Chinatown Food Complex - Dessert Station

I believe that our food is medicine. Given that our cells die and renew within every few months, the food we eat, the air we breathe and water we drink, thoughts we think affect how the next generation of cells, how they are formed and their inherent DNA. In lesser words, our DNA is changeable and we actions and choices impact our DNA.

Thus the rationale for my picky food choices. I'm trying to steer clear of processed food, cooking oils, MSG, any form of chemicals in our food. Trying to cut down on sugar too, wish me luck on that. But still, I do eat junk food. Just that with all this new gained knowledge, I enjoy them less.

Right. But in every case, it has become a habit to selective choose healthier versions, including desserts. I love desserts, all the hot desserts, especially bean soups, sesame pastes, peanut pastes, yam pastes, gingko nut and beancurd, etc. I think you get the idea. But they usually contain too much sugar for my preference. So I prefer to cook my own sometimes. Except for Sesame paste. Far too much work.

And today a dessert stall in particular really won my heart.

 Dessert Station is at the red zone in Chinatown Complex and by 2pm, their yam paste was sold out. That was probably my first clue.

So I ordered my favourite Sesame paste instead.

Most sesame paste are made using pre-made black sesame flour, some starch and water. The black sesame flour might have had sugar already added. Thus they taste pretty much the same everywhere.

Except for this one.

Black Sesame paste - $1.80

 One the first try I found it grittier and stronger tasting than most black sesame paste. And on closer look, I can see oil from the black sesame coating spoon.

This is probably one of the rare stalls which grind and mill their own sesame flour, from roasted black sesame seeds. Thus their black sesame taste far less of sugar and starch but very much of the real stuff.

Oh my................it's really really good!  I'll definitely try to have some whenever I'm in the area. If I'm lucky, perhaps I'll get to try the yam paste next time!

Updated - Apparently, they have branches. One of which is located at Albert Centre Food market at bugis!


Dessert Station

Chinatown Food Complex - 2nd Floor Red zone #02-132
Opening hours - 10plus am till 8plus pm

Almond Butter

I'm crazy about almond butter. I first tasted them in the raw veggie sushi at Yes Natural at Aljunied and I'm hooked. Having bought a few jars of almond butter of various brands and from different places, I had almond butter for breakfast with bananas, as a spread for raw sushi lunch, or sometimes just eat it on its own as a snack or a spread. Within a week I found my skin looking tauter and plumper, and my complexion improved (it's all that Vitamin E). I also ate less as my brain was deliriously happy with amount of fats it was getting. Thus my sweet tooth went away too.

Interestingly, eating almonds (together with other food) elevates our mood as well. Almonds contain huge amount of manganese, Vitamin E and B2, magnesium, trytophan, copper and phosphorus. Trytophan trigger release of serotonin, and Vitamin B2 is necessary for folic acid and serotonin production while magnesium is a muscle relaxant. No wonder I feel happy eating it!

I ate so much of the stuff I decided to make my own instead as a jar of 280g only last me a week or less.

A sidenote; all the different brands of almond butter tasted good yet variate with brands. It got to do with the almonds used and their duration of roasting and grinding time. Also, the cheapest jar of almond butter ($9.90) found in Sg is the Merdien brand available at Meiya Supermarket at Liang Court.

Making almond butter is seriously easy.

First get a decent food processor.
Next, you'd need some almonds. I usually purchase them from at Albert Centre Market (3rd storey) at 龍馬 at $10 a kg. Usually 1 kg give you half a kg of almond butter.

I experimented with raw and baked and now I prefer baking almonds at 50 deg for around 5 minutes, so they taste better and yet the vitamins and minerals are retained.

Within a minute, I'd have almond flour. This stage is ideal for bakes and if you're making almond milk (put the flour in a cloth sack and pour hot water over, like making kopi (coffee) at kopitiams (coffeeshops) )

But grind on for almond butter.

This is the toughest part, when oil is released and the almond flour start to clump together and stick to the side of the processor. Continuous scraping is needed.

At this point it gets easier. More oil is released and the almond flour now has a dough like texture and is creamier. Whew, no more scraping is required.

At this point, the texture of the almond butter depends on the duration of processing from this point. For a nuttier, crunchier taste, lessen the time duration.

But I prefer my almond butter smooth and easy to spread. Thus I usually continue for a few more minutes.

Ta-dah! The finished product. It stores in room temperature for at least 2 weeks. And it taste best when its freshly made, when it's warm and buttery from the processing!

It's the same process for most nut butter, cashews, peanut, walnuts or even pecan.