It takes a one month reservation to get a seat in this 20-seater restaurant. While the food was decent, it still left me somewhat disappointed. I would say it isn’t at all worth the same kind of trouble you go through to get a table at say the 25-seat L’Astrance, booking at least 1 month in advance . I wasn’t allowed to take any photos—not that the presentation was particularly inspiring.

I had an uninspiring crab meat bisque, followed by an overcooked halibut sitting on a bed of tasty lentils and a delicious flourless white chocolate hazelnut cake. It is depressing eating dried out overcooked fish when you’ve set expectations high. It didn’t help that the lentils were delicious. It’s like having the most luxurious bed and a bad pillow.

To redeem itself the interiors are cosy and this funny sign made me giggle.

Buko Nero
126 Tanjong Pagar Road
Telephone: +65 63246225

Nothing beats a late night mee goreng (malay fried noodles) for supper at Bedok simpang.

Kiwi friends Sue and Hugh made stew, wonderful sweet potato patties and a pound cake topped with coconut and gula melaka!

And the only dish I would eat with chicken gizzards. Winter melon soup with chopped up gizzard, chicken breast meat and liver. I should get one of those traditional steaming pots we have at home so I can make soup like this. The best bits come with scraping the flesh off the walls of the melon which goes down perfectly with the tasty soup—all sans MSG.

Did something a little different and went to the West side to have chili crabs at bukit batok instead of East Coast. Wasn’t too bad at all. I wished the mantous were bigger though. Everything else was delicious and not surprises. I love eating in Singapore, with the humidity in my hair and every dish is exactly how I remember it.

One of my favourite restaurants—Soup restaurant on Seah Street (by Raffles Hotel) is still around after nearly a decade. I could never recreate the samsui ginger chicken, a recipe brought to Singapore by the Samsui women—women Chinese migrants of Cantonese and Hakka descent who came and worked in labourous construction jobs. They were sadly mostly spinsters in search of fortune and a better life.
Lotus root soup common place in a Cantonese household (where I grew up)
Ginger chicken that you eat wrapped in lettuce leaves

or if you like order a side of olive rice. (below)

Soup Restaurant
39 Seah Street
Singapore
Tel: +65 6333 9388
(Lunch: 12 pm – 2.30 pm)
(Dinner: 5.30 pm – 10 pm)

A great place for an afterwork drink, but not quite my choice of hangout for a Friday or Saturday given so many options. The hip and trendy curve keeps getting steeper each time I return.

Still not quite sure how the middle east theme is related to the chivas bar. A sex and the city 2 movie inspiration? Surely not.

Anyhow, it’s a beautiful view overlooking the container storage area at Tanjong Pagar. Klapsons while intriguing and delightfully quaint, still somehow has a ‘work in progress’ vibe since I last visited it at pre-opening in 2009.

Fabrika @ Klapsons Singapore
15 Hoe Chang Road (tanjong pagar mrt)
17 Floor

First day back at work and desperately trying to catch up with blog entries from spending a hectic week back home.

This time, I hung out in the kitchen to relive the old days with my mother. We made Ngoh Hiang (5 spices in Teochew dialect but somewhat a feature in Peranakan households), first steamed and then deep fried.

Ingredients:
500g minced pork
prawns
bean curd skin
carrots (grated)
diced water chestnuts
five spices powder
shaoxing rice wine
oyster sauce
salt
pepper
corn flour
cream cracker crusty bits (for texture)

Directions:
season the minced pork with oyster sauce, shaoxing rice wine, salt, pepper, a sprinkle of corn flour. throw in the grated carrots and diced chestnuts to marinate overnight.

Then carefully spread them on a sheet on bean curd skin and roll them up. My mother’s rule is to steam the rolls in a steamer pot until you smell the fragrant spices. Turn off the fire, allow the rolls to cool before deep frying. Keep the rest in the fridge and deep fry the rolls when you next want to indulge.

And the final result after steaming the roll, you deep fry it and slice it up into bite size, ready to serve!

For brief moments, I was fending off my drooling dog as I was pounding biscuits in the motar on the floor.

It’s been a while since I had a core-shaking retro olfactory meal and each course served at The Tippling Club just got better and better, only that the “snowball” dessert fell short. My only regret is that I didn’t have time to return to try dinner.

All the molecular gastronomy nonsense aside, dynamic Australian duo chef Ryan Cliff and mixologist Matthew Bax bring to the table fancy but sensible dishes with all the frills, foam, enzymes and all. Still, it doesn’t confuse, each dish comes with simple ingredients made luxurious and plated beautifully.

Amuse bouche came in the form of char-grilled green peppers served with a miso soy foam (above) that was delightful, leaving a smokey trail in the mouth.

And the scallops, oh the scallops bathed in a potato and something soup. I desperately tried to listen in to the introduction amidst interesting conversation with friends. Nevermind that I didn’t get the dish in its entirety, I remember exactly how it tasted and I would have it over and over again.

I’m having dreams about the Porcini mushrooms gnocchi course that wasn’t really gnocchi—made with porcini purée and an enzyme developed in the lab that gives the “gnocchi” a starchy fullness of potatoes when dipped on boiling water, served in a broth infused with fresh mushrooms and herbs just before serving. It tasted like the richness of the earth distilled in a spoon.
slow cooked pigeon breast served with curry foam.

I wasn’t a fan of the dessert of yuzu curd served alongside sudachi and white chocolate. It was an interesting waxy texture that brought back not so fond memories of me trying to eat a mothball when I was a kid. The dessert while sounding all citrusy given its contents was hardly what I was looking forward to. Granted, it tasted good, but my emotional baggage of childhood mothball eating trauma got the better of me. okay, I am weird, I was a camphor ball eating child because I thought they looked like big mints.

This lovely spot is a winner and a great date place. I’m definitely coming here on my next date.

The Tippling Club
8D Dempsey Road
Singapore
Tel:+65 64752217

Following my dental check up at long time friend Dr Yellowskeeeen’s, we got chatting about food blogs, the unforgettable pumpkin pie from 2004/5 and I realised how far behind I was with my blog. I’ve been eating alot, reading and spending the rest of the time trying to orientate myself given my non-existent sense of direction. Everything is so hip, bourgeois and high tech here, I feel like I’ve been living under a rock. The other day, I caught myself reading the Chinese ads on the MRT and looking for directions in Chinese characters… if anything, I suppose I am on my way to becoming effectively bilingual after all these years.

I got home at 6am after a red eye flight and found my mother in the kitchen deep frying chicken wings for the nasi lemak she had prepared with home-made sambal belachan served in endearingly mismatched tableware alongside a pot of nonya chicken curry. That’s the signature of eating at home with no guests, where everything is put together casually, but lovingly—exactly how I grew up without fuss, order or precision. And my mother doesn’t have exact recipes either because everything is about feeling and taste, trial and error.
Char Siew, Siew yoke and steamed egg of a custard texture in the background next to a bowl of tofu cooked in fermented bean sauce (one of my faves)

chicken satay to bathe in a thick, sweet and spicy peanut sauce

I’m abit bummed about the poor photos I’ve taken so far and am working harder on the photos to come.

I’m far behind my canteen diary project, and am just having a breather back home in the pore stuffing my face and going through loads of photos, editing them and catching up with my blog. I forgot how fast and free the internet is in the real world. I didn’t realise I ate at the canteen 4 times last week, well done me, which means I get to treat myself to several expensive meals this week in the pore. (well not quite since the savings don’t equate)

Overall satisfaction for the week: 5/10

On the best day we had sweet and sour pork done perfectly. The rest, well, it’s the same as every week. If anything, at least the quality is consistent, which is rare in China.

Miga’s a sweet new spot that soft opened last night at Beijing’s Nali Patio hotspot, adding to the Mediterranean vibe in the block. Looks like some healthy competition for Mosto, Niajo and soon to be opened Agua. I’m really looking forward to having dinner on the rooftop at Miga’s.

Under the creative direction of Chef Aitor Olabegoya who spends part of his time in Barcelona at his restaurant Pexiample, working on top quality wagyu at Nuestro Buey and his creative catering arm Dividano, the Spanish restaurant looks like it has so much potential to bring new good stuff to Beijing’s dining scene. The award winning chef’s experience include working at Michelin-starred Arola restaurant at the Ritz and many promotional trips to Asia to share the gastronomical experience.

Miga’s at Sanlitun Nali Patio
6 Floor

I am deeply attached to the internet and spend more than half my day trawling the web for useless and interesting information. And I’d like to conclude my recent find that I have a very happy cat, who walks around all day with her tail like that.

Isn’t she great?