Bentos & sleepover

We had a little guest over at our house last weekend. I thought she was a very brave girl, having just come home from America and ending up in my home for a sleepover 2 days later. We were very pleased to have her for company. I had a great time taking care of and feeding her. She had no problems with eating. For their Saturday lunch, I made them a bento each. The girls requested for prata, so that's what went into their bento.

For A, I added a char siew bao which her grandma had brought over. Grandma was really nice as she made little flower agar agar for the girls. These were really refreshing for the hot days we were experiencing. Fast forward one week and we are awash in rain every day. I'm not complaining as I much prefer the wet than the haze anytime. In A's bento, I also added a chicken wiener from Ikea and some tomato ketchup.

For princess, I made some Japanese curry (super convenient) for her prata as she likes them with curry. She has basically the same food except for the char siew bao, but she was given some lettuce and tomatoes instead.

On another occasion, I made her this very healthy bento with furikake-flavoured rice and served it with Pikachu fishcakes, sliced tomatoes and strawberry/kyuri sticks. Oops, not forgetting 2 little pieces of wieners.

Brewerkz @ Riverside Point

I planned a gathering for a group of friends to get together this March as one of them is in town from Klang. These are the girls I grew up and went to school with, and together with our 3 little ones, we met at Brewerkz to kick off a fun evening. The meeting was supposed to have been on a Wednesday but was postponed as C arrived in Singapore later than expected. Fridays are busy days in the pubbing area, but we managed to pull it off.

The rain was upon us all afternoon and it kind of dampened the spirit a little when we thought we wouldn't be able to go on the riverboat ride. However, by the end of our meal, we were delighted to note that it had stopped raining, except for a very slight drizzle which allowed us to carry on as planned. The Singapore Riverboat Cruise counter was right at the doorstep of the restaurant so it was very handy for us to pick up tickets. Best of all, there was only one other couple on board the boat. They got off at the next quay and we had the entire boat to ourselves, it almost felt like a private boat. :D The tickets cover 2 quays and it costs S$8 per person one way. Our destination was the Merlion Park at One Fullerton. There is a longer boat ride which covers the Marina area but that is not available after 5pm. We loved the lights along the way. We couldn't stop oohing and ahhing. The kids had fun waving to people on the bridges as we went under them and they loved making noises each time, creating the echo effect. All in all, it was a great evening! We hope to meet up again when C is back in December for Christmas.

We started off with Virgin Margaritas. These are great for kids as they do not contain alcohol. However, they tasted pretty sour so most kids might not like them.

C ordered a platter of sausages with mash for the kids to share. However, she ended up eating most of it but she didn't like the one with the lighter shade. I believe that is beer bratwurst.

The kids had child's portion pasta which was just plain pasta in tomato sauce and it comes with a drink of choice.

S had ribs which she said was fall off the bone type. It came with an onion salad which is not really my cup of tea. The mash is delicious though.

This is what I had - Seafood spaghetti, as it is a Friday thus no meat for me. I thought this was so-so, it wasn't that great. The pasta we had at Swensen's was much much better.

The menu is very interesting with lots of choices of food, but with 4 ladies and 3 little girls, we couldn't order much. The nachos looked really good and some of the food sound very nice. I do want to return again and try the burgers, nachos and the brownie which we didn't have space for in our tummy. But this time, I will be arranging for the guys to join us so we can order more stuff to share and try, as the portions are very big.

March Holidays

We are at the end of the March holidays and it has been a fabulous one! Spent 3 days at ballet helping the girls tie their buns, and just pottering about, lending a helping hand where help was needed. It was fun for us both, catching up with mums we seldom get to meet on a weekly basis, and the girl had lots of fun being an 'assistant' helper. She's been there for 3yrs now so she knows how to work things (such as the dvd player), and what to do (help girls polish shoes, sort out their character skirts) and she got to meet her many friends from other grades. But she also was helping herself constantly to all the sweets, biscuits, lollipops, marshmallows which were laid out on the tables for the examinees. I couldn't control her. Sob sob. So for three days, she just gorged on those. :( We're so happy and relieved that the exams are over. No more 3 times a week classes, meaning our Sundays are free now, and so are our Tuesday afternoons. Yippee!!

I'm glad for the break. She hasn't mentioned or thought about school or her classmates. I'm very happy that she's put it behind her. I also feel more at peace now. I do hope that when she goes back to school, she doesn't have to face the bullying again. Trying to look on the bright side. :)

Yesterday was a lovely afternoon spent meeting up with ex-Sec school friends. We went for the Swensen's 1-for-1 promotion and between us 3 kids n 3 adults, we spent $50. A real deal!

We had dinner at NYDC at Wheelock Place last evening as our original plan was to pick up a new Nintendo DS to replace her old one. However, after charging it up, it was working again so there was no need to buy a new one. We still went down town anyway and had dinner there.

Princess chose the snack bowl which held lovely crispy wedges with a soft centre, and some chicken nuggets.

Hubby opted for the ribeye which looked very lovely and the steak looked really moist.

I had a pasta dish called 'The prawn that got creamed'. What a cute name. However, I changed the sauce to suit my taste. Instead of the original full cream sauce, I requested for the chef to mix in some tomato sauce as I don't really like creamy pasta. The prawns were a letdown as they didn't taste all that fresh. Nothing to rave about this dish. It was just a tummy filler.

Dessert time!

Gummy yummy sundae was the princess' choice but she wanted only two scoops of ice-cream so we went for the mango/dark chocolate combination and requested for no whipped cream. There were supposed to be rainbow sprinkles over it but they must have forgotten them.

Hubby tried the Bailey's mudpie which was only so-so. You could hardly taste any Bailey's in it.

I am looking forward to today's plans. We are going to catch the movie 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' this afternoon before having dinner with some ex-neighbours cum primary school classmates. We also plan to take a ride down the Singapore River on the river boats and am sure the kids will love that. It's something that I've been wanting to do for the longest time and it's great that we have the chance to do that with friends from out of town.

Poor girl went on a cycling trip to the East Coast Parkway with her dad this morning but threw up not long after she started on her journey. I believe she drank too much milo before she left, or maybe she's not used to the cycling. But anyhow, they had fun and she's raring to go again tomorrow morning. I did not allow her to take part in sports for three months, especially in those where there's the possibility of breaking arms or legs as she was preparing for her exams. It's a rare break from ballet class tomorrow, so best to make full use of her day. Classes resume next Saturday so it's a great time to sit back and relax, and maybe, hopefully do some assessments haha. But my best bet is that that won't happen! :P

Will try to take photos of our dinner this evening, hopefully. ;)

Enjoy the weekend!

My heart is heavy

... sigh

This has not been a good start to March. We're only into the 11th day of March and I have been having problems with girl in school. First with missing items in school, carelessness, irresponsibility and now, she's being ignored in class by her mates.

When I picked her up after Chinese Speech and Drama class yesterday, she told me that no one in class wanted to be friends with her anymore. :( Why? Well, according to her, a certain girl in class is influencing the rest of the girls to not talk to her. I have no idea what the reason is but this girl has been giving her problems since last year. It doesn't help that she has been given the highest authority in class, both years. Speaking of which, why do schools have all these glamorous titles for kids in P1 & 2? From what I have observed, girl in question is a smart girl, in top Chinese class, and a favourite with both P1 & P2 Form Mistresses. However, I can't take it at face value that the entire class is not friends with her, so upon more probing, I found out she does have friends, but what hurts her most is that the friends not speaking to her are actually the closer ones, people she used to hang around and play with.

As she confided in me, the brave girl was trying to hold back her tears, but I assured her that she is loved by us, and if these girls choose not to befriend her, it's ok. She can spend more time paying attention in class and not be distracted. Besides, she has other friends. I felt her hurt and it made me really upset. I'm glad for the one week break from school so that she will put it behind her for the time-being while she concentrates on her ballet exams next Wednesday. It helps that we are having a sleepover at my home with a little 5-yr-old for company this Friday. That would cheer her up.

Salmon & Broccoli baked rice

If I am not wrong, this is my second attempt at baked rice. Here was my first. This second time round, I used shortgrain rice. I find that long grain ones tend to become soggy after absorbing all the liquid from the sauce. Shortgrain ones are more hardy.

I used a whole big slice of fresh salmon which I lightly panfried before tearing them into big chunks. Why? Because I was lazy to use the board and knife hahaha as it equates to more washing up.

Ingredients -

Cooked shortgrain rice
Broccoli which I slightly parboiled
strips of ham (added as an afterthought as can be seen :P)
shredded mozarella (lots of it)
capsicum
onion
garlic
cream of mushroom soup

Method -

1. Sweat onions in frying pan before adding garlic.

2. Add in capsicum and fry till half cooked.

3. Pour half a can of mushroom soup (I used Campbell's) and some water to thin the mixture. Add rice in and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off flame.

4. Scoop half the rice mixture into baking dish and place half broccoli and salmon over the top. Add another layer of rice and repeat earlier process. Top with ham and mozarella last. Put in over to bake till cheese browns and salmon is cooked. Serve hot.

I would add more water the next time I prepare this again. It was sufficient and hubby loved the dish, but I prefer it a bit wetter.

Teochew Char Siew Bao

I was busy all of last week and wasn't in any mood to come online much. Mum is having a makeover for her bedroom so I was going places with her, mainly to Ikea, and since she had the use of my uncle's car for a couple of weeks, we decided to do the stuff we planned for when such opportunities come knocking, such as visit far off places like IMM. ;P

We spent an entire Monday at Ikea Alexandra and mum had all her meals there from breakfast right up to dinner!! She was super excited about it and couldn't wait to clear out the three big wardrobes belonging to my grandma, which were mega old and rotting. She now has more space and spanking new furniture, and added to that, her pride and joy - a new HP desktop with a 20inch monitor! My guess is that she will be keeping even later nights now, playing with her pet and her cafe. ;)

On Wednesday, she decided to make a trip to IMM, yippee for me, Daiso here I come! She wanted to check out some furniture shops there for a new wardrobe.

As we weren't familiar with the road and timing of our journey from Jurong to the girl's school, we left IMM way too early and found ourselves to be half an hour early to pick the girl up. We decided to look for some snacks along the way and ended up at this market which has a famous stall selling Teochew style dim sum items. It was 2.45pm when we got there and the stall had actually closed for business, although everyone was still busy at work churning out food. The man directed me to a separate stall where a lady was shredding carrots. She said that they did not have freshly steamed items (as they closed at 2pm) but I was welcome to purchase them if I didn't mind that they were not hot. I didn't mind of course. She was pretty nice and very patient as I was checking out the stuff and couldn't decide on what to get. In the end, I bought char siew baos, tau sar baos and some siew mai. They also have a specialty which is kong bak bao. Those were really cute and mini. Everything here costs 50cents, except for stuff like big bao, lor mai kai etc. I kept them in the fridge (her advice was not to freeze them). I had these for breakfast the next morning.

The meat in the siew mai is different from the Cantonese version which we are so used to. It is very fine and soft, as if it had been ground 3 times over. There is also the addition of shredded carrots. However, I found it slightly salty and I much prefer the texture of the Cantonese ones where you can actually taste the meat and prawns. This version kind of melts in the mouth.

The char siew within is also finely shredded, and not in chunks or cubed like the Cantonese char siew. The skin of the bao is thinner and I found it too oily. I like the soft fluffy type.

If you are in the neighbourhood, do check them out for a different taste. You might like it more than I did.

Handmade Teochew Bao
Blk 127 Toa Payoh Lorong 1
#02-02
Singapore 311127
Tel : 62542053

Homemade Char Siew

This is my very first time roasting char siew. I was inspired by Camemberu when I spied hers on her blog one time. Just like her, I would never have thought that I'd ever roast char siew, but I believed her when she said it was very easy to do - just marinade and roast, and that was exactly what I did. I marinaded the meat for 12hrs and roasted it on a Sunday morning before I left for church. I removed it to cool while I was out. I thought it turned out a bit salty even though I had cut down on the tau cheo.

0.5 kg Pork Collar (if you like it juicy) or Pork Shoulder (if you like it leaner) - I used pork shoulder which the butcher told me was 'twee bak'. I also made 1kg with advice from Camemberu that there was plenty of marinade using this recipe.
250g Sugar
150g Oyster Sauce
100g Bean Paste (Taucheo or Dou Jiang) - I used 70g but might cut it down to 50g the next time
100ml Soya Sauce - possibly cut this down to 80ml
2 teaspoon Rice Wine
2 teaspoon Black Soya Sauce
I omitted the red food colouring, but you can put 1 tsp if you like.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix all the ingredients together and marinade the meat in it for at least an hour (overnight is best).

2. Roast in a moderately hot oven for half an hour, turning and basting the meat till it is cooked and slightly charred. (I used 200 deg C for 45mins - basting halfway and at the end), and then at 240 degrees for another 10 minutes for greater char.

The first dish I used my homemade char siew in was fried rice. I love fried rice with char siew and saved the sauce to be mixed in. It was yummy and the char siew didn't actually taste salty once fried with rice.

Since hubby was working late one evening, I decided to fry a simple fried rice for dinner using my homemade char siew which I cut into small cubes, some onion, garlic, peas and the remainder slices of pineapple leftover from when I made the upside down cake. I also fried two pieces of Japanese fishcake to go with it.

When I was young, I remember fried rice being made up of whatever was left in the fridge. However, these days, we tend to use fresh ingredients specially for frying it. I always loved some char siew in it, as it gives more bite to the dish.

What do you like to use as ingredients in your fried rice dish?