A Purist for Coffee and Durian; But I Am Weak Towards Strawberry Flavoured Snacks

When it comes to durian and coffee, you don't see me craving for coffee / durian cake or any other flavoured food / snack that contains my essential beverage to start the day and my favourite fruit of all time. 

Strawberries are, strangely, in a different category.

Fresh strawberries are great although i do occasionally crave for strawberry flavoured snacks like the above; glico collon biscuit roll, glico pocky biscuit stick, meiji yan yan biscuit stick with dip and meiji hello panda biscuit with filling! 

Yes, all the brands are from Japan and cost between S$1.00 and S$1.50! Those who have been following my travelogues would notice i would purchase packs of glico pocky biscuit sticks (as they are easily available in other countries) to indulge onboard the planes.

Unpacking all four types of snacks! 

These snacks came in other flavours like vanilla and chocolate but aside from glico collon biscuit roll, i prefer their strawberry version better. For the collon biscuit, the best so far is their vanilla flavour. 

To curb your craving for strawberry flavoured snacks, i strongly recommend yan yan as nothing beats sticking your finger into the strawberry flavoured dip and then licking the cream off your finger for that ultimate blast!

Anyway, i was thankful to have a snacker, our beloved Jovyn, to share the calories! I do have a ranking system for the snacks; favouite is glico collon biscuit roll, follows by glico pocky biscuit stick, meiji yan yan biscuit stick, and lastly, meiji hello panda. 

I still eat fresh strawberries at times when they are on offer but i would prepare a plate of fine sugar that i would use to coat each strawberry before popping it into my mouth!

Tastes of Taiwan (西门街美食) @ Yishun Junction Nine [Singapore] #junctionnine

With the government allowing dining in at restaurants from phase two of post circuit breaker, i must say i am excited as i have been guilty of using too many disposables for takeaways. 

Even though i had the intention to try a Japanese restaurant, the limited time we had due to an appointment after dinner, means we had to eat somewhere near; hence, the decision to dine at Tastes of Taiwan (西门街美食) which is housed in Yishun's Junction Nine mall.

It's actually not my first time at Tastes of Taiwan; i happened to jog to Junction Nine during the circuit breaker and decided to purchase dinner from the eatery which he seemed to enjoy. 

Pearl Milk Tea - Singapore is flushed with bubble tea outlets nowadays but i especially love the one here as it evokes memories of my first time having bubble tea at this shop in Wisma Atria; back then, there weren't so many varieties and even the pearls were just limited to the usual black coloured ones. 

Taiwan Spring Onion Pancake - do you know that i never got to try this pancake when i was in Taiwan? And since it's on the menu here and there were three of us available for sharing; why not buy to try? 

Options for smoked chicken hotdog, plain chicken ham and crispy chicken floss and i got the last one! Frankly, i didn't know what to expect but this tasted like a non-crispy roti prata with egg and meat floss and hardly any punch from the spring onions. And if you ask me, i am better off with a hot and crispy roti prata.

Braised Pork Rice - you realized that the food were still served using disposables?! Gosh, guess most people's carbon footprint during this pandemic has increased multiple times. 

Coming back to Taiwan's national dish, luroufan; for S$5, you get comparatively larger serving than the famous jiak by jinfeng at Northpoint. Cheaper with more meat, and you get one braised egg too. 

The savoury braised sauce was sweeter than jiak by jinfeng and as you can see, there were more meat than fats. I can't say this was the best luroufan ever; maybe slightly above average although it did hit the right spot for being a fuss-free, comfortable meal for someone who craves for braised pork rice. 

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Address

18 Yishun Avenue 9, 

Junction Nine, #01-19,

Singapore 768897

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Pearl Milk Tea - S$2.80

Taiwan Spring Onion Pancake -  S$6.00

Braised Pork Rice - S$5.00

(No GST, No Service Charge)

Joyce's Birthday 2020

Yes, another birthday celebration in less than two weeks and to be frank, both Joyvn and her mum are darn lucky as restrictions that had been in place for two months from April to counter the COVID-19 pandemic was partially lifted which allows the family to finally meet! 

As there's still a limit of not more than five persons to dine in at a restaurant, we had to make do with takeaway instead; the pretty worth it meal from JJ Thai Cuisine; to check out their menu, click here. 

Birthday girl with her carbon copy offspring. In a few more years' time, i bet many people would ask if they are siblings as my elder sister looked real young for her age, especially now that she has slimmed down.

Better take photographs of the kisses now as it would get rarer when Jovyn gets older. We have all been young before and know that puberty is the key driver to killing all innocence from children.

The customary family portrait! 

My family turn; a rare portrait as i am usually the one handling the camera. However, as mentioned previously, Jovyn seemed to enjoy taking photographs and this is once again another work of hers! 

I decided to take over as her angle was a bit off and she definitely could do with more practice. Maybe i could drag her out one day for a photo-taking session. One problem though; she hates the hot weather! 

More hugs and kisses as we sang the birthday song.

Birthday wish! Do you share your birthday wish? My understanding is that no sharing as the wish wouldn't come true. Anyway, my birthday wish has always been quite simple as i am an easily satisfied person.

My sister can peacefully blow the lighted candle; contrast this to the past when the kids would compete to be the first to blow despite the fact they were not the birthday boy / girl.

Cake cutting time; the fruit tart was purchased from a neighbourhood bakery and it was overly sweet even for my standard! Love the peaches though.

Happy Birthday, Joyce!

Remain beautiful and don't concentrate too much on work!  

Fatty Char Siew from Rong Kee Roasted Delights @ Marsiling Block 166 [Singapore]

Hawker centres and coffee shops are aplenty in Singapore, especially the latter which are often found in areas with high density of public housing. 

This means i don't usually keep a lookout at what's within a coffee shop unless something particularly caught my attention; i.e. it could be a lot of people waiting for a table, long queues or an eye-catching picture. 

In this particular case, i was on my way to the hair salon near Marsiling MRT station when this small picture on a counter stopped me in my tracks; the delish looking rong kee premium roasted char siew! 

I couldn't resist and queue up to order after my hair treatment! As you can see, there were other roasted delights like roast duck, roast pork and roast chicken with rice or noodle options but i had porridge not too long ago and didn't feel like overindulging.

A plate of 100-gram premium roasted char siew was all i asked for ! 

I didn't think 100 grams were a lot but it turned out to be much more than i expected. Thinly sliced, they were relatively pale looking surrounded with just a narrow, darker strip. Honestly, they looked nothing like the picture.

Thankfully, the taste was better than its appearance; best to go with the crunchy japanese cucumber, it was sweeter than expected with a tender texture! Granted it was indeed fatty but you can't really complain when the Chinese words on the picture are in fact translated to fatty char siew. 

My sister did find it a bit too sweet which i am fine with personally; the only two things i found lacking would be the absence of that signature roasted, smoky aroma and a more charred exterior. Nonetheless, it's still worth a try if you are in the marsiling area and is a fan of char siew!

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Address 

166 Woodlands Street 13, 

#01-553, Chang Cheng Mee Wah Coffee Shop,

Singapore 730166

Map

As above.

Pricing

Premium Roasted Char Siew (No Rice) - S$5.00

Simple and Easy - Step-By-Step Instructions to Making Muah Chee #muahcheerecipe

Thanks to Singapore's circuit breaker, more people are cooking at home nowadays and many are sharing their recipes online! One recipe that was all the rage a month or two ago was the unassuming muah chee. 

Even my mom jumped on the bandwagon and i was super impressed with the muah chee she made! It was soft, doesn't stick to the teeth and easily the best i ever had. When i asked her about the recipe; i was dumbfounded as it was darn easy! 

Ingredients (6 persons)

Pandan Water - 3 Cups

Glutinous Rice Flour - 3 Cups

Shallot Oil - 3 Teaspoons

Peanut Powder - 1 Cup

Fine Sugar - 1 Cup

Step-By-Step Instructions

For this recipe, we shall be using glutinous rice flour from erawan brand which you can get from most supermarkets. At one point, it was out of stock as everyone was making muah chee! 

My mom decided to use pandan water as it would give the muah chee a nicer aroma. You may boil pandan leaves in plain water if you have time; if not, plain water would be fine.

Remember to sift the pandan water.

Three cups of pandan water to a non-stick pan. The recipe is easy to remember as ratio is 1 to 1; so it's like 1 cup of water to one cup of flour to one teaspoon of oil etc. 

Switch on the fire (low) and slowly mix in the glutinous rice flour. This is the part i don't quite get as i would have made my job easier by pre-mixing the glutinous rice flour to the water. But hey, mom is the chef here and it's best not to say too much when she's in charge of the kitchen. 

To prevent burning, constant stirring as you mix in the flour is necessary. My mom advised that the stir must be in one direction and not all over the place. Again, i reserve my comment as this is the same person who told me i cannot say the kueh is cooking beautifully in the steamer as it would eventually turn out ugly. 

When everything is more or less incorporated, put in the oil. While i understand that any vegetable oil is okay, my mom insisted on using shallot oil which usually does a wonderful job in enhancing the flavour.  

Continue stirring in one direction (clockwise / anticlockwise); the mixture would get lumpy and if i haven't seen it with my own eyes, the usual me would think the recipe has failed and proceeded to dump the whole thing into the dustbin.

About six minutes later, the muah chee texture had formed but please do not assume that this is the ripe time to remove the sticky dough! You might notice speckles of whiteness in the dough which are telltale signs that the mixture wasn't 100% cooked.

Wait until all the whiteness are gone and you are able to stretch the dough for about one or two feet before it breaks. Switch off the fire and proceed to prepare the essential companion of muah chee.

Peanut powder! Another alternative, for those who have allergy towards peanuts, would be black sesami powder. You can experiment with other nuts but peanut and black sesame would be the most common. 

One cup of peanut powder mixed in with one cup of fine sugar. You may cut down accordingly so long you keep to the one to one ratio although those who prefer less sweet may reduce the sugar further.

Oil your scissors so that the cooked dough wouldn't stick to it. Don't want to waste time washing your good pair of scissors? You can use a spoon too! 

The way to eating muah chee is to divide the dough into small pieces and then coat them with the peanut-sugar mixture. And unlike them you buy from the stalls, you can decide for yourself how big or small you want the pieces to be! 

Max satisfaction!