[Home-cooking] Baked spareribs

Somebody has been eagerly waiting for this spareribs recipe.

It makes frequent appearances on my dining table.

You will need:

A rack of babyback ribs (i normally do at least 2 at one time)

Clean the ribs and pat dry with kitchen towel. Seasoned with brown sugar, chilli powder and salt in ration of 7:2:1.

Wrap tightly in aluminium foil. Chill in fridge for at least an hour.

Prepare marinade:

8 tbsp light soy sauce, 3 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp cooking wine, 1 tbsp vinegar, 2 tbsp water and a clove of crushed garlic. Mix well.

Take the ribs out of the fridge. Unfold one end and pour in the marinade. Reseal.

Bake at 180 degrees celcius for 1.5 to 2 hours or till the meat is tender and separated easily from the bones.

It took several trial and error to find the optimum baking time and temperature with your oven.

I like to reserve one rack (with the gravy) and remove the meat and shred them and fry bihun with it. It tastes just like the tinned braised spareribs.

Oh, this is for second sis to see. An idea for her dinner. Its quick and easy. Try lah B.

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I know I have been MIA. Bitten by lazybugs.

Been having funny sensations with my gums and teeth. Felt like getting a rotten tooth soon >_<.

So I googled and found oil-pulling helped.

Mmm, so I started to oil-pull for the first time this morning using cold-pressed olive oil for about 20 minutes.

I spit the oil/emulsion *eww* into the toilet bowl and it came out off-white *gasp*horror* ewwww, full of toxins.

Then I have this slight burning sensation in the chest and felt sluggish the rest of the day and continue to do so. I guess my body is detoxying. I hope.

What is oil-pulling?

Start by feeding a tablespoon of oil into your mouth. Move the oil round the front part of your mouth with swishing action (NOT GARGLE, you might puke!). Swish for 20 minutes. Spit out. Rinse mouth with salted water.

My teeth has never felt so clean!!

[Singapore 2008] Haagen Dazs @Vivocity

I cannot walk past Haagen Dazs without diving for the glass cabinets FULL of ice-cream. So engrossed was I while perusing the flavours available, my nose inadvertantly got pressed against the glass. There is this look of bemused/horror whenever I look up and caught the servers eyes.

Ice-cream on Belgian waffle

I cannot remember the flavour of the ice-cream. It was a seasonal limited edition. Some kind of cookies and cream with fudge. The waffle was too sweet with unmelted sugar crystals *shudder*. Oi, Princess did, not me. I much prefer Gelare type of waffle.

Only one feeling eating this, SWEET. No other feelings. Do not try this if you have sensitive teeth. You'll be calling out for your mama hehehe.

I must have this if I visit Haagen Dazs. Melon ice-cream in waffle cone. YUM!!! Pieces of melons in creamy perfumed ice-cream. Oh, let me die in a pool of this stuff.

I wish we have Haagen Dazs in Oz :-(

[Singapore 2008] Kim Gary @Vivocity

I always choose Kim Gary over other eateries whenever I go Vivocity and needed a bite. I couldn't resist the rich buttery french toast and icy cold coffee.

Pork chop rice


French toast

Damn, why this always appear before the mains and drinks??!!


Seasoned fries

The fries were lukewarm and soggy when arrived. Worst of all, they are seasoned with cinnamon *triple horror*.

[Singapore 2008] Breakfasts at Ghim Moh Food Centre

The food was devoured in 2 consecutive visits.


Nasi lemak I wish there was more peanuts


Fried kway teow I only counted 5 tiny hum :-(. Sticky and wet, I don't like. I don't think it's worth queuing for at least 30 minutes for this miserable plate.

Steamed cheong fun and yam kueh the yam kueh was floury and dry

Chwee kueh people bought this by the dozen. I don't like, never like and will never like.

Chicken bao and egg tart I like the light and fluffy tart.

Wonton noodles this was simply horrible. Little did I know, I have yet to encounter the ultimate horror kolo mee later......

Ah baling in peanut soup Chose yam, peanut and black sesame fillings. All yummy. Peanuts cooked till very soft while retaining some bite, I like. My favourite food of the lot we tried.

Rabbit's 2008 Birthday Cakes

I just realized I forgot to po my birthday cakes/pastries.

Dropped by Chouquette after lunch at Mizu.

I like varieties, no way I am settling for a single cake.


I brought home lime and pistachio gateau, mango yogurt gateau and millefeuille.

All delicious!! As usual.

[Singapore 2008] Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie

Oh after lunch at Tampopo, we went back to Orchard Rd for some serious shopping. After a fruitless round in Isetan Scotts, we went to check out the then newish Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie at Shaw Centre.

The man himself, Chef Pang, was in the shop in a casual tee and bermuda and served some customers including me before disappearing.

My absolute favourite salted caramel macaron. They sell out fast.

[Shopping] Breville Mixer

So, my just-under-a-year-old sunbeam mixmaster has died down on me.

Made a dash to Myer to get a replacement (still under warranty). There was no more stock and the model has not been in production for some time; I was told. Heck, I believe they found out it was a crap machine. So I got to choose between a similar price-range model or a credit note.

And so I went home with my spanking new Breville mixer.

Red, red, chilli red. But of course.

Finally, no more failures with my chiffon cake. The Chilli (OK i hereby christened my mixer) beat egg whites real well. My chiffon came out like a dream.

It retails at AUD299. Bargain. One downside, need an extra bowl!

[Singapore 2008] Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Kitchen

Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Kitchen
391 Orchard Road
#05-12 Ngee Ann City


Sweet and sour soon hock fish with pine nut


Spinach beancurd with assorted mushrooms


Default xiao long


My favourite wonton (meat and veg dumplings) in chilli oil


Some carb to fill up the tummy, crispy eel fried noodles. A tad too oily.

Super ma (numb) and la (spicy) dan dan noodles. It gave me sore throat later that night after dinner. Orz.....Stay away, stay away next time.

Must have desserts no matter how full. Deep fried glutinous rice ball with runny scorching sesame paste. Yum!

My favourite deep fried souffle ball with red bean filling. Missing the key mashed banana inside :(

Til next time. Ta-da.

[Singapore 2008] I-Scream Haato

I love love Haato, equally on par with my love for Italian Gelato.

I must must have my ice-cream fix at Haato no matter how full I was from Tampopo.

My favourite is green tea with adzuki bean. Haato's green tea ice-cream is quite strong with a hint of bitterness which is partially offset by the sweetened adzuki bean. Heaven.

Spied and tried sweet potato and chestnut. Hmmm, interesting combination. The flavours are subtle however you can taste them quite distinctively. Haato has got the ratio/proportion right as any stronger in any one flavour will quickly mask the other flavour. If you can't taste the flavours, I suggest you clean your tongue as religiously as you do your teeth XD.

Bro had green tea and milk tea (right in pic above). He's totally a tea and coffee freak.

Sis had honeydew and some sorbet (left in pic above), the flavour had elude me now, ooops. The honeydew smelt of durian, damn, I had been forward to tasting it. The sorbet was er....refreshing.

Go on, its totally worth the calories!

[Singpore 2008] Tampopo @Liang Court

Oh, finally I am starting on my Singapore whirwind trip :P.

One of my favourite restaurants in Singapore. We rushed here as soon as we checked into our hotel.




Kyushu ramen

My absolute favourite. I urged sis to try and she gave it her big thumbs up. The dollop of mentaiko made the soup all the more moreish, mmmm, yummmm.

Unagi kamameshi

Mum loves unagi (eel) so I ordered this for her to try. The sauce a bit strong. Average tasting unagi.

Spicy negitoro maki

The sichimi a bit much for me, can't taste anything else, orz.....

The novelty of this dish is that it arrived via the conveyor belt. I sakai........very cool.......

Cheese katsu

Another sis who is a cannibal (well both are hahaha) saw this and her eyes shone XD. The combination of meat and cheese very appealing to her.

Curry katsu

Bro is in loveeeee with japanese curry. He liked it but I found it so so. Cannot hold a candle to Hanaichi, bleh.

Touch screen menu/bill monitor.

Wow, very high tech, I am one suaku, hehehe.

Big King had the spicy kurobuta tonkatsu ramen which I forgot to snap. Very spicy, I stay far far away from.

Fated to love

So I have been busy catching up with 命中注定我爱你.

而且都是熬夜在看...隔天都頭昏腦漲....持續一整個星期....眼睛都黑眼圈.....

Still recovering....orz...

Superb performances from a superb cast.

I am a bit surprised with 阮經天, who made 紀存希 totally believable, because he was totally crap in 绿光森林. Equally crap is白歆惠, biggest flop of the soap, you call that acting?? pffft.

可是我最愛陳林西施女士兒~~哈哈~~