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Cookyn Inc Experience

Last night, we were invited to an appreciation night held specially for my Dad in appreciation of his mentorship.

Basically, Cookyn Inc is an event venue cum cooking school. The organise and customise cooking events for the purpose of team building, celebration etc and aim to bring fun into cooking. It is a cosy shophouse located in Rangoon Road. Despite the "old-looking" surroundings, the interior is decorated with a simple yet clean and contemporary style.

After the various thank you speeches to my dad were delivered, the hosts got us to put on the cookyn inc aprons and chefs hats(paper ones) which we wrote our names on and got to take home. I shall not spoil it for people who are intending to go and would like to keep the element of surprise so I will just briefly talk about the experience.

They first guided one person from each group on basic sushi making and left the rest to us. We were also given a "mystery box" full of ingredients, using which we must make a dessert. Both dishes must bring out the given theme.

Overall, it was quite an interesting experience from which I learnt quite a few things from -- How to roll a simple maki roll, how to wet the knife to make cutting the maki roll more easily, how to deseed a cucumber etc.

The staff also played the role of judges and determined the team that won the cooking challenge. They also provided feedback to each team on their food.

The night ended with dinner service. Creamy pasta was served and we could also eat our own "creations".

Obolo Macarons! and other cool stuff

Anyone who knows me should know I have a soft spot for desserts.
Ting presented me with a nice box of 6 macarons and a box of Marks and Spencer Tea for my birthday. Ting says that I could feel like a Queen as I eat the macarons and drink the tea. And I did :3

The macarons were just right, not too sweet and light. The rose flavoured shell was fragrant -- one of my favs. I really like the salted caramel shells too.

And the fudge filling was the BOMB. Indulgent and the taste of happiness x)


The picture for the Marks and Spencer Tea isn't up yet cause Im currently having my study week and Im a little busy and the uploading process is quite tedious so I will upload it as soon as I can.

Anyways, it comes in an elegant blue box with 20 teabags in it. Yuting got me a calming infusion tea -- lavender, camomile and limeflower. It is kinda my first time drinking tea that is not the usual red, black, green, earl grey or oolong. It was aromatic and made me feel warm and fuzzy as I sipped the tea and nibbled on a macaron. I really did feel like a queen. Thanks Ting <3

Nay and jodes also got me gifts. Jodes and neat little ribbon thing that says "birthday girl" to pin on myself on that day xD and nay a sweet set of lollipop molds. I'll be putting up a picture of those soon too! And of course, Rmary was the mastermind behind the surprise celebration. Thanks Renee, Jodes and Rmary. And everyone who was there really contributed to giving me awesome memories, which are really, the best gift I can get.

On the 14th itself Alvin cooly and quite sweetly presented me with a fluffy fuzzy cute penguin plush :) Thanks Alvin. And Xinying also quite cooly passed me a LeeSSang cap disguised in a Body Shop bag xD and had linner with me. Aunt gave me an awesome new acrylic shaker since my old one kept leaking. Sis got me more popin cooking, which I will feature in a separate post. Mum bought me this funny but nice hello kitty head mini-cake. And of course, earlier this year dad got me some lego bricks after the build my world competition.

Overall, my special day this year was quite a memorable one. Truly blessed to have family and friends who helped make this day great for me.

Not Food but something better

 Yes I know this post is not about food but there are stuff nicer than food. Probably not the thing to say on a food blog x) Nevertheless, I think my fuzzy wuzzies deserve much more than just a feature on the food blog. These fuzzy wuzzies have also been very encouraging in my pursuit of my culinary dream <3

But anyway... a week before I turn 17 I was invited to Rmary's house to look at her new gadget miniature thingy. Though a little confused at the randomness(we have random movie, sleepover and lasagne dates anyway), I agreed and met rmary at the void deck. Rmary said she left her stuff on the skygarden so we headed on there first.
                                                                                                                                                       Once I stepped out of the lift, I was greeted by shouts and A LOT of streamers. Although I nearly died from the shock of it, I was really touched. :')

The railings had balloons on them and there was a tiramisu cake and much more other snacks. And most importantly, were the fuzzy wuzzies that were there <3
 So the evening was spend doing crazy things, taking crazy photos and playing around. I really was a night to remember.

                                                                                                   

 



 

 



Big Mama Korean Restuarant

It kind of a family thing that during each of our birthdays, the family goes out somewhere for a good meal or have a good meal home cooked for us. So since Im about to turn 17 in 5 days, my family took me out to have a meal at a restaurant of my choice. After considering our relatively small appetites and our budget, I settled for Big Mama Korean restaurant, a popular restaurant in Tiong Barhu that serves authentic Korean food. Once I entered the restaurant, there was different atmosphere that really did remind me of the restaurants I see in Korean dramas and variety shows. I did visit Korea before but I was 5 then so I can hardly remember anything at all.

 

The table is nicely set with authentic Korean cutlery. Even the gas stove is of Korean origins.

We ordered our food and it was served promptly.

The side dishes(Ban Chan) were great and were free flow. I liked the lotus root, stir fry glass noodles(japchae) and the anchovies. But the seasoned spinach(shigeumchi muchim)...not quite to my liking.

 

The dish that was served first was the suyuk, or steamed pork belly. The staff at Big Mama demonstrates the three different ways to eat the suyuk in a friendly manner.

 

The seafood pancake was the bomb. Usually, I don't quite like chives but the seafood pancake was absolutely delicious. It was crispy at the sides but not burnt and light in the middle, with a generous portion of prawn and squid. It had a nice, mildly sweet and savory flavour to it.

We also ordered the Dakgalbi(Spicy Grilled Chicken), the restaurant's recommendation. The chicken is tender and flavourful(definitely well marinated) and the vege is really appetizing. I loved the rice cakes in it too! Delicious when eaten with rice. Thinking about it now makes me hungry!

 

The jjambbong jeongol(spicy seafood soup)was a rather interesting dish. The soup was a little thick for me and the seafood flavour is a little too strong but definitely authentic. I find its a little of an acquired taste. However, I liked the mussels and the noodles in the soup. Again, mixing it in rice is a great way to eat it.

The staff also recommended the grilled pork collar slices with gal-bi seasoning (dwaeji moksal yangnyum gui). It was sweet, tasty and flavourful and not too "fatty".

Overall, it was a great and satisfying meal and experience and given the chance, I would definitely go back to try more dishes.

For more information, just head on over to bigmama.sg. Don't forget to book a reservation cause its really hard to get a seat without one.

Cake-in-a-jar: Grin Affair

A few days back mum brought home a treat -- A pretty and cute cake-in-a-jar. This one is the cookies and cream cake. The bottommost layer is made up of crushed Oreo and a layer of chocolate cake, followed by custard mousse and vanilla cake and crushed vanilla cookies.

The breakdown of the cake-in-a-jar varieties Grin affair offers can be found on their very cute and elegant website.

Overall it was really delicious. Creamy, not too sweet and everything just goes together very well with the combination of sweet and savoury flavours as well as crunchy and soft textures. I suppose the only issue would be that the oreo cookie layer tasted very slightly burnt. But doesn't affect the overall taste too much.

And it is presented so nicely in the jar that I really didn't bear to dig into it at first. It also comes with a nice little string handle which makes it easy to hold.

I would really like to try more flavours soon. However, they cost a bout $5.50 each and I think it is probably good for a rare treat or as a gift!                                                       

3/5 for taste and 4.5/5 for presentation!

Japanese Candy

Japanese Candy has been trending recently, especially among teenagers and young adults. I think that it is highly probable that the trend was started by a Japanese youtube group called "RRcherrypie".

Specifically, the craze involves DIY candy, most of which the consumer mixes a specific amount of water with different "candy powders" and voila! You just made your own candy! Its pretty hard to explain in words but you can easily find out what I mean by youtube searching "popin cookin" and "kracie", the two companies dominating the DIY candy market.







So the local retailer of Japanese candy, Candy Play Singapore, generously held a sale on their second anniversary and I managed to get a few kracie sets for a low price. I got the neruneru set and basically its just magic sticky candy.

I first added the powder labelled "1" and added a little water(A tiny piece of container was provided to measure out the water) and mixed it. First it was a dull purple. Then I added the powder labelled "2" and mixed it. The mixture slowly became stickier and stickier and the colour actually became a pastel pink! This was the strawberry flavoured sticky candy. I did the same for the next two packets of powder provided and got the yellow sticky candy.



But theres more! If you mix the two sticky candies, you get a whole new flavour. A pack of sprinkles were also provided to sprinkle on top of the sticky candy.

Time for the taste test! The pink candy was strawberry soda flavoured. Indeed, when you eat it, its sort of has tiny air pockets in it that gives a "fizzy" feel. Same with the yellow one, which is yes, lemon flavoured. They both have a really tangy taste to them. And.. the flavour derived from mixing both is...Cola! (last picture) Pretty cool right?

I apologize if this post has been a little confusing. Its quite hard to explain with words and its easier if you watch a video, or even experience it yourself! These don't come cheap usually though. Each pack can cost $6-$14 in Singapore due to the shipping fees.

However, (Im not paid to do this! Just an objective recommendation) it is good to get from Candy Play Singapore as I believe they are the most relevant and they do try to keep their prices reasonable. They are also really nice people! So google them and check out their website if you wish to get some Japanese Candy to try out.

OH WAIT. But if you do not live in Singapore, websites such as napa japan stocks them too!



I will leave you with a video that I did in the past with "Gummyland" a popin cookin set. And while you're at that, check out my channel!

Back to Sugarloaf~

We had our lesson at TCA again. And we just couldn't resist the temptation of the amazing desserts displayed in the sugarloaf display counters.

I really couldn't decide between the gourmet sandwiches and the sushi as they all looked delicious. In the end I went with sushi and I think I'm glad I did. They were generous with the salmon sashimi and there were relatively many ingredients. However, since it wasn't wrapped with nori, the sushi kinda broke up when I picked them up with my chopsticks.






For dessert, I chose the passionfruit chocolate mousse. The bottom later is the mouse, the middle layer is some while chocolate cream and its topped with passionfruit puree. The dessert is elegantly finished with a piece of white chocolate.

The first spoonful was amazing. The rich chocolate flavour of the mousse, the creamy and sweet white chocolate cream was balanced with the acidity of the passionfruit puree. However, the more I ate, it did start to get heavy and a little too sweet. Perhaps it would have been great with a warm cup of tea!

Mocktails?

Yesterday, we celebrated the dad's birthday in advance since mum will be going away on a business trip during his actual birthday.

And so after a meal of chilli crab, salted egg yolk crab, stir-fry and salad, I decided to make some mocktail. Since there weren't enough spirits at home and since Im underage anyway, I made some mocktail instead.

I got the recipe from mybestcocktails.com and made the orange-lime relaxer. So as you can probably tell from the name already, there lime and orange juice in it. Sprite is then added and the mixture is shaken.




Unfortunately, there seemed to be a problem with my shaker and no matter how tighly I held it together, the mixture was flying everywhere. I guess its time to get a new shaker? Anyway, I had to settle for stirring instead and it did change the "effect" of the mocktail a little. Overall, it turned out pretty well actually. Theres the tangy-ness from the lime and the sweetness from the orange juice and the fizzy sprite made it really refreshing to drink. (which is why I initially mistook the name of the mocktail as 'refresher' is my insta and facebook posts)

Since I have some leftover orange juice and sprite, I wanted to make myself a nice beverage after school today. Since there was not enough lime, I replaced it with some lemon. (2tbs lime 1tbs lime, 1tbs lemon) I could taste the difference, but it wasn't significant if one doesn't pay to much attention to the flavours.

Yep. That's it. Hopefully I can try out more recipes after getting a new shaker!

Collin's Grille and Bento

This afternoon, Dad brought back a treat -- A Mixed Grill Bento from Collin's Grille. Bento EXPRESS.

Its $10.90 for this bento. A reasonable price for Aglio Oglio, a small salad, a pretty large German Pork Bratwurst, two pieces of Grilled chicken and a small buttered cob corn.











The texture of the pasta was just right, or at least to my liking and pretty tasty, although a tad too spicy for me.

I liked the bratwurst, which was very satisfying to eat and went well with the gravy. There was a bit too much skin and fat on the chicken but I guess that is just a personal preference. Nevertheless, the chicken chops was one of the better ones I have eaten. Tender and tasty.

The sides were not bad at all! In fact, I quite liked the buttered corn. Though it sits in the same gravy as the bratwurst and the chicken, it was quite a good match. Salad was fresh with just the right amount of dressing.

I visited the restaurant facebook page and I was quite impressed by the menu. All the food looked amazing and are quite value-for-money. Apart from western grill dishes/bento, they also serve Japanese food, as you can tell from the name. I made a note to try those soon!


Overall,  4/5 for taste and 3/5 for presentation! :)

Mocha Chocolate Chip cookies!

Havent been baking in a while and finally got to do so due to yesterdays inpromptu "holiday" x)

I used and modified Laura Vitale's (check out her website and youtube, shes awesome) recipe cause I forgot the vanilla essence and accidentally added too much flour.  I also replaced the vanilla with a two tablespoons of milk and added some honey too.

Thankfully, there were quite a success! They came out quite light and crunchy but I think the coffee flavour could be stronger. Well, I was supposed to add espresso powder but I couldnt get any so had to settle with mocha powder!

Sugarloaf @Temasek Culinary Academy

My classmates and I hopped of to Sugarloaf at the @TCA after food science and product knowledge class. For some of them, it is already their second time there but it was my first so I was a excited bouncing thing xD

Anyway, Sugarloaf is a casual dining cafe run by the CCM (my course!) year 2 students(me next year!). They bake and cook the food sold there under the guidance of the chefs. The front of the house is handled by the students doing service management module.





Now to the important part! -- The food!
I was spoiled for choice as we walked past the counters. The purchasing works in a way that you walk down a "series" of counters and display shelves and you are assigned a number. So as you walk you just choose the food you want and you get billed at the end. The counters are roughly divided into cakes and tarts, desserts and sandwiches, pastries and main course, then cashier and drinks.

In the end I went for the apple crumble and the thai grilled chicken. The thai grilled chicken was nice and tender and a little burnt on one side as you can see from the picture. Maybe its intentional? heh. The sauce that came with it was sweet and spicy and had a strong taste of coriander. Overall, pretty good! Though the portion was a little small.
The apple crumble was really good. The crust is crunchy yet light and not too sweet. The filling though, was a little sweet for me. The meringue (which I thought was whipped cream at first sight), was good too! Not too sweet and melts in the mouth.

Eugenia and Whitney also kindly let me sample their deserts. The lemon curd of the lemon meringue pie was a little too sour for me and there seems to be an overload of meringue. But I suppose that is serves to balance out the acidity of the lemon curd. Nicely browned peaks and sweet and simple presentation tho imo!

The creme brulee was awesome! I really liked it. The satisfying part is always tapping and breaking through the sugar surface. I think the colour of the "brulee" is really nice and I like how it is topped some fruits!

Definitely going to sugarloaf again and looking forward to making these myself next year!

First trip to Strictly Pancakes

 As you can see the title says "First trip". Cause Im definitely returning again. But probably not so soon since its a wee bit pricey.

I really couldnt decide what to get and was even stuck between sweet or savory so I ended up sharing a garlic buttered prawn and lemon curd for nerds with yings.

Sorry, didnt bring my camera so the picture quality isnt as great as the previous posts.

The garlic buttered prawn consists of, well, garlic butter, herbs and prawns over a medium stack of pancakes (3 pancakes) A light salad was included as a side and although at first I was a bit doubtful since there was no dressing on it, it actually sort of eases                                            the thick, buttery-ness of the garlic butter sauce. A choice of butter (herb, salted, rum and raisin, garlic) and syrup was also provided. (though the butter was a little redundant for this particular dish)
Overall really yummy and indulgent dish. The creamyness and saltiness and the aroma of the garlic butter sauce kinda leaves you fuzzy inside. heh


The lemon curd for nerds was quite the opposite.
It is a medium stack of chocolate pancakes covered with lemon curd and cream sauce, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a tiny dusting of powdered sugar.
It was lighter and very refreshing. Wish the ice cream would melt a little more slowly though!









Overall the pancakes were really good but a little filling and the best thing to do would be probably to share among your friends with one less portion. (ie 3 dishes for a group of 4 etc).
Service was nice but I think they could have smiled more :3
The restaurant was a little cramped but I suppose it was meant to be a cosy concept.

But all in all, I want to go back to try more pancakes!

Homecooked~ Stir-fry sticky rice cakes

During the weekend, my mum tried cooking stir- fry sticky rice cakes for the first time. She stir-fried them with some wong bok, chicken and shitake mushrooms in oyster sauce. It was quite a success!

The rice cakes were a little "QQ" (chewy) and though it looks bland, it was seasoned just right and I went for a second serving.

Lunch@the Top Table TCA

Pre-appetiser focaccia and fruit and nut bread.
I personally preferred the onion and herb focaccia over the fruit and nut bread. But the fruit and nut bread was very fragrant and enjoyable too!

 Cream of mushroom soup.
Thick creamy mushroom soup really hit the spot!
The deep fried garnish is white mushroom I think! I think I would have liked it to be a leeeetle more salty but it was yummy all the same.

 Roasted Lamb rack with red onion confiture, potato au gratin, sautéed haricot verts and glazed carrots :)) Yummy, but a wee bit too rare for me. Apart from the lamb racks, I really especially liked the red onion confiture. It was sweet and aromatic and kinda eased the rare-ness of the lamb a little.

Salmon Gravlax with roasted pistachio, cottage cheese and cucumber salad on toast. This was the other available option for appetizer. I got to taste a spoonful and it was great! The portion may be small but it is definitely a great appetizer.

 raspberry brownie with vanilla ice cream and macerated mixed berries. The brownie was a little too chocolatey and sweet for me but I think its meant to be like that! Personal preference I suppose! However, the berries did help balance out the sweetness. The ice cream melted by the time I reached half the brownie :(








Today most of class 1J02 visited the top table for lunch having made a reservation one week in advance. It is a student run fine dining restaurant supervised by chefs and teachers. Each week the menu for the set lunch changes. Each set lunch costs a relatively affordable price of $13.80. Mocktail of the day will be offered at $2.50 as well. Other beverages are also available for order.

Overall, it was a great experience. The food was great for $13.80 and the service was sincere and friendly and the students really try their best to provide the best service. Im quite excited but apprehensive to be the one in the kitchen of Top Table next year. :)

Check out my post on the CIA(Culinary Institute of America) lunch service which was also held in the TCA!

Fruit Paradise Pie

 Heres a desert pie I tried during a friend's birthday.

This is a fruit tart from the Plaza Singapura outlet of fruit paradise.
Theres a lot of cream. A LOT. As you can see. If you’re not a fan of cream then this might be a bit hard to eat. But you can always scrape the excess cream off. Personally, I really liked the cream cause it went great with the vanilla ice cream(I think!)on top of the tart base.
The tart base was buttery and crusty and was the right thickness for me^^
Great dessert, but I personally don’t think I could have managed another size cause it can be a bit heavy.   

Cream Puffs

This is a picture of my first time making choux pastry, and well, assembling them into cream puffs. It was quite an experience. Firstly,  I messed up the first batter by trying to sub 2 large eggs with three small eggs. The batter turned out to be too liquid and just spread out when I spooned them onto the baking sheet. I redid the batter, kept to 2 small eggs and it turned out just fine!
Next, I bought some whipping cream and started to whip it with my hand mixer. I roughly reached a creamy texture but I thought it might not hold piping patterns so I just whipped it a wee bit longer. And it turned into cheese. Heh. just kidding. But yes, the whipped cream turned into curd that I could pick up with my fingers. I was quite horrified and had no choice but to store the choux pastry shells until I got more whipping cream.
Finally, I achieved somewhat creamy texture with my second carton of whipping cream and filled my choux pastry shells. And even made some swans :)
Overall, Im really satisfied with how the choux pastry turned out but the cream wasn’t quite sweet enough. The powdered sugar did help a bit with the sweetening tho. Definitely gonna try to whip up some eclairs or profiteroles next time round.

A 3-course lunch by the Culinary Institute of America Students

Quite a while back, say in February, my friends and I attended a banquet lunch service prepared by the CIA. The CIA occasionally organises such banquets and meals are at an affordable price of $10-$16 depending on the number of places booked and whether you opt to have wine as part of your meal.

While waiting for the appetizer to be served, baguette slices and brioche slices were provided. Breadsticks were offered to us as well. A refreshing drink was also served. I didn’t quite catch what the drink was but tasted like a sparkling mix of lime and guava.



Seasonal Mix Greens Salad

The appetiser was a seasonal mixed green salad with mushrooms and quail egg, topped with a guava dressing, if I remember correctly :p The endives made it quite bitter though. And if i'm not wrong there mizuna in there too. I liked the onions, which were really sweet and tasty and eased the bitterness of the salad. There is also some sort of citrus peel, which made it a little more refreshing.
                             

And heres the main course: Pesto crusted salmon on pumpkin mash with beans and beurre blanc and garnished with a sundried tomato.

Pesto crusted salmon on pumpkin mash with beans and beurre blanc and garnished with a sundried tomato

To put it simply, this was the best salmon I have eaten so far. (though I probably haven’t really tried that much salmon dishes apart from fruit salsa salmon, teriyaki, garlic-ginger, steamed, sashimi)
The pesto was tasty and aromatic and pumpkin mash smooth and sweet. was great and the beurre blanc was light.

                                        

Then heres the desert!
I was especially looking forward to this. This is a cheesecake with oreo crust served with raspberry coulis and raspberry cream. I think that’s a tuile on the side?
Surprise! As I dug into the cheesecake and had my first ‘forkfull’ of the treat, I realised that hidden within the cheesecake is tiny pieces of white chocolate! With the cream cheese and strawberry/raspberry flavours, its quite divine :) not too sweet, and just the right portion not to be too heavy.

Overall, it was a great meal and value for money if you don't mind eating food prepared by trainee students. Still, they are of high standard and quality. I apologize for the inconsistent placement of pictures, Im still struggling a little with the image insertion functions. :x



Oreo Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis

Hi,

This will be a blog dedicated to food and stuff to do with food.
I previously started a food blog in tumblr but will now be moving to blogger :)

So...a bit about myself...
I love food and learning about food, and definitely, COOKING.
I am currently pursuing a diploma in Culinary and Catering Management.
Im still in my first year and I'm learning about the basics of business management, food science, product knowledge etc.
Thus, the review on food are based on my personal opinions and preferences. I'm no expert. Yet. ;)

I also have a hobby of making miniature models of food and making my own accessories. I have a youtube channel that shares this hobby and occasionally, touches on real food.
I also like playing the guitar, photography, robotics and inline skating.

My favourite cuisine is Italian, followed by thai, and then French. I also find Mediterranean cuisine really interesting.

My favourite dishes to cook include tomato soup, potato dishes and breakfast dishes. I love baking cream puffs and soufflés too :)) You'll probably be seeing these in my later posts.

Alright this is it for now^^ Food posts coming right up!