My Birthday dinner

Yes .. i know!! It has been about 20 over days since my birthday and I have just gotten round to blogging about my birthday. Well, blame my inertia ... my lackdaisical nature ... my whatever.



Anyway, first off I have to thank C-kun for organising it. Thanks to the everyone who came - (I tried to do the usual first letter of the last name, but it got too long. You pp know who you are. *another manifestation of my laziness?!*). We went to Cordury and Finch - food was ok but the company was great. So I can't complain. Ha!

So here's too one more year that has passed. May I become wiser...

Thai food at Golden Mile

Finally met up with Mr Anus after a long time. He has been studying for the last month so this would probably be the first time he is out. Poor boy .. haha. We went to Golden Mile because I have been telling him about the great Thai food there - cheap and good.

Reaching there, it was almost like entering another country - thai workers everywhere. You even have the occasional tranny walking by. How authentic!!




We went to this store and ordered seafood tom yum, black pepper beef, chicken curry and pad thai. The tom yum was good - hot, spicy (a little too spicy for my taste), and sour. So was the beef, although i have to say that it would have been better if they used a better cut from the beef - the beef had some stringy bits. The chicken was ok at the start but got a little too heavy towards the end - I think the sauce had too much coconut. The pad thai was rather authentic. Overall, I would say that it was a good meal and not too expensive. With drinks and rice, it cost $33. Will come back again to try other dishes.

Mocha Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin

Fresh out of the oven...



These came out good. The crust was crispy and the inside moist. I am becoming quite good at baking muffins *pat myself on the back*.

You can get the recipe here or below:

I added more coffee though since I love coffee and decreased the amount of sugar to up the "mocha" taste. I used vegetable oil too instead of magarine or butter.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Blend butter or margarine, sugar, egg, banana, dissolved coffee, and vanilla in food processor for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, and blend just until flour disappears. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into 15 to 18 paper-lined muffin cups.
3. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Weiner Kaffehaus

I am having blogg-iahroe.


During the last few days, it was a big-boss-free and together with Ms. X, Y and L, I went to Weiner Kaffehaus on Cantonment Road. It serves Austrian food but it's similar to German food. The owner, anton, was friendly and walked around chatting to the customers - it gave the place a very European feel. The wait staff was a little gun-du though - we kept having to reminding them to get our things, partly because we were quite demanding. In the end, we ended up getting the forks, knives, water ourselves. But I have to say that the food is really Delish!

Too Bad Bee-hoon and Chua-kun cannot join us. Maybe next time ... Anyway, Dec will be truely a boss-free month.

the Veal Brutwurst


Wedges - it was deep fried to perfection: crispy on the outside, soft and fluffly potato on the inside. God, I sound like an Ad.


Beef Gulash - yes i know ... that is how the menu spelt it. It even had the little dumplings at the side. Sorry that the photo was a little blurred.


Slaughter Platter - the coup de grace. The pork knuckle was fantastic: not that much fats (all of it probably melted into the sauce), tender meat and very crispy skin. The smoked pork was good. But I felt that the burtwurst wasn't as nice as the Veal one. And don't think that it was all meat. There was the suarkruat too which was good too.

Banana Crumb Muffin

Hi Mr Anus,

I have made my banana crumb muffin. It has had rave reviews although some have said that they liked my apple cinnamon muffins better ("but next time, hold the burnt bits and the overcooked top" :). Some have also mentioned that it is a little salty.

Too bad you could not try this one. Next time then. .. hee.
website
And for those that are interested, here is the recipe from the allrecipe.com website.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

My Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I have been looking for a muffin tray for a long time. Cos I am not sure whether I will continue to make muffins after the first try, I wanted to get a cheap muffin tray. Got one from some dept store in chinatown for $5. What a steal!!

Anyway made my first muffins - Apple Cinnamon muffins. (See pix).
According to pp in office and home, it is not bad .. some even ventured a "good". I find it so fulfilling to cook / bake!

The recipe if you are interested:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup milk
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups finely chopped tart apples

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix together.
3. Add all remaining ingredients and stir until flour mixture is moistened.
4. Spoon batter into 2 greased or paper-lined 12-cup muffin pans.
5. Bake at 375 for 19-23 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan.

my Virgin DQP with cheese

I finally got off my ass to transfer the remaining photos of the peru trip. Actually these are the few photos that i took after returning from machu Picchu. The most exciting one is actually a photo of a Double Quarter Pounder (DQP) with cheese. WTF ... you would say. Well, let me tell you.

Long long time ago, when i was in sec school, my indian friend Mr N Swami. told me about the greatness of a DQP with cheese. "Did you know that Singapore used to have a DQP with cheese but it was taken off the menu of Macca's because it was toooo unhealthy?" But apparently Mr S has tasted this ambrosia in the States and he swears that it is soo good. So because I have never went to a country with a macca's selling a DQP with cheese, I have never tasted one. Then when the Macca's here put the DQP with cheese, Mr S commented that it was not the same, it cannot compare... it is NOT REALLY A HALF POUND burger (for those mathetically challenged -- 2 quarter pounds makes half a pound).


Then when i stopped over in LAX, I told myself I had to have one DQP with cheese. I begged money (becuase i have spent all my USD) from Ms L and then went to buy the burger. Please note that this was BEFORE i suffered my traumatic food poisioning experience on the way from LAX to SG. And NO it is not due to the burger. .. or at least i dont think so. I distinctly remember that I vomitted the soba .. which was something that I ate AFTER the burger. Unless of course the burger caused the food poisoning and then it was down hill from there?

I have to tell Mr S that the burger was good .. succulent and definitely seemed tastier than those you find in SG. Of course this could be the hunger talking .. well i finally tasted it. ... Mr S will be so proud of me!!

A day of Thai, Arab, Malay food

Went to golden mile for lunch today with OY and JC. Amazingly, it took my foreign friend to point out how wonderful the Thai food in golden mile is. Cheap and authentic. yummy ... We had seafood tom yum, beans with pork, Kai lan with roast pork, and beef noodle, rice and drinks for only $26. CHEAP!! But the place really is dodgy and i cannot forget the toilet that i went to when i was there a few months ago (read the entry on KL trip). Later we went to Arab street to have a middle easter dessert. It was only so so though, nothing special. Dont want to waste time blogging about it.



Then for dinner, met up with WF and WX for nasi Lemak. Well, i was the only one that bother to queue for the nasi lemak. I have photos :) It took me about 15 mins to get the rice. And then they did not have the "full house". Only the chicken meal. :(



The rice was yummy - they used basmati rice to make the nasi and the chicken was freshly fried, ohhh the oil. And the chilli was good - sweet and spicy but not too spicy. And of course, my fav, the ikan bilis, was so delicate and freshly fried. I think cos they have such a large clientele the store can afford to just keep frying and frying to have fresh supplies of ikan bilis and chicken. But truth be told, once i had it, i thought that i wont bother queueing up again for the nasi lemak. Unless someone is going to queue for me. :)

Anyone??