What can you give someone who has everything?

This post is long overdue. It is about a birthday celebration in July this year for a very dear friend of mine, Seok Eng. She is blessed with a good heart and a beautiful family. She is a loving wife, a great mum and grandma and a successful business woman. Although the distance separates us, we are thinking of each other always. For the past few years, we I have never miss going to Singapore to celebrate her birthday with her. If possible, I would love to be there every year. So, what birthday gifts can you give someone  who has everything? Only one thing, I guess.  Our PRESENCE not presents.  It was a great pleasure for us to be able to host a wonderful pre-birthday dinner for her. We went to the il ceilo (The Sky in Italian) at Hilton Singapore. It was an excellent choice of hers. The ambience was lovely and the interior decoration was elegant. The service was 5 stars and the food was luscious! We enjoyed the ambience, the food and most of all our time together. Whenever we are together, there were not once that I was not stuffed with good food and had a good time. 

If you want to know more about this restaurant, here is a link to go read more about it.  There are more beautiful photos of the il ceilo and food they serve, there.

On her actual birthday, we had an exotic Chinese dinner at Xi Yan. That was my second time there. Seok Eng introduced me to Xi Yan when they first started and I believed this had become one of her favorite Chinese restaurant. We arrived before her and while waiting, we took some photos.

The table setting

The arts on the wall

One for the album, don't be mistaken, Quay Po was not the birthday girl.

If you are not convinced by what I told you about Xi Yan, then, I recommend that you read the review by Ho Chiak. You can find photos of most of the dishes we had that evening here. Perhaps after that, you might want to check the place out the next time you are in Singapore.

The evening ended with everyone embracing a fond memory of a perfect birthday celebration for a wonderful person.

A lovely birthday cake and...

some longevity pau for dessert

I am looking forward to celebrate many more birthdays with Seok Eng. I feel extremely blessed to have a good friend like her. 

Maybe the next birthday, I can cook a meal for her?  I was very impressed with the food served at Xi Yan and their presentation was fabulous so I bought their cookbook. I have gone through cookbook and tried a second recipe in there. I made the drunken chicken with dried sour plums and liked it very much. I liked the sweet and sour flavor that was infused into the drunken chicken meat. I would love to cook this for Seok Eng on her next birthday. 


There are so many wonderful dishes in this cookbook and I am pleased to own a signed copy. 

I have shared the Chilled Green House Tomatoes in Wasabi Sesame Sauce with you before and it was from this cookbook too. If you have missed that post and want to try it, just click on the photo to get the recipe.

Here is the second recipe that I tried and I will definitely share with you each time I try a new recipe from there because most of the dishes in there are quite simple to do but the taste is not simple, at least those that I have tried were unique and delicious. I think it is worth sharing. This photo is not well taken so it does not do justice to the dish. I got the light setting wrong. When I realise my mistake (yet another one) it was too late, we eat all the chicken and only the sour plums were left!! LOL! 

Drunken Chichen with Dried Sour Plums

Adapted from Xi Yan Cuisine with modification

Ingredients:

1 fresh chicken (1.2 kg approx.)

3 stalks spring onion

8 slices ginger

2 stalks Chinese parsley

Marinade:

30 dried plums (120gms)

1 tbs wolfberries

2 tbs salt

2 cups Shaoxing wine

3 cups soup from cooking chicken

1 tsp crushed rock sugar

Method:

Cut chicken and rinse. Bring 7 cups of water to boil. Add chicken, spring onion, ginger slices, wolfberries and Chinese parsley. Lower heat to medium and cook for 25 to 30 minutes.  Drain Chicken and soak in iced water till cool. Drain again.  In a mixing bowl, add dried sour plums, rock sugar and salt.  Sieve soup from cooking chicken and skim off the oil. Pour into the bowl while still hot. Cover with lid and let dried sour plums soaked till flavour is fully infused in the soup. Leave it to cool.  Add 2 cups of Shaoxing wine and mix well.  Soak chicken in the marinade and leave it overnight. Chop into pieces. Place chicken in the serving bowl. Garnish with the dried sour plums and wolfberries. Serve with the marinade as the sauce over it at room temperature. 

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