17 Nov 2010 - home-made oyster vermicelli

Just yesterday, they visited the supermarket. Some of the ingredients were gotten so that they could satiate cravings for oyster vermicelli (mee sua).

What they bought:
1x pack of vermicelli $1.10
1x pack of frozen oysters $4
1x pepper corn grinder $7.08
2x packs of cheese sausages $7.95
1x pack of parsley $0.85

Woke up really late today, so oyster mee sua was to be late brunch. Preparations as below, they used 2 pots of water, 1 for mee sua and another for blanching the oysters. Please note that this tastes nothing like the Taiwanese version which many of us love, it's just homemade and good enough for them.

For the mee sua pot:
1. Put to boil 3 bowls of water in the pot
2. Add 2x chicken stock cubes into the pot, 1x tablespoon premium dark soy sauce and 1x tablespoon standard dark soy sauce into the pot
3. Put mee sua into the pot when water starts boiling again
4. Add corn starch as needed to thicken the broth
(on hindsight, they probably should have tried adding a little Chinese culinary wine too)

For the oysters
1. Defrost and rinse (some of them burst easily, sad)
2. Drain and pat with corn starch
3. Blanch oysters in batches in the other pot of boiling water using a colander ladle (to protect oysters from strong bubbling)
4. Remove and put in a serving bowl to cool

To serve, heap vermicelli into a bowl, then add oysters at the top. Garnish with condiments of your choice. For them, one teaspoon of vinegar adds some zest, another teaspoon of sesame seed oil for aroma, and decorating with a sprig of parsley completes the picture with a certain sense of freshness.

His setting of the bowl for her


Her setting of the bowl for him


Sounds all beautiful, right? In between, they had actually microwaved a remaining potato to make cheese potato. Put the new grinder toy to work, and sprinkled the peppercorns onto the melted cheese. She added a sprig of parsley just for the picture.


They also had a pack of 5 cheese sausages microwaved, but it had all been gobbled up way before they even remembered the camera.

30 May 2010 in Taiwan

2nd day in taiwan on their own expenditure. woke up not too early, and headed round the corner for a breakfast set.

ji ma chen 吉马陈 mee sua shop at ximending 西门町


fat, succulent oysters and braised pork intestine in vermicelli soup. ah, heaven...


the breakfast set came with lotus dumpling and a drink. all for 89NT. dumpling's not as oily as back home, and also smaller in size.


next, they headed to long shan si, and after that, went to the nearby huaxi market.


near the end of the street, a few of them wanted to stop for some chinese dessert. the shop owner was well bearded, somehow, seemed highly skilled.


just next door was a sinful shop. and look what they got. brought this over to enjoy with the dessert, and got chided. the dessert master mentioned that his was a vegetarian shop, and no meat was allowed to be consumed on his premises. the drooling stopped and the meat eaters had to move elsewhere. 70NT


took the mrt somewhere else (can't remember) to head for another famous mee sua shop, chen ji 陈记


ordered the 60NT big bowl, and wow. just typing this post makes him hungry at midnight. oysters were even fatter, and were coated in dough. the intestines however were not as good as ji ma chen 吉马陈. still, it was just as enjoyable to have good oyster mee sua.


took a little walk to ease the stomachs, but the heavens were not willing to let them rest. they strolled right into a dessert shop! mango ice with pudding, every bit of ice was heavily flavoured with condensed milk, don't be fooled by white ice, and the mangoes were ripe and sweet. the trip so far was sweet to the mouth, hard on the stomach. 70NT?


and after fooling around, or being fooled around by food, it was almost time for dinner. formosa chang 胡须张 as recommended by one of the dudes. seemed like they had a special offer, 10NT for braised meat rice!


for the whole of the trip, it seemed that their braised meat meant braised fats. small bowl of rice topped with fats. sauce was good, gobbled up in no time. oh the toll on the heart...


as if it weren't enough. he ordered pig trotters. something must have been wrong somehow, virtually no lean meat on this, just skin and thin layer of fats on big bones. around 80NT


a healthier dish of toufu


body builder didn't like fat pork, so he ordered 2 lotus dumplings instead. no prizes for guessing if he ate the pork belly in the dumpling. (ok, ok, he gave it away and guess who ate them? keeps you guessing...)

badminton day 20 Sep 09

woke up to an sms from lk to have lunch at nyp macdonald's. however, he had stocked bread, chicken franks, and cucumbers, so it was to be brunch at home.

opened up a pack of 10 chicken franks, wrapped with aluminium foil and put them into the steamer. threw some chinese steamed buns in to accompany the chicken franks, too. since everyone was at home, he decided to cut the franks into halves, such that it would seem like more for each to eat. a half would meet almost the length of one slice of bread anyway, though the intention was to expedite consumption of the bread.

halved chicken franks saying hello


steam buns - 3 yam buns, 1 char siew bun. his favourite's in focus, while she had the rest of them.



after badminton, he suggested that they go for this mussel spaghetti at sembawang hill food centre, along thomson road. stall name's "grill and pasta". recommended by ws and seemed highly rated online too. 5 people strong team headed out there, very hungrily.

tomato based mussel spaghetti - only $5 !! 3 of them had this version. the tomato sauce had substance, not the usual watery ones they had. and the mussels, around 10 of them for each serving. yummy. his mouth is watering again. see that gaping mussel? asking for it.....


cream based mussel spaghetti with extra cheese $6 (extra 50c for cream sauce and 50c for extra cheese). one of them ordered this, and the aroma was tiltillating. it had the whole table regret not opting for the cream sauce. again, the sauce was really thick and creamy, very very sinful.


he as usual, went for aglio. the least oily offering that he tried so far, and it was very fragrant even though it had less garlic as compared to others. this had linguine instead of spaghetti. actually, he had wanted to change it to mussels spaghetti but the stall ran out of stock. was feeling down-hearted, but this aglio really made him happy with his choice. only $3.50


sz spotted a taiwanese eatery's banner shouting "salt baked chicken", so they headed there to continue the expedition.

it was a quaint little shop, with only 2 tables occupied when they were there. few shops down, ivin's had a lot queue.

after they got seated, they placed orders for taiwanese beef noodle, salt-baked chicken, oyster mee sua and guo tie.

while waiting, they had dried beancurd strips (correction?) and braised peanuts, some of the tidbits you have in a chinese restaurant before food is served.


then came their beef noodles - $6.80. noodles were still springy, soup was good, beef was tender (seems like brisket). he liked it, but not as much as the gooey version.


next up - salted crispy chicken. it seemed that they mistook the chinese word and thought that it was another dish. disappointed looks around the table. $6.50 for this. the group concurred that it tasted like popcorn chicken.


oyster mee sua followed soon after. $6.80. there were probably 4-5 oysters, you'll see one peeking out from the bottom of the picture. two of them had been to taiwan and tried the famous oyster mee sua, and they felt disappointed with this.


finally, the last dish was served piping hot. guotie (pan-fried dumplings). it probably cost in the region of $6.50 too. they were pleasantly suprised to see the skin served as one whole piece, a first for most of them. the skin was crispy and tasty, while the guo tie still had some soup in them when he bit in. yummy.