u m a m i

Le Wai Tian Restaurant

Does it always have to be this way? Is it only those cze char places, that resist upmarket touches like air-conditioning and mood lighting, and instead seat their diners within whizzing distance of road traffic, that are capable of serving better than average char? Last night's dinner with the makan gang happened at Le Wai Tian Seafood at Changi Road. Foldaway table, plastic chairs, melamine crockery, big industrial fans for ventilation, all the classic trappings of a corner coffeeshop. You would not go there to propose to your girlfriend but you would go there to eat yourself silly.

The menu:

1. Yam Basket
2. Thai-style Fish Head
3. Herbal Black Chicken Soup 4. Lianhua Baocai
5. Prawn Paste Chicken
6. Fried Tanghoon
7. Pig Trotter with Sea Cucumber
8. Venison Hotplate
9. Black Pepper Crab
10. Ginger Onion Mutton
11. Fresh Fruits

The food was a lot better than what we ate at Hillman a month ago, in my opinion. It was an 11-course marathon of food, food and more food. The fish-head does not look pretty, but the cook made a right old tasty curry in his signature Thai style. The gravy was slurpirily good, tasting like tom yam soup and nonya laksa gravy combined together. So good we had to call for another helping, which means we actually had 12 dishes. Oh wait a minute, we also had birthday cake (Happy Birthday YKW!) so that brings us to up to thirteen. Lucky us.

Other than the fish head curry I also enjoyed the herbal chicken soup which had that kao-for taste of being double-boiled long enough for all the flavours and goodness to be released into the liquid.

The black pepper crab was the most expensive dish but I would not have wanted to miss any of it. Although we did not have meaty Sri Lankan crabs, the small mud crabs more than compensated with its meatiness and sweetness; the pepper sauce was tinglingly hot and finger-licking good with little bonus pieces of crab roe scattered throughout. What was even more amazing was how quickly we worked through the mountain of crabs even though it arrived late in the evening when all had declared they were very full already.

Some dishes suffered from overseasoning and mediocrity, but the overall impression was very positive. If I lived in the neighbourhood I would be happy to eat there often. Dinner dragged on a bit, I think we threw the cook off-course with our inconsistent requests. One minute it was to say the portions were too small, another time the opposite complaint, faster, slower, this, that. Luckily the staff were good-natured about it all. Best of all, the tab for the meal came up to only $360. No tax, no cess, no service charge.

Le Wai Tian Seafood (Kim San Leng Foodcourt)
324-T Changi Road, S(419799)
(Junction of Telok Kurau and Changi Road)
Tel : 6440 8937

Eggs are back!

The chicken and eggs are coming back, good news indeed. Yes to eggs in mee-siam, soft-boiled eggs on toast, egg prata and egg tarts.

Not to forget the ducks too.Time to have another round of Crispy Aromatic Duck methinks.

Another Tea Post

I once mentioned to Carrie how I love the white tea that is available from Origi*ns, where the counter staff would happily pour you a cup but they would not sell any of the tea to you. So when I met her last weekend, she told me she just received some of this rare tea.

It is called White Tea because the leaves have tiny silvery hairs. I've had some dud versions before, these usually have a strong mouldiness. Not so this time. My tea tasted slightly sweet and nutty with a clean rounded finish. The leaves were tender and green. The picture was taken just after the water (not boiling) was poured into the cup, it is ready to drink after about 3-5 minutes when the colour changes to a delicate gold.

Eat a Bowl of Tea

Carrie, tea artist and good friend, can hardly keep up with the demand for her Eight Treasure Tea. Imagine, high-mountain Oolong tea, golden raisins, dried longans, crunchy-sweet winter melon, fat Chinese wolfberries, juicy Chinese red dates, tender rose petals, and sweet pinenuts. Each ingredient sourced and prepared according to her exacting standards. All I had to do was to pour hot water, wait impatiently for 3 minutes, and enjoy a most heavenly, soothing and uplifting drink.

Just to compare, I tried the Eight Treasure Tea at a Shanghainese restaurant in Purvis Street. This so cannot make it.

Taste of Autumn

The Japanese also know how to celebrate autumn glories. Chestnut wagashi from Minamoto Kitchen is a gorgeous treat. Thanks Carrie.

16 eggs and 2 kg prawns

Ever heard of the kiasu Singaporean?

Andrew runs the Road Side Stall Hotpot Restaurant. The restaurant serves steamboat buffet-style, where diners can order as much meat, fish, seafood and vegetables as they like. Last week he had a young couple who ate their way through the buffet from 6 p.m. till 11 p.m. They achieved a record of sorts by eating 16 eggs* between the two of them. The other items were not neglected either, not surprisingly, the prawns consumed came up to 2 kg; we are talking about 60 medium sized prawns worth of cholesterol here.

* Eggs remain in short supply, and the prices have gone up about 5 times since the bird flu cases started in Malaysia.

Mooncakes

Mid Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eight lunar month which for this year is on the 28th of September. Like most other festivals, it seemed more special when I was a child. We would carry lanterns, eat steamed yam (and the little-seen-now linjiao) and gaze at the full moon while telling stories about the moon fairy and the rabbit in the moon; or pretend to be revolutionaries in Yuan dynasty China, passing secret messages in mooncakes so that we could overthrow the Mongol invaders.

The symbolic food of the festival is the mooncake, which at its most basic interpretation is a round cake with an outer "skin" encasing a smooth sweet filling within. Mooncakes are not my favourite food, as it is usually too sweet and oily. But we still eat some to mark the season.

We ate our first mooncake of the year a few weeks ago. The traditional baked mooncakes from Royal China at Raffles Hotel was the best version we came across this year, and we did try plenty.

"The snow skin ones were a major letdown because someone was heavy handed with the osmanthus flavouring, the reek overwhelmed the delicate fillings so much we could not make out their taste. On the other hand, the traditional baked version met husband's strict criteria with its thin and perfectly baked skin surrounding white lotus paste that was neither too smooth, too oily nor too sweet."

During the eight lunar month, mooncake fairs are held in most shopping malls, with the mother of all fairs happening at Takashimaya. Competition among mooncake sellers is ferocious and samples are given freely. We tried many and did not come across a better version than the Royal China ones, not even those from previous favourites like East Ocean and Golden Peony. Husband liked the baked mooncakes from Man Fu Yuan at Intercontinental Hotel. Personally I found it too oily. The knife cut across too cleanly across the cake and there was hardly any paste sticking on the knife after cutting; to achieve this effect would require an oceanful of oil in the lotus paste. At least the yolk was fresh. Incidentally I have an uncle who loves eating the salted egg yolks in mooncakes but he would leave most of the lotus paste, that's his little eccentricity. When I was younger I also preferred the yolk to the paste, but now I like to have just a small bit of the yolk with each bite, as the saltiness is just enough to counter the sweetness of the paste. Husband the purist likes his mooncakes with 100% paste and no yolk.

There's another mooncake that I buy every year. Eater Palace sells two types of mooncakes, the Teochew yam mooncakes and their own Kapitan Mooncakes. They only conduct their business during this season, the rest of the year they are not open at all. Teochew yam mooncakes are fried pastries encasing rich yam paste, which I used to adore especially if toasted until the yam paste melts into a kind of orh-nee goo. The best version is supposed to come from Crown Prince Hotel but I am so over the phase I have not eaten it the past three years. What I like is the Kapitan mooncakes. Its ping-pi skin is delicate and not too sweet or overly scented with essence of banana or osmanthus. The fillings of yam layered with red bean paste and egg yolk strike the right balance of sweet and salty and this mooncake feels somewhat more healthy than most other mooncakes.

Harbour City's Walnut Moontarts were quite delicious as the walnuts were fresh. The lotus paste was not too sweet either. I used to not buy this pastry in previous years because they had a policy of not offering samples and I worried about getting rancid nuts, but this year they wisely decided to let people try before buying.

My aunt informed me that the durian mooncakes from the Goodwood Park hotel are really good, but I will take her word for it. Durian mooncakes just does not appeal to me right now. I don't mind durians in cakes or pastries, but I've had my fill of durians this year. I am also open to trying new flavours like chocolate, ginseng or rose essence, but I have not come across any particularly interesting ones so far. Maybe I have not been trying hard enough. Oh well, there is always the weekend for that last burst of buying.

Leak no more

This is not a CD. It is a piece of aluminium foil laminated with plastic.

Before the wine is poured, the foil is folded to fit into the neck of the bottle, like so.

This flexible disc helps to ensure that every drop of wine goes into the glass, and when you stop pouring there is none of that backflow that runs messily over the rim.

Clever ain't it? Of course, wine buffs would already know about this, but umami is very ignorant about wine, so this was an exciting discovery for her.

Chop and Chip

Some of the nice and not-so-nice things I've eaten this past week.

1. Kurobota Pork Chop ($35) from The Moomba Restraurant. I don't know if this came from the same family as the black pigs featured on one episode of Japan Hour. When I asked, the staff at the restaurant replied that the pork came from Australia. Never mind the origin, the pork chop was very nice. In fact, I've never had tastier pork in Singapore. Sweet, with a mild hint of grass, the meat was lean inside and skirted with a rim of fat. The chef had simply grilled and then glazed it with an umami-licious sauce that may have honey and fu-yu , but don't quote me, I am only guessing.

Husband remarked that the only better pork chop would be the one he ate at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco last year; he still remembers the meal fondly. The memory of the Kurobota chop taunted me again this evening when I was sampling husband's steak ($50 for a 10 oz slab) at the Mezzanine at Grand Hyatt. The steak was properly cooked to the medium rare state as requested, but other than its tenderness, there was hardly any flavour that would make me go mmmmm... it is a sad thing to pay $50 and over for something so unsatisfying. Even though it was my very kind and generous uncle who paid for the meal, my heart ached no end when I think of the outrageous price they charge for the mostly mediocre food. They even have the nerve to cook hor-fun with po-li ha (my name for prawns frozen in sugared water and chemicals like boric acid, the process gives the prawns an unnaturally glassy texture) and charge $25 for the privilege.

2. Terra Chips. Nearly $10 for a packet of chips, but well worth the price. I don't think I will ever go back to Jack n Jills ever again. Yes I should have been studying, but Sims2 needed my attention too.

3. Chicken Marsala Wrap at Toast at Ngee Ann City. Very chi-chi place but the food is fresh and generally good. The wrap was very well composed and tasty; it had mango slices, mustard, yoghurt sauce and crisp lettuce. Very comforting too, after a morning sitting for a very tough 3-hour exam (work-related) and then driving around the Asian Civilisation Museum looking for a car park lot only to find out later that the Turkish bazaar (held at the museum this weekend only) offered nothing more "Turkish" than nasi padang and Ramly Burger.

4. Two weeks ago, Cedele had a new sandwich called the Otah Fish Burger which was very nice. Last night they replaced it with a Spicy Fish Burger which was not the same at all, and definitely not nice to eat!

5. There is a dire shortage in the market of Tung-I Beehoon with Chicken and Abalone Flavour. None to be found in NTUC, Cold Storage and Giant. We are down to our last two packets. To make things worse, there wasn't even an egg in the kitchen to boost the nutritional value of my exam-cramming lunch. I had to settle for XO sauce, not a bad thing in itself, but dammit, egg would have been better.

Malaysian Family Banned from Entering Singapore

So Sad..........but thanks to the internet age, they can go anywhere in the webworld

This picture was forwarded by my friend. Thanks vino!
Please click on thumbnail for full-sized image.