d' Good Café

Long time of being hiatus now I am back with d' Good Café.

This cafe is not located on ground level. Spot the signboard and head up the flight of stairs. It is a self service type of cafe, get a spot that you are comfortable with and then head to the cashier to make purchases. I would say this is fairly small and cosy place which are usually places you would want to avoid during peak hour.

Here its pretty interesting, there are vintage looking items like drip coffee machine, bicycle and some random items on the shelves on display. Menu of drinks will be on the left and cakes on display are straight up.

I thought the Polaroid wall was pretty sweet. 

Since its self service, after ordering a buzzer will be given and when it buzz, you would have to collect it from the counter. Drinks and cake usually will be made fast enough so after taking those, we head back to our seats and wait for the buzz for the main dishes. 

Two drinks are Lavender Earl Grey Latte ($7.00) left and Caramel Frap ($6.50) right. 

Well to be honest I didn't like the Lavender Earl Grey Latte one bit because all I could taste was lavender and the whipped cream on top just made the whole drink even thicker and creamier in a bad way wasn't asked if I wanted whipped cream and didn't know that whipped cream was involve . 

Caramel Frap was pretty good. It just tasted like those normal caramel frap you can get from Starbucks or anywhere else selling it.

Cakes. Earl Grey Mousse Cake ($6.00) on the top and their signature Maple Seasalt Cheesecake ($9.00) at the bottom picture. 

Earl Grey Mousse Cake was nothing fancy. It is like those type of cake where you take a bite and goes "Hmm.. I can finish the whole thing easily because its pretty okay but chances of me purchasing it again? Nah". 

Maple Seasalt Cheesecake on the other hand was good. For the price of $9.00 I can't agree much that it is a little on the high end side but after looking at it and taking a bite, I think its safe to come up with reasons why it is worth the money. Maybe its hard to tell from the picture but it is a bigger slice compared to other cheesecake slices you will get from outside. Having a taste of it, ohh mann. It is like dense but yet light in a way. There is a hint of maple taste and a bit of saltiness at the top which goes well with the cream cheese layer. That type of cake where you know the ingredients used is of good quality.

Also order a plate of Eggs Benedict ($13.50). Average and filling. Eggs were poached perfectly with yolk runny in the center on top of ham and toasted thick cut bread. Sides were some salad mix tossed with balsamic vinegar. 

This is actually a lot for two person even though its technically just one person having a drink, half portion of main menu and then dessert which is a slice of cake. Sounds pretty "just nice" but we both ended up really jer lat and I think its because my drink was as good as drinking a meal and the cheesecake was very rich.

Tried our very best to finish. Everything was gone except half of my drinks which I gave up on finishing and a mouthful of the mousse cake. All in all I think I would revisit this place again for the Cheesecake and the cosy atmosphere. It is a great place to hangout and catch up with friends on non peak hours.

Tofu wrapped in Bacon Strips

Recipe #2  

I cook pretty often, like maybe more then twice every week so I always watch Youtube video to have more ideas on what to try out. This time I found this recipe that only need two main ingredient!

Main Ingredient
Silken Tofu (preferably the one that state "ideal for frying" on the package)
Bacon strips
Flour ( I use all purpose flour)
Oil for pan frying

This is probably the most time consuming things to do because in order for the tofu to be fried up a little better, we need to drain the excess water out of it. 

Remove the tofu from the packaging, wrap it with kitchen paper ( those tissue that are thicker and rougher ) , put it on a mesh strainer and put something heavy to give it some pressure. Leave it for 15 mins to half hour

I have limited bacon strips on hand so I slice mime into 6 pieces. It is quite thick in size but that's fine for me.

Now comes the fun part! Row the tofu piece in one bacon strip. Need to be a little gentle here so that the tofu won't break apart.

Lay it in one layer and dust flour to both side of the pieces. The flour will create a thin layer of crust. 

Flour going everywhere :/ A little messy but that's fine, gonna be yummlicious /thumbs up/

Time to pan fry! I use about 1 tablespoon of oil. Wait for a few minutes for the oil to be hot before putting the pieces in.

Flip it when the side turned golden brown! Yeah one piece kinda broke here :( but all is good , I get to eat that piece hehehe

All done!! Ingredients are as simple as 1 2 3. I ate it with shredded cabbage and slice tomato but can definitely eat this with white rice or noodles because the bacon makes it a little on the salty side. 

Next time I would probably let the bacon go for a little longer because the "fats" on the bacon haven't really crisp up yet.

Most probably I might use those thinly slice pork used for steamboat instead of bacon to make this a little healthier. 

Spaghetti Bake w Tomato base sauce

Recipe #1 Simple and Yummy

This recipe is so easy because its just putting in whatever you want in your spaghetti into a baking dish, topped it up with cheese and bake away! Nothing greasy or crazy to clean up afterwards either. Plus point.

Main ingredient is
A pack of Spaghetti or any pasta preferred (I used about 2/3 of a 500g package)
2 cans of Tomato Sauce (I used traditional but any flavor is fine too)
Shredded Cheese (I used pre-shredded Mozzarella)  

Toppings - This is where you can have whatever you want to be added in.
A can of Kidney Beans
2 pieces of Frozen White Fish Fillet

Approximately
Prep time : 20 minutes
Cooking time : 20 minutes

First, fill up a pot with water, add a dash of salt and bring it to a boil. When its boiling, put in the Spaghetti and use a chopstick to mix it around a little to prevent it from sticking to each other. Following the instruction on the package on how long to cook it would be the best but for me, when the water reaches a boil again, I will taste it and give it approximately another minute if its not done.

While the Spaghetti is boiling, empty the 2 cans of sauce into the baking dish. I added the can of Kidney Beans, some dried parsley, ground pepper and salt to enhance the flavor. Fill up the empty tomato sauce can to about 1/4 of water and add it in. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree Celsius. 

Cut up the White Fish Fillet into about 2 inch pieces. Since I am using frozen fish, I season it with soya sauce and cooking wine. By then the Spaghetti should be cooked. Drain, rinse it with running tap water and in it goes into the baking dish.

The oven that is pre-heating should be almost up to temperature. Arrange the pieces with its seasoning on a baking tray and put it in the oven. Mine was in there for about 10 minutes. It is not entirely cooked on the inside.

Meanwhile, try to coat the pasta with the sauce evenly. Put a thin layer of shredded cheese on top. At this stage, you can also load up the cheese and put it into the oven if preferred.

When the fish is almost cooked, layer just the fish in a single file on top of the thin layer of cheese and discard the remaining sauce on the aluminium foil away. 

Last stage.

More cheese. If you want extra cheese, this is the time you want to go crazy. Not too much though, gotta watch the calories. In it goes into the oven. After 15-20 minutes it should be done or when the cheese have golden brown patches, its done!!

So simple! Get out those plates and this is a meal done for a family of 5. Leftovers? No worries just pop it into the fridge and microwave it before eating, it will still taste as good! 

The combination of Mushroom instead of Kidney Beans is good also. Just slices it up and put it in with the sauce. Sometimes I will add some broccoli. Chunk up the broccoli and blanch it in hot water before adding it into the sauce.

Make sure that when everything is in the baking dish there is a one inch gap free because overfilling might cause the sauce to bubble out and onto the oven base during the baking. That is a super duper crazy clean up process.