 |
|||
|
我輩について 男 中華と日本料理 客人数 Counters 通告！ Trip will proceed with 3 pple - Spice Peranakan - budget: $15 - Shimbashi Soba at Paragon - budget: $25 - P&P Thai Food - budget: $15 Reviews 評判 怨言与投诉
友達様 Take Out Bento Boxes February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 |
Saturday, October 27, 2007 Da Dong Restaurant  I really hate it when my dad suddenly brings the family for good food on a whim, and because of that I don't have my camera with me and have to settle for a lousy phone camera. PITY, because this dim sum is one of the best i've ever had. Da Dong restaurant goes way way back to when cameras took photos in black and white. Owned by the famous Fatty Weng, this restaurant takes up a corner in Smith Street, one of the streets in chinatown, near the old market. The restaurant is easy to identify, with a huge poster of the chef above the signboard, and a waiter in a red vest outside welcoming people in.The restaurant exudes old world charm, and fits nicely into the chinatown feel. Decked out in the usual chinese furniture, the air con was running, the fans were turning and the windows were opened. Cry environmentalists, but this set up created a cooling but comfortable environment; and the windows meant that the bustling outside could be heard. The air was also kept moving and not stagnating in the restaurant. The dim sum is the must try here, but is not on the menu; don't bother looking. Just tell the waitress, "dim sum" and it shall come in a trolley with quite a few items. Dad ordered a bunch at one go.  The usual stuff, you might think...NEVER MIND, let's run through the items. (Most are $2.80)From top to bottom, Fried Carrot Cake: Is crispy and not too oily. The dried shrimps used to give flavour are minced, so you get a smooth cake but with subtle shrimp flavour infused in it. Pork Ribs: The pork ribs are my dad's favourites. Fatty and fragrantly oily. They are not a popular item with the young bunch, but i like those once in a while too. Siew Mai: OMGWTHBBQSAUZ. This is divine. The pork, is springy, slightly fatty, and guess what, 2 fat succulent prawns hidden in the minced pork. The whole medley of earthy and sea flavours just melted together with a fabulous springiness in your mouth without the pungent aftertaste of meat present in those lousy kopitiam siew mai. I had always thought large siew mai tasted lousy, but this siew mai is larger than all of them and tastier. Addictive. Char Siew Bao: Only thing I didn't taste. My sis seem to like it though Har Gow: Another wonder. Two large succulent fresh prawns in a skin which was not to thick nor too thin. The skin had taste as well, and with the tasty pasty filling the whole freshness just explodes in your mouth; not to mention these har gows were large too. Dai Zi Jiao (Scallop Dumplings): This 3cm large fresh scallop perches invitingly on 2 succulent prawns with a nice light green skin wrapping around. The scallop is divinely sweet, with such powerful and fragrant scallop flavour. The prawns act as the complements this time round, and cannot even mask the scallop's taste. You can cry over this.  The highlight of the dim sum items. The da bao, and i mean, the DA bao ($3.50?) This bao is about 5.5 inches in diameter. Yes, i am not kidding you. We asked the waiter to have it cut in half. Only my dad tackled one by himself; he said it was a childhood memory. Picture is lousy but let's describe the contents. Tender melt in your mouth pork slices, fragrant chives, tasty wax sausages (lak cheong), large shiitake mushroom, half a hard boiled egg, all wrapped nicely in a subtly sweet and fluffy bao. Eats like a meal, satisfies like two. Such a combination of delightful and comforting flavours in a bao, it's no wonder it can stay in the memory of someone so long. Sisters had the peanut minced meat porridge ($2.50). Rather normal, but i like how the minced meat was very well dispersed into the smooth congee, that every mouthful had a lot of it. The peanuts were sweet too, and there was the occasional century egg piece. The other item is this funky wrap. It has banana in it, and prawns. The skin was quite thin but resilient; can't tell what it was but it was crispy at parts and soft at others. Banana inside provided an interesting taste together with the prawn. Salty and sweet all at once, with the fresh prawn taste blending with the familiar banana taste. Unique, but a little too salty.We had mango pudding for dessert too, and this one was obviously self made. The pudding was compact and dense, with generous numbers of mango cubes in an already mango-ish pudding. Sweet tooths will love this. We ordered quite few items, but everyone was really full. This dim sum really touches my heart. Literally, 点心. Divine. Tears well up as i stuff my mouth full. Food: Divine dim sum. Everything is fat. Everything is fresh. Everything is delicious. Cost: 9.5/10 The dim sum comes at $2.80 per 笼. DA bao is $3.50 I believe. Porridge was $2.50 and pudding was $3. It is all worth it. Location: 8/10 Walk into chinatown from the MRT exit, and follow the way down. Should be a cinch to find. It's along Smith Street. Ambience: Old world charm, and relaxing cosy environment. Address: 39 Smith Street Tel: 62213822 Business Hours: Mon-Fri: 11am-10.45pm Weekends: 9am-10.45pm Saturday, October 20, 2007 On Qualities Seeing what Jasmine has written on his(yeah you didn't read wrong) blog, i thought i'd write a little about this. We live in a superficially shallow world, simply put. The easiest things to comment naturally are those on the surface, those that need little effort to spot and criticise. Many a time we give nary a constructive criticism, but just want to criticise because it doesn't suit your taste or follow society's 'norms'. Just the same as he was subjected to, i myself have received plenty of negative remarks too. Usually, we do not find it in us to praise people for their positive qualities because we take it for granted. It has been imbued in us that these qualities are "SHOULD BEs" and lack of such quality means the person is a lousy one. Thus, we criticise all who deviate or do not follow such set characteristics. At this age, i believe we often find our mouths opening more than necessary, saying the wrong things in a slip of tact, and carrying jokes too far that they seem to be serious criticism when we actually don't mean it. What ensues is obvious; that the other party suffers, and when he's alone, will think and think about the criticisms he gets but is unable to find any redeeming qualities to reassure himself, simply because people take his good-ness for granted. When people do this, the subject himself believes that his redeeming qualities are nothing compared to his flaws, which indeed is usually not the case. The person is left with low self esteem and distress. What i wish to say is that, we can always criticise one another, but do make sure to point out the good qualities others have as well. Mr Jasmine may not dress significantly well, but he is always surrounded by 'better dressed' people, testament to his charisma. He may not be able to sing songs well, but he is always willing to sing if it means others would be made happier. A balance is what people need. For the subject of criticism, do listen to the criticisms, and if they make sense, improve upon those, but not to the point when you become everybody and nobody in particular. A unique combination of qualities is what differentiates us from one another. Treasure your difference from others and know your own good qualities to self assure yourself whenever you feel down. Of course, if we want others not to take us for granted, we must also be able to see deeper into our friends. Consider each other as a whole package, not in pieces when you decide whether a person is to your liking or not. Just because I have curly hair doesn't mean I'm of a different race! Those who know me well enough will know of how i look at people. Looking at people this way ensures i can see them in a complete package, irregardless of their individual quirks. This is one thing i am personally proud of, although it does scare people pretty much sometimes. Either way, Mr Jasmine, you do know your own qualities, and that's all that matters. Improve yourself if you deem the criticisms are justified, but don't feel too much of a need to conform. "Never listen to others till you become the others" Friday, October 19, 2007 Hog's Breath Cafe On my birthday, ZW, KBL and Jack brought me to Hog's Breath Cafe at Holland V for lunch. ZW had been waxing lyrical about the 18 hours slow cooked Prime Ribs, so that was what we ordered. Since it was lunchtime, we ordered the set lunch at $19 which came with Soup of the Day, Prime Ribs and a Brownie with Ice Cream dessert.  First up was a country style chicken soup. Looking nothing like campbell soup and tasting nothing like it, the soup was wholesome and not too salty. The pieces of garlic bread on top were so delicious i wanted to order them separately. Chicken was quite tough though, but overall the soup was a very nice start to the meal. I had my prime ribs medium rare. Hog's steaks seem to be the most fatty ones i have ever seen. Just look at the fat around the meat. I tried it without the sauce first. The meat was tougher than I expected, which made me wonder why. Possibly because of the high content of connective tissue, as it was hard to cut, but nice to chew. Very juicy on the inside, with a meaty flavour deep in the meat juice. I tried ZW's medium well, have to admit it tasted better than mine, since the longer grilling made the tendons less tough and also the meat was more aromatic. Either way, the abundant fat contributed much to the flavour. Pouring the sauce on made it taste even better. I had the traditional sauce and it was very country style, with a slight smokey flavour that complemented the beef. The steak was 200 gms, but looked rather large. If you come for dinner it will be 300gms although it will be more expensive ($32.50). ZW recommends paying the extra $8 for 33% more to share between two people.The steak was served with curly fries which were crispy and seasoned but not too salty. The salad was quite good too, with balsamic vinegar dressing.  The meal ended off with this. Brownie swimming in a pool of chocolate sauce with one scoop of vanilla ice cream. The brownie was even better than Venezia's, with a very very very moist texture that burst of rich semisweet chocolate. Dip it around in the sauce for an exceptionally sinful taste. It was so rich, the small piece of brownie was more than enough. Bits of walnuts in the brownie further contributed to the taste. The vanilla ice cream was normal though.Food: Steak lovers ought to try this. Take the medium or medium well. I'm missing the taste... Cost: 6/10 Set lunch is okay, but the normal prices are really high. The set lunch was really worth it though. Ambience: Old western saloon style eatery with lousy seats that reminds me of the new bus stop seats. Will get used to it soon though. Air con was also not working well that day. But the whole atmosphere was peaceful and calming. Location: 8/10 Holland V. Who doesn't know where? Address: 267 Holland Avenue, Singapore 278989 Tel: 6466-0145  Thanks for the birthday treat guys! Korean Hwaseong Campbell Early Grapes  My dad went and bought this bunch of large black grapes from a stall at Tiong Bahru. Campbell Early grapes are related to the Concord black grapes, which I believe most of you have not tried either before. Grapes sold here are usually eaten whole and seedless, but the seeded grapes actually have the best flavour. These grapes from Korea are of the slipskin variety, meaning when you pluck one off the bunch, your apply pressure at the other end of the grape until the whole grape kind of slips out of the skin from the little hole where the stem was attached to. The skin is usually discarded unless you really want the anthocyanins in it, as well as a liking for grassy fibrous taste. Each grape is about 2cm in diameter and has about 3-4 small seeds which should be spat out before you start munching on it. The flavour of these grapes are real complex like wine. First you get a winey fragrance, then when you bite down, the grape resists at first, then yields, with sweet and tasty juice oozing out. The texture of the flesh is nothing like other grapes. This one has a konnyaku like texture, quite supple and bouncy. Very nice feel. At the end of the sweetness is a very slight sourness too, with just a bit of tartness to round up the flavours. The only regrettable thing is that because the grape is such a small fruit, the nice journey lasts only a short while before you have to reach out for another one.Tip: If you have too much free time on your hands, you can seed them and then blend it into juice. I expect it will taste heavenly. Availability: Seasonal. Late summer to autumn. Same as Japanese Kyoho grapes Supermarket: Some Cold Storages sell it but at $5+ a bunch, albeit larger. Try out the neighbourhood fruit stalls Sold as: $3.50 per bunch as seen above. Supermarkets sell it at $5 Wow Factor: 7/10 getting a craving for it again, although it is tedious to eat Monday, October 08, 2007 Pomegranate  The wonder fruit with antioxidants! Not like I eat this fruit because of it's antioxidant properties anyway. The pomegranate is one of the most ancient fruits to be enjoyed by people. Sadly, poor exposure has let it fall into the category of exotic fruits. Either way, this here is an Egyptian pomegranate. Pomes are imported from a variety of countries such as those from the Middle East where the fruit originated, and India and USA. The fruit is heavy, and as large as a ruby grapefruit. Cut it open and you get purplish red juice flowing out . A woody smell with sour notes hits you. The seats remind you a little of pomelo pulps, but each one contains a juicy part surrounding a crunchy seed. The usual method is to use your hands and tear the fruit up into large portions, like durian. Then just use your teeth to dislodge the seeds into your mouth; they come off easy. When you bite down into it, you get a burst of sweet and sour juice, tasting a little of grape juice, with a little woody notes. No it's not winey, but it does taste quite complex but easy to like. Even my sister, who cannot accept new foods, found this nice. The seeds add a crunch but are not bitter, although they might get stuck in the crevices between your teeth. There's also a tart feeling after a while, which might make you thirsty, as it can get quite strong, if you have the whole fruit to yourself, which i usually do.Another way to eat it, is to scrape all the seeds onto a plate. One large pomegranate should be able to give a lot of seeds for your enjoyment. Once you are done, take a spoon and eat. Every bite will be full of delicious juice and crunch. Tip: I wonder how pomegranate ice cream would taste like Availability: Seasonal. Some months have it some months don't. Usually late summer to autumn period Supermarket: Usually in Cold Storage Sold as: Forgot the price by weight, but a large one is about $2.40 Wow Factor: 8/10 simply delicious |
||
