Istimewa Nasi Padang, Hoy Fatt Rd, Singapore

A family member introduced me to this place a few years ago when I was back in Singapore for a holiday and I've been a fan ever since. Located in a rather secluded location at Block 28, Hoy Fatt Road, Istimewa Nasi Padang has been satisfying my Malay mixed curry rice cravings for some time now.

This place really gets the crowds going especially on weekdays where you get alot of office people queuing up for their plate of scrumptious nasi padang. Probably the dish I love the most here is their ayam goreng (fried chicken) and I'll happily wait by the side to make sure I get a piece that is freshly fried. The batter is really thin and the crispiness of the skin just speaks for itself. After perforating the skin, you sink your teeth into juicy succulent chicken. The chicken here is well-thawed too and fried till they are no traces of residual blood.

Most of their other dishes are in qualities far exceeding average. The beef rendang is not bad too and gives the one at Warong M.Nasir a run for its money. The fried lung could have been drier and saltier though because I like mine like a jerky. This place only opens for lunch and you probably won't get much of anything left after 2PM. Don't expect any fancy decor in this joint, but instead bask in the joys of old school coffeeshop dining with plastic stools. foldable tables and heaps of sweat.

D

Bee Cheng Hiang, Singapore

There's one main thing that sets aside Bee Cheng Hiang from the rest of the the bakkwa stores. This is also the reason why I patronize Bee Cheng Hiang. That reason is - Gourmet Bakkwa. Bakkwa is very much like a grilled pork jerky. Traditional bakkwas are made from seasoned minced pork. What sets gourmet bakkwa from the rest is that thin strips of belly pork are used instead of mince. The interlacing of fat and meat creates a nicely caramelized texture which practically melts in your mouth.

The edges are charred just enough to impart a smokey taste without any bitter hints of being burnt. The meat fibres are continuous and the cut is actually very similar to bacon without the rind. Quality doesn't come cheap here though and you do pay a premium of about 1.20SGD per 100g above the traditional bakkwas but that's ok with me because I can't eat too much of this in one sitting and normally just get a 100-200g bag to snack on.

D

Mei Chin Rd Food Centre, Mei Chin Rd, Singapore

I initially came to this place at 159 Mei Chin Road to have some prawn noodles for breakfast but since I was there pretty early, they weren't ready yet, so I went for the laksa instead. Oh don't get me wrong, I love the laksa here too, it's just that my companion might not have been that keen on something spicy so early in the morning. With very little persuasion we agreed to have laksa for breakfast.

There are many variants of laksa, this one is the version (Peranakan?) which is more commonly found in Singapore. However, instead of using chicken slices, he adds in minced pork instead. The achilles heel of many laksas is the quality and quantity of the coconut milk used; this makes or breaks the dish. Thankfully, this stall uses fresh coconut milk and lots of it. The broth is so rich and tasty here that I often gulp it all down. As you can see from their sign, a bowl starts from as little as 1SGD, not sure if this is a gimmick though because I normally order the 2SGD serve.

We also ordered some water dumplings from another stall as a side. These were quite meaty and tasty but for 2SGD for four average-sized water dumplings, I thought they were rather pricy. The soup was quite unremarkable as well.

Mei Chin Rd Food Centre has alot to offer, including a pretty ass-kicking chicken rice stall towards the back that's supposedly from the "famous" one at Margaret Drive. Just don't rock up at 650AM like I did and most stalls should be open.

D

Hong Kong Street Restaurant, Ang Mo Kio, Singapore

Hong Kong Street Restaurants seem to be constantly popping up everywhere and I'm not sure if they're all part of some franchise or there's just some blatant copyright/trademark infringements going on but they seem to all serve the same types of food and have uncannily similar decors. This one resides at Block 151, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 and I decided to stop by for lunch that day.

We ordered the typical Hong Kong Street Restaurant staples and the first dish to be served was the flat rice noodles with sliced fish. This is pretty tasty despite the lack of presence of much sauces hence retaining its whitish appearance. The fish tasted fresh and firm and the beansprouts weren't overfried so they were still quite crunchy.

Fried morning glory with preserved cuttlefish in local chilli gravy was next. It seemed as though the morning glory wasn't really fried but quick-boiled and the sauce tossed on top. Although I would have preferred the morning glory to be fried instead of boiled, the grease and taste from the gravy made up for it.

The milky fish soup was tasty but man were the fish slices thick. They seem to be getting thicker everytime I patronize this place, I won't be surprised if they'll eventually give up on fillets and chuck in a whole fish the next time. The veggies in it were also not the freshest and tasted slightly "woody".

Their fried prawn-paste chicken was still as good as I remembered. Not only were these marinated through and through but they were also fried well with no hints of blood, which I tend to get at many other branches. Blood is good in some things, but not in others; blood in the blood bank - good, a bloody steak - good, a bloody piece of fried chicken - bad.

I actually ordered this dish because I saw it on another table. I didn't even know they had battered shrimp here. These things are like a blast from the past, the almost quintessential dish in any B-grade '80s catering menu haha. Although I remembered most catering versions to be greasy and soggy these were actually crispy (but still greasy yay!). They use pretty large shrimp here and they maintained a sound crunchy bite, even the tails are crisp enough to chomp through. The batter could be a bit lighter though but at least it was flavored well, so if I had to contend with a thick batter, at least it was a tasty thick batter.

This place delivers a rather consistent meal if you have that craving for a slightly heartier lunch. Most dishes here start at below 10SGD except for the shrimp which starts at 15SGD.

D

p.s: If anyone wondered why there are discrepencies in my picture qualities, the reason for it being so, is that I alternate between my digital camera and my mobilephone camera. My mobilephone is normally my backup.

Ju Shin Jung, West Coast Highway, Singapore

After a slow process of overcoming my irrational phobia of Korean food (because I had way too much of it in Seoul at the begining of the year), I was inspired enough by a recommendation from a friend to try out Ju Shin Jung at 27 West Coast Highway for some pretty "authentic" Korean charcoal barbecue.

The spread of side-dishes is quite impressive here, surpassing even some of places I went to in Korea. If I'm not wrong, the side dishes here are replenishable at no charge too but we only had the capacity for one round. Both their fermented and semi-fermented kimchi are quite good although it could have been spicier and "smellier". They didn't have a side-dish here which I missed abit though, the fermented crunchy white radish.

But they did have chilled Jinro shoju here in nicely chilled litte shoju glasses. The good memories of drinking shoju in a barbecue joint in Seoul at 2AM came back bit by bit with every sip.

The first of the three meats to arrive was the daeji (marinated pork), this was perhaps the least remarkable of the three and was marinated just slightly too sweet for my liking. Still it was tender and quite succulent even after being barbecued.

Although the galbisal (beef shortrib) wasn't super fresh (notice the brownish edges on some pieces) the generous and even marbling of fat still triggered some salivation.
This was the best amongst the three with each morsel full of beefy juicy tenderness. I like it out there placed the cooked portions on the onion to prevent overcooking so not only do I get to lick the plate when I'm done, I get to eat it too haha.

Enter the woosul (beef tongue), nicely laid out on the wood platter you can see the razor sharp slices across the tongue exposing all the glossal intrinsic muscles (I googled the medical jargon haha).

Although they weren't sliced as thin as I hoped for I kept the faith in hoping that they would be tender enough. Unfortunatly, they weren't as tender as I hoped for either. Still, it was rather tasty and I've never really minded a good chew. Dipping this in the lemon and salt provided and washing it down with shoju is a pretty good combo.

Well, overall we quite enjoyed this meal especially after my long hiatus from Korean fare. A few things to note about this place, they cook the food for you although I'm sure if I asked to do so myself they would oblige. There's a playhouse for you to dump your kids at whilst you enjoy your meal, I'm not sure about the quality of the games in there but I did spy a nostalgic pen of plastic balls. If there's only one gripe about this place it would be their corkage arm-twister because they charge 15SGD per bottle of corkage which makes it economically not feasible at all to bring in my own Jinro (16SGD); they sell theirs at 25SGD. I miss the ones in Korea at under 5SGD. This meal fed two (including alcohol) for about 150SGD, not really the cheapest meal you can get in Singapore but still significantly cheaper than the barbecue meals I had in Seoul which averaged about 200SGD every time.

D

p.s: Other things to note here are the sweet cinammon tea they serve for dessert and the dried towels which expand when you add water to it.

Ma Po Beancurd Little Kitchen, Beach Rd, Singapore

After that bad experience with Szechuan food at Crystal Jade, we decided to try out this place at 345 Beach Rd (with a vengence!). The great thing about this joint is that it closes at 2AM so it's ideal for those late night hunger pangs.

No we didn't order everything on the menu but I must admit, this was quite alot for a supper. I blame the waitress, she didn't tell us when to stop ordering haha. Nevertheless, we managed to salvage our situation and enjoyed most of the dishes. Some of these items were really spicy (although not as spicy compared to some of the stuff I've had in China). Most of the dishes were quite respectable, the fried beans with minced pork were greasy and fragrant although it could have had more mince, the cold dishes came in little 2SGD sampler plates which I thought was a nice way of adding more variety to the meal without overdoing it (the effectiveness of this is debatable though).

Now this is how "saliva" chicken should be. The spices and chilli-kick in this really put the one we had a few weeks ago to utter shame. The pieces were tender and chunky too, so although there was an odd bone here and there, it was bearable. I like the nice touch of adding crunchy roasted peanuts as well which provided a good contrast to the tenderness of the chicken.

This was my favorite dish of the night. Crispy chicken pieces stir-fried with dried chillis. Salty and greasy, this is great beer grub (they serve Tsingtao here by the way). Reminds me of deep-fried yabbies with dried chillis that I had in Shanghai. I really should do some posts of my meals in China soon for a good educational comparison.

The quintessential Szechuan dish, Ma Po Beancurd. Afterall, it would have been audacious of us to enter a eating house named after this dish and not order it. I'm actually not a fan of Ma Po beancurd but if the reviews from my other diner were accurate this is of pretty good quality. I did like picking out the minced pork bits though haha.

The dessert of Chinese red bean pancakes was probably the only bummer that night. There was nothing wrong with it, it was sweet and greasy but it wasn't spectacular either and the red bean paste tasted pre-made and processed in bulk. The waitress also served it together with the main dishes despite our previous reiteration during the order-taking to only serve it at the end. It did serve a purpose though, one of my diners who doesn't have the capacity to eat spicier than average foods had to intermittently quench the chilli-blast with a slice of sweet red bean pancake. A nice little Szechuan joint run by Szechuan natives, this place gives you a great chilli-blast (in more ways than one haha) for about 25SGD per person.

D

Donuts from The Regent, Singapore

There's something about The Regent; there seems to be some sort of aura about this place that attracts alot of good grub. Iggy's is here, so is TenShin and they have a bar with an excellent selection of Macallan. A nice little (often overlooked) gem here is their bakery "Something To Go". They used to be located at the rear by the little street that runs between Dan Ryan's and The Regent but have since moved to the side, near Camden Medical Center. It's a lot more accessible now and there are five minute parking spots at the front so it's heaps more convenient to stop for awhile and pickup your cakes, breads or pastries.

I don't know about you guys but I'm a BIG fan of donuts. Whenever I see or even think about them, I'll go "Donuts........" *drools Homer style*. It's actually rather bad but I don't see Donuts Anonymous anywhere, so I guess I'll just have to live with this affliction. I get my donut fix at Something To Go, they have one of (if not THE) best donuts in Singapore. You won't get barraged by an orgy of varieties here a la Dunkin or Mr Donut, they even have less choices than Krispy Kreme but what they do, they do most excellent. From left to right is their blueberry custard, chocolate peanut and sugar donuts respectively (and that's all they've got). Although you pay a very slight premium as compared to your neigborhood bakery it's worth the quality and quantity. These donuts are huge and the dough is soft, fluffy and chewy without being crumbly (just how I like them - if that makes any sense). Quality is not skimped on here; the blueberry donut is so obesed with blueberry jam and custard that it literally bursts in your mouth but my old time favorite is still the traditional old school sugar donut, good memories are a special taste by themselves.

D

Scotch Eggs by D

Much thanks to the Scots for creating all sorts of deep-fried snacks. Afterall, they deep-fry their Mars bars. Scotch eggs are in summary hard-boiled eggs, coated in mince meat and deep-fried. After trying (in vain) to seek out some Scotch eggs in Singapore, I decided to make them myself, partly because my craving for them was getting almost uncontrollable and it also helps that they're so darn easy make.

Ingredients:
1. Four large hard-boiled eggs
2. 250 pork mince (you can use sausage mince if you're lazy to marinate your meat)
3. Two slices of ham
4. Grated parmesan
5. One raw egg
6. Plain rice flour


Method:
1. Finely chop the ham slices into little bits and mix it with the pork mince
2. Add salt, pepper and grated parmesan to taste
3. Add in the yolk from your raw egg this helps bind the mince together
4. Mix 1, 2 and 3 evenly
5. Grab an egg and evenly coat it with the mince-mixture
6. Dip the finished mince-coated-eggs in the egg white from the raw egg and then in the flour
7. FRY those balls!

Hint:
1. Semi-chilled mince is easier to pack around the egg

This is great finger food to go with beer and it doesn't matter if it's scorching hot because you can wash it down with an icy cold beer. After all, you put so much effort into making this you deserve that icy cold one.

D

Helio Cafe, Marina Square, Singapore

As I slowly approached this location I was doubtful if I had even found the right place. It didn't look like any place I could get some good grub, but since I was recommended (quite strongly) to check this joint out, I decided to muster up some courage and go closer. When I finally reached it, I realised that Helio Cafe at #03-320 Marina Square resided outside the Helio Spa, like it literally crowded the entrance of the spa with a few random tables. More doubts grew. I stood there awhile because there was a sign that said "please wait to be served" but as no one really came up I decided to venture into the spa and look around. Just as I entered I was confronted with this bloke and I asked him if they're open for dinner. He asked me if I made any reservations and I said "no." I then suggested he could surprise me with anything and that I'll risk having an impromptu meal.

This was my subtle challenge to Clement Ronald Ng.

He agreed.

We took it outside.

We asked Clement to recommend something non-alcoholic to help us unwind after a rather stressful and intense day at work. He recommended one of their fifty-odd teas (they have more than a hundred varieties now I think). This one called "Flow" consisted of rosehip, hibiscus and peppermint. There are no additives at all, the reddish color is predominantly from the hibiscus, the rosehip and peppermint imparts a unique slightly tart and minty taste. Just the thing to ready ourselves for the meal.

Our entree was this dish simply called "Pork Wraps". It consisted of two components, on the right we have the leaves (butterhead lettuce and some funky Thai leaf) and the sauce of malt sugar syrup. On the left, we have the fillings of Thai limes, Thai dried shrimp, crushed peanuts and yes, pork.

"Pork Wraps" is perhaps the most understated name I could think of for this dish. After my first chew on this wrap, a symphony of flavors just abounded on my palate. It was almost a gustatory sensory overload. The well-seasoned pork, the salty dried shrimp, fragrant peanuts, sweet malt sugar with a hint of molasses, sourish lime and mildly bitter thai leaf blended perfectly to form an extremely refreshing and exceptional taste. Whatever initial doubts I had about this place were being blasted away. I do wish all the leafs were the Thai ones though because butterhead lettuce didn't provide that nice bitter contrast.

I couldn't wait for what the main course was capable of. Wait a minute, when he said that it would have some saffron flavors in it, I didn't expect to actually see actual bits (you can see some of the stigmas) of the world's most expensive spice. This dish of baked salmon with portobello mushrooms wrapped in a light puff pastry was really delicious (and I'm not even a fan of salmon or saffron!). The light cream sauce did not overpower the dish and infused nicely with the slight bitterish hints of the saffron. The salad was crisp and fresh and the salmon was baked to perfection absorbing the flavor of the portobello mushrooms. The fine interplay of flavors was indeed commendable. Excellent.

Wanting to cleanse our palate before our desserts, we asked Clement to suggest a drink. This glass of white wine cooler was quite refreshing if only a tad bit too sweet for my liking but after a few minues of ice-melting-dilution it tasted quite nice. I would have appreciated it abit more if it had a slight citrus tang to it, maybe I'll ask for a lemon wedge next time.

This place was actually recommended to me by a cheesecake lover and I decided the only way to get a broad opinion on their cheesecakes was to go for both the fridge-set and baked ones. This is the fridge-set passionfruit cheesecake garnished with strawberries and dried forget-me-nots. If you're wondering where the passionfruit was, it was actually juxtapositioned between two layers of cheesecake cream. This was a nice deviation from the norm of just pouring the passionfruit on top because it allowed the passionfruit flavor to be more strongly imparted into the rest of the cheesecake. Light and tasty, the citrus flavors from the passionfruit keeps you from feeling overstuffed. I guess it also helped that I have a penchant for passion fruit having grown two varieties previously.

Ordering two kinds of cheesecake is very much like appreciating two-sides of a coin. But what a precious coin this one was. The baked cheesecake was almost like the evil twin of the fridge-set version because it was a lot richer and heavier. If I were to find any faults with it, it would be have to be that I personally felt it was just very slightly dry but that would almost be bordering on nitpicking.

Service is excellent as Clement seems to be running a one-man-show here, humbly renouncing the title of chef which I bestowed on him, Clement claims to be just a mere cook who enjoys good food (whilst rubbing a slightly protruding paunch) but indeed, if it's true as the saying goes, "You can't trust a skinny chef", Clement is living-proof of that. Notwithstanding being pedantic here but I still feel he deserves to be a "chef".

One danger about asking to be "surprised" would be getting a rather rude one at the end of the meal; in the form of the bill. To end the rather fantastic meal was an equally attractive price. This meal set two persons back at about 85SGD, very reasonable if I may iterate again considering it included alcoholic beverage. I do wish they would have credit card facilities here as they currently only accept cash or NETS.

Clement also mentioned quite a few rather interesting dishes which had flowers in it. So when I do make the time to come here again for another meal (which I certainly will) I'll definitely call two days in advance. If this is what this man is capable of impromptu, how much more kickass can it be with two days advance notice?

D

p.s: Oh yes, in case you were wondering, that is a real fish in the first picture right at the top!

Samy's Curry, Dempsey Rd, Singapore

Samy's Curry at 25A Dempsey Rd in the Senior Civil Service Club (opposite the previous Central Man Power Base) is a Singapore institution. Having withstood the test of more than twenty years, they are still going strong.

This place serves traditional banana leaf curry where you basically get a large banana leaf for your plate and order an array of dishes to accompany your rice. The curry of the day is quite interesting and I've had on different occasions had the standard dhal ranging to more interesting curries like pumpkin and chickpeas.

Since we ordered quite a lot of dishes, I'll just focus on my favorites. The chicken tikka is actually fried here instead of grilled which doesn't really sacrifice on the taste because these little morsels of chook are so well-marinated they go down really well with your meal or just as finger food. Another plus point is that they're completely boneless as well.

Fried mutton, greasy, spicy and salty. This is like a moist beef jerky and goes really well with an icy cold beer. You can stir this into your bryani rice as well and although it's not as saucy as a rendang, it'll still impart an additional fragrant aroma to the rice.

Their masala chicken is another popular dish and although I wished the chicken was slightly more well marinated, the rather potent sauce on it makes up for this. I still wished that the masala chilli gravy on it would be hotter (chilli-wise) though, but maybe if it were, it would overpower the rest of the spices. I guess it's all about balance here.

Despite claiming to be "specialized in South Indian cuisine" they make a pretty kick-ass naan bread which was very fluffy and chewy. In fact these naans were as good or even better than some I've had in North Indian restaurants. Being generous with the butter and garlic also helped score some major points. I don't know if they actually baked these in a tandoor oven because I didn't see one but even if they were baked in a conventional oven, they still tasted awesome.

Their recommended drink to douse the spiciness of their dishes is the lime juice. I normally go for the iced milk tea instead. As you can see, the upsized version gives you much more bang for your buck. In the background of this picture, you can catch a glimpse of Samy's famous fish head curry but despite ordering two serves of it, I didn't really have much because I'm not really a fan of fish head curry and I guess that subconsciously made me forget to take any photographs of it either!

Nestled nicely in an airy, spacious bungalow (colonial detached house) with ample parking. Samy's abundantly feeds for about 20SGD per person.

D

Nam Kee Chicken Rice and Restaurant, Upper Thomson, Singapore

We actually intended to go to Ivins for some peranakan food but saw this along the same row and decided to give it a shot instead. This place at 201 Upper Thomson Rd has been here for a long time and many years ago was non-airconditioned. I'm glad they invested in air-conditioning since.

We ordered a thick fish maw soup and a mixture of their boiled and roasted chicken. Whilst their chicken was not as tender as the braised one at Chew Kee Eating House, it was still better than average. The fish maw soup was thick and had quite alot of shredded chicken in it. This whopper of a bowl which can easily serve four only cost 6SGD. Besides their garlic chilli and soy sauces, they also had grounded ginger as a condiment as well, which was a nice touch.

Their fried morning glory with sambal balacan (preserved prawn paste with chilli) was cooked more in the peranakan style (so we did taste some peranakan food in the end!) that was fragrant and savory instead of being drenched in sweet, spicy chilli sauce which is the other popular variant.

Another side dish of deep-fried prawn cakes and seafood beancurd. A pretty straight forward dish, crispy, salty and greasy.

All in all, Nam Kee delivers a fairly decent meal here. Their chicken rice and side-dishes are not the best I've tasted but definitely far from the worst.

D