Food tasting event at Artichoke Singapore (Sponsored)

I did this food tasting about 2 weeks back thru the invitation of fellow blogger, Isabelle who coordinated the whole event. I was glad that I was able to bring a friend along. Thanks to the generosity of chef Bjorn.

Artichoke is a restaurant that serves middle eastern inspired food together with bar concept. This is the 2^nd time that I am eating middle eastern food. I nearly missed this lovely restaurant as I was unable to locate the signboard. It was located in between a small alley between the middle road church and objectifs.

Here's how the signboard looks like:

We started off with 7 appetizers namely the devils on horseback(new dish that is not on the menu), the burnt miso hummus,babaganoush, samphire, jerusalem salad, beetroot boraini, iraqi-spiced mushroom and turkish toast,

Devils on horseback is a new dish that has not been included in the menu. It consist of the beef, dried apricot, labneh, mint and almond.I would say that this dish I would give a thumbs up if it would be included in the menu. However, I wished that the saltiness level of the beef would be slightly reduced.

My favourite of the appetizer would be the beetroot boraini , babaganoush and the turkish toast.

Beetroot boraini

This dish has got an interesting flavour for me cos it has the kind of cheesy taste yet not too overwhelming and it does not have a very raw kind of feeling when eating the beetroot. It also aids in digestion as well when we are so overwhelmed with the many dishes to taste.

Babaganoush 

For people who does not like to eat eggplant might want to give this dish a try. The smoked egg plant is not mushy to the max and the soft texture makes it easy to swallow.

The turkish toast tasted so much like english muffins and it is really yummy.

For mains, we had squid ink couscous, smoked chicken, hot skillet prawn, golden promfret, lamb shoulder , haloumi and fried cauliflower salad.

Squid ink couscous

Squid ink couscous was something which failed my expectations as the couscous has turned into barley size grains. It has been cooked too wet thus causing the couscous to turn into barley size grains. As I have always tasted couscous in my salad , it has never been barley size grains. I wondered if it was caused by the long taking photography session by us that causes it.

Fried cauliflower salad

Cauliflower salad is something that chef Bjorn said that even those who does not like to eat vegetables would polish off this dish. I guess it was the crunchiness of the cauliflower that came from the grilling which makes it special.

Haloumi

Haloumi was cheese that was being fried. However, it did not taste like cheese and tasted more like fishcake. Perhaps this was as what chef Bjorn was describing tasting a bit of rubbery when it was not eaten hot. I would give this dish a second chance.

The prawns were fresh.I did not get a chance to taste the sauce of the prawn ‘cos I was too full from eating other stuff.

The smoked chicken was juicy enough and did not taste like it was made from frozen chicken.The pickled daikon was really refreshing to clear the palate.

The lamb was surprisingly good without what we consider the 羊骚味. I have always dislike eating mutton because of the 羊骚味. This dish seems to be braised until the mutton meat was so soft.

This golden promfret was grilled using the charcoal and the tenderness of the fish meat was really so soft.Reminds me of stingy ray but this has got more meat.

 Drinks wise we had dark donut, pandan gimlet, pink sunset, kopi b , tiramisu latte and sangria.

However, sangria and tiramisu latte was not in the photo.

Desserts were date pudding, soft serve ice cream and malabi split. Out of the 3 desserts which I ate date pudding was the one that stole my heart away. Date pudding which might not stands out in terms of looks but the sweetness level is sweet enough to over power the 2 other desserts.

 I shan't not disclose on how the desserts look like.. go and try it out at artichoke.

Talking about the bar counter with the nice music would make a great place to chill out after work for a meal.

 Really like the creativity of chef Bjorn's cooking and I wished that one day I would also be able to create more creative dishes for home cooks as well. A little more about chef Bjorn is that he is the 

chef cum ­owner of Artichoke, and author of the Artichoke cookbook. His rebellious personality and outlandish style of cooking has earned significant industry recognition over the years. Outside of starting food brands Artichoke, Bird Bird and Neh Neh Pop, Bjorn wrote a monthly column titled ‘Bjorn Says’ for Time Out magazine, lectured at the Culinary Institute of America, and actively consults on menus for restaurant openings. Industry accolades that he has accumulated over the years include ‘Chef of the Year 2013’ ­ SC Global, ‘Rising Chef of The Year 2015’ finalist ­ World Gourmet Summit, ‘Best Local Chef 2016’ ­ SG Readers’ Choice Awards, and ‘WGS Best 20 Chefs 2016’ ­ World Gourmet Summit. Bjorn is also frequently on television, having most recently featured as judge on MasterChef Singapore on Mediacorp’s Channel 5, and also on programmes such as MasterChef Asia and Secret Eats, and in lead roles on Eat List Star Season 2 and The Ultimate Brocation.

Our group photo for the night.

Hope the next time I go back will have something new to try out again. 

Review of ESET Internet Security

I have always pondered which will be the most effective antivirus for my computer for many years. Each time I buy a new computer or laptop, I faced this issue.  However, a few years back I found the solution. This is none other than ESET.

The reason on why I chose ESET instead of Norton or Mcafee is that it has better virus database which can scan away all those unwanted virus as compared to Norton or Mcafee. Let me share with on how i started my journey with ESET. 

Initially, I thought Norton or Mcafee was doing the job on scanning for virus. However, one day I decided to try to download another antivirus to do a scan on the computer. So I started to download all sorts of free trial downloads to scan my computer. ESET won Norton and Mcafee. Since then I have been a loyal ESET antivirus fan.

I started from its version 8 and now I am using its Internet Security version. This current version provides banking and payment protection as well as anti-theft protection. However, I am not very comfortable with the anti-theft protection function after it requires me to create a dummy account. It seems like to be an open door for other people to hack it. Let me find out more before I start to create the dummy account for the anti-theft protection.


I managed to find this online lobang  at the following link:

 ESET internet security deal at 50% off for only first 1000 copies
https://www.facebook.com/2047152252208983/videos/2055221928068682/

So grab it while stocks last.

My maiden attempt on cooking in air fryer( mayer air fryer)- not sponsored

Yesterday was my first attempt to cook steak in air fryer. I have to admit that I had chosen the wrong cut of meat for steak. Nonetheless, I officially broke the record of what people choose to cook for first time in air fryer.


Recipe

1 piece of steak
1 small packet of butter
half a teaspoon of salt to rub both sides
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of mixed italian herbs

I marinated the cut of meat, chuck tender with corn flour which was in replacement of meat tenderizer, salt, garlic powder and mixed Italian herbs. I preheat my air fryer at 180 degree celsius for about 5 minutes. Next, I put a piece of SCS butter which is those packed into one small packet one and oil my grill pan. followed by placing my steak into the air fryer. One side about 10 mins to ensure the proper grilling of the steak.

Review of Ban Leong Wah Hoe

Recently, I had the chance to try to ban leong wah hoe's chilli crab during Deepavali. It was the promotion of the 2kg of crabs at $88 that got my family to go and try.

Here comes the main dish

For me, there are not enough eggs in the chilli crab sauce. It is not spicy enough and was a bit too watery. However, if it  is to be eaten with the deep fried mantou. It is just nice.

For this har cheong kai, it was the best dish that my family likes. Crispy and taste just nice.

For this dish, I would not rate it very nice.

This baby squid dish is my favourite cos it is crispy and the sauce that comes with it was good.

Overall, we paid about $146 for these few dishes, 4 plates of rice and 5 drinks. However, to ask me to come all the way to this location to eat I would consider twice. Location wise is too far perhaps maybe others don't mind.

中秋节快乐

Today is 中秋节, it reminded me of my late grandmother whom i loved the most. I thought i could make time for her on 中秋节 last year but I could not make it due to work. This is the biggest regret in my life. I really missed spending this time with her.

Walking thru the shopping malls or even supermarkets selling pomelo reminded me that she has asked me to buy her ipoh pomelo for her to eat. That is something that she likes to eat. I really missed my ah ma.

At the same time today this year, I was carrying lantern without her beside me. Though this something that only kids would do but I just carried the lantern to tell her that I missed her as well.

Anyway 中秋节快乐 once again all.

Eating Personality

I happened to chance upon an email which is done by Dr.Oz talking about eating personality. I guess a lot of us is trying to find out what kind of personality do we have as under eating. You might want to check it out from the video below

 

For the quiz to help you assess which kind of eating personality you are , please click on the following link https://www.today.com/health/what-your-eating-personality-identify-it-start-eating-right-t115624

A Slightly Different National Day

This year, it was a slightly different national day 'cos it is the first time i visited gardens by the bay.
I have been hesitating to visit gardens by the bay as i was unwilling to pay for the conservatories fee.
However, I decided to pay and see it for myself once to satisfy my curiosity.

Here's some of the pictures i took while i was there

Reminds me that xmas is coming 

For the month of august, orchids seems to be in the theme as it is the national flower of Singapore

Indeed, the flowers in flower dome are pretty. Hopefully next time i will be able to see the tulips.

Secret garden in cloud forest

For cloud forest, I don't extremely enjoy due to the phobia of heights..the emptiness when you are supposed to walk the bridge from level 6 to the lost world at level 7.

Seriously , i do think that gardens by the bay do make a great place for picnic and also place for dating when you are struggling during month end. You can just don't pay to enter the conservatories prepare some sandwiches or hotdog buns with salad, some fruits,chips and a mat  and you are good to go.

Tips on how to get there
http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/plan-your-visit/getting-here-and-parking.html

i literally took 518 the express bus which is at my door step to marina bay sands and walk over via the bridge it was so simple. Really had loads of fun but forget to stay back to watch fireworks on national day.

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.