xmas/study snack

bite-sized, individually wrapped brownies that someone was selling at my mum's office. its another of those colleague's-enterprising-family-members-home-baked-food things but i really do like these ones. again, not too sweet and just the right consistency. it retains some softness even when i eat them straight out from the fridge. and you can taste each and every single one of those chocolate chips when eaten cold. i've yet to really warm them up yet but i'd imagine it'll turn into rich, warm, chocolatey messes that a lot of us seem to love.

on the upside, it makes portion control a lot easier for the conscious. also ensures that its not too much rich food at a single go.

on the downside, its also a lot easier to eat like that. very addictive, these.

home-baked: sha and char

buttery, moist and not too sweet with some ice-cream on the side - good stuff sha. :)



a lot of ppl ard me seem to be baking these few months, esp june and char. unfortunately i haven't had decent photos of the great stuff char's been baking because i've been too busy eating them (the spice cake comes to mind)! bummed. but i do have this long over due picture of the lovely mini mooncakes she made a couple of months ago.


excuse my big thumb. i had to hold it to snap a quick pic cos we were doing the forbidden in the auditorium - eating. muahaha

Food Republic: Beef Dao Xiao Mian

i was wondering where i'd find dao xiao mian in singapore outside from Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, let alone good dao xiao mian. but i did. and quite by accident.

normally when i go to Wisma Atria's Food Republic, i invariably only eat from three stalls. the first is the wonton noodle store with their huge prawn dumplings that cost $1 a piece - a little on the steep side but very satisfying. secondly, the indian rice/nasi padang stall because they actually do quite a mean mutton curry. and thirdly, the hokkien mee of course.

but seeing as how it was only 11 in the morning, hokkien mee was not ready, it was too early for curry and i'd already gotten a bowl of the dumplings for a very busy jasmi to try, i was faced with the necessity of actually trying something new. and so i did. i really very nearly ordered ban mee but i'm glad i didn't.

this dao xiao mian was good! at $5.50 a bowl, you really get the bang for your buck. i ate and ate and barely made through half of it. it is, i suspect also partly due to the rich beef broth that's actually a lot more robust than the taipei one we had. and the beef? ooooh. soft and braised just right with just that little bit of trimming of tendon. fab.

the picture doesnt do it justice cos this was taken when i'd already dug in. been a bit absentminded abt taking food pics of late and missed a good chance last week when june, rae and i went to riciotti. bummed. but means i can go back again i suppose. :)

anyhows, this dao xiao mian is really definitely worth a shot. its from the Formosa Ban Mian stall two stalls over from the hokkien mee stall and is available in a pork rib version.

taipei: din tai fung

was better than the local one, i thought. again, we discovered it quite by accident when we'd gone to Fuxing Sogo after danshui and before shihlin. it was one long day that one. but i was quite glad that we managed to fit this in and at some odd time (around 4 in the afternoon) so that there was no queue at all.

i think that made my day better than the food itself really.



here's the original xiao long bao.



and here's the crabmeat one. can you tell the difference?

i couldn't. i can only tell them apart now cos i put some remnant bit on the plate for the second one to distinguish the two. if i hadn't, i couldn't really bite into it to tell you the difference.

the original was quite a bit better than the crabmeat one though. the meat was soft and tender, the soup was tasty and the skin was thinner than the local versions. coupled with the fact that we'd just come in out of the slightly rainy danshui, it was nice and hot and comforting. especially since we all had soup - and taiwan dou miao - to go along with it.

its not that i don't like crabmeat - i love it actually - but somehow the taste of the crabmeat xlb was just too... crabby without the natural sweetness. and so it remains that the best crabmeat xiao long bao i've ever had, is the one at yu yuan in shanghai. hopefully one day, i can go back again.


Din Tai Fung
Fuxing Sogo Basement 1