Rare Lunch date

This marks the beginning of the many makan sessions leading up to the CNY season. The hubby took me out for a rare lunch date today. The kids were all in school, he's free for a couple of hours, so why not... :P


We started off with a glass of red and a bread basket. First time having charcoal croissant with gold flecks.


Followed by Caesar salad topped with smoked salmon. Absolutely Ah-mazing!


My main course was lamb shank with garden vegetables and mint sauce. It was so deliciously tender, moist and just slide off the bone. Yum yumz...


Hubby had his usual beef steak with red wine jus.


Finished off with blueberry tart and chocolate ice cream.


And triple chocolate mousse with strawberry compote.


Plus a side of dark coffee.

It was a wonderful, relaxing lunch, with no kids running around and bugging us. A truly rare moment for me when I can appreciate the sight, smell and taste of the food in front of me, even managed to take pictures of the food when they still look pretty and presentable, have a proper adult conversation with the hubby without being interrupted every other second.

It was good.





Comments

Post a Comment

You might also like:

Taipei - Shopping at Wufenpu and eat street food at Raohe night market

Image
If you are looking for some crazy bargain shopping, head to Wufenpu. Wufenpu Commercial Area is a huge garment wholesale area. Shops after shops line the streets and the numerous small side streets here. They do mainly wholesale, but would be happy to do retail as well. There is an incredibly large selection of clothes, shoes, accessories for women, men and kids. Plenty of Korean and Japanese style clothes and accessories, sportswear and sports shoes, and undergarments too. If you love shopping, you can easily spend half the day here. Most shops are open from 2-3pm till late. For real bargains, spend time looking through the bargain racks and rummaging through the bags on the floors. Most items there were NT$100 (less than SG$5!) The clothes they put up on the walls and those without price tags are their newer collection and are not cheap. Some shops allow a little bargaining but probably around 10-20% only. When I was there, most...
Keep reading

Braised Chicken Pumpkin and Mushroom Chinese recipe

Image
Pumpkin is very versatile and can be cooked in many different ways. Whether it is roasted or stewed or stir-fried, it always tastes fantastic. On top of that, pumpkin is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. I love pumpkin and always stock up on them whenever I do my grocery shopping. Pumpkin is so rich tasting that I don't need to put all sorts of seasoning to make it flavoursome. A little soy sauce is all I need to bring out the lovely flavour of this dish. Braised Chicken Pumpkin and Mushroom Ingredients: 500g boneless chicken thighs - cut to bite-size pieces 500g pumpkin - cut to bite-size pieces 100g shitake mushrooms - quartered 3 cloves garlic - minced 2 shallots - minced salt and pepper 1 tbsp. light soy sauce spring onions Instructions: Heat cooking oil in a wok over medium-high heat, add garlic and shallot, fry till fragrant Toss in chicken, season with salt, pepper, and light soy sauce, fry till bro...
Keep reading

Kids Craft - Easy 5 Ang Pow Red Packets Lantern

Image
This is the easiest lantern we've ever made. The 2 boys managed to make it by themselves with no help at all. It only requires 5 ang pow packets. Fold the 4 corners so it forms a diamond. Staple each packet to the next at the top along the folded edge. Do all 5 and form a circle. Bend and puff the middle then staple the bottom part. Before you staple the last 2 ang pows together, put a ribbon/string in, which has been stapled to a piece of paper so it doesn't slide out. This is for hanging the lantern. Join the 2 corners of each ang pow and staple in the middle to form a curved top and bottom. Done and hung up in their room. This is the last lantern we are making this year. I think we've had quite enough. The rest of the lanterns are here: 1. CNY Ang pow lantern - lucky star 2. CNY Ang pow lantern - lucky eight 3. CNY Ang pow lantern - Chinese coin 4. CNY Ang pow lantern - wheels of fortune/ flower 5. CNY Ang pow lanter...
Keep reading

CNY Chinese New Year Ang Pow Craft Lucky Eight

Image
I enjoy doing art and craft with the kids. I guess it's me trying to connect with them in some ways. As they grow up, they are much more interested in their gadgets and books or Nerf guns and Lego and all those other boy stuff that I find we are spending less and less time with each other. Doing art is my rare moments with them when we can just sit down and work together and chat. Since we are doing Chinese New Year decorations, the boys have lots of questions about the Chinese traditions and superstitions. I have to admit I don't know most of the answers so Google has been very helpful here. As we were making the lucky number Eight wall decoration, the boys were asking me why the number eight and not any other number? 8 is considered the most auspicious number in Chinese culture. Number 8 is read as "ba" which sounds like "Fa" which means wealth and prosperity in Chinese. So the Chinese usually try to incorporate 8 whenever they can. The boy...
Keep reading

Ikan Bilis (dried anchovies) Stock recipe

Image
When I want a tasty soup but don't have the time to make chicken stock, I turn to this ikan bilis stock recipe. Unlike chicken stock that requires 1-2 hours of boiling, this stock only needs 30 minutes of boiling time. This is fantastic as a soup base for steamboat and other soup dishes, or to be added for cooking whenever stock is required. I got these tea filter bags from Daiso and they are great to put the ikan bilis in and discard after boiling. This saves me the hassle of removing all those black residue left behind by the ikan bilis. But if you don't have them, just pour the stock through a sieve after boiling. Ikan Bilis (dried anchovies) Stock Ingredients: 100g ikan bilis (dried anchovies) 1 inch ginger - bruised 2 litres water salt Instructions: Rinse ikan bilis then put them into tea filter bags (I used 4) Bring water to boil in a soup pot, add ikan bilis and ginger Simmer for 30 minutes Discard ikan bilis and ginger Add salt to...
Keep reading

Kids Craft - Folded Paper Drawings

Image
Following the fun the little brother had with his growing caterpillar  drawing, the 2 older brothers quickly made their own versions. This was their idea but I had to draw it as it was tricky to get the proportion just right. All is not what it seems in the sea... The rest were drawn by the 2 of them. Psyduck that turned into alien. Hidden family. And if I have to pick one FAVOURITE, it will have to be this one below!! Lol. 💙
Keep reading

CNY Chinese New Year Craft Ang Pow Lantern

Image
I made more CNY decorations over the weekend. There's something about creating something with my hands that makes life fun. And therapeutic! These are my ang pow wheels of fortune. My little one insists that they are flowers and not wheels. They do look like flowers from below. I made 3 of them as I happen to have 3 sets of these ang pow packets in different colours. Since we are learning about lucky/unlucky numbers , 3 is also considered a lucky number in Chinese as it sounds similar to "birth" (sheng) in Chinese. There are 3 important stages in a person's life: birth, marriage and death. Chinese culture stresses upon family and children so this number is seen in a positive light. These ang pow packets are horizontal so they are great folded in half with the pictures still visible. I used 10 ang pow packets for each lantern. Fold them in half. Put 2 ang pow packets together and staple them, on the top and the bottom, somewhere in the m...
Keep reading

CNY Chinese New Year Ang Pow Lucky Seven Star Lantern

Image
It's only the beginning of January, I'm still in the midst of taking down all my Christmas decorations, and yet here I am making Chinese New Year decorations already! The shops have already taken down their Christmas decorations and replaced them with Chinese New Year themes. They are starting to play typical CNY songs, and displaying all things red! It's crazy that Christmas had come and gone so quickly, and now everyone is getting ready for another big festive celebration. I have collected a large collection of ang pow packets over the years and I'm always excited to make CNY decorations every year. I don't follow the Chinese traditions much but I just like to decorate the house with red and gold and follow traditional themes like fortune, wealth, luck, happiness etc... I will get down to doing proper spring cleaning of the house too, but right now I just want to make some lanterns. Lol Today I'm going to show you my lucky seven lantern. I ...
Keep reading

Chinese New Year Craft Ang Pow Ball Lantern Tutorial

Image
This lantern requires a whopping 30 ang pows to make. I put off making this every time as it takes such a long time to make and my fingers would be sore after so much folding and stapling... But this lantern is just too big and pretty to pass up! My boys were like "It's so nice, Mum, can you make one for my class too..." 😏 The boys are encouraged to contribute some CNY decorations for their classes. But it's getting harder to get 30 ang pows of the same design each time. The shops nowadays are trying to be more hip and less conventional that I often get a pack of ang pows all in different colours/design. It's so annoying right! Like I can't use them to make lanterns and I can't even give them away as it's strange to give out ang pows in different colours, lest my nephews/nieces think they are all colour-coded and start comparing! (or maybe I'm just over-thinking here...) This lantern is simple enough to make. But please set aside...
Keep reading

Mak Nyonya Beef Rendang Sauce review recipe

Image
Hubby has an aunt who is an incredible cook. Every now and then she would invite us all to her house to have a meal where she would cook up a storm of classic Indonesian fare. Beef rendang is one of her specialties. She told me it required at least 14 different spices pounded in the mortar and pestle to make it! It definitely is not an everyday dish. Unfortunately I don't have the time nor the skill to make my own rendang spices from scratch. When my craving for some Indonesian food strikes, I check out our local supermarkets to try out the different sauces and spices available. Today I am using Mak Nyonya Beef Rendang sauce. This sauce gives an authentic rendang flavour, very rich and aromatic! You can use either beef or chicken, simply fry it with the sauce, add coconut milk and simmer. I opted to fry some garlic, shallot and chilli first to make it even more fragrant but this step is optional. This rendang sauce is very easy to make and bursting with flavour...
Keep reading