Supermarket shopping with a stroller

Who here has ever shopped in a supermarket while you are pushing your stroller? What do you normally do? Stick your groceries on the sunshade or if the child isn't sitting down then put it on the seat right?

Look what I did. I hung the basket on the stroller handles and it works great! Of course this only works when the stroller handles are like mine.

Somebody should really invent something for mothers with strollers.

Universal Studios Singapore - POSB annual pass freebies

This is a very very long overdue post. When we bought our annual passes for Universal Studios Singapore we got these limited edition freebies (2 sets) when we paid using POSB credit card.

We've never used the bag to date...kinda weird to be carrying around the bag in Singapore I think cos it's got the USS logo, kinda like advertising for them. It's a good sturdy bag tho which can be used in various ways - as a backpack, carrybag or shoulder bag. The bottles are made of plastic - too bad - it would be nicer if it was metal. And the wording has already faded as you use and wash it.

Caelyn's Mid Year 'Report Card'

I was quite impressed when at the end of Term 2 of schooling Caelyn brought home her 'report card'. Ok it's not really a report card but more so a progress report in a big booklet, complete with photos of what she does at school! This impressed me the most that they took time out to take photos of her doing stuff at school and develop the photos and stick it into the book.

Outback Steakhouse @ Millenia

Went there ages ago, so this post is late. I'm not that into Outback Steakhouse, not that the food isn't nice, but i think it's WAY over priced for the amount they give you and for the service - or lack thereof. This time we were only there for a late afternoon tea so we only ordered appetisers.

What I do like is their Bloomin Onion tho which is basically a whole giant white onion cut into a lotus flower shape, dipped in batter and deep fried to perfection and served with a tangy sauce. I can't remember clearly, but I think they don't have this anymore and had changed it to Tornado Onion (I think that's what it's called) which is what we ordered. Basically same concept, just in a 'Tornado' shape. i'm not sure if it's one onion tho, cos Bloomin Onion seemed bigger. Maybe trying to cut down costs and split one onion into 1.5 plates? Anyway it was good, still is my favourite thing here.

The free bread they gave us was EXTREMELY good. I don't often say this about free bread but this one was so rich and chewy and soft at the same time. I'm not sure what kind of bread it is, malt bread maybe? It was that same brown colour inside. And the whipped butter was very nice too. We liked it so much that we asked for another serving of it!

The Buffalo Style Chicken Wings were THE WORST  thing ever! First it was ridiculously overpriced for 'half' a serving, we didn't know that half meant a measly 5 pieces with a couple of sticks of carrots. And that's not all, it wasn't even Buffalo style, how cam a simple fried chicken served with Blue Cheese Dressing be considered as Buffalo style wings??!! Where's the sour hot sauce that it should be drenched in?? Severely disappointed. 

Aussie Cheese Fries was nice and crispy. Wish it had more cheese on it tho. But can't complain much cos we do love fries :)

There were basically no servers that afternoon, maybe they weren't expecting lots of people to eat at that timing but there was like only 1 guy serving about 6 tables so it was very slow. 

Best Gyozas (made by me!)

I love Gyoza...Dumplings....Guo Tie....Potstickers...or whatever you want to call them. It's that little bundle of meat encased in a soft chewy skin with a crispy brown bottom. We used to make the skins ourselves. It's pretty simple, just flour, salt, and warm water kneaded till it forms a ball. But it's troublesome to roll it out yourself. So I've been buying the ready made ones - the ones that says Guo Tie skin. But I was never really satisfied with them because they were too big and too thin causing breakages in my gyozas and then once cooked it looked all wrinkly and unattractive. Till recently that is, when i found the Holy Grail of gyoza skin. They call it Taiwan Jiao Zi Pi or Taiwan Dumpling skin. These are soft and small and do not break easily. You don't even need to put water around the edges to seal it as it was soft and pliable enough to simply press the skin together. The best thing about these skins is they had just the right amount of chewiness and the bottoms stayed crisp for longer too.

Usually when making gyozas you'd put them in a pan and pour water into the pan, cover with lid and cook till there's no more water. Then take off the lid and pan fry till the bottoms become brown and crisp. But on our recent trip to Tokyo we saw that they actually steamed the gyozas first before pan frying. So that's what we did and it worked wonderfully. Next time I will try putting the water in the pan method with this new skin and see if it comes out the same.

Do u see the difference? The top on is the Taiwan skin.

Taiwan Skin

thin flimsy other dumpling skin

I love gyozas so much, I can really stuff myself with them. And surprisingly Caelyn loves them too. But of course she likes them cos of the chewy skin...but hey I'm not complaining cos I put a lot of wombok and chives in the meat mixture, so it's good for her.

Here's the 'recipe'. I don't have exact measurements as always.

Filling Ingredients:

Minced Pork
Grated ginger
Grated/minced garlic
Wombok shredded finely
Chives diced finely
Oyster Sauce
Sugar
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Dash of Chinese Cooking Wine
Dash of cornflour

Put the minced pork together with the ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, corn flour and seasoning in a big mixing bowl. Mix the mixture with your hand until it becomes slightly sticky. The reason  you mix it until it gets sticky is to make the meat more tender. In the past I never really did this and just mixed everything in with a fork, but it really does make a difference. Set aside for 15-30 minutes for the flavour to develop. Set it aside before you put the veges in because the veges will make your mixture watery and in turn cause your dumpling skins to go all soggy. Then add the vegetables you've chopped up and mix it some more with your hand until it's mixed in. You can even use a food processor to chop up the wombok. A lot of liquid might come out of the wombok, squeeze it out before you add it to the meat mixture. You can substitute with any veges really or leave them out altogether if you don't fancy veges. But if you don't put veges, your dumplings may be a bit dry, what you can do is add mashed up tofu to it which will help moisten the meat.

Serve with a dipping sauce of Black Vinegar mixed with fried garlic, Soy Sauce, Sesame oil and Chilli Sauce.

Check out this youtube video by Cooking with Dog for instructions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8MBX-SXnmg