Chateau Haut Cardonnet Bordeaux 2010

19 days ago

Call me Mr Fancy Pants. That is what I am now. I have started drinking wine. As to why? Because someone bought me a bottle of wine. Yes, I said someone...

Call me Mr Fancy Pants. That is what I am now. I have started drinking wine. As to why? Because someone bought me a bottle of wine. Yes, I said someone bought me a bottle of wine. I normally don’t go out and buy wine simply because I can ill afford the expensive wines. You have to be practical here. If I am not wrong, a full bodied decent wine is about S$30-40 or so. So honestly, wine drinking is only for the well-to-do.

Anyway, this is the Chateau Haut Cardonnet Bordeaux 2010. I believe the wine maker is Haut Cardonnet and the grape variety is Bordeaux which is from the region of Bordeaux in France. Seems that the French likes to simplify everything. The year of the wine is 2010. Seems that nowadays wine are aged pretty fast. Just pass 2011 and we already have wines from 2010. Could be that nowadays wine makers are much better in blending to get the correct profile and thus wines taste acceptable faster? You know, time is money right? As for the result, I really don’t know. I have not drank enough wines to give you a definite answer. Of course if you are willing to sponsor some wines for me to try out, I will do my best.

The bottle of Chateau Haut Cardonnet Bordeaux 2010. Sorry about the photo. These few days the weather was so warm that just one or two minutes after taking the bottle out from the wine, condensation took over. By the way, is it okay to keep the wine in the fridge?

13.5% alcohol. Product of France, obviously. I am pretty sure there are numerous other wineries in other countries using the same grape variety as this one. I wonder whether they can be called Bordeaux wine as well? If I read correctly, I think the French had spent a lot of effort to protect their trade mark and their wines. Well I am no wine expert. And you should avoid buying wines that come in clear bottles. Exposure to light tend to damage the wine, that is why most wine stores have rather dim lighting. I once thought that they were trying to be cool to have this kind of lighting, till I realize that wines don’t do well in the light. That goes for supermarket wines as well.

You see, just right outside their gated mansion is the vineyard. And the big gate opens right into the vineyard! Poor things. The land there must be pretty limited.

13.5% alcohol.  About 750ml of wine for you to enjoy.

Nice colour.

I swear, this is all I drink in one sitting. That is all!  Drinking wine is not my pastime. I know there are quite a number of people in Singapore who actually enjoy drinking wine and can afford it. But for me, I merely like to read about wines. And feel “high-classed” about it.

Singlong Peanut Cake

20 days ago

Well, this is the “cake” you can buy for S$1.50. Some rich powerful elite thinks that you can find carrot cake in the hawker centres for S$1.50 but we mere mortals...

Well, this is the “cake” you can buy for S$1.50. Some rich powerful elite thinks that you can find carrot cake in the hawker centres for S$1.50 but we mere mortals know that that is no longer possible. At least no longer possible in most cases. Even that Ang Mo Kio Central famous Carrot cake is like S$2.50 now. And so small portion one. But it seems that our rich and powerful elite doesn’t even know the thing they themselves have created – massive runaway inflation. Sad. Anyway, we are here not to talk about carrot cakes or even generals, but we are all here to read my little review on this Singlong Peanut Cake. This is a true peasant food – there is no doubt about it. What is expensive about little cakes made from peanuts and sugar (mostly sugar)? Nothing. In fact, this little box should not cost more than 50 cents.

See, the ingredients are peanuts and sugar. Product of Malaysia. There is nothing manufactured in Singapore anymore. Everything is made somewhere else and then trucked to you. As you can see it is Sing Long Foodstuff TRADING Company. The net weight is 200g. I am sure 80% is made of sugar. But then in Singapore sugar is expensive as well. There is nothing cheap in Singapore anymore. I bought this from Shop N Save if I remember correctly.

Pieces of peanut cake for you to enjoy.

A more detailed view of the peanut cake. These are compressed sugar/peanut mixture. I used to eat them by the tons when I was young. But at least when I was young, it actually tastes like peanuts. Once you place them in your mouth and you start to chew, the peanut mixture will simply melt into your mouth and teeth, creating this nice little gooey thing in your mouth and you can’t talk because it sticks. It is like eating peanut butter. Now after about two decades, I find it just too sweet. But hey, still enjoyable. Childhood snacks never fails. That is why even after so long and with tons of competition they are still so popular.

Del Monte Fresh Cut Pineapple Chunks In Syrup

24 days ago

Guess what this is for? If you guess for making wines, then you have been reading this blog. If you guess something else, it is understandable. Anyway, I will indeed be...

Guess what this is for? If you guess for making wines, then you have been reading this blog. If you guess something else, it is understandable. Anyway, I will indeed be using this to make some pineapple wine. The “fresh cut” pineapples would be great for making the wine – perhaps just crush the pineapple pieces with something and then let it ferment. The “syrup” is actually pineapple juice with sugar, so that should also help as well. Might need to add some more acid to the must but that is able it.  I have yet to open the can, so I am not too sure what is the colour of the pineapple juice.

If you remember a while back, I made myself an pineapple wine already. However, this is made from packaged pineapple juice and sugar. Although I have not tasted the wine, I suspect it to be a little tasteless and I doubt it will have much of a character. Using packaged pineapple juice will do that to you, especially if it has been Ultra Heat Treated. I could have add some Tannins to the wine but I doubt it will help much. I will wait for the Pectic Enzymes to arrive before I make the wine. If using actual fruits to make wines, it is important to add some Pectic Enzymes to help break down the pulp and help in fermentation.

One can of Del Monte Fresh Cut Pineapple Chunks in Syrup. Del Monte is a famous brand around here.  Their famous Tomato Ketchup……

Wow, picked & packed fresh. No preservatives. Very important in wine making. Having preservatives will almost guarantee the fermentation process will fail. And the “picked & packed fresh” slogan seems to be interesting. Must try a few pieces before using them to make the wine.

Product of the Philippines. A lot of fruits seem to come from the Philippines these days. I have spotted dried fruits, canned fruits and even jam from the Philippines. They have become like the “fruit basket” of Asia.

The ingredients are pineapple, clarified pineapple juice and sugar. Just nice for making pineapple wine.  Might need to get 4-5 cans before I can make 2 litres of pineapple wine though. This one requires a little more planning and calculation beforehand.

First Choice Grape Peach Juice

25 days ago

You can find this at Shop N Save or Cold Storage. First Choice is the house brand for Cold Storage. I don’t have all the figures with me but I really...

You can find this at Shop N Save or Cold Storage. First Choice is the house brand for Cold Storage. I don’t have all the figures with me but I really doubt that those “house brands” are cheaper than the other brands. In fact, I saw a few brands that was cheaper than the house brands. A while back, the government kept on telling Singaporeans to buy the house brands because they are cheaper. Well, probably these elite people never buy anything from supermarkets before so they have no idea it could be more expensive. If you are on a budget, it would be wise to compare prices first before you buy. House brands does not mean it is cheaper.

Anyway, as usual, I bought this to make some wine.  Peach wine to be exact. I couldn’t find any source for just pure peach juice, this is the closest I can get. It contains grape juice as well. I am guessing peach does not have enough “juice” to make it worth juicing, so they add some grape juice to the mix. And surprising, the peach juice smells pretty nice. I open the pack and the entire kitchen smells of delicious peaches!

There you have it – a litre pack of Grape & Peach juice.

100% fruit juice.

One litre of juice. Made from concentrate. I believe they are talking about the grape juice – it is made from concentrate. As for the peach, it is made partly from peach Puree as well as peach concentrate. Smells wonderful. It is no wonder kids love the smell of peaches. Even the Presidents of the United States love peaches.

The ingredients are grape juice (concentrate), peach puree & peach juice (concentrate). Nothing else. No flavourings, no colouring and no preservatives. If you want to make wine, you will have to ensure that there is no preservatives or the fermentation will most likely fail. Remember, preservatives will kill off the yeast before it can ferment the sugars to alcohol.

Some nutritional information for you. Remember to always refrigerate after opening and consume within 5 days. One of my friends told me that since the due date for this kind of UHT is rather long,  it should be safe to consume even after a few weeks. I told him to wake up his idea. Once opened, you should consume the juice very soon.

Made in Hong Kong. I didn’t even know that Hong Kong has  factories. Everytime I go there, all I spot are shopping malls and shops and eating. And surprisingly you can hardly see any fat people in Hong Kong. Why? Anyway, this is a very tasty drink.  Though it is a bit too sweet for me but that would be nitpicking.  I think this will make a good wine.

Natural Rice Soap From Korea

26 days ago

Yes, even I buy cool stuff from Korea. Seriously, this bar of soap came all the way from Korea.  And it is an all-natural soap which means that this soap doesn’t...

Yes, even I buy cool stuff from Korea. Seriously, this bar of soap came all the way from Korea.  And it is an all-natural soap which means that this soap doesn’t have all the harsh chemicals the commercial soaps have. For your information, it is not so well known that most soaps we buy from the supermarkets are actually not soaps, as in they do not contain glycerin. Glycerin is made from lye and oil and is what people in the past use as soap. Now I guess they are made from different types of chemicals. One reason is cost. It is much more expensive and time consuming to make natural soap than it is to mix a few chemicals together. Note that soap making requires you to “dry” the soap, which can take up to a month or so.

I bought this from eBay. It has become my favourite place to get all this kind of stuff. Price wise it is pretty reasonable. If I remember correctly this is about S$5 (plus shipping) or so. Nowadays even commercial soaps can cost more than that.

Comes with “protection”. Thank you for purchasing our products. Have a nice day. Hahaha.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. That is the sellers nick if you are interested.

One bar of soap. About 80g or so.

Check out the website if you are interested. It is in Korean though. The ingredient are Coconut Oil, Palm Oil,  Glycerine, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Vegetable Oil and Rice Extract. What I don’t understand is why they need to add Glycerine back to the soap? The oils and Sodium Hydroxide (lye) will combine and convert to Glycerine right? I honestly have no idea. The smell is pretty good though. But it does not smell like rice extract – smells more like sweet molasses with a hint of honey or something like that. Anyway, I only just started to use this soap but it does feel pretty gentle on my skin. And unlike the olive soap I had been using, it does not get soft when exposed to the air. Weird.

Tong Garden Honey Roasted Cashew Nuts & Macadamias (Mixed)

27 days ago

From the famous Tong Garden. Bought this the other day from Shop N Save and if I am not wrong, it should be available in most supermarkets in Singapore.  But since...

From the famous Tong Garden. Bought this the other day from Shop N Save and if I am not wrong, it should be available in most supermarkets in Singapore.  But since it comes with Macadamias, it is slightly more expensive than the rest of the packaged “nuts”. No, I am not being a snob or anything. But it is really more expensive than the rest. The thing is I like Macadamias – it has a very different texture – softer and easier to eat, and tastes wonderful. Of course Cashew nuts taste great as well. Old folks like me cannot eat those hard peanuts, so please forgive me. It wouldn’t be fun if I broke one of my tooth on a peanut.

The Tong Garden Honey Roasted Cashew Nuts and Macadamias.

Comes in a ziplock bag. So if you can’t finish in one sitting, you can still keep the nuts fresh. And this is supposed to be superior quality fun time crunch! Fit for (4) active lifestyle. Kind of like writing those text messages kids like to send to each other. Perhaps they hired some young kid just straight from Polytechnic and made him/her their chef designer or something?  Anyway, this is a cholesterol free food and no trans fat, my friends. All is good fat.

Just 160g of nuts.

Premium Grade. Since 1963. Has it been so long? I remember their sugar coated peanuts, one of my favourite snacks of all time. Or was that Camel? Memory is a bit hazy nowadays.

The back of the pack.

The ingredients are cashew nuts, macadamias, palm olein, sugar, honey, corn syrup and anticaking thingy. Made in Thailand if I am not wrong. I somehow missed taking photo of the manufacturer location.

The nutrition information. I have to admit that this isn’t exactly as healthy as it seems, mainly due to them being roasted. But come on, nowadays the snacks we have in the supermarket are much worse. This is actually one of the more healthier snacks you can find there. And honey goes very well with Macadamias. It is not too sweet though, so if you have problems with sweet stuff, this shouldn’t be that big of a problem.

Crosby & Baker Acid Blend & Tannin

30 days ago

Bought this set from the Internet. Seems that eBay is a good resource for such things, especially those you cannot find in Singapore. The two home brewing stores in Singapore do...

Bought this set from the Internet. Seems that eBay is a good resource for such things, especially those you cannot find in Singapore. The two home brewing stores in Singapore do not carry a lot of equipment for making wine, mostly for brewing beer so I am actually forced to find them on the Internet. Of course shipping is a factor but since the stuff I buy are usually small and light weight, the overall prices should be acceptable. The eBay store I bought from is The Bruhaus Brewing & Wine Supply. The shipping time is usually two weeks but once I got mine only after a month. Apparently they sent to some other country and was later shipped to Singapore. I don’t know why but a lot of people think Singapore is not in South East Asia.

Anyway, I am using the Acid Blend and the Tannins to improve my wines. The acid blend is actually a combination of malic acid, critic acid and tartaric acid and this helps to improve the acidity of the wines. The Tannin powder is to add some astringency to the wine. Think of it as “black tea” and what you feel in your tongue after you drink them. I am guessing it is to balance the sweetness of the wine to get it a more “rounded” flavour. Yes, complicated stuff I know. I am still figuring it all out myself.

3 ounce of Acid Blend and 1.5 Ounce of Tannin. Why is the bottle of 1.5 ounce of Tannin much larger then the 3 ounce of acid blend? Maybe Tannin takes up more space or something.

If your wine tastes dull, add some acid blend to it. They claim that by adding acid, it will “sharpen” the taste and enhances the wine. I honestly don’t know but if wine makers say do it, we should at least try. It can be very difficult to define dull but just think of it as drinking plain water. I am not very sure whether you guys have tried making plain Konnyaku jelly before? It tastes kind of dull even if it has some sweetness to it. What they do is add some critic acid to the jelly to “liven” it up. I have tried it before and there is indeed a difference. The slight tartness is like adding lemon juice to the jelly.

Tannin. Something extremely difficult to explain but I will try my best. Have you ever drank green tea (loose leaves) from the first flush before? Taste like nothing right? Not much flavour and nothing at the end. But if you drink black tea (which is actually from the same plant only that the leaves have been oxidized), you will find that there is a certain “bite” to it as it goes down your throat. And it gets more pronounced after a few more flushes. That is the Tannin affecting the taste. Hope I explain it right.

So I will be making some wine with these acid blend and tannin added. Will keep you guys updated on the result.

Nong Shim Korean Claypot Ramyun

31 days ago

Not that I enjoy eating instant cup noodles but sometimes it is unavoidable (especially if you are lazy like me) during the holidays. And for the past few weeks, we had...

Not that I enjoy eating instant cup noodles but sometimes it is unavoidable (especially if you are lazy like me) during the holidays. And for the past few weeks, we had Christmas and the New Year Holidays, so I bought a few to stock up just in case. Not to mention the upcoming Chinese New Year. And lo and behold I did make use of them. I was too lazy to go out and buy food, so I had these cup noodles for lunch on both the holidays. Even though I don’t consume cup noodles often, I find this brand quite okay. Sure it can be a bit salty but compared to the rest, still acceptable.

Nong Shim Korean Claypot Ramyun. If I am not wrong, it is a kind of spicy soft noodle that is very popular in Korea and now starting to export to other countries. Nong Shim is one of the highest selling brand of instant noodles in Korea. Don’t know why such unhealthy foodstuff is so popular in Korea. The people there do look very good though. Maybe it is the weather. Maybe because they eat a lot of Kim Chee and Ginseng.

Korean Clay Pot Ramyun. I really don’t find any difference in the texture of the noodles. Maybe just slightly thicker. But then I am not a big fan of instant noodles, so I didn’t really pay any attention.

I think they say add boiling water and wait for 3 minutes or something like that. And oh, beware of burning yourself you dumb dumb.

Item is Korean Clay Pot Ramyun Noodle. Ingredients for the noodles are wheat flour, palm oil, starch, salt and acidity regulator. As for the soup powder (to make the soup base) salt, soy sauce powder, soy bean paste powder and sugar. Kind of disappointing to realize that the soup base is just so simple. The vegetables are dehydrated cabbage, dehydrated carrot, dehydrated chives and dehydrated seaweed. Everything dehydrated.

Hmmm…..made in China. Like everything else in the world. Even Korean foodstuff are made in China!

Some nutrition information for you. If you consume too much of these, you will most likely see your hair fall out very soon. Well, that is what they told me. Luckily I eat at most like a few cups per year so that shouldn’t be a problem for me. The biggest hair problem I have is white hair. I am growing freaking old! Kind of sad when you see your entire life doing nothing and one fine day you spot white hairs on your crown. The feeling is like damn low. So if you are feeling depressed and want to wallow in even more depression, a nice cup of Nong Shim Claypot Ramyun would be great. Remember not to get burnt when pouring the boiling water into the cup!

Apple Wine Brewing

32 days ago

It is time for making some tasty apple wine. I am not too sure whether the correct term is apple wine or cider though. Normally if using apple juice, it should...

It is time for making some tasty apple wine. I am not too sure whether the correct term is apple wine or cider though. Normally if using apple juice, it should be called cider. But the alcohol content of cider is pretty low – about 5-7% alcohol at most. This time I am making a high alcoholic beverage using apple concentrates (to get the increased sugar content), so it should be more like a wine. Anyway, I will call this Apple Wine. As I said it is made from apple concentrate I bought from Cold Storage and it actually smelled pretty good. Better than the other apple juice I had bought. I am guessing the problem with the juice we have in Singapore is that they are not of good quality? Since the Tree Top Apple Juice concentrate is actually made for the US market, it would be better? Conspiracy theory I know.

Anyway, I use the Tree Top Apple Juice Concentrate and added one pack of Harvey Fresh Apple Juice.  It made about 1.3litre of apple juice must. So I should be getting about 1 litre of apple wine in a few more weeks.

Used the Welch Grape Juice PET bottle. And look it is all cloudy. When you see it all cloudy like this, you would know that it is still fermenting. The carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation process will push the yeast all over the container, hence it becomes very cloudy.

Bubbles. I love bubbles. Bubbles mean that everything is fine. As you can see there is no krausen or any scum ring at the top. That is because there wasn’t much of any krausen formed. Just a small amount during the beginning stages and it more or less all disappeared by now. Maybe I move the bottle too often and the scum ring got dissolved or something.

This has been bubbling for 2 weeks already and it is still bubbling. Initially after pinching the yeast, the airlock activity is about 30 per minute. Very very active fermentation. Now it has slowed somewhat but still about 5-6 bubbles per minute. I had used the Young’s Cider Yeast which is meant for making ciders. It is supposed to make the beverage more “refreshing”.  Hope that I made the right choice as I have never used this yeast before.

Authentic Turkish Delight Rose Flavour

33 days ago

I remembered the first time I was introduced to Turkish Delight – I was like 5 years old or so. And surprisingly it was at NTUC or some shopping centre where...

I remembered the first time I was introduced to Turkish Delight – I was like 5 years old or so. And surprisingly it was at NTUC or some shopping centre where there was this lady who went around showcasing this little sweet. They also gave out little samples for us to try out. Remember it was like in the 1990s or so. Honestly then, I didn’t know what all the fuss is about – it is a sticky little soft nougat-like sweet. Nothing too special. Of course I was like too young and my palate wasn’t really that complicated. I just wanted things that are sweet, even overly sweet stuff taste good to me. But now I find Turkish Delights more appealing. One of the most appealing aspects of Turkish Delight is that although it is supposed to be a sweet, it isn’t overwhelmingly sweet. Or at least the real Turkish Delight shouldn’t be overly sweet.

If I am not wrong, this was bought from Candy Empire. Price wise I forgot liao. Shouldn’t be more than a dollar or so, since this is just 56g and made from starch and sugar. I might be wrong though, considering the prices in Singapore is rising like nobody’s business these few years.

Authentic Turkish Delight, rose flavour. 45g of soft chewy sweet. Basically  some sort of gel (mix of starch and sugar) which has been harden slightly to produce this small gooey squares / block. They add some powdered sugar to prevent them from sticking or clumping together. The texture is a bit like rice maltose just a bit more starchy and easier to eat. I like it.

Hmm….made by Real Turkish Delight. So there is no question that they made authentic Turkish Delight. However, since I have never tried the real thing before, we can only hope that this is indeed authentic Turkish Delight.

Product of Australia. Not Turkey. Maybe made by a Turkish immigrant or something.

The ingredients are sugar, wheat starch, glucose syrup, water, flavour, colour and food acid. May contain traces of nuts. From what I read, the Turks love them with nuts like pistachios and hazelnuts or walnuts. So this should be the cheap version. Too bad they don’t add real rose water (as in authentic Turkish Delight), just rose flavourings.

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