This is a collaborative post with PurelyFresh but as always, all ideas, experiences and reviews are my own.

Many of you know that I buy my fruits and vegetables online. When I first started turning to cyberspace (I don’t know who else still uses this term nowadays) for my fresh groceries, I got a lot of skeptical comments. “I prefer to touch and choose my own fresh vegetables before buying” and “I won’t buy anything – much less fresh food – without looking at it first” are some of the common things that I’ve heard from friends, family and readers. Some even went as far as to tell me not to be lazy and I’m not a “real” cook because I don’t touch and feel my ingredients. “You let someone else choose your fresh groceries, how would you know you’re getting the best?” I know, because I’ve stepped out and tried. And I don’t think I will look back.

Knowing that I’m an advocate of online grocery shopping, PurelyFresh recently extended an opportunity for me to try out their online wet market and grocery store. Having ordered fresh food from many websites before – and most were excellent – I was game to try them out.

PurelyFresh started out as a wet market vegetable stall in 1998 and almost two decades later, they have expanded into various heartlands, owning and managing five wet and dry markets in Woodlands, Sengkang, Punggol and Tampines. With such an operation scale, it isn’t surprising at all that their produce and products are of great quality.

Here’s why PurelyFresh is unique:

1. They sell fresh produce on top of an extensive selection of household products
Many online grocery stores only offer household products. PurelyFresh offers both household products and fresh produce, so this saves you the trouble of either ordering from different websites or making a trip to your supermarket to pick up everything at one go. Apart from having the usual dry grocery items like coffee and tea, rice, oil, condiments and instant noodles, for example, PurelyFresh also stocks everyday items like washing powder, toothpaste, dishwashing liquid, shampoo and conditioner and body wash – just to name a few. But their speciality is really their fresh fruits and vegetables, yong tau foo, seafood and meat items. Let’s take a look at my orders:

My aunts still go to the supermarket to buy oil and rice, and sometimes because the items are so heavy, they choose to buy less stuff because they can’t carry them all. The delivery of household products is really a lifesaver for them, and the freshness of the meat and vegetables are just what you would expect from a wet market or wholesaler – which brings me to my next point.

2. You can customise your meat orders at no additional cost
One reason many people choose to buy meat from the wet market is that they can get the butcher to prepare/slice up/portion their meats according to preference. And precisely because PurelyFresh is an online wet market, you can enjoy this same service when you buy fresh fish and meat like chicken, duck, pork, beef and mutton. Just enter your instructions in the order comments and your meat purchase will arrive just the way you want it. Let me show you how easy it is. I wanted to cook Szechuan Braised Pork Belly and needed the pork belly cut into small pieces, and this was what I entered in my comments during checkout:

When my order arrived, this was what I received – perfectly cut pork belly, just the way I asked for:

This saves me much time as I don’t have to cut the meat myself. I am looking forward to requesting for sliced and filleted fish, sliced lean meat and portioned chicken (I’m really bad at chopping chicken) – all neatly packaged and delivered to my door.

3. You can even order Halal meat

Yes, you read right! If you prefer Halal meat – and I do, when it comes to chicken and duck – you can opt for Halal option during your purchase. I find it very interesting that the Halal option is available even for an online grocer. Halal meat is not just for Muslims and it’s not like if you’re non-Muslim you cannot buy Halal meat. How many times have you caught yourself in the supermarket choosing chicken, then upon realising it is in the Halal chiller, think to yourself, “Eh, this one Halal la, the normal ones are at the other side.” WHY? I actually prefer to buy Halal chicken because the meat is cleaner (no residual blood) and I will choose this option when I order again next time.

PurelyFresh’s Halal selection of chicken, mutton and beef are from Halal suppliers as well as Muslim butcheries and separately packed by Muslim handlers just like in a wet market. Just enter “Halal” in your comments during checkout.

4. SAME DAY and next day delivery with SEVEN convenient 2-hour time slots

I know of friends who shop at 24-hour supermarkets at crazy hours because they’re so busy, and the only time they can get their groceries is after work (and OT) at 1 or 2 am. With PurelyFresh, you don’t have to go to the supermarket at midnight anymore, even if you need your groceries the same day. Order before 3 am for same day delivery! Orders that come in after 3am (up to midnight) will be delivered the next day.

For example:

– Order at 2.30 am on Wednesday, the earliest delivery time will be 10 am to 12 pm, same day on Wednesday.
– Order at 11.30 pm on Wednesday, the earliest delivery time will be 10 am to 12 pm, next day on Thursday.

Of course you can opt for a later delivery day or timing from their delivery slots:

• 10 am – 12 pm
• 12 pm – 2 pm
• 2 pm – 4 pm
• 4 pm – 6 pm
• 6 pm – 8 pm
• 8 pm – 10 pm
• 10 pm – 12 midnight

I ordered on Thursday at 10.30 pm and chose my delivery slot for Friday, between 10 pm to midnight. With precise 2-hour delivery timeslots, I don’t have to sit around or worry that the delivery guy will show up when I’m on the way home.

5. The PurelyFresh Guarantee

PurelyFresh’s is so confident of the quality of their products that they offer a 100% no-questions-asked refund if you receive anything that you’re not satisfied with, so you can be assured that you’re getting the freshest products even if you don’t “see and touch” them. I think this money-back guarantee is really great to convert more people to convenient online grocery shopping.

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Promotion

PurelyFresh is offering a SG$15 discount to first-time customers and SG$40 vouchers for subsequent orders. Details can be found here. Delivery is free for all orders over SG$69, and only $6 if you spend less than that.

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Recipe

And with the pork belly and dried chillies that I ordered, I made a delicious Szechuan Braised Pork Belly dish. Here’s the recipe so you can recreate this at home!

The post PurelyFresh: Your Online Wet Market (+ Szechuan Braised Pork recipe) appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

It’s been a long while since our family had lo-bak. Ah-mm used to cook a big pot with pork belly, extra pieces of lean meat (I don’t like those. haha!) and lots of eggs every 2-3 weeks when we were all still living together. At one time, there were 11 people in our household including our helper.. and dinner (and home) was always fun, interesting, and something to look forward to. The house was almost never quiet. Ah-mm would be watching her TV til late at night (as she does now), and Cheng Lip would be flying down the stairs to cook packets of instant noodles for supper. Alex and Michelle would be chilling in the adjacent room, and when Slimer was awake- and he rarely was- he would be plonked in front of his computer 打 game-ing. I still remember the “biu-biu-biu!!!!!!!!!!” that blasted on his speakers whenever he fought those enemies. And more distantly, I remember the time Slimer put Cheng Wu into the washing machine because the pesky toddler just wouldn’t shut up.

My family is a bit different.. but we have wonderful sibling relationships, even if Slimer refused to spend recess time with me on my first day of school in Primary 1 (he was in Primary 3). Well technically he fulfilled his duty, because Mom just told him to “meet” me during recess and made sure I knew where to go. So he just brought me to the tuckshop, made sure I was eating, and told me, 10 seconds later, “Ah-ger 你留在这里啊” while he ran off very quickly to play catching with his friends.

Whenever I think of my family, I think of home-cooked food. And whenever I think of home-cooked food, I think of Ah-mm, our Masterchef. And as I cooked this version of lo-bak for her yesterday, it made me happy that she took a bite and said, “好吃，好吃” and defended my cooking when 88 said it wasn’t salty enough. “lo-bak 都不用太咸”, she said. We called it “lo-bak” and not “lorrrr-bak” because we’re Teochew.

In other news, 88 everything also not salty enough la, but I cannot go against my principle by serving her sodium-laden food!

Here are some pics to help you along. The spice packet that I bought- star anise, cinnamon, and cloves:

Braise the pork belly in whole pieces, then slice only after cooking:

Some tips:

-Use pork belly which is already sliced length-wise and not too thick. When cooking, cook the whole piece together and only slice into smaller pieces when ready to eat. Choose pork that is not too fatty since the texture will be melt-in-your-mouth anyway. I got the pork belly from Sheng Siong. They’re sliced fresh and come in nifty packages. The packages are then sold by individual weight.

-When covering the pot with water, do not add too much water. The water level should come up to just above the ingredients. You wanna braise the meat, not boil it.

-Pan-searing the meat in caramelised sugar enhances the taste and creates the melt-in-your-mouth texture. Some recipes skip this step but you don’t want to!

-If you’re serving the whole pot, remember to remove the star anise and cinnamon sticks before serving. What? You’ve never accidentally bitten on a star anise?

-Erm last tip: Remove the topmost fatty part including skin before eating. That’s how I eat pork belly. And it still tastes good!

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The preparation time is worth it when you bite on a piece of melt-in-your-mouth pork belly that YOU cooked. This dish is not difficult, and definitely doable for a kitchen noob. Feel free to ask me any questions, and I have a confession: this is the first time I’ve cooked this, too!

The post Teochew Braised Pork Belly rice/ Lo Bak/ 卤肉饭 appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.