Category: Food

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CNY Kinect Housewarming party

On the 3rd day of CNY, we had a mini potluck party to celebrate the occasion! 😀 It was kinda like a small dream come true because it’s the 1st time BH and I held a party at our home! The feeling was great! I mean… we have like 6 PURE REAL Singaporeans in the same place at the same time! How cool is that! Then again, it would have been better if we had all our Singaporean friends over. hahaha.. oh well.. I was really tired preparing food but it was satisfying to see pple enjoying the food

Photos courtesy of WQ – Thank you v much for capturing the fun times!!





Alvin, WQ,YL made chicken rice!!! super yummy can!!! 😀 thinking of it make my mouth waters!!
Julius ‘da bao’ chicken chop and waxed sauages – very touched that he came though he was not feeling well
I made Pandan cake , cupcakes and stew ( not pictured 🙁 because it was still in the oven ) hehe… I made my stew in the LC french oven!! super nice can!!!

Here’s a picture of me and my carribbean! Very happy that I managed to buy it at craigslist for $120 NIB instead of $240 in stores!




After food.. was KINECT time!



It was super funny to see everyone dance on Dance Central and ‘compete’ in Kinect Sports! So tiring to laugh so much!!!




Thank you Julius for the wonderful ice wine!!!

Everyone who attended the mini party! Huat ah!!! 😀


Next up.. Little Big Planet Party!!! hahaha… bring your PS3 controllers!!!

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My better half…

It’s amazing how BH is just the opposite of me.. and because of that we complement each other 🙂 This is when I feel that marrying your BEST male friend is the BEST thing which had happened to me! haha..

Last saturday, we decided to bake pineapple tarts. Nope.. it’s not the first time we r baking them .. we baked them last yr too.. maybe coz I only bake them once a year.. I got quite rusty 🙁 The day before, I’ll mk the pineapple paste. However, the paste didn’t turn out well 🙁 I was very upset but I pluck up all my courage and redid it from scratch again. Yes! It turned out very well the 2nd time 🙂 Happy but tired!

The following day, I attempted to mk the pastry (dough). Somehow, the dough didn’t turned out well though I did everything the same way!!! 🙁 I was soo disapted and wanted to throw the dough away… I attribute all these ‘failures’ to omens that it is gonna be a bad year. Just when I was so upset and frustrated.. BH came to my rescue! He was like ( not like he’s an expert! I mean.. usually, I do all the preparation and he’ll just do the assembling part) ” just add more water.. it’s too dry ” I was in absolute sadness and convinced that everything is gonna go downhill… so I just let BH play with the dough… BH did a fast search online and did his magic ( put water in dough) and….. lo and behold….. he made the crumbs stick!! I’m just so glad that he was around.. I would have gave up and threw everything away!!! 🙂 The point is…. PINEAPPLE TARTS were sucessfully made and it taste better than the past year’s! As a result, I rewrote the recipe so that in future… I’ll refer to my own PINEAPPLE TARTS recipe! 😀

Thank you BH for your support and encouragement! What can I do without you??? I don’t know!! That’s why 🙁 and I hope the feeling is mutual!

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Lust: Le Creuset french oven

Ever since I made my own stew I had been looking for a good time to buy Le Creuset French Oven! For the past 2 years in US, I had been wondering, why would anyone wanna spend US$200 for a pot which is as heavy as a HUGE rock! I think my wrist will break from holding it! However, I guess.. my shallowness just wears off after I ‘level up’ ( hahaha…. don’t play play) in the kitchen! 😀

Which colour is nice?? hehe..

I spent time reading up on these very expensive cast iron pots and realised that they are actually way better than what I’m using now ( erm… a simple non-stick pot) These dutch ovens cooks evenly and keep the flavours in! Oh yes… I certainly need better pots to cook since I’m cooking like MOST of the time.. I mean.. it mks sense to invest in good cookware!

Right now.. I’m still looking around for deals… oh yes.. it’s gonna be like a hunt for the Kitchenaid Mixer again 🙂

Note to BH: Pls do not get me a pot as gift… sooooooooooooo unromantic!!!

[Sidetrack] Was trying to update my cooking blog BUT realised that we didn’t tk pictures ( we made Tacos + Soya bean milk + Mee siam + Oven roasted chicken) 🙁 Food album on my FB had miraculously disappeared too.. ok… shall mk a more concious effort to take more pics!!

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Favourite surprise!

Do you have a favourite surprise? 🙂 I have several!

1) My MOST favourite surprise is when BH comes home early from work! I’m not sure if such surprise will happen when we move to Redmond 🙁 anyhow, BH came home 1 ‘ my favourite surprise’ day and causally mentioned ” Hey ( sadly, he calls me ‘hey’ > another story ), i think the last week of this month, you don’t need to cook. I’ll drive to work, drop u at our new place. Pick you up for lunch. Go to work and pick u up in the evening, have dinner outside then go home!” keke… sounds cool!!

2) No need to cook?! That’s my fave surprise too!! No no… pls don’t get me wrong, I love to cook… BUT excessive cooking mks me v brain-dead, esp. thinking about ‘what to cook’ Basically, I still like cooking…

3) Learning that I can cook! You know… the most surprising POSITIVE thing i learnt about myself for the past 2 yrs since I’m here is definitely ” I am quite a good cook! ” Not being thickskin here… BUT I love reading recipes then trying them out! It’s v exciting to me! and yes… Besides the post office, I spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen! Just that I haven’t been updating my food/cooking blog 🙁

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This is so random..you are reading a very random entry….. *stop here if u r bored*

At times, when u r so absorbed and focused on other things, you tend to forget what really matters. Unfortunately, it happens to me all the time.

It was last sunday, BH and I decided to pamper ourselves, so we went out to our fave Japanese resturant – Maneki for dinner! I had no idea why we were both craving for sashimi… actually, the best place for sashimi is nearby Vancouver, but driving 3hrs just for food.. sounds toooo ridiculous!

After a very happy and satisfying dinner, BH and I were on our way home. It felt like a date! I have no idea why! Then again… everyday with BH is a date! what more can I say! I found another surprise! I am on a date everyday! hahaha…

– when we are at home, BH does his stuff, I do my stuff ( HOUSE DATE)
– shopping for ‘deals’/groceries ( SHOPPING DATE.. duh!??! aka OTOT = Own Time Own Target. Coincidentally, we shop at the store TARGET. haha..)
– watch movie together ( MOVIE DATE)

and the list goes on….. I wish… we’ll nv run out of dates!!! ( That’s coz we are just stuck with each other doing all these silly things… like it or not!!! :D)

ok… 1 last picture of our date with BULLY! keke… This is called AMAZING DATE






(I hope BH won’t kill his ‘date’ as I put up such a silly picture of him with Bully!! hahaha)

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Thanksgiving weekend

Because of the snow.. BH had a v long weekend. While he worked at home, I had to be the maid – preparing his meals. hmmm.. I still like him at work then I can do whatever I like.. keke.. he’s ‘spying’ on me when he’s home :X

anyway, BH was working and checking on deals.. geez.. he didn’t lay a finger to help at all.. I was super busy and at the end of the day.. tired

so I made Sausage Croissant for snacks one afternoon. Played cheat.. used the ready-made dough..





Impressed that the dough already had triangles on them.. so just roll in the sauages and put in the the oven





surprisingly.. they taste good!!





Only 3 left as the rest were in our tummy!!!

For Thanksgiving dinner.. instead of Turkey, I roasted a chicken and cooked Mee Siam… how Singaporean is that! haha





Julius came over for dinner… pardon me looking so shag.. it was a long day preparing food without help.. boo




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On Black Friday itself, we went to Vancouver with Julius and friends – it was raining.. so sianz.. didn’t do much.. it was a eating trip.. and I think i gained a whole lot of weight already!

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The next day.. BH and I went to get ourselves the WINDOWS PHONE and we saw a notebook on super duper sales so we bought it! It’s probably the most geeky day ever for us .. haha





Beanie came Free with our phone… hehe.. looks good??





If you think iphone is cool… u need to try the WINDOWS PHONE! It’s way cooler! haha… and I’m loving FOTOCHOP app.. Other than that, I’m loving the overall look and simplicity of the device 🙂 At least, I don’t feel overwhelmed by looking at so many buttons/icons .. loving it!

The 1st thing I did was to put Bambi as my screensaver 😀 Happy that I could have all my fave things in 1 place





Bambi mks me smile.. though she can be very naughty.. oh well.. shh.. got her X’mas gifts already!! Can’t wait to send home!!

Okok.. BH & I also went shopping for X’mas deco and tree!!! We didn’t deco ur place last yr coz we were moving.. this yr… we are going to! Excited!!! Will show pics soon!

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Kinect weekend!

This weekend is probably one of the most fun weekend ever!

On Sat. , we went to BH’s collegue’s place for Kinect party!! 😀 hang out and played the Kinect games – Adventures!! So cool!! Love playing 20,000 leaks!! oh.. i was too shy to try out the dancing game on BH’s collegue’s Kinect though 🙁

On Sunday, we met up with Julius for dinner at Din Tai Feng. This is the FIRST + 1 and ONLY Din Tai Feng in Seattle. Oh yes.. the wait was horrible… it took us 3hrs to get a table!!! :O Food is nt as nice as the one in SG …




ok.. This card shows u have to eat the xiao long bao! hehe… interesting!!




After the delicious treat from Julius, we went to his home for…. KINECT!!! o… and I got to tell you.. BH really can dance!! ok fine.. i think i m just bad with coordinating my arms and legs! anyway, BH is GREAT with the dancing games!! woohoo!! keke.. will try to record it down next time!!

Here’s a pic of us playing Kinect Adventure!

Kinect made me feel that Machines are ALIVE!!

That’s not it!! Came home.. checked our letter box and I got this!!



YES!! Won this in a giveaway!! 😀

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Reunion after 10 yrs!

THIS IS CLASSIC 🙂

At our old playground, SR Gardens… we met!

I not only got my dose of Sugar Cane juice + Fried Carrot Cake + Stingray ( not pictured) …..

I also got to meet KL!!!!

Really glad that Fel managed to meet us later in the night.. mking the reunion almost PERFECT 😀

“Oh baby tonight, SR Gardens got us falling in love again!”

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eating with coupons

unhappy things aside.. BH and I spent our sunday trying our best to pack our stuff – great! We are almost ready!

We went to Noah’s for lunch > This is now one of our fave breakfast/lunch place during the weekend! It’s affordable and taste great! 🙂 Well, we only go there when we have coupons .. so it’s kinda like a luxury food.. nah.. it’s not expensive.. just that we are saving $ .. it’s so sad that when we are so near to Goal #1 then something else MUST pop up .. haiz…

ok.. my bagel is super nice… I savour every bite of it because we won’t be enjoying this for at least 1 mth .. Going back to SG is only for a few weeks.. but i guess, we’ll miss many things here for that few weeks!

The BEST part abt Noah’s is the coffee.. there’s so many varieties!! haha… note to myself – Take Chelsea coffee the next time round! yum!

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For dinner, we bought a Groupon for Flying Fish a few week back. So, we made reservations and went for it.

Ordered these small plates

1) Marinated Cuttlefish ( too salty for my liking BUT the sauce is nice)

 

2) some grilled fish (can’t rem the name BUT it’s a crab eating fish according to our server) > quite costly for a puny piece BUT taste great!

Point to note – I have no idea why the vege on the 1st 2 plates look yellowish?? they don’t look fresh… geez…

My handsome date




No pics of me here as I look like crap – too stressed up… Pimples are just popping up 🙁

Main course is Salt and Pepper Crab which is too salty as well..

It is NO FUN peeling crab in a resturant – you need to keep your ‘image’ .. BUT we ordered the crab as it’s the most value for our Groupon ( we paid $15 for $50 worth of food)







Crab is very fresh! worth the time and energy for ‘deshelling’ BUT the seasoning is just too salty!!

We took like 2 hrs to finish our dinner! haha.. I think it’s the 2nd longest dinner we had ( Longest is still Alan Wong’s)

Total damage: $88- $50 Groupon = $38 w tips
( Technically, the whole meal cost abt $38+$15)

Though the resturant is near our place, I am NOT going back again!

Ended the Sunday night by settling the HDB sh*t .. sigh

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Hawaii – Day 4 (Final day!)

We booked a Morning Wildlife Cruise which starts at 7.30am! once again, it’s a super early start as the drive to the pier was 1hr!!! So we reached the place, hop on to the cruise. It was our 1st time snorkeling! I have NEVER snorkeled before! Prior to booking this tour, we asked the person if it was alright for newbies and they assured us that it’s alright as long as we know how to swim… so we trusted them

So..the snorkelling gear is not easy to get used to! boo! both of us had difficulties getting used to the gears 🙁 So we end up holding our breath and swimming to see the creatures! ok.. the water was super deep as well.. quite scary for pple who are snorkeling for the first time. My advice.. DO NOT JOIN THIS TOUR IF YOU ARE NEW TO SNORKELING – rent/buy snorkel gears and go snorkel at shark cove instead!!

Shark Cove (North Shore area):

Back to snorkeling – we were very fortunate to have very friendly crew to ‘look after’ us.. haha.. so we managed to see these creatures! It was sooooo amazing to see sea turtles, surgeonfish right before your eyes! My only regret is I can’t snorkel properly! There’s always next time.. and it’s not too late to learn!!

(Pictures taken by film waterproof camera so not very clear)

We were supposed to see dolphins but no luck 🙁

Right after the snorkeling trip, we headed to North Shore. Stopped by this sign to take a picture 🙂

then had shaved ice at Matsumoto

and fed a thirsty sea turtle .. haha

Do you know that LOST is filmed in North Shore?

Looks familiar?

We ended the day with a walk along Waikiki beach and saw the beautiful sunset…

As though it wasn’t romantic enuough… we had dinner at Hula Grill. It was beach front dinning, facing the beach! The view is spectacular and ambience is super romantic in my opinion.

Food was great, in fact BETTER ( and 1/2 the price of Alan Wong’s)!! My fave is the Pineapple Creme Brulee!! iyoh.. so sinful!!! :X On top of that, there was live music and singing. wah… it was so romantic… seriously, i think this is the MOST romantic trip BH had planned!!! 😀 If you are listening to my mixpod, 1 of the songs we heard was ‘Just the way you are’ in the slower version. I didn’t like the song initially BUT maybe it’s the slower version + the ambience, BH and I felt that the song is super nice now! (Btw, BH came home and practise the song on guitar! hahaha)

well… so that’s all about our short getaway in Hawaii – just like in LOST ” We need to go back, Kate..” 

Another beautiful picture of Honolulu from the skies

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Hawaii – Day 3 (On a diet, stay at home!)

Just when I thought Loco Moco was the most poisonous food I had eaten… Leonard’s Bakery is just as bad .. and the worst thing is… I LOVE Leonard’s Bakery 🙁 Ok.. so the bakery have hotdog bread/buns like what we see in SG bakery. To us, this is super rare! We don’t see this kinda buns in often here.. so we bought. We had nv tasted such delicious buns for 2 yrs (the time which are are away from SG)!

Besides the buns, they also have Hawaii Doughnuts = Malasadas. Super nice! When we bought them, it was still warm…yums! and now u know y there’s such a LONG Q! They are good really!

Right after the sinful breakfast, we drove to Pearl Habour

Entrance is FREE! and you get to tk a boat to see the USS Arizona memorial at the other side of the habour. It was interesting to see a piece of history right before you. I think I would have Ace my History in O-levels if I managed to visit this place then!

 That’s us with the remains of the anchor from USS Arizona

After a fast trip to Pearl Habour, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Centre (PCC), which was a long drive away. I had a quick nap in the car as BH drove… sheesh… I feel so bad but I was super tired from rushing to place to place + waking up extra early and sleeping late every night. Luckily, BH can tahan but I know he was tired too! I mean.. that’s y i hate roadtrips.. I rather us join a tour so that both of us can enjoy – let other pple do the work… oh well..

If it’s your FIRST time to Hawaii, do visit the PCC – you will learn more about the different polynesian natives and their cultures. It’s interesting! However, the pt of the PCC is the Lu’au which is a Hawaiian dinner. Lu’au is not only about food but also dance and live music. I am not a pork person BUT there was this particular Hawaiian Pork dish which mks my mouth waters, think it’s Kalau Pig (bottom left picture). It’s yums!

We were also given a Lei  – wreath of flowers draped around the neck upon arriving at the dinning hall. It’s quite cool! haha.. i felt like a VIP

AFter dinner, there was a musical entitled HA at the cultural centre. The lu’au and the musical were the main attractions of the centre. However, the songs were mostly Hawaiian ( though there’s some english narration) – which we didn’t understand. I mean.. the only 2 Hawaii words I knew was ‘Aloha’ and ‘Mahalo’ so it didn’t have much meaning to us. On top of that, we were both exhausted and the drive back to Honolulu was long. So we watched 1/2 the musical and left during their interval. However, both us felt the the production and the effects of the musical was impactful! The musical was good! If only we had more time….

Overall, the dining experience was nice BUT I won’t go back there again. It’s very touristy and things were very expensive!