Highlights on ST Food: Making soba and the perfect pandan chiffon

SPH Brightcove Video
Chef Osamu Tagata of Teuchi Soba Tagata in Shizuoka demonstrates how to make traditional Japanese soba from scratch. Everything is done by hand, from the milling of the flour to the kneading of the soba dough and cutting of the noodles.

Here are three things to look out for in ST Food, The Straits Times' food website straitstimesfood.com, this week.

HANDMADE JAPANESE SOBA

Japanese chef Osamu Tagata, 48, is a soba artisan who runs Teuchi Soba Tagata restaurant in Shizuoka, Japan.

Watch the video where he demonstrates how he makes soba from scratch, from kneading the dough and rolling it out into a square sheet 2.1mm thick to deftly hand-cutting the noodles with a soba kiri, or a specialist soba noodle knife.

The noodles are made with flour from a superior native strain of buckwheat known as oorozairai, which is harvested traditionally and stone-milled by hand.

The chef was in town last week for a collaboration at Hashida Sushi Singapore for the sushi restaurant's fourth anniversary.

MAKE PANDAN CHIFFON CAKE AT HOME

SPH Brightcove Video
Chef and culinary instructor Judy Koh of Creative Culinaire shares her recipe for pandan chiffon cake. Find out the secrets to a soft, fluffy and fragrant cake. Pandan chiffon cake was named one of the world's 17 best cakes by CNN.

Singapore's ubiquitous pandan chiffon cake was named one of the world's best 17 cakes in a recent article by CNN.

I learnt how to make it at Creative Culinaire, a cooking school in Tiong Bahru. Chef Judy Koh shares her chiffon cake recipe and divulges a couple of secrets to a soft and fluffy cake. You will have to watch the video to find out more.

WHERE TO EAT UNICORN FOOD

Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino, a sugary drink which boasts a kaleidoscope of pastel hues, has been abuzz on social media.

And while the drink is not available in Singapore yet, there are plenty of other unicorn food and drinks here.

For the uninitiated, unicorn food, according to The New York Times, refers to "any food item jazzed up with dye or cute accessories like fruit cut into little shapes or mountains of pastel marshmallows". This food trend also encompasses Instagram-worthy rainbow-hued food and drink.

From a grilled cheese sandwich to a drink called Unicorn Tears, here are nine things to eat and drink.

ST Food features stories from ST and its sister newspapers, as well as regional and international publications.

There are also videos and recipes.

Use the search function to find what you are hankering after, be it where or what to eat, and also what to cook.

• Follow Rebecca Lynne Tan on Twitter @STrebeccatan

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on April 30, 2017, with the headline Highlights on ST Food: Making soba and the perfect pandan chiffon. Subscribe