From Hokkien mee to Hainan chicken rice; murtabak to mee siam; you won't find a Singaporean who doesn't reminisce about our local hawker food. When we entertain guests from overseas, these are the dishes which we want them to experience so that they understand who we are.
The food at Hana-hana is very good value. I am not saying you will get top class Japanese food, but for a Japanese omakase meal, this is as cheap and good as it gets and you should leave the place feeling that you will want to go back again.
About four years ago, I picked up a book from the library that was simply titled "Steak". There are very few single words that have the power to command my immediate attention and this is one of them. The other is "Monnnnng!" which is what my Teochew name sounds like when it is uttered by my wife in an ascending tone. It usually signals an ominous change in the weather pattern which requires a drastic course correction.
Helmed by local born, Chef Martin Foo, the restaurant menu is a culmination of his many years of experience at Lei Gardens and Tung Lok group and his penchant for creativity and esoteric ingredients. What's more, Chef Martin keeps a spreadsheet on his customer's preferences so that he remembers what type of fish you like and how it is prepared!
This restaurant chain used to be known as Paradise Inn but had recently had a makeover. Instead of stools, now there are proper chairs and the dishes are now a little more refined but they are still dishes that you would expect to order at the zi char. More importantly the prices of most dishes are between $8 to $22 which is on par with zi char prices!
I must have walked past Lee Do Restaurant countless of times whenever I visit the Automobile Megamart, but it had never occurred to me that this austere looking eatery is one of the last guardians of Fuzhou cuisine in Singapore! I was equally intrigued to learn that they were the ones responsible for making cold crabs the popular dish that it is today!
I first met Kenjiro "Hatch" Hashida back in 2013 when he had just opened Hashida Sushi at level two of the Mandarin Gallery. I was at once smitten by his vintage anago tsume (sauce) which has an unbroken lineage of over 135 years!
With its harsh winters, remote location and pristine waters, Hokkaido has gained quite a reputation as a treasure trove of fresh food and ingredients. If you are talking milk, simply add the "Hokkaido" tag in front of it and it becomes super-excellent milk. Same goes with uni, potatoes, corn, rice, wagyu and many other ingredients!
It’s been a few years since I last wrote about Ah Liang and his then newly opened Chao Shan cuisine restaurant. Since then he has relocated to a bigger and brighter restaurant at Philip St, so we felt it was time to visit our Teochew Ah Hia again.
Curate is Asia’s first Michelin Chef showcase restaurant. Every quarter, it hosts a culinary pop-up event called "Art of Curate" where showcase the signature dishes of specially selected Michelin-starred chefs.
have been wanting to visit Candlenut for the longest time, even before they won a Michelin Star in the inaugural Michelin Guide for Singapore. Word had it that Chef Malcolm was doing great things with Peranakan cuisine, using his knowledge of western fine dining to bring Peranakan cuisine into the 21st century while still preserving its essential character.
Dashi Master Marusaya is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Singapore. It’s one of the few places I know which uses only natural ingredients to cook their food. So their dashi doesn’t just come out of a pack. It is made the traditional way using Rishiri kombu (regarded as the best in Japan) and aged katsuobushi (of which they are the distributor) which they shave at their premises. That is why they dare to call themselves “Dashi Master”!
