10th Anniversary Celebration - Bintan August 2012 Part I



Earlier this month, hubby and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary with a 3D2N getaway to Bintan. Our plan was initially a trip to Hokkaido but we decided to hold that thought till a few years later. Because a trip to Hokkaido requires more than a week and I just started work and it's kind of unfair to leave behind dear son with my MIL for too long a period.

 

Koh Samui is actually my preferred destination but the cheaper air tickets were all fully booked, so Bintan it was then. We went for Banyan Tree as hubby didn't like the rooms over at Angsana Resort. The last time we stayed at Banyan Tree Bintan was probably 8 years ago? Anyways, our choice of room this time was the Villa-On-The-Rocks (previously was Seaview Deluxe I think).

 

We took the last ferry bound for Bintan at 8pm on Friday night after dropping dear son at MIL's place. Something new this time for the ferry too, we decided to try the Emerald Class instead of the Economy Class. Best decision ever and I believe if we were to go to Bintan again, Emerald Class is the one! The price difference for each adult ticket is about $40 but the ease and convenience is definitely worth it (Economy adult ticket is $67.40, Emerald adult ticket is $109.40)! Basically after we cleared customs at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, we proceeded directly to the exclusive lounge. Some juices, hot drinks and biscuits were provided. Then we just lounged around till all the Economy Class passengers boarded the ferry. Emerald Class seats are located at the upper deck of the ferry, with wider seats and free drinks provided. When we reached Bintan Ferry Terminal, we (Emerald Class passengers) were the first to disembark i.e. Last In First Out system! In this way, we were one of the first to clear the customs. No more time wasting at the customs! Yippee!

 

The return ferry trip was even more 'shiok'. When we reached the ferry terminal, all we had to do was to hand our passports and tickets to the reception staff at the Emerald lounge and they would do the necessary for us, like getting the passports stamped (i.e. clear custom for us) and picking up the boarding pass. We just relaxed till it was time to board the ferry. And we reached Singapore, likewise we were the first to disembark and therefore beating the crowd to the custom queue again =D Ok, the reason why I'm raving about this, hubby and I both hated to queue for custom clearing, especially hubby!

 

Anyway, back to Bintan. Upon clearing customs, we proceeded to the Banyan Tree mini lounge area while waiting for our transport. It was a short 10 mins ride and we reached Banyan Tree in no time. Check-in was a breeze and soon we were whizzed off in a buggy to our Villa-on-the-Rocks!

 

Photos below were all taken during daylight the next day as the night photos were too dim for my liking.

 

Entrance to our Villa. Room 122 is called Wa-wa. Each villa in the Banyan Tree property has a name.

Jacuzzi which we didn't use at all unfortunately. Have to call Housekeeping if we want to activate it.

We hid indoors most of the time =p

Initially we wanted to order room service and enjoy our meals here at the patio but somehow didn't manage too.

King-size comfy poster bed.

Side desk with info on the property.

Another side desk beside the bed.

This is the lounge sofa where we spent most of our time this getaway, watch TV, surf net while munching on snacks :)

The spacious bathroom is divided into 2 sections by a wardrobe. One side is a sink with sunken bath.

The other side is the toilet and another sink.

The usual bath amenities are all provided.

The TV console, with a bar fridge in the cabinet and tea/coffee making facilities.

Turn-down gift. The Kueh Lapis tasted blah unfortunately. Buy from the shops at the Bintan Ferry Terminal, very nice!

A blocked view of sunrise.

 

 

View from the villa during morning high tide.

 

Next up, some facilities on the property. Like I said, we hid in the villa most of the time, except for meals and spa. Didn't even swim as it rained when we wanted to swim :(

 

Main swimming pool, which is located next to Treetops Restaurant (breakfast place) and Banyan Tree Gallery.

The second swimming pool is near to the beach area which is shared between Angsana Resort and Banyan Tree.

The departure lounge which is also the library.

Guests could borrow games, DVDs and books during the stay.

I always love the flora displays at resorts, sort of sets the holiday mood.

View from area near the main swimming pool.

The beach is quite suitable for children, gentle gradient and waves, and most importantly very clean.

The Banyan Tree Spa Gallery, all the spa products are on sale here.

Next post, I'll share the food we had. Stay tuned!

Travel resources

• Bintan Resort Ferries https://www.brf.com.sg/eCommerce/default.aspx
• Banyan Tree Bintan http://www.banyantree.com/en/bintan/

Singapore Homebakers Gathering

The past Sunday, I attended my first-ever blogger's gathering! Well, actually not "bloggers" per se, but a gathering initiated by a Facebook group that I joined, known as "Singapore Homebakers". I think most of us happened to have a blog, or at least those who attended :)
We were fortunate to have Edith (Precious Moments) who was so nice to host us in her lovely new abode. 13 of us were present, including Eelin (The Batter Baker), Jane (Passionate About Baking), Alan (TravellingFoodies), Wendy (Wen's Delight), Reirei (All That Matters), Annie (Annielicious Food), Alice (I Love I Cook I Bake), Shirley (@Kokken), Veronica (Peng's Kitchen), Bee Bee (Honey Bee Sweets) and Zhuoyuan (Baking Library).

Ever since I started blogging a few years back, I'm blessed to make several new friends through interactions on each other's blog or Facebook, but we didn't really meet up or rather I didn't join the past bloggers' gatherings. So I jumped at the opportunity to attend this gathering as I thought it'd be nice to finally put a face to the blogs :)
Being homebakers/cooks, there was certainly no shortage of food and dessert! Each of us contributed one or two dishes, either sweet or savoury. There was so much food and dessert that even Edith's large dining table was filled to the brim! LOL =D

Our feast, starting from the savoury.

 Korean-style sushi by Wendy.

 Grilled veggies frittata by Jane.

 Chicken pie by Zhuoyuan.

 Ngoh Hiang by Shirley.

 Chicken Kebab by Bee Bee.

Ikan Gerang Assam by Alan.

Cheesy puff biscuits by Reirei.

 Chicken stew by Reirei.

 Salad by Eelin.

 Creamy prawn and mushroom canape by Jane.

And for the SWEETS :)

Apam Balik with durian fillings by Alan.

 Cherry cake by Veronica.

 Lemon and coconut cupcakes by Eelin.

Steamed pandan brownies by Alice.

 Chocolate pudding by Alice.

 Roselle macarons by Alan.

Tiramisu by Annie.

Banana yogurt ice-cream by Edith (she made another Kahlau coffee ice cream as well).



And my lemon curd cupcakes with golden meringue.

It was really a great gathering, I totally enjoyed myself, savouring all the yummy goodie while chit-chatting/gossiping (*wink*) among old/new friends who share similar interests. Great company, good food, a perfect Sunday afternoon! Certainly look forward to more of such gatherings again!

The #CookForFamily Initiative: Fish Head Soup 百味鱼头汤

The #CookForFamily is a bloggers-for-bloggers initiative by Daniel from Daniel's Food Diary, with the simple objective of getting more bloggers, and hopefully their fans and followers, to start cooking and bonding with their families. I'm pleased and honoured to be part of this little project as I'm a firm believer in home-cooked food and that cooking a meal at home need not be an elaborate affair; and actually achievable within an hour.

I grew up eating mostly home-cooked food as my mum is a homemaker, so in a way she influences and spurs my interest in cooking from a tender age. After I got married, I was determined to cook at least three times a week, but sometimes it's hard to keep up the energy with busy work schedules. So hubby and I used to dine out quite often, which is detrimental to our waistlines and pocket in the long run! When I do cook, it tends to be very quick and easy meals, and often one-pot dishes. Therefore, it sort of became a norm for me to cook simple dishes, usually done within an hour or so. And I'm the sort of person who use estimation for seasonings (based on instinct and to save time) instead of specific measurements.

After conceiving dear son, I started to ponder about home-cook meals more frequently, as I also want him to grow up surrounded with the love and warmth of home-cook food just like my mum did. During the two years as a SAHM, I cooked nearly every day, both lunch for myself as well as dinner. Lunch would usually be something soupy like noodles with various ingredients, or pan-fried salmon/snapper fillet. Dinner would be slightly more elaborate, usually long-brewed soup such as lotus root burdock soup, with stir-fried vegetables and fish/chicken/pork dish. Dear son's meal had to be cooked separately, usually kiddy porridge or pasta, until he is old enough to eat our type of food.

When I decided to start working again few months back, cooking once again is a major concern/consideration as I still want to be able to cook for hubby and dear son on a daily basis. Catering or dining out are not viable options in the long run. Thankfully I found a part-time job which allows me to leave office at around 4.15pm. By the time I reach home at about 5pm, I have about an hour to cook before dear son returns home from his childcare centre. Well, it is a mad rush and very tiring at times, but I managed to cook about 4-5 times per week.

Ít's all about planning in advance and time management I guess. I usually plan the upcoming week's menu on Friday night, and buy all the ingredients at the wet market or supermarket during weekends. Then I try to prepare the ingredients a night before, such as cutting the vegetables/ingredients, marinating the meat etc. If cooking soup, I will wake up earlier and basically just put all the ingredients in an electric pot and set the timer. By the time I reached home, I just need to reheat the soup and add some seasonings.

Nowadays, since dear son can take more "adult" food, I try to cook common dishes for us, so that it's faster and less taxing. A typical meal could be beetroot, sweetcorn and carrot soup with steamed egg, or one-pot dish like chicken stew with carrot, potato, baby corn, mushroom etc. Else, it can also be fishball and vegetable soup with fried rice/pumpkin rice/cabbage rice.

Anyways, for this #CookForFamily initiative, I'm going to introduce this Fish Head soup, recipe adapted from a book written by a renown local chinese writer, You Jing (尤今 - 听面包唱歌). In fact, I've blogged about a recipe from her other book (螃蟹爬上树) before. This dish can be a one-pot dish as the ingredients are quite generous and nutritious. The soup boasts of a rich broth (made from dried shrimp) with natural sweetness from the fish and onion, coupled with "tanginess" from the tomatoes and salted vegetables. Best of all, even dear son can eat such as the fish meat, tofu and tomato.

Ingredients

1 red snapper fish head (fish head can be replaced with a larger quantity of fish fillet)

200g red snapper fish fillet

100-120g salted vegetables (cut into medium pieces)

2-3 yellow/white onion (cut into wedges)

3 tomatoes (cut into quarters)

1/4 piece ginger (smashed)  

2 red chilli (optional)

1 box silken tofu (cut into medium pieces)

1 stalk spring onions (optional)

2L dried shrimp broth (120g dried shrimp & 2L water)

Steps

1) Prepare the dried shrimp broth first. Heat 2 tbsp of canola/sunflower oil in pot, stir fry dried shrimps until fragrant. Pour in water and bring to boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for 15-20 mins. Strain the dried shrimps and broth is ready to use.

2) Wash the fish head/fish fillet with salt.

3) Place fish head, salted vegetable, onion, tomatoes, ginger, chilli into the pot and add the broth.

4) After the soup comes to boil, reduce to low heat and cook for about 30-45 mins.

5) Add the fish fillet and silken tofu, cook at high heat for 2 minutes.

6) Adjust taste with some salt if necessary. Sprinkle some spring onions before serving.

Feel free to add or omit ingredients to your liking. As for seasonings, pls adjust according to taste. Sometimes when the soup is too saltish, I cheat by adding some water :p

This soup can easily be done within an hour. If broth is prepared beforehand, even less time is required. In fact, the broth can be prepared in large quantity and freeze for subsequent use. The broth recipe is from a chinese recipe book called Slurpy Boiled Soup 滚汤来了. If there's really no time to cook broth, water can be used like the original recipe, just that I find the soup not as fragrant and rich.

The original recipe in Chinese as follows:

[材料]

石斑鱼头 1 个 (约1公斤)

石斑鱼肉 1 块 (约300克)

咸菜 250克 (切段)

大洋葱 4个 (切片)

番茄 3个 (切块)

姜 1 块 (40克, 拍扁)

辣椒 2条 (怕辣者可免)

嫩豆腐 1块 (切块)

青葱 1小把 (切段)

[做法]

1. 鱼头以盐洗净.
2. 把鱼头, 咸菜, 大洋葱, 番茄, 辣椒, 姜块放入锅里, 注入3公升水.
3. 水沸后, 将火转小, 煮约50分钟.
4. 把石斑鱼块放入汤里, 以猛火煮约2分钟, 最后, 加入嫩豆腐, 撒入葱段.

Pound Cakes Galore

Pardon for my tardiness in blogging. Simply couldn't muster the energy to edit photos or write anything. Since our return from Phuket last month, have been managing dear son's crankiness, made worst by him falling sick for almost 2 weeks. Thereafter, my turn to catch the flu bug. Have been sick for more than a week now, feeling lethargic and sleepy all the time :(

Anyways, this is a long-overdue post about pound cakes. I baked these like months ago! I think I mentioned before that I'm not a fan of pound cakes as I prefer cakes that are tender and fluffy like chiffon. In my impression, pound cakes are always dry and dense and had to be washed down the throat with lots of liquid. But having seen a lot of bloggers talked about pound cakes like Mrs NgSK's Butter Cake (blogged by Wendy of Table for 2... or more) and Tish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake (blogged by Shirley of @Kokken), curiousity got the butter better of me, so I decided to attempt three pound cake recipes over several weekends.

The first recipe attempted was Tish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake. The ingredients used are fairly simple like plain flour, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, caster sugar, eggs, lemon zest, orange zest, vanilla extract and heavy cream. Method is straightforward, creaming butter then add sugar and mix till light and fluffy, followed by eggs, zest, extract, and finally alternating between flour and heavy cream.

* for full recipe, pls refer to @Kokken.



The cake turned out quite ok, fairly fine and tender with slight hint of citrus zest. Actually tasted quite good, rich and buttery when warm. But somehow turned a little hard and dry the next day.

Next up was atelier h's Green Tea Marbled Pound Cake. This recipe is from a Chinese-translated Japanese recipe book called Simple Desuga Ajiwainoaru Okashi Yaiteimasu by Setsuko Homma (幸福烘焙工房: 每天都想吃的美味甜點 シンプルですが味わいのあるお菓子焼いています,作者/本間節子). She's supposedly a renown chef blogger in Japan (www.atelierh.jp). I bought this recipe book from Kinukuniya as I like how Japanese pastries are crafted.

Green Tea Marbled Pound Cake
(makes one pound cake, 18x5x5cm)

Ingredients

• 60g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 60g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp matcha powder, sifted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius. Line baking tin with parchment paper.
2. Sift plain flour and baking powder, set aside.
3. Cream butter in mixer till creamy, gradually add caster sugar and beat till light and fluffy.
4. Gradually add in the egg and mix till incorporated.
5. Sift the plain flour and baking powder one more time and gradually add into the butter/sugar/egg batter. Fold the batter gently.
6. Divide the batter into 2 portions. Add sifted matcha powder into the one portion of the batter and mix till incorporated.
7. Pour the both portions of batter into the baking tin, and create the marbling effect using a spatula.
8. Bake for 35-40 mins.

I was rather surprised that the ingredients used are so simple as compared to the Tish Boyle's recipe (as well as Mrs NgSK's). The green tea pound cake turned out slightly drier than Tish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake, as I suspected, since the latter had heavy cream added. In terms of proportion of ingredients, the green tea cake also had a slightly larger quantity of flour as compared to the fat content (butter and egg). I also feel that the green tea taste was a little understated (could probably be due to the quality of matcha powder used).

If I were to attempt the green tea pound cake again, I would probably reduce the quantity of flour, and perhaps add more liquid and/or fat content.

And finally Mrs NgSK's Vanilla Butter Cake. Many bloggers were raving about this pound cake in Wendy's blog and FB. Ingredients are similar to Tish Boyle's recipe, except that self-raising flour is used (instead of flour + baking powder), milk is used (instead of heavy cream) and no citrus zest added. But the method differs - the egg whites are separately from the yolks and beatened (with some sugar) till soft peak stage, then folded into the batter (butter > sugar > vanilla > egg yolks > flour/milk/flour/milk/flour); very similar to how chiffon cakes are done, or when you want to have a more fluffy texture for cakes.

* for full recipe, refer to Table for 2...or more.

This pound cake turned out the nicest of all three, more moist and fluffy. I believe due to the addition of milk, and most importantly the step of folding in egg white batter. But then again, the cake too, turned a little hard and dry the next day.

My conclusion is, pound cakes are best eaten freshly baked from oven or on the same day. If eaten the next day, it's recommended to reheat for a few minutes in the oven. So probably it's my bad afterall for not giving the pound cake its due recognition :p