jiaLARD

falling into the 'duck' side

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:36:00 +0000

After a very long (unintended) hiatus, we are back again………… finally!

Having travelled to Beijing recently, I was given the imperial treatment by my bro and his wife. In my short four day stay, I enjoyed three Peking duck dinners and was asked to give my opinion on which was the best overall Peking duck experience in Beijing.

The first restaurant we dined at was “Made in China”, located at the 5-star Hyatt Hotel in downtown Beijing. The open kitchen concept was similar to that of mezza9 at Hyatt, Singapore. The pre-ordered bird arrived shortly and as the chef carved the bird, we were first served the cut of the skin from the breast of the duck. The first taste of Peking duck in Beijing itself was nothing short of fantastic - the skin was light and crisp and the accompanying sweet bean sauce added a lot to the sensation of that first bite. The duck meat which was served was flavourful, though it should have been a bit juicier. But this was probably one of the better Peking ducks I’ve had for some time.

The next night, we travelled to Duck de Chine, which is the favourite restaurant for my bro and wife. The restaurant was nestled in space which housed an art studio and a few other restaurants, giving it an impeccable ambience. The red lanterns added a touch of chinoiserie to the restaurant. The appetiser of chilled black fungus, bitter gourd, lily bulbs and celery, accompanied with a dash of vinegar and sesame oil helped to perk up my expectation for the piece de resistance, which arrived at our table with much fanfare. The sweet bean paste was served from a jar of homemade hoisin sauce, artistically wedded with some peanut sauce and chopped garlic. A waiter signalled the arrival of the bird with the sounding of a gong. The chef carved the bird before us, all of which heightened the experience of dining at Duck de Chine. The immediate question then was, “Is the duck better than last night’s?” Well, my opinion was that “Made in China’s” skin was a little crispier, but Duck de Chine’s duck was definitely juicier and flavourful. It was hard to come to a conclusion just yet……

While traveling in the cabs, we had asked the cab drivers, where would they go for Peking duck and out of the two drivers we asked, both listed Quan Ju De as their first choice. Bro and his wife, had suggested Da Dong but they asked me to decide on the third place on the third night. I chose Quan Ju De, which was also be a first experience for my hosts who have been in Beijing for some 5 months. QJD perhaps does not match the ambience of the first two dining experience; if Duck de Chine and Made in China is likened to Club Chinoise, then perhaps QJD may be likened to Noble House. But what QJD does not compare in ambience, it made up in the area of culinary expertise. There had been some chatter about the grease level at QJD but for us that evening, it was an exquisite balance of crisp and flavour.

So what is the best Peking duck dining experience for me? Bearing in mind that I did not have the time to venture out to check out Da Dong, I guess I will cast my vote to Duck de Chine for the overall experience - the ambience, the pomp and pageantry, the presentation, the aroma and the taste. It’s not easy to match but where just the duck is concerned, I guess I would say that QJD comes a close second. It was an experience that I will remember for a long time, where indeed fair is fowl and fowl is more than just fair!

Ancient Kingdoms

noreply@blogger.com (Bottomless Pit) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:04:00 +0000

I have been missing for a while, but here i am back with pictures of a "recent" trip i have been. I know many will debate about the definition of recent, but time is relative right? These were pictures from Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh), Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Siam Reap), Thailand (Bangkok). Unfortunately, descriptions will be kept to a minimal due to the large amount of pictures =P.

Hanoi Grilled Fish. Really Oily Fish.

Hanoi Fire Sauce - Tabasco?

Ice Cream

Meat balls with BBQ sauce, Curry Chicken, Mango Stir Fried Fish

Amok Fish i believe that is what they call it.

premium pasta at pasar prices

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:57:00 +0000

It has often been said the east of Singapore is where all the good food is and to a certain extent there is some truth there. With this latest discovery, the West is now one up. Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre is well known for its carrot cake (chai tow kuay) and a few other hawker centre comfort food. But recently, it is the location for another gem of a find. Affordable western cuisines have been popping up in various locations all across Singapore and this latest addition is perhaps the only hawker centre pasta find where one is able to enjoy a sophisticated truffle-scented carbonara at hawker centre prices…. Read it again, it’s truffle-scented carbonara!

Le Pasta is a recently opened place for pasta and helmed by a chef who had previously worked at the kitchen of a very popular and chic restaurant (which shall be left unnamed). He whips up a selection of classic favourites such as bolognese, vongole, arrabiata to the classier frutti de mare (seafood), amatricianna and even the ‘exotic’ puttanesca (with olives and anchovies). And you have a choice of pastas as well - linguini, spaghetti and penne. Le Pasta is pasta that you will get from swanky Italian restaurants that charge between $15 to $25, which you get a fraction of the price without any discounts on the taste or the quality or the freshness of the ingredients.

As the truffle-scented carbonara was not available on the day we went, we settled for the creamy al funghi, the amatricianna and the aglio olio. The al funghi was good, with a creamy sauce that well executed and well balanced. The tomato-based amatricianna was generously sprinkled with onions and chopped crispy bacon which added ‘oomph’ to the pasta. But perhaps what wowed me most was the aglio olio.

I have always believed that the true test of a pasta restaurant is in the execution of the simplest aglio olio. The one served here has a generous amount of sliced garlic and a sprinkling of chopped chilies to kick up the taste a few notches. The garlic was sufficiently pan fried such that the garlicky scent is evident without the bitter aftertaste of overdone garlic. It was a simple pasta dish excellently executed. The great thing about the pasta here is that if you need to kick up your dish a few notches, you have the option of adding various other toppings to your pasta, such as tiger prawns, bacon and even seafood.

The mushroom soup also deserves a mention. It is NOT your typical canned mushroom soup served with some freshly chopped mushrooms. Rather is it a sophisticated mushroom soup that is served with freshly blended button and shitake mushrooms.

I returned 2 days later (with another of my friends) and ordered another two pastas, the truffle-scented carbonara and the pesto. I did not have my camera with me and cannot tempt you with the pictures. But like the aglio olio, both these pastas wowed me over yet again.

di, who's friends with the chef, has also eaten here and he added that the Frutti de Mare is also excellent choice. Pasta at a pasar….. well, make a trip to Le Pasta and be bowled over yourself! It’s premium Italian pasta at pasar prices!

Rating: 4 byps

Le Pasta

#02-158, Bukit Timah Road Market
Bukit Timah Road

peace for di.... always

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:29:00 +0000

It’s always a difficult decision when it comes to planning a birthday dinner for di. We’ve eaten at quite a number of places, as evidenced by the blog entries here and it probably takes a lot of thinking to surprise di. So when he’s birthday came around, I was down to two choices. The first, a western cuisine and the second a recent food find in Macpherson. I finally opted for the Cantonese eatery since di has had another birthday celebration at Garibaldi’s. Guess I will leave the other option to sometime towards the end of the year…. hehe.

In some ways the place bears a similar Chinese name to that famous hotel in Shanghai, Peace Hotel and the food they serve is definitely comfort food. Wo Peng Eatery is opened by Chef Julian Tam Kwok Fai, who was the former executive Chef of The Furama Palace, in Chinatown. Wo Peng is famed for their double boiled soups as well as their seafood dishes.

As we arrived a little later than the usual dinner time, we were a little disappointed that di was not able to have his double boiled shark bone soup as they were sold out by then. In place, di had another herbal soup which was double boiled with a few root looking like herbs and with pork. The soup tasted pretty flavourful for one (like me) who’s uninitiated in Chinese herbal soups.

We ordered also the specialty here at Wo Peng which is fried fish skin served with a rich broth. The skin was so crisp, it was much like the crackers (koropo) that we are familiar with in this part of the world. We were told that we could either eat the fish skin separately or to dip it in the soup before eating it. It’s one of those dished where one is able to enjoy not only the sight and taste but also the sound of the dish as the crispy fish skin crackles as it is dipped into the soup. A thoroughly enjoyable appetizer.

The next dish to arrive was the venison with a particular kind of mushroom what had the texture of chicken ham. It was a good combination of meat with fungi/vegetables. The mushroom had a chewy texture which well complimented the tenderness of the venison.

The dish to complete the dinner was the famed lobster noodles. Being the typical traditional person, no birthday dinner is complete without eating some kind of noodles and Wo Peng serves up an awesome lobster noodles. The stock for the noodles is well-scented with the use of ginger slices and spring onions and the chef was generous with the pieces of plump and juicy lobster.

The good thing about Wo Peng is that it is restaurant food served at tze-char prices, well maybe a little more than your typical HDB tze-char places but definitely value for money. A great place to have that typical Chinese birthday dinners for a couple of tables. It was a great place for dinner with di. We were quite stuffed and decided against desserts since we were headed to a café to round off the celebrations.

Good food with family. I am at peace……and praying too that peace will not only prevail here but also for di as he celebrates another birthday.

Rating: 3.5 byps

Wo Peng Eatery
476 Macpherson Road
Tel 67479892

teacher's day dinner...'imperial' pleasures

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:46:00 +0000

It’s becoming a sort of a tradition when di invited me to dinner this year to commemorate Teacher’s Day. I was his pastoral care tutor while I was in ACS and that has been about a decade ago. We eat together quite a bit but this was no less a heart tugging affair for me.

We arrived at Huang Ting, which was a place we had wanted to try having seen it at Central. But the fact that it’s tucked away in some obscure corner probably is not helpful, especially since we seem to be the only diners there that evening; di joked that it was because he had made reservations for the entire place that evening! But the lack of diners should not be attributed to the quality of the food at Huang Ting. The dishes we ordered were very good.

Knowing that Peking duck is one of favourites, we ordered half a duck. The skin was exceptionally crisp. The only grumble I have was that it was served in egg crepes rather than the typical wheat dough, which is a more authentic version. But egg crepes are perhaps more typical of a Cantonese interpretation of this Beijing delicacy. Each bite however, was packed with a crunch and balanced with a flavourful sweet bean sauce.

We tried two different soups. I chose the hot and sour soup while di had the ‘Tam Kar’ seafood broth which was perhaps a better choice, given that this is a Cantonese restaurant. The soup was chockfull of seafood and is a typical comfort food.

So it was with the tofu dish. di ordered the tofu with spinach and assorted mushrooms. It was a simple dish but very well executed as the flavours exploded with each mouthful of the tofu.

The roast chicken is perhaps one of the most impressive dishes in Huang Ting. The crispness of the skin contrasted with the tender juiciness of the chicken meat, a typical Hong Kong specialty.

Huang Ting serves a buffet dinner too and for $38+++ one can basically try all the chef’s specialties on the buffet’s ala carte menu. We were initially tempted to check that out but were told that it was only available for a minimum of four diners. Given the total number of people in that restaurant that evening, perhaps the manager could have made a concession for these two diners who could have passed as four!

It was an enjoyable dinner made much more memorable because it was di’s way of celebrating teacher’s day for me. It was a meal that made me feel as like royalty and yet celebrated the loyalty we share as brothers. Writing this blog entry, I cannot help but be thankful for that opportunity to make a brief yet nonetheless significant impact on some of the students at ACS. And in the same token, my life has been so much more enriched. Thanks di!

Rating: 3.5 byps

Huang Ting Restaurant

6 Eu Tong Sen Street

The Central #04-63

Tel: 6410-9750

http://www.huang.com.sg

mango madness......

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:05:00 +0000

This is loooong overdue….. but perhaps this is well worth the wait especially if you are traveling to the other food haven of South East Asia, Bangkok. i was in Bangkok with ah di sometime in July this year and we were visiting with couz in Central Thailand.

While in Bangkok, ah di and i came across this gem of a dessert place smack in the middle of Siam Square, just opposite the Siam Paragon, the seeming favourite hangout of Singapore tourists in Bangkok. Mango Tango is fronted by an entire counter of fresh sweet thai mangoes.

di and i had already had a scrumptious lunch at another popular Thai restaurant at Siam Square, called SomTam. We hence decided to order a sampling of the different mango desserts available here. We ordered the khao niao ma muang, the mango with sago and a mango ska, sort of a mango slush, which is one of the popular items in Mango Tango.

Both the ska as well as the mango with sago were fulfilling for a mango junkie like me but di and i agree that the khao niao ma muang (mango sticky rice) is definitely one of the best that we ever had. Ripe chunks of succulent mango that is accompanied with a serving of sticky rice, drizzled with rich coconut milk and sprinkled with a generous touch of fried mung beans. The crispy mung beans added a completely different texture to the whole traditional Thai dessert. The mango sherbet on the side was an equally refreshing addition to the dessert.

So the next time you are in Bangkok, make a point to come to Mango Tango. And it seems that this dessert place has won numerous accolades in Japanese travel magazines. Mango Tango is a gem of a find and one which will leave a tingling in your tummy and a tingling in your feet, as you tango your way home.

Rating: 4 byps

Address:
Mango Tango Cafe
318 Siam Square
Soi 4, Rama 1 Rd
Bangkok
Thailand

paradise revisited

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:25:00 +0000

When couz came back on another one of his visa runs, we decided to return to Paradise again, more accurately Seafood Paradise@Flyer since our last visit at the seemingly remote location at Defu Lane had been memorable. It was a reunion of sorts for couz, di and i since we have had not eaten together for some time. The stylishly designed interior of this latest restaurant of the Paradise Group was a visual hors d’oeuvres. The food….. well, almost celestial! They don’t call it paradise for nothing!

We ordered a seafood tofu soup which came piping hot in a coconut! It was a stroke of culinary ingenuity as the flavor of the fresh coconut was infused into the soup though the steaming process.

The prawn bacons rolls enrobed in a tangy barbeque sauce was another treat! I guess you can only let your eyes do the feasting…..

We also ordered the coffee ribs, which was very well executed, with a great balance of the contrasting flavours of soy and coffee. Definitely for the caffeine addicts!

Couz’s favourite fish is cod and no dinner is complete without an order of cod. The baked cod in teriyaki sauce was delicately exquisite and served with French flair. The melt-in-the-mouth smoothness of the cod was well marinated and baked to perfection.

No visit to Seafood Paradise is complete without an order of their crab dish. Of all the different permutations of preparing crabs, we highly recommend the crab in superior stock (which comes with tang hoon or vermicelli) AND their signature butter crab.

The crab with superior stock is simply a dish in a class of its own. It’s a dish that both couz and di has had at the other Seafood Paradise at Defu Lane. This was my first and i can finally understand the well deserved accolades.

The butter crab came in a pool of butter cream stock, sprinkled with a brown toasted ‘crunchies’ which we later found out was deep fried coconut bits. Yet again it demonstrated the chef’s creativity. The blend of textures and flavours added to the buttery goodness. Deep fried mantous only added to the indulgence.

For the calorie-conscious, there is little need to be overly concerned since this is, after all, Paradise.

Rating: 4 byps

Address:
Seafood Paradise@Flyer
30 Raffles Avenue 01-01
Singapore Flyer
Tel: 63365101

duh! It's D'bun!

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:24:00 +0000

It’s a ritual for me on a weekly basis, standing in front of this little shopfront after church, waiting for the bus to take me to town to get another bus home. Yes, I am one of those who have to rely on public transport. And on one of those extended waits, I ventured into this little haven. I had often wondered why so many inconsiderate drivers would park their vehicles in the bus bay for that mandatory stop to pick up some ‘paus’. It finally dawned on me why they would risk the honking of the frustrated bus driver and the dirty looks of the irritated passengers waiting to board the bus…. here was one special ‘pau’ shop - duh!

I was introduced to the shop’s latest innovation, the ‘shao rou cha siew pau’, the ubiquitous char siew pau with a piece of juicy tender roast pork, ‘shao rou’ encased in the sticky super savoury cha siew. I had to buy a couple for my family - my mum and ah di, who felt that the roast pork kicked the taste up a few notches.

For me, not being a great fan of roast pork, just the char siew alone makes my day. But perhaps the bigger gem of a find (for me), was this somewhat ‘normal’ looking ngoh hiang. But this too is also an innovation of the lady owner of D’bun. It is a tofu ngoh hiang, mixing tofu with minced pork and prawns to achieve a blend of flavours and texture that makes it this one of the best ngoh hiang I have had ever. Crispy on the outside, with a tofu and meat filling that is simply scrumptious. Little wonder that i have no complains each time i have to wait for the bus at this stop.

D’bun has other goodies as well, as is evident on their web site: www.dbun.com.sg. And I now know better whenever cars park at the bus stop to make a rush into the shop. Duh… they’re going to D’bun!

Rating: 4 byps

Address:
D'Bun
358 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427603
Tel 63448110

Culinary Delights of Chinatown X - final one in the series

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:57:00 +0000

Apologies that this post is so long overdue... As evidenced by the posts, there is seemingly one author for this blog right now and the author has been busy with lots of things and on top of all the busyness, the laptop decided to take a permanent ‘holiday’ - it crashed! Sigh. In any case, this is the last of the very long drawn series on the culinary finds in Chinatown. There are a lot more culinary discoveries in Chinatown to be introduced but we decided that we should begin with these ten. And for this last post, di and I have been vacillating if we should write about this last culinary find. It may not be too much of a secret for those who are familiar with Chinatown but it is a ‘secret’ that we had hoped to keep to ourselves for fear that the marauding hordes will cause an increase in price. But for all the faithful readers of this blog, we decided that this warrants the final coveted spot of culinary discoveries in Chinatown.

This is di’s favourite chicken noodle or you ji mian (油鸡面 ) stall and when he first brought me here, I was wowed by the tender chicken breast meat and the springy texture of the noodles. The sauce used to braise the chicken seems to be some secret family recipe as evidenced by the fact that a few shops down the road, there is a similar chicken noodle stall that bears almost the same name albeit different by just an ‘i’ - Chiew Kee. It might have been some family squabble but I guess we’ll leave that to some culinary reporters who seem to relish in digging out the stories behind feuding foodie families. The important thing here is that the readers of this blog will go to the right you ji mian stall. Perhaps you might want to be adventurous and venture to discover the difference between this and the other one down the road. And if you do, please do keep us informed.

The chili which is stored in the ubiquitous plastic squirt containers also deserves a mention. It goes so very well with the chicken pieces adding a zing to it. The you ji mian itself is already fantastic, the chili sauce kicks it up another few notches. And if you are eating with friends, you’ll have to place an order for the prawn dumpling soup (shui jiao tang, 水饺汤) as well. The freshness of the ingredients and the flavours in those dumplings swimming in a bowl of soup that came from many hours of braising the chicken and other soup stock adds to the overall experience of eating at a simple street shop in Chinatown.

Need I continue? You’ll just have to head down to Upper Cross Street to check this out for yourself. Perhaps then you will understand our hesitation in letting this discovery out.

Address:
Chew Kee Eating House
8 Upper Cross Street
Singapore 058327
Tel 62220507

Culinary Delights of Chinatown IX

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:25:00 +0000

With Chinese New Year just around the corner, i figure that this post should be timely. This is probably one tid-bit that every household will buy in celebrating the Spring season and it's definitely one of my favourite CNY delicacies. It's a must have for all 'carnivores' - i am referring to the ubiquitous 'bak kwa' (barbeque sliced pork).

Of late there has been news about the spike in prices of barbeque pork and the extremely long lines in Chinatown as the New Year approaches. As i post this entry, it is going at an almost ridiculous price of $50 per kilogramme! And the wait is for at least 3-5 hours! I am referring to the name that is synonymous with 'bak kwa' in Chinatown - Lim Chee Guan.

i figure that they do not need this publicity, there is already a huge following as evident by the crazy long snaking queues. Thanks to di, i get to enjoy Lim Chee Guan all year round and also during the CNY. There is something inexplicable about the bak kwa from LCG, but it's definitely an enjoyable experience each and every bite.

But there is more than Lim Chee Guan in Chinatown. di's mum also bought me bak kwa from another famed Chinatown shop and since i've eaten from this other place, i have actually come to like it as much as LCG. The slices of bak kwa is not made from minced meat but whole slices and looks a little desiccated but the real test is in the taste. The bak kwa is unbelievably tender and the blend of spices that went in the marinate makes it the CNY equivalent for potato chips - there is no stopping at only one piece! Priced at $45 a kilo and where one does not need to spend hours in a line waiting to buy it, i strongly recommend this if you prefer not to stand in line, an extremely long line at that! Incidentally, i am referring to Kim Hock Guan which is also in Chinatown.

Kim Hock Guan does not look as 'glitzy' as the recently made-over Lim Chee Guan. The signboard looks very much like the usual shops in Chinatown that has not been exposed to the artwork of urban advertising professionals and there is still an air of tradition in it. So before the stock runs out and before the crowd gathers, it's time to get down to Chinatown to soak in some of the Chinese New Year festive atmosphere and get yourself and your loved ones a packet (or two, er... make that three... erm... four) of the snack of choice for Chinese New Year!

And before we forget, we (di, couz and myself) here at jialard wish you all a blessed and prosperous Chinese New Year! Huat ah!!!

Address:
Lim Chee Guan
203 New Bridge Road
Singapore 059429

Kim Hock Guan
150 South Bridge Road
#01-02 Fook Hai Building
Singapore 058727

thai kingdom come

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:48:00 +0000

This is the first post of 2008 and I figured I should share a great culinary find to begin the year. I was introduced to this restaurant by a Thai friend of mine, Boat. i have known Boat for more than a decade and if a Thai tells you that this is his favourite Thai restaurant in Singapore, i don’t think i have the audacity to disagree. i could not withhold such good news from ah di and so we found ourselves coming to E-Sarn for dinner a week after Boat bought me lunch there and I ordered the exact same dishes that Boat had ordered too!

E-Sarn presents a selection of Thai food from the northeast region of Thailand and one of the more prominent E-sarn dishes is the grilled pork (kor mu yang). The grilled pork was sliced into strips and served with some raw vegetables and a piquant chili sauce which is an infusion all the flavours that are synonymous with Thai cuisine.

Instead of the usual tom yum soup, I was introduced to another alternative tom sab, which is a spicy soup that is somewhat different from the ubiquitous tom yum goong. It seems that there is more of a sweet and yet tangy flavour to the soup that is derived from tomatoes. While we had ordered this soup with chicken, we were served the soup with pork instead. It was a very minor hiccup but the we still enjoyed the soup nonetheless.

We also ordered a dish of beef with basil (nuer pad kra pao). While more often the meat cooked with basil is of the minced variety, E-Sarn’s interpretation was to serve thinly sliced beef strips with basil in a great tasting sauce. This is perhaps a simple and typical Thai dish, yet the E-sarn’s dish more than outstrips many other Thai restaurants.

Boat mentioned that his favourite dish at E-Sarn is kung ob woon sen, which is prawns with tang hoon (vermicelli). Served piping hot in a clay pot, the vermicelli had absorbed all the rich flavour of the stock used to cook this dish and further infused with the whole stems of coriander and cloves of garlic. While other reviews had raised questions about the freshness of the prawns, i have had no such similar complaints on both my visits to E-Sarn. The prawns were relatively large and went very well with the vermicelli. ah di and i enjoyed this dish a great deal too.

To round off the meal, di and i shared an order of khao neow ma muang, mango with glutinous rice and a serving of coconut ice cream with nuts and nata de coco. The sweetness of thai mangoes are just unbelievable. And we came to the conclusion that the Thais must have watered their fruit trees with sugared water to make most Thai fruits so unbelievably sweet. The glutinous rice that was served with the incredibly sweet mangoes exuded a fragrance which pointed perhaps to the use of coconut milk. The coconut ice cream I ordered was also out of this world. The peanuts and the nata de coco added much to the ice cream in terms of texture. But the ice cream would have been a winner on its own too. The richness of the coconut milk used in the ice cream was simply amazing.

Compared with the most other Thai restaurants, we do concur with Boat’s assessment that E-Sarn is easily one of the best reasonably priced Thai restaurants in Singapore. Enjoy the best of the Thai northeast, right here in Singapore!

Rating: 4 byps

Address:
E-Sarn Thai Cuisine
20 Sixth Avenue
Singapore 276479
Tel 64625608

palatial pickings

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:00:00 +0000

It seemed almost only yesterday that couz returned to Singapore and now he’s going to head back to Thailand again as he resumes his ministry there. Determined that he should not head back before having a taste of Chinese cuisine from a legendary location, we headed to the recently re-modelled Shang Palace.

Unlike the clean white lines of the other restaurants in Shangr-la, Shang Palace was tastefully resplendent in a hue of ‘chiina-tong-sua’ red. It was reminiscent of the opulence of the imperial courts. One of the first things that were placed on our table was a container with a dazzling selection of exotic and exquisite Chinese teas from which we were to make our decision.

couz chose the ‘eight treasures tea’ which was a colourful combination of eight flowers, fruits and tea leaves, such as chrysanthemums, rose buds, dates and wolfberries.

I opted for an special long-jing (dragon’s well green tea) which had a clean crisp taste enough to send ripples of joy down the throat of any tea lover. It was an equally visual experience to see the ‘dance’ of the tea leaves in the cup.

As usual, no Chinese dinner with couz is complete with an order of Peking duck and true to its tradition, the Peking duck at Shang Palace brought back fond memories of dinners of yesteryears. The crackling and crispy duck skin contrasted with the soft smooth white flour dough which was enlivened by the fragrant sauce.

We ordered different soups so that we can have a sampling. Couz opted for the ‘monkeyhead’ meatball soup (I think that’s what it’s named) while i opted for the perennial safer choice of thickened toufu seafood broth, both of which was well-balanced and tasty.

Our next order is another favourite of couz’s, ‘gong bao ji ding’, diced chicken with chillies. Apparently, the ‘palace’ served another version using a more exquisite chilli pepper which was priced somewhat differently too. And not wanting to be that adventurous where our wallets were concerned, we opted for the mundane rather than palatial version of ‘gong bao ji ding’. It was good but I guess there are some tze char places that can whip up something similar at perhaps a fraction of what is charged at this palace. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable dish.

Next were the orders of beef steak with a fruit sauce and lamb chop with black pepper sauce. The wok-fried steak was rested on a crispy onion ring while the tangy sweet sauce added a lot of satisfaction to this dish. As I had previously mentioned, lamb had become couz’s favourite meat of choice since our trip to New Zealand and the version served at this palace, very much made couz a happy man, as he enjoyed each bite of the tender meat well accentuated with the tasty peppery sauce.

The Peking duck made a second ‘appearance’ in our order of fried noodles. As I write this review, it seemed that we had not ordered very much this time round, which is quite unlike us. Though the noodles had not retained the crispiness but it was nonetheless a tasty round-up for dinner.

For desserts, couz opted for the Shang’s version of mango-pomelo dessert with grass jelly. It is to the chef’s credit that the dessert was a visual as well as a culinary treat. The grass jelly well complemented the mango cubes and pomelo bits. It was a simple dessert but spoke voluminous of the chef’s ingenuity and creativity.

The food at the Palace is good, though it is a little pricey. But i guess this is a 'palace' after all and we did enjoy dinner here. The end of dinner meant also a certain parting of ways, and I guess it will be some time before couz and i will dine together again. He will be leaving to return to his ministry. But for a short time, we were distracted from emotional farewells by the palatial pickings at this palace. Perhaps there will come a time when we will write about some of the culinary delights of a different palace in a not so faraway place called Nakhon Sawan.

For good food, great times and the best of brothers, thanks couz! Wishing you God’s best in your ministry.

Rating: 4 byps

Address:

Shang Palace

Shangri-La Hotel

Orange Grove Road

Singapore 258350

tzi char gem

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:00:00 +0000

If i were to tell you that there is a gastronomic haven in Thomson, would you believe me? This is one gem of a find and it’s all thanks to ah di again. He is the one who is able to sniff out all these great places that are tucked away at some obscure corner of various parts of

Singapore

. We arrived at this coffee shop at the corner of a HDB block across from Thomson Hospital. The tired coffee shop looked like it was very much in need of some urgent repainting but still most of the tables there were occupied (which is actually a good sign).

We managed to sit ourselves down and ordered a couple of dishes. ah di had told me that the ‘har cheong kai’ (prawn paste chicken) at this tze char has had numerous rave reviews. Hence I placed an order for the much talked about chicken. When it first arrived at our table, it looked pretty normal, as if there was nothing spectacular. The aroma, however was a prelude to all the ethereal sensations that we derived from this “pretty normal” looking dish. The flavours exploded with each bite into the chicken, the contrasting texture of the crisp skin and batter, with the juicy, succulent and tender chicken was sufficient to convince me that this has to be the best 'har cheong kai' I have ever tasted!

Another dish that sent me up a few levels up from seventh heaven was the braised bean curd in claypot. The picture is a little blurry perhaps because i was shaking with excitement at the taste of this dish. The chef literally put all other Chinese restaurant chefs to shame with this particular dish. The flavourful gravy enveloping each rectangular piece of bean curd and topped with a selection of seafood such as squid, fish and pork slices, made this a truly delectable dish for me. I could have many bowls of rice along with just this one dish! It’s that good!

We also ordered a deep fried sea bass which is another of the specialties of this tze char place. It’s done in the typical Cantonese style - deep fried and served with soy sauce gravy and a generous amount of fried shallots. The fish which had swum in the sea all its life is now made to swim in a generous amount of oil (as evidenced in the picture). Yet again, looks are deceiving. While it looked like the sea bass had been ‘swimming’ in boiling oil for too long a time, the freshness is indisputable. One can taste it with each bite - the crunch, the aroma, the taste, all of which made this another fantastic dish.

We ordered only these three dishes but all three demonstrated the simple fact that oftentimes looks are deceiving. While each of the dishes looked rather normal, all of them provided in themselves a heavenly dining experience. This is easily one of the best tze char places both ah di and i have been to and di had to tell me that the beef hor fun they serve here is also one of their specialities AFTER dinner. Looks like we will be coming back here again sometime very soon and i sure do look forward eagerly to a return to heaven!

Rating: 4 byps

Address:
Bee Kia Restaurant
326 Block 1 Balestier Hill Shopping Centre
Thomson Road

Singapore

300001
Tel 62548490

the reunion

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:58:00 +0000

When couz came back for a short holiday in early December, di and i managed to meet up with him at one of Singapore’s latest additions with regards to Chinese cuisine, JuChun Yuan. Accordingly, JuChun Yuan stands for the finest in Fuzhou cuisine and the restaurant was very tastefully furnished with traditional Chinese interior décor. The little courtyard leading to the dining area is reminiscent of the traditional Chinese architecture and added a sense of expectancy to the dining experience.

It has been some time since we sat down for a good Chinese dinner with couz and we decided on some of the typical Fuzhou specialties. The appetizer which was served was no surprise - it was a Fuzhou fishball, the kind what has a minced-pork stuffing. It was delicious except for the fact that it should have been served piping hot.

We ordered the set menu which included three starters, all of which are typical Min delicacies; cuttlefish ‘salad, pickled celery and lemon flavoured pickled radish. It was a refreshing start to what was to come.

Next we were served the pumpkin and fish maw thick soup. It was a delicately flavoured thick soup with fish maw which added a texture to the taste. However, not much of the pumpkin was detected in soup though.

The next two dishes served were the highlights of the Min cuisine in this set meal. The wok-fried "live" Ming prawns infused with fuzhou chinese tea was a rather unique dish and interestingly the taste of tea was evident, providing balance to the turgidity of the fresh prawns.

Another Fuzhou specialty has to the be wok-fried chicken with light red vinasse, which is really a more upscale version of ‘hong zhao ji’. ‘Hong zhao’ or vinasse is the by-product of the fermentation process of rice wines and is a favourite ingredient for the Fuzhuo people in their cooking. The flavourful chicken strips were rested on a bed of crunchy snow peas which was visually as well as gastronomically well contrasted.

The next dish served was the baked fuzhou scallop with black pepper. It was a good dish but perhaps not as unique as the other two dishes served before. And since couz had come to acquire a love for lamb since our New Zealand trip, we had an extra order of fired lamb chops served with garlic.

Unlike most lamb dishes, the chef had prepared this very much in the traditional Chinese deep fried method. The golden-fried garlic bits greatly accentuated the taste of the lamb.

We had a serving of braised Fuzhou noodles before we were served the finale, yam paste. The paste was of such an incredible smooth texture and is purported made from young yams imported directly from Fuzhou. It was as though we were served a Fuzhuo version of yam ice cream, except for temperature disparity. This dessert comes highly recommended and no meal at JuChun Yuan is complete without it.

It was a good dinner but perhaps what made the fellowship much sweeter was for a brief moment, all three of the jialard blog contributors were back together again, savouring good food and enjoying the warmth that such a fellowship affords. Welcome back couz!

Rating: 3.5 byps

Address:
Spring JuChun Yuan

130 Amoy Street #01-01
Far East Square
Singapore 049959

crustacean cravings....

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:54:00 +0000

This post is long overdue….. andreas, di and i visited this ‘tze cha’ place having read the posts by one prominent blogger, raving about this place’s lobster noodles and the crab tang hoon. With childlike trust and a hearty appetite, we headed down to this infamous part of Singapore to check out this ‘cze cha’.

I think a point of clarification is in place. If you are expecting the regular kind of ‘tze cha’ place, this is not the place. Chef Jason operates a stall that sells duck rice, zhu zha as well as some shanghai noodles and dumplings. He whips up some other dishes and I guess if you are one of those ‘privileged’ few, he will come up with some specialties for you. I did try to call the chef Jason to make an advance order for the lobster noodles but since i had made the call a little late, we weren’t able to get the Boston lobsters and had to settle for the crab beehoon.

Chef Jason was also kind enough to oblige us with an order of his version of hot and sour soup. It is not the usual kind that one gets at those restaurants and more of an 'impromptu' dish but the szechuan vegetables he used gave the soup a sour kick which was rather refreshing.

We also ordered a deep fried doufu dish which tasted like any other deep fried doufu. We also had the mild curry fired chicken wings, which was like fried chicken wings with a dash of curry powder. Well, again, there was nothing to shout about here. The dish we were expecting came finally, the crab tang hoon (glass vermicelli).

The tang hoon was not the normal kind but the thicker Korean version which had absorbed all the stock of the soup used to cook the dish. The springy-ness of the tang hoon is perhaps the reason why Chef Jason chose to use it. The “kou gan” was great. The crabs were also very fresh. My only grouse was that soup stock was probably similar to that used for the ‘zhu zha tang’. i tend to be very sensitive to that, which is heavenly to some but perhaps not for me. andreas and di probably enjoyed the dish much more, though I think our votes still go to the other seafood tze cha a few streets away, if price was not a concern. Nonetheless, this is another option, especially in view of the fact that the chef here is so much more affable and willing to cook up a dish or two to satisfy your cravings.

Rating: 3 byps

Address:
Ya Kwang Dai Pai Dong
709 Geylang Road (Lor 37)
11am to 11pm daily
Tel: 98170006

KKK - krispy kreme kravings

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:00:00 +0000

i presume this post will make some green with envy..... but i managed to get my hands on two dozen of these from a friend who was returning from Hong Kong, which i shared with my friends back here in Singapore.

I know that this statement will probably drive many people up the wall but honestly, i do not understand why people bother to stand in long lines at Raffles City waiting for a box of baked/fried flour topped with an inordinate amount of sugar and chocolate. I guess it a fad, just like bubble tea, the coffee confectionery (roti boy) and the likes......and of late there has been a growing number of doughnut shops sprouting up all over Singapore, clamouring for a piece of the earnings. I guess it won't be long before that bubble burst.

But till then, i don't think that there are any doughnuts that can outdo the regular sugar glazed krispy kreme.

Besides Sydney, there are also outlets in Seoul (Korea), Hong Kong and nearby Jakarta (Indonesia). Unfortunately, we here in Singapore will not get our krispy kreme kravings satiated for some time and we may have to look outside Singapore for our sugar fix.

pho good times like these......

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:27:00 +0000

My colleagues returned from a fortnight of work in Vietnam in May this year and recently had been rather excited when they heard about Pho 24’s arrival in Singapore. They have eaten at the outlets over in Vietnam and have been eager to check out this new outlet in Singapore. Apparently, Pho 24 means 24 ingredients and 24 hours of preparing the choicest beef to produce a soup that maintains its full and rich flavor.

Well, I made a trip recently with di and we were there about 15 minutes before closing time. The décor was simple and we looked forward to the set which included pho nam (which is beef flank), a summer roll, Vietnamese coffee and a dessert. The menu listed a slightly wider selection which included the slightly more expensive beef cut of fillet. But we figured that the set was more value for money.

The bowl of pho arrived promptly, interestingly before the summer rolls which is normally served as an appetizer. The broth looked rather bland but I guess the test is in the taste. On first taste, the broth was flavourful which immediately raised our suspicion that it had been ‘chemically’ enhanced, ie one of the 24 ingredients must surely include monosodium glutamate. As di and i enjoyed the pho, we were also thinking that perhaps we might have to down a couple of cups of water after the meal. There was also a good amount of beef flank which proved rather tasty as well and overall, it was a good bowl of pho.

The summer roll with prawn filling was freshly prepared, though i was a little disappointed with the dip that came along with it. i vaguely remember having had a tastier version at the other Vietnamese pho restaurant in Holland village.

We did enjoy the Vietnamese coffee which came in a drip and would have forgotten completely about our desserts had it not been for di’s reminder. The dessert was rather disappointing in that it was a chilled version of ‘bo bo cha cha’. We had expected something more Vietnamese but perhaps the Vietnamese also do enjoy ‘bo bo cha cha’. The coconut milk perhaps did help alleviate the CRS (Chinese restaurant syndrome) commonly associated with the use of MSG and we did not feel that thirsty after the meal. Overall, we enjoyed the bowl of pho and would heartily recommend Pho 24. It may not be Vietnam but at least momentarily, it does bring back memories that one would associate with things Vietnamese.

Rating: 3.5 byps

Address:
Pho 24

9 Raffles Boulevard

#01-26 Millenia Walk

Singapore 039596

over the moon...

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:37:00 +0000

The eight month of the lunar calendar is always a time to satiate the sweet cravings of one and all, as Chinese all over the world celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival with the mooncakes. Shaped like the full moon and filled with sweet lotus paste, it has in recent years undergone a transformation with various differents sweet fillings such as custard paste, green tea paste, yam paste, champagne ganache and a whole list of mind boggling and imagination stretching fillings. But perhaps it's another 'lunatic' excuse for commercialisation as increasing number of hotels and confectionary shops rush in to vie for a piece of the 'mooncake' pie.

As usual, we received quite a few boxes of mooncakes from family friends and most of them were either 'shuang huang' (double yolk) or 'si huang' (four yolks). These make traditionally better gifts. My family, however, prefer those without the yolks. Thankfully bro-willy and di remembered about our peculiar preference. Bro-willy bought us a box of snow skin mooncakes from Inter-Continental Hotel, with custard and black sesame fillings. Unfortunately we had wolfed them down so quickly before i remembered to take any pictures of those heavenly creations.

di bought a box for my mum and a box for me. He gets the mooncakes yearly from a favourite hotel of ours. One box was the traditional lotus paste with macadamia nuts. The lotus paste was of a very delicate and silky quality which was enobled with a crunch from the generous amount of buttery macadamia nuts. The other box was more unique.

These were the special creation of the hotel chef. It was a savoury kind of mooncake with dried scallop filling. The pastry is of a buttery and crumbly texture like those great CNY pineapple tarts. It was different from those sugar-laden traditional mooncakes and each bite was sufficient to send one over the moon.

I also received a mooncake from an Indonesian friend. Accordingly, this is the traditional kind of mooncake that has been sold in Jakarta for more than 50 over years. The filling was much like a fruit and nut based kind of paste and tasted really good too. Well, if any of you readers do get to Jakarta over the mooncake season next year, make sure you get yourselves a few of these.

The above mooncakes sure make this mid Autumn Festival so much more unforgetable... it basically sent me over the moon. Because more than just a simple exchange of these sweet confectionaries, it was the fact that we can share these moments as friends and families that added a great deal more depth to observing this Chinese tradition.

Culinary Delights of Chinatown VIII

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:55:00 +0000

I finally got to eat the world renowned chicken rice from Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice at Maxwell Road Food Centre with ah di. Popular foodie Seetoh of Makansutra insists that the chicken rice at Tian Tian is ‘die die must try’ and numerous other food bloggers have also raved about it. Even world renowned chef Tetsuya Wakuda [from Downunder] is supposedly besotted with the chilli sauce from Tian Tian, so much so that I just had to take a picture of it. The chilli sauce is a blend of fresh chillies, ginger, lime juice and perhaps some other secret ingredients and it sure does have a quite a kick to it when eaten with the chicken.

We ordered the ‘healthy’ version, which means that the chicken breast is de-skinned, and yes, both of us prefer the leaner cuts of the chicken, which may not be the preference for most Singaporeans. The lady boss stirred a concoction of soy sauce which was accentuated with a chicken stock and sesame oil, hence making the sauce a few notches above the ubiquitous soy sauce sprinkled over the chicken meat for most chicken rice. The chicken breast meat at Tian Tian is unbelievably tender and also succulent, well accented with the flavourful sauce. But perhaps what is most commendable is the rice. The rice was fragrant and fluffy and each individual grain was packed with flavour being cooked in a rich chicken stock.

We figured that there are quite a few chicken rice stalls that can come up with great ‘pak chum kai’ but perhaps what makes Tian Tian outstanding, among the many stalls in Singapore selling chicken rice, is the deliciously flavourful rice as well as the unique sauces (the soy sauce concoction as well as the chilli sauce). And those are secrets that will make eating chicken rice a pleasure everyday (tian tian).

Address:
Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice
#01-10
Maxwell Road Food Market
Singapore 069110

Culinary Delights of Chinatown VII

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:19:00 +0000

This was a little eating place that served Beijing food, particularly xiao long bao (小龙包), jiaozi (饺子, dumplings), guo tie (锅贴, pan fried dumplings), ja jiang noodles and golden pancake, which was like a scallion pastry (葱油饼) but with meat fillings.

Some have commented that the xiao long bao here is much better than those from the other over-priced restaurants (particularly that one at the basement of Paragon). You will have to decide on that for yourselves. We did enjoy the xiao long bao and found it to be pretty good value for money. Each of the dumplings is infused with soupy meat filing that explodes upon each bite, sending ripples of ‘shiokness’ which is almost indescribable.

The golden pancake also comes highly recommended. The minced pork filling was very flavourful. A word of advice: make sure you eat the pancake quick to enjoy the crispy crust of the pancake because the juicy meat filling will seep and soak through the bottom layer of the crust.

The guo tie here is perhaps one of the best that we have had. As is evidenced in the photo, we were enjoying them so much that we almost forgot to take a picture. The juicy meat filling well complemented the crispy outer crust. If there is one dish that you must order, it has to be this.

And finally to round off the meal, we also ordered the red bean pancake which ended our meal on a sweet and satisfied note. We would strongly recommend this place, but be warned that there’s always a queue. But the reward for the patience makes this another notable culinary discovery in Chinatown.

Address:
Qun Zhong Eating House
21 Neil Road
Singapore 088814

Tasty Fragrance of the Night

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:45:00 +0000

The food center at Margaret Drive is famed for such as chicken rice, clay pot rice char kway teow as well as the teochew fishball noodles. But one evening, ah di decided to surprise me again with a chicken cutlet recommendation from a rather non-descript and Spartan looking stall. Tasty barbeque charcoal grill or “ye lai xiang”, as the Chinese name goes, is helmed by two brothers. While the stall itself looks very much in need of a immediate makeover, the food that these brothers serve will instead bowl you over.

ah di ordered the pork chops while I ordered the chicken chop. One of the brothers told us that we will have to wait for about 15 minutes. We were at the stall at about a couple of minutes after 6.30pm and apparently there was already a few orders before us. While one does not need to stand in a line for the food, the waiting can be quite a test of patience… but the reward for those who are patient, the wait is gastronomically rewarding. Unfortunately we did not bring the camera along and so the following pictures were taken on our return trip a week later.

My order of chicken chop was a treat to the eyes as well as packing a punch, taste wise. The rather huge portion of chicken even had some parts which were browned to a slight crisp adding a very welcome texture which contrasted with the rest of the tender well marinated chicken. The cutlet rested on a bed of mixed chopped corn, carrots and peas that added sweetness as well as the fibre requirements for the meal.

ah di and i were so ‘wowed’ by this gem of a place that we went back again a week later to have our yearning for chicken cutlet satiated and again we left impressed. The cutlet was served with baked beans, fries and a piece of bread. The breaded cutlet was evenly deep fried and the crunch on the outside well complemented the succulence and flavour of the chicken. This was sufficient to send anyone to culinary heaven.

“Ye Lai Xiang” also serves beef steak which are dished out on those hot plates ala Jack’s Place. The chicken and pork cutlets and chops are value for money at $5.50 and perhaps this also explains the reason for the long wait. But there’s always other great dishes to check out while one waits for the order…. the famous Margaret Dr char kway teow is but a few stalls away. So what are you waiting for….. it’s time for the fragrance of the night to come… ye lai xiang, here we come!

Rating: 3.5 byps

Address:
Tasty Barbeque Charcoal Grill
Commonwealth Ave Food Centre, #01-560
Blk 40A Commonwealth Ave
Singapore 140040
Operating hours: 6.30pm to 10.30pm, Mon to Thurs

savouring sibu

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:02:00 +0000

I found myself in Sibu in June at a conference attended by a good number of like-minded people. Sibu proved to be an interesting place and in between the times of the conferencing we found ourselves tucking into the various culinary delights that are unique to Sibu. Of course the one dish that we could not have enough of was the noodles that have become synonymous with Sarawak. In Singapore, the Sarawak ‘kolo mee’ has gained a steady following but I guess the Sibu variety outstrips all those we have in Singapore.

We tried a few different stalls and found that though there is a little slight variation in the taste, generally, the noodles were of the same great texture and there were really no stall that served up any substandard mee kampua. The consistency among the different stalls is almost unbelievable!

There is an indescribably springiness to the noodles and according to the locals, mee kampua (as it is known in Sibu) is usually eaten without chili sauce. There is an original version which is without dark sauce. The version below is served with beef instead of the usual insipid-looking but otherwise good-tasting charsiew. The beef version is my favourite mee kampua in Sibu.

There was also a couple of stalls and hawkers that served one of the Foochow delights such as deep fried oysters cakes, not unlike the famous stall in Maxwell market.

One of our local contacts in Sibu directed us to a little shophouse that could have easily gone unnoticed for the culinary uninitiated. Apparently the owner had been serving “ding bian hu” for a good number of years, this being a business that had been handed down from his forefathers. Interestingly the owner has a automated flour mill that grounded the rice into paste which he used to make the “ding bian hu”.

“Ding bian hu” is rice flour served up like kway chap in a soup broth with locally made fish balls and black fungus. It was perhaps a curious local version of “ban mian” except that the noodles in this case were rice flour cooked into ‘hor fun’ like pieces and the fish balls were anything but round. But taste wise, it was great. The soup stock was flavourful.

On another occasion, a few of us visited a restaurant in search of ‘beling’ which is a local vegetable dish. ‘Beling’ is the tip of a local variety of fern and we had it cooked with garlic. The crunch that accompanied each bite is somewhat similar to that of dou miao and for a ‘particularist’ (read ‘fussy eater’) like me, ‘beling’ can easily be one of those favourite vegetable dishes that I will order, if they had this in Singapore. It was a simple yet very likeable dish.

Of course being in a city where the Foochows dominate, we also had ‘hong zhao’ chicken, a dish unique to the Foochows. Tender pieces of chicken were marinated in red wine lees (hong zhao), a paste that is derived from the fermentation process of Chinese red wine. It was perhaps one of the better ‘hong zhao’ chicken I have ever had.

In our few days in Sibu, we were pleasantly surprised by the culinary finds we managed to uncover. We heard that the next conference will be held in Taiwan, and in some ways, I am looking forward to that, though it will have to be a five-years wait!

tua kong fishballs

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:49:00 +0000

di brought me over to this coffee shop along Jalan Tua Kong, just off Siglap Road to savour the noodles at this coffee shop stall. He knows that this is another one of those hawker delights that is like a comfort food to me and I probably need it then, since we had just sent couz off on his flight to Bangkok. This had been a place that he had wanted to bring me for some time and on the previous two occasions the place was either closed for business or closed for renovations. But finally I got to enjoy fishball noodles that di had been telling me about for some time.

di made the orders and the noodles arrived promptly. It looked just like any decent fishball noodles, but the true test was in the taste. And tastewise, it did more than matched our expectations. Besides, the fishballs seem almost ping pong round and just like ping pong balls, the fishballs were so bouncy, I guess one can perhaps play table tennis with them. But no way was I giving them up. The bouncy texture is simply incredible.

The fresh de-shelled prawns were also a welcome addition to the dish. Besides, the noodles were also cooked just right such that the “springyness” further upped the overall enjoyment of this dish. The other place that has the distinction of good fishball noodles is along Joo Seng Road, but with this recommendation, I guess we now know which of the fishball noodles is more “tua kong”!

Rating: 4 byps

Address:
Ah Lin Noodles
1 Jalan Tua Kong
Singapore 457200

First (and so far only) homecooked meal in Lopburi

noreply@blogger.com (Ed) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:35:00 +0000

This will be a really short post. While the taste is not anything to rave about, I am still proud to share with readers of this blog my first (and so far only) homecooked meal in Lopburi! After arriving in Lopburi not long, I set out enthusiastically to buy all my condiments, sauces, etc but sadly this remains my only homecooked meal so far. Buying food back or eating out just seems so much more convenient. However, I am determined to put the condiments and sauces to good use before I leave Lopburi, so I will be cooking some more!

This was a simple chicken dish I fried with onions and garlic. Probably a little too salty for most people but it was tasty enough.

I don't normally show pictures of vegetables, but this is the only other dish I cooked. As with the chicken, the vegetables were stir-fried with garlic (an essential in Chinese cooking) and onions and some oyster sauce. I would have liked to add a little Chinese wine but could not find it for sale in the shops here. Nevertheless, I do have my own bottle of Hua Tiao Chiew (Chinese rice wine for cooking) now, brought up here by Singaporean friends. All the more reason to cook!

Simple meal...now if only I did not have to wash up....

give us this day our "Daily Scoop"...

noreply@blogger.com (jialard) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:13:00 +0000

This blog entry should rightly follow the Warung Nasir post, because di drove us there for an ice cream fix right after we had lunch. Incidentally, this is not the first time we have been to The Daily Scoop. Since I live in this part of Singapore, besides Haato, the Daily Scoop’s close proximity makes it very convenient to drop by for an ice cream fix.

Perhaps what makes The Daily Scoop special is that one not only get to savour the different flavours but also gets the opportunity to see how the ice cream is made right on the spot. Each batch of the ice cream is made by their unique hand-churning method that results in a flavourful and rich ice cream. While we were there, we got to see them preparing chendol ice cream, which was quite a visual treat as well.

There are as many flavours here at the Daily Scoop when compared with Ice Cream Gallery or Haato and perhaps to ask for a comparison in order to rate the better of these ice cream palours just doesn’t do them justice. The fact is that each of these ice cream places have a few flavours that are their speciality. And you will have to check out the flavours to discover your own favourites at the Daily Scoop. Since I have an aversion to anything chocolate, I guess I am not the person to speak for the chocolate concoctions here at the Daily Scoop. But on each of my visits there, I have had quite a few of the flavours, such as rum & raisin, chendol, mango magic, cempedak, unusually apple, sunny strawberry and honey vanilla. I am also not into alcoholic flavours but i was told that Kahlua Krunch here has a kick to it.

As we were still rather full from lunch, we settled for just one scoop each. di’s favourite is rum & raisin, which he enjoyed with much relish. As for me the one flavour that i like most here, is the lychee martini. As i mentioned before that I am not into alcoholic drinks and I probably am not a good gauge when it comes to alcohols but what works for me in the lychee martini is perhaps that the sweetness of the lychee is somewhat counterbalanced by the mild martini flavour, resulting in a fragrant and yet not overly sweet ice cream flavour. Another little surprise which Daily Scoop affords are the chilled bowls that the ice cream are served in, which is a small detail the owners are careful not to overlook.

Another piece of good news is that the Daily Scoop does deliveries too! And for orders $50 and above, the delivery is FREE on Tuesdays! Perhaps it’s time to order a few tubs, just to check out the many different flavours here….. and to add pleasure to the prayer, “give us this day our ‘daily scoop’”!

Rating: 3.5 butterballs

Address:
The Daily Scoop Ice Cream Cafe
41 Sunset Way #01-04
Clementi Arcade
S597071
Tel 6463 3365