Soy Sauce Chicken Wing Noodle (油鸡面）

I used to love this particular stall of Soy Sauce Chicken Noodle at Blk 115 Bukit Merah View and used to eat it at least once a week when I was working nearby.  Other than chicken noodle, they served prawn dumpling soup which was very good as well.  The stall was run by a couple and business was brisk.  But for some reason, the stall closed down.  Since then I was not able to find another stall with that similar taste. 

This recipe which I have found from Tigress Kitchen is quite good.  I have summrised the recipe and did not use Rose wine.  Do drop by her blog to see other recipes.  Pretty picture and good recipes.

Dark Soy Sauce Chicken Wing Noodle ( Adapt From Tigress Kitchen Blog)

Marinade:

3 tbsp + 2 tbsp sugar
1½ cups water
4 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp salt
1½ tbsp dark soya suace
2 tbsp Shao Xing wine
1 sprig spring onion (20 g), washed, cut 5 cm (2 inches) long and crushed
4 cloves garlic, washed and crushed, skin on
5 slices ginger (20 g), crushed

6 chicken wings (500 g), blanched in boiling water and rinsed
1 tsp white sesame oil
1 tsp thinly sliced spring onions or Chinese parsley

Heat 3 tbsp sugar, when melted sugar looks like dark honey, add ¼ cup water. If caramel solidifies, heat till melted again. Turn off heat. Add remaining water and all other ingredients for marinade. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add chicken, Marinade for 5 hours, placed in the fridge when cool.


Bring marinade and chicken to a gentle boil. Cover and turn off heat. Steep for 25 minutes. Check if juices run clear. If not, cover and wait another 5 minutes. Remove and brush thoroughly with white sesame oil. Chop into bite size pieces. Drizzle with marinade. Garnish with spring onions or Chinese parsley.

For Prepartion of Noodle: Sauce for noodle (per serving): 1tbsp oyster sauce 2tsp dark soy sauce 2tsp sesame oil 1tsp garlic oil (omit if you are not a garlic fan) 2-3tbsp sauce from the brasied chicken wing.   Mix the above sauces in a plate.  Cook the noodles in boiling water.  Blanch in cold water and then back into the hot water for a while.  Drain and place noodle into the sauce.  Mix well.  

Egg Benedict For Sat Brunch

Made this for Brunch last Saturday.  It was a request that came from my elder son.  He loved the Hollandaise sauce but this sauce is laddled with butter so it is not advisable to consume too much.  And too much of it actually makes you feel 'je la' (Malay meaning sick).

If you do a google search, you would be able to find some You Tube video on how to prepare the sauce and also cook the egg.  Some chefs could handle 7-8 eggs all at one time in the pot and yet the eggs do not get overcooked.  Unfortunately, I am only able to handle 2 eggs at a time.  

I also omitted the lemon juice as my family prefers the sauce without it.

Egg Benedict Recipe (serves 4)

Hollandaise Sauce
3 egg yolks
120g butter, melted
2 tbsp lemon juice
cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

To make the Hollandaise Sauce

• Whisk egg yolks over a double boiler on low heat till yolks becomes light in colour.  (Do not place on high heat as it will cook the yolks).  If the yolk thickens, add lemon juice to think it slightly.
• Slowly whisk in the melted butter.  First in drops and increase to a slow drizzle.  Whisking constantly to ensure that the butter is incorpoated with the yolks. 
• Season with cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to taste.
• Keep sauce warm and set aside. (If sauce thickens, you can add 1tbsp of water to thin it.

8 slices - Bread of your choice
8 slices Ham or Bacon
8 eggs (must be very fresh)

To cook the Eggs and Ham

• Spread some butter on bread and toast it.
• Bring a big pot of water to boil.  Add 2 tsp of vinegar into the boiling water.
• Heat up frying pan, pan fry ham or bacon till slightly brown.
• Once the water is boiling, lower it to a simmer.  Crack an egg into a bowl and release it gentlely into the simmer water.  You can cook a few eggs at one time if you are able to make sure they don't over cook. 
• Give the water a gentle stir to bring the egg whites together. 
• Once the white is cooked and looks firm but the yolk is still soft inside, quickly remove eggs from the water.

For sides - Waffle chips/French fries/Salad

To Assemble

• Place ham/bacon on bread and top it up with an egg.  Spoon warm Hollandaise sauce on the top of the eggs. 
• Put waffle chips and salad at the side and serve warm.

High Tea @ HoMe

Not satisfied with the last High Tea session at 10 Scotts, I decided to have my own High Tea session @ Home.
The items that were made: 

1. Four types of sandwiches - Spicy Sardine, Egg Mayo, Chicken Cumcumber Mayo and Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese
2. Cranberry Scones
3. Raspberry Jelly with Cocktail Fruits
4. Mini Mozeralla balls and Cherry Tomatoes in Oregano Garlic Olive Dressing

The items that were bought:

1. Apple Strudel
2. Nonya Kueh from Bengawan Solo
3. Cakes from Four Leaves (Strawberry Cake, Chocolate Classico, Cheesecake, Blackforest Cake)
4. Samosa
5. Popcorn chicken (For the kids)
6. Mini Taiwan Sausag (For the kids)

The 2 boys were especially happy.  The older boy espeically liked the Smoked Salmon Cheese Sandwich and the younger boy kept munching on the Popcorn Chicken.

I bought various types of flavoured tea bags from Lipton - Strawberry, Vanilla, Peppermint, Peach, etc.

I was slightly disappointed with my scones though.  Not as fluffy as I hoped it would be.  I used a recipe from my previous baking class which used bread flour.  It was a bit on the heavy side but was quite all right when eaten warm.  I even went all the way to MarketPlace at Raffles City to buy clotted cream.  (Actually this is the first time tasting what clotted cream was.  The cream has a yellowish surface unlike those that was served in hotels with scones.  I highly suspect that those cream that came with scones at High Tea sessions in Hotels were not real clotted cream but just some whipped up heavy cream).

On the whole it was a fun experience. This should be done again some other time.

Weekday High Tea at 10 Scotts

After surfing the internet for weeks on a good place for English Afternoon Tea on a weekday, I settled for the English Afternoon Tea at 10 Scotts.  The first thing that Hub needed to do when we reached there was to visit the washroom at Hyatt.  The strange thing about this hotel was, there was no direction of where the washroom was.  We went one big round at the ground floor before we found the washroom at the hidden corner.  Not very impressed for the fact that this is at least a 5 star hotel.

I was initially very excited about this high tea session after reading some positive reviews online of this place.   When I first step into the place, it felt rather cold (cold as in the people there) and not a very comfortable place to be in.  It was as if the waitresses were all watching us like hawks.  It could be they want to be attentive to the customers but we felt rather uneasy.

The food was unfortuately not what some blog sites claimed to be.  I was rather disappointed that their most talked about crab cakes were served cold.  There were some desserts at a corner, Hub took some to sample but I was not very impressed and the thought that everyone working there was watching you take food from the counter was quite a put off. 

I did ate a number of scones.  The scones were decent and the jam and clotted cream was great.  I finished up 2 servings of clotted cream and till now am still thinking of scones and clotted cream.  (Fattening it must be, but delicious)

I would place my English High Tea places in this order:
1. Rose Veranda (Shangri La)
2. L'Espresso (Goodwood Park)
3. 10 Scotts (Hyatt)  - I don't think I will appear here again

I am already making plans with some ex-colleagues to have a half weekday chill out session at Rose Veranda soon.  (Its a comfortable place to eat and chill out with girlfriends and the scones there are great too!)

African Violets

I have recently acquired a new hobby due to the influence of my new neighbour.  I recently bought 3 pots of African Violets and this one is my favourite.  I have attempted to reproduce it through leaf cutting but so far nothing has popped out from the leaf cuttings that I have planted.  It really needs patience.

African Violets are indoor plants.  They flourish if placed near the window in an office environment where there is air condition. 

I am looking forward for the babies to appear from the leaf cuttings that I have planted.

Zojirushi Mini Bread Maker

This is my newly acquired toy - a Zojirushi Mini Bread Maker. I have been looking at bread makers for a long while and I fell in love with this one almost immediately. This is not only sleek, on top of that, it does not take up much storage space. This criteria extremely crucial as we have limited storage space at home.

It also allows you to preset the baking time such that you can load the machine with the raw ingredients the night before and get freshly baked bread the next morning. Freshly baked bread is the best and what my MIL and I like most is the fragrant crust at the side of the bread.

Bread baked with no preservatives and bread improver is best eaten the day it is baked.

No regrets with this new toy as not only does it make bread, it allows you to make jam too. A worthwhile investment in my opinion.

Chocolate Chip Muffin

I have recently purchased these beautiful cupcake liners from Ikea. They cost $1.90 for 65 pcs and there are 3 designs in 1 box. The size of these are slightly different from those you get from Phoon Huat. These come with a smaller base of about 1.5" and has a hight of about 2.5".
Here is the recipe for the cupcakes:

120g plain flour

70g sugar
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
150g plain yogurt
1 egg
50g canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:- Preheat oven at 180C
- Mix dry ingredients together
- Mix wet ingredients in another bowl
- Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently.
- Scoop into cupcake liners 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15mins.

* Word of caution - Do not over mix if you want tender muffins.