Grilled Seafood & Chicken Wings, Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, Singapore

I was recommended this joint at Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre by a close friend of mine, it's funny how I've not taken notice of it before but they do serve some pretty good grub.

Well, technically the seafood here isn't grilled but cooked on hotplates. The food is served on a banana leaf sitting on a heated cast iron platter, which was pretty neat since it kept the food warm for awhile. The squid wasn't overcooked-rubbery which was a good start and the spicy and tangy sauce was quite delicious. The generous scatter of raw onions did help boost the flavor; at the expense of your breath of course.

Although the squid was the dish highly recommended, I felt that the stingray was truly what they excelled in. This stuff is grilled with a nice finish but the flesh still maintains its juiciness and succulency. The sauce was pretty king; spicy enough to be kickass but not overpowering to dominate the flavor of the stingray and flavorsome enough to complement the freshy squeezed lime juice. One thing I like about this stall is that they have a specific sauce for each seafood, not some generic stuff that some grilled seafood stalls seem to drench everything in.

A few stalls down the same row is this joint selling barbecued chicken wings. So in the theme of eating grilled foods. I decide to order some as well.

I was pleasantly surprised with how these turned out. They wings weren't dried out and the honey glaze finish was most delectable. This guy takes pride in his chicken wing, I observed that he cooks them via a two-stage process, first he cooks them by smoking them above the embers and then just before they're served, he places them directly on the grill to create the crisp finish.

D

Sunrise, Gold Coast, Australia

This blog features the rare and very occasional sunset but every now and then something crazier pops up; the even rarer "Sunrise"! After a pretty long night at the Gold Coast as shown by this dude's arm, I decided to stuff the sleep and catch the sunrise instead. Well, the sunrise was only about forty minutes away anyway, so I didn't have to bother about waking up.

We were there abit early.

A little glimmer...

The clouds blocking the sun were abit of a dampener.

But in her true glory, the sun rising over the horizon from the Gold Coast, East of Australia prevailed and shone true bold and bright. Now, where's that bed?

D

A Charity Dinner, The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

So here I was at this annual charity gala event and I was pretty excited because I've not tried the catered food at The Fullerton Hotel before. A peek at the menu somewhat dulled my excitement because every dish had a fancy name, which I feel is usually a means to jazz up something pretty boring.

This is the "Confit of Duck and Chanterelle Tile with Caramelized Pineapple and Citrus Jus". What a mouthful of a name eh? A pity I couldn't say the same for the serving portion haha. I'm not that familiar with the chanterellus genus of mushrooms but this "tile" tasted just like a slice (half?) of toasted wholemeal bread!

So after practically inhaling the starter we were served this soup named "Cream of Celeriac Infushed with Truffle Garden Herb Oil". So I'm not familiar with celeriacs (knob celery) as well but I was glad it didn't have a taste similar to celery, which I'm not too fond of. The truffle flavor was evident in this albeit rather subtle.

At least the slab of cod in the "Seven Spices Dusted Cod Fillet on Sweet and Sour Beet Tarragon Cream Sauce" was a size befitting of a maincourse. Couldn't really taste the "seven spices" in this but then again I can't taste the "11 secret herbs and spices" in the Colonel's recipe either, so there. The beet tarragon consisted mainly of beetroot which I promptly pushed to one side of the plate.

The plate which the "Slow Baked Chocolate Cake and Griote Cherry Compote" was so long that they had to align it in potrait-style in front of us. The downside about such a huge plate is that it makes the little pieces of food on it look even littler in comparison. You see that little smear in the center? That's the cherry compote!

To be fair to this dessert, the slow baked chocolate cake was warm and rich while it lasted. The addition of snap, crackle and pop on top was rather fun as well.

Petits fours? I'm sure there was a misprint in the menu or is the term just so loosely used now? Anyway, these definitely were not any little cakes or pastries but an assortment of chocolates. I would have preferred more dark and bitter varieties as an after-dinner chocolate as most of these were rather sweet.

D

Breakfast, Adam Rd, Singapore

Not many people make Adam Rd Food Centre a breakfast joint but I've been coming here quite often after my morning exercise. Funny how I frequent here quite often for breakfasts and suppers, the odd dinner but never for lunch.

Nothing's better than a freshly brewed cup of tea from Taj Mahal and they're opened twenty-four-seven, which is ideal as I rock up at about 645AM. Sipping a hot glass of milky tea in the cool morning before the sun rises is almost a magical experience. I felt almost at peace with the World, but of course something is missing. A cup of tea doesn't constitute breakfast!

The egg prata here is not bad, with nice crisp edges and an eggy centre. It goes well with the mutton curry provided.

A few leisurely sips of tea and the prata will see the clock strike seven, which is just the time to get some deep-fried chicken wings from the nasi lemak stall. I'm not sure which one is supposedly the famous one but I always get mine from the stall second from the left. The chicken wings are well-seasoned before being dipped in the batter to form a fabulous crunchy coat. Accompanied with a mildy spicy and sweet chili sauce, now this is what I call breakfast!

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Thai Air, Dinner

I don't write much about airplane food at all because I've never really been fond of it. Somehow, everything served by an airline always seem to taste "plastic" to me. Normally, I just eat a heavier meal before flying and snooze through the meals. However, due to some "technical glitches" my flight was delayed considerably and I had to have dinner on board. The shrimp cocktail and waldorf salad were pretty ok. The shrimp had that weird artificial flavor that airplane seafood tends to get. I don't know, but there's something about seafood flying so high up that doesn't seem right.

The main was a choice between "barbecued roast duck", "tab tim fish" or "beef tenderloin". Needless to say, it wasn't hard for me to make my choice. Since the steak is already pre-cooked it's anyone's guess to how well-done this may be. But as with most airplane steaks, this was done well, I was perhaps rather lucky to get a slight tinge of blood right in the center. However, to be fair to the steak, it was still quite tender and the roasted spuds were tasty too.

The dessert of ginger and bale fruit jelly was ordered purely out of curiosity. I've seen the popular (indigenous?) bale fruit being sold in Thailand and a drink made of dried bale fruit (nam ma-toom) and just wanted to see how it tasted like. Ok, I'm sure airplane food is not the best yardstick to assess this fruit but it tasted exactly like fruit cocktail! I have to try the real thing the next time.

D

Royal Silk Lounge, Bangkok

The Royal Silk Lounge was very similar to the CIP lounge I was at the last time albeit alot larger. In fact, the spread was uncannily familiar as well. Nothing really much to shout about here, although the sandwiches did taste fresh and the pomelo was quite refreshing.

D

Bourbon Street, Bangkok

Bourbon Street claims to be the only 100% American owned and operated restaurant in Bangkok. But what really caught my eye was that they specialized in Cajun and Creole cuisine. Well, since there isn't really a Cajun restaurant in Singapore per se (sorry, but the gumbo at Botak Jones doesn't count haha) I decided to give this place a shot. However, to be fair, I've had Cajun food in the states but not in New Orleans itself, so as far as authenticity goes, don't take my word for it.

So we started off buffalo wings, not really a Cajun dish but I've always liked this appetizer. This had a lot more kick than the ones at Charley Browns and the blue cheese dressing gave it a nice twist, plus the blue cheese flavor was subtle enough not to be overpowering.

If this is how gumbo should be, I'll be making my way down to New Orleans pretty soon. Hearty and generously filled with chunks of chicken and Andouille sausage, it was great for dipping the corn bread into.

Another dish that I find difficult to ignore if I see it on the menu; the deep fried breaded mozzarella chunks were pretty decent. They could have been fried a little longer to be more melty but at least it wasn't cold.

A beef po-boy (from "poor boy", there's a story behind this) is basically a traditional New Orleans sub-style sandwich. Well, I don't know if this Lousiana French bread, but it was slightly more chewy and crusty than your typical baguette. At least this roast beef po-boy was served with a generous dallop of hot brown gravy or the so-called "debris" in Lousiana jargon.

Blackened salmon is basically a fillet of salmon topped with spicy Cajun seasoning, grilled on a heavy skillet and served with buttered zucchini and eggplant "dirty" rice. I'm not a big fan of salmon but they said it was not too bad.

I ordered the blacken chicken version instead. These boneless chicken breast fillets were fully cooked and yet still tender and moist. It was served with jambalaya (a cajun fried rice with tomato sauce and andouille sausage) instead of the dirty rice, which was fine by me since I liked the sausage.

Just to make sure we had our protein requirements we ordered a serve of their "famous" bbq porkribs. I didn't expect so many slabs of this. This sure was tasty, the meat was well marinated, had a smoky aroma and was tender enough to fall off the bone. However, towards the end, we were filling pretty stuffed especially when that bbq sauce (which was a little too sweet) started getting to us.

To top off the meal, I had a slice (huge) of their homemade apple pie and two scoops of ice-cream. Even though the top of this pie was coated with sugar, this wasn't overly sweet because the filling was still sufficiently tart. Most important, this tasted fresh and the pastry wasn't dried out. What a sweet way to end off a week of feasting.

D

Suan Lum Night Market, Bangkok

Suan Lum night market has truly become a tourist area with rip-offs round every corner. But despite that, it's still quite fun a place to come by for a browse and a beer.

Sticking to the non-Thai trend, we opted for Asahi instead of the local Chang or Singha.

D

Charley Brown's, Bangkok

I've been have a craving for a decent taco for sometime (sorry, but Tacobell just can't cut it) and came across this Texmex joint at 1/23 Sukhumvit Soi 11, Nana.

As soon as we were seated we were served some nachos and salsa. The nachos were served warm and the salsa tasted fresh. Good signs so far.

These are touted as "Mexican Wings" although they are really a variant of buffalo wings. There pretty tasty although a tad bit dry and not chilli-hot enough.

The tostada is pretty much like a salad with chilli, minced beef on a bed of nachos. The lettuce tasted crisp and freshly shredded. It could do with more minced though.

Their quesadilla was made of two flour tortillas filled with cheese, minced beef and chilli in the centre, before being baked. So it was larger than the quesadillas I'm used to which are made of one tortilla folded over. Taste-wise it was quite good, somehow, a large round quesadilla reminded me of pizza for some reason.

The chimichanga is essentially a deep-fried burrito. If you think a burrito can be greasy enough with all that cheese and minced in it, imagine dropping it into a deep-fryer prior to being served. I would have preferred the sourcream and salsa on the side instead of on the top of my chimichanga because it made it go soggy abit. Other than that little hiccup, everything was greasily tasty as it should be.

Alright, what I've been waiting for, their tacos. A pity this came last because I was pretty full from the other stuff but at least these tacos satisfied my craving for now. The serve of shredded chicken and minced beef were generous in both tacos, coupled with the salty cheese and tangy salsa, this went down pretty quick despite us being already so full.

D

Fuji Japanese Restaurant, Bangkok

Bangkok plays host to supposedly the largest population of Japanese outside Japan. As such, pretty decent Japanese fare can be found in this city. Fuji is a chain similar to Sushi Tei in Singapore. Their fare isn't ultra spectacular but is decent enough for a light meal; in this case, my pre-dinner snack haha.

I tried to eye-warn my dining partner against ordering this and true enough, this platter of cold soft beancurd topped with advocado sitting in sea of garlic chili sauce was indeed the bummer dish of the afternoon. It just tasted weird, too many flavors make a confused dish.

The tamago tasty pretty good, its only drawback was the texture which was a little too dry and firm for my liking.

The katsu curry was done well. Definitely a great one-dish meal. The curry was flavorsome and thick whilst the pork cutlet was tender and not too greasy.

The unagi sushi was quite tasty as well. Unagi seems to be pretty expensive in Bangkok when compared to their other dishes. The teriyaki sauce drizzled above wasn't too sweet either, which was good since it didn't overpower the cucumber, advocado and mayonnaise in the roll.

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Zanotti, Bangkok

Zanotti is unarguably one of Bangkok's best Italian restaurants. Bookings are essential here, even on weekdays.

Despite being complimentary, the starter of bruschetta was very good. The bread base was crisp enough to impart a crunch but not tooth-breakingly hard. The tomato chunks tasted very fresh as well.

The bread basket was served warm and with whipped room-temperature thawed butter. The assort of breads included the softest rolls and crispy pizza dough based slices. Definitely another winner.

This starter was more like a moussaka than the traditional Italian caponata because it was served warm. The cheese layers and the soft grilled aubergine slices went extremely well with the anchovies on top. Especially tasty were the crisp burnt cheese edges and corners.

Next up was the entree of lobster with homemade egg pasta. The pasta was nicely done al dante but I felt that the lobster flesh wasn't the freshest because it was slightly mushy. Nonetheless, the subtle flavor of the lobster and mild pasta made this a pretty good prelude to the mains.

The grilled seabass wasn't really what I expected because it was drowned in the sauce. Fortunately the sauce was quite tasty, not too salty and complemented the grilled seabass fillet quite well.

The next main of grilled beef tenderloin with a mushroom sauce was better than the seabass. Although it was done well, it was tender and thin enough to have a decent masticatory texture. The sides of buttered spinach which came with both mains deserves a special mention because it was really quite excellent. With a strong buttery flavor, you won't even know that you're eating spinach when you sink your teeth into it. Great stuff!

Before our desserts were served, we were given a complimentary serve of chiacchiere. I was never a big fan of these crispy sugary pastries but they tasted fresh here at least. Some of the pre-packaged ones that you get from the European grocers have that disgusting taste of rancid oil, luckily this tasted light and fresh.

The creme caramel slice was nothing to shout about. It wasn't even made individually, although the texture and flavor was better than the one at Shahrazad.

The profiteroles however, restored my faith in Zanotti's desserts. Sometimes the simplest desserts are the hardest ones to master. The soft puff contained a slightly sweet but rich and creamy core but the warm chocolate sauce on top really made this king.

D