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.

Herbs and Spices

In a tiny, little Hawker Centre near where we are living at the moment, Joo Chat Place, there is Indian Italian fusion stall. Random as it sounds, it is fantastic. I have eaten Curry, Pizza, Naan, Okra and this Slow Cooked Beef Risotto. Great value too. They won't be there long though, they are moving to the Arab quarter in the New Year. Definitely one to watch as they move out of their little hawker centre into a restaurant.

Brunch at Melt, Mandarin Oriental

The best brunch I have ever been too!

The variety was awesome, the quality was exceptional and the Champagne and cocktails was free flowing!

Japanese Supermarket

Stumbled across this in Clarke Quay. A Japanese supermarket stocking a wide variety of weird and wonderful Japanese brands. I particularly like Collon and Pocky!

Satay Street

At night fall, the street behind Lau Pat Sat Hawker Centre comes to life with dozens of Satay Stalls, all claiming they do "the best Satay in Singapore" if not the world! So once you get over the hustle of every stall wanting you to sample their Satay, and take a seat on a table in the busy closed off street, you realise they all do exactly the same. Choose from 5 or 6 set menus, varying from enough Satay for 1 person, up to enough for a small country. We chose Set C, between 3 of us, which was about 60 pieces, plus, compacted rice, cucumber and of course the sweet nutty Satay sauce.

Black Pepper Crab

Another Singaporean Classic. I preferred it to the Chili Crab, mainly because there is less sauce so you can really get stuck in! The sauce resembles a peppercorn sauce that you would traditionally have with a steak. Also, this crab was particularly meaty, so I recommend a visit to Jumbo Seafood, East coast Park, for any of their Crab dishes.

Halia Restaurant - Botanical Gardens

Excellent quality Food and a beautiful setting. Nestled in the Ginger Gardens of Singapores Botanical Gardens.

Seafood Chimichangas, Pork and Portobello Burger and a glass or two of Prosecco to wash it down.

the garden slug

We visited The Garden Slug, eat drink don't think, 55 Lorong L Telok Kurau.

Amazing dessert! Poached Pear, Cinnamon ice cream, Chocolate Brownie (on a stick!), and Tiramisu. Don't worry I shared it!

Main was Chicken Kebabs, Salad with a Lemon infused olive oil dressing and a mashed jacket potato, (Bit random, but tasted great).

Singaporean Chinese Wedding

It was an honour to be invited to a Singaporean Chinese wedding, we were warmly welcomed into their family home, encouraged to indulge in a huge spread of food from all walks of Singaporean origins from curry, to Duck, to Sushi, plus several desserts. We were even lucky enough to witness the traditional Tea Drinking Ceremony.

Mushroom Dumplings and Fried Green Spaghetti

LivinGreens, Beach Road, is a Vegan café offering a delicious variety of innovative, vegan dishes. You can choose from a menu of Asian and Western favourites.

I had Fried Green Curry Spaghetti, "Semolina Spaghetti stir-fried with fragrant, mildly spicy green curry sauce", plus Mushroom Dumplings, which are described as "Succulent Mushrooms enclosed in beetroot-flavoured whole wheat flour wraps"

I highly recommend the dumplings!

Tom Yum Noodles

Thai Dish.

Out of a choice of 3 types, I chose Mee Noodles.

Prawns and Squid in a red curry coconut soup, with a delicate balance of sugar and fish sauce.

Fish Head Curry

Yes, it's the head, not the body, what do you need that for when you can eat the head!?

I was a bit of a cynic before trying this, but it was actually really good. The curry was full of fresh ingredients, like Tomatoes and Okra, with just the faintest fish flavour. The fish head itself was a Red Mullet, which has a lot of meat on the neck area and the flesh was very meaty and tender. I even tucked into the head, to pull out the cheek meat, apparently it's the second best bit... after the eyes!

Chilli Padi Nonya Restaurant

Peranakan Beef Noodle and Lime Juice

This was my first Peranakan cuisine. Peranakan is the term used for descendants of Chinese immigrants to the Indonesian area in the 15th and 16th Century Colonial era. Locals in Singapore seem to describe Peranakan as a cross between Malay and Chinese. Perankan people were traditionally the middlemen for trades between British and the Chinese, so it seems apt that was taken there by a Chinese friend!

The Beef Noodles were fantastic, the Beef was very tender, slow cooked stewing steak, which I was not expecting.

Add to that 1 Egg! Every local dish has an Egg! Poached this time, for a change.

Lifestyle Nyonya Bar, Pahang Street