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!