Mayo's Wasabi Flakes Aglio Olio Pasta

I am a huge fan of aglio olio pasta but most times I feel that I need an extra dimension of spiciness to the dish. Along with chopped red dried chilli, I have also mixed in a generous amount of wasabi flakes & chopped garlic topped off with olive oil. Add in some sliced bacon & diced mushrooms & voila, a healthy meal with added bite!

For the side dish, I gathered some assorted vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, garlic & red chilli & stir fried them together with some oyster sauce as it's gravy. Must not neglect your greens!

Mayo's Brunch #7

Wanted to whip up a chicken dish today for brunch but wasn't exactly sure what to create. With 'eating healthy' as my new motivation, I chose to cook a piece of skinless & boneless chicken steak with slices of french toast & lots of veggies as the side dishes. Now who says you can't have delicious healthy food? hehe..

(Clockwise from left) Soya chicken with bonito flakes, french toast, stir fried brussel sprouts with melted cheese, fresh cherry tomatoes

Overview of my lovely brunch.

I wrapped a piece of the chicken steak with my french toast for the final part.
The sauce from the chicken was oozing out. Juicy!

Now I know brussel sprouts can be a little bitter, I usually boil them first with a dash of salt then stir fry the brussel sprouts till they get a little softer on the outer layer before laying cut slices of cheese over them & letting it melt all over. Kids will love it! Try it at your next family dinner. :)

Mayo's Wasabi Egg Mayonnaise Bun

By now, you should know that I like my food spicy. Rather than settle for the usual egg mayo sandwich, I made mine with a little twist. Read on for the simple full recipe. : )


Wasabi Egg Mayonnaise Bun

~Ingredients~
Butter buns
2 eggs
Wasabi mayo
Black pepper
Salt
Pepper

~Instructions~
1. Boil the egg with water.
2. Chop the egg into cubes.
3. Add in wasabi mayonnaise, a little bit of salt, pepper to mix with the eggs.
4. Add a little bit of black pepper to finish off.

What you get now is not only a sweet tasting snack but one that bites back and has a double layered taste to the traditional flavor.

Going Bananas!

During my recent visit to the restaurant Jones The Grocer, I couldn't resist buying a little snack for myself from their wide selection of interesting well stocked food shelves & baskets.

Introducing the 'GO bananas Bear' biscuits! Yummy & nutritional banana bits mixed into a buttery bear shaped cookie shape. It looked too cute to eat but soon my taste buds got the better of me & one by one the bears were disappearing from it's box. :p

Bananas + Bear = Bearnanas? :p

All that's left now is the packaging...

I also want to recommend this tasty banana jelly drink made by Minute Maid that I bought when I was in Japan. Soft jelly with a distinct taste of banana goodness is truly refreshing when consumed cold from the fridge. Have you guys tried this before?

Ok, this gadget may be extremely foreign to many of you but this is immensely popular in Japan! This is called a banana protector case! Well, some people love bananas to the extent of bringing one along to work as a breakfast or a snack but are afraid that the journey might destroy the fruit so some product designer created this cute tupperware for this highly nutritious fruit. Here are 2 examples of the many shapes & sizes of the casing. (The top one is mine & the bottom one belongs to my friend BZ)

LeGrenier A Pain

Now I guess you guys know that I'm not much of a patissier to comment on bread & cakes but coming from a family that owned a bakery while I was growing up does make me somewhat qualified to comment on this particular shop that I went to. Located at Sembawang Shopping Centre, I decided to buy some bread home. Seeing that the shop came from 'Paris' to 'Singapour' (that's how they spelt it on the plastic bag!), I was full of expectation. When I went to pay for my purchases, the shop had a policy of charging purely by 100gm for s$3.30. Now you can mix & match between bread & cakes & whatever but it was measured by their weight. While I think it's ridiculous, I bought what looked like decently yummy ham & cheese mini buns (which also happened to be their so called famous signature bun) & went home. To keep things short, let's just say, it didn't taste like it was from Paris (but the price was!) at all & I will not buy from them again.

100gm for $3.30 and mine ended up was $5.90

*Disclaimer: This post is purely from my own personal stand point of view & experience.

Mayo's supper #2 - porridge

Guess what? I'm hungry again at weird hours of the night. Again. :p Well, it's because I had a light dinner which has been well digested & vanished without a trace. It was rather late & I didn't want to do much washing up after the meal so I opted for some hot comfort food like porridge!

Mayo's suggestion: Always have some pre-seasoned food or preserved foodstuffs in your fridge for quick, simple & easy meals in the weirdest time of the night.

Clockwise from top left: Seasoned mushrooms, seasoned scallops, salted eggs, plain porridge, fermented beancurd (dou fu ru) & cocktail sausages with black pepper. The portion that you see here that meant for 2 person.

This is the full packaging of my seasoned scallops bought from Oshinohakai Village near Mount Fuji, Japan. Sad to say, it's finishing soon.

This is what the scallops look like. Extremely tasty!

For those not familiar with this, it's called 'dou fu ru' in chinese. It's a sort of fermented beancurd that is a little spicy but mainly salty in taste. The texture is extremely soft & addictive. Just a little is all you need for a few mouthfuls of porridge. The perfect compliment for hot plain porridge.

Mayo meets Mr Jones with Ben & Jerry's

Was a beautiful Saturday morning when a team of totally creative, stylish & beautiful (friends are you reading this?? You know who you are! Haha..) headed down to a interesting restaurant cum grocer place called 'Jones The Grocer'. Located at Dempsey Hill, the open concept of the restaurant space mixed with people shopping for fresh groceries & produce makes for an interesting breakfast experience. The high ceiling amplifies the noisy chatter of it's occupants & clattering of cutlery becomes a norm upon minutes of entering. I'll let the pictures do the talking for the food.

Ambience: 4/5 (a little warm)
Food: 3/5
Service: 3/5

Simple & clean color scheme of white, black & grey hues adorn the place.

Talk. Eat. Laugh. Talk. Eat. Laugh...

Cheese room

The menu

This was what I ordered. A large healthy serving to start off the day!

It's called 'Breakfast BLT' (bacon, tomato, avocado & spinach) on the menu.


My friend's 'English Breakfast' (toast, eggs, mushrooms, sausages, tomatoes and crispy bacon...), S$20.


Banana cake with Pecan & Banana dip.


Coconut Pancake with ice cream & fruits.


Perfectly done poached egg over hot crispy toast.

Thick Salmon fillet with toast.

Other food items available are pastries, cakes, biscuits etc.

Fun little treats like candies, biscuits, honey also caught my eye. :p

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After stuffing our faces with our breakfast, our sweet tooth got the better of us & we subsequently went a few shops down & settled down in ice cream/dessert heaven 'Ben & Jerry's'. We found ourselves a nice little corner where red brick pillars & lush sofas align the white washed walls. With a lush chandelier hanging from the middle of the room and randomly placed furniture everywhere, the atmosphere was comfortable & welcoming. Strangely for a place famous for their ice creams, the menu had beer on it too! We ordered our liquid poison & took the opportunity to take lots of photos while we just lazed the afternoon away...

Er.. how much for that chandelier please? :p

Random images that made no sense. Whatever.

View of the bar.

Mayo's Sauteed Mushroom

I recently had dinner with my friends and we ordered a mushroom dish that I've been wanting to replicate. Here is mayo's version of sauteed mushrooms.




~Ingredients~
olive oil
1 large garlic
11 whole mushrooms (cut into cubes)
salt
black ground pepper
herbs

~Instructions~
1.Slice up the mushrooms and cut them into cubes.
2.Sprinkle 3 tbs of olive oil in a saucepan.
3. Chop the garlic into small cubes and put in them into the saucepan until golden brown.
4. Throw in the mushrooms and continue stirring.
5. Add in salt, black ground pepper & herbs and be sure to stir evenly.
6.If you are a big fan of olive oil, you can add in additional amounts according to your taste.

Chocolat Blanc Et Langue De Chat

Japanese snack recommendation #6
Chocolat Blanc Et Langue De Chat

Now it's been said that one of the must buy snacks from Hokkaido, Japan is this box of biscuits. Affectionately named 'White Lovers', they are actually creamy white chocolate sandwiched between 2 pieces of oven baked biscuits. Just like love, they must be handled carefully as the biscuits crumble easily into multiple bits but if you treat it with tender loving care, you will be in for a chocolate treat that will leave you smiling.

http://www.shiroikoibito.ishiya.co.jp/

This is what it looks like with it's full wrapper on.

The box packaging in all it's glory.

Sealed with a kiss?

The deliciously light biscuit with white chocolate threatening to overflow with love. :p





Japanese love poem.. that makes not much sense.

Tip: If you are wondering what it taste like, go to your nearest Japanese or Asian convenience store and buy a box of Glico Collon (white cream) for a uncanny resemblance in taste.

Mayo's ramen & pasta

What you see before you is a box of instant handmade ramen that I had bought from the ramen museum in Japan. Unlike most instant noodles where you can keep it for several months, this had to be consumed within 3 weeks from it's manufactured date. Thumbs up to quality control from the Japanese.

This is the exact same noodles that I had ordered when I was at their ramen stall/shop.

Instructions for a perfect authentic Japanese ramen noodle soup.

This was the brochure that I had taken from the ramen museum. It features all the different ramen stalls within the museum serving the best & famous shops from all over Japan.

This is my version of the delicious char siew ramen that I ate. Instead of the char siew (sliced pork), I used bacon slices which I pan seared to a light crispy texture with the meat well done. Top the dish off with some fried chopped garlic & chives & a serving of soft boiled egg cut in half.

I also made another dish of scallop pasta with sliced sausages mixed with wasabi flakes. With a seemingly European dish, the taste took a Asian twist when the wasabi hits you & leave you teary eyed. Food awakening is what I call it. :) Try it at home yourself & you'll fall in love with it.