Singapore is not just about Chilli Crab!

Satay Beehoon

2009-11-23T19:49:00.000-08:00

Everytime I order this dish, I will think of my late grandfather. He was the person who first introduced me to "satay beehoon" when I was very young. In fact, probably too young for spicy food!

We used to order from a then-famous stall in a huge hawker centre in the Ang Mo Kio estate. There are two stalls, selling exactly the same thing, side by side, but it seems like there were little rivalry between them. The stall owners appear friendly and cordial. Quite odd, I must say. When I was a young girl, I often wondered why there is a need for 2 stalls just beside each other, selling the same thing! But at that time, I didnt need to worry about ordering from the "wrong" stall, as my grandfather would always do the ordering for me.

Satay beehoon is quite hard to find in Singapore - not all foodcourts or hawker centres would have this dish. The more common and of cos more well-known dish is the Satay, where kebabs of meat are marinated, grilled and served with satay sauce.

I believe that this dish of cooked beehoon, prawns, pork slices, kang kong vegetables, etc with satay sauce drizzled over is a dish developed in Singapore, but inspired by Indonesian cuisine. But in Singapore, satay sauce is slightly more spicy than the satay sauce served in Indonesia. The satay sauce in Indonesia has larger peanut chunks and the sauce tends to be sweeter and stickier.

Don't try this if you are allergic to peanuts, please!

Pig's organ soup

2009-11-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

Want to dine like the CE of Hong Kong when in Singapore?

Then you gotta head down to this place called Cheng Mun Chee Kee Pig's Organ Soup King:

(There's 2 outlets now, but i still prefer the original store near Lavender at Foch Rd)

Anyway, here's what Cheng Mun Chee Kee Pig's Organ Soup King looks like:

If the name "pig organ soup" already turns you off just by hearing it - dont worry!!! You can always opt for a less intimidating alternative: "Pork meatballs soup", which is basically just 10 meatballs floating in the bowl of soup. Actually that's what I ordered cos I didnt feel like having pig's stomach, pork slices, tofu, pig's liver etc... But the lady got my order wrong, and we were in a hurry, so I decided to just accept my soup as it is! Not a big issue actually, cos if i want to eat this, i can do so easily, as this soup is very readily available in most food centres all around the island!

What's nice about the soup is that although u are eating pork, you wont be able to taste that "porky" smell, cos its being masked away by preserved salty vegetables in the soup. The combination is very clever - kudos to the inventor of this soup!

What to do in Singapore when your husband is here on a business trip

2009-11-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

Spouses of APEC ministers take part in 2—day visit programme
Channel NewsAsia - Thursday, November 12

SINGAPORE: Spouses of ministers attending the APEC Ministerial Meeting are taking part in a two—day visit programme.

They are hosted by Mrs George Yeo, spouse of Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister, and Mrs Lim Hng Kiang, wife of Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister.

The ministers’ spouses visited the National Library Building on Wednesday, where they were given a tour of the Central Public Library. They saw highlights of the Singapore, South East Asian and Donor Collections.

In addition, they were treated to a poetry session, as well as art and dance performances.

They also had lunch at the library building’s top floor — which offered them a panoramic view of Singapore’s city skyline.

— CNA/sc

a Chinese wedding dinner

2009-11-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

Recently I attended a very dear friend's wedding. It was a simple - no frills Chinese wedding dinner. There were no fanciful first-dish-presentations (think: a dance item from waiters), no toasting of alcohol to the groom till he is drunk, no pretentious speeches...

Yet this wedding was the sweetest, most romantic and most sincere I've ever attended. The bride, Sue-Ann was so pretty in her classic gown - her eyes were filled with true contentment and joy. I feel so happy for her!

In this wedding, it seems like everyone whom attended the dinner WANTS to be there.

The food served was typical - just like any other Chinese dinner, but I enjoyed myself thoroughly - thanks to my table of witty ex-classmates.

Here's how the setting was like:

(Photo courtesy of Noel; but this photo was taken professionally by the wonderful photographer of the night, our senior Louis!)

So everyone will have a set of porcelain in front of them, consisting of a small plate, a small bowl with a Chinese soup spoon in it, a pair of chopsticks, a small saucer filled with soya sauce and a cup of jasmine tea.

And then when the communal dish comes, you help yourselves to it! Of cos there are sharing spoons, don't worry. For some dishes like fish, noodles, or dessert the waiters will actually portion the food into 10 mini portions, then serve to you.

So, there are usually 8-9 dishes served at a Chinese wedding dinner. The first would usually be a starter/appetizer consisting of roast meat, cold sashimi or seafood etc.

Next up would be a thick soup, usually sharks' fins or fish maw. The next few dishes to come are like stir-fried prawns, abalone cooked with vegetables and mushrooms, roasted chicken, steamed fish, etc... All sorts of variations on the style of cooking, but you get the idea.

Lastly, when you think that you've already had your fill, the noodles or rice dish will follow. My favourite part will be the dessert where "it ends all sweet".

When you go to one next - pls dont forget to give a red packet filled with "goodness"!

sick :S

2009-11-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend on sat i wanted to eat hairy crab for lunch. we even made reservations! unfortunately - on fri night i was out watching a movie and my stomach decided to act funny. I started puking in the middle of the show... (had to run all the way to the toilet but luckily i was in time!)

then in the car on the way back, i started puking again. glad that adrian had a spare plastic bag in the car. else i will really feel very bad if i really vomitted all over in the car. YUCKS! the funniest part of the whole thing was actually adrian's priceless look on his face after i turned around to look at him when i was done puking. HAHA, it was so funny that i couldnt stop laughing after i came out of the car to rinse my mouth clean. u know that look - trying to control your own puke when u see someone puking right in front of u. oh my, poor him! HAHA!

so i guessed i either had gastric flu, or a mild food poisoning.

and there goes the hairy crab lunch. had to eat porridge instead!

saving my hairy crab lunch for next weekend!!!

PS: Happy Birthday to my dad! Heard from my brother that they had Chinese food for celebration! :)

Scissor(s)-cut curry rice

2009-11-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

If you've never seen or tasted this before, you surely won't be able to guess what this is.

What is this "Scissor-cut curry rice" all about?!?!?! Ok, actually it should be "Scissors-cut". Think of the word "cut" in past tense. Does it make a bit more sense now?

BEACH ROAD SCISSOR-CUT CURRY RICE

should be dissected into:

BEACH ROAD; SCISSOR-CUT; CURRY RICE

Beach Road is the name of this old old street named by Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore. Raffles Hotel is situated on Beach Road. And yes, it is called Beach Road cos Raffles Hotel used to be a beach-side hotel!

Although Raffles Hotel never moved, but the beach moved. Now it is no longer a beach-side hotel as the beach has already "moved" to Marina Bay, cos of massive land reclamation in that area. I am assuming that this food stall originally started out in Beach Road, then later moved to this new location along Syed Alwi Road, which is pretty near the famous-for-cheap-buys-opened-24-hrs-a-day shopping mall Mustafa.

Ok so back to the curry rice. What's so special about this curry rice is that the uncle preparing your food will use a super-sharp pair of scissors to cut your food into bite sized before serving it to you.

You just have to join the queue, then choose whatever dishes you want, then he will snip snip snip and then place the food in the most disorderly manner onto a plate of rice. But I'm not complaining. Seems like the messier it is, the nicer it will be - cos when the food is mixed, it's so flavourful!

Here, I've chosen braised pork and chicken wings which the uncle have already snipped up. He's really fast! I didnt even have enough time to take a pic of him snipping away!

So after he placed all the snipped food and he is happy with the portions that he's giving you, he'll pass the plate to another guy and this guy will top the plate with cabbage, then pour (yes, pour!) curry gravy and dark gravy onto the same already-overflowing plate.

The end product?

Here it goes... Dont be too shocked by the way it looks!

PS: Are you able to find the stewed pork on the left and the chicken drumlet on the right near the fork, as well as the cabbage on top of the pile? ;)

Hairy crab

2009-11-04T02:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently!

by the way - talking about "recently"... do you know that "recently" is the season for hairy crabs?!

Yeah yeah, hurray, looking forward to eat a "da-zha-xie" (name in Chinese). These crabs are eaten just plain steamed so as not to mask the natural flavours of the fresh, juicy crab. Usually "da-zha-xie" is eaten for its roe. Very high cholesterol, i know!

These hairy crustaceans come from a well-known lake (Yangcheng lake) in the Suzhou province in China and they are flown in all the way by air to Singapore! Suzhou is near to the other place that is famous for another lake, i.e. Hangzhou (West lake). The latter is famous too cos they produce the famous Dragonwell (Longjing) Tea.

There is a saying in Chinese that goes... "In the skies there's heaven; but on earth there's Suzhou and Hangzhou." Basically telling you how beautifully these 2 places are. So obviously a beautiful place will grow wonderful food right?

Alright... i'll post photos when i go eat the crabs soon!

BBQ pork

2009-10-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

This morning I was off to meet with my boss and I brought her a SG's famous local snack, BAH KWA! These - I mean, are BBQ-ed pork.

It's similar to pork/beef jerky that you can get off the shelves from the supermarket, just that this bah kwa from "Bee Cheng Hiang" is juicier and tastier and sweeter.

Here's how it looks like:
(From www.bch.com.sg)

Basically pork (or whatever type of meat) is minced or sliced thinly then marinated with a sweet (secret) mix. After a period of time after marination, it is placed on the BBQ grill until charred at the edges. By the way, my fav is the burnt sides, ha! Unhealthy, I know! But...TASTILICIOUS! (you get the idea!) ok so we eat this with our fingers during Chinese New Year and I always end up licking my fingers. I think i can finish a whole box on my own at one go... no kidding. then lots of cooling herbal tea after that!

HOWEVER.... I didnt manage to pass the 2 packs to my boss. That's cos I didn't managed to "smuggle" these thru the Australian customs, sob sob. I thought that it was allowed cos its 100% vacuumed pack but the quarantine officer said that "meat" is HIGH-RISK item, so... its been confiscated (alongside with the NEW bottle of bacon bits that was in my luggage bag). Anyway a lesson learnt - thanks to bah-kwa!

Soya beancurd + Soya bean drink + Fried doughstick = Perfect match

2009-10-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

The other day I met up with Janet, someone whom I always address as "The Stock Guru".

We've only known each other for about a year... but she is really a cool girl as we can discuss things on a deeper level comfortably and also trust each other with our secrets!

We had soya bean drink, soya beancurd and shared a fried doughstick. We're on diet lah, haha!

Soya bean drink = Tau Huay Ziu 豆花水 ("Ziu" means water or liquid in Hokkien; "Shui" in Mandarin)

Soya beancurd = Tau Huay 豆花

Fried doughstick = You tiao 油条 (literally translated to "oily stick")

So you see, you are supposed to dip the warm, crispy doughstick into the soya bean drink. When you put it in your mouth, you will first experience the cold exterior of the doughstick that was soaked up with soya bean drink, then you will bite into the warm, crispy interior! Yeaaaaaah, that's why i love you-tiao and soya bean drink so much!!!

Just like my friendship with Janet, the beancurd that I ate was fresh, smooth, sweet... Everytime we sat down to chat, it was refreshing and enjoyable!

Hee hee, my soft and silky tau-huay tastes real good over some tips, gossip, lies and jokes... haha, NICE...

Hokkien mee

2009-10-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hokkien mee is one famous dish that is also synonymously linked with my country.

Yellow egg noodles mixed with white thick noodles, stir-fried in prawn stock first, then with prawns, squid rings, pork and egg added in later. This is commonly sold in most of the hawker centers in Singapore. Because the noodles are cooked first, they soak up all the goodness of the prawn stock, giving the noodles a rich, tasty flavour.

Hokkien stands for "Fujian", which is the province that is on the southeast coast of China. ("Mee" stands for noodles, by the way.)

Like I mentioned, many SG dishes have a strong fujian influence, as most of the Chinese in SG would be descendants of Fujian migrants. Recently on TV, a local celebrity travelled to Fujian province, hoping to find the "ORIGINAL" hokkien mee. Unfortunately, he was unable to find anything that is similar to the SG hokkien mee. Another case of the "Singapore fried noodles"?!?! Thus, we are all guessing that hokkien mee probably was "invented" by a hokkien migrant hawker in Singapore. In early days, they probably used all sorts of ingredients that they can find and mix them together to form a "dish".

One-dish meals were popular then because you wont have the impression that there are too little ingredients in comparison to the staple carbo like noodles or rice! One-dish meals are STILL popular nowadays, i think because people prefer not to cook and wash more dishes at home!

my breakfast last saturday

2009-10-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

What's a breakfast to you? Rush to Starbucks or Tim Hortons for a coffee? Grab half a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme? Or some Hotcakes from McD? Toast and eggs with grilled tomatoes?

Doesnt sound too exciting, yeah?

Don't get me wrong, cos i LOVE starbucks (Green Tea Latte and mocha) and i LOVE the original glazed donut from Krispy Kreme. Just that I feel the breakfast options are pretty limited when living in Canada. In Singapore, you get a variety of options ranging from Chinese food, to Malay food to Western food...

So over the weekend i ate chwee-kueh for breakfast. Adrian's mum bought it for me, hee hee... Arent u envious that I have such a sweet future mother-in-law?

There's six here, as you can see, topped with preserved turnip and lots of chilli at the top left corner in the form of a paste.

Chwee-kueh is made from rice flour, then steamed in a mini metal cup and it takes the shape like a small, cute cupcake. The hawker will usually use a toothpick to scrape the in-sides of the metal cup, so that the "kueh" will fall off nicely from the mould onto the plate. He or she will then scoop a teaspoonful worth of preserved turnip that has been simmering in the pot nearby for the past few hours.

Chwee stands for "water" and "kueh" which you'll see this word pretty often and it means cake/pastry. Chwee-kueh is pretty tasteless on its own. But if you eat it with the preserved turnip aka "chai-por", the taste is heavenly. Because the "kueh" itself is tasteless and soft yet the chai-por tastes savoury and crunchy. It's the perfect match! I didnt manage to eat all the 6 here. By the time i finished the 5th one, i was pretty full already.

Hmmm, but now as I am looking at this pic... I wanna eat this again!!!

How lucky are we?

2009-10-16T21:29:00.001-07:00

this morning i read a startling piece of info news from the Straits Times. Here I am, spoilt for choices for food; always thinking of what to eat next...

Yet, today i learnt that more than one billion people are suffering from starvation. I always knew that starvation is a pertinent problem around the world, but it seems like city dwellers like us never actually REALISED it. I mean, we just know its there, and that's it. I am guilty of not recognising this problem and still wasting food on my plate. My motto was "Let the food go to waste, not to your waist." I guess its time to ask for smaller portions of food since I always cant finish the serving size.

Ok so here's what Straits Times gathered:
- 1.02 billion people across the world are hungry
- On average, 1 person dies every second as a result of starvation
- 1 billion people live on less than US$1 a day
- An estimated 3.5 million people die annually from malnutrition
- Lack of Vitamin A kills 1 million infants a year
- 21 countries already have very high levels of acute and chronic undernutrition
- More than 60% of chronically hungry people are women

And guess what... I just logged into youtube.com and I saw this World Food Program link right at the top of the main page!

I guess all the facts are coherent. And to put things in OUR perspective, Youtube.com did a great video. It is really powerful.

The video says:

- In the next 60 seconds,
- 145,833,233 emails will be sent (wow, this must be a working day, not a weekend)
- 2,777,731 videos will be watched on YouTube (ok, this must be a weekend)
- $43,681 will be spent on eBay
- 83,273 people will log on to Facebook
- The word LOVE will be Googled 4,260 times
- 2,083 tweets will be tweeted
and
- 10 children will die from hunger
- It could be Maria from Tanzania
- or Ekhbal in Sudan
- or Selina in Bangladesh
- For the first time in humanity over 1 billion people are chronically hungry
- There are also over 1 billion people online who can help
- Just 25 cents can fill this cup with food
- You are one of the online billion
- You can turn this around
- If you tell all your friends online to help and they tell all their friends and all their friends tell others...
- just imagine what the online billion could achieve.
- Let's get the online billion to help the hungry billion

Think this must be the most powerful video I ever saw on YouTube. I am making a difference here: https://www.wfp.org/donate/1billion.

A difference so small to me that it doesnt affect my life, but a difference so huge to a hungry person.

Pandan Chiffon cake

2009-10-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hmm, it seems like everytime someone from HK is here in SG, they will ask for a particular "green" cake! This "green" cake seems really popular with Hong Kongers... Honestly, I dont know why its just this cake, and why its just with Hong Kongers... I will have to find out!

The famous shop (Bengawan Solo) that sells this cake had displayed a recent newspaper article featuring Jaycee Chan (Jackie Chan's son) praising this cake. And I was reading some news online regarding Coco Lee's tweets and read about her saying that she has just landed in Singapore and wanted to try some of the "green" cake (but after she manages to find some chicken rice and char kuay teow). And previously when I boarded a plane headed for HK, I saw this guy in front of me carrying about 5-6 red Bengawan Solo boxes... It had to be this cake in those boxes!

Well, I'm talking about this well-known cake that doesnt seem so popular with us locals:

(from http://www.bengawansolo.com.sg)

Bengawan Solo's Pandan Chiffon cake

I think people identify it as "green cake" cos ... not many cakes are green in colour! This cake has its own "branding", and its definitely positive. The colour is from the pandan juice from the pandan leaf, but I am sure the colour here in this cake is "enhanced", haha. This cake is spongy, fragrant and not overly sweet... and it goes well with a cup of kopi (coffee) or teh (tea) for your afternoon tea! Sink your teeth into it and it "fights" back, because it is so springy!

Anyway I don't think there is a big issue bringing this cake up onto the plane, so if you gotta buy it, its available all over the island in major shopping centres or neighbourhood malls.

You know, actually in Singapore, we dont really dig this. Maybe its too plain for us? Maybe we have plenty of other cake choices? I dont know! I remember my mum would buy this cake and place it on the dining table... and I will go like "Huh, pandan cake for breakfast again ah..." I'm sure my mum must be laughing now, because I dont think she will forget about the many instances that she bought pandan cake for us!

There is another local specialty product made from pandan leaf that is more popular with Singaporeans. It is... kaya!

Kaya is a popular jam spread made from eggs, sugar, pandan leaves and coconut milk. It's a sweet and thick and goes well with toast. I gave a few bottles to my Shanghainese friends, and they told me that they like it alot! I think the reason is also because the Shanghainese love their food sweet, haha! You will see many locals like me eating kaya+butter toast in local coffee shops on a slow idyllic morning for breakfast. Hmm, since i am on the topic of breakfast, let me share with you more on what we usually have for breakfast in SG in my next posting!

Seafood aglio olio

2009-10-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

I received a call from a friend who works in the civil service. She said that she is hosting a guest from overseas and apparently that guest is craving for some comfort food!

Friend: Where can I bring him for some nice comfort food?

Me: Oh, Subway lor! What were you thinking, u wanna look for a hotdog stand?

Friend: (laughs)

Ok seriously - I strongly suggested that she bring him to TCC. I am not sure of this cafe's full name, but it goes by the abbrevation "TCC". There are many outlets all around in Singapore, but I frequent the one at Centrepoint and Novena Square.

My favourite dish at TCC is this:

Seafood aglio olio pasta

It's spaghetti cooked in aglio olio style with juicy prawns and scallops... garnished with a lime wedge, chilli powder and spring onion.

This has been Adrian's #1 favourite pasta ever since I introduced this to him about 2 years ago. The other day when we ate this, he was upset that I made him finish the chocolate dessert, as he wanted the aglio olio taste to linger around longer in his mouth!

I've brought a staff from a partner company to TCC before. She's from the UK. Her comments? She said its the best pasta she's ever tasted!

I've also brought a colleague who now lives in Australia to TCC before and she also said that their pasta is really nice and commendable!

My recommendations are getting more and more credible, yeah?!

Letter from KF Seetoh to Malaysian minister

2009-10-05T02:57:00.000-07:00

KF Seetoh is a real famous Singaporean foodie!

His job? He goes around hunting for good food in Singapore and gives his most honest reviews about them. How famous? He brought Anthony Bourdain around Singapore... and... He taught Martha Stewart how to cook laksa on her show before!

So anyway Seetoh apparently was also intrigued by Malaysian Tourism Minister's claim on Chilli crab, Chicken rice etc being "Malaysian"... So, he wrote a well researched letter to her!

And he mentioned about the other "Truly" Malaysian dishes like Satay Celup, Kolo-mee etc which I feel are really "sedap" (Malay word for delicious) too, so... actually the Minister should really just stake her claim on these dishes instead!

I saw the copy of his letter here: http://www.makansutra.com/reviews/2009_0922/index.html

A Letter To Dear Minister
By K.F.Seetoh

Dear Minister Yen Yen,
I just cannot fathom why so many in the media and the food loving public is getting their hair all tangled up in sticky chilli crab sauce over your comments on claims over food in the region. I feel I have to come to your rescue should they jam a door-stop interview to your face later today.
Some Singapore credit card company once had actor Lim Kay Tong portray chilli crabs as from Chile in a television advertisement. You should send your media statement there too, and while you are at it, claim chilli padi as well and slip in the chilli corn carne and sambal chilli too, if space and time permits. Don’t the media know that when Madam Cher first sold sea food by the Bedok sea shore in the 50s’ and created chilli crabs in 1953 at her then Palm Beach Restaurant, Bedok was part of Malaysia, or was in the late 50s, aiya, just say “once upon a time la”. And, remind them all, those who have failing memory and the ignorant Tweeter generation, that any dish in Singapore which uses water, is a Malaysian dish too. Deliver the “where do you think the water came from” punchline should they feign “blur” about history. But if the old fogeys press you with a “ but the makan lost the original flavours these days leh”- re-educate them with a “that’s because you use Newater nowadays”. Also, tell them that chilli crabs is so popular in Malaysia that it is literally the second name of states and cities like _______ (can you help me help you fill in the blanks, I am not good at that part, your PR team should know. I suspect it is somewhere in Kelantan which is about the only place in Malaysia I have not visited yet. I think you know that too because that was where you were born and you owe no fools any explanation.) Regale the story about the first dish that many returning Malaysians (after a short holiday away in Batam), hanker for, is chilli crabs ( I have to tell you now that the many Malaysian friends I know, are a bit abnormal here, many never even eaten it before and think it’s from Chile).

Also, reiterate the fact that while so many folks, especially from Singapore, which accounts for the biggest chunk of visitors to your charming country, enjoy your Johor Laksa, Malacca Satay Celup, Seremban Beef Noodles, KL Hokkien Mee, Ipoh Hor Fun, Penang Lok Lok and of course your Sarawak kolo mee (which I sometimes wash down with Ipoh white coffee), can’t even understand why you are not making claims to these uniquely Malaysian dishes, roll your eyes slowly…and then take a deep breath. Now, exhale fire with a “ allo, we are not about uniquely this or uniquely that, we are Malaysia, Truly Asia, hor”. And cite that incident where the Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang was snubbed by the Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh people, is technically is a Truly Asia phenomenon. Tell them the shop is located at Rangoon Road, which is named after Myanmar’s capital (and guess which continent it is truly in). So what if Mr Ng’s father was credited with creating this Teochew peppery version so unlike your Klang herbal rendition, way before even SIT public housing flats were introduced in Singapore (just say it was way before HDB).

It will shut them up and no one will dare breath that thought of why no claims from you for Kelantan Nasi Kerabu, Penang Pasembor or even the almost-impossible-to-find-in-Singapore, Nasi Kandar. Oh, before it slips me, now that you have MCCurry, and sent the McDonald folks scuttling, draw your long distance crossbow and fire off your claims on hamburgers (just whisper “hey, we have McRamly Burger, so we own all burgers too la.”, and repeat the roll-eye, heavy sigh action for effect.

Should then they bring up the contentious Katong Laksa theory – like about how it was documented that the late Janggot was the first to sell it on a kandar (shoulder food cart) yonks ago and his family have now carried on this legacy at Marine Parade Janggot Laksa at East Coast Road, just softly repeat the Bedok story- and tell them how geographically close Bedok is to East Coast Road. Tell them Katong Laksa is so popular in Malaysian states like ___________ (please help me help you here again, as I’ve never seen Katong Laksa in Malaysia, yet).

And finally, chicken rice. Just because the Hainanese once ate boiled chicken with plain-jane rice and recreated that now famous version in old Hainan Street (Middle Road) way before Syonan To (the Japanese occupier’s name for old Singapura), does not mean it came from Middle Road. Smile and remind them where fresh chickens in Singapore come from.

I have not spotted Bak Chor Mee, Mee Kuah, Sup Tulang Merah, Satay Beehoon, Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee and definitely not the Hainanese Scissor Cut Curry Rice in Malaysia, yet. But should they ask about it, just cite the Truly Asia act.

All the best and good luck. Let me know if you need more of my help.

Sincerely
KF Seetoh

Singapore cuisine showcased at Selfridges Foodhall in London

2009-10-04T04:38:00.000-07:00

Channel NewsAsia - Sunday, October 4

SINGAPORE: International Enterprise (IE) Singapore is leading eleven companies from the food and beverage industry here to showcase local fare in London.
Over the next week, Londoners will be able to sample and view demonstrations of the preparation of popular Singaporean fare like char kuay teow, chilli prawns and Nonya curry.
This will be at an event named "Tastes of Singapore" which will be held till October 7 at the Selfridges Foodhall on Oxford Street.
The aim is to allow British consumers to savour a wide variety of Singaporean dishes in an effort to secure a "sweet spot" on their taste buds.
This marks the first time that Singapore is attempting to promote local cuisine among the mainstream public in the United Kingdom.
According to IE Singapore, food and beverage exports to the United Kingdom stood at S$43.9 million in 2008 — a figure they hope to grow, moving forward.

Mid-autumn festival

2009-10-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

It's the mid-autumn festival tomorrow, finally!

Here's a recap on all the different types of mooncakes I ate:

Medley of mooncakes

On the top row - there's the mini durian mooncake and the next is black sesame+white chocolate truffle mooncake.

On the bottom row - there's bird's nest mooncake (how decadent!) and another type of durian mooncake which is bigger and richer in the durian puree filling.

Notice I didnt eat any of the traditional "baked" mooncakes... That's because when I was very young my grandfather gave me a piece and I think I wasnt feeling well that day, and I puked! After that, I never dared to touch the traditional mooncake. :(

Another popular activity to be done tomorrow apart from eating mooncakes and sipping Chinese tea, will be the lighting of lanterns. So the children can play with their lanterns while the adults enjoy the wonderful evening.

Wishing everyone a happy mid-autumn festival on 3rd Oct!

Fish-head curry

2009-10-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

You know - I have this constant craving for a particular dish. Even though I've just eaten it like in 2-3 weeks ago, I would still want to eat it again!

And that is... Fish curry! There is a HUGE difference between fish curry and all other types of curries! Or rather, there is a huge difference between all sorts of curries.

Chicken curry is thick and tends to have a tinge of sweetness in the spicyness... Mutton curry has a heavy, musky taste... Vegetable curry is lighter, milder and easy for curry beginners... But to me, my favourite is fish curry as it is always cooked with "assam" that makes the curry have this mild, sour taste that is so appetizing.

Fish-head curry is the more popular type of fish curry in Singapore. You can find fish-head curry in most of the good Chinese, Indian and Peranakan restaurants.

Large fish head cooked in curry gravy with lady's fingers, pineapples, long beans and brinjals

No one can claim to cook the "perfect" curry fish head, as everyone's tastesbuds will be looking out for something different. Some may find this too spicy, some may find this too sour!

For me, just plain rice and fish curry is enough for a satisfying dinner!

Ban-mian

2009-10-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

If you walk around a local hawker centre, you will find different stores selling all sorts of different local specialities... Many that we can think of are either stir-fried, deep fried or BBQ-ed. Even our favourite "chicken rice" is full of oil and not advisable to be eaten late at night!

But there is one soup dish that the health conscious will give THUMBS UP to. In fact, you can see the stamp of approval by our Health Promotion Board on the panel of the hawker's stall.

This dish is more commonly known as "ban-mian".

Ban-mian is made from mixing flour and water, then rolled out and cut into long strips with a noodle cutter. Its just like how you would make your pasta!

The soup is derived from cooking anchovies, then with other ingredients like prawns, egg, vegetables, tomatoes and minced pork balls added in - so you can imagine how healthy it is!

Here, I have a variation of ban-mian. It is called "mee-hoon-kuay" which is simply rolled dough pressed into different flat but round shapes (instead of long shapes)! This is nice too cos you dont need chopsticks! There is also another variation called "you-mian" which you can order. You can say that the original ban-mian resembles fettuccine and the you-mian resembles spaghetti in size.

Chicken rice

2009-09-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

There's another dish that is a must-try in Singapore, which is just as famous as the chilli crab. Everytime someone thinks of Singapore, they will associate us with... Chicken rice!

So rice is cooked with garlic, ginger + chicken stock absorbing all the wonderful flavours; chicken is steamed or roasted then chopped up, sprinkled with light soy sauce + sesame oil; finally the dish is ready to be served with chilli sauce, ginger sauce and dark soy sauce.

Chicken rice probably has its origins traced back to China in Hainan Island, cos everyone calls it "Hainanese Chicken rice". Or it could be invented by someone in Singapore who is of Hainanese origin... Or it could just be a then-popular way of marketing (to associate food with a province).

So I say that Singapore has got to be the land of CHICKEN RICE! Why do I say so....???

Because in Singapore, there is the $2 Chicken rice:

Roasted chicken with beansprouts, cucumber and rice

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And there's the $22 Chicken rice!

Meritus Mandarin hotel's famous "Chatterbox" steamed chicken rice

So, what do you think... Isn't Singapore the land of "Chicken rice"?

Had the "Chatterbox" cafe Chicken rice with my friend for lunch. It's the first time she had this chicken rice! We went up to the 37th storey of the hotel, and phew, the view up there from the restaurant was really breathtaking! Ok, I admit I was a little apprehensive when I stepped into the lift... Quite scary, this "express lift" where you zoom up 30 storeys in less than 5 seconds! Hee hee... I was holding the handrail all the while. HAHA! Wondered if my friend noticed. So anyway we had a nice lunch - the food was good, the view was good and most imptly, the company was great.

Personally I like the roasted version of the chicken better as the chicken is not so oily and somehow the roasting process just packs in all the flavour of the chicken and its marinate. Adrian, on the other hand prefers the steamed chicken, cos he loves the oily, fatty chicken skin! Ugh, too unhealthy! So if we feel like having chicken rice, either one of us will have to compromise!

If you feel like having these 2 types of chicken (roasted or steamed) rice in one day, there is one street in Singapore that:
1) is very near the city area,
2) has food available 24 hours round-the-clock
3) has 2 very famous restaurants serving roasted and steamed chicken rice respectively

Make a guess! Well, it is Balestier Road. On one side there is the Boon Toon Kee restaurant where they serve steamed chicken rice, and just across the road about 100m away, there is the Loy Kee restaurant that serves roasted chicken rice. Both are just as famous!

Anyway all these talk has made me really hungry! This is totally spoiling my diet plans! :(

All in one pot

2009-09-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Hot-pot is known as "steamboat" in Singapore. There are many Asian countries that serve food in hot-pot style, in a Japanese restaurant you can have sukiyaki beef, in a Korean restaurant you can have a kimchi hot pot, in China you can have the Sichuan 'ma-la' hot pot which literally means "numb and spicy".

In Singapore, hot pot is usually served in a metal steamboat pot. In other places, copper pot or a claypot is more commonly used.

Here, I am in a restaurant where hot pot is served individually instead of one big sharing pot. It's better as its more hygenic, and you can cook your food yourself according to what you want without wondering who took the prawn that you threw into the pot few minutes ago!

Seafood hot pot - A variety of different types of seafood - all for one person!

Hot pot is commonly served during winter around Asia, but you know Singapore's 365 days are hot, hot and hot so we can only eat hot pot in a air-conditioned room. I remember that when I was younger, we had hot pot for Chinese New Year celebrations. Because everyone can enjoy dinner together without troubling a family member to start cooking early in the morning.

My favourite hot pot is Fish hot pot. This is usually cooked with charcoal placed in the middle of the hot pot, rather than electricty or gas. Inside the pot there are white cabbage pieces, yam pieces and fish. The broth is very sweet and tasty. And addictive! I think I shall just have that for dinner soon!

Watercress and pork ribs soup

2009-09-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

Watercress in a soup.

So, here's what I had. I wanted to say here's what I had for DINNER, but I know that my mum will nag at me if I said that I only had this soup for dinner, so let's just say... I had this for... SUPPER! HAHA!

Yes, usually in places like England, watercress is served in a sandwich. Not too common in soups. But in Singapore this soup is so common that I think every household will cook it at least once a week!

Watercress stewed with pork ribs and pitted red dates

You know, I was like thinking why does this soup taste a little different... Then I found this!

In the soup, there is this secret ingredient that makes the soup taste refreshing, and that is a piece of dried orange peel.

This reminded me of a time when I was drinking a chilled milk tea at a cafe and at the bottom of the tea I found some swirls of orange peel. Makes the milk tea taste REALLY sweet. The flavour from the orange peel brings out the taste of the black tea in the milk.

Ok so back to the soup.

Dried red dates usually come with the "seed" inside. Seedless red dates are known to be more "cooling" and if you accidentally leave the seeds inside and boil it, the soup will be "heaty". Watercress is also a "cooling" ingredient, so actually this soup is very good for you if you need to balance or neutralise your body system after eating too much "heaty" food, for e.g. deep-fried stuff or BBQ stuff.

You will know if someone is heaty, if that person has sore throat, bad breath or pimples on the face! So if you meet someone who is "heaty", get him or her to drink some cooling tea or cooling soup!

Fast food vs Curry

2009-09-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

I have been reading up on some Malaysian trademark cases, and I was just reviewing the recent famous lawsuit between our childhood favourite fastfood store McDonald's and a KL based food stall called McCurry. So being my usual busybody self I went to take a look at the McCurry website: http://www.mccurryrecipe.com/. And I was like WOW, the spices on the first page looked so pretty! So I navigated around and saw some articles regarding cooking and food... and I was really intrigued. I read all those articles under "Cooking Tips" and the more I read, the more that I felt that something was wrong. In those articles, the author used words and phrases that is quite uncommon in Malaysia. Words like "casserole", or phrases like putting on some music and dancing in the kitchen...

I went to google on these articles and lo and behold, I found that there are other websites that carry these same articles as well. I am not sure who copied who...And of cos I have heard of those "Private Label Rights" articles....but... but I am quite sure that the articles on McCurry's website didnt sound too much like a family styled fastfood restaurant that it wants to be.

Anyway I think that intent is very important. To what extent will a food stall do to make itself popular? Does it want to model its operations over a fast food outlet? Does it claim to be international while only serving a specific type of food in a specific country? Does it want to sound similar to a truly international brand that spends millions of dollars worldwide on branding?

This piece of news between McCurry and McDonald's has come to a closure now but I am sure there are still many people who will link the two restaurants together.

So if you are ever thinking of opening a food store, please remember to trademark your logo/brand in every country possible!

Photos from my brother :)

2009-09-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

From Lion City restaurant located in Mississauga, ON:

Authentic SG dishes! Placed on a Singapore Airlines uniform inspired tablecloth, no less! HAHA!

From left:

1. Char Kuay Teow
Stir-fried flat rice noodles with beansprouts, cockles, Chinese sausages, and pork lard. AKA "Death on a plate" cos its uber unhealthy.

2. Mee Siam
Vermicelli in thick, spicy, peanut gravy topped with boiled egg and fried beancurd puffs.

3. BBQ stingray
Doesnt look too tasty here. Looks a little too dry and overcooked! Its a slab of stingray fillet covered in sambal chilli sauce then placed on a grill.

4. Fried egg with oysters
You must be familiar with this! If not, scroll down below to: http://chelseysfood.blogspot.com/2009/09/hao-jian-or-orh-luah.html

5. Egg hor fun
The chinese name is literally translated to "Slippery egg hor fun". Hor fun is a thicker version of the flat rice noodles used in the first dish above. This dish is stir fried but it has a somewhat "burnt" taste/smell on the noodles and that makes the dish so tasty! The word we use to describe "burnt" is "chow-tar".

Sweet and Sour sauce

2009-09-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

I think sweet and sour sauce type of dishes are really popular even out of Singapore. It is always associated with Chinese take-out! But I dunno why, the sweet and sour sauce I've had out of Asia always tend to have a more pinkish tone!

Actually if you are health conscious you really wont vote for this dish. The dish just shouts out "artificial colourings". :p

The perfect sweet and sour sauce should taste both sweet and sour in the same proportion, and should not be to tangy or sour to the tongue. It is supposed to taste "sweet" first, then you will slowly taste the "sour". Ok maybe it has to do with the placements of the tastebuds... This whole combination is really good for your appetite!

I have here two dishes served in sweet and sour sauce:

Sweet and sour pork fried with cucumber, onions, bell peppers and pineapple chunks

For the sweet and sour pork to be nice, it has to be crispy on the outside and you gotta be able to taste the pork. Some pork pieces are soooo small that you can only taste the fried flour batter. And I am really scared to eat those that are cooked and left out for a long time before serving as these are not crispy and soft. Cold/soft sweet and sour pork is really disgusting, especially if you bite into a piece of fatty meat... UGH!

Deep-fried seabass in sweet and sour sauce

This fish here looks weird only because its been "cubed" up before its deep fried, thus is very special shape. But its really easy to eat cos you can just "pluck" out the meat with your chopsticks!

Don't you think these dishes here looks so inviting and so appetizing? Go order a sweet and sour sauce dish for take-out today!

Singapore stir-fried noodles

2009-09-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

Well... I'm not trying to burst your bubble here, but in actual fact, there isnt such a dish called "Singapore stir-fried noodles" in Singapore at all! Just like how it is always debated that Chicken Tikka Masala is actually an Indian dish invented in the UK... yes, it doesnt exist in India! :)

So if you are here in Singapore and you ask for Singapore fried noodles (or vermicelli), please pardon the hawker uncle if he gives you a very puzzled look.

However, I've tried the Singapore Fried Noodles when I am in the States, usually popular in restaurants in Chinatown. I have to say, it is really not bad at all! For my fellow Singaporeans who've never tried it... its actually fried bee hoon with curry powder. This dish is not only popular in the West, it is available in our Asian neighbours like HK or Taiwan as well.

So if you want to have a taste of Singapore, yet you dont want to spend $10 at the Chinatown restuarant, here's what you can do - Cook it yourself! I've tried cooking this dish a couple of times with my recipe below, and I guarantee you that this is 100% suited to Singaporean authentic taste! :p

Ingredients:
- Vermicelli or any other types of noodles suitable for frying (you can subsitute with Spaghetti as well)
- Prawns, devined
- Lean pork or char-siew (roasted pork), sliced
- Green spring onion (the long ones)
- Beansprouts
- Shitake mushrooms (if you use the dried version, you have to soak them first)
- Onions, diced
- A fried egg, for garnishing purposes
- Curry powder
- Seasonings like soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt.

How to cook:
1. Ok let's prepare noodles first. Boil some water and add some salt, just like how you will boil your pasta. Then, add in about 1 tablespoon of curry powder into the boiling water, and then add in the noodles to cook them. The curry powder will give the white vermicelli a golden yellow look, and dont be tempted to eat them all up, although it looks so delicious already! Remove the cooked noodles and let it drain dry. This step is very important, as you do not want to have soggy noodles afterwards.

2. Heat up some oil in low heat, and add in the chopped garlic. Turn up to mid heat and add in the sliced pork and prawns. Next add in the sliced shitake mushrooms.

3. Next, add in the long green spring onions and beansprouts.

4. Take the drained vermicelli and place them into the pan and stir-fry quickly together.

5. Your final step, add in some curry powder and mix them well while still frying! If at this point of time your fried noodles are too dry, you can add in some water together with the curry powder.

6. Turn off the heat once the whole dish is evenly mixed with curry powder.

For garnish, you might want to add some strips of egg or just place some Chinese parsley on top.

To make this dish even more "Singaporean", you can add in some diced fried bean curd (tau-hu) and red-cut chillies with seeds removed.

Enjoy! :)

Long Beach @ Dempsey 1-for-1

2009-09-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

Previously I shared about the 1-for-1 lunch special at Long Beach seafood restaurant.

Well, I finally had the chance to try this set lunch!
The lunch I had was $68++ per person, so the total bill only came out to be about $85.

Although this lunch made me poorer by $85, I still think that this is really value for money, because all the dishes that was served showed the Chef's commitment to make every dish so perfect both in taste and in looks.

Here's what on the menu.

First dish: Three Combination Platter, consisting of "Japanese cold tofu", "Cucumber and Jelly Fish", and "Live Fragrant Prawn".

This is Japanese cold tofu and the topping is actually a paste made from century egg. Century egg is a type of preserved egg, which actually I dont really suggest for the faint-hearted. (Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg) It has a really strong ammonia taste, and it might be hard to swallow if you are a first-timer to "exotic" foods! The orange stuff on top is prawn roe.

Can't see the jellyfish here as its being wrapped up by the cucumber. I ate this in one mouth! Haha! Very refreshing taste.

Fresh prawn deep-fried in a thin batter then covered in a gravy of mild curry. The prawn sits in a carrot basket. and the garnish is actually a piece of deep-fried curry leaf. To make this carrot basket, you just have to shred a piece of carrot, then place the shredded pieces nicely over a small sieve, then use another sieve or spoon or a soup ladle, and press it down so that it forms the shape of the "bowl" and then, bring it down into the deep-fryer.

Second dish: Abalone with shark's fin

Actually the abalone tastes fantastic but the broth is not too nice... I dont like the taste of the asparagus in this dish actually as it makes the dish taste quite bitter. Abalone and shark's fin should taste salty and yet have a bit of sweetness as it is seafood. Instead of garnishing with asparagus, I think a better alternative is to have it replaced with something sweet like Chinese wolf-berries. The colour is pretty and it will give the broth a mild, sweet taste.

Third dish: "Steamed Live Scottish Scallop with Minced Garlic"

There are 2 pieces of scallops in this 1 piece of scallop shell. Very pretty presentation. The scallops are hidden under the bed of minced garlic, roasted garlic and vermicelli.

Fourth dish: "Golden Live Lobster"

This lobster is fried with cereal oats and eggs. Thus the name, golden lobster! This is really too nice beyond words. Haha! Looking at the photo now still makes me salivate! This is really really nice.

Last dish before dessert: "Claypot XO Flower Crab bee hoon"

The XO alcohol taste is just nice, complimenting the crab and the bee hoon (thin rice noodle). Although the flower crab is much smaller compared to the Sri Lankan crab, the crab meat is still very sweet and tasty. Didnt expect the flowercrab to taste so good in terms of the texture!

Dessert: Black sesame ice-cream in Almond cream or Coffee Pudding

Both are really nice! But I prefer the coffee pudding as its sweeter, and I have a real sweet tooth!!! And we were joking that the black sesame ice-cream with that mint garnish looked more like a small shoot growing out of soil... HAHA! Reminds me of the Wall-E Pixar cartoon.

These were served with a bowl of green liquid and dry ice below, so you can see the "smoke" coming out, very interesting presentation!

If my cholestrol level allows, I want to do this again real soon! :)

Curry chicken

2009-09-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

On Fri night I ate home-cooked food for dinner!

This is what I had:

Curry chicken with potatoes

Actually it's really easy to cook this curry chicken. It's merely adding things at the right time during into the pot on the stove! Try it!

Ingredients:
- Chicken chopped in pieces
- Potatoes (The potatoes have to be cut into bite-sized pieces)
- Curry powder for Chicken curry (Available from supermarket or Asian/Chinatown/Indian store)
- Chopped onions
- Milk (Fresh milk will do, or coconut milk)
- Curry leaves

How to cook:
1. In low heat, fry some chopped onions in a wok. I think having a wok is not too common in places out of Asia, so you can use a big saucepan as well.
2. Mix the curry powder with some water to make it into a paste.
3. When you see the onions turning golden brown, add in the curry powder paste and continue to fry.
4. Once you smell the curry flavour then add in the chicken and the curry leaves.
5. Add in some water, and milk or coconut milk to make the "paste" into a "gravy".
6. Throw in your potatoes and simmer it until cooked!

You can serve this dish with steamed rice, or a baguette!

Malaysia crabby over right to 'hijacked' recipes

2009-09-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

Oh god, I am so sad!!! How can this happen?!?!?!

Read this news below and you will know why I'm so upset. I don't remember eating Hainanese Chicken Rice in Malaysia before! It's usually just ayam goreng with rice! That is the Malay style of chicken rice... (Ayam Goreng is fried marinated chicken but without any batter.)

From AFP:

Malaysia crabby over right to 'hijacked' recipes

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia is starting a food fight with other countries to win bragging rights for producing some of Southeast Asia's most beloved recipes, including chili crabs and coconut cream rice, a news report said Thursday.

"We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food," The Star newspaper quoted Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen as saying while launching a campaign to promote the country's cuisine.

The ministry is identifying signature recipes that it will declare as Malaysian, Ng said. She did not reveal how the government might counter others who claim ownership of those dishes, but added that details of its strategy will be announced later.

"Chili crab is Malaysian. Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian. We have to lay claim to our food," Ng said. She mentioned other favorites such as "nasi lemak," which is rice soaked with coconut cream, "laksa," a spicy noodle soup, and "bak kut teh," an ethnic Chinese pork rib stew.

Tourism ministry officials familiar with the campaign could not immediately be contacted.
Variations of the dishes Ng listed are available in several other Asian nations, particularly Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and China.

Some creations, such as chicken rice, were introduced to Malaysia and Singapore by ethnic Chinese workers who settled here after leaving China a century ago.

Chili crab _ a recipe of crabs stir-fried in tomato and chili-based sauces _ could become a bone of contention. It is often associated with Singapore and is considered the city-state's unofficial national dish.

Malaysia was recently embroiled in another cultural spat with a neighbor.
Indonesians held protests earlier this month accusing Malaysia of stealing a Balinese dance for a TV promotional campaign about Malaysia. It later turned out that Malaysia had nothing to do with the video, which had mistakenly described the dance as Malaysian. The video was broadcast on the Discovery Channel cable network, which apologized for the mistake.

"Lion City"

2009-09-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Just got an email from my mum. She said that she is so going to that "Lion City" restaurant located near where my family lives. Named after Singapore, this restaurant - you must have guessed - serves Singapore/Malaysia local dishes. I've never been to this restaurant (or have I...????) but my mum tells me that each dish is about CAD$8-$10. Not cheap at all compared to the < SGD$5 goodies I can get here at a hawker centre! (Hmmm... I think I might have been to "Lion City" now that I recall...was that during Aunt Pauline's treat...???)

Actually this week is quite a special week. Every year, mid Sept is special for me cos 17th is Adrian's birthday and 20th is my mum's birthday! So - my mum told me she is looking forward to her simple yet sumptuous birthday treat from my dad and my bro at "Lion City" this weekend! Hope they will like the food there.

Japanese bento boxes

2009-09-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

If you are a mum of a young kid and running out of ideas on what to put in your child's lunch box, here's some cute ideas. Got these as an email from a friend. Apparently her message to me was that Jap housewives have alot of time and patience!

But honestly if I am the kid, I will come back with the lunch box still full. Cos... I can't bear to eat these!

Asian style Claypot Chicken rice

2009-09-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

The other day I hurriedly wrote down this recipe for my friend, so I thought I might as well share it with you too.

Claypot chicken rice is very different from the Famous Hainanese Chicken rice. Claypot rice is really like just everything cooked together in a claypot then mixed with sauces and served steaming hot! (See how it looks like here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claypot_chicken_rice)

Don't worry if you don't have a claypot. We're using a rice-cooker here!

Ingredients:
1) Bite-sized chicken pieces, about 3cm x 3cm
2) Leafy veggies cut into smaller stalks about 5cm long
3) Chopped garlic
4) Dried chinese sausages aka lup-cheong (But usually I skip this cos I dont really like to eat processed meat)
5) Salted fish (I skip this too cos its too unhealthy :p)
6) Seasonings like dark soy sauce, pepper, sugar, oyster sauce (If you can't find oyster sauce you can replace with teriyaki sauce)
7) And of cos, rice grains

How to cook:
1) Marinate the cut-up chicken pieces with the seasonings and chopped garlic and place in the fridge overnight.
2) Before you cook the chicken, remove and let it stand for about 30 mins or so first so that it will not be too cold. If you cook frozen food at home, sometimes the centre of the ingredients will not be cooked.
3) Wash the uncooked rice, and cook it in the rice cooker as how you would cook it normally. If you are cooking with the dried chinese sausages, you can throw them in now.
4) Once you see steam coming out from the rice cooker, open the lid (but be very careful as it is very hot) and pour in the seasoned chicken pieces, and the washed green veggies.
5) Just wait for it to cook now!
6) Before serving, mix the rice well so that the ingredients can be spread evenly. If the rice is too dry, add in some sesame oil and mix again.

Enjoy! :)

Hao Jian, or Orh Luah

2009-09-13T09:24:00.001-07:00

Here's a dish that is common in all major hawker centres in Singapore.

Presenting - Fried egg with oysters, aka "Hao Jian" (Chinese) or "Orh Luah" (Hokkien/Fujian)

I think my mum must be really salivating now. I kinda of recall that my mum and dad quite likes this dish. This dish is basically eggs mixed with flour, fried with fresh oysters. This dish is definitely a Fujian dish, as along the coastal lines of the province, there is an abundance of fresh oysters. Try not to think of those huge Bretagne or Perle Blanche oysters ok. I'm talking about those small thumbsized oysters here.

You know when I was younger, I was really quite naughty. Everytime my parents will want to eat out with their friends and have some nice local food - yet I will be crying for fast food. (erm...actually every kid does that, yah? Pls tell me that I am a normal kid!)

Haha, the ironic part now is I am telling them about the nice local food that I am eating all the time!

Oh god - now thinking about oysters, I am craving for a fresh shucked oyster... Better if its cold and milky. How yummy... But its like 12 midnight now! :(

How to make a tropical drink

2009-09-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

Had this during lunch at a cafe today. Hmm... I'm thinking - my mum can try this at home too, if she wants to have a nice, cold drink for her Saturday noon after grocery shopping!

Lychee Jazz (TCC cafe)

1. Add some ice cubes into a tall glass.

2. Grab a can of soda, Sprite, 7-up... anything carbonated! ;)

3. Add in some syrup for taste - it can be just plain sugar syrup, maple syrup (lots in Canada) or something more fanciful like grenadine syrup, fruit syrup etc...

4. Open a can of lychees, crushed pineapple or any other tropical fruit. These should be readily available in your supermart.

(Additional step: If you want to have an alcoholic drink - you can add in a shot of Malibu or Blue Curacao.)

5. Add in some sprigs of mint leaves for that refreshing taste, and you are done!

Eat this - Leap further?!

2009-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Ok ok! I think I found yet ANOTHER dish that can appear on the "bizarre food" TV show! Sorry I keep talking about this show cos I know these food channel shows pretty well! You know I am such a foodie so I love watching Discovery Travel and Living channel. :)

The Chinese have this belief that you eat whatever you need to nourish. For e.g. you wanna have a good SOLID brain right? So you gotta drink the pig brain soup that your mum cooked for you during your exam period. You have been drinking your guts out and you need to have a strong liver right? Ok then eat some pork liver! You want to leap far? Try THESE!

Nothing can beat it:

Claypot frogs' legs in spicy kung-po sauce

For those of you who've NEVER tried frog legs... Let me tell you how it tastes like. There is no distinct smell or flavour, cos it just takes that flavour in whatever you cook in. But for the texture, I can say its inbetween like chewing a piece of cod fish and a piece of chicken. There are a few outlets that we really like, one's at the 24 hour hawker place near Allson Hotel in bugis, and the other one is along Geylang Lor 9. Adrian's fav is the one in bugis and its slowly becoming my fav stall too, cos you know the frog legs that they serve are really HUGE!

Putien, Fujian province in China

2009-09-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

There is one place I would really like to visit in China. So far, I have only been to the more developed first-tier cities, so it will be interesting to know how the 2nd/3rd tier cities are like.

This place I hope to go one day is Putien. Putien is located in the Fujian province - if you look at your map, it is in the southeast part of China. I wish to go to Putien because I've tried so many Putien dishes here in Singapore from those authentic Putien restaurants, so I really wish to find out if the actual taste of their food is really so good! As Putien is located near the coastline, they have never-ending supply of seafood, so their dishes always revolve around the freshest catch. I think the main reason why Putien dishes are so popular with Singaporeans is because many Singaporeans are actually of Fujian origin. Our ancestors who travelled from China would have come from the coastal provinces, so the food is really considered comfort food to the Fujian, or Hokkien dialect group here in Singapore. Many Fujian people move to Taiwan too, whereas for HK, the people are usually from Guangdong, which the language Cantonese is spoken.

Here's an interesting dish that I had:

Raw cockles served with chopped garlic, green spring onion and red chillies

(By the way - for the chillies, the smaller they are, the HOTTER they are!)

I think my mum wont be too happy to know that I am eating too much raw cockles! If not handled properly, they can be quite dangerous as you can get infected with Hepatitis B. But dont worry - I had my jab!

Cockles are grown on the rock barnacles, so anyone can actually go and do their own cockles hunting. But the cockles served in these reputable restaurants are quite clean and inexpensive so we can still enjoy our food without getting our hands dirty.

I believe that this dish should look quite exotic and adventurous to many non-Singaporeans. But I dont think it will be eccentric enough to appear on "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" TV show! Hahaha!

Sum up your courage, do try it sometime!

****There are many Putien restaurants in Singapore but my favourite is still from http://www.putien.com, Kitchener Road outlet***

What can you buy with $3 along Orchard Road?

2009-09-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

There's another stall near my office where they sell these wan-tan noodles. Wan-tan is a name for chinese dumplings, but these dumplings here in these noodles are the mini version, so you can just pop them into your mouth! By the way, this whole bowl is only SGD$3, can you believe it?!?! Such great value for money!

The noodles here are cooked to perfection, very springy, and very chewy. Not soft and sticky at all! We usually refer to chewy noodles being "Q". Yes, just the alphabet. So, you can form a sentence like... "These noodles are very Q!" or... "The pearls in the bubble tea are so Q that I have to keep chewing!"

Yeah - you get the idea. In order to cook such "Q" noodles, Or in fact, anything springy, after cooking in hot water, put the noodles into COLD iced water immediately! That should do the magic! Next time you want your pasta or your noodles to be springy - try this!

My wan-tan noodles with fried dumplings, roasted pork and green leafy veggies mixed with spicy chilli sauce.

If you can't take spicy sauce, dont worry they will subsitute with a rich, dark soy sauce. Very yummy too!

***This stall is located at Cuppage Plaza, along the stretch of food stalls where OCBC bank is. Lunch time - its very very packed!***

Bubble Tea

2009-09-09T23:20:00.001-07:00

Yes - this is supposed to be VERY frothy! There is no wonder why the Taiwanese gave this name to their beverage invention. Bubble tea, in chinese is called "Pao Pao Cha", where "pao pao" means bubbles and "cha" means tea! Thus the direct translation into - Bubble Tea.

About 8-10 years ago there was this HUGE trend in Singapore, where every corner you turn there's a bubble tea shop. They took Singapore by storm via the franchise business model, and suddenly everyone in Singapore, young, old, male, female was drinking pao pao cha. It really became like some fast food and an essential drink to buy as a takeaway when you walk pass. Before that, the only Taiwanese bubble tea we were exposed to was those served in noon-time karaoke tea houses. Or those Taiwanese snack shops where you can order a flavoured bubble tea and some Taiwanese snacks and chat your noon away... Those who are born in SG in the 80s like me will surely know what I am talking about!

You'll see that in the photo, the black stuff that has sunken to the bottom - that is actually cooked sago, but we call them "pearls". The pearls are supposed to be much bigger like 50% bigger - but then when I bought this, the lady said that the big pearls are still being cooked! And the rectangular pieces just above these pearls? They are not ice cubes, but coconut fiber jelly known as "nata de coco". An exciting drink, eh! Every mouthful, I must admit, is full of flavour and punch! Oh yah by the way I've chosen lychee-flavoured syrup to be added in this milk tea.

Currently there are fewer outlets selling pao-pao-cha, but you can still get a nice refreshing one quite easily as the shop is pretty easy to spot. Most big shopping malls would still have 1 bubble tea store.

To order, just choose if you want green tea, milk tea or red tea. I ALWAYS take the milk tea, haha. Then you can choose what "flavour" you want - but not suitable for the health conscious cos its all artifical flavouring in syrup form. There's like mango, grenadine, watermelon, honeydew...etc...etc, all sorts of flavours. Then the person behind the counter will prepare your drink with pearls, coconut fiber jelly etc... They will put the plastic cup under this sealing machine and seal the drink immediately! Before you drink it, shake it well and then poke the straw into your drink! Now... its time to enjoy!

Home-cooked Tom Yum soup

2009-09-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today I want to share a very easy to cook recipe, which is usually only served in Thai restaurants, but now - you can cook in your own kitchen.

Sorry that there are no pics this time! It's been a while since I last cooked this dish.

I'm hoping that my mum will try to cook this for my dad and my bro. They are in luck if she does! Hehe... It's a simple soup which can be very appetizing and you can just serve it with plain rice. And very healthy too!

First of all, we need these ingredients:

(Serves 3)

1) Blue ginger aka galangal plant (about 2-3 pieces)
You can get this at any good supermarket or any Asian store. It's best not to use the actual yellow ginger as that is too spicy. Blue ginger is slightly milder. Anyway I don't think its difficult to get as in Chinatown, there are many Vietnamese stores and they use blue ginger extensively too. To prepare, simply just wash it clean, use a knife to cut off the dirty parts on the skin, and cut each piece into like 2-3 pieces.

(Find out how this ingredient looks like here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal)

2) Lemongrass (about 2-3 stalks)
Once you buy them back home, peel off the outer leaves, if they are dirty and old-looking.
Cut the stems away, and wash clean. Then cut each stalk diagonally to about 2-3 shorter stalks.

3) Chicken stock
Forget about cooking your own stock cos there wont be much taste...
Just head out to get that ready-made one on the shelves, but do choose the one without any MSG added.

4) Onion
Just one big bulb will do! Wash and peel it clean. Cut into half.

5) Red long chillies (about 4-5 pieces)
If you can't take the "heat", then remove the seeds inside the chilli. It's the seeds that make the chilli so spicy! Try to wear gloves when doing so... You dun wanna burn your fingers! Usually when I am removing the seeds or cutting the chillies, I wont use a knife instead I will use a pair of scissors. Cos sometimes the smell of the chilli stays on the knife and everything else you cut later on will be spicy!

6) Lime
Just need about 1 lime, cut in half.

7) Your usual seasoning - salt, sugar, soy sauce. And also for garnishing - chopped parsley.

8) Seafood ingredients you feel like eating! E.g. fish, prawns, squid, and you can also prepare some straw mushrooms...

Now, let's start the cooking!

1) Empty the chicken stock into a your soup pot. Depending on the brand that you get - if the stock is too thick, then please add in some water!

2) Put on mid heat and once it starts to boil, add in the blue ginger pieces, lemongrass slices, onion, and the red chillies.

3) Let it boil for a minute or so, then turn the heat to mid/low heat, so that the soup is simmering now. By this time, your kitchen will be full of the smell of the ingredients of the soup!

4) Try tasting the soup after 3-4 mins but be careful, IT'S HOT!

5) If the soup tastes ok to you now, slowly remove all the ingredients in the soup. Remove the blue ginger pieces, lemongrass slices, chillies, etc. You can add in some soy sauce now if your soup is not salty enough. However some brands of chicken stock could be quite salty, so better taste your soup first before adding soy sauce.

If it still tastes too mild to you, continue to boil it with the ingredients. If it tastes too spicy already, quickly remove the ingredients, then add in some sugar.

You can also add in some milk at this point of time if you want a thicker soup base. Just use the fresh milk from your fridge, that's fine! Add in about 2-3 tablespoons.

6) So - say now u are pretty done with the taste of the soup. Add in ALL your seafood now and cook them! I will add in the mushrooms first, followed by the squid, then prawns, then fish. Go in this order so that everything gets cooked perfectly.

7) Dish out your soup in 3 soup bowls, then squeeze some lime juice over the soup just before serving. Remember, just before serving!
Add in some parsley on top and you are ready to impress now!

Have fun!

Mooncakes - a dessert fit for the extraterrestrial

2009-09-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

You know - many do not know what mooncakes are. They sound surprised when they hear of this word! (There are 2 main types of mooncakes, the traditional baked type and the snowskin type, and I shall not bore you - you can find out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake)

Now with the Mid-Autumn festival nearing (3rd October), people in Singapore/HK/China etc love to exchange mooncakes... usually with business partners, colleagues, and... of cos, you gotta give one box to your mother-in-law! HAHA! I know my mum really likes the authentic mooncakes sold here in Singapore - because I remember a few years ago when I bought some mooncakes back for my family, I left it on the dining table and... within 1 day, the mooncakes are all GONE!!!

Anyway... I am quite jealous that its an official public holiday in HK and China! I guess its a gd time for families to come together with lanterns lit up to sit around outdoors and "view" the moon. The moon will be the ROUNDEST and prettiest on 3rd October this year.

But... guess which country will never celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival. Its... Mongolia... The origin of having the mooncake is really for the purpose of communication to overthrow the Mongolian rule in China.

The reason why I started talking about mooncakes is because I see so many ads everyday and also emails stating which credit card has which hotels' mooncake discount! SO TEMPTING!!! I really like the snowskin ones. Cos they come in so many interesting flavours... Like ice-cream, mango, strawberry, cranberry, cheese, durian, you name it, they have it. Quite innovative.

Second reason is becos I got this MMS on my phone from Adrian - he got some mooncakes delivered to his office and he thought that the box looks really pretty.

This brand is Mr Bean - haha, i know, the name is cute. They actually sell all sorts of soy bean related products like drinks, flavoured beancurds, fruit smoothies, pastries, etc...

Look, isn't it sooooooo cute!!! The soy bean mascot is like smiling away gleefully. I like this mascot, cos its so apt for the tagline of Mr Bean...which talks about simplicity being life's pleasure.

But... I never got a picture of the actual mooncake. So I still dunno how it looks like. He must have gobbled it all up before being able to take a photo!

Ipoh curry noodles

2009-09-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year we went to Ipoh to experience the nice food there and boy, did we really gorge ourselves! We got around with locals and were brought sample the best food around town. Basically there is nga-choi-gai ("nga choi" means beansprouts & "gai" means chicken in cantonese) which is a dish of steamed chicken and thick juicy beansprouts. My fav is the curry steamboat, its quite common here too, but the curry gravy is really thick and spicy but yet not too oily!

So we had to try the famous Ipoh dry curry hor fun at this long-standing old coffeeshop. This coffeeshop is located at the first level of an old shophouse - so by the name of a "shophouse", the first level is a shop where they trade whatever business they are in, and level 2 is...the place they live in! How convenient right... imagine your "office" just below where you live. That's the definition of a shophouse - Convenience!

And of cos the shophouses in Singapore (many are still around today) are synonymously known with having "five foot way". The five foot way was actually invented by the British when they colonised us!

Oh yes by the way - hor fun has nothing to do with food being playful. Its just a name for a type of flat, white, rice noodle.

Ok here's the Ipoh dry curry hor fun with shredded chicken and roast pork, and of cos with juicy beansprouts. The reason for its unusually big size I heard is becos of the high nutrient water in ipoh following from the hills loaded with minerals. Thus the beansprouts grow so well! Better eat more of these beansprouts, its really eating good stuff for your body!

So when I came back from ipoh - I was really still craving for this curry hor fun. And guess what I realised that there was a store nearby where I work selling this dish! I tried it, and I must say - the curry tastes really quite similar! Almost like franchise quality. I can easily satisfy my craving for curry hor fun here!

Flat noodles in curry gravy with chicken pieces, beansprouts, potatoes and fried beancurd- all in a takeaway box!

Although its not shredded chicken and it has no roast pork... but it is still very fulfilling and satisfying!

Nasi padang

2009-09-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

OK this dish is not really considered as a "Singaporean" dish, as actually it originated from Indonesia. (Then again...what is considered a Singaporean dish!) However this dish is really common all around here!

I ate this at a public food court in one of the biggest shopping malls in Singapore, Vivocity. I brought a colleague from China there and I ordered this meal. It can be considered as a "nasi padang" where "nasi" means rice in Bahasa Melayu (Malay language). So anything that you see with the word "nasi", you know its gotta be RICE!

So, going clockwise, the items are (from bottom right): Pickled cucumbers with carrots, Fried prawn crackers with fried onions, Fried tapioca chips with peanuts, Fried mashed potato in crispy batter, Dry-curry chicken drumstick, belachan chilli sauce garnished with a piece of cucumber.

Oh yes and the cone-shaped rice is yellow due to tumeric. Tastes really appetizing!

No man-of-war but cannonball!

2009-09-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

Every year, countless of people die of jellyfish stings.

And to help our fellow humans take revenge............ WE EAT THEM! (the jellyfish, of cos!)

Yes, these invertebrates are edible. The species that's edible is usually the "cannonball" jellyfish, where they are reared just for food. Many people do not know that us Chinese (and Japanese) love jellyfish! (I know this looks a bit like cuttlefish but it really is one BIG jellyfish!)

Apart from this one above that has thick strips, the more common japanese ones are in thinner strips, usually seasoned with shoyu sauce and red-cut chilli.

The famed dishes

2009-09-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

Here's looking at you - our famed dishes!

No prizes for guessing what these are!

My personal favourite is the black pepper crab served at Long Beach seafood restaurant. I ate this 1.3kg crab at the Dempsey outlet just last week. Right now they have this amazing promotion for AMEX cardholders. Its 1-for-1 all-day set lunch starting from $48 onwards to $108. I'll go try it someday, cos its really so cheap! Even the $48 one has scallops, bamboo clams, shark's fin, chilli crab etc in the menu. Sounds so good that it sounds like a scam, right? Or skeptics will say that the portions will be really puny. Don't worry I will try it very soon and tell you more about it!

Famed Chilli crab - Basically this dished is to be eaten with some deep fried mini-buns. You just have dip the buns into the egg-chill gravy then savour the crab together!

Peanut paste (dessert)

2009-09-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

There's all sorts of desserts available in Singapore... All sorts of International ice-cream brands too, you name it, we have it. Why do Singaporeans love their desserts? Cos our food is so rich in flavour, it's always nice to have something SWEET at the end of the meal to finish it off. And definitely cos of our hot weather, cold desserts are always welcomed. I can't resist the ice-cream man on the street selling $1 ice-cream that comes in cone, in thin wafer biscuit or in a slice of bread.

Here's a FULL bowl of peanut paste, which is considered pretty uncommon out of Singapore. This paste is very hard to cook, so many hawkers don't serve it!

Peanut paste dessert (Angie posing for me) in the famous dessert shop near Bugis street

Cooling tea

2009-09-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

You know if you walk around in streets in South east Asia you will tend to see people selling "cooling teas" as drinks. It's really necessary to drink this, esp in our ever-hot summer weather here. The Chinese believe that cooling tea will help to balance the yin-yang in our bodies. For e.g if you eat a heaty food like... fried chicken, or even spicy laksa, then the food will give you a sore throat or a cough if you don't take enough water to "neutralise" the food in your stomach.

There are all sorts of cooling teas available - the common ones are like barley drink, water chestnut drink...

This one I am having here is Ginseng + Luohan:

Luohan is like a large round palm size fruit that has this black-truffle look (no kidding) but it tastes much sweeter and mellower... A bit musky too. It's really heard to describe. I liked drinking luohan drinks since I was young!

Alexander market Claypot laksa

2009-09-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

This should be the best laksa in Singapore, no kidding. I think it beats Katong Laksa - cos this laksa simply has no water in it, its all thick with coconut milk. VERY unhealthy, I know, due to the high cholesterol in coconut milk. But really what the heck - we only take this once in a month!

This is before I mix the gravy - you can't see the noodles at all.

And this, is before I tuck in heartily.

YUMMMMMMY!

Ah Yat dim-sum at Beach road

2009-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

We go out for dim-sum at this location often. Simply because the dim-sum is good and there is like an ongoing discount, haha! Of cos dim-sum is still best in Hong Kong. But there are some quite innovative dim-sum dishes in Singapore due to the ingredients available.

I don't really take this dish well. It's chicken feet braised in sauce, but they call it Phoenix Claws. Sounds better than CHICKEN FEET!

Variety of different dishes... There's the spinach in 3 egg consomme, rice rolls, crispy 3-layered pork with fats and abalone pastry puff. Yes, it's like a chicken pie but with abalone pieces in it.

Here's what I really like, fried silverfish seasoned with garlic and pepper!

Someone will catch the live seafood for you here! Exciting cos I was sitting really close to it and was so worried the fish will come flying onto my table!

Home-cooked meat "stew" and fried rice

2009-09-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Not only I enjoy eating out, I enjoy cooking as well. Here's 2 dishes that I whipped up recently, which is really easy to make yet it has a very Singaporean taste to it.

My cooking I must say is very Teochew-influenced due to my mum's dialect group. Chaozhou is a place in China in the east in Guangdong province. My ancestors came from Chaozhou. Someone from US actually asked me before which part of China I am from... I didnt know the answer then and he was quite offended. Well, we see ourselves as Singaporeans, you see! :)

Pork and Japanese shimeji mushrooms with oyster sauce and corn starch gravy

Fried rice (left in the rice cooker for heat) with salmon, cabbage, ham and salmon seasoning and parsley flakes

There is often this joke abt Singaporeans pronouncing their words in Singlish - and "rice" is always known as "lice".

Man on street: "Auntie, I want to order!"
Hawker: "Ah, what you want ah? Say, lah!"
Man on street: "Auntie, eh...... give me one... flied lice lah!"
Hawker: "Eat here or takeaway?"
Man on street: "Eat here, thank cute ah Auntie!"

Mellben crab

2009-09-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am sure many many many of us have heard of Mellben crab located near the outskirts of the city area in a residential area called Ang Mo Kio. It's about 15mins drive away from Orchard - and just 5-6 MRT stops away. What Mellben is famous for is evident when you step into the non-airconditioned restaurant. Lots of varnished empty crab shells used to decorate the place. There's always a long queue and you'll have to wait for about say... 1 to 2 hours for your food!

This gotta be my favorite style of cooking the crab... its cooked with buttery paste and some aromatic curry leaves.

This is Adrian's favourite - beehoon (vermicelli) crab soup. The soup is really sweet and the taste is out of this world. But the reason why it's not my favourite is because this makes me very full quickly, haha!

Fried monkey-head mushroom

2009-09-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hmmm ok this is tough. Where should I start? There are simply too many wonderful food in Singapore to begin with! I've decided to share all the food that I'm having!

Here's something more interesting to begin with:

Fried monkey-head mushroom (Lingzhi Vegetarian restaurant)

Don't worry, nothing to do with the real monkey. It's just the name of the mushroom. Must be that the lines/curves on the actual mushroom looks like a brain!!! At the botton of the dish u can see its garnished with beansprouts and something that's like seaweed. This dish is really nice cos its very crispy!!!