Beach Road Prawn Mee Noodle House

14th Sep 09

Met up for lunch with one of our ex-colleague at Beach Road Prawn Mee situated at East Coast Road. A very well established noodle house and always crowded especially during lunch time and weekends. Last time they were at Beach Road, occupied only a stall in a coffee shop. Business had bloomed since then that they expanded & moved to become a noodle house at East Coast. However, the mee just don't taste as good as it used to be... but they are still one of the few nice prawn noodles stall in Singapore.

There are few types to choose from and prices ranging from S$4.50 to $10.80. There's a ngoh hiang store in the shop too. Most diners will order some as side dish but it can be quite expensive. Sometimes may even cost more than the prawn mee.

You can choose big prawn or small prawn mee, usually I will go for small prawns which are already de-shelled and I prefered the dry version.

Beach Road Prawn Mee Noodle House
370 East Coast Road
Singapore
Tel: 6345 7196
Operating Hours:
Daily: 8am - 4pm
(Closed on Tue)

A simple birthday celebration!

We had an early birthday celebration for J on 13th Sep who's bd was on 22rd. We had homecooked sukiyaki hotpot dinner at L's house. We also prepared some CP mexican wing, sotong balls & Saba fish as side dish. The dessert was a birthday cake - green tea chiffon I baked for her. Though simple but everyone enjoyed the dinner.

Green Tea - I love you...

13th Sep 09

Yes, I'm still not done with my green tea bakes yet. I really like green tea, I like green tea ice cream, cakes, dessert, cookies, and drink or simply anything green tea. My trip to Japan, I bought quite a few green tea treats too.

After my successful trial few days ago on the green tea chiffon cake, I'm going to bake the actual birthday cake for my friend today using that recipe. The same day, I also baked another cake using Valerie's Strawberry shortcake recipe but modified it to green tea flavor. Well it's turn our real good too.

This cake taste almost similar to my green tea chiffon cake but much lighter.

This was the birthday cake specially made for my best friend, Hwee. Happy Birthday!

First Day Cover - Local Delights & Desserts

Singpost had launched their first day cover for Local Delights & Local Desserts in July 09. Both came with nice gift pack. I'm not a collector of first day covers but find these stamps very nice & meaningful so bought a set for keepsakes.

Presentation Pack

Premium Gift

Shop@vpost

Hot Favourites Workshop Menu 8 w/Chef Yong

Korean food is also one of my fav cuisine so I was glad that Chef Yong was conducting a workshop on that. Of course I registered for it after confirming the timing was alright for me. It's been quite sometimes since the last time I attended Chef Yong classes. I think last one was a CNY workshops which was more than 8 months ago. The workshop was not as crowded as before but still a handful.

Attended this workshop at Cairhill CC on 11th Sep 09 after dinner at Toa Payoh Lor 5. The menu included 3 popular Korean dishes which are commonly served in Korean Restaurant and all are my fav too. Chef Yong worked with Koreans before when he was stationed in States so I think his recipes are rather authentic and homestlye.

Also known as Korean Miso Flavoured Hot Pot - This soup was delicious and a bit spicy, rich & full of clam flavor.

I cooked this many times at home but premix sauce was used instead. For the workshop, the marinade was all done from scatch and definitely taste so much better than the premix. Yummy!

Even the dipping sauce (usually in green box sold in Korean mart) was made from scratch too. The difference was this was more spicy, watery and less salty than the ready paste. Not bad but I think I will just stick to the ready paste. Too troublesome to make...

Korean Glass Noodle - A saute dish with a few types of veg and some meat. This was a bit too salty for my liking.

Culinary Workshops with Chef Eric Low
Onepa

Craving for some hawker fares...

Friday - 11th Sep 09

Craving for hawker food so decided to settle our dinner at my fav food centre in Toa Payoh. Blk 75 Lor 5. These were the usual stuffs we will order to share when we dine there.

Satay & Dupak (Fang Yuan)



BBQ Stingray w/Sambal



Fried Kway Teow



BBQ Chicken Wings (Chong Pang)



Fish Head Soup (Shi Zhen Cooked Food)



Glass Jelly w/Longan (Soya Bean Point)


A satisfying meal of local food that will not burn a hole our pocket. Of course we can't eat all these daily... so unhealthy but once awhile indulgence is perfectly alright to me.

Closed Pineapple Tarts & Kueh Makmur Workshop

Back to The Serangoon CC again the following week to attend Valerie's Closed Pineapple Tarts & Kueh Makmur workshop on 10th Sep 09. This recipe is even more melt in the mouth than the open tarts and taste even nicer. However, too much work unless we just shape it into balls instead of using the tweezer to pinch out a rose. As for the kueh makmur, it's the same pastry as the tarts but different fillings.

Closed Pineapple Tarts

Kueh Makmur

Valerie's Closed Pineapple Tarts & Kueh Makmur Workshop @ 10th Sep 09

Please note that I will not be sharing any of Valerie's workshop recipes. This was a special request from her and I had given her assurance that I won't do so too. If anyone who is interested in her workshops/recipes may email her directly: valbakes@yahoo.com.sg or check out Onepa for schedules.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake w/Strawberry

My bakes for Sep 09 also include this green tea chiffon cake which I would like to post it separately. After trying the green tea chiffon cake from Tampopo, I kept telling myself I must try to bake one somedays. Finally got myself into baking one as I wanted to make one for my best friend's birthday. She simply loves anything that's green tea so I have to try out the recipe first before baking one for her.

I'm glad it turned out quite nice and my colleagues who's my testers all gave rather good comments. Of course still can't compare to the one from Tampopo but rather close to their's except their cream taste nicer probably because they used dairy cream.

8th Sep 2009

Recipe modified & adapted from my orange chiffon cake recipe:
Ingredients:(A)
5 Egg yolks
80g Sugar

(B)
100g Fresh Milk (warmed)
2-3tsp Green tea powder (Good quality type from Japan)
50g Sunflower/veg oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla paste
1 tbsp Rum liquor
A pinch of salt

(C)
110g Superlite flour (Prima)
1/2 tsp Baking powder (Double action)

(D)
5 Egg whites
70g Sugar
1/4tsp Cream of tartar

Method:
(For 21-22cm chiffon mould)
Preheat oven at 160-170 degree C

1. For Ingredient (B) - Heat up the milk and stir in green tea powder till well mix. When it cool down, add in the rest of (B) & mix well. Set aside.

2. Sieve (C) together. Set aside.

3. Whisk (A) till the egg yolks turn creamy pale yellow colour about 3mins. Add in (B) and mix well. Follow by (C), mix well set aside.

4. Whisk (D) at max speed untill stiff.

5. Add in 1/3 meringue into mixture (3) and fold well.

6. Pour this mixture back to the balance meringue and fold well till the mixture is smooth flowing and glossy.

7. Pour into a clean & grease free 21-22cm chiffon mould and bake for 50-55 mins. Bang the mould before going into the oven to release excess air. To test doneness of the cake, bake until the cake rises high and then starts to shrink.

8. When the cake is cooked, invert the cake to cool. Remove the cake from the cake pan when it is completely cool. Optional - Cream the cake with whipped cream & decorate w/strawberry.

For decoration (optional):
200g Whipping cream (I used pour & whip)
1-2 thbsp kirsh/Rum liquor
1/2 tsp Vanilla
Fresh Strawberry

Zi Yean Restaurant

This restaurant was highly recommended by Mosses Lim so we gave it a try on one of our Sunday dinner (6th Sep). However, we don't really like their style of cooking though the food taste ok so probably won't be back again. They are also very pushy too kept asking us to order fish & seafood which made us rather uncomfortable. I notice their pricing was 10% higher than normal zi char stall.

Mei Cai Chicken

This was their signature dish, taste alright but too much of it a bit 'jerlard'!

Egg White & Crabmeat w/Raw Egg

Taste ok with bits of 'wok hei' but somehow I felt that the crabmeat was fishy where others think was ok.

Shredded Seacucumber & Yam w/3 Vegetables

I totally couldn't recall what was the name of this dish. It's looked pretty impressive on the menu picture but the actual presentation was disappointing. It's like a plate of mixed vegetables to me.

Ngai Bai w/Salted Fish

This was a tad too bland and I think my aunt cooked a better one than them.

Zi Yean Restaurant
Blk 56 Lengkok Bahru
#01-443
Singapore
Tel: 6474 0911
Operating Hours:
Mon-Sun: 11am - 10.30pm

My Bakes - Sep 09

Some of my simple bakes... Sometimes I'm quite lazy so simple & easy recipes usually attracted me.

6th Sep 2009

This buttermilk muffin was yummy. Thanks K for sharing the recipe with me.

Attempted this recipe which I learnt from Daniel Tay's workshop. Recipe can also be found in his cookbook - Just Dessert.

My Leisure Cooking - Sep 09

Some of the meals prepared by me before my trip... Recipes are mostly adapted from Chef Yong's workshops. However I can't post up the recipes as he is still teaching it.

5th Sep 2009

Linguine lightly tossed w/fried garlic, olive oil & chopped tomatoes served with pan fried fresh cod fish top with home made pesto sauce. Pesto sauce - a blend of extra virgin oil, pine nuts, permasen cheese & fresh chopped basil leave. One of my fav pasta sauce... yummm!

9th Sep 2009

A very appetizing dressing toss with a mixture of whatever fresh vegetables I can find in my fridge.

Potatoes wedges seasoned w/curry powder & coated with flour deep fried till crisp served w/homemade honey mustard sauce. Very well liked by my family.

Thick slice of dory fillet deep fried in a fluffy batter. Crispy on the outside & juicy & moist inside. However a bit too oily maybe my oil was not on the right temp.

Homemade tartar sauce, really good and simple to make too. Basically is a mixture of mayo, capers, gherkins, eggs, parsley, lemon & onions.

11th Sep 2009

Our all times fav garlic bread & potatoes salad. A simple & satisfying light lunch on weekends.

12th Sep 2009

Another one of my family fav - Prima Laksa but mee tai bak was used instead and was surprising good, even better than the usual bee hoon.