Salmon Fried Rice

Came home early and decided to make fried rice, somehow I have been craving for that. Maybe I missed the way I did it way back when I was a student and living on my own. As I lacked the necessary ingredients, this is a substitute. While nice, it cannot replace the other version.

Fried rice is a simple dish, which almost every Singaporean (or Indonesian/Malaysian/Chinese...so far I can't recall if Indians have their own version too) household will have its own recipe. It is like the pho which every Vietnamese household will cook (at least according to my Vietnamese friend).

I like my fried rice to be spicy and with lots of fried shallots as they bring out the fragrance and flavor of the rice. And I tend to cook it with very little oil, I'm scared of using oil, hence I tend to avoid cooking deep-fried food. But alas, deep-fried food tastes so good though. A dilemma which I solve by eating out. Haha. I go by the maxim of "out of sight, out of mind" or "what I don't see can't hurt me" :p

Saute the veggies

Add salmon and egg

Salmon Fried Rice

Ingredients:
sliced celery
frozen veggies of carrots, peas and corns
minced garlic
1 salmon steak (deboned & sprinkled with lemon juice)
lemon
1tsp of chili paste
1 egg
1 cup of cooked rice
butter

Method:
Heat the wok or frying pan. Add oil/butter when hot. Saute the garlic (and chopped onions if desired), then add veggies when garlic is browned. Crack the egg into the pan and mixed with the veggies. When done, add the chili paste and stir fry. Add salmon to pan fry before adding the rice finally and mix it all around.

This was what was done as my helper did the initial part (frying the veggies and defrosting the salmon in the microwave, and turned out it cooked the salmon) without checking with me, which is why it is quite oily. If I did the entire thing. It will be this way.

1. Heat pan, add butter when hot. (I like using butter for the aromatic fragrance)
2. Saute the garlic
3. Pan fry the salmon to semi cook it. Remove when done.
4. Saute the veggies.
5. Fry the egg (2 ways, either beat egg and fry, then sliced to garnish. Or...fry egg with the mixture)
6. Add chili paste to the mixture. Return the salmon to cook and "mash" into pieces.
7. Add rice and mix them well.
8. Pepper to taste or sprinkle more lemon juice to give the oomph.

I think I will post my other recipe another time. But basically it is the same principle. Except instead of chili paste, I actually add sliced chili padis to it. So it is really really spicy.

Maybe the reason why I didn't find this that great is that it is not spicy enough. Hehe.

Cafe Iguana - 30 December 2005

Nicole, Geri and I went to Cafe Iguana to celebrate the end of the last workday of 2005. It was a fun night, we didn't get drunk despite drinking 2 jugs of lime margarita on the rocks, as well as a shooter each. I had the Chocolate Orange (tequila, mars bar with orange liquor) while Nic and Geri had the Mars Bar shooter (without orange). It really hit the spot ~ you can feel the warmth within seconds and it was sweet too. Delicious!

We decided to share 2 appetizers. Small nachos (thank God it is small, as the last time Dave ordered the large and it was huge) and my fave - quesadilla with cheese and chicken.

Nachos & quesadilla

Chicken burrito topped with spicy pork stew

For mains, I ordered the shredded steak burrito topped with carne de puerco en chile verde (spicy pork stew), Nic had the same except hers was the chicken burrito and Geri ordered the chicken soft tacos. I usually have the fajitas, but ever since I tried the burrito with the stew, I like that. And I am usually not a pork eater. As expected, we couldn't finished our mains...just too full from the appetizers. Didn't take picture of the soft taco as we were too famished then, and I only remembered to take pictures at the end. My steak burrito looked too messy to grace this page as I was just digging out the meat :p

I love Cafe Iguana, the food is always good. Not too keen on their dessert though. Reservations are needed as it is always full house, even on weeknights.

1st Massage of 2006

I made an appointment at Elements Spa for today as body was still aching. Jeannie was not available, and the receptionist recommended Rachael instead as I wanted something more deep tissue. Well, I don't really fancy deep tissue that much, unless it is needed, like on my shoulders and upper back. They tend to be very tense, either due to me always on the pc or it is just me :p

The Tui Na massage was a mistake (I had it once before at Body Contours and my arms swelled up like a balloon...okay, I'm exaggerating, but Tui Na and I don't get along). I didn't realize Rachael was doing Tui Na until after the session. I just thought it was awfully painful, plus it was hard for me to communicate to Rachael (I think she is from China) that it is too painful as my mandarin is not fantastic. At the end of the session, she asked me if I like the massage, I said it was too painful. Her reply: Pain is good, you will feel better tomorrow. Those relaxing massage is nice and soothing, but will not rid you of the ache and tension. (*Faint*)

True, which is why I usually tell them I prefer a mixture. More pressure on where it is needed i.e. upper back and shoulders, but less pressure for the rest of the body. And I communicated all that to the receptionist when I made the appointment, and I said that too before the start of the treatment.

Well, I just hope my arms will not swell again tomorrow. I totally panicked the last time, and I actually asked some other therapists if that is normal. Happened that I was at the Body & Wellness Festival then, so I could ask. One said it was because of the hard pressure on the blood flow system in both directions, so the blood/whatever got stuck in the middle, causing the swollenness. Another said it will go down in a few days, so not to worry.

For those who do not know, there are different styles to the different massages. If I recall correctly, Chinese massage tends to stroke downwards, towards the feet. Swedish massage (the more soothing and relaxing one) tends to end towards the heart, so the strokes will always go towards the heart area.

Anyway, I will definitely not have Rachael for my massages in future. I better stick to Jeannie or Cecelia. Don't get me wrong, Rachael is good if you like hard massages, but it is just not for me. I'm chicken when it comes to pain. My threshold is very low :p

Pictures of Banana Everything

So here are the pictures. Can any kind soul tell me the the problem too if it is not the flour? Thanks :)

Shrunk Banana Cake

Charred inside of Banana Cake

Banana Walnut Muffins
Dense muffin
Banana Loaf

Banana Cake (Not!)

I went down and saw a huge bunch of bananas and they were sweet, so I was thinking, why not make a banana cake. Got the recipe from Regina and modified it when I realized I lack some ingredients. Instead of all-purpose flour, I only had self-raising flour. So I decided not to add the bicarbonate soda and baking powder as I thought it was already included in the flour. Turned out it only contained baking soda and not both as I thought.

I saw it needed 2 cups of sugar and was horrified. I hate having too much sugar, so I added more bananas (5 instead of 3) and reduced the sugar to 11/2 cups. So there I was, happily mashing the bananas and beating the batter.

Mashed bananas

Batter

I thought the batter might overflow when it is baking, so I transferred some to the muffin pan and a loaf pan.

So I was all set, I realized I do not have 175C in my microwave oven (which doubles up as a convection oven or grill too), so I had the temperature on 180C but reduce the time to 45mins. Disaster struck 25 mins later. My beautiful banana cake was burnt to a crisp!

My mom said she saw it rose beautifully earlier, but as it wasn't time to take it out, she let it be. But a few minutes later, there was a burning smell and the cake shrunk and flattened and hardened. Sob sob. Now where was I? I was in the shower, so I couldn't rescue the cake :(

<>

It was sad and bad, so bad that it was even black inside. And it was hard, rock hard - wish my abs were like that - ok, first trial is a failure. Onto the second try. The muffin. I added walnuts to make banana walnuts muffins. I reduced the heat to 70C for 10mins. Didn't work, still too soft. In the end, I had it for 10mins at 160C, and an additional 5 mins at 180C. It turned out golden, not too brown. It looked fine, but the taste is another matter. Not very sweet, which is good, but it felt too dense and sticky.

So for the last test, I added more milk to the banana loaf. It turned out well, less sticky, but still a bit dense, similar to scone texture, but less fluffy. So I conclude, it must be the flour.

Lesson learnt: Always follow the recipe for 1st attempt and then modified after that.

Why Mocha Latte?

When this blog was created, I was wondering what it shall be. My life? My interests? My views? It is not easy to maintain blogs, to keep updating it, especially when time is a precious commodity.

I finally decided to make it a frivolous blog, mainly on food, restaurants and spas as they are what I am keen on and have visited plenty. Hopefully, the subsequent reviews will help others too. And who knows, maybe it will be a gateway for me to be a food critic in future. Hahahaha.

For now...I am paying tribute to my blog's name. Mocha Latte. Coffee culture has evolved so much. It is no longer just a simple black coffee or coffee with milk and sugar; there are now more variations. Mocha, frappuccino, cuppuccino, latte, americano, machiato and the list goes on.

I am usually a mocha person as it contains 2 of my fave beverage: coffee and chocolate. I am not that keen on latte or americano, etc.

The first time I ordered a mocha latte from this little cafe (Corica - famous for their apple strudel in Australia) in Singapore. I was amazed by the way it was made ~ the different layers of the coffee, milk and mocha. Simply gorgeous!

Not many places actually focus or bother about presentation, yet this tiny cafe, which specializes more in strudels rather than coffee, did. And so, came my blog's name. Mocha latte - many layers of goodies. One has to be patient to get to the prize ~ chocolate syrup at the bottom

While mocha is always in my heart, I have grown, and so have my taste. Now I tend to order different drinks at different places.

Starbucks (still my fave) - Caramel machiato, mocha valencia (only available during CNY)
Coffee Bean - mocha latte (I think they have this, not sure)

Don't really go to other coffee places, so I am clueless about other popular coffee joints. At restaurants, I tend to order cuppuccino to gauge how good they are in making beverage. That will be another story.

Trying again

This is driving me nuts! Why can't it be simpler like myspace or xanga? I hope it does get easier with time.

Happy 2006!

Posting again...still taking me some time to figure out how to work this blog.

This blog will be mostly about food, restaurants and possibly spas. The good stuff in life.

First Post

Hmmm...I have finally caved in and started a blog on blogspot. I am not sure how frequent or long I will be posting in here as there are just too many blogs in cyberspace.

It is January 1st, 2006. A new year, new beginnings, new everything. A fresh start, a clean slate.