Thought for Food

Flights JL736 and AA168 - The Verdict

2006-01-17T09:56:00.000-05:00

Inflight meals on a very very long day indeed

Eel Teriyaki on Steamed Rice
Japanese Delicacies
Potato Salad
Mango Pudding with Lychee
Danish Cinnamon Snail
Sky Time Yuzu

Flying eastbound really screws with your psychology. For starters, the day is 36 hours long, thanks to the time differences. Then, you're cramped into those small seats breathing stale recycled air - I don't know how the claustrophobes survive. Maybe they don't ever fly.

The dish of Japanese delicacies consisted of a chunk of radish, a fried fishball, a piece of fishcake and a piece of tofu skin soaked in a cold broth of sorts - a really refreshing appetizer.

I loved the unagi on rice. The eel actually tasted like teriyaki. You know how it is that airline food most of the times doesn't even taste like real food - they tell you it's chicken but you can never be sure, even after biting into it. And sometimes, in those American Japanese restaurants, they say it's teriyaki when all they do is add soy sauce to it. Well, this unagi teriyaki actually tasted like teriyaki - with the sweet grilled flavor - and the eel was rather fresh, it's soft squishy texture and the rough skin (which, traditionally, is suppose to be crispy, but I've never in my life actually eaten unagi like that). The snow peas, carrots and mushroom added a nice touch to the course. And the steamed rice was actually not a sticky blob. The long grains separated in the mouth and had a light fragrant, though not interfering with the rich taste of the unagi, accompanying it well.

However, from the long grained rice, the potato salad and the mango pudding (among other subtle things) I didn't feel that this wasn't authentic Japanese cuisine. Somehow, it is hinted that this was prepared in a Hong Kong airport kitchen. Nevertheless, it is still one of the, if not the best airline meal I've tried.

Total Cost: included
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: I love Japanese translations. "Cinnamon Snail" indeed.

Same day still, but a different meal on a different airline

Dinner Roll
Assorted Sushi
Asparagus Salad with Ranch Dressing
Stewed beef and vegetables on white rice
Fruit tart
Crystal Springs water
Ginger ale

The first thing I asked myself when the tray came was "what the hell are those two off-white strips on top of the salad?" It looked a lot like the string cheese I used to eat as a kid, but then, I found out after taking a bite that it was actually shaved asparagus! It had a stringy texture to it too, but they were totally tasteless. At least the two strips were chilled and had a bit of juice in them, unlike the surrounding salad, which was totally dry and warm, like eating pieces of green cardboard.

The sushi was pretty horrible too. Notice the difference between the piece of eel on the sushi in this meal on AA and the pieces of eel on the rice on the JAL flight. They obviously came from different parts of the eel. Although I like the way the Japanese cook their eel in the sweet thick sauce, I always was a bit hesitant because eels contain a lot of miniscule bones which are like little pieces of fiber that just irritate the roof of your mouth, should you be unlucky enough to eat the wrong part of the eel. That part of the eel was where the slice on the lump of rice in front of me came from.

At least the rice was good - short grain Japanese rice with a semi-sticky texture, but still every individual grain was distinct. The same rice was used in the main course of beef stew, which was more like teriyaki beef. The slices of beef were prepared well - marinated so that each piece was soft and filled with flavor, not relying overall too much on the juices of the stew to give it it's flavor. Although it couldn't really match up to the unagi from JAL, it was much better than the AA meal on the previous flight.

As for the tart, I never really cared for dessert (I even have to look up the word in the dictionary just to make sure it has two esses). But I decided to none the less do a very disgusting thing: I scooped the custard and fruit on top out with the spoon, leaving the crust intact, which I expected to be dry and - well - crusty. The eggy custard actually wasn't that sweet, which was a good thing.

I pocketed another bottle of Crystal Springs water for the five-hour bus trip back to Ithaca. I just love these miniature bottles.

Total cost: included
Rating: aaaaa

The Verdict

So, having eaten so many meals on so many different airlines, it is now the time to ask the question "What determines the quality of food on the different airlines?"

Well, it seems like one factor is definitely the place of departure - which determines the availability and quality of ingredients. I suspect that the trays are loaded up at the departing airport (since it wouldn't make sense to actually bring food along for the return trip), so where you're leaving from is important. You can see the difference in the quality of the rice served from flights departing from the US (face it, Americans just don't know how to cook the stuff) and that of the rice from flights departing from say, Asian airports such as Hong Kong and Narita.

Another factor is the airline you fly - of course, taking only economy class into account. It seems like the American airlines on the verge of bankruptcy are less keen on spending good money on good food, as opposed to their more profitable counterparts in Asia and the Middle East. Below is a chart comparing airline profitability and the meal quality.

Airline	Profit Margin	Average Meal Ticks
American Airlines	-3.71%	0.5
Japan Airlines	unreported, but negative	3
United Airlines	-121.85%	1

Yes, as you can see, the results are not very conclusive for this factor. But there is a limit. Some airlines just serve better food - such as Emirates, JAL and ANA. It probably has something to do with how much they value their customers too. Service seems to be better on the airlines that serve better food.

Here's a pretty interesting website: http://www.airlinemeals.net/.

Sidebar: I admit, I am writing this months after having taken this flight. So, you may ask, how is it I remember so clearly and distinctly what I had for the meals? Well, first of all, I have the photos to help me out, and second of all, I saved all those menus they handed out describing the meals. Ahh... I miss JAL food. I still think it has the best airline food of all airlines - even beating Emirates.

Angus House @ Takashimaya SC

2006-01-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

Dinner

Fish on Radish Hors D'oeuvre
Cream of Carrot Soup
Garden Salad
Grilled Chicken with side vegetables and rice
Raspberry Mousse Layered Cake

This meal was a spectacle to behold. Not only was the presentation beautiful, but everything tasted so good. Maybe it's because I don't often have meals that come in so many separate courses such as this one. And the thing is, every time we come here, their hors d'oeuvre, soups and dessert change - only the main course and salad stay pretty much constant - so each visit is in a way unique in itself.

Another cool thing about this place is the self-playing upright Yamaha piano situated at the side of the room. True, it might play cheesy 60s and 70s songs, but at least it's cool watching the keys depress themselves. It's like there's an invisible pianist sitting there.

The Hors D'oeuvre came first: a piece of fish (sea bass, I think) on a flat cylindrical piece of radish, dripped with what looked like thick miso sauce and garnished by random mushroom caps. The pan-fried fillet was cooked just right, as the slivers of meat fell apart with juices flowing in between. The radish was a good accompaniment - sweet yet bitter.

Their soup of the day was cream of carrot, a thick light orange concoction . There was a drizzle of cream streaked across the surface, accompanied by a sprinkle of finely powdered bright green coriander (at least that's what I think it was - what else could it be?). The soup was warm and refreshing, with the light sweetness of the carrots infused in the liquid, interrupted only by seldom lumps, but was otherwise fine. I didn't leave a single drop of it in the bowl.

I ordered the grill chicken main course, firstly because I didn't want to have to pay so much for red meat which was just going to clog my arteries, and secondly because from previous experiences, I can say that in spite of the place's namesake of Angus House, I still find the grill chicken a better choice. It always consists of two pieces, one breast meat and the other meat from the drum, cooked to perfection (never over-charred) in a garlicky sweet almost teriyaki-like sauce. I always eat the breast first - I don't really like the rough texture of it and prefer to save the more tender and supple drum for last. But either way, the flavors are still unbelievable. You have to eat it while it's still warm, or else it just gets really miserable - though that's not too hard to manage.

The dessert was the most marvelous sight to behold. I don't usually enjoy dessert half as much on the account that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. But this one was just too pretty to pass over. (Sometimes, presentation can deceive even the most unwilling palates.) Tonight's dessert was raspberry mousse layered cake. Below the top dark pink jelly-glossed layer of moose and also at the very bottom were puffy layers of cake infused with chestnuts and crisp pieces of popped rice. Sandwiched in between was a layer of creamy red bean paste, though not thick but light. And on the side was a helping of cream and raspberry sauce and an assortment of fresh fruits garnished with a mint leaf. Everything was just sweet, though in its own way. The red bean was sweet sweet; the raspberry had a stingy sour sweetness to it; the fruits had the chilled natural sweetness. I guess it also depends in which order you eat it. But how can I not love it?

It's not the first time I've been here. My dad loves this place and brings people here for his business lunches. But the stuff is on the expensive side here (hence the four ticks only), so it's only for special occasions that we go to this place. I couldn't really remember why we went there that night. I guess it was because I was back and my aunt was visiting from Hong Kong. It's nice to eat as a family. I really missed them when I was in the US (I miss them too now). It's only when you're away from family that you find out how important they are. The people you work with may scheme, your friends may betray, God may forsaken, but your family will always love you - no matter what.

Total cost: S$29.50++
Rating: aaaaa

Pepper Lunch @ Takashimaya SC

2006-01-03T16:24:00.000-05:00

Lunch with the juniors

"Hitokuchi" Cut steak hot plate
With Sprouts, Carrots and French beans on the side
Bowl of Rice
Miso soup
Sesame Chicken Shaker Salad

(JW and ST, I know it's been a long time. I owe you guys this one.)

We met at Orchard MRT station at around noon and walked over to Pepper Lunch at the basement of Takashimaya. The place was sparsely occupied and we took a seat near the front of the restaurant, with only a wooden railing demarcating where the restaurant ended and where the mall began. It was an awkward concept to step into: the place was half fast food - in the sense you had to go up to a counter to make your order - and half restaurant - in the sense they brought the food to you. Another little fact to note was that you had to go get your own cups of water at this little condiments booth they set up in the middle of the place. It's almost as if they expect everyone to ask for water, and so they just put it out there for all to get on their own.

I got a "Hitokuchi" Cut Steak set which came with rice and miso soup and a salad on top of that. I have no idea what the Japanese name means, but the picture of the platter shown on the menu looked appealing enough.

The salad came first in a see-through plastic cup with a dome shaped plastic lid, the kind smoothies are usually served in, except without the hole on top for the straw. Everything was inside already: the chopped up lettuce, a few chunks of chicken and tomato, flakes of dried cuttlefish, a sprinkle of corn kernels, and at the very bottom, a depth of the beige sesame dressing soaking strands of udon - the whole thing looked like a lithospheric cross-section from the side. I gave the whole thing a good shake, though this didn't really help, because the dressing was rather thick. I had to resort to opening the lid and mixing it around with a pair of chopsticks. The salad was not bad. I especially liked the dressing - I seem to have this knack for enjoying sesame. And the vegetables were chilled, which is always a plus point for salads.

There was a segment of time when we just sat there, sipping our water in little plastic cups, waiting for our food to come. It was my first time here so they were explaining to me the different sauces I could choose to put onto my beef once it arrived. There was "Honey Brown Sauce" or "Garlic Soy Sauce" - I decided to go with the latter; I never had a sweet tooth in me. So what happened was that when the beef came on the sizzling hot cast-iron plates, you just mix the beef together with the sauce of your choice and the bit of butter squirt in the center. The sizzling grew louder as I mixed it with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other. I usually like my beef medium-well, so I didn't want to undercook it. I ended up pouring some of the garlic sauce on the vegetables as well.

The beef was horrible - and I'm trying to be kind too, but there's just no other word to describe it. Maybe it was because I did a bad job of cooking it, but then again, I couldn't control how hot the platter was. The beef ended up overcooked, not that I had a choice, because where else could I put it? It was a rough chew and the meat was not juicy or tender at all, as good beef is suppose to be. Of course not - because it wasn't good beef!

We went to Paradis for pool after that and chilled at the performing arts library at the Esplanade for the rest of the afternoon. I really didn't enjoy the food much, but then again, meals are never about food anyways. It's just as much about who you're eating it with. But if only I could give ticks for that.

Total cost: S$14.80
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.pepperlunch.com/

Sidebar: Have you noticed how the retail industry is demanding a lot more from us as customers these days? I mean, I'm not lazy or anything - well, actually I am - but the thing is, it's all these little things. Like getting our own water, or like here in the US, how they just give us empty cups and direct us to the soda fountains - and STILL not allow us free refills! The whole concept of Pepper Lunch is based on costs savings gained by having us, the paying customers, cook our own food on those hot plates - and at other places such as Seoul Garden, some of us are even willing to pay a premium to cook our own food!

And I'm not just talking about the F&B sector. How about supermarkets that expect you to bag your own groceries - or better yet, with self checkout counters! Then there are the stores with sections and aisles labeled so clearly that when you ask a question, they just give you a number without actually helping you - and most of the time, the people you ask are sitting behind a desk, if they're lucky enough to not have been replaced by an electronic kiosk.

Whatever happened to personalized service? Can we call it a service sector anymore? There is social pressure to call those people who don't follow these new trends as lazy: I certainly look on to people who don't bus their trays with disdain, and pumping your own gas has become so commonplace. But what about all those people who lost their jobs to our self-service? And are we reaping any benefits of the cost savings of the companies in terms of lower prices?

Inflight meal @ Flight MH73 over the South China Sea

2005-12-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

Another Lunch

4 sticks of satay - 2 mutton, 2 venison
Warm Garlic Bread slices
Fresh garden salad
Prime Steak and Onion Rings
with Vegetables and Bed of Pasta
Slab of Tiramisu
Glass of Champaign

Well, the last few days in Hong Kong have been nice. I saw my extended family again - all of them. It's so nice to see your family again. I stayed for 2 days only, because I'll be back again, from Singapore, before I head back to New York.

They upgraded me to business for the flight back to Singapore. Which is a yay. Hooray for frequent flyer loyalty programs. Anyways, I got to go to their lounge which was really cool. Had a few sticks of carrots and celery and a cheese sandwich there. There was everything there: showers, a nice reading with newspapers and magazines, a great view of the tarmac. I could spend my entire life there. I really wish I could fly business for those long-haul flights. If I'd flown business on my way back to Hong Kong, I wouldn't have had to sleep at the airport chairs, I could have gone to the lounge. Anyways, I got on the plane soon enough. I loved the chairs, which had massaging rollers and individual screens and all. I loved the leg room to. But the food must have been the best.

In terms of willpower, I am a pretty weak person. Remember how I said I shouldn't drink alcohol on flights? Well, I did it again. But I told myself, it didn't matter because this was a short flight and I wasn't crossing any time zones. The first thing that came was the satay. Initially, I didn't feel really comfortable eating deer or lamb, but I said, what the heck. And it wasn't that bad. There wasn't any stench to the meat as I'd normally be afraid of. The satay peanut sauce was great as well, and not spicy at all.

The slices of garlic bread were piping hot, and they served it in a basket while walking around. There were actually different types to choose from, but I followed the lady next to me and chose the garlic bread. The crust felt like it was deep fried and the center was smooth, buttery but not oily. There wasn't really much of a garlic taste, but the taste was good nonetheless. The salad was fresh too, not like the one on the AA flight.

The best part of the meal must have been the main course. They came on these push carts with all the possible choices displayed for you to choose from. I chose the steak (as opposed to the chicken and tofu main courses) and they combined all the different side dishes right in front of you. The beef was cooked to perfection. It was perfect because they couldn't cook it right there and then, so they had to cook it to a point where it'd satisfy everyone. You know how I can never choose the right degree of rawness when I go out to eat? (When I choose medium, it's always too rare, and when I choose medium well, it's always too well.) Well, this one was perfect. It was slightly raw, so a bit pinkish brown in the middle, but it didn't ooze of blood when you cut through it. And it was ever so slightly charred on the outside. The onion rings were soggy by all measures, but that didn't matter. It still went great with every bite of steak.

I watched "March of the Penguins" inflight. It was such a romantic, sad yet enduring documentary. Kinda made me want to be a penguin, like Roger. Anyways, I just didn't want to leave. I just wanted to stay there, in the air, forever. I just wanted the plane not to be able to land, so we'd have to circle around the airport. Forever. And we'd get another plane to refuel us. Forever.

Total cost: included
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com

Spaghetti House @ Hong Kong International Airport

2005-12-22T13:25:00.000-05:00

Lunch before the flight

Minestrone soup
A slice of garlic bread (and rather big slices at that)
Mushroom Spaghetti (Tomato based)
Cold 'Nai Cha'

I'm not going to say much about this meal since I've reviewed Spaghetti House before. I think this place just typifies what I like best about food in Hong Kong: good quality and quantity for a reasonable price. (Note that the exchange rate is US$1 = HK$7.9.)

The slice of garlic bread was the best. The slice came from a rather fat stick of baguette and was about the size of a regular square slice of bread, placed in a rattan basket with a napkin below the slice. It was buttered with a yellowish orange spread with no garlic in sight, except for the taste when you put the crisply toasted slice into your mouth. It wasn't exactly made to go with the soup - which was nothing special - but to be eaten on its own. And there wasn't the spicy flavor which leaves that slightly bitter aftertaste in your mouth with a semi-numb tongue - the feeling akin to your tongue seeing stars, since there's no better way to put it. This garlic had a light sweet and salty taste, though only very slightly.

The pasta dish was also nothing special, but it was really interesting to see all the different types of mushrooms inside the sauce. There were at least 5 different kinds, from what I could tell.

Total cost: HK$65 + 10% off
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.spaghettihouse.com/

Buono Nuobo Cafe @ New Town Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-12-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

Late Lunch

Japanese Sesame Scallop salad
Chicken Seafood Stone-bowl Rice with vegetables
Iced 'Nai Cha'

Ahh... It's great to be back in Hong Kong. This is the first proper meal since I came back, and quite good, I have to say. I'm staying over at my aunt's place with my cousin Ron. All of us, including my uncle Scotty and my other aunt (my mom's youngest sister) and my grandma, the six of us, met at New Town Plaza in Sha Tin for lunch the day after my flight arrived, which had done so late into the previous night.

The place changed so much, New Town Plaza. If the last time I was here 6 months ago was a shocker for me (and believe me, I still remember the time I was here when I was only 4 and the place had a giant musical fountain, which had since been demolished), then this time, it was a heart attack. Almost everything had changed since the last time I was here. They retiled the entire flooring with off-white marble, the lighting was much brighter, the new CitySuper opened after the renovations and most of the shops were rearranged such that all the floors sold the same category of things - like the 3rd floor, which was all sportswear and the 4th which was all electronics.

The place we had lunch, this quirky Asian fusion cafe set up in a shop-space but extending into the middle of one of the open spaces in the wings (I say quirky because for its decorations on menus and the walls, they had these variously-sized red retro donuts in the likeness of a CD which popped up from place to place) was called 'Buono Nuobo'. Not sure what language that is but the Chinese characters said 'bai long' or white dragon. I'll have to ask Kyle if it's Japanese.

The matt menus were full of those red donut symbols, and comprised of page after page of large, border to border, colorful photos of their offerings. I ordered one of their stone-bowl rice (a Korean technique of serving) and for an extra HK$18, you got a choice of salad and a drink to go with it, which I decided to ask for the sesame scallop salad and a cold 'nai cha' respectively.

Their salad was actually really good. It came in a fat glass cup, on a rounded-edge square white ceramic plate, and you were suppose to pour the salad out of the glass, thereby "tossing" the salad as it fell onto the plate. I added some pepper to it to give some zest to the chilled scallops, which still had its lips attached, but if not to add taste just so I could use their adorable pepper dispenser. (Notice the cute bunny shaped pepper and salt "shakers" whereby you squeeze the bunny ears to grind the course salt or pepper grains within. Is this place quirky or what?)

I just love scallops. I love how their round, coin-shaped pillow-like body is made up of small, tough strands of whatever those strands are, fused together with whatever they're fused together with, resulting in a chewy morsel of a taste of the sea. The lips are the best part: they are even more chewy and tastier with the flavor of seafood, though you sometimes have to watch out for the sand - but none here. (Sometimes, the Japanese just take the lips, marinate them in a vinegar preserve and eat it as a delicacy. Where the round, pillow part goes is a mystery.) The sesame sauce just made them all the more delicious to eat. I shouldn't have sprinkled any pepper on, it ruined (though only slightly) the overall cleansing taste of the sesame and seafood with the seafood. Me and my playful spirit, insistent on using those quirky dispensers.

The rice in the stone-bowl, I have to say, was a bit less enjoyable. It came sizzling, coasted only by the wooden slab between the hot stone and the table. The rice, which was mixed with Japanese spices (the kind that comes in a mixture in the little bottles at any decent Japanese restaurant) and thin shards of dried seaweed, was hardly visible below the layer of chopped chicken, mussels, squid, shrimp and vegetables, topped with a shower of ebi roe and sesame seeds. And the mixture of vegetables contained carrots, broccoli, bits of yellow bell pepper and light green zucchini, only adding further to the array of bright colors contrasted by the dark gray of the stone bowl. I later found out that this cafe was run by the Pokka Cafe people; notice how all their dishes are so damn colorful.

I have this habit of eating delicious-looking food the moment I see it, which was a mistake on my part because the stone bowl was still piping hot. I first took my fork and spoon and mixed all the ingredients together with the rice, though some of the rice had already dried up and stuck to the bowl's surface. I then mouthed a spoonful of the mixture. The rice was rather delicious in it's taste, but other than that, there was no other taste to speak of. Everything, the rice, the chunks of chicken, the seafood, was dry - even the chopped up veggies, in which I'd expect to retain some moisture, did not help soothe the scorched tongue. I didn't expect it at all, the absolute dryness of the mouthful. It certainly didn't taste bad, but the fact that it was such an arid dish meant that the full tastes of the chicken, seafood and vegetables couldn't fully come across. All I tasted, essentially, were the spices mixed in the rice.

Overall, the meal wasn't that bad, though it was a tad on the expensive side, even if it was my aunt's treat. But the sip of iced 'nai cha', after having endured soda (which I hardly drank), apple cider (which isn't half bad, I have to admit) and cardboard-tasting soy milk for six months, made it all worth the wait. You can get it nowhere else: that unique slightly bitter, slightly sweet taste of Hong Kong 'nai cha'

Total cost: Around HK$90 for entire set
Rating: aaaaa

Inflight Meal @ JL735, 13000 meters above the Pacific

2005-12-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

Snack

Otsumami / Nuts and Crackers
SkyTime Yuzu (JAL's own Original Drink)

I've lost track of what meal of the day it's suppose to be, so don't even bother asking.

Grilled "Hoki" Fish Miso Flavor
Steamed Rice
Soy Vinegar Bean Vermicelli with Seafood
Fresh Salad with Onion Dressing
Apple Milk Jelly
Dinner Roll
Kiku-Masamune Sake
Green Tea

Oh, what a marvelous tray of delectable delights. This is probably one of the better economy class airline fare I've experienced. But first, the snack.

We got this like about one hour into the flight. I was reading the menu they had in the seat pocket in front of me (which I swiped when I got off the plane; that's why I have such exact descriptions of all the foods) and was scanning down the drink list when I came across their "JAL Original Drink - SkyTime Yuzu". I thought to myself: if they're good enough to make their own drink for the airline, it must be pretty sweet stuff.

So, when the flight attendant - not stewardess, mind you - came along with her cart of drinks and snacks, I asked for SkyTime Yuzu. She proceeded to take this large paper box juice carton (the kind that condense milk or juice from concentrate usually comes in, made of tetra-pack material, but bigger; these day, I know chicken broth is also packed in these) and poured a glass of the stuff for me. It was a golden pale yellowish color which looked a bit lighter than ginger ale except that it wasn't carbonated. I took a cautious sip and found that it was actually quite refreshing. I wasn't able to figure out exactly what the stuff was made of from that one glass, but at first, I thought it was a plum or pear juice of some sort. But according to JAL's website, it's actually made of nigari (desalinized purified seawater) and yuzu juice (which is a type of citrus fruit).

As for the snack pack, it had an assortment of crunchy bits such as peanuts, fried flour puffs covered in seaweed, those orange-colored spicy rectangular crisps, pink pieces of prawn chips, and other oddly shaped, vibrantly colored crisps which were a joy to munch on. You know, your typical Japanese snacks you always see in Japanese supermarkets.

The full meal came about 3 hours into the flight. I chose the Miso fish over their Beef Stew Bourgeois Style because I thought that it's better to stick to Japanese Cuisine on a Japanese airline. And I had no regrets.

The chunks of fish were covered in batter and deep fried, then generously coated with a thick, clear light brown Miso sauce, placed on a bed of preserved radish and adorned by some vegetables and a piece of fishcake. All this was placed on a sheet of thin kitchen paper and placed next to the bed of steamed rice, which had strands of spinach mixed into it. The fish, although not that fresh, was manageable and not overcooked such that the flakes of meat collapsed on your chopsticks, but just nice for you to pick up and put into your awaiting mouth. The flavor was light and mild, though the taste of Miso was clearly there from marination - probably.

The vermicelli dish was probably my favorite of the entire meal. I don't know where the "bean" went, but I didn't really care. It consisted of vermicelli mixed with thin strands of green radish and carrots, all tossed in a salty, slightly vinegary dressing. This was garnished with a slice of cucumber and a parsley leaf, and topped with two fresh sweet prawns and a chewy slice of boiled squid. The noodles were just so full of flavor, so full of body. And although the seafood was a bit unseasoned, it accompanied the vermicelli mix very well, with its from-the-sea sweetness and freshness.

The apple milk jelly was the most curiosity inducing part of the meal. As a dessert, it was not overly sweet, but just right. The milk jelly was smooth and kept cold in the thick plastic container, and slithered down the throat as if you were eating jello. The sweetness came mainly from the milky flavor, but the mashed green apple (almost like chunky applesauce) added to this, which I didn't really find that nice to swallow on its own, though spreading the apple over the whole of the milk pudding, it was still not too sweet, but rather light and enjoyable.

It is also worth mentioning that I broke one of the cardinal rules of intercontinental flights: I consumed alcohol on board (see sidebar). At first, I really didn't want to, and instead wanted more of the SkyTime Yuzu, because the stuff really wasn't half bad. But in the end, I decided that since I was flying a Japanese Airline, and since I was eating Miso fish, I might as well ask for some Sake. And the kind they gave out, in the fat mini-bottles, wasn't just any mediocre Sake - it was pretty good quality stuff - and it went well with the Japanese cuisine.

Oh, and need I mention that their dinner roll was much better than American Airline's? And alas, what would be a Japanese meal without the green tea?

Total cost: Included
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.jal.com/en/

Sidebar: So why shouldn't you drink alcohol on long-haul flights? The main reason is to prevent jet lag, actually. Besides regulating your body time (and sleep) to your destination's time on board the flight and other various exercises and precautions you can take, one of the best ways to prevent jet lag is to prevent dehydration. When you get on a plane, the pressurized cabin at that height, the recycled dry air and the lack of movement means that your body gets dehydrated very quickly. This is why it's important to drink lots of non-alcoholic fluids before and during the flight. But since alcohol will make you dehydrated even more, it is better to avoid it when taking long-haul flights. That's why I made sure I had a glass of water on hand even with the Sake.

As for the hypothesis that the food on the plane depends on the kitchen of the departing airport and not the airline, it is still up for proof of validity, unfortunately. From this meal, it could be that the Narita kitchen is better than the JFK one, or it could be that JAL just serves better food than AA. More testing to come...

Blue Sky Convenience Store @ Narita Terminal 2

2005-12-20T03:21:00.000-05:00

Mealtime

Udon with Tempura Fritter
The bottle of water from the AA flight

This is my first real meal in 24 hours after waiting at JFK for half a night and the ordeal I had to go through on the flight. AA167 landed at around half past three Tokyo time, so I had just over an hour to get through security and find some food before boarding JL736 for my second leg.

I found this convenience store easily enough in Narita Airport's Terminal 2, after a quick bus ride from Terminal 1 where I landed. I did what all people who come to Japan not knowing the language but wanting to order food - I pointed to the picture of the Tempura Fritter gloriously fried on a bowl of Udon in soup.

It was just lovely. Inside the fritter was a mixture of vegetables (carrots, string beans, radish) and shrimp, all covered in a crisp flaky exterior of tempura batter deep fried to golden perfection. I had to eat this quick, before it got too soggy in the soup - but even then, the taste was just as delectable. The tempura had this fresh, eggy taste to it, and was not overly oily or heavy like fried chicken or stuff like that - maybe it's because the soup absorbed some of that excess oil, though I know the Japanese are very particular about their deep-frying, so they must have laid it out on a piece of high-tech oil-absorbing paper or something before actually serving it onto the bed of noodles.

The udon was done to perfection as well. You could tell it's good udon if even at the end of your meal, up to the last strand, as you bite into it, it is still chewy and has not been softened by absorbing the soup. You can tell it's good if you put it on your spoon and notice its gentle translucency and a certain gleam on the surface of the strand, which is the oils from the soup not penetrating the surface of the noodle strand. And the real Japanese deal is always thinner sliced than you'd expect, sometimes its cross section as small as half by half centimetres (and that's "re" because I'm in Japan).

And the soup - how can I forget the heavenly soup? It had to have MSG in it. There's no way it could've been MSG-free. But what the hell do I care. It's good food. And I had a bottle of water along with me, so no worries about the dehydration. I just love how those little chopped up bits of green onion floated on the surface. It was all just so deliciously beautiful.

Total cost: ¥550
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.jalux.com/c/bluesky/

Inflight Meal @ AA167, 40000 feet over the continental US

2005-12-19T02:07:00.000-05:00

Mealtime? Who knows what time it is...

Green Salad
Dinner Bun
Pork Chops with Rice, Snow Peas and Carrots
Assorted Sushi (Cucumber Maki and Salmon)
Coconut Sponge Cake
Ginger Ale
and a bottle of water (which I kept for later)

This inflight meal was revolting - if I can even call it a meal at all. The chefs at the JFK airport kitchen have failed miserably to satisfy a single taste bud of mine.

The salad was rather tasteless and the leafs of vegetables dry and cardboard-like - even with the dressing. The cheese did it no good, only giving it this funky stench. The sushi was vile - the grains of rice were dry and broken, the seaweed soft, the ingredients unfresh. The dinner bun was by far the most hideous part of the meal. It was prepackaged, so when cut, it was dry too and not warm at all. The bread inside was dyed a chemically yellow color and it didn't smell that normal. I didn't even bother buttering it, much less taste it.

The so-called main course wasn't any good either. The rice was one sticky cake of paste and hard to swallow. The pork was overcooked, soft and fell to strands of meat when chewed on. And the sauce they cooked it with was nothing special, giving taste only to the outer layer of the piece of meat due to insufficient marination, making the inside tasteless and parched. They were lucky this was my first proper meal in 12 or so hours (of which I spent in Terminal 9 of JFK, munching on Goldfish, Slim Jims and other snacks and going through about five or six bottles of various drinks, including Gatorade, Nantucket lemon juice tea and the green tea ginseng Sobe Adam gave me before he left, which I'd brought along), or I would have just threw it up outright.

There was a subsequent second meal consisting of chicken curry with peas and carrots on a bed of similarly distasteful rice, some assorted fruit and a brownie, which I shan't even bother to review. But if you can imagine how bad this first meal was already and it was served about an hour after takeoff, then the fact that the latter meal's been sitting there for 12 hours into the flight before being served would help you comprehend just how much more horrible that was.

Congratulations, American Airlines! Your inflight meal is the first meal ever reviewed on this website to garner zero ticks.

Total cost: Included
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.aa.com

Sidebar: My hypothesis has always been that the airline is not really responsible for the food because it all depends on the kitchen at the airport of departure. This hypothesis will be tested on my return flight on AA from Tokyo to JFK. If the food is as good as the food on the UA flight I took in August, then the hypothesis is true. If it's just as bad, then it's obviously the airline's fault (thus disproving the hypothesis). This will also be backed by data from my JAL flights, by comparing the Tokyo-Hong Kong and Hong Kong-Tokyo legs. More on this in the months to come.

Daily Planet Diner @ Poughkeepsie NY

2005-12-18T01:55:00.000-05:00

Brunch

House-smoked Salmon served with toasted bagel, cream cheese, Bermuda onions and tomato
Classic Vanilla Malt Shake

I just love the name of this town. The moment I heard it, I knew it was one of those Native American names, like Issaquah or Snoqualmie. According to Wikipedia, it's derived from "Uppu-qui-ipis-in", which means reed covered hut by the water. Arjun lives here and I stayed the night at his place waiting for my flight. I woke up pretty late (though I'd planned to anyway) and Arjun decided to bring me to a diner for brunch. (I've gotten used to calling all lunchtime meals of the day before which I didn't have any breakfast "brunch".)

The Daily Planet - "An American Diner", as its tagline insists - is handsomely decorated with giant decals of comicbook superheros and images in dashingly bright colors. Framed on its walls also are black and white photos and historic newspaper clippings, one proudly announcing the re-election of Johnson to the presidency (or was it Roosevelt, I forget). The menu items were also themed, with names such as the "Bruce Wayne Omlette" and "Popeye's Spinach & Goat cheese salad".

I went with something called "From the smokehouse", which was essentially a bagel with smoked salmon on the side. The bagels were toasted nicely, with grill marks streaking across its opened surface. The cream cheese was nothing special though, contained in those little plastic disposable containers with a rip-open foil - you know, the same ones you find creamer for your coffee in. They gave me two packs, but one was sufficient for both sides of the bagel. I hated wasting it, but it also shed some light as to why on average, Americans are obese. Who the hell puts so much cream cheese on their bagel?!

I ate the raw rings of onions and the slices of tomato with the salmon. The salmon wasn't bad, but they definitely weren't fresh - probably came out of some air-sealed packet. But that didn't matter, because it tasted good. I'm not sure whether the mix was right. Cream cheese with smoked salmon was a rather odd combination.

The best part of the meal must have been the milk shake. I loved the malted taste and the maraschino cherry on top was a nice touch. But way too much whipped cream - yet another testament to obesity figures.

One disappointment though. Their bathrooms were trite for a place with such an amusing decor. I expected something more than just plain yellow tiled walls - maybe comic strip wall paper or at least even some superhero music. But the breakfast was hearty.

Total cost: US$12 (all inclusive)
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.dailyplanetdiner.com/index.htm

Mahogany Grill @ Ithaca Commons

2005-12-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

Mealtime

French Onion Soup
Smothered Prime Rib Sandwich ("topped with Sauteed Mushrooms, onions and Provolone cheese served open-faced on French Bread")
Coleslaw side and a pickle

This was our subsidized floor dinner the RAs had been planning. There were just a few of us who went, since most of the others had finished with all their exams already and gone home. But me and Adam still had the Govt 181 paper the next day, and we were debating whether to go or not. In the end, the promise of good food made us cave.

The restaurant was dimly lit and renovated with its namesake in mind - all around was dark wooden furniture and mahogany paneling. We arranged smaller tables into one very long one to accommodate all of us and got down to placing our orders in one big round. Freshly baked bread and butter (infused with honey) was served to is on wooden slabbed chopping boards. The cool butter was just addictive, and melted quickly as it came into contact with the warm bread.

The orders actually didn't take much time to come. The French onion soup was delicious. It came in a small crock bowl and was encrusted with a rubbery layer of cheeses. Below this was a circular slice of bread and the soup and onions. It was a bit salty and the bread soggy (the real good stuff is able to keep the bread toasty - somehow), but it was the best French onion soup I've tasted in a long time. And I can't say my attempts at making the stuff have been any more successful.

My sandwich came soon afterwards and I have to say it was a disappointment after the soup. I regretted having ordered the steak medium-well. It was slightly charred over its entire length and burnt to a crisp on one end, hidden only by the cheese on top and the slightly toasted bread below. The mushrooms and onions were sauteed to perfection, and added a light touch to the cheese and heaviness of the steak.

I just ate it as a regular steak, using the fork and knife to slice chunks of beef and bread. It kinda reminded me of the Mushroom-Swiss Burgers at BK in Singapore, only with better quality beef and cheese and the sweetness of the onions. It tasted great at first, but as it cooled down and as I worked my way through it, the heaviness of the steak came back, as the bread got soggy in its juices and the oils off the sauteed mushrooms and onions seeped out. By the end of the meal, if it hadn't been for the refreshing coleslaw and pickle, I would have been pretty much struggling to finish the thing.

Okay, so it tasted good towards the beginning, and a smaller portion would have been helpful, though it wouldn't have been enough to satisfy my appetite. The compromise: cut the thing into smaller pieces, poke toothpicks in each piece and serve it as a starter. The chewy mushrooms and sweet onions really gave the sandwich its life.

Total cost: around US$16 (including tax)
Rating: aaaaa

http://cityguide.theithacajournal.com/
fe/Dining/menus/mahogany.pdf

(It's amazing what you can dig up on Google.)

Sicilian Delight @ Pyramid Mall

2005-11-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

Lunch

2 slices Pepperoni Pizza
Garden salad with Italian dressing
Lemonade

This was a delicious pizza; the work of true Italian cuisine. When you bite into it, the top is cheesy but not to the extent that it's rubbery, and below is a crisp airy wafer-thin bottom, not soggy like the normal pizzas you get at the dining halls. The combo meal came with two slices - I just cropped the other one out of the picture.

Pepperoni always gave me certain problems, because their salami texture is just so hard to bite through, but you don't really want to eat one big piece of pepperoni in one bite (for me, I'd rather bite it into halves, distributing it between more than one bite - I know, I calculate too much while eating). This pepperoni, however, was done well. It was thinly sliced, so it was crispy when you sank your teeth into it - kinda like good bacon strips. This also released a lot of the aromatic oils within it, though that quickly left when they reheated it in their ovens before serving it, which is good since it was less oily that way, not like regular pizza where the oil from the pepperoni just seeps into the cheese and makes the whole thing unbearably heavy. (They display their pizzas and after ordering, they'd put it on a paper plate and reheat it in the oven for you.) Yet another reason why it was so awesome - hot food always tastes better.

To me, it was a bit overpriced, though I think that's because they overcharged me for the salad. I didn't really discover that until it was too late. Oh well, what can you do? I was already halfway through the salad.

But the pizza? It was all worth it.

Total cost: US$8.67
Rating: aaaaa

Thanksgiving Dinner @ RPCC

2005-11-24T16:21:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving Dinner at Lunchtime

Turkey with Cranberry sauce
Sausage Stuffing
Candied Yams
Steamed Carrots
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
Carrots and Celery Sticks in Blue Cheese Dip
2 Glasses of Pepsi
Slice of Pumpkin Pie
Slice of Apple Pie
Naturally-decaffeinated Lipton Tea

Thanksgiving, or "Turkey Day", as some of us like to call it, is the day to gorge ourselves. Yeah, it was pretty lonely since everyone had gone back home, and the entire floor of the dorm was empty, save for the few of us stranded here. We went for the Thanksgiving "Dinner" organized by Cornell for those of us still here at RPCC.

The funny thing was this "dinner" was from 12nn to 4pm. Dan said that this is according to tradition, which is weird since I never really remembered eating Thanksgiving dinners in Seattle that early - only all the leftover turkey for the weeks afterwards. Maybe it's an East Coast thing. (Anyways, we went back later and had a ramen party.) But the spread was amazing. There was everything you could ask for. There was the turkey with cranberry sauce and stuffing, without question. But there were other tempting dishes too, all of which I tried a bit.

My favorite was the candied yams. Basically, it was a bed of baked yams topped with melted marshmallows - a mix of natural and artificial sweetness in one casserole dish. There was also the sausage stuffing which went great with the tender turkey meat. The pumpkin pie ended the meal well, adding the holiday spirit to it all.

Quite disappointed they didn't have any apple cider though. Was forced to drink the carbonated Pepsi. There goes my record. I think it must've been at least a month. But there was "naturally decaffeinate" Lipton tea, if that's any consolation.

Of course, food wasn't the only thing to be thankful for.

Total cost: US$10
Rating: aaaaa

Cheez-Its (Since 1921)

2005-11-15T15:56:00.000-05:00

These things are addictive. I totally forgot about them and had to do with Goldfish in Singapore because they just didn't sell them there. But now that I'm back in the US, it's great to get these cool square crackers again. I still remember when I was little, whenever I went over to my neighbor's place, he would always get Cheez-its and Pepsi for snacks. And no matter how much you eat, you still want more. They're so addictive.

The "white cheddar" one is a bit sketchy. It's either you love it or hate it; when asked, people seem to only take extreme positions on this one. I don't really like the white cheddar ones because there's this cheesy funk to them and a funny aftertaste that goes with them - but that's just me. Personally, I still prefer the original cheddar kind. The zesty taste is strong (stronger than Goldfish), and they're a bit salty, but the taste is just great. They practically go with anything: subs, wraps, soups, sandwiches, even ramen. You don't really even know you're eating a cheese product.

And no, I'm not helping Sunshine to advertise. I thought it'd just be cool to put this on the food blog.

http://www.kelloggs.com/cheez_it/

Adam's Mountain Cafe @ RPCC

2005-11-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

Cross Country Gourmet Dinner

Cuban Rum Shrimp
Cheese-covered Mushrooms and Spinach
Sherry New Potatoes
Caribbean Jerk Chicken
Peanut-crusted Salmon
Rice Dumplings
Tofu and Vegetable Udon
Steamed vegetables
Apple Almond Streudel Pie

This was a rather odd meal. It was part of the "Cross Country Gourmet Series", where the university gets recipes from various restaurants around the country and reproduce them in the dining halls for students. To get in, you either use a meal plan for the week or (if you're staff or don't have a meal plan) pay $23 up front. Twenty three dollars! That's just a rip off, because the food wasn't that good overall.

The recipes came from Adam's Mountain Cafe in Maniton Springs, Colorado, supposedly a pretty reputable establishment. So either it's not really that reputable at all, or the people at the dining hall really screwed up the recipes. Your guess is as good as mine.

To give it at least some credit, not all the dishes were bad. I loved the Cuban Rum Shrimp, huge-ass pieces of shrimp marinated and covered in a thick rum sauce with sunflower seeds. They came in the small dining hall bowls which is usually used for the ice cream and each bowl only had two, so I just kept going to take more bowls. I must have taken around 5 or 6 in total.

Another not bad dish was Mushrooms and Spinach. They were sauteed and smothered in cheese and a sprinkle of diced tomatoes and chopped herbs. There was a tinge of saltiness which was just overpowered by the light tanginess of the cheese. I think you were suppose to put it on a slice of bread or something and eat it as a crostini antipasto dish or something, but I just forked it. These also came in the small dining hall bowls. So by the end of the meal, with all the bowls of shrimp and mushrooms, you can just imagine what a sizable tower of bowls I had constructed.

Other than that though, everything else was just pretty horrible. The salmon was overdone and each slab was so thick, that when you poked your fork through it, it just disintegrated into flaky bits. The peanut crust wasn't a crust at all - it was just bits of crushed peanut sprinkled on top, and the pieces were too big. It would have done the salmon justice if it were powdered, or at least ground into finer pieces.

The Jerk Chicken was dry and overdone too. The sweet mango sauce didn't help it - in fact, I found the chunks of mango too sweet, not the natural light type of sweetness you get from fresh mangoes, but the syrup-like concentrated type of sweetness you get from canned ones. The meat was pretty much tasteless and parched; nothing would have saved it. The udon wasn't that bad, and they got a pretty good taste to the vegetables to go with it, though the poppy-seed covered tofu was like biting into a condensed piece of soggy bread, and a torture to eat. I don't know how vegan people manage to survive. The rice dumpling was just a piece of cooked flower with steamed sticky rice wrapped inside, bland and tasteless.

Who would actually pay for this meal is beyond me. At least we got to use the meal plans. And it was a good departure from the normal stuff we get in the dining halls.

Total cost: One (1) meal plan
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.adamsmountain.com/

Cascadeli @ Willard Straight Hall

2005-10-31T18:29:00.000-05:00

Lunch

Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich (marinated chicken breast, lettuce, ham, Swiss cheese, tomato, mayo on white roll.)
Kiwi Strawberry Snapple
Candy Corn

This is probably the best sandwich shop on campus. Conveniently located in Willard Straight Hall, it's a great place just to have a quick lunch. You can either take one of their "grab and go" sandwiches or wraps, order one of their hot sandwiches or customize your own made to order sandwich. You just stand in line and wait for the order pad to come from the front, write down what you want and your name, and then give them the slip and the money when you get to the front.

Here's the outdoor porch behind Willard Straight. It's the coolest place to have lunch because you can see the whole town and the lake from here, just beyond the railing and the twenty plus feet drop. The white paint on the heavy chairs and tables was crusted, revealing the rusted-covered metal below. It was Halloween so they were giving out free candy corn.

This sandwich is my favorite one here. It has so many different ingredients in it, all served hot in a toasted white roll. The weather was pretty cold, so it was great to bite into a piping hot sandwich.

Each ingredient went so well with one another. The ham and cheese offered a zingy breakfast taste, which contrasted well with the marinated chicken, mayo and salad-y elements. It was like eating brunch in a sandwich. The mildly marinated patty wasn't dry and grainy like regular chicken breast, but supple yet still firm and chewy, locking in the moisture in the meat. I had to open my jaw quite a height to take a full bite. Even after eating one every week, I haven't really gotten tired of this sandwich. I still haven't been able to figure out what they marinate the chicken with. It's so mild, yet tastes so good. The mayo adds a nice soft touch, making the sandwich more palatable and easier to swallow.

And washing it all down with Snapple was just perfect. My Snapple bottle cap? "'Real Fact' #110: Frogs never drink".

Total cost: US$4.60 (sandwich) + 1.43 (Snapple) + tax
Rating: aaaaa

Vietnam Restaurant @ Collegetown

2005-10-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Sliced Beef and Meatball Rice Noodles
Spring Roll

I thought I was so lucky when I first got to know of this place, thinking that I could actually get some decent beef 'pho' here in Ithaca, in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, I was wrong.

The first sign that tipped me off was the fact that the moment I walked in there, I heard the waiters speaking Cantonese. Granted Vietnam is near southern China, and some of my relatives have told me that Vietnamese does sound like Cantonese (so does Thai), but it was Cantonese - true blue Cantonese, not the gibberish of an entirely foreign language. I ordered the beef and meatball noodle, wanting to try both and just with a glimmer of hope in my stomach that it won't be as bad as I guessed. I also shared a plate of vegetarian spring rolls with the others.

It took a long time for the food to come. The spring rolls came first. It was the unfried kind, with the soft translucent rice paper skin. It came with a small dipping bowl of the dark maroon Vietnamese sweet sauce, which had shreds of carrot, grounded peanuts and a blotch of chili sauce "floating" on top of the thick sauce. I picked up a roll with my chopsticks and dipped it into the bowl of sauce, maneuvering it carefully so as to avoid the chili. It was mediocre, though I can't say it was bad. It had carrots, lettuce, rice noodles, cucumber and a lot of other vegetables wrapped inside - bland on its own, but sweetly tasty after dipping it into the sauce, which was the only element that distinguished it as "Vietnamese".

The noodles were brought to us next in bowls that were too small to contain all the piping hot soup. The beef was slightly raw and I pushed this under the surface to make sure it would be cooked. American beef is just so much more delicious than Australian beef. It beats the latter in texture and taste hands down. I think it has something to do with the fact that there's a higher fat content.

The noodle bowl was horrible. Notice that I have tried my best to avoid the word 'pho' because I don't think this meal deserved to be called that. 'Pho' refers to the thinly and finely sliced rice noodles; what I got was regular 'hor fun' type rice noodles, clearly Chinese and not Vietnamese. They did attempt to make the soup base (by far the most important element in any soup noodle recipe) resemble the real thing, but it was an insufficient. I'm not sure if they got all the ingredients, because I didn't really taste any star aniseeds. The wedge of lime wasn't actually lime, but part of a green unripe lemon. And who puts the lime and bean sprouts inside the soup? It's always served separately on another dish, so they won't get cooked in the hot soup until you want them to. Sure, on paper, it might read like a Vietnamese bowl of beef noodles, but when you see and taste it, it's just too far from the real thing.

Upon closer inspection of their take-out menus and business cards, I found out that this place was opened by the people who ran the Chinese restaurant next door (or rather down the street), which would explain a lot. I'm not saying that Chinese can't cook; in fact, as a Chinese myself (by ethnicity), I am rather proud of the fact that Chinese cuisine is one of the most accomplished and multifaceted in the world, up there with the other great cuisines of the world. But why can't we just stick to what we're good at? I just don't know what was going through their heads when they decided to start a pseudo-Vietnamese restaurant.

One thing I am certain of though - having your menus spelt out in Vietnamese and using Viet ingredients and sauces to cook does not constitute a Vietnamese restaurant if you can't make the food taste Vietnamese. I wish 'Pho Hao' would start a franchise in Collegetown.

Total cost: US$12 (including tip)
Rating: aaaaa

Arby's @ Pyramid Mall

2005-10-09T09:34:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Beef 'n Cheddar Roast Beef Sandwich
Curly Fries
Regular Pink Lemonade

I used to wonder why Americans were so hooked on to fastfood, leading to all those problems such as obesity and heart diseases. I watched Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" with a bit of doubt, because I didn't really like fastfood. Not until I came here, that is. The explanation entails two words: cheap and good. Once back in the US, I've come to realize just how sucky the fastfood overseas is.

Compared to a full meal in a restaurant, $5.29 is actually very reasonable. In fact, I haven't really calculated, but it might even be cheaper than buying the groceries and cooking them at home. And the taste is just irresistible. Yeah, I know with every fat-laden bite, I'm bringing myself nearer to a premature death, but I'll swim it off - somehow.

Today was really cold (it's 45F/7C now!), but at least it wasn't shitty wet like yesterday. The rain here is really random. And to think the beginning of the week was so hot. I was with Kyle and Ben at Pyramid Mall to get a hair cut and pick up some supplies at Target (- I got six pairs of socks and some Wrigley's Spearmint). So we walked in to the food court at the center of the mall at around six o'clock when our stomachs started growling. I've noticed that we really eat dinner early here. Back at home, I'd only have it at like 7 or 8pm, but here, it's like around 5 or 6pm. Maybe it's because the dining halls open at 5:30pm and the people on the floor want to rush before it gets crowded.

Arby's is famous for its roast beef sandwiches. They slice it real thin and long and put the pinkish strips of meat on a bun, and whip some of their special sauce on it. It really just goes well with anything, like you can put vegies or cheese on it. I got the Beef 'n Cheese sandwich, which is just roast beef smothered in melted nacho cheese on an onion bun, and curly fries to go with the combo. I got some of their "Horsey" (horseradish) sauce to dip the fries into. And they actually had Brisk pink lemonade here. It's not many a place you get pink lemonade. I love pink lemonade...

The burger was soft when bit into, but when you reach the beef, it gets a bit chewy. The beef is just perfect, medium, tender and sliced thin so it's actually softly flaky. The cheddar gave it a creamy zest, and oozed out the other side of the sandwich as I worked my way down. The beef was slightly soft, and would've been better if it were rougher, but the unique taste of the Arby's sauce (a tangy smoked barbecue sauce, but sweeter) made up for it.

Total cost: US$5.29
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.arbys.com/

Sidebar: On a sidenote, this meal grossly lacked any form of fiber. And it wasn't really filling either - but maybe the cold has something to do with that.

In a drunken state

2005-09-29T23:59:00.000-04:00

College life isn't easy - but hey, who said it was? I really look forward to the weekends here, where everything just chills when Friday gets here. (I try not to go to the Thursday parties because I have an 8 o'clock French class on Fridays, which just sucks. Next semester, the earliest course I'm doing is at 10am.)

Anyways, this is for all those who might not have noticed, I posted a new entry (August 14, 2005) about the inflight meal on the plane ride over. It's before the "Sapped" post, so you might miss it. Of course, as dedicated followers, I don't think you would.

Sidebar: For people at college reading this blog, facebook me! Just type in the word "foodblogging" (all one word) in the search field and click "search all fields". I think I should be the only one. I'm majoring in Economics or Government, if that helps. (Sorry I can't give you a name on the blog - I have strict privacy rules I follow.)

Sapped

2005-08-31T20:32:00.000-04:00

As most of you will have noticed, I haven't been posting very often. As I type this, I am going through just one of the many phases of my life, a phase which most of you will go, are going or have gone through. University's not bad, especially not the one where I'm at now. I've done a lot of fun and crazy stuff over the course of the past two weeks. I went through orientation, met tons of new faces, went to two ice cream socials, heard three concerts, jumped a gorge twice, swam under a waterfall, took a French placement exam, got just the score I wanted, went to a few frat parties, got totally wasted and still was able to get up that next day for classes. So, it's a totally "work hard, play harder" life, the way life should be, the way my youth should be.

In a way, ever since I started doing this food blog, I've been really creatively sapped. Writing one post isn't easy - it takes a lot of effort. And thanks to the perfectionist in me, it makes it many times worse. It's not that I don't like writing, and I definitely won't stop eating (trust me, I love the food here).

I knew this day would come. This is definitely not the only thing I have to do. Even over my vacation, when I didn't have any schoolwork, I was doing a lot of writing (and reading) projects, like helping my aunt with here basket selling website and trying (unsuccessfully) to write a book. But the thing that really got me was how blogging affected my journal writing. I have ardently kept a journal for three years already, and ever since I began blogging, my journal writing has been really affected.

I never wanted to keep a conventional blog, where I shared my day to day happenings, and what I feel about my (rather shitty) life - that method is so voyeuristic and for a personal journal. That's why I decided to do a food blog instead. And having to write the food blog meant a trade off in time for journal writing. I feel quite pissed at the fact that I haven't written a journal entry in three months, my last entry being the one just before I left for Hong Kong. Starting that Hong Kong excursion blog on top of the flog was a mistake on my part - I just didn't have the time.

But now that I have lectures and sections to attend, I don't know what I'll be doing with my life. It's fun and all, but it's really just school again. So, with much regret, I will have to say that this blog will become inactive. I'm not going to give up food blogging totally, but the fact is, I don't think I can keep up with myself if I did a review for every meal. Besides, the dining halls here are like buffets, so there won't be much to review, because I'll be essentially eating the same food over and over again. I will, however, try to post infrequently (perhaps around once a month) because the university has these traveling chefs come in four times a year to cook great food for us. And I can always go to Collegetown for some food and drink on the weekends.

So with that, I bid you au revoir. I will see you again, just not as often as before. I hope you guys will still come visiting, 'cos it's a great feeling seeing all those numbers on my statcounter. I really love you guys.

Inflight Meal @ UA882, 40000 feet in the air

2005-08-13T13:24:00.000-04:00

Unspecified meal

Green Garden Salad with Italian Dressing
Cold Grilled Chicken salad
Dinner Bun
Roast Beef chunks with Potato Wedges and Steamed vegetables
Sponge Cake with Icing
A Can of Canadian Dry Ginger Ale
Mineral Water

This is probably the best inflight meal I've tasted yet. It was on the flight that left from Tokyo, which just goes to show how much better the Japanese are at cooking inflight meals compared to the Singapore or Hong Kong airports. The dinner bun that came with it was actually warm! So was the butter, which was creamy and soft, and not half frozen and unspreadable. And I was flying economy!

The chunks of beef tossed in a thick brown gravy weren't all that good, but then again, you can't possibly expect much at 40000 feet in the air. They were passable, and at least they tasted good after I sprinkled some of the pepper that came in a little paper sachet with the plastic utensils. The potato wedges were soft and disintegrated upon hitting the roof of your mouth, though I never did have a taste for potato wedges, or potatoes of any kind for that matter - frenched or otherwise.

The cold cut dish was a rather odd combination. There was the chicken breast, which was rough but tasty. Then there was the Japanese beans which I had to squeeze with my fingers to get out. The taste was truly special, though I can't say I liked to, nor did it leave a lasting impression in my mind. I know it tasted like something I'd had before, but just couldn't put my finger on it (which were currently on the beans). As you can guess, I don't eat these beans often - not even at the sushi belts - though my parents just adore them. Separated by a plastic piece of artificial grass from the chicken was a slice of winter melon, which also didn't go with the overall dish.

Yes, it wasn't that good, but taste buds are suppressed at such altitudes. And this just goes to show that even though United is in Chapter 11 mode, it can still have good service.

Total cost: Included
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.united.com/

Fish and Co @ Glass House

2005-07-31T08:25:00.000-04:00

Late Lunch

"The Best Fish and Chips in Town"... with Rice
Chips

I went out with the swimmers for the day for some pool and dota. I'm really treasuring my last days in Singapore. I know that once I go away, there will be no more free time.

We had just walked in from Paradiz SC for a quick lunch. We were seated at a long rectangular table pushed together haphazardly to accommodate us. The decor was really pretty, with a "by the sea" atmosphere and crates and barrels and plastic fish on plaques on the wall. I went with the "Best Fish and Chips in Town", except that I've been getting really chubby lately so I decided to ask for rice instead of the fries.

And this is really what happened next. The food took damn long to come. There were like three of us who ordered the fish and chips and we just sat there gazing as all the people got their food and we didn't. Some of the rest who ordered the salmon had already finished already and our pans were still not here. I should've got pretty worked up about it but didn't want to really do anything about it. I just kinda sat there collected because I knew there was no fuss to make.

They offered us fries. My question is WHY? I purposely ordered the fish and chips without the chips and they give us complementary chips to compensate for the slow service! That's just dumb.

My pan came the very last, just as Pin Chuan was finishing his swordfish. It had a good helping of orange colored spiced rice mixed with vegetables and squid. It wasn't half bad, after squeezing the slice of lemon on it. I didn't do that for the fish though, because I didn't want to curdle the cream sauce, which also went well with the crispy exterior of the fish. It had this buttermilk fragrance to it, which made the fried piece of fish only richer. This wasn't something for the light stomach, but unfortunately, definitely not the best I've tasted in this town. The fish was just too rough and dry, a sign of imperfection in the process of frying.

Total cost: S$13.90++
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.fish-co.com

SSEILMCC Recipe: Cream-based Pasta Sauce

2005-07-24T23:40:00.000-04:00

And welcome back to another exciting "So Simple Even Idiots Like Me Can Cook" Recipe, or SSEILMCC, because I'm not Singaporean and can't come up with better acronyms. Today's recipe comes by request from a friend of mine who wanted to know how I made those creamy pasta dishes at his house at all those team sleepovers (though I can't really remember sleeping at any of them). I got this one from a packet of pasta many years ago. So Zheng Yue, here's a copy (or at least an abridged one) of that email I sent you.

Note to reader: I usually make this in a large pot for a large group, so I can't really give estimates of how many people this will serve. That will somewhat depend also on how much pasta you want on one plate, how much sauce you want to go with your pasta (the Sauce-Pasta Ration) and how many servings one person will eat. Go with your instincts on that one. So...

For an unspecified number of servings, you will need...

For the sauce base:
Cream (sometimes called whipping cream or thickened cream; usually found in small boxes at the dairy sections)
Milk
Grated Cheese (use the stuff already grated in plastic bags or buy a chunk and grate it yourself; go for light types like Parmesan or a pizza mix; don't even think about using the sliced kind - like "Cheesedale")
Dried Spices like mint, pepper, bay leaves (optional)
Pesto (green mixture of olive oil, garlic, basil, and other herbs; available in small jars at supermarkets)
For ingredients within the sauce (optional, depending on personal preference, best if you stick to one from each category):
Lean meat category (eg. shredded ham, sliced sausage or salami, shredded chicken)
Vegetable category (eg. bell pepper strips - any or multiple colors, sliced fresh mushroom caps, onions)
Butter (to fry all these extra ingredients in)
For the pasta:
Pasta (use the lengthy types; I recommend linguine, angel hair or fettuccini for cream based sauces like this one)
Potful of water
Salt

A note on cooking concurrently

What makes pasta dishes so popular to impatient people like me is that they take very little time to cook. Boil the water, throw in the pasta, cook some sauce and bam! you have your meal. So, in order to not waste any time, it is better if you first start by boiling the pasta then use another pan or a smaller pot to make the sauce concurrently, checking on the pasta ever so often. This would imply that you need two stove places and two pieces of cookware.

Oodles of noodles

This is the method for the pasta:

Fill a large pot Â¾ full with water and bring this to boil. As it comes to a boil, add 2 tablespoons of salt, making sure it dissolves.
Add the pasta into the salted water.
Boil until the pasta is tender, but not soft, and drain.

Method for sauce (do this concurrently):

Melt and heat some butter (depending on how much meat/vege you have) in a smaller pot and panfry the meats and/or vegetables in the butter until cooked (for meat) or slightly seared (for vegetable).
Wh the cooked meat & vege inside the pot, mix in a good helping of pesto, about 2 tbspns and stir well so that meat &/ vege is well coated.
Take out the meat &/ vege and set this aside first. leave the remaining uncoated pesto and butter in the pot
Using the same pot, mix the cream and milk together, bring this to a half boil and then add the grated cheese
This is the tricky part, because the combination of milk, cream and cheese will determine the consistency for your sauce. Here are some general guidelines:

Cream adds to the richness and fluidity of the sauce
Milk adds to the fluidity of the sauce
Cheese adds to the thickness of the sauce
So, what you need to do is to decide how thick (vs how fluid) and how rich (vs how non-rich) you want your sauce. Eg. if you want a really thick and rich sauce, you might decide to only add cream and lots of cheese, whereas if you want a runny sauce, you might just add cream and milk and only a sprinkle of cheese. Milk is optional, cream and cheese - no matter how little - are not. I usually go with 250ml of cream and another 250ml of milk and a tablespoon of cheese - this serves about four.
Remember, since you used the same pot for the searing of the meat and vegetables, there will be butter (along with the pesto) left inside, which will also add to the richness already.
When reheating the sauce, it would have most likely thickened. just add a bit of milk.
stir well to allow cheese to melt.

Then add spices (a few spoons of mint, a pinch of pepper, a few bay leaves) more pesto if need be. All optional.
Bring to boil and then stir in the meat &/ vege set aside earlier over a slow fire and let it heat for about half a minute, or more time if you want the sauce to thicken. At this stage, if the sauce is too thick, you can add a bit more milk.
Pour sauce over pasta in dishes - and you're done. Yay.

Crystal Jade Macau Cafe @ Bugis Junction

2005-07-24T03:24:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Roast Appetizer Combo (includes porkchops, spare ribs, mussels, chicken wings, just to name a few)
Black Pepper Beef Noodles
Beef Brisket Noodle Soup
Vegetables with assorted mushrooms
Porkchop bun (2 orders)
Curried Vegetables
Shrimp Toast
Satay Beef Macaroni in Soup
Portuguese Chicken Curry Baked Rice
Hot Nai Cha

I shall not dwell on this establishment for too long, because I've got bigger fish to fry - like the Fish & Co post I want to get to. This was a family outing with my parent's friends (their two kids, both sons, were just adorable) and there were 9 of us in total. The place is tucked away in a spacious corner in the basement of Bugis Junction next to the Cold Storage supermarket. It used to be one of the better Crystal Jade Kitchens, adjoined to a Crystal Jade Bakery, but they converted it recently to a new Macau concept cafe.

The cuisine from Macau draws influence from Portuguese cuisine (the Portuguesse were the colonialists who ran the place before it was ceded back to China) and Cantonese cuisine. Thus, you can see a lot of Portuguese curries, but still have Hong Kong style noodle and macaroni dishes with cups of Nai Cha and Iced Red Bean Drinks.

The curry dishes (the vegetables and the chicken baked rice) were very enjoyable indeed. The fragrance from the coconut milk used in the yellowish curry was alluring and tasty. This Portuguese type of curry is also less heavy as compared to other kinds, despite it being very rich, and not spicy at all, which makes me like it all the more. The Macau style snacks like the shrimp toast (prawn, cheese, cream and herbs on small slices of crisp toast) and the porkchop bun (similar to the one at Cat's Street) were also savory delights: light, not too filling but just enough to satisfy. (Even akin to 'dim sum'.)

Authenticity wise, I can't really say, because I haven't actually been to Macau before. But this restaurant is nonetheless a good place to go to for some good cooking, preferably as a group, so that you can try and share various dishes.

Total cost: around S$135
Rating: aaaaa

The Cafe' Cartel @ Plaza Singapura

2005-07-12T11:21:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Item no 921: Grilled Chicken with Texas Ranch Mushroom sauce
with a side of Steamed Vegetables
and Pasta
Free flow of Water and Bread

My first meal out back in Singapore. It's not as bad as the last time I came back to Singapore from Hong Kong, which was in February. Last time, it was winter in Hong Kong and when I got back, I had a hard time adjusting to the temperature and humidity.

There were six of us in all. We had just come from the inter-schools swimming finals' first day, where a sizable crowd (including quite a number of seniors) had formed. I was relieved to sit down to some bread and water in the restaurant's factory/studio decor. We looked through the confusing yet stylish menu and filled out our orders on the "self order pad".

Cafe Cartel has a rather interesting system. They actually give you this pad of paper to write your orders on, together with all the relevant info such as "special requests" and the "doneness of stake" (haha), after which you give them the chit and pay for your meal at the counter. In the process, the servers and waiters are bypassed and thus, the service charge is waived, which is a good thing since the service sucked and we had to make trips of our own to the bread and water table.

Though the service was horrible, at least it was prompt. My grilled chicken with Texas ranch mushroom sauce came about 8 minutes after we'd ordered. In my opinion, it didn't look like anything from a Texas ranch. (For one, there are no grill marks on the chicken steak. It looks more panfried.) I didn't taste any mushroom in the sauce either; it tasted more like regular barbeque sauce, only saltier. The whole meal was overspiced. The pasta tossed in olive oil had too much dried spices in it. The vegetables were too salty as well. Maybe I've gotten too use to the subtleness of Cantonese cooking - but I think not. Everything here had spice overkill written on it. And the portion was pathetically meager.

This place never did look that convincing of a restaurant; it looked more like a wannabe joint trying to cater to a school-going crowd. I'm not too sure about its alleged history either. According to its menu, the chain was started in New York by an Italian grandmother and a Jewish baker 35 years ago. Googling it didn't yield such results. I wonder if establishments are allowed to make up histories?

Anyways, in accordance with past standards, I must regretfully give it three ticks.

Total cost: S$11.90
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.cafecartel.com.sg/

Inflight Meal @ UA895, 40000 feet in the air

2005-07-08T11:50:00.000-04:00

Dinner on a tray

Stir-fried noodles with pork
Assorted fruits (including grapes, slices of pineapple and watermelon)
Salad with Thousand Island dressing
Dinner Bun
Ginger Ale

Airplane food, like hospital food, has always been known to be horrible, unless, that is, if you fly first or business class. But of course, I wasn't. So, I was stuck with a tray with those mini plastic box containers with the food in them.

I got a seat next to one of the huge pressurized doors, which meant infinite legroom. Score! True, I didn't have a place to put my sling bag (since there was no seat in front of me), which I had to stow in the overhead bins above in the end, but that didn't faze me at all, not with the extended legroom. And the extra responsibility of opening the door should there have been an didn't worry me much. I had flown so many times in my life that I've practically outgrown the fear. And, I'd be the first one to safety in such circumstances. When I was young, I would always read those cute graphical safety information cards in the seat pocket in front of me - so much so that nowadays, I don't even bother. I only get worried during takeoff and landing because it's the most dangerous part of any flight - but then again, sometimes I sleep through them like a baby.

The dinner on a tray came halfway through the flight. I was sitting next to a mother-daughter pair of Singaporeans and they were fast asleep when the food came. They were really annoying, which is typical of them. Girls and mothers are fine on their own, but put them together, and plus me on the aisle seat beside, and nerves begin breaking down. When they first sat down during boarding, they were already at it with their Singlish and fashion magazines. As if the Singlish wasn't bad enough, it was made worse by the bitching tone they adopted while discussing the trivial matters of the world of luxury goods and celebrity looks. Why couldn't I have been placed next to one of those Americans sitting behind me? (It has come to my attention from experience that sitting next to Americans, Italians, Britons and Spaniards make for the best thoughtful inflight conversation.) I didn't bother waking "the sisters" up for the meal, in fear of getting more of this. The flight attendant didn't either, and I slowly and quietly unfolded the tray table which came out of the arm rest. I asked for the entire can of ginger ale.

I chose the stir-fried noodles over the beef and mash potatoes with rational thought (see sidebar). I didn't bother taking a picture, because I was already quite hungry by then, and doing so in such dark surroundings would have meant a camera flash and that would make certain people think I was trying to set off a bomb. Being the type that based my judgment on the principles that a) the better the food looks the better it'd taste, and b) always save the best for last, I started with the bun and fruit, moved on to the noodles and then the salad last.

Skipping the monotones of my buttering the bread and spitting out the grape seeds, I peeled off the piece of foil covering the box to reveal a piping hot layer of thick egg noodles. It had shards of pork and strands of sliced green and red bell peppers mixed into it. They didn't provide chopsticks so I was forced to use a fork and spoon to slurp up the noodles. They weren't half bad, but that was probably my stomach talking. They did lack a bit of taste, so I sprinkled a bit of the pepper which came in a small paper sachet with the cutlery.

The salad was something else altogether. They had managed to somehow keep the lettuce and cherry tomatoes, with strands of red lettuce and carrots, sufficiently cold, even when I unconventionally ate the noodles first. I poured the thousand island dressing over the vegies and gave the salad a few good tosses, which I then enjoyed with a crunch.

I read a bit of "Catch 22" before dozing off to "Ocean's Twelve" which was playing on the small television screen just above and slightly in front of me.

Total cost: Included
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.united.com/

Sidebar: It is essential that one chooses meals correctly for airline flights, lest you be stuck with a disgusting meal sitting in your stomach for the rest of the flight. The golden rule to remember is that flight meals are cooked in the kitchen at the airport of departure. And depending on where you depart, the local cuisines - and thus, how good they are at cooking dishes - defers. So, assuming one does not have any dietary restrictions, the method is to choose dishes which correspond with the local cuisine of the kitchen the food is from.

For instance, in this flight, I chose the Chinese-style stir-fry over the western-style steak because the food was from the Hong Kong airport, and obviously, Hong Kong people cook Chinese food better. And say you take a Northwest flight from Seattle to Tokyo, you'd be better off going with the western dish instead of any Japanese dish (which was probably the worst sushi I tasted in my life).

One more thing: to prevent jet lag, drink lots of fluids on board, but not alcoholic beverages. Those tend to make the jet lag worse. (Of course, in this case, since the flight didn't cross any time zones, it didn't matter.)

Sheng Gai @ Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island

2005-07-07T05:46:00.000-04:00

Rainy day lunch

1½ Bowls of Beef Flank Noodles
Bottle of Coke
Bowl of Meatballs in soup (shared)
Lettuce with Foo Yu (shared)

This meal was just so snugly. It was raining outside and I was half soaked when we entered the place. I was with my grandmas and my aunt and uncle, and we were planning to go up the peak (see Hong Kong Excursion Blog) in the afternoon, after having lunch at this crowded establishment smack in the middle of downtown Hong Kong Island.

We weaved our way though the maze of narrow sidestreets to find this place located on the jagged corner of a fork in the road. It reminded me of Times Square in New York, because the angle at which the two lanes met was rather narrow, except that the lanes themselves were much narrower - only passable by one car at a time - and there definitely weren't any bright lights, because the buildings were so closely situated. As implied, there wasn't much shop space. All the tables were huddled near each other with stools packed in between. It was so crowded that the five of us had to share a table with another group. I have to say their tables were really large. But at least we didn't have to wait, not like the last time I was here with my dad. It felt great to be inside, despite being squished from all sides; it was a warm fuzzy homey feeling, away from the drizzle and gray just beyond the tiled walls.

Each of us ordered a bowl of noodles and then, we got dishes for all of us to share. I got a bowl of their (relatively) famous beef flank noodles and a coke, and we got meatballs and a plate of vegetables for everyone. The noodles were your basic ones as in wanton noodle stalls, with a springy bite and a rubbery texture. My grandma passed me a piece of her radish, which came with her bowl of 'hor fun' with beef tendon, and it landed with a plunk into the soup. I also chopsticked a meatball in for the photo. However, instead of wantons, chunks of beef flank (its waist) which had been marinated in a thick herbal stock lingered on top of the strands of yellowish noodles, with their brown juices oozing out into the soup, slightly coloring it.

The chunks were reddish brown in color, not because they were raw - which would not have been possible, for the soup was piping hot - but because the beef was fresh. (You can usually tell beef's freshness by its color: a rainbowy oily glint indicates the freshest, red all over indicates fresh, and darker shades of brown mean that the beef has been slaughtered for quite some time.) Layers of thin smooth skin-like tissue clung onto each chunk, attached by an even thinner sticky mass of fat to the shards of solid meat, which also clung together naturally, breaking up only as I bit into the piece. The shards of beef broke up relaxingly, and a burst of the freshly sweet pungent flavor of beef released itself onto my tongue. I let the meat slide around before swallowing, to get a more fulfilling taste. I didn't really care that some of the strands got stuck between my molars; all I could think of then was the food.

My bowl of noodles was slurped up fast enough. It was a welcoming feeling, as the hot food dropped down into my abdomen, warming up my body right up to the skin, which was still touching the half-dry tshirt I had on. It wasn't enough; and this was so too for my uncle. So we decided to order one more bowl to share between the two of us. And as soon as it arrived, I devoured it just as quickly.

I took a long sip of the coke from the bottle, after having finished a very comfortable meal indeed. It was bubbly and was more gaseous than liquid. Nothing to lift your spirit up than a good hearty lunch in the middle of Hong Kong.

Total cost: HK$18 (noodles) + 5 (coke) + 24 (meatballs) + 10 (vegetables)
Rating: aaaaa

Spaghetti House @ Off Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

2005-07-06T11:35:00.000-04:00

Early Dinner Set Meal

Spaghetti Bolognese
Macaroni Ham Salad
Nai Cha

There are two types of pasta dishes in this world. The first type is where the sauce is "infused" with the pasta by frying the sauce and three-quarters cooked pasta together in a pan before serving. The second variation (which I like to term the Mafia style, because it reminds me of how the American-Italians made their version of pasta) is the slacker version, whereby sauce is poured over a bed of cooked pasta. This spaghetti bolognese was the latter kind; although I think almost all spaghetti bolognese fall under this category.

Spaghetti House is a popular chain of restaurants in Hong Kong which have been around since forever - or close to that. It was there when I was born (according to my mom); it was there when I moved away; it's still here now. We got there early, because we'd been walking all afternoon around Tsim Sha Tsui and were quite famished by then. So we took advantage of their early set dinners, which were from 5pm to 7pm; and you had to get the check by 8pm or so.

I ordered the spaghetti bolognese, not because I liked it, but because it was the first item on the menu, and all the other items where rather complicated and I couldn't really make out what they were exactly. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't actually like spaghetti bolognese very much to begin with.

The problem with spaghetti bolognese is that you have to eat it fast, while it's hot. If you don't, the sauce "leaches". What do I mean by "leach"? If you imagine the sauce as a solution, comprising of a solute and solvent, "leaching" is when the solvent from the sauce separates itself from the solute. For some odd reason, spaghetti bolognese is very prone to "leaching" - it probably has something to do with the bits of meat in the sauce. This is made worse by the bed of pasta below the sauce. Left on its own for too long, the water (solvent) inside the sauce drains out and drips down through the bed of pasta to the bottom of the plate, while the less fluid tomato paste and ground beef remains on top, held up by the bed of pasta. When this happens, the entire thing becomes really disgusting to eat. The beef becomes rough and dry, the tomato sauce becomes cakey, and the pasta becomes soggy from soaking in the solvent below. And it's almost impossible to mix the sauce back together again.

But I decided it was worth a try - at least here.

The salad arrived first. It was actually a very simple salad, made with macaroni and chunks of apple, celery and cucumber, tossed in miracle whip, garnished with an elegantly cut piece of ham rolled into a cylinder holding a splotch of roe in the middle and half a strawberry on the side. It was served in a rather small goblet-like cup, so it was a bit tedious to eat, but it tasted quite okay - a refreshing start to the meal.

My entrée took quite a while to come, but that didn't really bother me much as it did them (and when I say them, I mean the restaurant people), because they were the ones forcing us to leave by a certain time, and my hunger had been somewhat satiated by the salad and 'nai cha'. As you can see, it was a typical plate of spaghetti bolognese. Nothing special.

I removed the piece of parsley, stuck my fork into the middle and started to twirl. As expected, the sauce, with its generous bits of beef, refused to stick to the strands of noodle. So, I proceeded to use both spoon and fork and lifted the spaghetti slightly off the plate, mixing the two elements thoroughly, as if tossing a salad. It had to be done.

It was much better after that. Not only did it taste better and prevent "leaching" (or at least delay it), but the problem of having too much sauce or plain noodle left over after disproportionately eating one or the other was solved as well. And although I haven't had many spaghetti bolognese in my lifetime, for reasons stated above, I must say that this has to be the best plate of the stuff I've had yet.

Total cost: around HK$45 to 50 (I just can't remember exactly)
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.spaghettihouse.com/

Snack Stall @ Off Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

2005-07-06T06:38:00.000-04:00

Afternoon Snack

Stick of Fishballs (6)

Thanks goes to my aunt who volunteered to hold the stick of fishballs while I took the photo, though sadly, this is the least out of focus one there was.

These fishballs on a stick are yet another irresistible delight proudly brought to you by Hong Kong. They can be bought at any of the numerous street-side stalls selling snacks (including 7 Elevens), or the illicit pushcarts, which are not as numerous, that sometimes roam the streets. They come in two flavors - spicy (from adding satay sauce) and not spicy - and are usually sold with a variety of other foods on a stick, including 'siew mai', cuttlefish dyed orange, and sausage slices coated in red skin, just to name a few. Equilibrium price for one stick is around HK$5, with snacks at pushcart stalls going for less, and stalls at the more busy corners of streets going for more.

These snacks are especially great during the winter, when you're walking through the streets in your coat or jacket, when you can see the mist of your breath as you exhale, when the temperature is cold and the wind icier, and when all you want is a piping hot stick of something to munch on. All snacks usually go well with sugar cane juice, also available and freshly made at most said snack stalls - hot sugar cane juice during the winter, iced in the summer.

It didn't matter that it was the middle of summer - these snacks are still irresistible. I got a stick of 6 fishballs, not spicy, covered in a dash of soy sauce. You can't rush eating fishballs like these - you have to enjoy each and every one of them. I timidly gnawed at the first fishball, lightly making contact with my front teeth, just to test whether the temperature would be all right to endure, or whether I had to wait just a little while more for it to cool down.

Hong Kong fishballs are unique. They are not springy and rubbery like the ones in Singapore; they are not rough with coarse fillings like those of Thailand and Vietnam; and they are not meaty with fish scales like some types from certain parts of China. Below the yellow exterior is a firm yet chewy filling. There is no separation of interior and exterior, the entire fishball is one dense ball of fish meat, starch and (perhaps some) seasoning. The yellow outlook is merely due to the frying that occurred in oil which stained it yellow.

Munching through one takes both time and concentration, if you are to truly experience its flavor in its entirety. There's a tinge of saltiness from the soy sauce, but that quickly fades and gives way to a more subtle and genuine fishy taste. Swallowing one just makes you want to move on to the next. And then to the next. The first is always the most enjoyable; and the last always the most memorable.

Total cost: HK$5
Rating: aaaaa

Federal Palace @ Maritime Square, Tsing Yi

2005-07-06T03:54:00.000-04:00

Yum Cha (~Drink Tea)

Cha Siew Cherng (Rice Roll)
Wuo Tie (Fried Dumplings)
Sheng Zien Bao (Pan-fried meat bun?)
Steamed Tripe
Soy Sauce Chicken Feet
Radish Cake in XO Sauce
Fried Cherng Fun
Ha Gao (Shrimp Dumplings)
Siew Mai
Tofu Skin Rolls
Wet Fried Noodles with Black Pepper Squid
Fried Rice with Chicken Bits and Salted Fish
Po Lei Tea

It was crowded, but that much was expected. And this wasn't the only 'cha lou' (tea parlor) in this shopping center. So even after taking a queue number, which I did since I was the first one on the scene, we still had to wait a while. We were subsequently lead through a maze of tables to one near the ceiling-high windows (just out of lens range to the left in the photo), overlooking the strip of water between Tsing Yi Island and Tsun Wan. The round table was covered in a thick white cloth - alas, not large enough to warrant a turntable on top.

We ordered a whole host of dim sum for lunch. As we waited, I quickly produced my camera and took a picture of the entire place and its unsuspecting patrons. We did the ritualistic washing of all the crockery on the table. I tried to chat with my extended family, with whom this was my second time coming here, but the din of the entire place impaired any form of speech. That's what so lovely about 'yum cha' in Hong Kong, the atmosphere is so full of life and vibrancy. Perhaps "din" is an inappropriate word, since it conveys a negative air of unwantedness when it comes to noise. But then again, I can't really think of any other word that gives a positive light to noise. And besides, loud speech in 'cha lous' is self-perpetuating, in that the louder everyone speaks, the louder you have to speak to be heard, thereby contributing to the overall volume of the place. How aptly ironic.

There's so much to say about the food; in fact, there's too much to say. The dim sum was great, as is expected of any 'cha lou' that can sustain itself in such a highly competitive market - and Federal is a chain of restaurants. I liked the tripe the most. (For those who don't know or suspect so, yes, tripe is a cow's stomach.) It was steamed in its juices with spices which I have no inkling of, and garnished with parsley and shreds of carrot. The juices caught in between the ridges on the strips of tripe gave it enough taste; and the texture's chewiness made it all the more enjoyable. The Siew Mai was great as well, warm and fragrant on the inside and larger than anything you'd get elsewhere (about the size of a golf ball, but taller and not round).

What I like most about dim sum is that (almost) everything is steamed. Nothing's too heavy and most of the stuff is rather healthy. And the small portions of each batch means that you can sample all sorts of bite-sized portions. This is especially so when eating in large groups, because there is a larger variety of dishes to share. As its name suggests, it really does "touch the heart".

Total cost: HK$309 (for table of 7)
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.fedresthk.com/

Some Stall @ Ma On Shan Market

2005-07-05T07:03:00.000-04:00

Afternoon Snack

Cherng Fun with everything (hold the chili)

This is a classic Hong Kong delicacy at it's best. 'Cherng fun' can be bought at any market. And its flavor never ceases to amaze me. The last time I was in Hong Kong (in January this year), I was staying at my Grandma's place, which was a government housing estate, which meant there was a market nearby, so I had 'cherng fun' almost every morning for breakfast. This time, I wasn't so lucky, and my aunt put me up instead, which is still nice, because her place has a gym and all, and I love spending time with my cousin, but it's nowhere near a market. Surprisingly, this was the first time I ate this since coming back.

'Cherng fun' directly translated means "sausage noodle", referring to the sausage-shaped chunks of rolled up rice noodle sheets, steamed to perfection. Good Hong Kong market-style 'cherng fun' is made with a fair amount of oil, so that the interlocking layers of noodle don't stick to each other and become soft and sticky, like 'nian gao'. Instead, biting into good 'cherng fun' is akin to biting into a sausage, except less rubbery - you can't detect the layers at all, but not to the point of the mouthful becoming one sticky mass of rice noodle. It certainly won't stick to the roof of your mouth. (This 'cherng fun' from Hong Kong markets is different from the type you get in restaurants, in that there's nothing inside and the rice noodle isn't as sliky soft.)

On its own, they have no taste, save for the slight aroma of the vegetable oil used to make them. Add a spoonful of sweet sauce, a splash of soy sauce, a helping of peanut gravy and a dash of sesame seeds, and you get a fragrantly flavor like no other. It's a great overflow of taste that reaches the tongue - the zest of the soy sauce and sweet sauce with the seasoned character of the peanut oils and sesame. It's a taste one can never really tire of, yet to long for it would be but a waste of the imagination.

Total cost: HK$5
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: Yes, I know it's been a while since my last post; and I do apologize. And yes, I know I'm only slacking at home, with not much else to do, so I should have had plenty of time to blog. But hey, bumming around is a very tiring job - definitely not as easy as it looks. So I took some time off.

Yeah... I know, slacking off even while bumming around - the signs of a true slacker. Hey, at least I'm good at what I do.

Oriental Curry @ Cooked Deli, Times Square

2005-06-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

Dinner Set C

Fried Ebi Curry
Salad (shredded cabbage with diced tomato and a squirt of mayo)
Coke

What tempted me to order this particular set out of all the curry sets at this particular stall out of all the stalls at this City-Super 'Cooked Deli' were the beautifully breaded prawns. They were just so seductive, their soft orange colored shell of batter, dotted densely with minute specks of crisp crumbs, which felt so pleasant to bite into, all the way up to the red white-streaked shrimp tail. Beneath the outer husk was the succulent bouncy meat of the creature, whose light sweetness was just enough to make you want one more bite.

Of course, the curry was a separate part of the meal in itself. After lifting (what was left of) the three pieces of shrimp onto another plate - to prevent their exterior from softening - I took in a spoonful of the soft sticky rice. This was truly delicious curry. It was not spicy at all. Small chunks of soft carrots, potato and bits of onion were mixed into the brown apple-based (I think) gravy, which was generously poured over the genuine Japanese rice - deducible from the distinct short grains which, though individually sticky, did not coalesce with one another, but remained separate as they entered the mouth. This type of rice is perfect for curry, because the juices of the curry, though thick, still manage, with time, to flow in between each grain, making it all the more tastier.

Luckily, the heaviness of this dish was not too pervasive, thanks to the preserved radish which came (freeflow) with any curry, and the salad which came with the set. The red-dyed, crunchy, sour bits of radish - which I thought was ginger at first - helped ease its richness a little. But it was the dry icy cold cabbage salad that really did the reassuring. In the end though, I still emerged a very full, and at the same time, very satisfied customer indeed.

Total cost: HK$52
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.oriental-curry.co.jp/ (in Japanese)

Sidebar: Some notes about this meal...

The stall had a Set A and Set C, but no Set B!
As with the other 'Cooked Deli', and as customary of any Japanese style food court, I had to go buy a paper ticket first of the purchase (and pay first) before going to collect the food. How hygienic.
The face in the logo of the chain looks more African than "oriental".
The dash of green powder (I couldn't tell if it was grated coriander or kelp) gave the overall red hue of the dish a nice touch.

Kariyushi @ New Town Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-06-25T06:09:00.000-04:00

Really Late Lunch

Afternoon Tea Set: Seafood Udon
with Assorted Sushi
and a bottle of Cream Soda

This restaurant indeed had a special Japanese feel to it. Nestled at the corner of the atrium facing the library at New Town Plaza, it was easy to miss for anyone walking by, but those who knew about it sure went there. Even at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it was packed; or perhaps we were all here for their afternoon tea sets.

One thing I found cute about the place was that our seats were on this raised platform comprising of deep mahogany planks. We were made to take off our shoes before going onto the wooden stage-like place, sitting ourselves on tatamis, with a dark carpeted hole just below the table for us to wiggle our legs into and dangle our feet. Taking off my shoes somehow felt liberating - it made me feel so welcomed at the place. Maybe it has something to do with the nerves on my toes.

We took our time deciding what to get on the afternoon tea sets menu. They had all sorts of sets to choose from, from ramen to rice to udon/soba to sushi/sashimi. I decided to go with one of their udon sets because I've been eating so much ramen lately.

It didn't take very long for my "Seafood udon in hot pot" to arrive, flanked on the tray with a few pieces of assorted sushi (California! My favorite) and a bottle of Schweppes cream soda. The "hot pot" looked more like a hot metallic (shallower than most) bucket, with a handle right above its opening which I gingerly tapped away with my chopsticks, for I could feel the tender heat radiating from the dark cast iron surface. Inside was a bunch of udon, topped with a single tempura shrimp, a slice of white-pink fishcake, a scallop and a chicken chunk, and a sprinkle of raw green onion - or so I thought. The more I dug, the happier I grew, for underneath the inviting top layer of udon was an even more inviting find. Below were slices of squid, fish, a mussel and a few strands of those unidentifiable Japanese vegetables which look like a cross between beans and fern stems.

Overall, this pot of udon was really good. The stock was just right, clear, not overly salty, emphasizing on the sweetness of fish. Each slurp of udon was a delight, and these were no ordinary strands, they were thinner and denser than usual, the sign of truly skillful preparation - for most udon out there is overdone and when this happens, the strands bloat up and become softer and less dense, making them more akin to Shanghai noodles (not that there's anything wrong with Shanghai noodles, just that the latter is better for fried noodle dishes). And the iron pot made sure the dish was kept warm throughout the meal.

Ahh. It was a great feeling. Slurping up udon with sips of cool bubbly cream soda; wiggling my toes in my socks as I enjoyed every slurp. It was a shame when I had to put on my shoes again.

Total cost: HK$39
Rating: aaaaa

Cat's Street @ Tung Chung

2005-06-18T12:39:00.000-04:00

Afternoon Snack

Portuguese Porkchop Sandwich
Hot Nai Cha

My grandma lives in Tung Chung, so this wasn't my first time here. The place had an attractive decor, complemented by its nice plates. bowls, cups and utensils. They also had very reasonable afternoon tea sets. I was a bit apprehensive at first on ordering this set because the menu (laminated cards on a flip stand from Ikea; I could recognize it) described it as "deep fried". But what the heck.

The sandwich came unfolded. The two pieces of bun cut in half were toasted nicely - don't be fooled by the color in the photo, which makes it look burnt, for it was not; I just have a lousy camera. On top of the bread was the porkchop, a slice each of lettuce, tomato and cucumber, and a line of mayonnaise squirted lazily. It was beautiful enough to eat, so I went right ahead.

It tasted alright. The bite was overall crispy, thanks to the toasted bun, lettuce and cucumber. The slab of pork was oily, but its heaviness was balanced by the fresh greens. I gobbled it down in three bites, which meant I didn't really had much time to truly enjoy it. But hey, it's only suppose to be a snack - and ordering another one would just be overdoing it.

I really have to stop eating in between meals. But I just can't help it though - too many temptations.

Total cost: HK$23
Rating: aaaaa

Pokka Cafe @ New Town Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-06-17T05:14:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Broccoli, Scallop & Cuttlefish with Rice Au Gratin

This particular restaurant was situated on the ground floor, and from the looks of its dusty 80s decor, it's probably been here for at least 10 years or so, probably since Yaohan closed down - yes, that Japanese department store that went bankrupt in 1997 - and made room for this row of restaurants.

It was a standard Japanese "family" restaurant serving all types of cuisines, from ramen to pasta to steaks, which was a nice thing, because one thing I've learnt eating in Asia all these years is that besides westerners, the only other people who can cook good western style food are the Japanese. It's true. The best French, Italian, English, Irish, etc. restaurants are run by native French, Italians, English, Irish, et cetraishes. Chinese western food just doesn't make the cut, and Indian western food is sadly feeble. It's not that I don't like Chinese or Indian food (I do), but I think the Chinese should stick to Chinese cuisine and the Indians should do likewise with Indian cuisine. But for some strange reason, the Japanese are able to cook western food properly. (See sidebar)

We were seated at a window seat, far away from the smoking section. The food came fast enough. My baked rice looked like any typical baked rice, baked in a circular yellow ceramic bowl. On top of the short grain rice was your layer of cheese and cream (a mixture which I could never really be sure of, for all baked rice dishes), mixed with slices of squid and scallop and chunks of broccoli, with a generous helping of prawn roe spooned on top. The colors matched perfectly - the sunshine yellow of the dish going well with the bright orange roe, calmed by the fresh greenness of the broccoli. Waiting for it to cool down so I could try a bite was such horrible torture.

The taste wasn't too bad. It was bland, as with all baked rice. The broccoli was done with perfect timing, being just hard enough to sink your teeth into such that you're eating regular broccoli. (For at most other places serving baked rice, any vegetable in the dish is usually overdone, but not here.) The seafood also not too strong, bland but good accompaniment to the rice overall. One thing which did stand out, though, was the fact that the rice on the side of the dish wasn't burnt a bit at all, which really showed the effort and research put into creating this.

But in the end, it was its price that killed it. Deserving all too well of three ticks, I just couldn't give it that many. Not at HK$72 a pop.

Total cost: HK$72
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: It seems like only the Japanese are able to recreate western cuisine. I have a theory as to why this is so. Firstly, having been conquered by westerners, Japanese taste and cooking techniques are suited for western cuisine.

Second is what I call the "set mentality". Unlike other Asian cuisines who put dishes in the middle of the table to share, the Japanese like to each have their own plate (or Bento, rather) of food in front of them, a trait similar to western cuisine. (Sure, the Koreans do it this way too sometimes, but one must remember they were under Japanese rule - and thus, influence - in the past.) This gives them creative space to conjure individual dishes which are suited for individuals, whereas other Asian cultures just can't accept the idea of "one plate per person", and thus are at a disadvantage subconsciously when creating western dishes for the individual. Just a thought.

Thirdly and lastly is the Japanese's ability to copy and improve on something. No, I'm not saying they just copy everything wholesale, like some other country I know of. The Japanese have a knack of taking a concept and improving on it. Take cartoons for instance. They took the concept from the Americans and made their own anime genre. Now, it's the American's turn to copy back, with little single beads of sweat on a character's temple when they get embarrassed. Think 'Teen Titans' or that spastically laughable series 'Totally Spies'.

But back to Japanese cooking western food. Even though they copy the dishes, they add their bit of fusion into it, with local cooking techniques (such as using a teppan to cook steaks; I think I've mention this before) and ingredients. You should try, for instance, Japanese mayonnaise, which just has an entirely different taste to it. Or Japanese Worcester sauce; same thing.

Wildfire Express @ APM, Kwun Tong

2005-06-13T11:42:00.000-04:00

Early Dinner

Fish Fillet Angel-hair Pasta
Fruit Salad
Coconut cream dessert
Mint Lime Soda

This was by far the most beautiful meal I've ever had in a most beautiful foodcourt. Located in the 'cooked deli by city-super' on the fourth floor (which is actually labeled L1, above UC, C and G, the real ground floor; for more, see link below) which was actually a concrete wood-covered veranda with a greenhouse roof. And lucky for me, I came at the best time to have dinner, which is 6 o'clock. The clouded sunlight of dusk slowly leaked in through the skylight and cast its sleepy glow onto the dark mahogany seating. The whole place had a post-modern Japanese feel to it.

There were a variety of stalls, even one serving Singapore cuisine, if there is indeed such a thing. As usual, each time I come to an unfamiliar food court, I take ages to decide what to eat. After wondering around aimlessly for quite a bit, admiring the decor of the place, which was really indeed beautiful, I chose the Wildfire Express stall. I was a bit ambivalent at first, because its logo was a big red chili pepper in flames and I'm not that keen on spicy food, with my pimples and all, but eventually decided to give it a try. I ordered the pasta set dinner.

It came nicely set out, though on a rather ugly tray (which was removed for the purposes of taking a photo). There was the fruit salad, a simple appetizer to the meal, comprising of chips of apple, celery, cucumber, carrot shreds and various other fruits and vegetables, mixed in a light and milky dressing. I took a sip of the mint lime soda, also a relaxingly fresh piece, with a mint leaf still suspended within the bubbly crystal clear liquid. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was reminded that mint causes impotency, but didn't really care. This drink was just so cooling, so soothing.

But on to the main course. This came on a shiny plastic plate which at first glance didn't look plastic at all, but ceramic. On it was a bed of angel hair pasta tossed in a green pesto-based sauce, on top of which was a fillet of pan-fried fish (I think it was dory), and on top of that was a lightly toasted slice of baguette with some butter and herbs spread on top. There was an additional sprinkle of greens on top of this, just to enhance the overall greenery a bit further.

The taste was just delicious, quite the opposite of what I'd expected from a kitchen which has a red hot chili pepper in flames for a logo. I just started munching down the piece of garlic bread and mixed the greens in with the pasta. Putting a bunch in your mouth just made you feel so much flavor (- probably something to do with surface area, but let's not get geeky). The pesto with its olive oil support was perfect for the thin strands of angel hair pasta, and the occasional burst of raw freshness from the greens made the flavor even lighter. The fish was also fine, lightly done with only a bit of salt, and not overcooked, such that there was still a trickle of the steamy fishy juices in between the slivers of pure white meat.

The meal was aptly finished with spoonfuls of the milky coconut pudding in the small white cup. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience, and it wasn't all that expensive - or spicy either. One lesson learned: joints with red hot flaming chili peppers as logos need not necessarily serve spicy, heaty food.

Total cost: HK$45
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.apm-millenniumcity.com/

Sidebar: For more on APM, click on to my extension blog. (And if' it's not there yet, please do check back later.)

Australia Dairy Company @ Bowring Street, Jordan

2005-06-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

Dessert

Cold Steamed Egg White

As you might have noticed, this place is actually on the same street as 'Muk Mun Gai'. In fact, the Australia Dairy Company is right next to it (see top photo). This is one of the reasons I come here every time I'm in town, because it's a two-in-one deal. And both places aren't bad.

The floor space of the Australia Dairy Company was roughly twice as large as that of its neighbor. And it's menu had about four times the variety. The place served everything you'd expect from a 'cha chan teng' (tea restaurant, directly translated). The cold steamed egg white I ordered came tout de suite, not that much effort was needed. Bowls upon bowls of the stuff had already been steamed and were being chilled in a fridge. All they had to do was take it out and give me a spoon.

Put it in your mouth and you feel the texture of pudding. But the taste is rather different. It reminded me of the custard in a crème brûlée, but without the richness of the egg yolk. (I opted for the steamed egg white in the first place instead of the egg yolk because I wanted a light dessert.) Its sweetness was not too strong either, not sugary, but a natural light sweetness like the kind you get from milk or creams. The coldness of the dish itself also suppressed some of its taste, making it more subtle and palatable.

The serving was really small and I managed to finish it in only a few big gulps. So for $16, if you're looking for something to fill a void stomach, it wasn't exactly worth it. But the taste is just too irresistible - what a great way to end off a meal.

Total cost: HK$16
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: Yet another "milk company" - well, close enough.

Muk Mun Gai @ Bowring Street, Jordan

2005-06-12T09:49:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Wanton Noodles
'Kai Lan' with Oyster Sauce
A Bottle of Coke
'Sui Gao' Noodles (shared)

This place is my mom's favorite for wanton noodles and I've grown used to coming here at least once every time I come back - more out of habit these days, I have to say. It's located in a misspelled street in Jordan. (Refer to my extension blog.) But there's a good reason to come to the middle of Kowlong for noodles, besides the fact that it's a prime shopping and eating (and almost everything else) district. (More on that in the next entry. And in case anyone's wondering what 'Muk Mun Gai' is in Chinese, see the next entry as well.)

The stall is a rather small one, probably because of the high rents in the area. The food is noticeably more expensive than the Sham Shui Po one. The menu wasn't very extensive either, consisting of only noodle dishes - or bowls rather. But then again, as I always say, stick to what you're good at.

The first thing you think of when you enter is that you've walked into a hospital. Everything in the place is white - and the fluorescent lighting only makes it whiter. All the chairs, table surfaces, stall seats, bottom-tiled top-whitewashed walls, even the uniforms of the people who work there, are white. Only the edges of the stall seats and tables, with their long worn-out dark brown wooden side finishings stood out from all that whiteness. The freezing air conditioning only reinforced this image of sterility. (In fact, it is said that Hong Kong has the coldest average air conditioning in the world for enclosed spaces, according to my uncle. Everywhere you go, it seems like the a/c there is freezing your ass off. But then, I'm not complaining - not in the dead of summer.)

We sat down and put in our orders. If there ever was one, this would be the place for model efficient service. It took about only 3 minutes for them to fill our orders.

The noodles were good - though after so many days here, I have to say I haven't actually been to a place that served bad noodles. Once again, these strands were light to slurp up and springy to bite into. The soup this time, however, was a bit different. Though still fluid, it looked thicker and more like a broth. The sweetness of it was more subtle and mature, coming instead from pig bones instead of prawn parts. (Of course, this depends solely on the proportion of ingredients added for the soup base.) As usual, the fresh green taste of chopped up spring onion sneaked into the background.

The differences in the soup were also reflected in the wantons. Their wanton skin was silky smooth, though a tad (and only barely) thicker than usual. Their filling consisted mainly of pork and less of prawn, making its principle taste salty rather than sweet, though both flavors expressed themselves pretty equally. Biting into it still had a supple bounce to it, with a rush of flavors from the soup nestled inside, but the feeling you get from finally swallowing it is that of consuming sustenance instead of enjoying a delicacy. Either way, it was still delicious.

In the end though, one bowl of this was simply not enough, which was rather a pity. We ordered another bowl of 'sui gao' noodles (the difference being there was even less prawns and more vegetables in the 'sui gao'), which I don't recommend you try should you ever come here. Their wanton noodles is still their best, though not the best, but still deserving of four ticks.

Total cost: HK$19 (wanton noodles) + 11 (vegies) + 8 (coke) + 19 ('sui gao' noodles)
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: You might have noticed that every time I eat wanton noodles (or noodles of other sorts), instead of going for my normal 'nai cha', I opt for a coke. The reason behind this is quite simple. The soups for Chinese noodles are actually heavily basic - as in containing alkaline. This is because in the process of giving the noodles that springy and firm texture, they actually soak it in "soap water" (directly translated from 'gan shui' in Cantonese, but I don't think it's really literally soap water).

Of course, some prefer to just add vinegar, which is usually available at the table in small bottles. But this makes the soup a bit watery because of the chemical reactions, and also sour if you add too much, and sometimes, it just screws up the taste. So I prefer the safer (and what I would say is the more appetizing) method, which is to drink something acidic - like coke - to balance it off.

This should also be done when consuming other foods high in alkalinity, such as crabs. That's why the Japanese dip their snow crabs in a vinegar-based sauce. I'm not sure what happens if you eat too many alkali foods, but by logic, it should worsen your digestion by neutralizing your stomach acids.

And anyways, when it reaches your stomach, it all mixes together.

Some stall @ Tsun Wan

2005-06-10T05:58:00.000-04:00

Afternoon Snack

Kai Dan Zai

These are just fabulous! You can find them almost anywhere in Hong Kong in the summer months. (During the winter, it's harder though, but still possible.) The stalls selling them are not that hard to find - all you have to do is to follow your nose. Go for this eggy, freshly made waffle smell and you can't go wrong. Upon finding the stall, you'll notice them making the 'kai dan zai' in these waffle-iron-like things which look like two tennis rackets without the holes. Now, you may also see some pre-made pieces of these treats. Here comes the hard part.

Selecting which 'beng' of 'kai dan zai' is crucial, because if you get a lousy one, you'll regret it. First, don't go for the "hot out of the oven" ones, because they are not necessarily the best ones. When selecting, try to go for ones which have a pure golden yellow color. Don't even think about slightly brown, because those are overdone already. The one I got pictured above wasn't too bad, though it was slightly browner than what it should be.

They will proceed to put it in a brown paper bag. If they give you an extra plastic bag on top of that, refuse kindly, for these things are best eaten on the spot. Upon receiving your 'beng' of 'kai dan zai', feel free to start ripping off pieces and popping them into your mouth. The taste is very subtle, but sensational - a light eggy sweet taste. If you were successful in your selection process, you should bite into a thin crispy shell, beneath which is the soft, chewy, though solid filling of the 'kai dan zai'.

If you come to Hong Kong, this is something you have to try. Along with sticks of satay fishballs, it's the roadside snack of Hong Kong. (Okay, I know that didn't really make sense, but just go and try it!) I never get tired of these things. Maybe it's because my grandma always bought them for me when I was young (and still in Hong Kong). And every time I partake in one of these, it just brings back so many memories.

Total cost: HK$10 (anything more than HK$20 a 'beng', no matter how good, isn't worth it)
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: Contrary to the belief of a friend who happen to see this photo before it was published, this is not an enlarged picture of any feature of the human body. Wonder what was going through his mind...

Gong Hwo @ Pei Ho Street, Sham Shui Po

2005-06-09T08:53:00.000-04:00

Dessert

Hot Tofu Fa

This place was old. How could I tell? Well, for one, there was a picture of it's founder on the wall, and mind you, this was a drawing, not a photograph, and he was wearing clothing and a hairstyle from the early 1900s. Its entrance was conspicuous and had a large flat pan in front of it, where this fortyish year old lady was frying 'yong tofu'. We sat down at a long rectangular table which we shared with a few old men, also having their desserts.

I was a bit indecisive at first; I couldn't decide whether to get the hot or cold 'tofu fa' (tofu flower, directly translated). It had been a really hot day, and I wanted to get the cold one for obvious reasons, but my uncle advised me on the hot one, which he said was smoother. I took his advice and saw the guy (after taking our order of 3 hot 'tofu fa') walk past the glass-doored refrigerator filled with neatly tessellated bowls of the cold stuff to this huge wooden with a wooden lid covered in white cloth. As he lifted up the lid, a billow of steam curled up and he quickly used a small plate and scooped out clumps of 'tofu fa' into three small bowls, which were promptly brought to our table.

I stared down at the white jello-like (but softer) piece of tofu. It looked so pleasing, so perfect, that I didn't really want to break it apart. My aunt helped me add a spoonful of yellow rock sugar on top as I snapped an unfocused photo. I did it gently at first, but soon moved on to tearing my spoon through the soft, squishy tofu as I anxiously tried to dissolve all the sugar. The first spoonful was the best. It slid down the throat smoothly as the light sugary taste of the fluid syrup lingered. It was blissful, like eating a cloud.

Wafts of aroma from the frying pan with the 'yong tofu' floated through the air as we finished our bowls of cloud and left. Alas, it was time to go back into the warm, bustling night of the Kowloon street, back on the concrete sidewalks full of crowds under the stench of orange streetlights. I couldn't help but to wonder what the cold 'tofu fa' would've tasted like.

Total cost: HK$6 a bowl
Rating: aaaaa

Cherng Heng Mien Ga @ Ap Liu Street, Sham Shui Po

2005-06-09T07:51:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Wanton Noodles
Vegies (a plate shared)
A can of Coke

I just couldn't believe that something so good would cost so cheap! Sham Shui Po is one of the older and more modest districts in Kowloon, which means most things here are cheaper relative to other places. Cherng Heng Mien Ga (noodle family?) was a run down ground floor shop with an open kitchen in the front of the shop and cream colored walls, plastered on which were old posters and paper signs advertising it's specialties. The place was dirty, but only a bit; the sharp yellow-tinged lights and freezing air conditioning helped to ease that feeling. I was with my aunt (third sister of my mom's) and uncle, and we sat down at one of their bright red tables as they gave us our chopsticks and three cups of hot but weak tea in the characteristically small brown opaque cups, which could be found in almost any sidewalk restaurant in Hong Kong. We ritualistically went about washing our chopsticks.

Of course, here, there was nothing else to do but to order the wanton noodles, the reason why we came here in the first place. This stall isn't exactly famous for it, but it's been frequented by my aunt and uncle since they were young (and from what I can gather, they started dating pretty young, so they must've been coming here for years), so if it's been so many years and they are still willing to make the journey all the way here (because they live in the New Territories), then it must be good.

And was it good. The wait was a bit long, because it was just about dinner time and the place was crowded, but you can't rush perfection. The bowl was typical of any bowl of wanton noodles you'd get in Hong Kong. Four pieces of wanton dumplings, which consisted of a mix of shrimps and pork made into balls, wrapped with the thin smooth wanton skin, buried under a bundle of noodles. The soup is special, and usually a secret, but common ingredients in the soup base are prawn husks and heads, pig bones, mushrooms and spices. This particular soup base at Cherng Heng was smoother and had a more potent prawn taste above all, which was just sweet. All this is garnished with a sprinkle of green spring onion - any bowl of noodle would be incomplete without this.

The noodles were perfect. They were springy, thin and light to bite into, and one slurp could gain you some distance. You don't really have to use your spoon, because soup gets trap in between the strands as you slurp them up, which makes every slurp even sweeter (both literally and metaphorically). You could taste the prawns as you ate the noodles. And ever so often, a piece of spring onion would get caught up in the noodles and you'd get a light, clean, fresh taste on your palate.

But in order to really taste the prawns, you'd have to go for the wantons. I eat them by placing one in a spoonful of soup and then biting into it, eating one half at a time. I do it this way because by biting it apart, I get the full taste of the filling in my mouth and the satisfaction is spread over about twice the time. As you sink your teeth into it, you don't feel the skin because it's so thin and smooth, just the bouncy whole pieces of prawn encased by the meat. But your tongue does, and you get the sweet taste of the prawn and pork enhanced by the hot soup, and the smooth texture of the wrapping.

It's pretty hard to describe such a good feeling - just one of those indescribable experiences you have to try for yourself. I could go on all day, but I'd get nowhere. It's like talking sex to a virgin. And yet, at the end of it, after you finally reach the bottom of the bowl, with only some soup left and a few stray green pieces of spring onion floating around, you'd wish you had more. The Cherng Heng people are smart. The serving is sufficiently large so that it'd be hard for anyone to finish two, but one is just short of enough, which makes you want to come back one more time. How deliciously conniving.

Total cost: HK$15 (noodles) + 10 (vegies) + 6 (coke)
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: While writing this article, I've managed to kill two mosquitoes with an "Electronic Mosquito Trap" (sic.). I feel so powerful. Muahahaha...

The Hong Kong Excursion Blog

2005-06-07T23:32:00.000-04:00

Because Thought for Food is a dedicated flog (food blog), and there's just so much to talk of about Hong Kong, I've decided to set up a separate blog for posts about my Hong Kong trip. So, for those who want to know more about my place of birth, please click on over to The Hong Kong Excursion Blog (http://hongkongexcursion.blogspot.com).

Note: Since I'm only staying for a short time in Hong Kong (and I don't actually know when I'll be leaving), this blog only has a tentative lifespan. But do check regularly. And there are links on both website cross-linking each other.

Fairwood @ Ma On Shan Centre

2005-06-04T10:22:00.000-04:00

Lunch

"Four Treasures" Rice ('sai bo fan')
Nai Cha

If there was an oriental version of McDonald's, then this would probably be it. Fairwood is just one of the many Hong Kong fast food restaurants serving Chinese fast food. Yup, you heard me right, Chinese fast food! Well, it wasn't really all that fast. They have this ticket system, like the type at Japanese food courts. You buy this ticket at a cashier, then go to a separate counter and give the ticket to the people there, and they put your meal together (while you wait with a queue number in hand) on a tray and you take it back to your table once it's ready.

The presentation was elegant and simple, but not to the degree of sloppiness. Once again, I shall comment on the 'nai cha' (which means milk tea, for those who've been asking) first. This particular cup wasn't too bad. It had a more bitter and less sweet taste, and was less milky than my last one at the pasta place. But excessive ice scored against it, even though it was crushed (like the stuff at MOS Burger). Three or four sips later and everything was gone - except of course, for the ice.

The bowl of rice might've looked small at first, but it was rather deep. On top was the 'char siew', sausage, chicken and 'ham dan' (salted egg), topped with a splash of soy sauce and some chopped up spring onion and ginger. Below these "four treasures" (and mind you, I really had to dig) was the few strands of vegetables and a serving of rice. You'd think that because this is a fast food place, the food would be substandard, but the roasts were better than your normal fare. The 'char siew' was not overly sweet, but one piece did come a bit burnt up. The chicken was not too salty either, which is want of 'you kai'. The "treasure" I liked best were the slices of sausages, though my mom has always warned me of the carcinogenic substances used to dye it red. But one or two (hundred) times won't hurt.

These Chinese-style fast food restaurants don't give fast food a bad name like their western counterparts do. When you walk in, the decor is so much nicer already. (Note the polished wood surface of the table and actual non-disposable containers.) They're definitely not to be confused with your typical unhealthy, uncomfortable, environmentally-unfriendly, tasteless fast food restaurant.

Total cost: HK$30
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.fairwood.com.hk/

Matchtoo @ Langham Place, Mongkok

2005-06-03T11:52:00.000-04:00

Early Dinner

Squid Ink Pasta with Garlic Squid
(Really good!) Nai Cha

Langham Place is the coolest shopping mall ever! This restaurant is located on it's forth floor called the Atrium, amidst all the other restaurants, alfresco style, jutting out into the air conditioned Atrium. (I'll do a feature on Langham Place if I have the time. I've got some great photos.) We were lucky to get seats outside (well, technically, we were still inside, but..). I felt a bit awkward and at the same time exhilarated by the night life as the hustle and bustle of shoppers passed by. Those rattan chairs were pretty relaxing.

Matchtoo is actually a fusion restaurant, and a pretty good one at that, considering it's one of the few remaining after that fusion fad (what were we thinking?). The items on the menu ranged from Hainanese chicken rice to Italian pastas. I decided on one of their specials, the 'Squid Ink Pasta with Garlic Squid', which was advertised on a dedicated poster on one of the false walls nearby. (Apologies: the photo came out sloppy.)

First came the 'nai cha', which I've gotten used to over the last week or so (see sidebar). But this one was different. This one was strong, the strongest one I've tasted so far on this trip. And it tasted great. I knew the caffeine would keep me awake for hours to come, but who cares. It was the "now" that counted. And I certainly couldn't resist the refreshing silky smooth, light brown quencher, with its creamy feel yet distinctly oriental flavor.

My pasta came in a clean white dish (a proper pasta dish, might I add), and was beautifully presented, garnished with a few sprouts and a sprinkle of finely chopped fried garlic. Now, the black noodles might seem intimidating at first, but there's actually nothing much to it. They just mix in squid ink into the dough when they churn out the pasta. The first time I tried it at this other Italian restaurant, I was a bit apprehensive too when the waiter recommended I order the squid ink pasta instead of the ordinary kind. But after the first bite, I found that it tasted almost exactly like regular pasta, save for the very slight sea salty feeling you get, which makes it go great with seafood-based sauces. Thus the garlic squid.

This Chinese style stirfrying of the squid in garlic and olive oil was the fusion I was talking about. They then mixed it in the pasta and served it as an Italian fusion dish. The taste was just fantastic. It was like a great buildup of taste, with the overwhelming bittersweet garlic hiding the fishy sea taste of the squid. But because it was stirfried (and quickly at that), the flavors of the squid were sealed in nicely. But even after you eat a piece of squid, you have the pasta to wash down any aftertaste from the garlic. And the light touch of olive oil and the small fresh bursts of the sprouts just went to add to the great mix of flavors. Yet out of all this was a very simple taste, not like other fusion recipes which just overspice and over do everything. Here, there was just the garlic flavor, the squid with the squid ink pasta taste of the sea, and the freshness of nature from the olive oil and sprouts. It's what fusion cooking should be all about: simplicity.

Three ticks to a place with style and flavor, and the accompanying service which was prompt and kindly. If you want to get a table, I suggest you go early, because though we had an early dinner, by the time we left, the queue was beyond far. Had it not been for the outrageous cost, I would have gladly given it one more tick.

Total cost: HK$72
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: As for the 'nai cha' in Hong Kong. Why am I so addicted to it, you may ask? I've been drinking a cup virtually every meal in Hong Kong on this blog. Well, the truth is, the 'nai cha' in Hong Kong is special.

What's so special, you might ask. Well, the 'nai cha' in Hong Kong is made from Chinese tea. As simple as that may sound, it is not. It is the same comparison from drinking 'nai cha' made from Lipton yellow label (that foul stuff you get in Singapore) and Teh Tarik (which uses a special type of Arabic tea - if I remember correctly - and ginger!). I mean, how can you compare?

So, that's why I drink 'nai cha' so much here, because I know I can't get it anywhere else, and especially so since I'm gonna go off to [undisclosed location] soon, where they'll ask "'nai cha'? What th'ell is 'nai cha'?" (in a very Americany voice, flat tone for 'nai cha'). So, I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. And it is as good as I described it: "the refreshing silky smooth, light brown quencher, with its creamy feel yet distinctly oriental flavor". How absolutely heavenly.

Azabu Sabo @ Miramar SC, Kowloon

2005-06-03T09:39:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Japanese curry with pork cutlet
Mini Salad
Fish stock soup
Nai Cha (Japanese version)

So someone on MSN says that it seems like all I do in Hong Kong is eat. Well, apart from the fact that I need sustenance to survive, I think I knew what he was trying to get at. Why do I go out and eat so often? The answer can be quoted from my uncle - this time my mom's youngest brother. It is obvious once you walk down any typical Hong Kong street. No matter where you are, it will always be lined with restaurant. The food and beverage sector here is so competitive, it's cutthroat. This oversupply, as any good economist would tell you, leads to lower prices. Prices are so low, that it doesn't make sense to go to the supermarket and go home and cook your own meal, because it's just not worth it.

Of course, this Curry Pork Cutlet set is a bad example - still, this price is considered average. But then again, it comes with all these little side dishes and a drink. (I have to say though, the 'nai cha' here isn't the same as the other places - not as strong, which I like.) The place also had a decent decor, not exactly Japanese, but it had a modern, clean feel to it - still based on light wood colors though. The door was a bit odd; it was a sliding door which slid at the press of this vertical button the size of a large chocolate bar. But it couldn't detect people in the way (because it was just a push-button with no sensors), so it kept closing on unsuspecting people, and one of the waiters had to stand guard at the door , making sure that everytime this happened, there'd be someone to quickly press the button and prevent the door from sliding close, crushing the innocent person in the way.

We got past the door and placed our orders. The service was actually quite quick, probably because these lunch sets are so popular. They poured us some green tea first; the nice kind made from green tea powder and not the leaves. I think it's more flavorful if you ground up the leaves; it releases more of the oils which gives the tea its fragrance. I mean, it's the same with coffee (which I'm not a big fan of). Would ungrounded beans in hot water taste better than ground beans?

The tray that came was charmingly set, with everything nicely in its compartmentalized place. I started with the salad - which did taste a bit bland, but nothing a dash of soy sauce couldn't fix - and then moved on to the soup. I was rather surprised when I removed the cover from the bowl to find that it wasn't miso soup, but fish broth. It had a lovely salty sweet taste, and had fine strips of Jew's ears and chopped up rings of green onion floating in the clear broth.

The cutlet curry was by far the best part. The gravy looked oily, but smelled delicious. The pork cutlet was evenly breaded and fried to perfection, and didn't allow the curry to penetrate, not before I bit through the light, crispy outer crust. The rice was nicely prepared, not too sticky but the grains didn't fall separately either. And this was the nice, short grain kind of rice, which went perfectly with the curry. It was so good I didn't notice that with every spoonful, the curry was disappearing rapidly, such that there wasn't enough for all the rice. Must be more careful the next time to proportionally distribute the curry with each spoonful.

A very satisfying meal overall. If only there was more curry..

Total cost: HK$47.8
Rating: aaaaa

Yee Shun Milk Company @ Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay

2005-06-02T04:30:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Porkchop sausage noodles
Eggnog-like drink (hot)

This was my first meal in a traditional Hong Kong eatery ('dai pai dong') since coming back. According to my aunt, this chain of restaurants originated from Macau. But the food they serve is distinctly Hong Kong fare. (Whenever you see a restaurant calling itself a "milk company", you know they serve steamed egg. More milk company reviews to come..)

I ordered a rather commonplace bowl of noodles - nothing special. In fact, you could get the same bowl of noodles anywhere else in one of Hong Kong's many 'dai pai dongs'. I also got a rather special drink, which has a weird name in Cantonese and even a weirder English translation, so I'll just call it an "eggnog-like drink" for simplicity's sake. We sat there in one of their booths, under the tolerable lighting of the sky-blue tiled room, waiting for our food to come. It was a dirty-looking room, probably due to its slightly less than fully lit attribute, but the chilling air conditioning made it feel more sterile some how.

We got a cup of hot tea and stirred all our chopsticks and spoons in it. This seems to be one of the little idiosyncrasies of Hong Kong people. Unless you're at a really posh restaurant, you wash all your cutlery, cups, bowls, plates and whatnots before using them - even when going 'yum cha'. In fact, the 'cha lous' (tea parlors, directly translated) here have gotten so use to it that they supply each table with this big basin/bowl for you to pour all your used tea in after using it to wash the cutlery and tableware. It's almost become a tradition.

My bowl of noodles came soon enough. The noodles were your regular instant noodle type, but the soup base was special. They add milk into it to give it its special fragrance, and its off-white color. (They do this for macaroni soups as well.) Somehow, with their proficient and mysterious methods, they manage to cook the noodles just right, with a soft yet still slightly springy texture. The noodles feel light when you slurp them up, and it's a great feeling. The portion did seem a bit small, but, according to my aunt who says I eat too fast for my own good, this might just be my relativistic judgment.

The pork chop which came with the noodles, with its richness and tastiness locked in by the deep frying, was savory to the bone. Its scrumptious made you forget just how unhealthily oily it actually was - though only for that one meal. The sausage was okay too, though a bit ordinary. The best feeling came from eating real pork sausages (made of real pork), and real pork chops (also made of real pork), something you don't often get in racially harmonious Singapore.

The eggnog-like drink which came in a bowl (which I didn't expect, since I thought it was a "drink") looked like a bowl of hot milk at first. Poking my spoon below the surface, a roundish delicate-looking yellow egg yolk covered in a thin layer of milk and cooked egg white emerged, with strands of egg white floating around. I couldn't really bear breaking it, but knew I'd have to sooner or later. I used my spoon and punctured the fragile layer, letting the raw golden orange egg yolk gush out, mixing distinctively with the milk. It was gorgeous, the bright orangeness contrasting with the pure white. Its taste, however, didn't match up to its beauty. It was a bit bland, and I had to add a packet of sugar. But its silky smooth texture was a pleasure on the tongue.

Total cost: HK$43
Rating: aaaaa

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao @ New Town Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-06-01T07:51:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Xiao Long Bao (2 "Longs")
Drunken Chicken
Five-spice Beef
Dry Shanghai Fried Noodles
Pan-fried Dumplings (Gao Zi)
Chicken Broth La Mian

It's hard to find information about Crystal Jade, so all the info here are just overheard rumors. Nothing personal.

Someone once told me that Crystal Jade Singapore was started by a chef who had failed in Hong Kong. In my opinion, the best chefs in Hong Kong retire early and migrate to Canada, the good ones stay and make great food in Hong Kong (and perhaps expand overseas), and the failed ones move their operations to places like Singapore, Malaysia and Australia and try to rip people off. (Note the difference between the last two.) So, it's no surprise that after making it big in Singapore (because I do believe that Crystal Jade is the best place for Shanghainese food in Singapore, and the only place for decent Cantonese - ie. Hong Kong - cuisine there), the guy decides to come home and prove to those who once scorned him that he can make it - even though if it's only with the La Mian Xiao Long Bao chain. (There are no Crystal Jade Palaces, Kitchens, Cakeries, Restaurants etc. I mean, who would want to eat substandard Cantonese food again. There's just too much competition in Hong Kong for one more Cantonese cuisine restaurant.)

Of course, its branches in Hong Kong do retain some distinct Singaporean features. There's a 10% service charge, which, as expected, made the service horrible for obvious reasons, but for some reason, I thought the service was even worse than its Singaporean counterpart. Strange. There's also the recollection of my aunt's experience at another La Mian Xiao Long Bao branch at Times Square. She and my uncle went there one afternoon for afternoon tea and the entire restaurant was practically empty, save for a few lonely customers. But when the waiter sat them down at a table with other customers already there (ie. they were sharing a table), she asked why the two of them couldn't have their own table, since the restaurant was so empty. The waiter replied that it was "company policy" for them to have customers share tables in order to maximize space usage. How quaintly Singaporean-like of them to pigheadedly follow "the system". A few more of these incidents and the tabloids would be crawling all over them - and they wouldn't last more than a month.

I have to say, the food was horrible, nothing like its equivalent in Singapore, surprisingly. The 'gao zi' weren't crisp at all and their skin was so crusty (almost bread-like) and breakable. The fried noodles were overly oily and you felt stuffed after eating just one bowl. The La Mian wasn't that bad, but the chicken in the broth which came in a separate bowl was overcooked, and the meat was rough and dry, falling off the bone on contact with chopsticks. What a waste of perfectly good chicken drums. The 'xiao long baos', however, did seem a little better. Their skin was thin and that did prove more difficult when picking them up, since you wouldn't want them to break.

If you ever come to Hong Kong, don't bother with this place. You can get better in its Singapore branches. Moreover, there's so much good food elsewhere. A stomach is a terrible thing to waste.

Total cost: [unaccounted for]
Rating: aaaaa

HealthWorks @ New Town Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-05-31T10:02:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Long-an/Lychee Chicken Lunchbox
Miso Soup
Cold Japanese Preserves dish
Fresh Watermelon Juice

This place strikes me as rather schizophrenic. They say they're a health food shop but the only items on the menu seemingly healthy are their fruit juices and mixes. They serve their meals in Japanese Bento boxes (and even have Japanese seaweed, vinegar-preserved clams and miso soup!) but their style of cooking was distinctly Chinese. All the same, though, because this chicken lunchbox wasn't half bad.

In fact, it was quite good. The lunchbox was beautifully prepared, involving chunks of chicken and chips of half-caramelized onions on top of a bed of rice, topped with a fried egg with a still-raw yolk, and (at the corners of the Bento box) pieces of green bell peppers, further garnished with a piece of long-an/lychee, a sprinkle of sesame seeds and drips of soy sauce.

I say long-an/lychee because, truthfully, I couldn't remember and couldn't tell which one it was. Biting into that piece of oval pitted piece of fruit released a gush of sweet juice. But I couldn't tell if it was one or the other. It had the size of a long-an, but it looked shriveled up - a shriveled up lychee to be precise. Its texture was more lychee-ish, being rougher than your usually soft and more delicate long-an, but the cooking process could have screwed it up too. Either way, the fruit's sweetness went well with the chicken chunks.

The first thing I did when the box came was to break the egg yolk. Some people hate doing this, but I like letting the bright yellow goo ooze all over the rice and eat it like that. The chicken didn't seem to have been marinated or anything - except for maybe with a bit of cornstarch and the long-an/lychee. The slightly broiled green bell peppers were a nice touch, although I thought the slices were too big.

So it was a supposedly healthy meal in a restaurant promoting its healthy fare. But I didn't really feel I was eating a particularly healthy meal. But who really cares - as long as it tasted good. It probably had more to do with the psychological aspect - and the watermelon drink. Besides, it's the thought that counts.

Total cost: around HK$40-50
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.health-wks.com/ (Last I checked, it was still under construction though.)

Yut Zan (Viet House) @ Citylink Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-05-30T05:21:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Noodle with Rare Beef in Soup
Green Lime Soda

This is a really deserving-of-praise adulterated version of beef pho. When you first walk into the place, it doesn't seem like a "Viet House" at all. Though the authenticity is a bit low, at least the food's not that bad.

Their bowl of noodle with rare beef in soup did seem a bit small. The noodles are softer, more like the Chinese kind, and wider. The beef also wasn't what is normally in pho, marinated longer and more tender. But overall, they got the taste of the soup right. And the combination of spices wasn't too bad, managing to mask the stronger raw tastes of the beef. And what they did with the presentation - the chili slice through the mint leaves stem - was a nice touch.

But although the food wasn't bad, and relatively cheap too, I didn't think it was that worth it. Maybe it's best to stick to letting the Vietnamese cook their own cuisine.

Total cost: HK$35
Rating: aaaaa

Yukiguni Ramen @ New Town Plaza, Sha Tin

2005-05-28T11:17:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Prawn-roe Salad
Assorted Sushi Platter
Soy Beef Ramen in Pork-bone Soup Base
Soft-shell crab
Nai Cha

It's proper that I start out with a good example of cheap and great food in Hong Kong. This entire set meal only cost HK$66, which is approximately S$14, which is coincidentally the same price of that sandwich at Corduroy & Finch (see below), which just goes to show how much of a rip off that place (and Singapore in general) really is. For some reason, certain Singaporeans actually speak proudly of the fact that their city is more expensive than New York. Why, I will never fathom.

The most beautiful item was the first to come, the Prawn-roe salad. This consisted a bed of shredded lettuce topped and thin strips of crabmeat (mixed in a milky mayonnaise dressing) topped with a healthy spoonful of bright orange prawn roe - the really small kind, the big ones are from salmon. Its beauty was further accentuated by the black earthen plate which these bright colors came on; and its taste was just as beautiful - a chilling feel of fresh sweetness with the rawness of the roe and (albeit cooked) crabmeat. A great way to start the meal. (And to think I had to wait for the rest of the items to come to take the above photo first before indulging. I think it would've tasted even better had I eaten it the moment it arrived - like most foods, it tastes better fresh from the kitchen.)

The second barrage of food came soon enough. There was the bowl of ramen, the soft-shell crab and the sushi platter, which all came at once. The soft-shell crab was average. I think it was a bit undercooked, because the raw flavor from the juices inside its crunchy exterior was a bit too overpowering. The sushi on the platter was just palatable also, being rather warm and made amateurishly. But then again, like Ajisen, you can't expect a ramen shop to make good sushi.

But you can expect them to make good ramen, which is what this meal was all about. The high point of it finally came when I took the first slurp of noodles. The soup wasn't overly salty like Ajisen's, it was just right. This bowl, instead, made use of all the different ingredients in the bowl to give it taste as well. The thinly sliced strips of beef were marinated in soy paste and served on top of the noodles. Also giving the bowl flavor was the slightly salted seaweed pieces, the bits of red preserved ginger the raw onion slices and the small rings of green spring onion - not to mention other condiments such as the broiled egg and bean sprouts.

Even though some of the side dishes weren't exactly perfect, the ramen was this place's redeeming point. It's nice to know that shops that stick to what it does best are the ones that do the best. The place was a bit crowded when we got there, but what else did you expect.

Total cost: HK$66
Rating: aaaaa

Guess where I am..

2005-05-28T02:25:00.000-04:00

So the flight was bloody early. And the food on the flight was horrible. (A lousy attempt at recreating chicken rice 10000 feet in the air. Should have gone with the omelet.) But it was all worth it. I had a horrible nightmare a few nights back that the plane would crash - but that I'd be the sole survivor in that crash because I escaped in an escape pod. My dreams are so weird.

How good it felt to touch down, to see the Chek Lap Kwok control tower, to hear the familiar Cantonese announcements over the PA system, to smell the smell of a grand airport, to fell that spirit. So begins my escapades of shopping and eating. I need to load up on winter clothes (which is ironic since I come in the summer) and good, cheap food.

Sidebar: The current exchange rate is about S$1 = HK$4.75. As of now, all currency amounts will be in HK$ unless otherwise stated.

Corduroy & Finch @ Bukit Timah Road

2005-05-27T07:40:00.000-04:00

Rushed Lunch

Farmed Chicken Breast, c&f Mayonnaise, Cheese and Egg
A glass of Ginger Beer

This is probably the best deli in Singapore to get ripped off. But it’s sure a damn nice place to get ripped off at. Located at this small arcade of shops at the corner of Bukit Timah Road and Sixth Avenue, the glass-paned front of the shop shows of its art-deco modern interior. And what a cozy interior this was. The furniture had sleek corners and stainless steel finishing. Its walls were adorned with framed movie posters and photographs of celebrities. One wall consisted entirely from floorboard to ceiling a shelf full of cans, bottles and jars of foodstuff. And this was a two-storey ceiling, mind you.

We were led to this gallery-like second level, overlooking the entire first level and below which was the kitchen, as new age easy listening music blared over surround sound speakers. The Caucasian lady who sat us down on the plush sofas was jovial and understanding, especially after we told her that we were in a hurry. I think she was one of the co-owners of the deli - Corduroy or Finch? You only see foreigners open up restaurants like these with so much personality and dedication. Very few Singaporeans open restaurants and run it themselves (note the caveat); most of them think it’s beneath them perhaps.

I went with the “Farmed Chicken Breast, c&f (house) Mayonnaise, Cheese and Egg” sandwich (one of their house specials) and a Ginger beer. The food came slower than expected. The setup was really meticulous. First, they put down square pieces of tracing paper with a sticker of the Corduroy & Finch logo in the center on the knee high coffee table as place mats, together with the utensils. The sandwich came in an oval bowl with another piece of tracing paper. On it was the sandwich, two slices of homemade brown bread holding slightly toasted slices of chicken, tomato, eggs, and a mache salad which continued beyond the hold of the two slices and into the whiteness of the paper, as if it were growing out of the sandwich. The mache on the outside was topped with a light lemony dressing and a few pine nuts. How absolutely beautiful this was, the extended continuity of the salad as both part of the sandwich and a separate aspect of the meal itself. I wish I had a picture of this; my camera ran out of juice just then.

The taste itself wasn't half bad, a bit bland but it did give you this feeling of purity, a natural taste, as if all the ingredients were organic and wholesome. Its c&f house mayo lived up to its name indeed, not too creamy but it doesn't overpowering either, not like the ones out of the jar. The bread was homemade too, but it was done amateurishly. The crust was a bit rough and the inside was too moist, with no suppleness one expects in bread, probably because it wasn't given enough time to rise. It would've been nice to stay for a while more and just chill - but that was just out of the question. I just had a lot of errands to run. The sandwiches are good, but not really worth the price. The drinks though are worth it, my ginger beer was so tall!

Total cost: S$17.80++
Rating: aaaaa

SSEILMCC Recipe: Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki

2005-05-23T01:10:00.000-04:00

As many of you may know, I am stuck at home most of the time with not much to do. So, I have quite a lot of time on my hands to try my hand at some recipes. And since this is a food blog, I thought it'd be nice to actually post recipes too with the reviews. So, in an excited narrative voice, I am proud to announce the start of the "So Simple Even Idiots Like Me Can Cook" Recipe series - or SSEILMCC. (I've given up on finding a nice acronym. I'm not Singaporean you know.)

First, let's start with "What the hell is an Okonomiyaki?" Well, if I'm not wrong (and Jan, you can correct me on this), Okonomiyaki in Japanese means "as you like it". In general, Okonomiyakis are Japanese pancakes. There are 2 main types or styles of Okonomiyaki. The first one is the Kansai style which is literally a pancake because you just pour all the ingredients in a batter and pan-fry it. Back in Seattle, there was a restaurant specializing in this on the second floor of a shophouse across from the first Uwajimaya. I didn't really like this style much.

I only fell in love with Okonomiyaki when I tried the Hiroshima style ones in Singapore (more on the shop later). Now, the difference between the Kansai style and Hiroshima style is that the Hiroshima style is layered. The bottom layer is a very thin slice of batter, like a burrito wrap, but thinner. On top of that is the soba noodles and the ingredients, usually consisting of vegetables, meat and seafood. Then, this is covered with a piece of thinly fried egg. All this is topped with Okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise. Garnishing ideas may also include Bonito flakes and grated seaweed.

Why, might you ask, did I even attempt to cook this pancake-like thing called a "Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki"? Well, as with many things in my life, it arose from anger - well, silent anger. If anybody reading this were lucky enough to have patronized it, there was this quaint Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki stall (called none other than "Hiroshima") at Takashimaya which has been there for years. It was outside the Cold Storage supermarket near the elevators. And when I went there after having been away for a couple of months in Hong Kong, to my horror, it had been replaced by a Japanese curry shop!

No, I'm not talking about the one near the Takopachi stall which sells their Okonomiyaki (made from that disgusting yellow mee) at S$3.50 a pop. Why this establishment has survived longer than Hiroshima is totally beyond me, though it does tell you something about Singaporean tastes and price elasticities. No. Hiroshima sold their Okonomiyaki at S$8 to S$11, made from real soba noodles, real Okonomiyaki sauce and fresh ingredients. Of course, it also came on a clean plate with a seat in front of the open air kitchen, and you could watch as the "chefs" prepared your order on a large teppanyaki-like frying surface with skill and feat. Plus, the service was great; they immediately serve you a glass of water while you waited and watched, and it's never without a smile. I was a real regular at the place because I just loved the taste of the Okonomiyaki. So, I've practically seen them do it a million times, which makes it easier for me to recreate at home. But enough lamenting; let's get down to business.

For one serving, you will need...

For the bottom layer/batter:
1 - 2 tablespoons of plain flour
1 teaspoon of rice wine
1 - 2 tablespoon of water
1 egg (to be split for the batter and the top)
For the middle layer:
1/4 head of cabbage (cut into shreds)
1 tablespoon chopped green onion
1 packet of soba noodles with yakisoba sauce
A handful of bean sprouts*
Carrot strips (thinly sliced)*
2 strips of bacon*
1/4 head of onion (cut into shreds as well)*
For the top layer/garnishing:
The rest of that egg
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonnaise
Cooking oil
Coriander (finely chopped, or out of a dried spice bottle) for garnishing*

* Optional. Vary the amount of these ingredients to your heart's content. You can also try other ingredients like prawns, squid, ham - even cheese! Or you can just go with nothing except the cabbage and soba. As for garnishing, you can use Boneto flakes, grated kelp, etc.

Shopping - or as NTUC calls it, Supermarketing!

Shopping for ingredients can be a hassle sometimes, so let me guide you through. For Japanese ingredients, the best place in Singapore to get them is the Cold Storage supermarket at the Takashimaya basement. First, head for the Japanese goods section and pick up a bottle of Okonomiyaki sauce (pictured above). It's made by this company called Otafuku and has this doll face logo on a red circle. There are two types, if you notice closely. The orange bottles are the Otafuku sauce (thick and brown) at about S$8 a bottle and they come in a plastic packaging - what a waste, just like the Japanese. That's the one you want. Don't bother buying the Yakisoba sauce (runny and lighter brown) in the yellow bottles.

Now, go and find the cold soba noodles which are refrigerated. They are light yellow in color and has a squarish profile. They usually sell them in bags of 3 packets/servings and come with small sachets of Yakisoba sauce. I went with the cheapest kind at S$3; just make sure it's imported from Japan and there should be no problem. (Note: Japanese characters on the packaging does not mean its from Japan!) The other ingredients should be easy enough.

Off to the kitchen

Because I am only going to use one pan, I can't cook the Okonomiyaki in the conventional way, which involves flipping and cooking multiple layers on a huge teppanyaki surface. Thus, I shall cook mine layer by layer. In order to do this, get ready a large plate on hand to put the finished layers on. Now, the Okonomiyaki should be about 20cm/8in. in diameter, about the size of a flat volleyball, if I may. So make sure you have a big enough pan.

First, we mix the batter for the bottom layer. Break the egg into a small bowl and break the yolk, but don't scramble. Now, use a spoon and spoon about one tablespoon (or 1/20 of an egg, approx.) of mixed egg white and yolk into another small bowl. Save the larger portion of the egg for the top layer. As for the spoonful of egg, add to the bowl the water, flour and rice wine and mix well. You should end up with a batter. Heat up the pan and add some oil. Then, turn down the flame and, with a ladle or spoon ready, very quickly pour the batter onto the pan and use the bottom of the ladle/spoon and spread it out into the 20cm base. This must be done really quickly, or the batter will set thick and you won't get a big enough base. (Don't worry if you screw this up the first time. It took me 3 tries to get it right.) After that's done, put it on the large plate.

Next, add a bit more oil onto the pan and add the onions. Sear these a bit before adding all the other vegetables - don't add the bacon or soba yet! Then, after about 2 to 3 minutes of stirfrying, put all the vegies into the bowl you use to mix the batter in. (Don't waste bowls; besides, it wouldn't hurt to get a bit of batter on the vegies.)

Now, add a bit more oil and take the soba out of the packet, loosen it with your hands and drop it in the pan. Add some water (about 3 to 5 tablespoons) and loosen it further with chopsticks. Season the soba with either yakisoba sauce (use what came in the packaging) or Okonomiyaki sauce. I recommend you don't use the yakisoba sauce at all - I just added about 2 tablespoons of the Okonomiyaki sauce and stirred it in and saved the yakisoba sauce for frying yakiudon on a separate occasion. But if you want to, then use the yakisoba sauce, but don't use both, or it'll just be too salty. Now, before all the water dries up, add the vegetables in and stir them up well, until they are thoroughly mixed, for about one more minute (the pair of chopsticks together with your spatula would help). Then, set this on top of the bottom layer on your large plate.

Now for the final layer. This is easy. Just add more oil onto the heated pan and pour the egg in. Be sure to spread the egg out into a bigger ~20cm circle. It's okay for the yolk and white to mix - in fact, they're suppose to. After it starts to brown just a little, it's done and you can put this on top of your whole thing on the large plate.

For the final step, using the same pan, add a bit of oil and sear the bacon strips. I do this last because after you cook the bacon, the pan gets all brown and you have to wash it, so if you do this last, you won't have to wash your pan twice. After they become cooked, but not crisp, just slip them under the egg layer into the Okonomiyaki.

Top it all off with a tablespoon of mayonnaise, spread over the egg, and squeeze a few lines of Okonomiyaki sauce on top of this. You definitely don't need as much as what's shown in the picture above - maybe about a third of that. You can always add more later. Besides, that picture's from the Okafuku website; obviously they'd want you to use more of their sauce. Sprinkle a bit of coriander on top and you're done.

Final Notes

I have to admit, this recipe is a bit complicated, but I guarantee it will be all worth it. This can also be done with udon instead of soba noodles, but the result is a bit wetter.

The original recipe (unaltered by me) can be found at http://www.otafuku.co.jp/us/default.htm, along with other recipes for different Okonomiyaki styles. I like the website because it has all these neat drawings guiding you how to do it - they even teach you how to slice up the cabbage. It's the website of the Otafuku company that makes the Okonomiyaki sauce. Their grammar can be so funny at times. Their slogan: "Let us help you build happy time through eating."

And if anyone knows a place to get good Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki in Singapore, please tell me in the comments section.

Pasta Cafe @ Takashimaya SC

2005-05-19T11:37:00.000-04:00

Dinner

Linguine ala Pescatore in white wine

(Allow me to bitch first.) At first, the plan was to go to Nooch at Wheelock Place. I haven't been there for at least five years because with each try, the food just sucked more and more. (I mean, Asian fusion by combining Jap, Viet and Chinese? What were they thinking!?) So it was great relief to find out that the place actually closed down. Evidence that market forces do exist in the F&B sector on this tiny island. So, we decided to walk over to Takashimaya and go to the Pasta Cafe at the basement there instead.

The place was quite crowded even on a weekday, but we still managed to get seats without much waiting. The decor had gotten a bit old and lost its sheen since the first time I came here. This is a true fusion restaurant (unlike some other place I can think of), because they use Japanese cooking techniques to cook Italian cuisine (see sidebar). They even have this item on the menu called "Spaghetti ala Japanese", which is pasta cooked with yakisoba sauce topped with seafood.

But as tempting as it was, I didn't try this item, because I'd just recently got my pop of yakisoba. So, I went with another, the Linguine ala Pescatore in white wine sauce. (I wanted the Vongole but they were out of clams.)

The service was relatively quick considering that the house was full that night. But the wait gave me time to admire the ugliness of the restaurant's water glasses. Well, actually, they looked more like goblets and were made of plastic. Its ugliness stemmed from it's shape, which is easy to describe; it seems like easily describable things are usually not that pretty, and beautiful things are harder to put in words. Anyways, this particular cup was an open cylindrical plastic "can" on top of a rather thick solid cylindrical plastic "stem", which itself sat on top of a circular disk of the same diameter as the top part. Its color didn't help much - the bottom was a translucent green which gradually died down in intensity towards the top, such that at the very top, the plastic was clear. And for some reason, its out-of-place unpleasantness really irked me.

But I digress. When the pasta finally came, i couldn't wait to taste it. It had mussels, some thinly sliced scallops pieces, a few prawns and a good helping of squid. The bed of Linguini was submerged in the sauce, which did seem a bit soupy at first. Felt like I was eating something akin to chicken noodle. But a whiff of it and I knew this was no ordinary white wine sauce.

The first sip was both great and shocking. The alcoholic taste of the white wine was overpowering. At first, you taste its sweetness because it goes so great with the seafood. Then, as you swallow the seafood, the dizzying aftertaste of the white wine lingers and you don't feel so great. And at the end of the meal, your liver's not thanking you much either.

But that didn't stop me from liking the place. I've always liked this particular pasta joint. Not sure why though. The decor's nice, but a bit dusty. It's been the same for as long as I can remember - and since I've been coming to this place for years now, that's quite a long time. The presentation was a bit sloppy too; but maybe that's because it was pretty late by the time we got seated. (See! I'm making excuses for them already.) Still, for pasta lovers, it's worth a try.

Total cost: S$14.90++
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.pokkafood.com.sg/pasta.php

Sidebar: This is just one of the reasons why I love Japanese cuisine so much - they manage to use their techniques to cook dishes from other cuisines and do a spectacular job of it. Examples include Italian pastas (using wok techniques instead of the pots and pans), South Asian curries (giving it their own distinct Jap flavor by adding fruits like apples and pears) and western steaks (using a teppanyaki surface instead of a grill).

Nadezhda Russian Restaurant @ Arab Street

2005-05-15T04:43:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Borsch
Beef Stroganoff served with Buckwheat and Salad
Blinchiki Snow Apple Pancake
Kvas (,a drink named)
A Pelmeni Pork Dumpling (from my mom, smothered in sour cream)

My mom had seen this place recommended in a certain unmentionable newspaper and remembered one of her Russian colleagues mention it, so she decided to take the whole family there to try their cuisine.

The place was small; it did have an upstairs, but we just stayed on the ground floor. The walls were pretty bare, but there were other pieces which added nicely to the (rather scant) decor, such as a display of traditional dress and a wine barrel cut in half to make little mantlepieces for other displays. Its bar was also fully stocked, as you'd expect in a Russian establishment, with rows upon rows of bottles.

The orders took quite a while to come, but the service was friendly. It was a family run place, and there was none of that restaurant politics and the grumpy service which comes out of that. The chef, or at least I think it was the chef, a rather young woman with blond short hair, came out of the kitchen and served us our dishes directly, which seemed to be a more personal level of service.

The first thing that came was this drink I got called the Kvas (not sure how you pronounce it). It tasted exactly like beer, with its malt and barley sweetness, yet is non-alcoholic. I didn't like it that much - probably because I don't like beer much to begin with, except in scrambled eggs. And it did have this slight fizziness to it, but no bubbles came up. It did slip down the throat better after I added some ice and chilled it, but other than that, there was nothing special about it.

Next was the Borsch, a beef beetroot soup with sour cream. When I first saw it, I thought the beef was still raw and the blood had seeped into the soup, giving it its red color. But on closer inspection, I actually noticed that the color was not a blood red, but one closer to pinkish purple. It was only then that I realized it was the beetroot that caused the coloration. I felt so silly. The Borsch wasn't bad, with a light salty taste and a tinge of sour cream mixed into it.

The main course I ordered was the Beef Stroganoff. Unless my parents had fed it to me unknowingly as a child, I think this is my first time eating Buckwheat - and it wasn't half bad. It did have an ugly look to it, with its dirty grayish brown color, but once I tried it, I knew it was no different from rice or any other grain for that matter. It went great with the Stroganoff, a Russian beef stew, and I wished I had more of it. I finished up the portion quite quickly though, cos it tasted better hot (as with all cooked dishes like it), making me wonder whether it was that I was just really hungry from all the waiting, or that the portion was just small. Still, it was scrumptious.

The dessert was the best. It was this crepe-like pastry wrapped like a spring roll with a healthy serving of thinly sliced apple bits inside topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whip cream and a thin layer of honey, called the Blinchiki Snow Apple. I loved it. The crepe was soft and warm, but below that, the apple shreds gave the entire thing a chill crisp texture, and a tinge of sourness, which was nicely complemented with the natural sweetness of the honey. The trick was to shred the apple into very tiny bits, which made the bite into it all the more enjoyable.

Total cost: [unaccounted for]
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: The actual name of the restaurant in Cyrillic script is [Надежда], just for those who might be interested. (If you can't see it, try changing your browser's encoding to Unicode. I think it's best to surf under Unicode encoding, cos you can see all sorts of funny language fonts, like Japanese, Korean, Hebrew etc.) The sign outside is in Cyrillic though, so it can be hard to find. Try 140 Arab Street.

On a separate note, I finally got my laptop back. HP decided to fix it for free - i.e replace the entire TFT mon. *yay* Well, let's just hope the new mon works okay at least for 4 more years.

Restaurant Hoshigaoka @ Bugis Junction

2005-05-13T06:55:00.000-04:00

Japanese Set Lunch

Assorted Tempura (a mushroom, eggplant, prawn and carrot slices)
Japanese Curry
Cold Soba
Rice
Watermelon Slices
Miso Soup
Green Tea

A very complete meal - and not too expensive either. They have these different set meals every day. I usually come here for their noodle/sushi/salad sets, but this time, I decided to give their daily set a try. I just got back from queuing for nothing for an hour at the ICA and dropped by at Bugis to have lunch with my mom.

The compartmentalized bento box which the meal came in was huge, entirely at odds with the small portions in each of its compartments. I slurped up the soba first, not wanting it to get warm or soggy, since it was already soaking in the chilled sauce for it. It noodles were delectable, but the beans, which came with the noodles, were a bit out of place - never really liked beans to begin with.

The white rice was in a compartment of its own and had little black sesame seeds sprinked on top. The contrast of the little black dots on the soothing white grains was such a beautiful sight. I did feel a bit bad when I spooned the curry with its carrots and potato over the rice from the compartment next to it. It was like spoiling a work of art. The curry was not bad.

The tempura didn't do much to help with it though. Its batter exterior was not crispy at all, and for some pieces (the mushroom and eggplant), the juices from inside were overwhelming, causing a bit of confusion when you bit into it as to whether you were eating something deep fried or just boiled.

Well, I can't say it was bad, because it did taste okay. But then again, there are other places to eat good Japanese food.

Total cost: S$13.80++
Rating: aaaaa

Phò Hōa @ Holland Village

2005-05-02T04:16:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Phò Tái, Chín, Nąm (Large)

No matter how many times I come to this Vietnamese noodle shop, I never get bored of it, not even after eating the same item on the menu over and over again. I've been eating at this chain since I was seven or eight, with it's two branches in Seattle and San Francisco. (Last I heard, they'd open one more in Seattle.) Anyways, I had to wait 4 years after coming to Singa-no-good-food-pore before they opened a branch here.

This time, they changed the menu a bit and I obligingly braved a new item, the Phò Tái, Chín, Nąm, or "steak, brisket, flank noodles". It took a while for the order to come, but I knew it was all worth it. When it did arrive, the soup was piping hot and I quickly added in the bean sprouts and pushed down the still half-raw slices of steak into the soup with my chopsticks. Don't want to become a mad cow...

I had to wait a while for the soup to cool down, in fear of scalding my tongue. The sprouts did help a bit, but by only that much. The temptation was irresistible, as the wisps of steam from the soup floated in the air. I couldn't stand it any longer...

I carefully picked up a thin slice of flank and placed it into my spoon. I ladled in some soup with it, and carefully edged it into my mouth. It tasted just like what I'd always known, the strong taste of fresh beef in the slightly sweet and aromatic soup base. The piece was not too fat, but not too lean either, with a slight sliver of that unhealthy yet tender light-colored lipid substance carefully encroaching on the darker, leaner strands of beef. How absolutely pleasurable.

The noodles were perfect as well. These white strands of flattened rice noodles resembled the hor fun, but much less broad and of a stronger texture, such that the strands didn't fall apart once on your chopsticks. Although these were tasteless, the soup, once again, did its magic. It's hard for noodle soup to get any better than this.

I know it's a risk to give this place five solid ticks, because there are generally two types of people in this world: those who absolutely love beef noodles cooked this way and those who absolutely hate it - like my mother, who refuses to go there (and when she does, orders the dry rice noodle bowls only, with grilled chicken and/or seafood) and whose views have been discounted. But if you are like me though, who enjoy this type of noodles, then you've just got to try it.

Total cost: S$11.50++
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: It's really difficult to recreate their soup base here in Singapore, ever since the BSE scare. (You can't even get canned Beef Consume here anymore! - thanks to the ban on US beef imports. I think it's a shame.) I've always preferred US beef over the Australian kind, because the latter is rougher and leaner, making it hard to slice thin, which is what makes it so abound with taste in noodle dishes. Besides the beef, you need to get beef marrow, or the bones, which is near impossible to find in the markets here (I asked my grandma). Other spices required include star anise seeds, ginger, spring onion, parsley/coriander etc. I can't exactly remember the rest, but there are dozens of recipes available online. The fact that you have to boil all these for hours on end doesn't help either.

Maybe it's just better to eat out for Vietnamese beef noodle.

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Holland Village

2005-04-24T04:14:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Wanton Noodles
Seafood Porridge
Fried Beef Hor Fun
Various Dim Sum items
Peanut glutinous rice balls
Chrysanthemum Tea

This meal had Hong Kong written all over it, consisting of two of its most famous dishes (and probably the best): the Wanton Noodles and the Fried Beef Hor Fun. It only needed a glass of Nai Cha, which they didn't serve at this branch - unfortunately.

The Wanton Mian was delicious as usual, served in piping hot soup garnished with chopped up green spring onion. The soup itself is special, because they boil the juices out of prawn husks and heads to get that unique thick sweat flavor of the sea. (Sounds disgusting, yes. But how can something so good be resisted at all?) The noodles are tangy and rubbery, almost as if I was eating a bundle of rubber bands, yet heavenly rubber bands at that. The wantons, though, take you to a whole new level. Savory and enjoyable, each is filled with pork and prawns wrapped in a layer of soft, thin skin. Sinking my teeth into its springy and luscious texture, the lustful taste of prawn inhibits the tastebuds - and memories of home filled my thoughts. I didn't ever want to let go of that feeling. I couldn't believe how fast I finished it. Is it over so fast? How come the portion of noodles are so small. And four wantons only? Sigh... Good things sure don't last long. I could've sworn the portions were bigger the last time I came here.

The fried beef hor fun was well prepared also. The dark strands of flat noodles, stir-fried with even darker slices of beef, with an assortment of other ingredients such as spring onion and sprouts, was a marvelous sight. This dish, however, was heavier (ie. more oily) and I could only manage two small bowlfuls - but it was still as thoroughly enjoyable, especially the beef. With each slice, you could sense the effort put into marinating it - the subtle taste of ginger, the tenderness of each piece (thanks to cornstarch), the fact that you couldn't even taste the raw stench that usually accompanies beef but the full sweat flavor of the meat still stands out deliciously for some reason.

I met Kerby there for the second time on a Sunday afternoon. I could hardly recognize him without his hair; hiding it under a cap most of the time doesn't help either. Somehow, I think he misses Hong Kong flavors as much as I do - at least that's why he seems to come here so often. (Then again, he could be stalking me for reasons unknown.) He is so lucky to live so near Holland Village.

This chain of restaurants is probably the closest I'll ever get to enjoying the flavors of a Hong Kong restaurant in Singapore. True, the place is noisy, but that just makes the atmosphere more authentic. What I like best about this place is that it is able to serve up a variety of Cantonese dishes which are of quite high quality. Even in Hong Kong, restaurants usually have one or two signature dishes which they make really well, and the rest of the food on the menu is just so-so. Crystal Jade, however, manages to deliver consistently satisfactory food across its menu, and at most of it's branches too (of course, there are the better ones at Takashimaya, Bugus and Holland Village). I guess that's all the better for the Hong Kong expats like me who miss the food at home.

Total cost: [unaccounted for]
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: I should really learn how to use Chinese input software. My direct translations are getting funnier and funnier. Here are just a few from this meal...

Fried Beef Hor Fun = "Dry Fried Beef River"
Seafood Porridge = "Little Boat Porridge"
Peanut glutinous rice balls = "Kneading Sand Soup Spheres"

House of Sundanese Food @ Great World City

2005-04-22T06:39:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Emping (corn chips with chili sauce)
Barbecue Chicken
Seabass Bakar
Sayur Lodeh (mixed vegetables in coconut milk)
Grilled Squid
White Rice

The impression I got when I first stepped into this restaurant was its authenticity. In this dimly lit place, there were works of traditional art hung on the walls, wooden carvings of mystical creatures and even a miniature pond with a sculpture fountain in the middle. This however was with mixed results. The chairs (made of wood with a thatched seat) were extremely uncomfortable and the soft easy listening music blaring in the background didn't help. (Tunes included 'Chan Molly Chan' and the song from the 'Bangawan Solo' commercial - so spastic.)Besides that though, I loved their artfully designed menus - two smooth pieces of wood sandwiching in between a laminated foldout.

The food came quite quickly after ordering, and the servers were efficient indeed. The thing that stood out the most was the taste of the rice. I loved its light coconut fragrance and soft texture, which was a fresh surprise from the plain rice I'm use to having at home. I'm not sure what else they add in it, but there are definitely other spices (pandan leaves, perhaps?) involved.

In my opinion, the roast chicken was the best dish of all. It wasn't roasted to a crisp, as with most roasts, it was done tenderly such that juices still remained on it. During the process, it was smothered in this dark, sweet sauce, resembling an Indonesian version of BBQ sauce.

Coming in a close second was their signature dish, the seabass. This had a spicy South Asian taste to it and could have been mistaken for a Thai dish. It was a bit overcooked, however, and the meat on the bones fell apart easily, making it hard to put in your mouth.

Total cost: S$63.87 (total)
Rating: aaaaa

Public Service Announcement

2005-04-22T04:05:00.000-04:00

Apologies first for the infrequent posting. My laptop broke down a few days ago and I had to bring it in for servicing. Advice to future laptop purchasers: Don't buy HP laptops. I felt so cheated. Something happened to the TFT Mon 10 days after the warranty expired!

I once again have to remind readers that the date on the post is the date I ate at the place, not the date I actually post it. For instance, these posts dated April 22 were in fact posted on the 29th.

Lastly, with regards to the main light brown frame's top right hand corner. Is anyone seeing problems with the graphics, like the corner having a spike protrude out? If you're experiencing such problems, please do drop a comment, because then, I'll need to go reconfigure the CSS.

Starbucks @ Plaza Singapura

2005-04-21T11:38:00.000-04:00

Afternoon Coffee

Vanilla Cream Frappuccino Blended

It was after the movie (we watched this Brit production called 'Millions') and Jan, Ambrose and I decided to sit at Starbucks for two and a half hours for no apparent reason but to talk cock. (Ooh... Watch the Singlish.)

I got this drink similar to the one I got at the airport the other day at Pacific Coffee, a Vanilla Cream Frappuccino Blended. The version on the website says they blend actual vanilla beans; in the Singapore version, it's quite clear from the pure white consistency of the liquid that they use some sort of French vanilla powder instead. (The website also calls it 'Blended Crème'; I like the French spelling better.) This was blended with milk and ice and topped with a healthy - yet at the same time unhealthy - layer of whip cream. The first sip was sweet and reassuring. However, after sipping off the bottom seam of the drink, the taste did become a bit bland - which meant that it needed more time in the blender. One good thing though was that it didn't have any coffee in it at all, so it was like drinking a glass of cold milk, only sweeter, and more sinful.

Though the chairs weren't as comfortable as those at Pacific Coffee T1, the decor was definitely more homey. It was great to just sit there and chill out for once. The air conditioning was freezing, but who cares about that. It was still cozy enough to carry out decent conversation, which centered around life's depressing misery, Ambrose's homophobic tendencies and the search for true love. The Starbucks people didn't seem to mind our staying there for so long either, not like other places where they'd chase you away.

The original Seattle brew beats lousy Hong Kong wannabes anyday.

Overall, Total cost: S$4.90
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.starbucks.com/

Sidebar: Apologies for the out of focus picture.

Ajisen Ramen @ Plaza Singapura

2005-04-21T09:01:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Ajisen Ramen
Side dishes (which consisted of fried chicken chunks, Agedashidofu, and some kind of unidentified chilled vinegared shellfish)
Hot Green Tea

A class gathering of four - how sad. And yet, it didn't seem like a class gathering at all. That's what happens when everyone goes overseas or into the the army. Ambrose was going in the next day, so we thought we would just take this opportunity to give him a sending off; he's the last one to go in. How appropriately last minute. In the end, we settled for Ajisen.

As we sat down, they kindly supplied us with various colorful menus depicting bowls upon bowls of Ramen on offer. I did, however, find it hard to signal to any of the waiters; Jan reminded us of how her dad hated the service here the last time. I stuck to their daily special, a bowl of Ajisen Ramen and a side platter with 3 different mini-courses.

The wait was a tiresome one, and for some funny reason, they decided to serve us the noodles first before the drinks. The orders came in dribs and drabs, which meant that we were all almost finished with our Ramen when our side dishes came.

Their Ajisen Ramen - the basic bowl of noodles with a single slice of meat - was hot and tasty. I'd have to agree with Ambrose that the soup base was (as always) a bit on the salty side, but nonetheless, it was a delicious bowl of noodles. It was pretty hard to maneuver with their awkward ladle-like spoons, but once you get the steamy noodles to your tongue, it's all worth the difficulty. I especially liked the braised egg and those crunchy soft green seaweed vegetables.

As for the side dishes which came last, don't be fooled by their apparent size in the photo, for the dish was actually rather small. The thing that really irked me when the dish came was that the cold unidentified vinegared shellfish (how do I know it's shellfish? Well, Jan said so...) was touching the hot freshly fried chicken chunks. This is in violation of the no-touching tradition that is sacred to Japanese cuisine (think Bento boxes) - or at least in my view since it's one of the distinguishing characteristics about Japanese food which I like. The shellfish turned out pathetically spiced, and the pieces were cut too big - apply the 'container principle' and you'll know why smaller pieces are tastier. The fried chicken was bad too, its meat untender and dry. The Agedashidofu (thanks, Jan) was okay, but only just.

This is a perfect example of what franchising can do to the authenticity of food. In my opinion, this chain which originated from Japan has been overtly bastardized by Chinese cooking techniques and a tinge of American fast food ethics. Its blaring of J-Pop and Japanese decor, though nice, does not go towards redeeming it in any way. However, for the price-performance, taste and overall mood of the place, I am compelled to give it 3 ticks.

Total cost: S$10
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: From what I can remember from this Chinese teacher I had in secondary school, there is a complicated proper way to eat Ramen. Here are a few ground rules:

Start with the food (such as egg, meat, fish cake, beansprouts) first. Only after one has finished eating all the top layer of food should one move on to the noodles.
When eating the noodles, it is polite to slurp - in a controlled, rhythmic manner - to indicate your appreciation and enjoyment of the noodles to the chef, as a complement. Burping, however, is rude.
For the real thing, they don't provide spoons. You're supposed to lift the whole bowl up to your face and slurp the soup. Kinda impractical with the heavy ones at Ajisen.

Right. That's about all I can recall for now. If there's more, please do add it in the comments.

*Alert: Double posting for same date. More to come...*

Pacific Coffee @ Changi Airport Terminal 1

2005-04-14T11:59:00.000-04:00

Late Night Coffee

Some "Ice Blended" Vanilla Drink which had the word 'Chill' in its name
Half a slice of Strawberry Cheesecake

Went to the Airport on Thursday to see John off. I had only realized that morning that this was probably going to be the last time I will ever see him. Yes, he's going to the UK for a 6 month internship with Rolls Royce at Derby (lucky duck), and by the time he comes back, I would be halfway around the world already.

But I digress.

We went up to the counter to order drinks and on the menu was this item called 'Chill-' something. I knew the name wasn't worth remembering when I asked the server at the counter what the heck that was and she replied "It's an Ice Blended type drink". So much for respecting Coffee Bean's trademarks. So I ordered a slice of Strawberry Cheesecake and the vanilla flavored 'Chill-' something. John stuck with the Cookies and Cream flavored version.

We found these comfy large velvet-red chairs around this knee-high black and brown coffee table and sat down to enjoy everything. It really was a very comfortable and friendly place, with the high ceiling and bright lighting of the airport, a place where you could just cuddle up to a book for hours, as uninteresting announcements over the intercom softly prodded you ever so often - though not in a disturbing way, but one in which gently reminds you of the reality you're actually living in, instead of the one which you may be absorbed in.

The vanilla flavored drink was substandard, definitely worse than the one at Coffee Bean. The ice inside was clearly not blended enough, and you'd occasionally bite into a small grain of tasteless frozen water about the size of a few sesame seeds. In addition, it tasted a bit bland and covering the top layer of whip cream with a spiral of chocolate fudge was also a bad idea, in my opinion. Good thing I only got the 'Tall' -which was still rather short - and not the 'Grande'.

The cheesecake fared a bit better, though not by much. This consisted of a triangular yellowish pudding-like chunk, topped with sliced strawberries encased in this gooey gelatin layer. It would've tasted better had the strawberries not been sour and the cheesecake less stale, probably due to excessive refrigeration, causing it to lack moisture.

Still, I had a good time, chatting and chewing and sipping. Even though I was plagued by misplaced guilt due to my drinking coffee at such a late hour - caffeine makes me an insomniac, especially when consumed at 10pm - it didn't really bother me much becaue somehow, I felt this late trip to the airport was all worth it, no matter what time I got home.

It's a miserable feeling having to see someone off, knowing that in all likelihood you'd never see that person again. It's the frustration of loathing towards fate, mixed with the sadness of being only left with the memories shared with said friend. I'll probably never get over myself when the day comes for me to leave this island - it's only wretched because of the sheer stupidity of the system that governs it. Yet friendships transcend political affinity, psychological repression, physical distances and time's erosion of memories. Let's just hope I don't end up too depressed.

Total cost: S$10.20
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.pacificcoffee.com/

Sidebar: For added effect, go download some melancholic song (such as S Club 7's 'Say Goodbye' or Chantal Kreviazuk's 'Leaving on a jet plane') when reading this. Oh, and save it for four months down the road.

Sigh...

St Gregory's Brasserie & Courtyard @ Grand Plaza Parkroyal

2005-04-10T09:45:00.000-04:00

Late Buffet "Tunch"

Various Penang Hawker Fare including (correct me if my spelling is off) Prawn Mee, Assam/Penang Laksa, Char Kway Teow, Oyster Omelet, Rojak, Satay (mutton and chicken, though I only tried the latter), Ban Chang Kueh
Sushi and Desserts (the stuff you'd expect at any international buffet)
Ice Kachang
Teh Tarik

First of all, if you look very closely, I indeed paid twenty-eight bucks for a "Weekend Tunch". (If you're not convinced, click here for a close-up to see for yourself.) How oddly Hongkie-like of them, but of course, I'm quite sure this sign was done by a Singie.

Being a Sunday, the place was really crowded and once again, my claustrophobia kicked in, thanks to the tightly spaced tables and noisy atmosphere. I have to say I spent most of the time in queues waiting for the food to be prepared. I guess this has its good and bad points, the advantage being that since each food item is prepared in front of you at a station before you bring it back to your table, it's always piping hot. Anyways, I'm not a big fan of Malay food to begin with, so I probably didn't know how to appreciate some of the dishes there, and this review is based on the foods' raw taste to me. That is, simply "did I like it, or didn't I?" And as with all buffet reviews, I shan't go into dishes that aren't worth mentioning - only the ones on either extreme.

The first thing I went for was the sushi. Why, I don't know. Maybe it was because all the other foods had queues in front of them. Anyways, it's impossible to screw up sushi, so there's no way I could go wrong. The sushi turned out horrible but passable. The rice was clearly refrigerated overnight, because as you chewed through a piece, the rice ball breaks up into individual grains, each dry and hard.

Then, I went for a bowl of Prawn Mee. The odd thing about this was that you had to put the prawns in yourself after they give you a plain bowl of noodles in hot soup. So technically, it was just mee. I put a bit of everything in it - a few prawns (which were shrimp small), some cucumbers and lettuce, a bit of onions and fried garlic, a mint leaf, etc. It wasn't half bad, though the soup was a bit weak. The portion was also pathetically small, and I ended up queuing for another bowl. I also tried a bowl of Assam Laksa (noodles), but after one bowl, I was already sweating from the spiciness of the soup. I didn't really like this version of Laksa because of its sour taste.

I met Kory while queuing for the second time for Prawn Mee; just turned around and there he was. Haha... Such a small world this is. If you're reading this, Kory, please do leave your own comments on the buffet.

On to the Char Kuay Teow. This was prepared by a chef outside in the courtyard section of the restaurant. (While watching, I learned that it is best to add the soya sauce bit by bit when frying noodles, instead of all at one go. Hmm...) I asked that he leave out the chili and sea humps, which left the prawns, bean sprouts, Chinese sausage, egg and Hor Fun noodles as the main ingredients. The noodles were good, with a soft texture and thinner and flatter than normal Hor Fun.

Of course, I was lucky to have been able to ask for no chili in this dish, but most of the others did have a certain degree of spiciness to them. I washed all these down with Teh Tarik, which like the other items were freshly prepared. Unfortunately, the "award-winning" pourer wasn't present that day and I had to contend with hotel staff. But still, it looked relatively easy. All you do is pour hot water through a sock-like filter filled with tea powder several times, using different containers, and add evaporated and condensed milk. The tea was sweet and strong, reminding me a bit of the Nai Cha in Hong Kong, but with a distinctly middle-eastern flavor to it instead of the Chinese tea flavor you get in Nai Cha. Anyways, besides the fact that it tasted really good, it also help suppress the hot spices of the other dishes (see sidebar).

Alas, it was time for dessert. I thought I'd start with the normal buffet fare and then end off with the Ban Chang Kueh (this crisp paper-thin pancake folded into half, wrapping a delicious mixture of nuts, sugar and butter inside), which was oh so appetizing as I stared at the chef in the tall white hat preparing it at the station. The smell was just addictive. Save the best for last, I always say.

So, I innocently went to their "international" dessert table to take a gander. They had a medium-sized display of log-cakes, puffs, pastries and bonbons which didn't seem beyond fit for trying. Then I spotted one of those silver "high tea" vessels (I can't really think of any other word for it; receptacle would be the next best) with those sliding covers to keep food warm in. Just in front of it was a little tag marked 'Bread and butter pudding', which made me think, "That's nice. They have bread and butter pudding. Something for the anti-chocolates like myself." I opened the cover and *gasp* - right in front of me is a mass of blackish-brown bread and butter pudding! I couldn't believe my eyes. Who in the right frame of mind makes chocolate bread and butter pudding?! Perhaps this is just my anti-chocolate side speaking, but still...

With no other choice, I head back to the Ban Chang Kueh station and try to forget the blackish-brown mass. Every second spent standing in front of the heated pan-shaped, um, pans, eagerly watching them pour the eggy batter onto it, putting a healthy spoonful of filling into the center and then folding it in half just as the batter turned a crisp golden brown, made me want it all the more. As I bit into it, the taste of peanutty goodness resonated through my body. This wasn't your normal peanut butter sensation; you could practically feel the fragrant peanut oils in your mouth, going down your throat and into your bloodstream. It was extremely overwhelming, so much so that the hint of burnt batter didn't faze me at all. The eggy taste of the outer layer went well with the filling, neutralizing the overall sweetness of the piece.

All in all, however, the buffet proved to be of a similar standard to the spelling on the signboard. It all looked okay from afar, but as you took a closer look (or taste), you knew there's something off.

Total cost: S$28++
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: I've never liked spicy food. I think it's what is Chinese culture known as ri qi, or as the Singaporeans like to call it, "heatiness". It may feel nice and warm inside to eat kimchi in Korea, but in tropical Singapore, hot foods can be hard to bear. Which is why I've tried very hard to find a way to overcome this. And here's the best method I've found.

When eating spicy food, in order to avoid having that "heaty" aftertaste last in your mouth, have a glass of milk or Chinese tea (preferably nai cha) handy, to wash down the taste. Scientifically, this is due to the fact that the hotness of foods is derived from spicy oil-based chemicals which tend to linger in your mouth. Drinking water only helps minimally because oil is insoluble in water - warm water is better, but still rather ineffectual. A better way is to find an oil-soluble solvent to wash down the spicy oils, away from the sensitive taste buds of the mouth. Milks works best in this case, because oil is highly soluble in it. Soya bean milk and milk teas should also do the trick.

If you guys out there know of any other solution, please do leave a reply in the comments section.

Some Issues

2005-04-08T04:58:00.000-04:00

Hey all.

First of all, I would like to say thank you for all the support for this blog so far. I know it's only a small group of you out there following (from what I can track using the software Blogger provides) but it really means a lot.

I know some of you might be experiencing some problems with the formatting of the site, like how the top right hand corner of the main posts box has a little edge jutting out for some of the posts. Rest assured, I'm trying hard to fix such problems.

Secondly is with regards to the date on the postings. First of all, I'd like to make it clear that the green date you see on the posts is not the date of posting, but the date I ate at the place. It is impossible for me to actually go home immediately after eating something and write a review for it. And it usually will take around a day, at most two, to gather my thoughts on a place (unless the establishment in question really sucked, in which case I'll have much to rant about). Thus, in order to have enough time to write the posts and not post too frequently (say, I ate at 2 good places on the same day, I might purposely pretend that they were on seperate dates so as to spread out the postings), I may purposely hold back some posts as drafts in my Blogger account and post them only after a few days.

So, I thank all you guys for your understanding and patience on this and hope you'll continue to support my food blog. Oh, and feel free to link me on your blogs and tell your friends. =]

(And if you're reading this, you might have missed the latest review on Marché @ The Heeren, dated April 04, which btw has the aforementioned formatting problem - well, at least on my screen.)

Marché @ The Heeren

2005-04-04T11:22:00.000-04:00

Lunch

Rosti
Teriyaki Chicken Pasta in Tomato sauce
Crêpe with Tiramisu Ice Cream and Caramel Bananas
Pink Lemonade Snapple

I always had the impression that Marché was a place that served overpriced yet unexceptional food. How right I was. However, for some reason, my cousin had taken a liking to the concept of purchasing your food with a barcoded card and thus (this being his third visit here in the 10 days he's been in Singapore), we casually made our way to the basement of the Heeren.

The entire place was dark - and I hate dark restaurants. It gives you (well, at least for me) a sense of uncleanliness. I think it has something to do with the perception that (UV) light wards off germs. So any place that needs me to dilate my pupils in order to adjust to the lighting scares me a bit.

The Rosti was outright horrible. The outer shreds of potato were burnt to a crisp, while the inside was still relatively raw. They just cooked it over too big a fire, and too quickly. I should have just not accepted it and asked for another.

The pasta was better, yet still far below what was expected of it for that price. The tomato sauce tasted mediocre, as if it came out of a jar, and was overly sour. They also added carrots and leek inside, which just didn't cut. And on the side, just to live up to its name of 'Teriyaki Chicken Pasta', they added these 4 pieces of panfried chicken fillets smothered in a thick brownish sauce. This too clashed entirely with the tomato element of the pasta. What the hell were they thinking?

The crêpe, I have to say, was the only thing that stood out from the rest. What a welcoming relief it was. It's nice to end on a good note. A scoop of cool tiramisu 'Movenpick' ice cream on a freshly made piece of thin batter, all topped with chunks of banana covered in caramel. The sweetness could kill you and lift you up to heaven, but the eggy soothing taste of the crêpe comes in nicely to just about neutralize that and bring you back to earth.

This all shattered, of course, when we had to get the bill. Good thing it was my aunt's treat. I don't think I'll ever come here again. The place is mainly for rich people with little taste buds and sweet teeth.

Total cost: S$26.80 (raw total, for me only)
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: My personal theory on why this place is so popular with teenagers (and adults too) is its concept of using a paper card to dine. This notion of scanning your card for food and paying for it later is so much like using a credit card.

Perhaps these teenagers, most of whose parents deprive them of such an item in real life, feel an underlying subconscious urge to rack up credit, a reflection of how the modern consumer materialistic society has driven the evolution in human behavior.

Still, the food pretty much sucked.

Eating Tip: However, if you're for some reason forced to go (like I was), do go to the one at Suntec instead (which I didn't). If I remember correctly, they seem to have a greater selection of food (like those mushrooms on the Rosti) and way better lighting. But only for the sake of life and limb.

Brazil Churrascaria @ Sixth Avenue

2005-04-03T06:16:00.000-04:00

Buffet Dinner

Various freshly roasted cuts (including Chicken, Ham, Sausages, Beef, Ribs, Pork Ribs, Lamb cuts, Pineapple, etc.)
Salad Bar

This buffet concept is probably the coolest there is. Instead of you going to the food, the food comes to you. The waiters actually carry around these long swords - kinda like the sabers fencers use - with pieces of roasted meat skewed through them, go around to each table, ask if anyone is interested in a piece of whatever's on the blade, and proceed to slice off pieces directly onto your plate with another shorter knife . This ensures the food is hot and fresh every time it lands on your plate and that none of it is actually wasted from lying around too long (as with other buffets) because the waiters make sure each batch is served before going into the kitchen for more. This is a meat-lover's paradise. (Sorry, Yashodhan... I know how much you want me to review a vegetarian restaurant.)

I especially liked the sausages (made by the restaurant itself) and the roast chicken, with its crisp exterior and tender interior. Our table was also given these three types of sauce to go along with the entrees. I liked their home-made barbecue sauce the most,which complemented the chicken and ribs nicely, but the white wine and vinegar-based sauces also went well with other cuts.

The food from the salad bar wasn't half bad either, not like the ones at Sizzler's that just serve your mediocre soups and salads. My favorites included the cauliflower baked in garlic and this celery-cum-cucumber salad. Staples such as fragrant rice and onion-infused potato wedges were also available. I never knew Brazilians ate rice. Anyways, it was a convenient salad bar; for those of us (like me) who knew we were eating too much protein and didn't want to end up with gout, a guilt trip to the salad bar made all the difference.

For dessert, I feasted on roasted pineapple. This was indeed an innovative way to cook pineapple. They would peel off the skin leaving a cylindrical interior skewed on the sword and roast it to perfection, burning the outer layer. After it finished, they would cut away the burnt parts and, with all its juices still intact, serve the inside to you in slices. It was softer than normal raw pineapple, yet still firm with all the triangular holes, and had an acidic sweet taste to it. You get this tingly sensation after eating a slice, but get use to it after a few more. I must have had about half a pineapple altogether. Drinking some water easily got rid of this aftertaste though.

What I enjoyed most about this place was the concept of not having to leave your table to get food (although you did have to look out for which server was serving what). This gave us more time to enjoy the meal at the table and have decent dinner conversation. The service was prompt and amiable (the servers would ask you how much you wanted and if you said "a little", they'd give you a tiny morsel, and if you asked for more, they would just keep slicing and slicing...), but the place, however, was a bit too dim for my liking and the tables rather densely packed. Overall, three ticks for the freshly roasted food and savory salad bar.

Total cost: S$40 plus (per person)
Rating: aaaaa

Chatterbox @ Meritus Mandarin

2005-04-01T10:57:00.000-05:00

Late Dinner

Chicken Rice set (consisting of rice, slices of chicken on a bed of vegetables and clear soup)
Baby Kailan in Oyster Sauce

The poster outside alleged that it had the "best chicken rice in Singapore", but in a society where "best" can mean so many different things, it is in reality hard to know for sure, unless you see for yourself. My visiting aunt and cousin from Hong Kong, being the touristy tourists they were, were, of course, very obliging. Besides, what would be a trip to Singapore without sampling local chicken rice that originated from a place which is closer to home than is Singapore? (see sidebar)

The first thing all of us noticed when we looked at the menu were the outrageous prices. $4.50 for a soda! $5.50 for fruit juices! $7 for a float! (Might I add, with no cherry on top.) And that's only the drinks! In the end, we stuck with a chicken rice set each and got an order of baby kailan in oyster sauce to share.

The presentation was "authentic" enough, with a circular wooden tray and tan earthenware bowls and dishes. The set itself consisted of chicken, rice and soup, with three small dishes of condiments, namely chili (which I didn't touch), finely chopped ginger and the familiar thick dark bittersweet sauce. The portion was bigger than expected - at least twice of what you might get from hawker center sets similar to this one - probably to suit the hotel's more appetitive western clientele.

The rice was steamed to perfection, and its consistency was perfect too - not too oily such that you get really full and artery-blocked just from it, yet not too dry and soft either, thereby rendering the entire mass to a sticky putty of broken grains, like the stuff wont of hawker fare. In this instance, each grain was separate from the next and its elongated shape intact.

The chicken was an outstanding complement to it. My grandma calls this type of chicken (direct translation from Cantonese) "run on the ground" chicken - ie. they were raised on farms where they (for some of the time) got to roam free instead of spending their entire miserable lives cooped up in cages. Because of this extra exercise, their meat is firmer and leaner than your normal chicken's (whether frozen or otherwise) and they fetch about twice as much in the market. This particular chicken was then killed, defeathered, marinated, cooked, chopped up, chilled and then served on a boat-like plate to yours truly. The sauce they marinated it in is probably a secret recipe or something. You can taste a bit of Chinese medicinal herbs, just overpowered by the soya sauce element in it. The bed of vegetables, which sat below the chicken, soaking in this sauce, was especially savory. Dipping the pieces of chicken into the black bittersweet sauce and ginger enhanced the flavor greatly, though this did leave a slight aftertaste.

But that's where the soup came in. This was perhaps the best chicken rice soup I've tasted yet. Normally, chicken rice sellers concentrate too much on the chicken and the rice and end up giving you a mediocre bowl of slosh which is just slightly tastier than boiled water. Here, however, they take much pride in ensuring that it's not just next to boiled water (- which is surprising because if they did, they could make more people order their pretentiously overpriced drinks). The sweet taste of tofu and lettuce was there, but the main zest came from the chicken taste; one wonders whether they actually boiled a chicken in it to make the broth.

Three ticks for the excellent tasting chicken, all too deserving of the title "best chicken rice in Singapore" - and I'm not a big fan of chicken rice to begin with. But true to its name, the Chatterbox's ambiance was a bit boisterous; and the place had 'tourist trap' written all over it. Well, what can you expect - it's in a hotel. Had it not been for the outrageous prices, I would've gladly given it another tick.

Total cost: S$22++ (per person approx.)
Rating: aaaaa

http://hotels.meritus-hotels.com/meritus/mandarin/dining_chatterbox.html

Sidebar: Approximate distance from Singapore to Hong Kong - 2600 km; Approximate distance from Hong Kong to Haikou (provincial capital of Hainan) - 500 km.

Amanogawa @ The Marketplace, Raffles City

2005-03-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

Lunch

Chilled Cabbage Salad
Ebi Tempura Maki
Mini Udon
Steamed Egg
Green Tea

Congrats to this humble yet bustling establishment for a four tick achievement! (The first one so far, and therefore deserves a picture of the signage outside the restaurant.) I had a hard time establishing whether this place was truly an authentic Japanese eatery or just one of those Chinese-run Japanese restaurants. I'm not saying all Chinese-run Jap restaurants are bad, but the cooking here was so good that it made me wonder. And the place was packed, though lunch hour could easily account for the crowd.

I also have to say that their set menus are truly awesome. The prices are reasonable for the portions. What I love most about Japanese food is how everything is compartmentalized - how everything comes in small little dishes or just one big Bento, which is (of course) separated into smaller parts. It just gives me this really sacrosanct feeling of the food; each dish is independent of the others, with its own flavors and sauces that do not mix with the other dishes. Perhaps it's just my personality. I never liked gravy touching my peas (and that's just me using an expression, because I never liked peas to begin with).

First came the salad. This consisted of finely sliced chilled cabbage and a few slices of tomatoes and cucumber, dressed with a mayonnaise-like type of sauce. But as I mixed the mayo into the vegies, I noticed a lightly tanned liquid residing below. One whiff of it and I knew it was good stuff. That brownish liquid is in fact fish broth, a savory dressing which only the Japanese seem to enjoy in their salads. It was a pleasure eating this icy appetizer; it would have been better if they didn't add any mayo at all and just condensed the fish broth further. Now that would have been sweet.

Then came the tempura maki, five slices of crisp battered prawn, wrapped in a layer of seaweed, then rice and then rolled in ebi roe. This was delicious as well, with the warm crunchy interior of tempura contrasted against the lukewarm rice wrapped around it. But the condiments which came with it surprised me a bit. You see, they gave me a small soya sauce plate with wasabi spread on the side, which implied that they expect me to pour my soya sauce into the dish, mixing it with wasabi. This, in Japanese cuisine is a no no, because wasabi is usually served in a green lump on the same plate with the maki, together with the pink ginger, and then the eater places the wasabi on the sushi itself before dipping it into soya sauce. Dissolving the wasabi into the soya sauce is a boo boo in sushi eating (and was probably devised by the likes of my dad), because this quashes the spicy taste of the wasabi. (Then again, according to my aunt, real Japanese don't partake in wasabi at all in order to appreciate the full taste of the fresh sashimi, which made even more sense. But then again, I'm not really a big fan of raw seafood.)

Another thing which really bothered me was the green tea. This restaurant used the Lipton-like sachets whereas the real thing's usually in powder form. Oh well.

The next course was this mini udon which had an authentic soup base, which was just superb. But the portion was rather small (hence mini) and it only sufficed for three big slurps.

And last but not least came the steamed egg. It has an elegant Japanese name to it, but I forget. This came in a little plastic cup of its own, and was kept warm by this cover. The first spoonful already told a lot about the entire dish. The soft and semi-fluffy texture of the egg reminded me of "dou foo fa", but a subtle taste reminded me that this was in fact egg. I still have no idea what goes into this little cup of delight. There's definitely a spice or an extra ingredient, for it's always not that simple, but I just can't put my finger on it.

The ambiance in this place wasn't much. The shop itself was so small; and the whole place was packed with office workers having their lunch break. But the gastronomic experience was truly outstanding, and despite the claustrophobia-inducing seats, I wouldn't mind coming here again for more dining pleasure.

Total cost: S$13.80++
Rating: aaaaa

Ichiban Boshi @ Esplanade

2005-03-28T03:46:00.000-05:00

Afternoon Tea

Green Tea
Various Sushi Dishes
Mini Chicken Don
Fried Beancurd
Yakitori (Black Pepper Chicken)

My aunt came over from Hong Kong with my cousin, Ronald, and I've been showing them around Singapore for the past few days. And what would be a trip to Singapore without seeing the big slices of durian lining the shores at the mouth of the Singapore River.

We all had early lunches so we badly needed a break from the sightseeing. Walking into the almost deserted restaurant, we ordered an afternoon set meal and a variety of sushi, including fried ebi roll (Ronald's favorite), some sea urchin (for my aunt), a plate of Tanaki maki (which is my personal favorite) and a plate of those red spiced baby octopuses which everyone loves. There was also the sticks of yakitori my aunt wanted to try. The service was quick and efficient, perhaps attributable to the fact that we were like the only ones there, but also very accommodating to our sharing everything, with extra plates and spoons all round.

First, the sushi was great. Because we didn't bother to pull it off the belt and ordered it off the menu instead, the sushi was made fresh (unless they pulled the plates off of the belt behind our backs, which would imply how perfectly preserved the sushi is). I loved the fried ebi roll, two pieces of breaded prawn deep fried to perfection, then wrapped in a piece of lettuce and then, a layer of seaweed and rice, topped with a coat of coriander on one side, adding a little oriental spice-up to the entire maki. The baby octopuses weren't that bad either, chilled and icy, making its preserved flavor sweet as you sink your teeth into the semi-crunchy roughness of the octopus. I've always loved these little delights; its texture is truly unique, as if you're biting into a tiny edible water balloon filled with a spiced chewy interior. There's no other way to describe it.

My love for the Tanaki maki (if I remember the name correctly) had once again been reinforced. What I like most about this selection is that it resembles very much a California roll, with its crabmeat, cucumber and avocado center, but instead of a coating of ebi roe, the outside just consists of rice topped with a few bento flakes (thinner-than-paper shavings of cuttlefish). And at S$1.90 for a four piece plate, it makes for a very appetizing portion. I just hope the Ichiban Boshi execs don't read this, because I really think there's something screwed up about their pricing on this particular item. Oh well, I shall enjoy it while it lasts.

The yakitori though, was beyond help. First of all, my aunt ordered black pepper, which from my previous postings you will remember I have a problem with. (For those who forgot, black pepper is suppose to be for rotting meat, and it spoils the true fresh flavors of any piece of meat.) And second, at S$2.40 a stick (yes, ONE stick!) it was a total rip off. I could've gotten way better yakitori for about a third of the price at one of those Tari Q places (which I will one day get down to reviewing, I promise). I shall have to bring them there one day, when I get the time.

I'm actually a somewhat loyal customer of this chain of Japanese restaurants, and I love eating at these Ichiban places scattered all over the island. From what I can tell, the quality of the food at all their branches is about the same, and the quality is top notch in itself. (The Great World City outlet does seem to have more stuff on their menu though.) One thing that did piss me off this time was that for every S$20 spent, you can get a stamp on this "frequent diners" card and we were just two bucks short of one more stamp.

Damn. Should have gotten another plate of the Tanaki maki.

Total cost: S$38.80 (for 3 people)
Rating: aaaaa

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Shaw House

2005-03-27T10:26:00.000-05:00

(Another) Class Dinner

Brothy soup (with either fish stomach or some other marine creature I'm not aware of)
Hong Kong Kailan fried in garlic
Pork Chops in Ketchup-based sauce
Steamed fish with black beans
Pan-fried garlic-chili prawns
A Char Siew cum Chicken cum Roast Duck Platter
Red bean "sugar water" dessert

Yup. A rather ironic gathering. We were suppose to bid farewell to the 'China scholars' with this dinner, but only one (Liang Xun) showed up. Well, at least the class (or part thereof) was together. There were seven of us - including Pei Yi, honorary member - but we ordered a 6-pax meal to share since Ming Jing had already eaten.

Anyways, the food wasn't bad. Their cooking was light and mild, a staple characteristic of Cantonese cuisine. I especially liked their pork chops, which resembled in appearance and preparation "Gu Lo Yuk" (or sweet and sour pork) - deep fried and then re-coated in a sweet and soury thick red sauce. It went well with their dryish fragrant white rice, in which the individual grains are separated from one another, which I especially liked since at home, all I get is rice with a more sticky texture since mom likes it that way (ie. more water is added).

The pan-fried garlic-chili prawns were a bit more mediocre. I'm guessing this was a Singaporean-inspired dish. The prawns were butterflied and deep fried (probably in oil with garlic) without batter, making the outer layer form a crispy shell around each prawn. To add more flavor, a pile of bits of fried garlic and diced chili were sprinkled on top (a mountain amounting to more volume than the prawns themselves) which made the dish all the more Singaporean. For me, it was no use scraping off these condiments, for the oils from the chili slices had already seeped into the prawns, chasing away any of the sweetness akin to seafood left in them. What a perfect waste of good prawns.

Their steamed fish wasn't as bad, as more of the flavors were captured in the "Dou Xi" that was added. The steaming probably helped too - it was steamed to perfection, with the meat just clinging onto the bones. I watched in horror as the others mutilated the fish in the oddest of ways in the process of getting the meat off the bones. (In all honesty, I have to confess to being guilty of sloppy eating of the fish too.) In the end, more than half the fish was wasted.

The overall dining experience was commendable. Crystal Jade does a nice job in bringing Cantonese cuisine to the masses here, but it's not as authentic as it should be. (It pales in comparison to my grandma's cooking, should I make that comparison.) And this isn't one of the best CJ branches there is. For better tastes, go to the one at Takashimaya or the one tucked away in the corner at Bugis. The one at Holland Village will also pass off nicely.

With that said though, I really enjoyed the night out with my class - though it did sort of end prematurely. It's hard to get so many of us together at one time these days.

Total cost: S$20 (per person)
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: Apologies for the lateness of this entry and others. Blogger was down for some reason and I couldn't log in.

PastaMania @ Orchard Cineleisure

2005-03-23T06:21:00.000-05:00

Late Lunch

Minestrone Soup
Mussels and Clam Linguini in White Wine Sauce
Iced Lemon Tea
Banana Dessert Pizza

What a horrible experience I had today at PastaMania, once again proof that even for the same franchise, there are black sheeps. The PastaMania at Bishan is much more decent, with more efficient service and better pasta. Just goes to show that places with higher turnovers get it right more often.

This was a mini class outing of sorts. We got tickets for 'Howl's Moving Castle' (which turned out to be a sweet and beautifully animated Miyazaki, though it had a weak ending, which spoiled the entire film) and went downstairs to grab a bite before the movie. Me and Jan shared this 'Buddy Meal' promotion they had, which came with drinks, soup and a dessert pizza.

The main I chose was the mussels and clam Linguini in white wine sauce, which was a mistake already because Spaghetti would have gone better with the soupy consistency of the sauce. Yet the problem was not with the pasta. The sauce was under-done and overspiced, and little of the tangy seafood flavor of the clams and mussels came out in the white wine sauce at all. Four of the clams were unopened, which were quickly sac-ed for the safety of my stomach.

Then came the dessert pizza, a rough piece of pizza dough topped with slices of banana and a soft sprinkle of chocolate dust (well, miniature chunks, actually). As Jan said, "chocolate and banana just don't go". It was horrible enough to have to taste it, but the tough texture of the pizza base made chewing mandatorily longer. In the end, we ate a piece each and the other 2 leftover pieces were passed around, being offered to others, though with no takers. The remains were left untouched on the table.

This meal was so not worth it.

Total cost: S$8.10 (per person)
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.pastamania.com.sg/

Auntie Anne's @ Plaza Singapura

2005-03-22T05:51:00.000-05:00

Afternoon Snack

Cinnamon Sugar Specialty Pretzel
Regular Lemonade

I was wandering the basement of PS, just after getting a rather horrible haircut, trying to find some nourishment for my famished body. (Maybe it's because with less hair, I'm loosing more heat from the surface of my scalp, causing my metabolism to increase.) I hadn't had pretzel for quite some time already, so, despite having just recovered from a nasty sore throat cum cough bug and trying to cut down on sugar intake, I willingly gave in to a sweet piece of odd shaped pastry. Besides, they had this Combo Deal for a Specialty Pretzel and a drink.

The guy at the register had on this "I Y Pretzel" t-shirt; it had the grammatically dubious caption of "Make world a sweeter place" on the back. He was a shy person, a man of few words who hardly made eye contact to the people going up to him with orders. I was promptly served my order of a Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel.

The pretzel itself was good. It wasn't oven fresh, but then again, the turnover at this outlet was relatively slow, so one shouldn't expect much. Biting into its soft central core surrounded by that sugary, cinnamonny mixture reminded me of the churros at theme parks. It was hard not to get any of the sugar on your lips as you carefully maneuvered your way around the pastry's coiled shape, but that's where the lemonade comes in.

The lemonade is the best there is in Singapore. Most people come to Auntie Anne's just for it, ignoring the signature pretzels entirely (my ten minutes sitting at the place's little counter for customers to enjoy their treats also made me witness to at least a few others who did such a thing). Drinking the lemonade with a super sweet pretzel, though, was not a very good idea; the taste of the lemonade was diminished to a soury texture, much less refreshing than it usually is. I think it would have gone better with a salty one. (Note to self.)

Total cost: S$3.70
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.auntieannes.com/

Eating Tip: To fully enjoy Auntie Anne's pretzels, its best to go to branches with high turnovers, like the one at Bishan or Suntec (upstairs). The pretzels there are usually fresh and hot. Alternatively, purposely order something that's not displayed in those pretzel-warming devices, so they're forced to make it fresh - unless your craving for a certain flavor is too strong.

Pizza Hut Delivery @ KitLing's Place

2005-03-16T09:19:00.000-05:00

Class Dinner

3 Pizzas (2 Super Supremes and a Hawaiian)
Fried Chicken (which I abstained from because of my sore throat and flu)
Coleslaw and Mashed Potatoes
Various bottles of soft drinks

There were nine of us at this little class gathering. (Never thought I'd use those words together in one sentence.) Why KitLing called Pizza Hut in the first place is beyond me, but I have to admit, their crusts are the tastiest. Pizza Hut took about 40 minutes to deliver the first order of two regular pizzas (a super supreme and a Hawaiian), which was hardly enough. So we ordered another large Hawaiian.

When it finally arrived after another hour of waiting and we opened it, lo and behold, sitting there in the flattened box was - not a Hawaiian, but - a large Super Supreme pizza. Well, you could just imagine how angry we were - for one thing, Yoke Pean didn't like Hawaiian, but the rest of us just adored it. But hunger got the best of us and despite the slight mix-up, we started digging in anyway.

KitLing went downstairs to chase down the delivery boy, only to be told that it wasn't his problem - okay, jurisdiction. I then called up Pizza Hut Delivery to tell them just how much they sucked. The woman on the line was, like, "Did the person who took your order repeat it?" and "How much of the pizza is left?" It ended with "Well, we could make you another one to replace it, but since you ate the pizza already..." (ie. They actually expect us to wait another hour for them to come up and trade our already-delivered Super Supreme for a Hawaiian replacement.) By that time, I'd already gotten fed up and just gave the phone over to someone else to absorb all the BS.

Listen here, you monotonous no-good-excuse-of-a-service-sector-worker telephone operator drone, just because you think "most Singaporeans" can't tell the difference between Super Supreme and Hawaiian toppings on their pizzas (and, had they known the difference, would probably gladly suffer in silence in order to avoid complications even if this had happened to them) and that they wouldn't expect service levels to be a bit more than above naught, doesn't mean you have the right to scam a bunch of teenagers who happen to enjoy their pizzas. Sure, the rest might not care, but I for one will be boycotting Pizza Hut Delivery Singapore for the rest of my life. And let me tell you this as well: your dine-in service isn't much better either. So, to QSR Brands (the Malaysian company that runs Pizza Hut in Singapore) and to all those out there who think that all consumers would settle for lousy service, I spit on you - and hope that you'll catch this horrible flu overtaking my body.

There's a joke that goes that in the US, pizzas deliveries take a shorter time to arrive than ambulances. And there is a good reason why this is probably so: It's because the Americans have come to expect such a high service level from their F&B sector. It's called "SATISFACTION GUARANTEED". (The irony here is that in the end, the Americans will probably need to call for ambulances from all the fats from unhealthy diets - such as pizza - clogging up their arteries.) But the point stands. The level of service you get will depend on how much you're willing to expect of it. And if you Singaporeans are willing to live with one-hour pizza deliveries which end up delivering the wrong pizza, then no-one can save you from the dismal crap-hole you've dug for yourselves. And before you know it, you'll be so deep in horrible service that you'll end up screwed for life.

So, on a revolutionary high, I encourage everyone to start rebelling against poor service - not just in the F&B sector, but other tertiary sectors such as retail as well. Complain and feedback to the staff and their superiors. Boycott certain brands or chains if you must. Embarrass them in front of their other customers if you have to (by complaining loudly or being obnoxious about it); you don't have to feel embarrassed yourself, you as a (potentially) paying customer have the right to at least a decent level of service!

When I got back home the next day, I threw away the Pizza Hut Delivery menu stuck on my fridge. (And this was a menu with a picture of JarJar Binks on it, advertising some StarWars Episode 1 promotional meal. Just goes to show how long ago was the last time they actually delivered to my place.) Truly a waste of space.

One tick for the crust. Peace.

Total cost: [unaccounted for]
Rating: aaaaa

Eating Tips: Here are the contacts for other more respectable pizza delivery chains:

US Pizza (Tel:+65 68993838) - My favorite. I just love their thick chewy crusts and garlic twists.
Canadian Pizza (Tel:+65 62410241) - Great variety of toppings. And their 2 for the price of 1 offer is ideal for parties. The fact that there's one just on Six Avenue means super fast deliveries for me.

Sidebar: I, nexus0123, write this entry in unsound mind, drugged by various soporifics in the Strepsils and spoonfuls of cough syrup which I have been consuming non-stop for the past few days. Pizza Hut, you suck.

McDonald's @ King Albert Park

2005-03-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lunch

Grilled Chicken Foldover - grilled chicken with lettuce and sliced tomatoes wrapped in unleavened flatbread
Medium Fries
Lemon-Lime Juice

I've gotten mixed reviews about this new item on McD's menu; some said it was disgusting, others would beg to differ. So this was finally my chance to judge for myself. After watching Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" documentary (http://www.supersizeme.com/), I really have cut down a lot on fastfood. So as I stepped into the branch, it had been about a month plus since my last visit to McD's. My advice, don't go if you don't have to.

I stood in front of the counter for quite some time, trying to decide whether or not to get the fries. If I had just gotten the foldover and lemon-lime juice a la carte, then it would have cost about $6.50. So, thanks to the economist in me, marginal utility theory took over and I got the meal. I knew that fries were probably the unhealthiest item on the entire menu, salt-laden and grease filled, but the idea of warm crunchy goodness of freshly frenched fried potatoes in my mouth overwhelmed me and I caved. Damn Alfred Marshall.

So I was greatly disappointed when the first fry I placed in my mouth was lukewarm and soggy, a bad sign of the things to come. I ended up giving most of the portion to WeiXun. McD fries are the best only when they are fresh, crunchy and hot. After a while, they become flaccid, soggy and unappealing, kinda like... well, if you know what I mean, then good.

The foldover itself wasn't so bad, and did justice to neither extremes of the reviews I got. The flatbread was not dry but actually soft and moist, unlike other wraps I've tried. The veggies were fresh too, a welcoming relief since I've always known fast food vegetables as yellow-brown rotting lettuce or disintegrating slimy tomatoes. The only taste came from the white sauce (oh no, I'm using Singlish!) which I suspected was a runnier version of mayonnaise. The chicken was overdone too, with no signs whatsoever that they actually grilled it.

Final verdict: It was a good feeling to know that I was actually eating something pseudo-healthy at McD's for a change. For a better deal though, I suggest you go try a similar foldover at Long John Silver's. It has a more robust teriyaki sauce.

Total cost: S$7.20
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.mcd.com.sg/

Sidebar: I pledge to not go to McD's again until the passing of a long long time, whenever that may be. Peace.

PastaMania @ Bishan Junction 8

2005-03-13T10:11:00.000-05:00

Dinner

Carbonara Linguine - a rich creamy, eggy sauce topped with pan-fried bacon pieces over a bed of Linguine
3 slices of Garlic Bread
Vanilla Coke

Went out with the swimmers for dinner tonight after watching the movie Robots. We wondered around for quite some time, but finally decided on PastaMania. There were nine of us in total, and putting together the octagonal tables there was a bit of a tessellation nightmare.

The promptness of service there was amazing, truly a fast food restaurant for pasta. Shame on MOS Burger. Anyways, the food came piping hot, which is nice, especially for the cream sauce Carbonara I ordered. (As the cream cools, it thickens depending on the amount of cheese added, making the dish unbearably heavy. Thus, it is necessary to eat it steaming.) I ordered Combo C which came with a drink and the 3 slices of garlic bread.

First, the bread. It was good and toasty, which is how all garlic bread should be. I spent much time chewing and chewing, trying to figure out what the heck they put on it. After much analyzing, I have determined that there has to have been the following: butter, garlic, thyme, and either parsley or coriander. Other possible ingredients include lemongrass (which I got a hint of) and garlic salt. I must find out and make it for breakfast tomorrow.

The Carbonara was not bad, but really heavy, as expected. Shane, Roger and I ordered exactly the same thing. I couldn't believe some of the others, who had cream-based sauces and upsized theirs; the regular size was heavy enough as it is. The sauce was mediocre and too much Parmesan was added, which thickened the cream; perhaps the egg had something to do with it as well. The bacon, which was seared to a crisp, was overdone, like the turkey bacon in the Burger King burgers. The fact that they were fat and oily didn't go down well with the already thick sauce. I felt like I was going to get a heart attack at any moment.

I think the sauce was rather bad. I believe they have this big vat of already made cream sauce in the kitchen and all they have to do is add any extra ingredients onto the plate, like peas and ham for Alfredo and bacon for my Cabonara. (This also explains why the service was so fast.) Truthfully, I think the sauces I make at home are better. What they missed was the mint, I believe - it never hurt to add some in cream sauces.

Also tried a slice of Weixun's Garlic Pizza Bread, which was dry and burnt (ie, overdone). The table next to us ordered this pizza calzone style, which made it look "like a giant currypuff". I shall have to try that the next time round.

Total cost: S$12.40
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.pastamania.com.sg

Eating Tip: Always remember - there is a pasta for every sauce. I'll just make examples (muahahaha!) of the 4 types of pasta at PastaMania. Spaghetti goes well with meaty and/or tomato-based sauces; not bad with white wine sauces either, especially vongole. Linguine, Spaghetti's flatter yet fatter cousin is better for creamy, thick, cheesy sauces, as it's shape (for some mysterious reason) clings better to such dairy-based sauces. Fusilli (screwed up pasta) is good with any sauce, although I prefer it with cream based. It's great for salads and mac n cheese too. Penne (the short tubes) goes well with cream-based sauces, because the holes are nice places for these thick sauces to crawl into, but will work with tomato-based ones as well. Click on this link for more. http://www.ilovepasta.org/shapes.html

Lei Garden @ Orchard Plaza

2005-03-12T09:30:00.000-05:00

Dim Sum Lunch

Various dim sum
An Entree platter (with Fried Beancurd skin, Char Seow and Roast Pork)
Fried man tou
Coconut lobster rice

It's so hard to find Cantonese cooking here - excluding my grandma's of course. Lei Garden is one of those rare gems in Singapore where, should you be lucky enough, the Honkie away from home can get a sweet whiff of Cantonese cuisine that he/she (usually) so dearly misses. (Truthfully, I've not met a single Honkie who has no complaints about the food; this is not some nationalistic gibberish, but those who have been to Hong Kong will know.)

The dim sum was good, as usual. As on all Sundays, the restaurant sets up this booth-like table where they display various specialty dishes and dim sum and where some of the chefs cook right in front of you (- only at this branch though). My mom, as usual, went out and picked dishes we haven't yet tried before. She came back with this appetizing entree platter which consisted of fried tofu skin (called "foo pei gun" in Cantonese), char seow and lovely roast pork pieces. It also came with this sweet reddish-brown sauce for dipping.

This platter went well with the fried man tou, the sauce complementing nicely with the tasteless buns. The char seow was not your normal type that you get; resembled the Japanese type more and reminded me of the one from the Ghim Moh char seow rice stall, but less burnt up. The "skin", that colored layer encircling the meat, was not the normal red but a brownish dark complexion, which was rather thinner than usual as well, showing how carefully broiled the piece of meat had been prepared [bad grammar]. The roast pork was not your normal type as well. There was little of the layer of fat between the crispy skin and the more "slim" parts; this meant that as you bit into it, the crisp top layer of skin would break like a cracker; yet unlike a cracker, it did not shatter, remaining intact for more masticating pleasure, lengthening the amount of time it lingers in your mouth, thus allowing its (porky?) taste to be fully experienced as well. (They have a specific name for this type of roast pork in Cantonese, but it slips my mind. It is usually eaten with mustard though, but the sweet sauce was fine here.)

The coconut rice was something new. It was served in your typical coconut, like the pineapple rice at Thai restaurants. This one, though, was rather perfect, like the ones seen dropping on the heads of cartoon characters - and it had three holes too, exactly like a bowling ball. The rice was baked with spices (cumin, I believe) and on top was a layer of melted cheese and some crab/crayfish like pieces of meat which was alleged to have been lobster (let's trust the restaurant on this one). It was actually not that bad, but a bit dry. The cheese went well with the (*cough*) lobster and made the overall dish less bland. The coconut taste also seeped (although barely, since the coconut was mature) into the rice, giving it a rather enticing fragrance.

Three ticks because it was not the best I've tasted at this place, of which I had higher expectations. The branch at CHIMES is better, though more expensive. Their juhua tea today was a bit on the weak side too.

Total cost: S$109 (for my family of five)
Rating: aaaaa

Sidebar: The time of the meal has been changed to suit my blogging format.

Genghis Khan @ Takashimaya SC

2005-03-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

Dinner

"International" buffet
Free flow of drinks

It was unfortunate that food of this standard should be served in the form of a buffet. Had it merely been a normal restaurant with an a la carte menu, I would have walked right out of the place without hesitation. But then again, there was my family, though from them too I could detect a certain air of disgust. Where oh where to begin? Perhaps I better go with the order in which I ate.

The salad was warm. It’s one of the most horrible feelings one can get, eating something raw which is suppose to be cold or chilled- you know, not cold enough to mask that “fresh” taste but not hot enough so as to set your mind at ease with regard to the germs. I always get this icky feeling of uncleanness when this happens. The fact that the slices of greens were too huge didn’t help either. And a lack of condiments meant that the only accompaniments I got to this course were carrot sticks, capsicum shreds and onion shavings. And they only had one dressing! At least it was thousand island, one that I could bear with.

The seafood was the same. It was cooked, and it was suppose to be chilled - like on a bed of ice or something. But it was just not cold enough. Seafood is worse when this happens. The “fresh” taste you get is the fishy type and because seafood used to be more complex organism than mere lettuce, with bodily systems for digestion and waste management, the iciness of eating warm seafood is much more unbearable psychologically. I swear I’m going to get a tummy ache from this meal.

One thing that I’ve noticed (and which my grandma has brought up often) is the Sporeans’ obsession with prawns. For some reason, they view prawn as the ingredient symbolizing goodness and luxury in taste. What the hell, there were like five prawn dishes in the entire buffet - probably more, just that I dare not try anymore. There was the (unsuccessfully) chilled prawns, Japanese Ebi fried, prawn roasted on a stick, shrimp steamed with garlic served with tofu, and (by far the most disgusting) a shrimp on top of a ball of mashed potatoes which called itself “lobster salad”. It was putrid. The lump of alleged “lobster salad” was dry and dull, an amoral mass of insustenance.

There was also cooked food, the kind you get at high tea buffets. But these are just not worth mentioning.

Then came the sushi - a considerable effort, but with many of its own problems. First, the rice was not the Japanese short grain that is sticky and pliable. Thus, the moment the ball of rice touched your tongue, it fell apart into a soft gooey consistency. They had these maki rolls; standard fare, only they decided to put sausage in it! And the California Handrolls, they put (of all things) peanut butter in them! Oh the humanity! Maybe it’s this funny Mongolian tradition I am unaware of. They were, after all, conquered by the Japanese during World War Two. But just because of that, it doesn’t mean you can go around bastardizing one of the cornerstone cuisines of the world (which also happens to be one of my favorites). My word.. peanut butter indeed.

The teppanyaki was in innovative addition to normal buffet fare. You attach these plate tags available at your table, pick out the raw stuff at the counter and hand it over to the pseudo-chefs to cook. Then they deliver it to you hot, but not before screwing up by horrifically flooding the plate with a black pepper sauce (and not a very good one at that). Let me tell you one thing, Genghis. The only reason pepper should be used on meat is in order to mask its rotting taste. So if your beef or chicken is not rotting (a big if there), then why the hell screw up a perfectly good piece of meat by putting a bloody pepper sauce on it?

Standard fruits and low-grade desserts follow. Once again, these are not worth mentioning.

As for presentation, let’s just say that it was not their main concern (- with food so horrible, it shouldn’t be). The dishes looked palatable, but unconvincing. The floors were sticky, as if somebody had spilt something and no one bothered to mop it up. The entire restaurant was in plain view thanks to the window which encompassed half the perimeter. This meant that passers-by walking through the shopping mall could see you eating every bite. A truly horrific dining experience.

The single tick for this review has nothing to do with the taste of the food, or lack thereof. It is not out of mercy, but rather for the efficient service in clearing the plates and the free flow of drinks. Nothing more.

I wonder why the place still hasn’t closed down. The market forces of supply and demand should have condemned such a kitchen to hell twice over already. But then again, perhaps most of the patrons did enjoy the food there - it’s just that they don’t know how good real buffet food can be (and at a more reasonable price too at some places). On a note of consolation, this wasn’t the worst buffet. But it’s pretty damn close.

Total cost: S$40
Rating: aaaaa

Swensen's @ Bishan Junction 8

2005-03-04T10:45:00.000-05:00

Lunch

Teriyaki Chicken Pasta - 2 Slices of marinated chicken on a bed of pasta with a side of steamed veggies
Various flavors of ice cream
Coke

Went out for lunch with the class just before collecting A level results. There were 9 people there - probably a record for my class, which can be considered pathetically inactive. So we shared three of the '3 for 3 March madness' meals plus orders of ice cream all round to share.

I've tried this pasta dish before at another Swensen's and I can say that the delightful flavor of the chicken is still as great. The pasta was probably the vermicelli type from the supermarket and was just the right size to absorb the slightly thick sauce from the chicken. The taste was just perfect, not too salty, not to bland. The steamed vegetables also added a certain natural sweetness to the saltiness of the chicken. The portion was a bit small though, leaving me rather hungry even after the main course.

Total cost: S$14.
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.swensens.com.sg/

Prologue

2005-02-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 'Thought for Food', my food blog (flog just sounds too weird though).

One of the basic necessities of all humans is nourishment. And since I usually eat 3 meals a day, there's much for me to critique. Info provided will not only include the menu but also the price (in local currency) and a rating out of a total possible score of five ticks (a). The ratings will be based on factors such as (but not limited to) taste, presentation, texture, temperature, taste, service, ambiance, value for money and, most important of all, taste . Where possible, I will also provide a link to the eating place's website. And should I have anything more to say, the text will be in the Sidebar and Eating Tips sections following.

I set up this blog so as to allow me to rant about the goods and bads experienced by my taste buds. Thoughts expressed are strictly my opinions and going by the saying that "one man's meat is another man's poison", I don't really care what the hell you think I say, so don't think you can sway my tastes. If you do however have comments you wish to be made known, please use the function of the same name available at the end of each post. Your identity will be kept as confidential as you want it to be (so it's not my stupid fault if you decide to tell everyone who you are).

Other than that, Enjoy!