A Happy Tiger Year to All

恭喜发财，万事如意。祝大家新年快乐。

We begin the Year of the Tiger with a hastily-assembled bento. I was awoken by the princess at 6am. She had gotten out of bed at 5.45am, and being the excited child that she is, the first thing she did before waking me was to pack her school bag as she intends to take her trolley bag to school on Wednesday. I mean that is like 3 days away! Surely she needn't pack it soooo early?!

Well, she asked for food and I thought since I haven't prepared a tiger bento for her, I would do one today. It was really a rush and I think I did it within 15mins as most of the things I used were ready stuff like pineapple tarts, marshmallow, strawberries etc. Mr Tiger needed more work. He had bak kwa within his head and his face is made from sliced cheese and I used nori for decoration. He doesn't look that nice but it was a real effort fighting off sleep to make a bento. Hope she was happy with it. Well, I'm sure she was, as she polished everything off in double quick time. I also added a heart-shaped nutella bread, heart-shaped pineapple tart, heart-shaped chocolate to tie in with Valentine's Day. I managed to squeeze in a piece of M&Ms peanut butter cup which I had made 2 days ago. Marshmallow caterpillar was given to her by her grandpa last night. Cutie guy, the caterpillar I mean. It had cute legs. Hehe. And that's how I presented her hong bao to her as well, all in the little basket. :)

Before I end off to start my New Year, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! Have a wonderful day, and don't eat too much cookies! Hehe.

M&M's Peanut Butter Cookies

This cookie was on the list at Christmas but I never got round to making it. I have always loved the combination of peanut butter with chocolate. It all started with Reese's peanut butter cups. I looked around for Reese's cups but unfortunately they were nowhere to be found. Luckily smart me remembered M&M's peanut butter chocolates. They will be a great replacement for the cups. This recipe is dedicated to my sis who loves these chocolates after I introduced them to her.

Ingredients -

2/3 cup peanut butter (creamy)
1 cup sugar (can cut down to 1/2 or 3/4 cup)
1 cup brown sugar (can cut down to 1/2 or 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (about 6 1.6ozs packages)

Method -

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter & sugars till light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and peanut butter bits.

2. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 175deg C for 10-12mins or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2mins before removing to wire racks.

These were lovely and very colourful.

I would like to wish my Chinese readers a very Happy & Prosperous Lunar New Year, and for the rest, a Happy Valentine's Day!

CNY Bake - Pineapple Tarts

It's that long-awaited time of year again with lots of blogs ablaze with cookies of all sorts. My biscuit of choice is pineapple tarts. Even if I do not bake anything else this year, the least I have to do is tarts. Why? Simple! I love them to bits! Especially soft, melt in the mouth ones. The crispy ones don't get me so excited, but I will still eat them. Just not so much of a shiok factor. I made three versions of it on Monday. You know, it's not easy to get myself started on baking another lot, for the sole reason that it is a lot of tedious work, especially when I have to do it all by myself. Baking cookies for CNY is fun when many people come together, or even 2 or 3 people, and it makes the process shorter.

First up is nestar tarts. These look so pretty but were very time consuming. I made 15 of them before throwing in the towel. I first piped them out into long strips, then placed rolled up pineapple jam on them before rolling the pastry over that. Leave the dough too long and it dries up and makes it difficult to roll, and they will fall apart.

Waiting to go in the oven.

The second lot of tarts I made resembled Mandarin oranges. I achieved that effect by putting cloves into the top of them.

Didn't bother taking out the dslr for this shot as it was already late at night. These below are cheese pineapple tarts. I did them like the ones above but instead of clove, I scattered cheddar over the top.

What is your favourite type of tart?

Chinatown 2010 - A feast for the eyes.

WARNING - Bumper post.

Let me take you on a walk through Chinatown with me on a learning journey planned for my princess. I wanted her to experience firsthand the colours, sights, sounds and smells of the most significant festival in Singapore... Chinese New Year. She took along with her a notebook and a pen to jot down things she saw and new words which she came across. However, that notebook only saw light once during the entire trip as there was too much going on, and on top of that the heat, not to mention the crowd, which was making both hubby and her irritable. Overall, though, it was a fun outing. I had planned to take her there from a week back, but each day the sun was getting hotter and hotter, so I kept shelving it. However, we had the opportunity yesterday afternoon when we returned from dance class and I seized the day and got everyone out of the house in double quick time, as the weather was really lovely and cloudy. A perfect day for an outing.

As we got off the bus, we were greeted by this sweets stall which had all the sugar laden preserved fruits with auspicious names to them. Chinese New Year is all about auspiciousness.

A very popular stall with 900 years of history selling preserved meats.

Right beside the preserved meat stall is CK departmental store which was packed to the brim with shoppers hunting down bargains on decorations for the home.

I love the bright cheery colours of Chinese New Year, and it is a MUST to visit it each year. Previously I went with my mum and sis as my girl was too young to take along. We usually went in the night, when the streets were all lit up, and the crowd was thicker. I'm glad that she is old enough now and I do hope to make it an annual tradition with her.

As we hadn't yet had our lunch, our first stop naturally, was for food, and I've been wanting to try out this guy's stall... the famous German guy, donning a Chinese outfit, selling sausages which his country is famous for, right in the middle of Chinatown.

Choice of sausages which were pretty limited.

More food choices.

Lovely choice of breads.

The star himself.

Hubby and I had cheese sausages with hard rolls while the girl opted for the frankfurter. She requested to not have hers cut up, and ketchup on the side. I did not try it but the ketchup looked like homemade, although I doubt it.

Right after our (yummy) sausage lunch, the girl spied a sign with the word 'Takoyaki', and knowing that this mummy loves them, she pointed out the stall to me. I didn't want any but she went for the steamed corn niblets and hubby had a waffle dog.

Patiently waiting for my cup of corn.

Beautiful gourds on display as well as for sale.

Some lovely windmills. We got one of these.

We came across our neighbour's family store during our walkabout. The store is famous for their egg tarts.

The nian gao which I wanted to show princess, as she learned it during Chinese class.

This is one of my favourite stalls along the street. I love anything personalised.

It was very crowded on a Saturday afternoon.

Lovely flowers to brighten up the home.

Lots of chopsticks for sale.

I even found them in my family name! These make great gifts at $1 a pair.

More auspicious-naming sweets along the way.

Cute little tigers.

The girl wanted to see some chun lian, so here they are, red papers with auspicious words written in calligraphy.

A Chinese medical hall selling herbal drinks.

Chinese New Year is not complete without yummy biscuits. The prices of these will be slashed down later, on the eve of the actual day on the 14th Feb this year.

Thirst-quenching goodness for a hot day out. Hubby had one of these and said it was very nice. And you need to look around as there were a few stalls selling them for $1 each.

Piping hot roasted chestnuts.

I love these sweet mini oranges. Very cheap too.

My sister loves these, and I love the colours.

Do try to pay a visit to Chinatown this year. We didn't manage to take photos of the main road decorations as my two companions were tired out. We searched for a shop selling Chinese New Year outfits but I got disorientated and couldn't find it. We came across another popular one and found her an outfit. I wasn't too keen on it as it was too red, but both hubby and she liked it so we bought it anyway.

Remember to bring an empty tummy along on your visit and try as many things along the way. It'll be a fun experience.

Tong Heng Confectionery (South Bridge Road)
285 South Bridge Road
Tel: 62230398

Happy Year of the Ox

I hardly baked this year, except for my favourite pineapple tarts, which I made once last week, just to try out the recipe, and yesterday, together with princess, we made more. She was in charge of brushing the eggwash on, as well as sticking the cloves in. :)

I made half a batch with cheese on top. It's quite popular these days to find tarts with cheese. I guess the saltiness of the cheese goes very well with the sweetness of the jam, and it replaces the salt in the recipe.

A very Happy New Year to one and all. May the Year of the Ox bring us abundant blessings.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

1st reunion dinner

Yu Sheng

Sharks fin soup with crabmeat

Steamed pomfret

Not exactly sure what this is but I think it's bean curd skin stuffed with fish meat and prawns.

Orh Nee or yam paste for dessert

We had our first reunion dinner last evening at a restaurant in Bedok. It was a venue convenient for all, and especially for dear grandma. The restaurant serves Teochew food and we were one of the earliest there for dinner at 5.30. The place was fully-booked and they wouldn't even entertain my aunt's reservation for dinner at the early time slot, but Aunt M, being her, had her ways about it and finally managed to get us a table.

The yu sheng wasn't really to my taste, because it's different from the Cantonese version, lacking in crispy bits. Also, they added tang oh in there, which is one vegetable I don't like. The servings for all the dishes were pretty generous. The standard set we ordered was for a table of 10, but including kids, there were 14 of us, yet everyone had a share of the food. The pomfret was a giant one and it filled us up a bit. I didn't manage to take a photo of the braised chicken before it was cut up and the noodles were served in little bowls before being brought to the table.

The only thing we had to order extra was the fried beancurd stuff to make up 14pcs. We also topped up $10 more for the yam paste (the original dessert was longan with almond jelly). We loved the orh nee which wasn't very sweet, and they added pumpkin to it as well.

Dinner wasn't rushed and the dishes were paced very well, even though they had to get rid of us before the next family arrived at 7.30pm.


Chin Lee Restaurant
Blkk 115 Bedok North Road
#01-285

Operating Hours:
Mon-Fri:
Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm
Dinner: 6.00pm - 10.30pm
Sat, Sun & PH:
Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm
Dinner: 5.30pm - 10.30pm