Breakfast - Egg-in-a-Hole

Mum was standing by, watching as i carve out a hole in the centre of our Bread with a Soup Spoon and cracking an Egg over it subsequently.

Exclaiming repeatedly, "So elaborated." :)

Don't i just love recipes from the PioneerWoman's blog! Here's another one of Breakfast, named Egg-in-a-Hole, read here for the recipe + step-by-step illustrations!

Butter used for frying gave a warm and delicious look to the piece. Not mentioning the sinful buttery crunch.

HOLD the Salt, if you've got a healthier taste buds like us; Butter alone is suffice in salting up. The smidge of Pepper however, offers a mildly Spice tang. Mmmm...

Heavenly!

Both in the fun of cooking and the taste of it.
Love to do this everyday, haha...

And Mum had enjoyed this Breakfast as much, reminiscent her the taste of American Styled Breakfast :)

You should enjoy this too.

How to... Aloe Vera Dessert

Sister has an enormous Aloe Vera Plant sitting in our garden that was bending over under its overbearing weight. So mom and i decide to trim away its steams and prepare 1 big pot of Aloe Vera dessert for the family tomorrow.

The Herb Society of America believes that Aloe (Aquilari Agalloche) to be the only tree descended to man from the Garden of Eden!!


From the morning, we cut 10 thick steams from the plant and set to work, skinning, cutting and rinsing away the aloe vera sap. Skinning the steams is the most tricky part of the process, but once you have done that, all is plain sailing. No cooking required.

Aloe Gel, after rinsing away of slimy sap.

Skinning the Steams - Firstly, remove the stretch of thorns by its margin with a Potato skin peeler (now, you could hold the Aloe safely), followed by the green covering from the faces of its steams with a plastic/ wooden Knife.

Cutting - Cut the white fiber flesh of the Aloe in manageable bite sizes.

Soak & Rinse - A repeat process of soaking and rinsing away the sticky sap from the Gel (flesh) with water. This process uses lots of water, depending on the amount of Gel you are clearing and how well you wish to remove the slimy sap. (Alternatively, cooking the Aloe Gel over fire in sugared water help rid the slimy sap immediately.)

Sweeten Up - We harvested the Gel that have been cleared from most of its sticky sap and poured a can of Longan Fruit Syrup to it (Canned Fruit Cocktail give you a beautiful mix, or ANY sweet Syrup of your choice). Do NOT add additional water to the mix; the Aloe gel will melt slightly over time to form part of the syrup.

Chill Up - Chilled up the dessert for 12hours in the refrigerator as we want the Gel to absorb sweet flavors from the sugary syrup and wipe it of its raw grassy taste. Serve over ice!

Aloe Vera Dessert with Longan canned fruits.

BONUS: While preparing the Aloe Vera, do your complexion a BIG favor by applying those sticky saps over your skins. Yes, meaning your face and any rough spots on your skins.

The cooling sensation of the sticky saps is quite pleasant as it gets absorbed fast, leaving behind nothing, you don’t even have to wash it off your face. However if you have got sensitive skins, rinse off after 10mins of application.

When applied on the skin, the sap is believe to heals minor burns, wounds, improve skin conditions and rejuvenates skin. It also believes to have anti ageing properties by feeding our body cells...!

My skin does feel so much tighter and facial pores minimizes after my 30mins therapy :)
Read here, for 40 more uses for Aloe Vera!

Fried Carrot Cake

I've learnt how to prepare Fried Carrot Cake!
Having assisted Mom with the cooking yesterday, i'm doing this for Ric today.

STEPS:
1. Purchase plain Carrot Cake kueh from stall; ours was Home-made kueh.
2. Oiled the Non-stick Pan, browning the sliced pieces of Kueh slightly on both sides. This should take some cooking time.
3. Add generous minced Garlic to the centre of the Pan.
4. While the Garlic sizzles, break up the Kueh into smaller bite size.
5. Break 2 Eggs to the Pan and give a toss to everything like how the hawker does!
6. Sprinkle Light Soy Sauce or Fish Sauce to taste. (Add Dark Soy Sauce now if you are doing the Black version of Carrot Cake)
8. Add chopped Chinese Celery while tossing and cease fire.

This healthy Home-cook dish come close to the fare you get from the Hawker Centre and your MSG over-induced taste buds would thank you for the change :)

For you, my friend.
Good Health!

Hock Lam Beef

Yeah, we have a hard time locating Hock Lam at China Street.

The brand name that's been around since 1911 and counting, famously specialising in Teochew Beef Kway Teow; this is but our first try.

Beef Noodle (dry) with Mixed, 牛杂 ($5.50)

Our mixed beef bowl includes sliced Beef, Tripe, Shin and Beef Balls but without the Tendons. Noodles with Tendons are favorably priced at $6.50 and $7.50 per Small bowl serving.

Their age old recipe in original Teochew style comes with salted vegetables strips and plenty of crushed ground nuts. The broth was equally good, flavorful yet without a tinge of MSG.

A dribble of Lime juices and their spicy sour Chili mix to the thick broth ascends one to Heaven...

Seemingly pricey to us initially, we were won over after savoring our generous serving bowlful!

Enjoying almost a Century old recipe. Priceless!

Bread of Life Bakery

Right at the walkway of Queen's Bubble Tea in Far East Square (while i waited for Ric), there's this Push Cart full of lovely baked bread for sale, named Bread of Life.

Friendly food samplings were offered and it was good! Having generally fluffy texture and flavorful taste, i would wish to savour more of it, haha...

Mini Custard Ball ($2)

Happy Face Cake -Blueberry ($1.20), Golden Chocolate Cake ($1.50)

While i understand this being only their 2nd day in operation, i witnessed returning customers who buy without hesitation. Wow...

Mum would love this, Bake Tapioca Cake ($1)

So if you love freshly baked bread with no preservatives, come down to support this new entrepreneur. Prices start from $1.50 for White Bread.

Queen's HK Bubble Tea Cafe

In Tropical Singapore, one of the best businesses to go into would be that of blended ice drinks. It's ever popular as a thirst quencher; tasty, economical and fashionable to be spotted with :)

Queen's is one such popular stall at Far East Square drawing a queue from the lunch crowd.

Chocolate Snow Blended ($1.50)

What's fascinating me is their inclusion of traditional chewy Black Pearls for ALL their drinks concocts! Super cool & tasty. With multiple flavor choices at $1.50 only.

My Chocolate Snow Blended came chocolaty, with fine snowy ice; a far cry from Gloria Jean's coarse Ice Blended drinks.