Preserving Herbs in Oil

In the alternate reality, I would be picking fresh herbs from my garden all year round and use them immediately to whip up delicious food. Ah... the smell of fresh herbs lingering in the kitchen must be a wonderful thing to experience.

Unfortunately, that shall remain a dream as we live in a high-rise apartment with little to no direct farming space and sunlight. Indoor farming under grow lights seems to be the next best alternative, and that's a project we hope to kick-start soon.

Meanwhile, I have been relying on supermarkets for my herbs. But they're not cheap - 10g of thyme in my local supermarket costs $2.85! And they last at most 2 weeks in the fridge, so most of it usually goes to waste as I use only a small portion for cooking.

Tired of all the food waste, I decided to try and preserve them for the first time today by freezing them in oil. I used olive oil but I suppose you could use butter or any kinds of oil.

First up was to give them a quick rinse and pat them dry.

I then removed the leaves and placed them in ice cube trays up to the halfway mark. Fill the remaining with olive oil, before covering loosely with cling wrap and freezing overnight. 

Satisfied with the end product 😃 The best thing about this is that it also cuts down on preparation time for your next meal. I can imagine stuffing one or two of them under the chicken skin the next time I roast a chicken. Or use them in stir-frys or stews. The possibilities are endless. 

Another weekend come and gone

When the weekend flew by and you realise it's Monday already.

Pretty much stayed at home over the weekend. Cooking dinner on Saturdays seem to be a norm these days. Tried making lava egg again for the second time in years. Pleased with the consistency of the yolk, but still not happy with the flavour.

Lava egg

Sunday was spent at home doing the never-ending household chores.

After a hard day's work, it's time to reward ourselves. This is sparkling grape juice. Dumped some grapes in cos they needed to be finished as well.

And just like that, Sunday came to an end. 😢

一个人的北京。Beijing, alone.

Beijing through the lens of my iPhone 7 Plus.

北京炸酱面 and some side dishes, which I didn't really fancy.

The cheaper option compared to 大董. We heard it is popular among the locals too.

Peking duck was good! About 45 SGD per duck.

宫保鸡丁 was surprisingly well-executed.

Outside 前门

Skewers (mostly lamb and beef), another commonly seen street food.

蟹黄汤包 (crab roe dumplings), which I thought was mediocre. Very juicy but couldn't detect the taste of crab roe.

The maze at 南锣鼓巷。

Full of people.

Touring Forbidden City in the crazy weather.

This gives you a clue of where I was headed next.

That's right, 荷花市场！

Breathtaking sight. Could have been better if not for the pollution.

On the whole, I didn't enjoy the city as much as I thought I would. Doubt I'll be back anytime soon.

Sunday: Lazy Breakfast + Unwrapping Parcels

It was a Sunday and I was feeling, well, lazy. Hence I decided to put together a simple breakfast that required little to no effort on my part. Just lay down the ham, crack an egg, and sprinkle some black pepper, mixed herbs and garlic powder. 15 minutes in the oven at 160 degrees and it was ready.

Easy. I wouldn't say it tastes fantastic but it's definitely edible.

Time to unwrap my two new pots that got delivered yesterday!

Totally in love with the colours and can't wait to use them!

White Pepper Live Alaskan King Crab @ Long Beach Seafood Restaurant

Prior to dinner at Long Beach last week, my impression of the restaurant was mediocre at best. A household name that's been in existence since I was a kid, yes; but somehow we were never enticed to dine there.

A meal there last week turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Every dish was very much to our liking.

The star of the show was the Classic White Pepper Live Alaskan King Crab. 

It came with a hefty price tag but it was worth every penny. The crab was incredibly fresh. In fact, we were told that the crab arrived in Singapore only a few hours before our meal. Sauce was perfect and all flavours were in perfect harmony. There was just enough white pepper, which did not overpower the sweetness of the crab.

A must try!

Now, time to attempt to replicate the sauce at home. 😜

Greenery at Home

Headed over to Sinflora over the weekend and bought some plants for the home.

Snake plant aka mother-in-law's tongue

Nerve plant aka Fittonia

 Please don't die on us! 🤣

Review | KiKi Young Vinegar Noodles 小醋面

If you haven't heard by now, KiKi is the latest brand of instant noodles to sell out in Asian cities like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. When it first launched in Singapore, the entire batch of 2,000 packets was sold out within 6 days despite costing twice or even thrice the price of Korean instant noodles. 

Lately I had the opportunity to try the Young Vinegar flavour, thanks to a friend who kindly shared her stash of noodles with us.

Verdict: I liked it, in particular the texture of the noodles. It was soft and springy - similar to la mian - and was markedly different from your usual Maggis. It definitely looked and tasted more expensive than the regular ramen noodles. The portion - nett weight of 90g according to the packaging - was decent for a small eater like me. The vinegar wasn't overpowering and flavour was light on the whole, which was the way I liked it. I imagine that it'll pair very well with some minced meat or roast pork!

4 out of 5 stars from me!

Guo Da Li ceremony: 12 版帖

His aunt bought the item below for our Guo Da Li ceremony and it immediately caught our attention, mainly due to its size.

Both of us have never heard of this before and we had to google to find out its use. Turns out that it's called the十二版帖 (there are 12 sections, hence the name). In the olden days, the groom would present it to the bride's parents to invite them to attend the wedding banquet. It comes with certain standard phrases and all one has to do is to fill in details such as the names of the groom's and bride's parents, banquet venue and date and so on. An invitation like this besides the regular invites given out to friends is needed as the usual invites already contain the parents' names - the logic is that parents therefore can't 'invite themselves' to the wedding based on those.

I believe this custom of handing out the 十二版帖 is becoming uncommon these days as couples choose to simplify their wedding and traditions get lost with the passage of time. We, however, are glad that we've had the opportunity to be exposed to such an interesting tradition.

I followed this link to fill in the details - I hope I did it correctly! 😉😃

Upcycling | DIY Plastic Bag Holder

Lately I've been trying to cut down waste in my life. I'm normally not into crafts but I thought this is an opportune time for me to do some simple DIY stuff since I'm moving into our home these few months and there are plenty of stuff that we need to buy.

Plastic bags. 

We bring recyclable bags to the stores as much as we can but sometimes we forget. And the amount of plastic bags in the house can sometimes go out of control. *Hangs head in shame.* 

My mum has been using the IKEA Variera plastic bag dispenser for years and it's been doing its job. Now that I'm shifting, I could of course take the easy way out and get another one, but I decided to recycle materials that are lurking in my parents' place instead. Saves me some pennies and the earth.

I started with this can of Lay's chips.

Cleaned the inside of the can and decorated it. Now you can use wrapping paper but I decided to make it cuter, and used some scrap paper lying around that would otherwise never have seen the light of day.

Finally, I used an exacto knife to cut an opening where the mouth is.

How cute is this?!! Major love. 😍

Kimdo BBQ, City Square

If you are on a day trip to JB and just want to stay around the checkpoint, be sure to check out this stall selling grilled food at City Square. Flanked by various stalls selling a variety of snacks ranging to local kuehs to crepes, this stall can be easily missed amidst the busy action along the narrow stretch leading into the main shopping area. In fact, we only started patronising this stall recently despite having been to City Square on countless occasions.

We loved their chicken wing, smoked duck, lady's finger and homemade chilli sauce. The chilli sauce was wickedly spicy, but we couldn't stop ourselves from dipping into it anyway as its sour tinge really whetted our appetite and went perfectly with the BBQ meat.

Our only grouse was the tight eat-in area, but the food, in our opinion, is definitely worth a try. 

Our meal of 7 skewers and a drink came up to RM 26.

And if BBQ skewers are not your thing, you can consider having some roast duck nearby too!

Travel | Hotel Once Bangkok

Throwback to our Bangkok trip early this month. 

We were there for four days, during which we stayed at Hotel Once - a quaint boutique hotel with a charming interior.

This is one of the rare few hotels that I have come across by far that looks as captivating as the pictures on its website.

Plenty of greenery adorn the entrance and reception area, which immediately relaxes one's weary soul.

The room itself was spacious, and it came with a bathtub and a rainshower head. What I loved most about the room was the round window at the far end, which instantly ratchets up the hipster factor by a few notches. It was the perfect spot to take OOTDs!

Another interesting concept of the hotel is their Time Capsule Lounge. How it works is that you can drop postcards into the boxes like the ones in the picture below, and the hotel supposedly will mail the postcards out on the respective dates. Which means that you can write a postcard to your future self - how cool is that! I thought that it is a really clever marketing technique.

My postcard.

The downside of the hotel is the not-too-convenient location (the hotel is located along the Chao Phraya River and one has to take a river taxi to the nearest BTS station - Saphan Taksin) and the poor sound system. They also seemed quite short-handed, for one of the nights there was a wedding reception and the hotel issued a note to say that room service would not be available.

Overall, it was quite a pleasant stay for us.

Travel | JB: Restoran Ya Wang 鸭皇药材烧腊大王, Jalan Dhoby and more

It was an impromptu decision to enter JB today. We were supposed to meet our ID, but I woke up to a message from him saying that he had to postpone the appointment to another day. With nothing else planned, we then decided to spend our day across the borders.

Restoran Ya Wang near City Square, whose chef served as consultant to Dian Xiao Er Singapore, has always been on my to-eat list, but we have somehow never dined there despite our countless JB trips. The timing was always wrong. The chance finally came today, and so I jumped at opportunity to have lunch there since we don't usually enter JB that early.

The restaurant is located near another popular eatery, Kam Long Curry Fish Head. From the Curry Fish Head stall, cross the road, and walk along a canal until you see Tokio Marine at a corner. Turn into the street and you will see Restoran Ya Wang just a few shops away.

The bright yellow sign was quite easy to spot from far.

Their signature herbal duck, with a surprisingly light flavour. The gravy was much more full-flavoured. The meat was not gamey, which was good, and the skin was fairly thin. Overall, I would say that it was one of the better-tasting ducks I have had, but I still prefer Dian Xiao Er's version which offers a more distinct herb flavour.

Our set for 2 pax, which cost RM 51. The rest of the dishes, in our opinion, were a tad too salty. 

Business was brisk, but the service was impeccable. While waiting for our food to arrive, the middle-aged waitress who wore her hair in a ponytail told us reassuringly that our food would be served to us soon (and we didn't even chase them for it!). She also made us feel right at home when she checked with us several times throughout our meal to see if the food was okay.

The sun hung brightly in the sky as we left the place. We headed thereafter to Jalan Dhoby and explored the area for a bit before settling down in one of the many cafes in a bid to hide from the merciless heat.

I love the packaging of my drink; it reminds me of traditional Chinese ointment bottles.

Some of the sights that caught my attention:

 A really old school bakery. Check out the furnace at the back!

Tread carefully :p

The rest of the day was spent at City Square, where we caught a movie before heading home.

If you are looking to explore beyond the checkpoint area, I recommend that you spend a day or two at Taman Mount Austin, which houses plenty of restaurants and entertainment options, including an adventure park! Have fun!