Abalone Claypot Rice

I just bought a multi cooker for weekend cooking, steamboat or BBQ.  So I tried for today's lunch. I cooked claypot rice with oriental sausages and baby abalone. Try something simple and easy first. 

I googled the recipe online and found something. I think generally just dump all the seasoning into the pot with the rice.  But I stirfried the garlic, shallot and the oriental sausage pieces with oil first before adding water and rice. The seasoning is just light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, put a bit of knorr stocks and Chinese cooking wine. I added wolf berried for eye nutrition, angelica herbs (dang gui) because I like the taste and kelp for a bit of taste and chilli of course. 

I still have the baby abalone in small can from CNY 2 weeks ago, last can. I put the gravy with the abalone into the pot as well.  I realised it was too much water. Next time I should have considered the gravy from abalone so the water should not be too much.

It turned out to be a bit mussy as I put too much water. However the taste was nice. I would perfect this recipe for weekend meal. Marco will say nice to the food I cook eventhough I think my food sucks. LOL

My 39th Birthday, 2021

The global economy of the world generally is not good and my job is greatly affected. I know some people make more money during this pandemic. However in MICE industry, we feel the great impact of this situation.

I had a very simple day. No celebration. Just got cake, cut and ate it. My helper cooked birthday noodle. Simple like normal days.

Marco is very sweet boy. He prepared a present for me around 2-3 weeks before my birthday. He saved his pocket money to get me something at his school bookshop. He kept the items secret from me. 2 days before my birthday, he boxed it and wrapped it with paper and tied with a ribbon. Since he couldn't tie a ribbon, he came to me and asked me to tie the ribbon for my own present. LOL. He hid the present somewhere for me to find.

On my birthday, he was so happy therefore he told many people he met at school and when he was on the way home that his mummy had birthday today. When he reached home, he told me he bought another present for me. So I got 2 presents.  

I opened my presents. The box contained 2 purple pens and 1 mechanical pencil (I think I will give him back when he is ready to use the thin mechanical pencil). The other present is a modelling clay. LOL...Reminds me of how happy I was when I was lower primary to receive such gifts. He is a very sweet boy. I love him so much.

After cutting cake, I played modelling clay with MG. We worked together to build Baby Yoda. I did the head, body, scarf, hands and ears (basically almost everything). He helped me to cut the ears to be the same size, attached them to the head and the eyes.

Divina also gave me cheese cake from Twelve Cupcakes. It was nice. These 2 years have been though journey for me. For care and concerns, I thank you so much.

Meadow Potato Chips

I have seen this potato chips in Giant hypermarket many times. Judging from the price for just $1, I thought I didn't want to waste money to buy such lousy potato chips. 

One of my ex-colleagues told me that Meadow brand is nice. I was quite surprised. So I tried to buy 2 packages first, truffle and BBQ. I think the both turned out very nice. The truffle one is more to salty flavour with infused of truffle smell. The BBQ one is more on the sweet side which Marco prefers more.

The thickness of the chips is just nice. It's more on the thin side, not like ruffles. Price is also value for money. I don't pay $4 for just a bag of potato chips.  I am definitely going to buy the truffle one again.

www.chngkae.com

 I saw NOC did a review about CNY goodies from this shop. Suddenly I saw one at my office. The packaging is super unique. Nice oriental vintage design box with 3 gigantic majong tiles inside. The majong tiles are metal tin. One for pandan pineapple tarts, one for shrimp spring rolls and one for some kind of butter sagoo kueh.

The three snacks are average taste but very decent, nothing ordinary. What makes it outstanding is the packaging. It is good for gift. But if you ask me whether I buy for myself, I would say NO.

Tai Dong Teochew Duck Rice at Sims Village Market

 This was my second time getting my lunch from this stall. It was because the Hollywood duck rice stall was close. So from my statement you should know that I prefer Hollywood duck rice over this Tai Dong one.

I got set B $4.50 and added one egg $0.50. The experience eating the duck was not so shiok because of the bones. Too many bones and they were everywhere. I also realised there were little edible duck meat because of the bone scattered everywhere in small pieces. I am not so sure whethere the way of cutting duck affects the eating experience. Because I have eaten ducks in many restaurant (such as London Fat duck and Dian Xiao Er), the way the cut ducks are not as messy as the duck from this stall. Sorry, I just stating my eating experience honestly and affect the entire lunch experience apart from just judging from taste only.

Although Food King gave 3 stars to this stall, I still think it's just 2 stars kind. Please take note that their presentation is very unappealing. 

Calls from School Pay Phone

I received call around 10am few days ago. When I picked up it had been disconnected. I called back the number but it was busy tone.

Yesterday around 10am when I just reached office, suddenly my phone rang. It was the same number calling me few days ago. I picked up and it was so noisy on the other side. It was MG calling me. He was not sure that he was calling my number and  he asked "are you my mummy?"

It was so sweet that he called me during recess before buying food. He said he put in 50 cent into the payphone. I said don't waste money for this call. Put 10 cent can already. He made my day by calling me in the morning. So so sweet. I was not expecting it.

He recently did sweet things for me like preparing my birthday present from many days before hand. When I coughed night time, he got me a cup of water and said "Mummy, you drink!". I think he is a sweet boy. He just needs to manage his emotion more.

He mentioned that he wanted to call me again from his school. I told him that it's better to save his money than just calling me too often. He just needs to learn how to save money since young. Everything needs to get started from young age and it will be habitual later on.

Bakmi Gocit, Ayam Jamur

I had craving for Indonesian Bakmi. So I found bakmi gocit which I heard it is not bad. The seller stayed at Punggol so I met her at Buangkok MRT to collect which is quite convenient for me. I tried the chicken mushroom noodle and the normal chicken noodle. 

Inside the main packaging, they packaged individual seasoning and the meat being separated to the mushroom. But look at the amount of meat given...duh...very little.

My helper cooked it like cooking instant noodle. She also added green vegetables and fried shallot. Why I like bakmi Gocit more than bakmi Ernie is the pork fat smell. Bakmi Gocit got certain nice smell like pork fat but it is halal. The amount of meat is really a disappointment.

Home Improvement 2020-2021

I have been staying in this Sengkang House for more than 10 years. Last year I just completed my 10 years milestone. There are improvements I have made recently.

The dining chairs are very shaky (like Marco's teeth). I found ghost chair from carousell. I bought them separately from different sellers. They are combination of opaque black, transparent black, and transparent clear.

I also bought some rugs so that my marble floor won't get scratches.

I bought a coffee table to be put in front of the TV. The previous table I bought from IKEA was not sturdy. I didn't even dare to put my cup on it. This new coffee table looks like marble top, but it is not marble. it's very good for $30 price I paid at Carousell, including delivery some more.

I suddenly thinking about feng shui to enhance my house. I have read through few website on what to put and how it should be. I will do the foyer first and the working place as I have been working from home. After these, I will settle the living room and masterbed room. There are many things I can learn everyday from reading about fengshui to enhance my house.

Basically for foyer or the space after you enter the house, it is very important. I realised my foyer may be a bit dim because I only put 7 watts floor lamp at one corner. I also need to put some indoor plants at the foyer so there is a sense of living creature there.

Seems like indoor plants help in enhancing the energy in the house. But there are certain plants according to some article are not good for fengshui, such as cactus and other spikey plants.

If I have time, I will do a 360 degree video showing before and after rearranging and tidying my house.  It's fun to have side project like this. Kill two birds with one stone. 

Marco Dropped 3rd Tooth

 Marco told me that his tooth bottom left was shaky. I said just wait till it was shaky badly and dropped by itself. 

Last night he told me he felt uncomfortable with his shaky tooth. He checked with me whether I could help him to plug his tooth. I was amazed by him, because he was so brave.

I told him to quickly get tissue paper as it was late already. He acted fast and I also acted fast by trying to make it less painful for him. Luckily it was quite fast. 2-3 pulls, the tooth was detached.

The blood was quite a lot. He quickly went to toilet to rinse while I got him an ice cube. I could see that his new tooth is growing behind his milk tooth. Sigh, he may need to wear braces. Following this tooth, the top left is shaky already. So next I will help him again.

Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice at Plaza Singapura

 It had been few times passing by this chain restaurant. They put few Michelin Star Award outside their shops. I wanted to try few times at Vivo City. However I chose something else as I didn't feel like to eat chicken rice that time.

This time, my options were between Five Guys burger or Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice. I gave this a go because it has Michelin Star award. How bad could it be right?

So I was their first customer coming to the restaurant. I was seated near to the cashier, at the table along the wall. My budget to eat here alone is around $15-20. I think it's reasonable for one person meal at shopping mall.

Beside chicken rice (steamed version), I ordered mango salad. Actually they have limited option for side dishes as I was only one person, I didn't think I could finish one additional dish by my own. Mango salad seemed the only small dish to add on to my meal, eventhough it was not a good pairing with chicken rice.

The mango salad came first. It was ok. Sour, sweet and spicy. It tasted like how thai mango salad should be, nothing surprising. The surprise came when my chicken rice came. It just made me not hungry anymore. It was far from my expectation of Micheline star food. At least a decent chicken rice like Wee Nam Kee.

Anyway, it was going to be the first and last one I visited Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice. I rather spend my $15 at Sushi express or Wee Nam Kee if it has to be chicken rice.

Chicken Mushroom Noodle

My helper has been trying to make Indonesian style of chicken noodle since we cannot go home. As mentioned on my previous post that my number one favorite noodle is Bakmi GM. Well....I guess it's impossible to copy that. However he can at least copy the recipe from Youtube.

The result is not bad. We cannot find similar noodle in Singapore. What I can think of is HK noodle or wanton noodle. They both are thin and have springy texture which I like.

Sometimes I asked her to replace the noodle with beehoon. I think beehoon works well too. 

Mezza9 Grand Hyatt, 13 February 2021

I went for lunch at Mezza9. In normal day, they serve buffet. During covid, they changed to set menu and the buffet will be served on table.

I chose barramundi fish because it was second day of Chinese New Year. It's good to have fish as fish is a symbol of abundance. I also hope the year 2021 will be abundant.

However, to be honest, if I was given a budget of $60 including taxes to choose a lunch place. I definitely will not go here as the food was very mediocre for Grand Hyatt class.

CNY 2021 Dish

This year, I bought fishes for steaming, abalone, cow lung and butter sponge cake.

Wine Connection, Vivo City

 

Samsung Gear 360 Camera

 I decided to explore 360 degree video making. I found a carousell item for this camera, new and still on sealed for $57. I immediately made a deal and collected the camera.

I cannot complain much as the price is quite low compared to other cameras. The video and the photos are not as sharp as others.

the result as seen here 

National Gallery of Singapore, 7 February 2021

 Marco was so excited to go to NGS. We went to have lunch at Saizeriya, Marina Square and we walked via CityLink Mall to the NGS.

He chose to eat his favorite pizza and mushroom soup. I had seafood marinara pasta and shared some of the hamburg steak with him.

He told me to come back again to this place with a 360 degree camera. 

Terrapin Pet

 Marco had been asking for a pet. But I said it's troublesome as he actually wanted a dog. Then he said if not dog, then he wanted a cat.  Aiyah...both are the same thing lah.

One day, my friend contacted me whether I wanted a terrapin as she wanted to throw away one. I said ok considering terrapin is not as troublesome as dog or cat.

I don't have a tank for this terrapin. So he has been living in a plastic container. Which I think it's ok for the moment as he is still small. 

Marco named him Bob. LOL.