Mayo's homemade banana split

Banana Split

~Ingredients~
2 scoops of cookies & cream ice-cream
Vanilla finger biscuit
1 banana (frozen for a few hours)
Hershey's chocolate syrup

~Method~
1. Put 2 scoops of cookies & cream ice-cream into a bowl.
2. Add on 1 vanilla finger biscuit.
3. Add 1 frozen banana and cover it with Hershey's chocolate syrup.
4.Ready to serve.

Tips: Feel free to replace either the fruit or the biscuit with any of your personal favourites.

Mayo's potato omelette

I don't know about you but I love a good omelette from time to time. Today is one of those days! :p After mixing up 2 eggs with half a glass of low fat milk with a dash of salt & pepper for taste, I fried an omelette in a medium sized flat pan & cut out a heart shape as the base of my meal. I then diced up some skinned potatoes & started stir frying them with some tomato & chilli sauce for added complexity to the taste & finished it off with some Italian herb seasoning & black pepper. Simple but extremely tasty. :)

Mayo's breakfast #7

Do you ever have a sudden irrational craving for bread from time to time? Well I do! :p I just love the fragrant smell of freshly made bread all toasty & yummy. In my private tribute to bread, I decided to make two mini bread breakfast sets. The first was my take on an old Italian classic combination, ham & cheese with tangy mayo (feel free to experiment with your own favorite choice of meat eg. bacon, shredded chicken, sliced sausages etc) on a lightly toasted slice of french baguette topped with a dash of black pepper. With everything in place, pop it back into the oven for added crunch & deliciously melted cheese.

Overall view of my toasty breakfast meal. Cream of mushroom soup optional. Hehe..

Ham & cheese baguette


For my second set of breakfast, I opted to make some Bruschetta. Not only is the dish healthy, it's tasty too. First chop some fresh tomatoes & dried basil pre-mixed in a separate bowl in luscious extra virgin olive oil, a dash of salt & pepper. When ready, just pour the yummy mixture onto a slice of hot toasted baguette. The confusing but nice combination of cold firm tomatoes drenched in olive oil on a hot crisp baguette is heavenly. Try it in your home today.

Bruschetta

Egg Mayo Baguette

Everybody has their very own favorite bread & filling that they swear by. Share with me what's yours? Now here is one of mine, my home-made, hand mixed wasabi egg mayo served with a generous portion on top of some fresh baked baguette. But what's so special about it you may ask? Well, here's a little Mayo tip. Before piling on the delicious moist wasabi egg mayo, cut a piece of fresh garlic into half and within 10 seconds, rub the raw exposed part of the garlic evenly & strongly onto the surface of the bread. This is an interesting & healthy way to taste the garlic for this meal yet without it overpowering and leaving you with anti vampire breath. Try it!

Another simple tip is that this meal will taste great if the baguette is nice & crisp. For it to get that nice crunchy effect, just simply leave the cut pieces of baguette on the surface of a dry heated pan for a minute or so & flip occasionally to avoid it from being toast. :)

Wasabi Egg Mayo Baguette

~Ingredients~
Baguette
Eggs
Mayonaise
Wasabi
Black pepper
Bonito flakes


~Method~
1. Mix wasabi mayonaise with hard boiled eggs well with black pepper.
2. Toast the baguette.
3. Sprinkle some bonito flakes and ready to serve.

Mayo's Breakfast #4

Mayo always loves a good hearty breakfast anyday! Wanted something sinfully guilty to brighten up my day & what better than stacks of french toast with melted cheese, garlic spread, sweet chilli sauce & slices of ham in between! Eat it anyway you like but I just press them down & bite in. So unlady-like but how else can you enjoy it? :p

This is just one serving... for me!:p

Mayo's Egg Pancake

Mayo's Homemade Street-side Snack
If you've been to most parts of Asia, one of the trademark foodie's 'must do' is to sample the local authentic street fare. I remember one of my personal favorites was always the simple deep fried pancakes. They come in an assorted variations with a million different ingredients but here's my attempt at creating a tribute to this all time favorite.

Mayo's Egg Pancakes
Firstly I created the main batter using flour, water & mixing it with eggs (amount depending on how many pancakes you intend to serve) till it forms into a nice sticky texture. I then throw in coarsely chopped sausage slices & sliced spring onions before ending with a dash of salt & pepper for taste. I further mix the batter till they are nicely uniformed. Prepare a non stick pan & let it heat up, pour in some oil to ensure that the pancakes do not end up sticking to the pan and losing their shape. Pour in the batter in moderation then pressing the centre down firmly onto the pan & let the pancakes brown. Flip every now & then.

Best eaten when piping hot with some spicy sauces as a dip.



Chewy, meaty & a guaranteed mouthful of gastronomic happiness. :)

Mayo's Choco Frozen Banana

Mayo's Snacks

Now what should you do if you have an ice cream craving late at night but do not have the icy sinful snack in the fridge? Frozen bananas with warm chocolate to the rescue! I took out a frozen banana and covered it with thick warm Hershey's chocolate sauce. Simple, savory & satisfying!

Tip: Did you know that freezing your fruits in your freezer prolongs it's shelf life to close to a month? Try this easy frozen banana snack & there's no going back. :)

The grin was the same on my face while eating this. :p

Glico Tako Pretz

Japanese snack recommendation #7
Glico takoyaki Pretz

Mayo's travel tip is that when you are in Japan, always look out for their limited edition snacks or tidbits. Famous brands like Glico have strategically made their Pretz sticks to be of a certain particular famous food or flavor reflective of the state that they are in. Here is an example of the famous Takoyaki snack in Osaka but now available in Pretz form. You may dismiss it as clever marketing but I can assure you, it's oishii (delicious)!

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 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.

Angels & Demons

Japanese snack recommendation #5
Tohato Devil Hot Rings

Immensely popular snack that is devilishly hot but also deliciously addictive. A must try if you can get your hands on it. Sells out everytime it hits the shelves.

Sneak peek inside. Strongly suggest having a glass of ice cold water on standby.

Was food shopping in Tokyo and when I was at the basement of major departmental store Matsuzakaya, I was offered a sample of these extremely refreshing & tasty fruit flavored Konnyaku/Konjac (Jelly). Couldn't resist buying several packets back.

I <3 Mickey

Japanese snack recommendation #3
Mickey Mouse Biscuits

A happy Mickey face to greet you when you want to 'steal' a biscuit from the tin can.

This is what the biscuit looks like. Erm.. not very appetizing in looks but makes up for it with it's soft creamy taste. It comes in 2 different flavors, chocolate & butter. I somehow prefer the rich butter flavor better.





Here is another beautiful tin box containing Mickey Mouse goodies. It has the words Tokyo written on the sides of the tin box together with Mickey Mouse motifs with the work 'Bliss' floating randomly around each other.

Individually wrapped biscuits that makes it easier to consume and share with family and friends.



Close up of the cookie. Can you see the ingredients peeking out from within?

I <3 Tokyo Banana

Japanese snack recommendation #2
Tokyo Banana

Individually packed Tokyo banana cakes are beautiful & hygienic too.

Unwrapped & ready for consumption

Soft fluffy sponge cake with delicious creamy banana fillings are an ultimate combination. One is never enough! :p

Hori Corn Chocolate

Japanese snack recommendation #1
Hori Corn Chocolate

Now this is for all white chocolate lovers out there. This is yummy corn crisps covered with white chocolate that forms a mini bar for you to carry around and indulge sinfully in while on the go. Not overly sweet but enough to subdue that nasty chocolate craving once in a while.

I <3 Tokyo Disneyland

There's something magical about Disneyland. It somehow manages to transform adults into little children again. Seeing happy families, loving couples & cute chubby babies just brightens up your day. Here are some of the food to much on inside Tokyo Disneyland.

(From top left: Fish burger set meal, thick fish patty with generous vegetables, not so crispy fries, push cart stall selling the piping hot Smoked turkey leg, it's nice packaging, the Smoked turkey leg sneak preview, Winnie the Pooh popcorn machine, Winnie hard at work producing popcorn, our special takeaway Winnie the Pooh popcorn 'honey pot)

Mayo's black & white carrot cake

Mr K & I wanted to snack on some carrot cake but he wanted the 'black' sweetened version while I wanted the 'white' version retaining it's natural flavor. Hence to please both our taste buds, I whipped up both versions. Problem solved.

Black VS White

Penang style dark soya XO sauce carrot cake with beansprouts.

White crispy carrot cake with eggs.

Must be pan/stir fried till crispy and served hot with chilli!