pasta two-ways

A pack of beautiful multi-variety mushrooms at the greengrocer was calling out to me. The only ones I could recognise were the enoki mushrooms. But I still bought them on an impulse, eventhough I don't know what I was going to do with it.

stir-fry chicken & noodle with egg sauce

This stir-fry chicken is originally supposed to be served with rice. But, I modified it to my liking by serving it with noodle and adding the egg sauce, and voila! For those of you who has rightly said that I am way too much of a carnivore, this one is for you. There are more vegetables than meat in this dish, so it's super healthy.

charles inn dining room english style breakfast

The morning after our intimate civil ceremony, we had breakfast at the Charles Inn Dining Room. As a guest in the inn, we received the standard complimentary breakfast, which included bagels, cerals, etc. Every guests were also served a breakfast platter, which had yummy strawberry muesli yoghurt, cuts of cheeses, croissant & pain au chocolat, and smoked salmon with capers. All very yummy and got my taste buds going.

newbie kimchi pork

I was first introduced to kimchi when I was in China. There were so many Koreans studying in the university that quite a few restaurants nearby were Korean, plus the first few friends I made were Korean. So, it was inevitable for me to love the food. Kimchi is not something I liked straight away though, it takes a bit of getting used to. And, every kimchi is different, different restaurant will have different tasting kimchi. So, I may like this restaurant's kimchi, but I may not love another's.

One kimchi brand that I like is the Chongga kimchi. I think it's because it is the most popular kimchi brand, so they try not to make it too strong, to appeal to all taste buds. It sure works for me.

After almost a few months immersed in the whole kimchi culture, I made this recipe up using kimchi as the main ingredient. This recipe is not authentic Korean, so don't crucify me for it. I just love it for its simplicity.

red soup

For you non-asians, I know what you're thinking, what the heck is red soup (or sup merah)! It's actually a very common recipe in Chinese families. I'm guessing that it's made up during the war when the only meat they could find was the canned variety.


Every family has a different recipe, this is my family's recipe which I have modified a bit. My mother got this recipe from my grandmother, and now she has given it to me (plus her modifications).

I guess that's how family recipes are passed down, you might choose to add a little bit of this or that and adapt the recipe to make it your own. I do have to say that you cannot modify or remove the tomatoes as an ingredient. The tomatoes are the crucial ingredient which makes the soup red.

chop-chop fried noodles

Continuing on my speedy recipe series, today I will introduce you to my chop-chop fried noodles. What I sometimes do when I can`t be bothered cooking is buy a whole roast chicken from Coles. I eat the thighs & drumsticks with rice. But I hate eating the breast meat, so I usually let someone else eat it. More often than not, though, I ended up making it into my chop-chop fried noodles.

1. Wokka thin egg style noodle
2. Whole roast chicken
3. You choy
4. Chop-chop fried noodles

not-so-authentic-but-darn-good spaghetti bolognese

As the name suggests, this recipe is by no means authentic, but darn it, it's nothing short of great. I, like many other working persons, don't have the time to make my own pasta sauce (that's what I tell people, in fact I'm just lazy). I'm also not confident that if I do make my own that it'll be as good if I used store-bought pasta sauce. This way I know my spaghetti bolognese will always be delicious. My favourite pasta sauce is Paul Newman's bolognese sauce.

This recipe is good when I need to increase my vegetable intake but don't really feel like eating salad or stir-fried vegetables. You can say it's the cop-out way of eating vegetables. I finely grated carrots and chucked them into the sauce, I can't even tell when I eat it. When I made this last week, I totally forgot about the parmesan cheese, so I went to the nearby Italian deli and had parmesan freshly grated in front of my own eyes, and honestly it did make a difference to the dish. It's not that puke-smelling synthetic parmesan cheese off the shelf.

spaghetti marinara

The past 3 months I have seriously neglected my culinary pursuits because I have my dear mum to cook hearty delicious food for me everyday. It's just so much easier to eat without the dreaded washing up after the cooking. But, I have finally broken the cycle of laziness by cooking up my famous (in my family) spaghetti marinara.

I adore this dish for its freshness and lack of additives. I love the seafood sweetness of the fresh prawns, scallops and squids. It is accentuated by a slosh of my favourite white wine, this time it's Joose of Chardonnay from the Berry Farm in Margaret River. And the saltiness of the tomatoes finished this dish perfectly. Magnifico!

coq au riesling

After one crazily hectic day, I finally made it back to the house and got my hands dirty making this classic dish with a slight twist. Nigella (as in Lawson) said that her Coq Au Riesling is a twist on the classic Coq Au Vin. I was inspired to try out this dish while I was drooling profusely as I watched her show Nigella Express. Added to the fact, that she made it seems so easy on TV, which, honest-to-god, is completely correct. The hardest part of the whole process was the waiting around as I am one impatient person.

I had to sacrifice a bottle of wine from my precious wine reserve for this dish, but it's totally worth it. I bought this bottle from Pemberton in my last holiday trip, it's called Riesling Auslese from this vineyard called Bellarmine. I am no wine expert, but do pick your wine carefully for this dish as you can taste the essence of the wine in the broth. The riesling I used had a touch of mango and lime in it. 

Tips & tricks:

1. If you don't have any garlic oil, do what I did and pop in some finely minced/grated clove of garlic when you pop the chicken into the pan.
2. She specified oyster mushrooms, I used swiss brown mushroom and I think it tasted as good.
3. You have to trust her when she said, simmer it with a low heat for at least 50 minutes. It made the chicken oh-so-tender and your patience will be rewarded with that lovely pink colour.
4. She also said, if you have left-over double cream in your fridge, pop it into the pan at the last minute. I say buy a small tub anyway, and pop them in at the last minute, you won't regret it.
5. I bought some tagliatelle for this dish, but you can use any kind of pasta of your choice, really.
6. If you're eating for one, reserve a glassfull of the luscious wine to drink while eating your pasta. Bon Appétit.