This ad puts a smile on my face and a rumble in my tummy at the same time. Oh, the pizza …. !!
Archive for the 'food' Category
Why can’t there be a Starbucks at my workplace? I’m sick of vending machine coffee.
more cat pictures
Oops! I think I’ve just blogged a tweet.
At an unknown Burger King outlet, a customer made a special request for a Whopper with cheese and sixty slices of bacon and he got it! I guess Burger King isn’t kidding when they say "Have it your way".
Someone wanna try that kind of request in Singapore? Sometimes getting an extra packet of chilli sauce is met with an incredulous stare from the counter staff, so good luck to the person brave enough to try it! 
[link: About Colon Blank]
Probably the most important tool that any good cook should have is not his pots and pans, nor his knife set. Probably not even his hands, but his tongue. I mean, how can one whip up a great meal if one can’t taste the food that’s being cooked?
It is indeed ironic that one of the top chefs in the US, Grant Achatz, who has stage IV tongue cancer, has lost his sense of taste through his illness and the radiotherapy that he had to undergo, although he is slowly regaining some of his sense of taste.
Though he refused the standard treatment that would have involved removing most of his tongue, radiation therapy has nonetheless zapped, at least temporarily, most of his taste buds. Still, Achatz presides over the Alinea kitchen, guiding his employees in the creation of his trademark outrageous confections - desserts of strawberry, olive, and violet essence; squab candy bars; pea and smoked salmon lollipops. Slowly, his sense of taste is returning - he can now taste salt and sugar again, and expects regain the ability to detect more subtleties as the months pass. He even hopes the experience will make him a more creative, edgier chef.
[link: Slashfood]
This is my favourite and in my opinion, the best chilli sauce in the world! Lingham’s Chilli Sauce. It’s like the Tabasco sauce of the Asian condiment range.
Some interesting facts about the company that manufactures this chilli sauce:
One of the company’s aims is to
“offer the world and share with them our range of unique and quality chilli sauces. We want the world to know that not all chilli sauces are the same. We want the world to discover the difference. After 99 years, we’ve gotta be second to none.”
I couldn’t agree more! I love this stuff!
It is the typical Singaporean thing to dine at a road-side cafe that a found all over the island in such places as Geylang, Siglap, Bedok, Kembangan and of course, Bukit Timah, just to name a few. We went to Al-Ameen at Cheong Chin Nam Road in Bukit Timah, a place we haven’t been to in years. We actually wanted to check out the Halal Foods Expo at the Singapore Expo, but the horrid evening rush-hour traffic, causing massive jams everywhere caused us to divert our journey and we ended up at Bukit Timah instead. By the time we reached the place, we were famished.
We both had the famous ‘Milo Dinosaur’ but they forgot the all-important cherry!
While waiting for our food to arrive, we laughed at the grammatical errors on the cafe’s signboard, one of which had a picture of beef steak with the words ‘bisteak’ below it. The place was quite busy, as usual, but our food arrived within 10 minutes, consisting of rice with mixed vegetables and fried eggs,
sambal prawns,
and grilled stingray, which, I must add, was a tad disappointing because it was practically drowning in sambal sauce. Still tasted pretty good, but we’ve had better.
It was quite a big meal for two of us, but at $39, it wasn’t exactly hawker-food prices. A little too steep, I must say, but it was nice to go back to our old food haunt. The area hasn’t changed much in the years since we’ve last been there. Some things are better left untouched and unchanged. Sadly though, according to other people I know the standard of food at Al-Ameen has dropped. They’ve even closed their Tampines outlet the last we checked.
If one is such a huge meat-lover and wouldn’t mind licking bacon for fun, then this might be the thing for you!
Organic, cured bacon with maple syrup lollipops!
The salty chunks of bacon make a delicious and unique counterpoint to the subtle sweetness of the maple, and oh, yeah- you’ll be eating an oh-my-god bacon lollipop!
A perfect gift for the sweet-toothed pork aficianado in your life.
And they’re not cheap either. A box of four costs US$10.
[link: Lollyphile]
Home-cooked beef noodle.
Ah, the convenience of a car. What better way to abuse it than to go off in search of good food in far flung places around the island. Like Changi Village, for example. This is the place where time stood still. When one enters the realm of the Village one is suddenly transported back to the 70s.
The tiny estate reminds me of my old estate in Jurong where I grew up in - old housing, electric buggy cars for the kids, retro music. Changi Village just exudes that old world charm. Well maybe not old world, but it does have that 70s kind of feel to it. Compared to my current estate which is so quiet, this place is so lively with Air Supply blaring from a boom box operated by a guy manning a CD stall - the kind where the CDs are on display on a folding table out in the open instead of on racks like in a regular music store.
Night Scene At Changi Village from moby74 on Vimeo.
There are many cheap eateries in the midst of a few more upmarket ones like Subway added with a dash of a couple of sleazy-looking karaoke joints complete with the all-important ‘guest relations officers’ in skimpy clothing. We avoided all that and headed for the hawker centre in search of something good and cheap to eat. The missus spotted the famous Sri Bistari Nasi Ayam Penyet stall (branch no.6, mind you!) and wanted to find out what was so special about their signature dish of ayam penyet that everyone’s been raving about.
The conclusion? It was ok, nothing spectacular and nothing really to fall madly in culinary love with. It was just rice with a piece of flattened chicken with some hot and spicy sauce. Knowing better than to go with the flow and ordering something everyone else wants when they head to Changi Village, I decided to order the other thing that everyone wants in Changi Village - nasi lemak!
Instead of joining the long queue for the nasi lemak at the famous International something-something stall (I didn’t bother noting down the name) that so many people say is the best nasi lemak in the whole universe (*rolls eyes*), I got mine from the Sri Sujana stall next to Sri Bistari (I wonder if they’re subsidiaries?). No queue! Not a bad dish, but not the best I’ve ever tasted. The sambal was too hot for me, though. The chicken wing was actually better tasting than the ayam penyet I think.
And nothing beats washing down all that spicy stuff with a nice, hot, bubbly and frothy glass of teh tarik, probably the highlight of our dinner. It was good!
We also had a very disappointing plate of satay from Hajjah Sapiah’s Muslim stall. The portion of cucumber slices that came with our 10 sticks of chicken and beef satay was horrendously small! I can’t believe I paid five freakin’ dollars for this! The meat was bland, the sauce was tasteless and the presentation was totally non-existent. No doubt it’s just hawker fare, but still, presentation is very important, which the stall owners failed to realize.
On the whole our experience dinning at Changi Village was good but the food wasn’t anything to crow about. Parking at the open-air car park was a nightmare with cars going in multiple directions and everyone fighting for the few lots available. After dinner, we came to the conclusion that Changi Village, even with its rustic charm, isn’t a place we’d frequent. The food wasn’t all that good, including the otah that we brought home. I really don’t see why so many people are big fans of this place.
I don’t know about you but this cold Japanese-made espresso in a can by UCC tastes weird. Have you tried it?
Expensive too. It costs $2.50 for that tiny can. And I didn’t read the label on the can - “zero sugar”. I don’t mind a hot cup of sugar-less espresso - single, double, triple shot even - but when it’s cold …. just tastes odd.
This tea tasted a little better. Same price as the weird espresso. We bought it at some cheap tidbit sale by Cold Storage.
Nothing beats a nice, hot cup of ‘teh tarik’, though.
We had a quick dinner after work on Friday to celebrate this oldyoung man’s birthday - one of the few times these days when we dined without the kids.
The range of sushi was a little limited at Sakae Sushi, though.
Nevertheless, it was a good dinner. Pamper me with sushi, I’m happy. No cake required. We did want to order some dessert but the sushi, ramen, and the rest of the main course took its toll on our tummies, so we left happy, though dessert-less. Another time for that, for sure.
I was browsing through my RSS reader when I came across this:
Oooo-la-laaa!!
I’m a real sucker for fried chicken and this hot and spicy dish will surely appeal to Trin. Not sure how hot the dish really is, though. You know lah, ‘ang moh’ tongue, chilli sauce is HOT to them.
Not sure what we can replace rum in the recipe with. Got ‘halal’ rum?
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup malt vinegar (or white vinegar)
* 2 Tbsp dark rum
* 2 Scotch bonnet peppers (or habaneros), with seeds, chopped
* 1 red onion, chopped
* 4 green onion tops, chopped
* 1 Tbsp dried thyme or 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
* 2 Tbsp olive oil
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
* 4 teaspoons ground allspice
* 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
* 4 teaspoons ground ginger
* 2 teaspoons molasses
1 (5 or 6 pound) roasting chicken, cut in half, lengthwise
1/2 cup lime juice
Salt and pepper
Method
Safety note. Scotch Bonnet and Habanero chile peppers are very hot and can cause extreme pain if they come in contact with your eyes. We strongly recommend wearing protective gloves while handling the chilies and the jerk paste.
Put vinegar, rum, hot peppers, onion, green onion tops, thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and molasses into a blender. Pulse until mostly smooth.
Place chicken in a large freezer bag, or in a large roasting pan or baking dish. Pour lime juice over the chicken and coat well. Add the jerk paste to the chicken pieces and coat well. Seal the bag or cover the chicken in the pan with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
When you are ready to cook the chicken, remove chicken from the marinade bag or pan. Put the remaining marinade into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to use as a basting sauce for the chicken. If you want you can reserve a little of the marinade (once boiled for 10 minutes since it has been in contact with raw chicken) to serve with the chicken or to mix with some ketchup and a dash of soy sauce for a serving sauce. (You probably won’t need to do this unless you have a death wish.)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Place chicken halves in a rimmed baking pan, skin side up. Roast until chicken halves are cooked through, about 50-60 minutes. The chicken is done when the juices run clear (not pink) when a knife tip is inserted into both the chicken breast and thigh, about 165-170°F for the breast and 180-185°F for the thigh. Transfer chicken to platter. Tent loosely with foil to keep warm and let stand 15 minutes.
Cut chicken into pieces. Serve with black beans and rice.
[Recipe taken from this blog.]
During times when the chef isn’t cooking and we are sick of Pizza Hut or McDonald’s deliveries and we’re in the vicinity of Tampines Mall, we often get a couple of boxes of nasi lemak from Lee Wee & Brothers from the basement.
Though it’s not the best nasi lemak I’ve tasted, it’s still good enough for me to have a second box each and every time we patronise the stall. Unlike some Malay stalls at the hawker centres in Singapore selling nasi lemak where the portions are tiny, with fried fish so small, a starving cat wouldn’t touch it, the portion of nasi lemak from Lee Wee & Brothers is not too bad.
It comes with fish cake, chicken nuggets, fried egg, cucumber slices and the usual serving of hot and spicy sambal with anchovies and peanuts, which I painstakingly remove. I just find the combination of rice and peanuts a bit too weird. In any case, we had a good lunch thanks to the brothers.
For that someone who requested for the recipe, here it is.
Ingredients:
1kg green prawns
3 cloves garlic
1cm piece ginger
4 spring onions, roughly chopped
2 green chillies, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 cup coconut cream
1 cup coriander leaves, chopped
Method:
1. Peel the prawns, leaving tails intact. Slit open along the back and remove the dark vein.
2. In a food processor, grind the garlic, ginger, spring onions and chillies to a paste with the oil
3. Transfer to a medium-sized pan and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add the ground coriander, fennel and mustard seeds and coconut cream and cook for 3-4 minutes.
5. Add 1/2 cup water to the garlic and spice mixture, cook uncovered over a medium heat for about 4 minutes.
6. Add the prawns and cook stirring until the prawns are just tender and pink.
7. Stir in the chopped coriander, serve immediately with rice.
Recipe obtained from the Step By Step series of books, this one titled Indian Cooking (ISBN: 0-86411-190-8).
While Godiva chocolates are oh so good, occasionally the simple chocolate bar off the shelf at a supermarket tastes just as great. Like the Green & Black’s organic dark chocolates with orange and spices. Trin bought this at Naturally Marketplace at Vivomart in VivoCity. This supermarket stocks up lots of organic foods, not that I’m a big fan of organic food, but these chocolates are excellent!
Recipe coming up soon!
These things brings back so many fond memories of my childhood, especially in primary school, where little packets of these things cost 10, 15 cents, maybe? I spent many a recess time happily munching on them with my classmates. My diet was practically supplemented by cuttlefish and chocolates, instead of the much needed vitamins and minerals.
So I was really happy when Trin bought me this from the supermarket.
Don’t be fooled by the size of the tin. It only contains a small pyramid-like packet. And the crispy cuttlefish? Not nicely rolled like in the picture on the tin but broken into little pieces.
But I don’t mind. Pop a handful of these babies in my mouth, and I’m in heaven! Probably the only thing that can match it is ‘deng-deng’.
February 12th is National Pancake Day. The couple of times I’ve had McDonald’s pancakes has left me wanting more. I should ask Trin to make me some for breakfast during this long Chinese New Year weekend!
(picture from Sweetnicks on Flickr)
The duh-nut craze is invading China! Long lines of people buying sweet, glazed holey pastry will be seen all over the country!
Or will they be ousted like other foreign food outlets?
[link: Slashfood]
We’re back!! The food blog that I thought I had abandoned forever has been restarted.
Salivate away, here! 
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