That Saturday morning coincidentally, his mum set off for for a short holiday in Vietnam and his grandma stayed over at his aunt's so then I'll be able to helm the kitchen!
"What's the big deal?" you may ask.
Well, I'm very, VERY shy about any cooking skill that I may possess. Even with my OWN MUM! I'll only cook when the matriarchs aren't around. And only selective folks get to eat what I cook. Even when I'm married, I refused to cook actual meals; nevermind that I appear like some horrible daughter-in-law or what.
I never baked at my in-law's place. Even at my parent's place last time, I baked in the middle of the night, when everyone slept. :P
Crazy, I know. But I just feel apprehensive in the presence of these awesome women. Very, very intimidated, indeed.
Couple of days prior to that weekend, I already planned what I wanna prepare.
Breakfast fry-up
When still residing with my parents during my single days, I totally adore the chaotic Sunday mornings when my parents prepared breakfast fry-ups. And the spread was majestic!
There'll be hotdogs or sausages, fish fingers and sometimes, chicken nuggets. For carbs, there's potato wedges or crinkle-cut fries with toasted french loaf or regular bread slices but they MUST BE TOASTED! Only when I feel not-do-lazy, do I prepare my own garlic spread; grinding the onion, garlic, herbs with butter. Then there's the sunny-side-up eggs, with extras for second helpings. And finally there's the baked beans; always with onion, garlic and chillies sauteed in olive oil before poring the beans in. NEVER straight out-of-the-can.
And breakfast can last at least an hour. We'll talk about everything and anything and when we struggle to finish our food, we'll start pushing the remnants to one another.
AND SO - I wanna replicate that. But it just wasn't easy! My nephew and niece that my helper babysat, they were taken aback by such an elaborate fry-up. They took either the potato ONLY or the cheese sausage only. My hubby don't mind but his stomach space only limit his intake to a little bit of everything or a lot of something. Only my kiddo eats my cooking with gusto. If only he eat the beans... So much for worrying if the single can of beans would suffice. We even have leftovers…
Le Sigh.
Baked penne in cream sauce
This was supposed to be my 'speciality'. When I shopped for the ingredients the day before, I made sure that everything was checked. I was a tad nervous, seeing that the last time I laboriously cooked this from scratch was when I was preggers and that was more than 2 years ago!
But Murphy's Law chose to take place that day. All because of 1 ingredient.
Plain flour.
A traditional kitchen that doesn't have plain flour? What blasphemy! I didn't bother to check on it because I need only a scoop or two and I dun think that'll warrant me to buy a whole kg of it.
Because of that, my penne in mushroom cream SAUCE became penne in mushroom cream SOUP. Bleargh!
This is why I can't help but look forward to my new abode. My own kitchen. My own stove. My own oven. My own utensils.
I wanna get back my cooking/baking mojo! Practice makes perfect and I wanna be like the mums in my life. Cooking up a storm for the family to enjoy. Huhu...
After the disastrous outcome for breakfast & lunch, well, I naturally planned to eat out for dinner. Ok, so dinner was planned wayyy beforehand. :P
I know my hubby loves Seoul Garden. He love his meats so Seoul Garden appear like some unlimited meat supply to him, I guess.
Whenever my large group of cousins ask for suggestions on places to eat, he'll always come up with 'Seoul Garden'. And the whole bunch of us did have that one time (we booked half the restaurant during off-peak hours). He loved every moment of it.
So for his birthday meal, I simply suggest this place. And knowing just how 'un-adventurous' he is with travelling to town or anything, I'm just glad that there's a branch located a stone's throw away from our place, at EHub.
And the fact that it's an ala carte buffet makes it all the more better, seeing that we don't need to get up every now and then to get our food.
Order away!
I love this concept because our raw (and even cooked food) are some mouse clicks away! Ok, so this is nothing new. Zingrill Holdings, the parent company decide to close down Fresh Bulgogi and replace it with the Seoul Garden brand instead. But the concept remained.
This also allow them to offer premium foods like scallops, wagyu beef etc. (charges apply) on top of the others that are part of the regular ala-carte buffet. So be careful when you select.
Truth to be told, I've always been apprehensive about dining here because of my kiddo. He's at THAT age where he simply can't sit still. And to come to a place with open fire, hot pan and boiling soup? I actually brought my helper along, just in case. That's why I'm glad that I don't have to get up for my food cos' he'll just follow me around.
Aside from his fascination with the long tongs meant for the bbq, he was ok most of the time. He's much more taken in by the computer actually. I even let him click the mouse around while all of us watched over what he clicked on and made sure he didn't select any premium items and most importantly, SEND the order. Whenever he looked away, I quickly cancelled his random selections. Pfft.
Awesome Korean Fried Chicken Wings
Almost similar to the Hot Hot Drums from BBQ Chicken, save that these were more sweet than they were spicy and the taste of 'Gochujang' was more apparent here.
Actually these were more like drumlets than the actual wings and with the crispy bits plus all that sauce, this can be a pretty messy eat. My helper may be Indonesian but she actually find this to be too sweet. But these were so popular that people flocked over whenever the dish was topped up. Finger-lickin'-good (literally)!
The regular fried chicken is still available (also delish!). Just click on a picture of them on the computer screen. 2 drumlets per serving.
Saucy!!
Best part? We were sitting right beside the counter where they put these!!! There's also fried fishballs and chicken wantans.
I seriously contemplate coming back here just to get these.
Note: These are available only on weeknights and whole day on weekends and public holiday.
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