Fast and Easy Dark Soya Sauce Sotong(aka squid)

Today I am going to share a family recipe called the dark soya sauce sotong. This dish is very simple to cook and it only requires 4 ingredients.

Ingredients
Sotong( it all depends on how much u intend to cook)
Red dates dark soya sauce
Black ground pepper (based on how much u can take)
Sugar

Steps 
1. Marinate the sotong with the dark soya sauce and pepper for at least half an hour
2. Heat up the wok and pour the sotong in to cook.
3.Once the sotong curls up , it is ready to eat and add a bit of sugar at this time.
4.Ready to serve.

Movie review on Transformers: The Last Knight

For this movie, it was not as exciting that I had expected it to be. My expectations before this movie were more of the fighting scenes. It does not give me the adrenaline rush that I wanted.

Story plot was not really exciting. I was just a bit bored during the show until the ending part. There were certain scenes of the transformers where I thought that the scene looks a bit satanic. However, this is my personal opinion.

Do write in your comments on how you feel about the movie to share with me. 

Food Review on Enchanted Garden's June menu @ V hotel

Aloha everyone, it has been since a long time I wrote on my blog after my grandmother has passed on. For this food review that was done on a weekday afternoon at Enchanted Garden at V Hotel, I was being invited by fellow blogger Jess aka JessSeasons to join her with courtesy from the boss, Mr Chris.

I loved the signage of the restaurant as it gives a very romantic feel. Here's how the signage of the restaurant looks like:

I guessed no one who has thought of that within the signage of a restaurant depicts words like with heart and soul. Let me tell you that I could see the effort in the whole team of people working in this restaurant is all great team players. This is the first time that I have been to a food tasting event whereby I could see all of them helping out one another.

This food tasting was jointly also joined by two other fellow bloggers.They are Isabelle and Yunzi.

Left to right: Yunzi, myself, Jess and Isabelle

Let's take a look at the array of food that Mr Chris and his team have taken effort to prepare for this food tasting

We had a total of 10 dishes for food tasting 

Allow me to list down all the dishes for your reference

Appetizers

Spicy Topshell -$8.80

Spiced Crispy Anchovies $8.80 

Korean Spiced Chicken Wings - $12.80 

Fish Fingers-$7.80 

Cheesy Pork Balls- $9.80 

Seafood Croquette-$12.80 

Mains

Grilled Pork Chop-$18.80 

Baby Back Ribs-$18.80

Miso Cod Fillet-$32

Lamb Shank -$26.80

Here's the up close and personal photo of each individual dish 

Spicy Topshell 

For this dish, I was not able to review due to abstaining from seafood after chicken pox for 100 days.

Cheesy Pork Balls 

For me, these cheesy pork balls were just nice in taste as they were not too overwhelmed with the cheesy taste. I did not dip the balls into the sauce. However, our host for the day, Rain told us that it was all handmade

Spicy Crispy Anchovies ( Photo credits to Jess) 

This plate of anchovies seems to be air-fried upon tasting cos there is not a hint of oiliness in them. Great to get them when you are having happy hour at the restaurant.

Seafood Coquette

This seafood coquette packs a punch on its own without having to add any more sauce. The crunchiness that comes out from the bread crumbs can give the cracker kind of feeling.

Korean Spicy Fried Chicken 

This dish is made with the head chef's special concocted sauce. It is more towards the sweet kind of spiciness rather than the kind of sambal spiciness that we are looking at.

Fish Fingers

This one taste a bit like chicken fingers just that it does not have cheese taste

Lamb Shank

This dish is well braised as the meat is able to be still stuck onto the bone and also it is tender when you bite it. If you take a look at each dish, you will be able to see the chef's effort to introduce vegetables to each dish for healthy living.

Miso Cod Fillet 

This dish is made from overnight marination of the special sauce which was concocted by the chef. What I like about this dish are the flavourful miso cod fillet and the mashed potato. The mash potato is something which does not give the very starchy kind of feeling after each mouth.

Grilled pork chop 

This dish was tasted cold as we were busy taking photos so can't really give an exact review for it. Probably when it is eaten hot, it should be more tender. Wished that it was tenderised more 

Baby  Back Ribs 

I did not taste this dish for the fear of dark soya sauce. The other ladies felt the taste was just nice.

For my personal opinion of this food tasting session, the top dish goes to the miso cod fillet which is a must try. 2nd dish would be the cheesy pork balls.These 2 are my personal favourites.

At the end of the food tasting session, we decided to check out the entire premises and realised that there are certain spots which are good for a wedding proposal, hanging out with bf/gf for a sweet whispering session and some photo taking.

Here are some photos which I feel good for wedding proposal and our photo taking session.

The fun shot that the other ladies took 

This place is catered for solemnization. The enchanted garden offers its premises for private events.

Great for catching up among friends.

Not to forget, just to share that Enchanted Garden offers happy hour all day long from 11am to 12 midnight daily. For current month's promotion will be 1 for 1 drinks  for happy hour.

For my readers, there will be a 15% discount for the main course and also 15% discount on soft drinks once you show my blog post.Promotional items are not applicable for the 15% discount

My current favourite side dish- black fungus with slight spicy sauce

Today I was supposed to attend the global wellness day at RWS. However , I was feeling a bit feverish and tired.I decided to get some rest. After resting for almost one whole day,I felt a bit better. I decided to make black fungus with slight spicy sauce.

Recently, I have been crazing for this dish most of the time during dinner time. It is so simple and i just managed to learn from someone else.

Why I decided to cook this dish is because that it has the following benefits.

The benefits are:

• lower cholesterol
• improve blood circulation
• help people with the dry throat

Ingredients 

Small black fungus- soak and blanched in boiling water and drain dry.
1 teaspoon of vinegar
1 clove of mince garlic- chopped finely
3 sticks of the coriander leaves chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoon of light soya sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil 
1.5 desert spoon of Lao gan ma chilli oil

Mix the sauces together with the black fungus after draining the black fungus. Leave it for a while and then eat .

Steam fish with light soya sauce

Ingredients

1 sutchi fillet
3 slices of ginger shreds
2 chilli padi
1cm of water in pot
light soya sauce
a pinch of salt


Recently, i tried to prepare this simple and fuss free steam fish dish.

I first cut the sutchi fillet into half.

Next , I rub some salt onto the fish. I will also start to boil about 1 cm of water in the pot.

Once water is boil , put the fish in with the ginger shreds, chilli padi and also the light soya sauce to cover the water and boil for about 15 mins.

Serve hot with rice.

Review of Spicy Thai Cafe @ Blk 115 Aljunied

On March 25 2016, I was invited by my blogger friend to accompany her to the food tasting of spicy thai cafe's menu. It was held on Good Friday. What a way to celebrate Good Friday.

Spicy thai cafe serves a wide variety of thai dishes which could be found on their website  Spicy Thai Cafe Menu. For this food tasting, we had a variety of nine dishes. These 9 dishes are tom yum seafood fried rice, thai style curry crab, deep fried kang kong, with special thai sauce, fish maw crab meat abalone soup in coconut, deep fried sea bass with mango salad , bbq japanese squid with roe, bbq pork belly and stir fried basil, minced chicken and long beans,stir fry crab meat with bean sprouts.

Tom Yum Seafood Fried Rice -$6

This is a one-off occasion where the fried rice is put into the mould of the heart shape. For a single portion, it is not done in this manner, Good for those who are considering to do proposal via food.

Stir fry fish maw, crab meat with beansprouts-$18

Seriously, I did not even taste that there were crab meat or fish maw in this dish. I have to be honest about that. Nothing fanciful about this dish to be exact.

Deep fried sea bass with mango salad.- Seasonal pricing

This sea bass was deep fried till crispy and when you dip the fish into the sauce of the mango salad, a hint of the sour factor makes it refreshing.

Thai style curry crab- Seasonal pricing

To be exact, I dun really fancy this dish when it turns cold. This dish was served hot . However, due to the photo taking of the bloggers, it turned cold. The eggy taste actually overpowers the thai spices or curry flavour.

This fish maw soup with crab meat and mini abalone in coconut was the best of the night. It has a very rich and flavourful taste . However, a bit salty to my liking. It cost $28 dollars.

What i write is based on my own opinions and taste buds....you might want to go and check it out yourself... 

To get there, you might want to take bus 80 from aljunied mrt station. Have a good rest and a good meal on labour day.

Review of Kungfu Panda 3

I decided to watch Kungfu Panda 3 impromptu after a day of hard work. This is my me time reward cos I really need a laugh to relax. After searching for a few cinemas, I decided to watch it at the one nearest to my home. A money saving tip: watch it on Tuesday . If you want more space to sit in the event of disturbance from other cinema goers, do go for morning shows.

Kungfu Panda has some Tao elements in the show. I found that the best part of the show is that when Kungfu Panda Po manage to be able to teach others how to learn kungfu. Po was hesitant on being a teacher when his teacher decided that he has to teach his peers kungfu.

Most importantly, I guess the ability to be able to grasp on knowing that each one of us has to focus on our own strengths and not weakness and master it. Without that, we are not able to radiate out the light as in our sphere of influence to tell others that we are excelling in this area. I guess this was my biggest takeaway from this show.

Chinese New Year song Gong Xi Gong Xi 新年歌 恭喜恭喜

Happy Lunar New Year!

Media Invite: 2nd Visit to Alive Museum

This is my second visit to Alive Museum, grateful for this invite from Alive Museum again.

This round, I brought my little friend along with me. Her name is Janice. 

This is me doing my ballerina warm up

Having fun at the hip hop arena

This one reminds me of the ah do gen from the street fighter scene.

The next series of pictures are very appropriate for the month of February which is in line for valentine's day or proposal.  Just coincidentally, this year 人日 also fall on valentine's day.

First , we have love in the air 

Next, will it be a date at the park sitting on the bench?

For those who have been dating a long time , you might want to start your proposal here.

Guys out there might first save some money if they were to propose at this scene.

Lastly, the wedding night if it is to be held on valentine's day.

If you do not have much program during the chinese new year, just head on to the alive museum at suntec city.

Braised Celery - Healthy living

This dish I tried it out after googling from allreceipes.com. However, I did a tweak to the recipe.

Ingredients

1 bunch of celery that is cut in 4-inch pieces
1/2 a piece of the chicken cube
10g of butter ( I used the scs those is pre packed form)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 bowl of water
1 tablespoon of parsely


Step 
1.  Melt the butter

2. Arrange the celery in the skillet  and season it with salt and pepper.

3.Dissolve the chicken cube and pour the water in to boil

4.Cover the pot and bring it to boil over medium high heat.

5. Once the water boils, simmer it on low heat for half an hour.

Merry Xmas

Have fun to all of you out there !! Blessed Xmas

Tau Kwa Porridge

Ingredients( Serves 1)

1 piece of tau kwa -diced into small cubes
50g of dried shrimps
1 small shallot
100g of minced meat- to be marinated with corn flour, light soya sauce, a dash of pepper and sesame oil.
rice

This tau kwa porridge is taught by my grandma. It is rather different from the normal porridge.

Steps on how to prepare

1. First you got to decide the number of people that you are cooking for then cook the porridge like the teochew style of porridge.

2. Pan fry the tau kwa till golden brown and then set aside

3. Stir fry the shallot with the dried shrimps till fragrant

4. Upon look that the porridge is boiling, make the minced meat into balls and put inside the porridge to cook.

5. Lastly, once the porridge is cooked put the tau kwa and dried shrimps into the porridge.

Note: if you don't feel that it is salty enough, you might want to add a bit of light soya sauce. I am fine with the saltiness.

My new hobby

Currently, the latest trend for adult hobby is doing the colouring to de-stress. I also hopped onto the bandwagon. For me, it was more of a kill my boredom during the weekends.

Here's the picture of my first colouring book.

I got it from times book shop and it is at $6.90 . For that , I would say that it is pretty decent for the designs that were printed on the book. Who would have thought of that the simple colouring stuff that we do when we were young enables us to de- stress and allows us to sleep earlier?

Home cooked fried carrot cake

Yesterday I tried cooking fried carrot cake for the first time. I actually got my inspiration from looking through all the photos that were posted on my face book. Hence,  I cooked it for lunch to share with my dad.

This recipe I got it from rasamalaysia . However, I do have a cheat step to do the frying easier.

Ingredients

1 carrot cake ( stir fry ) from ntuc

2 tbsp of chai por
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 tbsp of oil
2 eggs( put a bit of light soya sauce and pepper to beat)
1 tsp of fish sauce

Steps

1. Cut the carrot cake into cubes
2. fry the carrot cake till golden brown ( for me i dun prefer golden brown)
3. fry the garlic , chai por and carrot and put in the fish sauce
4. add in the eggs
5. add in the spring onion as garnishing

Noodle salad

Today I came home early from work. I decided to make something colourful and something which i had never tried doing that before which is noodle salad.

Ingredients

1 packet of myojo chicken abalone noodles

1 carrot

1 japanese cucumber

4 hotdogs or chicken franks

2 tablespoon of roasted sesame dressing.

Steps

1. Boil the water to cook the hotdogs

2. Meanwhile cut the carrot into strips and cucumber to slices

3. Once water is boiled , cook the hotdogs and remove the hotdogs once cooked.

4. Next , use it to cook the myojo chicken abalone noodles.

5. Drain off the water and use running tap water and ice water to cool the noodles.

6. Mix the ingredients and noodles together with the 2 tablespoons of roasted sesame dressing

My 34th birthday celebration

My 34th birthday was simple and quiet one. I had spent time with one of my best friend at my favourite cafe followed by visiting my grandma and cell group for the night. I brought the rainbow cake which i had with my friend for my celebration to let my grandma to try.I guess it was also her first time to try rainbow cake as well as salmon pie.

I was like totally overwhelmed that my cell leader and his wife baked a sea salt caramel brownie for me. Cos for me being the noti one in cell group I would not expect them to bake a cake for me. I know my cell leader cares for me yet somehow or rather i felt that it was hard to share things with him.

Here's the picture of my birthday cake

If  you are keen in trying the sea salt caramel brownie, do head over to the facebook page a slice of love to order one.

Post elections feelings of GE2015

Seriously, the feelings of the post election of GE2015 were of mixed feelings. Firstly, though PAP has won again there is still a sense of uncertainty of the future. My thoughts are would the newly elected members of the parliament be able to handle the work.

Secondly, would the policies be catered to be more for the poor and the lower middle income for the next few years? I would not deny that the foreign talents are willing to take in all the shitty jobs that we locals shun but there ought to be a need for minimum wage for the locals else we would not be able to sustain our basic living. If the cost of living is going higher, the poor and the lower middle income would not be able to sustain. It will end up the next general election for votes to be going more towards the opposition.

Thirdly, would fresh graduates be able to find job easily? Seriously, I found it hard for myself to find work in the field of psychology that I had study in university and had to find myself succumb back to those lowly paid admin jobs whereby the pay have been slashed down due to the influx of foreign talents. Would there be better accreditation in Singapore for the field of psychology so that we could practice elsewhere rather than only Singapore?

Fourthly, would the pap youth wing be able to able to produce better leaders so as to lead Singapore to SG100? Seriously, I worry on this cos I do not know if the young leaders from PAP would work hard to build on MR Lee Kuan Yew's legacy.

Last but not least, I do hope that the elected members of the parliament would work hard to build a better Singapore with better governance and that the country will continue to prosper.

Japchae

Ingredients

150g of sweet potato noodles or dried glass noodles

1 tablespoon of oil

3 cloves of minced garlic

150g of beef or chicken cut into very thin strips

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

2 tablespoon of light soya sauce

150g of  puay leng (spinach), leaves trimmed

2 carrots cut into match sticks

2 spring onions cut into short lengths

4 fresh shiitake mushrooms with stems trimmed and caps sliced

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of corn flour

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce mixed with water

Steps

1. First cut the chicken into thin slices and marinate with the corn flour, 1 teaspoon of  light soya sauce, a dash of pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

2. Cut the carrots, mushrooms, spring onions.

3. Boil the water  and add the sweet potato noodles and cooked it till soft.  Once soft, drain off  the water and set aside.

4. Stir fry the garlic till golden brown and fragrant. Add in the chicken or beef, sesame oil  and 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce and stir fry till browned. Add the vegetables in to stir fry till tender.

5. Add in the glass noodles and toss well to combine the seasoning with the sugar, salt and remaining oyster sauce. Sprinkle with black pepper and serve hot .

** A note to take: this might be a bit bland for you guys out there  so adjust the seasoning accordingly. I try to cook as bland as possible for health sake of my family and friends.

Bodyweight Exercise - You Are Your Own Gym Novice Circuit Training

Previously, I was looking into some light exercise. Now I have decided to try out a mini circuit training at home. So this is the video I am going to use. So do share with me if the work out is working out for you as well.

Empowering Women on Money Sense Matters

As part of my routine for personal development that I aimed to bring forth to you people out there, I happened to chance upon Genecia's online webinars for women entrepreneurs via Facebook marketing ads.

I started to register for my first online webinar that is more catered to online pricing psychology for customers. I did learn a few things from the webinar. I would said that Genecia really did a very good job even though when she is sick at times to deliver an impactful content based webinar for us to learn from her. When I am writing this post, it was already my third week in following Genecia's online webinars. In fact, I applied on one of her techniques that were taught on the webinar. I saw a response immediately the next day. In fact, running a business without a mentor is hard. I learnt it in a hard way trying to find myself a suitable mentor throughout the time since the day I started my business.

Like myself, being wanting to be a women entrepreneur needs lots of courage and also support from like- minded people. To have a community of like- minded women entrepreneurs to come together to support one another and to learn from a successful women entrepreneur, we could have prevented ourselves from making mistakes that other people made before. What's more the trainer Genecia is willing to help to empower all the fellow women entrepreneurs. Seriously, I saw the effort that she put in to help those who attends her webinars.

Thus, I would like to encourage those who are interested in learning how to start your business to attend her Online webinars on Wednesday.

Here's the link to Genecia's write up: http://www.geneciaalluora.com/launch-guide

To register for her online webinar, please register at http://www.geneciaalluora.com/7-figure-launch-secrets

Do you let me know how we could support one by leaving your comments