DimSumDolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

Lok Hau Fook Restaurant 樂口福酒家

A recent trip to Kowloon City (九龍城), where the old Kai Tak airport was located, brought me to Lok Hau Fook Restaurant. This is a traditional Teochew (潮州) restaurant and I was delighted to try some dishes that I had never come across before.

It's a very old-styled restaurant, so don't expect anything fancy.

First you'll get some tiny cups of Gongfu tea (功夫茶). I'm guessing it helps with digestion. If you can read Chinese, that page link brings you to an explanation of Gongfu tea - I'll translate it when I have the time!

Pickled cabbage to 'awaken' those tastebuds. These tasted good - not too sour with a tinge of sweetness.

Spinach and radish in soup - this was like comfort food. The soup was tasty and the radish was also very sweet and fresh.

The fish was actually served like that, with the skin on this side of the fish peeled away to show the flesh. The name of the dish in Chinese is 馬友魚 (Ma Yau Fish) and it is served cold. My dining companions and I liked this dish a lot as the fish was fresh and tasted 'sweet'.

Pig's big intestines with slices of goose 大腸拼鵝片

Oyster porridge 蠔仔粥

Fried noodles with vinegar and sugar 炸糖醋麵 - this was an interesting dish that's to be eaten by adding vinegar and sugar to it.

Deep-fried pig intestines - these were deliciously sinful! Crisp to the bite and encrusted with some salt, these were great to munch on!

Sugar-crusted yam 反沙芋 - I had never eaten this dessert before and even though I love yam, I felt this was a bit too sweet.

Lok Hau Fook is a good restaurant to go to for traditional Teochew food. Kowloon City is also an interesting area to walk around with its numerous restaurants and food stalls. Definitely worth a walkabout for all foodies!

樂口福酒家
九龍城侯王道1-3號
English address:
Lok Hau Fook Restaurant
1-3 Hau Wong Road, Kowloon City
Tel : (852) 2382 7408

Gong Guan 公官會所

If you're looking for a private kitchen restaurant to go to, you could consider going to Gong Guan 公官會所, a restaurant that serves a fusion of Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisine. The tiny restaurant is located in Sheung Wan and has three rooms with a big table in each. To get a booking, you'll need to have at least 10 but up to a maximum of about 12/13 people in your party. I ate at Gong Guan at the end of February when a friend of mine visited and I joined in the dinner with her friends. Here's what we ate:

Shanghainese style minced vegetables with tofu

Braised tofu with Chinese mushrooms and black fungus

Slices of beef

Preserved vegetables

Eggplant with pork floss

Melon with mung bean vermcelli

Tofu soup

I loved this dish most with its slice of pork and dried crispy beancurd to be eaten by placing both sandwiched inside the pancake.

Broccoli with crab meat and lily bulb

Tea smoked chicken

Steamed fish

Stew pork

Stir-fried mix vegetables

This was one of the best dishes of the night with the crispy brown rice cakes and the minced meat. The rice was nicely browned and smoky and went well with the minced meat.

Dessert was glutinous rice balls with millet.

As it was such a long time ago, I've forgotten exactly what each dish tastes like. However, I remember enjoying the meal and thought it was worth the HKD380 (not inclusive of corkage) that I had spent.

Gong Guan 公官會所
12/F Fung Woo Building
279 Des Voeux Road Central
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
(Sheung Wan MTR station Exit B)
Tel: +852 2577 9789

Ichiran

Nothing gets more impersonal than eating at Ichiran, a ramen eatery in Fukuoka. Ramen is one of Fukuoka's specialties, so it goes without saying that I had to have it at least once.

There's a system guide to teach you how to order. Don't worry, it's in English!

First you go to the vending machine to select what you want to order. Each bowl of pork ramen costs 790 yen, but you have to pay more if you want to add more green onions, or more pork etc.

Take that voucher(s) to one of these booths.

Also take this order form and circle your choices.

These booths are so self-contained. There's a button to push to call one of the staff to your booth where you then hand over the voucher(s) and the form. You never see the staff member's face though. All you see are their hands. Chopsticks and spoons are tucked neatly at the side of the booth.

You can hang your coat at the back and there are even tissues provided.

Within a few minutes, this cute rectangular bowl arrives in front of you. After it's served to you, the waiter or waitress lowers the bamboo blind so that you can concentrate on your food and not be distracted.

Lift the lid and you get a steaming hot bowl of ramen. I liked their noodles and the broth was rich and tasty. They were also not too stingy with their pork slices.

The Japanese think of everything - there's a small sink for you to wash your hands as you leave.

Ichiran can be found at the basement of Canal City, Fukuoka. See how to get there from here.

Yellow Door Kitchen 黃色門廚房

Mel, a friend from university days, was visiting Hong Kong with her husband on the last weekend of February and the couple suggested eating at Yellow Door, a private kitchen in Central that they knew of. Dinner at this private kitchen comprised these dishes.

There were a total of eight appetisers that came to the table all at once.

蒜泥白肉 Sliced pork with spiced garlic sauce.

甜酸小王瓜 Pickled cucumber

凉拌鲜腐竹 Fresh soya bean sheets with spicy garlic sauce

凉拌三丝 Salad with potato, carrot and seaweed

葱油灵芝菇 Shimeiji mushrooms with oil infused with spring onions

麻香皮蛋 Century egg in sesame sauce

香辣鸡丁 Stir-fried dice chicken with dried chilli

松脆虾球 Deep-fried prawns with bread

The first of the main courses was the scallop and Chinese cabbage soup 翡翠元贝汤.

鲜山椒焖冬瓜 Winter melon braised with picked chilli

宫保虾球 Fried prawn in Sichuan sour and spicy sauce

口水鸡 Chicken and shredded leek with spicy sauce

烟熏普洱蜂蜜焖腩排 Smoked pork rib with honey and pu-er tea leaves

八宝鸭 Shanghai stuffed duck

京葱捞米 Rice noodles with minced pork and fried onions

芝麻汤圆 Sesame glutinous rice balls

To find it, look for this 7-Eleven at the Mid-levels escalator. It's the small building next to the right of this 7-Eleven. It's a three-minute walk from H&M.

Though Yellow Door Kitchen is mentioned in the Hong Kong edition of the Michelin guide, I wasn't bowled over by their food. Most of the food was mediocre and nothing to rave about. The stir-fried diced chicken was way too dry and hard. The biggest disappointments were the rice noodles and the fried prawns. The noodles were too bland and I didn't bother finishing the bowl after taking a bite. I made it a point to mention its lack of flavour to the waiter. He only apologised but didn't bother to follow up with the complaint. The prawn batter was too soggy and thick and the prawns didn't taste fresh. Dessert was also very uninspiring and boring. I mean, even if you wanted to serve a traditional dessert, at least attempt to put a spin on it! I wasn't impressed by the lack of imagination.

Only two dishes were good - the Shanghai stuffed duck and the smoked pork rib with honey and pu-er tea leaves. The Shanghai duck was stuffed with glutinous rice and the pork rib was very tender. There's nothing like a delicious piece of pork ribs!

Service was pretty good but not exceptional and the dinner cost us HKD298 each. It's not a place I would return to, and for the same amount of money I think there are better places to go to for a meal.

Yellow Door Kitchen
6/F Cheung Hing Commercial Building
37 Cochrane Street, Central.
Hong Kong
Nearest MTR exit：D2 Central MTR Station
Tel: +852 2858 6555

Reunion Dinner 2010

I should have put up these photos together with the previous blog entry, but when I wrote it, I had yet to upload the photos to Flickr. Thanks to a reader who said he'd like to have a look at what my mum cooked for this year's reunion dinner, I've been reminded to give some recognition to my mummy's cooking.

Every year we have yusheng 鱼生. My mum always orders an extra packet of crackers together with the preserved stuff, and my grandmother's helper helps to grate the carrots and radish. Of course, we're always more generous with our salmon since we buy our own fish.

Abalone with spinach. Abalone are auspicious for the new year as they look like the gold ingots that existed in ancient China. You know us Chinese, all we wish for is money! :p

Scallops coated with salt egg yolk served with asparagus

This is a stew that contains, Chinese mushrooms, pork, black moss (发菜), sea cucumber, and tendons. I especially love the black moss. It's supposed to be eaten during Chinese New Year because black moss's Chinese name sounds like the word 发财 (fa cai) which means to prosper and strike it rich.

These spring rolls are one of my favourites. The skin is actually bean curd sheets and inside are mince pork, water chestnut, prawns, Chinese mushroom and cloud fungus. I never get tired of munching on them.

There was also soup but I had forgotten to take a photo of them. No real Cantonese dinner is complete without soup. I don't cook very much in Hong Kong because I don't have a kitchen in the shoebox I live in. If I do cook, it's usually with the rice cooker. Also, it's so convenient to buy food in some cha chaan teng that I often don't bother to cook. What's more, I return home late quite often. Quite frankly, there's not much fun cooking for one as well. Food tastes best when you're partaking in the act of eating with others.

I do miss cooking though. There's something very comforting about cooking and creating something to satisfy the stomach. I miss being in the kitchen cooking and experimenting with food. Wonder when will be the next time I can step into a proper kitchen again...

Celestial Court 天寶閣

Contrary to popular belief, I don't have dimsum every day even though I currently live in the land of dimsum. I usually go for dimsum only when I have visitors. I went to Celestial Court at Sheraton Hotel when my friend, R, was visiting in early Dec. He's the same friend I went to Bo Innovations and Tastings Wine Bar with. Every time we meet up, all we do is eat.

As he had a voucher to be used at the Sheraton Hotel where he was staying, we decided to use it for dimsum.

I liked the tea light placed under the tea pot to keep the tea warm. I thought that was a nice touch.

This plate of spring rolls wasn't ordered by me. I usually order the steamed items only. But R had to have his spring rolls. I call it his typical American behaviour! Haha. Anyway he ate all of it. I wasn't going to waste calories on those spring rolls.

Pork dumpling (siew mai 烧卖) the usual suspect, topped with crab roe.

Plump and fluffy roast pork buns (char siew bao 叉烧包)

Prawn dumplings (Har Gow 虾饺)

Some fried radish cakes and slices of lotus root which I actually enjoyed more than the radish cake. It was like eating chips!

This isn't a regular on dimsum menus so we decided to give it a try. I can't remember its name but it had a piece of chicken and a slice of Chinese mushroom wrapped in fish maw and then put to steam. It was light yet tasty and full of the ingredients' natural flavours.

Claypot beef brisket with rice flour rolls (牛腩肠粉). The was really tasty but probably best eaten after eating the other steamed dimsum that are lighter in flavour.

The pièce de résistance which even came in its individual mini bamboo steamer. The bottom orange bit you see is a thin slice of carrot with Chinese mushroom sitting on it. The Chinese mushroom is in turn stuffed with chicken, topped with scallop, sea urchin and bonito flakes. OK, it all sounds very good, but actually I think the raw sea urchin was a bit wasted in this. Its natural sweetness was lost among all the other flavours dancing on your palate as you bite into the piece. A tad disappointing.

We also had steamed fish head in black bean sauce. Nothing like eating the cheeks!

Fancy mango pudding with the gold leaf shreds. Nothing to rave about. Frankly any normal dessert shop in HK could do one just as good.

Black sesame pudding topped with gold leaf shreds as well. All I can say is that the gold is more nicely contrasted in this than the mango pudding. Again, the taste was mediocre and isn't something I'd bother to order if I were to go there again.

Overall it was a pretty good dining experience and service was good. But for now, once is enough as there are many other dimsum restaurants to check out!

Celestial Court
Sheraton Hotel
20 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
Tel: + 852 2369 1111

Sh!ok

When I feel like having some Singaporean fare, I sometimes head to Sh!ok. In Singlish, 'Shiok' (spelt rightfully with an 'i') is a word us Singaporeans use to express pleasure and delight at something that brings about these feelings.

At Sh!ok, you'll most likely hear lots of Singaporean accents among the diners as my fellow countrymen go there and get their fix of food from home.

I like their longan drink - a nice pick-me-up on a hot summer's day. In winter, you can have it warm.

One of my favourite dishes there is this Fried Pork with Kam Heong. Kam Heong is a paste that's made with some curry leaves and some spices that I, unfortunately, couldn't identify. This dish is really tasty though, and is a definite must-eat.

I also like their fried carrot cake. Their black version is better than the white one, so I'd just stick with the former.

My last favourite is their Kaya Toast. What's special about this kaya is that it's very light and its texture is like custard rather than jam which is the norm in Singapore. This type of kaya is known as seri kaya and is hardly found even in Singapore. It's made the traditional nonya way and Sh!ok doesn't use any preservatives in their kaya, which is why their kaya only keeps for three days.

A friend told me that their Bak Chor Mee (minced pork noodles) is good, so you might want to give it a try if you're there. However, I'd give their Bak Kut Teh a miss if I were you. When I tried those two dishes, they were very disappointing in taste. The Bak Kut Tek soup was a bit bland and flat. There's always a today's special and those of you who love laksa will have to go on Mondays to get your laksa fix. The second time I went was a Tuesday and that day's special was Char Kway Teow. It could have been good except for the fact that it lacked wok hei. Despite some misses, Sh!ok is still a decent place to get some Singaporean fare.

Sh!ok
66 Peel Street
Soho, Central
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2899 2001

Tofulism 豆腐主義

I don't subscribe to any religion, but if I were forced to, my reply could possibly be 'Food and I'm sure I have many fellow believers'. ;p A branch-off of it for tofu devotees would be Tofulism. I love tofu and most of the time I'll eat tofu in whatever form it comes in.

I came across this Tofulism outlet when I ended up in Tung Chung after finishing a hike in Lantau Island. Ivan of Food Recentrunes joked that this is the religion of old lecherous men. Why? Because in Chinese, the phrase '吃豆腐' (eat tofu)' means to take advantage of a woman in a sexual way. Ha.

Well, see it any way you want, but Tofulism sells tofu in many forms. You can get soya bean milk (豆浆) in various flavours - plain, papaya, mango, watermelon, ginger, green bean, red bean. You can also choose to have soya beancurd (豆腐花) with some of mango, green bean and red bean.

Those jars on the shelf are fermented soya beans (南乳) which is used in more commonly used in stewing and stir-frying meat and vegetable.

Pieces of pan-fried tofu are also sold together with these pieces of vegetables (sweet potato, green chilli and eggplant) that have been dipped in batter and deep-fried. I didn't think these looked very appetising. I tried the plain soya bean milk and a few pieces of the pan-fried tofu. The soya bean milk was fresh but I thought the tofu wasn't particularly good. Five pieces of tofu cost me HKD11 and the soya milk was HKD6. The food was a little disappointing, but nevertheless I like the idea of a place devoted just to tofu!

Tofulism
G/F Shop No. 8
Fu Tung Shopping Centre
Tung Chung, Lantau Island
Hong Kong

石磨坊 Shek Mo Fong (Stone Mill Place)

For a small neighbourhood, Tin Hau has many dessert eateries. It seems like this area that's a stone's throw away from Causeway Bay, but sans the craziness, is made for me the dessert monster.

I'm a big fan of the Cantonese dessert pastes that are grounded from nuts. At 石磨坊, literally translated to mean 'stone mill place', they do these grounded nut pastes very well. Sesame, walnut and almond pastes can be commonly found around Hong Kong, so when I go to 石磨坊, I usually go for the chestnut or cashew nut pastes which are less common. Back in Singapore, I can't find anywhere that sells it!

Chestnut dessert paste 栗子糊 HKD18

I love chestnuts, so I tend to go for the former most of the time. But as chestnuts are seasonal, the chestnut paste is only available during autumn and winter.

Cashew nut dessert paste 腰果糊 HKD18

Or if you fancy trying two different flavours, you can have them mixed as shown in the picture above with a mix of chestnut and cashew nut paste. It costs the same, i.e. HKD 18, to have it mixed.

This black and white concoction is a mix of black sesame (黑芝麻) and almond (杏仁) paste.

Another popular dessert is this black sesame roll filled with pieces of mango and black glutinous rice (芒果黑芝麻糯米卷). It's served warm and tastes pretty good surprisingly! The glutinous rice gives it some added texture.

Apart from these desserts, 石磨坊 also serves shaved ice desserts. There's also a yam and sago baked pudding which is pretty good. It's a substitute (though it can't really replace the real thing) when I get cravings for my favourite Teochew dessert 'Or Ni'.

石磨坊 Shek Mo Fong
Shop 3-3C Lau Li Street
Tin Hau, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2398 9493

五代同糖 Five Generation Desserts

五代同糖 is one of my favourite places for desserts in Hong Kong when it comes to shaved ice desserts, which Hong Kongers call 雪花冰. This type of shaved ice dessert originated from Taiwan and is now a favourite with Hong Kongers, judging from the number of dessert places that sell it.

The star of 五代同糖's various flavours has to be its durian shaved ice (see above). It's creamy, rather than icy and has a strong, yet not overpowering durian taste. It's almost like eating ice cream. We were told by one of the staff there that the ice contains milk and durian; the milk slows the melting process thus allowing you to linger and enjoy the dessert for a longer time. It surprisingly goes well with cornflakes, with the cornflakes giving an added crunchy texture.

The yam flavoured shaved ice that comes with red bean and some green tea-flavoured syrup. I'm a big fan of yam, but for some reason, I don't like yam done in this way. I didn't think the yam tasted real, and it somehow didn't go well with red bean. Other flavours I'd recommend are guava (very refreshing) and peanut. If you're a die-hard chocolate fan, go for the chocolate one. Mango lovers can opt for the mango-flavoured one which comes with mango syrup, pomelo and sago. That one's very refreshing too on a hot summer's day.

Do note that the English name in the title is what I've translated from its Chinese name and is not its official one. I like its Chinese name though - there's a play on sounds here. The word 糖 ('tong' in Cantonese and 'tang' in Mandarin) is pronounced the same way as the word 堂. In Chinese, 五代同堂 refers to five (五) generations (代) living under the same roof (同堂), with its intrinsic meaning being that of an extended family living in harmony. It signifies happy family life and that life is sweet. Very apt for a dessert eatery, no?

五代同堂
Shop G11, G/F Elizabeth House
No. 250-254 Gloucester Road
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 3486 8528

Tai Cheong Bakery 泰昌餅家

Yes, yes, I know Tai Cheong Bakery has been written about millions of times in newspapers and many other blogs because it has the most famous egg tarts (蛋撻) in Hong Kong and possibly the world, thanks to former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten and all the brouhaha that was created when it was forced to close down its original outlet due to high rent back in 2005. Hey, I remember queuing up for 45 minutes with fellow food blogger Chaxiubao back in May 2005 in their last few days of operation at their original outlet.

Hong Kongers were so dismayed at the impending closure of their favourite egg tart store that they managed to find another shop space down the road from their original outlet for them to reopen. So thankfully Tai Cheong's egg tarts haven't disappeared from Hong Kong.

Anyhow, I figured I can't be in Hong Kong and not post an entry about this egg tart institution. After being made famous by Patten's affection for them, these tarts are now affectionately also known as 肥彭蛋撻, literally translated to 'Fat Patten's egg tarts'.

The bakery doesn't sell egg tarts only - you can also buy other traditional Cantonese pastries like 沙翁 (a form of puff that's deep fried and sprinkled with sugar), chicken pie, bread, egg rolls, sesame candy, osmanthus pudding, sesame pudding, wife's pastry, sponge cakes, etc. But really, the star is the egg tart.

I can never resist these yellow darlings especially when they're fresh out of the oven. What I love about Hong Kong is that I can get freshly baked egg tarts at almost every street corner where there's a Mom-and-Pop traditional bakery. On weekday mornings, I especially love the smell of freshly baked egg tarts in the morning when I walk past a bakery on my way to the bus stop where I catch a bus to work. Anyway, I like the shortcrust pastry egg tarts more than I like the flaky pastry (酥皮) ones. Tai Cheong egg tart's shortcrust pastry are so buttery and delicious.

I also found out that certain branches (yes, they have expanded!) sell it cheaper. The Wan Chai branch (Shop No. 2, G/F, 74-80 Johnston Road) sells one for HKD4.5 but the main branch and the one in Causeway Bay (Shop B Jardine Centre, 50 Jardine's Bazaar) sell it at HKD5 each. I suppose these places have higher rent.

Other branches can be found in Queensway, Mong Kok, Kowloon Bay, Diamond Hill and Sha Tin. The main shop is located at 35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central.

Tastings Wine Bar

One of the most interesting things about Central is that there is a good mix of both fancy and modern versus old and traditional eateries. They somehow co-exist to form this vibrant and eclectic gastronomical scene in the pulsating heart of Hong Kong. In a nondescript lane an offshoot from Wellington Street sits Tastings Wine Bar. It's a nice place to go for pre- or post-dinner drinks. Happy Hour runs from 5-8pm.

Bottles of wine stored in sleek fridges for tastings. You slot a pre-paid card in and you choose whether you want a tasting portion, half-glass or full-glass. It'll also be able to record the wines you've tried so that you can keep track of the ones you've had.

The bar

My friend, R, and I ordered the Happy Hour appetiser platter that consisted of buschettas, mini beef slices and cherry tomatoes on a small slice of baguette, and bite-sized slices of pizza. I had a Riesling and he a Cabernet Sauvignon. Loved the beef slices with cherry tomatoes, but the other two tasted very ordinary.

The cellar

You can also their cheese platter. Take your pick of three cheeses that are on their menu. We had the roquefort, parmesan reggiano and brie de meaux. There's also blue cheese available for those who love them.

We left at about 7.45pm, having hung out there for close to 1.5 hours already. By that time, the place was filled with young, mobile professionals in Central who has just knocked off work. It's a pretty nice spot to hang out for wine lovers. I also like the idea of allowing people to buy tasting portions so that they don't have to burn a huge hole in their wallet in order to try a new wine.

Tastings Wine Bar, Basement
Yuen Yick Building, 27 & 29 Wellington Street
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2523 6282

Bo Innovation

My friend, R, the travel geek was in town for a few days and as is the usual case when we meet, we ate a lot. He flew off this morning and I feel a little sad that I have one less foodie friend to hang out with. Last night, we went to Bo Innovation and were impressed by Demon Chef Alvin Leung's (that's how he brands himself) creations that made use of scientific knowledge to bring out the best in the fusion of ingredients from various types of cuisines.

Our booking was made for 7.30pm but found that we were only the second table to be seated. As the night progressed, more people came and the inside seating area was filled by about 9pm - and this was a Monday night. The restaurant does only one seating per night so best to make reservations.

The chef's table seats only six people. If you want those spots, definitely make reservations.

I love the table setting. There are two menus for the night - the tasting menu (six courses for HKD680+) and the chef's menu (13 courses) that costs double the price. Our pockets weren't THAT deep so we went for the former. For wine, we chose a Cabernet from Napa Valley.

Raw oyster with snow pea shoots, ginger snow and some sauce that was both slightly sweet and citrus at the same time. Sorry, can't quite remember what it was. Think it was kumquat or something. Forgot to take notes. I loved the play of flavours in the mouth.

The second appetiser was this squid ink noodles topped with raw sea urchin and dried shrimp flakes. To eat it, you have to mix everything up first and then pick it up with a pair of chopsticks. That was the eating style as recommended by the waitress anyway. Each dish was explained to us in detail by the wait staff who served it. I loved the mix of Italian (the squid ink noodles), Japanese (raw sea urchin) and Chinese (the dried shrimp flakes) cuisines in this dish.

Seared scallop carpaccio with snow peas and honey miso sauce and a few pieces of guoba (锅巴) to add a crunchy texture. 锅巴 is a type of rice cracker that's commonly used in Sichuan cuisine.

The coolest dish on the menu had to be this molecular xiaolongbao (小笼包). And no, this is no egg yolk. This post-modern interpretation of the traditional dumpling has the xiaolongbao broth wrapped in a skinned made from gelatined broth and topped with a strip of red vinegar. It slids into your mouth and the broth squirts out with the slightest bite. Absolutely delightful and smart!

The last appetiser was this smoked trout topped with a vinegared bak choy and ginger jelly. The order in which to eat it is to have the smoked trout first, followed by the bak choy and then the ginger jelly. I loved the smokey flavour of the trout and the sourish bak choy followed by the tangy ginger jelly were wonderful palate cleansers. Those black specks are black bean powder.

My main course was a piece of smoked pomfret with a piece of foie gras topped with apple foam. The apple foam was a delightful pairing with the rich flavours coming from the smokey fish and the oh-so-sinful-but-pleasurable foie gras. My friend went for the wagyu beef (Grade M9+) that sat on top of some steamed rice rolls (肠粉) and laced with black truffle oil - another smart take on a traditional street food found on the streets of Hong Kong. For the wagyu beef as a main, you'd have to pay an extra HKD350 for a 4oz piece and HKD550 for an 8oz piece. That piece of beef was tender, juicy and robust in flavour. Enough said. It's wagyu - nothing else needs to be said.

Flyfish roe fried rice. One of the best fried rice I've ever had. The tiny flyfish roe gave the rice a crunchy texture and a beautiful orange sunset colour. It almost looks like Indian bryani rice!

The dessert was banana slow poached in Chinese wine served atop silky smooth chocolate ganache. The humble banana has never tasted so good. I'm beginning to think this Chinese wine paired with chocolate combination is my favourite food duo du jour.

To prepare your senses for the next course, a small bowl of petals is brought out and liquid nitrogen is poured over it. You're supposed to inhale the sweet floral smells and enjoy the visuals. I call this stage 'smelling the roses' cos life should be about that and eating and enjoying one's food should be a part of it.

The petit-fours were these sweet little morsels served in a cute little cage (they were stacked on top of one another and there was a cover). These petit-fours all had hawthorn (山楂) used in them. Bite into that sesame ball and a rush of hawthorn juice bursts into your mouth. I'm not a fan of macaroons because I usually find them too sweet. But this rose-pink one was so lovely in colour and tasted great with its light hawthorn flavour. The slightly pink cube is a hawthorn-flavoured marshmallow that melts in your mouth and the last nougat-tasting morsel had hazelnuts and hawthorn in it.

After finishing our petit-fours, we thought we had come to the end of our meal. We were stuffed really and I don't know how I would manage the chef's menu had I gone for it. But as luck would have it, my friend, R, bumped into a friend at the restaurant. His friend and his friend's date had gone for the chef's menu. The date couldn't stomach the main she ordered and his friend sent it over to us instead. So we had an extra course. Wahahaha.

Our bonus round: Wild pigeon with red rice topped with longan (龙眼) sauce. The pigeon didn't taste too gamey and was cooked to perfection. The longan sauce was also a great accompaniment to the rice and pigeon.

Similar to a night out at the theatre, Leung was like the director who put together this wonderful sensory experience with the help of his staff who were a fantastic cast. Service from the wait staff was impeccable and there's even a staff member waiting to hand you a hot towel when you step out of the washroom!

The restaurant deserves its two stars awarded by the Michelin guide, and even though it'll burn a huge hole in your pocket, it's worth every penny.

Bo Innovation
Shop 13, 2/F J Residence
60 Johnston Road
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
MTR station: Wan Chai (Exit A3)
Tel: +852 2850 8371

甜姨姨 Auntie Sweet

The area I live in, Tin Hau (天后), has several eateries specialising in Hong Kong desserts and 甜姨姨 is one of my favourites.

It's located along Tsing Fung Street, which is the street just below the flyover. It's usually packed to the brim on Fri and Saturday evenings.

If you love mango, go for this ultimate mango dessert that consists of mango juice, mango ice cream, fresh mango slices and dried mango strips. You'll be mango-ed out.

This is my favourite dessert there - durian soya beancurd (榴莲豆花). I know it sounds weird and looks rather gross, but it's delicious. I come here and have this when I need my durian fix. Trust me, every durian lover whom I've brought here and has eaten this has said it's good!

This is the ubiquitous mango pomelo dessert (杨枝柑露). It was nice but pretty ordinary.

Their seaweed jelly drink with fresh fruits consisted of diced watermelon, honeydew and mango in mango juice together with some jelly cubes. It was called 'seaweed jelly' but I didn't taste any seaweed.

Another mango dessert you could go for is the mango green tea jelly which was delicious too. There's also jasmine tea jelly to choose from. I like their tea jellies with their faint accents of tea when you bite into them.

天后清風街13號地下
13 Tsing Fung Street
Tin Hau, Hong Kong
Opening hours: 3pm-3am

Bao Dim Sin Seng 包點先生

I happened to be walking along Aldrich Street in Shau Kei Wan (筲箕灣 - a district to the northeastern side of Hong Kong Island) and I came across Bao Dim Sin Seng 包點先生 - a shop that specialises in steamed buns. I was very taken by the wide selection of buns in the shop and couldn't resist taking a few snapshots.

I loved the shop signage

Different types of Mantou (饅頭) or steamed buns. There are ones filled with spring onions, while others are plain, and others have chocolate etc. What a variety!

See the bakers at work behind glass screens in the shop

The purple buns are my favourite 'cos they're filled with yam paste. I love anything that has yam (also known as taro)! The orange ones that look like pumpkins are filled with black sesame (黑芝麻包). There are also buns filled with meat & vegetables (菜肉包） and chicken & mushroom (香菇鸡卷) among others.

These buns were so adorable. The yellow ones in the form of chicks are filled with lotus paste while the porcupine ones are filled with red bean paste.

If you want your buns steamed and piping hot, place your order at this counter and bite into a steaming hot bun straight away!

Teresa Festival

I'm thankful that the area where I work, Quarry Bay (鰂魚涌), has many eating places to cater to many palates and budgets. Even 7-Eleven sells hot food like rice boxes and noodles. If I were to write a single entry on all the different places I usually or can go to for lunch, it'd take up probably close to 100 entries (maybe more)!

Anyhow, this short entry is about the delicious cookies by Teresa Festival.

I paid HKD65 for this packet of butter cookies which I wolfed down in two days. Yes, I'm a cookie monster. The cookies are of the crunchy sort and it came in an assortment. Some were plain, some had almond bits, others had swirls of chocolate dough, a morsel of jam, and one was topped with poppy seeds. The cookies are also sold in a big glass jar - these make really good gifts!

To celebrate one of my colleagues' birthday recently, he requested an American cheesecake. Cheesecake lovers will like this dense cheesecake. They do cheesecakes in several other flavours too. I also tried their chestnut mousse cake (below). I wasn't wow-ed by this cake, possibly because I didn't think there was enough chestnut puree.

My favourite is still the cookies and when I want a good cookie fix - I make sure I only eat good ones so that I don't waste my precious calories - this is where I'm going to get it.

Teresa Festival
Shop 5B G/F, 7-9 Hoi Kwong Street
Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2565 1368

Sha Tin 18

A few weeks ago, thanks to my friend Felix, I got to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon and evening in Hyatt Regency Sha Tin. Felix was staying there for a short while, and told me to go over to make use of the pool and to chill out in the hotel that's located in a scenic part of the New Territories. The hotel is a three-minute walk from the train station 'University' (大学).

The view from the club lounge on the 25th floor. I had a very leisurely swim in the pool, soaked in the jacuzzi for half an hour and made use of the sauna. Boy was it relaxing.

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel called Sha Tin 18. The restaurant has an open kitchen concept and serves Cantonese and Northern Chinese cuisine.

We had some scallop dumplings （带子饺） which were small and really mediocre in taste.

The skin of the braised chicken feet (凤爪） was still rather chewy and hard which, according to Felix the gourmet, means it wasn't deep-fried long enough. The sauce, however, was very tasty and flavourful.

We also ordered some dumplings which I liked. The skin had the nice springy texture to it. I only wished there was more meat stuffed into it!

Steamed beef balls is an item I like to order. This one was alright but it didn't stand out.

We also had the pork and century egg congee which I thought was good. It was smooth and tasty, and I liked that it came with the peanuts, spring onions and preserved radish on the side.

What I enjoyed most in Sha Tin were two of their homemade ice creams. They were two flavours I had never tried before - Chinese wine chocolate (五粮液朱古力) and papaya snow fungus （木瓜雪耳）.

The papaya snow fungus ice cream was very light in flavour with traces of papaya. The bits of snow fungus embedded in the ice cream added an interesting texture to this rather guilt-free dessert. The crispy and wafe-thin sesame wafer was also delicious to munch on.

Now this I have to say is one of the best chocolate ice creams I've ever had. I love chocolate and I take every opportunity to eat chocolate ice cream. This one was silky smooth and the Chinese wine (五粮液) being mixed with the dark chocolate is such a brilliant idea. The bitterness of the Chinese wine really enhances the flavour of the chocolate and my god, the wine hits you the moment that ice cream touches your palate. I swear I could get drunk on this Chinese wine chocolate ice cream. LOVE it.

So my conclusion is that the main food items in Sha Tin 18 are pretty mediocre. The star items are these two homemade ice creams. A definite must-try!

Ah Por's Soya Bean Curd 建兴亚婆豆腐花

I was told that this soya bean curd stall is a must-try when one goes to Lamma Island. We passed it while on our walk along one of the trails.

Al fresco dining...enjoy the wild greenery around and get in touch with nature! OK, it was a tad hot and humid so maybe not for the faint-hearted.

The white and baby smooth soya bean curd. It slipped smoothly down the throat and it was good that it didn't have the plaster of paris taste of the coagulant that some soya bean curd have. I had it with ginger syrup, but you can also have it with palm sugar if you want.

The sugar that's in a box placed on the table.

Moi the dessert monster decides to try the sugar, as if the ginger syrup wasn't already enough! I liked it better with the sugar though, 'cos it added a bit of texture with the slight crunch.

Just next to the stall is a vegetable plot. It's so nice to be able to grow your own vegetables! A walk farther down to the right of the stall will lead you to a beach.

Bookworm Cafe

My first Saturday in Hong Kong was spent in Lamma Island going to an organic vegetarian cafe for brunch followed by an easy hike from Yung Shue Wan village to Sok Kwu Wan village. The hike was a scenic one that brought me and my companions up some hills that offered us lovely views of the hills and seas which make up Hong Kong.

Bookworm Cafe is about a seven-minute walk away from Yung Shue Wan pier. Arrive at the pier and then turn right towards the seafood restaurants and continue walking through the small lanes. You'll walk past a gourmet cheese shop before reaching Bookworm Cafe.

The cafe's interior is somewhat bohemian and it's very inviting with its cheery colours and stacks of books set along one side of the cafe. Most of the books and magazines are second-hand ones and are for sale.

The menu offers western vegetarian fare like lasagne, big breakfast, omelette, vegie burger, salads etc.

I like the cute toy at the counter. :)

I had the pumpkin soup served with toasted buttered bread. I felt it was a little bland and actually wasn't expecting it to be like that. I had thought it would come like a puree/cream soup. The bread was nicely toasted and buttered, and smelt as well as tasted good.

The Shepherdess Pie is the vegetarian take on the English pub grub stape, Shepherd's Pie. The Shepherdess Pie had peas, potato, carrots and a nicely baked cheese topping. The salad consisting of beetroot, carrots and lettuce was served with a light and refreshing balsamic dressing. I really liked this vegetarian version of the more hearty Shepherd's Pie.

The Big Breakfast that my friend had. I still think my Shepherdess Pie looks better.

The omelette that came with a filling made of mixed vegetables and slices of potato.

Bookworm cafe is a nice, cosy place to hang out but too bad it doesn't face the sea. Otherwise it'd have been the perfect place to chill out for the whole day. Vegetarians would love this cafe but the rest of us omnivores might think it's silly to go all the way to Lamma only to have vegetarian food. If I'm going to do this again, I'd go to Lamma in the mid-afternoon, go to Bookworm cafe for afternoon tea (the cakes look good), hike and then end the day with a seafood dinner. I won't leave Lamma without having seafood in future!

Bookworm Cafe
Mon~Fri: 10:00am to 9:00pm
Sat & Public Holidays: 9:00am to 10:00pm
Sunday: 9:00am to 9:00pm
G/F, 79, Yung Shue Wan Main Street,
Lamma Island, Hong Kong.
Tel : (852) 2982 4838

Loving Glutinous Rice Balls

Had desserts at a dessert place called 甜姨姨 in my neighourhood of Tin Hau. Literally translated, the name means 'Sweet Auntie'. They are known for their durian desserts and I tried their Durian Soy Bean Curd, which was awesome and a must-try for all durian lovers! A pity I forgot to bring my camera, but rest assure that I'll be heading there again very soon!

Anyway, the point I wanted to make in this blog post is about the names of some glutinous rice balls on their menu. I was so amused by them as I've never come across such names before.

In the menu, what is known as 老公汤圆 (husband glutinous rice balls) are really glutinous rice balls with chocolate filling. 老婆汤圆 (wife glutinous rice balls) are glutinous rice balls with peanut butter filling. 恩爱汤圆 (loving glutinous rice balls) are those with chocolate and peanut butter filling. I think it's so cute that the one with a mixture of both fillings is known as 'loving glutinous rice balls' to reflect the union of the 'husband' and 'wife' fillings. It's perhaps also symbolic that the eating of 汤圆 is meant to celebrate family reunions during special festivals. The round shape of the rice balls represents reunion and, in Mandarin, the name 汤圆 (tang1 yuan2) also sounds like the word 团圆 (tuan2 yuan2) which means reunion.

Trust the Chinese to come up with such lovely and poetic names for food!

Tuna Heaven

This tuna sashimi meal I had in Seoul has to go down as the best meal I had there - and it was for a steal at 38,000 won, which works out to about SGD45. It's all thanks to my Korean friend, J, who brought me to this small sashimi place. Great to know local foodies, ya know? Unfortunately the name card is in Korean so I can't translate the address. The nearest subway station to this tuna sashimi place is Jamsil which is along Line 2 and 8, south of the Han River. Anyway, here's the spread that brought me to tuna heaven. I still dream of it. *sigh*

The chef at work

A small bowl of porridge that was really tasty and smooth

Don't ask me what cut of the tuna this came from - I lost track after awhile. But the tuna sashimi slices were served on a bed of radish, accompanied by some preserved ginger, preserved onions and fresh watercress.

A side plate of salad was included in the meal

Oops...forgot what this was! I only remember it tasted good!

Chives with bean paste

A bowl of miso soup

More tuna

And more!

Tuna sushi

The fatty bits!!!

Sanchon 山村

Having read about Sanchon in my guidebook and also based on a recommendation from fellow travellers, I decided to eat there even though I'm not a huge fan of vegetarian food. But I thought, hey, after all that crap I was eating up, some greens couldn't hurt.

The restaurant is located in a small lane that's branches off from Insadong-gil, the tourist-filled street. Sanchon serves Korean temple food and the food served is seasonal. The restaurant was started by a man named Kim Yon Shik who came to know the food during his years as a Buddhist monk.

You first step into the shop, selling dried goods like tea leaves and dried mushrooms. These are stuff that the restaurant uses in its food.

Sanchon's dining area is filled with low tables and lovely lotus-shaped lanterns.

For those who prefer sitting at tables, there are a few tables with chairs available. But I still think one should go the traditional Korean way, i.e sit on the floor, unless of course you can't sit on the floor for medical reasons!

My friend and I went for the lunch menu as it's better than going for dinner. The lunch set costs 22,000 won. I felt like a grazing cow throughout the meal 'cos there are so many types of greens served. I've never eaten so much vegetables in one sitting!

Here are some dishes we had:

Porridge of the Season

Watery plain kimchi

Such a pretty basket! But oh, notice those little dishes at the side of this basket.

Fried kelp

Jap-chae (Korean potato starch noodles)

Jelly

Dessert came in the form of the teok rice cakes and some sweet tea.

The food in Sanchon is healthy and tasty, though it was way too much for me and my friend - we only managed to eat about 2/3 of the food served. It's a great place to have a leisurely lunch without the guilt of having overindulged in unhealthy food!

Sanchon
Jongno-gu, Gwanhoon-dong 14, Seoul
Tel: 82 (0)2 735 0312 / (0)2 733 0709
Open: 12pm to 10pm
Subway: Anguk station (Line 3)

Hae Dup Bap (sashimi mixed rice)

One of my favourite dishes in Korea was Hae Dup Bap and I couldn't quite get enough of it while there. It's a pity that I haven't come across any Korean restaurant in Singapore that has it on their menu. I'm sure there are, but they are definitely few and far between.

I had the dish several times in Gangneung and the fish slices that were placed in my bowl that contained a mixture of rice, nori seasweed, julienned vegetables like cucumber and radish, couldn't get any fresher. I saw the fish being fished out of the tank and sliced immediately. Boy did those raw fish slices taste good. The red paste sauce that goes into the mixture is called choe-jang. It is made out of grounded red chilli pepper, bean paste, glutinous rice, salt, sugar and malt.

Hae Dup Bap is a really healthy one-meal dish and it's something that I definitely want to learn how to make for myself for those times I'm going to end up cooking for myself in Hong Kong. Here are some versions I had in Korea.

The rice is served separately in a silver bowl and you have to scoop the rice out of that bowl and place it in the bowl that the fish and vegetables are in. Until i went to Korea, I didn't realise that the Koreans actually ate a lot of fresh greens. The cuisine is really healthy and that's probably why everyone there is so slim!

I had this Hae Dup Bap one afternoon for lunch in Gangneung. I was the only customer there. Maybe they weren't even open for business, but the two middle-aged ladies who saw me looking rather lost beckoned me in when I asked them if I could eat there. Funnily enough, one of the women's niece was an English teacher and she had to call her niece to ask her to speak to me to ask what I wanted to eat. Thank god for mobile phones! And the best part about Korean meals is all the side dishes!

I was also given an extra bowl of clam soup which was delicious! The two ladies and two of their friends had it as part of their lunch which they had at the same time as me. They were having lunch and watching TV. I felt like I was intruding on a family lunch...rather surreal.

There is some slight variation in the vegetables used. In any case, I really liked the generous use of fresh greens in the dish. It made the dish a lot lighter in taste and that complemented the subtle taste of the sashimi.

Live Octopus

The most exotic thing I ate in Korea...

Nudge the ones that are lying still with your chopsticks and they'll start wriggling away. The octopus that my friends and I had was a small one so the tentacles were small and thus easier to swallow.

It is served with a small plate of sesame oil which helps add some flavour and also helps it to slip down the throat more easily. Wouldn't want it getting stuck in your throat! Actually the octopus itself doesn't have much taste, the fun is really in trying to wrestle that tentacles off the plate as its suction pads stick to the plate. It's a real test of one's chopstick skills! Takes quite a bit of strength!

The moment you get it off your plate, give it a quick dip either in the sesame oil or the red fermented bean paste sauce. Take care not to let it stick to the plate in which the sesame oil is in otherwise it's another wrestling match! You'll have to be really quick as the tentacle tends to also curl round the chopstick and not let go!

The moment you put it in your mouth, chew as fast as possible to try to break it down into as small a piece as possible so it can be easily swallowed. But really, there's only so much chewing you can do as being raw, it's rather difficult to break down. You might feel a suction pad or two sucking on your tongue or the side of your cheek. It's not painful but it's a weird sensation to have something sucking on the inside of your cheek. Haha. But really, chew and swallow fast enough and it'll be fine.

A very fun and interesting eating experience indeed...I'm definitely game for another round!

Saizeriya

Went to Saizeriya, the Japanese chain of Italian bistro, at Liang Court about a month ago and wasn't impressed by the food. I mean, the food's OK for the prices you pay but don't be expected to be blown away.

I had the seafood risotto. Actually I had requested that the chef replace the squid some other form of seafood, but I was told by the waitress that they do not entertain special requests on Fri and weekend nights because the kitchen is too busy. I think that's a lousy excuse. If McDonald's can do it, why can't they? But anyway, it arrives in about five minutes. The fast service is good for hungry vultures like I was that night. But like I said, not impressed by the food. It's food that I'd ate only for sustenance and not pleasure. Sauce was too watery and the rice didn't seem like proper risotto rice.

When my two friends arrived, we ordered Escargot for a starter. Hungry me had started on my risotto before they arrived! To be fair to me, they were late! Anyway, the escargots baked in garlic were actually pretty tasty. They were small in size but pretty tasty nonetheless...I attribute it to the magic of garlic.

We also ordered a piece of pita bread to soak up the garlic sauce. This was served warm and it was nice and soft. Seems like the side dishes were tasting better than the mains.

One of my friends went for the Hamburger set. As you can see, the beef pattie is pretty sinful, what with the cheese and gravy on top. I tried a little of the beef pattie and the first thought that came to mind was just 'it's edible'. The other friend had ordered a pasta in cream sauce and I remember she just found it 'OK'.

The place gets busy early in the evening but turnover is pretty fast because it's not a place where people sit and linger. So you wouldn't have to wait very long for a table even if there's a queue. Service is efficient and the food comes fast. It's not a place I would go to again though. The Italian fare here doesn't quite make the cut for me and I'd much rather fork out more money to eat better Italian food.

Saizeriya
Liang Court #02-22
Tel: (65) 6337 8948

Food in the Mail

If only more advertisers advertised in this way...

It's quite a thrill receiving food in the mail even if it's just a small little packet of snacks. I think it's a brilliant way of advertising for food-loving Singaporeans!

The back of the packaging even comes with a calendar.

The advertised product which my mum said tasted pretty good. I didn't taste it 'cos I'm not really a fan of such snacks. You'll have to take my mum's word for it then.

And the requisite disclaimer!

The Green Room Cafe

I can't believe I haven't been to The Green Room Cafe located in the heart of Bishan Park after all this time. I live really close by, yet I never bothered to check it out until one Wednesday afternoon when I was on half-day's leave.

I met up with a friend there for tea, and we spent about 2.5 hours chatting and lounging around on the comfy sofa with the fan spinning above us. We chose to sit on the patio rather than indoors. After all, the point is to be surrounded by all that lush greenery.

It's a vegetarian cafe so maybe not a place for the carnivores. I only had the peppermint tea there so I can't comment on the food and drink.

It's a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of Singapore and is perfect for a lazy afternoon. You just need to use a little imagination and keep your vision to a 10-metre radius, and you could almost believe you were in Bali or some nice tropical paradise.

Substituting Wine with Tea 以茶代酒，不成敬意

Here's another one of my attempts at translating Chinese articles. This one's about the phrase 以茶代酒，不成敬意 which means something like my respect and sincerity towards you is no less even though I'm substituting tea for wine in my offering of a toast.

This phrase is often used by people who don't drink wine and want to toast their guest with a cup of tea instead. The phrase allows them to remain polite towards their guests and not show any sign of disrespect. However, many people are probably unaware that the phrase was coined by the fourth and final emperor, Sun Hao (孙皓 242 - 284) of the state of Eastern Wu (东吴) during the Three Kingdoms period.

In the year 252, Sun Hao's grandfather, Sun Quan (孙权) died of an illness, and passed on the throne to his son Sun Liang (孙亮). After some political disputes, Sun Liang's brother Sun Xiu (孙休) took over as emperor. Before his death, Sun Xiu had designated that his son take over as emperor and appointed his right-hand man Pu Yangxing (濮阳兴) and General Zhang Bu to assist his son. However, Sun Xiu's body was barely cold in the ground when both Pu Yangxing and Zhang Bu commented that the appointed crown prince was too young for the throne and instead helped the 23-year-old Sun Hao to become emperor.

When Sun Hao first came into power, he was a benevolent ruler who helped the weak and donated generously to ease poverty amongst the lower rungs of society. However, this was short-lived as he soon became a cruel and draconian ruler who indulged in alcohol and women. As Sun Hao loved to drink, he frequently held banquets that saw him in the company with all the statesmen and courtiers. His banquets had a rule - every person had to drink at least seven sheng (升) of wine (a 升 is a type of container meant for wine). Whether or not one could drink, one would have to imbibe every drop of wine in the seven sheng.

Amongst his courtiers was a person named Wei Yao (韦曜) who could drink only up to two sheng. Wei Yao was the teacher of Sun Hao's father, Sun He (孙和) and his position was akin to a prime minister. Sun Hao especially looked out for Wei Yao, and knowing that he could not stomach any more wine, he secretly had Wei Yao's wine switched to tea and so that he wouldn't be embarrassed and put in a spot because of his inability to drink.

Wei Yao was an official who was morally upright and just, and he was often critical of Sun Hao, saying that he ridiculed his officials for his own fun and leisure. Over time, this would hurt and destroy the people who worked for him. In time to come, Wei Yao was thrown into prison and executed.

In the year 280, the state of Wu was invaded and destroyed by the state of Western Jin. It wouldn't be wrong to say that it was Sun Hao's drinking that caused the downfall of his empire.

Go here for the Chinese text.

How to Eat Nigiri Sushi

Sushi platter, Ko, Intercontinental Hotel, Singapore

Here are some tips I learnt about eating nigiri sushi after reading the book The Zen of Fish. Nigiri sushi are those sushi with a slice of fish, squid, or perhaps egg placed on top of a small slab of rice.

1. Do not mix wasabi into your soy sauce and apply it indiscriminately - in Japan, sushi chefs would probably have put a little wasabi inside a nigiri, using a larger dab with fatty fish and a smaller one with lean fish. Extra wasabi is never served on the side.

2. Pickled ginger is not supposed to be gobbled down as an appetiser. Those slices of ginger are meant to cleanse the palate between servings of different kinds of fish so that you don't mix their flavours on your tongue.

3. Do not dip the rice side of your nigiri in the soy sauce. You should be dipping the fish side.

4. Eat your nigiri in one bite. Not two.

5. Use your fingers to pick up sushi - that's what most Japanese do.

Tippling Club

My food buddies and I went to the Tippling Club for a leisurely Saturday lunch a few weeks ago and we were presented with some interesting molecular gastronomy fare.

I liked the open concept of the place where diners can see the staff preparing cocktails and the chef preparing certain dishes. Loved also the idea of all the bottles of alcohol hanging up there waiting to be plucked.

The lunch menu of the month.

Upon sitting down at the counter seats, we were given three carbonated grapes each. The moment you pop one into your mouth, there's a sizzling and fizzy sensation on the tongue. A very cute touch to start off the rest of the meal.

Superfinefeline ordered the Mojito which was first served with some mint leaves in a glass of hot water. The idea was for her to sniff and imbibe the smells coming out from the soaked mint leaves first before going on to the real drink.

Next up was this work of modern art with three sticks of charred green peppers with a soy miso sauce at the top. The charred green peppers aren't the most pretty things but boy did they taste good when dipped into the soy miso sauce. You have to pick up these black things with the pair of tweezers provided. The black stuff was batter which tasted very light and nice.

There was also the cured salmon slice with caviar. It wasn't too salty and went down well on the palate.

The roast scallops with compressed cucumber, melon, yoghurt emulsion and passionfruit froth was next. I felt that this dish wasn't salty enough and tasted rather bland if not for the yoghurt emulsion. The compressed cucumber and melon didn't do anything for me - couldn't taste its sweetness - even though they were supposedly compressed at don't-know-how-many atmosphere pressure so that all the essence of the cucumber and melon goes to the centre of the fruit. Could hardly taste the passionfruit froth too. Each time a course is served, the chef comes and introduces the dish. But we got lost halfway through the description each time as it all sounded so complicated. Anyway, I wasn't too impressed by the flavours of this dish.

The sweet corn and saffron soup came in the form of smoked milk ile flottante, truffle soil and baby salad that comprised of baby rocket, baby basil, baby coriander, purple shiso, and African violet. The yellow, inviting colour of the sweet corn and saffron soup which was poured in only after the dish was placed in front of us really whetted our appetite for this soup which was lightly creamy with hints of sweetness.

The main I chose was a liquorice braised pork cheek with roasted endive and thickened olive oil accompanied by bits of roasted sesame and peanuts. The menu said 'pork cheek' but the chef later said it was pork shoulder which had been braised for 48 hours with spices used in Chinese braised pork. There pork was very tasty and had hints of chilli in it, however I felt that it was just a tad dry. It would have been better had the meat been a little moister. The roasted sesame and peanuts added texture with their crunchiness.

Superfinefeline, Skinny Epicurean and Nibble & Scribble went for the poached bass. The green sauce is a wild garlic and parsley broth which was delicious went paired with the poached bass and the fondant potatoes on which the bass was sitting. I liked the bass better than the pork as I preferred the bass's lighter and more natural flavours.

Dessert came in the form of this deconstructed and post-modernistic crème brulee with strawberry soup and white chocolate crumble. This was such a lovely creation and it looked like an abstract piece of artwork that I could hang on the wall. It tasted as good as it looked. The custard had vanilla beans in it and its flavours were balanced by tartness and tangy flavours of the strawberry soup.

The other dessert on the menu was the blue cheese cream with puffed bread croutons and baby salad. The blue cheese cream tasted of mushrooms and the crunchy bread croutons and salad added texture as well as provided balance for the heavy blue cheese.

These chocolate truffles sitting on a plate of bright green basil salt were then brought to us after we asked for the bill. They were divine! So smooth and so chocolatey. It was a lovely way to end what was a very enjoyable meal what with all the interesting food pairings and food presentations.

Much credit must be given to Tippling Club's attention to detail and the nice touches they employ in the restaurant. For example, I loved the receipt being delivered in a wooden box filled with spices. When opened, aromas of star anise, cloves and cinnamon whiff ast your nose. The size of the box also allows a credit card to fit snugly into it.

I also liked these little sprigs of white orchids in brown bottles hanging in the restaurant.

There are a few tables if you prefer at a table rather than at the counter. I like that the restaurant was surrounded by glass, allowing you to look out to the lush greenery that surrounds the place. The place exudes such a fresh, tropical and relaxed feel. It would also be a great place to go for drinks as they have a wide range of cocktails on the menu. Service was also pretty good. If you want to try the food, it'd probably be better to check the place out for lunch rather than dinner if you don't want to burn too big a hole in your pocket.

Tippling Club
8D Dempsey Road
Singapore 249672
Tel: 6475 2217
reservations@tipplingclub.com

The Man Who Ate the World

In The Man Who Ate the World, Jay Rayner The Observer's food critic, takes readers on his search for the perfect meal and bring us to some of the most expensive - but not necessarily ones with the best food - restaurants in the world in seven cities: Las Vegas, Moscow, Dubai, Tokyo, New York, London and Paris. Here are some excerpts I've gleaned from his book:

Las Vegas

Restaurants: Ergo, Bouchon, Bartolotta, Mesa Grill, Mix (which he hates), Nobu, Lotus of Siam

"It had struck me, as I moved from linen-covered table to linen-covered table, that the success of the new breed of Las Vegas restaurant now lay in its ability to transport you from the city in which it was located to somewhere else entirely, by sheer weight of excess. That dislocation I had experienced so acutely at Bouchon had actually been present at all the places I had eaten. In order to make you think that Las Vegas was now a really sophisticated place, which they had to make you stop thinking about Las Vegas altogether, and they had done so pretty successfully."

Moscow

Restaurants: Café Pushkin, The Peking, Sirena, Tsar's Hunt, Sumosan, Turandot

"The restaurants here do not feel like somewhere you go to eat, not even the ones like Tsar's Hunt where the food can be better than average. They feel like a redoubt, one built against a surfeit of politics and history at the door. In the restaurants of Las Vegas the fantasy was by turns charming and ludicrous, but never sinister. At the end everyone went home. Here, the fantasy restaurants feel necessary, a place of escape and therefore a vital resource for those who can afford them, and that in itself is troubling. No one cares about the food. Just as in Soviet times, they only care that they are part of an elite who can visit them."

Dubai

Restaurants: Al Mahara, Verre, World Trade Center Club, Indego, Al Nafoorah, City Star Restaurant (located in the poor - an often unseen - part of the city and costing a fraction of the price of the other restaurants visited)

"I realise now that I am still searching for the quintessential Dubai experience, the one that sums up the place in the way the Pushkin, with its mix of play food, sentimentality and sky-high prices, sums up Moscow; but it is difficult to get a handle on this city. Many of the signs are in Arabic. The spoken language is English. Most people are Indian. The food is from everywhere. The restaurant critic is confused."

Tokyo

Restaurants: Yukimura, Gagnaire, Hiramatsu, Japanese restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental (name not given in book), Tapas Molecular Bar, Okei-Sushi (Rayner loved this restaurant),

"Tokyo's restaurant world has proved a steep learning curve for me. In other cities I have visited, identifying the top restaurants has been a breeze ... In Tokyo nothing is obvious ... I had been told stories about tiny high-end places, hidden away in apartment buildings or in the basements of office blocks, serving intricate menus of extraordinary clarity and precision to just four or six people. There were dozens of them. The problem was that I didn't know any of their names, let alone how to book myself a seat."

"They [restaurants] are piled on top of each other, like children's building blocks. They are crammed down the narrow side streets between skyscrapers, squeezed in along the major boulevards, secreted away in both the basements and uppermost floors of department stores. They are everywhere. The vast majority, obviously, are Japanese, and most of them offer just one style of cooking: here a tempura shop, there a sushi joint, over there a ramen bar. In the Japanese restaurant business the specialist is venerated over the generalist."

New York

In New York, Rayner and celebrity food blogger Steve Plotnicki go on a restaurant crawl of some of New York's top restaurants in one night. It read like heaps of fun and gastronomic decadence!

Restaurants: Jean-Georges, Per Se, WD-50, Pearl Oyster Bar, Waverly Inn,

"It is nearly 12.30a.m. We have been eating for six hours. It occurs to me that in one night in New York I had managed to experience as much of this city's restaurant scene as I had in a week in all the other places I had visited. This, it seemed to me, was down to the nature of the trade here. It was adversarial, a battle of wills. Clearly, once Plotnicki had got Jean-Georges and Per Se on board, the others had felt duty-bound to play ball. And then, with the enthusiasm of New Yorkers, they had all bought into it [the restaurant crawl] fully, accepted it more as a happening than dinner. Steve Plotnicki, king of the food bloggers, had turned eating out into a competitive sport. Our only opponent had been ordinariness, and it seemed to me that we had won."

London

Restaurants: Square, Petrus, Galvin, The Greenhouse, Le Gavroche,

In explaining the bad restaurant food and the lack of regard for good food in Britain: "Both the war and, even more importantly, the nine gruelling years or rationing that followed had left the country with a collective sense that to spend proper money on sustenance was somehow indecent and that the flamboyance and display associated with the 'Continental' restaurant - all that setting fire to things! All that stuffing of one bird into another! - was a gross self-indulgence and certainly not the done thing in Britain."

"The most corrosive impact of the forces that shaped London's restaurant sector, particularly at the top end, was a by-the-numbers approach, which insisted that certain things be done not because they might be, say, fun or even merely pleasant, but because it was a 'fine-dining' restaurant, and that's what a joint with that title demanded. With little embedded restaurant tradition to pull upon, there was no real culture of professionalism and precious little skills base in the UK. All the new breed of restaurateur could do was ape what they had seen in France or the US - and all too often they were about as convincing as a six-year-old girl in Mummy's shoes."

Paris

In the culinary capital, Rayner embarks on an experiment which is like a scaled-down and posher version of SuperSize Me. He has lunch at a high-end restaurant every day for a week. If he is asked whether he wants to try the tasting/degustation menu, he will have to order it. He goes for a medical examination before and after his experiment to see if it makes any difference to his body.

Restaurants: Restaurant Alain Ducasse, Guy Savoy, Pierre Gagnaire, Le Grand Véfour, L'Astrance, Ledoyen, L'Arpège

"There was no doubt in my mind that a lot of the effect achieved by the Parisian three-star - and by high-end restaurants in general - has little to do with the food itself and everything to do with the supplementaries. Chuck enough gold at the walls, hang enough crystal off the ceiling, employ enough pretty twenty-somethings to care for your every need and follow you to the toilet and, if it's done with the requisite professionalism, most people will regard it as a good night out before they have eaten a thing. By setting the Paris restaurants up in sequence, I had cut through all that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rayner writes in the first person, in a style that's very conversational where he addresses the reader directly. Like every foodie, he's obsessed with food blogs and we learn of his addiction to blogs and forums like eGullet.com, Chez Pim, Opinionated About etc.

However, he sometimes came across as hypocritical. For example, on the one hand he says he wants the authentic experience so he can give a fair assessment of the restaurant. Then on the other, he goes and makes reservations by either calling on the restaurant's PR company or pulling some string or two to wrangle a table. More often than not, he ends up getting comped or will have some extra dishes appearing on his table without prompting on his part. Of course, once you do that, you're never going to get an authentic experience as such. Later into his journey, however, he does realise that there's some conflict in his quest for authenticity and the free meals (and sometimes posh accommodation) that he's getting. Thus he decides that he should make it a rule that he pays for his meals. However, 'cos of his reputation and connections, he still got many free meals and special treatment even when he forked out money from his own pocket. But I applaud his efforts.

"When I was eating on the house, I was always somebody's bitch. That was something I didn't like. Somehow, from now on, I would have to pay for every meal myself. Of course, it would be expensive, but if I didn't do that, I would never find the type of experiences I was hunting for. I would never understand what was happening out there. The journey would be wasted."

Though it's a book that's not necessarily accessible since not many of us can really afford to travel and eat the way he did, it's a piece of literature that's delectable enough for the literary foodie especially with Rayner's acerbic wit and self-deprecating humour.

Viva Mexico

I hadn't had Mexican food in a long while, so I was delighted when I was invited by Sixth Sense Communications & PR Consultancy to go for a media tasting at Viva Mexico together with eating buddies Skinny Epicurean, Superfinefeline and Nibble & Scribble.

The interior of Viva Mexico is bright and cheery which is typical of Mexican colours. I apologise for the shadows in the following pictures - the lighting was very dim so the pictures didn't turn out very well!

The first appetizer was the Acapulco cocktail containing shrimp, fish, octopus and squid in a mix of sauces accompanied by bits of lemon, coriander and onion. The octopus and squid gave the cocktail a chewy texture. It's an interesting cocktail but the sauce was a tad too sweet for me. I felt that it masked the hints of tangy flavours. The cocktail is served with some crackers on the side for you to dip into the sauce and munch away.

The next starter was called Chile relleno de jaiba and it certainly isn't for the faint-hearted. It's chilli filled with crab meat inside with a light batter surrounding the chilli. The picture above shows the cross section when the chilli's been cut in half. The chilli is seriously spicy, so only go for it if you can take chilli. If your palate is anything like me - no good with chilli - stay away. I can't comment much on this dish because I barely touched it as the little bit I ate had already set my tongue on fire.

The Tamales larranzair was the first of the mains to arrive on the table. This is a southern Mexican delicacy containing steamed corn dough filled with chicken, raisins and mole which is a chocolate-tinged sauce. I liked this dish and thought there was a good balance of flavours. I am personally not a big fan of raisins in general so I put the raisins aside. I'm not sure how it would taste eaten with raisins, but I certainly liked it enough without them! I liked the hints of sweetness rendered by the mole.

A soup called Chilli poblano soup was to follow. This is usually served at Mexican weddings and other special occasions. Even though it was made from chilli, the soup was very mild in spiciness. There were only traces of the chilli and I didn't have any trouble downing all of it. In addition to the cream there was also sweet corn in the soup. I really liked the soup and would recommend it.

Tacos Doradosde was then served. We had the vegetarian version which is filled with potatoes and served with lettuce, tomato, cream and cheese. It can also come filled with beef. This dish is very filling and is definitely enough as a main for one. The taste wasn't mind-blowing, but it wasn't bad either.

Following the tacos was the Shrimps Diable. Apparently, 'Diabla' means 'devil' and this is supposed to be a spicy dish of shrimps with tomato, chipotle chilli and guajillo chilli, served with rice. I say 'supposed' because the sauce wasn't that spicy at all and this suited me fine 'cos I'm hopeless with chilli. Sometimes my friends suspect if I'm really Singaporean what with my aversion to chilli. Anyway, what I really liked was the rice which had a smoky flavour to it.

The last of the mains was the Beef Fillet with Cuitlacoche Mushrooms. This was very flavourful and it's really delightful to slice through the beef fillet and see it filled with mushrooms. The pink of the inside also indicated that the beef wasn't overcooked.

Dessert came in the form of the Pumpkin en tacha. This is a home recipe from Executive Chef Mario Galan's grandmother and it's a fresh pumpkin slice with piloncillo (a Mexican sweet concentrate that reminds me of gula melaka), cinnamon, cloves, pepper and guava. For those who don't have that sweet a tooth, this dessert is likely to come across as overly sweet for their palate. But as I have an extremely sweet tooth and I adore pumpkin, I liked it.

For drinks, I chose the Tamarind Margarita which tasted good, so don't be put off by the sound of Tamarind. There are other flavours such as mango, lime, strawberry, amongst others to choose from. I took a sip of the Skinny Epicurean's mango margarita and really liked it as well. If you're a tequila fan, take your pick from 19 different ones! I didn't try any that night as I didn't want to drink too much alcohol, so I can't recommend any.

In any case, I enjoyed discovering new flavours and dishes, and many thanks again to Viva Mexico and Sixth Sense Communications for hosting us!

Viva Mexico
23 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace
Tel: (65) 6235 0440
vivamexico@palatevine.com.sg

Top Ten Chefs of Ancient China

I came across this article about Chinese food history that I thought may be interesting to translate for those of you who want to learn more about the subject. This gives a list of the ten most famous chefs in ancient China. Please note that romanisation of names are given in Hanyu Pinyin and the number indicates the tone.

1. 伊尹 (Yi1 Yin3)，was the advisor to 商汤 (Shang1 Tang1), King of the Shang dynasty (1600 – 1046 BC). Yi Yin enjoyed the accolade of the 'King of Cookery' and his famous herbal soup, 伊尹汤液, that's named after him remains popular till this day.

2. 易牙 (Yi4 Ya2) also known as 狄牙 (Di2 Ya2)，was a renowned chef during the Spring-Autumn Period (722 - 481 BC) which corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. He was well versed in the techniques of frying, brewing, roasting, broiling，and was an expert in flavouring. Thus, he was well liked and much favoured by the Duke Huan of Qi who reigned from 685 - 643 BC.

3. 太和公 (Tai4 He2 Gong1) lived during the tail end of the Spring Autumn Period and was a chef in the state of Wu (吴国). He was skilled in the cooking of seafood and was famous for his broiled fish.

4. 膳祖 (Shan4 Zu3) was a famous female chef in the Tang dynasty (618 - 907). She managed to cook all the famous dishes mentioned in a famous literary work called 《酉阳杂俎》by Tang dynasty novelist Duan Chengshi (段成式).

5. 梵正 (Fan4 Zheng4) was a nun and famous female chef during the Five Dynasties period (907 - 960) who made a name for herself after she made a platter of food to look like a scenery akin to a piece of artwork. She used food sculpturing techniques to make her dishes evoke beautiful images of flowing streams in the mountains accompanied by song and poetry.

6. 刘娘子 (Liu2 Niang2 Zi3) was a female chef in the palace during the Southern Song dynasty. She was Chinese history's first female palace chef and was given the nickname '尚食刘娘子' meaning 'Trendy Gourmet'.

7. 宋五嫂 (Song4 Wu3 Sao3) was a civilian cum female chef in the Southern Song dynasty. She was famed for her fish soup and fish dishes.

8. 董小宛 (Dong3 Xiao3 Wan3) was a famous prostitute who lived during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty in the district of Qinhuai in Nanjing city. Her specialties were vegetables, cakes and snacks. She was especially good with peach and melon pastes, and pickled vegetables. Her fame spread throughout Jiangnan which refers to the part of China that is south of the Yangtze River. She was the originator of the famous Yangzhou snacks 灌香董糖 and 卷酥董糖 both of which are like a kind of sugary biscuit.

9. 萧美人 (Xiao1 Mei3 Ren2) was a well-known dimsum chef in the Qing dynasty. She was famous for her steamed buns (mantou馒头), cakes, and dumplings. Famous Qing dynasty poet, food critic and gourmet Yuan Mei (袁枚) praised her in his book 《随园食单》 - calling her dimsum delicate and exquisite, and they were as light and pure as snow. 《随园食单》 was published in 1792 and is considered to be one of the most authoritative books on traditional Chinese cuisine and cooking techniques. It is ironic, though, that Yuan Mei himself never knew how to cook.

10. 王小余 (Wang2 Xiao3 Yu2) was a famous chef during Qing Emperor Qianlong's (乾隆) reign from 1736 to 1795. Her culinary skills were superb and she was very knowledgeable about food. Yuan Mei's book ,《随园食单》, owes much of its content to insights provided by her.

Go here for the original Chinese text.

CNY Dinner Tasting at Yan Ting, St Regis

The year's eating has started off on an auspicious note - my first Chinese restaurant meal of 2009 was at a dinner tasting hosted for food bloggers by Yahoo Flickr and Yan Ting 宴庭, the Chinese restaurant at St Regis Hotel.

For something to tickle our tastebuds, we were served a small plate filled with two morsels of pan-fried radish cake (萝卜糕) and yam cake (芋头糕). The former was soft, smooth and flavourful with delicious bits of wind-dried sausage (腊肠) in it. The yam was slightly harder in form, but it was no less delicious. The slightly sweet and spicy homemade chilli bean sauce (豆瓣酱) served on the side complemented both very well. To wash down the oil, we were served seven-year-old Pu-er (普洱) tea which tasted really good I must say. As tea connoisseurs will know, the older Pu-er is, the nicer it tastes, and the more expensive it gets too! Pu-er, which are sold as cakes of disc-shaped compressed teas, can cost thousands of dollars per cake.

吉庆满门 （三文鱼生）Prosperity 'Yu Sheng' with Salmon

Next up was the Prosperity 'Yu Sheng' with Salmon. Personally I'm a big fan of Yu Sheng. The different colours symbolise that life should be what the Chinese call 七彩缤纷，i.e. full of colour, variety and excitement. The yellow strips are Japanese pickled radish and the red strips are dried papaya. We were told by the Yan Ting manager and sommelier, Danny Chan, that the oil that was poured over the salad was fried together with shallots so as to have its flavour infused into the oil. The plum sauce was specially concocted by Executive Chef Chan Siu Kong and it contains apple, orange and pineapple juice, enhancing the aroma and taste of it.

The aftermath of the tossing yielded a delicious salad that had salty and sweet flavours in a fine and delicate balance. The crushed peanuts, cashew nuts, and crackers (symbolising gold ingots) added texture with their crunchiness.

川流不息 (三宝炖鲍翅) Doubled-Boiled Shark's Fin with Three Treasures

The star of the night for me was this dish. It requires several hours of preparation what with having to simmer the broth for about three to four hours and then having to double boil it together with the mushroom, bamboo pith and shark's fin. The result of which was, of course, a light yet extremely flavourful broth that set well on the palate with all the goodness flowing down the throat.

The shark's fin was a substantial piece and 鲍翅 is the dorsal fin. Its other name is 裙翅 (literally translated 'skirt fin') so called because the piece of fin wraps around to look like a skirt. Delightful name. Hidden beneath the skirt are the mushroom and bamboo pith.

Pampering our tastebuds even further, Danny brought out a bottle of Riesling Kabinett. He told us that German Rieslings are good for pairing with Cantonese food because of their high acidity that leads to their sweetness. Boy was he right. I loved the wine as it was crisp, clear, light and slightly sweet - a great pairing with the food that we were having as the wine didn't overwhelm the natural flavours of the fine cuisine we were served.

福满人间 (发财生蚝配黄焖豆根鲍片) Prosperity Oyster with Braised Sliced Abalone

The next dish consisted of an oyster sitting on a bed of onion strips and baked with cheese together with bits of bacon, mushroom, and black moss (发菜). The combination was a delightfully tasteful one with the cheese giving a slightly creamy texture and taste. In contrast, the sauce that accompanied the slice of abalone, beancurd and spinach was light and was a fantastic complement.

富如东海 (清蒸东星班配鲜虾腊味糯米饭) Steamed Coral Trout 'Tong Sing' Grouper accompanied with Wok-Fried Glutinous Rice with Wind-Dried Sausages

The steamed coral trout was good and cooked just right. It's easy to get fish wrong as it's so easily overcooked! The wind-dried sausages that accompanied the rice were delicious with its fine balance of sweet and salty flavours and we were told that Chef Chan orders it from a boutique supplier in Hong Kong.

The tasty wok-fried glutinous rice takes quite some time to prepare, unlike normal fried rice, because it requires the constant pouring in of broth into the wok as it's being cooked - similar to the cooking of Italian risotto as the rice soaks up the broth. The result was rice that wasn't overly sticky or heavy, something that surprised me because I'm usually not a fan of glutinous rice as I hate that sticky texture.

年年纳福 （脆皮年糕配百年鸿运）Traditional Azuki Bean Paste with Crispy Glutinous Rice Cake

The dessert platter consisted of three things (I couldn't photograph all three nicely in one frame so I've split them here) and the one shown above consisted of a strip of crispy glutinous 'year cake' (年糕 - left)) made from cane sugar and a strip of water chestnut year cake (马蹄糕 - right). The batter was melt-in-your-mouth light and crispy. Really nice.

In the middle of the platter lay two traditional Cantonese desserts - deep-fried sesame ball (笑口枣) and deep-fried dumpling filled with nuts (角仔). Personally I was a little disappointed with these two as I felt they tasted rather flat. Perhaps they could have done with slightly more sugar. Nevertheless, I like the name 笑口枣 as 笑口 means to break into a smile. With a little imagination, the sesame ball looks like someone breaking into a smile with its curved shape. All very auspicious sayings and symbols for the new year!

On the right of the platter sat a bowl of traditional Cantonese red bean soup dessert. The beans used were Japanese Azuki beans and accompanying it were lotus seeds (莲子), lily bulb (百合), and tangerine peel (陈皮) that had been aged for 30 years! Gosh, it's probably the first time I've eaten something as old as me. Somehow, I feel a certain kind of reverence to have had something like that.

九如献瑞年糕 Nine Fish Year Cake

We were also shown the special Year Cake 年糕 that the chefs have come up with this new year. The Nine Fish Year Cake (S$68) comes in a set and this display totally grabbed my heart. I loved the lifelike appearance of the koi with the realistic orange markings on their scaled, curved bodies. Served on a square glass platter with a slight blue-green tint and decorated with purple orchid blooms and sprigs of ivy, the presentation evokes poetic images of a happy family of nine koi swimming in a pond set amidst a lush traditional Chinese garden filled with the blossoming flowers of spring. This would make for a great gift I reckon, as the pronunciation of the number '9' sounds like the word 久 which means everlasting. Hence the number symbolises everlasting unity and bonds of a family.

The menu for the night was a slight variation of Yan Ting's Abundance 年年有余 6-course Set Menu (S$108++) for the new Chinese New Year period. The only item we didn't have was the crispy soft-shell crab with pan-roasted rack of lamb scented with Uigur Spices (it sounds great just by its description!). But seriously, we were already stuffed after eating the five courses. For those with bigger stomachs, there is also the 8-course set menu. A vegetarian set menu (S$108++) is also available.

I really enjoyed the meal and company, and many thanks again to the people at Flickr and Yan Ting!

Yan Ting 宴庭
The St. Regis Singapore
29 Tanglin Road
Tel: (65) 6506 6866

Merry Christmas

A decorated chocolate cake from Lana, the pioneer of the chocolate sponge cake with fudge topping in Singapore. Imagine, my first birthday cake was from there. My dad bought this cake yesterday and I was surprised to see the Christmas decorations, 'cos usually it's just a boring brown cake with no decorations whatsoever.

The gold-coloured reindeer looks like it's perching on snow as it sits on a bed of coconut shavings.

An artificial sprig of holly on coconut shavings adds to the Christmas cheer. And just for some trivia, real hollies are actually a source of food for squirrels, wild turkeys, deer, and many songbirds, especially American robins, cedar waxwings, and northern mockingbirds in North America.

Anyway, happy holidays!!!

Things Not to Consume Before Seeing a TCM Doctor

I got this information from a Chinese food website and it tells us the foods to avoid before consulting a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor. I hope you'll find it useful.

1. Don't drink cow's milk and soy bean milk. Drinking these will cause the tongue's coating to turn white and may result in a misdiagnosis.

2. Don't eat olives, dried plums and China bayberries. These foods can easily cause the tongue to take on a black colour which will then result in the wrong diagnosis.

3. Don't drink any alcohol or consume any food that's too cold or hot. Alcohol and beverages that are too hot will increase the rate of blood circulation and cause the tongue to turn red. It also increases your pulse rate and affect the diagnosis. This also applies to foods that are too hot or cold.

4. Don't drink coffee, eat mandarin oranges or any type of food that's yellow in colour. Doing so will cause the tongue to turn yellow and result in a misdiagnosis.

5. Don't eat peanuts, melon seeds and walnuts. These foods that are high in fat content will cause the coating of the tongue to turn white which will lead to a wrong diagnosis.

6. Don't go to a TCM doctor immediately after a meal. After a meal, your pulse rate tends to be slower, and the tongue's coating becomes thinner and redder. Certain types of food are also prone to changing the tongue's colour and appearance, which will mislead the TCM doctor in his/her diagnosis. It is best to consult the doctor at least one hour after a meal.

7. Don't go to a TCM doctor after having engaged in a session of vigorous physical activitiy. Your body's state at that time will affect the doctor's taking of your pulse and might mask other underlying health problems. It's advisable to rest for at least half an hour after exercise and allow the body's blood circulatory system to be at a resting rate before seeing the doctor.

For the original article in Chinese, go here.

Goma Mochi

OK OK, since the mystery of the previous post has been already revealed by my careless mistake of titling the photo, here's an early revelation of the answer.

This package arrived on Saturday and I was very excited to receive it as I already knew what was going to be inside. About a month or two ago I was chatting with my friend Felix, who lives in Hong Kong, over msn. I was feeling very down at that point in time and to cheer me up, he asked if he could get me anything from Tokyo as he was going there on a business trip soon.

An elegantly wrapped black and grey package - typical of sleek and tasteful Japanese design - with a gold band and the word 黑 (black) lay before me.

I love the back of the box, too, with its round red sticker that's similar to the red round circle on the Japanese flag. A deft and aesthetically good touch to hold the gold band down.

A black embossed box lay before me after tearing off the first wrapping and my anticipation builds...

And oh, the treasure lies beneath!

Two boxes of goma (black sesame) mochi were sitting prettily in their plastic wrapping.

Each box has five pieces of triangular pillow-like goma mochi speckled with the gold-coloured flour. A close-up of it as shown in the previous post certainly makes it look like small pebbles on a beach that are kissed by sand.

A bite into it reveals the black sesame paste wrapped inside. I love this type of thin-skinned mochi which are slightly less chewy than the round ones which are more common. In Japan, it's a joy to see them freshly made in shops or department stores that sell them. But I'm only a fan of goma mochi; I don't like the other flavours.

Anyway, I'm enjoying my goma mochi and I am so fortunate to have friends who will do such things for me. Thanks Felix!!!

Teaser

Guess what this is? Answer to be revealed in next blog post! :)

Chen Fu Ji 陈富记

Went to try the famed fried rice at Chen Fu Ji the other night at their flagship outlet located at Riverside Point. I don't know if I'm missing something, but I really wasn't impressed by it. I didn't think the crab meat did much for it. A medium-sized portion costs SGD25 and can serve about four rice bowl portions. One thing that disappointed was the fact that the rice didn't have any wok hei. Verdict: Overrated

I also had the coffee pork tenderloin with whip cream. This was pretty good and I liked the hints of coffee paired with honey. The pork was also very tender but I could have done without the four big blobs of whip cream on the plate. First it looks awful when the heat from the meat and the air melts it down and second, it doesn't really enhance the taste of the pork.

Anyway, I'm not inclined to go back to try more dishes as the rest of the stuff on the menu looked pretty much like any other zi char stall, just that I was paying inflated prices here for the comfort of aircon and an unimpressive view of the Singapore River on the second floor. And oh, they really should do something about their extremely worn menus that are in desperate need of replacement - they were all wrinkled and all the sides had scotch tape around it. Just didn't feel nice holding and reading it, you know?

Chen Fu Ji flagship outlet
30 Merchant Road #02-30/31
Riverside Point
Tel: 6533 0166

The Soul and The Reach of a Chef

If you're interested in food writing, I'd recommend Michael Ruhlman's books 'cos after having read two of them, The Soul of a Chef: The Pursuit of Perfection and The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooking in the Age of Celebrity, I've found his writing very succinct, appropriately descriptive, insightful, informative and well-researched.

Ruhlman is an American author and journalist who is primarily known for his writing about food. The Soul of a Chef is divided into three parts. The first describes how Brian Polcyn, chef-owner of Five Lakes Grill outside Detroit takes the Certified Master Chef exam conducted by the Culinary Institute of America. We are given an insight into the gruelling process of the exam which lasts for 10 days, testing knowledge, skill, creativity, organisation and inherent qualities like flair and personality.

The second part puts the spotlight on Michael Symon, chef-owner of Lola Bistro and Wine Bar in Cleveland, at his restaurant. We are led to see how this chef-owner dominates the restaurant with his presence and big personality. We learn how he makes ingenious use of food to minimise wastage and maximise profit without compromising on quality and taste.

The last part features Thomas Keller, chef-owner of The French Laundry, among the most celebrated chefs in the world, at work in his Napa Valley restaurant. Ruhlman writes of how Keller succeeded against all odds by believing in himself and his cooking. Though untrained professionally, he has an innate talent in food plus the requisite skills and knowledge to go along with it.

The Reach of a Chef examines the celebrity chef phenomenon which has pervaded the world in recent years. In Ruhlman's words:

"The book is an attempt to get my arms around the expanding nature of the chef in America and what it means to be one today. The chef in the age of celebrity, the chef in the midst of a restaurant-as-theater bonanza, the chef in the middle of an American food revolution. Chefs today can do amazing things—from cooking great food to helping farmers raise it to improving school lunches for kids—but there are also chefs who expect adoration is due them simply for walking into a room with a chef coat on. We simultaneously adore and denigrate Rachael and Emeril, television icons—why? How did we become such a food neurotic country—cherishing carbs then fearing them (and just as we learned how to bake decent bread in this country). We are a fat country, so what do we do to lose weight? We embrace a high-protein, high-fat diet! We gorge on high-calorie, low-nutrition, sodium-saturated fast food. We've debased our hogs and polluted our chickens by breeding them in factories."

Ruhlman questions if it's a good thing for chefs to leave their kitchens and engage in things that do not actually involve cooking and serving food to customers. To describe some of the changes in the American culinary scene, Ruhlman returned to the Culinary Institute of America to speak to the chefs he had written about when he wrote The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America and The Soul of a Chef, to see if changes there reflected those in the industry. In the midst of his research, he discovered new kitchens and new chefs to watch out for.

Check out Michael Ruhlman at his blog for more of his informative writing about food and the culinary scene in the US. For the books he's worked on, go here.

Icekimo

I discovered this tiny gem of an ice cream parlour many months ago but haven't gotten to writing about it till now. Icekimo is where I get my dose of durian ice cream fix when I'm craving for both durian and ice cream.

The outlet has a cheery pink theme that perks your mood up and makes you want to eat!

One of my cousins went for the green tea flavour. I thought this was pretty good as I could taste the matcha in it and it wasn't too milky.

Another cousin chose the Teh Tarik (top) and Jasmine (bottom). I didn't taste the Teh Tarik but I tried the Jasmine and it did taste like Chinese Jasmine tea – very light and subtle. It's nice if you don't want something too heavy.

But ah, THIS is what I go to Icekimo for – the super durian waffle!!! It's my favourite item on the menu. Luscious, smooth, aromatic durian ice cream sitting atop two warmly toasted waffles with durian flesh puree sandwiched in between. H.E.A.V.E.N.

Icekimo's durian ice cream is the best I've come across so far and other flavours include Belgian chocolate, Blueberry cheesecake, Strawberry etc. I love the flavours that cater to the local market - Dino Milo, Bandung, Teh Tarik, Horlicks (with malteses), Lychee etc. Some of the flavours like chempedak are seasonal. The chempedak ice cream is really delicious and it's a must-eat whenever it's on the menu.

The good thing about these ice creams is that it's cheaper compared to premium brands like Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's. Another cousin had a single scoop of durian ice cream in a cone and the total bill for all four of us came up to $16.30. For the same amount, we would only have gotten three single scoops in any of the more expensive ice cream outlets.

I love my neighbourhood ice cream parlour! I also like the fact that I'm supporting local businesses in patronising it.

icekimo
8 Sin Ming Road
#01-03 Sin Ming Centre
Singapore 575628
Tel: 6455 7585

Chestnuts and Nutrition

I found this article about chestnuts on the Chinese Cuisine Association (中国烹饪协会) website and decided to translate it because it’s about one of the nuts that I really like to eat – the chestnut. I love chestnuts prepared in all forms – roasted, stewed, made into a cream, puréed, stir-fried, etc. Anything to do with chestnuts, I like! Incidentally, one of my favourite Christmas carols is titled 'Chestnuts Roasting'!

Here’s the translated article which I hope you'll find useful:

There’s a Chinese folk saying “八月的梨枣，九月的山楂，十月的板栗笑哈哈” which, loosely translated, means the pear and date of August, the hawthorn of September, and the October laugh of the chestnut.

笑哈哈 is the sound of laughter – the word 笑 means to laugh while 哈哈 is literally read as ‘haha’ to show that someone is laughing. In literary terms, the latter can be called an onomatopoeia. My guess as to why this saying has personified a chestnut to say it’s laughing is that when the chestnut fruit splits open to reveal the chestnut seeds inside, it looks like it's breaking into a laugh with its mouth open (see below).

Image source: http://www.sdqixia.gov.cn

So October is the month when chestnuts are in season. In Chinese it's known as either 板栗 (Ban3 Li4) or 栗子(Li4 Zi3); the latter is more commonly used. Traditional Chinese medicine classifies the chestnut as a ‘warming’ food where it can help to nourish the digestive system, spleen, and kidneys, and strengthen the muscles and tendons, as well as improve blood circulation. It is also known to suppress cough and get rid of phlegm.

It is especially used in treating immobility in the back and knees, weakness in the back and knees as well as incontinence that have arisen because of decreased kidney efficiency.

Research has shown that the chestnut is a nut that’s rich in carbohydrates (碳水化合物), and its ‘warming’ nature is good for helping the body to suppress and combat the cold. Thus it is more suitable to be eaten during autumn and winter.

Due to its many nutritional properties, the humble chestnut is also good for preventing or treating the following ailments:

- High blood pressure 高血压
- Coronary heart disease 冠心病
- Hardening of the arteries 动脉硬化
- Osteoporosis 骨质疏松

As the above ailments are primarily associated with old age, many elderly people in China eat chestnuts often to keep healthy. Chestnuts are also rich in Vitamin B2 (核黄素) and people who have canker sores (a type of mouth ulcer) can also eat it to alleviate the symptoms.

Apart from eaten cooked, chestnuts can also be consumed raw. In fact, eating them raw is actually more beneficial to nourishing the kidneys. In the Tang dynasty, medicinal expert Sun Simiao (孙思邈) had already noted that the chestnut was the ‘fruit of the kidneys’ (肾之果); he pointed out that consuming it raw was good for treating immobility in the back and legs (腰脚不遂). Middle-aged and elderly people who can cultivate the habit of eating air-dried (风干) chestnuts every day will do well to protect themselves from developing kidney deficiencies, sore backs and pain in the legs.
　　
However it’s always bad to have too much of a good thing. Despite all its contained goodness, if consumed excessively, raw chestnuts are hard to digest whilst cooked chestnuts will cause blockage in the digestive tract. Generally, it is OK to consume about 5 to 10 chestnuts a day. Anything beyond that is considered excessive. Children, especially, have a less developed digestive system so it’s not wise to consume too many. As the chestnut is also high in sugar content, diabetic patients are also advised to err on the side of caution and avoid eating too much of it.

Image source: http://www.ahny.gov.cn

For the original article in Chinese go here.

Sha Tin Kitchen

The birthday dinner with my immediate family and my relatives was at Sha Tin Kitchen, the well-known zi char eatery in Geylang. Economic downturn, so can't eat at posh places you know. Well I don't really care whether the place is posh nor not as long as there's good food. And Sha Tin seldom disappoints with the hearty Cantonese food they dish out.

The interior is nothing to shout about with its minimalist style. Pictures of local and some Hong Kong celebs posing with the chef and owner are pasted also on the wall as a way of showcasing their laurels.

The first dish we had was steamed cold crab. This was the best dish of the evening. The crab was fresh, the meat flavourful and light.

Stewed claypot tofu

Pan-fried goose liver – At S$15 per piece, this is a poor cousin of the premier French foie gras. Still, it was pretty good and satisfied my craving for some goose liver. This one came with a slice of deep-fried bread and a thin slice of ham below the goose liver.

Prawn with vermicelli

Yam with duck

Three eggs with vegetable - there's century egg, salted egg and normal egg

Steamed glutinuous rice

Yam roll with mango for dessert

Service was efficient and you would have to budget for about $28–$30 per person just for food for these number of dishes.

10 Lorong 3 Geylang
Tel: 67472483 / 67447087

Tokyo Banana

My friend Rodney gave this to me after arriving in Singapore from Tokyo for a short visit. It's a Japanese snack called Tokyo Banana which he bought at Narita Airport. Cute wrapper.

A white and yellow box is what you see after the wrapper is torn off. The snack is apparently very popular in Japan.

Sitting pretty and cute in individually wrapped packets are miniature 'bananas' which are really sponge cakes with a soft banana filling. The sponge cake is nice and soft and the filling is made from real banana. It was a wee bit sweet for me but I think it would have gone well as a teatime snack with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Prive Bakery Cafe

I came to know of Prive Bakery Cafe through my teammate, D, who took me there for lunch after practice at Sentosa one Saturday afternoon.

Marina at Keppel Bay was the perfect place to chill after a hard paddle. Being close to water is always nice and relaxing, plus the fact that it's close to Sentosa is all the better as it means being able to get to food fast. These pictures were taken on our second trip there as D was very nice to give me a birthday treat! Thanks babe!

D chose the big breakfast and it certainly looked hearty!

I went for the rosemary chicken and mango sandwich with mayonnaise and tomato spread. The sandwich came with a serving of salad in balsamic vinegar dressing. The salt used for flavouring was some kind of gourmet sea salt with large flakes; it looked nice but to me salt is salt. I'm not quite the salt connoisseur yet. I did enjoy the sandwich with its tender and big chicken slices plus slightly grilled mango slices.

For dessert, we went for the peach tart with hazelnut crumble. Served warm, the pastry had the right amount of moisture and crunch even after baking and it was delicious. However, I think it would have gone well with an accompaniment of vanilla bean ice cream as well.

The Affogato is really good too; the coffee is strong and is served with delicious vanilla ice cream. You know it's a good vanilla when you can see the black speckles of vanilla from the vanilla pods. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it in my haste to 'attack' it!

I had read some reviews about the place when it first opened several months ago and those reviews had complained of the place's bad service. However, I think they have ironed out those teething problems as I found the service there prompt.

There are other main courses like pastas. A breakfast menu is also available and the dessert spread is also pretty good. Budget for at least $20 per person. I enjoyed my meal there and I think it's a good place to wild the afternoon away with some friends over coffee, cake and good conversation.

No. 2 Keppel Bay Vista
Marina at Keppel Bay
Singapore 098382
Tel: +65 6776 0777
info@prive.com.sg

Casa Verde

I had read about the recent opening of Casa Verde, a new Italian cafe at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on a few blogs, so I decided to check it out.

There's an indoor and al fresco dining area - if you like to enjoy more of the greenery sit outdoors. For indoor seating, it'd be best to call in advance and make a reservation. I wanted to change my mind about sitting outside, but all the tables indoors were booked out on a Friday night.

Veal ragout pasta

The tiramisu after I 'attacked' it. It was nice and creamy but I felt that it could do with more alcohol.

The carpaccio with arugula is also a good appetizer to try – it's a generous serving of beef slices and arugula flavoured with lemon juice. What I liked about their dinner menu was that you could choose to have different sets. There are four courses altogether if you choose to go for the appetizer, the primi, secondi and dolci (dessert). However, you can also pick any two or any three you want. It's really flexible and, if I remember correctly, a four-course meal goes for $48+. There is no service charge. Wine lovers will be glad to know that there is wine available there as well.

I went back again on the afternoon of my birthday last Friday to have lunch with a friend visiting from the US. This time, I could see the lush greenery and foliage a lot better! The place was almost full that afternoon with many expat mums with babies in tow and some tourists.

My friend chose the fish & chips - I tried it and it failed to impress. I felt that the batter was way too thick. It was almost like fried bread. Why they are serving fish & chips at an Italian eatery baffles me.

As I wasn't feeling too hungry, I went for rabbit food – a salad that contained chicken, walnuts, green apple cubes and raisins. Didn't like it - I thought it was rather bland, the chicken was rather tasteless and hard, and I didn't like the dressing.

As it was a rather hot and humid day, I ordered a cup of fresh apple and orange mixed juice to cool off. My friend ordered an ice cappuccino which very oddly was served in this plastic cup and sealed with a plastic seal as well. I thought that was a bit strange.

Service was generally good and efficient. I felt that the food served during dinner was better and apparently the dinner menu changes every two weeks. Whatever it is, I like sitting amidst all that greenery and enjoying a meal that even though doesn't blow my mind, is hearty enough.

1 Cluny Road
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Visitor Centre
Singapore 259569
Tel: (65) 6467 7326

Peppermint Tea & Oil

Peppermint tea with peppermint essential oil

I have just discovered a really lovely way of drinking peppermint tea - add a drop of Peppermint essential oil into steaming hot peppermint tea, inhale the vapours as the steam vapourises the air and you'll feel instantly refreshed.

Do take note, however, that not all essential oils you find on sale are suitable for consumption. I've been using only Young Living essential oils as these are of therapeutic grade and many of the essential oils they produce can be ingested.

As Young Living's essential oils are of very high quality and grade, the oils are very concentrated hence just one drop is sufficient. When putting peppermint oil in peppermint tea, take care to add only one drop, at most two. Any more and I can guarantee that it'll stink your eyes till they water, and the vapours will shoot up your nasal passage and clear sinuses you had never known you had.

Just one or two drops however, makes the tea really lovely. As you inhale the vapours (best to put your face over it and have a towel over your head so that the vapours won't diffuse off so fast), you'll feel the peppermint's cooling effect going down your nasal passage. As you sip the tea, you can feel that cooling effect of the oils going down your throat. It's a great feeling!

I gave a friend a small bottle of peppermint oil to try. She put it in cold water and told me that it was really nice and refreshing! Says it helps her drink more water and the lovely, pure smell of peppermint doesn't make it feel like she's drinking plain water which she hates.

Other uses of peppermint therapeutic-grade essential oil for ingestion:

1. Add a drop of Peppermint oil to herbal tea to aid in digestion and relieve heartburn.
2. Add Peppermint oil to food as a flavoring and a preservative.
3. Place a couple of drops of Peppermint oil in a cup of hot water and enjoy in place of coffee.

Other uses for the oil:

1. Rub 4-6 drops in the palm and rub over stomach and around the navel to relieve indigestion, flatulence and diarrhea.

2. Apply Peppermint oil immediately to an injured area (bruised shin, hit on the foot or hand) to relieve pain. If there is a cut, apply the Peppermint oil around (not on) the open wound.

3. Apply a drop of Peppermint oil topically on unbroken skin to stop itching.

4. Inhale Peppermint oil before and during a workout to boost your mood and reduce fatigue.

5. Massage several drops of Peppermint oil on the abdomen to relieve nausea.

6. To relieve a headache, rub a drop of Peppermint oil on the temples, forehead, over the sinuses (stay away from the eyes) and on the back of the neck.

7. Place two drops of Peppermint oil on the tongue and rub another drop under the nose to improve alertness and concentration.

8. Diffuse Peppermint oil in the room while studying to improve concentration and accuracy.

9. Rub 4 drops of Peppermint oil on chest and stomach to relieve travel sickness.

10. Place a drop of Peppermint oil on the tongue and inhale into the nose and sinuses to relieve congestion from a cold.

11. To deter rats, mice, ants or cockroaches, place two drops of Peppermint oil on a cotton ball and place along the path or point of entry for these pests.

12. To kill aphids, add 4-5 drops of Peppermint oil to 4 ounces of water and spray the plants.

13. Rub Peppermint oil on joints to relieve arthritis or tendonitis pain.

14. Place a drop of Peppermint oil on the tongue to stop bad breath.

15. Inhale the fragrance of Peppermint oil to curb the appetite and lessen the impulse to overeat.

16. Remove ticks by applying a drop of Peppermint oil on a cotton swab and swabbing the tick. Wait for it to unhedge its head and remove from your pet.

17. Mix Peppermint oil in a footbath to relieve sore feet. Keep water agitated while soaking feet.

Drop me a note with your email address if you want more information on how to get the Young Living essential oils.

Zhou's Kitchen 周庄

The first birthday dinner was one eaten two days ahead of my actual birthday at Zhou's Kitchen in Square 2 (next to Novena Square). The Cantonese restaurant is a Chinese casual dining outlet under the Tung Lok group.

For drinks, I chose to have the 凉茶 ('cooling' tea) which was chrysanthemum tea with ginseng. I liked it as I could taste the ginseng but it was a little too sweet for me and my relatives so we had to ask for water to dilute it.

Roast Peking duck served with pancake 北京片皮鸭

The Peking duck was pretty good but they didn't give us enough pancakes, hence the left over pieces of duck skin placed on top of the ones wrapped up. Minus points for this.

Double-boiled spring chicken soup with cabbage and eight treasures 冰山雪莲炖八宝童鸡

I couldn't spot the eight treasures; I could count only five – red dates, wolfberries, snow fungus, and barley. The soup was tasty or as we call it in Cantonese 甜 ("tim" as pronounced in Cantonese), which literally translated means 'sweet', but Cantonese don't mean sugary sweet when we say that. It just means that the soup is very robust in flavour and has lots of body. But I think they had put a bit of ready-made chicken stock inside. I may be wrong, but it tasted somewhat like the soup contained it.

The spring chicken that was used in the boiling of the soup was served to us. Surprisingly it was still tasty and tender.

Steamed sea bass with chef's special spicy sauce 酱蒸金目鲈

The steamed sea bass was a little too sweet and salty for me. I'm not a big fan of these so-called special sauces. This one tasted like the Thai sweet chilli sauce, which was pretty tasty. But I would have preferred my fish simply served the normal soy sauce with some sesame oil. Sometimes simple is better.

Poached young cabbage with bamboo fungus 杞子竹笙浸白菜苗

Having something light for a change was nice. I enjoyed the soup the vegetable was served in and I like the use of wolfberries and bamboo fungus to add flavour and texture respectively.

Steamed prawns and vermicelli with garlic sauce 蒜茸粉丝蒸生虾

Notwithstanding the fact that the prawns were a little small, this dish was pretty good. There was good flavour in the prawns with the minced garlic stuffed in it and left to steam. I'm also a big fan of vermicelli so no complaints there!

Coffee spare ribs with almond flakes 杏片咖啡骨

My sister and relatives felt that this was too sweet and the coffee flavour too intense for their liking. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it as I like the sweet taste and the roasted coffee taste. The roasted flak almonds added extra crunch and texture. The spare ribs were tender and had the right amount of fat and lean meat.

Fried crispy noodles with shredded duck meat and pickled vegetables 雪菜鸭丝炒生面

The last main dish was made with the meat of the Peking duck that came as the first course. I'm generally not a big fan of crispy noodles as I often find it too dry. The duck wasn't exactly fantastic as well, so this dish was just so-so for me. I could have gone without it.

Red bean pancake 豆沙窝饼

The pastry was crispy but yet melted in your mouth. It tasted alright but was a rather boring dessert.

Mango soft roll 香芒软糍

The last item on the set menu wasn't exactly mind-blowing with its glutinous rice flour skin coated with coconut shaivings. It was passable but it just lacked creativity and imagination.

The interiors were of muted creamy tones which were nice and pleasant. Service was generally good and efficient. For a meal with these number of dishes and including drinks and taxes, budget for about $40 per person. You can definitely fill your stomach on less though. Overall, I wouldn't mind going back for a casual dinner with family and friends.

10 Sinaran Drive
#01-73 Square 2
Singapore 307506
(Next to Velocity@Novena Square,
above Novena MRT)
Tel : +65 6893 1123

Phuket Eats

Well, of course there would be a bit of write-up on the food. Can't possibly go to a place without photographing some of the food!

On the first night, we went to a home-style eatery for dinner. We were the only customers and it was rather sweet that they made the effort to lay the red table cloth and put a small vase of flowers to make the spartan place look more pleasant.

It was interesting to see their use of the tree trunk to hang their pots and wares.

The chef for the night stir-frying my green curry fried rice which was stated on the menu as "Green Carry Fried Rice". Other misspellings we came across in other eateries were "French Fire", "French Fried", "Paper Steak" etc. Quite amusing.

Green curry fried rice with chicken

This budding young chef who was probably the lady's grandson later started cooking his own dinner. My friend and I were so impressed by him – he started moving around the kitchen like a pro, taking out the onions to chop and putting in spices and sauces into the wok. Later, I saw the lady dip her finger into the sauce and give him the thumbs up. Impressive!!!

A "chai peng" or economy rice stall at one of the local markets in Phuket Town. But frankly, I would think twice about buying anything from there because there were houseflies buzzing all around...

Don't know what these are, but they look like some kind of insect and it's something I don't think I could stomach. If anyone knows what this is, do enlighten me.

Chilli and spices

Tiny crabs and some water apples above

Prawn paste and some common herbs for sale

Stall selling preserved vegetables

A local child at a fruit stall at the local market

Pad Thai

We went for Japanese on the second night as my friend's friends said it was cheap and good in Phuket. I liked this unagi roll which had a small piece of cream cheese inside. It actually tasted really good with the unagi!

Bought this pack of durian chips at the airport to try. It costs THB 290, that's almost SGD12! But its taste is really disappointing! There's hardly any trace of durian. So DON'T BUY if you are ever tempted to do so.

The Screening Room

A few other bloggers and I were invited to a dinner tasting at The Screening Room located at Ann Siang Hill. The menu was specially crafted by Group Executive Chef Wayne Nish who hails from New York with one Michelin star tugged under his belt. We then buckled up for a night of eating.

First up were the starters also known as Crudo on their menu. From left to right:

Swordfish with olive oil, white soya sauce, sesame seeds and chives
Coriander-cured salmon with salmon roe with spring onions
Scallop carpaccio with ito kuzuri, nori and sesame oil chuka dressing
Botan ebi shrimp with uni, mentaiko, nori and calamansi
Shime saba mackerel with preserved lemon and grated ginger

Chef Nish very generously sent a bottle of white wine to complement the crudos and it was the perfect match - crisp, clear and light. Nothing too overwhelming for the delicious starters. I loved all except the shime saba mackerel which I thought was a little too salty.

Gastro bites platter

Chicken patties with poached chicken and vegetables in a flaky phyllo pastry – the pastry was light and crisp and the fillings were delicious!

Cold tofu with century egg, mentaiko and uni – I love uni (sea urchin), so anything with it, I like!

Roulade of raw beef carpaccio with harissa mayonnaise and herb salad
Torchon de foie gras de canard with mango coulis and papadums

Confit of chicken schnitzel with quail egg, lemon and anchovy – loved the cute little quail egg which looked so pretty sitting atop the mini chicken schnitzel.

Short loin also known as Kansas City strip steak with yuzukosho and shoyu - lovely marbling and cooked to the right degree and oh so tender

New York strip steak fully trimmed and sliced

Rack of New Zealand lamb with tamarind and coriander seed crust with spinach and shiitake mushrooms - very unique and interesting with the taste of tamarind

Vegetable ribbons - I loved these pretty snacks made up of deep fried wafer thin vegetables. So delightful to chomp on! My favourite was the lotus root.

Handmade raw milk cheeses from France - epoisses de bourgogne, reblochon, beaufort, Roquefort, tomme de belloc and selles sur cher

Buttery, fluffy naan to go with the cheeses - a must order

Fresh fruit with ginger syrup, honey and spiced salt - I liked this dessert best as it was so refreshing and light on the stomach. The different flavours dance on your tongue, giving an interesting twist to the normal fruit salad.

Salted nut kataifi tart with almond milk kulfi

Lime semifreddo with mango, lime and chilli - another refreshing and light dessert if you don't want anything too heavy

Sheep's milk mahalabia with pistachios, candied ginger and pomegranate molasses - never had this before and I thought it was so pretty with the red pomegranate seeds. It was nice but as I'm not a big fan of milk, I took only a bite.

Molten centre chocolate cake with valrhona bittersweet chocolate

Sticky date pudding with vanilla whipped cream and palm sugar

Overall, it was a fantastic dinner filled with good food and conversation. Chef Nish came across as extremely friendly and affable when he came to talk to us as each course was served. His explanation about the origin of the foods and where his inspiration came from brought across his passion for food. It's great when you hear people talking about something they are passionate about.

Many thanks to The Screening Room and Sixth Sense Communications for hosting us!

Peach Garden

It was my dad's 59th birthday on Friday and it was definitely an occasion worth celebrating considering what had happened just the month before. Dinner was at Peach Garden with my immediate family and a few relatives. For easy choosing, we went for the set dinner.

As with Chinese tradition, one has to start off with longevity buns.

Next up was Peking Duck. The skin was nice and crispy - no complaints there.

Of course, there was also the rather politically incorrect shark's fins. There was a substantial amount of it in each bowl, and I reckon that set our pocket back the most.

Then came this orange ball-like thing. I had no idea what it was until I bit into it.

It was actually some prawn cake sandwiched in between a scallop which was then deep-fried, and then coated with a layer of salted egg. The latter added an interesting note with its saltiness and powdery texture.

Steamed "Soon Hock" - the usual fare and nothing very exciting, though it tasted fresh.

Tiger prawn with sweet and sour sauce. I like prawns but I thought this sauce was a bit too sweet and masked the 'sweetness' of the meat.

The braised chicken was a disappointment - it tasted flat and the meat was rather tough. The ginger bits, ham, and sauce didn't help to lift its taste either. I would say this was the biggest disappointment of the dinner.

Surprisingly, the humble beehoon that was fried together with the meat from the skinned Peking Duck was really delicious. It had 'wok hei' and had the right amount of moisture that was infused with flavour.

Dessert was the Hong Kong dessert Yang Chi Kam Lok that contained mango, pomelo and sago in a mango cream mixture. I forgot to take a picture of that as I was caught up in eating the praline mousse cake that my uncle had bought for my dad. Anyway, the mango dessert wasn't exceptional; perhaps it's all due to the fact that I'm not a fan of milky cream-like stuff.

While the service at Peach Garden was impeccable, I was a little disappointed with the quality of food this time round. A few dishes in Friday's dinner were lacklustre and fell short of expectations. Not sure if I'm ready to go back any time soon...

Matcha Ice Cream

I love matcha (green tea) ice cream, but it's been an arduous, if not impossible, task to find a brand that sells really good matcha ice cream. More often than not, there is not enough taste of matcha in it, i.e. somewhat bitter that leaves this aftertaste on your palate. Many I've tried only have a trace of matcha taste in them - someone ought to tell the producers that having it green in colour just isn't good enough when there isn't robust enough a taste to supplement the colour.

The closest brand that has come to satisfying - somewhat anyway - me when I need a matcha ice cream fix is Haato, the gelato company from Japan. The matcha gelato is smooth and has a stronger taste of matcha than other brands I've tried.

Uzumaki, the soft serve ice cream brand that has booths in Orchard Cineleisure and Bugis Junction is overrated. The ice cream has barely a hint of matcha taste and isn't creamy enough. I'm not wasting another $4 on another one of their ice creams.

Haagen Daaz isn't too bad, but it's a little too sweet for my liking.

I guess the best is if one could make ice cream one's own ice cream. Alas, I don't have an ice cream maker - probably a good thing, otherwise I'll start ballooning up.

If anyone knows of a good place or brand for matcha ice cream, please let me know!

Moon Cake Tasting at Yan Ting

I was pleasantly surprised one day when I received in my mailbox an invitation to a moon cake tasting and tea pairing session that took place last Wednesday. The event was hosted by Yahoo! Flickr and St Regis hotel and it was a small, intimate affair with a few other bloggers and Yahoo!'s Product Manager Suzanna Low and Community Manager Michelle Lee.

The St. Regis "delegate" also made us feel welcome with the warm and pleasant personalities of Wye Leng, the Director of Marketing Communications and Lorraine, the Senior Marketing Communications Executive. Danny Chan, Manager and Wine Sommelier of Yan Ting, explained to us in great detail about the ingredients of the different mooncakes and how different teas would go better with each type.

A pity that I arrived a whole hour late due to work commitments and couldn't take as many nice photos as I could have had I been there earlier. Nonetheless, I would direct you to the websites of SuperFineFeline, Camemberu, MilkMilk, and Food Recentrunes for much nicer pictures and a more detailed description of the mooncakes. They were a lot more diligent than I was in taking notes!!! Nonetheless, I managed to take some pictures.

The table was filled with tea cups as we sampled the different gourmet teas from Dammann Frères that Danny kept bringing our way. I liked the Soleil Vert (Green Sun) best. The PuEr tea was really good too.

I liked this one with the black sesame filling.

This traditional mooncake is the one with Chinese Ham (火腿) and nuts. It's an acquired taste as it's not as sweet as the ones, however I liked it.

This one's the Almond Snow Skin with Martell Cordon Bleu Cognac Truffle and Custard Paste. Phew, that was a mouthful. However I felt that the truffle overwhelmed the custard and snow skin and didn't quite like this one. But if you're a fan of chocolate and alcohol, go for this.

The most expensive mooncake of them all - Almond Snow Skin With Premium Bird's Nest and Custard Paste. Nice and light but be prepared to fork out $228 for 8 mini mooncakes.

All of us had a lovely time as we talked and laughed our way through the tasting and beyond (we adjourned to Nirai Kanai for dinner...hehe) and it was great to form new friendships with MilkMilk and Camemberu. And a huge thank you to Yahoo! Flickr and St Regis Yan Ting for hosting us!

My Blood Type

My Blood Type is one of those restaurants that's riding on this fad about eating according to one's blood type. Located in the heart of the central business district along Market Street, this restaurant sells health supplements as well.

Before handing you the menu, the waiter will ask what your blood type is. After telling him, he hands you a menu labelled 'A', 'B', 'O' or 'AB'. The 'A's have it the worst - they aren't supposed to eat meat, and are supposed to eat only vegetables and seafood. Thankfully for me, being a 'B', I can eat meat. Hurray...what would I do without meat??? Anyway, the food's supposed to be healthy and has low calories...the menu even puts down the number of calories and all the nutritional information. To me, that just screams 'AWFUL FOOD'!!!

I had the celery & carrot soup as a starter. This was bland and very dilute. When asked for black pepper to add a tad more flavour to the soup, I was told that they don't serve black pepper. Great. Seriously, what kind of restaurant doesn't have black pepper???

My main was the braised lamb shank with sweet potato mash, long beans and brussels sprouts. This was actually quite tasty. At least it was salty enough and the lamb was tender.

Dessert was rojak with molasses. The molasses tasted weird and made the rojak smell like some kind of medicine. Still, someone should tell the management that rojak isn't a dessert!!!

I remain unconvinced about this eat-according-to-your-blood-type diet. In any case, I certainly won't be patronising this restaurant again - food on the whole wasn't fantastic, service was extremely slow (we waited ages for our food to arrive), and it's expensive. The set menu costs $25+++ while a main on the a la carte menu costs about $36+++ on average.

Feeling unsatisfied with lunch, dinner then had to be a guilty affair. Guess where I went for dinner? Brotzeit for German beer and sausages! Bring on the fat and booze baby! Now THAT's what I call real food - it was thoroughly and utterly satisfying. :)

KŌ

Anyone looking for a good Japanese restaurant to go to can consider KŌ at the InterContinental Hotel. With its good food, impeccable service and pleasant interiors, it's the perfect setting for an evening night out to enjoy some delicious food.

This is the private room which can seat a party of 8. It's nice, cosy and gives lots of privacy. The rest of the restaurant is also done up in the same creamy, muted earthy tones.

The starter was a mash potato salad. This tasted OK - it didn't blow me off my seat.

Now, this I love. Uni, toro, swordfish, salmon, scallop, prawns all nicely displayed on a bed of ice. All tasted really fresh and definitely of top quality.

Another sashimi platter served in an ice bowl with some Japanese maple leaves for decoration. Slightly less variety than the first sashimi platter, but tasted great nonetheless.

The sushi platter came in a variety that had uni, salmon, toro, fish roe, squid, etc on top.

My cousin's cha soba was so neatly stacked up that he almost couldn't bear to eat it just 'cos he didn't want to mess it up. The tempura batter was light and crisp - exactly the way a good tempura batter should be.

The Saba fish was grilled to perfection. Lightly salted and cooked just right, the flesh was still moist and oozing with flavour from the seasoning. Squeezing fresh lemon on it gave the dish that extra zest and kick.

The stewed salmon which another cousin ordered and slurped up every single bit of.

The soft shell crab sushi roll was delicious - the crab wasn't too soggy nor oily and had just the right amount of crunch.

Rainbow roll - love the name and the look. Loved the taste even more!

KŌ
InterContinental Hotel
Tel: +65 6825 1064

Mango Meringue

I was delighted when my mum's friends brought over pastries from The Patissier the other day. I've been wanting to try their pastries but never got the chance to because every time I went past the shop it would be close.

Sitting pretty inside the box were four mango meringues with fresh fruits. The meringue wasn't like the usual ones that you come across that are stiff, white and fluffy inside. This one almost tasted like sponge cake. It was different but nice, and the fresh mangoes, strawberries and custard complemented it well.

A pretty cross section of the pastry of which I had two helpings of! :)

Gözleme

One of the greatest joys of travelling is discovering new foods. Food is so much a part of culture, so to not want to try food that you've never come across before seems to defeat the whole purpose of travelling and discovering new worlds and cultures. That's why I hate travelling with people who are unadventurous when it comes to new experiences, food, and everything else.

In my recent trip to Sydney, my cousin and I went to Kirribilli Market on Saturday 28 June. The market is at Milsons Point train station that is along the North Shore line. It's just at the north end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge so there is a fantastic view of the harbour from there. The market is there only on the fourth Saturday of every month.

Anyway, the focus of this post is not about the market but the Gözleme which my cousin introduced me to. Gözleme is a traditional Turkish handmade pastry filled with ingredients such as spinach, feta cheese, egg, minced lamb, mushroom and potato. The dough is then sealed and pan-fried. To me, it was like the Turkish equivalent of the Indian Murtabak, except not so heavy as the dough is not made of ghee. Plus, there's no curry to go along.

The stall at Kirribilli market.

The little lumps of dough sitting pretty. The dough is made from yoghurt, flour and a pinch of salt. I felt like picking one up to just throw at someone and see how it would stick. Haha.

There's a production line going. It was actually rather therapeutic watching this old Turkish ladies, head wrapped in scarves, going about kneading the dough, rolling it out, and folding it so methodically.

The Gözleme is laid on the pan to fry and make it crispy.

The woman on the left is in charge of scooping the minced meat into the dough that has been laid on the pan. She's also in charge of turning it over and once it's ready, passes it over to the woman on the right. The woman on the right is in charge of using a pizza cutter and cutting the Gözleme into several pieces. She then places the pieces on a plate, together with a big slice of lemon, and serves it to the customer.

Sizzling hot and just waiting to be eaten!

Voila! A delicious pastry filled with mince lamb and baby spinach. You can have it in different combinations, so you can request to have feta cheese in it too. Squeeze the juicy and succulent lemon onto the Gözleme, bite into it, and savour the taste of it – crispy pastry on the outside, coupled with the tangy zest of lemon and the savoury juices of the minced lamb spilling into your mouth.

Great grub. And yes, please, eat with your hands even though it's oily and all!

Best Pistachio Gelato

One of the best pistachio gelatos I've ever eaten - so tasty with the generous amount of Pistachio bits in the pale green gelato. I loved its texture and I really enjoyed crunching on the pistachio bits! The hazelnut gelato also had hazelnut bits in it and was delicious too. I eyed the tiramisu and cannoli on other tables and they looked amazing too. Which means to say that I have to pay another visit to Bar Italia (below)!

Bar Italia is located in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt which is known to be the Italian quarter. So if you're in search for some good Italian food, it's the place to head to!

169 Norton Street
Leichhardt NSW 2040
Tel : +61 2 9560 9981

Red Lantern

If you're looking for Vietnamese fine dining in Sydney, you definitely have to head to Red Lantern, which is located in Surry Hills, a stone's throw away from Central. I first came to know of this restaurant after coming across the cookbook written by its owners in a friend's place in London. Titled Secrets of the Red Lantern, it's one of the prettiest cookbooks I've ever come across. Apart from recipes, it contains the story of the main author's (Pauline Nguyen) family journey as Vietnamese war refugees in Australia.

The book chronicles her parents' decision to smuggle themselves out of Vietnam because of the Vietnam war in the 1970s. People like them were known as the 'Boat People'. Their struggle and resilience in surviving and adapting to a foreign land is well documented by Nguyen. She also writes about her growing up years and trying to find the balance between being ethnically Vietnamese and culturally Australian.

The well written and beautiful book with its fantastic graphics and well-designed layouts made me want to pay the restaurant a visit during my next visit to Sydney. And I'm glad to say I wasn't disappointed. I was there with two other friends and here's what we ate.

Entrance of Red Lantern

Red Lantern is housed in one of the charming rows of terrace houses in the suburb of Surry Hills. On foot, it's about a ten-minute walk from Central Station. Surry Hills is a very quaint and charming suburb with nice bars and restaurants along Crown Street and Cleveland Street.

Red Lantern interior

Warm, red tones dominate with dim lighting, reminiscent of the old Asia.

Mussels with glass noodles and clear broth

Our entree was delicious with the mussels being fresh and the broth absolutely flavourful.

Vietnamese pancake with seafood filling. Loved the grilled smoky flavour!

What I love about Vietnamese food is the raw vegetables that accompany many of the dishes. It's so refreshing to eat them!

Beef brisket with warm French baguette

The baguette had been put over a grill, thus it possessed that smoky flavour which made that just that bit more delicious in addition to it being fresh.

Grilled pork with preserved vegetables

This tasted delicious with the pork being well marinated and grilled to perfection with a smoky flavour.

If you have a group of four persons or more, I'd suggest going for the tasting menu as it is good value for the amount of food you get which, according to the waiter, is 'a lot'. The restaurant has two seatings - the first at 6pm and the second at 8pm. Service was good and expect to spend about A$40 per person.

Red Lantern
545 Crown Street
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
Phone: +61 (0)2 9698 4355
(Closed on Mondays)

Durians By the Road

I know many people out there don't like durians, but I do. I don't care if my breath stinks or that I keep burping awful smells after eating them. I can't understand how people can describe it as tasting like puke, or smelling like rotten food. Somehow my brain and taste buds have been wired to think otherwise.

And so with that, I find a certain glee and an element of fun in sitting on ugly stools and similarly ugly and un-sturdy tables along the seedy streets of Geylang (Singapore's red light district), chomping away at durians.

Mind you, some of these roadside stalls even put tissue boxes on the tables and have water coolers and plastic cups for you to help yourself to. There is a huge plastic basket beside each table where you will find empty durian shells, durian seeds which have been licked clean of their pulp and crushed tissue paper all thrown in.

Going to Geylang at the weekend, however, is a nightmare. The place is teeming with foreign workers (blue-collar workers from China and India going there to buy cheap toiletries, phone cards, etc) and prostitutes plying their trade. Neon-lighted signs bear the name of brothels, sleaze clubs and coffee shops where many sleazy 'Ah Peks' sit around drinking beer and leering at women. Driving along the streets of Geylang is hazardous as there is always a danger of running someone over, what with all the foreign workers giving no regard to traffic rules and turning a blind eye to the existence of traffic crossings. They rule the roads and us drivers have to comply with THEIR rules by slowing down our cars in an attempt to not knock any one of them down while they weave in and out of traffic in imaginary pedestrian crossings which they had conjured up. Parking is another nightmare as there are very few legal carpark lots. So nevermind, break the law and park illegally somewhere along some 'Lorong' (small lane) and head to the durian stalls!

OK, it's nightmarish driving to Geylang, but I accept that that is part of the experience of heading there. Without that, Geylang wouldn't be Geylang. You almost don't feel like you're in otherwise squeaky clean Singapore when you're there.

So anyway, there I am with my cousins, sis, mum, aunt and uncle, sitting around a small table, tucking into two Super D-24 durians. I love the act of tossing the seeds and empty shells into the basket. It's almost like playing durian basketball. Haha. Except if you miss, it'd mean you're really shit at aiming. Eating durians at roadside stalls in Geylang is truly one of those really Singapore experiences one could offer to a tourist. It doesn't get any more local than that!

Love Numbers

Over dinner and drinks with two friends one night, we were having the typical talk of singles in their 30s. OK, technically two of us haven't reached 30 yet, but we will in a few months' time – we are already mulling over what to do to celebrate. Ha. Suggestions welcomed.

Anyway, so it was the usual – jobs, people we know, the meaning of life, love and relationships. The last two were the main talking points of the evening. I mean seriously, we're single, what else is there to talk about? Superficial beings that we are. Haha.

Of the many facets of love and relationships we talked about, I remember something one of my friends said. He said he thinks it's better to have many failed, but not so deep romances rather than one major failed romance where it just wasn't meant to be with the love of one's life. His reason for saying so was that it's much easier on one's heart and it's easier to forget when feelings aren't so deep and entrenched. Conversely, there'll be major hang-ups and heavy emotional baggage arising from the end of a deep and love-of-one's-life kind of relationship. It's like the sum of pain from the many failed romances will never add up to the pain experienced from one major failed romance.

I don't know. I don't have the answers. You do the maths.

Eclairs

I love eclairs. There's just something very lovely about biting into well-made choux pastry filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with dark chocolate. And it has to be a chocolate mousse filling. Custard or fresh cream variations just don't seem right and can't quite cut it as far as satisfaction levels are concerned.

One of the best eclairs I've had was in Paris when I was on holiday there with the Skinny Epicurean. Having heard of the wonderful eclairs at La Maison du Chocolat, we bought one caramel and one coffee eclair. Both were divine and we sighed in satisfaction and delight as we sank our teeth into them.

I had the chocolate eclair pictured above at Corduroy Cafe in Vivocity and thought it was good. If you know of any other places in Singapore that have good eclairs, please drop me a note. I'm on my eclair quest!

Tajimaya Yakiniku

Tajimaya Yakiniku is another one of those restaurants where you have to cook your own food which has sprouted out in recent months. Its sister restaurant just next door (they're actually linked and staff serve both sides) is the shabu shabu arm of Tajimaya.

Its interiors were nice and comfortable with soothing, cream colours and muted clean lines characteristic of Japanese decor.

Here's the charcoal grill with the fiery red charcoal in all its heated glory. There's something to be said about grilling with charcoal and the telltale smoky flavour it imparts into food.

We ordered a plate of sesame salad to have some greens in our meal. It was very ordinary and those few sprigs certainly weren't worth its $9++ price tag.

Next came the pork collar which was had a nice marinated that tasted good after the meat was grilled.

Of course, the star of the night was the plate of Wagyu beef with all that fine marbling. All that fat renders the beef so tender!

Then came along the even fattier pork belly which was pretty good too. By that point, all the exercise I had done earlier in the day had come to naught. When grilling the pork collar, we were told not to put more than three slices at a go because anything more would cause too much fat to drip onto the charcoal which would then see it spewing fire. We believed it 'cos it happened with the three we put on the grill!

Overall, it was an enjoyable enough meal but it wasn't exceptionally good for the price paid. You would have to budget for at least $35 per person. Service was good but I'm not in a hurry to go back again as I didn't think there was anything special there. Two weeks later, I went to try the shabu shabu side – the food was even more forgettable than Yakiniku's.

1 HarbourFront Walk
#01-102 VivoCity

Pick Your Packet

When I was in Hong Kong in February, I had lunch with my friend Felix in Tseun Wan. When we were in one of the small shopping complexes, we walked past this cart which was full of plastic packets. Curious, I went nearer to have a closer look.

What I saw was pretty bizarre. There were small portions of food in each packet and the idea was that you could pick and choose what you wanted to combine everything into a bigger meal. But all that food there looked foul! All processed food and everything looked so cold and unappetising, not to mention innutritious. Examples of food inside those packets: cold yellow noodles, spinach noodles, tofu, chicken feet, soggy cabbage, processed fish cake and fish balls, fake crab meat etc.

Granted it's really cheap, but please, it's not something any food lover should touch!

Bread In a Cup

I love going to Japanese lifestyle shop, Muji. To be more specific, I like their food section. All the Japanese snacks, teas and biscuits make me just wanna grab everything!

The biggest Muji outlet I've been to is the one in Tokyo which is near the station Yurakucho. That one was like a big warehouse and it also had an eatery. I had lunch there before I caught my flight back to Singapore and it was a pretty good one. Oh, how I miss Japan!

In Singapore we have mini Muji. I went to the outlet at Marina Square and came away with this bread-in-a-cup mix. That's my name for it anyway. You've just got to hand it to the Japanese for their ingenuity.

The tomato and cheese bread flour mixture looks like this on the outside.

Instructions are on the back – don't worry, there's an English translation. Each packet is sold for S$2.30.

Add water to the flour mixture and stir with a spoon or fork. After stirring, it will look like what you see above.

I decided to improvise a little and added slices of cheddar cheese into the mixture.

Put the mixture into the microwave for about 2.5 minutes at 500W and you'll get bread in a cup!

It actually tasted pretty good! Slightly sweet and savoury at the same time, and it was pretty soft. Just make sure you don't put it into the microwave for too long.

This is great for a quick snack and something useful to have in the house for the times when you want something to nibble on desperately!

Sweet Potato Buns

I love these steamed sweet potato buns I found at 一口味 the other day. I really like eating sweet potato so I usually like anything that has sweet potato in it. I liked the slightly sweet taste of the buns and I love that cheery orange colour! They were going for $2 for 2.

Go here to read more about this humble tuber.

Fresh Honey

For the first time in my life, I tried honey fresh from the comb yesterday. This situation came about by accident.

Those who know me well know that I paddle a lot as a form of exercise. I either dragon boat or outrigger canoe depending on the competitions my team is preparing for. I'm pretty hard core about paddling as I like to train to paddle competitively. After all, where's the fun in training when there's no goal to work towards? OK, some people don't enjoy and can't understand the joy of being competitive, but I do.

But I digress. So I outrigger canoe in Sentosa and our club has a boat shed there. One of my teammates was cleaning the shed yesterday and to our horror, we discovered that under one of the black boxes we had left lying face down in the corner had become home for a hive of bees! One brave guy went to destroy the hive and soon bees were buzzing around everywhere. There were also a few slabs of fresh honey combs which contained larvae and fresh honey! Some of us, including me, couldn't help but run our fingers along the comb to get a taste of the fresh honey.

And boy did it taste good! That molten gold honey was so pure and so sweet. Free of preservatives. It was, quite possibly, one of the best I've ever tasted. Anyhow, while it was nice to be able to taste fresh honey, I don't wish to have the same situation again. It was actually kinda scary having all those bees buzzing about!

Vintage India

Sometimes there are perks to be considered a 'food blogger'. I got a lunch invitation to go to Vintage India, a restaurant serving North Indian food at Dempsey Hill. I seldom, if ever, get such treats so I jumped at the opportunity. To be honest, I was prepared to eat rather bad food 'cos why would a good restaurant need to invite a kuching kurak (that's 'small fry' in Malay) blogger like me? But I was obviously not going to pick an argument about that. Heehee. I also took good friend monoceros with me. So on a lazy Tuesday afternoon, us two girls made our way to Dempsey Hill while the rest of our high-flying executive friends were busy battling the lunch crowds downtown. Honestly, I could – but I can't – get used to this. :p

The interior of Vintage India looks very grand, perhaps a tad austere for day time. If you prefer something more private, you can request for a private room. It's not really a room per se, but rather they separate you from the rest of the diners by drawing the curtains, which to me works just fine.

You can also dine alfresco but it's not something I'd recommend on a hot and humid afternoon. I would imagine it would be pretty nice at night though. There are also nice couches to the right side of the area where you can sit around and have drinks.

The requisite papadum and dip to stimulate the palate. This was crispy and nice with a slight bitterness to it.

We were served two Indian mocktails which were extremely refreshing on a hot afternoon. The green drink was lemon juice with mint and the yellow drink was lemon juice with ginger. Monoceros and I liked the lemon juice with mint better as it had more zest and kick to it.

For starters, we each had a tiger prawn stuffed with crab meat, a lamb chop and a helping of salad. The tiger prawn with crab meat was delicious as was the lamb chop which was grilled to such perfection. It wasn't overcooked and the mix of spices that was used to marinate it was very tasty.

Look at the lovely pink centre of the lamb!

Clockwise from left: Stuffed tomato curry, butter chicken, sea bream curry

The stuffed tomato curry was something I hadn't had before. The stuffing was made up of other ingredients like chickpeas, potatoes and raisins. It was very tasty and was one of my favourite dishes of the spread. There was also butter chicken and sea bream curry. I thought the chicken was a little dry but really enjoyed the sea bream curry. The fish was cooked just right, so kudos to the chef for that. I think one of the litmus tests of any restaurant is to see how well fish is cooked. It's all too easy to overcook fish so to be able to cook it just right shows a chef's skill.

We also had saffron rice and lentils.

Tomato curry stuffing

Something I must always have when eating North Indian food is garlic naan!

I'd also recommend the mango lassi which was very rich and tasty. Drinking lassi is good for people who can't take spicy food. Sugar actually helps to get rid of the burning sensation on the tongue.

I also tried the pistachio and saffron lassi. I've never had this flavour before and found it really interesting. The slight orange colour is due to the saffron. Pistachio nuts are blended into the yogurt as well as sprinkled on top of the drink. This has a lighter taste than the mango lassi and is probably a better accompaniment to the main meal as it's not as overwhelming. Mango lassi can actually serve as a dessert for me.

Dessert came in the form of deep-fried cottage cheese with vanilla ice cream. I try – I really do – but for some reason I just can't seem to like Indian desserts no matter where I go. I always find it too sweet for my liking and this one was no different. It's just me. Really.

To end off what was a very long and filling lunch, we had Masala tea. The tea was very fragrant but by this time I was so stuffed that I couldn't even stomach any fluids. Oh, I forgot to mention that Vintage India has an extensive wine list so wine lovers might want to give a couple of bottles a try.

Vintage India does serve up good food but I think what's preventing the crowds from coming is its location. There was no lunch crowd at all. I guess North Indian fine dining is also a little heavy for lunch. But if you're in the mood for Indian food, you might want to pop by for a visit.

Vintage India
10 Dempsey Road
#01-21 Dempsey Hill
Singapore 247700
Tel: 6471 3100

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall 佛跳墻

I like reading and knowing about the origin of dishes. With that added knowledge, I always feel that it gives extra meaning and depth to what I'm eating. Unfortunately with Chinese cuisine, such information is lacking in the English language which I find easiest and quickest to read. So I now have to reactivate that part of the brain which sat through years of Chinese lessons.

I came across this article about the famous Chinese dish Buddha Jumps Over the Wall 佛跳墻 on a Chinese website about Chinese food history and thought I'd translate it after trawling through some websites in English and finding that they don't have this information on its history.

It is said that the dish originated in the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Daoguang who ruled China from 1820 to 1850. There are 18 main ingredients and twenty-odd types of seasonings that go into making the dish. The main ingredients include chicken, duck, pig stomach, pig trotters, tendons, Chinese ham, chicken and duck stomach, shark's fin, sea cucumber, abalone, dried scallops, fish maw, pigeon egg, Chinese mushroom, Chinese bamboo etc.

There are several stories with regards to the origin of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. The first is that it was invented by a guild of beggars who went begging everywhere with their elms bowl. At the end of the day, they would put all the food they had collected into a big pot.

One day, a rice merchant smelt the nice aroma of food as he was walking on the street. He found that the inviting smell came from a broken pot which had Chinese wine and leftover food cooking in it. This rice merchant then realised what he could do with the mixing of various ingredients and wine, and Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was thus invented.

The second story is, to me, more interesting. In the olden days, the Fujian people had a tradition called 试厨 (shi chu) which literally means a cooking tryout. According to this tradition, a new bride had to be in her new home (her husband's family's residence) on the wedding day, return to her own family on the second day of marriage, and on the third day return to her new home. The challenge on the third day was that the new bride would have to demonstrate her culinary skills to her new family. It was the litmus test of a new bride's capability to run a household.

There was once a very pampered girl who didn't know how to cook, thus she was very anxious about the upcoming shi chu as she was about to be married. Her worried mother decided to help her by wrapping the household's best ingredients individually in lotus leaves, and instructing her repeatedly on how to go about cooking the food she had packed. But the bride forgot all her mother's instructions in her state of nervousness the day before she was to cook!

At night, she went into the kitchen and unwrapped all the packs of food that her mother had packed. She laid everything on the table and had no clue where to start. Just as she was at her wits end, she heard her mother- and father-in-law walking in the direction of the kitchen. As the new bride was afraid they would pick on her for messing up the kitchen, she hurriedly dumped all the food into a wine vessel that was sitting beside the table. She then used the lotus leaves that were used to wrap the food to cover the mouth of the wine vessel, and left the vessel on a stove that still had some remaining embers. Daunted by the thought of the task that lay ahead of her, she quietly slipped back to her parents' home.

The next day, this new daughter-in-law was nowhere to be seen when the guests arrived. The parents-in-law went to the kitchen and found the wine vessel on the stove, and to their surprise, it was warm! On opening the lid of the wine vessel, the nice smell of the simmering food filled the place. The guests loved the dish and it soon became known as Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

Another story goes that the dish originated in the reign of Emperor GuangXu of the Qing Dynasty who ruled from 1875 to 1908. A government official in Fuzhou hosted a banquet and invited a minister called Zhou Lian. One of the government official's servants was a very good cook and she put the chicken, duck and pork to cook together with Shaoxing wine. When Zhou Lian tasted the dish, he couldn't stop singing its praises. He then told his house cook Zheng ChunFa to learn how to make the dish. Zheng got the recipe but modified it by using more seafood and less meat and named it 坛烧八宝 (A Stove's Eight Treasures).

Apparently, 坛烧八宝 was later known as 福寿全 (Abundance of Luck and Longevity) and eventually 佛跳墻. There's yet another story about how 福寿全 became 佛跳墻. When the dish became famous as a delicacy, many famous literary men came from afar to have a taste of the dish. After eating a sumptuous and delicious meal, the sated men would often break out in song and poetry, one of which was 坛启荤香飘四邻，佛闻弃神跳墙来. This is to say that the aroma of the food was so wonderful that even Buddha would be tempted by the food of the mortal world. Another story goes that the nice smells permeated the walls to the temple next door such that even the monks were tempted into disregarding the rules of the tonsure and asked to be invited to the feast.

For those interested in reading the original Chinese text, go here. The writing in Chinese is much more elegant than my translation, but I hope you learnt something from it nonetheless!

Thousand Layer Cake 千層糕

I love eating 千層糕 or what is literally translated as Thousand Layer Cake. It's one of my favourites as far as dimsum is concerned. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find it in Singapore. Thus every time I'm in Hong Kong or Sydney, I get my 千層糕 fix.

千層糕 is a steamed cake which has layers of salted egg yolk and coconut lotus paste in between the layers of steamed flour. The saltiness of the egg yolk is a good complement to the sweet paste. A good 千層糕 has to have the right balance and be neither too sweet nor salty.

Go here for the recipe (in Chinese) and do let me know if you know where to find this in Singapore!

Hot Chocolate

The ideal hot chocolate is made with the finest cocoa powder or solid chocolate or both. The resulting beverage should be neither too thin for serious satisfaction nor too thick to refresh; neither too bitter to produce the childlike enjoyment we seek, nor so sweet and simple as to insult the intellect. The harsh flavour and gritty texture of cocoa powder and the soft fattiness of solid chocolate should be blended so that neither can be distinguished. As a general rule, one's first swallow should induce a long interlude of silence.

~ Jeffrey Steingarten in It Must Have Been Something I Ate

Hot chocolate is one of those things which I mentally file under 'Comfort food' or perhaps more accurately 'Comfort drink'. It's best enjoyed on a cold winter's day or at a time when you need a sugar rush. You can also somehow convince yourself that it's healthy 'cos hey, it's milk after all, and milk is supposed to be healthy, right? But perhaps that reasoning can only be applied to hot chocolate that is more English- or American-style.

The hot chocolate that you find in Italy and Spain is like molten chocolate. It's thick and viscous and flows down your throat like molten lava. I like this version when I'm feeling I need something REALLY sinful. It's rather heavy-going and I know some people who can't fathom how anyone could gulp down something so thick and viscous. They can't, but DSD can!!!

In Singapore, I haven't found a place which does hot chocolate Italian or Spanish style. Admittedly, I haven't tried ordering it in an Italian or Spanish restaurant here. OK, I shall make that my next mission the next time I go to one. But if any of you know of any place which serves it that way, please let me know. Just don't tell me to go to a chocolate fountain at some buffet, 'cos that just ain't the real McCoy.

As for the normal hot chocolate, I like the one served in Canele. So far, it's the best one I've had in Singapore. Other recommendations are welcomed!

Old-Fashioned Cakes

My dad came back with these boxes of cakes the other day. He seldom buys cakes, but when he does, it's usually these ones which always bring back a wave of nostalgia.

Way before Singapore had fancy bakeries and patisseries like Canele, The Patisserie, Bakerzin etc, it was cakes like the ones below which Singaporeans enjoyed.

I'm not crazy about these cakes mainly because I don't like butter cream. But I have to say I love the look of these cakes. True, they aren't elegant and pretty like the French cakes and pastries, but they just look so retro and so cute! If I were to have a 60s/70s theme party, these cakes are definitely going on the menu!

Sadly, not many bakeries sell such old-fashioned cakes and pastries any more. The famous Red House bakery in Joo Chiat is now, sadly, but a slice of Singapore history. But nevermind, there's still Le Cafe Confectionary & Pastry which my dad somehow managed to find!

Le Cafe Confectionary & Pastry
264 Middle Road, Singapore 188990
Tel: 6337 2417

Blk 42 Cambridge Road #01-02, Singapore 210042
Tel: 6298 1477

Lulu

The name and the rather kitsch black and pink interiors of this restaurant at the basement of Raffles City didn't exactly make me want to rush into it for a meal. Somehow, the name 'Lulu' seems more befitting for a cabaret bar rather than a restaurant.

Nevertheless, for the sake of trying a new place rather than Shokudo which had a snaking queue, my friend and I decided to eat there. Actually I think many of the diners at Lulu are there only because they changed their minds about Shokudo due to the long queue.

Lulu serves Shanghainese and Sichuan cuisine. Being not a big fan of Sichuan cuisine because I don't like spicy food, we ordered only the Shanghainese food on the menu. We had the sweet and sour braised pork ribs (甜酸小排) which was tender and tasty. My friend, though, found it a tad too sweet for her liking. As for me, I have a sweet tooth, so I actually liked what must have been a big dose of honey in the glaze.

For vegetables, we had stir-fried Kai Lan with preserved fish and black beans. This dish was a bit too oily and I thought the preserved fish and black beans didn't do much for the dish. Somehow those two ingredients didn't add much flavour to the vegetables and the flavours of the individual ingredients didn't meld together. I would much rather have eaten parboiled Kai Lan seasoned with a small amount of oyster sauce. That way, at least the original flavour of the vegetable is retained.

The last dish we had was the Special Fried Rice which I found interesting. It was served in a claypot and contained prawns, squid, diced pumpkins and mashed salted egg. A red-coloured fermented bean paste was then mixed in with the rice to add flavour. Without it, the rice tasted rather bland as the bean paste was both salty and spicy. That bit of chilli added an extra dimension and kick to the dish.

Overall, service was efficient. The service staff were prompt in topping up our glasses of water. Expect to spend about $25 to $30 per person. It's not a place I would choose as my first choice for a place to dine, but for somewhere convenient to eat in that part of town, I wouldn't say no to it either.

Lulu
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44B Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6338 7441

Ham

The most exquisite peak in culinary art is conquered when you do right by a ham, for a ham, in the very nature of the process it has undergone since it last stalked on its feet, combines in its flavour the tang of smoky autumnal woods, the maternal softness of earthy field delivered of their crop children, the wineyness of a late sun, the intimate kiss of fertilising rain, and the bite of fire. You must slice it thin, too, almost as thin as this page you have in your hands. The making of a ham dinner, like the making of a gentleman, starts a long, long time before the event.

~ W.B. Courtney

Dining Report

I've been eating out quite a bit, what with meeting up with various friends over – you guessed it – meals. Here's a summary of the places I've eaten at.

1) Waraku – Ate at the Marina Square branch and I wasn't impressed by the food. The slices of fish in my sashimi salad weren't very fresh and the fish just tasted flat. The mixed yakitori also tasted rather bland and didn't have the nice, smoky flavour of well-grilled yakitori. My verdict is that I'm never going back again.

Price: At least S$15 per person

2) Nogawa – Named after its owner, this small Japanese restaurant in Le Meridien Hotel is something I wouldn't have known of if not for my Japanese food-loving foodie friend The Skinny Epicurean. Eating there isn't cheap, but you can see why from the quality of the sashimi and the service. It'd be best to make a reservation before going. I had the chirashi (sashimi placed on a bed of rice) and took delight in seeing the chef preparing it with such care . But I took greater delight in the taste of it!

Price: At least $30 per person

3) Ramen Santouka – Had the charsiew ramen with soya broth. My friend went for the charsiew ramen with miso broth. I preferred the soya broth and though it was rich and flavourful, I felt it could have done with a tad less salt and oil. The soya and miso broth were much too oily, partly also because of the fat-laden charsiew. I also didn't like the noodles which I thought were too starchy. I prefer my ramen with a more springy and chewy texture.

Price: At least $18 per person

4) Ramen Miharu – This ramen place at Gallery Hotel is another popular joint for ramen lovers. I like the noodles here because I like its springy and chewy texture. There is bite in the noodles if you know what I mean. The broth though slightly less flavourful than Santouka's, is less oily. Overall, I prefer the ramen here.

Price: At least $18 per person

5) Bar & Billiard Room – I was treated to a dinner buffet at this restaurant in Raffles Hotel. For a meal that costs S$69+++ per person, this disappointed. But I guess that's what you get from buffets – quantity but not quality. It's an international buffet but with more emphasis on Western fare. The barbecued section had a long queue for the tiger prawns, beef and sausages. I gave up queueing. Instead I just went for the sashimi, lobsters and lobster pancakes. The salmon and tuna sashimi weren't good as the fish didn't taste very fresh. The raw oysters were rather small and I didn't think they tasted very good either. I would much rather go for an a la carte meal at another restaurant and get better food for the same amount of money. Definitely not recommended unless you're going for quantity and not quality. But really, there's only so much you can eat and it definitely wouldn't add up to the amount you would pay.

Price: S$69+++ per person for dinner

6) Canele – Finally got to try some of their cakes after hearing so many people rave about them. I must say the cakes didn't disappoint. I had the Mont Blanc, Citron Tart and one of the chocolate cakes with some praline in it. All delicious and I'm particularly partial to the Mont Blanc as it's really difficult to find a good one with such a rich chestnut flavour! And oh, the hot chocolate's yummy too!

Price: At least $8 per person

7) Shokudo – The outlet at the basement of Raffles City is like the Japanese version of the now defunct Marche. I had the Omu Rice (Japanese omelette rice) with grilled chicken. I didn't think this was that great. I thought the grilled chicken tasted very flat. For dessert, I had the crepe with green tea ice cream and chestnut. I made a special request for the latter. The menu had put down green tea ice cream with azuki (red bean), but as I preferred chestnuts I asked for it instead of azuki and was glad that the cook agreed to accommodate my request. Again, this didn't taste that fantastic. Maybe it just wasn't 'sinful' enough! I thought the crepe batter was a tad too sweet. I felt that the batter could have done with less sugar since its accompaniments (banana, chocolate, green tea ice cream, azuki, chestnuts) already had sugar in them.

Price: At least $10 per person

8) E-Sarn Thai Cuisine – This small Thai restaurant at 20 Sixth Avenue serves good Thai food at reasonable prices. I enjoyed the Tom Yam soup and Pad Thai.

Price: At least $10 per person

9) Cafe Iguana – Located at Riverside Point, this is one of the few places you can find Mexican food in Singapore. The weekend crowds are insane but I liked my Quesadilla and my friends enjoyed their burritos too.

Price: At least $25 per person

10) Shin Kushiya – Went to the Suntec city branch (the other's at Vivocity) and enjoyed the meal I had there. My friend and I had the yakitori where the meat was succulent and well marinated. The rest of the food was pretty good too (I can't quite remember exactly what we ate 'cos that was sometime in January!) but I only wished the portions were bigger and the prices lower!

Price: At least S$30 per person

25 degree Celsius

The moment I stepped into 25 degree Celsius, I couldn't not like it. The vast array of cookbooks in this cookbook shop cum cafe presents such a visual feast that somehow lures you in to sit down for a meal. OK, my visit there was planned but even if it hadn't, I would have sat straight down the moment I walked into it.

The dizzying array of cookbooks will have you 'sampling' Chinese, Thai, Japanese, French, Italian and other world cuisines. There are also specialty cookbooks on cakes, pastries, chocolate, etc. Vegetarian cookbooks are available as well.

My friend had the pork with potato wedges and salad which was pretty tasty but rather unimaginative. Truth be told, the dish also didn't blow me away with its appearance.

I went for the chicken casserole which tasted great when I dipped the bread into it. The chicken was tender and the stew was flavoursome.

It's not a big cafe and there aren't many tables, so it'd be best to make a dinner reservation prior to turning up.

As my friends and I didn't make a reservation, we had to contend with seating at the counter which was OK, but just lacking in a little leg room.

I went back for lunch another day and had the tuna mango sandwich which was nice but tiny in size. If I had to measure it, I would say it was only 2.5cm by 10cm in dimension. It also came with some salad and chips. For dessert that afternoon, I shared the grilled butter cake with my friend. The staff touted it as their specialty and I did like the fact that it was served warm with a slight crunchiness to the surface.

The cafe always has a special of the day where the dish originates from a recipe they're trying out from one of the cookbooks. So you can always look forward to something different on the menu.

Service is good and the staff were friendly. The food is alright, but not wonderful. To me, it's also rather expensive. Be prepared to spend $20 and above per person. But overall, I like the place for its casual feel and just the fact that I can browse all those cookbooks. It's like reading food porn. :p

25 degree Celsius
25 Keong Saik Road #01-01
Singapore 089132
Tel: 6327 8389
Closed on Sundays

Eataly

I don't know how I ever forgot to blog about this supermarket I visited in Turin. Yes, I use the word 'visited' because I specially made my way there to have a look at it. I actually find a supermarket a tourist attraction for me! The only one of its kind in the world thus far, Eataly is a supermarket set up by the advocates of the Slow Food movement, of which Carlo Petrini is the Italian founder and president.

And how can one not love the name Eataly? It simply and succinctly embodies what the supermarket is about. That is, bringing all the best local and organic produce of Italy and the region under one roof. The foods sold are seasonal, following the Slow Food philosophy that people should eat according to the seasons in order not to tax on the agricultural land and also to reduce one's carbon footprint. Slow Food advocates don't believe in eating food that has come as a result of causing harm to the planet.

The facade of the supermarket isn't really that impressive, but trust me, the goodies are inside!

The moment you enter, you'll see this section that has been set up to educate shoppers on the seasonal fruits and vegetables. This round pamphlet which shows when all the different fruits and vegetables are in season can be bought for €1. What I like about Eataly is their approach and philosophy towards food. They believe in educating people so that people will know how to eat better and in more responsibly ways.

The fruit and vegetable section has a wide variety of seasonal produce grown organically.

There are also labels telling the shopper where each of the produce originates from.

Formaggio!!! Cheese lovers will love this section with its wide variety of cheese to choose from.

There was also a wide variety of salami, prosciutto and other cured meats from the local farms. Eataly believes in informed eating and that people who should be made aware of the origin of their food. Hence there is always information about where and under what conditions the food items are made. In this photo, the signs above the hanging salami contain such information.

Spices

I've never seen such a wide variety of pasta in my life! There were shelves and shelves of pasta for sale in Eataly.

If you feel like it, you can have pasta there.

This machine's really cute. For €1, you can have a bottle of fresh cow's milk. Put your bottle in, slot in the coin and wait for it to fill up! The milk is gotten fresh every day and you're encouraged to recycle your bottles.

These are the bottles that can be bought when you want to buy milk. Each bottle costs 40¢.

The wine section takes up almost the entire basement.

You can buy wine straight from the barrel, using the bottles on the left hand side of the photo to contain the wine.

Beer lovers need not despair. There's also a whole section devoted to beer and other spirits. You can also sit at the counter and enjoy a pint or two.

Stacks of cheese waiting to be eaten in due course

You can also buy kitchenware here.

There's also an area where you can sit and browse the cook books for sale. You can also have a meal there they serve food there as well. There are eight themed restaurants you can check out. Eataly also organises cooking classes and other food events and if you're going to be in Turin, perhaps you could try attending one! It's probably best to check out their website for updates.

There are other sections like bread & pastry, jams, coffee, tea, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, meat and seafood etc, each with really fantastic food. It's definitely a place worth a visit for foodies!

Eataly Torino: Via Nizza, 230 / 14 (in front of "8 Gallery") Turin Lingotto

Opening hours: Every day 10am to 10.30pm
Restaurants open from 12am to 3pm and from 7pm to 10.15pm

Harajuku Crepes

In order to get a taste of Japanese pop culture, we decided to head to Harajuku (原宿) to have a look. This is like the equivalent of Singapore's Far East Plaza, except that it's many times more happening and interesting.

We were hoping to catch a glimpse of some cosplayers but none were there. Still the narrow street was packed with shoppers. We came across several Lolita shops and shops with all kinds of weird fashion which only the Japanese could carry off. The fashion being sold there wasn't really my style so all I really wanted to do was get out of the crowds asap.

The only stall I was looking for was one of the crepe stalls so that I could get my hands on some crepe. It was as if everyone who came to Harajuku came for the crepes 'cos I saw so many people eating one. Being a sucker for crepes, I couldn't resist getting one either even though I had already had lunch.

The staff at the stalls make the crepes with speed to keep up with the queue that never seems to shorten. There are savoury and sweet crepes in all sorts of flavours like strawberry, chocolate, banana, blueberry, crepe with ice cream etc. Don't worry if you don't speak Japanese 'cos the menu is a series of fake crepes with numbers next to each crepe. When it gets to your turn, just tell the person the number. The girl who served me understood English...failing which, just write the number down. Easy!

This tiny lane was filled with people eating crepes they had just bought. Everyone was ducking into the lane to finish up their crepes instead of braving the crowds with a crepe in hand.

The crepe I chose was called the Mont Blanc and true dessert lovers would know that with a name like that, it would surely have to contain chestnut puree. I love chestnut so I couldn't go away without giving this a try. To be honest, it wasn't that fantastic, but I'm partial to chestnut so I liked it all the same.

Getting there: Take the subway train to Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line

Shiseido Parlour

I discovered that a Shiseido 'cake' could take on two meanings in Japan. Before going to Tokyo, a Shiseido 'cake' would have just meant a two-way cake to me. Two-way cakes, by the way, are fantastic for a lazy person like me who's too lazy to slap on foundation and powder separately, if at all.

But ah, I was to discover that the Japanese cosmetic giant has something else up its sleeve in way of 'cakes'. At Shiseido Parlour, feast your eyes and stomach on the exquisitely made cakes and chocolates. I was on my way to a sushi dinner so I didn't actually sample any of the delights. Seriously, there is too much good food in Japan for my stomach to handle!

That Mille Feuille au Chocolat looks devilishly good.

You can browse and buy cookbooks. You can also dine in and the seating area is upstairs.

Shiseido Buildingg 4-5F, Ginza 8-8-3, Tokyo

Giant Tako Ball

I came across the biggest tako ball while walking along the street market in Ueno (上野), Tokyo. As I was hungry, I was more interested in filling my stomach rather than looking at the shoes and clothes around. So I went on the prowl for food while I left my friends in the shoe shop where they got waylaid. My eyeballs caught sight of these baseball-sized tako balls when I walked past the stall. Naturally, I just had to give it a try!

You can choose different toppings - plain, with cheese, with spring onions and three others which I can't remember now.

This giant taco ball is a different from the normal ping-pong ball sized one in that it has got pieces of sausage and a quail egg in it. They were also generous with the taco (octopus).

It is then served in a cute little box not unlike those used for Chinese takeaways in the US. It's not fine dining or anything, but it's hearty junk food and I enjoyed it thoroughly!

And don't worry if you don't speak or understand Japanese. They have pictures with English translations and you can just point to it. Each taco ball costs 300 yen (approx S$4).

London Favourite Eats

1) Leather Lane – this lane near my office in Holborn has cheap eateries lining it to cater to the lunch-time office crowd. My favourite stall there is the Mediterranean salad stall Sunny’s Olive Tree. They have the best mixed salad box for a cheap £2.50. A bigger box costs £3.20 but the small one is more than enough to fill you up. It comes with a slice of foccacia too. I love their fresh cherry tomatoes, cous cous and mixed beans. You can also choose to buy a range of olives and nuts that they sell.

2) Food For Thought – A vegetarian organic café in 31 Neal Street, Covent Garden. I’m usually not big on vegetarian, but this one serves really yummy vegetarian food. Everything’s good, but I especially love their quiche and stews. For dessert, try their crumbles.

3) Churreria Espanola – This Spanish eatery at 177-179 Queensway W2 5HL (nearest Tube: Bayswater) has hearty Spanish food at reasonable prices. Try the pork knuckle and meat balls. And if you like thick molten hot chocolate (Spanish chocolate caliente), this is the place to head to. It’s the only one I’ve found in London!

4) Carluccio’s – It may be a chain, but it serves up affordable and pretty good quality Italian food. They have several branches around London in South Kensington, Canary Wharf, Spitalfields etc. They recently opened one in Covent Garden.

5) Masala Zone – Good Indian food at reasonable prices. The Thali set is good value for money. They have several branches, but I've only been to the one near Oxford Circus.

6) Harlem – The service is crappy and slow but the pancakes there are fantastic. It's a great place to go to for a lazy Sunday brunch. Just be really patient. On a nice day, you can walk over to Kensington Park after eating to lounge around some more! They're at 78 Westbourne Grove W2 5RT (nearest Tube: Bayswater).

7) Kowloon Bakery on Gerrard Street, Chinatown. I go there to get my fix of Chinese breads and pastries. My Polo bun, Lo Por Bang (Wife’s Biscuit), Malay Cake (a steamed cake), Char Siew Bao, egg tarts etc. It's not fantastic, but it's good enough to satisfy those cravings for something Asian.

8) Maison Bertaux – a charming French patisserie with rather retro and quirky interiors on 27 Greek Street in Cambridge Circus. Try the chocolate mousse cake, St Honore and raspberry slice with fresh cream. I don't really like the rest, so just give it a miss. It's a nice place to go for tea or dessert after dinner.

9) Marks & Spencer’s Food Hall – love all the ready-made meals. I take ages to decide what to get! M&S is ubiquitous in the UK and their Bureau de Change (in the bigger stores) offer good exchange rates to buy or sell foreign currency. Actually I think they offer the best rates. I've done my homework.

10) Waitrose – love all the ready-made meals. Like M&S, I can never decide what to get. I only wished they had more stores around London!

11) Cornish Pasties – workman’s food which is somewhat like the British version of the Italian calzone. Or you could say it's the British version of the curry puffs in Singapore, except it's not curry. Anyway, it's hearty fare which I love for a snack.

12) Borough Market – In my opinion, the best farmer’s market in London. It's both a visual and gastronomical feast. A must-go for foodies.

13) Duchy Originals – the line of food products endorsed by Prince Charles. Profits from sales of Duchy’s food go to charity. Good for people into ethical eating. The chocolate tart, lemon tart, biscuits, basically everything is really yummy! It’s not cheap compared to M&S but it’s worth the money.

14) Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant - the roast duck and char siew look the best amongst the eateries along Gerrard Street. I think it's kinda the best among the worst. The Chinese food in Chinatown is actually pretty crappy but Four Seasons isn't too bad. They have a branch in Bayswater too. The Chinatown outlet is at 12 Gerrard Street and the Bayswater one is at 84 Queensway W2 3RL.

15) Lisboa Patisserie - a Portuguese cafe at 57 Golborne Road W10 5NR serving fantastic Portguese egg tarts and other pastries. It's always crowded and I think it's best to do take-away. It's near Portobello Market so if you're around the famous flea market, take a short detour and head to this cafe for a snack if you're feeling peckish.

16) Ben's Cookies - Really yummy freshly baked cookies sold by weight. It's the same price across the board. So for example, if you buy a dark chocolate with nuts, it'll cost slightly more than one that's a lemon-flavoured one. On average, each cookie costs £1.35. It's a big cookie but still expensive nonetheless. But it's worth the money especially when eaten fresh!

Mad About Pies

I couldn't possibly leave England without writing about pies. I love eating pies and it's one of the items of English pub-grub I really enjoy. A hot pie made with shortcrust pastry (any other pastry just doesn't do it for me) filled with succulent meat and/or stewed vegetables is such a treat on a cold day. I like my pies served with gravy and mashed peas. As you may have expected, I have eaten a lot of pies in the time I've been in the UK. Such an indulgence that doesn't help in my expanding girth, but nevermind.

I was at Hampton Court Palace and was listening to the audio guide about pies in the Tudor period. Back in the those days (1500s), the pastry was really just used as a pot. They didn't have many pots and pans back then, so the pastry was used as a container to cook the meat in. After the meat was cooked, the Tudors would have taken the lid off and used the rest of the pastry as a bowl from which they would have eaten the meat from.

Pies are one of the food items I'll miss when I leave the UK. I haven't quite found a good pie place in Singapore! Foodie friends in Singapore, if you're reading this, please keep a lookout for good pie places for me!

Melted Cheese

For those of us who absolutely adore melted cheese, there's nothing like a raclette. Raclette is a type of cheese or a dish featuring cheese. The cheese and dish originate from the Swiss Alps and the cheese is made from cow's milk.

This is really good, hearty comfort food. It's a dish fit for the cold weather that has made its presence felt since September. This stall selling raclettes and melted cheese sandwiches can be found in Borough Market, London. The nearest Tube station is London Bridge.

I just love it when the hot, melted cheese is scraped off the top. Watching that thick, viscous cheese slide off onto the mashed potatoes is pure ecstasy.

After scraping one layer off, the raclette cheese is put back under the heater to melt down the next layer.

The stall also sells melted cheese sandwiches. That vast amount of cheese stacked between the bread slices is enough to satisfy any cheese fanatic.

The raclette dish – hot, melted raclette cheese on mashed potato flavoured with some fresh ground black pepper with some gherkins on the side.

Heavenly.

Hot Chocolate

Pun intended in entry title by the way!

The hotbod was spotted in the window display of chocolaterie Jean-Charles Rochoux.

Anyway, am off to Nottingham for the weekend for a dragonboat race. Let's hope I meet some human hotbods there! If not meet, at least get to see and feast my eyes on some!

Hermé NOT Hermès

Fashion divas may pay homage to Hermès, but as food divas, the Skinny Epicurean and I had to pay homage to Hermé. Note the difference in the accent and the extra 's'!!! Those two elements make a whole lot of difference!

While the latter is a haute couture house, the one both of us paid homage to is a haute patisserie. Yes, judging by its prices, it is haute pastry alright.

Skinny Epicurean was utterly ecstatic and over the top when she saw this street sign. She couldn't wait to rush cross the road to get over to that street, because what lies there is famed patisserie Pierre Hermé.

With its very sleek signage, who would have guessed what lies inside are a heavenly assortment of cakes and pastries??? Just as Hermès boutiques are decked out in beautiful clothes and accessories, the cakes and pastries are equally gorgeous in their colours and appearance...a testament to the skilled pastry chefs who churn out these heavenly delights!

The staff are all smartly dressed in black, immaculately tailored uniform and they handle the cakes and pastries with the utmost care. It's almost like some venerable touch!

Go on, feast your eyes!!!

I tried the Praline MilleFeuille (5 Euros) which had so many fine and delicate layers of pastry that were freshly crunchy. The richly flavoured praline mousse just melted in the mouth. It can rival Sadaharu Aoki's Macha MilleFeuille for my favourite MilleFeuille so far. I think both are on equal standing 'cos they are very different in their own right!

Anyway, as you can guess, the Skinny Epicurean and I were very happy about having our teatime pastry fix!

Borough Market

I LOVE Borough Market! I just want to eat everything there. It's a farmers' market, but an upmarket one. The food sold there isn't cheap. Lots of gourmet cheeses, cakes, meats, chocolate, biscuits, pies, etc. It's a foodie's paradise. The photos will speak for themselves. You can't leave London without visiting it!

Delicious cakes

And more sinful cakes at another stall

Chocolate truffles

A mountain of brownies

Breads, muffins, and tarts

Cheeses

Eat your veggies!

My favourites - blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries!

Fancy sodium chloride

Jams and honey

A wide variety of vinegar infused with different flavours

Turkish delights

Going nuts over nuts

Churros

Yummy churros! Should have put this picture with this entry. It also tastes nice when dipped in sugar! It's Spanish comfort food!

Also want to add that I won't be blogging a lot from now on, not because I don't want to, but because I have limited access to the Internet. I don't have Internet access at the place I'm staying now so I have to stay back in the office after work hours to do personal emails and stuff. I always end up being one of the last few to leave the office. Technically I can leave at 4.30pm. They work a 35-hour work week in the UK...quite relaxed! I'm like the sad chick who doesn't have a social life so would rather spend her time in the office on the net. Oh well.

Chocolate Caliente

My favourite beverage in Spain was Chocolate Caliente [pronounced Cho-co-la-tay Kah-li-arn-tay] aka Hot Chocolate in English. I found this deliciously sinful version at a cafe just outside the hostal I was staying at in Torremolinos. That's probably the only good thing there! Like molten lava, this one was so thick and viscous that the waitress took so long to pour all of it. Haha. This one was freshly made from one of those espresso machines. The Chocolate Caliente from ready-made packets served by some cafes pale in comparison to the freshly brewed ones. Chocolate Caliente is usually taken at breakfast and is best eaten with freshly fried churros, the Spanish version of youtiao. It's pure comfort food!

Bill's

Bill's definitely deserves an entry of its own. I can always count on olduvai to sniff out places like this. Chungkingexpress and his posse of friends took a train from London to spend Sunday afternoon in Brighton and olduvai took us to Bill's for lunch.

Bill's sells fresh produce like seasonal fruits and vegetables, but are a little pricey compared to the big supermarket chains. It's organic blah blah blah...the English are very into ethical eating. Everywhere I turn I seem into encounter some "Eat local produce" message so that air transport is reduced hence reducing carbon emissions into the environment. I must admit that as a Singaporean I never thought much about all these 'cos in Singapore everything is imported! But OK, I'm beginning to get into the whole ethical eating movement now. It takes a bit of getting used to though!

Anyway, Bill's also sells canned and bottled foods from countries such as Thailand, France and Italy. I was surprised to find Thai curry pastes being sold in glass jars there. There is a very relaxed and casual feel to Bill's and it's bustling with activity. More often than not, you'll find yourself waiting for a table as it's always packed. As you wait, you eye the plates of food on the hands of the wait staff and the food on people's tables and you work up an appetite just by all the visually tantalising food streaming out of the kitchen.

As olduvai and I had quite a late breakfast we decided to plunge straight into dessert. We shared the Hazelnut Meringue with creme fraiche, banana, passionfruit and raspberries, topped with hazelnut sauce. Heavenly. I also had a refreshing fruit juice mix of plum, peach, mango and watermelon.

Basically everything there, whether it's savoury or sweet, looks really good. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! Those cakes with all the flowers on top as decorations look sssooooo good, it's practically obscene.

Bill's
100 North Road
Brighton
BN1 1YE
Tel: (0)1273 692 894

The Mock Turtle

Ah, what a wonderful and relaxing week spent in Brighton with olduvai! Her dorm room faces Brighton Beach and it's so nice to look out of the window and see the vast sea, the occasional sailboat and the seagulls flying around. The seagulls in Brighton are like mutants – they are especially big! They must be fed too much by humans. The pigeons are also terrible. They aren't afraid of humans at all and are very audacious as to come right up to you and snatch your food away. It's also a bit risky to eat alfresco as evident when we walked past one woman sitting at a fish & chips eatery being "bombed" by a seagull. Ooops!

It was so nice meeting up with olduvai again after a whole year. Without fail, we'll always go in search of good food every time we meet up. We visited some cafes and also cooked dinner every night. Notably we made Bak Kut Teh, cornbread, pasta, mash potato etc. I'll do a tag team with olduvai here...she has written about the places we ate at and I'm just going to fill in the gaps by supplying some pictures and short descriptions! First to feature is The Mock Turtle! Don't you just love the name already?

It's a very quaint little cafe near the Pool Valley coach station serving English tea and cakes. There is more seating downstairs if you can't find any seats on the street level. Expect to find traditional English fare like scones, tea cakes, lemon cake, orange cake, walnut & date cake, shortbread etc.

OK, the only thing is that the pictures don't look that good 'cos they wrap all their cakes up with cling wrap! Actually I think it looks visually awful...can't they use glass cake covers or something???

Jars of homemade jam stacked on the shelf for sale.

Ooh, big fat jam doughnuts below!

Olduvai had the Walnut & Coffee cake which was really nice and moist, though maybe it could do with a wee bit less sugar.

I had the Old-Fashioned Dark Gingerbread with cream. This was a little bit dry but it had the right amount of spice. The cream that came with it, however, was scary! Gosh, imagine eating all of that artery-clotting cream! I suggest that you go without the cream and save yourself 30p.

We ordered a cup of tea each. Service is prompt and expect to spend about £6 for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Note that it's closed on Mondays and is opened the rest of the week till 6.30pm.

The Mock Turtle
4 Pool Valley, Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 1NJ
Tel: 01273 327380

Ben's Cookies

All cookie lovers, you HAVE to buy some from Ben's Cookies to eat. They are delicious!!! Notice also that "Ben" is drawn by the illustrator of Roald Dahl's novels, Quentin Blake!

Hummingbird Bakery

Hummingbird Bakery is such a charming little bakery along Portobello Road. It's a very popular bakery judging by the number of people queuing up to buy the cakes and extremely pretty cupcakes.

The cakes are almost sold out by 4.30pm.

Giant chocolate chip cookies

I bought the Red Velvet cupcake which is just a plain cupcake with red colouring and vanilla frosting on top. It was nice and spongy and wasn't too sweet.

The red colour of the cupcake is a wonderful reflection of its name Red Velvet. I wanted to try everything! But of course I couldn't afford to buy so many and neither could I afford the calories! It's been raining so much in London and it's been so cold that I'd rather stay at home. It's almost summer yet temperatures are equivalent to those in Sydney where winter is reigning at the moment! Insane. Anyway, I'm hoping the weather will get better soon!

Meanwhile, the amount of cooking I've been doing in the past week is more than the average number of times I cook a year in Singapore! Cooking chronicles to come!

The Orangery at Kensington Gardens

It was a beautiful day in London yesterday and it also happened that Umami was in London and so we met up at a cafe called The Orangery situated in the heart of Kensington Gardens.

It's situated in this building facing immaculately pruned lawns.

The white, refreshing interiors of the cafe mirrored the lovely weather outside.

Some lovely spring flowers to brighten the place!



I felt that I needed some greens just to keep a more healthy diet and decided to go for the tomato, feta and basil salad. This costs £3.95...I don't even want to think about it in Singapore dollars anymore, 'cos that just gets depressing!!! It tasted OK...I mean, there's nothing much to it anyway. I had a cup of lemon & ginger tea to go with my food too. What's afternoon tea without tea?

Umami ordered the Orangery Cake which had some icing at the top and some orange bits in within the sponge cake. I thought it was a little dry for me and didn't really like it that much when I tried a bit of it.

She also ordered the fruit scone which came with full cream and jam. We were rather disappointed with this scone as they had reheated it by microwaving it, and so it didn't taste very good (we were placing high hopes of having some good English scones here).

Seeing that it was such a gorgeous day, we decided we couldn't just sit in and that we had to do the weather justice by taking a walk in the park. After all, such weather doesn't come all that often in UK!

We came across many squirrels nibbling on their food and these squirrels are so used to humans that they have no qualms about coming right up and sitting next to people. They were all very adorable!

Many people were out boating on the Serpentine, a lake within Kensington Gardens. That just made me itch to paddle. I miss paddling!!! Hordes of people were also out sunbathing on the lawns. All that's missing is a beach which will never ever materialise here!

Meanwhile I've been exploring the neighbourhood and I must say it's really very nice and charming! Many small and pretty shops! But I can't buy anything at the moment so that's pretty useless to me now.

I've also discovered that my two pals, Joe & Keith are very good cooks. I need to hone my cooking skills now. I bought blueberries and strawberries from Sainsbury yesterday and so I'm enjoying these seasonal fruits!

Anyway, back to the Orangery. My verdict is that the place scores higher on ambience than its food. But I think I'd rather do a picnic in the open...bring some food, a book and just lie on the grass and enjoy the sunshine!

Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, London, W8 4PX
Tel: +44 (0)871 3327927

Novus

Despite being ill on Monday night (still ill by the way), I didn't want to break my dinner date with two colleagues and an ex-colleague at Novus as it's so difficult to fix a date to meet up. You know us modern beings, trying to get a bunch of people to meet up is tantamount to organising an expedition to Mt Everest.

But anyway, we headed to the new restaurant serving modern European cuisine for some posh nosh. The interiors were very pleasantly done up with a contemporary European flair featuring neutral white and cream tones. According to the Uniquely Singapore website, the interiors are from designers Paul Smith and Jasper Morrison (whoever they are!). But it all blends in very nicely with the newly refurbished and very lovely National Museum.

Anyway, we splurged and went for the tasting menu which went for $108+++ per person. Chef Dan Masters and executive sous chef Philipp Meisel surprised us with a complementary starter made up of one prawn fritter seated on top a bed of guacamole. Nice gesture.

They were very good with replacing our bread platter. We hadn't even finished all the bread and they were already giving us a fresh platter!

While eating our bread, a flying ant flew onto the table and was moving around the table, coming dangerously close to the bread platter. I quickly alerted the lady in charge (a pretty blond lady who speaks with a European accent) and she promptly told one of the waiters to come over. Then this waiter comes over and puts his hand seemingly to just push the insect to another part of the table and then asks in Chinese, "What do you want me to do? Do you want me to kill it?"

Like DUH!!!! I mean, I don't freaking care whether you kill it or not! Just get the thing away! What a stupid question!

Anyway, the other starters were:

1) Slices of smoked salmon served with beetroot sorbet. That was the first time I've ever eaten beetroot sorbet and I really liked it. It was nice and refreshing and went well with the smoked salmon.

2) A big piece of scallop placed on chestnut puree together with a slice of pork belly. The sauce that came with it was both sweet and savoury at the same time. For me, this was the best dish of the night. The scallop was fresh and big, the chestnut puree heavenly and that slice of pork belly cooked to perfection.

3) A slice of seared cod fish nestled on a bed of spinach and mash potato. Fish is always difficult to get right, so kudos to the chef that the cod wasn't overcooked, but rather was really nice and moist.

Before the main course came along, we were given a scoop of lemongrass sorbet each to cleanse the palate. I really liked this!

The main course was a cut of lamb served with a rectangular piece of potato gratin. The lamb wasn't overcooked, so that was good. My colleagues felt, however, that the cut contained too much fat. Personally I was OK with it 'cos I think it's because of the fat that allows it to remain moist and not become overcooked.

Dessert was some kind of apple tart (it had some fancy French name) accompanied by cinnamon ice cream. It was pretty good but rather heavy and a tad too sweet for me. Maybe the apples were soaked in too much sugar. Would have been better if it were a little more sour.

At the end of it, a complementary plate of chocolates with a macaroon and blueberry madeleine were served to us - a nice touch to end the evening.

Overall, a good but pricey dining experience. Guys, it's a good place to bring your date for a nice, quiet evening if you're willing to splurge. That's all the fine dining I'm going to do in a really really long while!

Novus Restaurant & Bar #01-02
Tel: 6336 8770
Service: Very good
Price: At least $60/pax

Portobelle

Thanks everyone, I'm very happy with my new man. :) As men go, I'm still trying to figure him out and finding out which are the right buttons to push. We're still trying to get familiar with each other. Hee.

Amidst all that, I managed to take some time out to eat at Portobelle last Friday. This tiny Mediterranean cum Mexican restaurant located in one of the Peranakan-style shophouses along Killiney Road looked very charming and cosy with its terracotta walls, but unfortunately the food there didn't quite match the nice rustic look of the place. I had a plate of Quesadilla which had olive, tomatoes, green chilli and melted cheese inside. It was edible but it tasted very ordinary. My friend had the mussels in tomato sauce for a starter and ordered some pita bread to go with it. She said it was alright, but not particularly tasty.

I also tried their tiramisu which kinda disappointed. I felt it tasted rather flat - not enough alcohol, the cream was a tad too sweet, and I'd have preferred a little more coffee powder to make it slightly more bitter.

Anyway, I doubt I'll be making a second visit. I even went to Killiney Kopitiam on the opposite side of the road to have a plate of fried rice after leaving the restaurant! That plate of rice which costs $4.50 left me much more sated!

128 Killiney Rd
Tel: 6737 7127
Service: OK
Price: $30-$40/pax

Bills

Australians love to do brunch - that I've concluded from the numerous places I observed having brunch menus and the vast number of people tucking in to the huge portions of food from late morning into the afternoon.

I guess this two-in-one meal concept works for people who are late risers. But I'm an early bird for the most part and prefer eating more meals a day for more variety. Just 'cos I'm greedy. :)

But well, on a lovely and lazy Saturday, C, my good friend in Sydney brought me to bills for brunch. Located in a quiet street corner in the charming suburb of Darlinghurst, this cafe by Australian celebrity chef Bill Granger exudes a nice casual feel, making you feel like you've stepped into your own dining room.

A big wooden dining table is the centrepiece of the cafe. Diners sit around the table making you feel as if this is like some big communal eating affair. Placed in the middle of the table are magazines like Vogue, Bazaar, Vogue Travel, and other hip magazines sprawled on the table for diners to browse as they munch. I lurve it.

You can see the people in the kitchen working with the open kitchen concept. I love the blackboard on the wall too. I want to have that in my kitchen one day if I ever get my own home!

I was a little disappointed at the menu though. There wasn't much to choose from. There were pancakes, some yoghurt thingy, muffins, corn fritters and you could also design your own toast. I was just expecting more variety and some things that sound more exciting.

C chose the corn fritters and bacon above which were very tasty.

The pancakes that I saw someone ordering looked very delicious (they were thick and fluffy) what with the bananas and maple syrup but I was in the mood for something savoury. So I chose toast instead. This came with scrambled organic eggs and the sliced fresh tomatos and mushrooms were side orders. Other side orders to choose from are bacon, avocado, cooked tomatoes and a few other stuff which I can't remember now!

Though I didn't find the food particularly exciting, I must say it did taste good. Probably just 'cos the food was fresh. I really liked the eggs as they were so fluffy and delicious! There was so much of it that I couldn't finish. What a pity.

It's a nice place for brunch, after which you can head to the charming little shops for some shopping or just walk around the neighbourhood to look at some of the lovely old terrace houses.

C and I headed to Freshwater Beach which is the next beach up north from Manly. It's smaller and less touristy than Manly but just as nice too! We spent the afternoon there swimming and soaking in the sun while lying on the beach talking and occasionally eyeing the random cute surfer dude. One thing I love about Australia? There's so much eye candy for me! Drool fest! And now I'm back in the cesspool of men here in Singapore. Blah.

433 Liverpool Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia
T +61 2 9360 9631

Mon - Sat
7.30 - 15.00
18.00 - 22.00

Sun
8.30 - 15.00

Pancakes In Paradise

I had the yummiest pancakes at Surfers Paradise at this restaurant called Pancakes In Paradise. The place certainly lives up to its name with its thick and fluffy and oh-so-irresistable pancakes.

On weekends, the place is packed! They serve savoury pancakes too. E.g. with bacon and egg. You can also have your pancakes with ice cream, chocolate, banana, strawberry, etcetc. You have no lack of choices!

This is called the "Long Stack", that is, four pancakes in a stack. At first I thought that yellow scoop on stuff on top was ice cream. But it turned out to be a huge scoop of butter!!! Man, it was sinful but so damn delicious!

I know it's terribly unhealthy, but I love to drown my pancakes in maple syrup. My friends think I'm mad. But I just have a very sweet tooth and here I attempted to make a smiley face with the syrup. But the syrup soaked through and my smiley pancake looks more like a sad pancake. Oh well, it ended up in my stomach nonetheless - guess that's nothing for Mr Pancake to be happy about!

The enormous pancake that stands at the entrance to welcome visitors. And no, I didn't go for the All You Can Eat offer. I couldn't even stomach more than two so it wouldn't have been worth the money to go for the buffet. I actually shared the Long Stack with a friend. Just eating two of those pancakes left me really stuffed!

I'd recommend going to Pancakes In Paradise for a really hearty breakfast. If the restaurant were by the beach, it'd be even better with views of the beach! But unfortunately, it's not. However, it's only a three-minute walk from the beach so you can just head straight to the beach after eating!

Cookies!!!

As you can see, tiggie, fatgirl and I baked many cookies! Was really fun mucking around in the kitchen. The bottom two trays of cookies were decorated by me. I had a lot of fun doodling with the icing.

Should do this with my friends more often. :)

The True Baguette

The true baguette is thin, between about 24 to 28 inches long, slightly flattened, weighs nine to ten ounces, and has five or seven oblique slashes along the top surface, made just before baking, to allow the dough to expand before the crust has set. The crust itself it toasty, tight, and crackling, and the insides (known as the 'crumb' in English or the 'mie in French) are creamy - nearly golden - never bone white, and marked by an irregular profusion of glossy bubbles and holes, some as large as olives.

The true baguette is made only from flour, water, and salt - and, usually, yeast for leavening. Countless French techniques exist for arriving at the same goal, but the classic recipes call for a brief, slow kneading and a fermentation of several hours with only a little yeast. A true baguette must be baked directly on the hearth; its underside never shows the telltale curve and waffle pattern of a metal pan. Its most elusive qualities are the strong, simple sweetness of the crumb, though absolutely no sugar can be added, and a nearly paradoxical quartet of textures - around the air bubbles, the crumb is dense, moist, stretchy, and extremely tender, all at the same time, with no hint of rubberiness, no dry, tough sheets or filaments of gluten.

- Jeffery Steingarten in It Must've Been Something I Ate

Corduroy Cafe

The cafe arm of the Corduroy & Finch group located on level 1of Vivo City is a place done up very tastefully, giving a classic French cafe feel. It's dark wooden chairs and tables and comfortable sofas just beckon you to sink your butt into it and enjoy a cuppa.

It helps, too, that as you make your way into the sitting area, you have to walk past this display of pretty cupcakes topped with huge swirls of colourful icing, decadentally sinful cherry chocolate cake looking positively evil in their dark brown coat, delightful cherry crumbles, panna cottas, etc. Your brain synapses just start telling you to order everything in sight as you go to find a table for yourself!

The cafe faces the waterfront and if you want to get closer, just opt to dine al fresco. Order at the counter, pay up and your food will be brought to you. I had the grilled chicken sandwich with egg which came with salad in balsamic dressing. The bread was fresh but the sandwich was average. Nothing that I haven't eaten before. I couldn't make room for dessert but next time I'll make sure I do so. I do like the setting of the place what with it's homey feel. Magazines and newspapers are also provided to be read at your own leisure.

Great place for brunch or afternoon tea!

Service: Prompt and pleasant.
Expenditure: Average $20 per person

Corduroy Cafe
Vivocity
#01-106
Tel: 6376-9895

Jade Garden Restaurant 苏浙汇

I always believe that as long as there are Chinese people around, there will always be people willing to pay for good food. The increasingly affluent Chinese in China are forking out lots of money to eat in posh restaurants like Jade Garden Restaurant and South Beauty 俏江南.

Originally from Shanghai, Jade Garden Restaurant now has two outlets in Beijing, one of which is on the first floor of the building where my company's Beijing office is situated. South Beauty is located in the next building where the office used to be located until June this year. So I've eaten many times at both restaurants. Lucky me. Hee.

Jade Garden Restaurant specialises in the cuisine from the provinces of Jiangsu (江苏), Zhejiang (浙江) and the Shanghai municipality. The most famous city in Jiangsu is Suzhou (苏州) and in Zhejiang it's Hangzhou (杭州). The word 汇 (hui) refers to the Shanghai municipality. Jade Garden's interior design is what one would call Chinois chic with Chinese influences fused with Western design - no gaudy red dragons and phoenixes wood carvings adorning the walls and ceilings. It is elegant with pristine white tablecloths, black chairs with clean lines, string beaded curtains in the numerous private rooms in the restaurant for added privacy.

On week days, the clientele stems mainly from the corporate sharks who have to entertain other corporate sharks. On weekends, the place is patronised by many families. The place is always packed and I have no doubt that there are many rich Chinese people out there 'cos the food really isn't what I would call cheap even by Singapore standards.

Serving portions are similar to Singapore, i.e. quite small. This actually suits me fine 'cos most of the time I can't finish the huge portions that many other cheaper restaurants in China serve.

The menu is pretty extensive. There are the cold dishes (凉菜) which are the appetisers. Many of these dishes are sauteed vegetables served cold - I like ordering these cold dishes in the thick of summer but certainly not when it's cold. The mains consist of many stir-fried items, and dishes like preserved vegetables with stewed pork (梅菜扣肉), steamed fish, black pepper pork ribs, stir-fried diced beef in a honey glaze, and Shanghainese dishes like Xiaolongbao (小笼包) pan-fried buns (生煎包) and soup buns (汤包). There's also the famous Yangzhou Fried Rice (扬州炒饭).

It's a nice restaurant to go to for Chinese fine dining in China. Everything is clean and nice and service is good. However, I think I'm getting jaded - even though the food was pretty good, it didn't have the Wow-factor. But still, at the end of a long work day in a foreign city, it's nice to go there and have a good dinner instead of some grubby place. All these on company expense, of course! ;)

Basil Alcove

Tuesday night's dinner was at a hole-in-the-wall eatery at Fortune Centre. If you didn't look consciously, you would definitely miss the small Italian eatery Basil Alcove.

The place is spartanly furnished with only three small tables inside the eatery. The rest of the customers have to sit outside on the yellow benches placed outside along the footpath.

The menu is not extensive. The choice of starters include one or two salads, some mushrooms and bruschettas. We wanted to order the Caesar salad but were told that they had run out of vegetables. Hmmm...that didn't bode well. So we decided to go for the bruschetta instead. This wasn't too bad. The tomatoes were pretty fresh, and it tasted a little tangy and spicy. It came with a tiny cup filled with olive oil for people who wanted to dip the bread in more oil.

Our mains however, took FOREVER to come. We waited for about an hour. Maybe more. If not for the fact that the six of us were just downing beers and talking nonsense to amuse ourselves (that's what happens when you get 6 fun, intelligent, and opiniated women together. haha), we would have stalked off. But soon, our stomachs started to protest.

But our food came eventually. The Chicken Avocado with vegetables and peach chunks was a winner for its $7.90 price tag. The three pieces of chicken were marinated and pan-fried to just the right degree, without tasting too dry. It went well with the avocado puree. The vegetables were a tad salty but nonetheless the dish tasted pretty good.

My choice of Basilico Duck with Pesto Oil and Red Wine Dressing was a big disappointment. The duck wasn't as tasty as the chicken. It tasted rather flat and the dressing didn't do very much to lift the taste. My friend had asked for more avocado to go with her chicken and I used some of it to go with my duck. For $13.80 (one of the most expensive main courses), it really wasn't worth the money. And because they had run out of vegetables, my friend's duck came with potato cubes while mine had vegetables mainly consisting of strips of eggplant and bell peppers on the side. We found it most disconcerting at first that the same dish we had ordered came out different. OK, at least credit must be given to the chef for innovation and the fact that he didn't overcook my duck which I had ordered medium-rare. The lone chef, by the way, is a pony-tailed 23-year-old man called Xander.

Another friend ordered the Pan-fried Mackerel which she said was "not bad". I didn't try it for myself but I will take her word for it since she's pretty discerning of her food too.

Because I had been away in Beijing over the weekend, I wasn't aware that the eatery was featured in the papers over the weekend. Due to the publicity, they are finding themselves overwhelmed by surge in the number of customers. Hence the slow service (it took forever to get someone to take our orders) and the time it took for our food to arrive. And yes, attribute the lack of vegetables to that reason too.

Xander, however, was really apologetic about the long wait for our food and he apologised for it. He and his uncle were nice enough to pour us a cup of red wine each from a fresh bottle as a way of making up for the wait. Overall, we were pretty pleased with the food at those prices.

So anyway, we left at about 10.45pm after sipping wine and talking more nonsense. That was Part 1 of the action over. Part 2 went on at Balaclava with more drinks. It was a fitting farewell for one of the girls who's leaving for London!

Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road
#01-07, Fortune Centre
(S) 188979
Tel: 63361318

Plaza Market Cafe

The thing about buffets is that even though you get to eat a lot, you don't get much satisfaction from the food 'cos it's all just so mass-produced (so to speak).

The Plaza Market Cafe at Raffles the Plaza was the venue for an extended family dinner two Saturdays ago. My aunt saw the ad for their Peranakan buffet and thought of giving it a try.

It turned out to be more of an international spread to me. There was the sashimi and sushi platter, but I thought the fish weren't very fresh and tasty. It just didn't taste good. There were also raw oysters for the oyster lovers. There was also a do-it-yourself Caesar salad counter and a section with small helpings of cold appetisers.

The Peranakan elements were in the nonya laksa, kueh pie ti, popiah, beef rendang and some other nasi padang-like dishes. There were also some Chinese stir-fry dishes. I liked the pork ribs.

The desserts comprised about 1/3 of the entire buffet spread. It had a selection of cakes, nonya kuehs, fruits, ice cream, the ubiquitous chocolate fountain, and durian pudding which was rich and smooth. The latter's a must for people who love the spiky fruit!

Overall, the food was mediocre and I could have found much tastier food at much lower prices elsewhere. Definitely not worth the $42+++/pax. In addition, the service was slow as our plates weren't cleared fast enough and the wait staff were slow in bringing our orders of water and tea/coffee all the time.

Verdict: Not worth the money.

Plaza Market Cafe
Level 2, Raffles The Plaza
2 Stamford Road
Singapore 178882
Tel: 6431 6156

Iggy's

Yipee - I've now joined another club called the "Lunch Bunch". Now now, I know what you're probably thinking. You think dimsumdolly has registered herself at some dating agency because she just can't get any dates. OK, while that said fact is true (*grumble grumble*) that is not what the Lunch Bunch is about. So please don't get us confused with one of those dating agencies which specialises in organising lunch dates.

Basically this tiny group came about because us five foodies (one thorn and four roses) decided to meet for a nice, leisurely lunch at Iggy's last Thursday. We had all met before at the 2nd floggers' meeting held at Sage in September and at another makan outing. Since we all enjoyed each other's company, we decided to meet again on a smaller scale and settled on what is purportedly Asia's 4th best restaurant.

Located on the third floor of The Regent hotel, Iggy's decor is tastefully furnished with cream, earth and brownish tones, and exudes simple, graceful elegance. Shortly after I sat myself down, I was presented with a basket full of mini baguettes and some olive bread. Being not a huge fan of the baguette, I went for the triangle-shaped olive bread. I was pleased to find that it was warm and it turned out to be an olive ciabatta. It had a nice fluffiness and just the right amount of olive oil and olive bits in it. There's nothing quite like fresh bread! The butter that came with it had a slighty salty taste to it and I liked how it tasted.

We went for the lunch set which costs $45+++ for a three-course meal. An additional $30 would have been added if the wagyu strip had been chosen for the main course.

Not long after, our amuse bouche of sesame tofu under a layer of soft pumpkin puree came served in a shot glass. This little concoction looked very pretty with the finely speckled bed of white tofu sitting under that muted orange layer with some fine sprinkles of green spring onions to finish off the look. The sesame taste was subtle as the saltiness of the tofu and the slight sweetness of the pumpkin puree teased the tastebuds.

I chose the linguini with black truffle oil and mushrooms as my starter. While it did not look pretty - it looked like a black lump of wet poo dumped on linguini - it definitely tasted good. The smell of the truffle oil and the mushroom puree was heavenly. The dish was rich and silky in texture. I didn't regret my choise despite how it looked.

For my main course, I went for the wagyu goulash. Though tasty, I felt that the spices used in this dish was a bit too much for me. I might have preferred the wagyu burger which one of us chose. It looked so cute because it was so tiny - was like a toy burger.

For desserts, all five of us chose different ones. And because I have this obsession with tiramisus, I had to order that. The extremely tiny slice of tiramisu (just about 4cm by 2cm - I'm not kidding) was moist and creamy. It was good enough, but it's not the best I've had. It came with a tiny cup of ice cappuccino which - surprise surprise - had some coffee mousse under the layer of milk foam. The mousse was light and not too sweet and tasted great.

Overall, a pleasant dining experience but definitely not a place one can frequent too often unless you're out to render yourself bankrupt. I'm told it's more worth it to go for lunch rather than dinner as the latter can cost twice as much for the same amount of food. Service was also good.

Go here to read Skinny Epicurean's account of our lunch at Iggy's. She has some nice pictures on her blog! Anyway, we're trying to get this Lunch Bunch going on a regular basis and the number is growing as we're getting more foodies to join us in the next one. Can't wait!

Iggy's
The Regent Singapore, Level 3,
1 Cuscaden Rd
Tel: 6732 2234

Carnivore

After going outrigger canoeing all the way to St John's Island and back in the morning, followed by a tough dragon boat practice in the afternoon, my teammate and I decided we had to have a hearty dinner to reward ourselves for all that hard work.

"Hearty" translated to devouring lots of meat at Carnivore at Chijmes. For $39+++, you can help yourself to a buffet consisting of a salad bar and the chefs will then come round to your table with skewers of meat. Your choice of grilled meat consist of chicken thigh, chicken breast, chicken heart, fish, rump steak, pork, lamb, sausages, and some other cuts. There was also grilled garlic bread and pineapple.

While none of the meat was overcooked nor did it taste awful, there was not much of a "WOW!" factor. The salads and meats certainly were edible, but there wasn't the oh-my-god-I-just-died-and-gone-to-heaven kind of reaction to the food. Service was prompt and friendly as the chefs come around often with their skewers of meat, always ready to prod you to eat more. Most of the meat looked pretty appetising except for those tiny chicken hearts.

You pay for the variety, but honestly I couldn't eat that much. I definitely didn't eat $39+++ worth of food. Anyway, it's a place I would go to only if I were really hungry and in a mood for LOTS of meat.

Carnivore
Chijmes #01-29A
Tel: 6334-9332

Ristorante Da Valentino

Monoceros picked Ristorante Da Valentino for her belated birthday dinner and boy was it a fantastic choice!

Tucked away in a little road called Jalan Bingka which is off Rifle Range Road, this tiny Italian restaurant exudes a cosiness with its rose-red walls and home-style furnishings and decorations. You feel like you've just stepped into someone's home on entering.

A warm bread roll soon landed on each of our plates. The bread was slightly crisp on the outside and warm and fluffy inside. A pesto dip flavoured with some hint of lemon was the perfect accompaniment. I wiped out the entire dip. Actually it's "dipS" cos we all asked for another each!!!

Our starter was a piece of cheese wrapped in parma ham. The ham and cheese were then lightly pan-fried to melt the cheese a little to give it a gooey texture. It was served with some garden salad with some vinigrette. This starter was absolutely delicious and was a good indication as to what was to follow. The ham was tasty and the cheese was delightfully gooey and it is sliced through. The garden salad gave some balance to the otherwise heavy dish.

The wild boar fettucine was one of the specials of the day. The homemade pasta was nice and springy and the wild boar in a tomato-based sauce was delectable.

Always a favourite of mine, the linguini al pesto was nice and light.

The ravioli con funghi porcini was another special of the day. The minced mushrooms encased in the ravioli with cheese sprinkled on top was also tasty and had the requisite springy texture of homemade pasta.

The dish of the night had to belong to the beef steak, the Cote de Boeuf. Served on a huge platter and sprinkled with rocket, this dish is good for 4 to 5 to share. Any fewer bodies and you'd have to doggie bag. Actually, your dog would love the bone! Prepared medium-rare and lightly pan-fried with some light seasoning, the beef steak was one of the best I've ever had. For about $88, it's a really good deal especially when shared between five of us.

For desserts we had the following below. I didn't think that much of their desserts compared to the mains, but still it was a good way to end a thoroughly satisfying meal.

Chocolate apple pie - liked this one best out of the three. A nice twist to the normal apple pie and utterly sinful. Just my kinda thing.

Chocolate Salami - this was a bit dry so I didn't like it that much.

Tiramisu - creamy enough, but could have done with more alcohol.

Service: Good
Price: $50 and above per person

Ristorante Da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka
Singapore 588908
Tel: 64620555

Mango Tree

A lunch time sojourn saw three colleagues and I going to Mango Tree: Indian Coastal Restaurant at East Coast Park. It is at the same part of the park where McDonald's is.

I had never been to East Coast Park when there were so few people around. It's actually really nice without the crowds and throngs of roller bladers and cyclists who flood the place on weekends.

We seated ourselves on the veranda of the tiny restaurant and enjoyed a refreshing change of scenery. Orders were soon placed - we decided on Tandoori chicken, braised button, fish curry, stir-fried okra, lemon basmati rice and mango naan.

The dishes all turned to be a tad too spicy for all of us and the mutton was a little too salty. The okra (aka lady's fingers) was strange. There was hardly any okra in it. It was more like a mixed vegetable dish with small slices of tomato and onion in it . Didn't taste fantastic either. The fish and tandoori chicken were also rather forgettable although I must say that at least the chicken wasn't too dry. I liked the mango naan though. It was soft and fresh and a nice, slight taste of mango which actually went well with the curry.

The waiter kept trying to get us to order more than we wanted when we were placing our order. First he asked if we wanted a starter. No, we didn't. Then he asked if we wanted crabs or prawns or some other seafood. No, we didn't. Then he asked if we wanted any fresh juices (this after we said we wanted only water) like lime or orange juice. No, we didn't. Gosh, at least he didn't carry on after that!

Overall, I wasn't satisfied with the meal and I've definitely had better curries as well. I won't be back again.

Service: OK, but not exceptional
Price: $20 - $40

Mango Tree
1000 East Coast Parkway
B23 Singapore 449876
Tel: 6442-8655 / 6442-1655

Amici

Walking along Tanjong Pagar Road and not quite knowing what to eat on a quiet Monday night, my best pal from junior college and I settled on Amici as she said she had been wanting to try it out as we walked past. So fine, I just went along with the decision. The restaurant is muted in quiet tones with its dark brown furniture and dim lighting. The interior design is one of simple, modern lines and there are no fancy, ornate paintings or furniture.

For starters, we ordered a plate of bruschettas. The bread was warm and toasted when it came and topped with the requisite diced tomatoes. It was pretty ordinary and definitely not mind-blowing, or else I would have remembered the specific taste of it and have more to write about it!

My friend had the vongole with linguine and I had the linguine with crabmeat in tomato cream sauce. Both were supposedly chef’s recommendations or was it award-winning? I can’t quite remember. In any case, both dishes had an icon next to it on the menu to indicate either one or the other.

However, my friend and I didn’t think very much of our pastas. Firstly, the pasta was a tad thick for linguine and secondly, the pasta sauce just wasn’t fantastic. I mean, it’s edible, but it doesn’t take your breath away. I must say, though, that they were pretty generous with the crab meat in my pasta.

Then it was on to dessert. We ordered the tiramisu and the crepe suzette with orange sauce and chocolate gelato. The latter was supposed to come with vanilla gelato but when it came, it was strawberry gelato. As both of us hate strawberry gelato, we requested for a change to chocolate. They were too presumptuous to give us the strawberry! In any case, the crepe was tiny and not really worth the $8.90 you’d have to pay for it.

The tiramisu had an award-winning icon next to it on the menu, despite feeling skeptical at first, I decided to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. The tiramisu was creamy, smooth and moist. It had the right amount of alcohol and coffee powder which gave a nice bitter tinge.

While service was good, I doubt I’ll go back again as I honestly didn’t think much of the food.

Price: $35 onwards

Amici Bar N Restaurant
24 Tanjong Pagar Road
Tel: 6557 2090

Yoyogi

Before heading to The Chocolate Factory for dessert, my friends and I had gone to Yoyogi.

It looked promising enough what with the newspaper cuttings on the glass windows by the entrance. But we were left waiting for the longest time for a table even though there were THREE empty tables inside (although they weren't clean). A very frazzled waitress kept asking us and another group of three to wait while she checked if she had tables available. She never came back to us and in the end we got fed up and just seated ourselves. The other group left in frustration.

We ordered a Okayo don, a seafood steamboat served in a paper pot, and a
Chirashi don. Portions were rather small and I wasn't that full. But I suppose for the amount I paid for the Okayo don ($6.90++) it wasn't too bad. My friend said the sashimi in her Chirashi don was very fresh so I'll hold her word to it since she's quite a foodie too. The seafood steamboat was edible but wasn't particularly tasty.

The place is small and seats probably about 40 at most. It is furnished very simply with its creamy white walls and dark brown wooden tables and chairs; really not much frills when it comes to decor and interior design.

Service was passable except for the fact that the frazzled waitress could do with more product knowledge. If I opened a restaurant, I would allow my wait staff to try everything on the menu so that they would know what to say if customers asked anything about the food. Speaking of menus, I didn't like the one at Yoyogi. It had no pictures and it didn't offer any bento set meals.

Lee Hsien Yang and family were there. Cynical me thinks they were just there to do a social experiment. You know, eat out at normal restaurants with normal people and see how the common folks live. And they drove off in a Toyota or something. They obviously decided to leave the Rolls Royce at home. As they were leaving, the owner came to see them out. Well, he certainly didn't come out for us!

Anyway, I don't think I'll be heading there again anytime soon.

Service: OK, except for a scatterbrained waitress
Price: $20 - $40

Yoyogi Restaurant
33 Mohd Sultan Rd #01-05
Tel: 6887 4669

The Chocolate Factory

After having not been to Robertson Walk for ages, I was surprised to find that it has now become a rather lively place filled with several new Japanese restaurants.

My friends and I wanted to eat at one of the new restaurants by the river, but many of them were packed and hence we ended up at Yoyogi, a Japanese restaurant along Mhd Sultan Road. There were many Japanese families around and many cute Japanese children running around.

After eating a rather unsatisfactory dinner at Yoyogi, we decided we had to make up for the dissatisfaction by going for some really sinful dessert. We went to The Chocolate Factory at Robertson Walk where the brightly lit cafe welcomed us with its display of mont blancs, French cheesecakes, tiramisus, chocolate etc.

It's an open concept kitchen and you can see the French master and his staff at work - mixing chocolate in the mixer, melting chocolate in pots, making espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate etc. The lovely smells flood your nostrils and you just feel like eating and drinking everything.

We chose the Mont Blanc, Tiramisu and the French Cheesecake. The French cheesecake was quite a light one. It wasn't very cheesy so maybe it's good for people who don't like their cheesecakes too heavy. The tiramisu was creamy and moist but it's not the best I've had. The mont blanc was ok, but my friend thought it was a bit too sweet. I thought it could have done with more chestnut puree. I didn't quite like all that chestnut jelly-like substance at the bottom.

The cafe has a nice, relaxed atmosphere, and it's especially nice to dine alfresco and watch the people walk by. I quite like the place so I suppose I will go there again and give other desserts a try.

Service: OK
Price: $10 - $20

Maharajah

In a mood for some North Indian food last Saturday night, my parents and I went to Maharajah North Indian restaurant at Cuppage Terrace. We decided to sit outdoors as it was nice and breezy and really, I have enough of airconditioned places throughout the work week so I much prefer having some fresh air.

The papadums are really fresh and crispy too. There’s nothing worse than being served soft and stale papadums in an Indian restaurant. Apparently there are many ways to spell "papadum". Here's a whole list - go take your pick.

For starters we ordered the vegetarian samosas which served to give a first impression of the food that was to follow. The samosa’s pastry was nice and crisp without being too dry. The potato and vegetable filling went well with the yoghurt dip that came with the appetizer.

I ordered a mango lassi which I didn’t like because it was rather diluted. Thankfully, the food that came along left a better impression. We had the butter chicken, prawn butter marsala, lamb shank and cauliflower curry. And of course, there was the requisite garlic naan.

The butter chicken curry was rich, creamy and smooth and the chicken was tender. The prawn butter marsala tasted pretty similar to the chicken’s but I preferred the chicken’s. The didn't think the prawns tasted fantastic. They weren't that big too - just medium-sized. The cauliflower curry actually came with potatoes but because I don’t like them I requested for them to be replaced by more cauliflower. And kudos to them, they obliged my request. That’s what I like—flexibility. The lamb shank was quite tasty but I just felt it was a tad dry. The garlic naans were well-baked, crisp yet soft and I just adore eating freshly baked naans.

Overall, I thought the food was pretty good and I was really stuffed after that. We were served a complementary scoop of ice cream each topped with a wafer. Not fantastic ice cream so I gave it a pass.

Service: Good
Cost: $30-$40 per person. No discounts for any credit cards.

Maharajah
39 Cuppage Road
Tel: 6732 6331

Da Paolo Il Ristorante

What better way to end off a work week than to eat well? So off I went to Da Paolo Il Ristorante with a colleague and an ex-colleague. We were greeted by the attentive staff and brought to our seats.

After placing our orders, bread arrived. The slices of baguette were delightfully soft and you could tell it was really fresh. The butter was unsalted and tasted good. The olive oil was rich, full, and tasted good too. I'm not sure how does one describe good olive oil but you know it when it's good!

We had the smoked salmon with arugula drizzled with yoghurt as a starter. The sharp and bitter taste of the arugula certainly wakes up those tastebuds! It complemented the smoked salmon and yoghurt well.

I had the braised veal shank that came with a tomato-based sauce and roasted vegetables and potatoes. I left the potatoes alone 'cos I really don't like them. The sauce was lovely and the veal was braised very nicely.

My ex-colleague ordered ravioli with veal also came with a tomato-based sauce. It tasted pretty good, but not fantastic. It's not something which makes you go "WOW!"

The fried beef tenderloin which my colleague had was the winner of the night. The marinate was fantastic--so juicy and full of flavour. It also came with some duck liver which my colleague attested to be absolutely delicious.

Of course, we ladies always have a separate compartment for dessert. I had to, of course, try the tiramisu. The ex-colleague opted for the same and the colleague went for this dessert made from egg white and white wine. It came in this wine glass with a biscotti on the side. It was like a froth of egg white whipped together with white wine. Delightful!

Service was good and the wait staff attentive. But be prepared to cough out a lot of money even without ordering wine. Tap water isn't served and a bottle of still water costs $8. Expect to spend about $60/person without ordering wine.

Da Paolo Il Ristorante
80 Club Street
Tel: 6224 7081

German Food Delights

The humongous pork knuckle I had at this eatery in a small town south of Munich called Murnau. It was delicious but I couldn't barely finish half of it. That yellow blob at the side is called a knodel and is a mix of potato and dough. I liked it 'cos it tasted soft yet springy.

The famous Weissbier which was yummy too. I was trying beers everywhere I went. I had never drunk so much beer in my life!

German hotdogs in Hamburg! This was grilled over charcoal and was just so sinfully delightful!

But at the end of the day, I still like Cantonese food best. After the three weeks away from home eating nothing but bread and potato (I don't even potato to start with!), I was seriously missing rice and noodles. Typical German food is much too heavy for me. And actually I was told that Germans themselves actually favour Italian cuisine more and Italian fare is very popular. Wise choice I think!

Affair-restaurants

Affair-restaurants put the adult into adultery and the fun into fornication. And the guy into the driving seat.

A really fun read. Maybe I should start my own list for Singapore...but it's not like I need it!

Lobster Pie & Boston Clam Chowder

Had this for lunch on one of those days in Boston. Both were delish! The pie was filled with many pieces of lobster...so it was definitely the worth the US$14 I paid for it! I bought it at Quincy Food Market at Faneuil Hall.

Food Note - Black Pepper Crabs

The ones at Sin Hoi San at Blk 55 Tiong Bahru Road are good. Went there for dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday, supposedly to celebrate olduvai's belated birthday and also a farewell dinner for her. So while the rest of us ate, the poor girl just drank tea. So it wasn't much of a celebration for her in the end! But I guess the thing that mattered for her was really the gathering of friends she won't be seeing for the next year or more perhaps!

Awfully Chocolate Ice Cream

I tried the chocolate ice cream at awfully chocolate last night. It's velvet smooth, dense, rich, chocolatey--awfully good!!! What's more, it's served in these cute little white cardboard boxes (has a handle too!) fashioned after the Chinese takeaway boxes used widely in the US--awfully cute!!!!

Devastated

Yes, that's what I am. My heart is in tatters now because the Celede outlet at Temasek Towers has closed down. Boohoohoo. How am I now supposed to satisfy my cranberry scone and carrot walnut cake cravings when I'm at work??? These confectionary delights used to be just a five-minute walk away but now it's probably a 500-minute walk away!

Depressed now lah.

Soy Bean Milk on SQ

On my recent flight on Singapore Airlines to and from Beijing, I was pleased to discover that they have included soy bean milk as one of their beverages on board. This is for economy class as well--I know because that's the class I always fly! I'm not THAT high up in the company hierarchy. In fact, I'm not high up. Period.

But if I read the inflight magazine correctly, this is only for flights to and from Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong. I can't quite remember the exact details, but I know it doesn't apply to all SQ flights.

Anyway, I got excited because I love drinking soy bean milk. And I usually like to have it warm. So I asked for it. Note: it's not usually placed on that trolley when they come round to serve you drinks. You have to request for it. So I guess it's only for those who read the inflight magazine and come to know of it!

Then I realised that it's really no loss if you don't know of it. 'Cos the soy bean milk SQ serves tastes really gross!!! It's so diluted and tasteless, and there's no presence of the smooth, rich taste of soy bean. I don't know which brand of soy bean milk they use, but my suggestion is that they change it pronto!!! I think I shall write in to SQ catering and give them some feedback. Let's see what they say about it!

Wiener Kaffeehaus

Wiener Kaffeehaus is a recently opened Austrian coffeehouse in one of the shophouses along Neil Road. It has a modern European feel to it with its dark wooden panels, gold and yellow paintings strategically placed amongst mirrors which serve to make the place seem bigger than it actually is.

Olduvai, slumbering girl and I had dinner there on Friday night as we wanted to check the place out. Olduvai was the early bird--she arrived there at 5pm and had the sachertorte which I had a nibble of when I arrived. It was a tad too dry for our liking though. While waiting for slumbering girl to arrive, we ordered a Caesar salad to share. This was just average. Nothing very mindblowing.

For our mains, we ordered the Schnitzel and the Fiaker Gulasch to share amongst us three. The Schnitzel was a huge piece of deep-fried pork cutlet and it was just right for three to share. To eat one portion on one's own is a bit too much. I liked the gulasch as it was served with tender pieces of beef, a sunny-side-up, a bread dumpling and a sausage. The gravy was very tasty and I preferred this to the Schnitzel which I thought would be better had the meat been more moist.

We didn't stay for dessert as the desserts didn't look particularly enticing. The crepes looked (I spied another table's order) very pale, as if it were uncooked. The apple strudel looked OK, but I'm not fond of the European apple strudel as I don't like the raisins in it. I much prefer the Australian spin-off with the cream and custard.

I didn't try the coffee 'cos I'm not a coffeedrinker. But olduvai and slumbering girl did so, and I think they said the coffee there's pretty good.

The place was very well-patronised on a Friday night. Service is generally good and friendly. There's also wifi broadband access as well for those who lug their laptops around. For a full meal there, be prepared to spend about $20-$25 per person. All in all, it's a nice place to chill out to enjoy a cup of coffee!

Wiener Kaffeehaus
148 Neil Road
Tel: 6226-3148
Opens: 10am to 10pm daily

糖水

I love those Hong Kong-style toasts where the slice of bread is about 5cm thick, and dripping with honey and oozing melted butter. It's slightly crisp on the surface, while the inside of the bread is as soft as a bed of feathers as you sink your teeth into it. Now, THAT's comfort food for you.

Anyway, on Saturday I found a place which serves up a really good toast like the one just described. It's an eatery along Zion Road called 糖水 (Tong Shui). It serves other Hong Kong 茶餐厅 (Cha Chaan Teng) favourites like 车仔面 (Che Zhai Meen) and Cantonese desserts.

The place has a cheery feel with its fuschia pink and grass green coloured walls. It opens from 12pm - 6am, so it's a great place for supper!

Danson Durian Chocolate

The driver seemed to know my weakness--chocolates. He brought my friends and me to Malaysian's only chocolate manufacturer (or so he says). But anyway, the visit to Danson left me 50 Ringgit poorer and two boxes of Durian Dark Chocolate richer.

I love durians and I love dark chocolates, so I couldn't walk out without buying it. Of course, I tried a sample first before deciding to buy. The dark chocolate was smooth and had enough bitterness in it. The durian inside was nice too and surprisingly went very well with the chocolate. This combination apparently won itself the accolade of Chocolate of the Year in 2004 accorded to it by the Malaysian Cocoa Association (or something like that).

My parents loved it too and the two boxes of chocolates (containing 9 pieces in each box) were very swiftly wiped out in two days. So if anyone's going to Malaysia, please help me get these chocolates!

Crystal Jade Ginseng Chicken

Crystal Jade restaurants seem to be invading Takashimaya Shopping Centre. That being the case, I naturally found myself eating at one of them one day. That Friday night, I ate at Crystal Jade's Korean outlet on the fourth floor.

Riding on the popularity of the Korean drama series, Jewel in the Palace (大长今), there's even a Jewel in the Palace set menu for $53.90+++ per person. My friend and I went for the set menu for 2 which costs $59+++. If you're into BBQ, you can also choose from the BBQ menu. But my friend and I were lazy, we didn't want to cook our own food, hence we went for the set menu.

Our set included the following dishes:
- 6 side dishes/appetizers (the usual big bean sprouts, kimchi, ikan bilis, long beans and carrots, preserved spinach etc)
- stir-fried vegetables
- beef bibimbap
- ginseng chicken
- grilled mackeral
- fruits (2 thin slices of watermelon and 2 thin slices of honeydew)

The appetizers were pretty good and I liked the stir-fried vegetables. The vegetables were light and easy on the stomach. I liked the grilled mackeral as it was tasty and the meat wasn't too dry. The beef bibimbap was OK. Not really that much better than what I can get in a food court. The ginseng chicken was nice, but the soup could do with a stronger taste of ginseng. It was still tasty though and the chicken was very tender.

Service was prompt and the wait staff were good with refilling of our tea. Overall, the meal wasn't too bad and I wouldn't mind going there again if I'm craving for Korean food while in town.

Liqun Roast Duck 利群烤鸭店

For a bit of an adventure, try to find your way to Liqun Roast Duck for what is purportedly one of Beijing's best roast duck. I mean, how can one go to Beijing and not eat Peking Duck, right? You will find many local trishaw riders offering to take you there (for a fee of course) but my suggestion is don't hop on, 'cos really, the fun is in sniffing it out on your own.

Follow the makeshift signs and eventually you'll get to it. The place is tucked away in the labyrinth of hutongs and is really very nondescript. But therein lies the satisfaction of finding it.

But frankly, I'm not really a huge fan of the Peking Duck in Beijing because I don't like the way it is eaten. The duck skin is not as crispy as compared to the ones I've eaten in Hong Kong and Singapore. Also, in Beijing they slice it such that there's some duck meat left under the skin. And honestly, I didn't think Liqun Roast Duck was THAT fantastic. Still prefer the way it is prepared in Hong Kong and Singapore. Still, I had fun hunting the place down and going through the hutongs. I like the place too as it's full of local flavour with it's old and cramped interiors, dirty toilets and all. It's actually within walking distance of one of the entrances of the Underground City. And actually, the Temple of Heaven (天坛) isn't too far away as well if you're willing to do some walking!

No. 11 Beixiangfeng, Zhengyi Road
Qianmendong St, Qianmendong Hutong
Beijing,
Tel: (86) 10 6705-5578

Eight Treasure Congee 八宝粥

Had this Eight Treasure Congee 八宝粥 in an eatery in the Muslim Quarter of Xi'an. It's slightly sweet in taste, and has a gooey texture. The congee contains rice grains, raisins, wolfberries, peanuts, red dates, and three other ingredients of which I can't identify.

I ordered it only because I wanted to try it, but I didn't really like it. Too gooey and sticky for me. But interesting to know of new food items nonetheless.

Beijing Donghua Night Market 北京东华夜市

Just a street or two away from the main shopping district of Wangfujing (王府井) in Beijing, lies a street which comes alive at night with whole row of street food stalls. This is precisely what dimsumdolly's playground is about.

So the line of stalls spanning about 200 metres sell all sort of street snacks (小吃). Pieces of smelly beancurds, muttons, prawns, silkworms are skewered and grilled, emanating a myriad of smells that tease and flirt with one's nostrils. Sea urchins, sparrows and all sorts of innards are also available for the more adventurous eaters.

I had my first deep-fried sea urchin. The black globs didn't taste very good and I threw it away after having a scoop of it. It's a far cry from eating it raw as I adore eating it that way. Or maybe Japanese uni is just different. Who knows?

Always a sucker for crepes, pancakes and the likes, I had to try this Shandong spring onion pancake. Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as it looked. It was very bland.

I'm still not sure what this really is. The shop owner told me it's dog's penis. I don't know if he was lying or not??? Of course I didn't try it. Dimsumdolly has her limits, thank you very much. But if there's anyone who can tell me if the shopowner was telling the truth or not, please let me know!!!

This was some steamed dessert made from glutinous rice. It looked very cute and pretty that's why I bought it. There's a slightly sweet taste to it but I was a little disappointed with the taste as it didn't taste as good as it looked. Too bland.

Other foodstuff sold were pan-fried dumplings (锅贴), boiled dumplings (饺子) and steamed soup dumplings (小笼包). Desserts like sweet soup and caramelized fruits were also available.

My conclusion is that the food isn't fantastic, but it's worth a short visit just to have a look at the food and soak in the bustling energy that runs through the market.

Romantic Kobe

OK, now's here a Japanese curry you should NOT check out. A friend's friend who's Japanese recommended it so we thought it should be pretty good since it's recommended by a Japanese.

But the Japanese curry rice at Romantic Kobe (cheesy name and the place is not romantic at all) at United Square's basement was really not good at all. I seriously doubt the tastebuds of that Japanese girl. The beef stew I had and the chicken curry rice my friend had were not tasty. The miso soup was so-so. The salad that came with didn't taste good either. The rest of the items on the menu were all deep-fried stuff which we weren't keen on.

When we got to the small eatery, there was only one other table filled. Of course, everyone else knew better. So the lesson learnt here is to trust the crowds in future!

Baladi

Craving for some hummus and tabbouleh which I haven't had for an extremely long time, I decided to meet up with a friend for a meal at Baladi, a Lebanese restaurant along North Bridge Road, just opposite Sultan Mosque.

Set in earthy reddish and pink toes, the 2nd floor of the restaurant has a very chill-out feel to the place. Warm, dim yellow lighting further plays up the relaxed feel of the place. However, the low tables make sitting down rather uncomfortable. I guess the idea is that they don't want you to get too comfortable in case you linger for too longer! Turnover is after all what the business wants.

Anyway, we went for the Mezzah set for two which consisted of a meat platter of cubes of chicken, beef and lamb, two slices of pita bread, tabbouleh, a salad and two types of dip. I also ordered half a portion of hummus.

I enjoyed the hummus and tabbouleh but the meat was just okay. Not fantastic but edible. I think it's a place I'd go to more to chill out and have a few drinks rather than the food itself. If you're into smoking sheeshas, it's available there too. The place was pretty well patronized on a Saturday night, so it's probably best to make a reservation just to be safe.

Baladi
709 North Bridge Road
Tel: 6396 6451

My Dining Room

See, the good thing about having friends who eat and blog is that you can just redirect people to your friend's review of the place when you're short of time to write due to shitloads of work piling on your desk.

So please go to olduvai's review of the My Dining Room where we had a leisurely lunch on Tuesday. I was a bit crazy I suppose--I had only arrived back in Singapore from Beijing at 6am that very morning. I got home, took a nap and was out and about again.

After lunch, olduvai and I went our separate ways. I met up with another friend at the Central Library (the one at Victoria Street) to go have a look at the photo exhibition on the 10th floor. The exhibition features 130 photos of the bygone Singapore taken by the late Yip Cheong Fun, a cultural medallion winner. It's worth a quick look to see snapshots of life in Singapore in the 1950s-70s.

Tiramisu at Al Forno

No time for a long entry, but just a quick food note.

If anyone is craving for a good tiramisu, please head to Al Forno Trattoria. The tiramisu there comes in a big cup and it's worth your $11. It's lush with mascarpone and so nice and creamy. Such a dream. But it could do with a wee bit more alcohol. Still, it's a good tiramisu.

The other week, I had insisted on going there after dinner with a friend as I told him I needed some comfort food (had a crappy day) and that tiramisu was it. So I dragged him there but I'm glad to report that he didn't regret being dragged there by me after he tasted the tiramisu. :)

Al Forno Trattoria
#01-203 Goldhill Centre
203 Thomson Road
Tel: 6256 2838

(10% discount with UOB card)

Lunch at Oso

If anyone's around Tanjong Pagar and up for a leisurely lunch on a weekday, may I suggest that you give the set lunch at Oso Ristorante a try. For $28+++, I think the quality of food and service one gets is value for money.

And so my second appraisal at this present company was carried out at Oso. Last year it was at Pasta Brava. Both restaurants were chosen by me. It's a rare occasion that my employer buys me lunch so of course I have to choose somewhere nice (and of reasonable cost of course). My previous experience at Oso was a very pleasant one so I decided to go back again to try more of the food. Plus, I love being greeted by the very sauve Italian manager/owner who's always decked out in a well-cut suit (probably of Italian make). His sweet Italian greetings of Buongiorno Signora in that can-die Italian accent is like music to the ears. Haha.

Before our appetizer came, we were presented with a small platter of foccacia, thin bread sticks, and slices of brown bread. I love the bread here as it's so nice, soft and fresh.

For the appetizer, I had the seafood salad with lemon juice and pesto dressing. The small pieces of white bait, prawns, and squid were laid on top a bed of thinly sliced cumcumbers and tomatoes. The mix of seafood and vegetables were drizzled with a pesto and lemon juice dressing. It was light and fresh and a great way to tickle the tastebuds. This was definitely a much wiser choice than what my manager chose--a baked tomato stuffed with some other kinds of vegetables. He regretted his choice the instant both our appetizers arrived. Mine was definitely heaps more appealing and more value for money!

Both of us ordered the homemade pasta beef bolognase for our mains. There's something about homemade fresh pasta that's irresistable. That springy texture as you bite into it can never be replicated in commercially made pasta sold in supermarkets. So the inch-thick, long strips of pasta were mixed with the beef bolognase sauce. Thankfully, the sauce wasn't overfully sweet (I don't like it sweet). I prefer it to be more salty than sweet so I liked it. The amount of pasta sauce was also just right as it was sufficient enough to coat all the pasta and nothing was left after I had swiped everything off my plate. Being able to have the right amount of sauce is the mark of a good pasta chef!

Dessert was the chocolate bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream accompanied by a sprig of mint leaf and a gooseberry. The cinnamon ice cream had a nice, but not overwhelming taste of cinnamon and it was a delight to eat with the chocolate bread pudding. I mean, how far wrong can one go with chocolate???

So anyway, lunch was fantastic and the appraisal went alright. Phew.

Taste Paradise

Taste Paradise is the latest kid on the block to up the hip quotient in Chinese cuisine, following in the footsteps of places like Xi Yan and Majestic Restaurant.

Located at Mosque Street in the heart of Chinatown, Taste Paradise stands out from the rest of the eateries with its contemporary look set off by sleek, dark wooden furniture which one can see through clear glass panels as you walk along the five-foot way. No ornate Chinese motifs nor furniture is around, giving the place a modern feel.

Taste Paradise is opened by a 29-year-old man called Eldwin Chua, who had previously opened an eatery called Seafood Paradise in Defun Lane. This is his second restaurant. Managing the restaurant is Melvin Fan, 30, formerly from Pine Court in Meritus Mandarin Hotel. Apparently, he's the one who trained all the wait staff. I must say he has done an excellent job as the service is fantastic--attentive without being intrusive, alert, and prompt with refilling of the tea. Apparently, there's even a valet service.

Modern Chinese cuisine is what they call their food. And the menu comprising of original dishes is created by Hong Kong-born chef Fun Chi Keung who was also formerly from Pine Court.

We started our meal with the spare ribs with wine sauce. The manager was very professional when he advised us to order only one portion first to see if we liked it. He told us that some people might not like it as it's quite fatty. I liked that he wasn't out to get us to order as much as possible. When it came, the single spare rib that sat on the white plate was glistening in a reddish-brown sauce, the inch-thick fat on one side of it clearly visible. But boy did it look good. We attacked it right away and the meat just melted in our mouths. It was so tender and the sauce with its slightly sweet taste was so good.

Then based on Wong Ah Yoke's recommendation, I ordered the baked lamb rack in red wine sauce. The lamb rack came on a small bed of baby cai xin, tomatoes, and lily bulb slices. The lamb was very tender and the sauce had hints of black pepper. Very tasty as well.

Next came the baked cod fillet with fish roe drizzled with what tasted like hoi sin sauce. The cod was fresh, tasty and nicely flavoured.

For some carbohydrates, we went for the braised vermicelli topped with simmered crabmeat. The vermicelli was covered with crabmeat, mushrooms and bits of fish. It also soaked up all the broth which was extremely rich and flavoursome.

Next on the menu was the avocado cream with walnut ice cream which we had for dessert. This was pureed avocado with a tiny scoop of walnut ice cream in it. The ice cream was delicious as it had a rich taste of walnut in it. We also had the Hong Kong dessert, Yong Zhi Kam Luk (mango with pomelo and sago), which tasted very ordinary.

My only gripe about the place is that they should have a greater variety of Chinese tea. I wanted 菊普 (JuPu) which is a mixture of 菊花 (chrysanthemum) and 普洱 (Pu'er) tea. But I was told they only had Jasmine, Osmanthus, and Oolong. I had wanted a stronger tea as I had anticipated the dishes to be a little on the heavy side with a lot of oil coming from the spare ribs, lamb rack and cod fish. So the next best was the Oolong--the half-fermented tea.

Overall, I liked the place a lot as the food and service were good. Without any of the expensive stuff like foie gras (yes, they have it too!), shark's fin, live fish and alcohol, prepare to spend about $50-$60 per person.

48 - 49 Mosque Street
Tel: 6226 2958

Sun With Moon

My jaunt to Sun With Moon was really meant to be one purely for desserts. But when my friend and I saw the menu, we couldn't help but order Round 2 of dinner. Yes, I know, I'm disgusting--but that's OK. My friends love me that way. Round 1 was at Ayam Penyet in Lucky Plaza. The chicken and the beef there damn sedap lah. Please go try if you can. Cheap and good. It's on the fourth floor of Lucky Plaza which is like a place stuck in a 70s time warp.

Anyways, at Sun With Moon, my friend ordered the Japanese omelette with mushrooms while I ordered the house salad with sesame dressing. When the salad arrived, it was in a cylindrical glass container and the dressing was then poured inside. The waitress then shook the container vigorously to evenly coat the vegetables with the dressing. The vegetables used in the salad were just like any other garden salad really but I can never resist sesame dressing. I would lick it off the bowl if I could. ;p

After that, we had dessert. Friend ordered green tea ice cream which came with some red bean topping and some black sesame jelly. I had the 4-in-one bento box. I was greedy--as usual--I wanted to try four different desserts. But it didn't turn out to be very good.

The first dessert was a mix of fruit morsels. Preserved fruit by the way. So it wasn't exciting. It had preserved baby peach, sugar-soaked grape, grapefruit, and pineapple.

The second was black sesame pudding which I didn't quite like. The black sesame layer atop the milk custard layer wasn't black sesame-ish enough if you know what I mean. And I don't really milk custard in general.

The third dessert consisted of two mochi balls (with no filling) with some red bean topping which I found overly sweet.

Last one was a scoop of chocolate ice cream which was too milky for my liking and not chocolatey enough.

So really, I didn't enjoy my dessert at all. And I think that's it for desserts at Sun With Moon. But whoever said the Japanese were known for their desserts anyway? Shoulda known better.

Aburiya

Saturday's dinner was at Aburiya, a restaurant serving grilled Japanese food. The fun part of it is that you do the grilling yourself and what's more, actual red hot charcoal is used! I don't know the scientific explanation for it, but somehow charcoal-grilled food tastes better than one using an electric grill. And it's just pretty to see the flame embers.

Time doesn't permit me to give the low-down on the experience so I'd refer you to the blog entry of my good friend and frequent eating companion. We were there together with five others and as you can imagine, we ate quite a lot!

But overall, I liked the place and thought the food was good. Notable stuff to try are the lamb, pork cheek and duck foie gras. Also, the good thing is that we didn't end up stinking of bbq food at the end of the meal. So I reckon the ventilation's good. Service was OK, but the staff seem a bit flustered and frazzled when the number of customers increased. It wasn't too expensive too. Expect to spend about $30 per person (without drinks).

Aburiya
17E Lorong Liput (Holland Village branch)
Singapore 277731
Tel: 6464 6536

Sebastien's

You know you've reached a tragic point of a date when the food on your table proves to be more interesting than the person on the opposite side of the table.

My blind date (set up by a friend) on Saturday night turned out to be a FREAKING BORING guy. Reponses to my questions of what he does on weekends and what interests/hobbies he has were "Actually, I'm very lazy lah. I just laze at home all weekend." and "At the moment, I have no hobbies." respectively. Wow, that got me REALLY excited. And isn't it only polite to ask me the question in return? Apparently not. So in order to keep the conversation going, I had to volunteer information about myself.

We had agreed to meet at Sebastien's at Greenwood Avenue at 7.30pm. I was on time, but the guy, let's call him Mr. B (for boring) sent me an sms at 7.20pm saying he would be 10min late. In the end, he turned up 25min late. dimsumdolly wasn't a happy person because (1) she hates it when people are late (2) she was so hungry she could eat a cow after dragonboating at Kallang in the morning and outrigger canoeing in the late afternoon from Tanjong Beach to Sisters Island and back. Anyway, thank god for the brown bread they served together with a thick slice of butter which Mr. B didn't touch at all.

Mr. B obviously wasn't into food at all when one of the first things he said to me was, "I don't usually do fine dining. I usually just eat at hawker centres. And I go to restaurants usually when I'm with clients." Fine, I'm OK with a guy not being into food but just that it'd be nice if he did. But this was my choice of restaurant 'cos he had no opinion whatsoever. I was the one who did all the arranging. I'm OK with that, but again, it'd have been nice if a guy had some opinion or some assertiveness. If not for the fact that he were my good friend's friend (I don't understand how they're friends), I wouldn't have bothered.

For starters, I had the French Onion Soup. The brown soup with its generous amounts of onions came with a slice of bread with melted cheese placed inside the soup. It was a clear soup and not the creamy soup. I enjoyed the soup but felt that it could do with a little less salt.

Mr. B (surprise surprise) chose the foie gras with salad. He asked if I wanted to try the foie gras and I, of course, said yes. It was lovely--so soft and tasty it melts in your mouth. I asked if he would like to try my soup in return. He said no. How unadventurous. He left all his greens on his salad and I really would have liked to eat some greens, but decided against picking off his plate--I didn't think it was a very nice thing to do. dimsumdolly DOES have her limits!

For mains, I chose to have the Duck Confit with salad and potato wedges. I was absolutely delighted when it came as it was a wonderful distraction from the boring conversation that was ensuing. The only thing Mr. B could talk about was his work. I'm fine with people talking about what they do 'cos after all, work is a big part of our lives and in SOME ways, defines who we are. But no, for Mr. B, that was it. He was as bland as water. No wait, even water differs from one to another.

So Mr. Duck Confit (yes, I began to personify my food) was infinitely more interesting with his plump drumstick of a thigh. Just as I was baked in the sun all Saturday, his salt-rubbed leg was also baked to perfection, rendering him with an Adonis bronze gold skin which was so delightfully crispy when bitten into. Mr Duck Confit was encased (and drowning) in his own fat and placed in the oven to achieve such a perfect tan. The amount of fat under that layer of skin is definitely not the best thing for someone suffering from cardiovascular disease, but man, was it delightful to eat. Mr. Duck Confit's flesh was tender and tasty. The garden salad with the vinaigrette helped to balance the richness of Mr. Duck Confit.

Mr. B had the beef stew with mash potatoes. He complained about it being full of muscle and fat. I tried it but I didn't think so. I thought Mr. Beef Stew was delightful. One bite into it, and I could taste so many flavours which I found hard to identify with only one small morsel of it. Again, Mr. B didn't want to give the duck a try. Anyway, Mr. Beef Stew was definitely more flavourful than Mr. B who certainly was no beefcake.

For desserts, we went for the chocolate foudant. Not really very different from all the ones I've had at different places, but still, who can resist warm molten chocolate? Miss Chocolate foudant was resplendent in her dark brown, almost ebony skin. Like a graceful dancer on stage, her fluid motion was so pleasing to her watchful audience. Miss Chocolate foudant was accompanied in her performance by a scoop of Miss Vanilla ice cream, who provided a lovely contrast with her creamy white skin. She was, I think, made with pure vanilla bean.

Anyway, the only good thing I got out of those two hours was a free meal. I think the number of questions he asked me about myself throughout the evening could have been counted on one hand. Or two hands at most. The evening with Mr. B ended when I spied an empty cab, hailed it, and chucked HIM into it. And then I happily crossed the overhead bridge and took a bus to my cousin's place to rant about the evening. ;p

Cafe Les Amis

I love eating at places surrounded by lush foliage. It just makes the whole dining experience so much more enjoyable and pleasant. Cafe Les Amis at the Botanical Gardens is a pretty good place to grab breakfast just for that reason alone.

Don't let the Les Amis name scare you off though. Food's actually quite affordable in this cafe unlike its bigger sister Les Amis Au Jardin housed in a colonial bungalow just a short walk away.

The breakfast menu looked good. They had eggs benedict with English muffin, ham and mushroom omelette, soya beancurd, fried noodles, pancakes, danish pastries, muffins etc. My friend went for the Western breakfast set which consisted of fried/scrambled eggs (your choice), bacon, sausage, toast, hashbrown, tomatoes, juice, tea/coffee. I thought it was a pretty good deal for $10. I, in turn, had a big bowl of soya beancurd and a warm cup of soya bean milk. I love eating such things for Sunday breakfast.

While the food certainly wasn't FANTASTIC, I enjoyed eating there simply 'cos it's a nice place to sit around and enjoy a good hearty breakfast. Great way to start the day!

The Turquoise Room

Besides Little Bali, there is another gem of a place at Lock Road which I think few have yet to discover going by the number of people who were there on a Tuesday night.

The Turquoise Room is an Italian restaurant situated at Blk 7 Lock Road, a short walk away from Little Bali.

At night, one can enjoy al fresco dining under the stars amidst lush greenery. It was a lovely setting the evening I was there�the sky was clear and blue, but it was getting a lighter blue as the evening slowly slipped into the night. A few of the brighter stars were already starting to make their appearance in the late evening sky. A cool breeze was blowing through the air, rustling the leaves of the many trees that surrounded the place. In the background, breezy Bossa Nova tunes filtered through the air, bringing to mind lazy days and nights spent by the beach. The white and blue interiors and furniture of the restaurant would have been perfect for a caf� by the beach. All that was missing yesterday were the presence of a beach and the soft sound of waves lapping onto shore...

For starters, we had the garlic bread and crostini with a sun-dried tomato and pesto dip. The bread was served warm (nothing like warm bread) and the two dips were very tasty. For mains, I had the aglio olio prawn & arugula cooked al dente. I love eating arugula (also known as �rocket� by Americans) even though it has a slightly sharp and bitter taste. The prawns were big and fresh, and the aglio olio dressing had just the right amount of garlic, oil and fresh chilli to give that extra zest to the dish.

olduvai felt my dish could have done with a bit more chilli but I was pretty fine with it as I don't take food that's too spicy anyway. She in turn had the pork loin with a slice of apple and proscuitto served on a bed of baby asparagus. Though she found it just a tad oily, both of us thought the pork was delicious as it was nice and juicy with the sweetness of the apple balancing out the saltiness of the proscuitto.

And what�s dinner without dessert to end it off? We shared a chocolate mousse which had traces of coffee and maybe a hint of lemongrass/lavender in its taste. We couldn�t quite figure out what that flavour was�

We looked at their wine list and found that the wines there are pretty expensive. So perhaps you might like to bring your own bottles there. Corkage is $20. Service is alright...just that you might find it a little difficult to get the attention of the wait staff when you're seated at the patio. Without wine, expect to spend about $30 - $35 per person. There's also a brunch menu and I think it's something that would be nice to go for on a weekend to just chill.

It's a good place to go for a date and obviously we weren't the only ones privvy to this knowledge because the rest of the people who were there (however few there were) were all couples!

It�s bizarre�my girlfriends and I always suss out such lovely places that are perfect for dates, but since we have no dates, we end up "dating" one another. Haha.

漆饭

I had this 小吃 (snack) when I was in Hong Kong in November. It's called 漆饭 (pronounced as "chi fun" in Cantonese. "chi" meaning "to stick") and it's glutinous rice wrapped around some fried doughsticks (油条) and pork floss. Seems like many people like it going by the number of people in the eatery. The famous one is called 一品香 at Causeway Bay. The eatery also serves other Shanghainese delights like Xiaolongbao and other types of noodles originating from northern China.

Anyway, maybe it's because I don't like glutinous rice in general, hence I didn't like that 小吃. I didn't think it was that fantastic...frankly it was rather tasteless. I think I'll just stick to Xiaolongbaos!

Bumbu

Valentine's Day was spent with some girlfriends tucking into some good food at Bumbu. I'm so lucky to have friends who have such good taste in food and also who aren't afraid to eat!

My friend's choice of restaurant was a cosy place along Kandahar Street (the street parallel to Arab Street). This restaurant serving Thai-Indonesia cuisine is a little gem of a place. It's one of the shophouses along that street.

The place is decorated with wooden panels and wooden screens to separate the tables and offer some privacy. The restaurant is a small one and only seats about 40-50 people in total on both floors.

For starters, we had the Bumbu Salad, a salad made up of century egg, onions, fried shallots, and some lime juice. I'm normally not a fan of century egg, but this dish was really tasty!

We then had the following dishes for mains:

Stuffed eggplant with curry sauce
- big slices of eggplant laid flat, stuffed with a prawn and some fish paste and sits on curry sauce

Deep-fried baby squid
- similar to the slightly sweet deep-fried squids you get in Chinese seafood restaurants, but this one tasted crispier and better than many of the ones I had in those restaurants.

Chinchalok chicken
- stir-fried diced chicken in a savoury sauce

Fried assam prawns
- deep-fried prawns with a sweetish-sourish coating over it

For desserts, I had the steamed custard pumpkin which was served warm. It was nice and not too sweet/heavy on the stomach. Another friend had the chendol...think that was only okay 'cos she didn't rave about it. The others just had coffee and a serving of fresh coconut juice.

Overall, the food was good and so was the service. Expect to spend about $25 per person.

Bumbu Restaurant
44 Kandahar Street
Singapore 198897
Tel: 6392 8628
(Closed on Mondays)

En

My second Japanese meal last week was a much better one compared to the one I had at Akira. I knew I didn't have to worry anyway since the place, En, came highly recommended by olduvai who really is a much bigger foodie. Her very slim and svelte figure, however, doesn't betray that fact. Jealous jealous!!!

Along with olduvai and slumbering girl, us three girls tucked into very hearty and good Okinawan fare. This Japanese restaurant had some unusual items on their menu. It's probably because Okinawa is more culturally diverse than the main Japanese islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Hokkaido, hence this cultural mix is carried over to its cuisine.

For starters, we had grilled spare ribs served on a skewer. Piping hot and glazed with a delicious salty marinade, the perfectly golden brown ribs were a joy to eat as we attacked it with our hands and started eating it like we would attack sticks of satay.

The sliced pork salad with sesame dressing was next to arrive. This big bowl of salad was like a garden salad filled with thinly sliced pieces of pork and adorned with the extremely tasty sesame dressing. Highly recommended dish to order!

We also had the Wafu spaghetti which was thin spaghetti with cod roe dressing. These pinkish-orange spaghetti might look a tad weird but it tastes good. I liked the slightly spicy note which could be detected. Olduvai says it's because it has some Korean influence in it.

The mixed platter of grilled skewers of fish cartilage, chicken balls, green chilli, and chicken was also very tasty. Hearty fare to tuck into.

The last item we had was the salmon cheese fry. This was a deep-fried salmon patty stuffed with cheese and avocado. Golden orange on the surface and perfectly deep-fried, this patty had a pink minced salmon on the outer core, followed by white cheese and green avocado at the inner core. It was an interesting combination and I was surprised that I liked the different layers and tastes the dish delivered.

Olduvai and slumbering girl companied their food with lovely cold Asahi beer. I, however, had to sit out because I wasn't feeling too well. I didn't want to compound my illness with alcohol.

Prices are reasonable (expect to spend about $25-30/person) and the service is pretty good. Highly recommended!

En Japanese Dining Bar
207 River Valley Rd
#01-57 UE Square
(On Mhd Sultan Rd)
Tel: 6735 2212

Akira

It certainly wouldn't have been my choice of restaurant because I was already put off the moment I knew it was a buffet at this Japanese restaurant nestled at Emerald Hill Road.

While I really like Akira for its location (just 'cos the school that I went to for 10 years used to be along that road) and having a cosy feel to it, I wouldn't choose to eat there because I've learnt my lesson about Japanese buffets. Often, the sashimi and the rest of the food is very mediocre. In my opinion, the freshness and taste of the sashimi is really the litmus test of how good a Japanese restaurant is. The sashimi at Japanese restaurants that have buffets often don't measure up. Frankly, I'd rather pay more, eat less BUT better quality food rather than stuff myself with lousy food.

But I had no choice as my choice of restaurant was outvoted by my colleagues. And the stupid thing is that all of them are such small eaters...so I don't even know why they chose this! It was an "appreciation lunch" for the six of us who helped to organise the staff party. I had suggested another better Jap restaurant and Mag's Wine Kitchen. But another colleague suggested Akira and the rest on hearing it's buffet wanted to go even though they eat like birds--just picking at their food--something which I find highly annoying.

Anyway, I was right in that the food was mediocre...decent but nothing to rave about. They've got good homemade black sesame ice cream though!

Akira Japanese Restaurant
115/117 Emerald Hill Road
Emerald Mansion
Singapore 229396
Tel: 6738 6221

Koala Biscuit

This was one of my favourite childhood snacks. Still is actually. I can't resist the adorable koalas and munching on these little biscuits to bite into the chocolate hidden inside.

What was your favourite childhood snack?

La Cantina in Venezia

La Cantina in Venezia is an Italian restaurant located on the top floor of Changi Meridien hotel. The restaurant overlooks a lot of greenery and the sea and one can see ships going by and aeroplanes taking off. On a cool and breezy day/night, sitting outside on the patio is the best thing to do.

We were there for desserts after the seafood dinner at Tekong Seafood Restaurant. The three desserts here from left are the peach gelato, the pineapple gelato and the lemon gelato. They were so cute--served in the fruit itself.

The two chocolate-coated profiteroles weren't very good. I didn't quite like it as there was too much fresh cream in it. All that chocolate sauce was a bit too heavy too.

This was the Amaretto ice cream coated with amaretto sugar bits. My cousin who had it complained that it was way too sweet.

The mandarin gelato served in a cute frosted orange.

My tiramisu. Not bad, but thought the one I had at Esmirada was better. Overall, I thought the desserts, though acceptable, weren't that fantastic but another cousin said that the mains are pretty good so I'll probably go there again to try it just 'cos I like the place so much!

The rooftop pool just outside the restaurant. It looked so inviting!

La Cantina in Venezia
Changi Village Hotel
1 Netheravon Road
#08/09-02 Singapore 508502
Tel: 6546 9190

Tekong Seafood Restaurant

Tekong Seafood Restaurant is located at Changi Village and is a place to go to for some good and cheap seafood.

I was amused when I walked in as I felt like I had just entered a school canteen. Turns out the place was a former community centre. The place is really spartan and has a no-frills type of feel. One can also dine al fresco which was what most people did.

And our dinner consisted of:

A plate of stir-fried mixed vegetables. There was leek, celery, kai lan, cai xin and a few others. This was very tasty and we enjoyed it.

Mussels

Fried baby squid

Hotplate Ostrich Meat. I think ostrich meat tastes a lot like venison.

Fried doughsticks stuffed with fishcake

Steamed Prawns

Frogs' Legs

Black Pepper Crabs -- this was the best dish! The restaurant's famous for this dish and their Steamed Flower Crabs.

Flower Tarts

I love eating pineapple tarts. I've been eating so much during this festive period. My favourite pineapple tarts this year are the ones pictured above. Aren't they pretty?

They were given to me by a work acquaintance and boy was I grateful to her for the gift! The pastry was soft and buttery and literally melted in the mouth. The pineapple had just the right amount of sugar and wasn't overly sweet. This was also the first time I saw pineapple tarts in this pretty flower shapes. Reminds me almost of cherry blossoms. It's homemade so I'll have to get the contact from my work acquaintance next year.

During CNY, I can go without bak kwa, love letters, and whatever goodies, but I can't do without pineapple tarts. I stuff myself silly with them every year. And I say this only once--I can be bribed with pineapple tarts!!!

Lunch at Holiday Inn

Thanks to one of my mum's friend who got some additional invites to go to Holiday Inn (formerly Concorde) for a free cooking class demonstration and free lunch, my sister and I tagged along with mummy and her two friends for the treat three Saturdays ago. Who can possibly reject a treat? Not me for sure.

The cooking class demonstration was conducted by the chef and sous chef of Xin Cuisine 新故鄉酒樓, the Cantonese restaurant at the hotel.

The first dish they demonstrated was called 福星隨高照 which turned out to be double-boiled superior shark's fin with chicken and deer's tendon. This was a very nourishing Cantonese soup made using chicken, Chinese wild yam (淮山), Chinese wolfberry (杞子), wet superior sharks' fin (濕鮑翅), fresh deer tendon (鮮鹿根), dried deer antlers, red dates (紅棗), winter ginseng (冬參), dried scallop (干貝) and astragalus root. It's supposed to nourish the skin. Well, with so many ingredients, the soup was obviously very tasty and richly flavoured. One of the best Cantonese soups I've ever tasted. Had I ordered it on my own, it'd have cost $68+++ per bowl.

The second dish was 嘻哈大歡笑 which was a sauteed king prawn with spicy XO chilli sauce served with a floret of blanched broccoli. The XO sauce, personally made by the chefs and is being sold by the restaurant, was the thing that made the dish really tasty.

The third dish demonstrated was 四季旺財盆 which was braised 5-Head abalone, dried oyster, black mushroom, sea moss, kai lan with oyster sauce. The abalone and mushroom, coupled with the tasty gravy was a delight to feast on. I left the dried oysters as I don't like dried oysters.

The lunch included these three dishes demonstrated and also a big soup of glutinous rice which I thought was a tad too dry. Anyway, I'm not a fan of glutinous rice in general. Dessert was almond cream (felt this could have been a little sweeter) served lukewarm in a coconut husk which was sitting on a plate decorated with a sheen of azure blue gelatin and an orchid. Very attractive presentation.

Participants also had a surprise installed when we were led to the next room to find a dragon waiting for us. No, there's nothing cheesy about this. It wasn't anyone dressed up in a dragon costume. Rather, it was a 2-metre long dragon made up of grated carrot, radish, preserved vegetables--all the ingredients of Yu Sheng--very exquisitely laid out on a long table waiting for us hungry mouths to rip its majestic body apart with our chopsticks. It was a really lovely dragon and a very innovative form of presentation. Kudos to the chefs! The friendly chefs also answered many questions posed to them and also offered cooking tips.

The event was part of the hotel's PR and branding efforts so as to raise the public's awareness of the hotel. And here I am giving them free advertisement! Hopefully I get to do this again. Hehheh.

The restaurant serves dimsum as well. On the second day of CNY, my family and I went there for lunch. Because of CNY, there was a special CNY menu and only selected dimsum. Can't quite get a full picture of how good their dimsum is from the few I ate so perhaps I'll make a second visit. But overall, the food we had that day was pretty good.

Xin Cuisine
Holiday Inn Atrium Singapore
317 Outram Road, Singapore 169075
Tel: 6733 0188

Little Bali

For a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city, there's a little corner at Gillman Village along Lock Road where one can retreat to for some food and drink amidst lush greenery.

Thanks to a colleague who suggested this place for our company's annual staff party, I've discovered Little Bali which is such a lovely spot to chill out at.

There's a restaurant and bar there and the place does get pretty crowded on weekend nights. It's a nice and relaxed slice of Bali away from the real thing in the little island of Singapore. The owners have taken great care to recreate the Balinese feel in its stone ornaments which dot the place, the water fountain features, the tropical plants which surround the place in orderly mayhem fashion and the rattan/cane furniture.

I didn't try the food served at Little Bali as our food that night was being catered by an external source. I think it was Patara Thai and the food was pretty good/ Will definitely consider them for future catering needs.

Everyone loved the place as it was something different from a sitdown Chinese wedding diinner-like kind of staff party which is the norm. This was casual and relaxed, plus the open bar was welcomed by everyone.

Anyhow, this is definitely a place I'll want to drop by again. Great place to chill out. But it's not a place for people who can't survive anywhere but airconditioned rooms. I'm a warm weather creature so this place suits me just fine!

Esmirada

One of several company dinners over the sales meeting was at Esmirada at Chijmes. Now, I have eaten there before but wasn't impressed by the food so it wouldn't have been my choice of venue had I been the one to choose.

But since I didn't have a say in the decision (which really is an all important decision 'cos everything concerning food is important) I had to go along with it.

This was just a department dinner involving all our overseas colleagues in this department. There were about 40 of us seated at this extremely long table made up my joining about 10-11 tables. And speaking of dining furniture, I don't know why Esmirada has such heavy chairs. One can barely move the chair to sit in it! It's ridiculous.

The food we had was very forgettable. Garlic bread, garden salad, grilled mushrooms, baked potato with sour cream, a piece of grilled fish, grilled chicken and grilled beef. Dessert was a slice of tiramisu. That was the only good part of the meal. I must say the tiramisu there is one of the best I've had in Sin, gapore. Other than that, I think even I (the undomestic goddess) could have come up with something better.

The damage for the night came up to a whopping $5000. The wine was the one which did the most damage. The house wine was very expensive at $98+++/bottle. Other wines were of course way above that. We had a couple of Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons from Australia. I guess it's a good thing that our division made the most profits for the company last year!

In any case, I think Esmirada is alright to go to for drinks, but definitely not a place to go to for food.

Rasa Sentosa

For a top brand name hotel like Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa, the hotel serves surprisingly BAD food. I spent almost an entire week there for my company's annual Asia sales meeting and I thought all the lunches and dinners I had there were terrible.

The cuisine was different every day. We had Indian, Chinese, Mediterrean, Italian, International. The quality of the food was very mediocre, and certainly didn't justify the amount of money paid per head. A lot of the food was just badly cooked and didn't taste good at all.

So my recommendation is not to go there for food of any sorts! The worst thing is I have ANOTHER Chinese wedding dinner to go to at this very hotel come next month. Argh. Seems like I can't get out of this one 'cos I think my friend would be very displeased with me if I told him I wouldn't be able to attend his wedding!

Eating in the Suburbs

A Friday nightout with some of my paddling mates had six of us tai-tais (OK, we just like to pretend that we are but reality is a different story altogether.) checking out some eating spots in the suburbs of Singapore.

For dinner, we headed to a coffee shop at Blk 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 for some cheap Western food at this stall called Botak Jones. Why the name? Because the kitchen is helmed by big, buff and bald white American guy. FYI for non-Singaporeans: "botak" means "bald" in the Malay language.

I had the Giant Chicken Hot Dog, another friend had the Chilli Hot Dog and the other four tai-tais went for the Cajun Chicken. The chunky fries are a little different from the norm in that it's a little spicy as it's deep-fried with some chilli powder I think. Portions were pretty substantial for the amount we were paying and the food tasted pretty good too.

Other items on the menu were Fish & Chips (which looked pretty good judging from the plates which other people ordered), Bratwurst hot dogs, steak etc. I forget the rest.

Not too bad a place to head to for some cheap Western food. They have another branch in Tuas too.

After dinner, we decided to go for drinks. At first, we ended up at Wine Flair @Thomson. We thought of going there for some cheap wine (as you can see, our idea of taitai-dom is really quite flawed...), 'cos really $8/glass is really quite cheap! But on entering the place, we found the place looking so dated, with only old uncles sitting inside. What was worse was the entertainment (or so the management reckons it to be). This greying middle-aged Caucasian was on the stage strumming a guitar singing country songs in karoke-fashion complete with the video screen playing all sorts of cheesy karoke videos behind him.

We couldn't take it and decided to head off without ordering anything. We were actually seated already but what the heck. We hurriedly made our exit.

We then crossed over to the other side of the road and headed to Liquid Kitchen a restaurant/pub just beside The Long House at Thomson Road.

It was my first time at Liquid Kitchen but I've been wanting to check it out for eons as I pass it by so often! The orange and blue colour scheme of the place is cheery and it's a good alternative to going down to town for a place to chill out.

Pete's Place

Although Pete's Place is an institution in Singapore when it comes to Italian cuisine, I had never been there until about a month ago. The occasion was my birthday lunch treat given by my company. Everyone gets a treat when his/her birthday comes along and the restaurant usually changes every time. Birthday lunches are usually done as a group outing, and the birthday boys and girls from those one or two months will have lunch together with the HR manager and the boss. I figured the HR manager has it the best 'cos she's entitled to go along every time!

In 2004, my birthday lunch was at the Marriott Hotel cafe. It sucked. In 2005, many people in my batch seemed to prefer Italian food. I had suggested Garibaldi and another colleague suggested some place more interesting. But I think the decision was to go with somewhere safe (read boring).

Anyway, most of my colleagues opted for the lunch buffet because they wanted to go for the salad buffet. I, on the other hand, decided to go for a la carte as I wasn't impressed by the mains presented in the buffet. The food looked so run-of-the-mill and so unexciting. The salad buffet, while healthy, didn't look very exciting too. I liked the selection of bread though. The herb butter and butter with sun-dried tomatoes were particularly tasty. The good thing was that I was entitled to the bread even though I had ordered a la carte.

I chose to have food in the special menu by the guest chef. I forget his name. I ordered a starter which consisted of baked eggplant with cheese and tomato. My main was a mushroom risotto with dried truffles.

My food took REALLY long to come and I was getting rather impatient as I was hungry! The baked eggplant was quite tasty but it wasn't mind-blowing as I've had something like that before. The risotto was tasty enough, but I think I can't eat too much of it as the cream gets a bit overwhelming after awhile. I picked at the mushrooms and truffles and left a fair portion of rice behind. Honestly, I don't know what's the big deal with truffles. Maybe I'm just ignorant but I really don't find it VERY VERY tasty.

Anyways, I don't think I'll go back to Pete's Place again. I don't like the decor and interiors as I find the dark wooden chairs and tables too old-fashioned. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid!

Fruit Pulp Muffins

Instead of using ripe bananas like the previous batch of muffins she baked, my mum took up my suggestion of using the pulp left over from juicing fruits (both of us drink a big cup of freshly squeezed fruit juice every morning) for the muffins. These muffins were made using pulp made up of carrot, starfruit and celery.

I liked the taste of it as it wasn't as sweet as the bananas. Next time we shall try making some with pulp from apples and oranges or whatever we have that day. It's a good way of making use of the leftovers from juicing!

Silk Road Noodle Bar

Silk Road Noodle Bar is located on the first floor of Millenia Walk at one corner of the shopping centre. My friends and I were there on a public holiday and the whole shopping centre was pretty empty. How the shops there survive the rental and make money (or maybe they don't) I really don't understand.

Anyway, the only reason why we headed there was because one of the friends in the group wanted to eat there. Having never eaten there before, I backed the suggestion.

We had the 炸酱面 (i call it the Chinese version of spaghetti bolognase), the 鸡肉白果汤面 (noodles with chicken and gingko nuts), and the chilli pork dumplings.

I thought the 炸酱面 and dumplings were pretty ordinary, but I thought the chicken with gingko was something different and it was pretty light and tasty.

We also ordered the 八宝茶 (Eight Treasures Tea) which contained Chinese wolfberry 杞子 (giving it a slightly sweet taste), red dates 红枣, walnut 核桃, longan 龙眼, some other Chinese herb and some Chinese tea leaves.

This was called the 沈阳三鲜饺子. It's supposed to be a type of dumpling from Shenyang city which is in the northeast of China. I can't really remember what ingredients were in it but to me it tasted like an ordinary pork dumpling.

The usual Xiaolongbao which everyone loves. Pretty ordinary too. I've been eating way too many Xiaolongbaos of late that I think I'm becoming very undiscerning of their taste already. Just went to the Wisma outlet of Din Tai Feng on Friday night for dinner and had more Xiaolongs. I think I should stop for awhile.

Anyway, I think the food at Silk Road Noodle Bar is pretty ordinary and there's no point making your way all the way to Millenia Walk just to have northern Chinese noodles and dumplings that seems to be everywhere these days. Prices are reasonable though. $10 will leave you feeling full.

However, I was very put off by the manager there who presented us with the bill when we never even asked for it! And get this, we were only one of three tables occupied in the place which was 3/4 empty! I think it's so rude to present the bill when it's not being asked for. Verdict: Not ever returning again!

The Simple Life

I ate at The Simple Life a few months ago but forgot to blog about it. A few months back, this restaurant at Wheelock Place had just opened. It's managed by the same people managing Fish & Co. which is at the same premises.

The Simple Life serves local fare like laksa, tauhu goreng, fried rice, nasi lemak etc. I remember I had the laksa and tauhu goreng. I can't remember what my friend had.

In any case, the food there was rather forgettable. I think the same dish at any hawker centre would have tasted heaps better. The only thing about The Simple Life is that it's a good place to rest your legs when you're shopping the day away. After all, who doesn't like sitting around and looking out of those glass windows at Wheelock Place?

The service at that time was good and prompt. Prices are pretty reasonable. Expect to spend about $15 - $20 per person.

Modified Cake

The wet weather that has been persisting for the past couple of days is downright depressing. The incessant rain just makes me want to stay at home and curl up in bed. Or read a book with a hot cup of tea by the side. But the worst thing about this period of wet and cold weather is that it's been wrecking havoc on my nose. I'm constantly sneezing because my nose is just so sensitive to the slight changes in temperatures. Miserable.

Anyway, was supposed to go dragonboating in the morning yesterday. But on waking up, I was sneezing my life away, so had to forget about it. The sky didn't look good too. So the plan for the day was to spend it at home all day. I read a few chapters of "Until I Find You" before lunch. That hardcover book is so thick and heavy that the only place to read it is at home. Can't possibly bring it around wiht me to read on the bus and train.

Then I made lunch for myself. Boiled some macaroni, blanched some broccoli and placed everything in the lotus root soup which was left over from last night's dinner. Took a few pieces of pork from the pork ribs in the soup too. Simple meal.

Watched a cooking show on TV featuring this Chinese chef using sea urchin in Cantonese cuisine. The dishes looked exquisite and so tasty. I so want to eat it. If only I were paid to eat and read--I would be a very rich woman then. Ha.

Then I made a big cup of tea for myself using a blend of tea leaves I bought from a shop called Perfect Potion in Sydney. The refreshing blend is made up of lemon blade, lemon grass and lemon myrtle. I love it! I sat down with my cup of tea at my desk and starting writing a letter to a good friend abroad. It was the perfect time to write a letter. I could just sit down at my desk with a fragrant and hot cup of tea, watching the rain come down, gathering my thoughts and putting it down on paper without having to worry about having to rush off somewhere or to do something else. If only there were more relaxing and lazy days like this...

After signing off and sealing the letter in an envelope, I decided to bake something. I decided to try the Demerara lemon cake with thick yoghurt from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries.

The recipe actually called for the making of a topping and a syrup for the cake. But I was lazy so I decided to do without it. Then it needed demerara sugar which was something I never heard of. And it needed grounded almonds, plain flour and baking powder--all of which I didn't have. So how? I thought of substituting the almonds for walnuts but I couldn't find the walnuts which my mum had stored somewhere. So had to do without it. For the sugar, I used some raw sugar which I found. Later, after looking it up on the Internet, I discovered that demerara sugar is a type of raw sugar. Can't believe my blind experimentation with sugar actually turned out correct. Haha. I also reduced the amount of sugar by 40g as I thought the required 200g would make it a bit too sweet. I was right there.

I substituted the plain flour and baking powder with self-raising flour which I found. The recipe also called for one large lemon. I only had half a lemon. So I just used that. I rummaged through the fridge and found a packet of dried cranberries. I decided to put that into the cake too.

Anyway, I modified the recipe so much that it was a far cry from the original. I was really crossing my fingers that it would turn out fine. Thankfully, it didn't turn out too bad. Quite pleased about it. But definitely more room for improvement. It certainly doesn't look like the one that's shown in the book! I don't even know what to call it. A cranberry & lemon cake (though you can't really taste the lemon!)????

My "masterpiece" of the day

HuaJia YiYuan Restaurant 花家怡园

During my trip to Beijing in November, the only food I ate that was worth mentioning ('cos the others were just food made by the crappy hotels) was a meal I had at HuaJia YiYuan Restaurant 花家怡园. A friend who works in Beijing brought me there and I was very happy to note that there were many locals filling the place to the brim when we got there. That's always a sure sign of good food being served.

花家怡园 has four branches in Beijing, but the one my friend took me to was the one along 簋街 (Gui Street), a long street lined with restaurants and eateries. It's a foodie's playground!

Thankfully we were only a party of two and could get a place quite easily. There were several people waiting at the entrance when we got there. We sat in what seemed like a courtyard. The rooms surrounding the courtyard were private rooms for dining too. Above the courtyard were trellises lined with fake creepers.

Waiters and waitresses were moving up and down in hurried paces, taking orders and serving dishes and catering to diners' requests. The place felt very alive and vibrant. It was the sort of thing to lift my spirits.

We had some diced beans fried with minced pork. This was very tasty and it went very well with a steaming bowl of white rice.

My friend recommended the duck meat wrapped in egg rolls which had to be dipped in a light savoury sauce before eating it.

This humongous stewed mushroom had to be cut up to be eaten. It was light and tasty and just the sort of thing I liked.

I've never had 蟹粉狮子头 (Lion's Head with Crabmeat) and this was a variation from all the 狮子头 I've had so far in China. It was lighter in colour and was served in a clear broth unlike the usual ones which are served with a dark sauce. I liked the broth but I think I still prefer the more traditional 狮子头 with the dark sauce.

For dessert, we had 红枣雪蛤 (red dates with frog's glands which is a type of 糖水 (sweet soup) said to be very nutritious. 雪蛤 is said to nourish the lungs and increase the 陰 (Yin) in one's body.

花家怡园's cuisine is a mixture of Sichuan (川菜), Shandong (鲁菜), Cantonese (粤菜) and Jiangsu (淮菜) cuisine.

簋街店: 北京市东城城区东直门内大街5号
Address: No. 5 Dongzhimen Street within avenue Dong Cheng District, Beijing

Island Cafe

After reading a few reviews about the newly renovated Island Cafe at the third floor of Tangs Shopping Centre, olduvai and I decided to give it a try one afternoon.

The interior was nicely done up in earthy tones, giving it a Balinese resort feel to the place.

Seen through the glass windows, the canopy of the trees along Orchard Road provided the place with added greenery thus complementing the interiors.

This is the Asian Platter consisting of fried wantons, spring rolls, satay, fried chicken wings and drumsticks, and coleslaw. The food was very forgettable and I'm really hard-pressed to find anything good to say about it.

The Black Pepper Crab Tang Hoon is supposed to be one of their specialties. But we found the tang hoon way too peppery and dry for our liking. The crab was dipped in batter and deep-fried and it didn't taste very good either.

While it's not fair to judge the place just by two dishes, I would only say I'm very disappointed with the two dishes I had. Perhaps the reviewers had some other dishes and they tasted good. Still, I don't think I want to go there for mains. Maybe for tea as it's a good place to rest one's legs in mid-afternoon after thronging the shops in Orchard Road!

Cookbook Repository

I decided that I should build up my cookbook repository and so last Thursday (took the afternoon off), I bought not one, but THREE cookbooks from Kinokuniya and Borders with the book vouchers I received for my birthday.

I was having a hard time deciding which ones to get. Was it going to be something by Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigel Slater, Ken Hom, Chef Wan, Kylie Kwong, Sam Leong, Mrs Lee's Cookbook, etcetc. So very mind-boggling. In the end, I settled on the following.

Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy by Gordon Ramsay

I flipped through it and true to its title, many of the recipes were written in brief, concise English, and only made up of a few steps. It looked simple enough. Plus it had many colourful pictures. I hate cookbooks without pictures and I'd never buy one without pictures. Yes, I'm a sucker for pictures and I'm willing to fork out money for paper cost which publishers pass on to readers.

The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

Filled with lots of pictures and anecdotes by one of Britain's top food writers, the book contains many recipes which don't look too difficult. But we shall see.

tossed

I like eating salads and I'm thinking I want to bring my own salad for lunch at work. I'm sick of eating the oily food being sold near my office, plus I'm kinda getting bored with the food around my workplace. There's a cafe nearby which sells good salads but it's too expensive to eat there every day. So the next best solution is to make my own! This book features 200 recipes for salads.

My resolution for the new year is to cook more often. That sounds easy enough to do. And with these books, I don't have any excuse!

Hakka Food 客家菜

My family has been patronising Plum Village, a Hakka restaurant along Upper Thomson Road, for many years. We went there for lunch again on Saturday and I decided to do a bit of reading on Hakka cuisine since I don't know very much about it. Here are some of the things I learnt.

Hakka cuisine originated from Guangdong and Fujian Province which are in southeastern China. The Hakka people are migratory tribes of ethnic Han (汉) people originating from central China. Their forefathers went into exile in the Yuan Dynasty after the Mongols conquered China. Due to their late migration to the southern parts of China, they found that all of the best land had already been taken. Thus, they were forced to settle in the hilly and sparsely populated parts of the southern provinces.

As a result, fresh produce wasn't readily available and it forced the Hakka people to make use of plenty of dried and preserved ingredients, such as various kinds of fermented beancurd and preserved vegetables. Because they had to toil in the farms, the pickled vegetables not only replenish the salt lost through sweating caused by hard work, it can be stored for long periods of time.

Seafood was scarce as they were situated inland. Pork is the most favoured meat of the Hakkas, with belly bacon being the preferred cut as it has alternating layers of fat and lean meat, providing an excellent texture.

Here are the dishes I had at Plum Village.

算盘子

Literally translated, this dish means Abacus Seeds as the little flattened round things resemble abacus seeds. These "abacus seeds" are made of yam and it's fried together with tiny shrimps, Chinese mushrooms, strips of hard beancurd and mince pork. It's one of my favourite dishes.

梅菜扣肉

Pieces of pork and preserved vegetables (梅菜) are cooked and served in a dark sauce made up of soy sauce and sugar. The pork is made up of alternating layers of fat and lean meat. Very sinful but very yummy.

酿豆腐

Yong Tau Fu consists of beancurd stuffed with minced meat (usually pork) and herbs, then fried till golden brown. According to Wikipedia, variations include usage of various ingredients including eggplants, mushrooms (shitake) and bitter melon stuffed with the same meat paste. Traditionally the beancurd is served in a clear yellow bean stew along with the bittergourd and shitake variants.

萝卜丸

These radish balls were made of strips of white radish held together by a gooey paste (I think it's glutinous rice flour) and steamed. It was quite tasteless and I didn't like the sticky texture.

Other traditional Hakka foods are:

* Salt baked chicken (鹽焗雞) - supposed to be baked inside a heap of hot salt, but many restaurants simply cook the chicken in brine these days.

* Lui Cha or Pounded Tea (擂茶) - A consortment of tea leaves (usually green tea), peanuts, mint leaves, sesame seeds, mung beans and other herbs, which are pounded or ground into a fine powder which is mixed as a drink, or as a dietary brew to be taken with rice and other vegetarian side dishes such as greens, beancurds and pickled radish.

Apples & Wine

Something a friend emailed to me...

Women are like apples on a tree. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy.

The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Now men...

Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the shit out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Corporate Cooking Class

Sick of the usual corporate teambuilding events at Outward Bound School and the likes? Next time, maybe you can convince your company to go for a cooking class as a teambuilding activity. Yes, you read it correct--cooking class!

On Friday, 13 colleagues and I went for a corporate cooking class that was conducted by this lady called Ruxqana who's a self-taught chef. She conducts cooking classes as teambuilding events and she conducts the classes in various venues like Pulau Ubin, a farm in Lim Chu Kang, at her own home or at her friend's home. More information can be found on her website.

We went to her friend's place in Siglap for our teambuilding event. Fourteen of us were divided into four groups. My group was in charge of making the cauliflower soup. But before we started, we were taught to make some Vietnamese rice paper rolls as a snack for ourselves before we started preparing dinner.

Other groups were in charge of making a herb baked chicken, aubergine and cucumber salad, prawn & mango curry, and vegetarian green curry for the mains. For dessert, each group had to make our own brownie.

All the dishes turned out very well. Ruxqana's recipes made use of a lot of fresh herbs and spices. The curry pastes were made from scratch and even the cauliflower soup I made had fresh pepper corns and freshly grated nutmeg. Both of which added great taste to the soup. The cauliflower soup is so simple to make and so delicious and healthy! I'm going to try it again one day!

At the end of the day, we all sat down to dinner and ate the dishes we had prepared. The basmati rice which Ruqxana had prepared earlier was extremely fragrant and went well with the dishes.

It's such a brilliant idea. It gets people working together, everyone's relaxed and you can bond over food. Definitely something I'd like to do again! Anyway, here are some pics from the cooking class.

The cauliflower soup. The vegetables, consisting of cauliflower, leek, celery, big onions, garlic, green chilli and potatoes, are first chopped into small pieces. They are then fried. Then water and vegetable stock are added and the vegetablels are left to cook till soft. After that, the vegetables are left to cool. When it is cool, the vegetables are put into a blender. It is then blended till it comes like a puree. It's creamy without the cream!

Prawn & Mango Curry

One of the three herb baked chickens we had. This was really yummy 'cos the marinade contained lots of lemongrass and basil. The stuffing contained chopped lemongrass, basil, coriander leaves, garlic and tumeric.

The vegetarian green curry which contained tofu, shiitake mushrooms and green beans.

Banana Walnut Muffins

The banana walnut muffins I helped my mum make last Sunday. They tasted pretty good! :)

La Viva

Dinner on Wed was at La Viva, a Spanish restaurant at Chijmes. The nosh wasn't fantastic, and my two dining companions and I concluded that it's not somewhere we would go again for food. I mean, a lot of the food it seemed like we could easily do by ourselves! For the amount of money we paid, I didn't think it was worth it--small portions and lousy food. Blah. Due to time constraints, I have no time to write a review of it, but olduvai has done a fine one here, so please go and have a read.

Tiramisu

I love tiramisu. It's one of my favourite desserts. I don't care how fattening it is, but I just can't resist a good tiramisu. The one pictured above was the one I had at the Fullerton Hotel lounge. It was pretty good, except I thought it could have done with a bit more alcohol. I like my ladyfingers moist with an abundance of alcohol! One of my favourite places for tiramisu in Singapore is Pasta Brava.

Anyway, I learnt more about the dessert recently after reading an essay on it by American food writer James Villas. Did you know that tiramisu literally means "pick-me-up" in Venetian dialect? What a delightful name isn't it? It sure is my pick-me-up and comfort food!

Villas went on a quest to unearth the origins of this traditional Italian dessert and he found out that tiramisu was first concocted in or around Venice toward the end of the 18th century.

By the end of the 18th century, coffee, sugar, and cocoa were arriving in Venice in greater quantities such that there were enough to be used in cooking. Mascarpone, a creamy and fresh farm cheese integral to tiramisu, was also being produced in the Veneto and neigbouring Lombardy.

According to Villas, tiramisu flourished as a favourite dessert throughout northeastern Italy for about a century. Then in 1962, restauranteur Alfredo Beltrame opened a restaurant in Treviso called Ristorante da Alfredo "with the express purpose of exposing the travelling public to as many authentic specialities of the Veneto as possible--tiramisu included". Beltrame went on to open many more restaurants thus spreading the "creamy gospel of tiramisu".

Read further for Villas' recipe of this sinfully delightful dessert.

Tiramisu da Alfredo

5 cups strong, cold espresso coffee
32 savoiardi (Italian ladyfingers)
10 large egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 pound mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons Marsala wine
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Pour the cold coffee into a large pie plate. Dip 16 of the ladyfingers very quickly into the coffee and line the bottom of a 12 x 9 x 2-inch oval dish with the ladyfingers.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar till frothy. Add the mascarpone and Marsala and whisk till well blended and smooth. In another bowl, whisk the cream till stiff and fold into the mascarpone mixture till well blended and smooth.

Using a large pastry bag, pipe about half of the mixture over the ladyfingers. Dip the remaining ladyfingers quickly into the coffee, arrange another layer of ladyfingers in an attractive design. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 6 hours. (The tiramisu can be frozen up to 2 months.)

When ready to serve, sprinkle the cocoa powder through a fine sieve over the entire surface of the tiramisu. Spoon portions onto individual dessert plates and serve with large spoons.

Oso Ristorante

If you're wondering where to go for some good Italian food, please head to Oso Ristorante. The Italian eatery is opened by chef Diego Chiarini and restaurant manager Stephane Colleoni, both formerly from Senso.

What seduced my dining companions and I first was really the interiors which were really lovely what with the soft lighting, cream coloured walls and chairs, and the striking lights with had flowers, twigs, and strands of crystals hanging from the ceiling.

We ordered a bottle of red wine to share--I forget what it was. The breads served were really soft and delicious. And we had the following mains which were all very lipsmackingly good!!!

1) Black squid ink risotto
2) Black squid ink pasta
3) Homemade stracci with wild boar
4) Pumpkin risotto
5) Homemade Linguine with clams and pesto sauce (My friend found, what the restaurant claims to be a dead claim, but we think it's a stone 'cos it looked more like one!)

For desserts we had:

1) Tiramisu - We thought this didn't have enough alcohol and so it lacked kick.
2) Rustica - This was a warm chestnut and pumpkin cake. It's a pretty light dessert compared to the richer and creamier tiramisu.
3) Semifreddo - Served with strawberry and some strawberry sauce. Nice and light.
4) Dark chocolate tart - Served warm, this devil of a dessert was delightfully sinful!

When the bill came, we found that my friend's order of Linguine and her Semifreddo dessert wasn't charged to the bill. Now that's what I call service. So I suspect it was really a stone. But nevermind, the rest of the food and the impeccable service rendered throughout the evening cancalled out the unpleasantness of the stone. Expect to spend at least $60 per person.

Oso Ristorante
27 Tanjong Pagar Road
Tel: 6327-8378
Opening hours: Noon to 2.30pm (Mon to Fri), 6 to 10.30pm (daily)

Otori

I should have learnt my lesson about sashimi and sushi buffets after going to Hanabi. But not learning from my past mistakes tends to be a characteristic of mine. I'm such an idiot. And so it went that my cousin and I went for the $30++/person buffet at Otori located at 5 Lock Road, Gillman Village.

The sushi pictured here are the softshell crab and the crabmeat & avocado ones. This was OK. Edible but nothing out of the ordinary.

The grilled cod fish in teriyaki sauce was nothing to rave about. We also had the grilled mackeral which tasted OK.

The agedashi tofu and the tempura were lousy. The batter for both were horrible and the tofu wasn't very fresh. We also had the gyoza but it didn't even look one bit like gyoza. It looked more like a big wan ton, but it tasted really bad. For one thing, the skin was wrong and it was so thick and hard!

The sashimi wasn't good as well. The fish didn't taste very fresh and the quality wasn't good.

If I had to choose between Hanabi and this one, I would go for the former. At least Hanabi has a bigger variety of food. Otori didn't have unagi, ramen, curry rice and some other sushi on the menu.

What was worse was that the restaurant was very short-handed that night and we waited an eternity for our orders to be taken. Anyway, the Japanese food there sucks so I suggest you don't go there!

Hong Kong By Night

"The night descends on Hong Kong like a benediction."

This was something quoted from a chef that was interviewed in an issue of Gourmet magazine that I read. I can't remember which chef it was, but I sure liked what he said about HK.

Indeed, the nightlife in HK is incomparable, and how that line resonates 'cos the city never sleeps! The night view of Victoria Harbour from the Kowloon side is definitely a sight to behold with the illuminated buildings. There's so much to do and more importantly, so much to eat once night falls. And so, let me make some mention of the places I checked out in the dark hours.

1) red is a bar and restaurant at the IFC. It's very swanky and chic. During the autumn and winter months, having your meal al fresco by candlelight at the tables outside is something quite nice. The place seemed to be teeming with expatriates and high-flying executive types who are very likely to be working in the IFC as bankers, financial analysts, brokers etc. It seems to me like the place where people go to to be seen.

Whatever you go to red for, just don't go there for the food. My friend and I had the salmon with rice. But it was ssssoooooo bland that I had to add generous amounts of salt and pepper, plus the pesto and sundried tomatoes dip that came with the bread to spice up the dish! OK granted that the dish was from the "Healthy Menu", still it didn't have to be SO tasteless. Even I could have cooked than that! (And that says a lot about the cooking given the fact that I'm quite a klutz in the kitchen...)

The linguine with prawns that another friend had was just as bland. The fish & chips another friend had didn't look particularly appealing either. I mean, it was quite disappointing as I would have expected better food for the exorbitant price we were being charged for the dishes. Not somewhere I would go again.

2) Wasabisabi Japanese restaurant at Food Forum (食通天) in Times Square is another chic place featuring sleek black and red interiors. It reminded me of Aqua at One Peking. The moment you enter, you step onto this cat walk framed by silver bead blinds hanging down from the sides. Oooh, I feel so glam. Hee.

Of course, sleek interiors necessitate a menu with prices just as sleek. There was nothing out of the ordinary here, just normal Japanese fare. Eight of us had a very refreshing and cold sake to share, and two bowls of sukiyaki, a sashimi platter, tempura platter, sushi platter which included a foie gras sushi and a uni (sea urchin) sushi--and I had to make a grab for the latter as I love uni!!! For desserts we had ginger creme brulee, red bean and black sesame ice cream.
Overall, the food was good as the sashimi was very fresh. Nice, but pricey.

3) drop is a bar and club in an obscure corner of Hollywood Road, Soho, and is only opened to members and their guests. I only got in because someone in the group of people I was with was a member. I didn't find anything special about this club frankly. Nothing to behold about the interiors and/or music. And besides, I'm not a huge fan of clubs. Period. The patrons were mainly expatriates and I didn't think very much of the music. I left after one drink.

4) insomnia at Lan Kwai Fong features a live band which was playing a mix of pop music from the 80s to the present on the night I was there. It was a Wednesday night and I was there with my friend and his friends to celebrate his birthday. The band was OK and like all the other bars in LKF, it's mostly an expatriate and tourist clientele.

Sweet Adieu

As the cliche goes, all good things must come to an end. Or rather, in this instance, it's all sweet things must come to an end.

Today's the last day of business for one of my favourite local desserts stalls, Soon Huat (yes, they actually have a website!!!), where upon I had my first taste of 金瓜糊. Oh, I'm going to miss it so much for the tau suan, cheng tng, gingko nut barley, 金瓜糊 etcetc.

I found out from the owner that they (her husband and her) are moving because her parents have become very frail in old age, and they need to be nearer to take care of them. Soon Huat will be shifting to Bllk 105 Hougang Ave 1 #02-43. Residents of Hougang are so lucky!!!

Xi Yan 喜宴

Dinner at Xi Yan last Wed night was a thoroughly joyous affair, not because anyone was getting married, but really because it was an enjoyable dining experience.

The Singapore branch of this HK private kitchen is tucked away on the second floor in a two-storey shophouse along Craig Road. Xi Yan's pleasant interiors welcomes diners with its red walls, warm lighting and Chinese-styled paintings and decorations.

The earthenware crockery were all slightly different and I felt as if I were looking at a unique piece of art with every cup and plate.

The menu of the night. I've put down the exact names of the dishes as printed on the menu.

prancing lobster with dual sauces 双味味冻龙虾

The lobster came with two dips--a mint and a balachan-based one. Most of us preferred the latter.

Japanese tomato in sesame sauce 胡麻日本温室番茄

This was one of the favourite dishes of the night. The Japanese tomatoes were so huge and succulent, and when topped with the sesame and wasabi sauce, it was utterly heavenly!

cold tofu pork floss 秘制冻豆腐

The cold Japanese tofu with pork floss was served in a big dish of dark sauce which had some sesame oil in it to give it more flavour. The sauce was nice and the tofu fresh, but I wasn't exactly very blown away by this dish.

fermented bean curd fried oysters 香酥南乳炸生蚝

There were several typo errors in the menu, one of which appeared for this dish. "Bean" was spelt as "bead" and of course I had to change it here. Occupational hazard you see. Anyway, I reckon that should have me proofread their menus before they type it out! Perhaps I could offer them my services and I can ask them to pay me in kind. Haha.

These were coated with fermented bean curd and then deep-fried. It tasted pretty good.

clouds ears with wasabi 芥茉凉伴云耳

These clouds ears, some kind of black fungus, was served with lotus root and a wasabi sauce. Thought the wasabi that was in the dark sauce gave the dish that extra kick.

roast pig cheek 烧猪头肉

The charsiew was made from the meat taken from the pig's cheek, which is supposedly more tender. The charsiew slices were to be eaten with small bits of lime and dipped in a sweet chilli sauce.

Spicy Sichuan chicken 口水鸡

This is one of Xi Yan's signature dishes. The chicken was served with preserved egg and Japanese yam vermicelli in a fiery chilli sauce. We opted for the "original" rather than the toned-down version of this sauce. The chicken was very tender and everything was yummy, but the chilli proved too spicy for me. One helping was all I could manage.

shrimp sauce grouper with pomelo
香茅虾膏炸鲜斑

This grouper was coated in shrimp sauce and then deep-fried. We were told by the waitress that the fish was very fresh as it had been gotten from the market that very morning. That being so, I felt it was a bit of a waste to deep-fry a thoroughly fresh fish! Ah well, but this grouper tasted good especially when eaten with the pomelo, onion and chilli bits it sat on.

beef shin glutinous rice 四川糯蒸牛

This dish was the huge disappointment of the night. The beef shin was dry and so was the rice. We were told that the beef shin pieces were placed on top of the rice to allow the juices from it to seep into the rice, but I didn't taste anything! The rice tasted bland.

mix fruits in plum sauce 梅子石榴

The mix fruit platter in plum sauce was meant to cleanse the palate for the next course.

fresh ginseng chicken soup 鲜人参煲鸡

The fresh ginseng chicken soup had wolfberry in it and it tasted pretty good.

young old happy news 老少报喜

Before this dish was brought out, the name baffled us. Sorry, but I actually hate the English translation of this Chinese phrase. People just have to learn that word-for-word translations just ain't the way to do it! Anyway, for those who can't read Chinese, the four characters means the bringing of good news by the young and old. Anyways, the name didn't give a clue as to what this dish was.

All was revealed when a big dish containing pea shoots (豆苗) and preserved vegetables (梅菜) came. The "少" (young) referred to the pea shoots and the "老" referred to the preserved vegetables. Innovative name. But I felt the dish would have tasted better with more garlic and I think it lacked wok hei.

Xi Yan Tang Yuan 汤圆

This is their signature dessert and unlike normal tang yuan, this one has five different ingredients in it--chopped peanuts, white sesame seeds, candied melon, salted egg and butter. It was served in a sweet ginger soup.

Because I had made a special request to the manager, saying that I would be celebrating my 27th birthday that night (even though it was two days after the actual date), I was being presented with a baked Alaska! Yummy!

And as an end to what was overall a fantastic dinner, all diners were treated to a shooter of calamansi, honey and whisky. Really delicious concoction I must say.

Service was excellent and I liked the fact that each dish was being introduced to us by telling us more about the dish and how we should go about eating it. Together with two bottles of wine (Chilean Cabernet Sauv and a South African Pinotage), the bill came up to about $100/person.

It was a different dining experience and one with good food to boot. I would sooner fork out money for dinner at this "wedding banquet" than all the real ones I've been to so far! Like olduvai wrote in her blog entry on Xi Yan--"Almost like a wedding dinner, without the yam sengs and bad food."

New Baccarat Seafood Restaurant

And here's the nosh at New Baccarat Seafood Restaurant in Cheung Chau. You have to turn left as you exit from the ferry terminal and walk right to the end of the street.

I'm not a fan of squid in general, but this deep-fried squid was really yummy. The batter was crisp and tasty, and the squid was really fresh.

The yellow Chinese chives (韮皇) with prawns was stir-fried and was very light compared to the other dishes. This isn't to say it wasn't delicious. One could taste the freshness in the prawns.

The steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli was another favourite. I don't think one can go very far wrong with scallops, garlic and vermicelli prepared in this manner. I only wished the scallops had been bigger!

But ooh, I think the crab with vermicelli was the best dish of all. The rich, buttery broth that the vermicelli was soaked in was lipsmackingly good. The crabs were sweet and fresh and complemented the broth so well.

And after that meal, I just about sent my cholesterol levels shooting skyhigh!

Chestnut and Cashew nut Cream 栗子糊 & 腰果糊

My favourite dessert this time in HK was the chestnut cream (栗子糊) I had in a dessert eatery somewhere in the small lanes of Mongkok (旺角). Being a fan of walnut and peanut cream, I couldn't let up the chance to try chestnut cream for the first time. Incidentally I'm also a huge fan of chestnut. I love it when it's in stuffing for turkey, and I love it roasted with coffee beans.

Funnily enough, that night must have been chestnut night for me. 'Cos before entering the eatery, I had bought a packet of roasted chestnuts from a roadside stall to bring home to munch on. Those coffee-roasted chestnuts were really big and sweet! I love all these roadside foods!

Anyway, back to my chestnut cream. It was thick, smooth and fragrant. The faint and aromatic smells of chestnut whiff past your nose every time you bring a spoonful of that luscious cream to your mouth. Lovely!

My dining companion ordered a bowl of cashew nut cream (腰果糊). I didn't take a picture of that but its colour was that of ivory white. It was also thick and smooth and it tasted a little milkier than chestnut. I'm not a big fan of milk, so I preferred the chestnut cream.

Pity that we don't have such varieties in Singapore. The last time I went to 品乐 to get some walnut cream, I was a bit miffed to find that they have now switched to selling peanut cream because peanuts are cheaper! So then they should remove walnut cream from their menu!!!

Hairy Crabs 大閘蟹

The very first thing I "attacked" when I arrived in HK was the hairy crab. I wasn't about to miss out on it this time round. When I was in HK this time last year, I didn't eat a single one so I couldn't possibly miss out on the chance again. After all, the hairy crab season only beckons once a year.

Hairy crabs are ubiquitous in HK at this time of the year. At every other street corner there are hairy crabs being sold. Posters and TV ads of hairy crabs grab your attention, and hopefully your gullet.

My aunt bought two hairy crabs and steamed them at home. When you buy hairy crabs, a small bottle of vinegar, a packet of sugar, a piece of ginger and some leaves called 紫蘇叶 (sorry, I don't know the English name for it). The idea is to put the crabs on top of the leaves in the steamer so the fragrance from the leaves infuse into the crabs.

The best hairy crabs come from Yang Cheng Lake (洋澄湖), a lake in China's Jiangsu Province (江苏省), not far from Shanghai. Take note that there are many fakes around and many shops claim to sell crabs from Yang Cheng Lake but really don't. The genuine crabs are supposed to have serial numbers imprinted on them using a laser.

The best hairy crabs gourmets can purportedly eat the whole crab such that the shell and legs remain intact after they have devoured all the crab has to offer. You can learn how to eat a hairy crab here. Me? I can't be bothered. Finesse and panache in the art of hairy crab eating can go out of the window. Just eat lah! So I just mangle the crab.

I loved the roe. It was so rich, smooth and delicious. The flesh was OK, but really, the prized item is the roe. So nice, so good. Yum, yum, yum.

Hairy crabs are supposed to be "cooling" in nature, so a cup of ginger tea is usually served at the end of the hairy crab pig-out session. The ginger tea serves to neutralise the cooling effect thus restoring balance in the body. But the crabs are supposedly best served with Shaoxing wine which also has the same neutralising effect.

Hairy crabs, you've become my best friends for the month of November. ;p

Birthday Cake

Yesterday's birthday cake from Sweet Secrets. It was a chocolate mousse cake which was yummy and gave me my chocolate fix. Decided to put only one candle as I was lazy to light up all the rest of it.

Wild Rocket

On a lovely Saturday afternoon last week, Slumbering Girl and I, plus our friend Ben, went to have lunch at this little restaurant tucked away at Upper Wilkie Road, Mount Emily. Oludvai was supposed to join us, but she fell ill and couldn't make it which was a real pity since she's such a foodie as well!

A newborn to the Singapore culinary scene, Wild Rocket came into being on 1 Oct 2005. The restaurant is within the Hangout Hotel premises (a hostel) and is helmed by chef and owner Willin Ong who has given up his law practice to fulfill his dream of becoming a chef.

Wild Rocket has been enjoying brisk business after ChubbyHubby plugged it on his blog. The manager there told us that they have been getting a lot of business because of ChubbyHubby's write-up on the place. It really helps when the chef's a personal friend of such a famous blogger! He should start charging commission or something man.

Anyway, we loved Wild Rocket's interiors. The white and green theme gave it a fresh and casual look. Organza grey curtains let enough sunlight stream in to give the place a bright and cheery feel. Artistic black and white photographs dot the place and fresh flowers brought a touch of nature into the restaurant. We especially love the private corner with its red blinds and floral upholstery. That spot of colour is such a cool place to chill and hang out for drinks. Perfect for a hen's night party or something like that!

For starters, Slumbering Girl and I ordered the Chicken Salad with Sesame Marinade. The greens were fresh and crisp and we liked the sesame marinade. The chicken reminded of the shredded chicken that was being sold at the chicken rice stall during my primary and secondary school days in SCGS.

Ben had a very late and heavy breakfast so he chose not to have a starter and main and went straight to dessert. His Chocolate Foudant with Banana Flembe was very yummy too. It's a dessert that's being served at many places now but I don't think one can tire of warm chocolate lava oozing out from warm chocolate cake.

The Linguine Aglio Olio with Tiger Prawns was my main. This was done pretty well but I felt could have a little bit saltier.

Slumbering Girl went for the Spaghetti with Crabmeat in Tomato Cream Sauce. I thought hers was tastier.

One of the nicest part about Parc Emily is the roof-top garden. It's such a lovely spot to take a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Overall, the food was pretty good. It's not haute cuisine but it's the kind of food which you expect when you eat at a friend's place (of course must be a friend who can cook lah).

The service was good and prompt for the most part. The only time they weren't prompt was when we asked for the bill. It took a good 15min or so to come.

The bill came up to about $50 for a salad, two mains and a dessert. Expect to spend at least $25 if you're going for a two-course meal.

Address: Hangout hotel, 10a Upper Wilkie Road. singapore 228119.
Tel : 63399448

Imperial Treasures La Mian Xiao Long Bao

Imperial Treasures La Mian Xiao Long Bao at the newly renovated Marina Square was Friday's dinner venue with my ex-classmates from junior college.

The place was very crowded by the time we got there and we were lucky to get seats for the eight of us. Anyway, let's get straight to the important part--the nosh!

1) Xiao Long Bao
- not bad. Skin was thin and there was enough soup in it.

2) Beijing pork dumplings
- Basically the same filling as the Xiao Long Bao sans the soup.

3) Spicky pork dumplings
- more dumplings but dipped in chilli sauce. This was pretty good as well.

4) Guo tie (pan-fried dumplings)
- nicely fried and not too oily.

5) Sheng Jian Bao
- the skin wasn't too thick and the meat filling was tasty.

My friends also had the pork ribs noodles and pan-fried noodles. According to them, both were pretty good. But I had a bite of the pan-fried noodles and found it too oily.

One letdown was the service. The extra plate of shredded ginger that we asked for never came. Tea wasn't promptly refilled and they were slow to take our orders. They were very shorthanded.

Overall, the food was OK. Let's just say I wasn't blown away by it. The place is like another Crystal Jade and we can see why because the owner, Alfred Leung, was the one who built up the Crystal Jade Chinese restaurant group and then decided to strike out on his own.

Anyway, I'm going to the country where Xiao Long Baos and all these dumplings originated. Am off to Beijing tomorrow!

Hong Kong Cafe

Having heard a lot about the popular Hong Kong Cafe 师奶茶餐厅, my colleagues and I had to check it out to see how it compared to the chachantengs of Hong Kong. We arrived at around 7:15pm and it wasn't very crowded. But not long after, a stream of people entered and the place was soon filled.

The interiors were pleasantly simple with cream yellow chairs, tables and walls. Seeing all the names of the Hong Kong areas decorating the walls brought back many pleasant memories. Oh, 铜锣湾, 油麻地, 旺角 etc...how I miss you!

We perused the menu and soon settled on the more popular dishes. We had the
(1) Gold Medal Macau Bake (Rice/Spaghetti)
(2) Cheese Broccoli
(3) French Toast (plain)
(4) Deep-fried squid
(5) Che Zhai Mien (Soup noodles with slices of pork, a slice of ham, a sunny side-up and some vegetables)

For the first item, we chose to have baked rice. This baked rice was half flavoured with curry and the other half was flavoured with tomato puree. Slices of squid, prawns, chicken and pork were inside it. It was pretty good but it's definitely too filling for one person.

The cheese broccoli was just boiled broccoli baked with mozzarrella cheese on top. My colleagues found it too cheesy for their liking and I, too, felt that it would probably have tasted better without it. Or better, use egg white instead of cheese.

The French toast, a very popular item, was absolutely gorgeous both in appearance and taste. That extra thick slice of bread deep fried till golden brown on the surface and dripping with butter and honey was divine. Cut into it and the white fluffy bread emerges. Bite into the warm bread and enter culinary bliss.

The deep-fried squid was pretty well done as well. But being not a big fan of squid in general, I only ate one and left the rest for my colleagues.

The Che Zhai Mien was good though. I know, it's really only instant noodles but the soup was very tasty. The big slice of pork was also well marinated and tasty. We eyed the dry version in other tables and it looked pretty good as well! Probably should try that next time.

And no meal is complete without dessert. I went for the 杨枝金露 (mango juice with pomelo, mango and mango ice cream). I didn't like the ice cream as I found it a tad too creamy and milky for my liking. It also wasn't served cold enough.

My colleague's Gingko Nut Barley dessert was a disappointment as it was extremely watery. Another colleague's dessert called the Coconut Snowdown wasn't very tasty as well. This was a coconut pudding with black glutinous rice and a scoop of vanilla ice cream to top it off.

The cafe opens from 6pm - 5am on weekdays and 12pm - 5am on weekends. Another haunt for supper!!!

Overall, I think it isn't too bad a place for Hong Kong chachanteng food when it came to the mains. There were Macanese food items like Portuguese Baked Rice on the menu too. The desserts were disappointing though. Prices are reasonable and service is quite prompt. Still, nothing beats the food in bona fide Hong Kong chachantengs!

Hua Ting

I had heard good reviews of Hua Ting and decided I should give it a try. The occasion? My mum's birthday and my aunt's wedding anniversary.

The restaurant, located at Orchard Hotel, was packed and it was bustling with activity on Saturday. The wooden and earth-toned coloured interiors were very pleasant. The tables were nicely spaced out such that there was enough privacy for each table.

Simple cutlery and crockery ruled, which to me was a wise choice.

The deluxe platter had slices of charsiew, roast pork, jellyfish, and a fish roll. The charsiew was very lean and hence a little dry. I would actually preferred those with a little more fat. I liked the roast pork which was soft and tender. I didn't eat the jellyfish 'cos I don't like eating it. The fish roll was pretty ordinary. It had beancurd skin wrapped around some fish cake and one had to dip it in vinegar. Nothing mind-blowing.

The prawn crackers then came next, acting as a precursor to our Peking Duck. The crackers were very bland and didn't have enough of that prawn flavour. Was a little disappointed with it.

But ah, the star of the night then came along in all its shining glory. That gleaming skin of the evenly roasted duck was a beauty as it lay on the glass platter. The waiter then got round to slicing off its skin and I eagerly awaited for my Peking duck pancakes.

Ah, my favourite. The pancakes were so nice and soft, and was the perfect accompaniment to the crispy duck skins. My 5km jog in the morning just about went up in smoke after eating five Peking duck pancakes! Now you know why I NEVER lose weight despite exercising.

The fried tofu on top of a bed of spinach topped with crab meat was very light on the palate but very tasty. The broth was good and the vegetables suitably moist.

Before I sunk my teeth into this, I was thinking, "This $8+++ had better be good!!!" You eat this stuffed baked chicken drumstick like a steak--with fork and knife. Slice into it, and bits of mushroom come oozing out. The chicken was very tender and the plum sauce gravy complemented the meat.

We were pretty stuffed by the time this Ee-fu noodles came along. This was cooked using the duck meat from the Peking duck we ordered. Chinese chives were added to it as well. The noodles were a little bland and I think it could be a tad saltier.

Overall, it was good Cantonese fare in a very pleasant environment. The service was very good. Tea was refilled promptly, the plates were cleared without being told to do so, and the staff thanked us warmly as we made our way out of the restaurant.

Expect to pay at least $40 per person. 15% discount for UOB, Citibank and HSBC credit cards. 20% discount for Amex Platinum card.

Perfect 10

I have a full table at my wedding banquet next month! But I don�t have a groom. Volunteers are welcomed to step up and my trustworthy bunch of girlfriends will be judges. It�s the next reality show�The Dolly�s Groom.

Like a commander who has won a battle, I feel so triumphant as my call for stomachs for �battle� at Xi Yan was promptly answered by eight stomachs! With my second-in-command, olduvai, we managed to round up eight other stomachs in what was originally a table for six. I�ve since called to up the numbers at the table and the pe