Five years ago, I cradled a cherubic baby boy in my arms, barely 3kg. He is a little man now, who first and foremost, loves to read and has committed at least three dinosaur encyclopedias’ worth of information to memory, whose favourite food is cold soba noodles, and who absolutely adores this cake. Continue Reading →
The last lasagne that I had was at a potluck party, where a friend SL made the most delicious eggplant, mushrooms, beef, pork and tomato number. It was oozy and comforting and I had no trouble clearing out a hefty portion. The lasagne went down easy. The only problem was that it kinda sat in my stomach like a stone for a rather long while after that. Although I know that the blame falls largely on me for lacking self-control, it got me thinking as to whether I could create a lighter lasagne, that was just as hearty and satisfying. Continue Reading →
When I was nine years old, my Aunty J migrated to Vancouver, Canada. Every couple of years, she would make a trip back to Singapore to visit my grandma. Each trip, she would lug goodies from Canada for all of us. I remembered seeing Aunty J unpack her luggage, anxiously anticipating the treats that I was going to receive. We got boxes of peaches and cherries, salmon jerky and my favourite – Wagon Wheels. Continue Reading →
These days, whenever I’m driving up or down Thomson Road, if my two and a half year old son T is in the car with me, I’ll inevitably hear him peep, “Pizza?” when we get within sight of United Square. I’ve already written previously that my lil’ boy is a complete pizza addict. And his favorite pizzas in Singapore are the ones served at Extra Virgin Pizza, whose large sign facing the road is akin to a bat signal to our tiny terror. The second he spies that sign, with its iconic hand-making-a-V-logo, his little eyes light up and he begins to implore mama and papa that he simply must have pizza for lunch or dinner that day. Continue Reading →
Even I’ll admit, there are days when I’ve simply had too much cheesecake, and a few too many croissants and deep-fried chicken wings. I’m often left feeling bloated, clogged up and frankly, quite disgusted with myself. To remedy this, I switch to temple-mode and focus on clean, fresh, light foods. Although I always aim to drag this phase on for as long as I can, it realistically only lasts a couple of days. I cram in as much goodness in this time as I can muster, and this minestrone features frequently as a temple-mode lunch. Continue Reading →
For the last three Sunday mornings in a row, if you’ve wanted to find me, and my wife and son (and occasionally our golden retriever), all you would have had to do was visit the new Kith cafe on Quayside Isle, on Sentosa. This newest branch of Jane Hia’s successful cafe chain is by far my family’s favorite brekkie spot in Singapore, for several reasons (that’s Jane in the picture, by the way). Continue Reading →
I’ve been grumpier than usual for the past two months, since my trusty coffee machine (an 8-year old De’Longhi Magnifica) broke. But I trudge along wearily and while the (painfully indecisive) hubby and I are still trying to figure out which is to be our new coffee machine, I have reverted to my tea-drinking ways.
My kids love cucumbers. My little cucumber-eating champ of a 21-month old daughter, who still only has barely ten teeth (why?!), always impresses me with the alarming amount of cuke she manages to put away at each sitting. Although it’s super easy to just thinly slice up a cucumber and feed it to them, I am always keen on introducing exciting textures and tastes to their budding palates. Using the vegetable peeler to create long ribbons of cucumber not only makes it more delicate and tender for the little ones, but the salad also looks elegant enough to serve as a starter or side at a dinner party. The children had this crisp salad for lunch today with fluffy Japanese rice and a simple steamed egg custard, but it would be equally great as a refreshing accompaniment to a fillet of spicy grilled fish. Continue Reading →
For the longest time, chard was just something I’d only read about in cookbooks. It was one of those mythical vegetables that I knew of, but never felt was truly part of my culinary repertoire primarily because it wasn’t something I could easily pick up at the wet market or supermarket. In other words, it was a vegetable I could live without. That all changed when we recently received an organic Farm Box from SuperNature.
It’s definitely ice cream weather right now! You would think that to get a thin coat of chocolate on your ice cream would be a simple matter of dipping it into some melted chocolate. Well, think again. I’ve made some spectacular mistakes. It doesn’t help that doing something like that in the sweltering tropics makes it doubly complex. But I’m happy to report that I’ve finally found a simple chocolate ice cream shell recipe that works: chocolate and refined coconut oil. I did try the venerable Thomas Keller’s recipe first, but it still resulted in a shell that was far too thick. It was the Chocolate Bombe Shell recipe from the fabulous Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams that did the trick.
My darling aunt celebrated her 50th birthday recently. I understand that women generally prefer to not discuss their age, much less have it revealed to the world via a blog post. For this disservice, I’m prepared to receive a phone call from her right about now, to holler threats about cutting me out of her will. But hey, she looks better than most women a decade younger, so where’s the shame? If I turn out half as good as her when I reach this milestone, I’d be unabashedly shouting my age from rooftops. Anyhow, me being her favourite (read: only) niece, I decided that she deserves a splendid dinner and of course, a brilliant cake. Continue Reading →