ieat Video Blogs: ieat learns to make Pulled Pork

I guess in Singapore, BBQ means putting chicken wings and sausages over a charcoal grill. The Aussies and British certainly would think of BBQ in the same way. But in in the US, the BBQ has a whole different meaning. Over there, BBQ meats are smoked over a long period of time such that a whole slab of Pork Collar becomes so tender and juicy that it can be shredded by hand. The slow smoking method also infuses the meat with a wonderful smokey aroma which is lacking if it was cooked in a conventional oven.

928 Ngee Fou Ampang Yong Tau Foo: Older than some in Ampang!

Ampang Yong Tau Foo $9

I sometimes wonder why certain foods in Singapore never quite take off even though they can be quite popular.  Aside from Satay Bee Hoon, Ampang Yong Tau Foo seems to fall into this category of dishes.

This stall has been dishing out Ampang style Yong Tau Foo for over forty years and is still pulling in the lunch crowd.  Yet in all that time, Ampang Style Yong Tau Foo had never quite taken off in Singapore even though many Singaporeans would go all the way to KL to eat Ampang Yong Tau Foo.  One might argue that it is because the ones in KL are much more kilat (awesome) than the ones we have here, but surely it doesn't take a tofu scientist to come up with a kick-gluteaus-maximus Yong Tau Foo right?  I think that if I got hold of a hawker stall, one of the dishes that I would sell would be Ampang Yong Tau Foo, but instead of using just fish paste, I would stuff it with minced pork and salted fish, deep fry them and serve it with a braising sauce.  Won't you like to try some?



Anyway, it is interesting to note that this Ampang Yong Tau Foo can trace its lineage all the way to Ampang in KL to a time just after Ampang Yong Tau Foo became famous in the 70's.  One of the stall owners in Ampang decided to expand his empire by setting up a stall in Singapore and chose this row of shop houses in Sembawang just outside of Nee Soon Camp.  It was, at that time, quite a ulu (outback) place that reminded him of home.   But after one year, he decided to balik kampung (return home) and bequeth the stall to his relative, Mdm Ng, who has since been running the stall.  The good thing about Ngee Fou is that it is still very much a family run stall and even though most of the servers wear Ngee Fou T Shirts, they are in some way or other related to the Matriarch of Tofu.



I guess the question on everyone's mind is "how does this compare with the one you blogged about at Foong Foong?"

Well, in short, it is still worth going all the way to Ampang for the Yong Tau Foo there, although the one here is not bad.  The braising sauce here is very good though and better than the one in Ampang, I felt.  However, they have since stopped using pork to fill the Yong Tau Foo and use only fish paste instead which is a bit of a shame.  The other really stark difference is the amount of filling in each item.  Whilest the one in Foong Foong is bursting at the seams, the ones here are emaciated and wrinkly such that you feel that you are eating mainly fried beancurd skin.  Still, as far as Ampang Yong Tau Foo go, this is still a good place to get your fried Tofu fix without having to stamp your passport and the sauce really does save the day. 4/5

Conclusion

This place is a staple for NSmen during reservist.  You still get a good feed, but how I wish that the next generation of hawkers would do something to rival the ones in Ampang.  It really can't be that hard.

928 Ngee Fou Restaurant Ampang Yong Tau Hu
928, Upper Thomson Road
Singapore 787121
64521801
10am to 8pm
Opens daily

Restoran Foong Foong: Ampang Yong Tau Foo is from Ampang

Ampang Yong Tau Foo

In Singapore you generally find three different styles of Yong Tau Foo.  The most popular style and subsequently the style found in most food courts is the type where the different ingredients are filled with only fish paste.  Then there is Hakka Yong Tau Foo and what sets them apart is the fact that the they use a mix of pork and fish as the filling.  Then, there are a sprinkling of shops selling "Ampang" Yong Tau Foo which is deep fried and served in a platter with a light brown gravy.

So just what is "Ampang" Yong Tau Foo and which Yong Tau Foo is the original one introduced by the Hakka people?

Marigold Fresh Milk: Oh Where Oh Where does my Milk come from?

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Just last week, I was having Teh Tarik and I noticed something really troubling. The milk the Teh Tarik man was using had only Chinese characters on it. Now, I don't know about you, but with the recent Melamine milk scandal in China, I wouldn't want drink a Teh made from milk coming from China, would you?

It seems that lately, we have been having a spate of food related scandals. The most recent being the problem with platicizers found in Taiwanese bubble tea as well as tainted pork coming from China. Not only that, but there is also the issue of the cattle abuse in Indonesia which led to the subsequent banning of the export of cattle from Australia. So I think there is a growing public concern about the source of our foods, which brings me to today's topic... Milk.

Sque: Drinks or Food or Both?

Snails $18

The Pub.  In Singapore that means the Public Utilities Board. In England that means a place where one can order a beer and some food.

The Bar.  For some people, that is the where you are called to after years of reading law.  For others it is where you go to sit on a high counter and order drinks and cocktails, try to drown your sorrows or just wait to see if the Bartender will drop the bottle that he is twirling in the air.

Soon Heng Fish Head Curry: The origins of Curry Fish Head cont....

In my previous post, I managed to establish that it was Gomez who started the whole Fish Head Curry craze in Singapore.  But when did the Chinese catch on?  Ah, that is a good question.  It's actually the best kind of question because I know the the answer.  And the answer is Soon Heng.

Well not quite Soon Heng.  Soon Heng is the name of the restaurant.  The man behind the restaurant is Mr Hoong Ah Kong who arrived in Singapore in 1936 and started working as a kitchen hand.  But being the smart man that he was, he decided to learn how to cook Indian food rather than Chinese food because he figured that a Chinaman serving Indian food would make quite a good marketing gimmick.  He subsequently opened his first restaurant, Chin Wah Heng in 1951 just two years after the famous Gomez Curry and when Gomez Curry started selling Curry Fish Head, he followed suit.  The flagship restaurant, Soon Heng was subsequently opened in 1975.  So since Gomez Curry is not longer in operation, Soon Heng would be Singapore's (and indeed, the world's) oldest Fish Head Curry restaurant!

Although Mr Hoong's Fish Head Curry started off as a typically South Indian Style curry, it has since evolved to become more localized.  The use of spices is less heavy handed and there is the addition of coconut in the form of Kerisik (dry fried shredded coconut) gives the curry a very nice and savoury flavour.  The fish head is fresh and steamed before being finished in the curry just before serving.  Personally, I the flavours of this curry is very balanced.  It is sweeter, milder and not as tangy as other Fish Head Curries and I actually like it that way.  However, if you prefer your fish head curry fiery and sourish, then this one might not give you the endorphin releasing and sweat breaking punch you seek.  For me it was a 4.5 but some of my kakis feel it lacks the punch, so the overal score is 4.25/5




The other signature dish here is the black ink Sotong.  This dish is part of a selection of pre-cooked side dishes which include Curry Chicken, Sayor Lodeh (Veg curry) and Beef Rendang.  The sauce the the dish is very nice but the sotong didn't have that nice toothy bite as it has been in the bain marie for a little too long.  It would have probably been better earlier in the day.  4/5


Conclusion

If you are a Curry Fish Head lover, then Soon Heng is definitely a pilgrimage you need to take since it is Singapore's oldest Curry Fish Head restaurant!

Soon Heng Restaurant
39 Kinta Road
Singapore 219108
6294 7343, 6294 6561
Khai Chew: 82884623
Mon to Fri: 10.30am to 8pm
Sat/Sun/PH: 10.30am to 5pm

Prive Restaurant: Ieat Charity Makan Session

Registration is closed

Notice is hereby given that registration for the Charity Makan Session is opened!

For this session we will be having a five course lunch menu with wine pairing and will have experts to talk about Dining Etiquette as well as Wines.

Here are the details:
Venue: Prive at Keppel Island
Date: 3 Sep 2011 (Sat)
Time: 1.30pm (1pm registration)
Price: $120 per pax
*Seats are very limited as some have been pre-sold

ieat Video Blog: How to get Wok Hei in your Fried Rice

I had the opportunity to meet up with Chef Vincent Theong of Orchard Cafe who gave me a few pointers on how to fry rice so that you have that Wok Hei fragrance.  Now, I know that most people don't have such a big fire at home, but the few tips he gave about frying rice are still very helpful.

Tips on Frying Rice

Penang Road Cafe: Prawn mee with Ooommph!

Penang Prawn Mee ($8.90 with pork ribs, $6.00 without)

Ah Penang food.  Who doesn't like it?  I guess we all enjoy it because it is so much like Singapore food, yet different. One good example of this is the Hokkien Prawn Mee.  The soup in Penang is usually very robust.  So much so that when my friend, the popular food blogger, CK Lam visited Singapore, it was hard to impress her with our prawn noodles.  I don't blame her.  Prawns are plentiful in Penang, which is why they are famous for their Hae Gor (fermented prawn paste).  When I visited Penang, I too found that their prawn noodles were so much more robust than the ones we have here.  Part of the reason is that they use these tiny prawns to make the soup which end up looking like Hae Bee (dried shrimps) after they are cooked.  These tiny crustaceans are a real flavour booster!  Don't play play, OK?

ieat Makan Session: Pecka Pizza

Many thanks to everyone who turned up for our Pizza and Kopi session last Saturday!  Thanks also to Byron and Damien who provided food for the evening.  Damien had left for Italy last year to learn the art of the true Napoletana pizza from Pizza Maestro, Gaetano, whose disciples include last year's World Pizza Champion, Akinari Mikishima.  Damien tells me that his pizzas are made with wild yeast that has been harvested in our very own backyard, making this a pizza that is unique to Singapore!

Orchard Cafe: A Case of observing Flowers while Riding a Horse

Pig Trotters with Bee Hoon

It's hard to blog about buffets because it's a case of 走马看花, ie trying to appreciate the flowers while riding at full gallop on a horse.  Often there is so many different things to eat that you eat a bit of each but fail to appreciate the individual dish on its own merit.  But that is precisely the reason people like to eat buffets. At least this is the general consensus amongst our Facebook Fans.  The reason people like buffets is because they get to eat a lot of different foods at a fixed price.  The tendency at buffets is thus to eat a bit of everything and as much of it as you can so that you get your money's worth.

Roadhouse: The 1 kg Terminator: Finish it and it's on the House!

The Terminator!  $48 to take up the challenge

Look, its hard to be a foodie and a doctor at the same time.   People often ask me how a doctor can be a foodie.  As if insurance agents never go sky diving.  I do struggle at times between the need to feed and preserving the wealth of health.  The way I strike a balance is to spread my feeding frenzy out such that I get to eat a really good meal for every four other healthy balanced meals.(My five green juice and oatmeal cereal every morning for eg)  So, most of the time I would be eating lots of fruits, veggies, cereals and all the other stuff that is anti this, that and the other. (Anti-oxidant, Anti-inflammatory,  Anti-hedonistic etc).

However, my struggle with temptation came to a climax with the 1 kg Terminator.   It's not so much that I want or need to eat a 1 kg burger, but more of the fact that I want to see someone else eat a 1 kg burger.  No, it is not a sinister means of getting more patients to the clinic.  It's just that there is something within us all that finds a  perverse sense of pleasure in watching others vicariously undertaking feats that border on insanity with a certain prelude to pain.  That is why we enjoy watching shows like "funniest home videos" and "Wipeout" and in the case of the foodie, "Man vs Food". 

What a wretched man I am!  For the good that I know I should do, I do not.  Instead I do those things that I know not to do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the foodie living in me that does it. So please read this story with the caveat that eating a 1 kg burger is something neither I nor the Health Promotion Board endorses.  But then again, no insurance agent would ever endorse your plan to climb Mount Everest without oxygen, although he might close an eye to your attempt at scaling the learning tower of burger patties.

But if you have a big appetite, and I know that there are many here who do, then $48 for five 200g Wagyu patties (Total 1 kg Wagyu Beef!) is a pretty good deal even if you finish just half of it (single pattie already costs $24).  But if you do finish it, it is FREE and you get your photo on the hall of fame!  Here's the small print.  You have to finish the burger and the sides within 20 mins and you are not allowed to share the burger with your friends even if you don't finish it.


Plain Jane burger$24

So how does the 1 kg Terminator taste? I really don't know since I didn't attempt to eat it, but I conjecture that the first pattie would taste almost the same as the Plain Jane burger I had and subsequent patties would taste less awesome as the law of diminishing returns tells us.  The patties here are made from Wagyu Rump and char grilled in a Josper grill to seal in the juices and give it a nice slightly blacken crust and a smokey aroma.  So it is a pattie with a nice beefy flavour and a good bite.  I would have preferred my pickles slightly sweeter and diced as the sourish gherkin sometimes took centrestage instead of playing second fiddle. Would have given them slightly higher marks if they used a nice Monteray Jack or American cheddar instead of the very mundane processed cheddar singles. (That should change by the time you get there)  4.25/5



Shrimp in a blanket $18

As a whole, the Roadhouse serves very good olde hearty food. The starter of prawns wrapped in bacon with Maple syrup dressing is a good example of the hearty type of American cuisine they serve.  The jumbo prawns are bouncy and the bacon and maple syrup go very well together.  Nothing particularly fancy, but its a good reliable starter for sharing.  4/5

BBQ Kurobuta Baby Back Ribs $26 for half rack, $48 for full rack

Sous Vide seems to be the in thing nowadays and a lot of restaurants are employing it for slow cooking.  Certainly it is more convenient to Sous Vide something like baby back ribs which would otherwise be cooked in a smoker.  The principle is the same.  By slow cooking the ribs at a low temperature for a long time, the tough cuts like ribs turns into tender, flavourful, melt in your mouth meat.  With Sous Vide, the process is very well controlled and much less messy.  Of course, I would still love to eat my BBQ backs done the traditional way, ie dry rubbed and smoked with hardwood but that is not so easily available in Singapore.  Sous Vide is a better alternative to what some restaurants do, ie stewing the meat first to tenderize it before roasting in an oven.  

The baby backs here are done such that the meat still retains a bit of a bite rather then being so soft that it falls off the bone. It is done deliberately as Yuen (The boss) prefers to have the meat tender like the kind of pork ribs that you get in Bak Kut Teh.  The ribs here are very good although personally, I would prefer less heat and more sweetness in my sauce.  It also lacks that smokiness that comes from long hours of smoking.  But they are still pretty easy on the palate and should satisfy your craving for ribs.  4.25/5




Warm Salted Triple Nut Tart $12

The inspiration behind Roadhouse came from hours of watching shows like Man vs Food and Diners, Drive in and Dives, both shows of which Yuen and I enjoy watching.  It's modeled after the American Diner which is a laid back place that you can drop in to get a burger and milk shake.  If you come in the mornings you can get a nice stack of pancakes, Eggs Benedict or if you are particularly hungry, bacon, sausage, eggs and mushrooms... yep, it's called American breakfast.

Desserts are a particular strength of Roadhouse as their share the same kitchen as Prive Bakery Cafe.  The one which I would recommend is the warm salted Triple Nut Tart which is something like a sticky date pudding on a shortcrust pastry with chopped nuts, drowned in a salty caramel sauce. 4.25/5


Choc and Malt $12

The Choc and Malt is actually quite straightforward and will appeal to people who like Horlicks and all things malty.  Two scoops of ice cream, malteses, chocolate syrup and a good heap of Horlicks on top.  Yes it is something you can do at home but so is a cup of Milo and people still order it from the kopitiam!  4/5

Conclusion

If you are a growing boy/girl with a great appetite and no problems with your cholesterol levels, then the 1 kg Terminator looks like a great deal especially if you can get it free if you finish the whole thing.  Unlike Adam Richman's feats in Man vs Food, the Terminator actually looks quite doable.  So it would be very interesting to see how long this challenge is going to last as I would expect that the wall of fame should soon be filled with photos of Singapore's biggest burger muchers.


Roadhouse
#01-07, Block 13, Dempsey Road
(Just next to/behind PS Cafe)
Singapore 249674
6476-2922
All day dining on Weekends
Lunch and Dinner on Weekdays

Al Mahboob Indian Rojak: Sup Tulang, Rojak, Mee Kuah, All Red, All Good!

Indian Rojak

It is said that there is no such thing as Indian Rojak in India.  Well, if you think about it, it does make sense since "Rojak" is a Malay word and Indian Rojak is found only in Singapore and Malaysia.  As to where Indian Rojak actually started, the details are still vague at this point.  I was told that that the dish came about because the Indian community adapted the idea from watching their Malay friends selling rojak and came up with their own version of it.  In Singapore, the sauce is usually served separate from the ingredients.  However, if you head up to Penang where the dish is known as Pasembur, the sauce is poured over the ingredients and so it looks more like the Malay style rojak.

Nam Chai Restaurant Bak Kut Teh: Seafood Bak Kut Teh. Where's the Bak Kut?

Seafood Bak Kut Teh (Rabbit Fish featured)

How can you call a Bak Kut Teh (Pork Bone Tea) a Bak Kut Teh if there is no Bak Kut(Pork Bone)?  At least, if there is no Teh, it is still quite acceptable, but no Bak Kut?  Might as well order your Ice Kachang Mai Pang Sng (Ice Kachang, no Ice).

I guess when you are in a seafood paradise like Sandakan, it does make sense to use the most available form of meat and cook it in the familiar soy and herb based broth.  So Seafood Bak Kut Teh, it might sound like an oxymoron, but hey, when I heard about it, I just gotta try it.

ieat Video Blog: How to Cook a Steak

Chef Tim teaches us how to cook the perfect steak! This really is one of the most simple things you can cook at home!

Fragrant Sauce Chicken: Just as the sign says!

Soy Sauce Chicken $32 each (2.5kg chicken)

Think about it.  If you told someone who hasn't tasted chicken rice before that you're going to bring him to eat a dish of boiled chicken, he'd probably tell you that he has to go see a man about a dog.  I think in general, most people would want their meat grilled or fried but not just boiled.  Stewing is ok and it's fine if you're cooking a soup, but boiled meat?  Somehow the lack of the Maillard reaction dulls our perception to meat.

How to Season a Wok: The Science behind it and Step by Step instructions

Video on how I seasoned my new Wok

Why I Walked the Way of the Wok

My mum has not bought a wok for the last 30 years or so.  For as long as I can remember, she has always been using the same cast iron wok since I was a kid.  I, on the other hand, have been changing woks every one or two years because my teflon/ceremic woks get from non-stick to all-stick over time.  So one day I decided that enough is enough.  From now on, it's One Man, One Wok.

The other reason that I got myself a traditional Wok was because I have been wanting to do some Wok experiments for the longest time.  I wanted to chase the elusive Wok Hei and learned the art of capturing it.  For that, I needed not just a Wok, but some serious fire power.  I have ever toyed with the idea of being able to bottle liquid Wok Hei like how they bottle liquid smoke.  Just imagine frying rice at home on your kitchen stove with Wok Hei aroma with just a few squirts of Liquid Wok Hei!  It would be the beginning of a new epoch of Chinese home cooking! If you know of any professor of food chemistry who can help me understand the science of Wok Hei, please write to me at leslie.tay@gmail.com.