Scratched my Cooking itch

I've been a bit less restless lately, barely venturing out of the house and preferring to stay indoors. I've recently borrowed a ton of books, including some healthy cookbooks, from the library and am now browsing through each one. Strangely, even though I'm getting lots of good ideas reading all the great recipes from the cookbooks, I haven't felt the desire to create any new dishes in the kitchen, preferring to stick to simple and basic meals. I must really be burnt out from that over-ambitious dinner party I threw on Wednesday. But I hope my cooking sense of adventure itches up again, because I'm coming across so many great recipes!

So Friday was really tuned-down, but I did try something new for breakfast: overnight oats! I've been reading about this overnight oats idea from KERF. and have been meaning to try it since forever, and the night before I had cooked up a double serving of steel-cut oats, and then stored them in the refrigerator to chill.

It was perfect for Friday morning, because it was hot and I was really craving something cooling. So I dished out a good portion of the chilled oats, added a huge dollop of plain yogurt, a few glugs of almond milk, chopped apples, and cinnamon:


Yum! Who knew cold leftovers could be transformed into such a magnificent quick concoction? The oats gelled up into a pudding-like consistency in the fridge, and blended with tangy yogurt and smooth almond milk, it was almost like dessert or cold cereal. The most perfect breakfast to start a hot humid day!

For lunch I noticed that my stash of purple potatoes were growing shoots on the spuds! So I decided to hurry up and use up my stash of purple potatoes and the last of my chicken frank. I baked the potato in the oven, cooked the chicken frank, poached one egg, and soft-boiled the other. Here they are all together:


I love this combination. The starchy, grainy potato as the base to catch up all the savory juices of the yolk and tone down and blend with the macho-meatiness of the chewy hotdog. The perfect congregation of different levels and textures of umami.


I had Discipleship training meeting at church that night, so had to break up my dinner. Before I left I had a bowl of cooked cabbage and a bowl of yogurt and a couple baby mandarin oranges:


Aren't those oranges so cute? They're like little babies...

And then during the meeting I munched on about 4 medium sweet potatoes:


I love eating while doing something (like taking notes in this case) because it forces me to slow down to eat, being able to enjoy the flavors more, while at the same time drawing my attention away from thinking about the calories contained in each sweet potato.

Today's eats were a lot more interesting! I had lunch out at Pasta de Waraku, a Japanese restaurant, with my friend Jingwen. We decided to order three dishes to share.

Obviously the correct dish to order would be the pasta, and they have tons of delicious Japanese-style pasta on the menu, but then I caught sight of the "special recommendations" menu, which featured new creative items in a smaller portion and thus lesser price. Two items particulary caught my eye: tofu in squid ink sauce and grilled Japanese hamburger in steamed egg. Jingwen wasn't too keen on trying squid ink because the "color freaked her out." So we ordered the Japanese hamburger in steamed egg, egg curry, and egg-bacon cabonara.

Here are the glorious pictures! The egg curry:


The cabonara:


And my favorite out of the three, the hamburger in steamed egg!


I did not like the curry at all. Japanese curry is really different from Indian curry. Whereas Indian curry has a thick, bold, spicy flavor, Japanese curry is mild and sweet. A bit too sweet for my liking. The egg on top, however, was cooked perfectly! I relinquished this wonderful egg to Jingwen, though...

But that's okay because the egg on top of the cabonara was perfect as well! All soft and wobbly! I scooped up the whole thing and stuffed the whole spoonful into my mouth. Mmm....The pasta itself was okay. A lot less cloyingly creamy and less rich than regular Italian cabonaras, which suited me just fine. I hate pasta drenched in cream sauce, but this one was just right.


But of course the best dish was the hamburger! Oh my God! It was just absolutely wonderful!! It was made from minced pork, lightly grilled, then steamed in an egg/onion/bell pepper mixture and topped with mozarrella cheese, and then broiled until the cheese was melted and sizzling.


Mmm!! The meat was incredibly juicy and tender, all its juices sealed in and infusing into the surrounding egg.

This is a picture of a bit of the hamburger, the steamed egg broken into and releasing fragrant broth, and that stringy bit of cheese...
The cheese was the perfect amount; not too much but enough for that "twist round the fork" effect. Yum, yum, oh freaking yum.

After lunch Jingwen and I strolled around Takashimaya, a really high-class shopping mall in Orchard. It's crazy how much they charge for everything there! One small packet of miserable stickers was SGD$5.00!!!!!! Granted, the stickers were pretty cute, but who in the right mind would pay that for a few bright stickers? It's the amount you'd pay for a decent meal!

Mid-afternoon I snacked on a big sweet potato I took along with me.

I don't know why, but I was so sleepy and tired when I got back! As soon as I got back home I flopped over the couch and slept for over an hour! It was pitch dark when I got up, way past 8pm! In a frantic I quickly prepared dinner. So that's my excuse for not trying something new. I had my new favorite, eggplasta pudding.


I still can't get over the ingenuity and pleasant cadence of that name. Eggplasta, eggplasta, eggplasta~!

Well that was how I spent my past couple of days. Tomorrow is Sunday, which means my meals are going to have to be quick and simple again because of church. So anyway tata fellow bloggers, hope you have a great weekend!