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Tuesday, August 5, 2008/ 3:05 AM Nostalgic Satay Lucky Me I was walking through this housing estate when I chance upon an uncle behind a small little cart. From far, I could only see the uncle fanning hard amidst thick smoke. I only realised that he was selling satay when I walked a few steps closer. Happy to see that such traditional vendors still exist, I approached him excitedly. I ordered only 5 pieces of pork satay as I was still full from a late lunch. While waiting for my satay to be barbequed, I saw several residents popping their heads out of the windows, equally excited to see the satay man. He must be a familliar sight in that area.  Long Queue I was expecting my satays to be ready in less than 5 minutes, since I was the only customer waiting in front of the cart. However, when the food was ready the uncle didn't serve it to me! It was then did I realise that there were residents who placed their orders with the uncle before me, and they walked back home while waiting for their satay to be cooked. I started to wonder how many 'invisible customers' were there before me.  Customers While waiting, a couple came over and collected 60 satays. Apparently, the man's father had called to place the order a day before. That increased my expectation of the satay; it must have tasted so good that people are placing phone orders a day before! Shortly after, my attention was caught by a middle aged lady and a man walked over. (I assumed they were a pair of mother and son.) Still a distant away, I could hear the man saying that the Satay Uncle sells only pork satay, while the lady insisted that he does sell chicken satay too. It's been quite a while before they decided to clarify with the Satay Uncle. This was what he said: He only sells cooked pork satay, as pork satay will still taste as tender and delicious after being left in room temperature for a period of time. However, chicken satay will only taste equally good if eaten immediately after being barbequed. Otherwise, the texture of the chicken satay be rough and it will be too tough for consumption. Since most of his customers 'take-away' satays instead of eating 'fresh' on the spot, he decided to sell only cooked pork satays. But if anyone wants to pre-order raw satays, he sells both chicken and pork.  My Satay By then, my long awaited Satay was ready. It was accompanied a blend of fresh pineapple. Instead of the typical cucumber chosen by many other hawkers, this Satay Uncle chose the japanese cucumber (known as Suhyo) instead and he sure was generous with it! However I kindly rejected the peanut satay sauce, as I felt embarassed for receiving so many 'accompanying complements' with a merage purchase of 5 satays at 50 cents each. This Satay Uncle did his satay the traditional way by placing layers of pork fats in between pieces of meat. Though I usually do not fancy pork fats or lard, I got a great sense of satisfaction chewing through the piece of grilled fats, as it slowly melts in my mouth with a soft sizzling sound. In fact, I like the grilled fats more than the meat! I will definately return for more pork satays and the next time round, I'll request for the uncle's handphone number so that I can always call him for advance orders or request for uncooked satays should I organise a bbq session in the near future.  A satisfied customerLocation: Please pm (private message) me for details, as I don't want to risk losing the chance to savour delicious satay ever again. Just in case someone decides to report the Satay Uncle to the relevant authority. Score Chart Food 8.5/10 The pork was grilled to perfect tender and the pork fat was awesome. Variety 6 /10 Pork for cooked satays. Pork and chicken for uncooked satays. (The variety was fine with me as I don't really fancy beef nor mutton satay for its smell) Ambience 7.5/10 Nostalgic is the word to describe it; I felt as if I was back to my parent's era of time. Price 8/10 The price if satay is pretty standard, but I rated it fairly high as the Satay Uncle was generous with the pineapple blend, satay sauce, japanese cucumber and onion. Promotions Nil Posted by Mildred Labels: Food Review |
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Monday, July 14, 2008/ 11:32 AM Unpleasant Experience at Swensens I knew most of us were clearly upset by the Swensens staff at Plaza Singapura. Despite us mimicking on how we would like to complain to the management or write in to forums, I knew nobody would do so. Thus, I decided to write a complaint letter to Swensens to voice our unhappiness. I finally did so on Saturday (12 July 2008). Complaint letter to Swensens Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to complain about the unpleasant experience at Swensens (Plaza Singapura outlet last Sunday (6th July 2008) due to the staffs’ bad attitude. My friends had I had wanted to enjoy a bowl of earthquake at swensens to celebrate my friend’s birthday. We arrived at the outlet at 10.00 pm sharp and saw the sign at the entrance stating that the restaurant closes at 10.30 pm, with its last order at 10.15pm. We saw the manager at the entrance and the first thing he said to us was “Our last order is at 10.15pm.” I reassured him that we have already decided what to order, we only needed to know what flavours of ice cream was available. Knowing that our orders did not require any cooking efforts, we were brought to our table shortly. The waiter who served us water and gave us our menu reminded us that the last order was at 10.15pm. We told him that we understood his stand and would place an order the moment we decide on the flavours. Before we could even view the flavours available, a third waiter (who is middle aged and slightly bald) reminded us repeatedly in a harsh tone that their last order was at 10.15pm and that the restaurant was closing in 25 minutes. By then, other patrons at the restaurant started turning around to look at the ‘commotion’. We felt so embarrassed and humiliated that we left the restaurant promptly. If the staff had not wanted to serve us in the first place, they could have turned us away politely instead of speaking to us harshly in hope that we would leave soon. Being a frequent customer of Swensens, this kind of service attitude is not what I would expect from a renowned ice-cream restaurant chain. Perhaps Swensens might consider sending their staff for training to improve their customer relations skills. Regards, xxxxxxx ------------------------------------------- Their management was really effective and replied me on the very next working day. This was what they said. Letter from Swensens Dear Sir/Madam, We refer to your email regrading your recent visit to our restaurant in Plaza Singapura. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment caused by the lapse in service provided by our restaurant staff. It is clearly a case of mishandling of the situation by our staff. Please be assured that we have since taken all the necessary steps incuding retraining and counseling to ensure that all our staff are well equipped with the relevant skills and be instilled with right atitude. At the same time, we have also reiterated the importance of good customer service to all our staff so that they would be able to serve our guests well. We seek to learn from every encounter, and we would like to reassure you that it has always been our utmost priority to provide the best service possible to all our valuable guests like yourself. Your feedback received will be used to improve our effectiveness progress.Your continued patronage and satisfaction are important to us, and we are grateful with your concern shown to us in highlighting the matter so that we could be aware of any chances of negligence from our staff. We thank you once again for your kind patience, and we look forward to your continued patronage. Best Regards xxxxxxxxx Even though they sounded apologetic in the letter, it makes me wonder if they are able to 'retrain' their staff in one working day. If it is, will it be effective? Food for thought. Posted by, Your Dearest Advisor * Please note that names are changed to xxxxx to protect the individual's privacy. Labels: Bad Dining Experience |
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/ 8:03 AM Vanilla Cupcake with Glace Icing Recipe Here's the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes I made for the birthdays. I'll be trying new flavours one soon, hopefully chocolate banana and peanut better, slurps. I did Glace icing for this cupcake (cause its the easiest, hehe). Will post up the recipes for other cake/cookie decorations next time (butter cream, fondant, marzipan, royal icing etc)..  Vanilla Cupcake Recipe (Makes around 15 cupcakes) 110g unsalted butter, diced Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/gas mark 6. Place all the ingredients for the cake in a food processor and cream together. Arrange about 15 paper cases inside two fairy-cake racks and two-thirds fill them with the cake mixture. Bake for 17-20 minutes until risen and springy to the touch, then remove and leave to cool. Glace Icing Recipe200g Icing Sugar Powder 2 tablespoon of water Just sieve the icing powder then mix with the water until its smooth. Add colouring of your choice, use a toothpick to add colouring so that you won't end up adding too much. Add a few drops to achieve sweet pastel colours. Use spatula or metal spoon to spread the icing. Be careful not to scoop too much at a time, its liquid in nature so it tend so spread. I ended up overflowing a few cuppies because I spread too much icing. Optional: Toppings such as mini hearts, candy silver balls, choco rice, choco chips, nuts, smarties etc. love, xia |
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Monday, June 30, 2008/ 11:48 PM Chocolate Chips Cookies Attempted baking today and it was a success. Got the recipe from some website, but after some trial and error (because their US metric measurement is a total mess), i did some changes and claim that recipe mine. Here you go CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (Makes about 50-60 cookies) Ingredient: - 227g butter, room temperature (you can get this from NTUC, one bar itself already weighs that amount) - 100g granulated sugar - 170g brown sugar - 2 eggs - 2 teaspoon vanilla essence - 250g all purpose flour - 3/4 teaspoon salt - 1 teaspoon baking powder - 1 teaspoon baking soda - 230g chocolate chips Preparation: Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, grnulated sugar and brown sugar together until creamy. Step 2: Beat the eggs and add it into the mixture mentioned above and also add in the vanilaa essence as well. Step 3: Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, then add them all into the mixture. Step 4: Add in the chocolate chips. Step 5: Shape the mixture into circle shape and placed it on an ungreased cookie sheet Step 6: Bake in preheated 200 degree celcius oven for 10-13 minutes, or until the edges are brown. Regards, Chef-in-dream, Kelvin |
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/ 8:18 AM First Entry Test post! This blog is set up with the idea sparked by mil and xia over a msn conversation. Purpose is for mixed rice members to share recipes or cooking experiences. Come Make some Rice! |
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