Sour Plums

A favourite with the locals, not so much with me. They are dried plum segments that are heavy on added salt and sugar. I made the mistake of popping it straight in to my mouth without asking what it is! This food blog has definitely made me more open to trying new foods, I don't even ask what it is now before I throw it in my gob.

Whole Earth

Whole Earth is a Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant, close to our new place in Tanjong Pagar.

The food was very creative, full of strong flavour and huge portions too.

We had:

Nyonya Curry, which takes 8 hours to prepare and cook, made with a Shitake Mushrooms (which could easily be mistaken as meat) and a thick piquant sauce.

Thai Green Pumkin Curry, which included pumkin (obviously), blue ginger, cauliflower, lemongrass, long cabbage, coconut and red chili.

Olive Brown Rice

Chocolat 'n' Spice

This tiny little bakery has a huge reputation.

All they do is Muffins, Cakes and Brownies and people go mad for them. I was warned I might have to queue for quite some time to sample these legendary little buns, so I pitched up at 8:15am and no one else was there, plus they were warm and fresh!

I bought a big batch, with a selection of their many flavours and treated the office to pre-Chinese New Year Friday morning Muffin.

Chinese Banquet

Lei Garden Restaurant, Chijimes

We went to Lei Gardens to Celebrate a friends 40th Birthday.

Favourite dish was the Belly Pork and the Shredded Yam

Least Favorite... obviously the Fish head.

Studio outing for Chinese Lunch

Singapore style Prawn Noodles.

The restaurant is on the corner of Beach Road and Arab Street.

Chinese New Year Treats

Homemade Pineapple tarts

Thanks Eunice's Mum!

Prata Wala

Forget about Macy D's, go for the Indian alternative of a Murtabak from Prata Wala.

My type of fast food!

We visited the Prata Wala at Jurong Point.
For more info on Murtabaks look at my earlier posts.

Sunday Brunch - The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

A completely overindulgent day, that resulted in a mega hangover on the Monday! The third Sunday Brunch I have tried in Singapore. The Fullerton is the grandest venue we have had brunch in so far, but it was the busiest, which slightly detracted from the splendor. A great variety of food was on offer, from a traditional Sunday roast Beef dinner, Sushi, Fresh seafood, Breakfast Buffet, Italian food, a massive selection of Cheese, loads of desserts and of course free flowing Moet Champagne, bloody Mary's and Margarita's.

bakkwa 肉乾

As Chinese New Year approaches this will be sold by the bucket loads! It is Bakkwa, or BBQ Pork slices as I like to call it. It is a dried, sweet and salted pork that resembles jerky, but it is a bit fresher, softer and requires less chewing as the amount of fat in the Bakkwa makes it very tender.

Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff Soup

This was a soup from Soup Spoon, topped with a puff pastry lid.

Fried Caterpillar

A work colleague also visited Thailand on his Christmas break and this is what he brought us back as an office treat! Naturally I had to take a handful and give them a go. They were surprisingly good. Imagine Pork Scratching if the pig had been reared on a leaf only diet and thats what they taste like.

Amazing Apple Strudel

534 North bridge or in the Food Court in Bugis Junction.

FRESH Thai Green Fish Curry and Sweet and Sour fried fish

Boxing day usually consists of a hangover, a bloated stomach and a cold turkey buffet... Not this year! This year I visited Phi Phi Island, Thailand, for the Christmas break. On Boxing Day we hired a fishing boat in the morning, with the aim to catch our lunch.
After a successful catch of a few snappers and what I think was a Pompamo or Permit, we returned to a little shack where the fish was transformed into the most amazing Thai Green Curry with lots of fresh Basil and a Sweet and Sour with Tomatoes and Bell Pepper. Overall it was a fantastic experience.

Japanese Udon Noodle Soup and Tempura Prawns

I visited a new Japanese restaurant, called Bento Box, on Baghdad Street. We were given a complementary starter, which I don't know the name of, but it was a Mushroom jelly, with a few pieces of Chicken in the bottom of it. For my main I had Tempura Prawns and a Udon Noodle fish soup, with Seaweed and kamaboko, which is japanese fish sausage.

Carrot Cake, "Chai Tau Kway" 菜头粿

You may be thinking, "this ain't no Carrot cake fool!", but it is Chinese Carrot Cake, well, Hong Kong Carrot cake actually from Luk Yu, in the Food Opera, Ion Centre. I am still not sure what the exact ingredients are??? After a bit of research, it looks like it is a baked cake, which the main ingredient is a root vegetable, such as White Carrot, Turnip or Radish, with fish added, something like dried shrimps. Once baked it is cut in to chunks and fried with noodles. The end result is something that I think tastes and feels like slice fried scallops. It tastes great!

Design Bridge Christmas Dinner

Venue: Novus, Singapore's National Museum.

Menu: See picture.

Great Food!

Lor Mee 鹵麵

Lor Mee is very popular in Singapore. Lor Mee refers to the thick yellow noodles in this thick starchy gravy. I particularly like this dish, because of the variety of ingredients. Wontons, fish, fish cakes, eggs, squid, beef, it's all thrown in there! Chili's and Vinegar are added for that extra kick.

Kangaroo in Australia

A 7 hour flight from Singapore and I am in Sydney! So, I had to be a typical tourist and try a Kangaroo steak. Very enjoyable, it reminded me of Venison, tender beef with an irony taste.

I had the steak medium rare, on a bed of mash potato, topped with asparagus, courgettes, charlottes, garlic cloves and a red wine sauce.

In between bridge climbs, catamaran trips, gigs and chilling on the beach I also indulged in some familiar western treats, such as beef pie, mushy peas and gravy and a full english breakfast or 2.

Durian!

Regarded as "the king of fruits" in Singapore, I had to try it!

First of all, the smell. Some people love it, they smell a very sweet sickly smell, whereas there are some people that say "it smells like the armpit of a corpse!"

The husk has very sharp jagged points to it and you have to hack through it to access the fruit.

So, you will see my reaction to the fruit on the video, but here it is in writing.

It has a consistency of butter, with fibrous flesh running through it. You are meant to pick up the large stones and suck the flesh off, whereas I opted for a spoon! The smell changes from it's lingering sickly smell to a more spicy smell as it gets closer. The texture is creamy, with occasional firmer nutty parts. Finally the taste... It taste like a sweet garlic butter, it has a spicy feeling to it that the locals describe as "heaty".

We unfortunately only managed about 1/4 of it, which is a shame for it's $20 price tag. We gave the rest of it to the locals in there. They said they couldn't believe it when they saw a couple of Westerners eating Durain, describing us as brave but still managing to laugh very hard at us as we walked away.

Cheese and Wine at the Wine Connection

To Celebrate Rachel's Birthday, a group of us went to Wine Connection, Robertson Quay and enjoyed a variety of Red wines, cheese, meat and dips platters, all polished off with a chocolate birthday cake and couple of bottles of sparkling pink. Great night.

This place is also very good value, we averaged $25 per bottle of wine and the platters were about $20 each.