Sweet & Cheap : Dessert Nation

So what can cure rainy days and bluey Mondays? Gorgeous-looking sugar, methinks. What's really awesome and unassuming is Baked Alaskan @ The Ship (#04-34/36 Shaw Centre 1 Scotts Road, Tel: 6235 2235). It's ice-cream wrapped in a swiss roll, encased in thick meringue. There were four of us at the table, and we were struggling to lap up the last scoops of the sugar-rific dessert.

I, of course, took it upon myself to bear this yummy burden. Hah! It's less than 20 bucks - great value for money. But do order at least 30 minutes in advance.

Someone at the table did comment that the ice-cream roll did taste like it was bought off the shelf...oh please...so what?!! We did gobble this up after our steaks and noodles, which pretty much would explain why I felt like barfing after stuffing myself silly...

Then there's Hediard's (123-125 Tanglin Road, Tudor Court,

Tel:6333 6383) butter croissant, awesome coffee list and coffee eclairs...The butter croissant comes toasty and crispy at $3.30 each. And the coffee's just stunning. The coffee eclair is authentic, I must say, but a tad too sweet for even a sugar fiend such as me.

I must admit I did just have wanton noodles at Kovan Hub before meeting my ex-classmate for the bougeoisie treats, which warrants an entire blog and a half on how majestic these noodles are...so beautifully prepared with ketchup and chilli and other nick nacks. Char siew (barbequed pork) sliced and stacked with voluptuos meat dumplings were ooh-la-la. Thanks for the introduction, Greg! It's how I remember it when I was growing up, and wanton noodles were only $1.50 a bowl.

And of course, there's newbie Whisk (435 Orchard Road, #03-15 Wisma Atria Tel:6836 5080)...right next to the taxi stand. They have a compact menu of pasta and western favorites as well as sweet stuff. The mushroom soup had a good texture but came lukewarm...ugh. The salmon burger and prawn aglio olio were not bad at all...though the pasta's better...am planning to check out the fish & chips when I'm back. Also, the banoffi came in a little glass so I shared it with my girlfriend, even though we were so stuffed. It was as sweet as it should be. Let me just say, I dislike bananas intensely, so I spent half the time licking off the carmel from my spoon, and shoveling out little bits of bananas onto the napkin. The check came for 60 bucks for two people - 3-course meal x 2 plus dessert - not bad at all.

I Give You Thai, Cheap cheap!

I’ve been a little addicted to something these days. THAI NOODLES. Especially when it’s dunked and simmering in spicy tom yum soup. It’s not something most Westerners would like to scald their taste buds with, but it’s definitely yummilicious to true-blue Asians. Tom yum (when you have the right paste, of course) can be a spectacular entrée anytime of the day. And extremely easy to prepare at home. So if you’re thinking of a career change, shell out bowls of super-hot Asian noodles garnished fragrantly with Chinese parsley, mint leaves, concentrated lime squeezes and sliced tomatoes, out of the back of a rented truck. Add shrimps and sotong, you can probably charge 6 bucks or seven with home made lime juice in the commercial district or in town.

In this tropical heat, the working people will be attracted to the desirable smells of a very fulfilling meal in the thick of summer – healthy fare with healthy calories, plus the high chili content increases the average person’s metabolic rate, and cools one down when sweating while shoving rice mee down delicate throats. So to feed my current addiction, I take a slow walk to Toa Payoh HDB Hub’s Lotus Thai where a picture of Utt (you know the MTv VJ who’s Thai?, also Brand's Essence spokesperson) and assumingly the owner, is laminated and pasted conspicuously for all would-be customers to see.

The staff are generally nice and double up as cooks – and I do suspect they’re all Thai who can speak some Chinese for the convenience of heartlanders. For approximately seven dollars, you can stuff yourself silly with fried vermicelli with seafood, spring roll and tom yum soup for lunch or dinner.

Sidetracking a little, in the same area, take the stairs down to the local cafeteria where the bus terminal is for Silver Stream rojak. The husband and wife team used to share shifts at the old premise in a coffee shop that’s near the public library, and opposite the new blocks of government apartments. It’s been taken over now by someone else cause they moved to their underground cubicle. Don’t ever think the old stall hasn’t changed cause it’s absolutely gross! The fried you tiao is not even crispy, and after being tossed with the shrimp paste and thick blanket of crushed peanuts, it’s just a mushy mess that tastes just as bad. Stick to the new stall operated by the real McCoy's where you’ve got to take a number and wait for the electronic board to reflect your digits – which can mean a long wait, up to forty minutes, mostly experienced during high-traffic lunch and dinner times. The underground cafeteria though closes early on Saturdays and doesn’t open on Sundays as it was created to service the working executives in HDB, PSB, and neighborhood companies such as Philips and SPH.

Back to Thai food…definitely go for the tom yum soup with noodles or rice, and the fried vermicelli – it’s so worth the visit, and it’s cheap, and there’s hardly a line. Cheep cheep…

Kitchen Un-Confidential

This place was supposed to be SECRET.

This place was to be our family thang, if you get what I mean.

I don’t mean to be selfish but after a while, Singapore can be pretty teeny weeny. And you don’t get to keep things to yourself, especially yummilicious grubs. Majorly due to the influx of national food shows that sniff out all the famous hawker stalls, high-profile restaurants, and ulu areas – notably Makansutra Raw, Sweets For My Sweet and Makan Places : Lost And Found.

Not famous or on tv? Hop onto the cyberspace wagon and say your piece via unsupervised food blogs, general forums, and the latest application on Facebook – Local Picks. Plus all the monthly magazines and weeklies give stars, bow ties and bowls to determine the “goodness” and “oomph-ness” of each bite and a whole lot of yada, yada…So I’m confused, faced with a sea of obvious choices and a growing unbelievability in these so-called food critics, both bona fide and the unqualified.

Everyone has an opinion, and has a need to tell everyone else about it.

I’m no different. So here’s my odourific secret – EVEREST KITCHEN (55 Chander Road). It’s a cosy restaurant at the end of Rotan Lane which packs in mainly Nepalese every day. A few walk-in tourists and adventurous locals are pleasantly surprised here for many reasons.

1. Love the brass bowls – made by hand in Nepal…We wanted to buy them but no sirree…not for sale.

2. Simple menu that’s easy to read with pictures – awesome for people like me who know absolutely nothing about Nepalese fare…in fact. I’ve never been to the mountainous country or near it.

3. Prices are astonishingly low – food’s satisfying and definitely worth its pennies. Why? Read on.

4. The momo’s, which is one of the signature dishes, are true to its original taste – heavier skin than the one used for xiao long bao, stuffed with moist minced chicken, sans juice. Dipped lightly in chutney, the result makes you want to go - ole ole ole ole! And do the Kallang Roar. It’s simple and tasty. Goal! (ard $7/8 pcs)

5. Shrimps tucked overflowingly in a halved papaya, submerged in light creamy sauce, is happy food! Eaten on its own or with Bismati rice, or even with raw garlic bits brushed on fresh naan, the flavour rush is addictive – succulent, tender and fresh. ($12-ish) Goes well with cold beer.

6. Allergic to crustaceans? Some unusual greens will hit the spot – fried lady’s fingers sliced razor-thin and dunked into hot oil. Result? Vegetable Chips. Mmmmm… ($6, methinks)

7. If you’re the sort who prefers to keep your food loot to yourself,

ask for a personal lunch or dinner set for only five bucks. You’ll get a huge selection comprising chicken or mutton chunks slammed with curry, heavy dosage of mixed vegetables, big pool of dhal, a spot of spicy dip and a pile of your favourite naan, Bismati rice or both. Trust me, before you’re even halfway done, you’ll be moved to saving the leftovers for lunch the next day.

8.. Skip dessert. Have a marsala or ginger tea instead...spy...seee...!!

I am SOLD to this place…my very good friends have been escorted by moi. And they absolutely loved it. In fact, they can’t believe the check everytime it appears – “it’s so cheep!”.

They don’t have a Nets facility here but they do accept major credit cards, and of course, cash.

And it’s just a 3-minute walk from Little India MRT, Exit E.

It’s accessible, comfortable, affordable, hygienic, air-conditioned, managed well by friendly service ladies and yummilicious. Sounds too good to be true? Believe it. I wonder if they deliver…

Sea Food @ Clarke Quay

So...I'm just back from Korea and Kuala Lumpur, and wanted to write something on each area but the stories have to be embargoed till after all my print stories are out...

But I've been mulling over crustaceans for awhile and decided to let it all out...my favorite place - which may not be the cheapest option - is Quayside Seafood (Blk 3A Clarke Quay; Tel: 9633 9146).


It's not that expensive either...you don't have to worry about your pacer working overtime. A huge meal for four can be anything from S$200 - S$350. Plus the sights and sounds of the river is pretty special. Thank good ness though I wore my cottons...it can get a little sweaty on a humid evening.




Starting off on a sweet note, they made me actually LOVE drinking out of coconuts...I used to detest it but I'm in love with it now...I can drink buckets of it and spend hours scraping off the soft flesh from all sides and corners... yummmm...very therapeutic... I used to be traumatised by scantily covered insides of these husky fruits. I ended up digesting undesirable fibres...gross-o-rama. But not anymore!


Anyhoo, the drunken prawns are really something. The strong but not overwhelming aroma, clean taste and gorgeous color simply magnetises me to the very thing that causes me to break out in hives and bad itches. My uncle does fantastic steamed drunken prawns which gives Quayside a run for their money. In fact, hire him folks...he's the real deal - You can always trust a Peranakan to whip out a-ma-ma-zing spreads... ;D


Yes, crustaceans were born to be my enemy...any part of me which is in direct contact with these shelled underwater creatures make me break out...not in song...but in red patches. Hah! And the war goes on between me - the Yao Kwee (a.k.a. greedy) Versus Seafood.

Moving on...A must must must is fried baby squids...the crunchiness, sweetness and oiliness are addictive...I keep popping them in my mouth...they should serve them as popcorn in movie theaters...seriously.




And who can resist CRABS??!!!! They are an absolute yes! especially since they are said to lower blood pressure, minimise blood triglycerides or bad fats, and can even improve your chances of living longer after a heart attack...whoa...But then again all these unbelievable benefits are also contingent on how the fare is prepared and the amount consumed at one seating. Too much of a good thing, I always believe, can wreak havoc where it's supposed to heal..



Back to my crabby friends, they should taste yummilicious with salted egg yolk. I absolutely adore shrimps stir-fried with egg yolk from Imperial Treasure Nan Bei...and I think age has caused my taste buds to mature to that of a forty-something...I used to spit out century eggs and preserved eeky thingeys but nowadays I devour them wholly.


So here I am with a humoungous plate of crabs smothered with dirty-yellow salted egg yolk...It was not too bad overall. However, I felt that the succulent crab meat, and preserved flavor of the egg did not blend well. It was a tad sweet which I guess can be considerably lightened when eaten with mantou or plain rice which act as a starchy protection layer over not-so-perfect selections such as this one.

The drunken prawns made me very happy though and is truly stellar. I plan to return with my brood and populate the dining table with prawns, prawns, prawns! And check out their chilli crabs. Skip the dessert though cause the last I saw they only served ice-cream...My friends and I crossed over the bridge instead and ooh'ed and aah'ed over the Yuzu sorbet @ Haato (Liang Court Shopping Centre, Medi-Ya Supermarket; Tel: 6337 8835) - I bought a tub back for my grandparents who licked it all up in a day. Yeah, it's that good...

Home Is Where I'm Fed, And Fed Well

I feel deeply. I feel deeply about food – probably these digested substances will be the only thing that will ever get to check out my insides. My insides which I really hope no one gets to see including myself. Cause then it would mean I was unconscious, dying or dead.

Then again, enough about myself. What better food to fill you up, below and in-between than home-cooked fare. Yeah, the steamed grains, sauteed legumes, fried greens and braised meats which are familiar staples for kids growing up in Asia. I was serenaded by Peranakan favorites ever since I took my first breath on this earth – itik sio, babi pongteh, buah keluak, kari ayam, assam ikan, sambal kangkong and mee siam.

Eating was never fun for me when I was little. I hated having bubur (porridge) for lunch or cabbage fried with itty-bitty shrimps for dinner. And I definitely wasn’t crazy about white rice. But I had to finish every morsel of food on my plate. Ugh.

Thank goodness I grew up fast enough to enjoy the all-time experience of inhaling processed fast-food burgers and heaps of microwavable mashed potatoes for breakfast, lunch, snack-time, dinner and supper. Yumsie doodles.

Of course shoving commercial garbage into my tums was too much for my teenage belly and so it rebelled. And this biologically-driven rebellion cause a jolting halt to frequent trips made to the nearby fast-food drive-thrus. Hence the birth of what seems like a neverending journey on the road of adventurous eats around the world, sans any sort of fast-food- a lifetime feat, really.

I never really went back to having Peranakan food cause I really think I’m done. Having it ALL the time, almost EVERY DAY for at least TWELVE YEARS is enough. But of course, we tend to revisit the past when an aunt come a-visiting from a land far, far away and decides to cook up a feast for a small country. And the thing is, a small country turned up at our doorstep during the holidays.

So here’s what we had to offer our family & co - check out the pics for our "Wild Wild Western" Christmas Eve dinner...

Super Shiok

Okay...Ready...Let's Go - My uncle pretty much functions like that. He loves taking out the whole family for meals, whenever he's available, and to wherever he wants to go. His selections, I must say, have been very good. He's like the Directory King of Hawker Centers in Singapore, and some say JB.

Most of the time they are dirty, ultra gross-ness, and dirt cheap (pun very much intended). So guess where we landed for dinner the other day? (Old) Lai Huat Seafood Restaurant. Say what? I know...I had no clue what the cuisine was or where it's at. In fact, I'm still figuring out what's with the bracketed prefix.

It's an open coffee shop space with a few fans that didn't really break their wind on us. All three generations were perspiring while the round table was being prepared. Being prepared for what you may ask? A lady started mopping up the humoungous table with a soapy piece of cloth which splattered everywhere, a lot more on my mum than she would have liked. And then a mega huge plastic in pink, covered the table before the orders were taken and the food were laid out. The plastic table thingey stuck to the surface easily, thanks to the foamy layer of soap.


It's the first time in my life that I've witnessed this spectacle in any eatery in the world!!! But I guess it makes a lot of scientific, chemical sense.

Anyway, moving on...we ordered a round of young coconuts and they were yummy. Sweet and fleshy. Although I still prefer Quayside's which are pricier (the one at Clarke Quay). Then my uncle, with an independent mind ordered what he wanted us to have for dinner that night - fried bass (I think) in sweet & sour gravy made crunchy with sliced onion wholes.

Then there were Sambal Kangkong which was super sambal belanchan-ized. Shiok. Meatballs and Fish Tofu. Very tender and smooth, yumsie-doodles. Also fried young squid. Fabulous, just fabulous. It's done old-school style and served on an assortment of orange melamine plates. Probably that's why the seafood here tastes better than the atas eateries which bank on air-con, reasonable location and an extensive menu to seduce the hungry ignoramus population here.

By far, this restaurant has exceeded my fussy expectations. Total Shocker : IT WAS WORTH IT. And if it does matter, the meal was extremely affordable.

Plus, I earned for myself a lifelong friend :)

Not-So-Secret Hideout : (Old) Lai Hust Seafood Restaurant

Address : #01-01/02, 223 Rangoon Road, Rangoon View

Tel : 62927375

NO POSEURS PLEASE - KL-Style Hokkien Mee

My furry friends, I just stumbled upon an amazing find! Thanks to Selene, the unassuming foodie - KL Hokkien Mee reigns in the heart of Orchard Road!!!

It's perfectly flavoured in kechup manis, stocky liver, saucy prawns and juicy sotong. Fantabulous...!truly yummy...I'm not even looking forward to dinner tonight. Cause nothing can really match up to these noodles...so worth the calories.

I didn't even crave for dessert after it...woo hoo! Where can you find noodles like this drenched in sweet black sauce? ISLAND CAFE - 320 Orchard Road, 4th Floor, CK Tang Tel: 6311 3424.

I am content.