Banana & Walnut Muffins

Ingredients

190g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
350g bananas, mashed
120g white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
60g canola oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Lightly grease 112 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and oil. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Chicken Chop with Mushroom Sauce

TGIF dinner. I served this with steamed broccoli and cheesy mashed potatoes, simple and balanced meal. Hubby gave two thumbs up for this meal!! Happy and so glad he enjoyed it =)

Ingredients

Chicken Chop

2 pieces boneless chicken thigh (about 150 - 200g each, I removed skin)

Salt & Pepper

Mushroom Sauce

100g white button mushroom

1 large yellow onion

olive oil for frying

1 cup thick chicken stock (½ cube chicken stock to 1 cup water)

corn flour

a sprig of thyme

dark soya sauce for colour

Method

Chicken Chop

1. Marinate chicken chop with salt and pepper for at least an hour.
2. Bake in preheated oven of 200C for 15-20min till cooked

Mushroom Sauce

1. Cut the mushroom into strips.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry onions until translucent.
3. Stir in mushrooms and continue frying.
4. Add in stock and dark soya sauce.
5. Thicken with cornflour until desired thickness.
6. Pour sauce over chicken chop and serve.

Basmati Garlic Rice

I've always wanted to try out basmati rice but I've only seen 5kg packs in supermarkets in Singapore and they're so so expensive! A 5kg pack is also way too much for me. Was so happy when I saw a 1kg pack of basmati on sale in Jusco, it was only RM6.99!!! I immediately grabbed a pack and started to look for appropriate recipes to try.

I decided to try this recipe as I'm an absolute lover of anything with garlic and onion and this recipe has both! The resultant rice was so fragrant that I can eat it on its own without any side dish! I heart this basmatic garlic rice!

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, diced

l large carrot, shredded

2 garlic cloves, minced (I increased to 4 cloves)

1 tbsp ginger, minced

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups water

Method

1. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion and carrot, cook, stirring frequently, until onion is tender. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 2 min.
2. Add basmati rice, stirring to coat. Transfer rice to rice cooker, add water and salt and cook till rice is ready.

Steamed / Fried Carrot Cake

What's the best thing about home-cooked food? You can make it anytime and you're assured only the best ingredients goes into the making!

I've been having this unsatisfied craving (I can't take those sold outside for health reason) for fried carrot cake (or what we call "Chai Tow Kway" in Singapore), I just want to eat it, regardless if its the black version fried with sweet soya sauce or the white version fried with egg and chai po.

Finally the craving overwhelmed me and I knew I had to learn to do it myself I want to eat it. So what do we start with? Making the steamed carrot cake of course =), luckily this is easy and can be done quickly. The challenge is to produce a carrot cake that is not too soft (you wouldn't want a mashy chai tow kway would you) or too dry.

I used almost equal amount of carrot and radish and hence my carrot cake is "decorated" with orange strips of carrots which I think looks quite nice haha. This is what I get:

You can eat it on it own with chili sauce or your favourite sauce, but for me, I love it fried. The first chai tow kway from my kitchen!!

The black chai tow kway, fried with sweet soya sauce (Kicap Manis)

The white chai tow kway, fried with lots of eggs.

These might not be the best chai tow kway around, and definitely do not have the "wok hei" or the charness of those sold in hawker centre, but who cares, its tasty enough for me and I've got my cravings satisfied and I'm comforted that these are much healthier than those sold in hawker centres. Now I can have it anytime I want!


Steamed Carrot Cake

Ingredients

200g radish, shredded, squeeze dry
150g carrots, shredded, squeeze dry
350g rice flour
1L water
30g dried shrimp, diced
Olive oil for frying
salt, sugar to taste

Method

1. Mix the flour with water.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and fry the dried shrimps till fragrant. Add in raddish and carrot and fry for a while. Mix rice flour solution well and pour into wok slowly.
3. Add seasoning, mix well and cook at medium heat until mixture starts to curdle.
4. Pour into a greased 7" baking tin and smooth the top of the mixture with the back of a spoon.
5. Steam on high heat for 40-45 minutes till cooked.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Brown Rice

Its Friday fuss free dinner time again - Easy baked teriyaki chicken with fried brown rice. I love to bake my poultry and seafood. Its super quick and easy - just marinate and pop into oven, very suitable for lazy me as there's no pot and pans to wash up after that haha! Of cos, baking poultry and seafood is also healthier as there is no added oil and we have found that meat which are baked tends to be more juicy and succulent than stir frying or others.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken

Marinate chicken (I removed skin and excess fats before marinating) with soya sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and sesame oil (i added based on my own agaration) for a few hours. Bake marinated chicken in preheated oven of 200C for 20-25min till cooked. Leave to rest for a few minute before serving.

Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu

Ingredients

500g Tapioca, grated
3/4 cup sugar (I reduced to 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup think coconut milk
1/3 cup butter, melted (I replaced with canola oil)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a loaf pan. Bake at 170C for 40-45min till cooked.

An Even Hazier Thursday....

Air quality in Singapore continues to worsen, hitting a all time high PSI of 102 as at 5pm today since 2006. And Straits Times actually mentioned that the haze is worse in western and southern parts of Singapore where I live! This is not comforting to know...

PSI READINGS

5pm Singapore time, Oct 21:

102Unhealthy

PSI Value	PSI Descriptor
0 - 50	Good
51 - 100	Moderate
101 - 200	Unhealthy
201 - 300	Very unhealthy
Above 300	Hazardous

From NEA website

Apple & Walnut Muffin Cake

I wanted to do a quick and easy bake as breakfast for Hubby and decided on this Apple & Walnut Muffin recipe. Its super quick to put together and uses healthy ingredients (apple & walnut, and I substituted butter for canola oil). Well, I wanted to use up my remaining green apple (which is huge by the way) so I ended up with more apples than called for in the recipe. Too lazy to scope out individual portions, I poured all the batter into a 7" round tin.

The muffin cake doesn't look very nice (with all the apples overflowing out of the top) but never judge a book by its cover. The muffin cake is soft and very moist! I can taste apple and walnut in every bite =)


I will probably continue to double to amount of apple used and use a smaller cake tin to get a taller cake.


Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins (I did half recipe and used a 7" round tin)
2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup granulated sugar (I reduced to 1/4 cup for half the recipe)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg (I omitted)

¾ cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

⅓ cup butter, melted (I used canola oil instead)

1 cup chopped apples (I used about 2 cups for half recipe)

½ cup chopped walnuts (I used about 1/2 cup for half recipe)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with paper baking liners. 
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In a small bowl, beat milk, eggs and butter until well blended. Stir into flour mixture just until blended. Fold in apples and walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups or liners, filling three-fourths full. 
3. Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack.

A Hazy Tuesday

Poor focus? Shaky hands? No. Its the Great Singapore Haze period again!

Singapore sky has been enveloped in a cloud of smoke, supposedly from the southwesterly winds blowing in the smoke from Sumatra fires (satellite had detected 202 hotspots in Sumatra, mainly in the provinces of South Sumatra, Jambi and Riau). PSI readings at 8pm stands at 84, though its still in the healthy range (PSI reading above 100 is unhealthy), everyone still have to be more careful.

Lunch @ Six Restaurant

Met up with a group of friends for lunch and somebody suggested this restaurant along Singapore River.

Six Restaurant is a modern Japanese restaurant located inside Standard Chartered Building (err, is the building called "Standard Chartered Building"? anyway, its @ Six Battery Road) and overlook the Singapore River.

Here’s a random shot of the Singapore River and Boat Quay (pardon the picture quality, I wasn’t even focusing the camera properly)

Not sure if its coincidence or if these are their signature dishes but between the 6 of us, 3 ordered curry rice (curry rice serving is quite big) and 3 ordered unagi dishes. Shall let the pictures do the talking!

All lunch sets came with miso soup and salad.

Tori Curry Rice Set ($16.90) – Golden Crumbled Chicken Thigh with Rice in Curry Sauce. This looks so good and I was so tempted to order this, but I voted in favour of unagi instead =p.

Sakana Curry Rice Set ($16.90) – Pan-Fried Fish Fillet with Rice in Curry Sauce

Unatama Don Set (14.90) – Braised Eel, Onions and Egg in Tsuyu (Mirin & Soya Sauce) Sauce served over Steamed Rice

 

Unagi Tamago Toji Set ($16.90) – Slow Braised Eel, Onions, Carrots, Leeks and Golden Mushrooms in a pot and topped with cooked egg.

I had this and have to say the Unagi is indeed smooth and flavoursome and the gravy goes very well with steamed rice (I finished every single grain of rice!)

Lunch @ Ikea

I have not been baking these few days but do have a lot of backlogs posts on eating out which have been accumulating. Shall start off with this one @ Ikea.

Been a long long time since we last visited Ikea hence decided to go there for lunch and to window shop (I love looking at the furniture displays and dreaming about the ideal home / kitchen that have yet to materialise).

We reached around 2pm plus and the good thing was most of the lunch crowd had gone and we managed to get seats by the windows =)

These were what we had for lunch at Ikea restaurant:

Terriyaki Chicken Meal, $5.50– This was the offer meal that day, and this is actually very tasty. The chicken is well marinated (and not dry) and the chili really enhances the flavour of the dish. The meal came with lots of greens (broccoli, carrot, black fungus, achar) and this contributes to a balanced diet.

Poached Salmon with Chive Sauce, $6 – My favourite! Lightly poached salmon with lots of broccoli and potatoes (both my favourites ha!), definitely a healthy, balanced and satisfying meal. Hubby doesn’t like cooked salmon, so hee hee I had the whole salmon to myself!

Whats dining at Ikea without their signature meatballs! We ordered a kid’s meatball ($2.90) to share since we already had a main course each. The meatballs are good as usual, especially with the cranberry sauce, but it seemed to me that the meatballs have shrunk over the years… or is it just me?

I had an enjoyable lunch at Ikea and hope I can go eat my poached salmon again soon!

Red Bean Matcha Swiss Roll

Ingredients


4 eggs, separated
40g canola oil
100g cake flour, sifted (ran out of cake flour, so used superfine flour)
80ml water
2 tsp green tea / matcha powder
40g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar


red bean paste

Method

1. In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks, oil, water and cake flour until well mixed. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the egg whites till frothy. Add in cream of tartar and beat till soft peaks. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peak.
3. Fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture till incorporated.
4. Pour the mixture into a swiss roll / cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated oven of 200C for 10-12min or until cooked.
5. When cake is cooked, leave to cool completely.
6. Spread the red bean paste onto cake. Roll it up and chill in fridge before serving.

Roselle Drink (洛神花茶）

We visited Desaru Fruit Farm last week (will post photos from the trip in a separate post) and were intrigued by the many benefits of consuming roselle plant which our guide was explaining. As the fruit is not expensive (1kg at RM6), we bought a kg of roselle from the farm's store to try.

Roselle plant - picture taken from my previous Kluang trip as I realised we had forgotten to take photo of the Roselle plants in Desaru Fruit Farm, must have been too engrossed listening!


The roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa, known in Chinese as 洛神花) is a species of Hibiscus used for the production of bast fibre and as an infusion.The flowers are 8–10 cm in diameter, white to pale yellow with a dark red spot at the base of each petal, and have a stout fleshy calyx at the base, fleshy and bright red as the fruit matures. 

Roselle Fruit

The plant is considered to have anti-hypertensive properties. Roselle has been used in folk medicine as a diuretic, mild laxative, and treatment for cardiac and nerve diseases and cancer. Roselle calyces are also harvested fresh to produce pro-health drink due to high contents of vitamin C and anthocyanins. It is also believed Roselle drink helps to reduce cholesterol.

above extracted and summarised from Wikipedia.

Well, the fruits have been sitting on the table top for the past 2 days as I was not in the mood to make the Roselle drink with my back pain still haunting me. Dear Hubby decided to help yesterday as he didn't want the fruits to dry up.

This is the fruit of his labour, the drink does really tastes like Ribena, sweet and tangy and full of berry taste. And we're happy as its completely homemade and free of additives and preservatives!

Roselle drink

Ingredients

Roselle calyces (the red "petals") from 500g of Roselle Fruit, discard the seed pods
about 2L of water (this gives a mild drink that is not too tart)
Sugar to taste

Method

Wash the Roselle calyces thoroughly, boil it in water for 10-15min. Add sugar to taste. Best served chilled.

Orange Butter (Pound) Cake

Instruction

250g butter (I used 225g)
180g sugar (I used 150g)
250g self raising flour (I used 225g)
4 large eggs
1/3 cup orange juice
rind of 1 orange

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy
2. Add in eggs, one at a time and mix well after each addition
3. Stir in orange rind
4. Fold in flour alternating with orange juice
5. Pour into well greased 8" square pan (I used a loaf pan) and bake in preheated oven of 170C for 40-45min till skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Cool and serve.

Molasses Sponge Cake

I have a bottle of unopened Molasses which I bought last Christmas thinking to use it for gingerbread cookies but I never get round to using it. Did a quick search online and found a recipe for Molasses Sponge Cake. The recipe is simple and hence I decided to try it.

The sponge cakes turn out soft and fragrant but the texture is not as fluffy as I would like, think I did not beat the egg mixture till its fluffy enough and I deflated some of the air bubbles while folding in the flour. Well never mind, I shall try again next time since I still have a big bottle of molasses =)

Ingredients
 

2 eggs
25g caster sugar
45g molasses
1/4tsp salt
70g cake flour
15g milk
15g veg. oil
 

Method 

1.  Preheat oven to 190C. Lined small cupcake tray with paper casing and set aside.
2. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs, salt, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. (Do the ribbon test: Use the whisk to spoon some batter, drip some into the mixing bowl. If it stay visible for a while then this is the right stage.)
3. Shift the cake flour into the cake batter in 3 portions and fold in. 
4. Mix milk and oil together and fold in lightly into the batter until well combined. 
5. Spoon batter into cupcake tray until 90% full.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10mins.
7. Remove cakes from tin and cool on a wire rack.
8. Dust with icing powder and serve.

Note: You can replace molasses with honey, maple syrup or golden syrup.

Oreo Sponge Cake

I love sponge cakes!! No butter, no chemical raising agents, minimal oil, and I don't mind eating it on its own without frosting =)

I adapted this oreo sponge cake from a vanilla sponge cake recipe. Blur me forgot (what's new right) to add in the vanilla extract called for in the recipe but the resultant cake is still fragrant and moist. The crushed oreo added a tinge of sweetness to enhance the flavour of the cake, and I'm happy with how the cake has raise so evenly.

Ingredients

3 egg
125g caster sugar (I used 90g)
1/4tsp salt
100g cake flour
22g veg. oil
22g milk
1/4tsp vanilla paste (I accidentally omitted)
5 oreo biscuits (without cream), crushed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. 
2. Lined base of a 7inches round tin with greaseproof paper and set aside.
3. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs, salt and sugar until thick and fluffy. 
4. Sift the cake flour into the cake batter in 3 portions and fold in. 
5. Mix milk, vanilla paste and oil together and fold in lightly into the batter until well combined. 
6. Fold in oreo biscuits
7. Pour batter into the cake tin.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30mins.
9. Remove cake from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Breakfast

This is what we had for breakfast yesterday, egg mayo sandwich and milo. Simple but absolutely delicious! Thanks Hubby for the wonderful milo =)

Friday Fuss Free Dinner

This is again a simple and fuss free dinner on a lazy Friday night. The sauce is the same as the one in this baked pasta, only difference in this dish is I used mashed potato to replace pasta as the carbo source, and added broccoli to provide some greens.

Minimum washing up ha!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookie

This was supposed to be a 3 ingredients cookies but I had added in a couple of ingredients, making it a 5 ingredient one, still very easy to make and you'll get cookies that are crispy on the outside and chewy inside!

Ingredients

1 cup Peanut Butter (Chunky / Creamy)
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2cup)
1 egg
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup blackcurrents

Method

Mixed everything together and drop the cookie dough onto baking sheets. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 10-12min till cookie is ready.

Lemon Squares

4 Ingredients Cranberries Cookies

I have a bag of half finished dried cranberries snack in the fridge and since no one in the house eats it anymore and its expiring soon...lets use it to bake cranberries cookies =)!


This recipe is so simple and I don't need to use mixer. Hooray! Less washing to be done hee. The original recipe call for 1 tbsp of milk to be added but blur me forgot to add it again! My dough is hence drier, but that makes it easier to handle, there's no need for me to refrigerate the dough before shaping. Blessing in disguise? I'll know after the cookies are ready.

Following my usual lazy style, I didn't bother to roll out the dough and use cookie cutter to shape the cookies. Instead, I just roll the dough into a log and divide into (almost) equal portions before using a fork to flatten the cookie dough.

The cookies are buttery and crisp and not too sweet, just the way we like it! And because I omitted some ingredients, I essentially used only 4 ingredients in making these cookies! I wonder what difference would the 1tbsp milk makes?

Ingredients:


(A)
1 1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar (I reduced to 1/4 cup)

(B)
1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter, softened
2 tsp. imitation strawberry extract  (I omitted)
1 Tbsp. milk (I accidentally omitted)

(C)
1/2 cup. sweeten dried cranberries, chopped


Method:

1. In a food processor, add in (A). Pulse to combine. 
2. Then, add in (B) and pulse until a dough is almost formed. Add in (C) and pulse until combined. Take it out on a lightly flour surface and give it a few kneads and formed into a dough. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a cookie cutter. (Note: the dough will be soft, you need to transfer the cookie with a scraper or you can refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 30 mins. before rolling.) 
3. Place on a parchment lined baking pan and bake in preheated 350'F oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown on edges.

Baked Pasta with Oyster Mushroom Tomato Sauce

Simple and fuss free meal, I improvised on the tomato sauce and we had this with the baked drumsticks for dinner =)

Ingredients
(serves 3-4 pax)

3 large ripe tomatoes, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 packet of white oyster mushroom, about 250gm
4-5 tablespoons of tomato paste (I used Maggi tomato sauce)
2 tbsp olive oil
Pasta of your choice
Cheese

Method

1. Heat the oil in a wok or pan. Add the tomatoes, onion and mushroom in a pot and cook over medium heat till nearly cooked. 
2. Add in tomato paste and let it simmer for 5-10min, till the ingredients are soft.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, then drain well. 
4. Place the cooked pasta into baking dish and pour the tomato sauce on top. Top the pasta with cheese and bake at 200C for 25-30min, till the cheese turns golden brown.
5. Serve.

Baked Drumstick

Hubby picked 3 drumsticks the other day when we were shopping for groceries and requested for me to cook these for him. Well, I can't disappoint a hungry man!

I lightly marinated the drumsticks with five-spice powder, salt, sugar and sesame oil and oven baked them at 200C for 25-30min till cooked for a healthier alternative to fried chicken.

Taste good and most importantly, Hubby enjoyed it!

Matcha Chiffon Cake

     















It has been a long time since I last make a chiffon cake and since I have matcha powder on hand, decided to try a matcha chiffon cake for something different.

Couple of boo boos happened while I was making this cake. Firstly, the matcha powder couldn't dissolve homogeneously in the batter! That is why there were green specks all scattered around the cake after its cooked. Was it because I used tap water instead of warm water stated in the recipe? Is tap water = warm water?

And what could be worse than thinking you've adjusted the oven to the required temperature but you actually didn't! I checked on the oven temperature dial and swear its at 170C. I happily put the cake pan into oven only to discover after 20min that the top of the cake has cracked so badly that it seems a volcanic eruption happened right there in my cake pan! To my dismay, the temperature dial reads 190C instead of 170C! Parallax error? I don't know. I quickly readjusted the temperature and can only hope that my cake will be ok.

Luckily, the cake turns out ok, other than the green specks from the undissolved matcha powder and the badly cracked surface. Gotta be more careful next time!

Ingredients

(A)
4 egg yolks

30g castor sugar

pinch of salt

(B)

4 tbsp warm corn oil

80ml warm water

3 1/2 tsp matcha (I used 2 1/2 tsp)

(C)

100g cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

*sifted

(D)

4 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

40g castor sugar

Method

1. Cream ingredients (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredients (B) in the respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
3. Sieve in ingredients (C) and mix till no lumps.
4. Beat egg whites with electric beater till frothy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Egg white should be beaten till stiff peaks are formed.
5. Put half portion of egg white into yolk mixture and mix it with a hand whisk.
6. Pour yolk mixture into the rest of the egg white and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Put batter into a chiffon cake pan, bang the pan on a hard surface several times to release the bubbles and bake at 170C - 180C for 35 -45 minutes or till cooked.
8. When the cake is cooked, remove from oven and give it another bang on a hard surface to loosen the cake texture then invert cooked cake on a wire rack to cool for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove cake from cake pan and leave aside to cool completely.

Potato Tuna Puffs

In an attempt to clear whatever veg is left in my fridge to make way for fresh ones, I made these puffs using store bought puff pastry squares.

Hiaz, I never seem to be able to get my puffs right. Is it because of my laziness or I didn't bake long enough? I was too lazy to brush the puffs with egg wash before baking and being too greedy, I stuff too much filings into the puff pastry and every single one split opened! Luckily the puffs taste alright and the ever supportive Hubby had 3 of these for breakfast the next day =p

Shall try harder next time!

I did not follow a recipe for the filings, most of the items are leftovers in my fridge and everything go by the "agaration" method. Recipe below for my own reference:

Ingredients

1can tuna in mineral water, flaked

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 large potatoes, mashed

Red and Yellow bell peppers, diced

few stalks of spring onions, diced

some breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper to taste (I added some turmeric powder)

Method

1. Thaw the puff pastry at room temperature according to manufacturer instruction.
2. Mixed the filings together and season to taste.
3. Divide the filings into equal portions (I have about 14 portions) and wrap with puff pastry.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 200C for about 25-30min or until the puff pastry is cooked and golden brown.

Garlic Bread

Very simple, just mix butter, garlic and mixed herbs, toast in oven and you will have tasty garlic bread!

Trip to Kluang and Zenxing Organic Farm - Part II

Went back to Zenxin Organic Park hopping to catch the 10.30am free guided tour.

We were waiting for the free guided tour but was told they were short-handled and could only conduct a guided tour for the group of school kids, and that they were going to pick Kang Kong first. As we didn't want to join the kids (picking veg can take a lonngg time), we decided to rent bicycle and roam around ourselves.

We were so excited and started on our bicycle ride. But it lasted less than 20min, the weather was sooo hot and the paths are sooo bumpy that we decided to just walk.


With the pumpkin, I have no idea what Hubby is trying to portray in this photo:

(Left:) Chili Plant - Can you see the green chilies which are camouflage?
(Right) Lady's Finger - The flower is so pretty!

(Left) Long Beans - I didn't know they always grow in pairs!
(Right) Roselle Flower 洛神花 - We usually only see the dried ones.

(Left) Dragon Fruit
(Right) I cannot remember what plant this is but I like the pic which Hubby took.

I don't know what this plant is, but the guide said touching the fruit would bring good luck and immediately everyone rushes to touch it ha!

There are lots of other herbs and vegetation and its impossible to post all here. If you are interested to see more, make a trip down to Zenxin Organic Park!

We were very tired after the tour and the weather is scorching hot. Its also time for lunch, so off we go to the restaurant for some organic goodness!

These were what we ordered:

Fried pumpkin with sesame (Small: RM9)

Mixed Vegetable Soup (RM8), I only remember to take photo after each of us has had a bowl of soup.

Samsui Chicken (about RM18). The chicken is nice with the chili sauce and garlic paste. We asked for extra chili and garlic.

Fish Soup Bee Hoon (RM7). Doesn't seem impressive in this photo but there is lots of organic vegetables in this bowl, and the serving is huge!

Had a tiring but enjoyable trip, wouldn't mind going again =)