[Circuit Breaker] Cooking with Perfect Earth Pasta

Received the Perfect Earth Pasta from my friends at Forever Young Enterprise, a well-known and established Organic and Natural Health Food provider in the industry. I was most impressed that the Perfect Earth Pasta is a range of gluten-free, allergen-free, gmo-free, suitable for vegan and is also Kosher certified product. Wow!

Perfect Earth Pasta

Now, let's do the taste test. I'm not much of a cook and the last I had cooked any pasta was, hmm...possibly right after my university days and during share house period? Like, about more than 10 years ago? Hahaha, I'm usually a ramyeon person more than a pasta lover. However, am excited to try Perfect Earth Pasta because I didn't know that know there's such a wide range of pasta available made of the various rice like organic range of black rice, red rice and brown rice, plus there's another range with chia seeds!

Randomly chose one to try, and decided on the Perfect Earth Organic Chia Pasta Brown Rice. Going to do a kimchi chicken bulgogi sauce for the pasta.

let's try this

Here are the ingredients for the sauce

1. One pack of kimchi - I used Bibigo stir-fried kimchi pack (80g)

2. Two large cloves of garlic - chopped

3. One small slim carrot - chopped

4. One big yellow onion - sliced

5. One pack of chicken bulgogi - about 330g

At home, the stove is not working, so most of the time, I can only do cooking in the pot or in the toaster. For this experiment, I used the rice cooker to cook the meat and the sauce, while the soup pot is used to boil the pasta.

stir-fried kimchi pack

To cook the chicken

1. Heat up the oil in the rice-cooker

2. Placed in the chopped garlic and brown it till fragrant

3. Placed in the onions and carrots. Fry till onions are soft.

4. Add in the chicken bulgogi and brown it for about 5 minutes

5. Pour in the kimchi. Add water to the sauce in the kimchi pack and put it together with the meat

6. Simmer for another 10 mins

kimchi chicken bulgogi

To cook the pasta

1. Put salt into the water and wait till it boils

2. Drop in the pasta sticks (2 handfuls for 2 pax)

3. Cook for about 5 minutes and it should have softened but still al-dente

4. Drain the pasta and move the pasta into the chicken pot

5. Toss well and simmer for about a minute will do

Perfect Earth Organic Chia Pasta Brown Rice - cooked

I liked the texture of the cooked pasta which is not too al-dente and not too soft too. The chia seeds gave it a lovely texture, much like toasted sesame.

kimchi chicken bulgogi pasta

lovely bite and texture

Easy to cook, healthy and reasonably priced! Let's stock up some of these in the food cupboard, shall we?

Thank you Hence and Tracy for the introduction to Perfect Earth Pasta!

To purchase, please visit the URL below:
https://www.foreveryoung.com.sg/product-category/pasta/
https://shopee.sg/foreveryoungsg
https://www.qoo10.sg/shop/foreveryoungsg

[Media Invite] Brownice Italian Bistro @ 53 East Coast Road (Katong)

Brownice has a two shops; one at Sin Ming (Brownice Ice Cream) and the main branch is actually Brownice Italian Bistro at Katong, or more accurately at 53 East Coast Road (near 328 Katong Laksa). Was invited by Tiara to join her for a food tasting at Brownice Italian Bistro, together with Kris, Justin, Ivan and Jennifer.

Brownice Italian Bistro offers Italian vegan food options and, yes vegan ice-cream included! While we know that vegan is not the same vegetarian, but how many of us knows what's the difference? While I have friends on vegetarian diet, there was no personal encounter with vegan friends, yet. Hence, had to seek some answers from Google master to satisfy my curiousity. While both practices meatless diet, vegans do not take dairy product nor eggs but garlic and onions are alright. My vegetarian friend, could consume dairy products and eggs but no to garlic and onions.

menu

alfresco area

indoor dining

Brownice Italian Bistro offers alfresco and indoor dining. Walking into the shop, one would be captivated by the colourful display of housemade ice-creams at the ice-cream counter. Free to sample the flavours.

ice-cream

and more ice-cream

But, it's not time yet for desserts. Let's start proper for dinner. My first ever dining experience of Italian-styled vegan cuisine.

we are about to start, have you chope'd a place?

Here we go, starting with the drinks. A trio of two milkshakes (minus the milk) and a smoothie. Guess which was my favourite.

hazelnut 'milkshake' @$8

Passionfruit Mango Smoothie @$8

Very Chocolate 'Milkshake' @$8

My favourite was the Passionfruit Mango Smoothie, with the passionfruit flavour edging out the mango by quite a bit.

Next up, something not so Italian as we had a side-order of White Truffle Fries. Was pretty impressed by this. The cheese taste was pretty strong and it was so enjoyable. Paired best with a sparkling soda (NC18: though you know I meant cider, or beer. So far, have yet to come across vegan beer or wine in Singapore).

White Truffle Fries @$10

In an Italian bistro, one's supposed to order something Italian, sì?

Tuscan Fennel Orange Salad @$12

Thought the plate of salad was lively and the sharp vinaigrette was pretty appetising. But a tad too much dressing though as the liquid pooled towards the bottom of the plate. After the cold appetiser, let's have a hot one.

Sicilian Arancini @$12

Cute little stuffed risotto rice balls that are coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried. Here, not only was it served with a bright tangy tomato sauce, it was drizzled with some balsamic as well. The Italian style would be to have the risotto would still be slightly crunchy (or when I first tasted it, I might think that it was undercooked). The risotto at Brownice Italian Bistro was cooked to a bit softer texture.

My favourite starter, was something simple. The fresh, thick mushroom soup with intense woody mushroom flavours bursting out to you at each mouthful. Delizioso! Bene! But Chef, please hold back a bit on the salt, ya.

Fresh Mushroom Soup @$8

Of course, in Italian food, there is pizza. Nowadays, thin crusts are more favoured than the thick ones. Suspect that it is so that we could eat more of the other things!

someone's gonna pinch one, if you're not looking - Four Seasons Pizza @$18

cured olives, sundried summer tomato (in pic), autumn mushroom, spring artichoke with soy ham

Truffle Porcini Fungi @$19

The pizza that we tasted were good. Liked the cured olives in the four seasons and mushrooms pizza tasted really creamy. One pizza could be shared by 2 pax.

Also tried the mushroom risotto and again, if you liked the mushroom soup, then this risotto would be right up your alley as well. Seemed like quite a big plate to finish on one's own, though. Best to share unless you have a large appetite.

Truffle Mushroom Risotto @$18

If you have a craving for lasagne, then you might want to try Brownice version. Layered with eggplants and tofu crumble served with tomato ragù.

Lasagne @$17 (handmodels cr: jellylovefats and ivanteh-runningman)

eggplant tofu lasagne

And then, it was time for desserts. Their waffles machine was unfortunately down so no waffles for the night. Got ourselves an ice-cream bowl with 4 scoops of ice-cream of our choice. The sampling of flavours were conducted by 3 individuals so it was our duty to bring group approved flavours back to the table.

Brownice Vegan Ice-Cream Bowl @$4 per scoop with additional $1 for premium flavours

The premium flavours require additional top-up of a dollar and these flavours are marked with a 'P' on their flavour tags at the ice-cream counter. Alright, let's see what we had; matcha, dark chocolate, peanut butter and pistachio.

The matcha flavour gave me a surprise when I first tasted it. See if it does the same to you. Would recommend matcha (only if you're game for a slight change and not a matcha purist!) and the pistachio for its really really good for its 'just-like-eating-a-real-pistachio' kind of flavour. Unadulterated goodness. Peanut butter and dark chocolate were equally good. Now I know that vegan ice-cream can be just as creamy, as delicious and satisfying as one with dairy in it.

This had been an interesting introduction to vegan food. Thank you Khai and Brownice Italian Bistro for hosting us, Brownice staff who assisted in our queries and Chefs who came out to speak to us (or rather to see what we were doing with their food!), and Tiara for inviting.

Brownice Italian Bistro

Address: 53 East Coast Road, Singapore
Contact: 6348 2295
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilovebrownice

Real Food 真食 @ Novena Square 2

Located at basement of Novena Square 2, this place is popular as it serves food suitable for vegetarians and vegans in a cafe setting. And, for the record, the food tasted good. Concept is simple: Queue, Order and Pay at the counter. Get a basket containing the cutlery with a number tag and food shall be served to you at your table.

A drink that I quite liked is the Daylesford organic carbonated drink of the Lemon Lime & Bitters flavour. Nice and refreshing.

Daylesford Organic Carbonated Drink - Lemon Lime & Bitters @$5.80

The wait for food, did take a while. But the place had stocked up on magazines and books, so feel free to browse. During the time of visit, saw copies of Monocle magazine too.

dumpling soup (vegan, soy) @$7

The dumpling soup looked good with those plump dumplings and with some leafy vegetables for a dose of green. Ingredients included tofu, mushrooms, carrots, french beans and chestnuts.

Mine was from the All-Day-Breakfast menu; the Rise-n-Shine Breakfast. It has a side of potato salad, lots of salad leaves, sauteed mushrooms and two sunny-side up eggs buried underneath the greens, and half a grilled tomato, served with bread. What a lovely warm crusty bread to go with the eggs. Would've been perfect if the eggs were runny.

Rise-n-Shine Breakfast @$9.80

Real Food 真食 Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant @ Novena Square 2

Located at B1 of Novena Square 2, this place is usually packed during lunch hour. Not surprisingly as it offers vegetarian and vegan food choices, in a nice ambiance and conveniently located a few steps from the MRT station.

Only grouse? Long wait for the food. But that's ok as the service staff would've forewarned the patrons with regards to waiting time, especially if it is anticipated to exceed 30 minutes.

Order at the counter, make payment and grab a seat and have patience.

cutlery hidden below

Best if one have something to drink first while waiting.

Daylesford Organic
Carbonated Drinks - Lemon Lime & Bitters @$5.90

First time having lemon lime and bitters. Wonder what went into the bitters for this version? According to wiki, the bitters part is handled by Angostora bitters which says it has botanically infused alcoholic stuffs. Ahhh...no wonder it tasted so agreeable!

Moving on the food, I spied lots of office workers having spaghettis, soup noodles and pizza. Looks like those are popular choices. Tried their All Day Breakfast menu of Rise & Shine Breakfast @$9.80.

Rise & Shine - eggs omelette with bell peppers, zuchini, mushrooms, some greens and toasted bread with cheese and tomato

Though the omelette wasn't fluffy, but that's alright. Loaded with ingredients and the bread was good. It was rather filling too!

Also tried the fried dumplings (@$7 for 8 pieces). Rather thin, fried till deep brown but fragrant and tasty because of the minced mushroom fillings. Yums but remember to request for their chili. It's not chili sauce but natural chili paste. Nice.

Unless you're there really early, otherwise the wait for food will likely be about half an hour during weekday lunch time, mainly due to the office crowd.

Expect to spend about $16 ~ $20 per pax for a meal with a drink.