Block 7 Everton Park, Singapore

I would stop by this coffeeshop sometimes for a bite of fried chicken. It used to be a pretty dingy place (which explained its appeal to me) but has recently undergone renovations with the new anchor stall being yet another Hong Kong Street franchise.

I ordered a bowl of mutton soup from the new Indian-Muslim stall and it was pretty good. Thick and rich in flavor, they were quite generous with the meat as well.

Since the mutton soup seemed like a pretty good start, I decided to try their mee goreng (fried noodles) as well. The serving is large enough for two or one very hungry bloke haha. Continuing with the trend of generous ingredients was a pretty decent amount of minced mutton, egg, peas, potato chunks and beansprouts in this.

But the fried chicken is what I was really here for. I'm a fan of localized coffeeshop or hawker center fried chicken for one particular reason; it's cooked to order. I'll choose this sort of fried chicken in Singapore anytime over the mass commercialized chains (maybe with the exception of Popeye's).

Piping hot with a crisp savory coat of batter.

Even the breast cut was tender, juicy and succulent.

D

D is for Donut

I love donuts so much, I wanted to be cop when I was young. I was even tempted to fail my quizzes in primary school to get that "donut" the teachers spoke of. This is a very simple recipe which produces a tasty yeast-based donuts (a la K.Kreme) i.e. the soft and fluffy sort as opposed to the denser cake sort.

Ingredients:

Donuts
1. 6 cups plain flour (or more if required)
2. 2 satchets of yeast
3. 1-1/2 cups warm milk
4. A pinch of salt
5. 1/2 cup sugar
6. 100g butter
7. 2 eggs
8. Vegetable oil (for frying)

Honey Glaze
1. Honey
2. Sugar
3. Vanilla essence
4. Water
5. Butter

Method:
1. Pour the two satchets of yeast into about 100ml of warm water and leave it for about 15 minutes
2. Mix the butter, sugar, eggs, salt and milk on slow speed until smooth
3. Mix in the yeast and about two cups of flour till you obtain a paste-like texture

4. Add the remaining flour and manually mix and knead till a soft elastic texture is obtained (add more flour if it's too wet)

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cling wrap the top
6. Set it aside in a warm place for about an hour and the volume should double (or more!)

7. With a rolling pin, roll the dough (using copious amounts of extra flour if it's too sticky) into sheets of about 1/2 an inch in thickness
8. Using cookie cutters, cut out the donut shapes

9. Line them up on a lightly greased tray prior to frying

10. Glaze (no fixed proportions here)
a. Melt some butter in a pan
b. Stir in sugar and honey till desired flavor is obtained
c. Add a few drops of vanilla essence

d. Add water and stir on low heat until desired viscosity is achieved

11. Heat oil on medium heat, test the temperature first by sacrificing one of those donut centers
12. Fry each donut for about 20-30s on each side (they cook very quickly!)

13. Set aside donuts to cool and excess oil to drip off (they won't pick up the glaze if they're too greasy or too hot)

14. Dip one side of each donut into the honey glaze and serve warm!

There we go, no long queues at this shop but still heaps of soft, fluffy and great-tasting donuts. Try experimenting with different flavors; I made a nutella one which was pretty good (just dipped into microwaved melted nutella) and a green tea one which looked pretty dodgy haha.

Of course, how could we forget what to do with the centers? Donut balls on a stick - a childhood classic.

D

Heng Ler Seafood Restaurant, Havelock Road, Singapore

Since I was still pretty full from lunch, I decided to keep dinner clean by indulging in some Teochew porridge. And what else would a place called "Heng Ler Seafood Restaurant" serve besides Teochew porridge?

This was the little spread for the evening.

I had to order this the moment I saw it. Faux sweet and sour pork where luncheon meat (Asian spam) is used instead of pork. This reminded me so much of the "sweet and sour porks" sold in those budget mixed-rice stalls years ago. The chunky potato bits also added a nice bite to this dish.

Thinly sliced Chinese sausage. Greasy, salty and slightly sweet. Just the thing for porridge.

Minced pork fried with preserved black beans and chili bean paste. As you can see from the ratio of "white bits" in this mince, you know it's going to be unhealthily tasty.

Braised pork belly, this stuff is so layered with fat that it practically melts in your mouth and requires minimal chewing.

An assortment of braised beancurds is always amusing.

A thick braised gravy is provided for stirring into your plain porridge, just to give it that little extra flavor.

I love this. Sitting by the road, tucking into some local grub, listening to some elderly gentlemen across the street playing the two-stringed Chinese violins. I'm a simple man with simple needs and I got my Teochew porridge in the end, not sure about the "keeping it clean" part though haha.

D

Nanjya Monjya, Waterfront Plaza, Singapore

Having seen this place next to Nagae a couple of times, it was only a matter of time till I gave in to curiosity and check it out. With a hotplate at nearly every table, Nanjya Monjya does a fair bit of teppanyaki but the things to check out here are the okonomiyaki and monja-yaki.

We started off with a very refreshing cold and crunchy daikon (white radish) salad. I don't know why but I tasted traces of tuna in this or maybe they added in some bonito flakes. Nevertheless, this was a nice appetizer.

Since the salad basically made up the "health food" quota for the day, we ordered some cream croquettes as well.

These were really good. Crisp on the outside but extremely moist and creamy within, the croquettes here are as nice as the one's at Kazu.

Okonomiyaki or also loosely known as "Japanese pizza" or "Japanese pancake" is said to have been originated in the Kansai (Osaka) region although the Hiroshima region often claims to be the first to make it properly. The okonomiyaki here is done the more conventional (Osaka) style where everything is mixed together. The porkbelly slices were fried first with some garlic to bring out a fragrant aroma.

The sake here is served in these nifty bamboo containers which take forever to pour out a glass (cup?) haha (look at that tiny spout!). Maybe that's how they moderate drinking here.

By now the rest of the ingredients and batter matrix of the okonomiyaki are neatly sizzling away like an obese pancake.

The wagyu here is just decent enough to be wagyu. The sweet barbecue sauce pretty much killed any natural beef flavor in these thin slices.

Its texture was still tender and succulent and is best eaten medium rare. You may opt to do the cooking yourself or ask the staff for their assistance; they're cool either way.

By now the okonomiyaki has been flipped over to sear the other side.

Whilst it's still sizzling away, a generous dallop of okonomiyaki sauce (sweet miso sauce?) and mayonnaise is drizzled above.

A further generous sprinkle of bonito flakes finishes off the dish.

Here's our mixed seafood with pork and chicken okonomiyaki in all her splendor.

This was pretty good and sure it costs abit more than those which only cost about 1000yen each in Japan but once you factor in the airplane ticket, it isn't that bad really. For those who have not tried okonomiyaki before, if you like takoyaki (the next most similar Japanese dish I can think of, although they're not really that similar), I'm sure you'll appreciate this too.

Since the okonomiyaki was pretty fun, we decided to order a crispy ramen monja-yaki with bacon as well.

Monja-yaki which has her origins in Tokyo is almost like snack food and is very popular with kids. It's quite different to an okonomiyaki and this will be more apparent in the next few pictures.

More teppanyaki items, the gyu-tan here is good.

Thinly sliced, seasoned with just salt and pepper and fried with some garlic slices. I can never get enough of these tasty chewy morsels.

After the ingredients for the monja-yaki are fried for a while, a little space is made in the center and the starch (traditionally with yam stock) base in poured in to slowly sizzle-down and thicken.

I initially feared that the sweet miso sauce that came with the scallops and prawns would overpower the seafood but fortunately it was quite ok.

The high sugar content in the sweet miso sauce left a nice caramelized finish on the prawns and scallops and helped seal in the juices.

Once the stock has boiled down sufficiently in the monja-yaki, everything is mixed together and the remaining crispy ramen bits are poured above.

I have a weak spot for any form of fried squid and when I saw that they had deep-fried squid tentacles here, it soon ended up on my table and sooner ended up in my tummy.

Beef intestines have a nice crunchy chew. My only gripe was the sauce which was similar to the one with the wagyu and still way too sweet.

I didn't expect much of the fish from a teppanyaki/okonomiyaki joint but this grilled cod was pretty damn good. Cooked to perfection, the cod flesh flaked off very nicely and paired well with her accompanying teriyaki sauce.

By now, the monja-yaki is spread thinly for the final cooking phase where the bottom is starting to get pretty crisp.

We almost forgot that this was supposed to arrive as an appetizer but Japanese beancurd with cheese and mentaiko is most welcomed at any point in the meal. What a combo, salty cheese and the slightly spicy mentaiko with each fish egg bursting with flavor, blending in nicely with the silky-soft and bland beancurd. This is definitely going to be ordered again when I'm back.

Monja-yaki is eaten directly from the hotplate with little spatulas. It's quite fun really (which explains its popularity with children), this dish is cooked with a big spatula and eaten with a mini spatula. Although, at the end of it, I still prefer okonomiyaki over monja-yaki.

Big spatula versus small spatula. Does size really matter?

D