3 posts tagged “food”

So while I'm already planning and scheming on how to time my daily life to coincide with those discounted food (Note: See previous post), here are some restaurants I'm recording down so as to make it mandatory that I try them at least once this year. (Editor's note: Errm yeah this will be my 2007 resolution. Not how to better myself mentally or spiritually but physically...)

(Culled from Asianone's Wine, Dine and Unwind segment)

East Coast Road 

FRESCO  (Note: Finally a home made ice cream place in the East!)
95 East Coast Road
Tel: 6345-2561
Open: Sundays, Tuesdays to Thursdays: 11am to 11pm, Fridays and Saturdays: 11am to midnight, Closed on Mondays

Opened two weeks ago(Editor's Note: in early 2006 that is), this gelato outlet sells 16 flavours over the counter every day.

Ms Lisa Lim, 49, Fresco’s chief executive officer, whips up her creations using low fat milk and very little sugar. Try the honey chrysanthemum. It is fragrantly sweet but not cloyingly so. A scoop costs $2.50.

The Refreshingly Divine ($8.90) is a sundae made with scoops of dragon fruit and rennet apple flavoured gelato and served with nata de coco and honey.

HONG KONG TEA HOUSE (Yeah even my mom has heard of this place!)
Katong Village, Block A,
86 East Coast Road, 01-09/10
Tel: 6345-1932
Open: 24 hours daily

It claims to be Singapore’s largest Hong Kong teahouse at 15,000 sq ft. The four-month-old eatery can seat over 400 people.

Hong Kong-born Singaporean Victoria Li, 41, says she opened the eatery to cater to Hong Kongers living here.

Every ingredient, down to the dark soy sauce, is imported from the territory, and the chefs are from Hong Kong too.

Try traditional dishes like the pork chop baked rice ($9), pork trotter in vinegar ($3.80 per bowl) and crispy fried lotus root with pork ($3.50).

STONEGRILL
91 East Coast Road
Tel: 6348-1211
Open: Lunch: 11am to 2.30pm, Dinner: 6 to 10.15pm daily

This Australian franchise opened in January 2006 and diners can play chef here.

They have to cook their own meat on a special volcanic granite that is heated at 400 deg C for eight hours.

The meat is not marinated. Instead, servers have to season it by tipping sea salt on the hot stone.

General manager Simon Ng, 26, says scalding the slab of rock sears the meat immediately and retains its juices, so little seasoning is required.

Choose from steaks like Prime Of The Land ($23.90), a tenderloin cut from New Zealand, as well as Wild Stuffed Mushrooms ($7.90), which are breaded white button mushrooms stuffed with mozzarella cheese.

(Also on the list...that Tibetian restaurant opposite the HK fish Beehoon franchise and the Indian Chinese restaurant right outside our place)

Upper Thomson Road

Devagi’s
01-03 Thomson Imperial Court,
Tel: 6255-2440
Open: Noon to 10pm daily, closed on Mondays

TV host Devagi Sanmugan, 51, opened her first restaurant here because she lives in the area.

To live up to her reputation as Singapore’s Queen of Spice, she offers dishes that use spices from around the world.

There is mutton chop in thick gravy ($9), chicken dum briyani ($9.90) and fish head curry ($28 for a whole head).

Everything on the menu is prepared using her recipes. She is at the restaurant every day, supervising its operations, while her brother, Sivaraman, helps with the cooking.

There is also a retail counter where you can buy her cookbooks and food pastes.

 

Hooked On Heads
01-01 Sin Ming Plaza Tower 2
Tel: 6455-4948
Open: 10.30am to 2.30pm, 5.30 to 10pm; closed on Mondays

This no-frills family restaurant offers an excellent range of local favourites, including mee siam, black pepper beef and barbecued stingray.

Its signature dish, fish head curry, is beautifully done, with succulent fish submerged in a delicious simmering sauce.

Owner Thomas Leow, 46, says the recipes for all the main dishes are family secrets passed down from his mother.

Prices are rock-bottom. You can have a set lunch at $4.80 or $5.80 (with mee goreng or curry chicken), or a three-dish set lunch for four at only $19.80. Value for money.

The Ang Ku Kueh Shop
215 Upper Thomson Road
Tel: 6554-4573
Open: 11.30am to 5pm; closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Hand-made in the kitchen behind, the wonderful ang ku kueh cost 70 cents each and come with either peanut, coconut or green bean filling.

While the skin has a robust pandan flavour, its filling is substantial and not too sweet.

This business started 20 years ago when Mr Richard Toh, 66, started making and selling the ang ku kueh at his home in the Balestier area.

In 2003, he opened this shop which is now run by his brother Francis, 51. Advance orders are recommended.

Crab Shack
227 Upper Thomson Road
Tel: 9451-9040
Open: 5pm to midnight daily

This crab eatery has a unique claim to fame – the crabs it serves are caught by hand by the owner himself.

Every other day, Mr Elger Kua, 26, catches his supply of crabs from a kelong off Pasir Ris Park, near Pulau Ubin.

Using mainly flower crabs, his dishes include crab spaghetti ($7.50), crab baked rice ($6.50) and crab gratin ($3.20).

It is located in a coffee shop and styled after a seafront beach cafe.

Hankook Rice Cake House
9 Thomson Ridge
Tel: 6456-3456
Open: 11am to 7pm daily

The first bakery in Singapore to specialise in Korean rice cakes, this is opened by the owners of the excellent Auntie Kim’s Korean restaurant just a few units away.

Traditionally eaten during festive occasions, these rice cakes are made with glutinous or rice flour, and come with various types of filling, including red bean, peanut, raisins and sesame. Prices range between $5 and $7 per 300g.

Containing no milk, butter or eggs, they taste harder than the Japanese variety but are not overly sweet.

Zui Fairprice Live Seafood Restaurant
220 Upper Thomson Road
Tel: 6455-2033
Open: 11am to 2.30pm, 5.30 to 11pm daily

Part of a restaurant chain from Hong Kong, this one-year-old seafood eatery banks on its range of fresh seafood and reasonable prices.

Unless you order live fish, you need to pay only $20 per person for a filling meal.

Try the “san ba” salted chicken ($11 for half a bird). The free-range bird yields moist, tender meat.

Another must-try are the steamed live prawns ($13.80), a hearty dish that is enhanced by minced garlic and light soya sauce.

(Also on the list.... Auntie Kim's Korean restaurant and that home-made ice creamery called Lavender? or something like that)

Oysters harvested on a mountain?

 

Name of a particular breed of oysters perhaps?

 

You think they would be some kind of seafood ya? Like how you can actually rear prawns on a mountain top if there is a lake or something.

 

Anyway, that's a food term I just learned on flickr. Isn’t its amazing what you learn from the internet these days? Oh, before you ask me for the answer… go read this and this

The story with the assam fish goes like this.

LynnInHK dropped by Sg a while back and we met up for dinner. Over dessert, the topic of procuring a good recipe and spice packs for assam fish came up. I've never actually had assam fish (Hmm yeah imagine that!) before but if its anything to do with food especially food I have never eaten before, I'm always more than eager to find out more about it. Hence, I offered to ask my malay colleague, whose mom happens to be a really good cook, for a recipe and where to get a good assam fish spice pack.

Getting the spice pack was rather easy it seems. Just go to any of the Indian spice stall in the local wet market and a fresh pack will be mixed and even sealed for you in no time. The recipe for the dish was a little bit more tricky. I've come to realise that the good ones never come in precise measurements. Its always "yeah add a little of that, some of this and quite a bit of those". After some detailed questioning though, I got the essential bit out of my colleague - 6:6:1:1. 6 parts spanish onion, 6 parts red chili, 1 part garlic and 1 part ginger. Blend or (better yet) pound all that into a mushy paste and add enough assam fish spice powder to make a thick damp paste (rempah). Now this here is the other important information. The paste has to be fried in oil til you SNEEZE. Yep, if you aint sneezing while frying the paste, the dish will be ruined.

With such intriguing instructions, its hard not to give this recipe a go and so that is how I happen to be cooking assam fish on a sunday afternoon.

Assam Fish

(serves: 2)

2 pieces of fish steak (cut about 1 finger thick. Choose something with firmer meat that is not liable to break apart while cooking)

3 medium sized spanish onions

5 large chili (seeds removed)

2 cloves garlic

1 small knob ginger (Use galangal if possible)

1 ½ heaped tbsp assam fish powder

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 stalks of lemongrass (lower white portion only)

2 big pieces of kaffir lime leaves (crushed)

1 small knob galangal (optional)

2 medium tomatoes (quartered)

6 medium lady’s fingers

2 baby brinjals (quartered, lengthwise)

2 heap tbsp tamarind concentrate or paste

¾ (180ml) cup water

Juice of 1 large lime

 

1. Blend in a food processor the following – spanish onions, chili, garlic, ginger
2. Add enough fish powder to the blended ingredients to make a damp paste (rempah)
3. Stir the tamarind concentrate/paste into the ¾ cup water. Squeeze and remove tamarind seeds if using paste.
4. Slice the lemongrass in half lengthwise, bruised with the handle of the knife
5. Roughly slice the galangal, bruised with the handle of the knife
6. Heat oil in a pot, fry the rempah until you sneeze.
7. Add tamarind water, lemon juice, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and tomatoes and bring to a gentle boil
8. Add vegetables and simmer til soft
9. Add fish steaks. Serve when the fish steaks are done with a bowl of fluffy rice or bread to soak up the gravy.

Notes:

• Use more rempah if you like a thicker gravy.
• Cauliflower can be substituted for lady’s fingers and brinjals
• Dried fruit or tamarind rinds can be added to the simmering sauce in order to further enhance the tangy flavour of the gravy
• While the spice and tamarind proportions can be adjusted to personal taste, the gravy is meant to be tangy and medium spicy.