rider's cafe

It was a beautiful Tuesday with great weather.

I was worried it would rain in the afternoon, but my friend didn't even pack an umbrella. Fortunately, the weather held up and we had a slightly cloudy day with lots of sun.

Looking at the Google Maps, the nearest mrt was Sixth Avenue. From there, it was a 22 minute walk to the cafe. Halfway along the road, my slipper broke. We then limped to the nearest shopping mall at Grandstand to hopefully buy some slippers. Some misadventures and searching afterwards, I managed to get a pair of polka-dots-bright-pink slippers. From there it was just a (short) 15 minutes along roads, and ulu places (including a place smelling distinctively of horse poo), before we reached the cafe.

At the cafe, we were greeted by views of the stables, and the brown horses inside. Halfway, we changed tables to the one closer to the outside, for a better view.

We ordered each; one Rider burger, with additional top-up of Wagyu patty for me and truffle and parmesan fries for my friend. The wagyu patty was exceedingly soft and flavorful. It blended perfectly with the bun and cheese in the burger. The truffle fries had a strong smell and taste as well and went smoothly with the cheese in the parmesan. We also got a flat white and an iced latte each, separately. After all our (mis)adventures, it was nice to just relax and sip the homely taste of the specialty coffee.

From there, we had a nice talk and was entertained by the horses doing their exercise, doing trotting practices, bathing, and seeing riders ride on their respective horses.

We also ordered a crepe suzette. We were expecting a crepe being professionally burnt with skill, and finesee. However, it was hardly burnt at all. Also, at first, we thought that the ice cream was vanilla and happily dug in. However, upon realizing it was a coconut ice cream, we felt confused as it did not go well with the citrus jam or the crepe dough..

It looks pretty though..

Later, we adjourned back to the mall, and looked around at its vast and particular selection of groceries before taking the shuttle bus back home.

'Twas a great day spent with good company! :)

KIMCHI TTEOKBOKKI

Today, I was feeling decidedly-koreanish. So I chose to make kimchi-tteokbokki.

I have been planning this recipe for a long time now. Everytime I walk past the supermart and see the kimchi section, with rice cakes, and I was planning if I could do something with it.

Most online recipes call for gochujang, to make the paste thick, but since I had none at home and wasn't about to spend money to buy some, I just made do with normal kimchi stew sauce.

Here's how to make it:

Recipe

Ingredients:

600g Korean rice cakes

450g fish cakes

1 medium-sized onion

400g kimchi

300g of water

80g kimchi juice

1 jar of kimchi stock (for tasting)

Prep

Cut the fish cakes into even rectangular slices

Directions:

1. Soak the korean rice cakes in hot water for 10 minutes

2. Boil the kimchi and kimchi juice in hot water to make soup stock

3. When the soup stock is boiling, add in the rice cakes, fish cakes, and onion.

4. Boil them another further 3 to 5 minutes to make sure rice cake is fully cooked.

5. Then, to thicken the sauce and deepen the flavour, simmer it under low heat for a further 2-4 minutes.

6. Try the soup stock to see if flavour is strong enough. If not, add a couple spoonfuls of kimchi stock.

6. Serve warm.

7. Enjoy! :)

Recipe inspired by: My Korean Kitchen https://mykoreankitchen.com/tteokbokki-spicy-rice-cakes/

BLUEBERRY JAM

Recipe

Ingredients:

600g firm blueberries (remove the mushy ones)

400g granulated sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

*I used much less sugar than specified in the recipe

Directions:

1. Wash the blueberries

2. Put the blueberries, sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan

3. Place the pan over a gentle heat to slowly dissolve the sugar crystals, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time.

4. As the sugar starts to melt and the fruit warms up, take a potato masher to mash the blueberries, leaving some whole if desired.

5. Once the sugar has completely dissolved turn up the heat and bring the pan to a rolling boil and time for 15 minutes, stirring all the while.

6. Take the pan off the heat and test a few drops of the jam on a frozen saucer and place in the fridge for a minute. If when you push your finger through it the jam forms a crinkle and is gel like then it’s ready. Otherwise boil for another couple of minutes and repeat process until ready.

7. Pot up the jam in a sterilised hot jar using a small ladle or jam funnel.

8. Screw on lid.

9. Enjoy! :)

Recipe inspired by: Fab Food 4 All https://www.fabfood4all.co.uk/simple-blueberry-jam-no-pectin-just-3-ingredients/