being the first attempt, and yet the first attempt turned out better. boos,prolly cos le bf was there to help)

Oh wells, at least lesson learnt!(:

Following the steps from Eric teo's poon choi recipe-double boiling of the abalone for 2 hours. Instead of putting the whole can in to double boil as per the recipe, I poured it out on a bowl since my pot wasn't deep enought. I might eventually skip in the future as double boiling the abalone didn't seem to help in the texture or taste. And I nearly made it a disaster.oops

Making of the oyster sauce stock from Lee Jin ji's premium oyster sauce, chicken stock, abalone stock from the canned abaloned, and water from soaking the scallop and oyster. It's approx 3/4 pot of stock with 250g of oyster sauce, ( ok I didn't measure) oyster sauce. I basically just added in the oyster sauce til I felt that the taste was satisfactory :D Afterall, what's better than the tastebuds as the judge? (;

Simmering the pork leg. After pouring in the can of pork leg, bring to boil and after which bring it to simmer for 30 mins so the meat is tender enough and the sauce is thick, gooey and goooood.

What is simmering? Simmering basically is bringing the food to boil first, and later reduce the heat till minimal bubbles are formed. In contrast of what the bf told me- Heat it till it boils, cover it and switch off, letting the remaining heat simmer the food inside. wrong! no wonder the pork leg didn't seem very different from the original contents during our first poon choi attempt :p

After cutting the yam into smaller sizes, double boil it till its soft. Poke a chopstick through it, and if it makes a hole, yay, its done! Instructions as per le bf chef

Prepared some button mushrooms and dried chinese mushrooms (soaked in water)

Add some oil and ginger, fry till golden brown, and throw in a mushrooms to give them a good stir. Lazy me didn't add in the oyster stock to let them simmer prior putting into the poon choi. But maybe next year I'll be a good girl and do that (;

About 300g of five flower pork (literal translation from 五花肉), marinated with some salt and soya sauce. Fried with ginger till approx 80% cooked since it's gonna go into the poon choi later on to continue its simmering journey.

Disaster!

);

I know right...): the result of insufficient water to double boil the abalone for 2 hours. Luckily it wasn't that bad. But the abalone had a tad of burnt smell and taste. boos.Smoked abalone maybe?

But nonetheless, the pot was ruined and have to be dumped. But, maybe its not a good thing cos this gives me an excuse to dispose of the pot. Too many pots at home! 

Fish maw that my auntie helped to soak in water to soften it and cut into smaller pieces

Time to throw stuff into the pot. YAY! no more hassled cooking!

Fry the yam with some oil to make it fragrant.

Add in oyster stock added earlier on. Note to self, perhaps I should add  more stock. Since, after simmering for some time, the stock below would be used up and the yam at the bottom will be abit burnt.

Throw in the fish maw and add more stock. Love adding in fish maw cos it absorbs all the goodness of the stock. And it becomes really soft and flavourful.

*drools*

In goes the  五花肉

Blanch broccoli for 5 minutes in boiling water. Since it's gonna sit into the poon choi for some time, you don't need to cook it for to long else it will 'disintegrate'

Note: turn the cover of the poon choi inwards so that the steam will not scald your hand when you lift the cover up ( of cos with your gloves ;p)

Double boiling of the scallop for 20 minutes before adding it into the pot of poon choi. Ensure there is enough oyster stock to cover the oyster so that it becomes soft enough.

Tadah! its done! To mask the slight burnt taste of the abalone, I immersed it into the oyster stock for more simmering. And last note to myself.

Add in the broccoli last! ): see from the picture above, all my broccoli disintegrated. boos.

In my first attempt (as seen below), I added it last after all the ingredients were sitted nicely. This time, I added them in first (I don't know why, maybe i was lazy and wanted to clear a step first) and my broccoli was floating around  furiously in all that empty space. And as a result of trying to rearrange them, they protested and disintegrated.

But at least, now I know! (;

After lunch, its time to head over to le bf's grandma house 

Happy new year everyone!

HUAT!!