Cedele @ Wheelock


Nigel Ate : 3.75/5
Who says healthy food is yucky food?

In this age where many have put health above all, more and more Singaporeans are willing to shell out for wholesome meals. This change in diet is good not only because it means we're getting our daily nutrients without supplements, it has also brought about the opening and sustaining of more eateries offering wholesome foods such as Cedele.  

Lunch at Cedele was a delight with such tasty yet guiltless choices. One advice I would give, while you're dining here, is to not over-order especially when it's your first time as the portions are pretty big and hearty. 

I started off with a Moroccan Spiced Carrot soup which was a lot bigger than I've expected since it was an add-on to my main course, supposedly to a small soup. Slightly viscous and creamy, the Moroccan spices were very evidently present, maybe a little overwhelming. 

Given quite an extensive menu, my friend and I had a hard time deciding our main courses. I chose Paprika Curry Chicken while he ordered Red Seafood pasta in the end. 
Nigel Ate : 4.25/5
Slightly spicy, full bodied and satisfying, this curry was so tasty even without the addition of coconut milk; It will satiate your curry cravings. The pieces of chicken were also cooked to tender goodness. 
Nigel Ate : 4/5
I had a little taste of my friend's pasta too and it was delicious too with freshly made tomato sauce, pasta cooked al dente and generous amount of ingredients; Such a simple, gold old bowl of hearty pasta. 

Given the many choices at Cedele, and I've only tried 2, I'll be back for their all-day breakfast or other main courses soon! 

So tell me, what's your favorite dish over at Cedele that is a must-try?

Cedele @ Wheelock Place
501 Orchard Road
#03-14 Wheelock Place
Singapore 238880

Tel: +65 6732 8520
Hours: Mon - Sun/Public Holidays: 10.00am to 10.00pm 
Web: http://www.cedeledepot.com

Obolo @ 112 Katong : Collection Patisserie 2012/2013


Fans of Obolo, lovers of cheesecakes and macarons, rejoice! Chef Mac and his team had spent 8 painstakingly months to come up with Obolo collection 2012/2013, launching on 10 or 11 August, next month. 
Firstly, before diving into the lovely creations, let's talk about their creator - Chef Mac Woo. A friendly and soft spoken man, I could sense his passion for what he's doing through his willingness to share not just about his creations but also on general baking tips and any questions that we threw at him.  He's who takes constructive feedback seriously and openly, happy to believe that there's always room for improvements so as to adapt to his clientele's tastebuds.  I enjoyed chatting with him and knowing him better made me appreciate the desserts even more. 
Aged Rum Vanille, Orange Cognac, Chocolate Whisky, Mocha Kahlua (From front to back, anti-clockwise)
Coming back to the desserts, let's start off with the macaroons. This was my first time trying macaroons and apparently obolo's macaroons were something to rave about. In collection 2012/2013, Chef Mac had devised Singapore's first ever alcoholic macarons - 4 different macarons with 4 different percentage of choclate paired with 4 different kinds of spirits (excluding the current Champagne flavour that's already been made available).  Chef Mac shared that any chocolate above 55%, if mixing with alcohol, would overwhelm the alcohol so all the macarons were filled with chocolate below 55%. Fans of Pierre Hermes would also be delighted to know that Chef Mac takes to his style of filling his macarons with a thick filling rather than laudree's style of a thin filling. 

The Aged Rum Vanille (Nigel Ate : 3.75/5) - Swiss white chocolate ganache infused with aged dark rum & Tahitian vanilla beans. This was a delight but we felt that it could do with a stronger rum flavor. 

Orange Cognac (Nigel Ate : 4.5/5) - 41% milk chocolate infused with cognac and Valencia orange. My favourite of the lot and as Mac says 'Some things you don't have try too hard to pair up, it's natural.' This was well received round the table as the orange compliments the chocolate and cognac very well. Lovers of orange dark chocolate, go for this. 

Mocha Kahlua (Nigel Ate : 4.25/5) - 46% semi-sweet chocolate ganache infused with Kahlua liqueur & Arabic espresso beans. This is my 2nd choice if I had to pick. Coffee and chocolate are another duo that go hand in hand, lifting up the chocolate and giving it another dimensional, the coffee doesn't seek to steal the limelight away from chocolate.

Chocolate Whisky (Nigel Ate : 4/5) - 46% semi-sweet chocolate ganache infused with aged scotch whisky. Purists would still grumble, but this was as chocolatey a macron can get in this new collection. Lovely chocolate flavor with the perfume of whisky.
Now turning our attention to the cakes, we have 4 different kinds of cakes to pair with the macarons : Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake, Carachoc, Nutella Cheesecake and Apple Crumble Cheesecake. 
(Nigel Ate : 4.5/5)
Starting with the Apple Crumble Cheesecake, it was not as heavy as some cheesecakes tend be and the layer of granny smith apples was delectable, paired with the crumbles, this cake was mouthwatering. I think I'm in love. 
(Nigel Ate : 2.5/5)
The Nutella Cheesecake was, sadly, disappointing as my tastebuds scouted around to find the slightly hint of Nutella but returned empty handed. More Nutella to be added please! 
(Nigel Ate : 3.25/5)
The Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake, I felt, is in a little dilemma, the layer of raspberry jam topping the cheesecake didn't blend into the cheesecake well and the seeds of the raspberries in the jam annoyed me.  I would suggest filling a layer of raspberry jam in the middle of the cake as well and sieving it to remove the seeds. Nonetheless, the cheesecake would have tasted good as an original flavor cheesecake.
(Nigel Ate : 4/5)
The Carachoc presented many layers of flavours which I really enjoyed; this chocolate was no simple one, it has different layers of dark chocolate genoise, caramel chocolate mousse, salted caramel bavarois, 56% bittersweet chocolate mousse studded with Fleur de Sel and a crunchy praline feuilletine bottom. Imagine the amount of work that has gone into this single cake alone! 

That's all for Obolo's collection 2012/2013. I hope you guys are as excited for the official launch as I am, do try the Apple Crumble Cheesecake and Orange Cognac, you won't be disappointed!

Many thanks to Obolo for the invite and Chef Mac for being a great host!

Obolo
112 East Coast Road
#B1-11/29
112 Katong
Singapore 428802

Contact : 6636 1073
Opens from : 10am – 10pm daily

Eng Kee Bak Kut Teh : Pig Trotters A Must Try!


Nigel Ate : 2.5/5
What better food to have on a cold, rainy day than a bowl of hot, peppery bah kut teh? I've been wanting to try out this particular store for awhile now and opportunity came knocking recently. 

It has been well recommended by many and, reading up the reviews, I noted that the braised pig trotter was something not to be missed as well. So we ordered a bowl of pork ribs and a bowl of pig trotters to be shared between my mom and I. I'm not sure if they do count by per pax, but the portions came just right.

After tasting the supposedly star of the show, I was utter disappointed. The soup was pretty good with a balanced pepper and herbal taste but the pork ribs were tough and very evidently overcooked. 
Nigel Ate : 4.5/5
I wasn't giving up hope yet; I had to try the pig trotters that were fragrant and looked wonderfully braised in the dark soy sauce. It certainly didn't let us down. Stealing the limelight, it was wonderfully and well braised, the pig trotters were surprisingly meaty and all I could to do at that moment was to savor my lunch as the skies remained open.

Eng Kee Bak Kut Teh

Blk 341 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 
#01-04 Teck Ghee Court Market & Food Centre 
Singapore

Opening Hours
Tue–Sun: 8am – 3pm
(Closed on Mon)

Marukin Ramen @ Scotts Square


The newest additional to Scotts Square, Tokyo’s famous ramen chain-restaurant Marukin Ramen, recently opened its flagship store in Singapore. Ah, another competitor in the blooming ramen market in Singapore you might comment, yes, but we welcome Marukin Ramen as it serves up its famed slow cooked chicken broth instead of the slow cooked pork broth that most of us are familiar with.

Shortly after the dishes were dished up, we were greeted with an array of appetizers. 
Nigel Ate : 3.75/5
My favorite amongst all was the  Hiyayakko, chilled tofu with chilli soy sauce, it was pretty firm and went well with the pool of chilli soy sauce on the bottom. 
Nigel Ate : 3.5/5
This was my first time trying a chicken gyoza and it was surprisingly good. I would have liked it better if the skin was thinner and crisper.
Nigel Ate : 3/5
The Karaage, Japanese fried chicken, was crispy and chunky however I found it a little too greasy. 

Moving on to the main dishes, we tried a variety of ramen that night. Do note that because it was a tasting session, all the ramen were served in tasting portions.
Nigel Ate : 3/5
Tsukemen, the cold dipping ramen is one of their speciality here, trying it for the first time, unfortunately it did not appeal to me since I'm more of a hot soup and noodles in the same bowl kind of person. 
Nigel Ate : 3.75/5
The Shoyu ISSAI-GASSAI featured all the house specials in one bowl - hickey charsu, shrimp wanton, chicken wing, chicken meat ball and more. Delicious and filling, great if you want to have a taste of everything. 
Nigel Ate : 3.5/5
Shio Wakame & Corn Ramen would appeal to those who love their veggies. A simple bowl of ramen with corn, mushrooms and seaweed, it was light on the palate yet still pack full of flavors from the corn, seaweed, mushrooms and the chicken broth. It also featured the ultrathin ramen noodles of Marukin Ramen which was very similar, in terms of appearance and taste, to our mee sua.

The Spicy Negi Negi Miso Ramen was yet another pleasant surprise for most of us. Featuring the obedient ingredient of the day.. Spring onions. Yes this was a bowl of ramen, spicy broth, mushrooms and a mountain of spring onions (and a little topping of Japanese leek! I discovered that night that Japanese actually would pay to eat this because they love spring onions so much. I, on the other hand, would be unlikely to pay for this because I found the taste of spring onions too overwhelming and spicy even in my tasting portion. I cannot imagine how it must taste like in the actual size! 

To end off this post, there's a special promotion for Nigel Eats readers. All you have to do is say "Marukin Ramen! OISHII!" when they order a main and they get a FREE side of the Deep Fried Vegetables in Dashi Broth! *Valid for the month of August only

Great thanks to Ashley from Brand Elixir for being a great host and Marukin Ramen for the delicious dinner.

Marukin Ramen (Scotts Square)

6 Scotts Road 

#B1-11/12 Scotts Square
Singapore (Orchard MRT) 

Tel: +65 6636 3468

Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm Daily

Trattoria L'Operetta

Warm and homely, this restaurant exudes a very strong Italian scent from its wood fire pizza oven the moment you enter to its decor and the smell of pizza and pasta. Adding to the food scene along tanjong katong road is Trattoria L'Operetta, a relatively small but homely Italian restaurant. 

Don't expect candlelight ambiance when you come here, but look forward to great meal and time of sharing with your friends or family. 
I had the opportunity of tasting their Margherita pizza which came looking pretty impressive - slightly charred and a little bubbly - having freshly baked in their wood fire pizza oven. You'll love the pizzas here if you are looking for a thin yet slightly chewy pizza crust. Simple yet flavorful, I love the way the cheese pulls.
The Fettucine Bolognese was cooked al dente while the tomato sauce was not overpowering. I found the beef chunks a little dry though.
We ended the dinner on a sweet note with a dessert platter consisting of Torta Al Cioccolato, Baba Al Limoncello, Tiramisu Al Caffe and Cannoli Siciliani. The chocolate tart's filling was rich but the tart shell was disappointing, while I savoured the classic Neapolitan cake dipped in lemon liqueur. On the other hand, I felt the cannoli was nothing to rave about while the tiramisu was tasty yet a little too wet for my liking.

I had an enjoyable dinner that night, having met the funniest restaurant manager to date too haha.

Thanks to Haren from streetdirectory for the invite!
Trattoria L’Operetta
244 Tanjong Katong Rd Singapore 437032
Tel:6440-9322      

Operating Hours: *Closed on Tuesdays

Lunch:  Mon, Wed-Sun 11:30pm-3:00pm
(2:30pm last order)

Dinner: Mon, Wed-Sun
5:30pm-10:30pm
(10:00pm last order)

Sundays-5:30pm-10:00
(9:30pm last order)

http://www.streetdirectory.
com/trattorialoperetta/

'Never Too Busy To Cook' Workshop Recipes (Part II)

Blueberry Cheese Cake

Ingredients
120g Oreos (remove cream) or sweet crackers (about 30 pieces of them, if you consider 1 oreo cookie to have 2 sweet crackers)
50g butter (melt on Medium power for 40s)
500g cream cheese
90g castor sugar
2 eggs
200 sour cream
2 tbsp cornflour
1/2 can blueberry pie filling (300g)
20cm cake tin (recommended to have a removable bottom or a springform pan will work fine too)

Method
1. Place Oreos in a Panasonic mixer grinder, slowly bled till fine.
2. Partially add in the melted butter, mix well. Pour into a lined cake tin and level with a spoon. Refrigerate.
3. Beat cream cheese and sugar with a cake mixer, till light and fluffy.
4. Add in 1 egg at a time, continue to beat till smooth.
5. Add in cornflour and sour cream.
6. Pour batter into cake tin.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for about 50 mins. Add 1 min steam shot after baking for 25mins, by pressing the steam pad.
8. When ready, leave to cool in cake tin. Do not invert the cake.
9. Decorate cake with blueberry pie fillings.
10. Best served chilled.

*Note : Recommended to bake in Panasonic inverter steam microwave oven : Model NN-SV30 & blended in Panasonic mixer grinder MX-AC400

Fruity Smoothie With Sour Plum

Ingredients
300g strawberry
300g mango
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
150g non-fat yoghurt
200 ml low-fat high calcium milk
1 tbsp preserved seedless sour plum, minced (optional)
200g ice cubes

Method
1. Place strawberries, mango, lemon juice, honey and milk in a Panasonic mixer grinder.
2. Blend till smooth.
3. Add yoghurt, sour plum and ice, continue to blend.
4. Serve immediately.

*Note : Recommended to blended in Panasonic mixer grinder MX-AC400

'Never Too Busy To Cook' Workshop Recipes (Part I)


Here are the recipes if you have been waiting for them! I'll be posting them in 2 parts, so stay tuned if you want the recipes for the smoothie and cheesecake. (it'll worth the wait I assure you!)

Grill Fish Fillet With Vegetables

Ingredients

300g fish fillet (wash, pat dry, cut into 2 pieces)
120g shitake mushroom (sliced)
120g colour capsicum (sliced)
50g onion large (sliced)
60g mozzarella cheese (shredded)
Paprika 

Black pepper and salt, to taste
Mixture A
40g mozerella cheese (shredded)
2 1/2 tsp mayonnaise
1 tsp teriyaki sauce
1 tsp garlic minced
Mixture B
1 tsp garlic (minced)
2 tsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
A few oregano leaves

Pinch of black pepper and salt
Method
1. Marinate fillet with pepper, salt and Mixture A. 
Leave aside for about 15 minutes. 
2. Mix mushroom, capsicum and onion with Mixture B. Leave aside.
3. Place fillet with skin part on grill tray on half of the grill tray, n
ext place the mushroom mixture on the other half of the tray.
5. Sprinkle cheese and paprika on top of fillet and mushroom.
6. Set double grill for 15 min.



*Note : Recommended to be cooked in Panasonic Inverter Steam Microwave over Model NN-SV30
Savoury Organic Energy Rice

Ingredients

410g Mekhala organic energy rice (3 cups, soaked in 3 ¾ cups water for 2-3 hrs)
200g chicken breast (pat dry, cut into cubes)
100g shitake mushroom
100g carrot (shredded)
20g ginger (sliced)
50g shallot (sliced)
2 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 stalk Chinese parsley (for garnishing)

Sauce A
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp sugar
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp rice wine (or cooking wine/Hua Diao Jiu)

Method

1. Marinate chicken breast with the sauce A for 1 hour.
2. Cook shallots with olive oil on high power for 4-5 minutes, stir occasionally.
3. Place soaked rice and water, chicken breast, mushroom, carrot, ginger and 1 tbsp shallot oil in rice cooker.
4. Set to rice mode and press start. (Stir after 1/2 hour)
5. When ready, let stand for about 10 minutes.
6. Fluff rice and garnish with golden brown shallot and Chinese parsley. 



*Note : Recommended to cook in Panasonic rice cooker mdel SR-MG182

'Never Too Busy To Cook' : Singapore Food Trail

There's our candid and courageous hosts for the day - Daniel from Daniel's Food Diary and Maureen from Miss Tam Chiak.

It was fulfilling and fruitful Saturday afternoon spent as bloggers and non-bloggers alike gathered at the Singapore Food Trail to savour a spread of local flavours for lunch before sitting back and enjoying a cooking demonstration by our 2 famous local food bloggers.

Shall we start with lunch?
Lunch was kindly sponsored by the Singapore Food Trail and it was a feast I assure you. Lunch commenced with this plate of rojak from Lagoon Kampong Rojak. Every piece of ingredient was well coated in the slightly viscous prawn paste and peanut sauce before finishing off with more chopped peanuts on top. It was addictive, enough said. Fear not if you dislike the prawn paste taste, it doesn't overwhelm the dish here; It only serves to lift the sauce up to a better dimension.
 This plate of ngoh hiang (which translates to five spice meat roll) is from Whampoa Ngoh Hiang Prawn Cracker. It was decent with an assortment of items such as fish balls, prawn crackers, five spice meat rolls and tau kwa. 
This plate of Hokkien Mee a.k.a fried prawn noodles should be familiar with most of us and needs no further introduction. Coming from Newton Lim Kee Hokkien Mee, I would say it's better tasting than most hokkien mee as it's rather watery and I like my hokkien mee that way, but nothing comes close to beating my favourite hokkien mee.
This bowl of pork ribs from Sin Ming Road Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh was peppery and garlicky but not overpoweringly so. The pork ribs were tender and came off the bone rather easily; I enjoyed this.
Who likes BBQ stingray? -raises hand- This plate of BBQ stingray is from Boon Tat Street BBQ seafood, well grilled yet somehow I felt the sambal was still lacking in flavour somewhat.
I didn't try this plate of fried Oyster Omelette because I don't really like oysters. Yup, each to their own preference. But I can tell you that it looks wonderfully crisp to me, seems like a job well done.
With our bellies filled, we proceeded on to the next segment of the programme : cooking demonstration! Daniel and Maureen worked hard to keep us entertained while sharing a few simple to whip up recipes with us. Since this event was partly sponsored by panasonic, we got to see some of their products on the cooking/baking side. Maureen used a mircowave to fry up this small bowl of healthy fried shallots, pretty amazing! The fried shallots were really fragrant and healthy as olive oil used and it was meant to be used in our rice recipe but unfortunately it slipped off Maureen's mitts after going round the table to let us have a look.
Here's the finished product of our rice dish. Very healthy and tasty indeed, with chicken pieces, mushrooms and minimal amount of oil used, all done in a rice cooker!
Here's another of our main courses, grilled salmon fillets with vegetables. Doesn't that little browning on the melted cheese topping make everything look so good? No doubts, it taste as good as it looks!

Besides the main courses, we had a strawberry and mango smoothie to quench our thirst too. Healthy yet tasty, however the smoothie was agreed to be lacking a little of the mango flavour.
Last but never the least, there's always room for desserts right? Right! This was blueberry cheesecake and I loved this the most. With its oreo cookie base, it tasted very professional and de-li-cious!

That marked an end to our wonderful day spent with Daniel, Maureen and the omy team. I will be sharing the recipes for the three dishes that were demonstrated in the next post so do keep a look out for it! I would also like to applaud Daniel and Maureen for their time and effort even though there were some hiccups in the middle.

Thank you omy.sg and Panasonic for organising this event and to Singapore Food Trail for the sumptuous lunch!   

Botan Japanese Restaurant

You won't go wrong with the Kaisen Don if you love sashimi. This was joy in a bowl - the sashimi was fresh, genrous and topped with two different types of fish roe; What more can one ask for? 
My friend had the salmon terriyaki set which came with a small plate of assorted sashimi and potato croquette. We truly relished this meal.

Botan Japanese Restaurant
36 Pekin Street #01-01 
Far East Square 
Singapore 048766
Tel: 6536 4404
Opening Hours: Mon–Sat 11.30am–3pm, 6pm–10pm

Alfero Artisan Gelato : Authentic Italian Gelato


Authentic italian gelato doesn't get any more authentic than it is at Alfero Gelato; Alfero (the boss) makes his gelato with the quality ingredients and stores his gelato in pozzetto cabinets (metal containers) to avoid light and air contamination so that the gelato will remain as it is when it first came out from the machine.

Alfero Gelato has two branches, one at Marina Square and its flagship store situated at Macpherson, under the HBD flats. Reminiscing the wonderful gelatos I had in Italy a year ago, I was very exciting to try Alfero's - I was not disappointed.

You'll find Alfero manning the gelateria at Macpherson and though the store space can be a ltitle small with not more than 10 seats or so, his cheeriness and friendly personality more than makes up for it. Knowing we're trying his creations for the first time, my friend and I were 'forced' to try every flavour there is available on that day. This is something I have to commend Alfero for, that he's not stingy or calculative to let his customers sample big spoonfuls of gelato and it certainly indicates to me that, for him to be proud and excited to let other try his gelato, the gelato must be of good quality and made with love.

My friend ordered the chocolate flavour with raspberry sorbet while I had chocolate flavour with passionfruit sorbet. The chocolate gelato is made with 72% cacao chocolate, loved the rich and smooth texture of the gelato. Chocolate lovers would take to this. The sorbets were tangy and refreshing. However my advice would be to not mix sorbet with gelato, they don't go well together, especially chocolate and a fruity sorbet.

Oh, there's student discount of 15% here too so don't forget to ask for it when you're here! Or the boss will automatically tell you so, like he did for us. Made the gelato taste a little better hehe.

Alfero Artisan Gelato is my place to go for authentic gelato, do come down and give it a try! Where else is your favourite gelateria?

Alfero Artisan Gelato
81 Macpherson Lane
#01-37 Singapore

Opening Hours :
Tue–Sat: 12pm – 9pm
Sun: 12pm – 6pm
(Closed on Mon)

Tel : 6848 4269
Website : Alfero Gelato

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