Corica - Heavenly

Forget Ritz or whatever strudel you've been fooled into thinking is gastronomically divine. The stiff pastry, the overly sweet custard and the scarce display of caramelized apples. Pooh! Don't they put me off!

Let me show you something that's good. Something that'll be worth your time and money, something worth taking an hour's drive for. That's Corica's apple strudel for you.



It's pastry is soft and flaky to the fork with an abundance of adequately sweetened custard orderly lined with soft, sweetened apples. My man, this is truly to die for.

There are several things Perth is famous for and Corica's apple strudel is among those things. Famed for it's apple strudels, it also bakes a mean carrot cake which I find truly fantastic. It is, by far, the best carrot cake I have ever taste. With a subtle sweetness, softly dense and topped with cream cheese, I regret not taking a picture of it.



If you ever happen to come by Perth, I'd advise you to try the apple strudel. After all, the first apple strudel was invented in Perth and *whispers*, you wouldn't want to go back to Ritz would you?


Oh boy, don't I miss writing these stuff.

7...6...

At spot number 7 is a tie (yeah right, I can't squeeze in all the good food into just 7 spots) between Soon Kee's duck rice and Fatty Cheong's Char siew.

At modern age Singapore, it's hard to find a good plate of duck rice. Yet, at the modern foodcourt-like Long house located at Upper Thomson road, a good plate of duck rice can still be found.

Soon Kee's was previously located at Bras Besar and still cooks good duck rice after moving to Long house. It's rice is nicely made fragrant with a dash of duck fat and darkened with a touch of braised sauce. Yet, the winner is the dark sauce which is splashed on the tender duck meat and it's really hard to beat with a sourish chilli sauce/sambal mix.



ABC Market's Fatty Cheong Char siew is another hot favourite. It's thick, it's tender and for $3.50 a plate you get a HELL LOT of char siew. Plus, you can ask for lean meat which they will gladly comply.

Did I mention that their chilli is kick ass too?



No. Six's Yet Con is my girlfriend's favourite and is authentic as you can get. In fact, it's so deep in tradition and so Hainanese in culture that the restaurant still uses abacus to count it's bills.

My favourite here is the pork chop. Drenched with a dark brown sweet sour sauce, the deep fried but so damn tender pork pieces wins me over each time I'm there. Picking the caremelized potatoes and tomato pieces in the dishes is also fun... and yummy at the same time.

5, four, 3, two...

At number five, it has got to be 717's durian puff. It's fantastically good and beat Four Season's flat down. It is THAT awesome. Being a durian fan, I've got to place this creamy and sensational snack at 5th place.



Oh yeah! Did I mention about trying their crepes, cakes, tarts.. pies......

FOUR. Stands Ser Seng's turtle soup. Call me cruel, call me gross but hey, I just can't get enough of this stuff. I TOTALLY fell in love with in ever since my dad brought me there when I was in Primary school. The superbly flavourful and rich soup is at least five bars higher than normal herbal turtle soup. I have no idea how they do it because you just can't detect a hint of herbs. Yet, it's extremely nourishing (I bet you will have a good night's sleep after drinking it)



The meat dipped into the sourish chilli sauce offsets the richness and provides a tarty twist while ladies can dig the many pieces of collagen. And who can forget their yam rice? This would be the most tasty bowl of yam rice I have ever eaten. Delectably flavoured with yam, shrimps and shallots, it's bound to send you yearning for more. A tip: Pour some soup over the rice and slurp it up, it's bound to work wonders.



Down to THREE.

I belong to the Teochew origin and Teochew people like their porridge. This, however, isn't normal Teochew porridge. Instead, it's Taiwan porridge. This soon-to-be-demolished restaurant is also one of my family's frequent dining places. The porridge cooked with sweet potatoes is a watery mix and nothing special really. But I really, really like the dishes.



Especially this Kong Bak. Oh my GAWD, it is DELICIOUS. I love the sauce too by the way, it's just darn good.



And this Hong Siew Tofu is equally flavourful as well. I just like the mix the sauces into the porridge and slurp it all up.



Plus, who can ever forget ordering Sichuan vegetables w/ Pork slices. I can't explain the taste but it's just darn good.

Number TWO is pretty predictable.




Kovan's Kou Wei Chicken Rice. It's tenderness and juiciness is unbeatable. Add a dash of reddish sauce makes it an awesome dish. The rice is also a plus point which propels this to spot number two. It's just-right oiliness and strong fragrance makes it that delectable.



Finally to spot NUMBER ONE.

Those who know me well would have guessed it right from the start.



Kovan Peanut Pancakes. Just thinking about it has gotten me drooling. The soft batter rolled into a spring roll-like form is really nice to bite into and the custard-like kaya and super duper creamy peanut butter is to die for.



Hey, it's so good, it just made it's way on television recently!

So that's my top 5 list of foods which I have come to love in Singapore. What about Perth? Well, I'm not sure about that yet but I hope to give an update soon :)

Yet Con

What if I told you the Hainanese chicken rice you've been eating all along, isn't really Hainanese at all?

What if I told you that real "Hainanese chicken rice" isn't that nice at all but rather, lacks the robust flavour you have grown accustomed to?

Don't go throwing chicken rice balls at me now. Well, what do I know? Qin and her family is of Hainanese descendant and her brother tells me that their chicken rice is dry, sauceless, and the chicken is really, really kampung tasting. Not that I'm complaining because I get to eat really good, tasty chicken rice here in sunny Singapore everyday.

If you want to get a taste of true authentic, Hainanese chicken rice though, get off your butt and visit this place called Yet Con, the only authentic Hainanese restaurant left in Singapore located in Purvis street.



In fact, their chicken although sauceless, isn't as scary as it sounds. It's got a nice chicken-y taste and is quite succulent in terms of juiciness and texture.

But why would you want to go through that much trouble just to taste some chicken rice? Well, I'll give you two more reasons; their tze char and steamboat.

Steamboat seems to be really popular over there and having tried it before, I'll say it's fairly good.

I'll be able to recommend a few tze char dishes though.



Stir-fry beef with kailan. Slightly tender pieces of beef with a robust sauce to rely on. Always something I'll order here.



Hainanese chap chye isn't like the sloggy and slimy and mushy chap chye you find in economic rice stalls. Here, it comes with a crunch, a guarantee of it's freshness. Plus, who needs sauces that reek of dried shrimps to make a good dish? Here, it's refreshing but flavourful and comes with seafood and meat, all the more you should get it.



Even if you have a distaste for all of the above, this is what you should be here for. Hainanese pork chops. Even if you don't take pork, comon try a bite, sometimes you need to live a little ya know?



MMMMMMMMMMmmmmm mmm! It's crispy and SO DAMN TENDER. Shockingly true, and not what I expected. It comes doused with a tomato based sweet n' sour sauce which is surprisingly, not tomato-ey at all. It's dark brownish rather, a testament to the other oriental sauces they add in to obtain the slightly sweet savoury taste with a nice tang from a good dash of vinegar.

So you don't wanna take a bite at all. Eat the potatoes that come with the dish, it's super duper nicely pan fried and have that old school taste. Oh, but what a waste.

Mama Bakery

Move aside Provence and Sun Moulin because the latest Japanese bread shop which products has got me craving for is Mama Bread, a cafe-like bread store nicely situated on 2nd storey of the newly opened Novena Square 2.

As we swooped through the store like a pair of vultures hungry for some authentic Japanese food, familiar breads like An pan (red bean), Milk pan and Melon pan slightly aroused our senses but it was the more intriguing flavours like seafood vege mango or nutty bread which teased our palates.



The An pan was nicely done and exudes a fragrance strong enough to get your stomach juices going. Generously filled with a good douse of red bean combined with the enticing smell of warm bread, it really makes for a good snack.



The seafood vege mango was even better with a huge piece of prawn inside it. Delightfully creamy, the snack was drenched with sufficient sauces unlike pizza breads in bread stores which often comes dry and tough with a rubbery layer of dried cheese. To put it simply, the fillings resembled that of a lobster salad, those usually used in sushis while the slices of mangoes gave it a subtle hint of sweetness.



The cheese scone proved to be a little too cheesy for me though, and I would preferred a more balanced form of sweetness/saltiness. But the texture was good, not rock hard and crumbly enough for a good bite.



If nothing attracts you, at least stop by and try it's Choco Bowl, a large bowl-sized dense chocolate flavoured bread with a generous mix of rich, bitter-sweet chocolate. A chewy texture greets you on the first bite, followed by a delectable taste of bitter chocolate, which undeniably sets it apart from other chocolate breads.



As I trudged into the store which my mouth full of chocolate bread and munching slowly to let the moment last, an old Japanese lady whom I expect is the owner of the store asked with a hint of pride from behind the counter, "Oishii?", to which I vehemently agreed with a thumbs up. I mean, how could I not have?

Slowly munching on the breads we bought, taking in the full serene view of the night sky with a small fountain by the side adding to the ambiance, it really was quite quintessential. The moment only lasted awhile though, as my face uncontrollably expressed a look of dismay after I finished my portion of Choco Bowl and struggled against the strong temptation to grab another chunk of it.

Jolly well, I think I'll save the enjoyment for another day.

Tien Lai Rice Stall: Damn good sauce, Damn good pork

Never a big fan of pork, I'm seldom attracted to dishes starring pigs as the leading role. BBQ pork, or char siew, is a different matter altogether. That unique sweet sauce soaked into the meat and then nicely charred around the edges. Ooh, that crunchy feeling combined with the taste is to die for.

Of course, there are many preferences the way char siew is done. Some like it soft and fatty cuts while others, like me, prefer them lean and nicely charred and of course there are those in the middle who like a good crunch with a nice rim of fat. One thing is for sure though, and that is it has got to have a damn good sauce (better sweet than salty in my opinion) and it has to be charred just right.



Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to feast upon a good plate of char siew, roast duck and roast pork. This stall located at Taman Jurong Food Centre was recommended by my good buddy David and it's char siew is comparable to Fatty Cheong's. If you are doubting it's authencity, check this out, the person before us (damnit, us again) ordered 30 packets of roasted chicken rice from them. It wasn't char siew they ordered, but that has gotta hint of something good right?

Over here you have a choice of fatty or lean cuts. The char siew we ordered was nicely sweetened with a slight char around the edges while the texture is slightly harder than Fatty Cheong's. Unlike Fatty Cheong's this one is also thinly sliced to compensate for the firmer bite. The roast duck was quite well done with a nice smokey flavour trapped in the skin and both dabbed with a little he bi hiam chilli will send you over the roof. Of course, what's more orgasmic than that is the sauce they use. Splashed over a plate of white rice, the dark sauce was such a delish that I would have finished the plate of rice by itself if there were more of the sauce. Umami will be the word to describe it as the thick and richly flavoured sauce surpassed even that of Alexandra Village's duck rice sauce!



The roast pork I find average but there's something which amazed or intrigued
me more. That is, they serve skin from the pig's head. Eeeeeeeew, yeah I know exactly what you are thinking. Perhaps this is the norm in roast meat stalls but I haven't heard of it before so please spare me your reprimands alright?

There's isn't much of a vie for taste in the skin as it's only mostly salty and it's quite chewy. People who like QQ (chewy) stuff will like it for I think I'll give it a pass.

Address:
Tien Lai Rice Stall
Taman Jurong Food Centre
#02-66

Lee Tong Kee Beef Hor Fun

Really?

Apparently so, and just to provide that extra assurance that you'll get a good meal, allow me to cast away any doubts you are harbouring in your unbelieving mind.

Lined in the midst of painting, art, calligraphy and figurine shops, a humble restaurant on the bend facing a newly built Chinese temple blends in perfectly into the setting, a developing fusion between rustic faces and drastic changes. But as time forces on its perpetual charge, changing and modifying and moderning everything standing in its path, people and cultures get absorbed into a whirlwind of change where thinking becomes liberated and cultures start to become obsolete. In the midst of it, food have taken the harsh brutal swipe of reality, losing its tradition, culture and ultimately, the passion that made it unique and with it, taste. Hawkers become food courts, markets have been transformed to tourist attractions and people, instead of cooking for passion, have begun cooking for money to survive in the unrelentless economy as traditionalists deperately cling on to the ways of old.

So as I stood outside this little eatery called Lee Tong Kee which claims to promise the taste of 1948, the ultimate question looms deep, "Has its taste survived the test of time?". That's what we're about to find out.



I certainly do not know the taste of its hor fun in 1948 but right here, right now, its beef hor fun ($5.50) tastes pretty damn good. Made from the silkiest strands of rice noodles, its softness lets you slurp it up and slide it down with the least effort. Really, the hor fun is the softest and silkiest I've eaten! The sauce is uber duperly good! Similar to Guangdong Braised Beef Noodles at Maxwell FC, this one is a thicker, richer, and more potent interpretation. Its hard to put the taste onto paper [or to type into my keyboard] but it coats every strand of noodle so well, the taste fills your mouth as it slides down your throat.



The beef is equally tender and moist, with sporadically spaced portions of melt-in-your-mouth fats. Theres certainly a good flavour in the beef also.



One other item to note is the Lee Tong Kee tender chicken ($8 for small) which is literally, super tender chicken! Unlike those served at chicken rice stalls which are slapped with the cleaver or done with whatever, this chicken is truly tender. So good that I felt the "jelly-ness" as I bit into that succulent piece of chicken. The accompanying sauce compliments the meat and the chilli sauce they provide is a more unique (and better version) of normal chicken rice chilli and brings out the flavour in the chicken and hor fun.

This is one beef hor fun I will recommend to my friends. Heck, its number one on my list now!

Address:

Lee Tong Kee Ipoh Sar Hor Fun
278 South Bridge Road
62260417
www.ipohhorfun.com

Soon Kee Duck Rice: Umami!

Located just beside the fish soup stall in Long House Food Centre is Soon Kee Duck Rice, the best duck rice I've eaten to date. I remember I onced declared Alexandra Village's duck rice the best ever. Well, cancel that out because this one rocks even more!

Actually the duck rice from both stalls fall into different categories and so, they can't really be compared side-by-side. Alexandra's duck rice belongs to the type with white rice and super umami dark sauce and thinly sliced roast duck. Mmmm, good I'd say.

Soon Kee's duck rice ($3.50 including an egg) belong to the category with the dark coloured yam rice with peanuts and lu dan(braised egg). Except that its not yam rice and thats where its speciality lies.



By far the tastiest (duck) rice I've ever eaten, the rice is so well flavoured that it seems like its been boiled and cooked with the braised sauce. On top of that, the rice tastes like its been fried or cooked with animal fat. Aaaah [enlightened], I seriously think its a watered down version of chicken rice, using chicken or duck fat to fry the rice before cooking. This method really incorporates the fragrance of the duck and the sweetness of the braised sauce together. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?! Brilliante! Genius! The rice has absorbed all the goodiness which is..... good.

The sauce is equally good. It is really at the right thickness and sooo concentrated and well braised with just the right amount of sweetness. This combined with the rice is like, er.. pancakes with maple syrup! ..or a land filled with pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and kaya. [I'm weird]



Their duck meat is not bad either. There's braised duck and roasted duck and I took the braised one which is quite average. The duck rice is accompanied by damn good peanuts though. The peanuts has equally absorbed all the sauces and its super soft!

How could I have forgotten the chilli?! Fried sambal kind of duck rice chilli and the sourish watered kind combined together is really "power" man [sorry couldn't find any other words] Just make an effort to try the chilli because my friend [and me as well] was so ingrossed in the rice that we forgotten about the chilli!

Zhen Zhen Porridge

Just the other day I was back at Maxwell Food Centre again and this time, Qin and I tried the famous Zhen Zhen Porridge stall. I was initially quite skeptical about it. I mean, how good could a bowl of porridge get right, since I've already tried a few good porridge stalls which were of quite good standards. Plus, the queue was so darn long and the auntie was also taking super long!

But alas, this unknowledgable boy was enlightened after tasting this bowl of porridge.

The porridge had been stirred and boiled and mixed and the uncle had semingly done whatever it takes to churn the porridge into a gruel. And boy, has he succeeded.



No matter how I scooped and stirred and strained my eye, I couldn't see a grain of rice left. Everything was a made into a thick simple paste which tasted super good. Seriously speaking, this bowl of porridge let me know the meaning of the word congee. We were actually drinking the porridge from the spoon!



I ordered a plain porridge (50c) which came with loads of toasted sesame seeds, chye poh (preserved vegetables), spring onions, fried shallots and a dash of sauce. Although it was a plain porridge, it had that congee taste, subtle yet you will be able to feel its presence. The toasted sesame seeds added a kick to the porridge (anything with sesame is good though IMO) and the condiments is seriously addictive, making us slurp the porridge spoonful after spoonful.

This is to date the BEST bowl of porridge I've ever eaten. Not even Ho Kee's porridge came anywhere near it. It's just a different league. It's just so darn good and it's really old school and traditional. Must try!



We also ordered a plate of $3 yu sheng (raw fish) which was equally good. The dish came with loads of sesame seeds, fried shallots and spring onions. It also came with 3 sides of lime which I found out had a reason behind it. After squeezing all the lime in, the yu sheng taste very, very qing (refreshing) and it wasn't oily even one bit. The toasted sesames did the job of making it very fragrant again and the sauce was equally good. Plus, the fish was very fresh.

Overall, the best yu sheng I've eaten to date even beating Ho Kee's.

If you happen to visit this stall (which you Should!), you Must order the yu sheng also!



Address:

Zhen Zhen Porridge
Maxwell Food Centre
Stall 54

Victor's Dim Sum

Ahhh, it's really taken me quite awhile to adjust back to the life in Singapore after spending my CNY back home in Perth (where I gained 4kg!). Oh well, the Perth pics will be coming up shortly so I'll just post on something I had before I went off for my holiday.

I had previusly visited Victor's dim sum twice and had found the food to be good but quite inconsistent. Perhaps it's the weekend problem where the huge crowd comes in. This time round, I was with ieat's gang and I have to say that the food standard was back to what I experienced the first time round.

Well, the menu offers a list of items including porridge and the usual dim sum. The few stars that shine IMO are the carrot cake, lotus leaf rice, you tiao in rice roll and custard pao.



The lotus leaf rice is very good and has enough flavour. There's enough dried shrimps used to make it fragrant and enough scallops were used to make it "sweet". I would prefer it to be a little wetter though.



I also liked this you tiao wrapped in rice rolls accompanied by the sweet cheong fun sauce. This was the first time I had seen such a combination and the crunchiness of the you tiao and the soft rice roll really went well together.



The carrot cake was also very special because it's the first time I'm eating carrot cake served in a bowl. It was really well sweetened by the scallops and dried shrimps and adding the light soya sauce to it really makes it a darn good dish.



Ahh, last but definately not least, this custard bun was on the top of my list. The egg custard was so thick that it kinda resembled kaya. Thick, creamy, and not cloyingly sweet. A salted egg yolk also added a kick to the sweetness.

Victor's dim sum is really one place to visit if you like some authentic and good dim sum
and plus, it's quite affordable.