whine & dine

Well, not quite hot, but things are certainly warming up with new kid on the block 25 degree Celsius. A couple of days ago, a dear friend texted to say that she’d found a new cafe/cookbook store in Keong Saik Road (just down from 1929, and across from Whatever cafe). Very familiar with my compulsion for buying things-that-I-already-have-too-many-of (i.e. cookbooks – and also teeshirts), she then requested that I not tell the bunny where this tip came from.

I’d imagined that it would be more of a cafe with a few shelves of cookbooks on sale, but 25°C is more accurately described as a small bookstore, devoted entirely to cookbooks (and a few non-recipe-books related to food), with a test kitchen and a small seating area for the cafe at the rear. I felt like I’d stepped straight into heaven – conversely, and into bunny’s worst nightmare – when I crossed the threshold. Floor to ceiling shelves! Lined with cookbooks! On almost any topic imaginable! By all manner of authors! And reasonably priced too!

I first visited 25°C on Saturday, just stopping in to check it out and grab a cup of coffee – which was delicious, by the way! Apparently, it’s a secret blend they import from Taiwan. I left almost 2 hours later with my pockets significantly emptier, and loaded with four books to add to my already sagging shelves. And mind you, I only left with four since I was limited by she-who-guards-the-bookshelf. Of the four, my favourite has to be The Cookie Sutra, which I only spotted because I accidentally knocked it off the shelf while staring at the books on baking, but immediately had to buy when I flipped through it for its hilarious pictures and witty quips. (Take a look inside and you’ll know what I mean.)

Having been dragged out against my will since it was time for me to head back to work, I made a reservation for lunch there today, and invited two friends who share my love for food (and cooking) to join me in the heart of the Bukit Pasoh Conservation Area. I was really eager to try out the food there (having spotted duck confit on the menu), and couldn’t have been gladder that I did. In the end, I decided to go with the minute steak, which was a lovely melt-in-your-mouth slice of beef, lightly marbled with fat and so incredibly tender that I actually got a slight shock when my knife went through it with almost no effort at all. The confit, which both my friends had, however, was a little overcooked and ended up being slightly tough around the edges – which was a pity – but the one thing that both dishes shared were the friggin’ unbelievably tasty potato sides. The confit was served with a caramelized onion mash, and I had pan-fried potatoes which were lightly crisped on the outside and so fluffy on the inside to go with my steak. The three of us also shared two desserts – a sticky date toffee pudding that was drenched in butterscotch and flavoured with plenty of nutmeg, along with a warm Valrhona chocolate fondant which tasted like pure, crazy-delicious chocolate fudge.

I’m so glad that I’ve found this place. It’s a lovely quiet-ish, cosy refuge from the hustle and bustle of the area, and one that’s rather reminiscent of an English book cafe you’d escape the thick of winter in, warming up over a steaming cup of tea and a good read. They encourage browsing – so long as you don’t do it with food on the table – and I forsee myself spending many Monday afternoons hanging out here, and I’d definitely recommend like-minded cookbook junkies to head on over too!

25 Degree Celsius
25 Keong Saik Road #01-01
Singapore 089132
Tel: +65 6225 5986

And my bunny is no different. Today’s her birthday, and since I’ve made a habit of baking something on Mondays – my off day – I decided to let her pick what I’d bake this week. I had hardly finished asking her when she immediately squeaked, “CAAAN WE HAAAVE CARROT CUPCAKES? WITH THE LITTLE BABY CARROTS?”

She was talking about these little sugar decorations that we’d chanced upon while in Sydney over my birthday, which I’d conned her into buying.

When we first moved in together, Bunny and I would go out for a nice dinner at least once a month – “date night” we called it. Date Night was really just our excuse to go out and splurge on ourselves. Ever since we moved into our current apartment that came with a nice kitchen that I’ve since fastidiously decked out, instead of going out to spend time together, we now love nothing more than being able to have a quiet night in, just the two of us, over a meal that I’ve cooked for her. Since I’ve started work, we obviously can’t eat together – whether at home or dining out – as much as we would like. As such, I thought I’d not just bake cupcakes, but cook dinner for the two of us at home. On the menu were Pork Chops with a Mustard Sauce (from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries, a book that’s bursting at the seams with oodles of thoroughly English recipes), a beautiful orange sorbet from the same book, and – as requested – Carrot Cupcakes.

I know many people (my age) looking in would imagine that she and I lead rather boring lives – we both go to work, we hardly see each other till after 11 at night. We don’t even get weekends together. When we have time to spend together, instead of going out and painting the town red, we opt to stay in and lie in each others’ arms, just enjoying the quiet silence of each others company. Yet, there’s nothing more that I could want in this world. Nothing gets me through those days where I spend 12 hours standing in a hot, humid kitchen, assembling starter and dessert after starter and dessert than knowing that at the end of the day, she’ll be there for me to climb into bed right next to and fall asleep with, and that no matter how smelly I am, and no matter how loud I snore, she’ll be here by my side.

Happy birthday baby. I’m so glad I’ve been able to spend the last 3 with you, and I look forward to the next 50 together.

So I have this friend, and she and I have this longstanding love affair, only we can’t be together ‘cos we’re both with other people. To cope, she decided to settle for second best:

friend: you know something?
me: YOU LOVE ME.
friend: okay now you will never know.
friend: eejiot.
me: :(
me: tiao me.
me: priiiiis.
me: i lubchiu.
friend: lol
me: -tugs sleeve
friend: okay i lubchiu too (so easy)
friend: aww
me: *teh to the maxness*
me: wait that was it?
friend: OKAY MY NEXT GF’S AUTOMATIC RESPONSE TO EVERYTHING WILL BE LUBCHIU TIAO ME TUG AT SLEEVE
me: oh god.
friend: that’s right.
me: no. oh god. you just based the prototype of your next gf on something i said.
friend: don’t you love it? LEER LEER.

Anyway, we were talking online today, as usual, and I was whining – also as usual – about how I want more teeshirts. And I showed her this one.

friend: i like that tee too! and i will marry the girl who goes and makes me one. LOL
me: hahahaha yes and tugs at your sleeve to get your attention right? once she’s made you the sammich.
me: omg i’m blogging this. won’t name you.
friend: lolllll do it. hahahahha.

So if there exist any (preferably Japanese or Vietnamese) girls out there who are at most 167cm in height, and you spot a cute chick (LEER LEER) wearing this teeshirt, you know what to do.

Culina has been not just one of Singapore’s major produce suppliers to restaurants, but also where most serious foodies-who-cook will make pit stops at to pick up items that may be difficult or near impossible to find in their local supermarkets, especially when preparing for a dinner party. Recently, Culina opened a third branch at Dempsey, alongside their existing Bukit Timah and Orchard Boulevard retail stores.

To be completely honest, I’m really not a fan of the Dempsey area. I used to go there to eat at Samy’s (southern Indian curry) when I was younger, and always associated it with a mildly rural-ish sort of feel, considering all those funny little bike huts and art galleries scattered around the area. I loved it then. I liked it still when a wine bar opened, and I was even quite anxious to check out PS Cafe when it opened. (I was quite disappointed, apart from the brunch.) However, ever since it’s become the hip new place, I’ve been steering clear of it. It’s probably similar to how I can’t stand One North @ Rochester Park – too often, I get scared by hip places as – and I know I’m stereotyping – too often they spell high prices, bad food, mediocre drinks, and horrific patrons.

However, just before I started work, Bunny and I had been not just trawling Sydney for the best food we could get our grubby hands on, but also exploring as much of Singapore as we could, seeing as I wouldn’t have much of a chance to eat out with her once I started in the F&B industry. One of the places we wanted to check out, was Culina Enoteca – or the little café/restaurant in Culina’s Dempsey branch. We popped by on a Monday just before noon, were pleased to find that we had almost the entire area to ourselves, and settled in for a quiet lunch.

Now, Bunny has a long-standing love-hate relationship with bagels. She’s probably be hugest fan of bagels one could find in Singapore, aka the land where “bagel” is synonymous with Starbucks, at best, and at worst, a ring-shaped brick of stale dough. You can imagine her delight when she found that the smoked salmon sandwich (pictured above) was served in a fresh onion bagel, that’s right, she went a bit mad. And she had every right to, as this bagel was amazingly fresh, and beautifully fluffy, all while retaining its crisp exterior. The filling, however, disappointed a little, as it looked a bit more like a cream cheese bagel topped with a light scattering of smoked salmon, instead of a smoked salmon bagel with a little cream cheese. The onions, also, were sliced a little too thickly and had to either be avoided, or they’d completely overwhelm the flavour of the salmon and cheese.

My steak sandwich (pictured at start of post), however, was delicious. The beef was really juicy and had just enough fat such that it was oozing with flavour, but no huge chunks to make me gag on. (I don’t like eating soft fat. I only eat the crisp sort – like on siew yoke.) The beautiful ciabatta buns were also smeared with english mustard, which had just enough kick to it.

It was, in fact, the most fruitful morning, as I even managed to pick up some truffle honey (I will make ice cream soon) and had a stroll through jones the grocer where I found a few other bibs and bobs.

While I can’t vouch that Dempsey will be as pleasant an experience on weekends, I had a lovely time there that Monday morning, and I intend to visit it soon on one of my off days.

Culina at Dempsey
Block 8 Dempsey Road #01-13
Tel: 6474-7338

I like donuts. I’m not one of those who will queue for three hours, nor someone who insists that friends studying/working in cities like London or Sydney must buy me Krispy Kremes whenever they come back on summer/winter break. (I only requested for Krispy Kremes once!) But I do like donuts. And I don’t understand this donut craze in Singapore now, though I reckon it’ll phase out soon enough – just like what happened with Bubble Tea and those Roti-Boy/Mama/Papa/family-member coffee buns and so on.

As those of you who read this space should know by now, I recently started work in a restaurant kitchen. It’s definitely tiring stuff, but I’m enjoying it. However, one thing that cooking for a living has made me miss is cooking at home for fun – pottering around in the kitchen just ‘cos I feel like making [insert dish], because I’m having dearly loved friends over and want to whip up a meal for them that I’ve spent days or even weeks planning, or – better yet – because I want to surprise my bunny once she gets home from work.

Thankfully, being in a professional kitchen 6 days a week hasn’t made me want to hurl the moment I step in my house and set eyes on my own beloved kitchen. That would pose a few problems, the biggest of which being that this job is clearly not for me. I’m glad to report that on my first day off, after having spent the morning rolling around in bed and getting a (foot) massage, my main activity of the day constituted flour, eggs, milk, yeast, sugar, and deep frying – that’s right, I made donuts. Mini donuts, if you will, since I didn’t feel like doing the entire recipe (I halved it) and used a tiny cutter since this way the entire thing can fit in your mouth (albeit rendering you unable to speak for a minute or so) and one won’t sprinkle sugar everywhere when munching on these deep-fried, sugar-coated goodies.

So here’s the recipe I used, and for those of you who love donuts, but – like me – can’t be arsed to spend hours at a time queueing for them, I’d recommend making your own. Sure, it also takes about 3-4 hours from start to finish, but at least you’re not stuck in a line, and most of that time is just spent letting the dough rise. Besides, none of those shops can beat a fresh donut, rolled in sugar while it’s still hot out of the oil.

Yeasted Doughnuts
(adapted from Baking Illustrated)

1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus 3 tbsp, and extra for dusting
¼ tsp salt
3½ tbsp caster sugar, plus extra for rolling (about ½ cup should suffice)
1/3 cup milk at blood temperature (about 35°C)
1 egg
1 1/8 tsp instant dried yeast
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 6 pieces
vegetable oil for deep frying
1 tbsp ground cinnamon, optional

Beat the milk, egg, and ½ a tbsp of sugar together lightly in the bowl of your standing mixer, then add the yeast and stir it in gently. Set the mixture aside in a warm place for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together 1½ cups of the flour, salt and the rest of the sugar in a medium bowl. Once there are bubbles on top of the yeast mixture, secure the bowl in your standing mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the flour, and mix on low speed until a ball of dough forms; about 3 minutes.

Add the softened butter once piece at a time, waiting about 15 seconds between additions. Continue mixing for about 3 minutes longer, adding up to 3 tbsp of the remaining flour if necessary, until the dough forms a soft, but elastic ball.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled medium bowl and cover with cling film. Let the dough rise in a warm and draught-free place for 2 to 2½ hours. After it has nearly doubled in size, scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and, using a rolling pin, gently roll it to a thickness of 1-1½cm. Cut the dough out using a 1½-2 inch cutter, gathering the scraps and re-rolling if necessary. Place doughnut rings and holes on a floured baking sheet. Loosely cover with cling film and let rise at room temperature until slightly puffy, 30-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, fit a candy thermometer in the side of a medium saucepan. Place oil in until the pan is at least half-filled, and there should be at least 2 inches of oil. Gradually heat the oil over medium high heat until it reaches a temperature of about 180-190°C. Fry the doughnuts 3-4 at a time until golden brown, about 20-30 seconds per side for the rings, and 15-20 seconds per side for the holes. Remove the doughnuts from the oil and drain on a rack lined with kitchen paper until cool enough to handle, then roll in sugar (well mixed with the cinnamon if using) and eat as soon as possible!

Yields about 20 small doughnuts, and will keep for a day in an airtight container at room temperature.