Miss Clarity Cafe

Went to Miss Clarity Cafe at Purvis Street for dinner with the husband on Wednesday. I had been wanting to try the food there ever since I came across a few personal blogs raving about the food.

It was about 7:30 p.m. when we got there, and if you are driving, please check out the exact location before proceeding. It's actually opposite the side of the National Library which faces a Maybank bank. The cafe is just a few steps down behind Maybank. Also, be prepared to wait for parking lots coz it's situated along a row of shophouses, where there are only limited parallel parking lots.

The size of the cafe was not as big as I had imagined. And the husband was surprised at the number of people there. It was completely packed and we had to wait for about 10 to 15 minutes to get a seat.

If you are looking for a quiet and romantic place for dinner, this is definitely not the place for you. Besides being packed with people, the noise level was also high, and once in a while, there would be a burst of ha-ha-ha from out of nowhere, and you practically had to talk to your date in a raised voice to be heard.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. In fact, I quite like it there. Just look at the tagline of the cafe : "where happy people meet..." It definitely felt like that! The only glitch was that the staff could be friendlier and looked happier a bit? Or maybe it's the crowd and the rush that had left them feeling stressed. Happy diners, definitely, but not happy waiters... not that they were rude or anything. Just didn't looked happy to me.

Anyway, onto the food. I managed to capture some photos of what we had ordered, but no thanks to the computer or the USB cable or my handphone... something had gone kooky somewhere and I couldn't access the photos I had taken with my handphone. (maybe it's time to get a new phone)

Anyhows, the husband ate this :

The husband quite liked the dish, though I felt that the pork was a little too tough. The country beans were a mixture of green peas and beans, and according to him, the so-called "tomato marmalade" tasted like pasta sauce.

And I had this :

The crust was thick on the dory fish, but the slice of fish was also quite thick. Despite being so, it was cooked very nicely and was tender. I couldn't figure out what was in the slightly crispy and spicy crust, except for the centre portion which seemed to have a bit of melted cheese hidden. There was also no taste of the garlic as mentioned in the name of the dish.

One thing I liked about this dish besides the crust was that it arrived piping hot. And even after I took my last bite, it was still warm. But the accompanying sides were a bit disappointing. Just some boiled cabbage strips and baked potato pieces, which were a little too tough and cold.

We added the additional $3.80 for a soup/salad, drink and dessert to make it a set meal. The soup was good, and we guessed it was onion soup. And the dessert was a scoop of really sweet and strongly-flavoured strawberry ice-cream. I can't remember when was the last time I had pure strawberry ice-cream.

The total bill came up to the total of $30.20, without any GST and service charge. I guess that maybe was another reason why the place was full on a weekday evening. And I'll definitely be going back again.

Built to Last - Melee

Auntie tips (14)

Tip 1:
Pour nail varnish remover onto a piece of cotton to remove ink and coffee marks on surfaces such as tablecloths and carpets.

Tip 2:
To keep the gilt frame of any evening bag bright, go over it with clear nail varnish.

Tip 3:
Apply clear nail varnish on ribbon ends to prevent fraying.

Tip 4:
Paint transparent nail polish over patent wedge heels so they don't get scratched easily.

From : Simply Her - May 2007

Shrimp Spirals

Sorry to disappoint if you are expecting something special with the name of the dish. It's just plain old tomato-sauced spiral pasta (below) with shrimps and mushrooms.

The husband and I thought it was something different from the normal pasta which we usually had and decided to give it a try, though honestly, I knew the taste would not be any different. And in case you didn't know, the orangy ones are supposed to be tomato-flavoured, and the green ones, spinach, and of course there is the normal wheat ones.

Once again, I tried to get rid of whatever ingredients that are still sitting around in my fridge, like the shiitake mushrooms and shrimps, which I bought two days ago.

Shrimp Spirals

2 servings

Ingredients :
- 1 1/2 cups of spiral pasta
- 1 bottle (14 oz.) of pasta sauce (Do not use the whole bottle if you don't like your pasta too sour)
- 8 shrimps, shelled and deveined
- 3 shiitake mushrooms, cut into strips
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- cooking oil
- salt and pepper
- red pepper flakes (optional)
- dried parsley

Directions :
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 7 to 8 minutes or until al dente; drain.

2. Heat up some cooking oil in a frying pan and add in the garlic. Stir-fry till the garlic becomes fragrant then add in the mushrooms and shrimps.

3. When the shrimps are just turning pink, add in the drained pasta, stir-fry for about 1 minute, then add in the pasta sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste, then garnish with dried parsley, if desired.

Shrimp and Bok Choy Noodle Bowl

Stumbled upon The Savory Notebook and was looking through the recipes when this caught my eye. It looks simple enough to cook, and is healthy as well.

It was actually the first time I tried using ginger in noodle soup, and it tasted great. The taste of the ginger was not overwhelming but there was a hint of it in the soup, a mixture of its fragrance and slight tang of the spice.

I bought the Chinese wheat noodles, a packet which is divided into 3 separate bunches. So, seeing that it was stated that it serves 3, I cooked 2 bunches, and in the end, it was the error of my poor judgement again. The husband and I could not finish the noodles. Most probably 2 bunches would be just right for 3 persons.

Another thing to note is the amount of salt to add. I think most sold off-the-shelf chicken stock is already salty enough so there is no need for any more additional salt. I didn't add any extra salt in mine and the soup still turned out just right.

Spicy Shrimp and Bok Choy Noodle Bowl

4 servings

Ingredients :

- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 inches ginger root, peeled and cut into very thin matchsticks or grated
- 1/2 pound shiitake mushroom caps (a couple of cups), sliced
- 1 medium bok choy, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces, then cut into sticks lengthwise
- Salt and pepper
- 1 quart chicken broth (I used 1 quart, i.e. 1 L, for 2 persons)
- 1 cup seafood stock, available on soup aisle or 1 cup clam juice (I omitted this)
- 1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1/2 pound vermicelli (thin spaghetti)
- 4 scallions, cut into 3-inch pieces, then shredded lengthwise into thin sticks

Directions :

1. Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat. Add vegetable oil, three turns of the pan, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, mushrooms and bok choy, then season with salt and pepper.

2. Add chicken broth and seafood stock or clam juice. Put a lid on the pot and bring soup to a boil.

3. Add shrimp and noodles and cook for three minutes. Add in scallions and cook two minutes, then turn off soup and let it sit 2-3 minutes more. Adjust salt to taste and serve.

Spring Lime Tea Cookies

Second attempt at cookie making... and I must say that this time, the cookies turned out much better than the one I tried previously.

Ok, ok... I cheated a bit. I chose the nicer looking ones to take the above photo. But honestly, they were much much better compared to the peanut cookies. You can go to Yun's blog (provided she updates it soon) if you want to see the "original" states of the cookies, when they were cooling on the rack. And also, thanks to Yun who dropped by to help out with the preparations. :)

It was actually quite tiring because, instead of the big traditional oven, I only have the oven toaster, which is much much smaller. So, we had to split the dough and baked them in about 7 - 8 different batches. And this is the result :

Haha.

Different batches come out in different sizes. But we still managed to get about 60 cookies from all the dough, though the recipe stated to make about 2 dozens only.

Another problem is that I'm not sure if it's meant to be a bit soft or I left the cookies out for too long. But going through the comments left by other reviewers on the website, it seems like the cookies should turn out "light and fluffy", which I have no idea how it was like. Anyway, I don't bother too much about it coz I'm really glad that this turned out well, and majority are edible! Yeah!

Spring Lime Tea Cookies (from : allrecipes)

Ingredients :
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons lime zest
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the glaze :

- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/4 cup white sugar

Directions :
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine the 2 teaspoons of lime juice with the milk, let stand for 5 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the lime zest and milk mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda, blend into the creamed mixture. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

4.To make the glaze, stir together the remaining lime juice and sugar. Brush onto cooled cookies.

To the cinema : Iron Man

I have to say, personally, I feel that this is one of the better movies that I've watched so far in the past few months. Not that I really watched a lot of movies, but I'm glad that I have chosen one that made the ticket money worth.

I have to admit that there are some movies that had such boring dialogues or parts in between that I would find myself start looking around at the other people around me in the cinema. But this is definitely not one of those movies. Iron Man keeps audience, at least I know I'm one of them, on the edge of the seat throughout the whole show.

Even for the romance scenes, you know they are there, but they don't slow down the pace of the show or make it boring. Instead, I felt that the romances are cleverly inserted into the different parts of the show to let the audience take a break from the exciting life of the superhero, and also at the same time, show the audience the softer side of our superhero.

Though as superhero movies went, there will always be some parts of the show that seem incredible and far-fetched. But those are just minor flaws compared to the overall plot of the movie.

Chicken Burger

I bought a $5.95 cookbook called "Step-by-step Quick Short Chicken Recipes". I was pleasantly surprise to see that the ingredients called for in the cookbook are actually quite readily available here, though it was from Australia.

For my burger tonight, I only followed the recipe briefly because by the time I went to NTUC after work, there were already no more spring onions, and coriander which are used together for the patty. So, I used my dried rosemary leaves as replacement.

Also, I've added a fried egg to the burger. As for the sauce, I mixed 1 tablespoon of mayo and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, something which I got from another sandwich recipe.

Chicken Patties

4 servings

Ingredients :
- 500g minced chicken
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 egg white, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 lemon, halved
- 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) (can add on if you prefer spicy patties)

Directions :
1. Mix together all the ingredients, except the oil and lemon. Season with salt and pepper and shape the mixture into 4 patties. Refrigerate for 20 minutes before cooking.

2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, add the patties and cook for about 5 - 7 minutes in each side, or until browned and cooked through.

3. Squeeze the lemon on the cooked patties and serve with a salad or use to make burgers.

Oinkers

Got a nice surprise when I went back to work today... coz Ray is on leave for a week I got some belated presents from the boys and The Boss.

The cup is from Ray. I bought the small Piglet. The big Piglet is from the boys. As for the pig with the big nostrils, is from The Boss. It's very important that I mentioned that it's air pork flown in coz he kept stressing it non-stop. As shown in the smaller picture at the right corner, yes, it's a tissue box. The tissue will come out of either of the nostril.

The only present that is not oink-related is from Christina. She went on a trip to Cebu and Bangkok and came back with this very cute coin pouch. I guess it's not cheap coz the packaging has this "Jim Thompson Thai Silk" name and logo there. Anyway, can you see that it's all little blue elephants printed on it? :)

Thanks again, guys.

The Day

Thanks to Christina, Kelvin, BT and the husband for having dinner with me on The Day, especially the husband for spending time with me to walk around Orchard Road aimlessly for a few hours, and the buffet dinner.

And thanks to all who sms-ed / msn-ed me well wishes... Mama, Qing, Qun, Huihui, Yongqi, Huiling, Jaime, Michelle, Peiling, Kitty, Jiawei, Cardine, Kelvin, Houwen, Amalina, Ray, Sam, The Boss, Max... and an extra thanks to those who kindly reminded me of The Age. Haha.

P.S. : Sorry if I miss anyone out. But thanks to all again. :)

Mushroom Rice

Decided to cook something simple since it's just the husband and me spending this Saturday evening. So I referred to the Mushroom Rice recipe from this blog, which seems like a healthy and really easy dish to cook.

However, the final product was a little too salty for our taste. Maybe the amount of mushrooms was too little to "soak" up the sauce, or maybe it was due to the lack of the chinese rice wine, which I couldn't seem to find in my neighbourhood NTUC, so I really do not know if it was the reason behind the over saltiness, or that the amount of light soy sauce should be reduced. I'm really quite upset about it, and I was contemplating whether to just throw all away and had instant noodles for dinner instead. Proper cooking seems to elude me these days. Sigh.

But anyway, here is the original recipe.

Mushroom Rice

2 servings

Ingredients :
- Cooked rice for two
- 350g of assorted mushrooms (enoki, shittake, brown button mushrooms etc), diced
- 20g butter
- 1 tablespoons sugar
- 5 cloves garlic, diced
- Coriander, chopped

Seasonings :
- 5 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons mirin
- 5 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
- Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions :
1. Heat up butter in a wok. Put in chopped garlic when the butter is half melted. Stir-fry the garlic until fragrant.

2. Add in assorted mushrooms and sugar, saute until the mushrooms are fully coated with butter. Add in seasonings, cook until the gravy has thickened.

3. Stir in chopped coriander, turn off heat. Add in cooked rice, stir until combined with mushrooms, serve.

Some tips to storing unused mushrooms :

- Keep mushrooms in a brown paper bag instead of resealable plastic bags, or even normal plastic bags. It is because mushrooms will "sweat" when kept in the fridge, and it may cause them to become soggy and mushy.

- Do not wash the mushrooms and then keep them in the fridge. Only wash when you are ready to cook them.