Mushroom & onion omelette with grilled tomato and toast

Today’s a public holiday. Hubby and I had the luxury of waking up later than usual. Then we made breakfast together!

Most of the time, hubby would be reading the papers while I fix breakfast. Yesterday, he suggested making his specialty again. This time, instead of cheese, we’d make a mushroom & onion omelette.

While Rick cooked the omelette, I grilled the tomatoes and toast. What a hearty vegetarian breakfast this was!

To all my Muslim friends and readers: Selamat Hari Raya Aidil-Fitri! To everyone, here’s wishing you a happy long weekend!

Luscious tomato + apple baked ham + herb focaccia = Simple but very nice sandwich!

What a wholesome start to a sunny weekend! This delicious breakfast sandwich was assembled in a flash. Here’s what I did:

1. Split focaccia into halves. Toast lightly on both sides using a non-stick frying pan (use a griddle if you want grill marks).
2. While waiting, slice tomato. If necessary, cut ham into appropriate size.
3. Spread butter on inner sides of focaccia. Layer on ham and tomato.
4. Enjoy with hot coffee or tea!

Clockwise from left: Big pork bun (S$1.50), mini char siew bao (S$0.70 each), siew mai (S$0.60 each)

Yesterday, I was waiting for SBS bus service 16 in Joo Chiat Road when I saw D’Bun just behind the bus-stop. Ah, let’s buy some 包 (bao / Chinese steamed bun) for hubby’s breakfast, I thought to myself. They have the usual selection of handmade bao and dimsum, available for takeaway only.

Beginning with the siew mai, the meat was smooth and bouncy, but not particularly tasty. Not bad, but neither was it spectacular.

Cross-section of big bao

Hubby and I share-shared the big bao. The interior had a decent amount of meat and egg. The pork filling was tasty, but not juicy enough.

Cross-section of char siew bao

No such issue with the char siew bao. The filling was most luscious! The char siew was deliciously sweet and sticky, with a faint fragrance of oyster sauce.

Because this was made into a mini-sized bun, the dough was thin, sufficiently soft and delicate. In terms of satisfaction, the char siew bao beats the big bao, hands down!

Nearly as small as siew mai, these dainty char siew bao are rather pricey, considering they’re half the size of a regular-sized one. But they’d be great for a tea party or dimsum spread where you don’t want to fill up so quickly or you wanna reserve tummy space for other goodies.

D’Bun
358 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427603
Tel: +65 6345 8220
URL: www.dbun.com.sg

Open daily: 8am – 10pm

Of course not. First of all, dear monster-in-law mother-in-law would have killed me! Secondly… Hmm ok, there’s no secondly, heh!

A box of yummy Teochew kueh awaits!

It’s just that I got lazy. So breakfast was mostly DIY sliced bread with peanut butter/jam/butter/Nutella. Nothing exciting to share.

But here’s finally something worthy of sharing. I’ve found a Teochew kueh that tastes close to what my grandma used to make.

Glutinous rice "png" kueh, S$0.90

For png kueh, besides glutinous rice, other ingredients like dried shrimp, Chinese mushroom, and peanut are typically added for aroma and flavor.

Though not as chockful of ingredients like our family’s homemade version, Yong’s png kueh was sufficiently aromatic and flavorful (sans mushroom).

Chinese chives "gu chai" kueh, S$0.90

Compared to Kuehs And Snacks, Yong’s gu chai kueh is so much bigger! The skin is thicker, but still acceptable because of appropriate stuffing-to-skin ratio.

Also, this would be excellent for pan-frying, cos the skin won’t easily break and you could fry it till a thick, crisp crust develops.

Jicama/turnip "soon" kueh, S$0.80

Finally, a soon kueh without that mushy, translucent skin! But the filling wasn’t very impressive. Not much flavor, and turnip was shredded a bit too fine for my liking.

Cabbage kueh, S$0.80

Now this is something that we hardly see! Even at home, I vaguely remember my grandma or mom making cabbage kueh just once.

I actually enjoyed this more than the soon kueh. The cabbage was sweet, juicy, and full of bite! They were very generous with the stuffing too.

Do try this if you haven’t before. It’s rare to find a Teochew kueh stall that sells cabbage kueh.

Conclusion: Would definitely patronize Yong’s Teochew Kueh again. The skin is on the thick side, but has a rustic, home-made quality. Very reasonably priced for hearty size and generous filling.

We found the kueh to be tasty enough without sweet sauce or chilli. Also, they were so big that just two pieces were filling enough (that explains why the loot was divided into two days worth of breakfast – #027 & #028).

Yong’s Teochew Kueh 榮潮州粿
150 East Coast Road
Singapore 428837
Tel: 65-6345  6798

Open daily: 7am till sold out (best to go before 5pm, or call to order)

Head branch:
1022 Upper Serangoon Road
Singapore 534760
Order hotline: 65-6287 4328

Today’s breakfast received a BIG thumbs-up from hubby!

The secret to a delicious otah sandwich is to use good quality ingredients.

1. Start with premium bread. Here, I used Queen Bread (S$4.00 per loaf) from Sun Moulin Bakery at B1 of Isetan Scotts.
2. Get good otah. These were from Lee Wee & Brothers at B1 of TANGS Orchard. I prefer banana leaf otah (S$1.10 each) cos it’s more shiok!
3. Instead of butter, I smeared the bread with mayo and added romaine lettuce for a refreshing touch.
4. Trim off the crust, slice sandwich in half, and voila! A yummy otah sandwich is ready! So easy to make, right?

Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery

Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery takes up two stalls at Serangoon Garden Food Centre. They bake their breads and cakes on the premises. Business is very good, with long queues during lunchtime. Their goods are super fresh since turnover is high.

Old-school buns and cake

I really miss this kind of old-school bread and cake. They’re so refreshingly unpretentious. No fanciful names like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon”. And what’s “Mount Fuji Swirl”? Oh, it’s kaya bun? Say lah! Why waste our time playing “Guess What’s Inside The Bun?”

Hamburger bun (luncheon meat), S$0.70 each

There were so many of my childhood favorites here: butter & sugar, cheese, coconut, red bean, kaya, hot dog. In the end, I picked two most favorites — luncheon meat and curry (potato).

All the buns are made using the same sweet and airy dough. The “hamburger” comes with a surprisingly thick slab of luncheon meat. And the curry was generously stuffed with curried potato. Hubby and I each had two buns for the price of one BreadTalk bun! Now that’s what I call priceless!

Walnut cake, S$0.80 per slice

I was expecting the walnut cake to be buttery. But it turned out to be more chiffon-like instead. The cake was lightly flavored with coffee, and was richly studded with walnut, chocolate rice, and sesame seeds for extra crunch. The texture was light, yet very nutty. Tastes like what Mom would bake, if Mom could bake.

How I wish there could be more old-school bakeries like Serangoon Garden Bakery. Sadly, many of them (those in HDB estates) are morphing into BreadTalk copycats. The buns look similar, but taste like inferior imitations. Sigh. Instead going for a half-hearted attempt at modernization, why can’t they just stick to doing what they did best?

Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery
49A Serangoon Garden Way
#01-45/46 Serangoon Market & Food Centre
Singapore 555945

Tue to Sun: 6.30am – 5pm (earlier if sold out)
Closed on Mondays

Chocolate brioche (S$1.50) & banana walnut muffin (S$2.60)

I love Cedele‘s breads and pastries! But hubby isn’t as impressed. Oh well. They’re a bit pricey, but in terms of quality, you do get what you pay for.

Too bad my favorite orange carrot muffin was unavailable, so settled for No. 2 favorite. Buttery and flakey, the brioche was generously studded with choc chips. Both taste better when slightly warmed.

Today’s the last day to win Willie Harcourt-Cooze’s cookbook. Just submit a question you’d ask Willie!

Korean spring onion pancake with prawn

I made Korean pancake this morning as I had to use up some fresh prawn. The traditional version has other seafood items like oyster and squid, but for a simplified version, this was good enough.

Korean pancake is really easy to make at home. Just buy the premix, and add water! I always have a pack on standby in the fridge. If you go to a Korean restaurant, they charge around S$15 for seafood pancake. That’s why I never order it. I can make it at home!

It’s also great when there are ingredients you need to use up. Any kind of seafood is suitable, and veggies like onion, zucchini, bell pepper, Chinese chives, and carrot are good too. Add finely chopped Chinese cabbage kimchi, and you’ve got kimchi pancake!

Spruce

Haven’t been posting hubby’s breakfast for a while. Of course he still eats brekkie daily, but nothing new or interesting to post.

Today’s breakfast was definitely on the atas upscale end. Having heard that Spruce is always fully booked on weekends, I made a reservation 5 days in advance for Sunday breakfast. Instructions from the other end of the phone were firm. “Please be informed that we’ll only hold your table for 15 minutes, and no changes will be allowed on that day (i.e. changes in seating arrangements or number of people).”

British Brekkie, S$17.00++

Rick stuck to his favorite breakfast choice — the British Brekkie, consisting of eggs (poached, scrambled, or sunny-side up), Cumberland sausage, baked beans, bacon, roasted mushroom, roasted tomato, and toast.

The food arrived on a platter gigantic plate. Portions were certainly hearty. Look at that foot-long sausage! I tried a bite, and it was delightfully tender, juicy, and herby. The scrambled egg was velvety smooth, while the two large slabs of toasted focaccia were addictively chewy and fluffy.

While mostly satisfied, hubby thought the sausage was too greasy, and the mushrooms too bland. He actually preferred my home-cooked English breakfast!

Eggs Benny on Corn Waffle with Leg Bacon, S$12.00++

As for me, I was struggling to finish my Eggs Benny. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious! I especially liked the waffle with corn kernels. Loved the perfectly poached eggs too.

Much as I enjoyed it, this dish was a little too rich for me. Two eggs+hollandaise sauce (emulsion of egg yolk & butter!)+bacon+thick waffle–can you imagine trying to digest all that? I was so full I skipped lunch today!

Come to think of it, it’s actually great value, yeah?

We also had an excellent long black (S$5.00++). They serve Giancarlo, a premium coffee from Australia.

The al fresco section

We had opted for indoor seating, but the outdoor area looked comfortably breezy, with lush greenery providing much shade from the sun. As it’s the only F&B outlet in Phoenix Park, with no other retail outlets in the area, Spruce is much more tranquil than the Dempsey area. It’s definitely a great place to chill.

Spruce
320 Tanglin Road
Phoenix Park
Singapore 247980
Tel: (65) 6836 5528
URL: www.spruce.com.sg

Cheese omelette cooked by hubby = priceless.

What a memorable breakfast this was. If you know how rare it is for Rick to cook, you’ll understand why I’m making such a big deal over a simple egg dish.

Cheesy food porn.

In the eight years that we’ve been married, this is the third time (not exaggerating!) I’ve seen Rick wield a frying spatula. He says he occasionally cooked during his college days in Manchester. After returning home, his mom and subsequently, his wife (that’s me!) took care of all his meals.

Of course, he didn’t say it, but I know he’d rather be spending time in front of his PC than the stove.

I was a little apprehensive the first time he let me try his signature cheese omelette. It might be a simple dish, but deceptively tricky to execute. Get it wrong, and it could become an icky mess. Luckily, it was a lot better than I expected. Phew!

This morning, Rick gallantly offered to make his signature dish for brekkie. At first, watching him wield the frying spatula tentatively was somewhat amusing, but the look on his face—intense concentration and a quiet determination to make the perfect omelette—was unexpectedly touching.

The first piece was a bit mangled, cos he bungled during flipping. You need more practice, honey! The second attempt (above pic) turned out gorgeously. The egg was properly cooked through yet not overdone, while the cheese was sexily oozy.

I fried some hashbrowns and chicken franks to complete the meal.

What a lovely start to a beautiful Sunday.