Home Cook food@Delft

Following are some snapshots of food I cooked in Delft, Holland in 2004 during my studies there.
Beautiful place beautiful pll and beautiful memory..
Forza Poptahof!
my first home made meal in Holland. Brough it to school for lunch but I was dead hungry 30mins after eating this. It took awhile to get used to eating bread for lunch/dinner without getting hungry during winter time.
brussels sprouts in spicy tomato sauce. ( the small dishes are done by our columbian friend, Adriana. It's mashed avacado, tomato salad + fried banana. not bad.)
old amsterdam cheese, old gouda cheese plus spicy cheese.
Roti Goreng
First attempt on rice in holland

trout chinese style

Oso@tanjong Pagar

just a few pictures we took during our dinner at OSO.
I enjoyed this restaurant alot. Fantastic service, hearty italian fine cuisine... Fabulous


BreadBasket: The foccasia was excellent. I believe we had ordered 2 servings of the focacia bread.


Carpaccio with Honey Melon: A gentle reminder to Demona that we had Carpaccio before.

Carpinetto wine: I vaguely remember this has having pleasant aroma of currant on the nose, but structured body with fine tannins that went well with our creamy dishes.



Cheese Platters: Interesting platter. I could not remember much of each of the cheese. The waiter was explaining the different honey/olive oil combination that we should try on different cheese. Educational!

Kwong Wei Sang@PJ old state

Demona: I went out for dinner with my aunts and cousins on a chilly Sunday evening. My aunt and her family, who lives near by this restaurant, are regular customers. This was my first trip here. Obviously, the one who did all the dish ordering was my aunt.



Demona: Chilli gobbler. The sambal belacan, kicked ass. Extremely spicy and sour. ZZEEENNGGGG.



Demona: This is a pict of the stir-fried "bayam". (What is it in english again?) Not too bad. The vegetable was soft enough to chew, but not over cooked and it was flavourful. The taste of the garlic sauce was really strong. SLURPS.



Demona: This is the pict of the "Kwoh Chap Phai Kuat", Fruit Jam Pork Ribs? (did I translate it correctly?) This was the best dish! I loved it very much. It was a little oily, and the fat portion was pretty chunky (I know this was the best part of all, but I put it aside). The meat, however, was tender and juicy! Pretty cool idea, using fruit jam! I think they used a lot of honey as well, as the ribs were sticky and sweet.


Demona: I am not too sure what soup it was, but it was cooked with some vegetables, chicken feet, and some chunks of meat. The soup was pretty flavourful, and not over oily. I am never a soup fan, thus I just took a few spoonfuls.



Demona: This is a pict of the "Thit Parn Yue" (Sizzling Plate Fish?). This was excellent as well! The fish was firstly fried, and an interesting dressing was placed on top of it. I could taste finely grated ginger, chilli padis and onions, zesty lemony juice etc. SLURPS BIG TIME.

Verdict: I do not know the total cost for that night's meal as me aunt paid for it. I do not think it is over priced anyway, if not, my aunt will not be regular there. I will definitely want to come back here again for another round of pork ribs and fish, and maybe try more new things. Talking about the ribs made my thoughts wandered back to the juicy and tender pork rib meat melting away in my mouth. HEAVENLY!

Ah Fung Baso@Hartamas

Demona: I wrote a real nice, lengthy post on this meal initially, but the connection went dead when I finished writing. The post writings failed to show on the website, and they were not saved in draft as well. (FRUSTRATED). I decided to shorten it. My customer knows Indonesia in and out and he had been promoting this popular Indonesian dish, Baso, a meatball soup. It is usually sold from street side stalls, push carts that make their rounds through the neighbourhoods, from late afternoon and throughout the night.

The opportunity finally came when this busy customer of mine finally had the time to take a break away from work to have a meal here. Since he was familiar with it, we let him do the ordering. The pict above was an appetizer. A mixture of crackers, long beans, fried tofu squares and bean sprouts, drizzled with a thick, sweet and hot spicy sauce, with nut bits in it. The only highlight of this dish was its sauce, as it complemented well with the ingredients. Personally, I feel that our own MALAYSIA-BOLEH! local rojaks could win them over anytime.



Demona: This was a giant, deep fried pastry skin. Not worth spending the money on. I could only taste flour and oil. BTW, you could see a small round whitish spot on the big pastry skin? That was the incy wincy tiny bit of minced meat inside. Basically, the meat portion given was like what you would get in a normal wan tan, except that this one offered a BIG BIG skin surface area.



Demona: The pict above showed the Baso soup. The noodles were well hidden beneath the soup, which was filled with floating fishballs, crabsticks, fishcakes, mushrooms, spring onions, stuffed tofus etc. Before eating, I was mentally prepared to taste a new flavour, thinking that their baso must have tasted different, to have its own special name. Sadly, it tasted like any other soup noodles which you could get in chinese hawker stalls etc. There was not an inch of significance which Baso had offered to stand out from the other noodles which I had tried before.



Demona: This pict was a bowl of soup with minced beef stuffed tofu. Thank god, the shop had finally offered a dish worth complimenting. The minced beef was very well spiced, making it very flavourful, however not to overpower itself, the bland fried tofu came in hand to control it.



Demona: This baso was replaced with thick and thin soy sauce, drizzled with oil, instead of soup. Besides the fact that their ingredients (fishcakes, fishballs etc), were pre-made and bought from suppliers I suppose, the noodles themselves tasted normal too. Like any other egg based noodles you can find at the mart.

I did not manage to take a pict of the baso with beef balls and minced beef. The meat part was delicious, the noodles however, left untouched. I suppose that the beef was the same as the one in the stuffed tofu.



Demona: I am not too sure what was the exact term of this dish. For me, it was a giant wan tan stuffed with minced beef and noodles. Nothing fantastic either.

Verdict: The bill came up to about RM 90. I found it slightly pricey, due to the fact that we were only having noodles. I personally felt that the dishes were just a plain mix-and-match, just like our own "wide" variety of proton car models. This place showed me that the Indonesian Baso left no significant impression on me at all. I would not bring Dogma here to try out the food here.

Roti Prata Cafe@Upp Thompson

Ok. I had a quick dinner today around my office at this supposedly famous Roti Prata Cafe (Voted by NewPaper or something).

Crispy Prata: This is one Singaporean's favourite - roti canai that is fried till ultra crispy. I would not say i hate crispy prata but just that I prefer mine chewy with some bite. This shop's crispy prata was a let down. I did not managed to take the picture before i finished them but you could see from the flaks that it is ultra dry and lifeless. Thumbs down.


Dissatisfied and eager for more, I ordered a plate of nasi briyani, with fried chicken and 1 plate. of chicken curry and 1 plate of fish curry. The nasi briyani did not score much mark and the fried chicken was pathetic. It was fried way before hand and it was dull and lifeless. Both curry were lacking of ooomph and punch.


Verdict: For nasi briyani in singapore, I'll go for Hamid's Mutton Briyani@geylang serai market. For fried chicken, I would have gone for those northern indian tandoori chicken of Heritage@6thAve or Jaggi@racecourse rd. I still could not find a good indian food in Singapore that could be on par with KL's Pandi or Kanna.

Pls help me....

Amer@Bakerzin, Bangsar

Demona: This cake is called "AMER". Love. My marketing manager bought it for one of our customers. Me stomach juices were wishy washy already when I saw the cake. It looked darn delicious. THIS WAS TRUE! THE BOOK WAS EQUALLY AS GOOD AS ITS COVERS!



Demona: The dark chocolate sponge cake slices in between were very moist and the sweetness was well controlled. In between the layers of chocolate sponge cakes were coated with very smooth, chilled, chocolate whipped cream. (DEVILISHLY SINFUL!) Each bite was a melting moment! This was one of those cakes where by each mouthful was orgasm, keeping you smiling bigger and bigger. When I took one bite, I close my eyes, and for that few seconds, I actually felt worry-free. I was in paradise.

Verdict: A very good cake. I got to learn how to make this cake alright. The price was a little steep, RM 70. Get this cake as a birthday gift only to those who you really care about and cares about you equally as much as well.

Mizuki Wine Dinner

Buddy JT just sent me some picture for the Mizuki Wine Dinner last week.

Here are the brief write up on them

Dried FuGu with mayo fish roe: It was my first time trying the famed fugu, albeit the dried version. Chewy, bitey with sweetish note. Well it taste very very close to "bak-kwa" but probably cost a lot more. Did I enjoyed it? hmmmmmm .. probably not as great i thought it would be.


Fresh Japanese Ginko Nuts + fried lotus: This is interesting. The green ginko nuts was lightly coated in salt. Soft, refreshing, and warm.. it cleanses your palate after the sweet dried fugu. The fried lotus slices were fine too. Thinly sliced and well fried without an hint of oil.


Assorted Sashimi: some fishes, scallop, tuna, shrimp.. It was all fresh except mine was lacking of the tuna belly. :( The chef had overlook my plate i guess.

Wagyu beef sandwiched by Foie Gras: The highlight of the day. Juicy wagyu beef coated with the sweet fatty foie gras.... yum yum...

Lai Po Heen@Mandarin Oriental

Demona: Lai Po Heen. Famous for its dim sum. Apparently, the place is packed almost everyday, and queueing up is common during weekends. I had been here a few times already, but this was the first time my brother came to eat here. A promise between my aunt and him. As you walk in, you could see the talented chefs cooking in their open-for-all-viewing kitchen on your left. The ambience of this place was really relaxing, yet you get a feel of being in a chinese eatery. You could see many foreigners eating there as well.



Demona: This is the pict of the 4 types of chillis presented to us. Green chillis, red chillis, and two types of chilli paste. Next to it was the steamed ground nuts. No steam ground nuts can beat my late grandma's Mooncake festival steamed giant ground nuts.



Demona: The chilli paste! GOBBLES. It was a little too salty though. Lai Po Heen got lucky this time. I did not request for another cupful of chilli paste.



Demona: This is the pict of the "Har Kaus". Har kaus, siew mais and char siew paos are a must-present-on-the-table dishes when it comes to dim sum meals. However, my aunts had forgotten to put a "tick" on the char siew pao section this time (Sobs. No CSP CSP CSP.) The har kau was a major let down. Upon my first bite, I realised that the skin was a little too dry. Maybe they had been steamed a few times already. The prawns were also bland, despite having parsleys in it (you can see them in the pict). Probably har kau chef's bad day.



Demona: This is the pict of the "Siew Mais". According to my aunt, there should be 3 colours, instead of 2. Green, yellow and red. Wasn't too sure why they were left with 2 now. The siew mais were pretty tasty. The pork meat was very well minced (you can taste the porkiness) and mixed (smooth), therefore you would not find pieces of meat stuck between your teeth eating it. The only downside was the "economical" amount of crab roe on top of each siew mais.



Demona: This is a pict of the fried carrot cake. It was only average tasting for me. Quite oily alright, but most fried carrot cakes are anyway. It lacked spicyness as well. I would not order this dish again on my future trips here. The best one I ate so far was from a pasar malam in Bukit Beruang, Melacca and the dimsum restaurant in Summit USJ.



Demona: This is a pict of the deep fried prawn rolls. I had no say on this, as I did not get a chance to try this dish out. It was finished up by the rest while I was busy trying to get Dogma's camera to work.



Demona: This is the "Chee Cheung Fan". Major disappointment. It came looking really tasty alright, but to my dismay, its taste is a total opposite. I have no idea why they fried the cheung fans, making the dish very oily. Not to mention, it lacked meat fillings.



Demona: This was my favourite dim sum! Prawns wrapped in a fish cake, rolled on with almond flakes and deep fried. The mixture of the chewy prawns and fish cakes and crunchy nuts in your mouth was just plain delicious! Although I could see oily deposits on the almond flakes, I did not mind it at all. Let loose the cholesterol level for now.



Demona: This is a pict of durian cakes. Lai Po Heen's "JIU PHAI" dessert. I have not eaten a durian since my highschool days, no idea why, but the interest in eating it died away. Initially, I turned the dessert down. After much persuasion from my aunts to give it a try, I finally gave in. I chose the smallest piece from the lot. (BTW, a serving comes in 3 pieces of durian cakes).



Demona: This is a close up shot of the inside of the durian cake. It is basically, durian flesh, blended with whipped cream, and wrapped into bite sizes using its skin. It was already pre-refridgerated, thus, the feeling was like eating chilled durian flavoured souffle. Not as bad as I thought it would be (as I dislike the taste of durian), but one piece was more than enough for me. If I were to eat alone, I would definitely left the other two pieces behind. The after taste of it lasted really long. There was still smell of durian after burping many hours later. YIKES.

Verdict: The meal came up to RM 178, for 6 of us. A person cost about RM 30 each. Pretty steep pricing, but alas, we were eating in a restaurant in Mandarin Oriental. It was only NORMAL to pay such a sum for a meal here. I thought it wasn't too bad anyway, since we had 8 baskets of dimsums, 1 plate of chee cheung fan and fried carrot cake, and 3 servings of durian cakes, and the miscellaneous such as towels, steamed ground nuts, teas etc. A pleasant place to have a relaxing lazy Sunday brunch once in a while ($$$), but do skip certain dimsum dishes which you are not highly keen on, as they do not come cheap and you do not want to overstuff yourself.

Bonta wines

Krug 1985 (Magnum):
Eye: Pale to medium yellow
Nose:Subtle nose of citrus upon opening and fine bubbles. After 30min in the glass, the nose was intense honeyed and yeasty/brioche.
Palate: Structured citrus attack upon sipping, which slowly developed into a secondary yeasty/bitter lift in the mid palate. Medium to long length.
Verdict: Still at it's infancy, this magnum bottle could have been better 8-15 years down the road. Very elegant, immensely structured with fine bubbles. My first Krug and hopefully not the last!
Price: 800Usd
Ratings: 4.4/5



Cupole 2005, Tenuta Di Trinoro:
55% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc.9% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot,4% Cesanese, 4% Uva di troia
Eye: light red
Nose: Cooked vegetables with hay
Palate: light attack,tad bitterness in mid palate, harmonious tannins. short to medium length Verdict: it's an ok wine. nothing to shout about. Interesting nose of intense cooked vegetables due to the over ripened Cabernet franc
Ratings: 3.3/5

Cupole 2004, Tenuta Di Trinoro:
Eye:light red
Nose: Cooked vegetables with hay
Palate: Similar to 2005, but 2004 has a stronger attack of fruit
Verdict: same intense cooked vegetable but with more fruit
Ratings: 3.3/5


Franchetti, 2004 Tenuta Di Trinoro:
60% petit verdot,40% Cesanese d'Affile
Eye: deep red
Nose: beautiful intense nose of currant, leather and black fruits
Palate: Harmonious, well integrated tannin, good structure with long length.
Verdict: Amazing for an petit verdot. This wine is elegant and beautiful. Pairs well with red meat and could develop further 2-4 years time. Checking online shows that this wine is about 100usd. Not exactly value for money but hey, it is still a great effort for the winemaker
Ratings: 3.8/5

Passopisciaro 2005, Tenuta di Trinoro
100% nerello mascalese
Eye: Clear light red
Nose: Cherry and strawberry
Palate: light, pinot-like elegance but lacking the purity of a great burgundy pinot. crisp tannin. Length was medium
Verdict: Online retailed for 40usd. This wine is similar in style to a burgundy pinot. It is closer to a burgundy than most new world pinot. However, it is lacking on the purity, mineral. Pretty good effort but nothing to shout about.
Ratings 3.5/5


Trinoro 2006, Tenuta di Trinoro
blend of merlot, cab franc and cab sauv
Eye: medium red, massive alcohol leg (15% alcohol accoding to the winemaker)
Nose: herbicious, cooked vegetable,
Palate:tannic, with currant and red fruits coming out after 30min in glass. medium finish
Verdict: Great intense fruit compared to 2003. Big wine and has great potential ahead. This could be the best Trinoro in years to come.
Price: 330 usd
Ratings: 4-4.5/5 in 10 years time.

Trinoro 1998, Tenuta di Trinoro
(70% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot)
Eye: Deep purplish red
Nose: intense bordeaux nose, leather, tobacco and herbal
Palate: Structured, harmonious tannin, plums, currant with a long finish.
Verdict: Great effort. The second vintage of Trinoro and it's already drinking well. With great harmony, integrated structure and superb nose. It could still develop further.
Ratings: 4.1/5

Trinoro 2003, Tenuta di Trinoro
(42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Cabernet Franc, 16% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot)
Eye: deep red
Nose: sweet herbal nose with berries and tobacco, with alcohol
Palate: tannic with sweet berries. alcoholic. medium finish,
Verdict: still at its infancy. Wait for a couple of years and probably it could be as beautiful as the 98. If you are patient, do get the 2006 and keep.
Ratings: 3.8-4/5 in 6 years time


all in all, get the 2006 Trinoro if you are patient and looking to drink 8-15 years down the road. Get the 98 if you want enjoyment now or 5 years down the road.
Priced around 330usd per bottle for the 2003 vintage, the trinoro is expensive and not exactly value for money.

In terms of value, i would have gone for the franchetti @ 110 usd among the wine tasted today.

some interesting stories which the winemaker was sharing with us.
1) her russian clients bought trinoro and drink it together with Vodka.
2) Prime minister of Cambodia treated her a Margaux 82, ON THE ROCK.
3) Some russian super rich will fly their jet to collect their wines, or yearly delivery to their yatch in monaco, with payment made 1 year in advance

Bonta Trinoro Wine Dinner

Home made bread stuff with olive , feta cheese, pine nuts and wat not: The bread is nicely toasted, light and full of feta cheese and olive aroma. Once you bit into it, you could taste the refreshing crunch of the fresh pine nuts. I do enjoy this bread very much, together with their olive oil/basil? dip.


Beef Carpaccio with wild Rucola and Aged Parmesan Cheese: This I did not remember much coz there is a small commotion on my table as a rich lady was screaming at the waiter. No picture taken either


Home Made Veal Ravioli with Rosemary Sauce: Soft QQ ravioli stuffed with a rich beefy veal..You could taste the lite rosemary sauce and creamy stuffings... Excellent. This dish certainly lifted me out from the commotion mins ago...


Home made Pappardelle with duck ragout and Porcini Mushroom: EXCELLENT homemade pasta. Cooked al-dente with just the nice bite. Coated with wild duck ragout intermingled with the refreshing Porcini mushroom.. Yummmmm! The reddish al-fafa look alike added another dimension to this dish. It provided a crisp, citrusy twist to counteract with the heavy duck ragout sauce. EXCELLENT execution.


Grilled Kurobota Pork with Caramelized Black Yam and Wild Berry Sauce: Another fantastic effort from the chef. Kurobota black Pork with just the right amout of fats coated on top.. mmmmm.. The slightly dry caramelized black yam was an interesting contrast to the fatty pork. Mash them up with the wild berry sauce and you get wild berry scented fatty pork, supported by the yam structure...Voila!

Gorgonzola Dolce with pera salad, crushed walnut and chestnut honey: The very best gorgonzola cheese i've ever had. Creamy, silky texture with a harmonious yeasty nose. Wonderful. The chestnut honey was an interesting choice as it was much lighter than typical maple/bee honey.

Chocolate Mousse with caramelized banana, crunchy hazelnuts and bailey;s syrup: Light chocolate mousse was not that rich but refreshing. The highlight of the dish is definitely the bailey's syrup. Rich bailey's sauce (probably mixed with dark chocolate) gives a rich sensation to lift up your taste bud. Again the chef is playing with the art of contrast: Lite chocolate mousse and rich bailey syrup.


Ok, This is expensive @150 per pax for a 6 course dinner at Bonta River Valley. The wine today was interesting. I would definitely visit here next time with demona.