u m a m i

Lobster Noodles Royal China

Long before somebody had the clever idea of associating cakes with birthdays, many Chinese people celebrated birthdays by eating noodles. Especially long noodles, as slurping long noodles suggests the good life for a long long time. Children get mee-sua, a rice vermicelli served in a rich broth of pork and kidney and a whole boiled egg, or the alternative sweet version with syrup and also a boiled egg. Adults would usually have some kind of wheat noodles fried up with meat or seafood.

It was husband's birthday yesterday, and noodles are his favourite carbo-food, so I gave him a noodle treat. The Royal China Lobster Noodles. Last year the Chinese restaurant at the grand Raffles Hotel was taken over by Royal China. For Londoners, Royal China has long been known for excellent dim sum and its signature Lobster Noodles. I have eaten at Royal China in London, but only at the Queensway location, and have never tried their famous noodles. Back then I was a poor student and ordering lobster anything in London would be harmful to my wallet, and later, even when I felt richer, my always-hungry brother and sisters would usually order far too much crispy duck and the entire dim sum menu to make room for noodles. Royal China introduce their house specialty to Singapore and every review I've read raved on and on about this wonderful dish, so I put it into my to-try list.

We could choose either Boston lobster or Australian lobster. Australian lobsters was apparently a good deal, being $8 per 100g. Gulp! No need to ask about Boston lobsters then...... We ate some pre-Lobster dishes of dim sums and cereal prawns, which incidently were really refined and exquisitely made, certainly one of the very best dim sums in town...... The noodles were finally presented, the waitress removed the shiny gold domed cover with a flourish and we had our first look at the noodles. Great looking lobsters. Erm... is that wan-ton noodles? How can it be? I thought at the very least it would come with yee-fu noodles as yee-fu noodles would make the perfect vehicle to soak up the rich lobster sauce, but the manager assured us that their famous dish uses wan-ton noodles, and told us some funny story about how if they used yee-fu noodles the steps would be more complicated, huh? Alright then, this was really wan-ton noodles, deconstructed, maybe. Or a luxe version of Sang Ha Meen (live prawn noodles). We ate and tasted. The lobsters were sweet and firm after being quickly cooked in a light sauce with stock, ginger and spring onions. We chewed happily on the lobster meat, though, after a while, it got a bit monotonous. Husband also complained that the noodles had an especially strong taste of alkaline water. All in, we were quite disappointed. After all the hoo-hah, I expected a dish to take my breath away, something more WoW. Not something that a cze char cook can duplicate, given the same ingredients. I remember about 3 years ago, when my aunt brought back fresh lobsters from Australia and a Chinese restaurant in KL cooked a yee-fu noodle dish with just the head and little legs; the noodles were so good we nearly licked the plate, and here we were, bored midway through our fancy meaty 800g lobster. We took the other half home, maybe it will taste better tomorrow evening, when we are back from our Monday slog in the office. Incidentally, the restaurant charged separately for the lobster ($64)and the noodles ($5).

Mustafa's Centre

In case you didn't already know, The Great Singapore Sale started last Friday. This Sale lasts two whole months, enough time to spend your shillings and cents. I did my bit in this national duty too, last night, we went to the 24-hour Mustafa's Centre. This place stocks almost everything one can think of, and more too. Last week they started selling Hyundai cars. Not only is the range of goods far and wide, the prices are kept low too, I bought a knife that was $2 cheaper than what they charge at Taka.

I keep the supermarket till the very end, because this is my favourite section, the produce there never fail to excite me. There is a space between the new and old wing where they display Mangoes, when Mangoes are in season. When there are no mangoes, this space is quite forlorn. To be more precise, when Pakistani or Indian mangoes are in season. There is always the sweet-but-dull Thai mangoes and big-sweet-and-also-dull Australian mangoes available almost all year round, but Pakistan mangoes, those we just have to wait and see what comes in. Last night was a good night because the Mangoes were in. I was almost clapping my hands in glee because I was so happy to see Alphonso mangoes. I ate one over the kitchen sink as soon as I got home. Alphonsos are sweet,juicy yet tart, with hardly any fibrous membranes and smells like a mango should, definitely a most delicious Mango. I also bought some Badami mangoes, from Pakistan, but these were not yet ripe, so I don't know if it is any good, but the feel of it in my hands tell me I am in for a treat.

Here is an alternative to popcorns and hotdogs. Bollywood snacks. I did not get any, but I did snap up some Hindi VCDs. Not knowing any Hindi, I selected the movies based on the actors / actresses, and the VCD cover: Pinjar, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Munna Bhai MBBS and mr and mers Iyers.

And here is the irresistible Amul moppet. A refreshing change from happy cows and twee milkmaids.

Nonya Bong

For lunch, we ta-powed (takeaway) some dishes from Nonya Bong. This eatery serves rather decent Peranakan food in basic surroundings. The style is close to Penang style, I think the owner was from Penang. Go early, most dishes are cooked in a big batch once a day. The Tau Yu Bak (Pork Belly braised in Soya Sauce) has tender pork with melt-in-the-mouth fat cooked with garlic and dried squid in a sweet-ish soya sauce, really wicked. Today we tried the Salted Fish Bone Vegetable Curry, it is like an intense fish curry with loads of vegetables minus the fish, an acquired taste for me. The Ayam Buah Keluak is the type I like, i.e. they do not mix the nut paste with pork, so each buah contains loads of the truffle-y paste, again, very tasty. They have desserts too, like the homely Kueh Kosui, soft rice cakes cooked in gula melaka. At night, most popular dishes would have run out, but they stay open anyway, and will cook simpler one-wok dish, like Ikan Gulai, to order.

Clockwise from top: Kueh Kosui, Tau-yu Bak, Salted Fish Bone Vegetable Curry, Chap Chye (mixed vegetables) and Ayam Buah Keluak. Centre: Sotong Pedas.

Nonya Bong
432 Balestier Road
#01-434, Public Mansion

Hu Cui and the Yellow Fish

The other day I was browsing through the (what else?) cookbook section at a bookstore. Sandy Lam, the HK-popular singer-now-well-married-and-no-longer-singing-much, at least in public, is another famous person publishing their own recipes. So it is not only us bloggers who are into vanity publishing projects. Seriously though, the cookbook features Shanghainese food, and the spread looks very gorgeous and believably delicious. Some are her own recipes, and some are recipes by famous chefs in Shanghai. And all the pictures of her show Sandy Lam looking naturally elegant, even in bermudas and polo t-shirt. She has just the most radiant and delicately drawn face that is hardly diminished by age.

That is not to say that I bought the book. Most of the ingredients seemed very native to Shanghai, and it would be quite difficult to replicate the recipes here. And I am not so enamoured of Sandy Lam to buy the book just to gaze at the perfection of her images. But browsing through the pages made me long for some Shanghainese food, and since we are not planning to visit Shanghai anytime soon, we had to settle for a version of it in Singapore instead.

Which was how we arrived at Hu Cui restaurant at Ngee Ann City, better known as home of Taka. Hu Cui is rapidly becoming one of my favourite Chinese restaurants. It is also run by the Crystal Jade (CJ) group, and I've given this group much good press in my writings, so let me declare I have no vested interest in this company, maybe I have grown so used to their food. Hu Cui specialises in Shanghainese cuisine, and while I am no expert at Shanghainese food, I do like whatever Shanghainese offering that Hu Cui serves. Some of the dishes taste the same whether it is in the upmarket Hu Cui or the more accessible CJ Shanghainese outlets at Great World City (3rd level), like my favourite Green Soya Peas and Tofu Skin or the Band Bang Chicken. Did I say Bang Bang Chicken, yes I did, the menu probably does not describe it that way, but it is the cold dish of translucent noodles bathed in a spicy peanut sauce and chicken slices; this dish was probably created for Western palates but I have a particular liking for it.

At Hu Cui the portions may be smaller, or the price higher, but these factors are offset by the more beautiful and secluded ambience. Apparently it is a popular place for ladies-who-lunch, but the few times that we went for dinner it was easy to get a table without reservation, and the clientele is a mix of families, executives and well-heeled tourists. Once comfortably seated, do order a glass of homemade water chestnut drink to cool the system while studying the menu. The little dish of roasted peanuts is disarmingly delicious, so tiny and more-ish, no wonder they could get away with serving humble peanuts in a fancy restaurant.

Last night I had to try something I saw in Sandy Lam's cookbook, the Yellow Fish. The captain at Hu Cui confirmed that yes, Yellow Fish is a favoured fish in the Shanghai food culture and it is really good. He was right, this small fish (about 7 inches long without the head) needs only to be deepfried whole and served without any need for sauce or accompaniments. Its flesh is delicate and the taste is fleetingly sweet, it literally dissolves in the mouth, the fishy equivalent of candyfloss. Deliciouso, and only $5.50 per fish. Alas, we ate the last fish in the restaurant. There is a temporary halt in supply; although this fish is available all year round in Shanghai, imports have been suspended as the toxin levels in the fish exceeds our local standards.

The rest of our dinner went well too, with subtly fragrant freshwater prawns sauteed with Longjing Tea leaves, a much lighter dish than their prawns with salted egg yolk sauce. A generous serving of fishmaw with fresh crabs meat satisfied husband's newfound delight for the chewy and spongy delicacy. End the meal with perfectly round dumplings filled with the fragrant sesame seed, suspended in lightly sweetened syrup. Good enough to tide one over until there is time and opportunity to actually get to Shanghai.

Lavender Food Square

Update 19 June 2004:

1. Peking Eating House has ceased operations. Where am I going to get decent guo-ties in Singapore? Woe is Me!
2. The NaNa franchise was not open today. Have they closed too?
3. This food centre will be closed for 1.5 months in September for renovations. It has a new owner, so changes are inevitable, hopefully for the better.

Today I went to the Singapore Immigration Register to renew my Re-Entry Permit. This permit is issued to Permanent Residents (PR), so that PRs, like me, can enter Singapore without filling up that white card at Immigration checkpoints. I last renewed my permit five years ago, and each permit lasts 5 years, so that neatly makes it 10 years since I became a PR here. Husband had taken the afternoon off to accompany me, in case the Immigration officers gave any trouble. They didn't, not at all, even though I did not have two out of three of the papers in their checklist, they issued my permit without problem. This time they renewed my permit for 10 years, although they also charged $100 for the privilege.

Luckily we did not spend all our money at lunch. We had eaten well and cheaply at the nearby Lavender Food Square. This food centre is not located in any busy residential or office area, so it is relatively quiet. At 1 pm, there was no 'lunch crowd' save for the miserable few queuing for Kok Kee Wanton noodles; I say miserable, because the noodles at Kok Kee is very sucky in my opinion. There are much nicer things to eat here, e.g. carrot cake, Western grill, and my 10-year-already-favourite, the Guo-Tie (potstickers, Wo-tip, or just dumplings) and Wo-Peng (fried pancake) from Peking Eating House.

Guo-tie is usually cooked with the fried-and-steamed method, where the dumplings are laid in an oiled pan and a thin layer of water and then the pot is covered. The steam from the water cooks the dumplings, and after the water evaporates, the side of the dumpling that is in contact with the pot gets fried. This wo-tip is fried till crisp on the 'pot' side, and the skin is soft on the 'steamed' side. It is also filled generously with pork and plenty of chives and cabbages. Goes well with either the sliced ginger in black vinegar, or the toban (chilli bean) sauce.

The wo-peng is husband's favourite, being soft inside yet crispy outside, with plenty of red bean paste inside and loads of crushed peanuts and sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

Husband also enjoyed some Mee-Hoon Kueh. Mee-Hoon Kueh is a fresh noodle dough rolled out in flat strips using a pasta maker. A popular home-cooked dish, this is now available in food centres, and still served in the home-style of a light stock with various combination of fish, meat or mushroom, and almost always topped with some fried ikan bilis (dried anchovies). This soup happened to be a fish soup, and it was not too overwhelmingly MSG-laden for a change.

I also spotted a NaNa curry franchisee. Unlike some other outlets, this stall serves the curry in melamine bowls rather than nasty polystyrene containers. The chicken curry was good as usual, which turned out to be not a good idea, because the gravy went so well with rice I finished a whole plate of rice by myself, about the equivalent of one week's allowance. Oooh Na Na!

Mangosteen

I know, the weather has been really hot, but there is good things to come. It is Mangosteen season!! One of my favourite fruits. The appearance of mangosteen also signals that Durians, another favourite, are ripening along too, but for the moment, I will focus on eating as much mangosteen as possible. The first fruits of the season came out two weeks ago, but were really hard and not ripe yet. Now is about right, who knows how long the season will last?

My favourite way of eating mangosteen is to get it really cold in the fridge, then I'll open it up and eat the fruit on its own, the cold fruit tastes so sweet and juicy it is like eating a sorbet. To open, just turn the fruit so that the stalk is facing down, and cup the fruit in your two palms, then use light pressure from the fleshy part of the palm to 'pop' the fruit open, like so. If it is ripe, it will 'pop", if not, nothing can get it to open, not even hurling it against the wall ( as I can testify). The biggest segment has the seed, the small segments are pretty safe to swallow whole. Be careful of the juice, it will stain everything a vivid purple, and is almost impossible to get rid of.

Nasi Ulam IMBB

Nasi Ulam is my contribution to IMBB, Fouth Edition.

Nasi Ulam is the Malay name for Herbed Rice. It is a rice dish that contrasts the freshness of herbs with the pungency and strong flavours of ingredients like belacan (dried fermented shrimp paste), dried salted fish and dried shrimps. It goes well with kerabus (salads) and simply cooked seafood. It is also lighter than most other more well known Malay dishes such as nasi lemak, rendang or satay. As for its true origins, I've always thought Nasi Ulam is a Malay dish but like many dishes in South East Asia, other cultures also have their versions, especially the Peranakans. In fact, the recipe I used came from a Peranakan source, the "Nonya Flavours A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine", though in the usual fashion, I've tweaked it a little by adjusting the quantities of ingredients and adding some toasted almonds for a nutty bite.

This is an easy dish to assemble, but the ingredient list is rather long, which would explain why this dish is hardly seen in restaurants or hawker centres. I had to go to the Tekka Centre Wet Market to shop for most of the ingredients, especially the herbs. Another source may be the wet market in Geylang Serai, but most of the herbs would not be easily available in Singapore. I had to give up on finding one of the ingredients (daun cekur) as there wasn't any to be bought in the market. Shopping for the ingredients was a real education for me, it was really the first time I learn about kerisiks, for example. Kerisik is what Wati identified as the residue that is left after coconut has its oil extracted, this residue is then toasted and used as a condiment.

Ingredients (some quantities are vague, because it can be guess-timated according to personal taste):

4 cups of rice, cooked
Salted fish, about 10 g, fried, then cooled and shredded finely
Dried shrimps, about 1 big handful, fried and cooled
1 tbsp belacan, toasted
2 tbsp kerisik (toasted grated coconut), dry-toasted in a wok- this step is optional

Herbs ( Finely sliced)

Handful shallots
1 serai (lemongrass), only the tender inner parts of the white end
1 bunga kantan (ginger flower)
3 stalks daun kesom (laksa leaves)
3 stalks basil leaves
3 stalks mint leaves
3-4 cekur leaves
6 kaduk leaves
1 turmeric leaf
1 kaffir lime leaf
1 cm fresh turmeric, finely chopped

pepper to taste
toasted almonds for garnish

In bowls, from top: Toasted almonds, fried dried shrimps, dried fish, kerisik.
In Metal dish: Herbs like turmeric leaf (long leaf lining one edge) and other ingredients like shallots, ginger flower, turmeric, lemongrass. Belacan in little dish. More herb detail in picture below.

Clockwise from top right hand corner: Daun Kaduk, Daun Kesom, mint, basil, Kaffir Lime leaves

Method

1. Cook the rice first. Let it cool
2. Prepare the dry ingredients like dried prawns, belacan, kerisik and dried fish.
3. Slice the herbs finely and toss with the dry ingredients. Season with some pepper and if necessary, some salt and sugar. Sprinkle some toasted almonds on top.

I served it to my family with some tamarind prawns and icy cold tairu lassi, but it is delicious eaten as it is.

Tofu Peanut

There was a treat waiting for me at home. Tofu Peanut from the Okinawan restaurant at Tanglin Shopping Centre. Smooth peanut-ty tofu with a sticky sweet-salty sauce perked up with a dab of ginger. The Okinawan take on panna cotta I suppose. Perfect for my sandpaper throat.

There was a new cake at Cedele today. Almond Praline cake is a light, moist sponge cake layered with a caramel frosting and studded at the sides (does round cakes have sides? do we call them edges?) with very nice almond brittle. Yummy.

This is the time for white asparagus apparently. I had some last year, with gorgonzola sauce, at an Italian restaurant. Not sure whether I liked the gorgonzola sauce or the asparagus more. Gorgonzola won I think. But I had some fat green asparagus for lunch two days ago, and they were delicious too. The trick to cooking asparagus, at least for me, is to trim off more of the outer green skin than you expect to, something I observed from watching sumiyaki (grilled foods) chefs during their prep time. Of course, wrapping it in bacon helps immensely too.

The weather has been really hot, and I have a sore throat. I just want to eat chin-chow (grass jelly drink) right now but there's none at home. Just as well, it is already 1 am and I should be asleep. Night night.

Kangkung with Bean Sauce

I had a bunch of Kangkung (known variously as water convulvulos, morning glory, tung-choy (HK)) in the fridge. The usual ways of cooking kangkong in my family are
a) stirfried with sambal belacan
b) stirfried with garlic, fu-yuu (white fermented bean curd) and chilli. Alternatively, I would make a sauce of fu-yu, chilli oil, Chinese wine and sugar and toss that with boiled kangkong.
c) stirfried with plenty of garlic.

Last night the usual ways did not appeal. Or rather, options a) and c) did not appeal, and although option b) did, I had no fu-yuu at home. However, there was something else in the fridge that caught my eyes, a jar of Yellow Bean Paste. Hmm. similar to fu-yuu, both are kind of salty, savoury and strongly flavoured. The yellow bean paste would have been quite flat used on its own, it is usually cooked with meat. And suddenly the thought of kangkung and pork in a yellow beany sauce began to sound appealing to me and I had a go at cooking it. Well, the end result tasted rather good, but on the salty side, on account of the yellow beans. It would have been better if it was eaten with rice....I think this recipe would work with black beans or toban (chilli bean) sauces. There is no accompanying picture because we did not think to take one, but it really is quick and easy to cook.

Kangkung with Pork and Yellow Bean sauce

1 bunch of kangkung, washed, with stalks separated from leaves
Chopped Garlic
Chopped Onions
2 tsp Yellow Bean sauce
Pork, sliced thinly
Cooking alcohol (whisky in my case, but shaoxing wine or cooking sherry would do too)- as marinade, and during cooking.

1. Marinate the sliced pork with white pepper, sesame oil and cooking alcohol for 30 minutes
2. Heat some oil in the wok and toss the pork on high heat for about 2-3 minutes to cook it. Scoop out the pork and set aside.
3. Add more oil into the wok if needed. Toss the garlic and onions on medium heat until fragrant. Add the yellow bean sauce and toss some more.
4. Throw in the kangkung, stalks first, followed by leaves. Crank the heat up to the maximum setting. There will be a lot of sizzle and sazzle. Don't worry. Toss the vegetables until it wilts, about 2-3 minutes. Do NOT add water, the vegetables will naturally 'sweat' water. Splash some alcohol on the side of wok and return the cooked pork to the wok. Toss to combine, and it is ready to serve.