A Review: Sophie Bakery

Read an article about Telok Ayer Street and McCallum Street in MyPapers couple of weeks ago and the shop "Sophie Bakery" caught my eyes. Searched the Internet about the shop and learnt that it was already opened back in end-January this year. But due to some matters, it re-opened again on 8 April. The shop was relatively easy to find, with the green shopfront and many tables outside the shop. Even before I stepped into the shop, I could feel the Parisian vibe.

The shop space was not big and lined with lots of different kinds of bread and buns. There were a lot of people inside the shop while I was there. Took two butter croissants and queued up for payment. While I was queuing, took a few quick snaps of the shop and checked out the pastries in the display and they all looked yummy. Ordered two chocolate eclairs and grabbed a small pot of honey which was placed together with other small pots of jam at the cashier counter.

The croissant cost $2 each, the eclair cost $3 each and the small pot of honey cost $1.50. Found it a bit expensive until I started eating them. The eclair was quite solid and heavy with chocolate cream compared to those that we normally eat which can be rather hollow. At $2, the butter croissant was reasonably big and rather filling after eating one. Personally, I will give their butter croissant the thumbs up.

I will probably go back to try their fruit tarts and coffee the next round. For now, I will recommend this shop to anyone who love their bread, Parisian-style.

Name: Sophie Bakery
Address: 167-169 Telok Ayer Street
Opening Hours: 08:00-19:00 (weekdays) and 10:00-16:00 (weekends)
Tel: 6221 6269
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SophieBakery
Wesbite: http://www.sophiebakery.sg/
Products: Bread, Pastries and Coffee
Prices: Butter croissant ($2); Chocolate croissant ($2.50); Eclair ($3); Fruit tart ($4.50); Macaron ($2); Sandwich ($5.50); Jam ($1); Honey ($1.50)

UPDATE: THE SHOP HAS CLOSED.

6 Apr 13 (Sat) – Kimchi Fried Pasta with Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine and Hanami-Mitarashi Kushi Dango

Time flies. It has been so many months since my last cooking post. Today did some experimental fusion cooking. Kimchi Fried Pasta with Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine as well as Hanami-Mitarashi Kushi Dango.

The first dish was adapted from Aeri's Kitchen’s Kimchi Fried Rice recipe. Instead of using white rice, I opted for wholemeal spiral pasta and instead of fried egg, I opted for poached salmon. So it was kind of like East meets West. I got to say, the taste of Kimchi on pasta was rather unique and having poached salmon instead of fried egg made the dish less oily. Wholemeal pasta has a rougher texture compared to the normal kind of pasta so probably not many people will like it though.

 

Kimchi Fried Pasta with Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine (Serve 1)

Ingredients: 1/2 piece salmon steak (about 100g) 1/2 cup kimchi, cut to bite-size pieces 1.5 tsp sugar Pinch of salt 1 tbsp kimchi liquid 1/2 tsp sesame oil 1 bowl cooked wholemeal spiral pasta Some lettuce, cut strips

Poaching Ingredients: 1 shallots, thinly sliced 1-2 slices lemon 1/4 cup white wine 1/2 cup water A dash of salt and pepper

Method:

1.  Heat up some oil, add kimchi, sugar and fry for about 2 minutes

2.  Add cooked wholemeal spiral pasta, pinch of salt, kimchi liquid, 1 tsp oil and fry 6 minutes

3.  Add sesame oil, fry 2 minutes then off the heat and set aside

4.  Combine all poaching ingredients in a pan

5.  Bring to boil and reduce heat

6.  Put the salmon steak so it is half covered

7.  After 2 minutes, turn the salmon steak over

8.  After 2 minutes, off the heat

9.  Arrange pasta, salmon and lettuce on a serving plate

10.  Sprinkle some pasta herbs on the salmon and some chili powder on the pasta

April is Sakura-viewing season and it reminded me of the three colours dango which Japanese usually made during the season. Since I cannot go to either Japan or Korea to view Sakura, had to content myself by eating hanami dango. And because I do not have toppings to go with the dango so I did the sweet soy sauce glaze which I had made previously.

Did a bit of experiment on the dango and that was by using lingoberry syrup to make it pink instead of using red food colouring. Then I used matcha powder to make it green and tried to use orange zest to make it yellow. I supposed I diluted all of them too much such that the colours turned out paler than I would have preferred. Nevertheless, it was a good try.

Hanami-Mitarashi Kushi Dango (Make 12)

Ingredients: 25g glutinous rice flour 1 tsp lingoberry syrup 1 tsp matcha powder Zest of 1/6 of an orange, diced Hot water 1 tsp oil

Ingredients (Sauce): 1/2 tbsp light soya sauce 1/2 tbsp mirin 2/3 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp water

Method:

1.  Divide glutinous rice flour into three portions

2.  Add 1 tbsp hot water to orange zest and let it stand 

3.  Add 1 tbsp hot water to matcha powder and mix well

4.  Add 1 tbsp hot water lingoberry syrup and mix well

5.  Add (2) little by little to one portion of the mixture and knead the dough with hands

6.  Tear out some dough and roll it between the palms to make rice balls

7.  Repeat step 5 and step 6 using (3)

8.  Repeat step 5 and step 6 using (4)

9.  Bring some water to a boil in a pot and add in the rice balls

10.  When the rice balls float, remove them from pot and place into a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes

11.  Drain the rice balls and skewer them three to a stick

12.   Heat up the oil in a non-stick pan over low heat and roll the skewered rice balls around for about 5-8 minutes

11.  Turn off the heat and arrange the skewered rice balls on a serving plate

12.  Boil all the sauce ingredients over low heat till thicken*

13.  Turn off the heat, drizzle the sauce over the rice balls and serve

* Amount of sugar and light soya sauce can be adjusted to taste

Recipe for Kimchi Fried Pasta with Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine submitted to Munch Ministry
Recipe for Hanami-Mitarashi Kushi Dango submitted to Munch Ministry