Breakfast at The Delaunay @ London

We visited a friend in UK over the weekend and I was given the responsibility to look for a nice place where we can have a satisfying English breakfast. Most of the time, I would have breakfast at the hotel where I am staying during my working trips to London and this time I had to do a little research on the net to find a breakfast place.

My first choice was Wolseley at Piccadilly but it was fully booked as usual and my second choice would be at The Delaunay as it was at Aldwych in Covent Garden which is quite convenient for us since we took a tube from Marylebone station.

The Delaunay was certainly impressive right from the doorstep. At the main door, there is a smartly dressed man in thick dark blue jacket with golden buttons and a hat that opens the door for you. As we enter, there is a lady at the reception that shows us to our seats. The restaurant is very stylish and with an old charm. I like the black and white tiled floor and classic furnishing.

We were seated near the bar counter and waiters dressed in white shirts with a black vest asked for our orders. Of course English tea is a must! Luc had a Wiener Kaffee (£4.50) which is a large espresso with whipped cream. It was really delicious but "fattening" too!

Too bad the breakfast menu is only until 11am and we had to take the brunch menu. It's quite similar to the breakfast menu minus the big English breakfast. Our friends ordered a smoked salmon and scrambled eggs (£14.95) which looked really delicious. I was a little greedy and ordered a Kassler Ham with Fried Egg (small £5.75) and a chicken and noodles soup (£7.50). The breakfast was really simple but it was delicious and well presented. A bowl of soup on a cold morning is soooo comforting! That's probably an "Asian" thing to do.

Luc ordered an Egg Arlington (£18.00) which consists of 2 poached eggs with salmon and a bread base. The egg was runny and yummy!

For some reason, our friends find it difficult to leave this place without a sweet ending. They ordered a plate of Pancakes with Maple syrup (£7.50) to share. I find it hard to resist the temptation before me and I had a taste of it. It was a really good pancake, fluffy and soft. One bite after another... this is how good it is!

We had a really good breakfast and after that we walked to Covent Garden and it's already decorated with Xmas decorations. There is a big Apple store nearby which is really nice to visit and after that we went to Bond Street for some serious shopping.

The Delaunay

55 Aldwych

London WC2B 4BB

United Kingdom

Tel: 020 7499 8558

Website

Cooking a Feast on New Year's Day

Happy New Year!

Instead of beating the crowd to a New Year's dinner in town, I decide to cook my own new year dinner. Afterall, it's a good time to test out one's cooking skills especially when there are willing guinea pigs around. The guinea pigs are my sister and her bf.

Entree: Pan Seared Foie Gras with cherry tomatoes and grapes

I got some frozen Foie Gras de Canard (duck foie gras) from Singapore to complete the entree. It's just very simple to do it at home. All you need is to take the frozen foie gras out from the freezer and let it rest for about 15 minutes. If you like it rare, you don't need to let it rest too long.

Firstly, sear the foie fras on a pan preheated with a drizzle of olive oil. Dish it out when it's golden brown. Arrange it on a plate with the cherry tomatoes and grapes that have been halved. Then, drizzle it with Balsamic vinegar and sprinkle some sea salt and garnish with some thyme. It's ready to go!



The foie gras needs some salt to enhance the taste of its fats and which the sea salt in my opinion is a better choice than the normal salt. The balsamic balances the fatiness of the foie gras. The sweetness of the grapes goes very well with all the savoury tastes from the dish. To pair with the foie gras, we had a bottle of Billecart Salmon Rose to go with it. It's one of my favourite rose!

Main: Roast Prime Aged Beef with Rosemary


Remember the slab of meat I got for a present a week ago? My friend got me this chilled aged beef all the way from Singapore. Yeah that piece of meat weighed at 700gm and I decide to share it for the dinner. I had marinated the beef the night before with fresh rosemary, garlic, Ornellaia olive oil and some pepper. On the day of cooking, I took the beef out of the refrigerator and let the temperature come up to the room temperature before taking it to the pan to seal the outer layer of the meat. It has to be seared on all the sides of the surface. After that, I put it onto a baking tray lined with foil and roast it in the oven for 15-20 minutes until it's a medium.



The result - it's not perfect but at least it's not worse than some of the restaurants out there. I think it has to do with the quality of the meat. This beef was so juicy and tender and perhaps I wasn't the best person to cook this or else it's considered wasted. However, I was glad that the meal turned out to be very good and we all enjoyed every morsel of it.



Cheers to a good home cooked dinner! After that, I had to sweep, mop and wash the kitchen. It's really tiring and I will really think twice about cooking up another feast again!

Chef for the day

I was so proud of myself being able to wake up early in the morning (at 7am) on a Saturday to accompany my mom to the market. Usually I only do that when my mom is overseas. Yesterday I was in my mojo and it's the day to cook something new!

The both of us went to the market with 2 baskets and we both came home with our both hands full of goodies such as a spring chicken, some pork belly, vegetables, cikus and some nice herbs which I intend to make the most of it when mom isn't around.

My first attempt was to boil a soup which I've not done before. I think I've gotten bored of my own ABC and winter melon soup. It's time for a change because I read this wonderful book of soups and there's just so many that I've yet to try. And so I thought, why not start with something simple?

Dried Fig and Pork Soup
It's a clear, sweet soup with a little porky taste.

The ingredients for this soup is pretty simple, maybe the simplest I've ever seen because there's only 3 ingredients involved according to the original recipe - 500g Pork (upper leg meat), 15 dried figs & 2500ml water and some salt to taste. But instead of using the upper leg meat of the pig, I used the back bone, near to the pig tail. Mom has a box of dried figs from Turkey in the fridge and it's perfect!

The steps are pretty straightforward too. I boiled a pot of water and let the pork bone simmer for 5 minutes before removing them from the pot. The dried figs are also washed and slightly cut on the sides so that the flavours from the figs can be absorbed by the soup easily. I used a double boil pot where the water in the pot is already boiled before I add in the pork and figs. After that, I double boiled it for 4 hours. After that, you can add some salt to the soup or it's good to be taken on its own too.



The results? You get a sweet and very clear soup because the soup is double-boiled. The secret is also in cooking the pork before adding to the soup to give it a clear soup effect. Besides that, it also removes the gamey taste from the pork. It's not Ziling's favourite because she doesn't like sweet stuffs. To me, I'm okay with the sweet soup because it tasted better with a pinch of salt.

For dinner, I wanted to do a healthy dinner without too much carbo and I thought of the "Kwai Fa Chi" which is actually fluffy scrambled eggs with vegetables and "sharks fin" if it's done in the restaurants but many have substituted it with the transparent rice vermicelli.

Eiling's own version of Kwai Fa Chi

It's actually very easy to prepare. I first check my fridge and see what I can use to make this dish. You can basically create your own recipe too. It's really that easy. For this recipe I used:

Carrots (thinky sliced)
Beansprouts
Firm tofu (mashed)
Shimeji mushrooms
Clear Rice Vermicelli
"kam wah foh tui" (chinese cured ham)
3 eggs
Lettuce

Seasonings
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of stock granules
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
1/2 tsp of light soya sauce
a dash of pepper
1/2 tsp of shaoxing wine

Firstly, beat 3 eggs in a bowl with the seasonings except the Shaoxing wine. Then add the eggs into the mashed the tofu. Heat up the pan with some oil and stir fry the carrots, mushrooms and the small dices of the chinese cured ham until it's fragrant. Then pour in the eggs mixture and stir it to avoid over burning of the eggs. Do it like how you would do a scrambled egg. Add in the rice vermicelli and the beansprouts and stir for a while before adding in the Shaoxing wine.



After that you can garnish the plate with a piece of lettuce and serve the dish over the lettuce. To eat, simply select a lettuce leave and then spoon some of the kwai fa chi into the lettuce. Wrap it up and eat! Ziling was the 1st guinea pig. According to her, it lacks the "wok hei" meaning the taste from a good stir fry from the big wok using a gas stove. It's true, I also felt the same. I didn't use a wok and I didn't use a gas stove.

But, at least it still look presentable!



I am determined to try again and this time I plan to add in some form of meat to give it a more meaty and robust taste to make up for the lack of "wok hei". Wish me luck!

Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Mushrooms & Truffle Oil

It's a Saturday!

I woke up early in the morning, btw 9.00 am is really early as I usually wakes up at 11 or noon on a weekend. Today, I have a mission which is to thrawl the Homedec 2001 exhibition at the KL Convention Centre with my mom. We managed to buy something from there although nothing much interests me except for a few things. Besides getting a new set of rain shower from Grohe which I have been eyeing on, we got a really cool dustbin for the bathrooms. The lid of the dustbin is censor-operated. With just a hand wave near the bin, the lids opened up by itself and then closes. It's so cool!

After that, I went and check out the Isetan Food Hall and bought some Japanese snacks. Mom saw the freshly baked Baguette and suggests that we should have that for dinner. And I thought, why not? I'm going to get my ass to the kitchen and cook up something. The easiest and simplest dish that I'm cooking to make is going to complement the baguette well.

I decide to alter my earlier recipe on Slow Roast Tomato Bruschetta with a few additions. For this recipe, I added some Bunashimeji mushrooms, back bacon and also truffle oil. I used the Bunashimeji mushrooms (also known as Brown Beech) because this mushroom is versatile and it adds a unique zesty and nutty flavour to the dish. The stem should not be removed because this is the part where the flavours are concentrated.

The recipe is really simple. The ingredients are:

Cherry Tomatoes

1 pack of Bunashimeji Mushrooms
2 pieces of Back Bacon
3 cloves of Garlic

Truffle Oil
Truffle Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Mixed Herbs/Basil
Salt
Pepper

The steps are very easy too. Firstly, set the oven and preheat at 180°C. Pan fry the bacon which have been cut into smaller pieces and then repeat the same step for the Bunashimeji mushrooms.



In a baking pan, put in the tomatoes (you can choose to dice them up or halves) with the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper & herbs and mix in the bacon & mushrooms. Mix well before putting it into the oven at 180°C and slow roasting it for 40 mins.



After it's done, take it out and mix in with a teaspoon of truffle vinegar & also some truffle oil before serving. If you have fresh basil leaves, you can also sprinkle some on top of the tomatoes. For this, instead of the normal balsamic, I used the Condiment à base de vinaigre de Balsamique Arôme Truffe which I bought in Paris. This is actually Balsamic with Truffles which would give my tomatoes an added flavour. After that, I also added another 1 or 2 teaspoonfuls of Truffle oil to give it an extra Truffle kick!



This is the baguette that we bought at the Isetan Food Hall for RM4.00 and the finished product of my slow roasted cherry tomatoes with bacon, mushrooms and truffle oil. It's really good and the smell of the truffles is subtle but I am happy with the results. You can try this at home too and it's just so easy!

I still have a spoonful left if you want some. heheh....

Crispy Pork & Shrimps Wanton with Alcohol

Ok, I'm not really an alcoholic (futile attempts in convincing people because they know that I can drink them under the table) but sometimes I feel that it's interesting to use some of the bottles I have at home into cooking. It's a boring Sunday and Mom decides to make some fresh minced pork and shrimps wanton. She was telling me about the wonderful recipe she read in this book and she wanted to try it.

The ingredients are really simple but there was one particular ingredient she lacked - the chinese RICE WINE. So I told her, forget about the boring rice wine, why don't you use this instead?!! I took a chair, climb up to the top of the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of liquer and she thought I was mad. "Huh?!! You want me to use this Kwai Fei Lychee Liquer?" and I said, why not?!!



In addition to this wacky ingredient, I asked her to add some fried streaky bacon bits as well! Therefore, the 2 secret ingredients that made the wantons taste so awesome is the Lychee Liquer and Bacon!!!

The main ingredients are:

Pork (preferably 3 layered pork)
Shrimps
Bacon Bits
Wanton skin

*
Seasonings:
Salt
Pepper
Ginger (shavings)
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of Kwai Fei Lychee Liquer

The pork will have to minced. You have the option to mince the shrimps with the pork but I prefer it to be whole or chopped into halves so that I can still have the succulent texture of the shrimps. Mix the minced pork and shrimps together and add in the seasonings as well as the bacon bits. Stir well and then refrigerate for half an hour by covering it with a cling film.

Mix it all up & refrigerate!
This ensures the marinate takes into effect and the meat will absord the flavours over this period of time.

After that, using a spoon/spatula, scoop some of the mixture into a piece of wanton skin and wrap it up. If you have smaller wanton skins, I suggest that you cut the shrimps into smaller pieces.



Since she didn't make that much wantons, all you'll need is just a small pot of oil to fry them. Heat the oil to medium high and then slowly put the wantons in. Deep fry the wantons until they turn to a light golden brown. Then, turn up the heat a little before dishing them up. This is to prevent the wantons from absorbing too much oil during the last frying process. You can also use paper towels to absorb the excess oil from the wantons.



The finished product is lovely isn't it?!! It's crispy and the best of all, there's no fishy or meaty taste to the wantons because the ginger covers the fishy smell and the liquer takes off the meaty taste. What you'll get is a very light and umami taste of the wantons which goes very well with some chilli sauce. For me, I would love to add more bacon bits! We all had it for an afternoon tea snack. All thanks to Mom and my wacky ingredient!

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Ice-Cream is not boring! Part 1...

Who ever says ice-cream are boring desserts? I will personally deny that as I love ice-creams, so much so that sometimes, I can finish half a tub on my own on one siting while watching the TV. And having a macha ice-cream after a Japanese meal is also a must!

Just like an Affogato... caffeine + ice-cream!

Actually there's more to ice-cream than just a scoop on its own. I learnt how to make some fabulous desserts using New Zealand Natural ice-cream on Saturday with Merkaine at a dessert workshop held at the Cooking House in Desa Sri Hartamas. It's an afternoon filled with a sugar rush & fun fun fun...



I'll prove to you that ice-cream are not boring desserts and this recipe is a great way to impress your guests at your party!

Impress your guests with this Tiramisu!

This is a non-alcoholic tiramisu dessert. All it takes is just a few ingredients and in no time, your tiramisu is completed! It's the simplest good-tasting ice-cream tiramisu that I ever made.

Ingredients:
1 pkt of sponge fingers
2 cups of Espresso coffee
2 cups of whipped cream
cocoa powder for dusting

* to make it extra yummy, I would use a good quality espresso, a dash of Bailey's Irish Cream and premium cocoa powder!



Method:

1. Pipe whipped cream on the base of the cup.
2. Soak the sponge finger (broke into smaller pieces) into the espresso (but not too long).
3. Place the soaked sponge finger into the cup.
4. Top it with a layer of NZN Cookies & Cream ice-cream.
5. Repeat with another layer of sponge finger and ice-cream.
6. Lastly top it with a layer of whipped cream.
7. Dust with cocoa powder and serve!

Remember don't soak the sponge fingers in the espresso too long or else it'll become too soggy. If you under-soaked it, it'll not be the texture that you want in your tiramisu. I manage mine with two layers of ice-cream and sponge fingers.

Try making the tiramisu with this New Zealand Natural cookies & cream. The tastes does jive with the espresso and it makes a nice combination!

This is my finished product and it looks great right? After that, we all had to eat our own dessert. In total, we made 3 different types of dessert and then ended up eating everything on our own! It's like a "DIY dessert house" and that's my lunch for the day.

New Zealand Natural has been in our shores for quite sometime with a total of 25 flavours of ice-cream and some of them are even 99% fat-free. An exclusive treat from NZN is their "30% on 30th" promotion which runs on every 30th of the month. During this day, all ice-cream Take Home Packs will be given a 30% discount. So, if you come across an ice-cream craving, you know where to go!

Simple, Great Tasting Party Food @ Home

I had quite an eventful weekend. On Saturday, I was on OneFM with DJ Yve Vonne at noon as a guest for being a gourmand and also for the passion of chocolates. It was indeed an experience! My 1st live on radio experience post will be coming, so stay tuned!

Don't know why but I have been trying some new recipes and baking recently. I came up with some party food the one can come up with in the shortest time and still taste great! And thus, I was inspired to do a "Slow Roast Tomato Bruschetta" using the ingredients I have at home.



First, the ingredients are really simple.

• Baguette
  
• 3 medium-sized tomatoes
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon of Mixed Herbs (or Basil)
• A dash of salt & pepper

The steps are even easier. The garlics have to be chopped finely and tomatoes are diced according to your preference. I like them to be in bigger chunks so I don't cut them up too small.

Then, toss the chopped garlic and diced tomatoes on a baking pan, drizzle a tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the tomatoes. For this, I used my prized "Ornellaia" Olio Extra Vergine Di Oliva which the olives are grown in the same estate as the famous Tenuta Dell' Ornellaia wines. It is obtained by pressing the olives from about 2000 trees, which many of them are over 100 years old. Didn't I tell you I'm a snob too when it comes to ingredients for my cooking?!! Haha...

One can truly see the difference as the olive oil has a very nice golden colour with some hints of green. On the nose, you can smell the ripe fruit and the grassiness of the oil. It's a spicy-bitter olive oil with sweet almond finish.

After the olive oil, I added a tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar into the mixture. For this, instead of the normal balsamic, I used the Condiment à base de vinaigre de Balsamique Arôme Truffe which I bought in Paris during my last trip. This is actually Balsamic with Truffles which would give my tomatoes an added flavour.

The last step would be mixing all the ingredients well together with the salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Preheat the oven at 180°C and then slowly roast the tomatoes and herbs at the same temperature for 35-40 minutes.


When the tomatoes are about to get ready, you can now toast the baguette which I've cut them into 2 cm thick slices and all buttered up. Put them into the oven toaster and toast it to a crispy finish.



Ta daa.... and the tomatoes are ready! Although it might seemed a bit dry on the outside, it's actually not. The results are better than what I've expected. The roasted tomatoes with herbs, olive oil and balsamic vinegar compliments each other very well. The toasted baguette topped with the tomatoes are just perfect for a party snack! Basically it's just 15 minutes preparation time and you just have to wait for it to slowly cook. This recipe can make 7 pieces of bruschetta.

And to go with the Bruschetta, I prepared a cocktail to match the taste of the slow roast tomatoes. I prefer something light, fresh and citrusy and thus I used the Absolut Citron as the base of my cocktail.

Absolutly Tango Jango

All you need is just - a shot of Absolut Citron, half a shot of lemon juice, 2 shots of orange juice and top up with 7up. And I decide to name this concoction of mine as Absolutly Tango Jango, hahah... whatever that means...

And my weekend has come to an end. Time to cook dinner now. Adios!

Carrot cake @ Marriott Hotel Singapore

Marriott Hotel in Singapore is definitely one of the more iconic hotels located on Orchard Road. You can never miss the green pagoda at the intersection of Orchard and Scotts Rd. Besides the hotel, Tangs Plaza is also the anchor tenant of this building.

Well, I certainly didn't come here to shop. Being a shopaholic like me, it's really unusual to see me hanging out at Orchard and not buying a single thing. I was surprised too! The reason why I walked to Marriott in the morning is to have this supposedly good Fried Carrot Cake as claimed by a friend.

Haha... coming to a cafe at a hotel for a good carrot cake? This sounds very unconvincing isn't it? Oh well, there's something that you have to try once in a lifetime and since I was supposed to learn to be adventurous, I went to Crossroads @ Marriott Singapore and gave it a try!

Crossroads is a cafe that is unpretentious and a perfect place for people watching. It's nice to sit here in the morning and have my cup of illy cappuccino.

They do serve buffet breakfast at around SGD$38 a pax but since I knew what I wanted to eat here, I gave the buffet a pass. I ordered a plate of Fried Carrot Cake @ SGD$15 and in my heart I was thinking - this carrot cake better be good or my money spent would be so unjustified! It's RM36 for a plate of carrot cake excluding GST which I could get it in KL for RM3.60?!!

When the dish was served, I was taken by surprise on how big the portion was. It probably can feed 2 of me. I also have not come across a fried carrot cake that was covered with egg. Underneath, you can see that the carrot cake is unlike the ones we had in KL where it's covered with dark soy sauce. The carrot cake is soft and the shrimps are of acceptable size. Most importantly, the taste was good and it's indeed a very hearty breakfast.

It's best served with belacan and make sure you request for it. The staff are quite generous with the chilli paste servings. Eat it while it's warm or else it'll not be as tasty when it's cool. Although the egg came a bit burnt on one side, I have no complains.

Don't ask me how a cup of cappuccino could go well with Fried Carrot Cake.

Crossroads Cafe

Singapore Marriott Hotel
320 Orchard Road, 238865 Singapore
Tel: +65 6831 4605

7.00am to 3.00am, Thursdays to Saturdays and eve of Public Holidays

7.00am to 1.00am, Sundays to Wednesdays and Public Holidays