Tang Hoon and Si Gua/Loofah

I decided to showcase my lovely traditional looking cast iron wok here :) My mom gave it to me when I got married and had my own kitchen, but it took a while to season it so that food wouldn't stick while I was frying it. So far, I've preferred using it to steam stuff to avoid dealing with stubbornly stuck food. But the other day, I decided to use it to fry up some Tang Hoon (glass noodles) with kung pao chicken :)

Then, inspired by a recent visit to a HK style restaurant in Taipei, I decided to try steaming this dish - loofah/si gua with minced garlic and ham on top ... yes, that's enough garlic to scare a whole horde of vampires away! :)

Cookies!

About a week ago, someone gave us these goodies ...

The "Teddy Bear" tin is apparently from a well sought after bakery called Jenny Bakery in Hong Kong. We're told that their cookies are so famous cos they are all handmade.

The tin we got was a mix of four types. It was kind of a mystery as to what the flavours were cos there was no pamphlet included in the box to help us identify the flavours. But I could taste butter and coffee cookies in different textures.

Someone else happened to go to Hokkaido for a holiday and brought this box of cookies back for us ... and it happens to be one of my fav kind of cookies, which I've not seen outside of Japan!

What's so great about these cookies, you ask? Check out what's sandwiched between the biscuits ....

Rum/brandy(?)-soaked raisins in a delicious cream!

Yum!

Ritz Apple Strudel, Singapore

For my mom's birthday, she requested for apple strudel as she had had her fill of cakes thus far. We decided to get her the apple strudel fm Ritz ...

It's basically apple with light custard sandwiched between layers of puff pastry ... wonderful!

My Homemade Birthday Cake, 2011, Singapore

As I was home in October, my birthday month, I'd planned on asking my mom to bake a pandan chiffon cake with fresh cream and dessicated coconut :) It had been ages since my mom had baked this cake, so I was really looking forward to it!

YUM! YUM! YUM!

Durian Mango Ice Dessert, ABC Hawker Centre, Singapore

After our lunch at Long Beach Restaurant, we adjourned to ABC Hawker Centre for dessert.

At first, when my mom recommended the durian mango ice dessert, I was highly skeptical. I mean ... durian AND mango? Hmmm ... But since my mom recommended it, I gave it a try, and surprisingly, durian went well with mango! :)

Long Beach Restaurant, Dempsey Rd, Singapore

This was one of the best meals I had in Singapore during my recent trip home. One of Singapore's signature dishes is the black pepper crab, and this was the main highlight of this meal at Long Beach Restaurant.

But of course, we couldn't just have crab :) We ordered some delicious tauhu/beancurd with pork floss ...

My other favorite seafood dish - sotong kia/ deep fried baby squid ... soooo good!

Black pepper crab!

Asparagus in a garlic sauce ...

This meal really hit the spot! :)

Molten Chocolate Cakes

My friend, who had earlier introduced me to Laurent Bernard Chocolatier, had wanted to try her hand at some baking, and since we hadn't been able to try Laurent Bernard Chocolatier's chocolate souffle, I thought why not try baking some molten chocolate cakes? After googling for some good recipes, I decided upon this one by Paula Deen. A 5 star rating by over two hundred people couldn't go too far wrong? Turns out they were right :) For the first time after several failed attempts using other recipes, I finally got the molten chocolate cakes right!

When I saw the rather dry and cracked tops, my heart sank as I thought they would be overcooked and the insides wouldn't be molten. Then I turned them out ...

And sliced into it ...

Wonderful!!!