The Hungry (Greedy) Hippo

Beggar Chicken somewhere in JB

2012-02-14T22:55:00.001+08:00

I'd like to keep a secret a secret, but I also know many friends who really enjoy reading this blog and finding out about certain places. So here goes - I won't reproduce the name of the restaurant, but if your Chinese is good and your determination level high, go google it.

We had some foodie friends bring us to JB one day for a makan tour, telling us that we were going to someone's house to eat beggar chicken. And we ended up in a Residential estate, clearly with no change of use or temporary permission for Commercial use, and no evidence of car parking provision.

Their front porch looked like this

Their backyard looked like this

Winter melons waiting to be cooked

The charcoal fire at the back of the house, where all the beggar chickens were being cooked. It was very warm in there.

They brought out a clay-encrusted something in a wheelbarrow (?!), and proceeded to crack it open. It was the beggar chicken.

Wrapped in paper and plastic, with all the juices intact.

In its full naked glory

Super soft, juicy and tasty!

We had a winter melon soup as well

It had some chicken inside. Not much salt, yet quite tasty.

A plate of achar - this was okay

The tung hoon was good! Tasty and not too oily.

Apart from the beggar chicken, the most amazing thing was this fish. At least that was what I thought when it arrived - that it was a fish.

Check out the silver skin. But it wasn't a fish.

It was fishcake. Very dense, solid, tasty and wonderful fishcake. I have no idea how they get the silver part of the skin back on the fishcake after scraping off the fish meat!

This was tofu, mixed with mushroom and other things and deep fried with egg white, presumably. Great with chilli and steamed rice.

Super retro sink for washing hands.

Little Creatures Bright Ale + Steak

2012-02-13T23:01:00.006+08:00

Our favourite beer for the past few years has been Little Creatures, which unfortunately is relatively more expensive in Singapore. We had dinner last year at Little Creatures in Melbourne, and bought a few bottles back for safekeeping.

Their Bright Ale isn't very Bright, but it isn't as Pale as their Pale Ale (ok, sorry). It has a mellow flavour, that's easy on the lips and has an amazingly refreshing aftertaste.

The main reason for opening this last bottle was because we were having a home-cooked meal for the first time in a long time, on a quiet Saturday night. Steaks courtesy of the husband, done to medium-well perfection.

Topped with garlic and rosemary mustard lovingly handcarried back by the husband from Hunter Valley.

Tea at Antoinette

2012-02-13T18:56:00.003+08:00

I've never been a huge fan of Canele, but I like it generally and I'm sure most of their stuff is pretty good.

Antoinette has opened up at The Scarlet Hotel near the office and we went there last week after work for a post-work afternoon tea. The strawberry shortcake was enjoyable, although pretty expensive at $8 per serve.

Hua Kee seafood at Pasir Panjang

2012-02-13T18:52:00.003+08:00

The husband and I were taking an evening walk at Labrador Park and decided to have dinner in the area. My family used to live in Pasir Panjang and we really liked the siput (some call it zoot zoot) cooked with sambal at the seafood stall there.

We had clams and sambal stingray, as well as some kai lan.

The clams, in the sambal-garlic sauce, were brilliant with steamed rice.

Bella Pizza Round 2

2012-02-12T23:55:00.000+08:00

We were pretty pleased with Bella Pizza the first time round, and decided to give them another go. This is the Boscaiola, with porcini and salsiccia.

This was pretty good - we enjoyed the porcini and pork sausage very much.

The husband also wanted to try one of their white pizzas - we ordered the Bella Pizza (you can't go wrong with the house special, right?) that had spinach, ricotta cheese, and salami. It wasn't too bad at all!

Their pizzas are slightly more expensive than Spizza - where a large one costs $21, but their quality is good and for some flavours, probably make them better than Spizza.

http://www.bellapizza.com.sg/

Spizza revisited

2012-02-12T23:50:00.001+08:00

I've written before about Spizza, it's still one of our favourite places to go to after a long day and to chill out over a meal that we know is going to be reliably good, in a place where parking is easily available, less than 10 minutes from our house.

We've always liked the Quinta, which is topped with truffle paste and comes with a semi-raw egg. It's very easy to eat.

The Barbara comes with Italian minced pork and olives. It reminded us of La Porchetta's Original pizza, but somehow lacks the kick of the sausage. But still good.

CNY roast pork

2012-02-12T22:51:00.006+08:00

So all the rehearsing for CNY paid off - I managed to do a 3kg slab of roast pork for lunch at a friend's house.
All sliced up and ready to go : )

Eton Mess at Oriole

2012-02-12T22:40:00.003+08:00

The husband and I love the coffee at Oriole, except that we're finding it a little difficult to tolerate coffees at night at our age. Apart from the coffee, they've also got a really good dessert -their Eton Mess is the only dessert that I'll eat with lots of whipped cream. I don't know how it's made but it seems pretty easy though - meringues with whipped cream, raspberry sauce, and strawberries. It's good enough to keep me going back.

http://www.oriolecoffee.com/

Melbourne Eats

2012-02-08T19:43:00.015+08:00

We've been suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia thinking about our years in Melbourne - that's 6 each for the husband and me. So to feed it, I decided to post some photos that were taken before I started this blog. The restaurants still exist, but some have moved and/or opened up new branches. So I won't bother giving the addresses, which can be easily found through an internet search.

Vue de Monde - this was easily the best meal of our lives, at that point in time. The husband had just passed his exams, and thankfully we had made bookings some weeks before that in anticipation of it being a celebratory rather than consolatory meal.

This was the amuse bouche
Course 1 was soy-infused abalone with a combination of watermelon and I can't remember what else.
Course 2 was risotto with truffles
Course 3: foie gras. The husband wasn't a foie gras fan to start with, but ate up every cube.
This was a palate cleanser of hibiscus verjus, put in a centrifuge and cooled to below zero degrees C.
I think this was chicken - no idea why we ordered this!And the beef, done 3 different ways, was the last course.
This was a chocolate dessert - it was a brilliant ending to a wonderful meal. We wanted to go back in 2011 but couldn't score reservations at their new Rialto outfit.
The sashimi platter at Ibuki, which was a restaurant operating out of an East Bentleigh garage of the family running the business. You get a group of 10, and each pays $60 for a 6-7 course dinner. I think they've opened a proper restaurant in the city since.
My favourite vineyard restaurant in the world - Yering Station, down at Yarra Valley. We had lunch with another couple, and polished off 2 bottles of wine between us. The husband and I normally can't drink much but we did really well that day.
My tenderloin at the Yering
I've been a fan of Pacific House ever since my uni days. The crab with ginger noodles is probably my favourite crab+carbo dish. It's noodles cooked al dente immersed in a lovely fragrant ginger, chive and spring onion sauce. It's the best crab noodles ever.
The roast duck is also a must-eat.
We had tried, unsuccessfully, to get a seat at Movida during our visits back in 2007 and 2008. This time, we went at 4pm to make sure that we scored seats, and were well rewarded for our kiasuness. We also got a few tapas to try.
This was a chicken crostini thing
Some olive thingy
Chocolate churros - the husband loved it
We didn't eat out all the time. With great fresh produce in the markets, it would be a pity not to cook. I did a roast beef one night, with spinach leaves, mashed potatoes and pumpkin soup.
With bruschetta on the side.And a lamb shank pasta another night.
The breakfasts at Mart 130 are legendary - there's always been a wait every time we've gone. Love their eggs benedict with smoked salmon.

Majestic set lunch

2012-02-05T20:36:00.002+08:00

This was some time last year but I thought I'd post the photos for fun - there was a 3-eat-for-the-price-of-4 promotion for the Majestic Restaurant set lunch, and so 4 of us headed there for a self-declared extended lunch one weekday.

It's just photos because I've forgotten what we ate.
The durian dessert was really good. That was the most memorable part of the meal. That, and having a presentation to make to an ang moh immediately after lunch :-8

Brunch at Skyve

2012-02-05T12:31:00.002+08:00

The husband and I had heard lots of good things about Skyve, and decided to head there for brunch one Saturday morning. We got there around 1130am and they were sufficiently full enough to put us in the lounge area. Not a bad sign!
Lots of retro furniture
Our view from a rather low bench
We both had cafe lattes. Not as strong as I would have liked, but the milk was properly frothed.

I ordered what I thought was eggs benedict with portobello mushroom. When it came, I realised it was egg benedict, ie. singular not plural. It was pretty tasty though.

The husband had ricotta pancakes, which came with some toasted sugared almonds that we enjoyed a lot.

However, the miniscule servings meant we were still hungry. Hence, we ordered a serve of mini burgers to share.

The burgers were pretty tasty. We enjoyed them.

The servings were much too small to make us really satisfied. At $12-$14 per plate, we were still hungry, and the entire meal came up to $50plus which would make us think twice about going back for self-indulgent reasons - Cafe Beviamo is much better value for money when we pay less and walk away more stuffed. But I'd recommend this on the basis of the quality of its food.

http://www.skyve.sg/

Kok Sen Coffeeshop, Keong Saik Road

2012-02-03T18:46:00.006+08:00

My new favourite zichar shop for lunch is this super crowded coffeeshop along Keong Saik Road which has really amazing food - just the thing to look forward to on a busy workday.

Yong tau fu, served in a claypot

Three egg spinach

Fu Yong Omelette

Har Cheong Kai - this was divinely crispy

三杯鸡 - think the har cheong gai is probably the better of the two

Bittergourd with fried fish head in black bean sauce - my favourite dish

Their noodle dishes are pretty good too. The prawn bee hoon is spicy, full of flavour and crave-worthy.

It's at 30 Keong Saik Road, and it's open for lunch and dinner everyday.

CNY with the inlaws

2012-02-02T17:43:00.011+08:00

The amazing MIL does it yet again - she cooked dinner single-handedly for 20 people for the first day of CNY.

Her roast pork - crispy on the outside, moist on the inside.
Ok, this braised duck was store bought, from one of the uncles.
Sweet and sour fish - she used snapper
Mushrooms and kailan
The roast pork all chopped up by yours truly
A close-up. Of course I ate a few pieces as I was chopping up the slab.
Youtiau stuffed with sotong/prawn paste
Close up of the fish
Yusheng for tossing - the fish and veggies were prepared at home, while all the preserved stuff was bought.
Salmon sliced by yours truly
Super fresh prawns with butter, garlic and pepper. These were pretty large prawns. I loved them! And get this - they were all deveined.
Amazing beef rendang. My husband's favourite beef rendang ever.
Chicken curry
And Hakka yong tau fu.Half of the spread. Couldn't photograph from the other side.

Mushroom Fatt Choy

2012-02-01T21:11:00.001+08:00

I make a mushroom, dried oyster and fatt choy dish every year for Chinese New Year using a recipe handed down from our old Cantonese 妈姐 who used to stay with us. But this is the first time since starting this blog that I've gotten down to documenting it.

It starts with some advance planning. First, I soaked a bowl of dried mushrooms a couple of days before hand.
As well as dried oysters, and abalone strips
The abalone strips looked like this after being soaked for 2 days
The mushrooms need to be coated with some oil and sugar.
And the abalone strips sliced up too.
You need some belly pork, the fattier the better
Fry the belly pork strips with garlic
Then throw everything else in
Threw in all the juices from the soaking with a bit of chicken stock, and let it stew.
In the meantime, I cooked the fatt choy in another pot.
This was what it looked like after a couple of hours
Cornstarch helps to thicken it
Laying out the fatt choy
The final product - really ugly, but oh so yummy.

Teppei

2012-01-30T18:43:00.004+08:00

Teppei was recommended to me by a friend who had lived in Tokyo for a number of years - I take his food recommendations very seriously indeed. Just next to Keisuke Tonkotsu King at Orchid Hotel along Tras St.

They have a few side dishes that appear to be free-for-all. This was some daikon stew.

Lotus root and mushroom salad

Daikon with octopus

Each set comes with rice and soup

It's a small place but I think the space works well. All counter seats.

I was quite pleasantly surprised by the tempura - it was light, fluffy, hot and not too oily.

The normal lunch set had about 6 or 7 different items, including eggplant, one prawn, fish, and chicken.

They also have different salts - green tea and curry.

I liked the curry better. But both were good.

I suppose the rice isn't from Fukishima.

1 Tras Link #01-18, Orchid Hotel
Tel: 6222-7363

Pasta and cheese

2012-01-25T17:54:00.008+08:00

I got a Jones the Grocer hamper for my birthday last year from old friends, and we were really excited at trying out cooking some of the stuff.

Italian pasta - dried but not like the instant sort

Really pretty curves

I bought about $10 worth of clams from my local market.

Washed them and soaked them in salt water.

Chopped up leek, onion and garlic

In went the garlic

And in went the clams

Opening after a few minutes

Ready to eat!

The pasta was really yummy - tasted like fresh pasta

We had some meatballs that we mixed with a tomato paste

The hamper also had some exciting crackers

And the most amazing fig jam for cheese

We had some lovely brie from Hunter Valley as well as some other hard cheese that the husband bought (can't recall now what it was)

Almost perfect

Goodwood Park Hotel High Tea

2012-01-24T14:33:00.002+08:00

I've been to the Goodwood Park Hotel for high tea a couple of times in the past few months with different groups of girlfriends, and I've really enjoyed it. The food is good quality, and the ambience is great for catching up with the latest gossip. The set comes up to about $50 per person, taxes included, and comes with 2 drinks from the coffee+tea menu. They have fantastic tarts, sandwiches and desserts - enjoy the food porn.

Claypot Rice (without a claypot)

2012-01-22T17:35:00.010+08:00

The husband had to work on New Year's Day, and I decided that I was bored enough to cook dinner for him and his team. I had some lovely lup cheong that I had not had the chance to use, and after googling for recipes with lup cheong, found a good one for Claypot Rice. Fortunately I had some really nice mushrooms too. These were gorgeous.
I bought shaoxing hua diao wine from Tianjin in this super cool bottle a couple of years ago. Fortunately it keeps forever.
I also wanted to do a roast pork in anticipation of CNY coming. Gotta practice. This was the lor bak marinade.
With black soy sauce that we had read from reviews was really good, which we found in Malaysia
Salting the pork skin to dry it out
Piercing the underside to make sure the marinade seeped in
Steeping it in and ready to dry out for a couple of hours
The mushrooms soaked and sliced. I kept the liquid for cooking the rice.
The lap cheong looking unhealthy before slicing
Even more unhealthy after slicing
I marinated the chicken thighs in a medley of oyster sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, sugar, pepper, soy sauce and a few ginger slices.
Fried the mushroom lapcheong chicken mixture for about 5 mins on the stove, before putting it on top of the rice in the rice cooker.
And blanched some kailan to assuage some of the guilt
Had a pot of watercress pork rib soup on the side
2 hours later, the pork was done : )
I mixed the chicken mixture into the rice, and let it cook for about 20 mins more, with chicken stock and some of the mushroom water.
The final product, albeit in a plastic container.
I tried some myself and it was pretty good, I have to say! Next stop, Sia Huat for a claypot : )

Nadaman (yet again)

2012-01-20T17:41:00.003+08:00

This was another of our decadent midweek lunches at Nadaman. We shared a beef teppanyaki set and a cod set.

The entrees - pork and veggies
Soup with a fish tofu cube
Sashimi and chawanmushi
A random salad
The beef and veggies. This was really quite good - the beef was tender, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and just a tinge of garlic.

The husband had the cod - this was quite nice too but a bit too wet, in my opinion. I would have preferred a drier version.

The fried rice was not bad but fairly ordinary.
The cold udon was just okay. The udon had probably been rehydrated, and lacked the chewy texture that fresh udon has.
Dessert.

Phuket - A short getaway

2012-01-18T22:44:00.008+08:00

The husband and I got a discounted weekend stay at the Marriot Vacation Club in Phuket, and decided to bring the mother along as well, since the room had 2 bedrooms. It's a lovely resort that's near the airport, but absolutely cut off from all the action near Patong and Surin. So we decided not to take up the package.
We didn't eat in the resort at all since we rented a car, after reading all the Trip Advisor reviews about how ulu the resort was. But we had breakfast at the cafe outside the resort, with exhorbitant tourist prices too. Breakfast the first morning was khao tom muu. I love Thai porridge with the fried garlic bits.

We drove to Patong to spend a day there but there wasn't much to see or do. I did end up buying durians and sneaking them into the hotel triple-bagged : )
We ate dinner at a little restaurant just next to the beach near the hotel. When you're in an unfamiliar place, the safest thing to do is to look for a place with people.
We guessed that the place was run by Muslims, since they didn't serve pork and there weren't any spirit houses around.
We had the curry crab - this was superb, especially with white rice. The crabs weren't huge, but they were fresh and sweet.

The som tum was pretty good too. Good balance of sweet, sour and salty

We had a tom kha gai.
They were very generous with the chicken pieces.
And a larb gai too. This was pretty good!
The green curry was a bit thin, and came with some weird melon. This was just okay.
We had this baked seafood thing that was something like otak - pieces of different types of seafood baked in a curry-like coconutty mixture with egg. We were quite pleasantly surprised by this.
And breakfast again at the same cafe - phad thai
And khao tom goong.
And just before take off, at the Thai Airways cafeteria at the airport. Khao niaw mak muang : )

Oyster Night

2012-01-18T21:20:00.000+08:00

One evening we (okay, me) had a huge craving for oysters and went down to the supermarket to get some. We found some huge Canadian ones, and came home happily with a dozen costing us around 30 bucks.

All set...you bet.
That's a mighty big oyster against my not-that-small WMF fork.
The shell was almost twice the length of the lemon.

Otowa at Cuppage

2012-01-18T20:32:00.000+08:00

I had been wanting to try Otowa for some time after a friend's recommendation, but never managed to get down to it until recently, unfortunately after Tan Hsuen Yun discovered (and started posting about) the place. So I thought I'd better hotfoot it down before hordes of hungry Singaporeans did. It's one of those places that has no English name, and looks fairly intimidating if you're not a Japanese. Only 10 bar seats available.

The amuse bouche - konnyaku, some veggies and a bit of squid.
We ordered chicken cartilege - I love this dish so much.
We had chicken wings which were really nicely done - crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.
My doctor friend ordered a very unhealthy stick of chicken skin.
The healthy finance person ordered a salad
Raw octopus salad
Same unhealthy doctor ordered chicken backsides.
Tofu - not very exciting at all.
The chicken was good quality - fresh, moist and cooked through.
Tsukune with chicken cartilege minced inside. yay!
Seaweed salad that looked a bit odd I thought
Unhealthy doctor ordered pig stomach.
Mushrooms - these were very enjoyable.
Same unhealthy doc ordered chicken hearts.
Kurobota pork, which was tender and flavourful.
And the cold korean noodles at the end were the best - I love the texture.
Really chewy noodles.
It's on the 3rd floor of Cuppage Plaza. Can't recall the exact address, and can't find it on the internet either! Not cheap though - the bill was about $50 per person. It's not exactly value for money but it's a pretty good feed.

天记 Porridge at Maxwell Market

2012-01-16T20:10:00.002+08:00

There's always been this stall where I see the operator packing and washing up when I arrive at Maxwell Market, no matter how early. The rest of the day and night, the shutter is down. I got curious and asked one of my older colleagues if they knew what it sold. Trust these wise old people, who wake up at 5am and come to the office by 7am, to know something good.

It's a porridge stall that opens at something like 4am, and they normally sell out by 7am. One time I arrived at 7.10am and the operator shook his head and me and said 卖完了. To satisfy my curiousity, one morning I proceeded to drag the poor husband out of the house at 6.45am (it was his fault that we missed the stall the last time) to make sure that we got there on time.
They sell pork or fish porridge, and the gruel mixture is soft, not too thick (I think Zhen Zhen is a rather negative example of thick porridge) and flavourful. It's easy on the tongue and throat.
The raw fish salad is pretty good too. Not too much ginger (think Zhen Zhen again), and a good mix of lime, soy and sesame oil dressing.
This cost me $7. I was very pleased with it : ) It's not the cheapest hawker breakfast, but it's good quality and $4 is a reasonable price for good raw fish salad.
I think this is worth waking up at 6am for, just not everyday.

It's on the same row as Tian Tian chicken rice, between the double-boiled soup stall and fruit stall. It's a fantastic alternative for my favourite porridge stall that unfortunately closed down last year : (

Malacca: Eating all the way

2012-01-14T23:34:00.010+08:00

The husband and I went with the inlaws to Malacca for church camp (theirs, not ours) over an extended weekend so the only thing I was really looking forward to was the food. Fortunately we had some good company from the group who were nice enough to invite us on a night stroll out with them for supper.

The Malacca old town is lit up with red lights at night - possibly the same colour of the Portugese Fort? Anyway the streets look more beautiful at night, cos you can't see the cracks or holes so clearly.
We were brought to a coffeeshop called Restoran Sin Yin Hoe, which served soft shell crabs and oyster omelette.
The or luak stall looked seriously exciting! I was really looking forward to trying some.
Check it out - en route to perfection
I completely loved the or luak. It was the right combination of starchy vs eggy, and felt light and crispy enough not to be too soggy or heavy, with with the gooey starch texture intact. Much better than the super long queue one at Jalan Bunga Raya, I felt.
Someone at the table ordered kong bak pau. This was not bad.
Oooh but the horfun was super amazing. The noodles were soft and supple, brimming over with a wok hei aroma. Worth a return visit.
The soft shell crab came towards the end, and most of us were pretty full by then (this was after a buffet dinner...heh) so I don't think it was that amazing but I might have felt differently had I been hungry. It was not bad.
After that, we proceeded to eat chendol on Jonker St. No good photos with the bad light unfortunately, but we brought the inlaws there the next night and they loved it. Photos to follow later.

We had the afternoon off the next day and went walking around town. This chap was driving around and enjoying the attention from all the passers-by.
We went to Jonker 88, which was where we had eaten during our previous trip. The chendol was ok but not as good as the one we had the night before.
Still packing in the crowds though.
That evening, after a full day of shopping, we went to this place that we had read a lot about on various food blogs - Restoran Lee just opposite Bayview Hotel, and on the same side as Renaissance Hotel.
We got there just after 6 to be sure we could get a table.
What the coffeeshop looks like on the outside
Every kind of crab you could ask for.
We ordered the salt egg crab. This was solid salted egg yolk mashed onto the crab, without any of the floury stuff that other places add.
This was pretty amazing. Licked even the shells clean.
We ordered a fried bee hoon, with dark sauce which is typical of Malaysian noodles dishes, and overflowing with pork lard flavour. Heavenly.
Boring. The requisite veggie dish to make us feel a little better about ourselves.
The milk crab was sweetish with a slight hint of chilli - I daresay there was condensed milk as well.
They gave us bread to mop up the milk sauce. ooh so good.
Ready to make other customers happy.
After that, we headed to the Jonker St chendol stall for dessert.

The husband and I also shared a bowl of assam laksa, which was really quite good. Given that we had just been stuffing our face with crabs, that's pretty damn good laksa.
This gets my vote for BEST chendol in Malacca with the tastiest richest gula melaka.
View of the night food street.
On the way back to Singapore, we stopped at Tangkak for beef noodles upon the recommendation of a JB friend. We had swung by a month before our Malacca trip, enroute back from Port Dickson, and the shop was closed. We were most disappointed then. So we were most relieved to find it open.
You know a place is good when they sell only one thing.
Chilli prepared in anticipation.
My husband's beef meat and beef ball noodles. The beef balls were fantastic, absolutely springy, with the right mix of tendon and whatnots giving it a bouncy yet meaty texture.
My kuay teow with all the various cow parts. The soup was amazingly sweet and yet not overpoweringly herbal.
Directions on getting to Tangkak: Get off the NS Highway, drive towards the town, and take the first right turn when you see a police station compound with blue and white buildings at the junction. The restaurant will be on your right.

Pineapple Tarts - 新年快乐！

2012-01-07T11:20:00.006+08:00

Christmas is barely over, and now it's almost Chinese New Year. In anticipation of CNY, however, I was keen to learn how to make pineapple tarts and I had a fantastic colleague who kindly gave up her Sunday morning to come over to my place to teach me how.

Here's the pineapple being skinned.
After the skin and eyes had all been removed.
Slicing it up into smaller pieces.
You only want the pulp, not the juice. So the easiest way is to juice it, and retain the pulp.
And then, there's a need to strain it further.
We put the entire lot of pulp from 5 pineapples into a huge pot, with pandan leaves.
And cooked it over a low flame.
And stirred.
After about an hour (!!), we put in some white sugar
And stirred some more
And some more....until the pineapple mixture was a lovely golden brown
Time for the flour - shortcrust pastry
My colleague trying desperately to salvage the flour.
Anyway, oh well. So we proceeded to make the tart bases with her amazing contraption.
Filling it with dough
And voila, the base is done
It looks easy but it's not!
Our bases ready to be filled with pineapple filling
See this is really beautiful
Take about a 15cm diameter ball and stick it on top
She even had little cute moulds to make heart tops
And there you go!

新年快乐，万事如意 :)

Truffles at Otto

2011-12-30T12:26:00.009+08:00

I've gone to Otto for lunch off and on since the last blog post, but none of the experiences were worth blogging about until the husband decided to be nice and organise a truffle meal just for the sake of having done it. We read somewhere that the white truffles were from the Langhe area of the Piedmont region in northern Italy and from the countryside around Alba.

The menu looks deceptively cheap, but these are all pre-truffle prices. If I don't recall incorrectly, shavings were $14 per gram.

An amuse bouche of smoked duck and mashed something. Not very memorable.

My starter was the scrambled egg with blue swimmer crab and white truffle ($19). It came looking like a rather thick paste.
The husband ordered the mushroom soup with foie gras morsels and white truffles ($19). So we were wondering for a while - where where the truffles?
And voila - they appeared in the form of ugly knobs on a weighing scale.
As the waiter shaved the truffles onto the plate, I could smell the aroma. It was amazing! The taste of the egg before and after the truffes was so different.
The husband's soup - after. The flavour of the mushroom soup was so nicely enhanced by those thin shavings. We were weak and truffle-laden. Heh.
I ordered the homemade egg tagliolini with white truffle and white truffle emulsion ($26). I got excited just by looking at the texture of the pasta. I love freshly-made pasta.
The waiter gamely brought over a huge truffle so I could photograph it.
This was huge! Alas we couldn't eat it all.
Hard at work shaving over the pasta.

The glorious end result
The husband's dutch veal scaloppine with marsala wine and white truffle ($38). I'm not a veal fan so I wasn't too sure about this, but he enjoyed it.
I would rank this among one of the best pastas ever. Al dente, flavourful, and bursting full of truffle flavour. I wished I could have ordered another plate.

The greedy boy ordered the white truffle creme brulee for dessert.
It was insane. I've never tasted anything like it - sweet cream so evenly infused with truffle flavour, and super smooth too.

The bill was a bomb, but it was worth every penny. We agreed that we would not eat at another fancy restaurant for the rest of the year. That's why our New Year's Eve dinner is going to be teochew muay.

Nadaman Again

2011-12-28T14:26:00.008+08:00

We tried Nadaman for dinner with a discount - it's not worth the money otherwise. The husband and I ordered the omakase sets, and I can't quite recall what they cost but they were rather Exhorbitant with a capital E.

The emptiness of the restaurant says it all.
The starters for his set - a tofu dish, a fried fish and baby bok choy. Very ordinary.
I ordered a slightly less expensive set and had the tofu and bok choy.
A clear broth with a tofu/egg like cube.
His sashimi - otoro (or chutoro?), hotate and snapper I think it was
My sashimi - maguro, tai (sea bream) and the same unmemorable/unidentifiable fish. Slightly less elite cuts.
There was a california roll that came with one of the sets (I forget which).
Teriyaki gindara. Normal.
There was a serve of foie gras on braised daikon.
This was pretty good!
Random vegetable dish to fill up the time and space.
The tempura was pretty good quality. Crisp and light. Enjoyed this very much.
The husband had sushi. This looked pretty. I'm sure it tasted good too.
Lots of fatty looking fish.
I had teppanyaki beef - this was very yummy. Loved the garlic and pepper.
I also had the udon. I couldn't tell whether it was freshly made or not, but it felt like dehydrated udon to me.
Texture wasn't too bad, but fresh is always better.
Yuzu sherbet
Black sesame ice cream on top of creme brulee
Definitely an enjoyable meal, but it created a significant dent on the wallet. We're not gonna be going until the next major discount.

Hill Street Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee

2011-12-28T11:09:00.004+08:00

I've resisted posting about this stall for a while because it's crowded enough and certainly doesn't need a larger following (which equals longer queues). But I've come to realise that good food is worth sharing about, and so reluctantly I've decided to post this.

Side thought - why are all the BEST (my vote for best Char Kway Teow and best Bak Chor Mee) stalls from Hill Street? It must have been one heck of a foodie paradise in its heyday. I remember my dad buying braised duck from the hawker centre that was pretty damn good.

Back to the Bak Chor Mee. The erractically long queue (but always long). Normal waiting time is about half an hour on average.

And after all those excruciating moments lining up, this is what you get. Lard-laden, vinegar-splashed, salt-fish laced Heaven in a bowl. Words are not enough to describe how amazing this bak chor mee is. The perfect combination of salty, sour and meaty on top of al dente noodles.
We normally order a side bowl of wantons and pork balls to share. The normal serve is not enough.
No address supplied. Don't compete with me in the queue. Go figure it out yourself.

Hill Street Char Kway Teow

2011-12-28T11:00:00.002+08:00

The husband and I were determined to try Hill Street Char Kway Teow before the old hawker stopped frying, and drove to Bedok one Sunday after church. We saw lots of people queuing but no one standing in line, which was nice.
The char kway teow did not disappoint. It was moist, sweet, spicy with all the flavours of the different ingredients coming together in an amazing way. Calories worth consuming.

Hill Street Char Kway Teow

Blk 16 Bedok South Road

#01-187 Bedok South Road Market & Food Centre

Tel: +65 9042 1312

Set Lunch at Crystal Jade Dining In, Vivocity

2011-12-27T09:45:00.010+08:00

The husband passed his exams recently and picked me up for lunch to celebrate one dull and uneventful Friday afternoon. The wonderful man had even booked a table for 2 at Crystal Jade Vivocity after remembering that I had waxed lyrical about the set lunch. I can't remember how much it cost but it was a 7-course set lunch that we thought was pretty good value. $48? $58??

We both started with the roast pork and jellyfish. Crystal Jade has amazing roast pork. The skin is always crispy and the meat always moist.
I had the shark's fin soup with crab roe - the standard starchy fare that went great with red wine vinegar.
The husband had a more eggy version. I liked mine better.
We had a great view of the waterfront. And envied all those other people dining on company entertainment accounts.
We ordered the XO carrot cake as a side dish - I've always liked this dish. Wonderfully soft carrot cake with amazing dried seafood flavour.
A close up. This was probably about 10 bucks.
Steamed chicken with black fungus
Black pepper beef ribs
Ha cheong gai. This deserves special mention. It's probably one of the best har cheong gai I've ever eaten. The skin was super crispy, the inside oozing flavour and moisture.
Cereal prawns. This was okay.
But super pretty!
Finally the carbo to end the meal - I had steamed chicken on top of steamed rice. I have to say that this was a real surprise - I hadn't expected very much of this dish, but it was really enjoyable because it was so simple. The chicken must have been marinated with rice wine, and the soy flavour was intense without being salty.
The husband had zha jiang mian which I normally view with some amount of suspicion. The noodles were nice but the sauce was rather lacklustre, falling back on cheap bottled chilli sauce (or that was how it appeared to me).
Dessert was mango with sago/pomelo (I forget now). Normal, nice, decent.
More hits than misses. We'll need to do this at another special occasion.

Cocotte at Wanderlust Hotel

2011-12-25T12:22:00.005+08:00

The same greedy excolleague that brought me on many foodie adventures also brought me to Cocotte for my belated birthday treat. Loved the ambience. She started with a cider while I had a boring Shiraz Cabernet.

The breaded beef tripe was so good. Tender, chewy and crispy on the outside.
Escargot. This was ok. Preferred Le Carillon's version though.
A close up of the snail. Think the choux pastry didn't do much.
The mussels with white wine sauce and cream. This was lovely. I drank almost all the sauce.
It was so good with the warm bread rolls
Roast chicken with almonds. This was surprisingly tender, and moist. Loved it!
Another shot of the plate with the gravy. One of the better roast chickens I've had.
The lemon tart was not too bad. But not tangy enough for me.
But the coffee creme brulee was pretty special.

http://wanderlusthotel.com/dining/

Monday to Saturday: Lunch12.00nn to 2.30pm (Last order 2.00pm)
Dinner: Monday to Thursday 6.30pm to 10.30pm (Last order 10.00pm)

Friday to Saturday 6.30pm to 11.00pm (Last order 10.30pm)

*Restaurant is closed on Sundays
Bar: Sunday to Thursday 12.00nn to 11.00pmFriday to Saturday 12.00nn to 12.00mn
Tel: +65 6298 1188

Website: http://restaurantcocotte.com/

Canto Kitchen

2011-12-22T20:17:00.001+08:00

An excolleague brought us to Canto Kitchen at People's Park for the most amazing crab porridge. Apparently the place is helmed by a Chef Kang who used to run a popular restaurant called in Joo Chiat. I went there one evening for dinner with my mum and since it was only 2 of us, our ability to order was rather limited.

We had the spinach in superior stock with 3 eggs. Loved it!
Then the crab porridge arrived. It was a lovely orange hue from the crab roe and crab stock...and super fragrant with loads of Chinese rice wine.
First the server will take out all the crab from the claypot, and stack it on a plate so it's easier for everyone to eat.
Then you scoop the porridge out into a bowl and use both hands to eat...one hand holding the spoon and the other with a piece of crab. Heavenly!

CANTO KITCHEN

#05-01 People's Park Complex, 1 Park Road
Tel: +65 6536 0501

Diandin Leluk

2011-12-22T19:29:00.004+08:00

Diandin Leluk has to be my favourite affordable Thai restaurant in Singapore (my favourite being Than Ying at Amara but I wouldn't define that as affordable). The food is good, the atmosphere akin to being in a dodgy Thai shopping centre and the sights, sounds and smells all seriously authentic.

The prawn cakes were light, fluffy and crispy. Great with sweet chilli sauce.

Phad kaprow using beef. It was good. I can totally imagine how good their phad kaprow gai sai khai dao on a plate of hot steaming rice is.

Fried kangkong - boring.
The crab vermicelli was a surprise - not too oily, and tasty too.
Between the cha yen and naam manao, the latter was the one that did it for me. Although it's less salty than what you get in Muang Thai.
Larb muu without any innards. This was seriously good. The only thing missing was khaw niaw.
Tom yum talaay....terribly spicy.
But with very fresh seafood.
Gaeng khiaw wan gai. The husband loved this. It was rich without being too creamy, and spicy without being too hot.

The oyster omelette was seriously delicious too. It had just the right mix of starch and egg, fried enough so that it was a little crispy yet still chewy.
So good I had to post another photo.
We've never been able to taste their red rubies since they're always sold out. Chendol is not too bad.

5001 Beach Road, Golden Mile Complex #01-67/68/69. Tel: 6293 5101

Brasserie Wolf

2011-12-20T18:00:00.003+08:00

This is a rather outdated post but one that I still want to write because it was such a pleasant dining experience. We made a couple of Restaurant Week bookings, and were careful to stay away from the celebrities where extra dining premiums were added - that kind of made the discounts seem meaningless. Brasserie Wolf didn't, so that was right up our alley.
The restaurant wasn't all that full, which got me a little concerned.
I had the foie gras terrine. This was a little too rich for me - after about 5 mouthfuls I started struggling. That's not to say it wasn't good, but perhaps my palate may have changed with age.
The husband had the pan seared scallop on a sort of ratatouille. He loved it. So did I! The scallops were seared just right and had a lovely sweetness.
The husband ordered the mushroom and garlic risotto which was very flavourful. A bit too much garlic for me though.
I had the best boeuf bourguignon I think I've ever eaten. It was sweet, flavourful, rich, warm, and oozing with flavour. I loved the mashed potatoes. Everything about this dish was perfect.
He had the chocolate martini which I thought was ok.
My lemon tart was pretty good though : )We loved the fact that we had scored ourselves a brilliant 3-course dinner for $35, with good quality food of sufficient quantity. We'll definitely be back.

80 Mohamed Sultan Road The Pier at Robertson #01-13 Tel: 6835 7818

Opening hours: Lunch from 12 noon – 2.30 p.m (Mon – Fri, All day on Public Holidays)Dinner from 6 – 10.30 pm (Sun –Thurs), Fri, Sat & Eve of Public Holidays 6 – 11 p.m.

Beef Stew

2011-12-14T18:35:00.006+08:00

We were clearing some leave last month and we had some bottles of wine that needed to be opened urgently. So the conclusion was that we would cook with half of it and drink the rest. No better dish than beef stew.

We did a supermarket run to pick up lots of veggies - carrots, celery, pumpkin, mushrooms and potatoes.
Flour seasoned with pepper and salt for dusting

The beef pieces. We used chuck because it was the cheapest stew cut.

I started by frying bacon strips in minced garlic and onions.

Then threw in the beef.

And added some tomato paste, beef stock, as well as the veggies. And poured in half a 2005 bottle of D'Arenberg Footbolt Shiraz.

I threw in a variety of herbs including rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf

After sitting for two hours on the stove

Separately, I minced some garlic with rosemary to sprinkle on top.

Ready to eat!

Great with ciabatta

The very next day, we went to the inlaws' place for dinner. Of course, as luck would have it, the MIL cooked beef stew too. Hers was a different style - she used guinness stout instead of wine. So it was drier and less soupy.

And she baked her own ciabatta with olives and rosemary.

I liked her version better.

The husband brought back some brie from Hunter Valley so we had that after dinner.

It was gloriously smelly

Loved it!

Tian Tian Chicken Rice

2011-12-11T17:09:00.003+08:00

My favourite quick lunch at Maxwell Market on a busy day (provided you go after 2.30pm) - the chicken is tender, the rice is fragrant, and it always makes me happy eating it.

Paradise Pavilion

2011-12-11T16:47:00.004+08:00

A greedy university friend decided to get the whole group together to try the peking duck at Paradise Pavilion, upon hearing that they had basically got the Quanjude chefs+recipe+oven lock stock and barrel over to Singapore. This was the same guy who got me to tar pau Da Dong peking duck from Beijing, and who had to rescue his peking duck in the toaster after his domestic helper took the initiative to steam it.

The har kau was good - solid firm prawns, and very tasty.

The roast pork platter consisting of char siew, suckling pig and siew yok.

The siew yok was the most outstanding, although the rest were pretty good too

This was to die for - great with the mustard

Some prawn/fish dim sum dish. I didn't do the ordering so had no idea what it was.

I think this was 水晶包.

Ooh the cheong fun was good, I remember. Soft and supple.

I didn't try the pies.

I can't recall how these tasted, but they must have been all right.

Bolo buns. Can't really remember how they tasted (yup the meal was that long ago).

This was good - some shrimp stuffing wrapped with long noodley strands - I had no idea what this was called.

And finally, the duck arrived. First, the skin - best dipped in sugar.

We pretty much had the full array of condiments on our plates.

The lean meat + skin

About to be wrapped

Slightly more fatty meat

For dessert, there was 莲蓉包.

My verdict on the duck is that it's probably the best peking duck I've had in Singapore. Definitely worth a repeat visit - after getting the 13th month or performance bonus.

Paradise Pavilion 乐天阁

#02-01 Marina Bay Financial Centre Ground Plaza

8A Marina Boulevard

Tel: +65 6509 9308

Website: www.paradisegroup.com.sg

Lunch: 11:30am - 3:00pm (Mon - Fri) / 11:00am - 3:30pm (Sat/Sun/PH)

Dinner: 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Daily)

Pasta Brava's Spaghetti Nero

2011-12-11T16:43:00.002+08:00

Since the first post on Pasta Brava, I've gone back a few more times for lunch since it's so close to the office. Had the squid ink pasta with seafood and totally loved it!

The vongole pasta isn't too bad either, but somehow this is just so much more special. Make sure to wipe your mouth before leaving.

Komala Vilas

2011-12-11T16:38:00.002+08:00

I love Indian food and there's nothing quite like Komala Vilas for a good decent value-for-money authentic meal. Their palek paneer is one of the best I've eaten.
The masala thosai - decent.

I have no idea what this is, but it's some chappati-like thing in a ball - great with curry.

And to wash it all down, a hot cup of masala tea. Perfect.

76 / 78 Serangoon Road Singapore 217981, Tel: 6293 6980

12 / 14 Buffalo RoadSingapore 209 723, Tel : 62933664

Website: http://www.komalavilas.com.sg/

Santaro, Amara Hotel

2011-12-11T16:29:00.002+08:00

I had only gone to Santaro for lunch before, but thanks to a Groupon deal, we bought 50% vouchers and headed there for dinner a couple of months ago.

The husband ordered unagi - we were pleasantly surprised to find it was freshly grilled to just the right degree.

Cha soba for our carbs

Cod done 3 ways - one with mentaiko (that was mine), one teriyaki (I think) and one shio (again, i think). Simple, ordinary, but still delicious.

Our chirashi sushi was extremely enjoyable.

There was a lot of fish, and these were pretty good cuts as well. Unfortunately, as I recall, it was pretty expensive so we won't be going back there anytime soon.

Loved all the colours of the fish.

We also had a sushi set. This was the premium set, I believe. Unfortunately I felt it was pretty ordinary - in terms of value for money, I didn't think it was worth it. Good, but not that mindblowing.

The restaurant was pretty empty at night. Guess it really gets most of its business from lunch and at dinner time, from those people with entertainment budgets.

I ordered a grilled mentaiko.

Now, this I enjoyed, although it was pretty salty. Great with lemon.

Durian puffs

2011-12-11T16:26:00.002+08:00

We had the inlaws over for lunch on Saturday afternoon. They showed up at the door with a huge tray of home made durian puffs. I really have the best mother in law in the world.

She used 3 durians - sultan, mao shan wang and can't remember what else- they were mind-numbingly delicious. We ate and ate, and ate some more. The woman is a genius.

HKIA

2011-12-11T16:21:00.003+08:00

I hadn't gone to Hong Kong in years - and had flown in to Kai Tak airport then, so this was my first time at HKIA. Reminded me of Beijing Terminal 3 and the new Shanghai Hongqiao terminal - with the ramped entrance.

Since I was on the last leg of my KF Gold (which is now pretty much lost for good), I decided to venture into the SilverKris lounge to make the most of it. Unfortunately, thanks to a crazily huge dinner at Guangdong BBQ, I couldn't eat anything at all.

And then I saw this, and there was hope!

It was just what I needed to prepare me for the 15 hour flight to SFO.

Hong Kong: Temple Street

2011-12-11T16:15:00.003+08:00

On our first night in Hong Kong, one of the co-workers brought us to Temple Street for dinner. When we got there, I got really excited since the place looked really lao jiet and full of life.

Everywhere we went, there were people sitting on the streets eating and drinking.

Now, or so I thought, this is Hong Kong!

And we sat down at this place called Temple Street Spicy Crab. Ooh I was rubbing my hands together in delight and in anticipation of all the yummy things we were going to order.

Disappointingly, the group was not very adventurous and we ended up ordering things like stif fried beef with vegetables that I didn't even bother to photograph. The only thing worth crowing about was the oyster omelette - the only dish I felt was worth the effort. What an anticlimax. I mean, who goes to Temple Street Spicy Crab and doesn't order spicy crab?!

Hong Kong: Tai Cheong Egg Tarts

2011-12-11T16:04:00.003+08:00

So after stuffing my face silly at Luk Yu (yes, I went alone), I went in search of egg tarts. The same foodie friend that directed me to Luk Yu had given me the details for Tai Cheong. Unfortunately the map I was using didn't have Lyndhhurst Terrace marked out on it, so it really could have been in Tsim Sha Tsui or the New Territories for all I knew. I was just looking for egg tarts, and any one would have been fine.

And it must have been my day because I decided to make a random turn to buy a bottle of water from 7-11, and lo and behold, I saw Lyndhurst Terrace. Walked on for bit before seeing this glorious sign.

Since I had so serendipitiously come across the shop, I felt I had to make it worth my while. So I bought 10 intending to give 5 away to my colleagues (and to eat the other 5). Fortunately no one I travelled with knows about this blog. So please don't tell them about it.
In fact I was so desperate that I found a ledge somewhere and sat down to devour the egg tarts. They were well worth the effort. Absolutely pannacotta-smooth texture, albeit less soft, and wonderful flaky pastry.

35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong
Opening Hours : 7:30am – 9pm (Mondays to Saturdays)8:30am – 9pm (Sundays and Public Holidays)
Telephone : 852-2544 3475

Hong Kong: Luk Yu Tea House

2011-12-11T15:49:00.006+08:00

A friend recommended that I try out Luk Yu for the old school in-the-mood-for-love atmosphere, and so I headed there on a Sunday afternoon just after 3 to avoid the lunch time crowd.

No English menu available - I had to decipher the Chinese text and work out what sounded good.

Loved the cutlery.

Of the 4 items I ordered, I only knew 2 dishes - the har kow and spring rolls. The others were quite a surprise.
Beefballs made from mince - these were quite tasty and tender.

I liked the spring rolls too - they came crispy hot

The har kow was really good quality. I wouldn't have minded another serve but couldn't be bothered waiting. Plus I had an egg tart mission to fulfil.
Some sort of soon kueh thing. Not too bad but not very memorable, since I can't even recall what it tasted like.

Dipping sauces

Great for morning yumcha. Best visited in a group of 4 people.

24 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong
Opening Hours : 7am - 10pm
Telephone : 852-2523 5464

Hong Kong Eating - Guangdong BBQ

2011-11-30T19:38:00.012+08:00

We were in Hong Kong only for a short while, and the people I was travelling with weren't the sort to go queue or travel for long periods of time to get food. I really wanted to try Yung Kee but someone had been there and said it wasn't worth the money. So we had to settle for a roast meat shop about 5 mins walk from our Citadines serviced apartment in Ashley Rd (another story for another day - it must be the saddest Somerset/Ascott/Citadines property in the whole world). I had read about Guangdong BBQ in a blog, and the person found it to be fairly decent. So off we went for a last good Asian meal the evening of our red-eye to San Francisco.

The exterior looked very inviting

We ordered char siew to share

Seafood broth in a winter melon

The roast goose was actually pretty good - tender, moist and tasty.

Went beautifully with this chilli oil.

More siew yok and char siew to share

Look at the luscious slice of meat.

They do breakfast as well - this was the satay beef with instant noodles.

Great for an inexpensive night out. I'd go back again for a trouble-free, value-for-money meal.

Ground Floor, 43-49A Hankow Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Calgary Tower

2011-11-25T15:36:00.000+08:00

We were brought up the Calgary Tower for lunch by the people hosting our visit. It was a pretty ugly concrete tower but it gave us a fantastic view of the city.

It was a revolving restaurant that rotated fairly quickly - kinda weird when you thought you have no idea where the restrooms and entrance/exit are, after a while.

It was a beautiful day, with a great view of the city all the way out to the Rockies in the distance.

My burger and fries. Think the US beef is better.

Calgary eating: Cora

2011-11-22T13:02:00.010+08:00

So we hopped off to Calgary from Hong Kong (that segment's reserved for a later post) via San Francisco, and boy, was it a quiet town. We had a very nice hotel in the middle of the city that I thoroughly enjoyed. We had brilliant 20+ degrees C weather as well. All in, it was a lovely visit except for the jetlag.

We found this amazing breakfast place called Cora thanks to the bellboy. It was about 20 mins walk from our hotel.

It was a waffle and pancake place, filled with all sorts of good things.
Plus a menu that made you wish you could order everything.

And I mean EVERYTHING.

My colleague's breakfast

This was mine! The plate was bigger than my laptop computer.

Another colleague's strawberry waffles

Close up of the strawberries

Another colleague's huge big breakfast

My lovely amazing crepe with strawberries and chocolate sauce

There's none quite like Cora!

Website: http://www.chezcora.com/home

Gray's Papaya Hot Dogs, New York

2011-11-22T12:59:00.004+08:00

After a walk in Central Park, we were determined to get a real New York hotdog - with mustard and catsup. Following a friend's recommendation, we walked along Broadway to find Gray's Papaya which looked rather exciting from the outside.

It looked even more exciting on the inside, with all the various drinks that they sold - papaya, coconut, pineapple and I can't remember what else!

These looked so yummy

Just look at that hawtdawg

Got all our ducks lined up in a row

It was a pretty damn good hotdog! Could have had 2....but that would have looked too greedy in front of the boss.

2090 Broadway (72nd Street), open 24 hours
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray%27s_Papaya

Bouchon at Time Warner Centre, New York

2011-11-03T18:27:00.005+08:00

I enjoy fine dining, and I'm not bothered about eating alone. But there are certain places that I would never go to by myself - zi char restaurants, because you can't order much, and super fine dining places. Oh on that note, I have to say I'm so excited that Eleven Madison is the latest kid on the 3 Michelin star block!

When I knew I was going to be in New York, I was super excited at the thought of being able to have the chance to try out a Thomas Keller restaurant. However, the excitement quickly faded when I realised (1) the price of a meal there and (2) that I would be short-changing myself of maximum enjoyment without someone to share it with. So the next best alternative was to look for a cheaper substitute, which was a bakery owned by the same group, located in the same building as Per Se. Thomas Keller had already established Bouchon in Las Vegas and LA, with another branch at Rockefeller Centre. But I wanted to visit Time Warner Centre to understand how the architects had managed to cram hotel, residential and commercial (office and retail) use all within the same development.

This was right at opening time, at 11am. The tables filled up pretty soon after.

The view from our seat.

We ordered the set lunch. This was the Heirloom Tomato tart, with ricotta and roasted garlic served with a salad at the side. Ordinary, but nice.

A closer look. The flavours were milder than expected, which I appreciated.

My friend had the Caesar's salad with prawns. I didn't think it was worth coming all the way to Bouchon to try a salad : )

I had the Steak Tartine, which was basically a sirloin steak sandwich served with tomato, aioli, scallion on a batard. This was pretty average.

The desserts were the best part of the meal. We shared the macaron and chocolate tart.

It was one huge macaron, and I really liked the texture. It was the perfect mix of crumbly and chewy.

The chocolate ganache and praline crunch were absolutely fabulous. The chocolate was very smooth, rich and not too sweet.

The set cost around $20 or $30, which was not too bad considering the association with Thomas Keller. But next time, I'll stick to the desserts.

Restaurant details at http://www.bouchonbakery.com/

Al Li Da in Brooklyn

2011-11-03T18:21:00.005+08:00

After the work part of the trip was over, I stayed on in New York for a few days with a friend in Brooklyn. She brought me to her favourite Italian restaurant, which is perpetually crowded with queues starting before 6pm. It's owned by a husband-wife pair, where the husband settles the customers and the wife runs the kitchen. Bragging note - My friend's husband spotted Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is also a Brooklyn resident, at this restaurant once.

We had a Barbera to share, at the recommendation of the waitress. It was light but flavourful. Loved every drop of it.

First up - grilled calamari salad. Normally grilled calamari is usually a bit too rare, but this one had bite and charred bits that added to the flavour.

This was oxtail cooked in squid ink sauce served with polenta. I have dreamed of this dish so many times since eating there. If there was one reason to go back to NYC, it would be this.

We had a home-made squid ink pasta with seafood. This was okay.

Hangar steak. Loved it! Tender and tasty. What is it about US beef that seems to taste so much better than Australian beef?
Dessert - pear cake and panna cotta. The panna cotta came in a huge drinking glass. Both were really yummy too.

It's amazing how much joy a good meal with a good friend can bring. I'm very grateful for my life : )

Restaurant details at http://www.aldilatrattoria.com/about.html

The Standard Grill, NYC

2011-10-25T23:44:00.012+08:00

We went to visit the High Line on the West Side of Manhattan - I think it's one of New York's best urban projects. Designed by Field Operations, the park is located on a disused railway track that was intended for demolition. However, the collective efforts of the residents and NY City planners paid off when they managed to keep the High Line through public support, funding and innovative land development strategies.
There are various entrance points to the High Line. We got on around 30th Street, and made our way towards Washington Street.

Looking across to New Jersey.

After the walk, the main motivation was to find a yummy place for breakfast. We knew that the Standard Grill, at the bottom of the Standard Hotel, had several good reviews so we were most pleased to find it easily. We heard subsequently that the Standard Hotel appears to be a hot favourite among exhibitionists, and that residents have been complaining about guests who take advantage of the glass facades to put on quite a spectacle for the neighbourhood.

Love the exterior of the restaurant.

Loved the interiors too.

Retro flooring

Everything about the decor was nice - the lamps, chairs, table, funky booth seats

Getting ready for lunch. We were too early for oysters.

Loved the bar stools too

Part of the bar under the High Line

This entire bar was really buzzy when we passed by on a Sat evening. It would have been lovely to sit outside as well.

Loved the signs too.

How does someone manage to lay out cushions so elegantly?!

Love the mild steel frames against the fair face brick. I think the beams and SHS were new.

We ordered scones to share

Eggs benedict

Strawberry waffles

French toast with bananas and pecans

Unfortunately we didn't have time for lunch, dinner or drinks there, nor space for anything at Chelsea Market after that. Which means another visit to NYC needs to be made : )

Restaurant details at http://thestandardgrill.com/

Recette at West Village

2011-10-15T23:18:00.010+08:00

So I landed in NYC on my birthday, and I kept really quiet about it - it would have been rather awkward for the group since I wasn't close to any of them (well I got to know them a bit better during the trip, and really liked them after that), and didn't want them to feel obligated to do anything. I had a really close childhood friend living there who was really excited about me being there over my birthday, and we arranged to have dinner that night. Incidentally it was the eve of the 10th anniversary of Sept 11, and the streets were all jammed with police cars and roadblocks. But that's a story for another day.

I had googled looking for restaurant recommendations and came across Recette - or French for recipe - in the New York Magazine Restaurant Guide, after being unable to get a Saturday night reservation at Eleven Madison. The reviews looked reasonable, and I was game to try anything new. Since I was scheduled to land in JFK from Minneapolis at 7pm, the reservation was made for 9.30pm. The place was so packed when we got there (on time, mind you) that we had to wait about 20 mins for a table.

So we were at the bar, starting with cocktails- the Pink Grapefruit Margarita in the foreground, and the Lavender Honey Sidecar (with brandy) in the background.

We decided to go for the 7-course Chef's Tasting Menu for $100. This was a combination of anything on the menu, with supplements for certain items like wagyu - we requested a surprise of most of the items, including the foie gras.

The amuse bouche consisted of aji sashimi, sea urchin and I can't recall what - but it was a great way to start the evening.
The beef carpaccio, burrata, tomato jam, porcini puree, basil and watercress was really amazing - the beef was super tasty and I loved the porcini puree.

Heirloom tomato with peekytoe crab, heart of palm and tarragon. The tomatoes were really tasty.

Scallop, artichoke, asparagus with caviar beurre blanc. The scallop was perfectly cooked - seared on the outside and still semi-raw on the inside. Loved the butter sauce.

So good it deserved another photo

The soft luscious meat

The place was packed at 11pm. It was super dark inside so I had to photograph the food by candlelight and with a super long shutter speed.

Ocean trout, spaetzle, cockles, hummus, cilantro, pickled onion - this was normal.

Another shot for posterity

The foie gras with a peppercorn biscuit, chicken skin, and spiced honey was so good. So so so sinfully good. Caramelised to a perfect crisp on the outside and lusciously sweet and fatty on the inside.

And then came the sweetbread. "It must be fish", I told my friend. She laughed and said, I'll tell you more after the meal. When someone says that, you know something's wrong and that the best thing to do is not to ask, shut up and eat everything cos it's not going to be eaten once you know the ugly truth. It had a lovely crusty texture on the inside and a semi-hard, semi-chewy, semi-soft inside.

Lobster orzo, chorizo, burgundy truffle, lemon, lobster emulsion. This was so yum.

Berkshire pork belly, rock shrimp, turnip, romesco, sherry caramel. Ooh the pork belly was so wonderfully soft, tasty and fatty. It must have been stewed for hours.

The lamb breast, smoked yogurt, fried corn bread, pickled jalapeno. This was nice too, but the pork was to die for.

Both meats juxtaposed. By this time we were really quite full.

Dessert- this was some sorbet

Another shot of the sorbet

And I loved the deconstructed Smores. It was like chocolate sauce with melted marshmallow.

The place wasn't cheap, but given the quality and quantity, it was certainly worth the money. I loved the vibe of the neighbourhood, and after eating all this, declared that I loved NYC for ever and ever.

Oh and the sweetbread? That was cow's brains, deepfried to an unrecognisable crisp.

328 West 12th StreetNew York, NY 10014(at the corner of Greenwich Street)

T 212 414 3000

Totto Ramen, NYC

2011-10-15T22:46:00.006+08:00

A colleague based in NYC told me about Totto Ramen - that it was better than Ippudo, cheaper than Momofuku and easier to get to than the other 2 from Millenium Times Square, which was where we were putting up. So one evening when I managed to sneak out alone, I headed there for dinner by myself.

This was the queue at 9.45pm (people behind me not pictured). I waited until 10.30pm for a counter seat for one.

I got a counter seat with a great view of the action. The cooks were all Japanese : )

Flipping the noodles out of hot water

Aburi-ing the chasiu - no wonder it was so yummy!

I ordered an avocado tuna just to try - described as torched tuna sashimi with avocado marinated in special yuzu garlic sauce, topped with scallion. At $4.50, this sounded like a pretty reasonable deal.

The serving was reasonably substantial, and it was pretty yummy. Just a bit salty. The avocado was hidden under the tuna. It was a good start to the meal.

I ordered the Totto Spicy Ramen. Their house ramen is served in chicken broth, and the spicy version has Rayu, described as spicy sesame sauce. The ramen was topped with scallion, cha siu, bean sprouts and nori. I ordered an egg on the side too.

Close up of the noodles - they were nice and firm, cooked al dente. Just right. The soup was absolutely rich and lovely, and left me wanting more. The aburi-ed cha siu was so nice - the torching left a nice caramelised flavour on the edges. My only complaint was that my egg ended up hard boiled instead of with a nice soy-infused soft yolk. But I would still head back there at my next visit in NYC for sure.

It's located in Midtown between 8th and 9th Avenue, about 10-15 minutes walk from Times Square.

366 W 52nd Street, NY 10019

Tel: (212) 582-0052
Open Mon – Fri 12pm – 12am / Sat 12pm – 11pm / Sun 5pm – 11pm

Eleven Madison: My Best Meal Ever

2011-10-15T14:58:00.014+08:00

I've been trying to find the time to write this blog post dedicated to perhaps the best meal of my life. Internally, I struggled for some time trying to decide whether I could label it such, thinking back with various degrees of nostalgia to Vue de Monde where I had enjoyed a lovely eye-opening (and wallet-hurting) lunch with the husband 2 years ago to celebrate passing his exams. However, putting aside the different settings (I was in New York alone, carrying my laptop bag and wearing heels with pinched toes), it was a difficult and very close decision but I daresay Eleven Madison still came out on top for me.

Eleven Madison ranked No. 24 on the San Pellegrino list of the World's Best 50 Restaurants this year, which I only found out after I had eaten there. I can only attribute discovering it to the power of Google, after typing in "Manhattan restaurants". (Afternote: Vue de Monde didn't make it to the top 100 - which I believe might have been an unfair decision since St John checked in at No. 41 and I felt this didn't quite do VDM justice.)

I took the subway to Madison Avenue and it was a short walk away from the Park.

At the junction of 24th St and Madison Avenue. It was a beautiful day.

The restaurant was at the first storey of this building.
They let you choose 4 courses from a 4x4 menu grid of singular foods - the first line indicates the first course, and so on. You declare what you like and what you don't like, and the rest is up to the chef.

Since I was eating alone, I was extremely impressed with my seat - I was seated close to, but not against the window, which gave me the perfect view of the restaurant. This shot was snapped very surrepticiously with my iPhone since I didn't want to look too suaku (I'm not sure if I succeeded since I was taking photos at every course). I loved the interior - a high, lofty space filled with natural light with fresh flowers that accentuated the brown tones of the tables and chairs.

The service was amazing. The servers were on standby at the side, not in-your-face but alert and looking out for any indication that help was needed.

Some cheese puffs to nibble on while the food was being prepared. The first surprise.

I ordered a 2010 Sancerre to go with the food. Everyone else in the restaurant but me started with champagne. This was a lovely crisp light white with very fruity flavours. I enjoyed it immensely.

The second surprise. A tomato tea/broth with a thyme stirrer. It was lovely - the liquid was slightly tangy, full of natural tomato sweetness, lightly accentuated by the flavour of the herbs.

The third surprise: a really thin parmesan and pepper (as in chilli) crisp.

Thin, delicate and extremely light and crispy.

The fourth surprise: A goat cheese lollipop coated with beet, goat cheese croutons and goat cheese butter. I am hardly a goat cheese fan (in fact, I usually detest it), but this was so pretty that I could not resist eating it up. To my surprise, it wasn't smelly and I enjoyed every last bit.

The lollipop came served in a bed of wheatgrass - I was asked to pluck it out - and the waiter whisked it away so quickly I couldn't even react. So I sneaked a photo of the lollipop bed at the next table.

This was what it looked like on the inside of the beet.

The fifth, and in my opinion, the best surprise: A sturgeon sabayon with chive oil and sturgeon cubes served in a perfectly cut eggshell. If I were to return to Eleven Madison for one dish, it would be this. The flavour of the sturgeon (my guess is that it was smoked) infused the creamy sabayon was mind blindingly perfect when coupled with the chive oil. The sturgeon cubes were right at the bottom of the shell, which I dug out with a teaspoon. This was PERFECT. WONDERFUL. AMAZING.

The bread rolls, moist and warm.

On the left - Goat's milk buttter from California. On the right - cow's milk butter from Vermont. And sea salt. To go with the bread. AND MY FIRST COURSE HAD STILL NOT MADE ITS APPEARANCE. I was ready to melt into my chair in estascy.

Course One: Octopus. This was introduced to me as slow-poached octopus with boiled baby potatoes, paprika and lemon (or that was as much as I could catch).

This was so beautifully composed I didn't even want to start eating it. The octopus was extremely tender. The potatoes were sweet and soft. And the lemon pieces, surprisingly, were sweet as well. The base sauce was similar to a mayonnaise, but I really had no idea what it was, since the paprika was the dominant flavour.

Course Two: Lobster. This was breathtakingly beautiful.
The lobster was served with an open lagsane sheet with a lobster oil bisque that was spooned over my plate at the table, and zucchini cream, with pieces of zucchini and squash. This was very close to perfect both in terms of appearance and flavour. I licked up every last drop.
Course Three: Lamb. Loin of lamb lightly grilled and served with sheep's milk yogurt, lamb sweetbread and lamb jus. Perfectly tender. The sweetbread (more about what it really is in a later post) was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.

The sixth surprise: the waiter wheeled a trolley over and said he was going to make me a 1950s classic New Yorker egg cream drink.

He mixed vanilla bean cream and chocolate together in a glass.

Followed by a few drops of olive oil.

And lastly, the seltzer water. It was very refreshing - a combination of fizzy sweet and salty.

A cafe latte to end off - perhaps the most ordinary thing on my table the entire meal : )

Course Four: Chocolate. Chocolate gianduja, hazelnut, caramel, salted peanut and almond brittle, in the form of a foam cigar, ice cream, soft mousse-like bar and honeycomb. I was too tired to marvel. I just ate.
Petit fours to end off - an earl grey and chocolate macaron, camomile shortbread and peach jelly.

Contact details can be found from the restaurant website below. I made reservations through http://www.opentable.com/. I couldn't get a weekend reservation with 2-3 weeks' notice, so some planning ahead is required.

Website: http://www.elevenmadisonpark.com/

Pacific House

2011-10-04T19:08:00.006+08:00

Pacific House has always been a must-eat ever since uni, and it all started when my dad mentioned an SBS production where Elizabeth Chong had said that Pacific House had the best roast duck ever. At that time, they only had one branch at Richmond along Victoria Street, and I used to make my pilgrimages there almost once every 2-3 months. Pacific House was the last place I would eat at before heading to the Tulla, and probably the second or third upon landing back in Melbourne.

They also have an amazing crab cooked with noodles with a ginger and chive sauce, which we didn't eat this time round.

The roast duck is simply amazing, especially with the 辣椒油. The skin is crispy, and the fat is almost nonexistent.

We also ordered the char siew and siew yoke - good, but not as good as the duck.

Shop 1, 210 Toorak Road

South Yarra, VIC
Tel: 61-3-9826 3838

8/240 Victoria Street

Richmond VIC

Tel: 61-3-9427 8225

Lamb Shank Pasta and others

2011-10-04T17:38:00.012+08:00

Since the husband was supposed to be studying, I decided to cook most nights in Melbourne so that there wouldn't be wasted time. The last time we were there, he really liked the lamb shank pasta so I decided to do it again.

First - get a good bottle of wine. Must be good for drinking too.

We bought lamb shanks at the local supermarket for about $4 each - this was probably more expensive than what we could have got them at Victoria Market for, and yet in Singapore they probably cost about $10 each for frozen shanks.

Full of meat

The shanks need to be fried in hot oil in a deep pot

I set them aside when they were nice and brown

Finely diced carrots and celery

Finely chopped onion and garlic

All fried together in the remnant hot oil in the same pot

I added the wine

Then I added some beef stock and tomato paste, and simmered the entire mixture for 2 hours. And yet, it wasn't long enough since people were hungry :(

Shank taken out of the pot - they do shrink by quite a bit

Meat off the bone

Meat from 4 shanks

We bought fresh pasta since it was so affordable

The final product. Would have been better with another half to one hour of boiling.

Lemon tart from Babka for dessert! Best lemon tart in Melbourne

Another night, I cooked chicken rice

Braised chicken, eggs and tofu

Roast pork

And my friend did creme brulee - every home needs a blowtorch for creme brulee emergencies

Ta-dah. This was yum - with brown sugar caramelised on top.

Friends of Mine at Swan Street, Richmond

2011-09-28T18:49:00.005+08:00

I managed to meet up with one of the architects that I had worked with as a student intern in one of the medium sized Melbourne architecture firms. She takes her breakfast very seriously, so when she suggested Friends of Mine in Richmond I knew we were in for a real treat. All their food is organic, and where possible, they use local produce so you know that the animals and veggies have all been lovingly nurtured and harvested. It makes you feel happy to know that what you're eating is real good stuff : )

To digress from the breakfast post, when I was working there in 2000, I helped her out on the design and project management for a vineyard restaurant in the Mornington Peninsula area called Montalto - the restaurant has a really lovely view of the vines, and the food is just fabulous. In summer they even do up picnic baskets for people to sit among the gardens. It's definitely worth a visit, even if just to buy olive oil and wines from the cellar door.

Back to breakfast -there's nothing like a good cafe latte to clear the head so that you can look at the menu and see what's good. By the way, on that Saturday morning, the place was absolutely packed. It was a miracle that we managed to get a table since a party of 4 had just left.

I ordered the eggs benedict ($16.90) - described on the menu as "smoked ham hock terrine, perfect poached googies (I suppose that means eggs!), english muffin and teency weency basil". My friend warned me it was "a bit on the small side" - and I was like, come on. This is Melbourne where you struggle to finish what you order! But she was right - it was manageable by my standards, and it was so good I really wished there could have been more. The smoked ham terrine was brilliant. I also ordered a serve of mushrooms on the side, that I gobbled up without taking a photo of...argh.

She had the house smoked salmon ($19.90), which came on a corn pikelet, avocado, herbed creme fraiche and poached egg. She also had bacon on the side for an extra $4. This looked so good, I knew I had to go back.

And so I did. I brought the husband back 2 days later. This time, it was a Monday morning and things were more sane. I loved their menu!

Another coffee to start the day.

View of the restaurant behind my coffee

This time, I ordered the Jack and Jill ($18.90)- this is like their house special, or big breakfast with everything on it - poached eggs, bacon, 12hr roasted tomato, avocado and thyme buttered mushrooms. IT. WAS. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

So good I just had to post another photo of it.

I ordered the smoked salmon. And with my husband, we eat half of what the other has ordered, like all good Asians.

Look at all the goodness oozing out.

The husband loved it so much he wanted to order something like, so we had the Croissant with ham off the bone, bechamel, emmental cheese, and truss tomato for $7.50. It was the perfect combination of slightly sweet and buttery warm soft yet crusty croissant with ham and melted cheese, and tangy tomato.

What the place looks like from the outside.

It's really near the Burnley Station, like 5 mins walk. Parking around the neighbourhood is pretty easy too - on a weekday morning!

506 Swan St, Richmond

15-20 mins drive from from Melbourne City because of traffic not distance

Website: http://www.friendsofmine.com.au/

南北河 or Gold Star Noodle House at Mid-City Arcade, Melbourne

2011-09-28T18:34:00.005+08:00

When I used to look for more affordable lunch options as a poor non-income earning student, this place in Chinatown was usually top of my list, ahead of other options like A1, King of Kings, Hills, Nam Loong and Camy Shanghai Dumplings (which used to be tops before The Age reported a huge hygiene problem). So when I went back and was looking for a quick meal, I headed there to relieve my memories of 10 years ago with the pork chop with soya egg on rice. It used to cost $7 - now it's $8.50! I initially started frequenting this place in 1999 for the 台湾牛肉面 but once I discovered the pork chop with soya egg on rice, there was no turning back.

In my did-not-sleep-one-wink-on-the-red-eye-flight condition, I then got confused between MidCity Arcade and the new renovated arcade where Dragon Boat yumcha and the cinema used to be - I was really devastated because I thought they had renovated MidCity and chased out all the tenants, and after walking around in a depressed state on Bourke St, realised I was mistaken! And all was instantly well again.

Since it was 3pm on a weekday afternoon, it was deserted.

The pork chop with soya egg on rice was exactly how I remembered it to be - crispy, tender, and extremely sinful.

And it's best with the sambal chilli that they serve in a jar.

Gold Star Noodle House

Shop 7 and 8 Mid-City Arcade

Bourke Street

Melbourne, VIC

Tel: +61 3 9663 8638

Ba Le at Footscray, Melbourne

2011-09-28T17:49:00.016+08:00

I got back from a quick trip to Melbourne in late August and promptly flew off for a 2-week long work trip after that, and I've been so dying to write this post ever since. Sometimes, when I eat a wonderfully memorable meal, I'm thinking as I chew on how to do the blog post - Ba Le was exactly like that. It was SO good that I drove back 2 days after my first time, for a final taste before flying back to Singapore.

Ba Le is a small Vietnamese sandwich shop located about 100m away from Footscray Market near Flemington. If not for the Chinese words, I would never have guessed that Ba Le actually means Paris : )

When we walked in, there were amazing sights of all the food in the display that greeted us. They're a banh mi shop, meaning they do the baguettes filled with meat.

My friend had other ideas - she steered me to what looked like ham, sausages, cured meat and fishcake.

There was a lot of incredible looking stuff on display

This was what we ordered: fish cakes, pork with sticky rice cakes, and the large flat cake in the middle with cinnamon (verbatim). From the internet, I learnt that these preserved meat rolls that look like sausages are called cha lua, or silk sausages.

And we also picked up one kilogram of the rice noodles - these were similar to cheong fun.

The shop owner slicing off a wedge of the flat stuff with cinnamon for us

All the stuff that we couldn't buy

After that, we headed to the Little Saigon Market round the corner to pick up mint, holy basil, and lettuce, before heading home. Here's the entire spread:

All the pork/fish cakes all sliced up, about 5mm thick. The stuff on the bottom right is the pork cake with sticky rice - the grains clearly visible.

My friend made the dipping sauce by mixing fish sauce with sugar and water, with minced garlic and chillies added. Tasted just like the Mekong spring roll sauce! Ba Le sells this sauce too, but my friend's was better.

We couldn't find the correct lettuce, and had to settle for iceberg instead. The lettuce is supposed to be the variety with the curly leaf edges that is used for popiah.

Sitting out on the balcony for breakfast in 12 deg C weather!

So she used scissors to cut the rice noodles into 5-cm wide pieces.

First the greens go into the bowl

This is what the rice noodles look like up close. They were amazingly soft and supple. Better than any kuey teow, kuey chap, or cheong fun that I've ever eaten. The stuff that dreams are made of.

Stage 2 of assembly

Throwing on the lettuce and meat slices

And finally adding the sweet/salty sauce before devouring the first of many bowls. It was perhaps the most memorable meal of my Melbourne trip.

PK, I love and hate you forever for creating this life-long desire for Ba Le. I'm even craving it as I'm typing this post out now.

Ba Le

Shop 3, 28A Leeds Street

Footscray, VIC 3011

Tel: +61-3-9687 2985

Xi Yan at Craig Road

2011-09-27T19:02:00.005+08:00

Xi Yan along Craig Road is a lovely Chinese restaurant within two conservation shophouses - they serve set menus for both lunch and dinner, and we happened to be there to celebrate a friend's birthday on a day where they had a special set lunch for $28++.

It was pretty interesting to see the menu printed out on the table.

Loved the teacup and chopstick holder

Tomatoes with wasabi sesame sauce. Nice, but very miserable for 6 people!

Next course: spare ribs with tangerine peel - again, this was for 6 people! We had like, 3 to 4 eraser-sized ribs each. When you consider that most of the piece consists of bone, it's a hard thing to swallow.

Fortunately the third course was a huge bowl of noodles- basil prawns in a spicy wine broth. Now this was REALLY yummy - I licked up every drop. The noodles had a really nice texture - soft but not falling apart, similar to mee sua but slighty firmer.

Only two prawns per bowl : (

Dessert - one half pear per person. Fortunately the noodles filled us up, so this was a nice ending to the meal.

Verdict: Good food - very yummy in fact - but go only if you're feeling rich and not too hungry.

38A Craig Road

Singapore 089676

Tel: 6220 3546

www.xiyan.com.sg

Meng Cheong Teochew Food Stall at Ghim Moh Market

2011-09-27T18:54:00.003+08:00

Another of my favourite teochew muay stalls is at Ghim Moh Market. Way back in the 90s, when I was wearing a white shirt and green skirt, I used to eat at this stall pretty frequently when we had the opportunity to escape though the side gate. Since I happened to be in the area for a meeting, I was very pleased to be able to visit my old haunt.

It was super crowded! Argh. They used to do table service. Now you need to queue!

All the yummy stuff on a tray

Chai Poh Nng and fishcake - teochew muay staples.

Tau pok and lor bak - such good flavour!

Chye buay - another teochew muay staple. In case you're wondering why everything is a staple for me, it's because I really like to eat EVERYTHING.

The fish cake has chye poh inside - oh so yummy (I don't know why iphone rotated my photo like that and I can't rotate it back)

Lim Joo Hin Eating House - Teochew Muay

2011-09-27T18:42:00.005+08:00

Teochew porridge is one of my absolute favourite foods - I can eat it any day, any time. So when I saw Tan Hsueh Yun feature this place in her facebook page, I marched the husband down the next day to give it a try.

Lim Joo Hin is located along Havelock Road, close to Beo Crescent. I love the idea of eating good old hearty food along the open walkway.

There's a lot of stuff on display. More flavours than Baskin Robbins.

I love the grain-iness of the muay.

Taupok - a must have for teochew muay. This was good - the braising sauce wasn't too salty nor porky.

Chye buay - another teochew muay must have.

I love hae bee hiam with my porridge.

The husband loves lor ab, or braised duck. I thought it wasn't too bad.

Fishcake - good for dipping in the tangy chilli sauce.

I liked the beancurd skin although the husband wasn't a fan.

The minced pork wasn't too fatty

And we had to order the token healthy veg

And one of our favourites - braised peanuts.

It was a fabulous meal - and considering what we've been spending on food, great value for money.

Lim Joo Hin Eating House

715 Havelock Road

Tel: 62729871

Apparently open from 11am to 5am, although I've never been there past 10pm.

Gattopardo at Fort Canning

2011-09-24T20:17:00.002+08:00

It was our first time at Gattopardo despite having heard good reviews from one of our best foodie friends - the service and food were both excellent. We had a room to ourselves and the privacy was fantastic.

Bread and flat crackers to start off the meal

Cold cuts platter with buffalo mozzarella, ox-heart tomatoes and rocket - this was really enjoyable.

Check out the stuff oozing out from the burrata ball

Grilled calamari (not on printed menu) - simple and nice

The crab pasta (not on printed menu) was excellent - it was very tasty, and the flesh of the crab was nice and firm. I would go back just for this.

Another view

Veal ravioli with truffles (not on printed menu) - this was lovely with a rich, buttery sauce. Licked up every last drop.

The bouillabaisse, or what they call zuppa de pesce ($38) was pretty normal. Nice but not particularly outstanding in my opinion.

The calzone with mushrooms and ham ($23) was cooked to perfection- the crust had a good texture and it's amazing how simple mushrooms and ham with a lot of cheese can be so yummy.

The most amazing dish was a salt-baked sea bass

The waiter removing the salt crust

Lovely

Condiments

Finally, dessert - a combination of various items from the menu.

11 Canning Walk

The Legends

Fort Canning Park, Singapore 178881

Tel: 6338 5498
Open Daily 12pm-3pm, 6:30pm-10:30pm

Tonny Restaurant 利宝饭店

2011-09-23T18:26:00.007+08:00

I had heard about Tonny Restaurant from a number of sources but had no impetus to visit the place until 2 of my foodie friends made plans to go. It's at the first storey of 2 shophouses and has the feel of an old school chinese restaurant serving zi char food. Eating with foodie friends is both good and bad - you know they're prepared to spend money ordering whatever, but you also have to eat things you wouldn't normally want to order.

One of Tonny's signature dishes is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon ($8 each), described on the menu as "Medley of Lobstero (?) Egg White and Dried Scallop". It came in something like a wanton skin bowl. I thought this was nice but slighty overrated, since Imperial Treasure also has a really nice egg white and scallop dish with pepper and vinegar that costs about one and a half times with twice the amount.
Yam with truffle oil - shredded yam strips deep fried and topped with truffle oil. I can't remember how much this cost, but it really wasn't that exciting either. Interesting but not sure that I'd order it again if I was looking for something special.

Another dish that I wouldn't have ordered normally was the poached sliced beef with golden mushroom ($18). It was very ordinary.

Things started looking brighter when the "Double Egg Spanish (?) with Chicken Broth" ($12) arrived. This was very yummy - we drank up every last bit of the broth.

The other signature dish is the "Full Cream Crab Congee" ($8 per 100 g), or crab porridge. Now, this I found to be extremely amazing. Words cannot describe how rich, how good, how tasty, how heartwarming, how delicious the crab congee was. The milt of the crab was stirred into the porridge, resulting in a glorious blend of crab and congee.

They removed the crabs before dishing out the congee into separate bowls. There was a lot of crab : )

I have no idea what grains went into this congee, but boy was it good.

We also had the roasted spring chicken ($20), which was pretty good.

Dessert was Osmanthus Jelly with Wolfberries, which was nice but not outstanding.

Dinner for 3 persons cost a total of $150. We thought this was extremely reasonable given the crab and the volume of food, which the waitresses had initially discouraged.

Tonny Restaurant

325/327 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore 427582

Tel: 63489298

HP: 98152113

Open daily from 11.30am–2.30pm, 6pm–10.30pm

Ming Kee Live Seafood

2011-09-23T18:00:00.005+08:00

I've been asked by some of you why I've stopped writing for so long. It's been a really busy couple of months involving a few overseas trips, and I've been tied up with work as well. In any case, this blog has kind of turned into a personal diary about my food adventures so I'll keep updating it for my own records as well entertainment for my faithful miniscule handful of silent readers.

The formatting of the blog has also kind of screwed up ever since I started uploading photos taken from the iPhone 4. I have no technical expertise to undo them, so I'll have to live with the weird outcomes for now.

I've not been able to write about this place for a while, but it's been one of my favourite haunts for a couple of years. Located off the beaten track at MacPherson Road, Ming Kee is really crowded on weekend nights but perfect for lunch. So we've been going there off and on on Sundays after church for our fix of steamed clams and crab bee hooon.

The most succulent steamed clams in soy sauce and minced garlic - the sauce is totally worth slurping up.

One of the times we went there, we were served something like a snow crab - the flesh was super sweet.

The Guinness pork ribs were fantastic - succulent, tasty, sticky - excellent with steamed rice.

This was a different clam species from the one in the first photo - we couldn't really tell the difference between the two. But just as good.

The crab bee hoon with the Sri Lankan crab was somehow not as nice as the earlier one. But the flesh was meatier.

Huge pincers make good lunches.

Ming Kee Live Seafood

556 Macpherson Road

Tel: 6747 4075

Open 7 days for lunch and dinner except CNY