Tacos

My Favourite Food <(^-^)>

Tacos

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling.


A fresh, handmade tortilla stuffed with small chunks of grilled beef rubbed in oil and sea salt then covered with guacamole, salsa, onions, cilantro or anything else you want -- perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This is the reason no visitor leaves Mexico weighing less than when they arrived.


A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety.



A taco is generally eaten without utensils and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa, avocado or guacamole, cilantro (coriander), tomatoes, meat, onions and lettuce.

Tacos Al pastor

Tacos Al pastor ("shepherd style") are made of thin pork steaks seasoned with adobo seasoning, then skewered and overlapped on one another on a vertical rotisserie cooked and flame-broiled as it spins.


Tacos de camarones ("shrimp tacos") also originated in Baja California in Mexico. Grilled or fried shrimp are used, usually with the same accompaniments as fish tacos: lettuce or cabbage, pico de gallo, avocado and a sour cream or citrus/mayonnaise sauce, all placed on top of a corn or flour tortilla.


I enjoyed eating tacos with soft shell instead of the hard shell since I like it more authentic.
-Kaito

Satay

My Favourite Food <(^-^)>

Satay

Satay, modern Indonesian and Malay spelling sate, is a dish of seasoned, skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce.



Satay may consist of diced or sliced chicken, mutton, beef, pork; the more authentic version uses skewers from the midrib of the coconut palm frond, although bamboo skewers are often used. 

 
These are grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, then grilled and eaten with a peanut sauce dip.



Satay in Singapore
The traveling satay man, a street hawker who prepared his delicacy with a portable charcoal grill, was a familiar sight to Singaporeans up to the late 1970s. The Satay Club, a collection of stalls hawking solely satay in the evenings at the edge of the park at the Esplanade, was a popular dining destination until it was demolished in 1995 to make way for new developments. Today, satay is sold in many hawker centres and whole industries have grown around it. There are now wholesalers that prepare uncooked satay for hawkers, taking over a tedious task that used to be the sole duty of the satay hawker. In 1995, Hainanese Poh Kee Satay became the first company to franchise their satay using a specially designed machine that could skewer up to 30,000 sticks a day. There are also many companies that cater satay for parties.






A local variant of the traditional satay sauce has the peanut mix topped with pineapple puree. Another innovation in recent times is the shrimp satay: Prawns are coated in garlic, skewered and barbecued, but are not served with the peanut sauce. New dishes have also been introduced, such as the satay bee hoon, which has adopted the unmistakable satay ingredients.

 

Satay bee hoon

 
One of the most famous Malay dishes in Singapore, satay is a must-try, and is served at many hawkers, restaurants and food centres, including the East Coast Food Lagoon and the famous 24-hour Lau Pa Sat Festival Market, where no less than a dozen stalls selling only satay hold fort. A new addition in recent years has been the pork satay, introduced by Chinese satay sellers, giving this centuries-old item another delightful twist.

My Favourite satay

-Kaito

Chocolate

Happy Valentines Day <(^-^)>

Let's talk about Love! I mean Chocolate.

Chocolate

 
The treat that now lies quietly in its wrapper carries a story of exotic places, long journeys and small families that raise delicate tropical fruit trees.

 

 Cacao seeds

 As you peel back the wrapper, you’re uncovering the cacao tree’s seed—and joining people the world over who have turned to this mysterious food for ritual, medicine and sheer pleasure for the past 4,000 years.

 

Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste or in a block or used as a flavoring ingredient in other sweet foods.



The Mayans drank it, Lasse Hallström made a film about it and the rest of us get over the guilt of eating too much of it by eating more of it. The story of the humble cacao bean is a bona fide out-of-the-jungle, into-civilization tale of culinary wonder.


Without this creamy, bitter-sweet confection, Valentine’s Day would be all cards and flowers, Easter would turn back into another dull religious event and those halcyon days of watching the dog throw up because you replaced the strawberry innards of the pink Quality Street with salt would be fanciful imaginings.



Happy Valentines Day Everyone! :)
-Kaito

Fish & Chips

My Favourite Food <(^-^)>

Fish & Chips

 
Fish and chips is a hot dish of English origin, consisting of battered fish, commonly Atlantic cod or haddock, and deep-fried chips.

Anything that’s been around since the 1860s can’t be doing much wrong. The staple of the Victorian British working class is a crunchy-outside, soft-inside dish of simple, un-adorned fundamentals.
Sprinkled with salt, vinegar and dollops of tartar sauce, it is simply one of the best food around.


Batter
UK fish and chip shops traditionally use a simple water and flour batter, adding a little sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and a little vinegar to create lightness, as they create bubbles in the batter.
 
Other recipe like mine uses beer batter, where these liquid are often substitutes for water. The carbon dioxide in the beer lends a lighter texture to the batter. Beer also results in an orange-brown colour. A simple beer batter might consist of a 2:3 ratio of flour to beer by volume. The type of beer makes the batter taste different: some prefer lager whereas others use stout or bitter.


In Britain and Ireland, cod and haddock appear most commonly as the fish used for fish and chips, but cod is too expensive, so cheap alternatives are better option for me.


Nowadays, I will just go to Fish & Ço. for Fish & Chips. There was a time when I ordered New York Fish & Chips but they gave me a wrong order which is Best Fish & Chips in Town! Well, I'm just too hungry to wait for replacement so I said it's okay. Also, two of the waitresses are my type. :)

Sambal Stingray

My Favourite Food <(^-^)>

Sambal Stingray

 
Sambal stingray, also known as Spicy Banana Leaf Stingray and by the Malay name Ikan bakar, is a Singaporean seafood dish. Prepared by barbecuing stingray, it is served with sambal paste atop.


Barbecued Stingray: Smothered in sambal (a chili based sauce) and served on banana leaf. Remember to squeeze the lemon to give it that extra tangy taste!


I love banana leaves. To me, rice and curry tastes so much better when it's on a banana leaf rather than a stainless steel or even ceramic plate. It's lots more fun, and I feel good using something that's disposable yet traditional and natural. Who says only modern people are lazy? Whoever first thought of using banana leaves as plates must have hated washing up, just like me!


The banana leaf in sambal stingray is the unsung hero. The sambal – always the sambal! – takes all the glory but even a good one would be even better with the banana leaf's subtle smokiness. Isn't the nicely charred leaf a perfect frame for the gleaming, red sambal? Sambal stingray without banana leaf just wouldn't be the same (though it's still better than no sambal stingray at all).


The sambal paste served with the stingray is made up of spices (sometimes including belachan), Indian walnuts, and shallots. Other ingredients may include garlic, sugar, Chinese parsley, or raw peanuts. The paste is then spread on top of stingray fins, preferably fresh ones. In addition, female ones are preferred to male ones. White fish is in some instances used as an alternative, usually when stingray cannot be found. Flavor enhancers include white pepper or salt. Other recipes involve small amounts of brandy and olive oil. The dish is commonly accompanied with lime or lemon.