22 May 2011 - Tang Dian Wang

To start off, this day was one of the most agonizing ever. Randomly walked into Tang Dian Wang for dinner, and the experience alleviated things a little. Nice ambience, good lighting, seats were high-backed and well cushioned, and probably the best service he's encountered so far.

The service staff comprised of a mix of foreign talent, fondly termed FT, and they left a very good impression. Interacted with 4 different service staff throughout the meal, and found them to be very polite, their smiles also added to the comfort factor. Prompt to react, yet not clumsy like in many other Chinese restaurants. Even though they had decided to sit around after settling the bill, the service staff also willingly acceded to their request for more tea. Ok... let's head to the main dish now.

Snapped a picture of the "lanterns".


He got himself Live Prawn Soup, $10.80++.
Soup came boiling, and the water level went down really fast after a while, perhaps due to the noodles soaking it up. Prawns were probably fresh as the heads were still firmly stuck onto the prawns. The flesh was crunchy and did not stick to the meat, this made it easy for him to peel the prawns with just mouth and chopsticks. Also in the soup were bean sprouts which added bite to the noodles, pork slices and some vegetables.


She ordered Fresh Eel in Fish Bone Broth, $9.80++.
They were initially undecided about having snapper or unagi, until she went for the more familiar fish. Opted for flat glass noodles, and her soup contained button mushrooms, carrots and the clump of leafy vegetable.


Crispy Eggplant with Pork Floss, $3.80++.
First time eating deep fried eggplant, and it was really good. Crispy on the outside, fluffy soft on the inside. The pork floss added a savoury touch, but somehow it also felt like the dish had been treated to an uncalled-for sprinkling of salt.


Siew Mai Dumpling with Fish Roe, $3.80++.
Although it also contained shrimp, this paled in comparison to the ones he had at Old Hong Kong. The meat filling felt a little "old".


Shared dessert of Mango Cream with Pomelo, $4.20++.
The chilled mango soup was aptly sweet, with a tangy hint. In it were some mango bits and "tadpoles", which were fun to chew on.


Would return, thumbs up for the service rendered and the really fresh prawns. Shall also experiment frying eggplants this weekend.

26 Feb 2011 - Birthday on a weekend

His birthday fell on a weekend in 2011. On Friday, he left the office at around 11pm, and reached home to find her waiting for him with a cake. "I've got my favourite cake to celebrate your birthday!", she beamed. How sweet huh. It was this child-like attitude that actually made him smile, still smiling while typing this.

Cake from Polar, with thick layers of chocolate mousse, and really rich chocolate on the top. This year's a more photogenic cake, but not as heart-warming as the one she made for him last year.


She also made some dishes for dinner, something they haven't done in a long while.

Blanched lettuce, topped with vinegar based sauce. Garlic stir-fried until fragrant before adding vinegar, oyster and soy sauce to heat. The piquant flavour opened wide the doors to his stomach.


Steamed minced pork with century egg - this was mixed with soy sauce, egg white and century egg. He would have preferred it with more egg to minced meat, but that would have become steamed egg pudding, eh?


Lean pork porridge sprinkled very generously with freshly ground black pepper. He hasn't gotten sick of the grinder, always enjoys doing the twisting work.


Finally, kombu soup with pork ribs, wolfberries and dates. Unfortunately, chicken stock cubes had been used, that's why they had oily soup this time round.

07 Nov 2010 - homecooked stuff

stir-fried garlic sprouts with carrots and back bacon. bought it instead of streaky bacon such that they would have healthier meals. the very aroma of this dish wafted into someone's dream who then screamed "what's cooking?!" before falling into slumber again.


stir-fried kelp - her intent was probably to clear stock. too fishy a smell for him... but he ate it anyway


for something more nourishing - soup! bittergourd soup to be exact. he had wanted plain bittergourd soup, but she decided that she would get some pork bones for better flavour. you see carrots in here for the same reasons as the previous dish - to clear stock.

sweet and sour pork, pork ribs bittergourd soup 02 Feb 2010

sweet and sour pork - not enough tomato sauce initially, had to add around 2 more scoops before it was good for the taste buds


pork ribs bittergourd soup - just the gourd and pork ribs, a soup he used to drink weekly as a recruit...

pizzahut on 23 Jan 2010

gave the cherry blossom pizza a try, $22.50++. citibank cards get 25% off. shaped like a flower and seemed appealing on the overall. the meat floss topping reminded them of her recent dishes. you get pineapples, bbq meat bits, pork floss and a cheese stuffed crusted. each slice actually seemed like a piece of bun that may be purchased from your bakery, nice to eat but perhaps too expensive for him.


seafood vongole - $10.90++ . there was another citibank promo, $12++ for a personal pan pizza and a pasta perfetto. unfortunately, the confused waitress offered them a choice of either seafood or chicken. in the end, her mix up cost them 1 personal pan pizza, wonderful. not.


"completed" the set with lemon tea and cream of mushroom for $3.50++


cream of mushroom

the day he bled 14 Jan 2010

he took leave for some wife business this day. slept in a little while she prepared breakfast. it's the special sandwich again, except that it had two slices of ham and an egg. his kind of filling breakfast.


lunch consisted of $3 mixed pork soup, though it tasted good, it probably had too much mono sodium glutamate.


also order pork ribs soup, which unknowingly cost $5. 4 slabs of long ribs, and good peppery soup.


2 bowls of rice, each costing $0.50 to bring the grand total to $9.

lime chicken, mushroom soup, meatball vermicelli

she woke up slightly earlier than him to prepare breakfast of vermicelli soup with "flowered" meat balls and vegetable (not too sure of the name). he had a hasty breakfast before going to work.


next up, dinner. he bought full cream milk, bacon, chicken breast, etc, as requested by her.

the first thing she made was mushroom soup with bacon bits. sounds yummy, doesn't it?
thinly sliced the bacon and fried them till brown. mashed up a steamed potato, diced some mushrooms and onions. heated onions in some butter until fragrant before putting in the mashed potato and mushrooms. next, milk was poured until it just covered the ingredients. bacon bits were added as preferred.


stir-fried beans with dried shrimp. you've seen this before, heat garlic and dried shrimps in oil until fragrant before adding the vegetable into the fray.


sesame lime chicken. this was a very troublesome dish. had to fry the batter-coated chicken a few at a time, after which the wok had to be washed and cook the lime mixture with the chicken until it was gluey enough. the extent of work made him feel quite tired, the wife however remained energetic. haha..

diced chicken, gizzards, pork bone soup

came home from work 30 minutes before midnight and she already had dinner waiting for him. check out the spread.

diced chicken with cashew nuts, carrots and green bell pepper. good variety of color, and tasted fine as well. maybe a little too much cashew nuts though.


"flowered" chicken gizzard with beans and red bell pepper - she seemed to be aware of color and presentation in recent, making good progress. this was nice to eat too.


last but not least, pork bone soup with potatoes and carrots. a sumptuous meal with a doting wife, a very comforting way to end a long and arduous day.

home cooked dinner 141209

rushed home after work to get some groceries from ntuc.

beef $2+
raddish $1.35
enoki mushrooms $1+
buna shimeiji mushrooms (brown headed) $1+
aged ginger $0.69
french beans $1+
rice flour $1+

with frozen pork ribs left over in the freezer from the weekends, they decided to split into 2 teams and make 2 dishes. she took charge of french beans with beef again. this time, she marinated the beef with soy sauce, ginger, some flour and vegetable oil. while she was massaging the beef, he quickly rinsed the french beans and the mushrooms, boiled water to drench the pork ribs to remove some oil. after which, she processed the french beans by peeling both ends and breaking them into 2 or 3 pieces. again, she needed him to pour oil into the heated wok, and she unknowingly gave him a wet spatula, which made the oil spatter onto his hand. what a vicious trap.

she quickly stir fried the beef over a medium flame, then removed it to fry the beans, before allowing the beef to join in again. this time round, the beef seemed juicier, and the starch gave it a slick texture. just realised that the beef got missed out in the picture. blame hunger for it, he reached home only around 8pm.

now for his performance, in charge of soup again. raddish pork ribs soup. he always likes to use natural vegetable flavours to make his soup (not that he really knows how to). brought the pot to a boil and thew in the crushed garlic, ginger, raddish and the half-blanched pork ribs. left it on medium heat and waited till the items in the pot were dancing with bubbles before it was time to throw in the mushrooms. well, no particular reason why that was done, just testing it out, hahahaha. he then turned down the flame for a slow boil, and gasak-ed the readiness of the soup using the hunger limit. well, uncool presentation, but it turned out palatable. raddish were chopped into smaller pieces so that they would cook faster. yum. noticed? no oil.

first overwhelming messy scoop for the hungry


the 2nd bowl of soup which looked slightly neater


hope you've had a good read, it had been a really tiring day.