Stir-fried Omelette with Tomato (番茄炒蛋)

"Simply tasty and healthy tomato stir-fried omelette!"

Sometimes it's just very easy to have a simple, yet tasty and healthy homemade dish. If you not into complex recipe, try this tomato omelette!

Even if you are not a tomato or onion fan, you will like this dish as it simply delicious where you won't taste the 'raw' flavour. I loved its pleasant sweet flavour with great mouthfeel in the palate yielded from the cooked tomato and onion with the eggs.

I first tasted this dish over a simple dinner gathering at my good friend's place where her mum cooked this for me, many years ago. I could not forget the great taste of this dish, and decided to learn to cook it by my own so that I could have it anytime I wish to (smile).

Serves 3 - 4
Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced, crosswise (*Use only half, if it's too large)
1 ripe tomato, skinned and diced into chunk pieces

3 - 4 tablespoons of ketchup (tomato sauce)
1 tablespoon of sugar
Pinch of salt

Seasoning for egg:
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
Pinch of white ground pepper

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Method
1) Break eggs into bowl. Add light soy sauce and pepper, beat eggs till blended.

2) How to cut onion to reduce its pungency: Peel the outer skin of onion, and cut into halves. Lay the flat surface of one half portion, and thinly slice it crosswise (cut against the lines pattern of the onion), starting from its top part to root end. Reserve for later.

3) Heat wok with oil over high fire. Reduce heat to medium fire, add in onion and stir fry till lightly brown and soften. Add tomato, stir fry for 1 minute.

4) Then, add beaten egg. Let egg set for 10 seconds until it turns slightly firm and browned on one side. Need not to overturn the egg, stir-fry and use wok spatula to separate egg into chunk pieces. Add in salt, ketchup and sugar, stir fry to combine well. Heat off and serve with steamed rice.

In fact, this stir-fried omelette should be presented 'wet', slightly covered in ketchup gravy. If you wish to have more ketchup gravy in the omelette dish, add more ketchup sauce and sugar.

1 serving of stir-fried omelette with tomato (and onion) counts about 120kcal.

Tips: If you prefer the egg to be more moist, add two tablespoons of fresh/ skimmed milk into the egg and beat them together  (with light soy sauce and pepper) to blend well.

Hollandaise Sauce

'Simple French recipe helps to create your perfect breakfast meal!"

Hollandaise sauce is a French sauce, and it’s commonly known to complement the eating of Egg Benedict (which consists of English muffin, poached egg, bacons and hams as toppings, and Holladaise sauce is a MUST for Egg Benedict).

This light creamy sauce has a mild flavour of buttery and eggy with a touch of refreshing lemony scent in the palate. It's never too greasy to taste. Topping of Hollandaise sauce helps to enhance the overall taste of the plain poached egg, and with such combination, it creates a perfect mouthfeel for the palate.

To create such smooth and even taste, melted butter has to be added to the yolk mixture in stages. This process is essential, if you wish to reach the perfect texture of the sauce (*see details in Step 3).

In fact, this sauce can be topped on various food items, besides Egg benedict. Your strawberry crepe, ham waffles and chicken sandwiches will taste even better with Holladaise sauce! Use Hollandaise sauce to top on poached egg on the toasted French loaf slice was what we had the other time.. Hmm... How about top it on french fries or poached potatoes and steamed broccoli, then?! Can you imagine how perfect these combinations could be (smile)?

Try this simple making French sauce, and impress your loved ones with a great French breakfast meal soon!

Yields a large bowl of sauce, good for 8 to 10 toppings
Ingredients
1 block of unsalted butter (about 250gram), melted
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
Sprinkle of salt

Method:
1) Melt butter in a sauce pan over low flame. When melted, heat off and leave aside to cool.

2) Boil a large pot of water over high heat on stove. In the meantime, use another bowl (smaller size) and mix egg yolks, vinegar and salt. Whisk to combine the ingredients well. When boiled, reduce heat to medium low fire, place the smaller pot of yolk mixture over the large pot of boiled water and continue to whisk the mixture vigorously till it turns creamy texture. (Or, you may use double boiler to do this step.)

3) Remove the creamy yolk mixture from the double boiling process. Now, you need a helping hand from another person, to help you to add in melted butter in stages, while you continue whisking the yolk mixture vigorously, until well combined. Ready to use the sauce for Eggs Benedict, or just the poached egg on toasted bread.

Hollandaise sauce is best to serve warm, not hot.

This sauce is, obviously, not any fat trimming sauce, from the fact that whole block of butter is used in the recipe. Expect a 'topping' of 100 kcal more to your calorie intake of the meal with 2 large heaping spoons of Hollandaise sauce used.

Tips: If you do not have any white wine vinegar, replace with lemon juice.
* Add sprinkle of sugar to it, if sweeter taste is preferred.
* If the sauce appears a little too thick for your taste, sprinkle some warm water and combine well, in last step.

Cordyceps and Ginseng Tonic Soup with Black Chicken (冬虫夏草泡参黑鸡汤)

"Nourishing Chinese Herbal Soup, its extensive health benefits to all ages are beyond your imagination."

I had a bowl of Cordyceps tonic soup for lunch at one of the coffee shop at Ang Mo Kio area last week as I wanted to take something nourishing and tonical. Did not expect Cordyceps soup to taste so great, its mild fragrance in the palate with a hint of natural sweetness impressed me. So, I jotted down the Chinese herbs found in the soup (luckily, I still recognise each herb used.. :p), and decided to find out more about it, and to make it at home for my family.

Benefits of Cordyceps:
Cordyceps Sinensis, also known as caterpillar fungus. In Chinese, we called it 冬虫夏草 (direct translation as 'Winter worm Summer grass'), or simple term as 冬虫草, or even just 虫草. I simply love the subtle taste of this clear soup. This great and nutritional soup not only taste good, it has its vast health benefits! The characteristic of cordyceps is neither cooling nor heaty, but mild and nuetral to be taken by all ages. Cordyceps are widely used in Chinese medicine due to its high healing properties believed by many Chinese medical practitioners. Some Chinese even believe that it promotes longevity, if Cordyceps were to be taken on regular basis.

Major health benefits are believed to help in regulating and ensuring the normal functioning of various parts and organs of our body. Cordyceps strengthens our immune system and promotes overall vitality as well as resists bacteria. I heard taking cordyceps may reduce blood pressure, strengthen heart, lung and kidney, and of course, overall body immune system.

I even came across some studies that cordyceps alliviates mental tension. Many of us encounter pressure from work or personal life, and hence, Chinese practitioners believed that taking Cordyceps helps to get rid of pressure-causing illnesses such as anxiety, headache and insomnia.

By looking at its great health benefits, there isn't any reason for me not to boil this soup for my family and myself regularly. I added ginseng slices to this soup to make it even better taste and higher nutritional value.

This soup is very easy to cook, and its Chinese herbs ingredients can be easily purchased from Chinese herbal shops and major supermarket (Chinese soup or dry goods section). Try it today!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
10g - 20g each of the following Chinese herbs:
Cordyceps Sinensis "Dong Chong Xia Cao" (冬虫夏草) *see pic on right
Ginseng slices "Pao Shen" (泡参) *see same pic on right
Codonopsis Pilosulae "Dang shen" (黨參)
Solomon’s Seal Rhizome "Yu Zhu" (玉竹)
Radix Dioscoreae Oppositae aka Chinese Yam Root "Huai Shan" (淮山）
Liquorice Root "Gan Cao" (甘草)
Fructus Lycii aka Wolfberry "Gou Qi Zi" (枸杞子)

1 black chicken (乌鸡)， skined and quartered

1 - 2 teaspoon of salt (*add gradually, adjust amount to suit your taste)

1 pot of water, 70% filled (about 2000ml)

Method:
1) Heat pot of water over high flame. Add all Chinese herbs and reduce heat to medium fire. Boil herbs for 15 minutes.

2) Add black chicken meat (you may blanch the chicken meat beforehand). Reduce heat to low fire and simmer for 2 hours. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

Variation: May add ribs or white chicken (old hen) instead of black chicken.

Tips: If you do not have time to boil during weekdays, use a slow cooker to do the job. Place all ingredients in the croak pot and boil with slow cooker on auto shift mode in the morning before leaving for work. By evening, simply add salt to taste, and this tasty and healthy soup will be ready for dinner.

Bruschetta with Tomatoes (and Basil) Recipe

"Bruschetta with Tomatoes recipe, and the easy way to deal with the preparation of tomato toppings!"

As I mentioned in my review of cook-off of Julie & Julia's menu, Bruschetta is an Italian bread dish than French recipe, to be exact. However, I learnt this great light bites, and would like to share its simple making yet delicious recipe to you.

This is light snack which may be taken as appetizer, to indulge it during tea break, and even as your favourite TV bites. I liked bruschetta with tamatoes, because it tastes very refreshing. This fruit is high anti-oxidant properties which help to fight free radical in our body, and hence, reduce rish of getting cancer. For any one who does not to eat tomato, this is the greatest way to try having it! Having the tomato in bruschetta makes its taste and texture much more palatable.

There are three ways to prepare the tomatoes..

With large tomato, you may choose to eat it with skin or without skin. If these are the only two choices, I would personally prefer to eat it without skin as it yields smoother consistency in the palate to go without its skin. Its smoother, softer and easier to bite texture complements the crunchy toasted bread so well, but of course, this great bite comes with your contribution of more time and effort.

Steps to peel tomato skin:
Firstly, you have to cut a shallow cross on the bottom of the large tomato as this way will aid in the actual peeling of the tomato later, but do not remove the stem on the top part. Then, prepare a pot of iced water and another pot of boiling water. Place tomato into boiling water for 10 seconds, and then, quickly remove it from water, and let it cool by placing it into iced water for a few seconds. Begin peeling from the shallow cross you have made right at the begining. The skin of the tomato should be very easily peeled, by now. Then, dice it.

Steps to dice tomato:
Halves the tomato. Sit one halves on its flat area on a clean chopping board. Then, run your knife over to slice it, but it will be easier if you leave the stem at the top part unsliced, so that the tomato slices will be intact in an organised way. Now, cut the tomato slices crosswise into dices. discard the stem portion.

Besides using the large tomato, cherry tomato seems to be even better option, to me. I loved its slight crunchy texture and more juicy and sweeter taste in the palate. There isn't a need to peel the skin or dice its flesh. Just cut each cherry tomato into half. *Choose organic cherry tomato or cherry tomato that meant to be eaten instantly as snacks.

See recipe of Bruschetta now:

Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients

Baguette, sliced into 1cm thick, lengthwise
6 cloves of roasted garlic in Olive oil (retained 1 teaspoon of olive oil)
Pinch of salt

1 regular bowl of cherry tomato (about 15 pcs), halves (or 2 large tomatoes, skinned and diced)
4 cloves of roasted garlic
¾ teaspoon of white wine vinegar
¾ teaspoon of sugar
A gentle touch of salt

Garnish:
1 - 2 stem of fresh Basil leave, finely chopped
Freshly grounded black pepper

Method

1) Preheat oven at 200°C. Mash roasted garlic with olive oil and salt. Combine well. Spread the mashed garlic on each slice of baguette and place on a baking dish. Bake at center rack for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Reserve for later.

2) Place diced/ halved tomato in a bowl. Add roasted garlic, salt, sugar and white wine vinegar and toss it well.

3) Top toasted baguette with tomatoes. Sprinkle some black pepper, and lastly, garnish with chopped Basil leave. Serve.

Variation of toppings: Button mushroom slices and chopped parsley.

Tips: If you are using blanched tomato dices as topping, mix salt and other seasoning/ condiments only at the very last step, right before serving it on the baguette. Adding salt to the diced tomato too early may extract the water from the tomato flesh and makes the tomato toppings too wet to be used later.
* If you do not have white wine vinegar, use any other type of vinegar or lemon juice. You may also opt it out, if wished.

Roast Garlic in Olive Oil

"Roasted garlic in olive oil, prepare and keep it for convenient cooking use or as a sandwich spread for your toast snack!"

I am glad that you have interest in French recipe. As I am still a fresh learner in French (Western) cooking, I would like to just share some recipes I have learnt at the cook-off session. Please forgive me, if the food is too simple for you to prepare.. :p

First of all, let’s make the roasted garlic!

Roasted garlic, which has its huge plus point in enhancing dishes, many western cooks love it. This roast garlic will be used in one of my Western recipe (to be shared next time round), and you may prepare this in large amount. Then, store in your refrigerator for other food preparation.

Many people use this roasted garlic to make garlic bread (or toast) at home, or simply spread it on crackers with knife. It can also be mixed into your salad dish or other cold dishes as flavor enhancer. Yes, flavor enhancer by its natural sweetness and fragrance, without the pungent taste anymore. For cooking wise, add this in sauce making, or soup cooking. I am thinking of even using it to spread on the popiah skin for my next popiah meal at home!

In fact, even the olive oil can be treated as roasted garlic flavoured olive oil, and use for any other cookings.
It is very simple to prepare and it can be kept for very long.

Ingredients
30 – 40 raw garlic cloves, skinned
About ½ cup (or more) of extra light olive oil

Tool:
1 sheet of baking paper

Method
1) Place garlic cloves in an oven-proof/ baking container. Add enough olive oil in order to have all the garlic cloves immersed into the olive oil.

2) Place a sheet of baking paper to cover on top of the container, and bring it to bake at 150°C for 2 hours. Let is cool at room temperature before keeping in the refrigerator. Yes, it’s done!


Tips: Garlic must be fresh.
* Use of extra LIGHT olive oil simply because it tastes almost scentless, while extra virgin olive oil, is more suitable to be used as salad dressing, might taste too superior for such baking purposes.

My Tasty Experience of Julie & Julia’s Cooking

“Watch Julie & Julie, and learn the Julie & Julia’s menu, with Passion . Ambition & Butter!”

Yes, I wanted to cook French cuisine! And that has to do with the movie, Julie & Julia (previously reviewed in this blog posting), which features great French cooking by two Americans. You can imagine how very excited I was to have a chance to attend a cook-off session at Palate Sensations, where I learnt to cook some of the French cuisine featured in the movie.

Palate Sensations Cooking School is the location for this private cooking lesson of French menu which you may see it in the movie. This cooking school is situated at Blk 1, Wesbourne Road, #03-05 (the entrance to this place is via Whitchurch Road, off Portsdown Road and opposite Col Bar). The location might sound very far from where you usually hang out but in reality, it is actually pretty close to the Queensway area and within the Wessex estate, which has many beautiful colonial-styled buildings.

Before I discussed the dishes that I learned to cook during my cook-off, I wish to give a little background about French cuisine in general. If you watched the movie, Julie & Julia, you’ll notice that the French cuisine uses lots of butter! Yes, butter! Well, although we are living in 21st century where a healthy diet comes first, butter is still very much used in French cuisine but probably not as extensively as what it used to be. The 3 dishes that I will share later all used butter in a moderate level.

I love French cuisine because it used a vast usage of aromatic herbs as well as olive oil that liven up the sophisticated French cuisine. Many herbs and other ingredients always show up in Julia’s kitchen in the movie. These herbs and olive combination helped delivering food with a full passion of flavours. It enhanced dishes in a very different way from my usual cooking style.

I always thought Western food should be a lot easier to cook than Chinese food. But in fact, it is not a piece of cake! I admired Julie. It’s never an easy task to cook all 524 recipes in 356 days, but Julie did it, all in her little kitchen! For example, let’s talk about the basic skill of poaching an egg. It might sound easy but in fact, it wasn’t that easy at all. As we seen in the movie, it was a difficult process that Julie had to repeatedly learn to do well before her poached egg was done beautifully (I will share with you on how to do a proper poaching of eggs in the future.. smile).

As I know very little about the French cuisine and those tongue-twisting French food names, and as culinary knowledge is boundless, the cook-off session at Palate Sensations is truly ‘enlightening’ to me. After the cooking session, I have a feeling as if I have stepped into the same chapter of Julie’s cooking experience (winking smile).

The 3 items described below are what I learned from Executive Chef Alicia Tivey during my cook-off session. I would share the exact recipes in my future blog postings as well as some precious tips on French cooking shared to us during the class that I will share with you, too.


Julie got her French culinary adventure started in her simple little kitchen in her small home above the pizza shop in Queens, while my French culinary adventure begins in this fully equipped kitchen…

And I blogged it, just like what Julie did (smile)!


Bruschetta with Tomatoes (and Basil)

Bruschetta (pronunciation as “Brus_Ketta”) is usually served as appetizer or light bites. To be exact, Bruschetta is Italian garlic bread topped with extra virgin olive oil and salt. The choice of bread could be any long loaf, but since we are on the topic of French cooking, we used baguette as it is one of their food staples (and supposedly the traditional kind of baguette).

The baguette was perfectly crisped, and the toast is so aromatic! You can choose to pan-fry with lots of butter, it was how Julie fried the bread which appeared reaaaaally greasy (but supposedly tasted much better where both Julie and her husband enjoyed it a lot), or you may toast the baguette. I chose to toast it as toasting is a lot hassle free and the toast can be done more evenly, without any worries that it might turn out burnt if you did not watch the stove closely enough.

As for the toppings on the bruschetta, although you can also vary the toppings with button mushroom and parsley, but since this is the most classic bruschetta, we will have the tomato and basil as its toppings. We used both the usual tomatoes as well as cherry tomatoes for our bruschetta. For myself, I personally preferred the cherry tomatoes version as it tasted sweeter and juicier, and it’s easier to prepare than using the big tomatoes (chuckling).

Pouched Egg with Hollandaise Sauce

As the name of the dish implies, you need a pouched egg and Hollandaise sauce. The Hollandaise sauce is a French sauce, and it’s commonly known to complement the eating of Egg Benedict. Yes, we made a ‘sort-of’ Egg Benedict dish, but sorry it was done, not with an English muffin and no bacon or ham was topped on it, too. It was just the pouched egg and Hollandaise on the same baguette (used for Bruschetta). That’s why I said, ‘sort-of’ (laughing).

The Hollandaise sauce was actually made by the chef and shared among the students. We watched a demonstration of the making of this sauce and picked up tips and tricks for making it at home. The lemony coloured sauce tasted fabulous. The taste of the sauce was rich but not too overwhelming, and I loved its buttery taste with a hint of tangy flavour created from the adding of fragrant white wine vinegar. This overall taste of perfection complements the pouched eggs!

Yes, talking about pouched egg….. My first egg poaching wasn’t so successful. I did not add enough vinegar in the boiling water during the first trial. I felt lousy when I couldn’t get the egg pouched nicely, and when the moment the egg failed to pouch and form nicely, the image of Julie’s disappointed look appeared in my mind, and I could truly understand how Julie felt, when she could not get her recipe cooked successfully. Julie broke into tears when sat on the floor in her kitchen, just like a small little girl who drops her favourite lollipop on the ground (and it creates lots of laughter from the way she reacted on her meltdowns). However, she did not give up at all, and of course, I am strived to get it done, too. My 2nd attempt was good! We then poured the warm (not hot) Hollandaise sauce over the egg we’ve pouched, and ate it with the toasted baguette.

Apple Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin (pronunciation as “Tart Tah_Ta”). Tarte tatin is one of the wonders of French cuisine, and this delectable “upside-down” caramelized apple tart surely is the favourite dessert for all. The tastiest homemade dessert I ever had!

In the class, we made a large apple tarte tatin together as a team. We each peeled, cored and halved a green apple each, while waiting for the sugar to be caramelized in a large frying pan on the stove. Then, we put all the halves in the same frying pan to simmer with the caramelized sugar and melted butter. One of us rolled out the ready puff pastry to a thin sheet which to be lined on top of the caramelized apples, and later, brought it to a bake in oven. And why do we call it an ‘upside-down’ apple tart? It is because the whole apple tarte tatin has to be overturned on a serving dish first, before it is sliced to serve. The rounded side of the apples have to face up while the pastry topped on the apples before baked has now become the base.

Did I tell you that it tastes superb?
Yes, it is indeed! I liked the sweetness of the caramel, and it is very sweet. Wait, hang on… It is very sweet, but, to pair it with green apple, it is just simply perfect! The refreshing zesty flavour yielded from the green apples balances the very sweet taste of the caramel syrup, and made it a perfect balanced taste for the palate. I supposed Julie cooked this as one of the recipes in Julia Child’s cook book, Mastering The Art of French Cooking, even it was not shown in the movie (but she did cook many other alluring dessert dishes in the movie... and do notice when you watch the movie on how much did her husband enjoy the cake she baked.. yum, yum).

These 3 food items that I have learnt are simply fabulous!

And how do I feel about learning these dishes at Palate Sensations? The chef will actually personally demonstrate the cooking before releasing you to start off on your own. Feeling so fortunate that I was actually having guidance from the chef, first demonstrated and then guided me throughout the cook-off session, while Julie could only did it all by her own, with her self-imagination that Julia Child was beside her, ‘invisibly’ watched and motivated her whenever she cooked, for all the 524 recipes which included those complicated recipes where she needed to bone a duck for boned stuffed duck baked in pastry dish, kill lobsters for Lobster Thermidor recipe, and watch out fire and monitor accurate baking time for Julie’s favourite Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon.. I was lucky that nothing disastrous turned out during my cook-off, but Julie had her favourite Beef Bourguignon burnt with over baking hour while she felt asleep in the living room. Her devastating moments did not stop there, she ended up with a fight with her husband when her editor guest, who supposed to pay a visit to her house to taste her cooking, did not turn up due to the heavy rain... But yes, Julie’s perseverance in accomplishing her goal of cooking and blogging has brought her to where she belongs, finally.

Begin your French cuisine with Julie & Julia’s food movie! Can’t wait till then, check out their Thoughts on Food now:



There is only a word to describe such tasty experience, it’s “YUM”!

Homecooked Bird Nest with Ginseng and Rock Sugar

"How to clean the "unprocessed" raw bird nest? Let's check it out! And your effort & time will surely be paid off with this goodness!"

Time to pamper yourself with luxurious bird nest dessert soup!

My mum got me some of these unprocessed original bird nests of the home-bred swallows. It was the first time seeing those raw bird nest pieces. Unlike those already well-processed with machine types which also moulded very beautifully in standard curve shape and size, these raw bird nests were full of feathers and dirts, and never in uniformed shape and size. And to be franked, unlike the COOKED bird nest drink (see below picture), the UNPROCESSED raw bird nest (see picture on right) wasn't appealing to me at all!

Benefits of taking bird nest regularly:

I heard bird nest is rich in amino acids which reqiured by our body. Eating bird nest regular helps to improve health condition and it is the best food for more radiant and smoother skin complexion for women, while it helps strengthening lungs and kidneys for men who take bird nest on regular basis. For young children, bird nest helps to boost up immune system.

As for myself, I am more concern on promoting fairer and smoother skin. Not sure if I am over-sensitive, I do feel that my complexion is better after having my homecooked bird nest every week for the past 1 month (laughing).

And, it is the best to have the unprocessed types of bird nest to avoid any chance of taking the bleaching chemical substance during the process of cleaning the bird nest goodness for better commercial value. I convinced myself with this reason, and started to do the cleaning, all manually.

It was indeed tedious and very long a process to get every single tiny feather, dirt and any other excrement out of the hard and dry nest, but they worth it all!

Tool needed:
Sharp tipped tweezer

Method to clean "unprocessed" bird nest:
1. Soak the dry curvy bird nest in a large bowl of luke water till soften, about 1 hour or more.

2. Drain and remove softened bird nest from large feathers and dirt. Place bird nest in a large bowl of clean water.

3. Repeat step 2 for a few more rounds to get rid of all the large dirty substances.

4. Prepare another separate bowl of water and a sharp tipped ear tweezers to pick up those tiny feather and dirt that are still in the bird nest. To easily remove the tiny feather that sticks on the tweezer's tip when you picked up, submerge the sharp tip into the bowl of water you have prepared separetely.

5. Drain bird nest and change to clean water constantly during the few cleaning stages.

You may also separate the cleaned portions out of the large bowl, and place them in another bowl, little by little.

6. Complete the cleaning process till the bird nest is totally free from feather/ dirt. It might take up to 3 hours to complete the task. Now, ready to cook this goodness which should already be in a form of transparent jelly-like thin strands.

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
4 pieces of dry and unprocessed bird nest (*Prepare with the abovelisted methods)
10 grams of thinly sliced ginseng roots (泡参)
5 red dates
1 large lump of rock sugar, about palm sized (or more if prefer sweeter taste)

4 regular bowl of water

Utensil
Double boiler or slow cooker

Method:
1. Place water, ginseng slices and red date into a ceramic bowl/ croak pot (the size of the bowl musn't be too small, water level should reach max. till three-quarter filled to avoid spillage). Bring it to a boil in double boiler or slow cooker, with medium heat. When water is boiled, reduce fire/ switch to low heat and simmer for 2 hours.

2. Add clean and soften bird nest and white rock sugar into the bowl/ croak pot, and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.

3. The fragrance of egg white-like scent will emerge in the air, by then. Ready to serve hot, or store in refrigerator when it's cooled at room temperature, to serve chilled later.

The top-graded bird nest should be able to cook into loose crystal clear strands. And its texture should be soft and silky, resembling jelly strips. I loved to have it chilled as it tasted more refreshing.

Bird nest is low in calorie. So, it is alright to have it regularly!

Tips: Every single feather in the raw bird nest has to be cleaned away, especially if this is to be consumed by young children.
* Unprocessed bird nest was gotten from neighbourhood country.

Julie & Julia - A great movie for Food Lovers. Bloggers. Life Inspiration Seekers.

“Bon appéteeeeeeeeet!” for your eyes and ears!

Want to get inspired in your life? Desire to be engaged with fresh French cooking ideas?

Be prepared to be thoroughly involved in this very engaging movie, “Julie & Julia”. Based on the true stories of two women, this movie moved along wonderfully, sharing with the audiences, a common passion of food and taste, beautifully experienced through two separate eras.

Nuffnang, the Asia Pacific’s first blog advertising community, organized the preview screening of this inspiring movie, presented by Sony Pictures. And why am I being invited to this show? I guess that it has to do with my passion of a food blogger, which is what one of the main character in the movie, Julie, were to become in her life.

This movie captivates my heart, not just because I am a food blogger, but as it similarly mirrors my life of being a wife, a working woman and a food lover, all in the same movie.

This sentimental movie starts with Julia’s life (wonderfully enacted by the ever fantastic Meryl Streep) when she moved to Paris in the early 1960s with her loving husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci) who is an American diplomat. The story of the other protagonist of the movie, Julie (equaling Meryl to her task by the unforgettable Amy Adams) is actually set in year 2002 in Queens, New York. While this might sound like a recipe for confusion (no pun intended), the movie director (Nora Ephron) was able to neatly switch and intertwine the two stories smoothly and easily throughout the entire film.

The common thread in their lives? They both had a common passion for great food and their singular perseverance in finding that one defining purpose in life. This romance comedy involves their husbands, but they are not the main subject in this film. The real object of romance in the show focuses on food…. “Bon appéteeeeeeeeet!”, that common cheer of Julia and Julie, spoken as one voice, but each in their very own time of the 1960s and the 2002s. And now, even as I recalled the French cuisine that filled out the screen in the movie last evening, I am feeling so hungry!

Julie Powell, in her 30s and in the year 2002, is a former ‘half-book’ writer (half book as it was not completed) and currently stuck in her middle-leveled job in the government sector. She has an inspiration to accomplish her aim of cooking all 524 French recipes (which are really nice food!) written by Julia Child back then in the 60s. She set herself a timeline, to cook all the recipes in 365 days! From that very first day that she started to cook the recipes and to write a blog about her cooking journey, the obstacles she faced and emotional meltdowns she encountered were excellently portrayed in the movie. We laughed when she tried to kill live lobsters. We roared in delight when she tried to bone a duck and get it cooked tastily… I felt a similar feeling as a blogger when she received her very 1st comment in her blog, but it turned out to be written by her mom, who wanted to discourage her from her goal as she worried that her extensive time blogging might jeopardize her marriage. Later, we rejoiced with her success when she was constantly receiving hundreds of comments and food gifts from her ever growing readers. We, bloggers, are after all, a similar group of people sharing similar obstacles in our ever similar online experiences.

On the other hand, Julia Child’s stories were set in the 1960s. It is both funny and, oh so sooo inspiring for us to share her success in getting her talents discovered, in her struggles of writing, in her difficulties of finding a willingly publisher and finally in the success of getting her very thick cook book published (known simply as “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”). The appearance of her sister and the subplot about her marriage only served to create even more laughter to the audiences.

Personally, for me, through their passion for good food and their love of cooking, through their stories of getting fame and through their success in defining their purpose in life, I felt a strong sense of inspiration (I want to cook French cuisine!) and the slight envy for these women and the joy they have in their lives.. :p

If you ask me to describe this movie in terms of food, I would say watching “Julie & Julia” is like sipping a cup of your favourite hot fruit tea after a long hectic day. A truly carefree feeling emerges through this 2-hours long movie. Yes, it is that pretty long a movie, but you will never a moment felt bored. It is not an action packed movie, not a brain cracking mystery movie, and you will just feel a simple desire to finish it at its own pace and at its own time. I did not even feel the ticking of the clock till the film finished. The soothing sound track of this film is something you wish to get it and listen again and again, days and days after the show.

Yes, the movie is a real “Bon appéteeeeeeeeet!” for your eyes and ears!

This movie is definitely meant to be watched by all ages and genders; food eaters or food lovers; seasoned chefs or beginner cooks; accomplished blogger or struggling ones. Be prepared to be inspired in life and feel that zest to accomplish your greatest goal in life.

You will surely find this movie, Julie & Julia, worth your time and every penny spent for the tickets. And even my little girl, at the age of 8, loved it!

"You are the butter to my bread. The breath to my life...."
I loved this quote in the movie. So will you.

Fats We Eat

As I blog and share about 10 Diet Mistakes in my Fan Club in FaceBook (FB), some little details within my limited knowledge were still too extensive to be elaborated in the small note space in FB. I wish to jot them down in my blog instead, for my readers who are keen to read more about whichever I knew.

The No. 6 Diet Mistake I have jotted in my Note of FB is about Consumption Fat which has been a major concern by diet and health watchers.

In my note of FB, I mentioned about Fats – Saturated and Unsaturated Fat as well as Trans Fat. To my friends and readers, who wish to know what are those, in a summary of all, and some basic food items which contain these fats, here’s it:

Saturated Fat – “Bad” Fat
It is known to have adverse effects on our heart and raise bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. A “No No” fat to our body which we should try to limit its intake. Hence, choose food that comes with very low saturated fat.

Saturated fat is found in some of these food:
Fatty meats
Poultry skin
Pork lards
Palm oils
Pastries/ Cookies/ Cakes
Whole milk

Unsaturated Fats - 'Good' Fats
Unsaturated fats are divided into two groups i.e. Polyunsaturated fat and Monounsaturated fat. And… please don’t go into the very detailed of what are Poly and Mono as I am not the professional to tell you about its scientific formations. Only know that these polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat benefit your cholesterol level in your blood stream by increasing the good cholesterol (HDL) and lowering the bad cholesterol (LDL). Omega 3 and 6 are two types of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Polyunsaturated fat is found in:
Salmon
Tuna
Sardines
Evening Primrose oil
Corn oil
Soybean oil

Monounsaturated fat is found in:
Peanuts
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Olive oil
Canola oil

Should you remember do not cut out all fat intake as it is essential to consume fat for your body to dissolve the oil-soluble vitamins. Hence, take this unsaturated fatty acid. This fatty acids will not raise your weight that easy, but in fact, it helps to trim away your bad cholesterol level in your blood stream, promoting better metabolism that benefits you in slimming goal.

Trans Fat was once widely added into food for ‘good’ reason in enhancing flavour, texture and shelf like. Hence, we often found rich trans fat created in frozen food items and fast food during its industrial process. Unfortunately, it risks our health! Trans fat not only raise LDL cholesterol like saturated fat, but it’s also LOWER the HDL cholesterol level in our blood stream.



Food contains trans fat are:
French fries
Doughnuts
Pastries/ Pie crusts
Biscuits/ Cookies
Pizza (mainly fast food or frozen)
Margarines/ Shortenings
Frozen meals

Hence, try your best to chose food brands labeled with ZERO % Trans Fats in foods such as margerine, instant noodle, frozen pizza, bread loaf, cookies and pastries.

To promote good health, these 0% trans fat items are widely sold everywhere. So, why go for trans fat and risk the health of your heart?!

And remember, even though it is tasty to have food with trans fat, but it's not necessary in our daily diets. Try to limit your children in having fast food meals which pretty high in trans fat.

A "Condoms" Restaurant in Bangkok: Cabbages & Condoms

"A good Thai cuisine restaurant fulls with condoms?!"

Just visited Bangkok (again), for a 3 days 2 nights trip. We did not have much time but packed all itineraries full in whole 2 days. I know Bangkok is NO stranger to most Singaporean, but there were some highlights I would like to share.

Bangkok is well-known gourmet paradise as any shops/ restaurants you go seldom disappoint you. So, we were looking at some specially featured restaurant whereby you not only get to enjoy the good authentic local delicacies, at the same time, appreciate their special design/ theme during the dine-in.

This restaurant is ‘deserted’ at the sub road of Sukhumvit Soi 12 where you may find Asok BTS as the nearest sky train station. Out from the station, walk towards Sheraton Hotel and along Times Square, and turn to your left into a lane right passed Time Square. The street lights in this sub road were rather dim, but it was not deadly quiet. There were roadside stores found along the lane. Look out for this big signage of Cabbages and Condoms which pointing you to their restaurant just 30m away, after a 6 – 8 minutes walk from main street.

The C&C Restaurant (PDA)
Call (02) 229-4610 or send a Fax to (02) 229-4610
We are open daily from 11:00 to 22:00. Adequate parking space is available.

Cabbages & Condoms has been recommended in many travel guides. As it’s named, it has to do with….. Condoms!

My feeling when entered this premise was complex but non-descript. The 2-storey restaurant is full of condoms. Life-sized figures with its attires made of condoms, even all the lamps in the restaurants were decorated and made of… yes, condoms.. But, not too worry about having your little ones to go with you… It is never a place from the ‘grubby’ side. In fact, it has become a double-cause action for you to choose this place for dinner. This place is running with a noble agenda whereby it is set up to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning, and all income generated from this restaurant will be used to support the activities conducted by the Population and Community Development Asst in Thailand.


Having talked so much, here should you be introduced with the main object – Great food!

Since there were only two of us, we could only place limited orders which more than enough for just 2 of us. And trust me, these are the best food among the goodies in this restaurant you have to order!

And remember, you will regret if you are not going there with your farmished stomach..

Salad - Thai Papaya Salad
Strange to know that authentic Thai salad in Thailand served with shredded papaya, and not, mango! I still love this spicy dish which helps to open up my appetite for more great food. However, my hubby thought that the salad was way too spicy for his taste bud.. :p

Yes, I ended up finishing the whole salad by my own, and it's absolutely alright to me! Loved the spicy and sweet with a hint of sourish flavour!

Soup: Tom Yum Goong
The friendly waiter smiled at me when I ordered this Tom Yum soup requested LESS spicy. Yeah, I think Thai can eat much hotter stuff than Singaporean. The real Thai Tom Yum Soup in Thailand is nothing like the Singapore version where it has been added many Bird's eye chilis to cook with... So, it is essential to ask for less spciy, if you can't take much spicy food.
Still, it was flavorsome with a balance of hot, sour, sweet and salty flavors which are in harmony with one another in this soup dish, not to mention the fresh and chunky seafood items in the soup. My hubby loved the fresh springy textured prawns.

The Mains:

1) Deep Fried Crisped Whole Seabass with Thai Chilli Peanut Sauce
Yes, no more spicy dish for us, I had to order a non-spicy dish. I was choosing between the steamed or fried version, at first. However, I knew that the steamed fish will be slightly spicy and served with some soup stock as well. So, I decided to go ahead with the fried one instead. And I have to say I had a great choice (Yeah, you’ll never go wrong with crisped fried stuff). Real crisped boneless fish makes it so easy to chew without worries of choking of fish bone (even if there is bone, it's crisped till chewable). I loved the Thai peanut sauce which tasted a sweet and sour, resembling the sweet Thai Chilli sauce, but no, it wasn’t spicy at all, even though it's called Chilli sauce. It was great to just chew on the crisped fish meat without any sauce!

2) Green Chicken Curry
It is not a spicy curry dish. What I could described it as the flavoursome chicken cubes in full coconut milk flavoured gravy. Delicious, but nothing close to those normal red chicken curry dishes which we usually have it in some buffet parties/ gathering back in our hometown.

The courses arrived quite quickly and we were well served, despite the fact that only a number of tables were accupied on Friday’s evening.. Even though the number of diner were rising gradually, but there were only 2 occupied tables in the entire restaurant when we first seated at about 7pm. Sad to say, econimy crissis has strike them much worst than ever. However, still advisable to make a reservation, just in case of the unexpected large crowd, who knows. And, it is recommended to go on weekend (and be seated at 1st storey where the performance stages are) as you might be lucky to get to enjoy some free performances/ service (decent Thai dance or complimentary foot massage) provided by some training centre/ school students (should be engaged by the restaurant) to perform there as their real-life training ground.

I planned to have my favourite dessert, Sticky rice with mango! However, we had seriously ran out of room in our bloated stomach after the few courses dinner with steamed rice! No way we could stuff more rice in! I decided to give up the dessert (sob sob), but to enjoy my refreshing coconut drink to end this great dinner occasion.

Here comes the bill.. ~BHT1200+ = S$50+. That's the great part about spending in Thailand as it's definitely not going to shrink your wallet too much! Wait, mints for you?? If you are expecting some mints to be given to you when you checked the bill. Sorry, you'll have to take away with 1 condom each for every guest absolutely complimentary to you...! :D

No, not yet, I have not told you about the C&C Handicraft Shop situated just next to the dining area. Interesting condom-related products you can find here. Just go have a look as extra leisure activity, after a full sumptious meal there, or you may shop and get something you like to bring home. The above items are open for sale.

Between, before ending your great evening here, check out the “Wheel of SEX Fortune” which tells you what you should ‘do’ for the night.... I spinned on it, just for fun, and guess what? It pointed at "No Sex Tonight Please"! Haha..

What's your dinner tongiht? :D