Masak-masak

Sweet Corn and Carrot Soup

Have been cooking dinners more often than usual (ever since I started my working life in Singapore); I cooked dinner almost every day last week, after work and gym! *impressed

Stir-fry Assorted Mushrooms with Chicken

One of the most important factors that motivate me to cook is to have someone who appreciates; my housemate in this case scenario! LOL.

Baked Sambal Fish Fillet with loads of Lady Fingers

I feel as if I were back in Melbourne, where I used to cook dinners for my brother and housemate(s). Heart the life where we would cook for each other, taking into consideration what dishes / food one will or will not eat, for example.

Spicy Lotus Root with Snow Peas and Carrot

A great way to show your care and concern to someone, from my perspective.

Stir-fry Chye Sim

Appreciate those who had/ will actually put in effort to cook for me, no matter who you are. Especially those who wake up early in the morning to prepare heart-warming breakfast for me *so much loved. The attempt to make it happens weigh much more than the presentation and taste of the food. I would say my expectations to home-cooked food are quite different from what I would anticipate from a cafe/ restaurants.

Fish Fillet with Black Pepper Sauce

Of all the dishes that I prepared last week, I guess the Stir-fry fish fillet with black pepper was my housemate top choice! She likes black pepper really much! Although I am not a big fan of black pepper, I am glad she likes it. And, perhaps her all-time-favourite chicken wings as well. :P

Cola Chicken Wings

Thank you everyone who has showered me with love with their home-cooked food. You all are greatly appreciated! And, of coz, that includes my mum who has been cooking for me for the past 20 odd years. Love you, mum! xoxo

Winter Solstice 2011 - Happy Tang Yuan Day~

Winter solstice came early! We made tang yuan on Sunday and that was 4 days earlier! But who cares? Too tired to do it after work on its actual day, on a weekday! :P

Besides the peanut & black sesame glutinous rice ball in ginger soup, I cooked dinner for my “family” in Singapore too!

We had more soup! Savoury one for dinner; pork rib lotus root with peanut! One of my favourite soups! <3

For protein, we had Kung Po Chicken as requested by my dear housemate. I find home-cooked ones lacking of the “wok hei”. But the chicken was really soft and tender! Credits go to Uncle who helped me to buy the fresh and good chicken! LOL

And, how could we leave out the green? Stir fry kai lan with salted fish we had!

Thank you for allowing me to be part of the “family”; staying under one roof together and always looking after me. I am counting my blessings! Thank you xoxo

Spicy Cheezy Tuna Omelet

Whoops, I did it again!

Although I was warned to avoid eggs for the next few days by someone. LOLs.

More eggs for breakfast on weekends! It is home-made this time round, hehe.

A simple and easy dish, which is loaded with protein and uhm… fats (from cheese and mayonnaise; the more the better :P).

My all-time-favourite-fuel when I was studying in Melbourne. Best with chili flakes and oregano *LIKE*

Father's Day 2011

Prepared lunch and dinner for my parents yesterday as part of the once a year Father’s Day celebration. It seems to be a tradition for me to cook on Mother’s and Father’s Day these years. Smile.

My dad laughed happily when I told him I am going to bring him to different countries on his-day, tsk tsk.

We went Korea for lunch on Father's Day. We had Kim Chi as the side dish...

And our main was sweet and spicy Tteokbokki …

Dad and mum had tried the Chinese style of stir fried rice cake but not the Korean style. Nonetheless, I am glad that it was well accepted by my parents, especially my dad who likes to eat chewy foods such as gummies, mochi and etc.

Thank you Y for the SOS from Singapore. Without you, the stir fried Korean rice cake would definitely be a failed attempt *winks

As for dinner, we went Western. Hehe.

For appetizer, we had the Ultimate Mushroom Bruschetta (Jamie Oliver’s style)…

For main, we had Pan Fried Salmon with Mashed Cauliflower and Greens Salad…

And, how can we not have something sweet to make the celebration sweeter? ;P

Mum was the first to try on my first-ever-attempt Apple Crumble Pie; our dessert that night. Her feedback was, the tart was good and the crust was better than the bakeries we have at our small little town before she started to complain that the crust was not thick enough, haha. I am glad that the dessert turned out well. I was quite worried that the crust would be as hard as a rock *phew, relieved.

So, we had the Apple Crumble Pie with ice cream to make our meal complete. Dad likes it with ice-cream, and he asked for a bit more ice cream to go with the apple pie as the ice-cream served was too little as you can tell from the photo, haha. (p/s: Of coz, I didn’t make the ice-cream ;P).

Happy Father’s Day my dearest daddy. I am counting my blessings to have you as my super-daddy. Love you lots *Hugs and kisses* <3

Beef Noodles Soup (Taiwanese Style)

I wanted to participate so much in the blood donation drive last week. Especially when I know that my blood type is scarce most of the time.

However, my hemoglobin was too low and I was rejected at the door step to become an eligible blood donor. The minimum hemoglobin level you need to be a qualified donor is 12.5g/dl, mine was 11+g/dl *sad*

With the intention to become a suitable blood donor in the next blood donation drive. I cooked a dish that is high in iron, aiming to increase my haemoglobin levels *winks

Beef noodles soup~ *nom nom nom*

Learnt this dish from a friend’s mum who is a Taiwanese when I was in uni. Have not cooked this dish for at least 2-3 years. Luckily I still received positive comments from my guinea pigs :P

I love it best with loads of salted veggies *yummy*

Happy Mother's Day 2011

This is the 3rd Mother’s Day celebration since I am back from Australia for good. It has then become a tradition for me to cook on this special day for my dearest mum.

My mum was so excited when I told her I would turn her kitchen into my playground once again on her day. Her response was it had been so long since I last cooked them a meal. True enough, I can’t remember when was the last time I messed up her kitchen. Most probably it was Father’s Day last year? *grin*

Decided to cook some Thai foods for my beloved parents on Mother’s Day.

We had Seafood Tom Yum Goong...

Green Curry Veg-Chicken...

Lemon Sauce Steamed Fish...

And Stir-fried Four-angled Bean ;)

When I was cooking the green curry, mum kept peeping on me and commented that the green curry smells really nice. And during the dinner, mum was saying that I should cook this green curry again. *smile* I am really glad that mum enjoyed the meal.

Happy Mother's Day once again, my dearest mummy. Thank you for always being there. I am nothing without you <3

Hope you like the present. *BEAR HUGS*

Banana-Peach Chocolate Muffins

Baking mode is once again on over the long weekend.

Baked some chocolate banana muffins this time round. Added some canned peach into the muffins, simply because my bro bought it early this year when he was back at home but never had a chance to eat it before he left to China. No one at home really like canned peach, so there it goes in to the muffins :P

First, mashed the banana...

Add in the mashed canned peach...

Mix with shaved chocolate and all other ingredients...

Have the muffin batter placed nicely into the muffin cups...

There they go in to the oven to do some "sauna"...

And, TA DA...

The so called fruity and moist banana-peach chocolate muffins are ready to be served!

Bon appétit ;)

Chinese Sago Desserts

I tried to make something out of the norm over the long weekend (Its Good Friday!) using the left over evaporated milk I had from baking. Papaya+carrot+orange sago dessert, haha.


I think the papaya looks very much like salted egg on the picture above. Maybe I should be more creative and trial on some salty sago "desserts" next time using salted egg or maybe century egg, lol. Would anyone like to try the final product if I make it? :P



Verdict? I think the usual, regular honeydew sago dessert and pamelo mango sago dessert that I made last year were comparatively more well-accepted by my subjects.

There is definitely room for improvement tho my subjects commented that the look of the papaya+carrot+orange sago dessert was good and the taste was fairly good too when the dessert was served chilled.

Well, failure is the mother of success. I shall not be defeated *winks*

Baking and Cooking Mode - On

As far as I remember, I have not been cooking much since Chinese New Year in Feb 2011. Nonetheless, my baking mode was on for the last couple of weekends.

First, I baked my family’s all-time favourite butter cake on Qing Ming weekend. My parents were complaining that I have not baked them this cake for awhile. Hence I baked it in conjunction with Qing Ming to please them.


Come to think about it, my first time baking a butter cake was almost 10yrs ago, when I was doing my MUFY @ Sunway College at my uncle’s place, for my dad’s birthday!! That was a failure, seriously. Haha, sorry dad: P


After multiple attempts, I have finally found a foolproof recipe which I am using till now. It calls for five basic ingredients including flour, eggs, butter, sugar and milk! And it is easy, just blend in all the ingredients and put it in the oven to bakefor an hour or so. In no time, you will be able to enjoy a decent butter cake (best with a cup of coffee as per my coffee addict dad, lol). Hehe.


Once the mode is turned on, it takes awhile to go off I guess. The following weekend I was in the mood to bake again and hence I baked a cheese brownie, to make use of the block of chocolate which I bought awhile ago. It had been sitting in the cabinet waiting for its turn to blossom into some sweets/ desserts, haha.


The cheese brownie calls for more ingredients than butter cake and comparatively it is also more time consuming. Nonetheless, it is all worthwhile as my mum likes it and its my aunt’s all-time-favourite since I baked it for her as her 60th birthday cake couple of years ago.


How about this weekend? I am not back at home and hence baking is unlikely. So, I cooked myself some pasta! Easy peasy tuna pasta for one, done in about 10minutes or so, my favourite dish when I was in Melbourne cos it is not only easy but minimal washing is required, lol


Its time for me to go for a run after having all these! Healthy balanced lifestyle, I advocate! Moderation is key. Cheers.

Cooking on weekends

My weekends in Singapore so far were mostly spent in kitchen or catching up with friends, don't really like the feeling of not doing anything at all over the weekends.

Now, I am presenting two of my produces from my humble kitchen in Singapore, prawn noodles soup and cola chicken wings respectively.

Prawn Noodles Soup

Aunt bought some chicken wings accidentally the other day. Hence, I decided to cook something new for my housemate and her family with these chicken wings.

Cola Chicken Wings

Honestly, I don't really like the two main ingredients (i.e. soft drinks and chicken wings) used in making the cola chicken wings. So I don't really fancy this dish in fact, but the feedback so far has been quite good and acceptable after having this dish cooked for different people to try for a few times, be it in Australia, Malaysia or Singapore.

Thank god my housemate and her family are able to accept my cooking so far *phew*

First attempt: Savoury muffin

Decided to trial this savoury cornmeal muffin on the 27th Sept 2009 since I had some ingredients awaiting to be used sitting at home.

The ingredients include corns, ham & some celery

Besides, my housemate seems to be very keen to be my guinea pig as she has had very good savoury muffin when she was at the States.

Ready to go in to the oven

The end product was a tad too salty, put too much salt! *sighs*

The finished product

I think I prefer the sweet muffin still :P

Baking Mode: On

Had a urge to bake yesterday, so tada... Here's my produce, the banana+peach+chocolate muffins!

Banana-Peach-Chocolate Muffins

The original recipe called for 4 bananas but I only had 2 left in my pantry, so I substituted the bananas with peaches instead. Also added in some chocolate chuncks which I found in the fridge!

Baking in progress

Basically I were just trying to make out something from everything I had on hand. The verdict was better than expected.

Brought some to the office today. After having them tried, few of my colleagues were after me for the recipe. Kept some for my dearest and beloved too and I got thumbs up from them!

Happy baking =)

Happy Father's Day

Unfortunately, I am not financially independent yet though I have started working now. My pay day is end of the month.

Then we had this wedding dinner to attend a night before Father's day and Sunday was a bit too rush cos I were to go back to Singapore in the evening. As a result, I were not able to prepare any decent home-cooked meal for my dearest on his day though this was the 1st time after 5yrs him having me around to celebrate the day with him.

All I could do was to bake my dearest his favourite cake - butter cake, flavoured by his favourite drink - coffee, i.e. a coffee marbled butter cake.


This cake was freshly made on Father's day morning with freshly bought eggs. My dearest loves it!

Happy Father's Day, dearest!