another takeaway

I went to Vivo City last Saturday with my boys to check on what the fuss was about. Well Vivo City is another family mall here in SG. Yepeeeh!

Anyhoo, I like where their foodcourts; Kopitiam and Banquet, are located. It is indeed very accessible to people taking the MRT.

We were suppose to try a new fastfood; Superdog, but we were running late and our little master needs to eat his dinner. So opted for a takeaway congee in Kopitiam. And since we also have to eat, I ordered Spaghetti and Seafoods in Chops and Chips, whose stall is besides the one selling a really good congee.

I'll go to the verdict. The meal I ordered is a good value for money at $6 since the portion is big enough for one. The spaghetti however is bland, tasteless. Okay, so imagine this: cooked spaghetti splattered with unsalted, no herbs tomato sauce with traces of tomatoes from a can. Well I dunno how it was cooked. But it was just so bland. I was so hungry, though, so carry na rin.

The seafood stuffs were pieces of calamari rings, shrimps and fish fillets. At least I liked the seafoods.

Rate: 2 stars

Carbonara

Hubby is a pasta lover. Whenever there's an occasion at home, say like birthday, Christmas, New Year, he'd always request for lasagna, carbonara, spaghetti or baked macaroni.

But of course his requested is not restricted to special occasions alone. Like last Saturday night, he asked me to make carbonara for lunch the following day (Sunday). When I checked the kitchen pantry if I still have any available pastas, I was only able to find fussili and spaghetti. Well, fussili's not an option since hubby doesn't like them. Weird, coz for me, it IS still pasta.

So came the "big day" for hubby. He woke me up and said that the onions and garlics were already minced. Well, thank you!

I first cook the carbonara sauce before the pasta since the sauce takes a while to make.

So how did I cook my own version of the carbonara sauce? (The recipe is for 1K of spaghetti.)

Place 2-3 tbsps of oil in a deep saucepan. Add 2 tbsps of Anchor butter. Saute 1 bulb of minced onions, once butter has melted, until translucent. Saute 5 cloves garlic, minced. Add 1/2K of ground pork. (Make sure you have a class A ground pork.) Season it with 2 tbsps of soy sauce, salt and pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, dried rosemary. (Of course the amount of dried herbs you place depends on you. I don't measure the dried herbs whenever I cook pasta dishes.) Mix well. Make sure the ground pork is well coated with the soy sauce and dried herbs. Leave it to simmer for 10 minutes. But stir it once in a while to check if the mixture became dry. This is what we will avoid.

Add 2 big cans of Carnation Evap (Marigold Evap is also good) and 2 big cans of Nestle Cream into the pork mixture. Mix well.

Cook for 20 minutes. Don't forget to stir the sauce occasionally. While the sauce is cooking, cook pasta is directed in the package.

extra stout and rum refresher

For someone who drinks occasionally, last night was a little treat. Well, not that I love to drink beer or liquor or any hard drink. I'm sort of the I-will-try-so-I-would-know-how-it-would-taste kind of person when it comes to drinking.

Guinness Extra Stout is hubby's choice for our taste test, while mine is a Tropical Peach Bacardi Breezer.

I had a gulp of hubby's Guinness, and it tasted like Cerveza Negra, only a little sweeter like raisins sweet. According to hubby, Guinness is too strong for him. (Hubby is an occasional drinker like me.)

The Bacardi Breezer that I had tasted like a powdered antibiotic that's diluted in water. It is sweet, yes, but only has a little alcohol content in it. I think this is made for someone who rarely drinks, or whose alcohol tolerance is minimal. Example, ME.

twisted puffs

I'm not really fond of junkfoods, but since hubby bought Cheetos Twisted Puffs from the hypermart, I tasted a piece.

Well, it so cheezee. Hehe. Okay fine. It's an expensive version of Jack n Jill's Chiz Curls - only bigger and puffier.

Plum from OZ

I haven't seen a plum in real life, more so tasted one. So when I saw boxes of 'em at Carrefour the other week, I decided to buy a few pieces so I can finally taste them.

Plums look like little red apples from a far. But when you touch them, they're soft like grapes. They taste like grapes, too, with a little hint of sunkist. Well, atleast it's what my tastebuds dictated me when I ate them.

nilat-ang baboy

I missed my mom's homecooked meals, so I decided to make my own version of her Nilat-ang Baboy.

In a deep casserole pan, place a kilo of pork ribs, a litre of water, big slices of red onions, and spoon-sized crushed fresh ginger. Cook it in the stove over medium fire. When the water boils, add salt and pepper to taste. Check if pork is half cook. If it is, add slices of patotoes. Cover the casserole. When potatoes are cooked, add slices of wombok and turn off the stove.

We don't wanna eat overcooked and soggy wombok, do we?

Carrots and Asparagus with Shredded Chicken

I haven't tasted asparagus in my entire life, so when we went to the grocery, I grabbed a packet of it.

When it was to time to cook it, a problem came up. I don't know how to cook the said asparagus. Will I blanch it? Saute? Boil? Deep fry? Or will it just be an accent piece in the dinner table? But then the reason why I spent $1.75 for it is because I wanted to know how it'd taste.

So I thought of blanching it and later mix it with the carrots and chicken in the wok.

Saute slices of a native red onion in 1 tbsp butter. Add the shredded chicken when onion becomes translucent. Add 2 tbsps. of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp. of dark soy sauce, a pinch of salt and pepper. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add a cup of water, and let it simmer. Place the carrots and cook it. Salt and pepper to taste when it boils. Then add a mixture of 1 tbsp. of flour and half a cup of water into the wok. Mix it, until the sauce thickens. Add the blanch asparagus. Additional salt and pepper to taste.

turo-turo salpak-salpak

This is like Student Value Meal in foodcourts back home. The only difference is, the servings here is a bit more, especially the "cup" of rice.

This meal I think costs between $4.50-$5.50. And I tell you, it's super sulit. You get a big cup of rice, 2 veggie dishes, and 3 main course of your choice. So that's turo-turo.

Salpak salpak, because the aunties (selling attendants aged 35 up) will just place everything in your plate for "having here" or in a styro container if "takeaway".

The picture above consists of rice, sauteed greenbeans with chili, sauteed cabbage (julienned), sweet and sour pork, Chinese-style pork skin adobo, and 3 pcs chicken nuggets.

This is not only the choices here. There's a.)rice, 2 veggies, 1 main;b.)rice,1 veggie, 2 main; c.)rice, 2 veggies, 2 main; d.)rice, 2 veggies, 3 main.

This is comfort food for me. Gosh, got plenty of comfort foods here lah!

one of my healthy breakfasts

I seldom eat breakfast, it usually is just a cup of coffee or Milo. But when I do, I think it's "calorie pack".

So one Sunday, I prepared something good. Ofcourse there will always be caffeine fix.