[Homecooked] Creamy Chicken Pasta

I prefer tomato-based pasta to cream sauce pasta because I can't stand the strong cream taste throughout the entire course of dinner. However, since I received a request to cook this one fine day, I did some research online and tried out this recipe from here! I changed the sour cream to light sour cream and added mushrooms and chicken.

Here are some of my ingredients!

I fell in love with asparagus from the start of this year when my mom introduced sauté asparagus with prawns and scallops to me.

Ta-da! It was a tad watery for my liking, which I contributed to me using Light sour cream instead of Full Cream. So.. Lesson learnt: Wanna eat something good, go ALL the way and worry later. *nods.

I even paired it with salmon as a "side-dish" kinda main dish. Okay, that was a lie. The real reason was that the fish was frozen for a month plus already so we had to clear it before it tastes funny. 

This is pretty perfect if you prefer a light meal that is a deviation from the usual tomato-based pasta, but satisfyingly delicious as well. 

Sun Ray Cafe @ Serangoon Gardens

I got to know about Sun Ray Cafe from Instagram! Haha, the wonders of social media. I posted a picture of a latte and the admin person of Sun Ray Cafe liked the pic and that's how I decided to give this Cafe a visit to give their coffee a try!

Mocha - $5.00

Latte - $4.00

I must say that I was very impressed with their coffee! Good thing that this quaint lil cafe, which is pet-friendly too, was not busy on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The head barista came over to chat with us and it was interesting to learn about the different coffee and the art of coffee from her evident passion in making good coffee. She shared with us about the different types of coffee and the logic for the different terminology, like what goes into a latte, a cappuccino, a macchiato, etc etc. In the end we had a total of 4 cups of coffee at the cafe! The other two - cold drip coffee and americano were not featured above.

 American breakfast - $14.90

Fresh scones - $2.50 each (come with Butter)

I am quite glad they served pretty decent food too! They served all day brunch items and I ordered an American breakfast, which came with sausages, cheese croquette, scrambled eggs (or sunny side-up), rocket salad and fresh scones. I must say that the scrambled eggs were not done to my expectation as they were tasteless and not as "milky" as I like. The other condiments were average but the SCONES were DA BOMB! 

In fact, we loved the scones so much, we ordered extra serving and as you can see, they were HUGE! They were crumbly and slightly cakey, fragrant and went very well with Americano. Can't wait to have it again! They serve dessert and other main dishes too.

I'm glad I made the trip down because it was really nice chatting with the staff and seeing cute dogs. I would definitely come back for the good coffee and nice ambience. Customer service was superb, the waiters were friendly, attentive, and very courteous. It's really hard to find good local service staff nowadays! Do visit the cafe if you happen to be around the area! :) UOB card holders get to enjoy 12% off.

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Sun Ray Cafe79 Brighton Crescent (Off Serangoon Gardens way)
Singapore, Singapore 559218

Tel: 62838700

Sun Ray Cafe WebsiteSun Ray Cafe FB page

[Homecooked] Chicken cutlet Salad

I was craving for salad last weekend and was scratching my brain to whip up something different with chicken. Just so happened that I was looking at a blogger's blog post on Katsu Don and I suddenly craved for crispy and light chicken cutlet covered with bread crumbs! Even though I have no recipe at all and basically just mashed up everything together, I think my chicken turned out pretty decent!

Chicken cutlet (serves 3-4 pax)

You'll need:
- 300g Chicken thigh
- 2 tablespoon worchester sauce (my secret ingredient)
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Corn flour
- Bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoon olive oil

1. Marinate chicken with the worchester sauce, salt and lemon juice. (Lemon juice helps to tenderize the chicken or even beef)
2. Leave in frige for about 3-4 hours.
3. Heat up pan and pour in the olive oil. (MAKE SURE IT'S HOT HOT!)
4. Beat up the egg into a small bowl, mix the chicken with flour and dip into the egg and bread crumbs before sliding into a frying pan. I made sure the entire slab of chicken is covered with tons and heaps of bread crumbs!
5. Let it cool on kitchen towel (to soak up the oil) before serving.

I mixed in romaine lettuce, brown rice, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, cranberries, carrots with balsamic vinaigrette to compliment the chicken cutlet and voila! A healthy (yet sinful) meal. :)

Poteato @ Yong Siak St

If there is one particular day in a year which I hate the most, it'd have to be V-day. Overpriced roses, chocolates and the restaurants are fully booked with kiasu couples who seem to bank on 1 day to shower their loved ones with love and flowers. Quite frustrated that most of the cool cafes did not take in any walk-in customers along Yong Siak Street. There's this new kid on the block that was different- Poteato and BOY, were we glad to patronize this quaint cafe opposite Open Door Policy because the Eggless Chocolate Cake was DA BOMB. Shall go to that in a bit.

This cafe had red petals scattered across the reserved table - a very nice and sweet touch for a supposedly lomantic day. Although the special menu could be improved in my humble opinion.

I'm no coffee connoisseur, but the latte served here was medium-bodied with slight bittersweet aftertaste. Definitely not as bitter as Blackbird Cafe's coffee but I liked the subtle bitterness that lingered in my taste bud after each sip.

My partner ordered the Pulled Chicken Sandwich that came with salsa dip and potato chips. The chicken strips were tender and tasty but the herbed focaccia bun could be toasted last before serving because I guess they wanted to serve both dishes together and the bun was prepared first perhaps. The bun was a lil too dense and oily after a few mouthfuls, which affected the overall taste with the chicken.

I enjoyed the Aglio Olio with mushrooms very much though! It was light yet flavourful, spicy and the sautéed mushrooms were soft and delectable. Even the boyfriend urged me to cook something like that the next time. Heh.

We had wanted to try the lemon meringue tart but it was sold out so we changed to the Eggless Chocolate Cake instead and that was actually the BEST choice made. Ever. The chocolate cake was dense, not too sweet and it was such a sinful gooey chocolatey mess! Definitely one of the best chocolate cake we had ever tasted and I could cry with happiness after taking the first mouthful. "The uglier the cake, the nicer it will taste!" was what the positive boyfriend said after it was served to us. It is true. Please try and let me know if you had the same sentiment as us!

Although the cafe does not charge service fee and GST, we need to order directly from the counter and help ourselves to free-flow ice water & cutlery. I welcome such arrangement because I do feel a bit paiseh at times if I kept asking the waitress to refill our water.

I like the simplistic yet rustic decor of the cafe and the affordable tasty food served here. A nice place to chill out with friends/loved ones over comfort food and drinks.

My first in posting a picture of us but today's dinner really was one of the best so far, despite us being anti-vday advocates. A great day that ended with an awesome meal at a quaint little cafe along the hippy street. Good for us! ;)

Ending off with a 'paparazzi-like' shot of the Monocle event that happened at Books Actually. Pretty apt for Monocle, though I think the guests may have preferred a bigger venue.

Poteato
78 Yong Siak Street
Singapore 163078
Poteato FB page
Call 6221 2488 for reservations

Tanuki Raw oysters @ Orchard Central

All hail the OYSTERS!

Tanuki Raw Oysters - $12/dozen (promo price)

I must say that it's an exquisite type of cuisine really, it's slimy, juicy and you taste the SEA, literally. Here's how I think people should enjoy oysters - Squeeze a little lemon and squirt a little tobasco sauce... there, feel the oysters mingle with your tastebuds and smell the ocean within your soul... quite a nice feeling actually.

American Roll - $10

We gave American Roll a try too, with thin beef slices sandwiched between the rice and mayo. Not too bad though the beef can be a tad more generous! I would definitely try other sushi rolls when I'm there the next time.

Tanuki is opened by Standing Sushi Bar's Howard Lo and I guess the raw food are the must-try items like the fresh sashimi, steak tartare and oysters! They also serve a fushion of western-meet-eastern kind of cuisine if you want something more interesting to try.

Oh btw, skip the drinks, not worth the tummy space. ;)

Tanuki Raw
Orchard Central
#02-03
Tanuki Raw FB pageTanuki website
Tel: 6636 5949

Habitat Coffee @ Upper Thomson Road

Upper Thomson area is like West area's Holland Village. Full of pumped-up kids, hippies, youngsters, cafes, bars, food places and I especially like to visit Habitat Coffee!

Eggs Benedict

The hollandaise sauce is delicious and goes really well with the poached eggs and toasted muffins. But they can be slightly more generous with the sauce I think!

Cafe Latte

I like the caramel biscuit that comes complementary with each coffee! However, to be really honest, the coffee is not bad.. but not entirely fantastic.

Mama's Banana pancakes

The one thing I always look out for in pancakes will be fluffiness and flavour. The pancakes served at Habitat were fluffy but  a lil bit dry on the texture, though the bananas and maple syrup and chocolate fudge made up for it.

I like how attentive and polite the service crew were and the nice ambience in the cafe. Oh and not forgetting the generous serving of Truffle Fries (sorry I couldn't find the photo in any of my storage spaces!) which you definitely have to try!

If you happen to be around Upper Thomson area, Habitat Coffee's the place to chill and catchup with friends over good coffee.

Habitat Coffee
233 Upper Thomson Road
Singapore 574355