Local food that I like-Singapore Part 2

Been rather busy the past few days both at home and at work. Been wanting to update the blog on my recent trip back to far east. Alright, alright....... here it goes.....on my makan makan trip around Singapore.

Been here and there as follow in Singapore:

1. Local food : Ngee Kee Fried Hokkien Mee Stall-Changi Airport Terminal 2 Food Court. Fried Hokkien Mee verdict: It's tasty with good prawn flavor sauce, portion reasonable, wish there were more prawns though. Ho Chiak lah.......
   
   
   
2. Hoong Woh Tong Chinese Herbal Tea Shop-Bugis [near OG]. This kind of herbal shop can be commonly found in Hong Kong. I opt for the medicinal benefits of having Gui Lin Gao. It's looks like black jelly, but this is made of ground tortoise shell. Normally it is serve with honey to mask the bitterness of the jelly. For ladies : note, regular consumption of this is good for the skin.
   
   
   
3. Japanese ramen joint: Ajisen Ramen - Bugis Junction. Good for value lunch set available everyday. The ramen noodle is well made, the broth is slightly fragant in miso, garlic and dashi stock. Portion is huge and real value for money for those who fancy Japanese ramen. 1 side dish, 1 ramen and 1 drink will set you back by 10 Singapore dollars only. Oishi ne. Brrrp.......
   
   
   
   
4. Taiwanese food: Din Tai Fung restaurant - various outlets in Singapore [I went to the one at City Hall] . This restaurant has bee line que of customers be it in Taiwan or Singapore. Their signature dish is the Xiao Long Bao [meat dumpling]. The skin were skilfully done, filled with juicy minced pork, beware of the hot temperature juice when savoring this dumpling. We're there rather late for light lunch and many items has run out of order. So we only managed vegetables seaweed salad, xiao long bao and dang dang noodles. I enjoyed eating at Din Tai Fung.
   
   
   
5. Indonesian cake shop : Bengawan Solo - one of my favorite cake shop. Some of the outlets has little cafe that do serve coffee, teh tarik and even my favorite desserts Cendol. Is a good stop for mid-afternoon snack of kuih kuih or cake with tea, coffee or even some Cendol. Cendol is actually made of rice flour with pandan extract, and normally served with shaved ice, palm sugar syrup, sweetened kidney bean and a scoopful of coconut cream. Yes calorie laden desserts, but it's an enjoyment for me to savor this authentic South East sweets.
   
   
   
   

Back to Pekan Gurney, Sitiawan Part 1

Having left the sanctuary in Si Kao, I'm heading back home to my roots-a little village known as Pekan Gurney in Sitiawan, Perak. I've not been back for awhile, good to be back to have a look.

The main occupation of the people of Pekan Gurney is mainly farming related - particularly rubber tapping and palm oil plantation. People here do get up very early to tend to their plantation, as early as 3-4 am in the morning. I also noticed there are many new 3 to 4 stories high building sprouting everywhere in this sleepy town. What is it for? It's not a residential home but a home build for swift to nest. Of course the intention is to harvest bird nest (rather the saliva of swift) which is an expensive elixir in Chinese medicine. I think the building of these sanctuary for birds in residential area is not very hygenic - birds dropping, stale drinking water container could be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and etc. I do hope the local council should not approve building of such places in residential areas.

Here's link to what is this industry about....

I went to Sitiawan and the road system had changed quite a bit, many has only one way street access and road has been widened so much to acommodate for the heavier traffic seen in the last decade or so. But thank goodness with all these changes, I can still find my favorite Cheong Cia Gong Pian (hot biscuit) shop beside Wisma Ganda.


Worker busy rolling the dough

On weekends this favorite stall will have bee lines que of eager customers waiting to eat this snack. Many customers will buy in quantity of 50 or 100 pieces at a time. The biscuit is being stuck and cooked in a urn pot oven fueled by charcoal.

The worker checking on the gong pian in the urn pot oven

There are few varieties to the gong pian biscuit. The basic is with onion and some pork belly fats, some with pork and onion, pork onion and sesame seed and etc. My all time favorite is onion and pork belly fat. It is so aromatic once out from the oven, and is so crispy. This is definitely a Sitiawan Foochow food heritage. Not many places in Malaysia actually have this snack, as far as I know only Sibu in Sarawak where there are also Foochow communities and Sitiawan. I haven't eaten these gong pian for the last 4 years or so...... what an enjoyment of every bites.

My favorite Gong Pian

I have the opportunity to visit local ''pasar pagi'' (morning market) to see what is on sales especially the seasonal produce. To my surprise, there are some end of season durian for sales. Of course it's not the top end XO or D24 or Sultan durians but rather the "kampung" durians. Anyway I still bought some back to savor. There were quite a bit of tropical fruits on sales like the hairy rambutan, a sweet tasting fruit with white flesh lonkong, jackfruit equivalent of cempedak and etc.

Local juicy and sweet watermelon

Petai- Smelly bean, a favorite if fried with sambal belacan

Longkong

Jackfruit's brother-The Cempedak

Hairy Rambutan-so sweet and juicy

Durian-King of fruit-smell like hell taste like heaven

It was indeed a nice trip to be able to savor fresh tropical fruits I don't get to savor back in UK. :-). So it's makan time!!!

Visiting Trang

We've landed at Krabi on the 26th. Weather wise: Cloudy, hot & humid. After one and half hour airport transfer, we finally arrived at our sanctuary-Anantara Si Kao Resort

It was indeed a sanctuary for those looking for a place to just slow down and relax, embracing the the sound of wave, a seaview of picturesque looking limestone islet from your room, surrounded by lush greeneries..... so tranquil and serene. One could opt for spa treatment, or attend pilates/yoga session in the morning, or hop to Kho Kradan for a half day leisure on the Adaman sea. The staff at the resort is so polite, with smiles and helpful, service wise top notch none other can beat. A must for those seeking out a place just to relax and rejuvenate the body and soul ..... I called it a bliss.

As for me I did go for a half day stroll at Trang a little town 30minutes from Si Kao. I'm interested in how the local go about their daily life and of course trying out local food. Trang is well known for it's roasted pork. Having said that we nibble on some bits just to try, indeed it's lovely-juicy and with hint of char siew sweetness to the meat and perfect crisp on the skin. I took this picture of a typical roast pork seller on the Trang market, she is a willing party to have her photo taken although I'm aware of the big chopper and the pig's head just laying ahead of me :-) .

Of course not forgetting the little snacks that is popular in Thailand better known as Kanom Buang Thai (or mini Thai tacos to the farang). This popular snack is like a crispy pancake with shredded coconut and minced shrimp. It brings with it a flavor of sweet and saltiness and a mouthful of crispy pancake...delicious...for the price of 1Baht per piece ( around 1 pence) , how could I resist.

Of course not forgetting Pad Thai, a staple food for me if I'm in Thailand. I won't grow tired eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The trip would not be complete without it. Yum, yum.

For me Thailand is not only the land of smiles, but to foodie is a paradise.

Local food that I like - Singapore Part 1

Having just arrived back here after 13hours of long haul flights, I braced myself over the hot(note 34C) and humid weather of Singapore. I was sweating profusely the moment I step out of Changi Airport Terminal One. I started to miss the weather back in Cambridge....indeed a nice cool summer ~ 22C only. I guess on the good side of things it stay sunny here in Singapore and not forgetting the yummylicious food here.
One local dish that I really like here is Yong Tau Foo. This dish is of Hakka origin. It is made of fish paste stuffed into tofu, bean curd skin, vegetables-okra, brinjal and chillis etc. They're normally served with noodles, kway teow (thick rice noodle) , bee hoon(rice vermicelli) and rice too. You can either ask for dry or soupy version with sweet and hot chilli sauce. As usual I go with kway teow soup. Yummy, what can I say...craving satisfied. And a mere SGD3.50, less than 2 quid for a hearty meal.
So much constructions going on in the past 2years that I had not been back to Singapore. Shopping complexes sprouting here and there. One of the mega complex is VivoCity down at Harbour Front. Good selection of shops, well for me is just window shop :-).

I'm heading to Krabi soon for a short vacation. Stay tune for good food and whatever fancies me.

Restaurant Review : Xin Dim Sum Restaurant

We're out visiting the summer opening of Buckingham Palace last Sunday. It was really great to see the interior of The State Room. However no photography allowed within the interior of the palace. The grand decor, every details speak for itself. We spent almost 2.5hrs in the State Room viewing the exhibits. We didn't want to leave until our stomach protested that it's time for lunch.
We headed to Harrods which is just a stone throw away from the Palace. We went for the first restaurant we spotted on the Ground Floor of Harrods Knightbridge. It's known as Xin Dim Sum restaurant. We, each ordered a set lunch of delicate mouthful dim sum. It consists each of set of steam delicacies and bake/fry delicacies. In the steamer, it consists of shiu mai (minced pork dumpling), char siew bao (roasted pork bun), har gow (shrimp dumpling), xiao long bao (pork dumpling), mini he yea fan (lotus leaf rice), shui jin bao (lemon grass chicken crystal dumpling) meanwhile the bake/fry plate offers vegetable spring roll and char siew puff parcel.


Verdict
Shiu Mai = The dumpling is well marinated and very juicy and moist.
Char Siew Bao = The bao skin is soft, however I find the roast pork a bit bland for my taste.
Har Gow= The shrimp is crunchy but the har gow skin is a bit on the unsatisfactory
Xiao Long Bao = Average
He Yea Fan = The taste is alright, however the glutinous rice I find a bit over steam to the point of being a bit too soggy.
Lemon grass chicken crystal dumpling= The mix of slight tanginess blend well with the skin, so it's a good dim sum.
Char Siew Puff Parcel = Excellent, the skin is flaky enough and just nicely sweet. The Char siew this time around is moist and brings out the hint of five spice powder after taste. Yummy, definitely top notch.
Vegetable spring roll= The skin a bit thick but crispy still. Just average though.

Overall I would rate 6.5/10 for the food. We paid GBP15.80 for the mouthful of delicacies.

Anyway enjoy this picture I took of the nice butterfly sucking nectar from dahlias.

Crispy Tofu

I wanted to post this recipes but somehow was rather busy last week that I totally forgotten all about it. I had some leftover silky egg tofu and decided to make a simple starter. If you're not a fan of tofu, I bet this simple crispy tofu dish will win you over.


Crispy Tofu
Ingredients

• Silky egg tofu- cut into 2x1 inches rectangle
  
• 2 tbsp of potato starch
• 200 ml of cooking oil
• some green salad and corriander for garnishing
• some Thai sweet chilli sauce

1. Coat the tofu with potato starch
2. In a pan/wok, heat up the cooking oil till hot.
3. Put in the coated tofu into hot oil and fry. Fry for about 5mins on each side till golden brown.
4. Removed and drained with paper towel.
5. Garnish and serve with Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Verdict: Soft inside and perfect crisp on the outside. Yummy.

Silky Egg Tofu

I bought a carton of unsweetened soya milk from supermarket some time ago and totally forgotten about it. So I thought why not turning these into homemade silky egg tofu. I reckon you should give it a try.

Silky Egg Tofu
Ingredients

• 3 large eggs lightly beaten
• 250 ml of unsweetened soya milk
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Beat the egg lightly, add in the soya milk and salt and whisk lightly.
2. Line a rectangular metal tray with cling wrap ( I use 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches baking tray) . Seive the mixture into the tray. Cover the top of the tray with cling wrap to prevent steaming water droplet dripping into the tofu.
   
3. Steam on high heat for 10 minutes.
4. Remove and cool. Cut into pieces as per your liking.
5. Then you can use different sauces to garnish or your can even coat it with potato starch to deep fry and served with Thai sweet chilli sauce.
   

For me I opted for healthier options : using black bean sauce .

Sauce :

• 1 tbsp of black bean sauce
• 1 tsp of chilli oil
• 1 tsp cooking oil
  
• 1 tsp shaoxing wine
• 1-2 tsp of sugar
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 shallot - finely chopped
  
• some corn starch solution to thicken
• some spring onion , sesame seed and chillis for garnishing
  

1. Heat oil (cooking oil + chilli oil ) and fry the shallot till fragant.
2. Add in black bean sauce, sugar, shaoxing wine, sesame oil and water and simmer for 1-2minutes.
   
3. Add in corn starch solution to thicken the sauce.
4. Pour the sauce over the egg tofu and garnish with spring onion, chopped chillis & sesame seeds.
5. Served with rice.
   

Petite Madeleine

This is one of the French recipes that I hold highly and never fail to impress your guests for a delightful afternoon tea session. Pretty to the eyes, these delicate shell like madeleines will have your guests asking for second, third until all is cleared up and still wanting for more.
I personally like these madeleines, as the outer layer is so crispy and yet soft inside, accented by hint of orange zest...... what a bliss to had with a cup of coffee or tea. To tell you the truth, the pictures I took above is only my second attempts on madeleine. The first attempt was wiped out by me and my guests before I had the chance to photograph them.
Let me share with you this delightful and mouthful petite madeleine.


Petite Madeleine
Ingredients (make about 14-18 madeleines)

• 3 large eggs
• 100-125 gm sugar ( I tend to use 100gm as I prefer it less sweet)
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 110 gm cake flour
• 60 gm finely ground almond
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp orange juice
  
• 125gm butter
• some icing sugar for dusting
  
  
  

1. In a pan heat , melt and simmer the butter till brown, should give you a nice aroma. Sieve and cool.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg and sugar with an electric mixer till ribbon consistency, will take about 10minutes. Then add in zest and vanilla and mixed well.
3. Slowly use a spatula to mix in the flour and blend well. Add in almond flour, salt , orange juice and baking powder and blend well.
4. Lastly pour in the melted butter and mixed well.
5. Put in the refrigerator and cool for about 4hours. By this time your batter should be slightly thicken.
   
6. Brush the madeleine mold baking tray with some butter and dust with some flour. Then scoop about 1 tbsp of the batter and filled into the pan. This amount should be about 2/3 full in the shell mold. Don't worry if it's look unsightly at the moment. Repeat till 12mold gas been filled.
   
7. Heat the oven to 180C. Bake for 15minutes or till olden brown. Typically I will turn over when the front side turn brownish with a fork in order that the bottom side will brown evenly as well.
8. Serve and enjoy.

P/S: For cake flour I use 110gm plain flour, remove 2 tbsp of flour and replace with 2 tbsp of corn flour and 1/2 tsp of baking powder and seive about 8-10times till light.

Stir Fry Prawn in XO sauce

This is one of my favorite no hassle quick stir fry recipes. I would say any seafood blend particularly well with XO sauce (this sauce originated from Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong). Many of the Cantonese dishes in Hong Kong incorporated this sauce. The main ingredient of this sauce is dried scallops, chilli oil, dried shrimps and Chinese ham.
Having traveled to Hong Kong quite a few times, normally I will buy a few bottles from HK airport (note they only sell the premium hotellier XO sauce), although one can get Lee Kum Kee brand as well in HK city.
Try this quick stir fry and I'm sure you'll like it like I do. The prawn is succulent, the pepper crunchy, the dish is colorful and the taste is brilliant.

Stir Fry Prawn in XO sauce
Ingredients

• 300 gm fresh king prawn ( shelled, de-veined and butterfly)
  
• 1/2 tbsp XO sauce
• 1/2 tsp chilli oil (optional)
  
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine/sherry
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp corn flour
• 1/2 green, 1/2 red, 1/2 yellow pepper
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 cloves garlic - minced
  

1. Marinate the prawn with salt, wine and corn flour for 15minutes. Keep the juice.
   
2. Heat the wok over high heat and add the oil. Add in the pepper and stir fry for a minute and remove from the wok. Then add in the garlic and prawns and stir fry till prawns turn pinkish. This takes about 2-3minutes. Return the peppers into the wok and continue stir fry. Add in the XO sauce and stir fry. Pour in the juice+1 tbsp water so that the sauce will thicken and coat the prawns.
   
3. Remove from heat. Served with rice.

DELICIOUS and COLORFUL :-)

A short break in Athlone, Ireland

Athlone High Street

River Shannon running across Athlone

I've been away for a 3 days short break to Ireland. I've been here in Cambridge exactly 3 years now, but have never step my foot into Ireland before, as the saying goes so near yet so far.
So with my ma around, we decided to pay a visit to our hometown friends in Athlone and also to visit my friends and fellow food blogger so.moo.food in Dublin. The trip was indeed fruitful and load with lots of Malaysian hospitality to name a few. On top of that we're blessed with two days of excellent weather in Athlone (having heard of horrible and unpredictable Irish weather? ) .
If one ever visits Athlone and fancy Chinese food, do drop by Row In Row

( http://www.athlone.ie/athlonedirectory/R/RowinnRowChinese.aspx ) and
Jia Jia Chinese restaurant. If you like a cosy and relax ambience, Row In Row definitely the place to chill out and the food is great. Dining at Jia Jia definitely has its Oriental edge, with the added Oriental decor and huge authentic Oriental arts hanging on the wall, service wise it's excellent and its food definitely authentic. Needless to say, as a food enthusiast myself, I highly recommend this two Chinese restaurant if you happen to be in Athlone.

Back here in Cambridge, I've been growing my own grub in spring. They're faring pretty well now. I've started harvest some of my own vegetables. On my little plot (I would say pots) I have grown some dwarf french bean, potatoes, spring onion, spinach, lettuces and celery. So I've picked some french bean fresh from my plot. :-)
As a Malaysian ( hmnnn.... calling myself half Singaporean as well) , I have yearning for spicy food sometimes. So I decided to make a quick fiery stir fry to go with my rice. If you happen to be in Malaysia and Singapore you couldn't help but noticed some vegetables stir fried in sambal belacan sauce ( spicy shrimp paste ) .... note it's spicy .... but it gives the dish it's added kick. For me it's an excellent Malaysian ingredients after all to bring flavor to other wise a dull dish.

Stir Fry French Bean in Spicy Sambal Sauce
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

• 150 gm french bean (cleaned and trimmed and cut into 1.5 inches stick)
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 shalots finely chopped
• 1/2 tbsp sambal belacan sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar

1. Heat oil in a wok till hot. Add in the sambal sauce and shallot and let it brown for a minute.
2. Then add in the french bean and stir fry on high heat for 2-3minutes.
3. Then add in sugar and stir fry for another minute or so.
4. Dish out and serve.

This dish can accompany with rice or usually the Malaysian used it in Nasi Lemak (coconut rice)
My verdict : Delicious

Pick Your Own (PYO) Strawberries

We went strawberry picking this weekend. Having disappointment over PYO weeks ago
[ reasons being: 1. we went late in the afternoon 2. berries were still developing] , we thought we give it another try. This time around, not only the berries were huge plus juicy and weather were smiling sunshine at us. We went and picked 2 punnets and additional pick and eat along the way. You can't get strawberries fresher than this, right from the plant into your mouth :-) .
Few days ago I was browsing bbc food websites for what's in season, and voila there's a video showing how to make strawberry jam. I decided to make strawberry jam. With strawberry jam then comes the Cornish clotted cream and scones....make the perfect afternoon cream tea.... what a bliss yeah.
For this recipes, I cut down on sugar to 800-850gm instead of 1kg as I prefer my jam to be less sweet. My verdict of this recipes is good. Give it a try. :-)