If you were to walk through the hawker centres of Singapore, ah, these days, they are known as food court for those with airconditioning and food centre for the improved hawker centres, you might be able to see many similar food selections being served, with new ones being added. There are the typical fishball noodles, bakchor noodles, wanton noodles, braised duck rice and noodles, chicken - white and roasted - rice, nasi bryani (no, not the dam type), char kuay teow (fried kuay teow that many Singaporean Chinese would swear by it .. die die must try), char chai tau kuey (fried radish cake, more commonly known as carrot cake, I don’t know why), fried sotong mee (also known as fried Hokkien noodles - where the other other darker sauce version could hardly be found in the food centres) and more. We could run a list and get comments.

With many Mainland Chinese in Singapore, the food range has widened to cover northern Chinese food such as jiaozi, cha-jiang-mian, la-mian (of many varieties) and tim-sum (dim sum) is also making its appearance in the food centres. There’s also the Cantonese style steamed rice with various ingredients on top of the rice.

And now, the modern mix of western foods are coming in. Italian dishes are overtaking the cheap western version of pork chops and the lot. German food has made its appearance in Chinatown Food Centre.

It appears that in many food centres, apart from a few, the food stalls are there just to serve those who are hungry and who needs to fill in their tummies. No one is going to travel all the way for it. Why? It often crossed my mind as I tried a dish that I never really relish but well, eat for the sake of eating.  Couldn’t the stallholder put in more efforts in the cooking? Or is that the best that they could do?  While it is true that “one man’s meat is another’s poison”, if there are no repeats, I am sure the food is not tasty. And for how long could it depend on snaring the unsuspecting ones? (^^)

As good customers, should we not try to help the stallholders improve on the dishes? Or do we vote with our feet? (^^)

My two har-gao (shrimp dumpling) worth

While in Penang to attend a wedding dinner, I was also invited to dinner on the next night before we had to rush off to the bus station for our journey home. We had this wonderful almost like homecooked dinner at the Rice Cafe & Bistro at the 1926 Heritage Hotel (227, Jalan Burma, 10050 Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia).

It was an evening of get-together before we left and so I could not concentrate on the food. But while all were delicious, the highlight of the evening must be the Otak, cooked in aluminium foil. Light and soft, it is different from the usual rather heavy otak one finds often. Even the fried rice was sedap! My friend’s little daughter went for helping after helping. The little girl, like many kids, can be very fuzzy with food.

The brinjal (eggplants) in green curry was a great dish with the fried rice or just plain rice.

This bistro serves a blend of Thai and Vietnamese dishes and I suspect a tinge of Peranakan. Ah, I must go back to have a slow and focussed meal to be able to express better. (^^)  Certainly a nice place to have your meal should you be in Penang.

You can reach the bistro at rice.cafe@yahoo.com

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In Singapore, one can say that most of the Singaporeans eat Rojak (mix, as in the famous, Chinese-Indian-Malay salads/assorted finger food) each day. It could be Chinese for breakfast, Malay for Lunch and Indian for dinner. But it could also be Japanese for lunch and Mexican for dinner!

On this beautiful Saturday afternoon, I decided to head for my favourite Chappati stall in this Chinese coffeshop at the junction of Norris Rd and Serangoon Rd, just opposite to the Hindu Temple in Little India. The renovated coffeeshop did not look any different and the only business seemed to be the Chappati and rice with many dishes to choose from.

Since I was going for Chappati, I went for its Curry Chicken and Kima. Two pieces of Chappati with Chicken and Kima, and I am a happy man. Me and my wife had two pieces of Chappati and shared a plate of Chicken and a plate of Kima. All for less than S$9.

Chappati tastes best when it is hot. I often wondered how the Punjabi ladies prepare them at home. It is hot and one has to press the Chappati constantly to make it rise.

I think this Chappati stall is run by the Gujeratis.

Lotus: Asian Flavours by Teage Ezard
Hardie Grant Books, 2006
ISBN 1740662687

We all know that Asian food is not just Asian food. It’s not only categorized by ethnicity and country of origin but also the variety of food. There is never just one type of noodle or one type of beef dish. Also, your taste buds are constantly challenged; hot and spicy, sweet and sour, cool and warm food, weird and wonderful. The food textures are as important too. However, there is one thing for sure; Asian food is created to excite your taste palette.

Australian chef Teage Ezard published a gorgeous food book, Lotus: Asian Flavours, containing a collection of recipes based on food from Thailand, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and some Asian fusion. With 147 recipes (or thereabout along with some addtional information on basic and special ingredients. Yes, I counted) to choose from, it’s not a book that has an intention to keep your kitchen activity in idle.

The problem with squeezing in an enormous amount of recipes in a publication is that something’s gotta give. The compromise comes in the lack of mouth-watering photos to accompany each recipe. This doesn’t make the quality of the book or recipe any lesser. Compensated by a fair amount of photo images and graphics, the book contains some classic recipes like red duck curry with lychees,spicy tom yum with prawns, fried spring onion cakes, and steamed lotus leaf parcels with sticky rice, chicken and lup cheong. There’s also one with a quirky name, the Son-in-law eggs with chilli caramel dish. Don’t forget the all-time favourite like peppered mud crab stir-fry with lemon, and a few for the slightly upmarket including this wagyu beef with caramelised pumpkin and snake beans, young coconut salad and red curry sauce.