A Weekend of Stuffing My Face
What a weekend of eating! On Friday, my wife and I met up with two good friends for a delicious yakitori dinner at Ahodori (which I wrote about in March). Saturday night, we had a feast at a friend’s new (and really amazing) apartment. The food, cooked by his gorgeous fiancé, was beautiful. We started with an amuse-bouche of ebi cappellini topped with lobster bisque jelly and flutes of Rosé Champagne. The dinner consisted of a seared tuna salad, tartare of ocean trout and sushi rice, grilled lamb chops with mash, and a delightful lemongrass jelly with fruit and citrus sorbet. Wow!
Sunday, my wife S and I were hosting lunch. We decided to whip up a small lunch, made up of some of our favourite dishes. We started with Chiva-Som’s Thai Pomelo Salad with Prawns that we’ve become quite addicted to. As a main, S slow-cooked a big slab of pork belly, which we cubed and served with grilled vegetables and cous-cous. The pork was buttery and super tender. I have to say, S has really mastered this dish in the past few months. For dessert, I made a layered red fruit jelly and panna cotta which I’ll post about later as my contribution to this month’s Is My Blog Burning? challenge.
After lunch, to eat with our coffees, I whipped up some madeleines (pictured above). I adapted the Mini Madeleines recipe in Patricia Wells’ The Paris Cookbook. I like her recipe a lot because it’s really simple and the batter can be prepped a day in advance. I’ve posted it below.
To finish off a weekend of feasting, Sunday night, we went with my family to the newish Straits Kitchen restaurant in the Grand Hyatt. It’s a sexy, slick space that fronts a local hawker buffet. It’s not cheap but it’s actually pretty good. One weekend, 4 huge meals. I think I’ll be drinking juice and eating light for the rest of the week… well, maybe for a day or two.
Mini Madeleines (recipe adapted from The Paris Cookbook, by Patricia Wells, published by Kyle Cathie Limited, 2001.)
2 eggs
100g sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
120g plain flour
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
90g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon honey
Butter the madeleine pans and place in the freezer. • Beat eggs and butter together using a mixer until the mixture is thick and lemon-colored. Stir in the zest, then the flour and salt. Finally, stir in the butter and the honey. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours. • Preheat the oven to 190ºC. Remove the batter from the fridge and spoon it into the moulds. Bake for between 8-10 minutes (if using large madeleine moulds, 10-12 minutes works well). • Remove the madeleines from the pan as soon as they are cool. Enjoy.
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!





What picture-perfect little Madeleines! They look aboslutely buttery and light; I imagine the reality is even more delicate and balanced! It sounds like a lovely weekend, indeed.
Hi there.
I chanced upon your blog today and just wanted to say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the entries. Will be checking back often for updates 🙂
Cheers
BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS!and wonderful, informative blog entries to match.. =)Any particular restaurant you would recommend in Singapore for a romantic dinner? *grin* you and your wife seem to be THE experts…
Thank you for ur recommendations! and adding my bloglink! =)
I can’t wait to try these restaurants!
Wow! What a weekend!Looks like you have some serious chefs there!Thanks for the madeleines' recipe. I always wanted to make them, however, I must buy the tin for them.
Hi Daffy,I'm a big fan of Iggy's. They do lovely food and the setting is very intimate. The private booths at Aoki are also very sexy, but the price for what you get I find a tad high. To be honest, the one restaurant my wife and I go to the most on "date nights" is probably Garibaldi, on Purvis Street. We don't look at the menus any more but usually ask the owner/manager Beppe to just give us whatever is in season. It's almost always been outstanding. My wife also recommends Au Jardin, in the Botanic Gardens. Very pretty. Good luck.
Hi,
Did I tell you that I’ve been reading your blog and find it quite fascinating? I love the photos. Keep up the good work!
hi
here is where I display my utter ignorance of basic cooking/baking.
what the ‘zest of one lemon’? is it the peel? is the peel candied? is it the juice???*confusion*
the reason I’m asking is cos last week’s Financial Review(Australia) featured a really yummy looking recipe for mandarin tarts that called for mandarin zest too. I honestly hope its something one can buy from the supermarket.cos I want to try baking one day, and I need easy peasy recipes to start out with. I also need to figure out what ‘sifting’ flour and stuff together means =)
but i do know that a good detox is to drink lotsa watercress soups or herbal soups. I do that to detox from too much yumcha.
Thanks for your lovely and informative posts!
Hi Adinahaes,
Zest is finely grated skin of the fruit — just the top layer and not the white bits. To get the zest of a lemon or orange, use a really fine grater and grate off the top layer. The best on the market are by Microplane. Essential Ingredient in Australia should carry them,
Thanks for the pomelo salad recipe! I’m going to try it out this week!
hello there chubby hubby – i’m just cruising through the entries for dmblgit…and your little tiny madeleines are beautiful!
what camera do you use? your photos are so crystal clear!
“what camera do you use? your photos are so crystal clear!”
Did anyone ask Shakespeare what brand of pen he used?
Good photography isn’t just about the camera – it’s about how to use it.