My Version of delectable Butter Crab

So this is my version of the delectable Butter Crab we oft see in restaurant menus. The first time I tried it was at the Mellba Seafood Restaurant. I tried to 'recreate' it as best as I could. Ingredients included Evaporated Milk, Chopped Chilli, Curry Leaves and Butter. I think I should've added more water to the sauce, cos it was really rich. The sauce is really nice with some crusty bread too.

We bought the crabs from Pasar (wet market) and our seller is great, they'll even kill, clean and chop the crabs for you. Definitely saves u A LOT of trouble!

Question of the Day

So amidst all the panic of the swine flu and it being called a pandemic, I want to find out what people think about traveling.

1) Has it stopped you from traveling?

2) If no, would you stay away from traveling to higher risk places like Melbourne, New York, etc?

I wonder how long this swine flu will stick around for? My answers to the questions above are a little undecided. I think I wouldn't mind traveling, but I know the in laws might have something to say to that, then begs the question of should we listen if they disapprove? :p And as far as traveling to more higher risk places, well I don't know. I would love to go to North America. Should ppl worry about traveling? The news had a segment about traveling and how holiday bookings are still going strong despite the 'pandemic'.

What do u all think?

Soto Betawi - Indonesian Beef Soup

Indonesia has a lot of different kinds of 'Soto' and they're all generally pretty good including this delicious one called Soto Betawi. It's a creamy soup made up of lots of spices (as most indonesian foods go), thickened or made creamy with the addition of coconut milk or for a healthier and just as good version Evaporated Milk. I have no idea how to make it from scratch altho I'm pretty sure I have it in one of my cookbooks. But why bother when I can just buy the premixed spice paste from Munik right? It's just like buying ready made Thai Curry Paste, makes life much easier for the busy cook :)

The meats in this soup are usually Tripe, Tendon, and Beef, all cut up in little pieces. To serve you add some spring onions, some diced tomatoes, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), Fried Onions, some friend Emping (or Belinjo crackers), extra chilli, a dash of lime and rice on the side (or as I prefer it inside the soup).

Even Caelyn loves this and I also found out that she likes tripe!

Bay Leaves

Boiling the meats until tender. This step would be faster if you have a pressure or themal cooker.

Cycling at East Coast Park (2)

My bum was sooooo sore after this, but it was fun :) We rode tandem with Caelyn sitting behind. She had fun too. The scariest thing about riding tandem is trusting the person leading on the front seat, ie. hubby (hehehe). But after a while, we were pretty much in synch :)

A lot of ppl were fishing on this jetti.

Carnivore - Brazillian Churrascaria

The other day we had some vouchers for Vivocity so we used it to try a restaurant we hadn't been before called Carnivore. Carnivore is a Brazillian Churrascaria and in Portuguese churrascaria basically means bbq restaurant. The meats are skewered onto giant metal skewers which rotate on a hot fire. Once the meats are cooked, the passadors (meat waiters) come around your table with the giant metal skewer and a carving knife and slice the meat right onto your plate.

The meats are seasoned simply, often with just salt. Aside from meats there is also a cold buffet spread which included some marinated octopus (u know the red kind that they put on sushi?) and muscles on the shell. But it's not a lot of variety, and nothing impressive or worth mentioning.

I was glad that we had vouchers, because for this price I was severely disappointed and unlikely to go again unless I had some freebies. Tho the meats were good, they were extremely slow in coming around the tables and felt like we kept on getting just the same ones going round to us. The good meats like Beef Ribs hardly ever came out, between us we only had one piece of beef rib because the passador with the beef ribs kept running out of it. And unfortunately the beef ribs is the best meat there. It was tasty and tender and had a melt in your mouth feeling. Towards the end of our evening, I even noticed a few of the pasadors just standing around near the entrance to the kitchen, like they had nothing else to bring out to us or they were just surveying whether everyone still had some on their plates or not. I had imagined that the restaurant would've been more lively with lots of different passadors walking around the tables all at once. It was in fact rather 'quiet'. The passadors weren't that friendly either, supposedly they were directly employed from Brazil. Surprisingly the Singaporean local staff were more friendly. Drinks aren't included in the buffet price. And if you decide to order a juice drink (not those freshly blended ones) it is ridiculously overpriced at $8 and I think an alcoholic drink was about $14! Not bottomless either.

I have to admit, I am a carnivore by nature. I much prefer meat to veges. So I was really disappointed that I left unsatisfied from restaurant that called itself Carnivore. If you are a fan of Carnivore (the restaurant) I'm sorry if you disagree with me. This was just our experience, no harm intended :)

This was part of the yummy beef ribs.