Homemade Yam Abacus Beads.

This time, we just kinda want these yam abacus beads.

And mum knows how to make them (grandma's recipe).

And trust me, homemade stuff is always better than the restaurants. 

Or at least healthier and more reliable.

So we started off by steaming one whole yam.

We got the yam from the local market, 

asked the Uncle to select a good yam.

Well, all of his yams are good as they just melt when you cook them.

So this dough was made by beating the steamed yam, along with some salt and

vegetable oil, and around 750g of tapioca starch.

Traditional cooking methods never have proper measurements,

it's always an approximate, or how we call it is "agar-agak".

So we just pinch out a small amount of dough, roll it into a ball and

pinch the middle to give it the abacus-like shape. 

But I personally think it looks more like a red blood cell. 

Do bear in mind that the beads will expand slightly when you cook them,

so roll them according to your desired size.

Over here are the ingredients used for the dish.

We have chopped cilantro, thin strips of cloud ear fungus, minced pork,

sliced mushroom, dried shrimps, chopped garlic and onion, and of course, the yam beads.

We pre-cooked the yam beads first by parboiling them until they float.

This started off with the garlic and onions, followed by the rest of the ingredients 

except for the cilantro and beads.

Cook them until fragrant and season them with soy sauce as well as oyster sauce.

Then add the beads in and toss evenly, followed by the cilantro.

So, here you go!

Homemade Yam Abacus Beads.

Basic Buttermilk Scones.

So we have leftover buttermilk and I thought what else I could do with it.

And right there, on the carton of buttermilk,

was a picture of scones.

And I thought to myself, "Damn, it's been awhile."

So I googled recipe for buttermilk scones, 

and I came across this website giving me the simplest ingredients list and methods.

So there you go, square scones because I was lazy to find round cutters, 

and also, circle scones are too mainstream.

I made them a little too thin, they're like biscuits.

In this recipe, we only use 60g of butter, which isn't much.

But I wish you could just try it because it was that good and I absolutely loved it. 

So try it out!

S.Wine.

Publika.

I can honestly tell you that this place is rather hidden.

Non-halal, and I find the restaurant name punny.

Swine. Hah.

Mum loved this, she came and decided to order this before we

had a good look of the menu.

We had their watermelon, roasted pork salad.

The pork crackling wasn't crackling, and it has a rather porky taste to it.

And I can honestly tell you that warm watermelon is WEIRD.

And the picture above is their pulled pork sandwich.

I kinda like it, and I kinda don't like it at the same time.

And come on, FRIESSS!

The last one, this looks hella wrong.

The colour for this dish is quite poor, as you can see it's only brown

and white and a hint of green.

The sausages had a taste to it, but I enjoyed the sauerkraut hash/rosti.

I honestly wouldn't really return, but maybe we ordered not the best items.

Hi guys!

I know I haven't posted anything for awhile now.

That's because I was rather busy with my work,

and I'll be having my finals this week.

There are already drafts prepared, with pictures uploaded.

I'll upload the posts as soon as I'm done with my exams.

I have so much to express, and share. 

But not today. Not this post. Some other time.

Pigs & Wolf

Pigs & Wolf.

I was totally surprised and impressed because of the ambience.

And I haven't been to Pavilion in ages, so the Dining Loft was absolutely new to me.

First of all, they serve pork,

so it's pretty empty here.

We started off with their Grilled Pork Salad.

I liked the salad, the pork was a little dry,

but mum finds it porky.

It would be better if they didn't add the onions.

We had their recommended dish; Green With Envy as a main, 

and when the plate was placed on the table, I wasn't impressed. 

The colour was terrible and the plating was blergh.

I didn't like this at all because of the cutting they served for this pork chop

as it was very fatty.

But the lemon sauce was okay.

We also ordered another pork chop called Snug Piggy.

So clearly it looks more like a typical chicken chop with mushroom sauce.

I like this one better than the other,

and their fries was just right. (Loved them!)

This is their Hatchlings which I believe is a deep fried jacket potato.

It was as crunchy as it should be,

so it made it rather tough to chew.

I like this appetiser, but most didn't enjoy it.

Overall, it was just okay.

For the price we paid, we expected better.

And mind you, it wasn't really that affordable.

We wouldn't really return.