Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Eating to the Fullest in Singapore

I lived in Singapore for about 1.5 yrs. I gained loadsssss of weight cos of the good, cheap food there. Every time I visit, these are some of the things I MUST have:

Fried Carrot Cake (diced carrot cake, covered with egg, pan fried) & Char Kway Teow (fried rice noodles, the Hong Kong version is just NOT the same)

Fried kway teow with gravy (those are all from Takashimaya Food Court)

No word can describe how much I miss this one: Dry Fishball Mee (this one is at Lucky Plaza's Food Junction)

Where does Hainanese Chicken Rice come from? Hainan? Noooo, Singapore!

The Street Ice Cream uncle's stall at Orchard Road

I got myself a Taro Ice Cream Sandwich, great for the hot, balmy day (Singapore weather report: hot, hotter, hottest. Balmy, Balmier, Suffocating. Opppsss, sorry folks!)

Caesar Salad & Chocolate Latte from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at St. Elizabeth Hospital (yes, we, Indonesians, practically live there)

Get your greasy fix here at Old Chang Kee

The famous Curry Puff

When will I see you again, my little curry puff? (This was really someone's nickname).

Friday, February 9, 2007

Taipei Street Food Adventure

This is one of those happy business trips where we could "work hard and play harder". Work generally ended before 8 pm, and there are many night markets in Taipei still open. Too bad my trip partner at that moment was on a huge diet and always dismissed my ideas of procuring more food. No Fun!

The dim-sums for in-flight breakfast meal, how cute! This cures my morning sickness (not pregnancy related, I just hated having to wake up at 4+ am to catch the first 7am flight)

The deep fried tofu (a bit tasteless) and deep fried fish cake (super yummy) with pickles at Shi Lin Night Market

I learnt a valuable food ordering lesson from my trip partner: when you are on trip, browse the menu, find something you have absolutely no idea about, and order them. These are the results (from Xi Men Ting District): vermicelli noodle soup, beef balls, century eggs with tofu, oyster omelette with peanut sauce, marinated pig ears. Pretty darn good concept, I've been a faithful follower since.
I want to highlight this oyster omelette with peanut sauce, it is the best I've tried so far, compared to its Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore counterparts.

The Taiwanese version of Es Campur (mixed of many sweet goodies, topped with shaved ice and syrup)

My favorite Taiwanese drink: Winter Melon Tea. Super refreshing for hot summer days

We just roamed around Da An district to grab a bite before catching our flight back to Hong Kong. The place isn't really a tourist area, so we could try places where locals really eat. Applying the same ordering concept, mixed with "looking around other people's orders" we tried all of these goodies.

Thick & chewy noodle soup in with pork balls

Shark jelly

Sliced beef in spicy sauce

What a tasty trip! It was the first time I did not scream out "I wanna go back to Hong Kong!" every, like-2 minutes on a business trip.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Makan Macanese

Macau, NY Eve 2007. My friends and I told our taxi driver to take us to a local restaurant he would recommend. That was a badddd idea. He brought us to a place rather far away (to earn more fare), the place almost absolutely empty, but we had limited time as we had to attend a concert, soooo we braved ourselves and got in.

There were four of us, and the waitress persuaded (almost FORCED us) to order 4 servings of everything. So, yes, the service was bad. As for the food...

The garlic bread was ok, nothing special, crispy, garlicky

Macanese Curry Chicken...not too bad..you see all of those chunks...they are GARLIC chunks. Garlic here, garlic there...gosh...my friends and I weren't going to speak to each other after this meal

Baked mussels with.....garlic...yep the chef went "garlic happy"

Grilled mutton, not too bad...at least it was not totally covered with garlic. Hmmm but since we were so garlick'ed already, a bit more garlic wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway

Best bit of the day: charcoal grilled beef ribs. Tender, juicy and tasty.

The verdict: we won't be visiting this restaurant if not desperate enough.