Happy New Year: Ieatishootipost's New Year's resolution.....

Goducate's Founder Dr Paul Choo featured as Asians of the Year

It has been a milestone year for ieatishootipost in terms to our commitment to help the less fortunate.  This year we managed to hit our target of raising $100k for Goducate's work in Sandakan.  Thanks very much to everyone here for your support and also to MHC Asia for their tremendous support in matching our contributions dollar for dollar.

As we look to 2012, I would like to pledge our continued support for Goducate's work.  Dr Paul Choo has told me that next year, we will be participating in their work in Medan to help farmers grow better coffee beans!  Now, that would be very interesting, especially for coffee lovers!  We will be making trips to Medan to see how a bit of education can help farmers increase their quality and quantity of their coffee crops!  Aside from that, I was told that Medan is also a great place for food, which is of course, a very nice bonus.

So I wish you all a very Happy 2012 and look forward to your continued support for our fund raising events!

Read about our involvement with Goducate here.

Fragrance Berkshire Pork Bak Kwa: Bak Kwa Factory Tour

Advertorial

Berkshire Pork (Kurobuta) Bak Kwa

I have always wondered how Bak Kwa is made.  So when Fragrance invited me to write about their newly launched Berkshire (aka Kurobuta) Pork Bak Kwa, I jumped on the opportunity to do a factory tour to see how raw pork is transformed into the tasty slivers of BBQ meat.

When I first heard of the Berkshire Pork Bak Kwa, my first reaction was one of skepticism.  Yes, you can tell the difference between Kurobuta (Berkshire) and normal pork when you are eating it as shabu shabu, but can you actually tell the difference when it is marinated and made into Bak Kwa?

The Paradox of Christmas!

The Paradox of Christmas


Why is Christmas a paradox? Well, one way to define paradox is "a situation which (if true) defies logic or reason".

So what is it about Christmas that defies logic?  According to the video, the paradox of Christmas is the fact that God came to earth, not in pomp and splendor but as a little baby in a stable.  That defies logic. That God came not to be served but to serve.  That defies logic.  That He would give up life in paradise to dwell on earth, knowing that one day he will need to die a painful death.  That also defies logic.

This Christmas, I feel like Scrooge.  I don't know why I feel so melancholic this year.  You would think that as a Christian, Christmas would be the most joyous time of the year for me.  But I am in more of a contemplative mood instead.

You Huak Restaurant: White Bee Hoon!

White Bee Hoon $12

This Cze Char place is famous for the White Bee Hoon!  White Bee Hoon?  Never heard of White Bee Hoon?  Well, I don't blame you, because it isn't quite a recognized Singapore dish yet.  I was told that there are several places in town that serves White Bee Hoon, but this one is by far the most famous.  When I was doing my reservist in Nee Soon Camp, I heard so many recommendations for this White Bee Hoon, that we organized a troop movement to recce it out.  Unfortunately, our first experience was a little disappointing and my reputation as a foodie took quite a beating amongst my fellow officers.

SMRT Circle Line Makan Session at Buona Vista: Spice Peranakan Restaurant

The opening of the Circle Line has made many great eateries more accessible.  This time round, I brought a group of foodies to one of my favourite Peranakan Restaurant, Spice Peranakan which is conveniently located in the Biopolis which is a short walk from Buona Vista station.  I have blogged about them previously when they were still at their old location at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre.  They have since relocated to the Biopolis and are now opened throughout the day which makes it very convenient to get your Nonya fix!

The ieat AGM: Crab Fest 2 report

Photos by OMark and Cactuskit

We came, we ate and probably depleted the ocean of 1 tonne of crabs. Well, at least a few hundred kilos.

Many thanks to all our readers who turned up for Crab Fest 2 last Friday! It was a blast as we had over 200 crabbers fulfilling their annual crab quota. I am sure no one left with a crustacean deficit!

The Crabs were all amazing, but the one that still stood out for me was the Alaskan King Crab steamed with egg white which really highlighted the natural sweetness of the crab. ($148 per kg). Coming in a close second is the Boston Maine Lobster in superior stock. ($98 per kg). The Man Tou with the Golden Sauce Crabs is still my pick for most addictive sauce!

It's been another great year for the blog! My book "The End of Char Kway Teow" won 3rd place at the Popular Reader's Choice awards and we managed to release the ieat hawker iphone app! We also managed to hit our target of raising $100K for Goducate to build Schools in Sandkan!  Praise God for His bountiful blessings!

All these things would not have happen without the support of our kakis and readers of the blog, so I would like to thank all of you for your support! Special thanks also to Soundman, Holydrummer, Mark and Cactuskit for helping with Crab Fest 2!


For those who missed out on Crab Fest, I had tried to get Chin Huat to offer our readers the same menu but it is not possible due to seasonality of the crabs.  However, they will offer a special discount for our readers for Boston Maine Lobster ($68 instead of $98) and Dungeness Crabs ($48 instead of $58).  Just make your reservation and mention Crab Fest.  Call Amy 67787198, 67757348 to book. Offer valid till 21 January.

Chin Huat Live Seafood Restaurant (11.30am - 2.30pm, 5.00pm - 10.30pm)
Blk 105 Clementi St 12,
#01-30, Singapore 120105 (Sunset Way)
Tel: 6775 7348

New Ubin Seafood: Kampung life revisited

Crispy Baby Shrimps: $12

What comes to mind when you mention Pulau Ubin?  Probably images of Kampong houses, kids running around in singlets and catching spiders right? 

I guess that is the kind of image that a restaurant called New Ubin Seafood wants to project in the mind of the potential customer and they have managed to do it to a certain extent.  When you step inside this rustic little restaurant inconspicuously hidden amongst the motor mechanic workshops in Sin Ming, you might momentarily imagine that you are in a little Kampong hut in Pulau Ubin!  And, just as Pulau Ubin had somehow managed to escape the ravages of development, this eponymous little shack of a restaurant seemed that have done the same.  In rapidly developing Singapore, shady little shacks like these are hard to come by!

The restaurant is run by Mr Pang, a retired professional who runs the restaurant as an excuse to have a  big kitchen to experiment with the kinds of food he likes to eat.  How else can you explain a menu which not only consists of atypical Cze Char dishes, but also western dishes like USDA Ribeye steaks and German pork trotters?


Steamed Baby Squid: $12

If you have ever dined in Pulau Ubin before, you might remember dishes which feature local seafood which are simply cooked so that you can enjoy the original fresh flavours of the Kelong.   Here at the New Ubin Seafood, that experience is re-created with the Crispy Fried Baby Shrimp and the Steamed Baby Sotong.  Mr Pang specially orders these fresh and wild caught from his suppliers.  These two dishes are excellent appetizers for your main meal or simply as beer snacks which you are order if you decide to sit at the bar counter instead!  4/5


Beef $10 per 100g, min 500g

The reason that they serve Beef Steak here is simple.  The owner likes to eat meat. Not only that, he likes good meat. So he buys USDA choice Ribeye, pan fries it and serves it with mustard, ketchup, fries and sauteed onions.  The meat quality is very good, but our steak was just slightly underdone that day and needed to be returned to the kitchen for another quick saute.

Beef Fried Rice

The real star is the fried rice they serve after the beef. After they cook the steak, the meat is cut up into cubes while the fats are removed and used to fry the rice. I know it is really bad for you but this fried rice is amazingly simple and yet simply amazing! It's one of those dishes that just hit your palate receptors with a flavour symphony. Sinful but shiok! 4.5/5


Boss Bee Hoon $6

Now, if you are all alone and don't wish to fork out $50 to try the beef fried rice, then a good alternative for your carbs is the Boss Bee Hoon.  Why is it called "Boss"?   Well, simply put, that's how the Boss likes to eat his beehoon.  On the surface, this looks like a simple plate of Bee Hoon fried with black sauce.  I suspect that the magic probably lies in the combination of Pork Lard and Dark Soy that gives the Bee Hoon its addictive flavour.  There's also a sprinkling of chopped Chilli Padi  strategically hidden amongst the strands of Bee Hoon to induce some pleasurable pain when you least expect it.  4.25/5


Fish Eggs with Chincalok and Petai Sambal $15

Eggs of any type are delicious. We are all created with tastebuds that seek out foods which are nutritious and there isn't any other food more nutritionally power packed than an egg.  It contains just about everything a growing embryo needs and that means lots of protein and fats which equals flavour. That is why Caviar, Salted Eggs and Hairy Crabs are right up there amongst the most yummy foods on earth!

So what do you get when you take the eggs of the Spanish Mackeral and fry it with another tasty ingredient called Cinchalok (fermented baby shrimp)?  Flavour explosion, that's what. Add a bit of sambal which contains belachan and you add yet another layer of umami flavour.  All you have to do after that is to balance out the umami with a bit of sour and a bit of bitterness from the petai and you have a dish which would make you finish a bowl of rice and ask for a second.  4/5


Shovel Nose Ray $4.50 per 100g.  Min 300g-400g

If you enjoy the gooey, gelatinous mouth feel of eating stuff like stewed sea cucumbers and are always the one who go for fish eyes, then nothing will satisfy you more than a whole Shovel Nose Ray head.   All that collagen is also great for those who want to reduce their wrinkles or make their lips look more like Angelina Jolie!   The shark is nice and gelatinous but the steaming sauce could do with a bit more oommph. 4/5


Mr Pang and his custom built smoker

As I alluded to at the beginning of the post, New Ubin Restaurant is an excuse for owner, Mr Pang house his extra large kitchen gadgets.  After our meal, he took me to the back of the restaurant to show off his smoker.  Yes, I also wondered what a smoker is doing in a Chinese restaurant. Basically he uses it to smoke pork belly and other stuff.  The smoke belly is actually quite tasty and I can just imagine how it would taste in a fried rice!

Conclusion

There aren't many places in Singapore where you can enjoy Steak and Cze Char and even fewer who serve rice fried with crispy beef fat!  We did not taste the crabs that day, but they have a big banner in front of the restaurant saying that if you buy two crabs, you get the third one free! (Sri Lankan Crabs, $40 per kg)  Might be a great place for your next Cze Char fix, don't you think?

New Ubin Seafood
Blk 27, Sin Ming Road
Singapore 575680
64669558, 91701281 Mr Pang
11.30am - 2.00pm,
5.30pm - 10.30pm

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak: Oooh the Chicken Wings!

Nasi Lemak $3.50

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak hardly needs any introduction.  Together with Ponggol Nasi Lemak, they are both probably the most well known Nasi Lemak brands in Singapore.  Both actually started out making those pre-packed banana leaf wrapped Nasi Lemak but expanded to serve Nasi Lemak Ala-carte.  In those good old days (they have been around for 50 years), Nasi Lemak was simply rice, eggs, fried fish and the sambal.  In fact, some Nasi Lemak aficionados insist that it is sacrilegious to have Luncheon Meat or even fried Chicken Wings with it!  Personally, I do agree that Nasi Lemak is about the rice and the chilli, but I still love to have my fried chicken wings!  So I guess you can brand me a fair weather traditionalist!

Earth Jar Treasure: Healthy Charcoal Baked Soup!

Salted Vegetable and Duck Soup

OK, so you have been pigging out a little too much lately and feel a little bloated and a lot guilty.  So you are looking for something a little bit more healthy in order to satisfy your conscience.   Perhaps you even have to face your cardiologist (or your wife, mother or whoever) soon, and dread having to tell them that you have been eating all the wonderful yummy cholesterol laden, artery clogging foods! What you need is a plan, a kind of alibi, so that you can enthusiastically tell them about that ONE healthy meal you had and give them the impression that you have been a good boy (or girl) all along!  What you need is this story about healthy medicinal soup!

Featured in Pioneer Magazine: What's Army Food Like Now?

 
Pioneer Magazine Nov 2011

I have received requests from readers to review Army Food before.  So here now is my official assessment!

Bottomline:  Much better than when I was in army but I wouldn't sign on just for the food!

Featured in Travel and Leisure SEA: Bloggers turned Authors

A bit late, but I just got hold of the article in Travel + Leisure SEA Sep 2011 issue where they featured my book as one of four books by bloggers turned authors!

Betel Box The Living Bistro: Colonial Food reborn

Roti Babi $6.90

I have wanted to try Roti Babi ever since I read about it in our forum.  The most famous place for this dish of bread stuffed with pork is at a Cze Char called Yut Kee in KL which is on my list of places to visit one day.   So when I heard about this little eatery in Joo Chiat serving Roti Babi, I had to rush down to see just what the hooha is all about!

Roti Babi was one of those foods that resulted from the Colonization of Malaya.  Said to be a dish first served by Nonyas, Roti Babi it is essentially a souped up version of the British fried bread.  The Nonyas had many business dealings with the British in the old days and so adapted this dish which they must have eaten during their business meetings.  Whiles the British simply fry the bread in bacon fat, the Nonya added a layer of minced pork and caramelized onions on top of the toast before deep frying the bread.  It was the Hainanese who who later made it available to the masses when they opened restaurants like Yut Kee in KL or Prince Coffee House to serve the foods that they were used to prepare for the Nonyas and the British when they were working as cookboys in their households.

Betel Box, The Living Bistro, is one of those quirky little places run by enthusiasts with a personal mission.  In this case, the owner, Tony Tan (Now you know why our President is officially known as President Tony Tan Keng Yam) happens to be a heritage buff who is a member of the Singapore Heritage Society.  He started a little backpacker hostel atop a Karaoke Bar in Joo Chiat a few years ago charging $20 per night for a bed with breakfast.  When the Bar owners got evicted, he took the opportunity to take over the premises and made it into a restaurant cum museum of sorts.  His idea was to bring back some of the disappearing cuisines of our Colonial past.

Now, I haven't had the chance to eat Roti Babi before, but compared with the photos of the Roti Babi in Yut Kee, the version here is a little different.  Instead of being stuffed with the pork filling and deep fried, ciabatta bread is topped with the meat and pan fried instead. (This is considered a modernized version, I guess)  Served with a traditional dip of Worchestershire sauce and chopped Chilli Padi, it's actually quite an addictive snack!  4/5


Laksa Goreng $6.90

Helming the kitchen is veteran Chef, Uncle Ben who is an experienced Nonya, Eurasian Chef who used to cook at Casa Bom Vento.  One of his signature dishes is the Laksa Goreng which is essentially a dried form of the familiar curry laksa.  You can also think of it as a Laksa flavoured Hokkien Mee.  The Kakis all liked the dish and its certainly worth a trip to try it if you enjoy Laksa.  4.25/5


Mulligatawny Soup $5.90

Another dish that is iconic of the British Colonial era is Mulligatawny Soup.   Essentially a dish from Madras, (modern day Chennai), Mulligatawny is Tamil for pepper soup.  This used to be a vegetarian dish which the Brahmins ate but eventually got modified for the British palate.  Again, I am not old enough to remember the days when this dish was enjoying the limelight.  I was told that some of the old British clubs like Cricket Club and Tanglin Club would still have this on their menu.  So, without a gold standard to compare with, I can only tell you that it tastes like a mild, watery curry in which some chickpeas and rice has been added.  Good for the experience so that you know what Mulligatawny soup is all about.  3.5/5

Conclusion

If you enjoy "Indie" restaurants with a bit of character and a bit of heritage, then this little hole-in-the-wall would be of interest to you.  The food is more like a modern take on the traditional foods and it's not just British Colonial dishes, there's a mishmash of other stuff like the Nonya burger and Kong Bak Pau which we didn't try.  The western dishes are pretty much your standard fare if you are looking for fish and chips and steaks.

Betel Box: The Living Bistro
200 Joo Chiat Road, #01-01,
Singapore 427471
8am - 10pm

6440 5540
This was a media invite

Ma Li Ya Virgin Chicken: Heavenly Soy Sauce Chicken!

Soy Sauce Chicken $14.80ea

So there we were, in front of this oddly named stall that sells Soy Sauce Chicken wondering why in the world it was called Ma Li Ya chicken?  Was the feisty short haired lady behind the chopping board named Maria?  My "A" level Chinese is so rusty that I had real difficulty in making out what the signboard actually said.  Then heaven opened and a beam of light enveloped us.

"Santa Maria!"  The words on the signboard miraculously morphed into something legible:  Ma-Li-Ya-Chu-Nu-Ji... Ma Ri Ya Virgin Chicken.... Maria Virgin Chicken..... ohhhhh......Virgin Mary Chicken!!