Chwee Kueh & Char Siew from Chinatown on 14Sep2014

Posted on September 14, 2014 by chefquak

char siew

wife went marketing at chinatown complex market today on 14.9.2014.

she also bought chwee kueh from our favourite stall bedok chwee kueh (#02-43) & char siew from the stall next to it, mayflower roasted meat specialist. 🙂

chwee kueh

char siew

chwee kueh with chye por

love the chwee kueh here. soft & firm texture & especially the chye por & chilli condiments. my habit is to cut the chwee kueh in 2 (a bitesize mouthful) using a teaspoon, spoon the chye pro & chilli on top & spoon the whole thing in to combine the flavours & texture. 🙂

the char siew was a convenient buy, probably not the best stall there, and often touch & go. today it was fresh, tasty with flavourful fatty bits. other times meat could be a bit dry. it was not comparable with imperial treasure teochew char siew OR charcoal broiled pork collar, and about the standard of a decent neighbourful coffeeshop roast meat stall.

c.h.e.f andy

Scrumptious Homechef Mooncake Dinner on 8Sep2014

Posted on September 12, 2014 by chefquak

buddha jump over the wall (b-j-o-t-w)

was invited to a friend’s place for “makan kueh bulan” dinner on 8sep2014, to celebrate (though in subsequent whatsapps, there was discovery that for some it was celibrate – ok just kidding la. 🙂 ) mid autumn festival.

the last 3 times i was invited – it was a peranakan feast on 30.5.2014, and before that another “michelin star” home gourmet peranakan feast on 7.6.2013, & a teochew gourmet lunch on 12.4.2012. running out of vocab but who can blame me? haha! 🙂 that btw is why i blog = help me to recall all the fun moments! 🙂

one important promising observation – the invitations seem to get a bit more frequent. keep it up my friend!…lol. 🙂

the buddha jump over the wall (b-j-o-t-w) was absolutely delicious. myself, and the other “buddha” among us, were among the first in line, and of course once a buddha was not quite enough. 🙂

fish maws for b-j-o-t-w

sharks fin & sea cucumber for b-j-o-t-w

the sharks fin, sea cucumber & fish maw were all very good with the b-j-o-t-w, which had pig trotters & dried scallops (& i guess chicken) as soup base, and thick mushrooms – very sweet, tasty, intense. i loved it! 🙂

abalone for b-j-o-t-w

the very expensive abalones made it a sumptuous & not just scrumptious dinner. i tried 1 slice for each bowl of b-j-o-t-w i had. couldn’t say that i fully appreciate this delicacy. texture was quite fine, not tough. i like abalones with deep flavours with just a slight chewy bite, & not rubbery.

my own peasant “poor man’s” version of buddha jump over the wall (b-j-o-t-w) is more like an imposter, not quite in the same class. haha! 🙂 & i had a S$9.90 can of limpets masquerading as abalones, from the “lowly ntuc type” (in this case sheng shiong) according to the teases on our group whatsapp. 🙂

buddha jump over the wall (b-j-o-t-w)

a friend “ta pao” some food back including b-j-o-t-w, and was still relishing the divine enlightenment days later! 🙂

marvellous spread

the scrumptious spread!

squid wasabi salad

the squid wasabi salad was very good. i am trying out later myself with zucchini.

teochew braised duck

the teochew braised duck was very tasty. meat was tender. the flavours & braising sauce a bit different from my own teochew braised duck (i just use tai wah braising sauce), and seems like a longer cooking time than mine, which is about 1 hr for a 2kg duck.

crackling roast pork

crackling belly pork is a dish that i failed many times. this one was good, both the crackling skin & the meat flavours, maybe it would give me some impetus to try again the crackling part. has been difficult for me to have motivation on this dish which is a bit unhealthy & i had to eat myself or throw away when i missed the mark, so i did not post any recipe to date. 😦

drunken prawns

hmmm…drunken prawns. somehow i missed trying this dish, too absorbed in buddha’s teachings. 🙂

drunken chicken

drunken chicken was tender & tasty, perhaps could do with a bit more chinese shaoxing wine (绍兴酒). not sure. i did this drunken chicken pretty ok myself but a good 绍兴酒 is costly & may cost 1/2 the price of the chicken unless you reuse the marinade, so i mostly just do the poached chicken (白斩鸡) sans the wine. 🙂

the friend who also brought back b-j-o-t-w added macaroni to the drunken chicken 3 days later & was apparently in divine drunken stupor in some nirvana state he converged the drunken chicken with the b-j-o-t-w, something clearly requiring advanced practice in mental discipline & powers of perception. 🙂

steamed ang kuay

liked the ang kuay too. meat was tender. nice fish.

stir-fried naibai (奶白)

the naibai (奶白) was a good round up after the meat dishes. 🙂

heng hua beehoon

the heng hua beehoon was well infused with the littleneck clam (“la la”) flavours. according to my friend, heng hua was the only cuisine to add clams to beehoon. haha..if you exclude vongole..lol (but you don’t usually use capellini for vongole). 🙂

my plateful

my plateful of all the great dishes.

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water caltrop (菱角)

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water caltrop (菱角)

batman! perfect for superimposing over the moon. 🙂

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water caltrop (菱角)，潮州月饼，月糕

one interesting, nostalgic journey this evening was bringing back the dissappearring food. one friend brought the 潮州月饼，月糕. the 潮州月饼 was kind of similar to pong piah or ma tai soh (1 soft skin & 1 crispy). the 月糕 is a black sesame version. the ones i now remember were white versions of月糕 used to come in cheap red paper wrappings & i had them when very young.

water caltrop (菱角) – we had to google this. very nostalgic. alas! it’s hard to shell & quite bland to eat! 🙂

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homemade mooncakes

the host also prepared homemade moon cakes with coloured 冰皮 & very smooth, not too sweet 莲蓉. yum!

a friend’s birthday falls a few days after the dinner, so we bought a mille crepe cake from lady M, put on 1 “big” candle & sang happy birthday. 🙂 still managed to polish off the cake despite being “very full”. haha! 🙂

we sat at the garden afterwards. very nice evening with friends!

c.h.e.f andy

So-So Dinner @ Sopra Cucina on 10Sep2014

Posted on September 11, 2014 by chefquak

suckling pig – S$48

decided to have dinner at sopra cucina at pan pacific orchard after watching a movie “magic in the moonlight” at shaw lido on 10.9.2014.

sopra cucina & bar had great ambience. the inside was like a large private drawing room with chesterfield deep-buttoned leather seats. it had a charming facade & there was an open patio bar area & live music. some hungrygowhere reviewers commented on the loud & bad singing. on this evening seated inside the restaurant, the music was ok & the singing was fine & probably welcomed by the bar customers. 🙂

the restaurant had few customers on this evening.

bread basket

the bread basket was poor (or like a pizzeria or fast-food serving) & not really consistent with the furnishings & ambience of the restaurant.

octopus salad – S$18

we ordered the octopus salad. it was not chef’s recommendations but apparently quite popular with customers. it was quite a large helping. the steamed octopus were ok not tough, like the ones at vicoletti at stresa, but not the standard of the grilled octopus at alle darsene at bellagio. still it was pretty good for an antipasti. 🙂

pregola frutti di mare – S$28

sopra cucina served sardinia (second largest island in the mediterranean after sicily & before cyprus) cuisine. we ordered the pregola frutti di mare. the prawns were fresh. the scallops & squid were so-so. the tomato flavours were ok but felt more like an average sauce than that from nice fresh tomatoes. the pregolas looked like “barley risotto” but pasta in texture. i would rather have a spaghetti or linguine or fettucine anytime. it’s a personal preference i guess. somehow the dish did not give me the same satisfaction & enjoyment of a good pasta.

suckling pig – S$48

the roast suckling pig was quite flavourful & the skin was crispy. of course i would rather have the chinese roast suckling pig anytime. i supposed it’s as good as the suckling pig at capri, but for me the suckling pig with stuffing at one ninety mezze lunch was far better.

with 50% palate discounts for 2pax, the bill came to S$74nett including a glass of wine, or S$47++=S$55nett just for the 3 dishes. so price was ok but the satisfaction was not there, unlike say the scrumptious dinner at arossa on 3.9.2014.

i saw that there were several sadinian dishes like gnocchi, ravioli, the lamb & the fish which all looked pretty good on photos. still undecided whether i want to give it another try later.

c.h.e.f andy

Affordable “Nouveau?” Lunch Sets @ Nuvo on 8Sep2014

Posted on September 10, 2014 by chefquak

spiced carrot soup

a friend recommended nuvo. the ongoing S$15pax set lunches looked ok (even though it had a lot of supplements for dish selections) so 6 of us went for lunch on 8.9.2014. chef mark richards hailed from keystone (which i went several times when it was accepting palate privileges – 50% discount for 2pax ala carte. i viewed keystone as the standard of saint pierre & slightly less expensive), and excelled in sous vide techniques. 🙂

the restaurant was located at the food edition at marina square at the corner facing citylink mall & suntec convention centre. it was nice, bright & airy & had a attached bar that was directly overlooking raffles link & raffles boulevard. we all commented this a place to be to watch the F1 (though i always prefer the couch at home..haha..not to mention it cost S$500 to come here & watch the cars turn round a corner!).

we were debating the name. i googled afterwards but there was no special meaning associated with the word so likely nuvo was just short for nouveau. 🙂

i was late, arriving at 12.15pm. the restaurant soon filled up & i would say perhaps >60% occupied during lunch hour on a monday.

a practice that did not find favour with me was NOT serving tap water. we ordered 1 still & 1 sparkling for 6pax. they cost S$4.50each for a 500ml bottle. for me, i looked at the overall price vs the food & experience so paying S$9 for bottled water for 6pax (which also meant we have to drink less water) was not a big issue.

olive focaccia

olive focaccia with herb butter

the olive focaccia bread with herb butter was pretty good, ok. 🙂

cha smoked salmon

there were 3 choices of starters & main courses & 2 choices of dessert.

i thought my spiced carrot soup (top photo) with mascarpone, croutons & honey was really good & of fine dining standard. it was creamy, smooth in texture & flavourful, looked wonderful as well! 🙂

the smoked salmon with wasabi cream, furikake & baby spinach came with S$3 supplement. it looked great & appetising. the thick square cuts looked more like ceviche, cured or sashimi. my friends all liked the dish. 🙂 i asked 1 friend afterwards. he said the combination of flavours with the baby spinach was great. 🙂

tempura soft shell crab

the tempura soft shell crab had S$4 supplement. soft shell crab not my favourite dish but this looked fine & no complaints on the taste. 🙂

grilled pork collar

3 of us took the grilled pork collar on our friend’s recommendations. 2 took the risotto & 1 took the pesto cold soba.

the pork collar had good consistent texture of sous vide. the chef is famous for his sous vide cuisine. the friend who took cold soba & i both commented that the pork collar was kind of lean. i personally would prefer it the usual fatty collar. the 2 other friends preferred it lean. 🙂 fries were good. mash/cold slaw? were good too. i didn’t take much of either.

kabayaki squid risotto

the squid risotto looked a bit skimpy to me. 5 or 6 pieces of squid on risotto. maybe it was the minimalist philosophy (just kidding…lol). i asked 1 friend afterwards. he agreed it was kind of plain.

pesto cold soba

the friend who took soba said it was too salty & maybe the set lunch was not that great for the price. i said a zaru soba could cost S$12 to S$15 so everything depended on how good the taste.

panna cotta with honeycomb

green tea mochi with melon

i hardly ever ordered panna cotta in singapore. so i started with the green tea mochi. when the dessert were served, i thought the panna cotta with honeycomb looked quite good so i asked to change the dessert (S$4 supplement). i had excellent panna cotta at pizzeria balognett at tremezzo, i thought i would give the singapore version a try since it looked quite good. it was pretty good – light, smooth texture – but nothing amazing. the green tea mochi also looked competent. 🙂

overall including S$1.50pax for the mineral water, my share came to S$25++ (S$30nett). to me it was pretty ok & something i would not mind doing again. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Just OK Lunch @ Ichiban Boshi on 9Sep2014

Posted on September 9, 2014 by chefquak

S$15.90 bara chirashi don

a friend bought lunch at ichiban boshi @ great world city on 9.9.2014.

i had been to ichiban boshi a few times some time ago. more recently i went mostly to sun with moon wheelock. looking at the internet menu, and comparing with the dinner & lunch sets available at sun with moon wheelock & say tonkichi, chikuwatei, momoya & kuroson, my view is that by comparison ichiban boshi is not value-for-moeny.

i decided to order a bara chirashi don (they called it chirashi don but it was actually bara chirashi don) because the bara chirashi don set at sun with moon wheelock was really very good, even better than a chirashi don at say tonkichi.

but it was a mistake (i would be better off if i ordered the S$19.90 seafood don, which was actually a chirashi don). the rice was nothing like the very tasty rice at sun with moon wheelock & the sashimi cut & amount were poorer in quality & quantity.

gyu yaki set

bara chirashi don

sashimi moriawase

my friend ordered a beef yaki set for himself & he added a sashimi moriawase. not quite sure how much but i guess maybe S$25.90. it had good quality ingredient like mirugai (geoduck) and so-so hokkigai (atlantic surf clams). salmon was average, hamachi was good.

in my opinion it would be much better value-for-money to pay 25% or 35% more at sun with moon wheelock & get a lot more quality food. at the very least, sashimi is probably not the food to try at ichiban boshi since it is serving kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi 回転寿司, quality likely mediocre, so perhaps it maybe better to try the cooked food. however just looking at the photos, the kamameshi for example does not look anything like the appetising ones at sun with moon wheelock.

the point here is that even though ichiban boshi is cheaper than sun with moon wheelock, but if you add a dish say like sashimi moriawase, then the cost maybe S$35pax which is equal or more than the cost of a good set at sun with moon wheelock, but i had a lot more satisfaction with the wheelock set.

c.h.e.f quak

Royal Walk (London for Free) on 22Aug2014

Posted on September 7, 2014 by chefquak

view of 10 downing street

last time i came to london was in oct2011. that time my wife & i & our son walked around saint james park.

this time as we had more time, we decided to follow the london for free/royal walk route. we took the victoria line from kings cross to green park & changed to jubilee line to westminster on 22.8.2014.

we started with 10 downing street, but the street was closed with security post and not accessible to tourist. 😦

victoria embankment view of london eye

from there we walked along richmond terrace towards river thames, crossed the road to victoria embankment next to the battle of britain memorial. 🙂

the london eye was opposite. i had not taken the london eye nor indeed the singapore flyer. i did not pay much attention earlier as the initial thought was paying £18 (S$33 for singapore flyer) to spend 30mins (32mins for singapore flyer) with 20+ strangers (25 in 1 capsule for london eye & 28 for singapore flyer). but in a way it is like paying to go up eiffel tower or empire state building to view the city. i may try them some time….

the appreciative & the critical, from wiki on london eye–

Sir Richard Rogers, winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, wrote of the London Eye in a book about the project:

The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That’s the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London.

Writing for G2 in an article from August 2007, Steve Rose described the Eye as follows:

The Eye… exists in a category of its own…. It essentially has to fulfil only one function, and what a brilliantly inessential function it is: to lift people up from the ground, take them round a giant loop in the sky, then put them back down where they started. That is all it needs to do, and thankfully, that is all it does.

view from victoria embankment

victoria embankment view of flyer

never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few - winston churchill

never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few – winston churchill

we walked along the embankment towards house of parliament aka palace of westminster.

there was winston churchill’s famous quote – “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” by the memorial.

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big ben @ house of parliament aka palace of westminster

big ben was right ahead. we crossed the road to the house of parliament aka palace of westminster.

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statue of winston churchill at the parliament square

there was the statue of winston churchill at the parliament square.

apparently one cannot find any pigeon resting on the head as it is wired & will give the poor creature an electric shock.