The Yummie dummieS

Dilemma

2010-02-26T22:30:00.002+08:00

Reading all the past posts and comments in this blog has made me realised how much I miss blogging. Not only blogging in general, but blogging about food. There's so much I miss about blogging. I miss going around Singapore to source out good food, trying my bestest to take a photo to tempt your tastebuds. I miss writing, actually. Writing in a way to express my feeling at that moment towards the bowl of ramen sitting in front of me; priceless. Lastly, I miss being in the floggersphere; the comments etc.

You know the saying, "You only miss it when its gone"?. Well, I guess it rings true this time. My fingers are itching to do some typing, my tastebuds are dying to do some tasting. But the food in Perth is so limited. Of course, there IS good food to be found. However, the standard for a dish here is around AUD10 in food courts and around AUD30 in restaurants; something a student like me cannot afford that often (yes, I often pack food from home and its not uncommon for me to eat 6 slices of peanut butter and jelly a day just to keep from going hungry). For me, its more about not wanting to let you readers down. I don't want to start afresh, and halfway through, run out of places and food to blog about. It will just be another disappointment.

Plus, I'm in my 3rd year now (the toughest year they say), and I've managed to secure a position to do honours (which makes it even tougher). Oh god...

What I'm planning now, is to 'renovate' my blog, get a DSLR camera for better pictures, and then start again. However, due to my commitments, this may take quite awhile...

New blog

2010-02-12T10:23:00.002+08:00

Dear Readers (anyone who is left!)

My new blog is www.samuelgoh.com

I will still post up posts about food (sometimes!) and there are plans for another food blog; if not continuing this one.

Hope to see you there!

Goodbye my friends

2008-09-05T18:47:00.009+08:00

Helloooooooooo ladies and gentlemen... what's up?!?!

"Holy crap u son of a..! Where the hell have you been?!"

Relax.... I'm still here. Well, at least alive physically, after being gone for er... 5 months? oops!

Annnnyways, life has been good.. awesome.. hectic.. busy.. up.. down.. hungry.. full.. satisfied.. sad.. angry.. happy.. a mixture of emotions and events. I really have to apologise that the Singapore trip update didn't really come. I guess that somehow along the way, I just placed down my pen (or keyboard) and decided to move on with other things in life. Blogging was good, but it already served it's purpose for me; getting through my damn boring NS life. Taking from Geneen Roth's book; just because a canoe got you across the river, doesn't mean that you've to carry it with you. It had served it's purpose, so lay it down, and move on.

Nevertheless, it's been an interesting journey. Writing about food was fun, but tasting food was definately more fun. Although one thing bad about having a food blog is that you'll tend to obsess about food all the time. I mean, food is great; it's such a huge component of our daily lives, celebrations, health and satisfaction, but if it occupies your mind almost 24/7 of the time, you're not gonna have time to enjoy the other things in life. Take a breather, walk out to the garden, smell the roses, look at the sunset and enjoy life. Life's a funny thing; it's not ridiculously short or annoyingly long but it sure flies by fast and by the time you know it, you wouldn't have time to do most of the things you want to do.

Enjoy life.. take my word for it. You don't wanna be 60 years old, taking out photo albums on entire your life and all your travels to reminisce, and be staring at pages and pages of pictures of food and go "What the fuck...".

So if you're one of those people who is thinking of laying down your blog/food blog, let me just say that it has done you good, so now look up, move on and don't look back. Don't waste your time obsessing about how many hits you have on your blog everyday, how many blogs link to your site, or checking back every 15 seconds to see how many comments you've got on that latest post. When it's all over, it doesn't matter. Unless you're earning some kind of money for blogging now, it doesn't matter how famous you get because it's only 15 seconds of fame. After 5 years, who the hell will remember you anyway? So get out there, stop staring at the computer every second in your life, and enjoy the things that you'll regret not doing if you don't get to it.

And if you're one of those people who is perpetually on a diet; life is short, and one day when you are at the last few minutes of your life, you may think, "I really regret not having that slice of warm chocolate fudge cake they got me for my 18th birthday, I've always wondered what it tasted like". So if you walk past that dessert shop with the chocolate cake you've always wanted to eat. Eat it. And don't regret it. At the very least, the words on your gravestone will write "I lived my life" rather than "I was skinny".

Phoo.. well, okay where was I? Sad to say, this will be the last post for Yummiedummies. Its been a nice journey meeting other floggers, getting to know the Singapore flogger community and getting comments from readers. To all those who have supported this site and still pop by occasionally; my deepest thanks. To all other floggers who have been or are still flogging, good on ya and keep up the good work.

Goodbye my friends. Good luck to everything you do and have an awesome life. :)

Away for a little while my friend

2008-04-25T07:19:00.002+08:00

Assignments.

Projects.

Tests.

Geez, I really can't squeeze out any time to stuff in a post. But I promise I'll be back soon when the exams are over.

I'll blog more about the good food in Singapore soon. *hint*

Red Nano - The new Google?

2008-04-13T09:53:00.002+08:00

Remember long ago it was Yahoo that dominated the search scene? Then of course Google came along and everybody relied on Google like monkeys relied on bananas.

Need to find data. Google.

Need to find images. Google.

Research for project? Google.

But sometimes you can't rely on Google for everything; say, for something more specific like Singapore-related stuff. I know how many of you had typed in "good nasi lemak in Singapore" or "best mee goreng" in Google and came up with frustrating and hair-pulling results.

And that's where Rednano comes in. Rednano is SPH's new version of Google, and it's catered to Singapore, or at least, around the region. Meaning, you type nasi lemak like I did and you'll find most results on blogs blogging about various nasi lemak stalls. Not bad, I'd say. I know how many times I wanted to hang myself using Google for that sorta thing.

And check out what's cooler than that. Click on the images on the left and most pictures are nasi lemak stalls from Singapore!

They also have maps, news and directory on the sidebar to cater to specific needs and a mobile rednano link; which I haven't figured out is about yet.

So if you really need to satisfy some cravings today, yet don't know where to, why not click on the Rednano link above and give it a go? You may be surprised at it's usefulness. :)

Cross apples & Japanese food

2008-04-12T16:15:00.005+08:00

Hold on a minute, I haven't yet covered any Jap food stalls in Perth yet have I?

Bother bother, getting a recommendation from a friend, we decided to pop by Applecross to check out a Japanese food stall. I wonder how the name Applecross originated? Like.. perhaps they had a farmer who grew very angry apples.

..or not.

Anyways, this place is fairly small, yet fully packed with a long waiting line for takeaway. It's got a good variety of dishes but the creativity is in that you could choose a main dish (eg. Katsu) and there are 5 sets which you could choose from. So you could have set A which comes with a soup and rice or set C which comes with 8 pieces of sushi or set D which is like a bento. I'm sure you get the idea.

Aah, this is the bento, which comes in a box for you to take home. Just kidding, you can't take it home, although my friend did.

What's in it? You've got fried tofu, a sesame chicken salad, sliced up vegetables with some dressing, two pieces of sushi and your main dish.

To rate what's best, I'd say the tofu; with a nice crispy outside, soft innards and tastily drenched in sauce. The sushi is surprisingly good too; of course, not Singapore-styled but more OZ-styled, that is, a little sweet overall.Sorry, didn't try this main course which was the teriyaki beef.

What I did have was the chicken katsu. It didn't come in a large chopped up chicken piece but in small nugget-like pieces, which I wasn't really enthusiastic about, and they were kinda oily. I loved the sushi though (in a sweet kind of way).

But on a lighter note, the teriyaki salmon was awesome. Soft yet tasty, a pity the portion was a little bit small.

Did I also mention that they have free flow green tea? Not something you can commonly find in OZ.

Overall, the price is a little higher than average (thinkg 14-16 for the bento set), but the food is not bad and definately worth a visit.

Hop

2008-04-12T15:57:00.002+08:00

Are you feeling guilty about that chocolate ice cream.

Feeling like a whale?

Feeling... FAT?

Go workout on sanitary pads. Umm, at least that's what Jackie Chan recommends.

Muscle spasms

2008-04-07T18:24:00.004+08:00

I'm seriously trying very hard not to cringe while typing every letter of this post. Oooh... my forearms.. Thing is, yesterday I spent like 3 hours squeezing and gripping and pinching and the bottom line is, I was hanging on for dear life.

Ah comon, it's only rock climbing. Only my ass, now even my back is sore.. And when you have a fear of heights, you look down halfway up and you feel like peeing.

I've never done rock climbing before but it was hell load of fun. Of course, it's necessary that you risk yourself looking like a spastic idiot with muscle spasms while trying to drag yourself up that wall. Well, at least I think that's what I look like.

All in all, you get a fantastic workout; basically your arms, fingers, legs and face doing all those expressions and it's only 13 dollars! (Well, student price, sorry!) If you need a harness it'll be an extra 5AUD and an extra 6AUD for shoes as well.

This is what it looks like; a pretty huge place actually, and loads of people!

I sure am going this Sunday too, anyone wanna come?

If you're interested, check out www.rockface.com.au

Collins road

2008-04-05T08:55:00.006+08:00

When pictures start getting blurry, and your camera takes 10 seconds to focus, you know something's not right. Alas, I guess that's what happen when you drop your phone too many times. Well, at least you can still make out the pictures.

Mmm mm! Hawker food today! I'm always in the mood for hawker food aye? Just around the corner of Collins Road at Willeton, a small restaurant always buzzing with people having their meals.. Big meals, that is. The portions here at Taurus is so large, that you can actually ta pao for dinner as well. Check this out, the plates (some of them) are more than 30cm across! And not half empty, if that's what you're thinking, they really stuff you well.

Apparently what was recommended here was the yee mien, which came in an astonishingly huge portion and it was fairly good as well. Stringy noodles snapping in your mouth accompanied with a light yet sufficiently savoury egg sauce, with a good amount of chicken pieces and other condiments. I'd say it's a darn good deal for $8.

I had the mixed meat rice, an entire serving of chicken thigh and BBQ pork, for $8. That's a good deal! At least here in Australia. You know how people complain like how Australia food is expensive? I seriously don't think so, because you pay 8-10AUD on average, but two people can share the amount of food. Alas, the BBQ pork was thin and overly dry, the chicken was not too bad though.

Oh well, hop across to the next stall called Asian food or something and you'll find a smaller shop selling things like Bak kut teh, mee siam, satay, prata and claypot rice; very Singaporean, or Malaysian, considering how similar those two both are.

Here, I ate the best claypot rice in Perth, considering it's the only claypot rice I've ever had in Perth. Nah, it's alright; not fantastic or whatever, but tasty enough (I'm actually hard pressed to find a satisfying claypot rice in Singapore). A good portion of chunky chicken thigh pieces with lup cheong and salted fish pieces, drizzled over with loads of dark sauce and a fair bit of oil I suppose. Quite tasty, but don't think you can finish it all (too much!)

So if you ever need some good asian food, hop on down to Collins rd. On weekends, they serve nonya kueh, curry puffs and rice dumpings toos. Oops, I meant dumplings?

A picture post

2008-03-21T18:43:00.004+08:00

Aaah, bugger me, I've left this blog half dead again. Don't place the blame entirely on me though, I've been really busy with school work!

Well, anyways, we went to this korean restaurant in Northbridge located near Billy Lee's. I'm really busy so I'll just pop the pictures up. Hmmm, I also wouldn't say the food is that great but here goes.

"Steamboat" w/ beef, rice cakes, mushrooms, sausages. (AUD13 per person)

Chicken bulgogi (Not bad, but looks really spicy/oily)

Beef bulgogi (Same sauce as chicken)

And some vegetables from the garden, as well as check out this super huge potato and watermelon we got from Canning vale market!

Potato (never seen one so large)

Watermelon ($5 only)

Cucumbers and long bean

This super small cantaloupe we grew and accidentally "dropped" is actually quite sweet.

And I've got to show you this place we have lunch at in school. It's this huge grass area with loads of tall trees and everyone just sits on the grass and lie down/relax/have lunch/chit chat. And there's a live band/DJ every Wednesday as well. It's really awesome (yes, come to Curtin).

And the view from our physio common room. Best view ever.

Poppo

2008-03-01T12:44:00.005+08:00

There are probably lots of Korean restaurants in Singapore and even more Korean food available in food courts these days but how many are actually true, blue Korean cuisine? Well, the only restaurant I recall is at Suntec City top level and another stall in the food court of Meridian hotel. And another which I've never tried before located at Thomson road called Auntie Kim or something along that line. Don't even mention Seoul garden or Zingdo to me or I'll throw a container-ful of kimchi at you.

Let's put it this way, things are a little different here in Perth. Because of the multi-racial influx of immigrants over the years, you get a nice mish-mash of cuisines available for your picking. And other than that, most cuisines are whipped up by their countrymen. So if you go into a Korean restaurant, expect Korean chefs and even Korean waitresses, kebab stalls are mostly open by Turkish people, gotta learn Vietnamese when you enter a Viet restaurant and of course nicely sliced sashimi by Japanese chefs plus cute Japanese waitresses as well.

You what you get is really, the real stuff, except of course it may have been a little altered towards the Australian style. but it's still good nevertheless.

This little restaurant situated along the road at Perth's city center is called Poppo and is (from what I observe) a Korean-based restaurant which serves Japanese food as well. Prices range from AUD8 - 10 for lunch and around 9 - 15 for dinner. They do serve smaller portions though, like how you can order chicken teriyaki for AUD7 instead of 9 (comes with a smaller serving of course) so don't take the price range I gave as it is.

Qin ordered the spicy bean paste broth (AUD12 I think) which comes in a small stone bowl accompanied with side dishes of radish, bean sprouts, sweet potato and fish cake. She claimed that it was very rich and from what I saw, the ingredients were generous as well. Sorry, couldn't give much info because I couldn't try it, but it's pretty good and Qin said that she would go back for it again.

I ordered the chicken teriyaki for AUD9 which was really filling enough. The chicken was definitely not Japanese-styled teriyaki but more towards the korean way of cooking. Sweet sauce with a sufficient taste of wine. Hmm, don't come here if you are expecting some Japanese teriyaki chicken but since I was kinda sick of Japanese food already that day, this proved to be a welcomed dish. Plus, it satisfied my sweet tooth as well.

One more thing we didn't order but saw the next table did was the seafood pancake. It was HUGE. And it looked very crispy with loads of squid and prawns as toppings. Verdict: Ang moh who ate it said it was good. (I didn't ask him la.. we only overheard)

So yeah.. we didn't get an address but it's across the road from Macdonald's at Perth city.

Comfort food

2008-02-18T22:45:00.005+08:00

Back to Perth but still craving Singaporean food, qin and I decided to hit the alleys of Northbridge to get our fix.

Northbridge is Perth's Chinatown. Well, sorta. It isn't as packed with chinese as, let's say, LA's Chinatown where it's literally filled with chinese people, restaurants and groceries stores. It is, however, where you can find many dim sum places, chinese tze char restaurants, hong kong tea houses and taiwan bubble tea cafes. Not to mention a good amount of vietnamese and korean restaurants and the occasional malay restaurant. It's also home to the famous Corica apple strudel and Hog's breath cafe, plus a few other western restaurants which look a little too high end for my pockets.

The place we dropped by yesterday was called Da pai dang, or Hawker place in english. Apparently it's a Malaysian-food based restaurant which served quite a good variety of dishes, amongst them the Singapore-styled chilli crab.

We had Nasi goreng special ($9) and Hainanese chicken rice ($9) which were quite decent. The only bad point with both dishes were the rice which was a tad too soggy. Other than that, the chicken rice came with a whole chicken thigh which was tender and well flavoured. Although the rice was too wet, the taste was there as well and paired with the chilli, made for a very good meal. The chilli, however, is different from those we normally have in Singapore. Instead, it resembles more like the chilli served in chinese restaurants. Think chicken rice chilli infused with a little thai chilli sauce. Slightly sourish sweet but very tasty nevertheless, definitely a nice alternative to what we usually have.

The Nasi goreng was also well fried, a pity about the rice's moisture though. Filled with juicy prawns, mixed vegetable and chicken meat, it also comes with 2 sticks of satay which were not too bad. It also came with a freshly fried chicken wing which qin said was "very good!". Plus, she said that the belachan they provided was "quite power".

I'm really glad we still have Northbridge to fall back on. Stay tune as I'll be back for it's dim sum restaurants, Viet eating houses and Taiwanese tea cafes!

Goodbye Singapore. See you soon

2008-02-16T10:52:00.007+08:00

So practically for the rest of my trip I've been spending time with my girlfriend's family, going out for dinner and luncheon, helping qin's mum with her business packages (They own a bridal shop at IMM level 2 called E-Bridal. Her mum designs very nice dresses and her dads a very good photographer. If anyone is getting married, please pay them a visit!) driving up to Malaysia for bak kut teh (damn power) or simply having full day shopping-cum-eating trips. It was my first time going to City Square in Msia and although the shopping wasn't as good there, it was a fun trip. Bought loads of dvds back as well, hohoho! (shhhh)

Life's been good in Singapore, and I'm glad I went back. Soaking up the weather and the humidity has been good for my skin and the festive mood definitely lightened my spirits. Thank Eu Yan Sang as well for curing my eczema. For the past six months my eczema had been so bad I couldn't move in the morning and hurts whenever it dries up. It was just a nightmare, and thank the gods it's finally 80% cured. It's a pity though I only had time to meet most friends only once or twice. The first 2 weeks I went back my eczema was so bad I had to stay home and the next time weeks I was rushing to buy stuff back for home and hanging out with my girlfriend's brothers, and not to mention stuffing my face with kuehs and desserts of sorts.

You cannot imagine how grateful I was to walk the streets of Orchard road again, scourging the Takashimaya basement for snacks, or squeezing through the busy Bugis Streets. I miss Singapore, and surprisingly, I miss the crowd. I guess I'm Singaporean, and nothing can change that. Circumstances have forced us to move away to another place, but if one day I have the ability to consider a choice, I would move back home again. Plus, you can't really find good nonya kueh in Perth.

PS: I just hope that when I move back, some prick currently managing the country wouldn't be around. My heart weep for the people whose hard earned money are used to line someone's fat pocket. And a gambler at that.

Anyways, Ang mo kio market has reopened. Yay! It's much more spacious now and as clean as can be. The food stalls are mostly the same though (thank god). AMK hub is also fully opened and although it isn't a very good shopping place, it's nice for hanging out. I guess if I really move back, I'll stay in Ang mo kio which is near qin's family as well.

I also miss living with qin's family. It's really fun living there and the family's great. Her mum's great and somehow resembles my mum, her dad always whip up nice dishes, and I like hanging out with her brothers. Actually, they're one of the main reasons I wanted to go back to Singapore as well.

So until the next time I go back guys, I would just like to say

HUAT AH !!!

Back to SG! Post 2

2008-02-15T20:38:00.005+08:00

Singapore getting too fast-paced. I've only been away for 6 months and the basement of Bugis junction and Plaza Singapura have changed?! I'm not complaining though, only means more food stalls for me, ha!

This mochi balls were bought from Plaza Singapura B2. It's a shop selling japanese snacks and they grill this mochi ball on this takopachi-like cooker which does the cha-cha. Yes, it shakes.

It's nice, and yummy, but the filling will give your tooth the aches. I like the chestnut flavour though, and the strawberry as well.

And it's back to Chinatown again. Well, not exactly, but somewhere close. I was at Amoy Street Food Center be exact, after popping by the temple to give my prayers, and decided to try this dessert stall which was mentioned in ieat's blog ages ago. Apparently this lady here makes her own Ah ballings and her desserts are quite kick ass as well.

Verdict: I like the red bean soup, barley gingko and cheng tng but they are all too sweet. Don't take my word for it though, maybe my taste buds have tamed down living in Perth. The cheng tng ($1.50) is teeming with ingredients and I would say it's actually a very good deal for the taste and quantity.

The red bean soup was tasty as well, but couldn't beat the one at Maxwell's (where it has brown rice in it). If only the sugar level was lower, I'm pretty sure the full flavour of the red beans would come through.

What about the rice balls? Hmm, you could give me a commercially made rice ball and a home-made one and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They are practically the same, skin or filling. But it's nice, trust me on that one. I like the small rice balls without filling though, it complements the red bean soup very, very well. And it's tangy too!

Ah-ha, finally the barley gingko. It's just too sweet, and the flavour couldn't fully come through because of that. It's really a waste, because it had the potential to be really good.

A pity as well, because what this stall is most famous for is it's nut pastes. Too bad, they were sold out when I got there, which is good for me because I can't take nuts either, Ha!

Back to SG!

2008-02-14T14:36:00.003+08:00

As the airplane flew over my homeland, a city filled with bright lights, late night movies, 3am suppers and great shopping, my heart skipped a beat, to say the least.

Dashing to Perth after finishing the horrid 2 years of slavery, I've forgotten how much I missed Singapore. The beatiful weather, the awesome food, the shopping and the crowd, I missed them all. If only Perth is only an hour's flight away and costs only a hundred bucks to get to. Sigh.. Stop dreaming Sam.

Well, I'm just counting my blessing I was able to come back during this CNY period, I missed out on ang baos the previous two years you know?!

Okay, back to blogging. I didn't take much pictures during this trip back so I'll probably cover my trip in two posts.

The first day I landed we went to eat my favourite place for San lao or stir fried hor fun with fish slices and bean sprouts. This restaurant in Chinatown is a branch of the XO fish beehoon and serves equally well san lao.

As the plate of steaming hot, savoury rice noodles landed in front of me, all memories of Singapore food returned. The thick and flat noodles, nicely charred with a generous serving of sauce, is complimented by the huge serving of beansprouts which gives the dish a nice crunch. Wah... shiok...

And then the XO fish beehoon, which I couldn't eat (because of my skin, cannot take alchohol and milk lar) is also equally power (because I've eaten it in the past). Let's just say XO in fish beehoon is a good combination okay?

Other stuff we ate in Chinatown included Xingxing's kueh. Wah piang eh! I regret not taking a picture of it man. I tell you, their tapioca kueh is the most kick-ass in Singapore. I've never eaten a kueh so soft yet tangy and which taste melts in your mouth. It's soft, yet with a firmness which allows you to handle it quite roughly. (er... quite X-rated hor... solly solly!)

But really, it's flavour is unprecedented, and even Bengawan's doesn't come in close. 3 large pieces for a dollar is also a good deal as well. If you're there, buy a couple of kueh kosui as well, it's equally good. And since you've bought those, might as well buy the damn good ondeh ondeh and mochi right?

On the other hand, Sgkueh's kueh has deteriorated badly. It's ondeh ondeh has become hard, and so has it's kueh. Plus, I bought abought 4 kuehs and asked for a box and the lady refused to give it to me. Wah lao, so niao meh? I also asked if certain kuehs contained milk (because I'm allergic to it) and she irritatedly tell me "Don't know la, don't know la". Wah... Sgkueh's boss, if you ever read this, please take note.

On the next post, I'll cover Zhen jie's desserts and the rest of my trip.

Yummie dummieS are..

2008-01-06T17:38:00.001+08:00

..landing in Singapore in 8 hours! Woohoo!

Ooo... the humidity. Call me crazy but I like it.

Here n there

2008-01-04T07:00:00.000+08:00

Some of our latest addition into the garden includes this cucumber, which is quite tasty, and this weird colored chilli, which is really very hot! A hundred bucks for anyone who eats 3 in a minute, no kidding. No swallowing of course, that's just cheating.

I haven't tried this capsicum though.

Let's see, our grapes are growing well as well and we've bought a peach plant, a mango plant, an avocado plant, an apple plant, a nicely on-the-way melon patch. I'll take some pictures, when they really do get more interesting.

Here are some other nice flowers from my dad's hard work.

And we've got a few pet hermit crabs! Which we bought at $2.50 each at Cannington's Sunday market. It's selling at $16 per crab in Singapore at Junction 8. What a rip off.

Busselton Jetty

2008-01-02T11:33:00.000+08:00

Haiyaiyai, I've been meaning to post ages ago, but I just can't seem to move my butt to upload these pictures.

I finally did it.

Oh well, here are some pictures we took over at busselton jetty, a jetty which stretches out 2km into the ocean. We caught three huge squids on lure! With a different story to each one! Hohoho, I have the time, I'll tell you the stories :P

The first squid my mum was hooked on to this fish. When I was rushing over I saw this squidy shape on the surface on the water and down went my lure and wala!

The 2nd squid was caught like normal, just casting and retrieving the lure.

The third squid was the best! I had a live bait on float and was talking to my dad when I couldn't find my float on the surface. Ended up a huge squid took my live fish at the surface! Well, I reeled it back (oh, with a little bit of fight this one) and when I was pulling it up it dropped back down into the water.

Heng ah, my squid lure just beside me I plopped it down and it whacked it. Lucky lucky!

And we got some fishes as well, mostly my dad.

I got sunburnt all over but it was worth the trip, and this was the result of our squid.

FRUITS!~

2007-11-24T09:07:00.000+08:00

Just dropped by the Saturday fruit market and bought loads of fruits! Here's what's in season now.

Grape tomatoes are damn sweet! This whole tray for $3. Yes, whole tray.

This tray of tomatoes for $1. You heard me.

Strawberries are in season now and are so sweet! Unlike those in Singapore which are bland and sour, these are sweet and juicy. $2 for the WHOLE TRAY.

Oh-oh-oh and we bought mangoes which are plentiful and sweet (almost eating them everyday now) and kiwis which we bought for $7.50 for a WHOLE BOX!

Damn, I just wish they had durians.

Sticky stick

2007-11-17T21:14:00.000+08:00

My grandma's over here to stay for a month and when grandma's here, you know what that means. Lots of nice food!

(Don't worry mum, your food is still NUMBER ONE)

Here's a little what granny did today. Home made muah chee with home made peanut powder.

Mmm mm!

Carrot... I like!

2007-11-14T20:32:00.000+08:00

What's your kind of carrot cake? The savoury kind with dark sauce, preserved vegetables and fried with an egg which you can find at your hawker centre or the slice of soft and moist cake filled with sultanas and walnuts and topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting that you can find at most cafes, or at my place.

Oh yeah, I'm a sucker for good carrot cakes and even though I found a place which sells damn good carrot cakes (even better or on par with Cedele's), I prefer to bake my own because I can substitute in gluten free flour and make everything edible without a consequence, at least to me.

Mmm mm! A strong dose of cinnamon, a good handful of sultanas and a chokeful of chopped walnuts is definitely enough to get me going.

Here's my recipe for my healthy carrot cake:

2 cups self raising flour
3 tspn cinnamon
3 tspn vanilla essence
1/4 tspn nutmeg
1/2 tspn salt
4 eggs
3/4 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sultanas
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cup grated carrots

1. Mix eggs, sugar, apple sauce, oil and vanilla essence
2. Sieve flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg
3. Stir in 1. into 2.
4. Mix in grated carrots
5. Stir in chopped walnuts and sultanas
6. Bake in oven at 175 deg C for 50 minutes or toothpick comes out clean

Corica - Heavenly

2007-11-13T12:48:00.000+08:00

Forget Ritz or whatever strudel you've been fooled into thinking is gastronomically divine. The stiff pastry, the overly sweet custard and the scarce display of caramelized apples. Pooh! Don't they put me off!

Let me show you something that's good. Something that'll be worth your time and money, something worth taking an hour's drive for. That's Corica's apple strudel for you.

It's pastry is soft and flaky to the fork with an abundance of adequately sweetened custard orderly lined with soft, sweetened apples. My man, this is truly to die for.

There are several things Perth is famous for and Corica's apple strudel is among those things. Famed for it's apple strudels, it also bakes a mean carrot cake which I find truly fantastic. It is, by far, the best carrot cake I have ever taste. With a subtle sweetness, softly dense and topped with cream cheese, I regret not taking a picture of it.

If you ever happen to come by Perth, I'd advise you to try the apple strudel. After all, the first apple strudel was invented in Perth and *whispers*, you wouldn't want to go back to Ritz would you?

Oh boy, don't I miss writing these stuff.

Link it baby!

2007-09-29T10:22:00.000+08:00

This is where I'm gonna do some advertising. My new blog, Used to be a fat boy, details my fat loss journey from past to present, and from how I will go on to reach a new low bodyfat level!

It will include the basics of nutrition, exercise and other discussion including my daily food intake and exercise plan, making me accountable for everything I do and help me get even more motivated.

Give me your support! It doesn't matter if you leave a comment or just take a look. Come on in!

Click here or go to

www.usedtobeafatboy.blogspot.com

Woohoo!

2007-09-05T11:43:00.000+08:00

Woo!

Shiokadoodoo babey!

Cows & the melons they are

2007-08-16T09:17:00.000+08:00

Didn't find this melons at a melon farm. Rather, it's scattered all over the place! You can find them beside the road, on empty state land etc.

These cows though, are found on a small farm 5 minutes walk from my house.

Oops..

2007-08-12T16:50:00.000+08:00

Sorry.. couldn't help it.

My Dad

2007-08-09T08:39:00.000+08:00

I always mention about my mum being an awesome cook, but I've never revealed my dad being an awesome guy have I?

Yeah, my dad is more than awesome. He built a business from scratch with his own hands, looked after us the whole time, and now, he has brought us to wonderful Perth.

And all the gardens, bricks seating, stone pavements, alfresco and nursery, are all made by his own two hands.

Unbelievable?

Believe it.

Our little heaven

2007-08-07T13:23:00.000+08:00

We've got a little nursery just to give the kitchen a little supplement. Strawberries will be great after winter, and we've got all kinds of salad vegetables, spring onions, broccoli, french beans and some grape vines going.

It's winter and the plants don't feel like growing much.

But we still managed to grab some fresh salad from the nursery.

Clarity.. Peace.. Serenity...

2007-08-05T13:40:00.000+08:00

The cool air washes over my face, as the sun shines through the clear blue Australian sky, finally engulfing me in it's comforting rays.

Then I open my eyes and look out to the fields of grass and trees, swaying with every gust of cool breeze and harboring the occasional nonchalant flock of ducks.

And I compare the past, and then the present, and finally think to myself, "This is life.. and it must be what content and happiness feels like"

8 Random facts about Myself

2007-08-03T20:05:00.000+08:00

Jas from Coffee, Tea or Baaboo has tagged me, Thank you!
so here goes ...

The Rules of this tag:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

8 Random facts about Myself

1. Let's start with the basics. I'm 21, just finished 2 years of slavery, one of which I lived with my girlfriend at her home as my family moved on to Perth.

2. I'm a leftie, so is my sister, although my parents are both righties. They say left handed people are more artistically brilliant. Hmmm, I wouldn't disagree.

3. I love food! Well, that's no big surprise, but I love moving also. That's keeping fit for you. It's really, really important okay! Have a good balance of each. I used to be 86kg when I was 16. Now I'm 68kg.

4. I'm gonna study Physiotherapy in Curtin University next February. I guess it's because I care more for other's healthcare (more ever since I got into healthy living and losing all that weight), that's why I chose to venture on this path. It's no wonder I nag on my parents all the time for eating junk food. I bet they find me a nuisance Grrrr!

5. I used to really, really like basketball although I was never really good at it. Speaking of which, I joined a basketball team called Saints, or Shenze, (not SAJC), if you ever heard of it.

6. Durian is like my lifeline. I can eat durian everyday straight for two weeks without getting a sore throat (Proven and done). Oh yeah, I usually eat up to three whole Styrofoam boxes (or 1 - 2 whole fruit) full of durian each time. No kidding, I don't know how I'm going to survive without durian here in Perth.

7. I also totally dig mahjong. I used to play it like all the time when I was 16. In fact, I had this "mahjong camp" at my friends place which went on for 5 days and 4 nights straight. That was when I "zi mo" my "Thirteen devils". Brilliant.

8. My girlfriend and I landed in Perth on 25th July (last Wednesday) and are happily staying with my family right now. I totally love the environment here and everything else, and I'm extremely delighted to be able to eat mum's cooking everyday again (she whips up a feast everyday). Erm, I gained 2kg in one week.

Well, I wouldn't be tagging anyone for this although I'm supposed to tag 8 other people. Since this blog is closing, I'm doing this as a favour to Jas, a way to thank her for sticking with this blog during the period when it was alive. Cheers Jas!

Adios!

A new beginning and sad goodbyes

2007-07-29T17:57:00.000+08:00

6.02PM. Western Australia. Canning Vale.

Yes, that's the time and place where I'm finally getting my butt down to type this post. Not that I didn't want to type it, it's just that I had to get everything more or less settled down before I get to blogging again.

So I'm finally here back home in Perth after endless countdowns month after month, day after day. After waiting so long, think of my family back home, I AM finally back home. Together with my family and my other half, my life is pretty complete.

I'm sad though, to leave behind another family I've come to have. That is, the people whom I've been living with for the past 5 months have already come to be another family and another home where I can go to. Hey mao, take care of your brothers and your parents alright!

There are, however, a list of people whom I would like to mention in this post.

To my brothers Jonathan, Joel and Jason: You are the only brothers I have known in this life. I'll cherish the times when we played together when we were younger and I'm sad we wouldn't be able to hang out and go fishing anymore. Hey Joe, thanks for looking out for me, don't worry I'll watch out for myself here. Hey Jonny boy, time to get serious alright! I hope you get your SIA job and when you really get to fly here, we'll go fishing! ;P Hey Jason, well, take care of mama and your lil' sister okay.

To my little couzie Jess: Hey jess you skinny pok! Have fun in Singapore kay. Don't party so much! Yeah I know it's so ironic when I'm leaving when you are finally coming! But don't worry I'll be back ;P

To my buddies Kevin, Keong, Jer,Kit, Wyne, Jimmy, Des, Harvin, Zhou, Brian, Tong, Nic, Beng: Hey guys, sec sch was a heck load of fun aye. Basketball, mahjong, jamming or just hanging out and chillin, you name it. 15 and 16 were the best years of my life, even in the face of the O levels. I'll miss you people..

To my other buddies Sherwin, Sok, Ken, Fi: Hey guys! It was fun hanging out together in poly man and I hope we'll have the chance to do it again (which is abit hard since Fi is like in Brisbane) I really miss us hanging out together. Hey Sherwin, thanks for being a great friend, role model and project partner man. Study hard in Uni alright.

To Cheng and Yenny: Hey, time really flies like it's been 14 years since we've met and I'm really glad to have you two as long time friends.

To my army buddies Desmond, Qungen and the other nice people I've met within my time in PMB. Hey Des! Well, 2 years flew past pretty quickly aye? But I wonder why it seemed like forever when we were waiting to ORD. Talking about it, I still can't believe I'm typing this post and I've already ORDed. Anyways, I'm glad we ended up in the same office. Training was fun thinking back and it was nice hanging out together and learning stuff like photoshop and MS Office from you. Study and work hard in NUS okay, and good luck in whatever you do!

Heya Qungen, thanks for being a great friend man and a huge load of help during my time in PMB. It was good having you around and having someone trustworthy to talk to. Plus, I miss the makaning times after neuro. Too bad everythings kinda screwed up in PMB now huh... don't worry gonna ORD soon! And when I come back we'll go to Tamako kay. I'm sure Cindy will give me a complimentary plate of unagi tawara...

And I'm glad to have known people like Richie and Jia hao and I want to thank all the officers like Dr Tim, Dr G, Dr Tm and Dr Alan for their patience and guidance during my time in PMB.

Dr Tim, thanks for looking out for us alright. It was nice working together and yeah... chill.. don't stress so much. Dr G, you're a great guy and it's nice to have known you. (Hey, look out for ZM okay *winkz*) Hey Dr Tm, it's been really great and enjoyable working under you for that short period of time and I'm sad to have to go so soon. Don't worry though, you have a good guy under you but please take care of him okay!

Well, it's only 2 years and we all will have to move on. Endure!

So that's about it. What about this blog, then? Well, Yummie dummieS will be saying it's goodbyes. University will be a hectic and I wouldn't have the time to blog anymore. This past year have been great though. I've come to know so many nice places to eat and so many floggers and food blogs like D, Evan, ieat, the baker, etc and the people who frequently post comments on my blog. Thanks guys! :) Have a good life!

7...6...

2007-07-29T17:38:00.000+08:00

At spot number 7 is a tie (yeah right, I can't squeeze in all the good food into just 7 spots) between Soon Kee's duck rice and Fatty Cheong's Char siew.

At modern age Singapore, it's hard to find a good plate of duck rice. Yet, at the modern foodcourt-like Long house located at Upper Thomson road, a good plate of duck rice can still be found.

Soon Kee's was previously located at Bras Besar and still cooks good duck rice after moving to Long house. It's rice is nicely made fragrant with a dash of duck fat and darkened with a touch of braised sauce. Yet, the winner is the dark sauce which is splashed on the tender duck meat and it's really hard to beat with a sourish chilli sauce/sambal mix.

ABC Market's Fatty Cheong Char siew is another hot favourite. It's thick, it's tender and for $3.50 a plate you get a HELL LOT of char siew. Plus, you can ask for lean meat which they will gladly comply.

Did I mention that their chilli is kick ass too?

No. Six's Yet Con is my girlfriend's favourite and is authentic as you can get. In fact, it's so deep in tradition and so Hainanese in culture that the restaurant still uses abacus to count it's bills.

My favourite here is the pork chop. Drenched with a dark brown sweet sour sauce, the deep fried but so damn tender pork pieces wins me over each time I'm there. Picking the caremelized potatoes and tomato pieces in the dishes is also fun... and yummy at the same time.

5, four, 3, two...

2007-07-28T10:30:00.000+08:00

At number five, it has got to be 717's durian puff. It's fantastically good and beat Four Season's flat down. It is THAT awesome. Being a durian fan, I've got to place this creamy and sensational snack at 5th place.

Oh yeah! Did I mention about trying their crepes, cakes, tarts.. pies......

FOUR. Stands Ser Seng's turtle soup. Call me cruel, call me gross but hey, I just can't get enough of this stuff. I TOTALLY fell in love with in ever since my dad brought me there when I was in Primary school. The superbly flavourful and rich soup is at least five bars higher than normal herbal turtle soup. I have no idea how they do it because you just can't detect a hint of herbs. Yet, it's extremely nourishing (I bet you will have a good night's sleep after drinking it)

The meat dipped into the sourish chilli sauce offsets the richness and provides a tarty twist while ladies can dig the many pieces of collagen. And who can forget their yam rice? This would be the most tasty bowl of yam rice I have ever eaten. Delectably flavoured with yam, shrimps and shallots, it's bound to send you yearning for more. A tip: Pour some soup over the rice and slurp it up, it's bound to work wonders.

Down to THREE.

I belong to the Teochew origin and Teochew people like their porridge. This, however, isn't normal Teochew porridge. Instead, it's Taiwan porridge. This soon-to-be-demolished restaurant is also one of my family's frequent dining places. The porridge cooked with sweet potatoes is a watery mix and nothing special really. But I really, really like the dishes.

Especially this Kong Bak. Oh my GAWD, it is DELICIOUS. I love the sauce too by the way, it's just darn good.

And this Hong Siew Tofu is equally flavourful as well. I just like the mix the sauces into the porridge and slurp it all up.

Plus, who can ever forget ordering Sichuan vegetables w/ Pork slices. I can't explain the taste but it's just darn good.

Number TWO is pretty predictable.

Kovan's Kou Wei Chicken Rice. It's tenderness and juiciness is unbeatable. Add a dash of reddish sauce makes it an awesome dish. The rice is also a plus point which propels this to spot number two. It's just-right oiliness and strong fragrance makes it that delectable.

Finally to spot NUMBER ONE.

Those who know me well would have guessed it right from the start.

Kovan Peanut Pancakes. Just thinking about it has gotten me drooling. The soft batter rolled into a spring roll-like form is really nice to bite into and the custard-like kaya and super duper creamy peanut butter is to die for.

Hey, it's so good, it just made it's way on television recently!

So that's my top 5 list of foods which I have come to love in Singapore. What about Perth? Well, I'm not sure about that yet but I hope to give an update soon :)

Ten days

2007-07-12T14:28:00.000+08:00

12th July. Time flies, it really does. It feels like I had just started this blog only yesterday and yet, it is already coming to almost a year old now.

Yummie dummies was created out of our passion towards food, both my girlfriend and mine. Well, of course, it ended up with she being the one eating and giving reviews while I did all the writing (not to mention I ate a hell lot too). Not that I'm complaining though, because writing to me is as close to my heart as tasting and these two items fell into place naturally.

Hosting a food blog has its benefits. 1. You have an excuse to start going around tasting all the nice food around the island. 2. You meet alot of food blogging friends, which I did and enjoyed. 3. I love interacting with my readers and reading the comments on my blog.

Of course, there are always downsides like 1. OMG I didn't get to taste all the good food in Singapore!!! 2. OH CRAP I can't lose weight! 3. HOLY MAMA I can't get food outta my mind!!!

Yeah well, live with it, food blogging did kinda got me obsessed with food for a lil while there ya know, not very healthy aye? And I didn't get to try alot of good food in Singapore either but this blog was primarily opened to SHARE to good food I know so yeah, I guess my point hit home.

So since I'm ten days from leaving sunny Singapore, I'd figure I'll do a top 7 list of food I'd come to love in Singapore.

Stick around for that aye?

611 Tau sau piah

2007-07-08T10:40:00.000+08:00

Little Red Shop. Yes, that's what they call themselves now, having relocated from Balestier Road to the current B2 at Vivocity. The former 611 Tau Sau Piah no longer basks in it's former glory but I still reckon that it's pastries rock my socks off.

Take the Salty Tau Sar Piah (70c) for example. A bite reveals a crispy, flaky pastry which opens up into a nice mesh of salty bean paste. Real, solid, bean paste, not those commercially tasty ones. The sweet saltiness blend really work together in this instance.

The sweet one is thinner, larger and not is sweet but not overly done it makes your teeth hurts. Plus, they come in a cute little box which makes you keep opening for that "one last tau sar piah".

I've yet to try the other flavours namely; penang salty piah, lotus paste, lotus durian paste, coffee paste and green tea flavour.

For those who need comparisons between Long Fatt and 611, I'll give you my take. Long Fatt has a nice, buttery, flaky pastry which is thinner and softer with a nice soft inside while 611 has thicker, harder flaky pastry which needs some improvement on.

But I still reckon both would be nice with a cuppa Kopi-O.

Hot little buns

2007-07-02T07:42:00.000+08:00

I dumped an entire packet of kaya buns into my girlfriend's hands and swore not to take another bite again.

Why such a drastic measure?

Well, that's because Maecy's mini buns are so damn good, I bet you'll polish them off faster than you can say "delicious" and for someone who wants to watch his waistline, that's not a very good thing.

The buns come attached in half a dozen like those red bean buns which you can find in normal bread stores. The difference though, is that they are tiny enough for you to pop into your mouth as a light snack without feeling overly full.

What also sets them apart is the soft, fluffy insides which graduates into a chewy bread with substance as you bite along. Not to mention the nicely browned top and the slightly crispy, buttered bottom which gives a nice twist to the taste.

I missed the green bean flavour though, which they claim is the salty kind. However, the kaya which doesn't contain any eggs at all didn't get me thinking that far. The thick custardy-like paste is that rich in flavours and texture.

The cheese flavour also boosts a subtle cheesey taste with a mild saltiness which is bound to whet your palate. Everything goes well with the soft bread, I'd say.

Be sure to sure the green bean if you plan to head on there while there are other flavours which include strawberry, chocolate and red bean.

About swearing not to take another bite, I admit I failed. But I turned to Qin only to find an empty plastic bag, because apparently, she couldn't resist them as well.

Address:

Block 32 New Market Road #01-1042
People's Park Cooked Food Centre
Tel: 9670-4398
Opens: 10am to 7pm, closed on Sundays and public holidays

Yet Con

2007-06-28T13:12:00.001+08:00

What if I told you the Hainanese chicken rice you've been eating all along, isn't really Hainanese at all?

What if I told you that real "Hainanese chicken rice" isn't that nice at all but rather, lacks the robust flavour you have grown accustomed to?

Don't go throwing chicken rice balls at me now. Well, what do I know? Qin and her family is of Hainanese descendant and her brother tells me that their chicken rice is dry, sauceless, and the chicken is really, really kampung tasting. Not that I'm complaining because I get to eat really good, tasty chicken rice here in sunny Singapore everyday.

If you want to get a taste of true authentic, Hainanese chicken rice though, get off your butt and visit this place called Yet Con, the only authentic Hainanese restaurant left in Singapore located in Purvis street.

In fact, their chicken although sauceless, isn't as scary as it sounds. It's got a nice chicken-y taste and is quite succulent in terms of juiciness and texture.

But why would you want to go through that much trouble just to taste some chicken rice? Well, I'll give you two more reasons; their tze char and steamboat.

Steamboat seems to be really popular over there and having tried it before, I'll say it's fairly good.

I'll be able to recommend a few tze char dishes though.

Stir-fry beef with kailan. Slightly tender pieces of beef with a robust sauce to rely on. Always something I'll order here.

Hainanese chap chye isn't like the sloggy and slimy and mushy chap chye you find in economic rice stalls. Here, it comes with a crunch, a guarantee of it's freshness. Plus, who needs sauces that reek of dried shrimps to make a good dish? Here, it's refreshing but flavourful and comes with seafood and meat, all the more you should get it.

Even if you have a distaste for all of the above, this is what you should be here for. Hainanese pork chops. Even if you don't take pork, comon try a bite, sometimes you need to live a little ya know?

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmm mmm! It's crispy and SO DAMN TENDER. Shockingly true, and not what I expected. It comes doused with a tomato based sweet n' sour sauce which is surprisingly, not tomato-ey at all. It's dark brownish rather, a testament to the other oriental sauces they add in to obtain the slightly sweet savoury taste with a nice tang from a good dash of vinegar.

So you don't wanna take a bite at all. Eat the potatoes that come with the dish, it's super duper nicely pan fried and have that old school taste. Oh, but what a waste.

1 month

2007-06-27T06:27:00.000+08:00

I think I've slightly neglected my blog for the past week, and if you're one of those screaming "Why Sam?!?!?!", then please, hear me out my friend.

25th June is exactly one more month before I leave Singapore. For good? I don't know yet but well, most probably yes. One thing is for sure though, I'll be going to Perth to get my degree in Physiotherapy which will set me back four years. But damn I'm glad that I can go home finally and don't have to take that army shit anymore.

So I've been pretty busy, packing my stuff, meeting old friends and settling my student enrolment procedures, not to mention eating anything I've been craving for (most of which is durian). Therefore, I don't reaaally have the time to update this blog but I promise I will try! Well, at least try to post as much as I can during this last four weeks.

I'd like to thank you guys though, for regularly checking back and keeping my hits in the 600s despite my lack of post.

Cya soon!

Boon's Goreng Pisang

2007-06-19T20:38:00.000+08:00

So I had my plate of mouth-watering duck rice in front of me and was partly successful trying to savor every bite of it. Why then, did my eyes kept darting to my left and my taste buds simply couldn't focus on the meal? The answer is pretty simple actually, since I was seated beside Boon's Goreng Pisang, a widely popular stall located in Long House Food Centre and situated just beside Soon Kee's duck rice stall.

Densely decorated with an abundance bananas as any acclaimed goreng pisang stall would, Boon's Goreng Pisang churns out the crispiest batter and the softest insides you can ever get.

For starters, get the oh-so-crispy fried banana which comes in three different sizes which makes it a little more convenient for those who place a little more emphasis on calories. The caramelized insides are simply gorgeous.

Other items worth mentioning are the green bean and tapioca fritters; both of which contain mashed-up goodness inside of them. Aptly sweetened at the right level, the way the crispy batter gives way to the slightly powdery insides makes the added calories simply worthwhile.

Or why not grab a cempedak fritter, which my girlfriend insists is a must try no matter the circumstances. I could just imagine the creamy paste enveloped by the awfully good batter.

What about the other items then? It's not that they ain't good, it just that I simply haven't tried them yet.

Mama Bakery

2007-06-17T10:18:00.000+08:00

Move aside Provence and Sun Moulin because the latest Japanese bread shop which products has got me craving for is Mama Bread, a cafe-like bread store nicely situated on 2nd storey of the newly opened Novena Square 2.

As we swooped through the store like a pair of vultures hungry for some authentic Japanese food, familiar breads like An pan (red bean), Milk pan and Melon pan slightly aroused our senses but it was the more intriguing flavours like seafood vege mango or nutty bread which teased our palates.

The An pan was nicely done and exudes a fragrance strong enough to get your stomach juices going. Generously filled with a good douse of red bean combined with the enticing smell of warm bread, it really makes for a good snack.

The seafood vege mango was even better with a huge piece of prawn inside it. Delightfully creamy, the snack was drenched with sufficient sauces unlike pizza breads in bread stores which often comes dry and tough with a rubbery layer of dried cheese. To put it simply, the fillings resembled that of a lobster salad, those usually used in sushis while the slices of mangoes gave it a subtle hint of sweetness.

The cheese scone proved to be a little too cheesy for me though, and I would preferred a more balanced form of sweetness/saltiness. But the texture was good, not rock hard and crumbly enough for a good bite.

If nothing attracts you, at least stop by and try it's Choco Bowl, a large bowl-sized dense chocolate flavoured bread with a generous mix of rich, bitter-sweet chocolate. A chewy texture greets you on the first bite, followed by a delectable taste of bitter chocolate, which undeniably sets it apart from other chocolate breads.

As I trudged into the store which my mouth full of chocolate bread and munching slowly to let the moment last, an old Japanese lady whom I expect is the owner of the store asked with a hint of pride from behind the counter, "Oishii?", to which I vehemently agreed with a thumbs up. I mean, how could I not have?

Slowly munching on the breads we bought, taking in the full serene view of the night sky with a small fountain by the side adding to the ambiance, it really was quite quintessential. The moment only lasted awhile though, as my face uncontrollably expressed a look of dismay after I finished my portion of Choco Bowl and struggled against the strong temptation to grab another chunk of it.

Jolly well, I think I'll save the enjoyment for another day.

Vietnam: Other mentionables

2007-06-15T07:07:00.000+08:00

Any bowl of dessert with a generous slosh of coconut cream will get my mouth juices flowing just like how my brain perks up when my nose picks up the scent of durian. Asian countries like Vietnam and Bangkok love to use a great deal of coconut cream in their dessert, and of course God must have thrown down some pandan seeds when he thought something was missing.

This dessert stall in Ben Thahn market was paaaaacked. So many stalls but only this one was crowded most of the time. We had this glutinous rice with large, brown bean and covered with a good scoop of coconut cream. Fragrant glutinous rice with large beans providing a fuller taste and a nice powdery feel felt so good in my mouth. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmm! They also have other kinds of dessert like glutinous rice with yam, tau suan and bo bur cha cha. The only difference is that their tau suan, or rather their corn starch, is so sticky that I can throw it at a wall and it'll stick there.

Then we ordered this plate of kueh. The green one tasted like kueh kosui with mung bean paste on top of it and the yellow one is banana slices enveloped in clear jelly. Fantastic.

Just beside it was this stall selling iced desserts like cheng tng and chendol but in glasses. The chendol was quite similar to Singapore's but the cheng tng was different, with an added touch of raisins inside. The fillings were also slightly than those found here.

Oh and I forgot to mention, they give a small glass of refreshing unsweetened green tea with every dessert order. Just so you wouldn't feel so jerlard afterwards.

Walk a few more steps and we found any stall operating like a traffic light. People walk by, sit down, eat and leave with their seats quickly replaced by others. What they were selling were glutinous rice balls, something like abacus seeds, and some other rice balls with fillings in them. They give it a good dash of prawn floss and spring onions with a generous scoop of fish sauce and nicely finished with a handful of pork lard. It's freaking... awesome... Really.

Ben Thahn market is a good place to go if you're around Ho Chi Minh City. It has loads of stuff, including durian and many stalls sell Vietnamese coffee. And if your lady ain't crazy over food as you are, she can go shop for clothes and stuff and leave us alone!

Vietnam: The other mentionables

2007-06-14T08:07:00.000+08:00

The streets and districts are literally littered with cafes of different origins; French, Italian, Mexican, you name it. The food were surprisingly good as like this honey mustard chicken we had in a restaurant opposite Parklane plaza. The honey mustard was so well done with the right diffusion of both sauces; the honey not cloyingly sweet and the mustard without a strong an undispleasurable tang. Dipping it with into the sides of fried bacon was perfect. Plus, it's only SGD7.

The seabass wrapped with pork was not bad either. With a nice creamy sauce coating the pieces, the neat arrangement made the smaller portion seem forgettable.

Occasionally found on the streets are also this little moving pancake sellers. They've got waffles, egg cakes and some crispy biscuits. Soft yet dense, the egg cakes had a strong eggy flavour to it and was sweet enough to curb my sweet tooth.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Pho 2000, where Bill Clinton reportedly dined in during 2000 (I guess that's where the name came from). Well, I guess Bill Clinton was just feeling damn hungry at the moment because it wasn't really anything special at all.

As we absorbed the sights of Ho Chi Minh City over the course of five days, we started to understand the orderly chaos inside this busy city. Things are definitely different and much more stressful than Singapore, not to say that the air was so polluted my nookie turned black. But that's the way things are over here, and you will get used to it.

We didn't make it to alot of places, mostly due to the language barrier and the lack of knowledge of the place. But I'm sure Vietnam has much more sights to offer and I definately hope that those of you going there will enjoy it much more than me (I truly enjoyed it though). If anything, some other places worth visiting are also the Ben Thahn market and the war museum, which I think is a must visit if only to understand the horrors of war and how we should never, ever, use violence on any country or on anyone.

Adios!

Vietnam: Part V .. & Bahn mi !

2007-06-12T09:41:00.000+08:00

A good smear of pate, a few slices of well marbled and differently flavoured ham, a large chunk of solid pork lard, a generous sprinkle of pork floss and appropriately finished with a large spread of yellowish home-made mayonnaise may not seem like the healthiest sandwich filling in the world. But sometimes, or rather most of the time, the tastiest food in life are probably the most unhealthy ones and trust me when I say that somethings, are worth dying for.

Behind a brightly lit stall stand three ladies working at super sonic speed, frantically stuffing and smearing fillings into crisp out-of-the-oven baguettes. Nothing seems out of order though, as sandwiches by sandwiches exchanged hands with such speed and ease that they seemed to be programed at what they were doing.

If you still have no hint at what I was talking about, let me tell you about the Vietnamese sandwich, or Bahn Mi, as they say it. Using baguettes fresh out of a charcoal-fueled oven with the fluffiest insides and the crispiest outer layer, a good generous stuffing of pork belly, floss, pate and ham completes a sandwich that tastes so sinfully good, you'd want more.

Words escape me as I simply cannot find a good description for the taste. Just imagine warm, soft bread with very porky insides and a creamy pate filling. Oh... nice.

Apparently it is a popular dish, or snack, as we spotted loads of people going about their daily lives with these Bahn mi in their hands providing an enormous source of energy for the day. This stall we found though, had people queuing up at 11pm which just had to signify something good going on. Just in case you are going to Vietnam anytime soon, this stall is located behind Zen plaza which you can be directed by my pathetic looking map. (Coming soon)

Other than that, Banh mi stalls are pretty easily found everywhere else, even by the roadsides like this one. If you're dropping by Vietnam, grab one of it, you won't be disappointed.

Vietnam: Part IV

2007-06-10T10:00:00.000+08:00

By the second day we pretty much figured how everything went. To cross the road, please cross. "Har?" Well, you heard me, if you stand there overwhelmed by the sheer number of vehicles, they jolly well ARE going to overwhelm you! So just cross, I'll say, even though you may feel your life expectancy decrease by half. The bikes will avoid you automatically, even though they signal their displeasures by letting loose a series of honks.

Plodding on, Vietnam will slowly reveal herself in bits n pieces. Pushcarts selling food dot the streets, ladies hanging fruits on baskets off a pole trudging on in the sweltering heat, and of course the bothersome taxi drivers and tricycle riders calling at you for every opportunity to earn your buck. People there are generally nice, except that they don't say "Excuse me" when they need to pass, they just shove you aside with their hands. They even do this to kids, don't ask me why.

Fruits are abundant there. Fruits I'd die to eat everyday. Top of my list: Durian, and followed by Lychee, Mangosteen and Dragonfruits which are pretty much easily available everywhere. Not to mention cheap; I had durians by the roadside at 10,000 dongs per kilo which if converted equals to SGD1 per kilo. Oh man, that was memorable and the durian was damn good also.

Here are some other stuff we had to complete the food court series.

Another kind of beef rolls but wrapped with mustard leaves. Mustard leaves are a very subjective taste and apparently, we didn't like it very much.

If mango salad isn't your style, I'd say go for Bamboo shoot salad. Served warm with two pieces of rice crackers, this porky taste-infused dish made a wonder when you plomp it on top of the rice crackers. A crunch and then a warm, steady release of pork juice all absorbed in the bamboo shoots with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds adding the finishing touch.

The same outlet sells this dessert; black glutinous rice with mung bean paste and coconut cream. Oh my goodness, it was heavenly. As I guess anything with that combination would be.

Surprisingly, we had western lunches twice which were good! It wasn't like we would order this in Singapore, but I had no idea what drove us to order them there. The beef skewer nicely grilled with a substantial smokey flavour and the rice was really nicely added with a good dash of spices and butter; like very good fried rice.

Alrighty, I'll hit the streets in my next post.

Vietnam: Part III

2007-06-09T17:34:00.000+08:00

We weren't feeling too adventurous on our first day there so we stuck in food courts in Diamond Plaza and Zen plaza, where we came to realise that the food in their food courts, are pretty much mostly the same few stalls.

Diamond Plaza is larger than Zen, but has the same arrangement where you go round and round an escalator. It's not bad actually and we found this stall called Wrap and Roll or something like that which sells all the Vietnamese rolls.

Erm, we tried quite a number of their stuff, which may be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. Here we go..

This beef rolls is friggin' awesome. It's tender beef wrapped around caremalised onions and some other vegetables. The beef has this, sorta like Samurai Burger mixed with satay taste and was really good. It came with a dip which was dried shrimps mixed with fish sauce and was Mmmmm Mmm!

This were their Southern spring rolls. The difference between the southern and northern ones, was that there were no shrimps in the southern ones. What it's got in it is nice juicy minced pork with shredded carrots and vermicelli. It was good. Hey, what else can I say right?

Served with fish sauce with carrots and garlic inside it, the tanginess of the sauce balanced out the greasiness pretty well.

Mango salad! Is mango salad a traditional dish in Vietnam? Hmmm, I doubt so. Yet, this one was good, but of course not better than those in Thailand. It's much sweeter over here and yummy enough when stacked up on some keropok.

Oh yeah, the rolls also came with fresh vegetables like lettuce, mint leaves and cucumbers, vermicelli and rice wraps for you to wrap and dip into the sauce. It's all pretty balanced over there.

Vietnam: Part II

2007-06-07T23:24:00.000+08:00

A wall of glass doors, reflective and squeaky clean, opens up into a huge area four stories high. Floor tiles as creamy as the purest buttermilk shine as if they were just polished. At one corner, a jungle-themed decoration plaster the walls, enhancing the showcase of fashion products neatly lined below. Another corner, an escalator leads upwards to two corridors, both of which line rows of shops flaunting their branded goods, as if willing you to lavish yourself on their high-end products.

Just outside, a huge fountain with a waterfall provides a refreshing change from the bustling city and adds to the ambiance as I spot a number of people walking about, having their meals by the side tables, or simply soaking in the atmosphere.

Travel downstairs and you'll be blown away by the sheer amount of food and beverage outlets ranging from cafes like Starbucks and Secret Recipe to others priding themselves on selling traditional fare. Of course, not to mention a huge supermarket and several up-market restaurants.

Sounds like a damn good place to shop at right? Of course, that's Paragon in Bangkok, where we entirely enjoyed ourselves last year, you didn't think that was Ho Chi Minh for a moment did you?

So snapping back to reality, Ho Chi Minh is a pretty congested place which leads to compromised land and building areas. Unfortunately, this only means that shopping malls are built pretty small and don't have the luxury of space to have alot of shops. As a result, what you get is a platform of stores without separators, something like Seiyu, but on every level. Gawd, we couldn't even find a place to sit until we reached level 5 where there was a food court.

This was of course in Zen plaza, 10 minutes walk and 2,000 motorcycles away from the hotel we live in. We had our first sampling of Vietnamese food there, which is a little sad but unavoidable since we couldn't really order from the roadside stalls in Vietnamese. The food court is different in a way that you order and pay and they'll serve it to you later.

Pho 24 was alright and tasted really MSG laden IMO. There's a stall beside them though that has really power rice rolls. It's glutinous rice is soft to the max and I could have shown you a picture of it, until my cam screwed up (and along went the desserts pic on the next paragraph). I did take a picture of this though, grilled pork with rice wrap. Not fantastic but good enough to ease my tummy. A stronger pork flavour and softer wrap would've made it perfect.

And if your sweet tooth comes knocking, hop opposite to a dessert stall selling traditional desserts and gelato ice cream. The coconut cream combined with grilled banana and yam blocks was nothing short of delicious. Sweet and fragrant, the flavours, this traditional sweet gave a rich and milky feeling.

To be continued...

Vietnam is

2007-06-06T08:03:00.000+08:00

ONE hell of a stressful place to live in. As a gazillion bikes, cars, bicycles, pushcarts, tricycles and people move like floodwaves against or along each other, it takes more than a little imagination to see how the country has picked up so much only 30 years after the Vietnam war.

As the plane started its slow descend onto the runway, small specks of grey and white magnified into rural-looking estates which looked like they belonged to the 50's while puddles reflecting the sunlight became large padi fields positioned sporadically among the mass of buildings.

With fingers crossed we stepped out of the airport not knowing what to expect in this foreign country and were greeted by a mish mash of motorcycles, cars, people.. and unthankfully more motorcycles. Oookay, it's a little of a culture shock as the traffic was like 5 times more disastrous than Bangkok's, plus it doesn't help that we were immediately overwhelmed by taxi drivers demanding a treasure chest's price for a trip to our hotel (and charged in USD, mind you).

The journey to our hotel was nothing short of "spectacular" as the taxi weaved in and out through swarms of motorcycles. I have NEVER, ever, in my entire life seen so much (many would be an understatement) motorcycles in one place before. And just for those who have never been to Vietnam before, most of the riders wore cloth masks and straw hats and it isn't uncommon to see women adorned in their traditional costumes on bikes or a family of four happily cutting through the massive traffic on their "amazingly strong" scooter. In fact, I think that if you wore a helmet, they'd think you were an alien.

Even more amazing, they seem to be able to carry almost everything on their bikes. Let's put it this way, I've seen one guy carrying two queen size mattresses, another one carrying a huge painting on the side and check this out, a huge bagful of soft toys?! We even spotted one with two huge stacks of ice at the back, yes in the blistering heat it managed to remain solid (I don't know why..).

Sitting in the taxi was nothing compared to witnessing the traffic upfront while trying our best to cross the road. We were so pathetic moving only inches, that the hotel porter had to guide us across the road. Imagine 500 bikes coming your way on a narrow two lane road while spontaneously honking at God-knows-what. Now, that's scary.

Our next impression of Vietnam was that it was boring.. and seriously hot.. after initially and unsuccesfully trying to explore the districts (which were cluttered with small cafes, pho restaurants, banh mi stalls and surprisingly a substanstial number of painting shops), the cursed blardy hot weather forced us to desperately search for shopping centres (yes, we being typically Singaporeans admit that we CANNOT live without shopping centres) and after we did found one, after we thought we found solace, we were WRONG.

To Be Continued..

Gone for a little while

2007-05-31T00:28:00.001+08:00

This is gonna be short. Yummie dummieS are heading to Vietnam to check out the food there. Till we come back... with more food.

Tien Lai Rice Stall: Damn good sauce, Damn good pork

2007-05-27T22:30:00.000+08:00

Never a big fan of pork, I'm seldom attracted to dishes starring pigs as the leading role. BBQ pork, or char siew, is a different matter altogether. That unique sweet sauce soaked into the meat and then nicely charred around the edges. Ooh, that crunchy feeling combined with the taste is to die for.

Of course, there are many preferences the way char siew is done. Some like it soft and fatty cuts while others, like me, prefer them lean and nicely charred and of course there are those in the middle who like a good crunch with a nice rim of fat. One thing is for sure though, and that is it has got to have a damn good sauce (better sweet than salty in my opinion) and it has to be charred just right.

Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to feast upon a good plate of char siew, roast duck and roast pork. This stall located at Taman Jurong Food Centre was recommended by my good buddy David and it's char siew is comparable to Fatty Cheong's. If you are doubting it's authencity, check this out, the person before us (damnit, us again) ordered 30 packets of roasted chicken rice from them. It wasn't char siew they ordered, but that has gotta hint of something good right?

Over here you have a choice of fatty or lean cuts. The char siew we ordered was nicely sweetened with a slight char around the edges while the texture is slightly harder than Fatty Cheong's. Unlike Fatty Cheong's this one is also thinly sliced to compensate for the firmer bite. The roast duck was quite well done with a nice smokey flavour trapped in the skin and both dabbed with a little he bi hiam chilli will send you over the roof. Of course, what's more orgasmic than that is the sauce they use. Splashed over a plate of white rice, the dark sauce was such a delish that I would have finished the plate of rice by itself if there were more of the sauce. Umami will be the word to describe it as the thick and richly flavoured sauce surpassed even that of Alexandra Village's duck rice sauce!

The roast pork I find average but there's something which amazed or intrigued
me more. That is, they serve skin from the pig's head. Eeeeeeeew, yeah I know exactly what you are thinking. Perhaps this is the norm in roast meat stalls but I haven't heard of it before so please spare me your reprimands alright?

There's isn't much of a vie for taste in the skin as it's only mostly salty and it's quite chewy. People who like QQ (chewy) stuff will like it for I think I'll give it a pass.

Address:
Tien Lai Rice Stall
Taman Jurong Food Centre
#02-66

Soon Huat Pigs Organs Soup

2007-05-23T21:27:00.000+08:00

Once overshadowed by the newly renovated and Chomp Chomp Food Centre, Serangoon Gardens Food Centre is finally putting up a fight and grabbing a fair share of the foodie crowd. Located directly opposite of each other, the new Chomp Chomp Food Centre or Serangoon Circus is no longer its former glory, as an extremely congested floor plan sets the path for a very small eating place which is often overcrowded and hypo ventilated. Similar to the newly renovated Newton Circus, it has also lost most of its stalls with a huge percentage of the current ones comprising of seafood BBQ stalls and other tourist-attracting ones like satay and carrot cake etc.

Seragoon Gardens Food Centre, on the other hand, has evolved from being a ghost town at night, to a buzzing dining place. Previously only opened in the mornings, the food centre is packed with old stalls from the former Botanic Gardens Food Centre with a much attractive variety than its roadside competitor.

One stall worth mentioning is Soon Huat Pigs Organs Soup which commands a long line everytime I pay it a visit. Never a fan of pig innards, I found myself pleasantly intrigued by the wonderful taste of the soup. Deceptively clear but uber tasty, the soup commands a very nice pleasantness to the palate. It is sufficiently porky with a saltiness coming from the salted vegetables which lends a very nice side to the soup and sets it apart from normal Bak Chor Mee-accompanying soup.

Still, I haven't brought myself to chew on that piece of intestine but have learned to enjoy a good piece of liver, which by the way, goes very well with that slightly tangy chilli sauce. The way I see it though, the best way is still to drenched the rice with the soup and slurp it all up.

Address:

Serangoon Gardens Food Centre
Stall 42
Soon Huat Pigs Organs Soup

Pancake Weekly #5: It's a little bit funny

2007-05-21T16:58:00.000+08:00

A rich cream of the milkiest white, set against a backdrop of natural rooty sweetness wrapped around a soft, delicate sponge. Add a slight touch of palm sugar which exudes a subtle but full-bodied taste and you've got yourself... something weird... and tastebud-subjective.

In my latest endeaver, I'm trying a new combination which results I'm not even sure of myself. Utilizing the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes and the full bodied cream of a coconut, I tried blending the two together and creating an entirely never-heard-of pancake.

Combining Japanese sweet potatoes and coconut cream churned out a product quite similar to "Orh nee" or yam paste with a slightly distinguishable sweet potato edge while a drizzle of rich, thick Gula Melaka finished the snack off with a nice rustic feeling.

It's a subjective taste though, and I'm not sure if I even like it myself. I would have liked it, if we had good quality Japanese sweet potatoes here in Singapore. The imports we get, however, usually reeks of a stenchy chemical taste which leaves a really unappetizing aftertaste in the palate and I'm pretty sure there are people who can identify with my situation. Personally, I think it's pretty okay if eaten warm when the components work together harmonously. After it turns cold, the taste becomes a little off, plus sweet potatoes turn green after exposed to light for awhile and developes that weird taste.

In short, I received good and not-so-good feedback on this pancake so try it, if you're feeling brave enough.

Ingredients:
3 large sized Japanese sweet potatoes
1 cup of water
10 tbsp of Gula melaka
4 tbsp of coconut cream
2 tbsp of oil

Steps:
1. Steam sweet potatoes and remove skin
2. Cut potatoes into chunks and blend in a blender with 1 cup of water. Add more water if required
3. Heat 2 tbsp of oil on non stick pan and cook the sweet potato paste till paste-like
4. Remove from heat and add coconut cream and 6 tbsp of Gula melaka. Mix well
5. Spread on pancake and roll up
6. Drizzle remaining Gula melaka and serve warm

*Adjust coconut cream and Gula melaka according to taste

Poll #2: Getting to know you

2007-05-19T08:04:00.000+08:00

When I first started this blog, my goal is simple and straight forward: Reach out to as many people as I can and share with them the places to find damn good food which Qin and I enjoy. Hence the banner slogan; Eat. Enjoy. Share. We eat the goodies, enjoy it to the fullest, and then share with you guys the experience and provide you the address so that you'll be able to enjoy it too!

Why would I wanna go through so much effort just to, tell people? Because I'm a foodie, that's why! Instead of feverishly trying to get my friends to try that super fantastic plate of hokkien mee I ate over the weekend, I figured I could tell more people by using a blog. And I've never seen a selfish foodie in my life because when a foodie finds a gem, he has to share it with people to let them enjoy it as well as he did. Well, that's how I am.

As my blog evolved from getting a puny handful of "passer bys" to the acceptable number of hits nowadays, there also happen to be more "regulars" who drop encouraging comments and good suggestions in this blog. Being a person who really likes to get to know people, I want to get to know my readers. Heck, I want to get to know you reading this right now!

So I'm just gonna start a series of polls with the first poll identifying the largest age group which frequent my blog the most. Gogogo!

Back from the polls!

2007-05-18T10:19:00.000+08:00

It's four days late but we're finally back from our first opinions poll. Due to the time needed for the regular blog postings, this mini "side project" may have to take the backseat sometimes though. So lets break down the poll results aight.

A total of 34 people took part in the poll which is really, not an ideal start. But I'm sure it'll get back as we go along :-) Results are pretty equally split among needing better pictures and already having good enough pictures, although the former wins by a slight 3% differences.

Conclusion: I'm actually quite glad that most people think the pictures are all right, since I'm actually using a handphone camera (K750i)for around 98% of my pictures. Of course, I'll try to improve the way I take pictures and try to make them look better and more presentable. Hang on though, as I'll migrate to using a 6.0 megapixel Sony DSC camera as soon as I can get hold of it from my sister. Till then, I'll be cracking my brain for new poll.

Salvation

2007-05-16T23:02:00.000+08:00

A health advocate refraining from whole wheat may sound like an oxymoron. And other than whole wheat, the list of forbidden foods include nuts, dairy, soy and eggs. Other than fruits and vegetables, I think I've blocked out every item a nutritionist would include in a healthy diet aye?

Guesses aside, welcome to my world. Sad but true, my overly reactive immune system triggers allergic reactions which manifests itself in the form of an itch [one damn irritating bugger] whenever I consume these foods. Never underestimate the power of a simple itch though, for anyone who has been through a bout of itch-scratch cycle can testify to the unforgiving cycles of inflammation and scratching.

My poison? Eczema. A common skin ailment which a good majority of people suffer from in some way or another. Sadly, doctors and researchers have yet to find a cure for it and one of the most widely used solution is still the usage of steroid creams and anti-histamines, both of which suppresses your immune system.

One alternative way to cure this problem, as I found out, is to cut out any or all allergens which my body will react to and though its hard, let's just say that an itch-free lifestyle is a better way to go. Every time an offending food item sneaks into my thoughts, it's met by a firm wall of determination or if that wall breaks, it's more than often met with a firm "NO!" from Qin [sigh, so now a man can't even have his cake and eat it]. So imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this huge shelf of organic, allergen-free foodstuff at Marketplace yesterday. I was like a kid who stumbled into Toyland!

Aah, I can finally feel the joy of grocery shopping again. Wheat free, gluten free, dairy free, nut free, they've really got every allergen free item under their belt. In a matter of minutes, I snapped up three [not less than fantastic] items; muesli, chocolate spread and a banana-flavoured snack bar. Dude, can you imagine dairy and nut free chocolate spread?! It's like finding calorie-free cakes man!

The muesli comprises of "corn" flakes which are made with maize and rice flour, rice puff, rice bran, coconut, and dried fruits. It's really awesome and has that full bodied taste from the coconut. I had a bowl of it with rice milk (sorry, can't take real milk remember?) today morning and it was gooooood. Plus, I was getting sick of only eating fruits every morning. ps: It really keeps me full. I lasted for 4 hours without feeling hungry.

The chocolate spread is almost like Nutella but with a much subtler shade of hazelnut. Man, it's so good I lick it off the spoon every morning. Having 60% lesser sugar definitely helps too [on the guilt part].

I haven't gotten down to prying the banana bar open and chomping on it like a chimpanzee yet. But judging from the looks of it, you bet I'm gonna enjoy it.

Why did I write this post? I have no idea. To share my joy, perhaps. Or to share this information with people who needs it as much as me. Rejoice!

Hock kee bak kut teh

2007-05-14T15:42:00.000+08:00

Never an appreciative figure for pork ribs soup or "Bak Kut Teh", this dish never succeeds in drawing my attention away from that delectable piece of pancake or the smothering smell of carrot cake being fried *goes weak in the knees*. That is, until I tried the Malaysian version of it which "converted" me.

The main difference between the Singapore and Malaysia version is the type of soup that is being used. The former dictates a clear, savoury but peppery broth with a few sticks of ribs while the latter boosts of a dark coloured, herby broth in a claypot filled to the brim with good stuff. Vegetables, mushrooms, tau kee, pig's innards, you name it. Now that I seldom travel to Malaysia, my cravings have increased three-fold.

Recently though, I was introduced by a friend to this stall at Alexandra Village Food Centre which sells bak kut teh. I was admittedly half hearted when I ordered it but was pleasantly surprised afterwards. While this wasn't the Malaysian kind of Bak kut teh, it wasn't the peppery kind either. Now, would any kind soul drop some clue to what it really is?

A slight, subtle herb/tonic essence can be tasted in the broth which thankfully, isn't peppery at all. In fact, it isn't even clear to start with. The dish presents itself in a claypot filled with dark broth and three pieces of pork ribs (which is not very economical for $4). Not richly boiled, it serves as a pleasant bowl of soup to down a bowl of rice with. The pork ribs weren't exactly tender to the point of falling off, nor were they tough to the point of causing a toothache. Slightly tender would be an appropriate description but three pieces of ribs just don't get the job done man.

Only was the food fully digested the next day did I was told that the specialty of the stall was it's ter kah (pork leg), three layer pork and salted vegetables. ..Thanks alot.. Still, I'll be back for more so in case you're still not satisfied, stay tuned!

Address:

Alexandra Village Food Centre
Hock Kee Bak Kut Teh
#01-46

Pancake Weekly #4: My kind of jam

2007-05-13T08:30:00.000+08:00

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best. Just like how each and everyone of us has a simple comfort food we can always fall back on. The smell of a warm loaf of bread or the bitter sweet taste of dark chocolate may swoon some while the soft chunk of pork belly or a huge tub of Ben & Jerry's may appeal to others.

Its the time when fine dining would suddenly sound boring and unappetizing. Plus, who really cares for salads or chicken breasts when you're feeling in the dumps right?

In my case, the combination of pandan and coconut never fails to get my attention and the best thing that ever resulted from that mix?

Kaya.

Its plain, its simple, its good. That's all I need for my fix. In this week's Pancake Weekly, I'm talking about plain Jane. She's simple, she's real nice with average looks but somehow, I've got the hots for her. Who really needs sophisticated chicks anyway?

There you go. A good douse of coconut jam slapped between two pancakes. Perfect breakfast for a Sunday morning.

PS: Since we're talking about comfort food, why not tell me what's yours? I'd definately interested in hearing about it.

Opinion polls

2007-05-11T08:54:00.000+08:00

A frank opinion goes a long way, no matter how flatteringly good or batteringly bad it is. Therefore, to truly improve my blog, I've started an opinion poll which I hope readers will take like 5 seconds to participate in.

So tell me your frank opinions alright, since most don't really leave comments when they drop by. Since this only takes a few seconds and pretty much leaves you anoynomous, pleeeeeeeeeeease please please take some time to vote okay?!

Lee Tong Kee Beef Hor Fun

2007-05-09T09:39:00.000+08:00

Really?

Apparently so, and just to provide that extra assurance that you'll get a good meal, allow me to cast away any doubts you are harbouring in your unbelieving mind.

Lined in the midst of painting, art, calligraphy and figurine shops, a humble restaurant on the bend facing a newly built Chinese temple blends in perfectly into the setting, a developing fusion between rustic faces and drastic changes. But as time forces on its perpetual charge, changing and modifying and moderning everything standing in its path, people and cultures get absorbed into a whirlwind of change where thinking becomes liberated and cultures start to become obsolete. In the midst of it, food have taken the harsh brutal swipe of reality, losing its tradition, culture and ultimately, the passion that made it unique and with it, taste. Hawkers become food courts, markets have been transformed to tourist attractions and people, instead of cooking for passion, have begun cooking for money to survive in the unrelentless economy as traditionalists deperately cling on to the ways of old.

So as I stood outside this little eatery called Lee Tong Kee which claims to promise the taste of 1948, the ultimate question looms deep, "Has its taste survived the test of time?". That's what we're about to find out.

I certainly do not know the taste of its hor fun in 1948 but right here, right now, its beef hor fun ($5.50) tastes pretty damn good. Made from the silkiest strands of rice noodles, its softness lets you slurp it up and slide it down with the least effort. Really, the hor fun is the softest and silkiest I've eaten! The sauce is uber duperly good! Similar to Guangdong Braised Beef Noodles at Maxwell FC, this one is a thicker, richer, and more potent interpretation. Its hard to put the taste onto paper [or to type into my keyboard] but it coats every strand of noodle so well, the taste fills your mouth as it slides down your throat.

The beef is equally tender and moist, with sporadically spaced portions of melt-in-your-mouth fats. Theres certainly a good flavour in the beef also.

One other item to note is the Lee Tong Kee tender chicken ($8 for small) which is literally, super tender chicken! Unlike those served at chicken rice stalls which are slapped with the cleaver or done with whatever, this chicken is truly tender. So good that I felt the "jelly-ness" as I bit into that succulent piece of chicken. The accompanying sauce compliments the meat and the chilli sauce they provide is a more unique (and better version) of normal chicken rice chilli and brings out the flavour in the chicken and hor fun.

This is one beef hor fun I will recommend to my friends. Heck, its number one on my list now!

Address:

Lee Tong Kee Ipoh Sar Hor Fun
278 South Bridge Road
62260417
www.ipohhorfun.com

Pancake Weekly #3: Qunitessential

2007-05-05T09:46:00.000+08:00

In this era of increasingly fast moving technology, taste buds and everything else on the planet, ham and cheese is so yesterday. Therefore, men often have to seek new, exciting stimulants to reignite (or re-erect) their senses. Corny? Maybe a little. Putting words into action, behold a new flavour that has been created for this week's Pancake Weekly. A flavour so enticing, a combination so bold, that it will bring you to your knees.

Shrouded in a blurry wrap of nutty, sweet darkness, a yellow cream so natural but so unconvincingly good that it get you thinking why you never felt the urge to consume it before. Of course, I certainly hope one day I can somehow teleport my creations for all my readers to sample, but until that day comes, lets just rely on my psychic powers alright?

Now a nut may be addicting, but a nut flavoured chocolate is a product that packs much more punch than that.. much much more. Fast forward a few decades where creative taste bud-talented men used to manually blend nuts into chocolate, we now have Nutella, Aaah! Brilliante! Dig it with a spoon, swipe it with your finger or scoop it out with your tongue [eewww, admit it, I know you do it], Nutella provides the same aphrodisiac-like results to anyone, which is, uber happiness.

But just expand your imagination a little by spreading this brown goo on a pancake; Umm, should be wackingly good. Now come on, try expand your imagination a little more, force your chemoreceptors to work a little harder, or try starving it into creativity [this can be done by eating plain rice 5 meals a day, 7 days a week, please seek medical advice before doing this].

Okay so here's what I got, you've got this nice pancake and you spread Nutella on 3/4 of it right? What happens to the other 1/4 then is you grill a banana right, and mash it right there. Following which you wrap the pancake around the banana, and roll the whole thing up. I'm not going to describe to you how it tastes like (nothing short of spectacular) because I hope that you're gonna try it yourself.

Another way is to sandwich it in a MJK like manner. Now, I know it doesn't look like a lot, but it definately tastes a hell lot more than it looks.

Pears and Pizzas

2007-05-02T09:16:00.000+08:00

Subtly sweetened, caramelized, soft pear slices on pizzas would be an intriguing and fresh idea to break away from tradition. Its such a pity though, that I'm not here to recommend such a pizza because firstly, I can't seem to find any pizza joints selling fruity pizzas in Singapore [except Pasta Mania which has a chocolate and banana pizza on its belt] and secondly, I haven't got the time, and creative juices in my brain to find a way to make that pizza attractive yet appetizing.

Nonetheless, I'm utterly amazed at the size of this thing. Yep, my mum brought it over from Perth along with a few other amazing things including some extremely delicious and addicting banana chips. Banana chips are really quite the embodiment of perfect chips, even better than apple crings and potato chips if you ask me & my taste buds.

Its subtly sweet with a nice crunch and the starchy feeling you get from it after chewing away really gets your digestive juices flowing.. like a waterfall. Thats right, your hand doesn't stop picking at it. But banana chips are a big fat lie, like a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing, because if you mistake it for a healthy snack, you're screwed [like me] Like they say, all good things come to an end eventually, like how I found out that those chips were deep fried rather than baked [Oh Holy mother of ..something!]

Oh yeah, back to the pear, or bear judging by the size of that "thing", I swear it will keep you full for quite some time. The taste is similar to any other pear but extremely juicy with loads of pear juices dripping down my chin when I devoured it, if that sounds gross then try not to make a picture of it, or simply imagine I'm Brad Pitt. Hey, now thats a good one right!

I hear you asking where's the pizza? It's nothing special really [hands signalling a nothing special gesture *try to use your imagination*] We popped two pizzas from Canadian Pizza yesterday and one of them was pretty good so I thought I'll share it with ya.

BBQ Chicken Bonanza! Hai! Sounds like some Japanese Kung Fu Kamakazi chicken right? Well, it sure got my risible muscle working. The pizza is surprisingly good coming from a 2-for-1 pizza joint. The dough was generously peppered with thick chicken pieces and other ingredients and extra super entizing BBQ sauce (because we asked for more). Mmm! Its good! And cheap! Plus the crust is thin and not too doughy which is such a despicable way to make you feel full. Don't get me wrong though, Canadian Pizza has got the worst Hawaiian pizza ever but they just got it right on this one somehow.

6 235-35-35! That's the number NOT to call. Or the number to call if you want pizza crusts the thickness of the sole of my Nike dunks [which are pretty thick by the way].. or the width of Steven Tyler's mouth.

Instead, check out their website here.

Shanghai Ren Jia

2007-04-29T09:40:00.000+08:00

On the last dinner of my family's visit to Singapore, I brought them to Shanghai Ren Jia located at Upper Thomson Road (beside Han's Restaurant) upon ieat's blog recommendation. Apparently, the shen jian bao is said to be extraordinarily good and well proven by the various news paper clippings and foodie reviews pasted on the glass walls of the eatery.

The place is too small though, to properly accomodate a dinner crowd (around 10 - 12 tables?) and we waited for almost half an hour before being seated. Of course theres a reason why we waited so long, everything has a reason right?

Blah blah blah, with recommendations from friends and blogs in my head I shot off my orders with a few other recommendations from the lao ban niang herself.

The handmade noodles with beancurd, pork chop and chicken pieces came first and tasted like.. maggie mee. I'm not kidding! It's bad enough that the noodles were springy and had a texture like maggie mee, the sauce wasn't at all fantastic and chicken pieces were scarce. The pork chop even had the texture of rubbery fish cake, in the form of pork. I very much prefer Crystal Jade's zha jiang mien. Hmmm, not a good start huh.

The second bowl of noodles, beef noodles recommended by the lao ban niang, was well.. a little worser. In my opinion, I think the soup tasted like MSG and really maggie mee-like but maybe thats just me. Or is it? A $7++ for a bowl each with really, really small portions, I'd say go to Crystal Jade. This is starting to get ugly.. Did I mention that they served really small portions?

The luo han vegetables were okay tasting but for $4.50 a serving the size of my palm, its not very economical. Thumbs down again.

The mei cai kuo rou (preserved vegetables and three layer pork) is kill people put fire! Sa ren fang huo! At such a small bowl, (imagine a small rice bowl-size), it cost us $6++! And the large bowl which I think SHOULD be the price of the small bowl's, cost us $13++. Murder!

Taste wise, it was alright. The sauce was a little on the thick and salty side but is quite tasty but the vegetables were a little hard. I would very prefer if the vegetables were boiled to an even softer consistency. The pork was also too thinly sliced and doesn't have a good "kou gan" or in english, no bite! However, the owner said that the oil in the fats had been squeezed out to give a good bite feel yet without the added calories a.k.a fat on the waist. Err.. Okay man, whatever you say.. Haha.

The xiao long bao had the similar taste as Crytal Jade's. However, it's juicier and you can't really bite into the meat filling. That could be a good thing, or bad.. depending on how you look at it.

Don't fret though, good things come in the midst of bad things [I don't know how the hell I came up with that] and the drunken chicken was really good. Man, the moment it was served it did some kind of drunken aerobics on the table followed by an impersonation of Jackie Chan's drunken fist. Oh, did I forget to tell you that their drunken chickens are served live? Yeah, and then they slaughter it and cook it right there. Just kidding, I'm not that sick, and neither are they. The drunken chicken (cooked.. chicken) was really tender to the bite and especially in the breast meat. Such tender breast meat are really hard to come by and the wine was just nice, not overly strong and indeed made the dish quite delectable. This however, will set you back at $8++.

Lastly (literally), the shen jian bao ($7++ for 6) was served. My gawd it took them almost an hour to serve this man (which kinda explains why we had to wait so long for our seats) Now, I understand that their shen jian baos are made from scratch when you order but seriously speaking, the taste doesn't justify the wait.

Granted, its much better than Crytal Jade's (which is harder and tougher) but theres nothing really special about it. The broth is same as the xiao long bao's and it is simply wrapped in a bun. Of course, the bun has a nice bite to it with a oh-so-cripy bottom and a spongy top if thats what you're here for. However, I was looking for surprise and I didn't even get a kick out of it.

Shanghai Ren Jia is THE place to go, if you have THE money to spend. The dishes are exorbitantly priced, I wouldn't say unreasonably but rather, inappropriately. Taste wise and portion wise, they have much to improve on and I certainly hope they do so.

My question for you is

2007-04-27T18:49:00.000+08:00

So what's fine dining anyway? A fancy restaurant, several waitresses attending to you, nice tall wine glass and a piece of half seared tuna the size of a nickel on a plate the diameter of Shaq O'neal's foot. Yeah well of course they made the plate look full by drizzling sauces all over it and placing one or two funny looking vegetables at the side, all this for an exorbitant sum. It's the entire experience, they'd say. I'd say, Go ahead, kid yourself.

Now how about this. Imagine fine dining in a different way; situated in the heart of Singapore, located on the streets, with passer bys and soaking in the hot, humid heat with cars whizzing by meters away from you. Hey, just treat it like al fresco dining aye?

It's special in a different sense, allowing you to really soak up the asian street vendor kind of dining and it feels good every once in a while. The place in question? Basil Aclove located on the sidewalks of Fortune Center and the chef I've read about from a few blogs is Xander.

I haven't spoken to Xander personally yet but i think the food is quite good and price is quite reasonable. For starters, take the Grilled chicken caeser salad. Now, this really caught us by surprise as we were expecting some kind of white chicken chunks in some average caeser salad. It actually turned out that the chicken was really seasoned well and grilled and there were ALOT of them. The bed of lettuce was also generously sprinkled with cheese and coated with tasty dressing. It was also brilliantly balanced with raisins which did gave it a different touch.

Mmm! Not bad for $7++ but I only wished he had eased on the dressing. It turned out to be a little too much and cloying [too jelark lar]

I ordered the chicken with avocado cream priced at $7++ but I didn't really enjoy the dish. It's pretty dissapointing that the chicken was deep fried and ended up really oily. Although the seasoning was good, thhe oil pretty much spoiled everything. One can only take in so much oil in one night right?

But alas, the avocado cream and salsa was refreshing and the cream was really tasty with none of the raw avocado taste. Sides were french beans which I totally lurrrve and mashed potato with chunks still in it [Oola!] and infused with a buttery taste.

Dad ordered the duck breast dish which came in medium done and accompanied with some red wine vinaigrette. Medium cooked duck breast? This is the first time I've heard of such a thing and medium cooked poultry is somewhat a little.. disturbing. But since Dad said that duck meat is technically red meat, well, my Dad always knows best ;-)

I still prefer my duck well done and soft and tender in braised sauce [I know lar so typically Chinese] and the only implication in having it medium done was that it was really chewy. Still, it quite creative (for a sua ku like me) and went well with the vinaigrette.

Mum and Qin ordered the cod fish which was really nicely served. The fish was [Mmm!] fresh! and it was served with a side of pink cream which tasted slightly sweet and buttery. I think it was made of beetroot is my memory serves me correctly. The salsa with mashed potato was also a good combination.

The food here is not bad considering its prices. However, it still needs a little bit of tweaking and a little more getting-right which I hope can be done in the future. Desserts will also be a nice welcome to end a good dinner. If so, the "restaurant" will start seeing larger crowds of people coming to try the food.

Address:

Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road, #01-07, Fortune Centre
63361318
Open 12pm to 10pm
Closed on Mondays

Zi Yean Restaurant

2007-04-25T21:38:00.000+08:00

Zi Yean restaurant is the perfect place to hold a meeting, for my parents and Qin's. It's well priced, well located and serves good food at a good price. This restaurant is located at the void deck of a HDB block. No no no! Don't run away yet!

Its located at the void deck of a HDC block but it really looks like a restaurant! Thats quite a unique experience, if you think about it. Zi Yean stretches the whole void deck and is split into two parts; one part air conditioned and really resturant-looking, and the other un-air conditioned and kopitiam tze char-looking.

Okay, I didn't take pictures of the actual dishes though, as it was somehow like a formal dinner and it would look weird, plus rude, cause we're chinese.. I think, and it will definitely draw weird stares and ridicule from my grandma.. and others. So I took pics of the food on my plate! Hope that helps.

Now to the FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODAAA. The first dish was long beans with dried shrimps. It was really good. The beans were smaller and thinner than normal long beans and was really crunchy. It also wasn't too oily and the dried shrimps really gave it a good sweetness/saltiness and fragrance. Swee!, or Nice!

Next was the Empire Chicken which is chicken stuffed with preserved vegetables on a bed of chye sim. Mmmm, umami! The chicken was tender and stuffed with preserved vegetables which had the right bite consistency, not too hard or soft. The preserved vegetables were also not salty and soaked in the sauce very well. The sauce was nice and yummy and really nicely balanced.

The home made tofu came next. This was also nicely done with loads of spring onions on top. One thing about this Zi Yean is that their sauces are never bland.

The dog stew duck which was served in a claypot was supposed to be the highlight of the dinner and it didn't disappoint. The sauce is thick and rich and the taste was something I couldn't place. To put it simply, it was thick, more on the salty side and had a slight nutty taste with chinese wine in it. It is good but also very heaty so don't eat too much! In the claypot was also muchrooms and loads of tau kee.

The vegetables came next and looked.. funny. So I stared.. and stared and took a bite. Wah Lau eh! Shark fin?! I asked the lady to recommend one vegetable dish and she blabbered something in chinese and I, being the lousy-in-chinese guy, just said Er... can lar can lar and she gave me.. shark fin!? With vegetables nonetheless but still! [fuming mad] And it wasn't exceptional either.

The last dish was steamed grouper [I didn't take a picture] which was fresh and goooooood. The sauce was the same, usual light soy sauce etc, but the fish was well steamed.

And finally, Orh nee for dessert! Mwahaha! Thick, rich and gooey makes a bowl of yam paste sinfully good. Mmm, it was a little overly-sweet though but good nonetheless. I ain't complaining. I easily finished two bowls of this stuff.

Overall, I will recommend this place to friends. Its good and reasonably priced; considering we paid $230 for 11 people and we ordered 2 meat dishes, 1 fish, 1 vegetale dish, 2 big bowls of dessert and.. a plate of shark fin. Plus, the environment is nice and comfortable.

Address:

Lengkok Bahru
Block 56
Tel: 64740911
Opposite Redhill MRT Station

Earth Day is everyday

2007-04-24T12:12:00.000+08:00

Its Earth Day on 22nd April and we're late! With references to French Toast Girl, I proudly present you ways to save energy in and around your house and workplace.

1. Skip the drying cycle in the dishwasher and let the dishes air-dry.

2. Use lesser bags at the supermarket. We should all try to save the usage of plastic bags, especially NTUC which uses an indiscrimanate amount of plastic bags. Tell the cashier to use one bag instead of two! Thats the least we can do.

3. Plant something green. Plants reduce CO2 in the environment.

4. Go organic when you can. Follow the link on the left side of the blog to understand why.

5. Turn off the lights and other electronical items. I turn off everything, whenever we leave the room. It's a good habit to get into.

6. Teach your children well. Our kids are learning to respect the earth, share their resources, and learn more about the world around them.

7. Don't waste. Throw your bottles in the recycle bin or use less paper at the photocopier. Even wrongly photocopied paper can be reused as sketch sheets. Save our trees, there are not much left.

Respect the earth and save it before its too late. Money would be worth nothing when everything's gone.

Pancake Weekly #2

2007-04-23T09:27:00.000+08:00

Whaaad? Has it been five days since my last post?! Oops, Okay I'm sooo sorry cause the past week had been nothing less than a whirlwind of events and a nuclear explosion in my tummy.

Why, you ask? Because my family was back in Singapore and I had the honor of filling their stomachs (and mine) with good ol Singapore food, to the verge that I'm quite sick of eating out now. Think about it, I finished 2 full tanks of petrol in a week just by travelling around and I gained an unwelcomed 3kg, most of which unceromoniously deposited on my waist. Sad but true.

So I'll definately be introducing a few restaurants over the next few days but for now, lets do a little catching up with pancake weekly alright?

Ham & Cheese! Boy, do they rhyme so well that it can be a brand name by itself.

Welcome to Ham & Cheese inc! We have ham & cheese hamburger, ham & cheese fries, ham & cheese sausages, ham & cheese hashbrowns, ham & cheese brownies... er... sundae ice creams... NEXT!

Mmmm! So Sammilicious! (so delicious~!) It's so tasty, tasty it'll make you crazy! T to da A to da S T E Y girl you tasty, T to da A to the S T E Y girl you tasty! [hands in the air and doing the hurley, yeah babey]

Something my girlfriend goes crazy for, fry some ham/bacon, slap on some cheese and fold them all up in a pancake. Shuuuuuuuuuuuweet! Or salty.

Soon Kee Duck Rice: Umami!

2007-04-18T08:27:00.000+08:00

Located just beside the fish soup stall in Long House Food Centre is Soon Kee Duck Rice, the best duck rice I've eaten to date. I remember I onced declared Alexandra Village's duck rice the best ever. Well, cancel that out because this one rocks even more!

Actually the duck rice from both stalls fall into different categories and so, they can't really be compared side-by-side. Alexandra's duck rice belongs to the type with white rice and super umami dark sauce and thinly sliced roast duck. Mmmm, good I'd say.

Soon Kee's duck rice ($3.50 including an egg) belong to the category with the dark coloured yam rice with peanuts and lu dan(braised egg). Except that its not yam rice and thats where its speciality lies.

By far the tastiest (duck) rice I've ever eaten, the rice is so well flavoured that it seems like its been boiled and cooked with the braised sauce. On top of that, the rice tastes like its been fried or cooked with animal fat. Aaaah [enlightened], I seriously think its a watered down version of chicken rice, using chicken or duck fat to fry the rice before cooking. This method really incorporates the fragrance of the duck and the sweetness of the braised sauce together. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?! Brilliante! Genius! The rice has absorbed all the goodiness which is..... good.

The sauce is equally good. It is really at the right thickness and sooo concentrated and well braised with just the right amount of sweetness. This combined with the rice is like, er.. pancakes with maple syrup! ..or a land filled with pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and kaya. [I'm weird]

Their duck meat is not bad either. There's braised duck and roasted duck and I took the braised one which is quite average. The duck rice is accompanied by damn good peanuts though. The peanuts has equally absorbed all the sauces and its super soft!

How could I have forgotten the chilli?! Fried sambal kind of duck rice chilli and the sourish watered kind combined together is really "power" man [sorry couldn't find any other words] Just make an effort to try the chilli because my friend [and me as well] was so ingrossed in the rice that we forgotten about the chilli!

Fish soup for the soul

2007-04-15T11:38:00.000+08:00

The sound of fish soup usually yield responses like "ewwwww", or "yuuuck", or "boooooooring!". I understand what you mean, because paying $3 for a bowl of plain MSG-laden soup with a few slices of fish and decorated with a few pieces of lettuce and tomatoes just looks downright well, not worthy of my money. When did lettuce and tomatoes make their way into fish soup anyway? They weren't there in the past and they certainly don't complement the soup in any way.

This fish soup I found at Long House Food Centre though, is different. Its soup is rich! Clear but rich. Slurping down the soup is like drinking some really tasty broth and they have added deep fried egg whites which give the soup extra richness with a very slight, subtle hint of eggi-ness. The bowl soup also contains blocks of tofu, a generous serving of chye sim and bitter gourd, a few pieces of tomatoes and seaweed which enhances the rich taste even further. I still don't stand by tomatoes but the chye sim and bitter gourd gives a nice side to the dish. Plus, they give a very generous portion of fish slices! All these for a reasonable $3.50.

They also have three kinds of chilli. The first is hei bi (dried shrimps) chilli for their handmade noodles, second is simply cut chilli padi in soy sauce and the third is blended chilli which I tried and is haaaaaaaute. The taste is good but don't dip too much because it is super hot!

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Pancake Weekly #1

2007-04-14T09:59:00.000+08:00

I've decided! Due to my undying love for min jiang kueh, I'm going to start a Pancake Weekly which will feature min jiang kueh or any other pancakes in different [read awesomely delectable] styles and fillings. Oh yes, please don't be turned off sometimes though, I have the knack to produce weird stuff. [Hai! Watashi Orihime san!] Oh yes, my brain churns out weird recipes and cravings which normal people [eg. you] find weird but weird people [eg. me] find normal. Geddit? I hooooooope so..

Alrighty folks, I hope you're not sick of min jiang kueh posts because heres another one [it doesn't really matter because I'm going to post them whether you like them or not mwahaha!] Min jiang kueh with caramelized baked banana kueh dadar style! Shuuuweeeeet I say. Ooo I see you babey! Shakin' that ass, shakin' that ass!

Oven-baked caramelized banana; soft, silky, warm, creamy inside without the unhealthy fat which comes with deep frying and wrapped with soft, spongy, awesomely good pancake. You bite into riiight, and you feel the soft banana-ey insides squirt out and next you start to taste the light yet tasty batter. Mmmm umamai.. Mmmm sedap! You see, good food can cross language barriers, like how superman can.. wear his underpants inside out! [Okay, that was lame and unrelated]

Heres how you do it, which you should because its good.

Simply wrap bananas (I like to use the small ones [not Del Monte] as they are much sweeter) in an aluminum foil and baked at 200 degrees for 10 minutes or till bananas are soft and mashy.

Carefully place them on the pancake which you should make thinner this time round, and fold the sides of the pancake inside. Next, fold the bottom up and roll. Its like making poh piah, if you still don't geddit, go order some poh piah and watch how they make it k?

Do you know the taste of heaven?!

2007-04-13T08:43:00.000+08:00

I made min jiang kueh yesterday.

[enters state of nonsensical madness]

Oooooooooooh yesssssssssssssssss, min jiang kueeeeeeh. Mah salvation! Oooh the hunger, the joy, the sponginess, the taste! The.. the.. awesomeness. Oh yeah babey, this is what I call the haute-ness uh huh uh huh. I see you babey, shakin' that ass!

Aaaahahaha I'm crazy. Yeah I'm a crazy dude who have the hots for that hot mama [points above, and below, and above again.. and above and below] Oookay, I shouldn't do anymore posts on min jiang kueh. I can feel everyone closing this window, deleting their bookmarks.. BLOCKING THIS SITE! Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

But min jiang kueh is good! It makes you high without the need for estacy! That soft, spongy, porey pancake with the taste of sweet, baked flour and oooh, that fragrant goodness. [I really think this must be what its like to be in heaven] When you slap on some peanut butter, its goodness X 3. Slap on some kaya and O MY GAWD its like food porn woohoo!

Sorry, I shall stop now.

Recipe:

150g All Purpose/Self Raising flour
10g Tapioca/Potato flour
1 cup water
5 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg

Instructions:
1. Mix well and heat non-stick pan on medium heat
2. Lightly oil pan and pour batter depending on how thick you want it to be (I personally use 2 ladle full for a 12 inch pan)
3. Cover the pan
4. Remove approximately 1-2 minutes or after pancake is fully cooked and bottom is lightly browned
5. Spread on kaya or peanut butter and grow some angel wings
6. Don't you know min jiang kueh gives you wings?

Miss Clari-who?

2007-04-11T07:40:00.000+08:00

It rained cats and dogs yesterday [not literally because that would be scary.. and freaky.. and kind of dangerous], which kinda spoiled our day since we decided to get off our butts and shop a little. So we ended going to Raffles City where we passed by the famous donut shop. And I HAVE to say, anyone queuing up for those donuts.. gotta be nuts. Look at the darn queue! Are any donuts THAT GOOD to command such a queue?!

Maybe yeah, but I wouldn't queue up for 2 hours for my favourite min jiang kueh.. [or maybe I wooould..] I'm quite amused at the insanity of people and the see-queue join-queue syndrome which is especially prominent here in Singapore. But who am I to say right? [Predicting the flight of many donuts to his face]

Raffles City has got quite a few new restaurants, none of which interested us so Miss Clarity it was! Previous good experiences led us there again and again but alas, this time they missed.

For one, the restaurant was quite deserted, considering they were just featured on a foodie TV show just the week before, something smells fishy.

I like the $3 add-on for set meals which can get you a salad/soup, drink and a dessert. Its really quite worth it. We had the escargot which I have never eaten in my entire life. Served on a bed of sea salt, it reeked strongly of butter and it was damn oily. I'm sure escargots taste good, if cooked correctly, but I plonked 1/2 into my mouth and I thought I was gonna get hypertension. Where did those snails come from, the Dead Sea?! It was seriously salty to the max and there wasn't much flavour in it.

I ordered chicken ballotine before and it was quite good so I had it again. This time though, it wasn't stuffed with shitake mushrooms which was such a disappointment. I feel cheated. The chicken was also overcooked and was baked to almost rock hard at the ends (imagine the mushroom turned crunchy and crispy) but the sauce was the same ol good sauce was goes well with the vegetables and meat and taste a little like braised sauce. Okaaaay, I suck at this. I'm sorry I failed all my compositions okay! Just kidding. MOVING ON!

The baked rice looked unappetizing the minute or second it landed on the table. The rice looked dry and there wasn't enough cheese and sauce. To give it credit, the rice had been fried with butter. The sauce, to put it frankly, tasted horrid and sourish and was just like canned tomato sauce. The chicken, although served a generous portion, wasn't that good and had the frozen chicken taste (read: not fresh). So BIG thumbs down for this dish.

Alas, the bread and butter pudding was still Miss Clarity's saving grace. Its heavenly and thats all the description you need [but you JUST want more don't you]. The bread is soft and soaked with some kind of altered carnation milk which isn't cloyingly sweet and has a subtle taste of cinnamon. throw in a few soaked, juicy raisins in it and you've got a damn good dessert. Its just soft, warm, sweetly soaked bread with raisins that just mushes in your mouth and releases the slight milky and cinnamon-ey flavour and slides down your throat into the dark abyss called your tummy. Good enough? I thought so.

Miss Clarity attracted us in the past because it served good food at reasonable prices. It USED to be cheap but after its prices increased, I don't find it particularly cheap compared to other restaurants. In order to get back its customers (namely us), it has to start working on the quality of its dishes and people (us again) will start coming back. So, till then, Adios!

Glennan, my kind of girl

2007-04-08T09:40:00.000+08:00

Potato chips are definately not for a health freak like me. Come to think about it, I haven't eaten any for years! They are deep fried in oil which has been reused for god knows how long, plus anything thats deep fried is NOT GOOD at all [Dad, if you're reading this, PLEASE TAKE NOTE!]. Its almost equivalent to trans fat and they promote your chances of getting heart disease and adding inches to your waistline.. your thighs.. a little cellulite perhaps.. Do I see something hanging underneath your chin there?

As an alternative I've tried baking potato chips, which often fail miserably. Plus, they still need oil, although lesser and I try to use olive oil. So I finally gave up on chips [Nooo dear Lord!]. Until.. I found Glennan! [Hallelujah!]

Glennan is you're typical girl-next-door kind of chick. She's sweet looking, got a killer smile and a pretty hot bod, except that I'm only fantasizing here. Glennan is actually a company which makes apple chips. [Whuuuut?] Yeah apple chips, you heard me right and BAKED not FRIED. That's what it says.

10 packets of apple crings equals one packet of chips! Go figure.

I LOVE THIS STUFF! It's made of 100% pure apples and yeah, you can pretty much read everything on the label and its only 16 calories! GAWD! 16 calories! [enters state of chips-eating frenzy]. And it tastes awesome! No sugar added but it's shuuuuuuweeeet! Sweet and slightly tart and crunchier than potato chips. [You lose this time fat-laden chips! Mwahaha!]

I'm telling ya, this thing is my salvation and my savior to my sweet tooth. In fact, I just ate two packets today morning.... and I hope Qin doesn't read this post. I tend to go overboard with healthy things. In fact, this morning I was starving and I ate 2 bananas, an avacado, a apple cinnamon rice cake, some rice milk [damn my dairy allergy] and two packets of apple chips. Isn't is good that healthy stuff don't give you love handles? Unfortunately they do Sam, if you eat too much.

So I bought this apple chips from Caltex at $1.20 per packet and I bought LOADS of them. Guess what? The distributor is in Canning Vale WA 6155. That's my poster code dammit! I'm gonna get this chips over in Perth as well, YAY!

Sigh, I just finished my pack of chips. Can't they like pack more into one packet?! Is that TOO MUCH to ask?! Darn..

Duck soupie

2007-04-05T15:22:00.000+08:00

Rocher Duck Rice is one duck rice stall I just HAVE to introduce to everyone. Now many people may slam me for this and some already did [eg. MY girlfriend, who INSISTS that their duck rice are nothing special and not even nice]. But shhhhhh, come in closer and I'll tell you a secret because the gem in this stall is not the duck rice, nor the duck meat, but the soup. [Aaaah, enlightenment!]

Frankly speaking, their duck rice is at most average and so is their duck meat and I wouldn't give a hoot about them if not for their soup, which is also coincidentally and thankfully available in a claypot duck version.

The soup is one of the best herbal soup I've ever drank; the second best coming from a damn good duck rice stall in Bukit Timah Plaza which I will cover in another post (hopefully, if I get the chance to go down there). The soup is really rich and full of herbal goodiness yet not to the point of being bitter at all. It's so concentrated with herbal essence (not the shampoo) that I think theres got to be a thousand herbs squeezed into the pot. Just kidding, I wouldn't drink it if it were a thousand.. or a hundred cause I'll probably splurt blood from my nose and die on the spot.

Back to the soup! Hey, this is soup is really good and I would gladly drink it on its own and dunk it in rice and slurp it up like porridge. Hey teochew duck porridge! Now thats an idea..

The meat though is a little on the tough side and nothing much to write about.

Oh yeah they have an assortment of side dishes too like tau kwa, kiam chye, pork intestines, pig skin, stir-fry cabbage and some other stuff.

The kiam chye was not bad but not exceptional and could be a little more sourish.

Heres a pic of the duck rice. Its funny too that their duck meat come in chunks rather than slices. The pig skin ordered by my friend is covered in a layer of fat which apparently is not very good for health.. and your waistline since it sends you into a state of jelly bellyness. Ya know.. jelly bellyness? [Just pretend that you know]

Okay! I can't believe that I wrote so much for a bowl of herbal soup from a duck rice stall, but I did. SO GO AND TRY IT NOW!

Address:

Rocher Duck Rice
[Shucks, I forgot to note the actual address but its directly opposite Concord hotel along Beach Road]

Soup, ribs and stuffed

2007-03-31T18:39:00.000+08:00

Soup restaurant is one my favourite restaurant worth visiting again and again.. and again. I simply love the dishes they serve there. Its just sooo... chinese! Which is good cause I like chinese fooooooooooooodddaah.

Plus they also serve nice slurpilicious soups which are really strongly flavoured without MSG, I guess, since I don't really feel thirsty afterwards.

We popped by Soup Restaurant in Suntec City yesterday after craving it for SO many months and ordered the set meal for two which consisted of a plate of Samsui chicken, Ah kong potato leaves, Begger pork ribs, Soup of the day and desserts.

O sweet holy mountain of nuts!

They serve nuts as an appetizer. Peanuts soaked in sugar and dark sauce, I think, which are reaalllly good.

Soup of the day was winter melon soup which was VERY good. Very well boiled and brought out the flavour of the pork ribs. Yummay~

Can I just say that the Samsui chicken is SUPER DUPER WOOPERLY NICE?! Ooo nicely boiled chicken pieces wrapped in fresh crispy lettuce and topped with a KILLER ginger sauce. The ginger sauce is just outta the world when eaten with the chicken, or alone, or with rice, or with anything. Its just so delicious! I think they added sesame oil, some soya sauce and a little sugar to it to make it taste so good but if you don't the ingredients right on your 9980th attempt to get it right, don't worry. They do sell it in a bottle for $4.80 only.

Wrap it up~ before you go go~

We also order the begger pork ribs because its lip smackingly good. The slightly charred ribs is seasoned in a sauce so good you'll keep wanting more. Come to think of it, the sauce tastes like tweaked char siew sauce. Don't come here expecting Tony Romas though, the ribs here are dry but tender and comes off the bone easily, not juicy little sticks with fat dripping down their bodies.

The Ah kong potato leaves we changed to Ah por's. And yes, there is a difference, one is cooked with sambal while the other is cooked with black sauce. Nothing special about this and it tastes like spinach drenched in dark, sweet sauce.

Dessert is a choice of white fungus and gingko or herbal jelly and we tried both which were pretty average.

Order the set meal because it's only $40 (you're allowed to change one dish) and it will save you quite a good sum. Plus, it think its more suitable for three people cause we were STUFFED to da max!

Sobs... love handles...

Kim Gary's

2007-03-29T10:42:00.000+08:00

It's hard to find good fried rice that's nice, tasty and not oily, even harder to find just better than average fried rice in restaurants. Or maybe that's because I don't order fried rice in restaurants. How many times has it been... Cnce..? Twice?

Alrighty but Super Sam knows a good plate, or in this case a bowl, of fried rice when he sees one! ..Or tastes one! Yeeeah, trust the man who never eats fried rice.

We popped by Kim Gary's restaurant in Vivocity sometime last week which had me asking the question, "Who the fish is Kim Gary?!". But nevertheless, we crossed our fingers, clutched our souls and sacrificed our tastebuds for the greater good. Or so we thought...

Kim Gary's offer Hong Kong styled cuisine and has the usual thick toasts, pork chop noodles etc, and rice with toppings like stir fry beef, pork chop and fried fish pretty much like the stuff you can find in Hong Kong, I guess.

We had an Almond tea ($1+) which was pretty milky in a cow kind of way. It tasted diluted and not almondy enough.

Also, a dish of mini drumlets ($5+) which were pretty decent but the sauce tasted pretty much of mainly black pepper and wasn't really suitable for the drumlets.

We also wanted to try the thick toast but when it was served to the table beside us we went, "Holy shizz! Look at size of that thing!". I swear man it was at least 8 inches high or maybe it was only 4 inches... I wanted to take a picture but I was quite sure they would've minded. Oh well.

Okay finally to the mains! The hot and spicy noodles with chicken wings tasted pretty much like crap. The soup was so diluted and tasted like peanuts and yeah, that's about it.

But I ordered a gem! Yay, a gem! I ordered stir fry beef with mushroom rice which was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. The rice was well fried but yet not oily even one bit. In fact, the rice was so separated and un-mushy that I could feel every grain of rice. It had the right wetness level of sauce which actually made it taste like steamed rice which had been slightly left dried and seasoned with sauces, grainy but tasty.

And I'm telling you, mushroom, chinese sauces and rice gotta be a match made in heaven. The mushroom soaked in all the seasonings and mixed with the already lightly sauced rice was drool worthy. Besides, the rice had the wok hei taste and they were brilliant to add corn bits to the rice which added a distinctive flavour and crunch.

The beef was soft and nicely cooked, although it may have been swimming in corn starch for a little too long. Even so, it had a good wok hei taste and nice texture and a $6 bowl of fried rice provided me with a hell lot of beef.

It wouldn't be fair to judge Kim Gary's at this point but the fried rice was really worth it.

Aston

2007-03-26T10:02:00.000+08:00

Cheap steak! But is it reaaally cheap? Good steak! Is it reaaaaally good?

Well, apparently not.

I was down at Aston's Chomp Chomp branch last week with Qin and her brother to try out their supposedly famously economically-priced steaks which aren't really economically priced as the cheapest (a sirloin) was priced at $9.90.

Cheap? I don't think sooo. Yeah sure it's cheaper than a restaurant's but the portion is notably small. Besides, we can always find good steaks at the same price in a kopitiam which reminded me that Aston's at Chomp Chomp was located in a kopitiam.

The man over the counter was quite friendly which unfortunately didn't help in the doneness of the steak. Medium turned out becoming almost-rare which was SUCH a surprise considering the thin-ness of the steak. Maybe they didn't want to overcook it. Maybe.

Chicken chop was good though. I had the BBQ chicken chop with hickory sauce which was the only thing that caught my eye. Well, actually when I saw the word hickory my mind went like "Get the hickory dammit, get the hickory dammit, get the hickory dammit". I seriously believe that I've been tastrebud-washed ever since I ate hickory sauced steak at Hog's Breath.

Hickory was yummay! Errr, which left me undecided whether the chicken was good or not. Acceptable and quite juicy I guess.

The other chicken chop with mushroom sauce wasn't that impressive with the sauce rather mild.

Oh but I have to talk about the sides. They have quite a number of sides including vegetables, salad, coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, baked potato, mashed potato and fries.

The coleslaw and mashed potato were quite good andddd, they were quite good anddddd, I don't know what else to say. Alas!

I don't know about the quality at the REAL Aston but this one didn't make a good impression on me.

Queue Queue Rice

2007-03-24T10:18:00.000+08:00

I wouldn't be insane enough to queue in line for 45 minutes for a rice ball, so I guess I was a little insane the day before when I DID queue up for 45 minutes... for two rice balls. Of course I grumbled during the entire time of which Qin had to painstakingly endure.

QQ rice wasn't so crowded before that one fine day. That DAY when it was featured on Channel 8. Which lead to the unimaginable horrendous queue which I contributed to by making it longer HEHE. But at least I didn't buy a whole box of rice balls and stood around the counter taking my own sweet time like some people did, jerks. I swore he took 10 minutes or more, Sheesh.

Anyways, this QQ rice is actually brought over from Taiwan and features rice balls with 5 different kinds of fillings. There are also 5 different rice to choose from namely; purple rice (like Bubur Hitam), brown rice, mixed wild rice, ice lake wild rice, wheat germ brown rice and a combination of any two. $3.20 for a rice ball or $3.90 for 2 different types of rice or make it a meal by adding a multi grain drink and rice pudding for and additional $1.80.

They also do have quite a variety of ingredients to choose from ranging from chicken floss to lettuce. Actually, what ranges from chicken floss to lettuce?! Ahha! I don't even know what the fish I'm saying.

Okay, so whether your ball of rice tastes good or not pretty much (like 98%) depends on the ingredients you choose. Choose those with very strong flavours (like I did) like chicken floss and mutton rendang (this week's specialty) and your ball (of rice) will taste good.

Hey, I like this stuff. It's like my salvation to my ban from sandwiches (Damn you wheat bread!!!). It's like I can FINALLY eat sandwiches again! Yay! Just kidding, nothing compares to a kick-ass sandwich. But rice is good, and healthy, in a different kind of way. The purple rice is gooooood and has that Piak-y bite to it when you bite chomp down into it and expore its tummy full of yummy ingredients.

Otherwise, thats pretty much it and brown rice, well, tasted like brown rice. Duh, what did you expect?

It's good, it's nice and it's convenient but I'll probably visit it a few weeks later after all the commotion has died down.

Address:

Novena Square 2
QQ rice
#01-06

Taiwan "Xiao Chi"

2007-03-22T10:29:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile back since we visited this tiny eatery.

Oh yeah everything is always "been awhile back" isn't it Saaaaam? Sheesh.

Arghhh get out you dumb voice in my head!

Alrighty, anyways yeah, this teeny weeny eatery which isn't really tiny actually is located opposite Bugis Junction beside Ritz apple strudel. They serve, well, Taiwanese food! What a surprise!

We were quite full so we only ordered two dishes to try out. (Okay I'm lying, after that I ate 1 plate of duck rice, two bowls of desserts and 4 packets of durian which was DAMN NICE LAR considering I got them from Carrefour)

Aaah! Nooo get off me you sickening love handles!!!

Okay, DNS (Do Not Sidetrack). We got a preserved cucumber, not literally but a plate of it. It was good! Right sweetness but sourishly preserved enough and the cucumber isn't mushy especially the seedy part. And they added sesame oil which gave it an extra kick.

The Kong bak rice was SUPER DUPER YUMMY! Albeit being like 199% overly oily. It was filled with tasty, savoury, pork belly slices soaked in a unhealthy amount of liquid FAT and I ate the whole bowl of it. Shizz, what was I thinking?

The salted vegetables also gave the dish a nice soury salty touch to the otherwise superbly-unbalanced-toward-the-side-of-unhealthy dish and stops making you feel full and sick.

Oh yeah they also have this tea egg which was cooked to dark brown but tasted like a normal hard boiled egg. So much for the effort aye?

We WILL go down and try their Zha jiang mien as well as their fried chicken as well as some other stuff which I forgot soon (I hope). Try the rice, it's damn good! Unless you're on a low cholestoral diet or something.

Some shots and what not

2007-03-21T08:16:00.000+08:00

We gave Waraku another shot. Not much words this time round, Just enjoy the food-porn alright fellas!

Oh yeah I just have to add in that the udon was quite good. Good, chewy udon with good soup. But darn it, it made me scratch the whole night because the waitress said it doesn't contain wheat...

Alrighty, that's all for today folks, till I lay me fingers on my sexy Apple keyboard again. Adios!

Adam's road Nasi Lemaks

2007-03-18T18:25:00.000+08:00

I've been eating a hell lot of durian lately, which uncoincidentally have nothing to do with this post at all. *Big smile*

Alrighty, having heard about Adam's Road famous Nasi Lemak, we specially made a trip down today (after having dragging that trip on for months).

Good nasi lemak? Read on.

There were two stalls side by side; Adam's Nasi Lemak and Selera Rasa's Nasi Lemak, and clearly Adam's was getting all the attention with consistent long queues but Selera's was only enjoying a tiny trickle of customers (most of which I think chose it over Adam's because of the long queue, like me).

So we were so full of anticipation before eating the nasi lemak right... after eating a spoonful of rice each, our anticipation levels dropped to half and we were like "Thats... it?". Oookay, the rice didn't blow me away this time; and I'm a person who gets blown away very easily as someone else mentioned.

It's just too grainy (read: not fluffy at all). Not lemak enough (read: not enough coconut and pandan) and just lacking of something. I don't know what, and I don't think they know too if not they'll be having queues twice as long as Adam's. Oh well, at least the sambal made up for it somehow. Don't get me wrong, it's not excellent I've tasted much better sambal elsewhere but its not bad lar. The begedil is quite nice though, soft and sufficiently potato-ey. Don't even talk about the chicken wing. It's batter is HARD and TASTELESS and so is the chicken wing. Period.

So we weren't satisfied OF COURSE. So I had to queue up for Adam's and I suay suay kena one dude who ta pao-ed 4 packets of nasi lemak. Okay, nevermind though because the nasi lemak looked promising and lets just say the rice is much much better than Selera's. It's got enough coconut, it seperates easily (Oh did I mention that Selera's rice CLUMPS?), and it's soft, not grainy.

The sambal is not bad but Selera's would be the winner in this category. The chicken wing is better than Selara's but only slightly and the begedil and otah is only average.

*Sigh* Aye, I prefer Hup Lee's nasi lemak lar at least their chicken wing rocks my socks and their chilli is Mmm, very yummy and their rice, Hieh can easily beat them both. (Subjective to taste, please don't flame me okay?)

No. 1 Nasi Lemak in Singapore? You be the judge.

Address:

Adam Road Food Centre

Stall 2: Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak
Stall 1: Adam's Nasi Lemak

Good Morning Granny

2007-03-17T08:10:00.000+08:00

There's only one grass jelly stall I would ever recommend to anyone and that's granny's grass jelly located at Golden Mile Food Centre. The first time I tried it I was blown away by how good it was.

I ordered the drink back then and the jelly was just so... melty, soft, squishy and smashy. Not something you can really sink your teeth in. For those who don't like the grass jelly taste (like my fussy gf), this particular drink doesn't have that taste too (or so the fussy girl claims).

This time round I ordered the jelly version which is really nothing compared to the drink. Okay, it is softer and stickier than normal but I'd rather have it chopped up and slurp it all up in the form of a drink.

Address:

Casuarina Prata

2007-03-15T23:01:00.000+08:00

Oh sweet tunnel of food

Shucks, blogger is acting up again and I can't put my pictures up! So I'll just put up something we ate like a few months back (which doesn't help when we tried to recall how they tasted like).

Uuh... just enjoy the pictures. Like a children story book! Ya know, when you were a kid and you only flip through the pictures and not the boring text. Just treat it that way.

So here goes nothing:

Paper thosai masala

Quite good. HAHA (Pathetic). That's all I can remember. Oh yeah, it's crunchy... uhm, the coconut side was goody goody and we swapped dhal curry for mutton curry which was much better. The masala potatoes were, well, I forgot. Hehe. =)

Egg prata was quite huge (the biggest egg prata I've ever seen) but tasted pretty average.

I may be forgetful but not that forgetful to write about probably one of the nicest bryani I've eaten. Fair enough though, I don't eat alot of bryani so if my tastebuds fail to judge accurately, don't ostracise me please?

The gravy was ooooooo maaaa goodddddneesssss. I loved it! And so did everybody else. It's more to the sweet side (shizz I think my brain can only identify sweet and savoury... okay maybe bitter and sour too, not that good at defining the taste). The rice was ooookay only. Actually I didn't get a good shot at the rice cause I was frantically scooping up the rice with the gravy and shoving it into my mouth which will end on in my belly which will ultimately end up on my love handles. Aaah, *sobs*

The chicken was a little hard though.

Umm, I don't have the address but I'll be visiting the place tomorrow again and I'll just post it up ASAP. :)

Alright here it is

Casuarina Curry
126 Casuarina Road,
Singapore 579514
Phone: +65-64559093
Fax: +65-64551230
Opening Hours :
Mon - Sun & Pub : 7:00 AM - 11:30 PM
Weekends & eve of Public Holidays 7:00am - 12:00pm

More loving

2007-03-11T20:20:00.000+08:00

Oh did I mention my mum cooks a kick-ass chicken too?

Well, now you know.

And some pon teh. At least thats how I think it's pronounced.

My love

2007-03-11T11:39:00.000+08:00

These are what I had during my trip home:

Achar

Made by my dear Mom a.k.a the most awesome mom in the WWW. No lar not the internet, Whole Wide World!

Nonya Bak Zhang

I wrapped them okay. Quite standard right?!

Loads of meat and a little rice for a glutton like ME.

Hock Lam Beef Noodles

2007-03-08T08:56:00.000+08:00

Clear clear clear!

I'm in such a mad rush to clear all my drafts before I post my Perth pics which unfortunately couldn't be posted because the dumb system in camp doesn't allow me to upload pics.

Oookay. I think I'm ranting more than usual nowadays. Haha, maybe I'm going bonkers. Or maybe I WAS already nuts... to start with. Nooooo don't leave me my dear readers! Hehe.

Oh yeah yesterday I ate like the most AWESOME (shizz Sam stop using the word awesome!). The most [add in your preferred spectacular word here] thosai ever. But unfortunately I forgotten to bring my phone so I couldn't take pictures. Ah ha! Gotcha on a teaser.

Which brings me to this post on Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeef noooooodles!

I love beef noodles. Totally dig em. When people were eating baby food I was drinking beef soup. Aye, no kidding, this boy likes his beef. I love the beef noodles at Rex (at Selegie road) which my dad a.k.a the most wonderful man, used to bring us a long, long time ago. Cooked by this old lady and served with damn good chinchalok (the white stuff with chilli) and loads of chye poh (preserved vegetables), totally awe...licious! The sauce was damn good and beefy also. Anyone knows if it had been passed down? Pleeease tell me pleaase I'm BEGGING you!

After that we found another beef noodle stall located at Scotts shopping centre food court and that became our next best thing over the years. But now Scotts is gone! Ahhh, they just want to rid me of my beeeeeeeef, don't they?!

Okay, so I've found Hock Lam. Well... it's not exactly up to that standard though. Hock Lam's beef noodle is strongly flavoured. Rrrrright, but in a different kind of way; the way of garlic and spices. Boy, it was strong, but in a subjective kind of way; as some people do not like garlic (not me). The sauce tasted mostly of (very) strong use of spices and reeked strongly of garlic. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but when you think about it, it's supposed to be a bowl of BEEF noodles.

Dude, the beef stock is simply not strong enough. The soup is also too salty and strongly flavoured and when both taken together, Phoo! A little unpleasant.

Not that it's a bad thing, some people like it but I don't. really. find. it. that. good.
I also don't like the idea of peanuts in my beef noodles? Oh well...

Waraku

2007-03-06T22:00:00.000+08:00

We don't usually eat at Japanese restaurants alot. And nooo, Ichiban Boshi doesn't count, it's just like a sushi chain thingy. So I was really anticipating how Waraku would taste like (not the store but the food duh) especially after reading Food Glorious Food's multiple posts on how uber fabulous the negitoro tastes like.

Verdict: It's freakin' good. Awesome. Fabulous. Yummy. Slurps slurps!

Good fatty tasty tuna belly with rice (which was pretty normal) with huge loads of heavenly spring onions which is the SUPERB sidekick to minced tuna belly. It's like robin to batman... Or kaya to toast... or issit toast to kaya (okay I've got some strange metaphors going on back there in my head). Or bananas dipped with chocolate... Jesus it's quite shitty I'm stuck in camp now and I'm hungreeeeeeeee.

Seriously, it's awesome. The spring onions added this fragrance to the otherwise (presumably) yucky raw tuna belly. I said presumably. Nah, actually I would like the tuna belly with rice alone too. But the spring onions are just so essential! Read the above paragraph again if you do not understand (or just keep reading it over and over again). And adding good grade soya sauce and a little wasabi would just hit the spot.

NEXT

This uber fabulously nice sushi. Raw chopped up tuna with a quail egg yolk. At least I think it's quail egg cause it's so teeny weeny. Omg, gobble up the whole thing and feel the awesome tuna taste combined with eggy texture so smooth it just slides down. Awesome.

We liked the pork katsu too. It was thick, and juicy... and sufficiently porky. And dipped into their AWESOME sauce meant for katsu. Ooo, genius. The best sauce I've ever tasted in my life (and I totally dig those things). It's not as sharp yet that's what brought out the flavour. Okay that explanation sucked... I can't remember much except it being the best I've ever tasted.

The udon was just pretty normal though. No hoo haa about it.

Ooo and we ordered the 5 kind sashimi. HAHA you should have seen Qin went into a state of shock for like 2 seconds when the dish was served. Actually I also went into a state of shock because the thing was SO FREAKIN HUGE we had to be shifted to another table!

But alas, the sashimi was a little of a let down. Not that fresh I suppose and the salmon doesn't have that milky taste. The rest were also only so-so and not the freshest I've had.

But otherwise, it was a good dinner and the bill came up to around $60 for both of us.

Did I also mention they provide two kinds of soya sauce? The one for sushi is sweet while the one for sashimi is a little more salty. But both rocked.

You can find out more here.

Zhen Zhen Porridge

2007-03-05T10:03:00.000+08:00

Just the other day I was back at Maxwell Food Centre again and this time, Qin and I tried the famous Zhen Zhen Porridge stall. I was initially quite skeptical about it. I mean, how good could a bowl of porridge get right, since I've already tried a few good porridge stalls which were of quite good standards. Plus, the queue was so darn long and the auntie was also taking super long!

But alas, this unknowledgable boy was enlightened after tasting this bowl of porridge.

The porridge had been stirred and boiled and mixed and the uncle had semingly done whatever it takes to churn the porridge into a gruel. And boy, has he succeeded.

No matter how I scooped and stirred and strained my eye, I couldn't see a grain of rice left. Everything was a made into a thick simple paste which tasted super good. Seriously speaking, this bowl of porridge let me know the meaning of the word congee. We were actually drinking the porridge from the spoon!

I ordered a plain porridge (50c) which came with loads of toasted sesame seeds, chye poh (preserved vegetables), spring onions, fried shallots and a dash of sauce. Although it was a plain porridge, it had that congee taste, subtle yet you will be able to feel its presence. The toasted sesame seeds added a kick to the porridge (anything with sesame is good though IMO) and the condiments is seriously addictive, making us slurp the porridge spoonful after spoonful.

This is to date the BEST bowl of porridge I've ever eaten. Not even Ho Kee's porridge came anywhere near it. It's just a different league. It's just so darn good and it's really old school and traditional. Must try!

We also ordered a plate of $3 yu sheng (raw fish) which was equally good. The dish came with loads of sesame seeds, fried shallots and spring onions. It also came with 3 sides of lime which I found out had a reason behind it. After squeezing all the lime in, the yu sheng taste very, very qing (refreshing) and it wasn't oily even one bit. The toasted sesames did the job of making it very fragrant again and the sauce was equally good. Plus, the fish was very fresh.

Overall, the best yu sheng I've eaten to date even beating Ho Kee's.

If you happen to visit this stall (which you Should!), you Must order the yu sheng also!

Address:

Zhen Zhen Porridge
Maxwell Food Centre
Stall 54

Ah Kow Bak Chor Mee

2007-03-03T23:47:00.000+08:00

Every now and then, Qin and I enjoy a good bowl of minced pork noodles or bak chor mee. Well, we don't eat it very often though as we haven't found one that really tastes fantastic yet.

The last bak chor mee we ate though, was of quite a good standard and is of a kind which I never tasted before. When I eat minced pork noodles, the noodles must definately be the right level of Qness, well cooked but not mushy and with a bite. The noodles must also NEVER, ever have the alkaline taste in them. The sauce must be good and must have a strong yet not overpowering taste of black vinegar. Also, I like the chilli to go well with the noodles and it can't be too sour and of course the minced pork must be juicy and tasty.

Oh dear, I really sound like a picky eater don't I?

Ah Kow's Bak Chor Mee, however, doesn't have the usual sharpness of black vinegar but rather a very subtle taste. The first thing which hit me was how smooth the overall taste was. The entire sauce was very smooth but yet not too oily which made it go down very easily. It isn't a bowl of noodles which you will eat because of the sauce but rather as a whole, like it's more of a result of a good broth accompanied with good and perfectly cooked noodles.

And boy were the minced pork juicy! Very porky in my opinion.

I also liked the fried fishes (like ikan bilis but not)which accompanied the noodles. Very crunchy and tasty!

Overall, I'd say this is a bowl of noodles which will not leave you thirsty because it's not enough salty enough to start with. But yet the taste is definately there and I can't emphasize enough how smooth the whole thing is.

Worth a try!

Address:

Ah Kow Mushroom Mince Pork Noodles
Hong Lim FC
#02-43

Victor's Dim Sum

2007-03-01T13:24:00.000+08:00

Ahhh, it's really taken me quite awhile to adjust back to the life in Singapore after spending my CNY back home in Perth (where I gained 4kg!). Oh well, the Perth pics will be coming up shortly so I'll just post on something I had before I went off for my holiday.

I had previusly visited Victor's dim sum twice and had found the food to be good but quite inconsistent. Perhaps it's the weekend problem where the huge crowd comes in. This time round, I was with ieat's gang and I have to say that the food standard was back to what I experienced the first time round.

Well, the menu offers a list of items including porridge and the usual dim sum. The few stars that shine IMO are the carrot cake, lotus leaf rice, you tiao in rice roll and custard pao.

The lotus leaf rice is very good and has enough flavour. There's enough dried shrimps used to make it fragrant and enough scallops were used to make it "sweet". I would prefer it to be a little wetter though.

I also liked this you tiao wrapped in rice rolls accompanied by the sweet cheong fun sauce. This was the first time I had seen such a combination and the crunchiness of the you tiao and the soft rice roll really went well together.

The carrot cake was also very special because it's the first time I'm eating carrot cake served in a bowl. It was really well sweetened by the scallops and dried shrimps and adding the light soya sauce to it really makes it a darn good dish.

Ahh, last but definately not least, this custard bun was on the top of my list. The egg custard was so thick that it kinda resembled kaya. Thick, creamy, and not cloyingly sweet. A salted egg yolk also added a kick to the sweetness.

Victor's dim sum is really one place to visit if you like some authentic and good dim sum
and plus, it's quite affordable.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

2007-02-19T07:54:00.000+08:00

Here's wishing all of you a Happy CNY and may all of you prosper in health, career, family, friends and love in this year of the pig. I'm currently spending CNY down under in Perth with my family and will be back in Singapore on the 26th. So till then, have a spankin' new year and cya soon!

And don't forget to whack all the new year goodies okay?

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

So good it doesn't taste vegetarian!

2007-02-16T14:15:00.000+08:00

Once again, ieat's makan gang impressed me when they introduced this Xing Hwa Vegetarian stall located near Fortune Centre. Prior to trying out the food in this stall, I had the impression (and from previous experience) that vegetarian food just can't make it. I mean, it really has that bland and monotonous vegetarian food taste if you know what I mean. Plus, all the chilli also have that same boring taste which lacks of something, He bi (dried shrimps) perhaps?

Anyways, we tried out this stall's speciality which is Whatasupahaochi! tang hoon. Haha, just kidding, I forgot what it's called so if you happen to visit, just ask for the speciality okay?

This dish really prove to be a shock to me because it was darn good! It's really tasty and I don't know what they put inside in to make it taste so. It's very flavourful, texture of the tang hoon is good, wetness is just right and you won't feel sick eating a whole plate of it. I'd say it's even better than normal stir-fry tang hoon. I also like the peanuts, more please?

Next up is a plate of Woohoosupaslurpie! mee. Okay lar, I wasn't attentive to names on that day can?! Just ask for their second speciality noodles.

Well, this noodles has much more gravy, slightly less tasty but still good and the noodles texture were not bad although I still prefer bee hoon to mee. I'd say it's worth a try but if you only have space for one dish, take the tang hoon!

Address:

Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant
180 Bencoolen Street, #01-02 S. 189646 (Near Guanyin Temple)
Tel: 63367370
Open: Daily, 8am-10pm

Foodcourt Gems: Shanghai Delights

2007-02-14T15:30:00.000+08:00

It's seriously almost impossible finding good food in a food court. I mean finger lickin' good food. Food courts are full of boring stuff like mixed chinese rice (Qin's gonna laugh at me for this one), fishball noodles (ewww!) and man, over-commercialised chicken rice (like everyones cashing in on it).

Surprisingly, I DID find a gem in one food court. Well, actually I was introduced to it by ieat's gang. But nevertheless, good food! Woohoo!

This Shanghai Delights stall at serves really yummy food. For instance, check out this Suan La Mian (Spicy sour noodles). Woot! It's really spicy but with a rich flavour to it and not just mind-numbing spiciness. And the noodles is super QQ okay! When you bite into it, it doesn't feel like the usual hand-made noodles where the flour stick to the top of your teeth (and anywhere else which has holes). Instead, bite into this noodles with a snap and a clean cut and no floury doughy texture.

Next, this Guo Tie (Pan fried dumplings) rocked my socks off! Seriously, it is better than Tian Jin Fong Kee's or even the potstickers at Margeret Drive. Hey, no kidding man, go try it yourself! (But taste is subjective so if it's not nice, don't blame me okay!)

Why is it nicer I hear you ask? Well, for one, the skin is not oily, not doughy and very thin. It also has that doesn't-stick-to-your-teeth quality. Hrmm, I think this stall has a very good dough-making technique and their recipe is spot on. Anyways, the filling. Wooooooooooot! Bite into it and the juice just squirts out! Plus it's very flavourful, right amount of fatty minced pork and chives. I've never eaten such juicy Guo Tie before man! It's like a juicy, pan fried xiao long bao-style Guo Tie. For me, this is the gem of the stall.

And last, but not least. This stir-fry beef rice set which comes with a sunny side up and some boiled vegetables. This dish is not fasinating, not fantastic, not unique. So why am I blogging about it? Because it tastes like something I love to eat during my childhood and that's minced pork in black sauce. If any of you have eaten that dish before I'm sure you'll remember what it tastes like. Sweet and slightly salty and good for making sure you finish your rice! Well, the sauce here is slightly more subtle and thicker, and the beef is also soft yet comes with a bite.

Mmm, good dishes!

Address:

Sim Lim Square (Foodcourt at B1)
Shanghai Delights

Thick and tender goes together: Fatty Cheong Char Siew!

2007-02-12T15:03:00.000+08:00

How do you like your Char Siew? Some people like them fatty, some people like them lean. Some people like them slightly charred while others like them boiled. Some people like them thinly chopped while some like them thick. And some people like them sweet while some like them a little more on the savoury side.

Well, let's just say I'm the kind who likes my char siew lean with a little fat, slightly charred, cut around 1cm thick and shhhweeeeeeeeet! Even so, I find it hard to find char siew which I really like. Until *drum rolls* I found! *drum rolls again* Fatty Cheong!

Hey, this Fatty Cheong guy, I must say he really know how to make his char siew man. It's thick! It's lean! And it's superbly tender! Well, of course they have the fatty cuts as well but I ordered the lean kind.

Oh man, looking at such a thick piece of meat you'd expect it to be tough like a rock. But surprise surprise, the meat is super duper tender. It's actually not like you're eating char siew but rather a thick piece of well roasted pork meat with charring at the edges to give it that crunch accompanied by a savoury and slightly sweet sauce. Dude, it's in a class of it's own!

Plus, the chilli is very good too. Just the right level of saltiness and hotness and enough dried shrimps to make it fragrant.

Man, this is one char siew you guys HAVE TO try. Uhhh, don't give me the excuse now that you don't know how to get there, I placed the address below already!

Address:
Fatty Cheong
ABC Market (Behind Ikea Alexandra road)
#01-120

Sri Kamala Vilas

2007-02-07T10:41:00.000+08:00

Hey! I realised this is my first post on Indian food! Wahaha, oh man I should be ashamed of myself.

Anyways, Sri Kamala Vilas is located near Tekka Market and sells the normal indian fare including those sweet and deep fried indian snacks. Funny though, I pretty sure I didn't see prata on the menu *Shrugs* Besides, I heard that prata is non-existent in India and it's actually invented in Singapore or Malaysia, anyone care to share their point of view?

The thosai is, well, not exceptionally good and there's a rye-like taste to it which I didn't really like. The orange stuff in the centre is good though, and the coconut, oh I totally dig it. It's awesome (but Qin thinks it's a turn-off).

The masala chicken, on the other hand, is quite good actually but again, not exceptional. In fact, I don't remember much of it except that the taste is quite good and not over-empowering, not very spicy, and goes well with the thosai.

It's not a place to go out of the way for, but if you're in the area, I'd reckon you give the thosai masala or paper thosai a try as they should be quite interesting.

Address:

Sri Kamala Vilas Resaurant
Block 662, Buffalo Road (Beside Tekka Market)
#01-16

The result of fame?

2007-02-04T23:48:00.000+08:00

Ponggul Nasi Lemak used to be a good nasi lemak stall. Used to.

Why?

Because during my last visit, I'm seriously shocked by the meagre portions of food they offer now. I mean, look at the amount of brinjal *Shakes head*, it's seriously quite pathetic.

And the achar. We asked for a separate plate of it for a reason but with this pathetic amount, you might as well put it with the rice itself.

Plus I paid $5 for all of these. Worth it?

I seriously don't know. Although the achar, chilli and otah still rocks, the rice has become different. Instead of the fragrant nasi lemak taste, the rice is overly rich in coconut milk that I could only taste the coconut milk. Well, taste is subjective but one thing I'm pretty sure is that with this kind of amount and the deterioration of quality, I wouldn't be visiting them anytime soon, or later.

Ohhh... This is it. Queenstown Poh Pia!

2007-02-03T12:25:00.000+08:00

As we finished our meal and took a walk around the food centre, a handmade poh piah skin stall caught our eye but we didn't see any poh piahs being made, so dissapointed!

But as we walked on downstairs, we saw a small stall named Queenstown Poh Pia selling... well, poh piahs. I'm not sure if this was related to the stall upstairs but we gave it a go. Frankly speaking, we were quite dubious about the taste actually since we haven't really tasted any good poh piahs in Singapore yet.

Every poh piah goes for $1 each and they even have like DIY sets for 50 rolls. So if you're holding a party, you know where to go to.

Anyways, I popped one piece into my mouth and went something like Mmmmfuhk! Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm!!!, while staring wide eyed at Qin and nodding simultenously. Ohhh my Gawd! This poh piah is awesome! The flavours are all trapped inside the radish and when you bite into it, Hwah! The juice is heavenly. All the flavours combined really well and balanced each other, there was not a single ingredient which overwhelmed the poh piah.

Oh man, seriously, this is the best poh piah I've tasted so far. Even better than Qiji (which I think used too much sweet sauce which overwhelms the whole taste). The radish is really well cooked. Really super duper flavourful. I ate a piece then straight away went to buy a second roll. However, I felt that the chilli one doesn't hold up as well as the non-chilli one.

Uhmmm, this is one must try super poh piah.

Address:

Margaret Drive Food Centre
Queenstown Poh Pia (The stall is located at the furthest row near the stairwell beside the grass field)
A map of the location of the food centre can be found here.

Hai Kee Char Kuey Tiao

2007-02-03T12:18:00.000+08:00

Margaret Drive Food Centre holds many fond memories for me. Those were the days when the whole place was still crowded and Emporium was still "happening". I was still a kid back then, but I fondly remember my dad occasionally bringing my whole family there for Sin Kee's chicken rice. Ever since, the taste of their chicken rice had been deeply etched into my memory and even till now, I compare every chicken rice to Sin Kee's and hold it as a standard.

Well, Margaret Drive may be quite deserted now but there are still good food stalls there like Hai Kee Char Kuey Tiao, Sin Kee Chicken Rice and Queenstown Poh Pia.

Despite the almost deserted food centre, one particular stall still demanded a crowd and that would be Hai Kee Teochew Char Kuey Tiao. I waited like almost 20 minutes for a plate okay! (It doesn't help that some ass ordered 10 packets at one go).

Wah biang, what can I say man, this man fries his kuey tiao a plate at a time (professionalism) and watching him fry even one plate makes me sweat. Definately, if you wanna lose weight, go open a char kuey tiao stall. The way he worked his wok, Phoo! You'll definately burn alot of calories.

Taste-wise, I feel that the char kuey tiao is a little too subtle for me and I would prefer something sweeter. Nevertheless, it is still a good and tasty plate of char kuey tiao but more to the savoury side. Besides, the hum (alot of them!) he uses are very fresh and for $3.00, you get two eggs into your kuey tiao. For pork lard lovers, you also get a few huge chunks (which I didn't really eat, haha!).

Address:

Margaret Drive Food Centre
Hai Kee Teochew Char Kuey Teow (The stall is located on the furthest left row and is located near the old Emporium)
A map of the location of the food centre can be found here.

Hong Dou Tang

2007-02-01T09:00:00.000+08:00

I know I've posted about this Peanut Soup Stall in Maxwell FC before but I'll just do another one since I tried the other two items available.

I reaaaaaally only wanted to buy the red bean soup. Really. But! I saw the makansutra awards going to it's peanut soup and tau suan. So I changed my mind at the last minute (literally) and ordered all three with some tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) to go.

Seriously speaking? I still think the red bean soup rocks. It has brown rice in it which gives a very unique taste. Well, you can read on my previous post about it by clicking on here.

And I reaaaaaaally don't see what the fuss is about the other two items. Uhm, the peanut soup is very watered down and you can only taste the peanuts faintly so don't try it if you are the kind who likes thiiiiiick, riiiiiiiich, gooooooey peanut butter-style peanut soup. Oh wait, or is that peanut paste?

The tau suan is also quite normal.

Yeah... don't know what else to say about it.

But I'll still go down for my red bean soup! Oooh yummy yummy.

Address:
Maxwell Food Centre
Peanut Soup
Stall 57

No dumplings, porridge lor

2007-01-28T13:09:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to eat bak zhang last Saturday.

Supposed.

I set my alarm clock zun zun at 8am on a Saturday just to rush down to buy Ho Kee bak zhang. On a Saturday okay! But when I reached Amoy Street FC, I saw all the shops closed and all their wares messily stacked outside so I asked, "Uncle ah, jing tian mei you mai ah? (Today never sell is it?)". Then he told me, " Mei you ah! Jing tian spring cleaning!".

Spring cleaning?! I mean, which food centre does spring cleaning!!! Ahhh!!! Wasted my Saturday.

Okay lar, not quite. Because I took a chill pill, calm down, walked to Maxwell FC to have breakfast with a vengence! Ah ha!

I bought 2 muah chee, 2 kueh kosui, 1 min jiang kueh, 1 bowl of prawn dumplings, 1 bowl of braised beef noodles, 1 bowl of peanut soup w/ rice balls, 1 bowl of red bean brown rice soup, 1 bowl of tau suan, 1 bowl of century egg porridge and 1 plate of yu sheng (raw fish). Wah, breathless

Before you think that I'm a glutton, let me mention that most of the food were ta bao for my gf also (but I think I ate most of them).

Okay anyways, I've heard about Hoe Kee's century egg porridge and it's finally time to give it a try. Uhm, the porridge is tasty! Check. The porridge is sticky and pasty. Check! The porridge has loads of century eggs and pork. Check! And plus, the porridge is served in a large bowl for just $3 (or $3.50 if you add an egg). Oh yeah, they have condiments like fried onions, spring onions and chillis on the side so yeah, feel free to go crazy with them!

Generosity seems to be their speciality because check out this yu sheng. Oh mama, I've never seen so much fish in such a small plate of yu sheng before. And it's only going for $3. Seriously, the yu sheng is not bad. It's quite tasty and the amount of raw fish is just, Phoo!

Address:
Maxwell Food Centre
Hoe Kee or He Ji

Our favourite

2007-01-28T11:04:00.000+08:00

Okay I absolutely have to rave about this chicken rice. It is, in my teeny weeny opinion, the best chicken rice EVER! Of course I haven't tried Tian Tian yet but that's not the point.

The point is, this has been our favourite chicken rice stall ever since we found it 2 years ago. Why? Because it's awesome! That's why!

Firstly, the chicken is superbly tender. Even the chicken breast meat is unbelievably soft and it's not those flattened-by-the-cleaver kind. Needless to say, thigh meat is ... Omph!

Secondly, rice is well seperated, flavourful, not too oily. Goody.

And most most most most most importantly, their sauce. Ohhhhh my gawd this is just awesome. The sauce is not the usual soya sauce and sesame oil combination. This sauce is in fact, a little reddish in colour. Why?! I have not idea but it's super good! Let's just say it's not overly salty and it's like the main focus of the dish. It's like, adding a turbo to the dish!

Oh yeah and the chilli sauce. Well, fair enough and pretty average. But what I like is they do have ginger sauce which compliments the chilli very well.

So yeah, this is by far our favourite chicken rice stall (except for Tian Tian which we haven't tried because of the idiotically ridiculously long queue everytime we are there!) and I do hope you try it.

Besides, it's beside my favourite min jiang kueh stall!

Address:
Kovan Food Centre
Kou Wei Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
#01-19
Opp Heartland Mall and beside Hougang Pancakes