We had a heavy breakfast today. I mean a really heavy one. We had duck rice and noodles, not to meantion that plate of meat was loaded with sliced braised duck meat, duck liver and eggs. On top of that we also had a plate of Fried Carrot Cake ala Bukit Timah Style. We were damn full after the breakfast that my darling J decide not to have lunch afterwards....
Anyway we inititally wanted to go to the Food Fair/Exhibition at Expo but considering the amount of food we had, we decided to give it a miss. Instead, we head on down to West Mall to "see-see-look-look". After a while, we decided to adjourned to IMM where we will get some ingredients back home to cook.
Theme for the Sunday dinner was red meat. J basically gone bonkers knowing that i have, yet again, ruined her diet plans. Anyway, we've got 300gm miniced pork, 3 slices of pork chops, a tin of pineapples in syrup, a box of pre-cut fruits, bread crumps, cheese....
I decide to try my luck at remaking the chops at Cartel. After cleaning up the meat, i pat them dry with paper towels before i slightly seasoned them with salt and pepper. While those chops R&R in the fridge, i cut up the pineapple rings and put them in the blender. The idea is to create a pineapple sauce. Turns out pretty okie i would say, jus that the pineapple sauce ( inheritent from the canned pineapple ) was a bit too sour than usual. I guess it sort of gave the sauce that extra punch of tanginess.
With the pan hot with some oil, i seared each sides of the chops at high heat for about a minute or so. After which i flipped them over and let them cook for another 5 minutes. Checking periodically to ensire the chops were browned evenly on both side. on the plate, J had me to pour some of the pineapple sauce on it. The chops was den served on a plate with freshly made pineapple sauce base, with fries to go.
J on the other hand decide to try her luck at making Japanese corochan-style burger-patties. The twist to her creation was the piece of hidden cheese in between the meat.
First she marinated the meat ( all 300gms of it ) with 1 teaspoon of sugar, some pepper to taste, 4 cloves of chopped garlic, 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce and a dash of brandy. After mixing them well, the mixture was invited to the fridge to sit for a while to let the marinate work it's way into the meat.
After about 30 minutes, we retrieve the mixture from the fridge. J had another interesting idea; she wanted to made rectangluar meat patties. The concept was to place a slice of cheese into the meat patties and ensure that the cheese is well covered within the patties. Roll them into shape like this...
Dipped the patties into a bowl of beatedn up eggs and coat them with the bread crumbs. After the oil is hot enough, we deep fried these patties til golden brown ( i sucks at deep frying stuff so i kinda of fried them til brown instead of golden brown.. will do better next time round )
These patties were served with toasted baguette, mayonnaise and tomatoes. Personally, i think J did a much better job than i had. I didn't do the pork chop justice. But the patties that J did was juicy and tasty. The outside crust, thou a bit brown, was crunchy but the inside was filled with surprises. Basically the meat juices were flowing out with each single bite. And the chesse jus ozzoes out of it. How we ate it was cut a small slice of baguette, spread some mayo on top, put a slice of tomato and top it of with a small portion of the patty. It's really very good. 4.5 out of 5 stars!
J never failed to amaze me each and everyday. And cooking up a mean burger patty was blasting my imagination out of proportions. Dear if you'er reading this, drop the diet idea yeah. ;)
After reading reviews of it off She Bakes and She Cooks, J and I decided to try it today as we made our way to Far East Plaza.
Located on the basement one of Far East Plaza, one could hardly miss it for it had a huge Union Jack logo for it's signboard. A small setup; we were served by 2 young ladies, one will serve the customers, another will prepare the food. Quite a well oil system they have in there i would say everything was done in military precision.
Business was relatively good. We observed how families and groupies walked away with litttle black bowls of Fried Mars Bar and a scoop of ice-cream. Those calories-and-cholesterol-bombs must be good!~!~!~! Can feel J was very tempted to try, only to see she exercise control for the fact that she's attending my colleague's wedding with me next week.
After waiting for a couple of minutes, our order was ready. We ordered the BBF ( Beer-Battered-Fish $4plus). I had half a mind ( well, over 95%) to try the Hot-and-Chessy Chicken strips but sensiblity won me over and i decided against it.
Holy mama.. the serving is huge!~!~! 12 pieces of fried fish fillets with an equal amount of chips in it! You get to choose between 2 types of sauses. One is the Salt-and-Vinegar , or alteratively you could get the Ketchup-and-Mayo. The fish fillets were fresh, not a hint of fishy-ness in them. However i would have thought a small slice of lemon on the side and a little bit more of salt would have done this BBF a lot more justice. But a great alternative to LJS/Mac/KFC/etc etc nonetheless.
Jus a note of advice. As often associated with great tasting food, this stuff could clot the thickest and most flexible arteries so eat with caution yeah. Sound the cholesterol Alert! This stuff shoulda have some sort of a health advisory message yeah. "Not meant for single comsumption"/ Pregnant women, or people with high cholesterol/ heart dieases should avoid this like at all cost! But it's good stuff. Just try to drink more tea ( Chinese Tea- Oolong tea ) to wash the oil down. oh and if time permits, exercise more too.
Got our food and we went up to the 7-11 to get a drink. Surprise surprise.. This 7-11 outlet is a new-concept. Open air and with tea-tables and chairs, bar-stools, this mean we could get a drink and sit down inside this 7-11 and eat away. Kind of like a little cafe. And yes, that's our favourite drink, the Super Big Glup.
Food & Restaurant Review: Yuki Yaki
Satellite photos of the tepanyaki. A careful second look will review the pork belly( bellies) browning perfectly in butter, Char-Siew pork getting a good tan as well, 2 lonely prawns basking under the sun, not forgetting thr 2 mixed-mushroom balls. This is the photo of our fist round with the tepanyaki. J was sitting there, making herself pretty, while putting the raw meat into the tepanyaki occasionally. I was constantly making my ways to the shelves where the food were placed.
1st round : 1 plate of Pork-Belly, some Garlic-Spring Onion Pork, Char-Siew Pork, assorted greens, 2 eggs, prawns, sotong, salmon,saba, chicken wings,tofu, fishballs, udon (2 bowls )...
We passed by this restaurant the first time we went to Marina Square after its renovation and was told by this auntie that the food there was very nice and the ice-cream is a 'must have'. But that time, we went for the purpose of trying out Carl Jr and therefore, have to give the restaurant a miss.
Finally, on tuesday, we decided to go Yuki Yaki for dinner. It was around 8pm when we reached and when we were finally served after waiting for around 10 minutes (we were the 3rd in queue), the waitress told us that the last order is at 9.15pm and asked whether it was okie. Since we were both really hungry (for missing lunch), we decided to go ahead.
The table was very spacious, especially for 2 of us. I think it can seat up to 5 -6 pax comfortably. Instead of the usual steamboat/tepanyaki buffet we saw which combined both together, Yuki Yaki cleverly separate the both of them. The good thing is you won't be splashed by the oil while you take the steamboat food.
Anyway, we literally attacked the food once we got our table. We took sushi and some appetizer like green peas, octopus to munch on first while the raw food were cooking. They are not stingy with their food - in fact, they had wide variety of meat and steamboat ingredients.
Some of the 'must haves'...
1. Pork Belly which i loves a lot. We took 4 rounds and even cover the entire tepanyaki pot with the pork belly. How we ate it was to dip it in a mixture of egg when it is really hot and after that, soya sauce. J also tried the korean stlye - wrapped it up with lettuce, with some egg and soya sauce ( 5/5);
2. Lamb chop. Becoz it was heaty, J only took a piece to share. It is well seasoned and there was no 'sao wei'. It actually tastes like satay. But i kind of overcooked it. Nevertheless it was good!~!~!~; (5/5)
3. Chicken wing. They cleverly cut the chicken wing in the middle and this way, it cook really fast. It's a really goot tip next time for bbq. We couldn't get enough of those. Could hardly taste the marinate thou, but the meat was still juicy (3/5)
4. Char Siew Pork. Really sweet and juicy. Even thou it dun really taste like the usual char siew from the market stall. but it is well marinated meat. Worth the try ( 4/5)
Some of the sauce we recoommend:
1. Sesame seed with soya sauce - although i feel that it can be more salt-ier.
2. Soya sauce with garlic
3. Egg. Yes, raw egg. If they have spring onions, it would be better. I learn this way of eating from J's dad coz he always mix egg with spring onions and soya sauce during CNY reunion dinner.
At around 9pm, the waitress came to take our last order. We switch over to another table for our ice-cream. The ice-cream was nothing to rave about except for it novelty.
Overall the food was great. Service was excellent. The waitress who served us gave us another table for the ice-cream since they were about to close. The table was wide and spacious and i think 4 to 5 people can seat comfortably.
Another must-have/must-try is their chicken soup base for the steamboat. It was fantastic!~!~!~! Very different from all other soup base we've had outside. And after cooking tons of prawns, mushrooms, scallops, vegs... the soup was heavenly. Another plus will be their service. The food were replenished relatively fast and the quality was very good as well. Only wished that they have thinly sliced pork and chicken available.
The bill came to about $47 - $1 extra for PH and $2 for the ice-cream. Considering the drinks were free flow, the quality of the food as well as the level of service rendered to us, this was a good bargain! Definately will return to try again, soon.
