Bún Thịt Nướng (Vietnamese Grilled Pork Vermicelli)

I love Vietnamese cuisine for its fresh flavours - loads of fresh herbs and veggies. My first introduction to Vietnamese cuisine was a bowl of Bún Thịt Nướng in a small eatery along the alley near Queen Street, Brisbane with some friends after school. It was love at first bite, and when I was in Vietnam in 2012, I had the chance to explore more Vietnamese dishes, the traditional way.

Bún Thịt Nướng, a grilled pork dish with vermicelli noodles, remains one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes. It's like a bowl of noodle salad, and there's tons of flavours within the dish - the tangy pickled daikon and carrots, the slightly spicy and garlicky dipping sauce, the aromatic scallion oil, the saltiness from the roasted peanuts, the herby fresh mint leaves and not forgetting the star of the show, the marinated pork. Sigh. I'm craving for a bowl for it as I type...

 Bún thịt nướng

Baechu Kimchi (배추김치)

Hello folks! 2014 is turning out to be a great year so far to sate my wanderlust. I'm just back from a short trip to Hong Kong. It was supposed to be a trip to Bangkok, but what with the ongoing riots and chaotic situation, we decided to forgo our tickets and accommodation. We decided on a whim not to waste the pre-booked vacation leave and go somewhere else instead.

Yeps, like seriously - we booked our tickets to Hong Kong on Monday for a Wednesday 1am flight. Ha! Craziest thing ever. There was an on-going promotion (lucky for us) so we got our tickets pretty cheap, even on a really last minute schedule. Anyway, I'm nursing a slight flu now (what is it with me and falling sick after a trip?!?), and I hope I get better soon cos... I'm flying again soon, to Cambodia, in two weeks' or so time, HA! ;)

Anyway, just thought to update this space with a recipe for once.

It's not a secret that I love Korean food. It's one of my all-time favourite cuisines. Between Japanese and Korean, I can't decide which is my favourite.

Homemade Baechu Kimchi (배추김치)

Cornflakes Crusted Chicken

These are like super addictive chicken poppers. They are like McDonald's nuggets, or even KFC's popcorn chicken - only they taste much better, and is not made up of weird indistinguishable meat. I won't go into what I've read of fast food chains' meat choices, cos I still do indulge in the occasional fast food meal once in a while, and it's better not over-thinking too much about what I'm really eating yup?

Cornflakes Crusted Chicken

Brunch: Shakshouka, waffles and salads

It's the weekend again. Instead of brunching out, how about having brunch at home instead? I've been doing once a month (or so) meals at home on the weekends, where I wake up early to prep a meal for the fams.

This was a few months ago, where I just started doing the whole dine-at-home thing. It helps that I get to make use of my food props for real. Like thinking about what plate/bowl to use for a certain dish, and how the overall placement of the dishes should look like. Ha! The inane things I do.

Main dish: Shakshouka

Brunch: Rosemary roasted potatoes

Since I love being in the kitchen so much, I decided that it would be a good idea to do brunch at home one weekend for once instead of dining out for a family meal.

The first time we had weekend brunch at home a few months ago, this was the result.

Homemade brunch

양념통닭 (Yangnyeom Tongdak)

Korean cuisine is one of my all-time favourite. Besides Japanese that is. I could totally eat Korean food every day and not get sick of it. Both cuisines have a wide variety of foods, yet tastewise, is totally on opposite ends of the spectrum. While Japanese food tends to be milder in taste, focusing alot of the freshness and simple cooking techniques, Korean food on the other hand hits you wham bam in the face with its strong flavours.

After returning to Singapore from my vacation in Seoul last month, I was craving for Korean food and I decided to fry up some Korean style fried chicken at home. There's this restaurant near my place that sells awesome (soy garlic) fried chicken, but the price for the dish is stealthily increasing... Thus, I decided to try my hand at making some fried chicken at home myself.

 양념통닭 (Yangnyeom Tongdak) 

Asparagus Leeks Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Quiche

I saw a recipe for a quiche crust that didn't use any butter (!). And my curiousity was piqued. I mean, crusts are always about the butter no? And we all know very well that butter is not exactly healthy. So I decided to try the recipe out to see how it taste like.

Asparagus Leeks Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Quiche

Bulgogi Rice Burger (불고기 라이스 버거)

I swear this is the best dish I've ever come up with (erm, okay, strike that, just last week I made another finger-lickin' good dish, but hey that's another story). Yeah, so, I stand by my first statement.

불고기 라이스 버거 (Bulgogi Rice Burger)

Beef Kimbap (쇠고기 김밥)

Hello Korea. It's been almost a year. Wait for me, we're to be reunited soon. In the meantime, here's some kimbap I made a while ago.

Beef Kimbap (쇠고기 김밥)

Gyudon (牛丼) and Onsen tamago (温泉卵)

It's no secret that my fave choice of meat is beef. Whenever I'm out, if there's beef on the menu, there's an 80% chance that I'll get the beef choice. The other 15% is because someone else is getting it, and we'll be sharing. Or a 5% chance when I actually crave for something else.

Gyudon  (牛丼) and Onsen tamago (温泉卵)

Yeonkeun Jorim (연근조림)

I'm still making my bento lunches religiously at least once a week. It's been almost half a year now or so. And I realise that most of my bento lunches consist of Japanese/Korean styled side sides. I guess I really love the two cuisines alot...

Here's a new side dish that I've picked up recently. I like eating lotus root, and see it quite often in Japanese bento lunches on Instagram. So one day, I decided to google for a recipe. It really was quite easy to make, and I've already made it again yesterday for this week's bento lunches.

Yeonkeun Jorim (연근조림)

Katsudon (カツ丼)

I was going to blog more this month. Alas, I was busy with work, and also, I've actually been sick for the past week or so. First, with a bout of acid reflux where I was coughing non-stop for days. Then after an ah-may-zing night catching Jason Mraz live in concert at the newly opened Gardens at the Bay yesterday night, I caught a flu bug. I know. Lucky me.

Let me take a mo' here to stop and gush about how awesome the concert (Tour is a Four Letter Word) was. I almost couldn't even go cos I couldn't find a friend who was keen on him or who haven't already bought tickets. Then I managed to persuade a girlfriend to go with me, but the tickets were sold out. :( Fortunately, said girlfriend managed to caught wind that extra tickets will be released, so we did managed to buy tickets in the end. Phew to that. Cos I loved every single minute of the 2 and a half hours standing concert (legs were aching like crazy).

He started the concert with my favourite song from his latest album "Love is a Four Letter Word" - "The World As I See It", followed up closely with a few more songs from his new album. I admit it's a little hard to get high on his songs cos they are more mellow than hard rock thumping rhythms. Nevertheless, the crowds favourites would definitely be "You and I Both", "I'm Yours" and "Lucky" (where Corrine May was a guest to sing a duet with him) where everyone sang along word for word verbatim (and where the most people whipped out their phones to record him - I recorded when he sang "You and I Both"). I liked that his band was really good too, and he gave them time to shine individually with their solos. I can't stop stressing how great the performance was. *end fan girl rant*

You're here for the food aren't you? Sorry I took a while to get to it.

Katsudon (カツ丼)

Scrambled eggs brunch

Even though I like visiting cafes to check out the latest "hotspots", in fact, I secretly prefer brunch at home.

I like that cafes provide a good atmosphere for me to catch up with friends, and I can spend time observing the cafe's decor and little details. But nothing beats having brunch at home for a thoroughly pleasant time. I mean, it doesn't matter if I wake up late, or whether I'm dressed in my PJs, I still get to enjoy my meal in peace at the balcony on a lazy weekend.

Scrambled eggs brunch

Beef and vegetables stew

I've been busy. Well, I'm in a tired state majority of the time as I havn't been having enough sleep for quite a while.

The weather lately has been erratic, considering that Singapore is (or is it still?) a tropical country with a hot and humid climate - especially in the mid-year months where it should be summer. However, I feel that there has been more than the usual expected rainfall as compared to the past years. Global warming?

One of those weekends when it was raining, it so happened that I was making some beef and vegetables stew. Such perfect weather to enjoy the hot stew.

 Beef and vegetables stew

Arancini (Fried Italian risotto balls)

Remember previously when I had cooked mushroom risotto, I said that I had specially saved some leftovers? Yeps, these were the results.

Arancini are fried rice (risotto) balls coated in breadcrumbs. It is said to be of Sicilian origins and can be filled with a variety of fillings, the ones that I've made here are stuffed with loads of mushrooms, bacon and wrapped with brie cheese cubes.

 Arancini (Fried Italian risotto balls)

Eggs and tomatoes done two ways

Eggs and tomatoes for brunch are awesome. I had eggs and tomatoes done two ways over a weekend some time back and thoroughly enjoyed both breakfasts (yes, it was the same Saturday and Sunday back to back...so it was a truly an eggs overload weekend.)

Evan came over a couple months back when we made the Earl grey creme brulee, and we had a late homemade brunch that morning before we started our baking session. She brought homemade waffles and bacon, while I made us some baked eggs and tomatoes.

The waffles were really good with butter and real maple syrup. It makes me want to go out to get myself a waffle maker. I really love waffles...Anyone keen to sponsor me one? =D

Baked eggs and tomatoes

Chicken salad sandwiches

I had a craving for chicken salad sandwiches. Even though I've never actually had any chicken salad sandwich ever before. Yeah, weird, I know. But oh well, I set about to making some  and had it for lunch two work days in a row. :)

 Chicken salad sandwiches

Crabsticks rangoon on pastry shells

I had a potluck gathering with some good friends last week. We discussed menu ideas through Whatsapp (isn't technology awesome?) and I decided to bring some appetizers and a dessert. We've been through this quite a few times already, and since it was a small party of five, we've (learnt through past experience) to keep the portions small so that we wouldn't end up with too much leftovers.

Appetizers: Crabsticks rangoon on pastry shells

Bacon, corn and peppers salad with maple bacon dressing

I made this salad for a potluck Christmas picnic gathering two weeks back with my girlfriends. Salads are healthy. Salads are good. Salads are yummy. I shall try repeating that to myself to get myself to eat more salads.

Picnic salad

Chicken tikka masala and garlic butter naan

As a continuation to my determination to cook more, I decided to make chicken tikka masala and garlic butter naan. An ambitious feat as I rarely eat Indian food, and when I do, it's always when I'm dining out, I've never actually attempted to cook any sort of Indian food before.

Ingredients for making masala