Chinatown Blues

Mediocre. Is what I would use on Chinatown, our Chinatown. It was a little drizzly and wet the night I was there with LG. I even bumped into a friend of mine who announced my name pretty loudly, but you know, no one really turned around or cared to find out which human-ling of the so-so-crowd belonged to the name. Whatever. *pair of interlocked V ‘s on forehead*

To the left already, a la Beyonce.

Aside from lacklustre atmosphere, wet furniture and a one-off appearance of cheesy trishaws transporting clueless tourist couples to wherever at rip-off prices in disco renditions of nineties’ pop hits, the food fare was BOR(E)-RING. Really, people. Ugh, ugh, ugh. *stomping silver Gucci python pump heels*

I went all the way there, in my favorite gold Roberto Cavalli drawstring tote, and cute Topshop Unique dress which I vacuumed-packed from Oxford Circus, to ingest fumes from the long line of standalone food stalls. AND. Swiftly chopstick my way from the plasticky plate of char kway teow (fried broad noodles in dark sauce), into my hungarian mouth. (I’m not really Hungarian, but what else could you call someone who’s hungry? Hun or Hungry-let? Duh.)

The color looked right and the taste was sufficiently balanced between the sweetness of the dark sauce and saltiness of the MSG. But the absence of lab cheong (Chinese sausage) was deeply felt and sadly missed. The school-canteen-like dish was drab-looking and depressing. Sad-o-rama.

The seafood selection looked happier and cheery but I wasn’t craving for crustaceans and friends. But I did check out the ah balling with LG.

Read her blog on : http://ladyglam.blogs.friendster.com/ladyglam/

Ah Balling refers to stuffed rice glutinous balls in hot soup. The store here was (wo)man-ned by two little old ladies who were struggling to get the orders right. It can be quite a challenge, folks! There were a bunch of stuffings and soup flavors which you, as a willing makan-ster, could choose from which promotes consumer empowerment. And extreme work stress for our senior-citizen aunties :( The price though is almost free! Two bucks for 6 balls…S-I-X…Cheap-o-rama. Yasui ne! Murah Lah. We shared a bowl of green tea, peanut and black sesame balls in ginger soup. The ginger concoction was heavily hinted with white sugar and some ginger oomph. Not very happening.

The green tea ah balling was mochi-like. The paste was clumpy even in hot soup and tasted blasé. As for the black sesame, LG, you comment since you ate ALL of them! And for the peanut ones, mmmmmmmmm, they punctuated the end of my dinner with a sweet and happy ending. Melt-in-your-mouth fluidity and crunchy texture cradled in gooey rice sold me to these things for life.

Come on now, get ballsy in the new year. *wink*

My Green Loves

I need to detox. And I figured the best way to do it is overdo the daily water drill, and set up regular dates with sweet-looking, fresh-smelling, totally healthy vegetables. Yes, sirree…people, veggies are totally delish. I love this country for allowing the epidemic spread of yong tau foo in almost every food court I walk into.

Singapore rocks! If you’re a fan of this soupy or dry dish, you’d realize that the assortment of healthy edible items are growing as is my rising euphoria. What exactly am I talking about? YONG TAU FOO. There’s usually a showcase of taupok (fried beancurd) stuffed with fish, spinach-topped beancurd, mock crab sticks and full-sized sotong (cuttlefish), amongst dozens of other yummy-doodles, paraded au naturel before your eyes. No camera tricks, or colorings, or mouldy smells.

Usually accompanied by a selection of Asian noodles, you can even choose to have the individual goodies served ampang-style or dunked in laksa (coconut-based and spicy) broth. Most importantly, the serving bowl is HUGE. Very important lah, especially since I adore steaming broth. Woo-hoo. And spice-infused smells are equally integral to the overall makan experience.

One of my favorite stalls is the one at Wisma’s newly-renovated food court on the top floor. The “buffet-style” bar is so pretty! The broth could definitely be improved but for a few local dollars, it’s almost free, I can’t complain! It would be nice though if there were white truffle oil-infused noodles to up the flavor-ante at super-hero heights with these mouthwatering grubbers. Hmmmmm...

Ah well, until such a time, I am belly content :)