Assorted Mini Bento Food Cutters

It has being so long since about a year ago from my last Bento making till now. Recently I saw these cute cutters available from the Daiso near my area and I went ahead buying a few sets of it :p So if you love to start off with some quick and simple bento for your kids, head down to the nearest Daiso around your area and some some cutters soon.

"Animals Set" allows you to create a simple bento with assorted cute animals such as panda, rabbit, birds and etc.

"Space Set" which i guess most of the boys will love this. You can even create a simple rocket with stars, moon and etc.

The "Garden Set" where you can make cute butterfly flying on flower beds using bread, ham and cheese with this set.

Assorted Transportation Flag Picks

Grab a pack of this cute transportation flag picks from Daiso this afternoon. This might come handy when you prepared some snack for your kids to bring to school or use it as a decorative items on the bento.

Japanese Matcha Powder

Matcha - 抹茶 refers to finely-milled Japanese green tea. Recent years it has also come to be used to flavour and dye foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream and a variety of Japanese confectionery too. Other than Japanese cuisine and pastry, matcha powder is also used as flavouring in many Western-style chocolates, candy, and desserts such as cakes, pastries, cookies, pudding and etc.

A few weeks back, I have made some lovely "Matcha Madeleines"(click Here for recipe) and "Matcha & Chestnut Chiffon Cake" (click Here for recipe) whereby I received some emails regarding on where to get the "Matcha Powder". Actually I have bought this Japanese Matcha powder from the NTUC located in Junction 8, at the Japanese section. This type of Matcha powder is slightly more expensive then the usual baking green tea powder that we used to purchase from Phoon Huat. A small can of 40g cost about S$6+ but I can guarantee you the end-products will be much more better then the usual green tea powder used.

Kau Kee - 九杞菜

Kau Kee - 九杞 (wolfberry leaves) is a kind of leafy vegetables that comes in long stalks and sharp thorns on it. You can get this from most local supermarket or tradition wet market near your area. Usually this vegetable is cooked as a soup using minced meat and egg.

And from one of my food review from a Zhi Char - 煮炒摊 that we ordered this “Kau Khee Soup - 九杞菜汤/枸杞菜汤”, I came up with an one-pot dish "recipe" with these ingredients too. If you prefer it to be served as soup like what shown above, you can always whipped it up at home with simple ingredients such as egg and minced meat.

Silicon Madeleine Pan

Madeleines are very small traditional sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape which traditional recipes always include ground almonds and lemon zest. And there are all kind of types/sizes of Madeleines tin range from metal to silicon or from the traditional shape to scallop shell shape design.

I have made use of this pan to make some cute and mini "Matcha Madeleines with Azuki Bean" where you can find the recipe HERE.

Five Spice Powder

Five Spice Powder - 五香粉 is one of the Asian commonly use spice in some of their cuisine such as "Braised Duck - 卤鸭", "Ngoh Hiang - 五香", "Braised Pork Belly - 卤肉" and etc. It consists five basic flavours of Chinese cooking like - sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty. The ingredients use for the five spice powder are :- Peppercorns, Star anise pods, Clove, Cinnamon and Fennel which are grind together as powder that use as seasoning for the dish.

Taiwan Honey Starfruit

In Taiwan, Carambola is also known as Honey Starfruit in common and besides being delicious it is also rich with vitamins. It is a popular summer snack that is recommended as a remedy for sore throats and the common cold. These few weeks you can find some Taiwan famous fruits such as Honey Starfruit, Loquats(枇杷) and Rose Apple(莲雾) on sale at major NTUC during their "Taiwan Fruit Fair".


During one of my recent trip to NTUC, I found these golden honey Starfruit from Taiwan which are similar to those that we have eaten during our April Taiwan trip. So without hesitate, I choose a few home to eat as well as make it into starfruit juice. The colour of the juice is so beautiful with that golden orange colour which is similar to Orange/Mango. The taste is so refreshing and fragrant..... Do give it a try if you can find some at your nearest NTUC.

Easter Gift

This is the best Easter Gift I have received this year. And I have to give credit and thanks to one of my best blog pal Quinn from "Quinn's Baking Diary". Despite of the expensive postage from Australia to Singapore, she is still so willing to send me the April Issue of my favourite "Super Food Ideas" in order for me and Rey to try out some of the Easter recipe in it.

Quinn is so thoughtful that she even take the effort to email a couple of the Easter Recipes in picture format before sending me the book just to make sure that we have enough time to do the Easter recipe. Thank you so much Quinn, I owed you "One" :p And with her help, we are able to try out the "Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns" just in time for Easter.

Steam Bun Vs Pancake

Very excited that I finally got hold of this book from the Public Library near my area after seeing those beautiful bakes from one of my favourite blogger "Happy Homebaking" on her " Fun With Steam Bun" post a few weeks back. I have being searching for this book for quiet sometime before I read from her post that it is available at the Library.

Although I got hold of the book but there is something that I would like to bring out and share. I actually reserved this book online and after collect it from the Library and browse through I was rather shocked that almost more than 10 pages of the feature recipes had been torn out from the book. Immediately I bought the book back to the Library and report on the incident and hope to exchange for another copy. It's rather upset to get a book that you want and yet with so many missing pages. I guess the Library should have some system on tracking those books to stop all these kind of nasty act.

Thank God, I am able to exchange for another book which is in good condition that I can get to read on those recipes that I wish to try on. If you love to make steam bun or bakes, this is one of the book that you might be interest with. You can try to find a copy at the Library near you. This book features a lot of different kind of steam bun, like Bao - 包 and Man Tou - 馒头.

Other than the book above, I also grab hold of this "108 Ways of Making Pancake" by a Japanese Author. I have saw this book on sale at Popular Bookstore but since I can get it from the Library I might as well make good use of this facilities.

You will find a lot of simple and easy pancake recipes that is suitable to do together with your kids. Or you can even find some great gift ideas on making those "cute" gift by using pre-packed pancake flour. No matter what you are look for, there is sure something that interest you :)

Paradise Pear

Saw these cute little pear at one of the fruit stall near my area and without much consideration, I choose roughly around 10 of it and make the payment. When the stall owner told me the price, I was kind of shock.... imagine, 10 little pear cost $7.90 which is around $0.80 per pear........

According to the signboard and from the stall helper, these pear are known as "Paradise Pear" and they are from Australia. They are very small, sweet and crisp. These delightful, bite-size 'mini-pears' are borne in bunches and just right for kids!

Other than the paradise pear, I also spot this mini apple shape like fruit from the stall. And according to the stall helper, he told me this is called the "Bird Pear - 鸟梨". At a glance, I was attracted by this cute little pear which I thought rey might be fancy about it. But when I reached home, I realise that this is not those "Fresh" type of fruit, this is kind of those Chinese Preserved fruit which is soaked in vinegar.