Luna Esa’s Delectable Durian Puffs

This is a photo of the Durian Puffs which Luna Esa shared with me and Mydaemon last week. This is also my first try at an ‘artistic’ shot. Owing to the lack of proper equipment (setting, backdrop, flash etc) and software (for most, Photoshop CS), here’s my best shot out of 10 plus shots I spent trying to capture the texture of the deliciously beautiful puff skin. It wasn’t easy having to crane my neck to table-level to see if the shot has a good composition.

Enough about the photo. Here’s what I think of Luna Esa’s very own D24 Creamy Durian Puffs. Made with D24 durians, the cream filling was smooth and packed a punch to the taste buds with the powerful and aromatic taste that one have come to associate with D24 durians. The puff pastry was a tad hard for me. Told Luna that making it a touch ’lighter’ would have made the puff perfect. But taking a bite, one can forgive the ‘hard’ puff pastry as the cream and pastry combined well to get a nice balance texture. With the D24 durian cream giving it a nice strong taste without overwhelming the senses, it was a wonderful treat indeed!

I am looking forward to Luna Esa’s next creation.

Crocodile in Carrefour!!!

Fanatic Avid movie-goers would immediately draw a parallel between the title of this post and the crap movie – Snakes on a Plane. In my younger days, I would have already watched the movie, since I have a soft spot for B-grade horror flicks.

So what is this thing about crocodiles in a respectable hypermarket like Carrefour. Well, a lot! Did some quick shopping at Carrefour Plaza Singapure during lunch yesterday. As usual the place was packed with smartly dressed office crowd, ehem, including myself, a dribs and drabs of teenagers, aunties and uncles.

Being the highly focused shopper, I zipped directly to the fresh vegetable section to get my hands on a lettuce. As I was choosing the lettuce, I became aware of a small crowd just lingering off my line of sight. Being the kaypoh adventurer that I am, I trooped over to get in onto, whatever it is, the action.

At first, I just this guy skillfully clobbering a whole animal, which at first glanced looked like a pig, since the flesh was pinkish and the size was around 1 odd metre in length. Further inspection revealed the unskinned limbs having an ugly, appetite zapping, greenish leathery scales with dark black and sharp claws. Yucks.

 

It was only then I realised that the ‘butcher’ was actually deboning a CROCODILE!!! I have seen many things being butchered in my life. There’s chicken, ducks, pigs, cows, lambs, and even sharks. But never a crocodile. There you have it, Carrefour’s very own Fresh! Crocodile Deboning Demo (these were the exact words used on the cart, if I remember correctly). Apparently, the croc’s meat is on promotion. I bet the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin wouldn’t have approved. Btw, this post was drafted sometime last week when Steve was still hale and hearty. Just got news that he passed away yesterday. Great loss to the conservationist world. God Bless his soul…

Once that set in, all my senses, especially my olfactory sense, kicked into overdrive. Guess my brain was hardwired to sense new smells when encountering a new experience. Taking huge LUNGFULS of air, I hoped to catch a whiff of how raw fresh croc meat would smell. Much to my disappointment, there’s not a whiff of anything. I found that hard to believe as the pinkish flesh looked like exuding tons of ‘fragrance’ which would have put the famously pungent Rafflesia flower to shame. Guess that’s the power of perception. In this case, perception is not necessarily the reality.

Should your mum decides to cook crocodile curry one of these days and asks you where to get fresh croc meat. Let her know that Fieldmarshal’s recommendation is Carrefour. The only place which debones a crocodile ‘live’. It’s even fresher than all the pork, beef and poultry we see on the refrigeration racks. Beat that!

Strawberry Cheese Tarts

With compliments from Luna Esa, I readily received 2 pieces of Luna Esa’s very special Strawberry Cheese Tarts. Called them so as Luna Esa herself has no real name for the pastries she so generously shared with me.

Looking at the tarts, I can tell that a lot of effort went into it. Most obvious would be the heart shaped strawberry forming the centrepiece of this artistic work of a dessert. The colours were also wonderfully balanced. The red of the jelly and strawberry mixed well with the golden glow of the cheese and the light brown finishing of the biscuit base. Nuff said. Time to taste it.

Small enough to pop into the mouth and gobble it up at one go, these tarts are made for tea parties and not brutes like me. Choosing to be more refined and Englishman like, I nibbled off half of the tart to savour the good mix of taste coming from the jelly, strawberry, cheese and biscuit.

Homemade stuff will always be special. Being a huge fan of cheesecakes, I have consumed different types of cheesecakes from cafes and restaurants, I have to say that Luna Esa’s tarts are comparatively tasty. That’s a compliment in itself since she’s not a full-time dessert chef a la Kim Sam Soon. The cheese in the tarts is nicely done. Neither too hard/dry, nor too soft/wet. Just heavenly.

I am very thankful with Luna Esa’s generosity in sharing such beautiful and tasty treats with me and Mydaemon. Looking forward to more of such tasty treats in the future.

Yaw boh seh yoh!

That’s “hello” in Korean. Like many Singaporeans, I have been swept up in the Korean wave sweeping across Asia in the last few years. Prior to that I was a J-Pop fan. I still love J-Pop but the lack of airtime dedicated to it by our mainstream media is one reason for my acceptance, albeit ‘forced’ initially, of K-Pop.

A reason for my initial resistance to K-Pop was its, previously, synonymity with the ‘plasticky’ and fake looking props a la Taiwanese serials. What changed my impression was the visually stunning and more than authentic settings of Daejanggum or more popularly known to Singaporeans as 大长金. The fact that 大长金 chronicles, although historically inaccurately, the epic tale of a woman’s struggle against a feudalistic imperial and social system, is enough reason for me to follow it. Being a person who feels for the underdog who triumphs at the end of the day, this show was tailor made for people like me. Following 大长金 was my wife’s second offering of My Lovely Samsoon. Another wonderful Korean production.

TV serials aside, my taste buds have also started to enjoy all things Koreans. Kimchi has to be my favourite Korean dish. Leaving a sourish, spicy aftertaste in the mouth, kimchi is heavenly on its own, in soups, or taken with plain rice. That’s versatility for you.

Recently, I had the good fortune of visiting the Crystal Jade Korean BBQ and Ginseng Chicken. I had good memories of the restaurant since my first and last visit there some years back. My latest visit was a fortuitous one. Fortunate in that it was accidental since my wife, in-laws and myself were not able to make up our minds on where to have our dinner. In the end, my wife, with her insatiable appetite for Korean cuisine, came up with the fantastic idea of dining there.

Instead of ordering a la cartedishes, which I did in my first visit, we decided to take on the Set B Dinner Menu. At around $120, the set dinner for 4, consists of BBQ and several Korean dishes. Starting with the very delicious yet simple appetisers above.

The golden rimmed grill was a sight to behold when the waitress lifted up the wooden cover. Slightly oiled, the grill was heated up with a flick of a switch. As the oil started sizzling, plates laden with juicy meats started appearing on the table. There were thinly sliced beef, sliced pork shoulder meat, chicken fillet and this huge strip of beef, not sure which part it came from the cow, that ends with a huge piece of bone.

The smell was heavenly as we started BBQing the meats. My mouth was watering as the fat on the meat sizzled and crackled on the grill. My sensory apparatus were going into overdrive as my eyes, nose and ears pick up “tasty” signals. Quivering with excitement, my chopsticks began circling the helpless slices of meat. Holding me back was the need to maintain a cold and calm composure in front of my in-laws. Already having a reputation with them for being a “good eater”, taking the next step to the “greedy” level is not something I want.

Feasting on the well seasoned and perfectly BBQed meats were heavenly. Browned at the edges, the juices were locked into the meat by careful, yet continuous, turning of the meat on the grills. The meat literally melts in your mouth.

We were all stuffed by the time all 4 plates of meat were cleaned out. That’s only part of the meal. In quick succession, 3 other dishes landed on our table. There was the grilled soba fish, the Chicken Ginseng Soup and a dish consisting of fatty roasted pork and big slices of kimchi for wrapping the fatty morsels.

Shall not entice you further with their descriptions. Instead, I will show you a picture of the Ginseng Chicken Soup, plus the stuffing they cooked it with. In the foreground, we have the really tasty chicken soup with the tenderest of chicken thigh. Further back, you will see the stuffing which essentially consists of glutinous rice, chestnut, red dates, ginseng and some other herbs. The stuffing is really tasty. Can readily attest to that since I downed most of it while m wife and in-laws were distracted with conversation.

Not a drop of soup, sliver of chicken flesh, nor a grain of glutinous rice was visible after I went through the dish. Its as if the chicken, rice and soup never did exist. He… He…. Not everyone can eat as fast, or as stealthily as The Fieldmarshal.