The adage “Teochew lang haolian” (Teochews love to boast) never fails to validate itself whenever I meet with a (good) Teochew hawker. This time it’s Mr Tay Ah Liat, 73 who has been selling kway chap for almost 50 years! He started his craft as a young 20 something year old at the now defunct […]
[email protected]: Modern Hainanese Coffee House with Ramen, Mee Sua and McMuffins!
Remember the old school Hainanese Coffee House? It’s a place where you can get western food, Hainanese pork chops, hor fun and a good cup of sock brewed coffee! They were operated by Hainanese chefs who wanted to give Singaporeans a cheaper alternative to European restaurants in the old days. In Hong Kong, they have […]
Ah Ter Teochew Fishball Noodle Bar: Forerunners of Hawker Cuisine!
Our hawker cuisine has been undergoing a period of maturity in the last decade or so. In the 70’s and 80’s we witnessed the progression of hawkers from pushcarts to hawker centres. Then in the 90’s and 2000s, some of the famous ones moved into the food courts and franchising began. In the last decade or so, we have seen how certain dishes like wanton mee have gone on to open their own specialty restaurants.
My friends at Daddy's Kitchen are now serving their delicious peranakan dishes at the basement of Hong Leong Building right next to Lau Pa Sat! That's really good news for people working around the area who want to have a delicious bento box filled with dishes that still have that home-made quality about them!
My quest for the ultimate charsiu rice has brought me to Kim Heng Roasted in Serangoon. Foodies living around the area would be familiar about this place which has been around for three decades.
Mr Avocado Exotic Juice: Avocado Shakes at Alexandra Village! Liquid Gold!
Updated 8 Aug 2018 How time flies! It’s been 11 years since I last wrote about Mr Avocado! I visited the stall recently and finally got to meet the man who started the whole avocado shake phenomena at Alexandra Village Food Centre. He told me that he was the first to start selling avocado shakes […]
A good teh tarik is not easy to make. First you have to start with good ingredients — that goes without saying. You will never produce a good cup of teh tarik with lousy tea dust. But, that is only half of the equation. Even if you have the right blend of tea and condensed […]
Ah Seng Hai Nam coffee is nothing short of a living museum which we can be proud of. The passion that drives the family's insistence of doing everything the old school way in the face of modernization is a true inspiration for us all.
I am on the hunt for good charsiu again. In the past, I have always focused mainly on the quality of the charsiu. But this time round, I am looking not just for good charsiu, but I am also focusing on the sauce and the rice.
The reason I am thinking about charsiu rice this way is because of unagi don. In the past year, I have written quite a bit about unagi don and to me charsiu rice is very similar to unagi don. Both are grilled meats on rice with a sweet sauce. The big difference, aside from the fact that one is a fish and the other, a pork, is the quality of the sauce that goes with it.
Restaurant Labyrinth: Michelin Star Singapore Cuisine
Modern Singaporean cuisine is no longer considered "new". It really started more than a decade ago with Chef Willin Low's Wild Rocket. Nowadays, a "laksa" this and a "chilli crab" that can be found everywhere, even at fast food chains, which begs the question:
I generally eschew buffets. I find most of them to be pretty generic and nowadays I usually only have them when it is part of the hotel breakfast package. Oh, there was a time when I used to love buffets. But that was a long time ago when my appetite was much bigger and my palate, less discriminating. Buffets were a great idea then. You starve yourself for the whole day, then pay one price and try to eat more than your money’s worth of food. It used to be a profitable venture for me, but not anymore since I can’t eat as much and the prices of buffets have gone up significantly in the last decade.
Eastern House of Seafood Delicacy: Lobster Hokkien Mee!
I first wrote about Eastern House of Seafood Delicacy in 2014 and since then we have been back there for our family meals quite a few times. The food has always been good and prices reasonable and we like that it is located at the bottom of a secluded block of flats in Chai Chee. They have just relocated and even though they are in the heart of Geylang, their new place still has that "ulu" (secluded) feel and best of all, there's free parking on the premises!
