World’s Best Butter Cookies

Nono, I wasn’t being a snooty baker. These really are the best butter cookies I’ve made… and the recipe is titled “World’s Best Butter cookies”. These cookies were buttery, not too sweet and simply delicious. The batter was kind of soft though, compared to most cookie dough, so I’d recommend that you don’t skip the refrigeration step.

Behold, The World’s Best Butter Cookies from Food.com

 

(They look like mini pancakes here)

Yield:
48 cookies Units: US | Metric

Ingredients:

8 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

1) Beat the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla together until smooth and creamy.
2) Mix in the egg yolk until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once.
3) Add the flour and mix just until incorporated.
4) Scrape onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times, just until the dough smooths out.
5) Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log, wrap up and refrigerate for several hours or freeze.
6) Before baking, preheat the oven to 325°F.
7) Line your baking sheets with parchment.
8) Slice the dough into slices about 1/8″ thick and place them on the sheets about an inch apart (they won’t be spreading very much, but they need air room around each cookie).
9) Bake until JUST beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 16-18 minutes.
10) Note: you can do many things with these cookies.
11) You could roll the dough out and cut shapes.
12) You could slice them even thinner and sandwich them with chocolate or jam or lemon curd.
13) You could make them and then dip them half into chocolate.
14) You could just make them and eat them, which is my favorite.
15) Whatever you do, they will be delicious.

Do give the recipe a try, and let me know how it turns out! 🙂

Paris Baguette Cafe

Cute brochure

435 Orchard Road, #02-48 to 53 Wisma Atria, Singapore 239977

I was out for a walk with my fellow food lover when we caught a glimpse of this brightly lit, squeaky clean and new-looking bakery. Despite looking so new, Paris Baguette Cafe was attracting a steady flow of customers. Being me, I joined the queue. After all, long queues = good food, no? (Most of the time at least)

First thing that shocked me was that this bakery is from Korea. That’s right, not Paris, despite its name. And they are authentically korean. The staff were even speaking korean to some of their customers! If the true-blue koreans come here for good eats that they are familiar with, I’m joining in.

Now for the food!

Freshly baked Baguette

I thought since they’ve got Baguette in their name, they must be good for it right? Well, their baguette was not bad, unfortunately not as good as I thought it would be. This clearly isn’t their signature item, tastewise, even though they may be called Paris Baguette Cafe. Give this a miss, and go for their other unique bakes.

Giant UFO (aka Custard filled bun of omnom deliciousness)

If you look really closely, you can see specks of vanilla bean. 

This Giant UFO bun is a custard filled bun shaped like a UFO. It has a sweet biscuity crust, with a soft pillowy centre. The bun is so thin, just enough to hold the generous filling of fragrant, wobbly custard within. You definitely have to give this a try! This is such a unique item, and it has one of the best custard fillings I’ve tasted.

Sonoma

Sonoma… hmm, maybe its a korean word for peanut. Well, this bun is covered with a fragrant crunchy peanut exterior which adds a nice oomph to this bread. It doesn’t look very appetizing, and I didn’t think just having a peanut coating would add much taste. But I was pleasantly surprised by the fragrance of the peanut coating. You could really taste and smell the peanuts. The crunchiness of the coating also nicely complemented the softness of the bun. I’d recommend this as well.

Paris Baguette Cafe offers dine-in options as well, but judging from past reviews, you’re better off going for the takeaway bakery options which are value for money, and tasty. The dine-in options are more expensive, and after paying so much, I’m sure you won’t be as satisfied with your food (even if it is above average).

Rating: 8/10

Healthy, wealthy and wise

Source

With so many foodies on the rise, and with Singapore’s great love for anything tasty, I felt it was important to address the issue on health.

I’m not here to tell you what to eat, or to tell you to go on a healthy diet. I’m advocating a healthy lifestyle. Something to adopt for life, not like fad diets. Everyone is different, so do what suits you, 3 meals and 2 snacks, 6 small meals, just 3 big meals.. just so long its healthy, keep it up!

Today’s post was made to encourage you to add healthy changes to your lifestyle, one of which is cutting down on eating out, which I myself, and many foodies, are guilty of doing in our quests to find the best food in Singapore.

Usually, to make food taste good, restaurants add loads of sugar, salt, cream, oil and the like to give our meals that oomph! In our quests for delicious food, it is important to strike a balance between health and indulging in gastronomical delights. 

In fact, I’ve just thought of something! “Just because you don’t count calories, doesn’t mean that your calories don’t count.” -MoodieFoodie 

Calorie counting is troublesome, especially with our local food since it is hard to find nutrition facts for food cooked by different hawkers, or in restaurants. But making sure your calories come from nutritious choices would be helpful in maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle. And so, we ought to enjoy our minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables even if we are eating out. This may prove to be a challenge, but your body will thank you for it. In fact, if you are someone who likes to eat a lot, healthy eating may be even better for you, since you can eat more for the same amount of calories, and loads more nutrition.

Source

Its great to enjoy ourselves, eating rich chomp worthy food with our family and friends, but we should eat at least one home cooked meal a day. Eating at home is healthier, and it also provides time for family bonding. Contrariwise, eating out is not only expensive, but its also not great for our waistlines since the food is often made of empty calories. Furthermore, we tend to eat more when we eat out since portion sizes are completely out of whack in restaurants. This isn’t their fault, after all, they want to make the consumers happy, and more is often deemed as better. This is, of course, a generalization since there have been a growing number of restaurants that promote healthy, natural cooking. For some, cooking a meal is too much work, well, even putting together a nutritious sandwich would be a healthy choice. 

(Please don’t eat processed food at home either, if you think its better than eating out, all that preservatives, and chemicals that you can’t pronounce aren’t good for your body!)

source

I am no different from all you food lovers out there. I love my desserts, hawker delights, high class restaurant food.. everything! But moderation is key. 

By striking a balance, we can live longer, and enjoy our food for an even longer period of time. After all, when we eat healthy, it isn’t as if we are skimping on the taste, since healthy food does taste good too!

Of course, adding some exercise to the equation doesn’t hurt either. Just a short walk after a meal would improve digestion, and would help you to shed some weight in the long run. 

source

It isn’t that hard, right?

So go ahead, make some changes and start living a healthier lifestyle, before its too late. Its cheaper to live healthier, than to pay for your medical bills!

Here’s a quote to motivate you,

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” -George Bernard Shaw

Seize the day, my friends! Make a change today. Any change, even if its small, is better than no change at all.

Stay healthy, wealthy and wise 🙂

146 Ang Ku Kueh

Lim Lam Hong Confectionery

Blk 146 Jalan Bukit Merah,#01-1086,Singapore 160146

Phone:             +65 6273-5159     

 Email: 146angkukueh@gmail.com

Website: www.146angkukueh.blogspot.sg 

Operating Hours: Daily: 8 am to 7.30 pm

146 Ang Ku Kueh

Someone’s going old school today! My past few posts were mainly about western food and recipes. So today, I’m going back to my roots with a post about old school chinese food! 

Pictured above is Ang Ku Kueh (A sticky kind of kueh, encasing various fillings, usually yellow bean or ground peanuts and sugar), a Singaporean tea time delicacy.

I visited 146 Ang Ku Kueh or Lim Lam Hong Confectionary, at Jalan Bukit Merah, to see if their Ang Ku kueh’s were really as good as they claimed to be. 

I’m glad to say I wasn’t disspointed.

They have a wide variety of flavours, including traditional flavors of mung bean and peanut, as well as modern flavours like durian, yam and even green tea!

Also, 146 Ang Ku Kueh is the only place I’ve been to that sells mini ang ku kueh.

Mung bean Ang ku kueh

For this post, I’ll be rating the ang ku kueh as a whole, since there are too many flavours to cover. If you’re curious, I tried yam, mung bean, peanut, coconut, sweet potato and red bean. 

Overall, the kueh casing was thin, soft, and chewy, and it was perfect in the sense that it doesn’t stick to the roof of your mouth when you are eating it. However, I found the kueh to be too oily though, cause I could see and feel the oiliness.The fillings were generous and not too sweet. I would recommend buying the normal sized ang ku kueh though, since there’s more filling, and 2 small ang ku kueh’s don’t make up to one normal sized ang ku kueh (so you’ll be getting more bang for your buck if you get the normal sized one)

The mini akk’s are $0.40 and the normal ones are $0.80.

To be honest, the kueh was good, but not spectacular. But being a product of this westernised world, I’m not exactly the best person to judge a traditional delicacy. I mean, how unforgettable can kueh’s like this be?

Rating: 7/10

Blueberry bread

Its time for a recipe!

Look at the burst blobs of blueberries! (alliteration)

I came across this recipe on Dawn’s blog a while back, and I decided to give it a go.

Homemade Blueberry Bread

 Recipe (makes 12 slices)

Dry

1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Wet

1 cup milk

1/4 yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract (or more if you’re a vanilla fan)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the blueberries with a whisk in a large bowl.
3. In another large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
4. In the ‘dry ingredients’ bowl, make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. Combine all the ingredients by mixing. Note: DO NOT OVERMIX. About 25 seconds of mixing should do the job. There may seem to be some lumps here and there but it’s totally fine – it’s meant to be like that! 
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Grease a baking tin with oil or butter and pour in your batter.
7. Gently tap the baking tin to remove any air bubbles within the batter.
8. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is definitely a healthier bread recipe since yogurt substitutes the butter/oil. Of course, that comes at a cost since this bread is denser than most. However, it still tastes good, and is even better eaten when its toasted and topped with peanut butter.

Another suggestion is that you could spread honey on the top of the bread after baking to add some sweetness. 

Do give it a try and let me know how it went! 😀

Have a great day.

Food for thought

Botanic Gardens outlet

Hey hey. I’ve been wanting to try the pancakes at Food for thought for quite awhile now, and I’m proud to say, I found time, like I always do, to give it a try. I didn’t take photos on my first trip there, but I had their pulled pork burger, and their mushroom soup. Thumbs up for the pulled pork burger, I’d give it a 8/10, with brownie points for their homemade potato buns. The burger buns were really good, they weren’t just there to hold the meat together, like the usual tasteless burger buns out there. These freshly made potato buns were fragrant, perfectly chewy and delicious!

The mushroom soup was pretty good too, with chunks of mushroom swirled in the rich mushroomy goodness, so this gets a rating of 8/10 as well.

Now, on to the items that I did that a photo of (on my second trip).

Original Burger:

To be honest, I forgot the name of this burger, but it was the original beef burger patty. It was topped with a lime mayo type sauce as you can see, with just simple veg like tomatoes and lettuce as toppings. The fries and drink comes separately if you order a set. (I suggest you order a set as the burger looks quite sad without the fries)

The burger buns were once again awesome, and the patty juicy. But I think that its rather small, especially for the full grown men out there. Maybe they should use smaller plates so it looks like you’re getting more, cause at the moment, the burger only takes up slightly more than half the plate without fries. This burger wasn’t out of the world though, I still prefer their pulled pork burger.

Rating: 7/10

AND NOW, I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST…

*drumroll please…*

Raspberry and dark chocolate pancakes!!

Now, doesn’t that look ahmazingggg. It actually fills up the entire plate, which is about 12 inches? I’m not sure, but its one (or rather two) big pancake(s)!

The dark chocolate chips were melting on the freshly made pancakes, so I just had to spread them around to ensure an even spread of chocolatey goodness. They were very generous, so I didn’t have to worry about splitting the chocolate between the two pancakes, because… they had even more chocolate chips on top of the second pancake!

The pancakes were fluffy, and delicious, and the sweet, and slight tanginess of the raspberries paired excellently with the bittersweet dark chocolate. A matchmade in heaven.

And that’s not all! The fresh whipped cream served at the side, with rich gula melaka syrup made this dessert all the more indulgent. Usually, they top the pancakes with the whipped cream and drizzle the gula melaka over, but I didn’t want my cream to melt, so I had it served on the side.

To me, the toppings on the pancakes were more than enough to flavour it, so I didn’t use much of the gula melaka.

Here’s what it would look like if you order it with cream on top (the normal way):

(credits to steelwool.wordpress.com)

One day, I’ll try the banana walnut pancakes (above)

Rating: 9.5/10

I would go back there just for their pancakes! Its going to be awhile before I find (if I ever find) pancakes that are better than these.

Oh and I love the ambience there. Somehow once I step in, I feel so happy. Maybe its cause I know that some of their proceeds go to the needy.. Do visit Food for thought if you haven’t! They are definitely worth a try 🙂

Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant

185/ 187/ 189/ 191 Jalan Besar

Singapore 208882 

Enquiry Hotline : 62257788  

Fax : 62941089 

Email : admin@sweechoon.com

 Business Hours :

Monday – Saturday 6 pm – 10 am

Sunday and Public Holiday 6 pm – 12 noon

Close on Tuesday Night

Payment mode : Cash and NETS

************************************************************

So I finally went to try Swee Choon’s dim sum. I didn’t even know they existed until recently, even though they’ve been around for 50 years. Anyway, I went there for breakfast today, and it was quite interesting sitting in a back alley with a couple of old uncles sitting around for their breakfast too. 

Since they open from 6pm to 10am, when I went, quite a few of their items were sold out 😦 So I didn’t get to try their egg tarts, char siew sou, and things like their red bean pancake and xiao long bao because they only sell those at night. 

Anyway, here’s my verdict for those items that I tried:

Front view of the stall, seats are at the back.

(They sell takeaway items from here)

Charsiew Bao:

The bbq pork filling was pretty good, but the pau was too thick for my liking. To me, a good pau must have thin skin, so that once you bite into it, the filling will ooze in your mouth, rather than tasting more pau flour than the filling. 

Rating: 7/10

The ideal pau I was talking about should look something like that ^^

Salted egg yolk custard bun:

This is my first time eating liushabao, and I must say it was really good! I kept seeing photos of this golden, oozing pau, so now that I have finally gotten the chance to taste it, it was definitely up to my expectations. The bao skin was thin, and the filling just oozed out the moment I split it in half. Its like golden lava! The filling was extremely rich and hot, it was a delight to eat. You have to order this if you’re eating at Swee Choon!

Rating: 9/10

Century egg porridge:

Doesn’t look particularly impressive eh? Yeah, well it wasn’t anything special. You can give this carb loaded dish a miss and try something else since this will fill you up quite a bit.

Rating: 5/10

Dumplings in chili oil:

Now, this looks pretty good huh! The skin of the dumpling was smooth and easy to swallow/bite, the meat filling was quite tasty too. However, it wasn’t spicy at all, and tasted more like wantons. So the chili oil doesn’t really add any taste to this dish.

Rating: 7/10

The steamed/boiled food came first, and we had to wait for quite awhile for our fried stuff to come… and when they did, they came all at once! I would have preferred if all the food came together though, cause it can get too much when you eat fried food all at once. I left feeling a little artery clogged :S

Fried food extravaganza:

All served piping hot!

Mee Suah Kueh:

I think Swee Choon is one of the few places which serves mee suah kueh. Its basically a fried chunk of mee sua. Its definitely worth a try.

Rating: 8/10

Carrot cake:

This was good! You should definitely order this, but just one set will suffice. It was crunchy on the outside, and smooth on the inside. Delicious!

Rating: 8/10

Spring roll:

This was ordinary. Tastes like what you can get at Old Chang Kee, just that this is hotter, and crunchier.

Rating: 5/10

Prawn and banana fritter:

This sounded interesting so we decided to order it. It was average. Tasted like goreng pisang with a random prawn. Haha, you can order it for the fun of it though..but do note that prawns and banana do not make the best pairing.

Rating: 6/10

STILL SOME MORE?? Woah, I didn’t realise we ordered so much fried food. And we only had 4 people. We don’t usually order this much fried stuff, but since they sold out on quite a lot of items, we were left with these.

Yam fritter:

I was pleasantly surprised to find mushrooms, peas and minced meat in the yam fritter. I thought it was just fried yam. Anyway, this was nice! The yam was soft and it was nicely encased in the crunchy batter.

Rating: 7/10

All in all, don’t order as much fried food as we did. You won’t feel very good after that, just pick a few 🙂 The chrysanthemum tea they provided did help to wash down the oily aftertaste. I’d suggest that you go at night, since more items will be available, and the atmosphere will probably be better with more people around (although it will be harder to get a seat). Do let me know if you try any other dishes which stand out!

Overall rating: 7/10

Pique Nique

Meaty Mac N Cheese

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Crab/Seafood chowder

Mac N Cheese with chicken

Pique Nique

Takashimaya Outlet (Next to KFC)

 

I have been wanting to try the food at Pique Nique especially since my friends have been raving about the cheesy goodness in their food. Although I’m not a huge fan of cheese, I decided to try their ‘Meaty Mac N Cheese’ (I can’t remember the exact name) which is Mac&Cheese with bolognese sauce, topped with a poached egg. When my food came, served in a saucepan-like thing, I couldn’t wait to dig in. The Mac&Cheese was delicious, although there was a bit too much cheese for me (it covered nearly the whole top layer), the tomato bolognese sauce perfectly complemented the cheesiness so it wasn’t too overpowering. The egg was poached  nicely, although it looked kind of awkward sitting a top a bed of cheese. I would rate this dish 8/10 as it was my favorite of the lot.

Another dish I tried was the “Chicken Mac N Cheese” (Actually I don’t know its name but it was basically roasted chicken strips with mac n cheese). It was pretty good as well, but without the tomato sauce, this dish was too cheesy for me. So cheese lovers, go ahead and order this! (They even have a four cheese mac n cheese if you are crazy about cheese) For me this was a 7/10

Also, I tried some of my friend’s Seafood(or crab) Chowder. I’m not a fan of crab soup so I didn’t really like it. And my friend complained about how the bread was too hard. I’d rate this 4/10.

Finally, I had the Red Velvet Cupcake. It looks like a huge hunk of red in the picture cause they coat the cream cheese frosting in the Red Velvet Cupcake crumbs. This was my first Red Velvet Cupcake so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I know that Red Velvet Cupcakes should taste more chocolatey though. The cupcake tasted more like a butter cupcake, with cream cheese topping. While it was interesting eating a red cupcake (clearly dyed with food colouring), I wasn’t a huge fan. On the other hand, my friend loved the cream cheese frosting so I suppose its personal preference. I prefer cupcakes which are less commercial, those which use fresh and natural ingredients and focus on taste rather than presentation. Anyway, this cupcake was pretty overpriced at slightly over 5 bucks. So it gets a rating of 5/10.

In conclusion, I would return for the Mac N Cheese, and the ambience (the eclectic furniture is really fun to sit on).

Rating: 7/10