Old has gone... New has come

It is with a heavy heart that I annouced that this blog will not reaching its century post. Readership has not been at its best, and some feedback mentioned the name, or rather the URL of the blog is too difficult to recall - unlike the many other popular blogs. However, take heart that I have heed your advice, and I am proud to annouce the migration of my food blog to http://hisfoodblog.blogspot.com.

Thank you for your generous support and I promise to update more regularly to satisfy the many hungry souls out there.

Far Far Away

Back on the topic of my parents being far far away from home, I decided it was a good opportunity to invite a couple of friends over to my place for dinner. The last time I tried my hands on Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee was two years ago on National Day Celebration back in Perth (and that was my virgin experience as a hawker as well).

Armed with prior experience, I managed to whip up a decent plate of noodles for my mates – a pity though I did not prepare enough prawn stock to fry it wet.

Main Ingredients

Prawn (At least 1kg, save prawn heads for stock)
Squid
Yellow Noodle
Bee Hoon (Soak in cold water)
Bean Sprout
Pork Belly (Pan-fried for better taste)
Egg
Lime
Garlic

*Bonus Photo

Just finish a conference in Swissotel, and did a panorama shot of the Marina area on the 51st Storey.

Search for the Best Ramen II

Just when I thought my search for Singapore’s best ramen is over, out popped a certain Marutama Ramen – the first Southeast Asian outlet of an established Saitama and Tokyo-based ramen shop – that threaten to take over our little city by storm.

Reviewed by numerous foodies around the island, this outlet located at the 3^rd storey of Central, is first popularised by the Legendary Chubby Hubby in this post in March. Tickled by the curiosity generated within, I finally decided to make a trip down to this ramen place just to find out what is attracting the long queues. It took roughly 20 minutes on a Friday evening to get a table, and within minutes upon ordering, my doubts were quashed. Served in an aromatic chicken based soup, diners can opt to add items in addition to the plain noodles like Ajitsuke Tamago, or the Egg Seasoned in Soya Sauce, and Char Siu, or the Sliced Roast Pork, or the Kakuni, the Pork Belly.

The noodles are springy, and the soup, though a tad salty (usually the case with authentic Japanese Ramen), was tangy and flavoursome. The Ajitsuke Tamago though still could not quite match up to the one I had in Hokkaido. The pork belly was pretty tasty, but a pity that the flavour was too overpowering on the soup. However what won me over that night was the Char Siu – cooked simply to perfection – the meat was so tender that it simply melts the moment you tasted in your mouth.

I can boldly claim it as the best pieces of Char Siu I ever had in my life. Topped the ramen with fried garlic (do not be a Kiasu Singaporean and add too much, for it spoils the taste of the soup) and sesame seeds provided on the table and you are guaranteed a nice sumptuous meal for the evening. You can bet every penny that I will be back for its Aka Ramen, or the Marutama Original Seven Nuts Soup Base Ramen with Coriander. Itadakimas!

Rating

Food: 4.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4.5/5
Price: 3/5
Total: 15.5/20
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-90/91 The Central
Singapore 059817

Assume Full Control

My parents flew to Sydney for my sister’s ROM leaving me with a house full of chores. However the encouraging thing that derived out of it was that I have assumed full control of the kitchen – enabling me the chance to whip out a decent plate of seafood pasta for lunch over the weekend.

What about you? When was the last time you cooked?

An Authentic Teochew Farewell

A typical Teochew farewell can never do without a farewell dinner at an authentic Teochew restaurant. Made famous by the Dad, who has since passed away, the son has since took over the reins of the restaurant and vowed to continue the tradition of churning out bona fide Teochew dishes to loyal customers like my family, who have frequent this place for years.

Located at Mosque Street, Lee Kui Restaurant, or better known as Ah Hoi, or Crab in Teochew is famous for its Cold Crab. These meaty crabs are first steamed and then kept in the freezer giving the meat a firm texture.

Full of roe, a typical way to eat these crabs is to dip it into the sweet plum sauce. Next up was a controversial delicacy known to be served in special occasions - Shark Fin Soup, which has to be pre-ordered one day in advance.

The fins in themselves are said to be tasteless, but prized for its texture rather than flavour, noticed that these first grade fins are priced simply because it came as a whole fin and not in strands you get from lousy banquet dinner.

This was followed by my nephew’s favourite dish of the night – Assorted Deep Fried Dish – consisting of Seafood Cake, Spring Roll, Yam with Prawn Roll, and the best of all the Prawn Ball – flavoursome and fried to perfection, everyone on the table were commenting how good it was.

A personal favourite dish was up next, and at Lee Kui, you simply has to try the Oyster Egg – generous serving of oyster, the egg was wet on the inside and crisp on the outside – perfect complement for your plain rice.

The Vegetables were also surprisingly tasty that night – especially the refreshing Mock Abalones that really tasted like the real stuff. The Fish with Black Bean Sauce though a bit spicy, was very fresh.

In additional, the gravy went fantastically well with the porridge that we ordered. Sensing that we were still pretty hungry, Dad ordered a plate of Fried Noodles with Shrimps and Pork Slices. A pity that it was pretty oily, if not I was pretty sure everyone would had an additional serving of it.

This was because we were all saving the best for last, and what Teochew dinner would it be, if it did not end off with the authentic O-Nee, or Yam Paste with Pumpkin and Ginkgo Nuts - Sinfully Oily, Sinfully Good - a pity that it would be sometime before our family could gather again for such a sumptuous dinner.

Farewell sister!

Rating

Food: 4.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5
Price: 2.5/5
Total: 13.5/20
8, 9, 10 Mosque Street
Singapore 059488

Made from Hong Kong Too?

Recently it has come to my knowledge that more and more HK-styled café are sprouting around the island. I have been to a few, and even blogged about it once, but so far, none has been impressive. But before it crossed your mind that I have finally discovered the elusive one, I regret to inform you that not only did I not find one, I have learn in disgust that there exist another one of those wannabes who disguise themselves as a HK-styled café, serving overpriced food with ghastly standards and equally bad service.

Situated along the now well known stretch of Cheong Chin Nam Road, fellow foodies please be forewarn not to be fooled by the brightly lit signboard, and my seemingly delicious looking photos. The HK-Styled Milk Tea was average, as compared to the price I pay for it – and to think this was its only saving grace.

I ordered a bowl of Oxtail Soup (Nú Weǐ Tāng) and was looking forward on chewing the bony, gelatinous meat that usually comes with it.

Noticed the word ‘usually’ – because their version does not come with it, and when I questioned the apparently rude waitress from China, she merely dismiss it with - that their version simply contains Nú Weì, or Beef Taste and no oxtail in it – the bones are thrown away after they have gotten the beef stock – my version of the story is that they merely used beef stock cubes, and I wasn't born yesterday. When the Pork Chop Baked Rice came, the serving was small and unimpressive.

Dig deep inside and you will find that the fried rice was plain and tasteless, and even when you go along with tomato-based sauce, it wasn’t in harmony. Even though they are offering 20% discount for all diners, I say you can have my last $12, but you will never see the back of me again!!!

Rating

Food: 1/5
Service: 2/5
Ambience: 2.5/5
Price: 3/5
Total: 8.5/20
18 Cheong Chin Nam
Singapore 599742

Made from Italy

Do you remember the days when Ah Hock would be ringing his bells selling ice cream and kids would rush down from their HDB blocks after dinner just to satisfy their sweet tooth? Well, I was one of those kids. Then, the flavours were only Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip and Raspberry – with the choices of having it on two pieces of soft and fluffy bread, or in between biscuits. Now these Ah Hocks can only be found in the middle of Orchard Road and instead, swanky new ice cream parlours sprung out all over Singapore, including Island Creamery, which I have blogged earlier.

On top of the flavours of the old, you get fanciful names like Tartufo, and ice cream are refined and repackaged as Gelato from Italy. Call it whatever they wished, but the child in me can never resist the temptation of a smooth and soft Italian ice cream after work, at Venezia.

Beware though when you wished to takeaway, as the gelato is made fresh everyday with no preservatives, the quality will dipped after 3 days, and also, gelato is served from a different freezer than American style ice cream - a forced air freezer - which is usually held at about -15°C. This allows the gelato to be served immediately after being extruded from the gelato machine - the "forced air" maintains the product at a steady temperature. Therefore, you may serve ice cream from a gelato freezer but you may not serve gelato from a freezer at home, as the gelato would become too frozen, and texture too flaky for liking.

Rating
Food: 4.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4.5/5
Price: 3/5
Total: 15.5/20
Guthrie House,
1 Fifth Ave, #01-01

Made from Hong Kong

Updated!!!

I had lunch at Victor's Kitchen on Saturday and tried a few more dishes that was not mentioned in my last post. A pity that I did not take any photos though.

The Deep Fried Spring Roll was simply awesome! Freshly fried and thus crispy and burning hot, every bite gives you a crunching sensation. Although I would prefer it to come with some sweet sauce rather than the vinegar dip that comes with the dish.

The Phoenix Porridge, or Century Egg and Chicken Porridge was also very yummy. Not starchy unlike most congee, the porridge was easy for the throat to slurp down. Indgredients were also generous with huge chunks of century egg and big pieces of chicken strips. However the only drawback is that you would have to finish it as soon as possible or it would start to turn watery.

Saving the best for the most deserved would be Milky Custard Bun. The dough is soft and fluffy and the egg custard was sweet and runny. What gave it the "Oomph" was the delightful salted egg yolk in the midst of it. A simply fab combination!
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After reading and hearing so much raving reviews about this dim sum place, I am surprised to realise that it is located near my workplace. Situated at ground level of Sunshine Plaza (Not to be mistaken for Sun Plaza at Sembawang MRT), this outlet is tiny compared to all other grand Chinese restaurant we are familiar with.

It is at the corner of this mall that you will find Victor’s Kitchen. Having numerous experiences as a dim sum chef, Victor and his wife moved to Singapore from Hong Kong since last year.

Because of the limited tables available, make sure you come early if you do not wish to wait too long for a table during weekday’s lunch, or a weekend brunch. For the price I was paying, I was blown away by the sheer number of quality items they served.

For the Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce, I would prefer whole black beans be used to bring out more flavour instead of bits of it, but nevertheless, it was very tender and tasty still. The Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai was also incredible.

The skin is soft and the size is just right - any bigger and it would be too filling. The Char Siew Cheong Fun was simply delicious.

The rice roll is smooth, and texture so soft. To top it off, the Zha Leong (Doughstick wrap in rice roll) version was even better.

With one bite, you have yin of the smooth rice roll, and the yang of the crispy doughstick - the combination was simply unbelievable. Without a doubt, the one item that a diner never fails to order during dim sum would be that of Har Kau, or the prawn dumpling. At Victor’s Kitchen, the Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling is known as his specialty.

The huge prawns were juicy and the skin of the dumpling soft - yet does not fall off easily (unlike many I have experienced that falls off, the moment I picked them off from the steamer). The other laudable mention is the Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice.

The rice is so fragrant and soft, and I simply find the ingredients irresistible – from the tender chicken chunks, to the Chinese sausages, to the juicy mushrooms and the tasty salted egg yolk. If you are a dim sum fan, you would know what I mean when I say that you would never get such a high quality dim sum for such a price.

Rating
Food: 4.5/5
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 3/5
Price: 5/5
Total: 15.5/20
91 Bencoolen Street,
Sunshine Plaza, #01-21
Singapore 189652

Where's the Dragon?

I'm all for truth in advertising and proper labelling, until I came across an article that states officers from Wales have ordered the Black Mountains Smokery in Powys, to change the name of its Welsh Dragon Sausages on the grounds that they are made with pork, not dragon meat. It seems reasonable to expect consumers to know that the dragon is a symbol of Wales. Beyond the lack of common sense, what I find weird is the supposition that the mention of an animal in a brand name implies that the product contains that animal.

I just hope that the authorities don't start regulating the Chinese names of foods, as one of my favourite foods, is 龍蝦 (Mandarin Translation Lóng Xiā), literally "Dragon Shrimp" or commonly known as Lobster.

Despite no trace of Dragon in it, the sweetness and the texture of a Lobster Sashimi, is simply heavenly. If you think Otoro is premium enough, Lobster Sashimi will dispel all truth in it.

What’s more, with the leftover Lobster head and tail portion, you can have an additional dish of Fried Lobster Noodles with Chicken Broth (although personally, I prefer to have Lobster Congee instead, which unfortunately they do not served). Simply deserve a full rating !!! Unfortunately, business was too crowded that night and service was slow and lacking in standard. However it was still a worthwhile trip!

Rating
Food: 5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5
Price: 4/5
Total: 15.5/20
Chin Huat Live Seafood Pte Ltd
105 Clementi St 12
#01-30
Singapore 120105

Whitebait & Kale

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Small Talk: I have a 15% food discount voucher from Whitebait & Kale... anyone who is interested to dine with me, please leave your comment behind and I will get in touch with you. Fresh Catch! Part 2 will be conducted on 14 April (Sat). For more details, please visit www.whitebaitandkale.com
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Beginning of this month, an old friend of mine persuaded me to attend a cooking class conducted by Whitebait & Kale – “Fresh Catch! Part 1”.

It being my first cooking class, I was excited enough to convinced another of my friend to join us. Whitebait & Kale was the brainchild of owner Keith Loh, whose aim was to offer foodies a setting that combines quality fare, relaxed dining in effortless fashion.

Held in the comfort of the restaurant, the in–house cooking class was conducted by Head Chef Nabil Tan.

The first dish that was demonstrated was Fish Chowder with Hush Puppies. Like me, I reckon that many readers would wonder how this dish is associated with the famous footwear. Well, in actual fact, hushpuppies are finger-shaped dumplings of cornmeal. History has it that confederate soldiers when detected Yankee soldiers approaching, would toss their yapping dogs some of these fried cornmeal cakes with the command “Hush, puppies!”.

During the sampling, I find the soup to be tasty, however all of us felt that the hushpuppies should be best left for the dogs (At this point, we all wondered too why were made to consume food meant for the dog?!?). One interesting tip that I pick up though was that Saltine Crackers was crushed and added to the soup (in replacement of starch) to thicken the soup.

Next up was Gilthead Seabream baked with Lemon & Fennel, Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce.

This dish totally dispels the notion that fresh fish must be steamed to taste good.

The Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce was an excellent compliment to the fish, which has a hint of charred taste from the baking process.

The finale then came in the form of Linguine Caroccio Fruiti di Mare, or linguine with seafood baked in parchment paper. A pretty straight forward Seafood Marinara?

Or so we thought until we realised that the additional process of wrapping the linguine in the parchment paper and baking it, actually traps and brings out the essence of the sea - a truly delicious and aromatic dish.

One Orchard Boulevard
Camden Centre, #01-01
Singapore 248649

Gilthead Seabream baked with Lemon & Fennel, Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce

Ingredients

600-700g Gilthead Seabream

1 nos Lemon (sliced)

1 small Fennel (sliced)

10g Dill (1 small bundle)

10g Basil (1 small bundle)

a pinch Sea Salt

a pinch Coarse Black Pepper

1 tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

30g Hazelnuts (toasted & coarsely chopped)

40g Unsalted Butter

1 tbsp Parsley

1 small Tomato (seeded & diced)

a pinch Salt

Method:

1. Score both sides of Seabream with a sharp knife

2. Insert lemon slices into slitted pockets

3. Stuff fennel, lemon slices, dill & parsley into stomach (cavity) of Seabream. Season with sea salt and pepper

4. Drizzle with olive oil & bake on tray in oven at 230°C for 20 minutes, or until fish flakes

5. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat, continue heating until batter began to foam & burn slightly. Remove from heat

6. Let foam subside slightly. Add hazelnuts, tomato slices, parsley & salt

7. Spoon brown butter sauce over the entire Seabream & server immediately

Linguine Cartoccio Fruiti de Mare

Ingredients

500g Linguine Pasta

2 litres Water

8 pieces Medium Prawns (peeled, deveined, tail intact)

1 large Squid (cut into rings, tentacles trimmed)

12 pieces Clams (cleaned & scrubbed off any sand)

200g Snapper Fillet (cut into small pieces)

400ml Chopped Tomatoes

4 cloves Garlic (sliced)

20 ml White Wine

1 bunch Basil Leaves (coarsely chopped)

1bunch Italian Parsley (coarsely chopped)

20ml Olive Oil

to taste Salt & Pepper

Method

1. Bring water to a rapid boil, add linguine & cook for about 5-6 minutes

2. Drain pasta & reserve

3. Sauté garlic with olive oil in a large sauce pan

4. When garlic starts to brown, add snapper pieces & cook for a minute

5. Add clams, prawns & squid, sauté for another 1 minute

6. Add white wine & simmer for another minute

7. Remove all seafood & set aside

8. In the same pan, add chopped tomatoes, basil, parsley, salt & pepper

9. Cook on medium heat until sauce reduced slightly, about 5 minutes

10. Toss linguine into the sauce & stir until pasta well coated with tomato sauce

11. Transfer linguine onto a large parchment paper

12. Lay all seafood over the linguine, wrap up into a parcel

13. Baked in pre heated oven at 200°C for 10-12 minutes

14. Open up and serve immediately

Cake of Three Camps

When it comes to carrot cake, there are 3 camps – those which prefer the sweet BLACK sauce type, and those that go for the fried WHITE kind, yet there are some that prefer it frosted with Cream Cheese sort. As for me, I am all for my Carrot cake (the Chinese, hawker type), or Chai Tow Kway, to be fried the WHITE way.

White is RIGHT, as of most food, it is best eaten in its original flavour. Opting for the sweet dark sauce is almost as good as dipping your Waygu Steak in chilli sauce – you lose the original taste of the food, and simply tasting the sauce that overwhelms everything that goes with it. And without fail, when I am at Newton Hawker Centre, I would venture to Heng Carrot Cake at Stall 28.

Ask for him to fry it crispier and you will have the perfect carrot cake that is crispy and flavoursome on the outside, yet moist and soft on the inside. And with finely bits of Chai Poh, or preserved vegetables, and spring onions added to it, it didn’t take me long before I finish a whole plate to myself.

Rating
Food: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 3/5
Price: 4/5
Total: 14/20
Stall 28, Newton Hawker Centre
500 Clemenceau Avenue North
Singapore 229495