Astons Prime: After Wagyu, now its Aged Beef!

USDA Prime Aged Ribeye Steak 220g $43.90 nett

Steak lovers can rejoice now that Astons has started aging his own beef.

The Aged Beef Steak has long been the holy grail of steak lovers and is often only available at exclusive Steak Restaurants. The process of dry aging basically involves storing a piece of meat at a controlled temperature and humidity for around 21 days so that the meat undergoes a controlled decomposition. During this time, the protein starts to break down into amino acids. One of these amino acids is glutamate, the magical molecule that tingles the umami receptors on your tongue and producing an irresistable urge for you to say "Shiok!". You might be wondering what is the big deal about leaving a piece of meat for 3 weeks to rot and why it is so much more expensive? After all, you could buy a beef steak and leave it in the fridge for 3 weeks right?

Well, part of the cost of Aged Beef is the fact that you need a really well marbled piece of meat to start with. Without all that fat, the meat will dry out too quickly. So you start off with top grade meat, USDA Prime Ribeye in this case,and then you leave it for 21 days in a controlled environment. At the end of the 21 days, the outside of the piece of meat becomes grey and scary. The outside of the piece of meat is then removed and thrown away. Whatever left is your prized Aged Beef. So it is the combination of using quality beef plus wastage that really drives up the price.



Aston's strategy has always been to offer the best value beef steak in town. We just had the opportunity to enjoy A5 Japanese beef last month and this time round he is out to spoil the market for Aged Beef.

Now, you are seldom going to be able to eat USDA Prime Ribeye steak for less than $50. But Aston has now taken the extra step of getting his supplier (Indoguna) to dry age USDA Prime Ribeye to his specification. Indoguna has already been starting to age beef in Singapore, but Astons supply of Aged Beef is done to his particular specifications.



If you have been following the blog, you would know that my experience with local Aged Beef and been equivocal. Somehow the ones that I have tasted just did not live up to the hype. I think it is because aging beef really is an art rather than a science. It is not always 21 days, somtimes it is more, sometimes less and the only way to know is to have an expert inspect it daily. So this sort of things really does take experience.

Our group of Steak lovers went down to taste test Astons Aged Ribeye steaks and we all gave it the thumbs up. It is juicy, tender and flavoursome with a hint of foie gras flavour. This steak must be taken slightly charred so that it develops the full beefy flavour for that ultimate steak experience. I think it is early days yet and with more experience they should be able to produce an even more tasty steak. Even as it is, we all gave it 4.5/5

My only grouse is that the 220g portion is not thick enough for the steak to get really charred on the outside but still juicy inside. You would need a steak of at least 350g for that. So I am hoping that Aston will be able to offer a 350g Aged Ribeye Pittsburg style steak soon!

Conclusion

Cheapest Aged Beef Steak in town and a must try for all steak lovers. I think this one should be made "Astons Prime's House-Steak" and be a permenant item on the top of the menu.

Check out PChong's take on Aston's aged beef on ShiokHochiak.

Special for ieat readers

For the month of October, print out this blog post and get a drink and soup with every Aged Ribeye ordered. That's got to be the best value steak set meal for $43.90 and there is no GST and no service charge. Every steak is served with your choice of two side dishes.

Astons Prime
176 Orchard Road Centrepoint
#03-45/46/47

Nominated for Best Food Blog in the Asia Pacific Blog Award

I am very honoured to have been nominated as one of five finalists for Asia Pacific Blog Award's Best Food Blog category.

Ieatishootipost is up against the top food blogs from Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia so the competition is very keen indeed!

So I am really depending on you guys to support me by casting a vote for ieatishootipost! Your vote counts for 50% of the total marks so please do click on the badge below and cast your vote!



No registration is required so it would take a few clicks to vote. Do note however that you will need to vote for all the different categories as well in order to complete the voting process and you are allowed to vote once every 2 hours.

Thanks very much for your support!

New Layout Ieatishootipost

Please bear with me while I apply the finishing touches to the new Ieatishootipost layout.

I designed this layout to be simpler and neater than the old design. I hope you will find it more user friendly.

Do let me know what you think.

Hand in Hand Beijing Makan Session Photos

Photos by Cactuskit and ieat

Many thanks to everyone who registered and turned up for the makan session! Big thanks also to Champagne Alice for organizing the event.

We had a great evening of food and fellowship and I think everyone would agree that Beijing Hand in Hand has great food that is quite value for money. I enjoyed the sliced pork belly which is my usual dish but that night I discovered that the roast chicken was really very good as well. It was served with a very tasty spiced salt and the chicken was wonderfully tender and juicy. 4.5/5 This is definitely a dish I am going back for very soon. The Xiao Long Bao was very good and this is one of the very few places you can go to find Xiao Long Bao at 10pm at night as the restaurant closes at midnight.

Special for ieatishootipost readers:

Mention the blog and get a 10% discount!

Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant
141-143 Jalan Besar
Between Hindoo and Veerasamy Roads
6297 1398
11am to 12 midnight daily

Crystal Jade Dining In: Best Dim Sum since my Hong Kong Trip

Crispy Roasted Pork Belly $9

What is your favourite part of the pig? Well, mine are pork cheeks for braising, pork chops for Tonkatsu, pork ribs for Bak Kut Teh and Pork Belly for anything. Well, not really anything. Pork belly is good for Kong Bak, Char Siew, Bacon, and of course Sio Bak. Amongst these, if I were to pick one particular dish that I would order for my last meal, it has to be roasted pork belly. But not just any roasted pork belly, it has to be a roasted pork belly like the one in the photo above and served with a dash of mustard.

This type of "Sio Bak" should not be confused with the more familiar Sio Bak (Roast Pork) that we commonly see at hawker centres. Yes, in essence they are both pork belly seasoned with salt and five spice powder and roasted, but there is a world of difference in the execution and consequently the taste of the dish.

Firstly, you will notice that for this Sio Bak, the rind is very fine, thin and crisp. This is something that none of the hawker variety can achieve because it needs to be roasted in a commercial gas oven rather than a charcoal oven. There is also a special technique which they employ to make the rind so thin and crisp like a potato chip. Then there is the way they cut the pork so that you don't get the chunky bottom layer which can sometimes be quite dry. The result is a one inch cube of Pork Heaven.

I had this type of Sio Bak in Hong Kong two years ago and there is not many other pork dishes that makes me savour each mouthful like this one does. Unlike other recipes, I feel that this way of cooking the pork allows one to really taste the original flavour of the meat. There is that wonderful crunch of the pork rind followed by a thin layer of fat which has been rendered to have the texture of butter and then the juicy, tender and savoury meat itself where you can really taste the nutty flavour of pork. If there is only one way to cook pork belly, this has to be it. 4.75/5


Har Gao $4.80 for 4 pieces

Our visit to Crystal Jade Dining In was quite unexpected. It was an afternoon after Church and we and the Godfamily just wanted to bring the kids somewhere to celebrate ieatprincess' birthday. Regular readers of the blog will know that I seldom like to blog about places that everyone already knows about, but I felt that the Dim Sum I had that day really hit a level that was quite unexpected even for Crystal Jade.

It turns out that though Crystal Jade is a very big chain of restaurants, the different restaurants have their own chefs who determine the final quality of their dishes. So even though the standards at Crystal Jade is already quite consistent across the board, somehow this particular restaurant has just that extra "Ooomph" that is worth blogging about.

My most memorable Dim Sum was at the Federal Palace restaurant in Hong Kong two years back. Since then I haven't found another place for Dim Sum that could rival that experience. Most of the Dim Sum I had in Singapore had been very good. Some, like the one at Cherry Gardens were quite exquisite but at the end of the day, I wasn't looking for expensive high class Dim Sum. All I wanted was a place where I could bring the family for the classic Dim Sum favourites again and again.


Baked BBQ Pork Bun $3.60 for 3

So I was very pleasantly surprised when I found that the Dim Sum at this particular restaurnant seem that have an extra "H" factor ("H"=Hong Kong). The Crispy Roast Pork was the first dish and I confess that after that dish I was already won over. But the rest of the dishes that followed was also very good. The Baked BBQ Pork Bun is one of the best I have tasted. The bread was so wonderfully soft that you could almost leave your fingerprints on its delicate surface as you handle it. One bite and you would be rewarded with instant gratification from the buttery soft bun perfectly complementing the sweet charsiew filling. Give me 10 of these and a cup of Teh Tarik (no they don't sell this here) and I would be very happy. 4.75/5


Baked BBQ Pork Pastry with Preserved Egg $3.80

This is the first time I am having a Charsiew Sou (Charsiew Pastry) with preserved egg and I have to say that the combination actually works very well. The Pastry is very good. Nice and flakey and served nice and warm. 4.25/5


Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf $4.20

I would also highly recommend the lotus leaf rice here. The glutinous rice has got just the right texture and has been infused with a wonderful special smoky leaf flavour which makes it very palatable. 4.25/5


Steamed Radish Cake with Conpoy and Egg White $3.60

When it comes to Radish Cake (or what we like to call Carrot Cake), I really enjoy how Hong Kong chefs would make sure that the texture is soft and smooth and that the cake itself is adequately flavoured. I think the photo speaks for itself. This is one radish cake where you can really taste the radish. Now this is one thing I cannot understand. Why is it that most places don't put more radish into our radish cakes? Afterall it is not as if it is an expensive ingredient like conpoy right? 4.5/5

Conclusion

My current favourite place for Dim Sum. The food is excellent and reminds me of the Dim Sum I had in Hong Kong. Rather than trying to add exotic ingredients to make their Dim Sum special, they simply make very good Dim Sum. The prices are resonable and the service is quick so there is really not much to complain about except that I get too full too quickly. The view from the restaurant is remarkable as well. It is directly opposite Universal Studios in Sentosa and would be quite a sight when Universal Studios is completed.

Post Script: I was back again yesterday just before posting this and the food is the same as the first time I ate there except that the charsiew buns were even better than I remembered and I readjusted the rating from 4.5 to 4.75.

If you are heading there, do look for the restaurant manager, Jane and let her know you are a blog reader! She will take good care of you!

Crystal Jade Dining In
VivoCity #01-112
62785626

Bismillah Biryani: Our Kakis' current favourite Briyani

Mutton Dum Biryani $6

I think one of the most gratifying aspects of being a foodie is when you discover something tasty which your kakis have not tried before and when you bring them to try it, they congratulate you for having discovered "the find of the century". OK, they did not actually say "the find of the century", but maybe something close like "find of the year". Granted, Bismillah Biryani might already have been quite well known, but at least amongst our group of seasoned Kakis, they sure haven't heard about it until now.

It all happened one afternoon when I was due to meet some friends at a cafe around the Dunlop St area. I got there early so I decided to sniff out the place to see if there is anything good to eat. Then I spotted a big banner in front of Bismillah Biryani with the self proclaimation that they have the best Dum Biryani in Singapore. Now, I have heard it all before and self aggrandizement is seldom reliable. But somehow I was drawn to the stall like a sotong (squid) to a flourescent lamp.

There in the stall, another poster on the wall unabashedly proclaiming that the stall does not exist to make money but to make tasty and healthy food. Yep, sure.

Wouldn't you be skeptical? I sure was until I started speaking to restaurant owner Arif. Within the first few minutes, I was convinced that I am dealing with something special. He had me at "Our Basmati rice is half an inch long".

Arif has been running the restaurant for five years and he is the best kind of chef owner you can get. Having retired early, he claims that he really is running the business to show Singaporeans what a "Real" Biryani is all about rather than to make money. I will leave it to you to judge whether that is true, but one thing that I am convinced about is that this is one man who is rather obsessed about this one dish.



The key to a great Biryani is Basmati Rice which is arguably one of the world's most expensive rice. As such there are many attempts to use other types of rice to pass off as Basmati. You can't really blame the hawkers if they are to sell a plate of Biryani for $3. The most obvious characteristic of Basmati is its ability to elongate to at least twice its length when cooked. However, it is not just the lengthening of the rice during cooking that makes a Basmati a Basmati. The other key characteristic is an alluring fragrance when cooked. In fact, the Hindi word "Basmati" means "The fragrant one" and the rice owes its fragrance to an aromatic compound which is also found in Pandan leaves (Screwpine). There are many fake "Basmati" out there which really is a cheap long grain rice which lacks the fragrance of real Basmati. It is hard to tell unless you ar familiar with Basmati rice. Even if the sack is labelled "Basmati", it could still be fake as the following video shows.

Because Basmati is low in starch, it is light, fluffy but not sticky when cooked. So you are never going to be able to make sushi with this rice. One of the tests of a true Basmati is to drop a handful of cooked rice on the floor and it is supposed to separate like grains of sand. The low starch also means that Basmati has a low glycaemic index making it more suitable for diabetics than normal rice.

A good Basmati rice needs to be aged for 2 years in order for the rice to dry properly. When the rice is dry, it should be opaque whilest a translucent grain just means that the rice is still quite young (and still "wet"). The reason you need to age the rice properly is because a dry grain is the key to a great Dum Biryani as it would readily absorb all the flavours of the spices.



Now, in Singapore, Biryani is often call Nasi Briyani (Bri instead of Bir). Being an Indian dish, the Malay word, Nasi shouldn't even be there. But this shows how Biryani has evolved to become a Singaporean variation which incorporates the local Malay influence. So in recent years, some people have tried to differentiate their Biryani by calling it "Dum" Biryani. The word "Dum" means that the Biryani is cooked by baking the rice with the meat and spices in a large pot. According to Arif, the word "Dum" is redundant since all Biryani is supposed to be "Dum" Biryani.

The real Dum Biryani takes a lot of skill in order to get the temperature and cooking time right so that the meat is tender and the rice is not overcooked. A lot of "Dum" Biryanis actually take short cuts by cooking the rice and the curry separately and combining them together in a big pot to finish off the cooking process. Arif claims that he is the only person he knows who actually cooks the rice and the marinated meat in the pot over a charcoal fire with charcoal on top of the pot as well. This, according to him is what Dum Biryani is all about.


Our Dum Briyani Expert

I have always said that there is only one ingredient needed for a great dish and that is "passion". It is passion that drives a man like Arif to purchase a professional spice grinder to grind his own spices and procure a whole sheep so that every pot of Biryani that he cooks contains meat from the same animal. It also takes a lot of confidence not to use any butter or ghee to flavour the rice but to depend solely on good quality spices.

I am not a Biryani expert, but I am happy to report that both Liverpool and Cactuskit who are Biryani afficianados both agree that this is the best Dum Biryani they have eaten so far. The Biryani rice has so absorbed the fragrant spices that it lingers in the mouth for quite a while. I found the mutton to be excellent. It's tender and fragrant and does not have that gamey flavour because the meat has been blanched in hot water before marination. Amazingly the rice is quite light since they don't use a lot of oil or ghee in the cooking, so you can eat a whole portion without feeling too guilty. 4.75/5

Do note that they do not douse your rice with curry here. To do that would be to do injustice to an already aromatic and flavourful rice. So if you are expecting to eat your Biryani that way, you might be dissappointed.

Conclusion

There are many more things I can tell you about Biryani, not because I am an expert, but because each time I sit down with Arif, he has so much more to tell me. So I commend this Biryani to all Biryani Buffs out there. This is one Biryani that is made with much passion and attention to detail and the only decent thing to do is to at least give it a try and tell us know what you think.

Bismillah Biryani Restaurant
50 Dunlop Street
Singapore 209379
93827937
11am to 10.30pm daily

Taste Paradise: The Singapore Dream

Pan-fried Foie Gras with Peking Duck Reduction - $16.00 per person

The story of Taste Paradise must be what most Singaporeans would think of as living the Singapore dream. The two brothers who own the latest classy Chinese restaurant worked their way up as Cze Char Chefs to proud owners of a chain of "Paradise" restaurants in Singapore. They first opened Paradise Seafood restaurant as a little Cze Char place in the boondocks of Defu lane in 2002. Now, 7 years later, the brothers own a chain of four restaurants including their latest flagship at the very fashionable ION Orchard.

With Taste Paradise the brothers are gunning for the upmarket and hip Chinese cuisine. "Hip" in Chinese Cuisine (my interpretation anyway) just means that instead of serving you a whole plate of noodles, the portions are plated individually so that it is more like the western way of dining. Then of course there is the use of expensive ingredients, some borrowed from the West. So you get to partake of prized Chinese ingredients like Sharks Fins, Sea Cucumber and Bird's nest alongside French favourites like Foie Gras and Caviar.


Century Egg with Lime Sherbet - $8.80 per serving (serves 4)

Our session started with the Century egg with lemon sorbet which is quite a fancy mouthful of chopped century eggs with Japanese preserved ginger and lemon sorbet. It was nice and very unique but I don't think that it tasted that much better than the good old century egg with preserved ginger that you get at the rojak stall that would justify the price. 3.5/5


Steamed Shanghai Pork Dumpling with Foie Gras $4.80 for 3

What would justify the price are the Xiao Long Bao with Foie Gras. Now, this one is worth ordering a few baskets of. I have tasted Xiao Long Bao with Foie Gras before but they tend to overpower the Xiao Long Bao by putting too much of the Foie Gras in the filling. This one is just nice. You can slowly savour the wonderful aroma of the Foie Gras in the soup without it getting too jialak. 4.5/5

Now, if you can't get enough of Foie Gras, you can order for yourself one portion of their pan fried Foie Gras with roast duck reduction, and that will definitely satisfy you. This dish is done western style, but the Chinese inspired sauce really does complement the expertly fried Foie Gras very well. Crisp on the outside, buttery in the middle with a savoury sweet Hoi Sin based sauce. It actually tastes better than some Foie Gras that I have eaten at western restaurants. 4.5/5


Roasted Peking Duck -$38 for half and $68 for whole

The Peking Duck is good but holds no big surprises although I like their flour based pancakes as it thicker and offers a bit more bite to the other type of pancakes which are more like very thin crepes. 4/5


Classic Green Shark's Fin in Supreme Broth - $28 per person

They do have a "Green" sharksfin soup where no sharks were harmed in the making of the dish. I would have opted for that version, but unfortunately I was served real Sharks Fins Soup that day. I always felt that the taste of Sharks Fin Soup comes from the soup stock, so it really isn't necessary to use real sharks fins. This dish is served with a deep fried Shallot Pastry stick which is quite nice. The soupt is very tasty with strands of dried scallops (Conpoy) adding to the umami flavour. 4.25/5


Crispy-fried deboned lamb ribs in Beijing style - $24 for regular serving

Lamb is not really a dish which I order in a Chinese restaurant and I really don't have a frame of reference for the fried lamb dish. It is a deep fried piece of lamb which must have been braised first till all the fats are buttery soft. This is very nice but if you have already eaten the Foie Gras, you would feel your coronary arteries starting to clog up if you order this dish as well. If I had a choice, I would just go for the Foie Gras. 3.75/5


Braised vermicelli topped with simmered crab meat - $22 for regular serving

The seafood bee hoon was a nice change of pace from all the wonderfully rich food that we were eating that afternoon. The bee hoon has soaked up all the sweetness of the crab meat and tastes very good. That is the good, the bad is that it lacked was a good Wok Hei and a toasted crustacean flavour which I feel is critical to the enjoyment of this dish. 3.75/5



We concluded our most impressive meal with a Salted Egg Custard bun which you can see is very well made such that the fillings are just oozing out. This one is very good. 4.25/5

Conclusion

This type of meal will set you back $80++ per head but if you are just after the standard fare the prices are actually quite ok. I had a look at the Dim Sum menu and their prices are actually not bad considering the classy ambience of the restaurant. Char Siew Paus are $3.60 and Har Kaus are $4.80 per basket. So it is a place where you can go to really impress someone or bring the family for Dim Sum.

Taste Paradise
2 Orchard Turn
#04-07, ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 9660

This was an invited review

ieat Video Blogs: ieat learns to make Miso Soup!

Miso Soup is the most basic of Japanese Cooking. My mother used to tell me that when you have no money you eat rice with soy sauce. Chef Tom tells me that in Japan, if you have no money, you eat rice with Miso Soup.

In this video, Chef Tom shows us how to make a very simple miso soup. Although, in Singapore, it will still be cheaper if you ate rice with soy sauce as all these Japanese ingredients are not cheap!

If you would like to invite Chef Tom to your home to conduct a Japanese cooking class, do write to leslie.tay@gmail.com.

We are looking for sponsors for future videos. Do write to leslie.tay@gmail.com if you would like to sponsor a video series.

Check out the rest of the ieat Videos here.

Chin Huat: Live Seafood: There's more to Seafood than just Sri Lankan Crabs!

Live US Geoduck (pronounced "Gweeduck") special promo price $98 each

Geoduck is one of the most commonly mispronounced seafood in Singapore. This giant clam which is found in the waters of Canada is actually pronounced "Gweeduck" and has nothing to do with a duck. The Chinese call it a 象拔蚌, lit elephant trunk clam which I think is a more reasonable name. Predictably, with its phallic shape, many cultures around the world consider the Geoduck an aphrodisiac. Another interesting bit of trivia is that the Geoduck is one of the longest living organisms in the world and can live up to 160 years of age and grow to 2 metres in length. I guess the one we had must have been a juvenile Geoduck.



Geoduck is often served as a sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce. But for those who like their food cooked, the restaurant also provides a steamboat with a very nice herbal based broth that really brings out the natural sweetness of the Geoduck. For the uninitiated, Geoduck has a very crunchy texture, very much like eating woodear fungus but with a subtle seafood sweetness that would make you think of the cold waters of the northen Atlantic. I prefer to have mine quickly blanched in the soup. It's an excellent way to start a seafood meal. 4.25/5


Dungeness Crab Bee Hoon

I think when you mention "crab", most Singaporeans will take it to mean Sri Lankan Mud Crabs which is probably the most popular species for our seafood table. There is of course the urban legend about why Sri Lankan crabs grow to so big. If you haven't heard about it, it goes something like this: Sri Lankan crabs are mud crabs that live in the riverbed and are basically savengers which means they eat all the rotting material at the bottom of the rivers. Now, there is the custom of throwing corpses into the river as part of the burial ritual which provide the crabs with the extra special protein that makes their claws grow to the size of your face. I think this sort of stuff is probably not true as most of our crabs would have come from a farm. But hey, I am sure it has turned some people off Sri Lankan crabs!


Lao Ban Niang Jr, Amy, with Dungeness Crabs $58/kg

Anyway, the crab we had that night was not the Sri Lankan Crab but the Dungeness Crab which grow in the pristine cold waters of the Northern Atlantic/Pacific Ocean. The last time I had Dungeness Crab was when I was in San Francisco and I remember them selling these ready boiled along the bay area. Because they come from the Ocean rather than the river, the taste is more delicate and sweet. If you are not careful, some mud crabs, like the Indonesian variety can taste a little muddy, which is why it is best served as Chilli or Black Pepper Crabs in order to mask the muddy flavour. With Dungeness Crabs, you get a fresh and sweet tasting crab which I personally feel should be eaten simply boiled so that you get to taste the real sweetness of the crab meat. The dish we had that night was a crab bee hoon which was also very good. With these crabs, the legs actually contain a lot of meat, but the claws are not as big as their Sri Lankan cousins and tend to be a bit dry. Overall, most of our kakis gave this dish 4.5/5



Our next dish was the braised Giant Grouper. When we walked past the tanks, we saw these massive giant groupers each the size of a pig and I wondered how they would serve the fish. I mean, the fish is live right? So logically, you would want to eat it fresh. It might be wierd but I can imagine the whole fish being steamed and served in a bathtub of soy sauce, ginger and shallots which would probably feed a whole wedding reception.

Obviously that is not going to happen.

If you want to try Giant Grouper, you really do need to eat it at a place where there is a good turnover. Over at Chin Huat, they sell two Giant Groupers over the weekend. They tell me that they have customers who like different parts of the fish. The head is so massive that one Grouper head is enough to make a few dishes! Other people like the belly and some specifically request for the tail.


Braised Giant Grouper Fillet $30

We had Grouper fillet "Hong Sao" style where the meat was braised in a claypot with tofu, roast pork, mushrooms etc. I found the meat a bit tough and quite frankly even though the dish itself is very tasty and goes well with a bowl of rice, there really is no special reason why you need a Giant Grouper to make this dish. 3.75/5

But in all fairness, I think that this part of the Grouper is probably not the best bit. Perhaps if other parts of the fish were used, this would have been quite special. Maybe our Giant Grouper experts out there can enlighten us on which is the best part of the fish to eat?


Golden Prawns $15 onwards

Although the chef was mum about what kind of flavour goes into the Golden Prawn dish, our kakis recognised it straightaway as Pumpkin Prawns. Well, most of us have already tasted the excellent Pumpkin Prawns at Siang Hee so this one was a dead giveaway. Now if you have not tasted the Pumpkin Prawns at Siang Hee, you might actually be pleasantly surprised by the Chin Huat version. But one can't help but compare. I thought the batter was a little too chewy when it should be more crispy and the gravy was a bit too watery when it could be thicker. The sauce was however excellent with the fried Man Tou. 3.75/5


Dong Po Rou $16 onwards

We found that the servings at Chin Huat were quite generous and so by the fourth or fifth dish, we were already quite full. By the time the Dong Pou Rou (Briased Pork) hit the table, we were all quite stuffed already. The pork was impressive to look at but I found the sauce a little too sweet and it lacked that elusive "Ma Ling Braised Pork" flavour. The Man Tou were however very nice done. Not too oily and the crust was very thin. 3.5/5


Durian Pudding $4

The Durian Pudding was a real surprise for many of the kakis. This tasted exactly like durian but the texture is nice and smooth without all the durian fibre. It was an excellent way to end the meal. 4.5/5

In case you have not heard the story, this Seafood Restaurant is currently run by a young couple who inherited the restaurant when the boss passed away under very strange circumstances. The story was reported in the news a few years ago when their father went missing for a few days. They eventually found him in an empty shophouse just a few doors away from their restaurant because their dog was seen barking frantically at the shophouse door. Since then, Amy and her husband, Jason had taken over the running of the restaurant. They recently renovated the whole place and is now a bright air conditioned restaurant with an Al Fresco area. However, they have still think of themselves as a HDB Cze Char like the old days and so the prices are not as expensive as those you find at other "live" Seafood places.

Conclusion

If like me, you have been eating just Sri Lankan Crabs then perhaps it is time to try something new. Ocean crabs like the Dungeness Crabs are very sweet and the flavour is "cleaner" than the usual Mud Crabs. I think as far as live Seafood goes, Chin Huat is pretty reasonable and Amy is a very nice host, so this is a great place to go if you are looking for your next seafood feast!

Postscript:



Guess who turned up for dinner the week after our visit? Now you might wonder what is the big deal about President Nathan visiting a particular restaurant. After all, he is the President, not Gordon Ramsey so what does he know about food? Well, from talking to people who know the President, he is quite a foodie and judging from the various restaurants he has dined at, I would say he really knows how to enjoy food. But more importantly, he always gets invited to dinner by his "Kah Kia" ie the ministers, perm secs etc. So naturally, they would want to make sure they bring him to somewhere good right?

To see the other President's Picks, please click here


ieatishootipost Special
Look for Amy and tell her you are an ieatishootipost reader and get a 10% discount!

Chin Huat Live Seafood Restaurant
Blk 105, #01-30
Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way)
Singapore 120105
67757348

Sin Kee Chicken Rice: The Original one from Margaret Drive?

It is time to settle the issue of the Chicken Rice at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre which has been a subject of much confusion. When I blogged about Xin Ji Chicken Rice years ago, many readers have written in to tell me there the chicken rice stall there was not the original one and that they had moved to another location. As with lots of these stories, I have difficulty trying to substantiate it and so I basically left it hanging. (Very much like the chicken)

This time round, I had the opportunity to personally talk to the son of the owner of that original stall at Margaret Drive when I heard over the forum that they have reopened their stall in the new Mei Ling Street Food Centre. According to him, (this is his version of the story) his mother was the original stallholder at Margaret Drive. However, some 15 years ago, she suffered a stroke and so they stopped selling their chicken rice. The owner of the stall then rented it to new tenants who took over the stall but used the same name. A few years later the son decided to reopen business again but this time over at Mei Ling Street Food Centre. Now, if you have another version of the story, do share it with us here!



As far as chicken rice goes, this is yet another good one, though not head and shoulders over the rest. The rice was good, the chicken was good and the chilli was good. The owner specifically said that theirs is a Cantonese style chicken rice which means that they don't use any ginger in the preparation of the rice or the chicken. I would give all three items 4/5



Conclusion

I am quite sure there are many long time fans of this stall who have followed them from their days at Margaret drive. There was one such Professor from NUH who was dining there that day and he is one of those regulars there who attest to its goodness. So if you are a long time fan, why don't you lend your support for this stall?

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice
Blk 159 Mei Chin Road
Mei Chin Food Centre
#02-22
11am to 8pm
Closed on Mondays
64739525

Shi Hui Yuan Hor Fun Specialty: Liverpool's Favourite Hor Fun

Mention Mei Ling Food Centre and the one stall that comes to mind is the Hor Fun. You probably would not know the name of the Hor Fun stall as most people would simply refer to them as "Nor, that Hor Fun from Mei Ling St Food Centre lor!"

Liverpool has been telling me about this Hor Fun even before they underwent their renovation. However, somehow we just did not find the time to go and try it. Now that Mei Ling Food Centre has just reopened in their new premises, it seems to be an opportune time to get a taste of this Hor Fun at last.

I guess there are no surprises here. The Hor Fun was excellent and you can tell from the taste of the gravy that it is still made with much passion. I think the sauce is one of those which they never make a batch from scratch. I suspect that there will be some leftover everyday which they will add new ingredients to make the gravy for the next day. That means that theoretically they might have molecules of stuff in there since 1969!



The stall has been around for 40 years and the owners are proud of it. Unfortunately the mom suffered a stroke and is now unable to cook. However, she is still at the stall supporting her husband and daughter. The daughter has recently returned from Hong Kong to help take over the running of the stall! So that means we are at least going to enjoy their recipe for at least another generation!

Conclusion

If you are a fan of Hor Fun, this is one place that you must make a point to visit. I highly recommend the pork ribs, mushroom and chicken feet hor fun. 4.5/5

Shi Hui Yuan Hor Fun Specialty
Mei Ling Food Centre
Blk 159 Mei Chin Road
#02-33
7.30am to 2pm daily
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Singapura Restaurant: Introducing the ieateam members

Cold Crabs $5.50 per 100g

Ieatishootipost started as a simple blog about the best Singapore food four years ago. The blog is four years old this month and has surpassed 7 million hits. When I started out, it was just my attempt to eat and take pictures of the best hawker food that Singapore has to offer. Four years on, there are nearly 1000 posts but the job is far from over. There are still so many places with so many dishes still waiting to be discovered!

Ieatishootipost has evolved to be more than just a one man blog. At its very core is a group of crazy ieaters who continue to plan what to eat next at the time when they are still eating their current meal. This community grew from being a handful of kakis to a small community who banter regularly in our forum. Two months ago, the facebook group was started and now we have over 3000 facebook kakis.

Now with the forummers and facebookers we have a critical mass of kakis with which we can organize more interesting makan sessions. But the task is really too much for one person to handle. In the past, I relied on our seasoned kakis to lend a hand with the makan sessions. But now that we plan to do at least one or two a month, I felt that it is time that we formally appoint an organizing committee.

So let me introduce to you our ieateam. Cactuskit is now the administrator of the forum with Byron and Khim as moderators. The rest of the organizing committee are Champagne, dr.azarael, holydrummer and holybro.

We had our first meeting, where else, but over a makan session. So here is our very first report.


Red Wine Chicken $12 (small)

Singapura restaurant is one of those places that just has that air of authenticity about it. I don't know why, but I just get very excited when I walk into any restaurant whose doorway is like time tunnel that transports you back to when you still had to memorize telephone numbers. Yes, this is a place that still has those floral wallpapers which I remember helping my mom select when I was still a kid!

This restaurant sells Foochow cuisine and we had a sampled their signature dishes. First up was the cold crab. The beauty of the cold crab is the fact that it is just about to molt, so it has a soft shell inside of the harder outer shell. So sometimes it is also known as the double shell crab. At this stage, the crab is also full of "roe" which really isn't "roe" since it is a male crab. The yellow "roe" is in fact milt, which is the nice way of saying crab sperm!

O....K.....

Anyway, the crab was very good. It is eaten, cold of course, simply dipped into some plum sauce or chilli. I liked mine with just a bit of vinegar. The milt was creamy and the flesh was solid and sweet. 4.25/5

The next signature dish was their Red Wine chicken which is a dish that our Forum Administrator, Cactuskit cooks himself at home. So of course, he tells me that his version is even more tok kong than the one we had that day. The red colour is in fact made from red yeast rice which is a source of naturally occuring "statin". It is the same stuff that is sold in health stores as Hypochol which is used to lower cholesterol. So eating this dish is actually good for lowering your cholesterol too! I was told it is a dish that pregant women would eat during their confinement. So now we know why Cactuskit has the recipe down pat. Afterall his has had four confinements to perfect his recipe! 4/5


Prawn Rolls $16 (small)

Now the dish I really liked were the Prawn Rolls. These are made almost entirely from fresh "Sua Lor" prawns which have been lightly seasoned then wrapped with "Peng Seh" (pig mesentary) and deep fried. I like it because it is a way of enjoying the natural sweetness of the prawn. If you were to compare this with ngor hiang, then you might be dissappointed because it doesn't really have a very strong flavour. The flavour is more subtle, but the texture of the prawn with the crunch of the skin is very good. 4.5/5


Thai Style Pomfret $65 (almost 1kg, "Dao Chior")

If my dad were ever to eat this next dish, I know what he would say. As a teochew, really, the only way to eat a fresh white pomfret is to steam it with preserved plums, tomato and ginger. For a teochew, to fillet a pomfret and then deep fry it really is a waste of a good fish. However, as far as fried fish goes, they executed this so well that Holybro managed to eat all of the bones of the fish. The thai salad that came with the fried fish adds a nice sweet and sour flavour to complement the crunch. 4/5


Aromatic Crispy Duck $48

When the aromatic crispy duck hit the table we all understood why it was called "aromatic". You could smell the woody spices especially when the waitress started cutting the duck. I felt though that it was just a tad dry and would have been better if it was more juicy. 4/5


Pork Ribs $12 (small)

The pork ribs were done very well. The texture was excellent. Not too soft that it still held its shape but just tender enough so that it melts in your mouth. I like pork ribs and this one is pretty good. 4.25/5


Foochow Noodles $10 (small)

The last dish turned out to be the one that I would think about going back to eat next week. The Foochow noodles were very similar to braised Hokkien noodles and the noodles were braised just right and had absorbed all the wonderful clam flavour. This is the must order noodle dish! 4.5/5

Conclusion

It's old school and a very nice place to bring the extended family for a decent meal. The prices are reasonable and its 80s decor will bring back lots of great childhood memories. The dishes that I would definitely order again would be the cold crabs, prawn rolls and Foo Chow noodles.

Special for ieaters

Mention ieatishootipost and get $10 dollars off for the first $60 spent. It is good to note that the restaurant does not charge the 10% service charge.

Singapura Restaurant
Blk 9 Selegie Road
#01-31 Selegie House
Tel: 6336 3255
Lady Boss: Valerie