Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog
A serious and sometimes not so serious personal blog
Entries about food, because who doesn’t love to share pictures and stories about the food they’re eating?
Well, sort of. It’s actually Happy V, the knockoff of Jollibee. It’s located on the 2nd floor of Lucky Plaza Mall on Orchard Road. Here’s a photo:
My wife was really excited to see that they serve palabok, but I’m not very fond of Jollibee so I doubt I’ll enjoy the knock off much either.
The toffee nut latte is the one exception to my rule about not liking Starbucks. Most of their drinks are watered down tasting and overpriced. What you wind up paying for is the name and the ‘experience’ of sitting in their cafe.
The toffee nut latte is still damned expensive, with the ‘venti’ costing 7.30 SGD, but it tastes good and there’s definitely something relaxing about sitting at a Starbucks enjoying a drink. I’m not so sure my enjoyment of the drink comes from the actual taste of it. It’s not bad but it’s not anything incredible. I think it comes from the fact that it’s a holiday drink, only available at this time of year, and it’s the first sign that Christmas is fast approaching.
Often considered the “national dish” of Singapore, this is a food that’s widely loved by Singaporeans and visitors alike. Also, it’s one of the few local dishes served on Singapore Airlines, giving you the opportunity to get a taste of Singapore before you’re even in Singapore.
Here’s a quick history of the dish (the links in this quote will all go to Wikipedia pages):
Hainanese chicken rice is a dish of Chinese origin most commonly associated with Singaporean cuisine or Malaysian cuisine, although it is also commonly sold in neighbouring Thailand, and found in Hainan, China itself. So-called due to its roots in Hainan cuisine and its adoption by the Hainanese overseas Chinese population in the Nanyang area (present-day Singapore), the version found in Singapore region combines elements of Hainanese and Cantonese cuisines along with culinary preferences in the Southeast Asian region. The dish was popularised in the 1950s by Moh Lee Twee, whose Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant operated from 1947 to 1997. [1]
You can find at least one stall at every food center selling chicken rice, as it’s usually called here. Typically you can get it either roasted or steamed. I prefer the roasted, but my wife loves the steamed version, which is probably why she loves Mr. Chicken Rice so much (shown in the top picture).
Mr. Chicken Rice is a restaurant in E-Hub, Pasir Ris in the Downtown East area that sells a specific type of steamed chicken rice. I don’t recall the whole back-story, but the chef that got that location going used to work for a five star hotel in downtown Singapore. Eventually, I think the restaurant decided they didn’t need him anymore, so he went out on his own and started up his own business. The restaurant at E-Hub is always jam packed, and even though I don’t generally like the steamed version it’s damn good!
To me, chicken rice is the staple dish of Singapore. It’s also my ‘safe’ dish. When I’m wandering back and forth in the food court and I can’t figure out what I want, or I’m scared to try something new, I always settle on the chicken rice. I know it’s good and I know it’s safe. The recipe is more or less the same wherever you go. All you have to worry about with chicken rice is whether the guy behind the counter gives you a bad cut of meat (too many bones) or not.
Chicken rice is also something that people apparently get really passionate about. For example, recently the Malaysian government tried to claim chicken rice (“”We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food. Chili crab is Malaysian. Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian,” in The Star newspaper.”) as a native Malay dish, which is kinda ridiculous. Even the name says Hainanese. Singaporeans were outraged by the idea, but I don’t see why either side is fighting so hard over where chicken rice belongs. The current status or love of the dish in either country doesn’t matter much when you realize that it’s originally, and factually, from Hainan in China. The dish doesn’t belong to Singapore or Malaysia. It belongs to China. It’s simply been imported to the two countries along with other cultural and culinary traditions. That’s one of the drawbacks of being a multicultural society of immigrants like Singapore, Malaysia and my own country (US) are. The only traditions you can claim as actually being your own are the ones that develop in the area. Previous traditions that you bring with you don’t really count. Also, it’s worth it to note that 44 years ago Singapore was a part of Malaysia, rather than an independent nation.
Regardless of where it came from, or who it ‘belongs’ to, chicken rice is a dish that I’ve come to love greatly and will come to miss greatly if I can’t find it when I leave this country. My loss on that one.
Just one of the many delicious dishes I’ve had the chance to enjoy since moving to Singapore. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Letting stereotypes pushed on you by the media influence the way you behave towards certain people is ridiculous and it could cost you some mighty good meals too!
If you’re not familiar with this dish it’s a flat bread that can come with a few types of fillings. The ones I’ve seen are cheese, cheese and egg, and even sardine I think. It’s similar to murtabak, and sort of reminds me of eating American pizza crust.
About three weeks ago my wife and I went to Marché at Vivocity. We’d seen the place quite a few times while at the mall and while passing through on our way to Sentosa, and we always thought about stopping there to eat but we never did. It’s a long way from where we live in Pasir Ris too so I’m not really surprised that it took us this long to make it down there.
Marché is a Swedish Swiss restaurant that serves food in a style similar to Manpuku, with in-store credit cards that you use when ordering and carry to the check-out register and all. It appears that cows are their mascot. These guys are sitting in front of the restaurant close to the door you exit from after paying. It’s a nice way to draw the eye and attract customers.
When we first walked into the restaurant there was a waiting area filled with people. Our wait wasn’t that long and the hostess at the desk was very quick, pleasant and professional. She had on a pretty neat outfit too. It looked like a milk-maid get-up. The place was starting to get crowded and when we showed up I think they opened up another seating area because they led a bunch of us into the restaurant at once to a seating area in a corner. It was way back past where the register is. It was nice because it was private, but it was also hard to get in and out of because of the line of people waiting to pay.
The first thing we did was walk up to the salad area and order a “medium” salad. The lady behind the counter then handed us a dish the size of a coffee cup saucer, smiled and turned away to work on something else. We looked at the plate in disbelief. Seriously, I’ve seen coffee come on bigger saucers. For 9.80 I expected more than that. It’s salad after all, not filét mignon. Then we saw the salad bar itself. What you see in the picture is it. That’s all. For a European restaurant their salad bar was lacking and didn’t even include things that are normally found on a salad, like mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon bits, croutons, shredded cabbage, kidney beans… In short the selection was severely limited given the amount we paid for our tiny medium plate.
The biggest let-downs was that besides having a small selection some of the items were running low and they hadn’t bothered to refill them. The “Fresh Sprout” (alfalfa) plate was empty. The lettuce was also pretty gruesome looking. I asked for both to be refilled with fresh food. The girl either didn’t understand completely or ignored me. She did put out more sprouts but left the lettuce as it was.
In an effort to spite the small plate size we overloaded it by going vertically where we couldn’t go horizontally. It wasn’t too bad, but … it just wasn’t 9.80 good. If you do go to Marché I recommend just avoiding the salad bar entirely.
For a few weeks before going to Marché I’d had this craving for pork chops and when we got there we saw that you could chops freshly grilled so we both went for it. You can see the meat before you choose it. They have it set out in pans over ice and you pick what you want by pointing to it. The cuts were pretty good sized. I think it was around 10 bucks for the meat. The potatoes you had to order extra, which was a bit odd. Everything there is bought by the item though, down to the buns or breadsticks.
This is probably the best thing to come of the whole trip. I’d never noticed this drink before going to Marché, though afterwards I saw that it’s stocked at the Shop N Save near where we live. It’s really good, and reminds me of Ginger Ale from back in the US. Since having it at Marché we’ve bought a few cases so we can have them with dinner.
I can’t say that Marché is bad, but it’s simply mediocre. The customer service is good. The ambience is comfortable. The food just wasn’t up to par though, especially not with the prices they were charging. I have to say though that my opinion is a little biased because we wound up getting sick later that night. After eating at Marché my wife and I both got headaches, felt lethargic in a recovering from an illness sort of way, and we had stomach… issues. So, Marché is one restaurant we won’t be returning to. At least, we won’t be returning to this one.
Another highlight of our evening was this delicious treat! I can’t remember what it’s called exactly. Double Brownie something maybe? It’s from the Ben & Jerry’s restaurant in Vivocity. It’s a tad expensive at 14.40 but it’s good for two people (maybe 3 since it was served with 3 spoons?) and is incredibly delicious! I suppose it depends on what types of ice cream you pick to go in it but this one came out great. I think I chose Cookies and Cream and New York Fudge Chunk. Just looking at this is making my mouth water. I’m a sucker for ice cream and baked goods!
This is just a short update to the post I made on the 4th about how great the wedding dinner we went to was. I’d originally said that the fruit tray might have been leftover finger food brought in from the area outside the banquet hall. Actually, there were multiple menus. That makes a lot of sense.
First of all, the top of the menu that’s pictured in the previous post says “Chinese Menu” across the top. I thought it might have just been the menu that was chosen for the dinner. Also, a friend said he was sitting at another table with other Muslims. I thought it was just for social reasons.
I heard this from someone who heard it from Raymond, the guy who threw the party, so I’m a little unclear on the details, but I think there was also a Malay menu and a vegetarian menu.
Most importantly, the fruit wasn’t leftovers.
They’re incredibly delicious but the reason I felt it was worth posting about again is that I found out that they’re Indonesian treats. The maid where we live is from Indonesia and when I offered one to her she got really excited and asked me where I found them. Apparently she’s been searching for them since she got here. I doubt she goes to Vivocity very often though.
So the next time we go I’ll bring a bag of them back for her.
Well, I was pretty busy today and I’m getting ready to leave for a wedding, so instead of along post, I’ll just post this:
MSG, which has known negative health effects, can be bought by the bag here. I always thought the stuff was illegal in the US, but I can’t seem to find any info on it right now. Maybe later when I get back I’ll do a little more digging.
Update: Information from MSGTruth.org:
Hey, that does sound familiar. There’s a common saying in the US that when you’re hungry you shouldn’t eat Chinese food because you’ll be hungry a few hours later. I guess that saying is based on the truth of what MSG does to you.
Of course, it doesn’t stop there. MSG is in a lot of foods that you wouldn’t have guessed. Check out the MSG Truth site and see for yourself!
Ok, so before I came to Singapore, if you’d asked me if I wanted a Moon Cake, I would’ve thought you were joking. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Moon Cakes, fairies, magic mushrooms… you get the point.
But, lo and behold, there are in fact moon cakes and they are… very good! Well, I suppose it depends on where you get them, but the ones I’ve had are good.
Here are pictures and descriptions of the two types I’ve tried so far:
This moon cake was given to me by the people I stay with here in Singapore. I’m not sure where it’s from or what the flavor name is exactly, but I was told it’s supposed to be champagne. It certainly tasted like it had some sort of alcohol in it. It was rather soft, but not squishy. The texture is thick and almost creamy. That white thing in the middle was an edible capsule that contained a thick brown cream that carried a heavy taste of alcohol. Overall, it was an interesting and satisfying treat.
This next one is Jade Custard flavored. It didn’t taste like any custard I’ve had before, but it was pleasant. The flavor is mild and again it had a thick, almost creamy consistency to it, though you can see from the pictures that the filling in both was more solid than fluid. This one had a white center. Not really sure what it was, but it was good too.
I’m not really aware of any special observances that go along with eating moon cakes, or if you’re supposed to do it in a particular way. I heard from a friend though that if you’re looking for the best moon cakes in Singapore you should go to Raffles Hotel. I guess they make them in the kitchen there.
This is just a funny conversation I had this morning that I thought I’d share.
I went downstairs to make a small breakfast and the house maid was washing some dishes.
I dug around in the fridge a bit, looking for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I held up a cup and said, what’s this? “Bangus juice”, she replied. I paused. I knew I had misheard her, because bangus is a fish and whatever was in the cup smelled slightly tangy. I set it on the counter. I’d put it away when I packed the cream choose cheese back into its corner.
So, we started talking about Philadelphia Cream Cheese. She’d never had any before I let her try some a few weeks ago. The stuff is delicious! I need to go search around for some bagels. It’s great on bread, but it’s not really complete with the bagels!
As I put things back in the fridge I asked her again what was in the cup and this time it sounded like she said ‘burt juice‘.
“Butt juice?” I asked. She started laughing and went out on the balcony and came back with a can. Finally I understood. The can had a depiction of birds on it. What she had been trying to tell me was ‘bird juice‘.
So, she said “You know of the bird spit?”
“Uh, what?”
“Yes, the spit from the mouth of the bird. Chinese think is very delicacy, and it is very expensive and rare.”
I started imagining how many birds would have to be milked for saliva to fill a can that size and then I realized how disgusting the whole thing was.
“I think I’d rather eat chilled monkey brains than drink bird spit.”
“Oh! You’ve tasted of the monkey!?” she asked.
I pretended I wasn’t surprised at all.
She went to the fridge and came back with a tupperware which she opened. I peered in and there were four little cakes inside.
“This is the monkey?” I asked.
“No… this is mooncake.” she replied. So, I pretended I was only kidding, because I seriously thought it was monkey cake or some other weird thing. When you’ve got a cup full of bird spit in the fridge, why not?
She insisted I try one, and it’s sitting here on a plate next to me. I hope it’s good!
Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog 