Harry's bar - Beef pot pie

In Singapore, we seldom get to eat beef pot pies at Irish pubs. It is not a culture for Singaporeans to eat the traditional beef pies at pubs, so maybe that is why most Irish pubs do not serve them. T and I went to Harry's bar, our occasional hang out place and decided to try their beef pie to compliment on our Guinness draught. The outer crust of the pie is made of puff pastry. The beef stew sauce is very well done. The sauce tasted very good when paired with the crust. I feel that the beef chunks can be cooked longer so that is softer. But T beg to differ. He said the beef is made just nice. He also commented that the beef must not be too tender otherwise it will just blend in with the crust. Overall, I feel that it is a nice dish to pair with our draught stout. I will be looking into baking one myself and posting it up soon.

Chinese new year goodies by my lovely mom

Its chinese new year and my mom is at it again. Her fried 'kok zai' (fried pastry wrapped with peanuts and sugar) is simply delicious but lots of effort was put in. Her kok zai is very crispy, unlike the commercial ones which are very hard on the first bite. To make about 5 small boxes of it, it took her 5-6 hours making the pastry, wrap the peanuts fillings in and fry them. It was time well spent, as there are lots of good reviews. She was delighted and I was a happy snacker!

On top of the delicious kok zai, my mom made 'fa gao' (sweet steamed buns) to offer to the gods. Its so easy to make! My mom bought ready mixed flour from supermarket and just added half a portion or coconut milk and half portion of water to reduce the fat content. If you want to make the real deal, put all coconut milk. After I tasted the fa gao, I felt that the texture can be more sticky. Probably, by adding all coconut milk will be better. I will try that next time when its time to pray to the gods again. Ha Ha!

Cajun chicken with tofu spinach salad

Sometimes, too much outside food makes me dreadful and I feel that I need something healthy. Something I know what I am putting inside my mouth. I need to cook.

Ingredients(1)
3 Chicken Thigh
1tbs cajun spices
1ts sea salt
1 small box of cherry tomatoes
200g salami

Ingredients(2)
400g spinach leafs
1 piece tou gan (tofu meant for frying)-cut into small cubes of 1cm in size
1 tbs sesame seeds

Ingredients(3)
1tbs sweet chilli sauce
1ts balsamic vinegar
3 tbs olive oil
1 zest of lemon
half a juice of lemon

Procedure - cooking and preparation time about an hour

1. Mix (3) and set aside.


2. Marinade chicken thighs with cajun spices and sea salt for at least half hour.


3. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees.


4. Dry the tofu with kitchen towel. Fill pan with vegetable oil to 1cm. Fry the tofu when oil is hot. Fry till golden brown. Drain and set aside to cool.


5. Mix spinach leafs, tofu and sesame seeds with the dressing(3).


6. Place the salami on the bottom, lay the tomatoes on top of salami and lastly the thighs. Drizzle with olive oil. Put it into the oven for about 15mins. Then, take out and cover it with foil and cook for another 30-40mins till cooked.


7. I love eggs! So, I made a poached egg to lay beside my salad.

Smooth and luxurious Ice cream

I travel frequently and I can never expect the best ice cream I ever tasted is located in my home town, Singapore! T wanted to bring me to 7th heaven for the longest time. Oblivious to the opening hours, we did try to go there twice but it was closed. On the third time, we called to ensure it was open. All thanks to our lucky stars on our third try, we tasted the smoothest ice cream ever! I can definitely say that it is better than ice creams from the best hotels in Singapore and a far cry from supermarket brands such as haagen dazs and ben and jerry's. I apologise to the fans of the above brands but its the truth. Ever since I tasted 7th heaven's ice cream, I stopped eating other brands of ice cream. Once you have tried the best, you will never turn back and waste your calories on so-so desserts.

7th heaven serves only ice cream and a few other desserts such as chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream. They have about 10 types of unique flavours. They are chocolate whisky, peanut butter, vanilla, dark chocolate, green tea, lychee martini, coconut, black forest and a few more. They offer sampler ice cream menu - customers can choose the 3 flavours themselves at a price of $13.90 or the chef will choose the 3 flavours at a cheaper price of $10.50. For people who enjoy surprises or simply cannot decide on the flavours, please allow the chef to choose to flavours. They will usually serve 1 fruit flavoured ice cream, 1 alcohol based and 1 chocolate flavoured (since most people love chocolates). For me, I am not really that adventurous and I can decide what I want so I chose my 1st sampler ice cream which includes chocolate whisky, peanut butter and black forest.

The peanut butter is my favourite and T enjoyed the chocolate whisky the most due to its well-blended alcohol with the dark chocolate. The 2 flavours did not over-power each other, giving it a balanced smooth taste as it melts in the mouth. I love the peanut butter, because it is so creamy and smooth and it taste like peanut butter that we use to spread on our bread every morning. It's my uno choice! We had a pretty full dinner but even after the 3 scoops of excellent ice cream, we still crave for more and this time we ordered the souffle as well on top of another sampler menu.

The souffle was pretty normal. Good but nothing much to comment about. It taste like any other souffle you can get in restaurants. But for the vanilla ice cream, I can see the vanilla beans clearly which is a very important factor for me when I judge the quality of vanilla ice cream. It means that they use vanilla beans which are very pricey instead of vanilla extract which are full of chemicals. The flavour of their vanilla ice cream is very unique, besides the usual vanilla taste, some spices like cinnamon and nutmeg can be tasted. Vanilla when incorporated with such spices turns out to be a wonderful combination.

For the next sampler, we had dark chocolate 80%, lychee martini and green tea. The lychee martini is fantastic. It taste exactly like the drink itself but creamier. The green tea ice cream is wonderful as well and green tea leaves can be spotted infused with the ice cream. Overall, I feel that the ice creams are very nice and they are not overly sweet. You will not feel ger lat(sick of eating) at all. I paid about $40 (no gst n service charge) for 2 sampler menu (6 scoops) and souffle. As for the price, some of you may think that is expensive. But, I feel that it is worth the price because of the quality of the ingredients put into each flavour. 1 word from me, WONDERFUL! MUST TRY!

Location: No. 10 Raeburn park #01-24/25/26 (inside the building MIS - marketing institute of Singapore, former Gan Eng Seng Sec. school)

Tel: 62277787

Opening hours: mon-thurs - 11am-8pm

fri - 11am-11pm

sat - 1pm-11pm