I went to Changi Airport for dinner today. Well, its the last day of the holiday, and steph and I decided to give ourselves a break. We went Changi, well, because of the food, and he likes planes as well.

Go to changi all the way for food? We must be crazy right? But you see, the one and only Popeyes in Singapore is there. Not popeyes and the sailor man, but Popeyes Chicken and biscuit restaurant(fast food). Yup, they do have great stuff there, and I love it because of the famous biscuit which is actually buttermilk biscuit and I am crazy over it. Friends know that I love scones, in fact, there was a period whereby I ate it almost everyday and was still not sick of it. Well, the buttermilk biscuit is like scones in terms of looks and texture, but it is salty instead of sweet. Maple syrup is provided and the combination of salty and sweet is lethal indeed. And I love how crusty the biscuit is on the outside and so soft,moist and tender on the inside. And its served warm and fresh, right out of the oven.

But lets move on to the main course, which is as you have guessed- Chicken. Deep fried, delicious breaded cajun chicken. Very flavourful, very crispy skin and very yummy. Steph and I ordered the 3 piece chicken set meal which came with drinks and 3 side dishes plus 2 buttermilk biscuits. We chose Cajun fries, mashed potato and coleslaw for the sides and man were they good. The fries were dipped in a special cajun batter and cooked to a golden brown. No soggy fries there. It was a very hearty meal there and we ate to our hearts' content. For people who don't like chicken, they have fish combos as well..

After dinner, I spied this chocolate store at the airport and I headed straight for it. As usual, temptation abound. I bought two bars of chocolates which I can't find anywhere else in Singapore. I am sure most of you have seen Swiss Delice brand of chocolate in supermarkets- dark chocolate, milk chocolate with raisins etc...no big deal right, but get this, there was Irish coffee creation- Fine milk chocolate with Irish Coffee Truffle filling and Brownies creation-Tender milk chocolate with dark chocoalte filling,nibbed pecan nuts and biscuit granules. I didnt even know they existed. And they were delicious. The irish coffee one was bitter and gave a slight buzz after a few pieces. I loved the wickedly delicious truffle filling. The brownies one was really really good, beyond description and beyond imagination. Haha. I have a confession to make. Though dark chocolate is my preferred choice of chocolate. I have a weakness for chocolate with truffle fillings. There is just something about biting through a piece of chocolate and discovering the 'treasures' inside..

After such a great dinner and a even sweeter ending, I am so glad that I found the time to go to the gym today. Oh and by the way, both Popeyes and the chocolate shop(forgotten the name) are located at Terminal 1 of Changi Airport. So if you happen to be there, Popeyes is 'die die must try ah'...hahah. I think it sure beats KFC, chicken, colesaw and mashed potato and all, hands down. Added bonus? Buttermilk biscuit..hahah

Our dinner... 

Swiss delice creation-brownies...oh yeah, they have tiramisu as well...oooohh

Me and steph on the bus home, happy and satiated 

Miss Clarity Cafe at long last

After hearing so many good things about Miss Clarity Cafe, it has long been my desire to visit the place, and I finally got the chance to today. I have been so looking forward to visiting for quite some time, and I wasnt disappointed..

As soon as I walked into the place, I felt totally at home. The bright splashes of pink, yellow and green gave the place a liveliness and their were quite a number of avators on the wall that resembled something out of Happy family. The place simply oozes happiness and I simply love the quirkiness of the place. Its a great place to go chill out or when you are feeling down and in need of a chocolate fix..this is it.

I went with 2 other girls and we ordered lots of food. Imagine this, we ordered 3 sets which came with either salad or soup, main course, dessert and drink plus one more main course. And get this, each person only paid $11 for everything. Can you believe this? This is simply value for money, and you get good food as well. When I mean good, the price is taken into consideration as well. You know how when you go to some cafe and the price is cheap and the food served up looks unappetising and dingy. But here, the presentation of the food was great and you get the feeling that its done lovingly instead of shoddily. And now, enough talk, lets get on to the food..

First up was the salad which I liked cos there were a variety of colours in the salad which contained tomatoes, cabbage, purple cabbage, carrots shreds and even chickpeas and raisins which balanced the tangy dressing pretty nicely. The dressing was different from other salad dressings, not quite Italian, not quite thousand island and not vinigrette either, but whatever it was, it was good and made me feel quite healthy(before the unhealthy stuff). The chicken ballotine which is actually chicken stuffed with mushroom is very unique and quite worth a try, though I found it a tad bland. I liked the chicken Gordon bleu which is actually breaded chicken with ham and cheese and came with a nice spicy mayo like sauce called avioli, though they could have been more generous with the cheese...I found it deliciously crispy and tasty. My own main of ham and sausage baked rice was not bad as well, with tomato based sauce topped with generous chunks of sausage and ham slices and topped with mozarella cheese.

By the time we were finished with the main, our stomachs were in danger of bursting. However, there would always be room for desserts. First up, was the valronha chocolate marquise which on first bite tasted faintly bitter and sweet both at once. On further tasting, I deduced that it had a praline crunch base and digestive biscuit bits amidst the chocolate. Something different from the normal chocolate cakes and was to my liking. Next was warm and deliciously moist bread and butter pudding drenched generously with vanilla sauce. If every there was a comfort food, this is definitely one. Last but definitely not least was the chocolate mud ooze which we had to wait 7mins for as they actually baked it right before serving(another of my deduction), and topped with vanilla icecream...my favourite kind of dessert. A combination of hot and cold, chocolate and vanilla, orgasmic combination. Why ooze? Cos it is baked such that the inside of the cake is still soft and deliciously gooey and when you poke the cake with your spoon, the chocolate oozes out....yummmy indeed. My only complain? There is too little of it...hahah

Splendid pricing, yummy food, especially the dessert and great ambience. I would definitely be back

Miss Clarity Cafe
5 purvis street
Tel: 63394803
Open from 7am to 11pm
Closed on Sundays

Salad 

Chicken ballotine served with mushroom sauce and potato and carrot chunks 

Chicken Gordon bleu 

Valronha chocolate marquise...heaven in every bite 

Bread and pudding pudding with vanilla sauce..mmmm 

Mud ooze with vanilla icecream.. more please 

Candy empire and carl's junior

I had dinner at carl's junior last week, and before going for dinner, I had to pop by Candy's empire which is at Millenia walk. I cant get enough of Candy empire. Its like a huge superstore of temptations. The mind boggling selection of chocolates alone is enough to tempt, plus they have a whole lot of other decadent stuff like cookies, shortbreads, the whole range of tim tams and gourmet potato chips....Rarely do I set foot in there without spending at least $10. They have so many different brands of chocolates that can't be found in supermarkets and such. Have I said I love the candy empire? Here is one of my favourite indulgence
Fox's classic honeycomb biscuit covered in milk chocolate. Its really decadent. I love the honey comb biscuit with the layer of cream inside....mmmmmmAnd look, willy wonka's whipple scrumptious caramel delight is soooo simply delightful.But I prefer the other willy wonka sludge fudge..simply melt in the mouth wonderful.
This is one of my favourite brand of chocolate(not from candy empire). Simply cos since its in pastille form, its easy to remove and surprisingly can last for quite a few days without refrigeration. During exam period, I went through almost one tube a day...hahah.. Dark chocolate is the best. There is also the one with 70% cocoa content who likes their chocolate really bitter.
As for Carl's junior, I found it merely mediocre. The serving was huge,really huge, so I suggest that sharing a meal between 2 people if you don't want to walk out of the place feeling bloated and gluttony. To be fair, there was quite a huge selection of burgers to choose from. And the crisscut fries was a pleasant change from boring fries. However, the beef cheese fries looked pretty unappetising and the sauce made the fries turn soggy pretty though it tasted pretty goodThe beef patties in the burgers tasted somewhat like BurgerKing's, so for us who were expecting something out of this world, we were pretty disappointed. Go check out their website at http://www.carlsjr.com/home and you've gotta admit that the pictures made it look really droolicious. And check out the calories as well..almost a whopping 50g of fats per burger(depends on which one you order)... definitely not for the faint hearted. It was pretty crowded when we went, it being the new 'it' fast food eatery in town. But hell, fast food is still fast food, loaded with fats, hidden sugars and sodium, no matter how 'atas' it may sound, its still bad for the health if eaten in excess, so moderation is key.

3rd and finally successfuly attempt at muffins

Yup, this was to be my last and final attempy before I move on to do other stuff..and thankfully, it was the best out of the 3 attempts. I used the same basic recipe before, divided the batter into two batches, and added crushed malteser to one batter, and banana chunks and dark valronha chocolate to the other. And I filled my muffin pan right to the brim. The result?

Yup, beautifully shaped golden brown muffins at long last. I was so pleased with my efforts. This time round, I took care not to overmix the batter,lest it resulted in a tough muffin again. However, I think as a result of not mixing it thoroughly, the chocolate and banana chunks weren't evenly distributed, resulting in some very chocolatey muffins, and some rather plain ones. The texture of the muffin was beautifully moist and soft and the soft melted valronha chocolate made it just so delicious. One puzzling thing was that the bottom and side of the muffins were still a pale colour. I wonder what's wrong. Could it be the oven? Hmmm..

Anyway, here is the recipe for the muffin, for muffin lovers out there. Its a simple recipe, and relatively low fat too. I took it from the net and modified it:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tbsp salted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping( 1 cup crushed malteser/1 cup chocolate chips and 1 chopped banana)

Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius
Butter twelve 1/3-cup muffin cups.
Into a bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda.
Melt butter and in a small bowl whisk together with buttermilk,yoghurt, egg, and vanilla. Stir butter mixture (and topping) into flour mixture until just combined. (Do not overmix,important)
Divide batter among muffin cups and bake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

See the dark chocolate hidden inside?? Decadent stuff... 

muffins!!! 

Muffins- an indepth study

The title sounds so cheem doesnt it? Haha, I know you guys would probably be quite tired of hearing me go on and on about muffins.But I swear, one more attempt, and if its not successful, I would go back to doing what I do best. Cookies, that is. And come back again maybe 1 or 2 months later.

For now, I am simply obsessed with muffins. I had two muffins today.One for lunch and one for tea. After my lesson at 12, I had to rush off somewhere and only had time to grab a banana muffin from Coffee club xpress in school. Like a muffin connoisseur(roll eyes), I sniffed at it, pinched a bit and savoured it, and was totally focusing all my attention on it as I walked towards the bus terminal. I decided that I didnt like it much. Firstly, it was too cloyingly sweet. 2nd, it had a very dense texture. That didnt stop me from finishing everybit of it though. Its redeeming factors are the walnut bits found throughout the whole muffin and also that its soft and moist.

My second muffin was at Cinnabun Tree again. This time, I chose a apple cinnamon muffin as I wanted to try something new for inspiration, and they didnt have peanut butter which I wanted(only available on mons)..sigh.. I am afraid I didnt like it much either, as I am not a big fan of apples in pastries. But I have to say, I still think their muffins are the best in the business. The interior of the muffin was very moist, very soft,very tender and very flavourful with lots of raisins and some chunks of apple, topped with cinnamon sugar.

Even muffin talk for today...hahah

brown and dome shaped muffins 

Another attempt at baking muffin, and another not quite successful one. Using the same recipe as before, but instead of adding raisin and walnut , I decided to try banana chunks and chocolate chip. I cut the banana into tiny cubes and addded that to my batter. Deciding to be adventurous, I filled one third of the cup with batter, spooned a teaspoon of jam onto it, and covered it with more batter. I was very excited when I saw my muffins rising more than they did the previous time and once again, the kitchen was filled with the aroma of baking muffins, nothing quite beats that aroma.

Anyway, I guess the problem this time was that I wanted to achieve a more browned top for my muffin, thus I left it in the oven for too long, way past 25mins. True, it came out a nicer shade of golden brown than before, but it was also tougher than before, though still pretty moist. Sigh, when would I ever get it right. And a burning question is, why is the bottom and sides of the muffin still white though I omitted the paper cups this time. Guess I would continue trying until I get it right..hahh..next up would be malteser muffins, oatmeal raisin cinnamon and whatever I can think of..I wanted to make blueberry muffins, but I couldnt even find it in cold storage, except for canned blueberries in syrup, which is a huge nono..guess I would have to go carrfour soon, or Jason's supermarket.

I am so obsessed with getting the perfect muffin now that I have begun taking a closer look at muffins outside, and eating it as well. I think that Cinnabun Tree at Great world city has one of the best muffins around. Even the basic walnut muffin is fantastic, I wonder how they make it so nice and cripsy at the top and soft and moist inside. Even the sides and bottom of the muffin is nicely browned. It is also not too sweet and there is a generous amount of walnut in every bite. They also have muffins like dark valronha and raspberry, banana peanut butter, strawberry... The valronha one is delicious, packed full of chunks of dark chocolate and the sweetness is balanced nicely by the tanginess of the raspberry. And of course their cinnamon buns are my favourite. I am such a regular there that they should start giving me loyalty card or somthing..hahah..

Am I sick of muffin yet? Nope. My mission now is to create the perfect muffin. Meanwhile, its quite fun thinking up new ways of adding toppings to the basic muffin recipe..i am already thinking of peanut butter with caramelized banana slice...or how about streusel topped ones..the possibilities are endless...

Baking day 

Today was baking day. And for the first time, I decided to bake muffins. Its not too surprisingly after all, since I am not that big a fan of muffin, its just cake in a cup, and I am not that fond of sponge cakes. But today, I just wanted to try something new. And after searching through all the recipes online and looking at all the delectable pictures, I was all ready to get cracking. Its unbelievable how many different recipes there are just for a simple muffin and so many different variations. One can use sour cream, cream, milk, veg oil, buttermilk to make it. And since I wanted to make a relatively healthy but tasty muffin, I opted for buttermilk and plain yoghurt.

The process was quite a breeze and because I just bought a new measuring cup, I didnt have to use scales, which was far for convenient. The batter was nice and deliciously creamy, and those who know me know I have a history of eating batters before they are even done..hahah.. I divided the batter into half and made walnut raisin for one, and chocolate chip raisin for the other. I was so excited thoughout the baking process, waiting anxiously for them to become done.

25mins later...Nice and golden and relatively dome shaped muffin was ready. The aroma was enough to make me faint with joy. I ate it while it was still warm, with milk, of course. On the whole, I was pretty satisfied with it, for a first time. The muffin was moist and soft inside, which is the most important thing. But the top wasnt as crispy I would have liked them to be, as I was afraid it would be burnt if I left it in the oven for too long. And while it tasted good, it wasnt memorable, just a normal chocolate chip walnut muffin. Oh well, It would be better after a few more tries, after I play around with it..which i definitely will..

While I was waiting for the muffin to bake, i whipped up a batch of oatmeal cookies, using a new recipe yet again, which I got from a nestle cookbook from the library a long time ago, and copied it into my little recipe book. I halfed the recipe as I didnt want to make so much as I wasnt sure how it would turn out. It was a basic oatmeal recipe to which I halved the batter again, and added a pinch of cinnamon powder and raisins to one,making cinnamon and raisin cookies, and walnuts and chocolate chips to the other batter. The cookie turned out really different from my previous tries, and I was pretty disappointed with it. Firstly, it lacked the crunch and 'oomp' and it was crumbly and hollow and spreaded too much. I don't know if its the addition of milk or what. Hmm, I guess its what you can when you try a new recipe, the uncertainty, which is why I have always stuck to my old trusty recipe. But I actually rather liked the cinnamon raisin cookie, certainly a departure from the chocolate chip that I have always favoured, and the aroma wafting out from the oven was very tantalizing and had a homely feel to it.

And since I have quite a bit of buttermilk left, I am thinking of making more muffins soon, or pancakes for breakfast..Now,thats a thought..hah

I finally decided to start my very own food blog, after being inspired by the many food blogs around,which I have only just discovered recently, which is incredible, given me obsession with food. And since I am always blogging about food in my main blog anyway, I thought of devoting one blog to food and food alone..

I have discovered the love of eating since a pretty long time back and since then, I have always been on the lookout for good food. I realize that I can wax lyrical about food, something that most of my friends find amazing cos to them, food is just food, something you have to to survive. But to me, its more than that. Its a passion I guess.

I love baking as well, having discovered its joy when I was in JC2 when my very first batch of cookies turned out more like shortbread, having added an extra stick of butter to my dough. I daresay I have come a long way since than, baked alot more cookies and brownies and cheescakes, but have yet to venture into more adventurous stuff,which I probably will start soon.

So yeah, do keep a lookout for foodposting and recipes and other foodie ramblings as befits a glutton like me. Enjoy!