Xiang Kee Fried Carrot Cake & Fried Oyster

I have always been a fan of fried carrot cake. It was one of the Singaporean dishes that I would dream about when living in Sydney. In fact, after one particularly bad rendition of carrot cake courtesy of the food court at Market City in Sydney, I called Mum in Singapore to ask her for the recipe for carrot cake. I can say for certain that this is not an easy dish to make.

You have to grate the white daikon radish, poach it in hot water, mix in into a combination of rice and sweet potato flour and then steam it. The result is a springy pudding like cake which you cut into little pieces and fry with soy sauce, eggs and preserved turnip. A lot of work goes into making a good plate of fried carrot cake, so that is why, whenever I find a hawker who does it very well, I have to share it with the world!

Fried Carrot Cake: With Egg, Spring Onions & Preserved Turnip

A month ago, I had to make a quick stop at Chinatown Complex to buy veggies. I chanced upon Xiang Kee Fried Carrot Cake & Fried Oyster which is located next to the really famous ba chor mee stall (don't ask me which one). I ordered a plate of the "black" carrot cake which is essentially carrot cake fried with the dark caramel soy sauce. The sweet dark caramel sauce gave it a nice char and the savoury preserved turnip, great texture and contrast with the sweetness of the sauce. The carrot cake was still soft and pillowy and each tasty nugget is encased in fried egg. In my opinion, this carrot cake is the best in Singapore. It blows the competition out of the water. Forget about the rest in Bedok, Toa Payoh and etc.....just head to:

Xiang Kee Fried Carrot Cake & Fried Oyster
Blk 335 Smith Street
Chinatown Complex Food Centre
#02-24
Open: 9am-8pm

The hawker frying up the carrot cake is a really nice guy and it isn't crazy mad busy....yet. No long queues AND he is really polite and nice. So get to Xiang Kee before he stops making this delightful dish or before he gets so popular that you have to wait 30mins for a plate of fried carrot cake heaven.




The Wok & Barrel will be at 13 Duxton Hill

After 4 months of searching and seeing countless units in the east, north east and Tanjong Pagar, we finally found the perfect space for The Wok & Barrel!

There will be renovations and I hope we will be able to open The Wok & Barrel in June.

To celebrate, I went home and cooked myself a lovely fish curry for dinner as well as experimented with baking my own ciabatta. I loved getting my hands dirty with the flour and shaping the ciabatta loaves. These ciabatta loaves will be great for The Wok & Barrel Crispy Pork Sandwiches and Crispy Chicken Sandwiches. That means everything will be handmade by me.....right down to the mayonnaise that will be accompanying the sandwich.

Home made ciabatta for Crispy Pork Sandwiches and Crispy Chicken Sandwiches

I've also been working on the bistro menu for The Wok & Barrel and got the chance to serve Porchetta to my friends during D & AW's birthday celebration.

I wanted to kick up the flavour profile of the Porchetta so I used a satay marinade instead of the usual salt and 5 Spice seasoning. It was delicious and transformed an otherwise good dish into something quite sublime. Juicy tender pork belly with a crispy crackling.

Satay Porchetta

I also managed to serve them a dessert called Shendol Delights which was inspired by our local dessert Chendol. It is a deconstructed Chendol with a rich coconut pannacotta drizzled with gula melaka syrup and topped with home made red bean ice cream.

Coconut Pannacotta

Shendol Delights

French Toast for The Wok and Barrel

I took a long break but I am backkkkkkkkkk!

The Wok and Barrel is taking a longer time than I expected but it is actually giving me more time to work out the various menu items that I would like to put on the menu. Of course all fans of Madam Tan's Nasi Lemak will still get to enjoy my rich yummy Nasi Lemak rice together with my side dishes like Beef Rendang, Curry Chicken, 5 Spice Roast Pork, Otak Otak and Fish Curry but I will be adding some new dishes to my all day weekend brunch menu.

I have always loved the crispy french toast from Hong Kong, so today I set about getting the lovely crispy batter right. First I made some home made peanut butter, chunky peanut butter with no additives.


Homemade Chunky Peanut Butter


Then I set about making up the batter - a light eggy crispy batter that would hold the 2 slices of sandwich bread together.

Crispy Eggy Batter

For the purpose of this trial, I decided to use ordinary sandwich white bread but for The Wok and Barrel, I will be using an enriched white bread sliced thickly which I will stuff with bananas, nutella and peanut butter. Or any other stuffings that you may want - mango, peaches, pinepple? Tell me what you would like to have in your french toast.

Ok, coming back to the trial, I spread thickly on 1 slice of bread, rich chocolatey Nutella, and on the other, the homemade peanut butter. I dipped the nutella and peanut butter sandwich in the batter, and dropped it into the hot oil. After a minute of frying, I fished out the browned french toast and dusted icing sugar onto the hot fried bread.

French Toast with Nutella and Peanut Butter



French Toast at The Wok and Barrel

 The resulting French Toast is piping hot with molten nutella and peanut butter and perfect for brunch. I can't wait to start serving it to you!

Pepperoni Pizza @ Greenwood Ave

Another pizza post you might ask? Yes, we are that obsessed with pizza. This was a post Christmas gathering amongst friends and as we all love a good slice of pizza, this is where we ended up.

BH and I got there on time but spent about 20 minutes circling for a park in that housing estate. I feel for the residents of that estate with cruising cars passing their expensive houses, peering for a spot to fit in their cars.We finally managed to get a park about 600m away which was ok since it was a lovely cool night and allowed BH and I to have a nice romantic stroll before AND after dinner.

I cracked open the menu and to my joy, found a long long list of belgian beers. WHOOHOO! I set about trying new ones and that put me in an excellent mood for dinner. The rest of our party started arriving and we were suitably embarrassed when we kept peering over at the neighbouring table's dishes for inspiration. They had ordered an interesting mushroom dish but we couldn't figure which appetizer it was......the kind lady looked over to me and mouthed "it's the mushroom". I had to blush.

Just for the heck of it, we ordered the family sized pizza. It is 21 inches in diameter. It is a monster. We even had pictures taken of it, like moby dick. D obligingly posed next to it with her mouth wide open, like she was going to take a bite out of that massive pizza. Apart from the novelty factor of having such a humongous pizza, I would not recommend that you order the family sized pizza as the largeness of the pizza meant that it was cooked pretty unevenly. Some parts of it were obviously on hot spots in the oven and had been cooked down to a cracker like consistency as opposed to a light bready texture.


Ok, this just proves that we are pizza pigs because this 21 inch pizza wasn't enough (plus appetizers of mushrooms, chicken wings, calamari rings) and we ordered another 12 inch pizza. This pizza was much better than the 21 inch, so this is one of the rare occasions where size queen me will actually say, size doesn't matter! It had the lightness and the requisite cornicione. It had the big air bubbles in the crust where the extreme heat of the oven forces the moisture in the dough to expand quickly. Unfortunately, I still feel that the crust was quite bland and didn't have the multi dimensional taste that comes from doing a slow ferment in the fridge.

But then I am just being a food nazi. Overall a good pizza which I would rate 7.5/10. The mushroom was interesting - I would rate it a 8/10. The calamari were cooked well, they were tender and not overcooked but the batter was not crispy, I would rate it a 7/10.

ps. I apologise for the lack of pictures as I didn't bring my camera to dinner

Sole Pomodoro Pizza @ Mackenzie Road

I love pizza and whenever I read of a new pizza place opening, especially one with a wood fired oven, I can't help but get excited and hungry. I think that it is great that Singapore is seeing so many great pizza places opening up but, I have to say that to date, I have not found one that really hits the spot.

So when Sole Pomodoro was getting a lot of online press, I casually mentioned it to BH hoping that my better half would agree to join me in evaluating this pizza joint. But BH has learnt her lesson and refuses to go to any pizza joints as she claims that they never meet the mark and she doesn't want to be there when I start tut tutting and expounding on how the crust should have been made and etc.

I did the next best thing and got my colleague M who is always game for a new culinary adventure to join me. We ordered the proscuitto and mushroom pizza and a calamari to start.

The calamari was fresh and cut into large meaty rings. However, it was marred by a hair fried together with the calamari. Gross. When the waitress brought it back to the kitchen hand, he removed the hair and wanted to send it back to me. Which of course the waitress remonstrated with him and got him to do a new order. I would like to mention that this waitress was very good at her job. Her name was Davy and asked me if I needed a refill on my wine without prompting from me. If I were the owners of Sole Pomodoro, I would give her a raise!

 The calamari were good sans hair but did not stay crispy for long. But overall, they were pretty good hot out of the fryer and quite tender, a 7/10.

I felt that the pizza was a let down. Whilst there was a wood fired oven, you did not get the light pizza with large holes in it. Perhaps as we were one of the first few customers, the oven was not hot enough. Also, the crust was lacking in flavour and did not have the light yet crunchy texture. 7/10.

Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee @ Crawford Lane

I was in the neighbourhood to pick up my Makansutra Certificate for Madam Tan's Nasi Lemak, and peeked into the coffee shop to see if the famous noodle shop was open. They were so I joined the relatively short queue and placed my order for mee pok with chilli ($4).

Tai Hwa Bak Chor mee is supposed to be the creme de la creme of Bak Chor Mees and at $4 a portion, the serving was certainly hearty and very substantial. There was a generous serving of minced pork, lean pork and noodles, which made it difficult for me to finish the noodles.

I have not had this version of Bak Chor Mee since they moved from Marina Square to Crawford Lane. And I have to say, that I seem to remember it being better at Marina Square. The guy cooking it also seemed different from the slight chubbier and older guy at Marina Square (also less grumpy than Mr Marina Square)

This bak chor mee is good. But it didn't blow my mind. The pork elements were cooked to perfection but if I had to nitpick, the cook didn't rinse the starch from his noodles. He cooked them like an Italian nonna would do with pasta, he left the starchy residue to form an emulsion with the chilli, lard, soy and vinegar mixture. While that works with pasta, this made the sauce a little too starchy for my taste. However, having said that, the noodles were al dente and not soggy. But if I had to compare, I would say the Prince Edward Road Bestway Building Bak Chor Mee tastes better and overall delivers a better taste sensation than that of the Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee at Crawford Lane. I would rate Tai Hwa a very solid 7.5/10. Not outstanding but a very good Bak Chor Mee.

2 FAT MEN @ East Coast Road

With BH away for the weekend, I was a single girl hanging out with her buddies. And what does a single girl do? Why of course we play softball (ok, I played one game and then hurt my hand which put me out of action for the rest of the tournament), drink beer, eat and hang out with my buddies.

It was on Friday that D and I decided to have some beers and dinner at a local place that we both had heard quite a fair bit about. I had heard that they did an excellent burger as well as very very good thai food. Throw in the beers and of course I was there in a heartbeat.

As D and I have hearty appetites, we ordered the grilled pork neck, som tum, a burger (with cheese and bacon) and some new orleans chicken wings (errrr what are these? D and I couldn't help but ask). I started my beer imbibing with Phin and Matt's Ale.

A nice ale with a fruity fragrance of hops. It went well with the burger and the Thai food. I followed it up with a Le Chouffe which was delightful, somehow, the belgians just have my heart when it comes to beers. I finished with a Chimay. A nice end to the work week.

I have to say I was disappointed with the Thai food at 2 FAT MEN. The grilled pork neck was lacklustre and didn't have a lot of flavour beyond fish sauce and coriander. It wasn't really grilled either, so you didn't get the lovely char grill flavour essential when cooking meat. I was quite bland, pale and insipid. The som tum was ok, not great and didn't have enough peanuts nor dried little prawns. Both dishes lacked the big flavours that I have come to associate and love about Thai Food. I would rate both of them a 6/10.

The burger was better than the thai food. Maybe it is because they don't have to dumb down the western menu items that they seemed to do better than the Thai menu. The burger was juicy and well seasoned. My only beef with it was that the bun was obviously store bought and was flimsy and falling apart in my hand and the cheese was the stock standard plastic cheese slice from cheesedale. Not a lot of flavour. If I pay $1.50 for a slice of cheese, I expect a decent slice of cheddar on it. Not faux plastic cheese. I would rate the burger a 7.5/10.

Yan Kee Bak Chor Mee @ Boat Quay BK Eating House

Following our disappointment in not getting mee pok nor mee kia, I decided that I needed my fix of Bak Chor Mee. I consulted MakanSutra and gave Yan Kee a try. It was a beautiful morning and not crowded at all, so that meant we were able to chow down on the springy mee pok noodles after a short 10 minute wait.

This bak chor mee didn't have the usual crunchy lard pieces but it did have some ikan billis. Not quite the same thing but I actually enjoyed this version better than Lai Heng. The noodles were a little soggy (if they had cooked it for 15 secs less - they would have been perfect) but overall, the vinegar chilli soy mixture was better balanced. The piquant, spicy and salty sauce mixture was well mixed into the noodles and I like the subtantial amounts of minced pork. I would have liked the lard pieces but overall, it was a decent bowl of noodles. I would rate it 7/10.

Lai Heng Minced Mushroom Bak Chor Mee @ Toa Payoh Lor 6

After a long hiatus, I am back with a backlog of posts from before it got really crazy at work. One Saturday, BH and I ventured into Toa Payoh again to look for a really good bak chor mee.

Of course there was a long wait and we were already starving, so I ordered the mee rebus from the malay food stall that shared the coffee shop premises with the Bak Chor Mee.

After my disappointment with the mee rebus at Selera Kita, I was pleasantly surprised by this mee rebus. It had flavour and was tasty. There wasn't the cloying sweetness and the noodles weren't soggy. The bean sprouts were crunchy and delicate in the rich mee rebus gravy. I would rate it a 7.5/10.

I am not sure if it is a testament to how popular Lai Heng's Bak Chor Mee is, but when BH and I arrived at the coffee shop at 10am and placed our order, they were already out of mee kia and mee pok. I had to wonder, how many people had they already served?

I ordered the Bee Hoon and BH had the yellow noodles. Some how, Bak Chor Mee is not the same without mee pok or mee pok. You aren't able to judge the "kung fu" of the noodle blanching with beehoon or yellow noodles, and these noodles just don't have the right texture. The noodles also don't absorb as well the tart vinegary chilli and soy sauce mixture. So whilst we had did get to eat Bak Chor Mee, it left the both of us feeling like we hadn't really HAD Bak Chor Mee. There were generous servings of sliced lean pork and liver, and the minced pork and various pork cuts were very fresh. However, I didn't think much of the chilli. I would rate it a 6/10.

I don't think I will be back for this Bak Chor Mee anytime soon.

Kaima Thai Food Pig Out @ Golden Mile Food Centre

We were out for work in the city and I decided to buy my colleagues lunch at Kaima. While we were waiting for our food to be cooked by Kaima, I did my walkabout and bought some delicious Char Siu and Siu Yoke to tide us over.

Char Siu and Siu Yoke

It was juicy and tender Char Siu matched with a Siu Yoke that had the crispy crackling. Best part about both meats was that they were not overwhelmed by the sweetness for the Char Siu and saltiness for the Siu Yoke.

As we were all very hungry, I went overboard and ordered way too much food in addition to the $10 of char siu and siu yoke snackette. I got a tom yum kway teow, green mango salad, chicken red curry, fried pork (ahbudden!!), fish cakes and olive fried rice.

Kaima is a real find if you are after really good authentic thai food that won't cost a bomb. My favourite would be the fried marinated pork which are deep fried pork strips that are deliciously porky and tender. They go great with chilli, olive rice and a little heap of tangy crunchy mango salad. The Red Curry was good but didn't really make me ecstatic.....maybe cos I found it a tad too sweet. The fish cakes are hand made and deep fried. They have the nice zing from the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. All that food only cost me $33. Kaima is amazing value for money and if you can take the heat of the hawker centre, please do make your way down to Golden Mile Food Centre. I would rate it 8.5/10.

40 Hands @ Tiong Bahru

BH and I had finished a most satisfying lunch at Zion Road Hawker Centre where we pigged out Char Kway Teow and Braised Duck and were thinking of a post lunch coffee (mainly for BH). As we were close to Tiong Bahru, I suggested 40 Hands which I had read about.

Thus began our journey to find this little cafe. Its address is located as 76 Yong Siak Road but really what it means is BLOCK 76 Yong Siak Road and it is unit 12. I circled Yong Siak Road 3 times before BH had a bright idea to call them to ask them where they were located. DOH.

It is a very cozy cafe with quirky design elements such as graffiti, used condensed milk cans as sugar packet holders and etc. With the small space, they managed to cram quite a few tables in there and a bar counter. Whilst waiting for BH to place our orders at the counter, I actually saw a lady bang her head on a wire rack which was located next to her seat. And I positively felt like The Incredible Hulk in those cramped quarters.

I normally abstain from coffee but I caused BH to raise her eyebrows when I said I would have a latte. We also decided to split a Bitter Chocolate Tart.

Bitter Chocolate tart

The Tart was ok. Wasn't mind blowing. The ganache was nice and rich, but I felt that it was too bland for a Bitter Chocolate tart. I didn't get the smokey nor richer depths that I would expect from a dark chocolate tart. The pastry was not short enough and was probably overworked. It wasn't crumbly nor flakey nor very rich. In fact it was quite hard and had a more biscuity texture. It was hard and an almost cardboard like texture.

I am not a coffee aficionado so I cannot wax on lyrical about coffee but BH said that the milk was too hot and as a result, you didn't get to savour the sweetness of the milk.

Latte

Cappuccino

On the whole I would rate the experience as a 6/10. It was nice enough but didn't really offer much to warrant another visit. But I have to say I was impressed with the selection of cakes, cookies and sandwiches. But as I had already had lunch, I couldn't try any of the sandwiches.

Selera Kita Mee Rebus @ Upper Changi Road Blk 58

My weekly Sunday brunch with the parentals resumed last Sunday after a mad mad week with work. They have lived at Bedok South for more than 15 years and when I used to live there, I would always partake of the Mee Rebus from Selera Kita. And since I had a hankering for Mee Rebus, I convinced the parentals to head to the market for breakfast.

As the Auntie has kept her prices very low, $1.20, $1.50 and $2.00, its no wonder that there is always a long queue for her Mee Rebus.

Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. My noodles were over-cooked and soggy. And the savoury gravy which I remember so fondly had changed. Maybe over the course of time, I have remembered this Mee Rebus to be better than it actually was. The gravy was overly sweet and not particularly savoury. It did not have that umami-ish that I remembered it having. I would rate it a 6/10.

Chey Sua Carrot Cake @ Toa Payoh Lorong 1 Blk 127

One of my favourite hawker dishes is Carrot Cake. In fact when I used to live in Sydney I missed Carrot Cake so much I called long distance to get the recipe from my mother, and made it from scratch. I grated radish, squeezed it dry, then mixed in rice flour, water and steamed it. I made a pan of the Carrot Cake, cut it up and then fried it up with the thick caramelly dark sauce, light soy sauce and chilli. It was the perfect comfort food for two Singapore Girls (My cousin J and I) missing home in the midst of winter.

So besides trying to find the best bak chor mee, my other culinary mission is to find the best Carrot Cake in Singapore. Since this particular dish is high in carbs and fat, and has no real nutritional value, I wanted to start at the top and work my way down the list. Chey Sua Carrot Cake had been rated 3 pairs of chopsticks by Makansutra and when we got to the market, the auntie told me that there was a 30 min wait. Naturally, we agreed to the wait and I did my usual walkabout to see what else delicious was to be eaten at the market.

There was a long queue in front a stall which had two shopfronts, Teochew Handmade Bao. From what I could see, the baos were being made and steamed on the spot. I got a selection of Tau Sar Bao, Lianrong Bao, and of course Char Siu Bao for my darling pork star BH. I also got the Char Siu Rice.

I made it back to the table just in time for the arrival of the Carrot Cake, so that meant the Carrot Cake got my full attention and I didn't try any of the Baos. BH sampled all three and said that they weren't all that. The lianrong bao was not very good and tasted more of green bean. And the skin wasn't that thin. I tried the Char Siu rice and I found it way too sweet. I was puzzled as there was a really long queue for these baos......can anyone enlighten me as to why? My theory is that it's cos the baos only cost 50 cents. What was worse was that BH got really sick in the afternoon. And the only difference was that BH ate the baos and I didn't, which means that one of the baos were contaminated. I would rate it a very dismal 4/10.

By the time I attacked the Carrot Cake, I was really hungry. And I am not sure if it's a case of expectations that were too high due to the Makansutra rating or if I am really a Food Nazi (BH's pet name for me). The carrot cake was crispy and eggy, and the auntie had really made the effort to coat each segment of the carrot cake in this crispy eggy mixture and fried it at a high enough heat to create a batter-like coating that kept the carrot cake moist. However, besides this feature, the carrot cake was quite pedestrian. I suspect that the chilli is not made by the auntie and bought wholesale from some supplier as it was very bland and had only one flavour profile - sweet. It was spread over the fried carrot cake in a random haphazard pattern which resulted in bits of the carrot cake being sweet and others being completely tasteless. There was no savoury element to the carrot cake and no other flavour besides the sweetness from the chilli. I was sorely disappointed with this carrot cake and can only give it a 6/10. I will not be returning for anymore of this carrot cake.

Hawker Food at Newton Circus Food Centre

My friend J hijacked her friend S from Sydney who was on holiday in Hong Kong to spend some time in Singapore. S who had been to Singapore before wanted to have some sambal stingray which she remembered fondly from her last trip.

J and I were trying to figure out where good sambal stingray was to be had at a location which was close to S's hotel which was at Robertson Quay. We settled for Newton Circus as it seemed to be the most likely place to have sambal stingray and was close to Robertson Quay.

I did not want to have to drink the tasteless beer on offer, so I packed a cooler of my lovely Belgians. Although I got teased by my friends and BH for being a snob, I was able to enjoy the beer I wanted to drink.

Petrus

BH and I got there early ( as always, we are always early or on time) and "choped" a seat. Immediately we had someone trying to push seafood onto us and the drinks auntie trying to get us to order a drink. As I had a cooler of beer, I didn't need to order any drinks, so I had to send her away without an order.

I had also done a little research and discovered that the Oyster Omelette from Hup Kee is supposed to very good, so I made a beeline for that and ordered some pork satay from the neighbouring stall to satisfy my porkasauras BH.

Oyster Omelette from Hup Kee

Pork Satay from R&B Stall

The Oyster Omelette was good but not as good as the one that I had had at Old Airport Road. The starchy bits were a little gluey and did not have the pleasant crunch from Old Airport Road. However, besides the Pork Satay, this was still the best dish on the table. I would rate it a 7/10. The pork satay was juicy and tender and we finished all of them. A worthy effort and rated at 7/10.

J ordered a load of seafood from a stall: BBQ Sambal Stingray, Crispy Squid, Clams in Chilli, Sambal Kang Kong. And with the exception of the Crispy Squid, it was all VERY bad. The sambal stingray was tasteless and limp. The Clams were overcooked and remarkably bland. The Kang Kong was ok.....but then again, how do you screw up Kang Kong? I would rate it a very dismal 4.5/10.

The carrot cake was unspectacular and scored only a 5/10 with me. The chicken wings were easily the worst dish we had. It did not have a crispy skin, nor any flavour. It was so bland, I had to wonder if they had even marinated the chicken wings. I would rate it a 3/10.

So this leads me to the question......what is happening in our hawker centres? Have the cost of operating become so prohibitive that only sub standard renditions of our hawker favourites can be served? Are hawkers cutting corners because that is the only way they can afford to stay in business? Singapore is being touted as the next food capital of Asia, but J and I were frankly embarrassed by the food at Newton Circus last night. It was not representative of the excellent hawker food that we have come to love and enjoy in Singapore. What makes me concerned is that Newton Circus is marketed to tourists as the place to go for good hawker food. And in my opinion, that was not the case.

Tonkatsu at Saboten Parco Marina

For the past 4 days, I was running an event at Suntec. Which meant that my notions of eating healthy went out of the window. However, I refused to eat the crappy boxed lunches that were catered and went foraging for better food options in the Marina Square area.

I love pork and when it is breaded and fried......need I say more? I traditionally get my Tonkatsu fix at Tonkichi but I remember reading that Saboten did a mean tonkatsu, so I headed there during a lunch break for some fried pork.

What I loved about Saboten was that the attention to detail. They have the usual stuff that comes with Tonkatsu but each item is slightly different and you could tell that the chef had thought about how each individual item would complement each other to deliver a meal that is outstanding. Instead of the regular toasted sesame seeds, you had a mixed batch of black and white sesame seeds. Visually it looked a lot nicer and of course tasted smokier.

The soup was amazing.....it had kelp, little cubes of tofu and get this....pork fat. The pork stock was rich and restorative. I finished mine. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of this soup.

The cabbage was a green cabbage instead of the regular white. Finely shredded, it was crunchy and came with 2 different dressings which I did not use. I feel that the green cabbage is actually sweeter and has more flavour. It went very well with the fried pork.

Finally we have the main star of the meal.....the fried pork. At other tonkatu places, the pork cutlet is dredged in flour and egg and then breaded with panko. However, at Saboten, they varied this by using a batter. This batter encased a nice cut of pork loin that had a layer of fat. The batter kept the meat moist and tender while lending a savoury crunch. I would rate this 8.5/10. BH is demanding that we have our next Tonkatsu dinner there.

Burgers, Ribs, Pizza and Chocolate Guiness Cake

I was entertaining some friends on Saturday night and designed a menu that would satisfy everyone, including BH. The result was the above. Of course I only managed to get pictures of food that was not made a la minute....i.e. the ribs and the cake, but not the burgers and pizza.

The Chocolate Cake was divine, very moist and extremely chocolatey.....but for the life of me, I can't remember where I got the recipe from!? So forgive me if I do not attribute the source. I think however, it might have been better to bake the cake in a spring form cake tin lined with wax paper. My guests brought ice cream and they finished the cake and the ice cream. A big hit with the kids too! I also added a tablespoon of instant coffee to the mix...which really enhanced the chocolate flavour (Valrhona).

RIBS!!!!

Burger Buns

Guinness Chocolate Cake - TO ARTHUR!

Traditionally I would follow a brioche recipe for the burger buns but following complaints that it was too rich, I turned to a recipe for potato bread. It worked really well, was soft but provided enough structure to the bread (i.e. it didn't fall apart with the juices of the burger and onions).

The ribs were marinated for 24 hours and then slow cooked in the broiler for 3 hours at a low temperature. They were the first to go! Excellent with the fine selection of Belgian Beers from The Drinking Partners.

Adam Road Prawn Noodles @ Zion Riverside Food Centre

My colleague and I finished our meeting around lunch time and I wanted to have some oily lard laden char kway teow so we headed to Zion Road Food Centre. Unfortunately, we were too early and the uncle wasn't open. We had to settle for something else instead. We both decided to have the prawn noodles, though my colleague who is from Malaysia wanted her prawn noodles dry instead of with the soup.

Prawn Noodle Soup for me

Prawn Noodle Dry for M my colleague

I like the stock of the prawn noodle soup, it was rich and porky enough for me. But whilst it was satisfying, it was missing the final umami element in his stock. I am not sure what it was, maybe the lack of some secret spice that would have taken it to the next level.

M, my colleague commented that the stock was good and better than anything she had had in Johor Bahru. So we both enjoyed our meal!

I would rate it a 6.5/10. It was good but not orgasmically good.

Fried Minced Pork @ Home with Cantik and Sooky

The one thing I love about working so close to home is that I get to go home for lunch. Not only do I get to eat healthily (sort of), I also get to play with my pussies.

There are days when I really have a really healthy meal of steamed fish, steamed eggs, steamed veggies and brown rice. But today, I went home and cooked up a batch of minced pork. It was a hmmmm-what-is-the fridge-kind of dish but that didn't make it any less tasty.

Minced Pork @ Home

Instead of vegetable oil, I fried the garlic, chili and tau cheo in lard (for those who think my cholesterol is sky high, it isn't.). I then added the minced pork, cranked up the heat and then added kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and lime juice. I had this with leftover popiah filling (fibre and tasty!) and white rice and sambal belachan. The kaffir lime leaves and chilli gave this rich porky dish some zing while the fish sauce, garlic and tau cheo layered flavours in.

After that most satisfying meal, I played with Sooky, Handsome and Cantik. Handsome as usual was camera shy.

Sooky guarding my shoes

Cantik grooming Sooky, a rare moment

Cantik wanting to be sayanged