Saturday, November 17, 2007

Home-made Fried Rice

My home-made fried rice:

Well, it isn't really all that fancy, and I suppose pretty much anything can be fried with the rice. Here's how I did this particular one:

Ingredients:
1/2 a red onion
1 chilli
1pc Tau Kwa (the firm kind of tofu)
1/2 a yellow bell pepper
a handful of bean sprouts
1 stalk of xiao bai cai (sometims called chinese mustard)
1 bowl cooked rice
1 egg
2 tsp oil (or enough for frying)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp soy sauce (or to taste)

Preparation:
- Chop the onion and chilli. Cut the tau kwa and yellow bell pepper into strips.
- Wash the bean sprouts and xiao bai cai. Cut the xiao bai cai into small pieces.
- Heat oil and fry the tau kwa until it is golden-brown (yeah I love doing that).
- Push the tau kwa to the side of the wok, add onion, chilli and salt in the center. Fry and mix in the tau kwa.
- Throw in bell pepper, bean sprouts and stalk of xiao bai cai. Fry 'til "al dente". Then add the leaves of xiao bai cai.
- Make a space in the center of the wok and add the rice. Add a more oil if necessary to prevent the rice sticking to the wok. Add soy sauce and fry, mixing in all the other ingredients.
- Make a space in the center of the wok, break the an egg in the center, mix in all the rice and ingredients and fry.

TIP: For best results, use cold rice (e.g. refrigerated overnight).

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant

Ling Zhi Vegetarian RestaurantLast weekend, my DH and I went to Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant for dinner. There are two branches, one at Far East Square, the other at Liat Towers. We went to the Liat Towers branch, and above is the entrance to the restaurant.

Ling Zhi Water Chestnut Tea    Ling Zhi Spinach Soup
We had the "special tea" - it was a water chestnut drink that day. (picture above left). To start, we ordered spinach soup (picture above right). The soup is served in a bamboo cup - really cute! It is a simple and refreshing concoction, and is not overly spiced or savoury, which brings out the flavor of the ingredients. We enjoyed the simplicity of it all.

We ordered three main dishes. I really can't remember what the names are in the menu, so I will just describe them, and hope the pictures do them justice.

Ling Zhi Mock Fish
The mock fish consists of layers of beancurd wrapped in crispy seaweed-type "skin", with shreds of caramelised ginger on top, and chili sauce on the side. DH and I absolutely loved this dish.

Ling Zhi Stuffed Eggplant
The stuffed eggplant (picture above center) came in a claypot, and was served with four fried buns. I wasn't expecting the fried buns and had also ordered white rice! I ended not eating any of the rice. The eggplant was stuffed with tofu, and served in claypot with mushrooms and potato slices. The sauce was good (and went well with the fried buns). This is a tasty dish!

Ling Zhi Bag of Treasures
The only dish for which I remember the name on the menu is the "Bag of Treasures". This consists of veggies wrapped in beancurd skin, and served with broccoli, with a drizzle of a light sauce. Nice simple addition to the meal.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed dinner. It is known that this restaurant isn't exactly cheap - we spent over $60 on dinner for 2 - but it was definitely worth it!

LingZhi Vegetarian Restaurant - Liat Towers
541 Orchard Road,
#05-01 Liat Towers,
Singapore 238881
Tel: 6734 3788
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Tung Lok Group website