Tag Archives: Singapore

Crab

Chili Crab

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Actually this dish is much simpler than it looks.

Ingredients:

mud crab 1 (mine is very small, about 300g)

garlic 5 cloves

red chili 6

dried red chili 3

shallot 4

ginger 3 slices

sugar 1 tbsp

salt 1/2 tsp

tomato sauce 2 tbsp

egg 1

water 1/2 cup hot

1, Make paste: put garlic, shallot, ginger, chili into blender. Blend till very fine paste.

2. Clean crab and cut into quarters. Dust crab with corn starch.

3, Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add in crab to fry a bit till red. Then set crab aside for later use.

4, Same pan, add in a little more oil. Fry the paste till aromatic.

5, Add in sugar, salt, and tomato sauce. Mix well.

6, Add in crab, give it a good stir.

7, Pour in hot water. Turn to low heat and simmer for 10 mins.

8, Beat 1 egg into a bowl. Add egg in while stirring.

9, Fry manto (steamed buns) till golden brown.

10, Garnish chili crab with cilantro and serve with fried manto.

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food hunting

Shashlik Restaurant – A Russian Restaurant in Singapore

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My husband and I both rest on Wednesday. And we made Wednesday our food hunting day. We would go around in the city and try to find good food on this day.  My husband wanted to try Russian food for a long time, because he used to have a colleague from Russia. And that colleague mentioned that he couldn’t find authentic Russian food in Singapore. And that brought up my husband’s curiosity. What Russian food tastes like?

He found this Russian restaurant online: Shashlik Restaurant. Located at 545 Orchard Road, #06-19 Far East Shopping Centre, 238882

We went there today for lunch.

The environment is very quiet and cozy.

Staff there are very friendly and nice.

They have set lunch with very fair price: S$ 16.8. Which includes 1 main course, 1 soup and 1 drink (coffee or tea). 

They only have oxtail stew on Wed’s set lunch. So lucky us!

We ordered borsch soup and oxtail stew. My husband chose coffee, and I chose tea.

After ordering, staff put fresh, fragrant and warm bread into our plate and also with butter.

The bread is super yummy, very soft and I can smell its fragrance from a far distance.

Then here comes our soup. Actually, there is another soup option, mushroom soup. But we both think we already had mushroom many times, and we would like to try borsch soup.

Sour cream is optional. Staff will ask whether you want or not.

Soup is very creamy and rich. There’s a heavy rain in the morning and weather is cool. That soup really warmed me up. And there is a big chunk of beef.

Oxtail stew is amazing. I never cooked oxtail. But I think I will give it a try.

https://flic.kr/p/TG2pFA

Beef is extremely flavorful and soft. It can fall off the bone easily. My husband was totally attracted by this dish. I spare one piece of oxtail  with him. 🙂

At last is the coffee and tea, served with very cute cookie.

According to my husband, the chef there used to work with real Russian chef. They used to have another restaurant, but that one closed. And the chef opened this one. Some people say this restaurant’s Russian food is not 100% authentic, and they may do some change on the recipe to cater to Singaporean’s taste.

Well, to us, whether it’s 100% Russian or not is not that important. What really matters is their food is good and we had a good meal and good time there. 🙂

food hunting, Uncategorized

The Best Prata Shop So Far

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I should’ve done this blog long time ago. I love roti prata. I even buy frozen prata and store in my fridge. I also tried many prata shops including hawker store or Indian restaurant. I have to say this prata shop is the best so far!

The shop is called The Roti Prata Gouse Pte, Ltd. And it’s located @  246 Upper Thomson Rd, Singapore 574370.

My husband and I have been there twice, even though it’s kind of far away from where we live. Many people came there to eat.

Here is the menu with many kinds  of prata and other dishes. And the price is quite fair.

The first time, my husband ordered bomb kaya  prata. It just blow our mind. We never know kaya can go so well with prata. I used to dislike sweet prata, but this kaya one definitely changed my mind.

I ordered roti john. It’s also very nice. But compared to the bomb kaya prata, it’s not that surprisingly good.

The second time, we went there during Chinese New Year. Because we seldom went that area, it’s a good chance for us to dine in that prata shop again.

I ordered coin prata. There were 5 of them and served with curry.

https://flic.kr/p/2dSFE6B

Prata was still hot and crispy. I could have more of them.

My husband ordered this egg prata.

https://flic.kr/p/2dSFE66

Served with this dipping sauce.

I like my coin prata more. 🙂

And don’t miss the teh tarik. My husband is a big fan. He ordered it both times.

https://flic.kr/p/2dSFE5K

And I like the honey lime.

If you are also a prata fan, you can go and try this prata shop one day.

Prawn, Uncategorized

Laksa

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Finally, I got the chance to cook Laksa at home. It all due to my husband. When we were shopping for groceries, he suddenly told me that he wanted to have laksa. He chose a pack of laksa paste and laksa noodles. We also bought bean sprouts and puff tofu yesterday. He was quite excited about the laksa I was going to cook.

The most important part of Laksa is the paste, which is made from all kinds of spices. I really don’t want to buy many kinds of spices and store in the fridge. Cos I’m pretty sure that I will forget about them and they just stay there and rot. So the most convenient way is what my husband did to buy Laksa paste from supermarket.

This is the one my husband chose.

Another ingredient may be time-consuming is prawn stock. Although the instruction on the package says you can just add in water. I still think prawn stock will be a better choice.

I used about 500 g prawns. Remove all the heads and shells (except the tail shell). Heat  a pan. Add in 1 tbsp oil. Put all the prawn heads and shells in. Stir fry till they all turn red. Pour in 4 cups water. Lid on. Simmer with low heat for 1 hour. When stock was on stove, my husband came to kitchen and said “it smells so so good”.

Blanch laksa noodles, bean sprout and fish cake in water for 2-3 mins. Then arrange them in a bowl.

When prawn stock is down, sieve the stock and get rid of all the shells.

Heat a pan. Put laksa paste in. Because there is too much oil in the paste, I poured some out. Stir fry the paste for a little while, till you can smell the aroma. Pour all the prawn stock in. I also added in 1 cup water, because prawn stock reduced during simmering. Bring the soup to boil. Add in prawns, clams and puff tofu. Boil for 2 mins. Pour in 200 ml coconut milk. Gently stir and simmer for another 3 mins.

Arrange prawns, clams and puff tofu over the noodles. Pour the soup over them.

https://flic.kr/p/2feC9hh

My husband loves it very very much.

I also served it with a half-boiled egg.

Ribs, Soup

Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶)

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Bak kut teh is a very popular dish in Singapore. It’s kind of spice rib soup. The cooking method is not complicated but it’s a bit time consuming.

1. Wash 1 kg ribs in water. Then put them in a big pot. Add in enough water covers all ribs. Bring water to boil. Take the ribs out and rinse under water.

2. Wash the pot. Add in 1.5 L water. Bring to boil.

3. Add in 1 head of garlic (peeled or unpeeled is fine) and the spice bag. Because bak kut teh needs many herbs. So a spice bag is much more convenient and it can bought from supermarket.

4. Also put in all the ribs. Simmer for at least 1 hour.

5. Add in 1 tablespoon light soy sauce before serving.

My husband loves it.

Uncategorized

#SAKURA MATSURI FLORAL DISPLAY# @GARDENS BY THE BAY 2019

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Yesterday, My husband and I went to Gardens By The Bay for Sakura Matsuri Floral Display.

Gardens By the Bay usually holds different floral display activities the whole year. They will display flowers from different places of different seasons. Now it’s spring time, so it’s sakura season.

The floral display is held in flower dome, which needs ticket if you want to go inside. Outside of it is free. You can see the famous skytree and other theme gardens.

Tickets for 2 of us is S$21.6. Even though it’s weekday, there are still many people there.

Sakura trees are not as many as we expected.

Looking from distance, the view is like this:

https://flic.kr/p/2f6zHGs

White sakura and pink sakura. Some are in full blossom while some are still in sprouts.

Petals fall from the tree and drift slowly in the air.

https://flic.kr/p/RpUxz6

Janpanese Marumado Art

https://flic.kr/p/24yJJh4

https://flic.kr/p/2f6zHTE

And others

https://flic.kr/p/2fbfGvX

There are more than sakura in Flower Dome.

We also visited the big Fish Aquarium @ Gardens by the Bay. My husband and I stayed there for a long while till it gets dark. We also made the fish video of that big aquarium.

food hunting, Uncategorized

Food Hunting @ Alexandra Food Village

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My husband and I were planning to go food hunting at Alexandra food village for a long time. Today we finally have a chance to go there.

There are so many hawker centers in Singapore. We haven’t tried many. And there are also many good & cheap food hidden in the hawker center. As food hunting is what we would like to do during our free time, we will definitely not want to miss them.

Alexandra Food Village is not the biggest hawker center, but it still big with many food stalls worth trying. But some of stalls close on Mondays.

The first dish recommended online is claypot Laksa.

This stall is famous and it was even Bib Gourmand Award Winner of the 2016 MICHELIN guide.

I still remember very clearly the first time I came to Singapore, I just fell in love with Laksa. I loved Laksa so much that I had to have it again in the airport before I got on the airplane.

This is the first time I try Laksa served in claypot, so is my husband.

The smell is so so incredible. Soup is creamy. Noodles are tasty. Taupok (similar to tofu) is fatty and juicy. Shrimps and cockles are fresh and tender. Everything is just perfect. Definitely best Laksa I’ve ever had. And the price is quite reasonable. Medium size pot is S$5.

We also tried Char Siew Rice. The stall is located at the corner.

I have to be honest, the Char siew & Roasted Pork rice doesn’t look very appealing. But, it tastes amazing.

Pork is very crispy outside, you can hear the crunchy sound in your mouth.

The gravy is super. It makes every grain of rice so tasty. My husband said it’s the best Char Siew Rice he’s ever had.

Price is S$4.

Avocado drink is highly recommended, which is not expected by us. Neither my husband nor I am avocado lover. We decided to give it a try though.

We chose this King Avocado shop. And my husband ordered avocado milk shake.

Price S$3.

I took the first sip. I think I changed my opinion on avocado immediately. My husband looked at me like I was too exaggerated. Then he tried. Seriously, I saw his eyes just sparkled. 🙂 Both of us started to doubt it’s really the same fruit we dislike. Suddenly, avocado milk shake became my husband’s favorite drink.

Some shops close on Mondays. So we didn’t have the chance to try claypot chicken rice. On our way back to bus station, we found a famous Kueh shop, Poh Cheu.

It sells handmade Kueh.

We orders 3 Kueh. From left to right: Ang Ku Kueh (coffee filling), Soon (bamboo shoot) Kueh and gu chye (chives) Kueh. Soon Kueh and Gu Chye Kueh are savory.

https://flic.kr/p/2dmQmyy

My favorite is this Ang Ku Kueh and the coffee filling is very special. My husband also loves it most.

Price: S1-1.3/each.

Chinese, food hunting, Uncategorized

Hangout @ Chinatown

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Well, today I have one day off and my husband also has time. We planned to go to Chinatown and have lunch there. He wanted to try a nasi lemak restaurant there. It’s the first time for us to go to Chinatown and hunt for non-Chinese food.

Chinatown of Singapore is really close to to the CBD. You can actually walk from Chinatown to CBD and also see blocks of tall buildings from Chinatown.

There are many places to have nice food in Chinatown, such as Amoy Street and Chinatown Food Street.

Chinatown has many traditional buildings of Nanyang style.

https://flic.kr/p/2eib1ts

The restaurant we went is at Ann Siang Rd.

https://flic.kr/p/2dgGSub

There are many bars, restaurants and cafes there.

The blue restaurant is the one we were going.

The Coconut Club.

It is not a very big restaurant. Their signature dish is nasi lemak, which can be told from the menu.

Actually, the price is more expensive than nasi lemak sold in other places. We can usually buy nasi lemak at around S$4 and even below. But still, this place is very popular. It was lunch time, many office workers came here for lunch. And I could see a long line waiting outside. My husband and I ordered 2 signature nasi lemak. We waited for a quite long time.

The big plate of rice, chicken, sambal chili sauce, fried peanuts & anchovy, egg and cucumber proves it is worth waiting.

Rice is full of coconut milk flavor and not too strong. ( I just realized what is wrong with the nasi lemak I cooked. I added in too much coconut milk into the rice.) Chicken is juicy and tender. The only thing I’m not so pleased with is the egg is very tiny. 😦  I love Sambal chili sauce. The whole plate is a big portion. I could’t finish my chicken and asked my husband to help me finish it.

After nasi lemak, we also tried the dessert there.

My husband ordered Cendol:

Topped with Adzuki Red Bean. Full of creamy coconut milk and sticky gula Melaka (a kind of coconut sugar in brown color). My husband said it’s the best Cendol he’s ever had in Singapore.

I ordered Kueh (a Malay word means “cake”).

I really like the green & blue one. The upper layer is soft and melt in your mouth and the bottom layer is made of sticky rice. The small cake wrapped with coconut flakes on the right is too sweet to me.

After this satisfying lunch, we just found the cafe across the street.

Nanyang Old Coffee. A cafe my husband wanted to try a long time ago.

We went there. My husband ordered a cup of Yuanyang coffee. And I ordered Ang Ku Kueh.

I am not a coffee lover. My husband review towards his coffee was “not bad”. As to my Ang Ku Kueh, I chose green bean paste filling. It’s also not bad.

Finished coffee, we just wandered in Chinatown. Because Chinese New Year is coming in around 2 weeks or even less than 2 weeks.  The main color in Chinatown is Red.

Red lanterns.

Red Spring Couplets and Chinese New Year decorations.

https://flic.kr/p/QBsGor

Since 2019 is pig year according to Chinese Zodiac, Pig is also a regular element in gift shops or in the street.

https://flic.kr/p/23Lirci

https://flic.kr/p/23LisjD

Chinese New Year is a big festival for Chinese. We prepare lots of food. So you can see piles of snacks are there.

https://flic.kr/p/23LirCZ

Many shops gave free samples when you pass by. We get black peanuts to try.

Apart from so many things to say, Chinatown is heaven to foodie. I think all Chinese cuisine can be found here: Sichuan, Hunan, Northeast. No matter hot pot, Raosted duck, or seafood. We tried some of them before, I must say they taste authentic.

https://flic.kr/p/23LirVc

https://flic.kr/p/2dgGSDQ

https://flic.kr/p/23LirWV

https://flic.kr/p/QBsFzH

Ohhhhh, I’m hungry again……

food hunting, Uncategorized

Probably the Best Yong Tau Foo I’ve Ever Had

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Yong Tau Foo is a Hakka Chinese cuisine. Yet, I have never tried it in China before. Yong Tau Foo stall is quite similar to Chinese spicy hot pot (malatang). All the meat, vegetables and seafood are displayed on shelves. Customers can choose whatever they want to add in their Yong Tau Foo. The main difference I guess lies in cooking method. Malatang (麻辣烫） includes 3 Chinese words. 麻 （ma）means numb, it refers to the feeling caused by pungent spices like Sichuan pepper corn. 辣（la）means spicy, it refers to chili, chili powder and chili oil. 烫（tang）means hot. Because malatang is always served very hot. I still remember when I had social linguistic class, my teacher taught us malatang could be translated as “3 hots”: hot, hot, hot. 🙂

I have tried Yong Tau Foo several times after I came here. Since I really missed malatang and I couldn’t find it here in Singapore ( now I can find some). And also because I can choose my favorite vegetables to make my unique Yong Tau Foo.

Today, out of some reasons, my husband took me to Rochor. We have a habit. Whenever we go to some place we don’t often go to, we search good food there. And we call it “food hunting”. Google map told us there is a good hawker center “Albert Center”. How we decide which stall to try is very simple. We just observe which stall has a long queuing line. And this stall definitely has the longest line in front of it.

There is only “百年” (a hundred years old) on the signboard. We were very curious and found it a Yong Tau Foo stall. Why are so many people waiting there? We wanted to figure it out. And my husband queued, I went to find a seat. And wait, and wait and wait……

And here finally comes the Yong Tau Foo.

This one is different from the ones I had before. This stall doesn’t have shelves with meat and vegetables on it. Their set contains soup, glass noodles, tofu, fish cake, shrimp, meatball and bitter gourd. The first sip of soup really amazed me.

Soup is light, but also tastes a bit sweet. Tofu is so fatty and juicy. Both my husband and I couldn’t resist the soup.

And fried chicken is also included in the set.

Crispy shell, tender and juicy meat.

Whole set is S$5.80. Totally worth it.

My husband told me Rochor is famous for beancurd  dessert. Since we don’t come here often, we definitely need to try the beancurd.

We chose this stall. My favorite is red bean. too bad, red bean is sold out. So we tried Lotus ginko beancurd.

We loved it!!!

Breakfast, Pancake

Min Chiang Kueh 面煎粿

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This is like a Singapore style pancake. Original recipe requires peanuts as filling. Because my husband doesn’t like peanuts, so I used chopped walnuts instead.

Ingredients:

Flour 1 cup

Baking soda 1/2 tsp

Yeast 1/2 tsp

Sugar 2 tablespoon

Egg 1

Water 3/4 cup

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl. Then cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20-30 mins.

For the filling:

Pan-toasted white sesame 1/4 cup

Pan-toasted chopped walnuts 1/2 cup

Sugar 20g

Mix them well in another bowl.

Heat a pan on stove. Grease it with oil. Scoop batter into the pan. Keep low heat. Cover the lid for 3-4 mins.

Sprinkle walnut & sesame filling in it.

Cover the lid for another 2-3 mins.

Use a spatula to fold the pancake from one side to the other and press lightly.

Serve hot.