Sunday, April 29, 2007
Shanghai Ren Jia
On the last dinner of my family's visit to Singapore, I brought them to Shanghai Ren Jia located at Upper Thomson Road (beside Han's Restaurant) upon ieat's blog recommendation. Apparently, the shen jian bao is said to be extraordinarily good and well proven by the various news paper clippings and foodie reviews pasted on the glass walls of the eatery.
The place is too small though, to properly accomodate a dinner crowd (around 10 - 12 tables?) and we waited for almost half an hour before being seated. Of course theres a reason why we waited so long, everything has a reason right?
Blah blah blah, with recommendations from friends and blogs in my head I shot off my orders with a few other recommendations from the lao ban niang herself.
The handmade noodles with beancurd, pork chop and chicken pieces came first and tasted like.. maggie mee. I'm not kidding! It's bad enough that the noodles were springy and had a texture like maggie mee, the sauce wasn't at all fantastic and chicken pieces were scarce. The pork chop even had the texture of rubbery fish cake, in the form of pork. I very much prefer Crystal Jade's zha jiang mien. Hmmm, not a good start huh.
The second bowl of noodles, beef noodles recommended by the lao ban niang, was well.. a little worser. In my opinion, I think the soup tasted like MSG and really maggie mee-like but maybe thats just me. Or is it? A $7++ for a bowl each with really, really small portions, I'd say go to Crystal Jade. This is starting to get ugly.. Did I mention that they served really small portions?
The luo han vegetables were okay tasting but for $4.50 a serving the size of my palm, its not very economical. Thumbs down again.
The mei cai kuo rou (preserved vegetables and three layer pork) is kill people put fire! Sa ren fang huo! At such a small bowl, (imagine a small rice bowl-size), it cost us $6++! And the large bowl which I think SHOULD be the price of the small bowl's, cost us $13++. Murder!
Taste wise, it was alright. The sauce was a little on the thick and salty side but is quite tasty but the vegetables were a little hard. I would very prefer if the vegetables were boiled to an even softer consistency. The pork was also too thinly sliced and doesn't have a good "kou gan" or in english, no bite! However, the owner said that the oil in the fats had been squeezed out to give a good bite feel yet without the added calories a.k.a fat on the waist. Err.. Okay man, whatever you say.. Haha.
The xiao long bao had the similar taste as Crytal Jade's. However, it's juicier and you can't really bite into the meat filling. That could be a good thing, or bad.. depending on how you look at it.
Don't fret though, good things come in the midst of bad things [I don't know how the hell I came up with that] and the drunken chicken was really good. Man, the moment it was served it did some kind of drunken aerobics on the table followed by an impersonation of Jackie Chan's drunken fist. Oh, did I forget to tell you that their drunken chickens are served live? Yeah, and then they slaughter it and cook it right there. Just kidding, I'm not that sick, and neither are they. The drunken chicken (cooked.. chicken) was really tender to the bite and especially in the breast meat. Such tender breast meat are really hard to come by and the wine was just nice, not overly strong and indeed made the dish quite delectable. This however, will set you back at $8++.
Lastly (literally), the shen jian bao ($7++ for 6) was served. My gawd it took them almost an hour to serve this man (which kinda explains why we had to wait so long for our seats) Now, I understand that their shen jian baos are made from scratch when you order but seriously speaking, the taste doesn't justify the wait.
Granted, its much better than Crytal Jade's (which is harder and tougher) but theres nothing really special about it. The broth is same as the xiao long bao's and it is simply wrapped in a bun. Of course, the bun has a nice bite to it with a oh-so-cripy bottom and a spongy top if thats what you're here for. However, I was looking for surprise and I didn't even get a kick out of it.
Shanghai Ren Jia is THE place to go, if you have THE money to spend. The dishes are exorbitantly priced, I wouldn't say unreasonably but rather, inappropriately. Taste wise and portion wise, they have much to improve on and I certainly hope they do so.
Friday, April 27, 2007
My question for you is
So what's fine dining anyway? A fancy restaurant, several waitresses attending to you, nice tall wine glass and a piece of half seared tuna the size of a nickel on a plate the diameter of Shaq O'neal's foot. Yeah well of course they made the plate look full by drizzling sauces all over it and placing one or two funny looking vegetables at the side, all this for an exorbitant sum. It's the entire experience, they'd say. I'd say, Go ahead, kid yourself.
Now how about this. Imagine fine dining in a different way; situated in the heart of Singapore, located on the streets, with passer bys and soaking in the hot, humid heat with cars whizzing by meters away from you. Hey, just treat it like al fresco dining aye?
It's special in a different sense, allowing you to really soak up the asian street vendor kind of dining and it feels good every once in a while. The place in question? Basil Aclove located on the sidewalks of Fortune Center and the chef I've read about from a few blogs is Xander.
I haven't spoken to Xander personally yet but i think the food is quite good and price is quite reasonable. For starters, take the Grilled chicken caeser salad. Now, this really caught us by surprise as we were expecting some kind of white chicken chunks in some average caeser salad. It actually turned out that the chicken was really seasoned well and grilled and there were ALOT of them. The bed of lettuce was also generously sprinkled with cheese and coated with tasty dressing. It was also brilliantly balanced with raisins which did gave it a different touch.
Mmm! Not bad for $7++ but I only wished he had eased on the dressing. It turned out to be a little too much and cloying [too jelark lar]
I ordered the chicken with avocado cream priced at $7++ but I didn't really enjoy the dish. It's pretty dissapointing that the chicken was deep fried and ended up really oily. Although the seasoning was good, thhe oil pretty much spoiled everything. One can only take in so much oil in one night right?
But alas, the avocado cream and salsa was refreshing and the cream was really tasty with none of the raw avocado taste. Sides were french beans which I totally lurrrve and mashed potato with chunks still in it [Oola!] and infused with a buttery taste.
Dad ordered the duck breast dish which came in medium done and accompanied with some red wine vinaigrette. Medium cooked duck breast? This is the first time I've heard of such a thing and medium cooked poultry is somewhat a little.. disturbing. But since Dad said that duck meat is technically red meat, well, my Dad always knows best ;-)
I still prefer my duck well done and soft and tender in braised sauce [I know lar so typically Chinese] and the only implication in having it medium done was that it was really chewy. Still, it quite creative (for a sua ku like me) and went well with the vinaigrette.
Mum and Qin ordered the cod fish which was really nicely served. The fish was [Mmm!] fresh! and it was served with a side of pink cream which tasted slightly sweet and buttery. I think it was made of beetroot is my memory serves me correctly. The salsa with mashed potato was also a good combination.
The food here is not bad considering its prices. However, it still needs a little bit of tweaking and a little more getting-right which I hope can be done in the future. Desserts will also be a nice welcome to end a good dinner. If so, the "restaurant" will start seeing larger crowds of people coming to try the food.
Address:
Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road, #01-07, Fortune Centre
63361318
Open 12pm to 10pm
Closed on Mondays
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Zi Yean Restaurant
Zi Yean restaurant is the perfect place to hold a meeting, for my parents and Qin's. It's well priced, well located and serves good food at a good price. This restaurant is located at the void deck of a HDB block. No no no! Don't run away yet!
Its located at the void deck of a HDC block but it really looks like a restaurant! Thats quite a unique experience, if you think about it. Zi Yean stretches the whole void deck and is split into two parts; one part air conditioned and really resturant-looking, and the other un-air conditioned and kopitiam tze char-looking.
Okay, I didn't take pictures of the actual dishes though, as it was somehow like a formal dinner and it would look weird, plus rude, cause we're chinese.. I think, and it will definitely draw weird stares and ridicule from my grandma.. and others. So I took pics of the food on my plate! Hope that helps.
Now to the FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODAAA. The first dish was long beans with dried shrimps. It was really good. The beans were smaller and thinner than normal long beans and was really crunchy. It also wasn't too oily and the dried shrimps really gave it a good sweetness/saltiness and fragrance. Swee!, or Nice!
Next was the Empire Chicken which is chicken stuffed with preserved vegetables on a bed of chye sim. Mmmm, umami! The chicken was tender and stuffed with preserved vegetables which had the right bite consistency, not too hard or soft. The preserved vegetables were also not salty and soaked in the sauce very well. The sauce was nice and yummy and really nicely balanced.
The home made tofu came next. This was also nicely done with loads of spring onions on top. One thing about this Zi Yean is that their sauces are never bland.
The dog stew duck which was served in a claypot was supposed to be the highlight of the dinner and it didn't disappoint. The sauce is thick and rich and the taste was something I couldn't place. To put it simply, it was thick, more on the salty side and had a slight nutty taste with chinese wine in it. It is good but also very heaty so don't eat too much! In the claypot was also muchrooms and loads of tau kee.
The vegetables came next and looked.. funny. So I stared.. and stared and took a bite. Wah Lau eh! Shark fin?! I asked the lady to recommend one vegetable dish and she blabbered something in chinese and I, being the lousy-in-chinese guy, just said Er... can lar can lar and she gave me.. shark fin!? With vegetables nonetheless but still! [fuming mad] And it wasn't exceptional either.
The last dish was steamed grouper [I didn't take a picture] which was fresh and goooooood. The sauce was the same, usual light soy sauce etc, but the fish was well steamed.
And finally, Orh nee for dessert! Mwahaha! Thick, rich and gooey makes a bowl of yam paste sinfully good. Mmm, it was a little overly-sweet though but good nonetheless. I ain't complaining. I easily finished two bowls of this stuff.
Overall, I will recommend this place to friends. Its good and reasonably priced; considering we paid $230 for 11 people and we ordered 2 meat dishes, 1 fish, 1 vegetale dish, 2 big bowls of dessert and.. a plate of shark fin. Plus, the environment is nice and comfortable.
Address:
Lengkok Bahru
Block 56
Tel: 64740911
Opposite Redhill MRT Station
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Earth Day is everyday
Its Earth Day on 22nd April and we're late! With references to French Toast Girl, I proudly present you ways to save energy in and around your house and workplace.
1. Skip the drying cycle in the dishwasher and let the dishes air-dry.
2. Use lesser bags at the supermarket. We should all try to save the usage of plastic bags, especially NTUC which uses an indiscrimanate amount of plastic bags. Tell the cashier to use one bag instead of two! Thats the least we can do.
3. Plant something green. Plants reduce CO2 in the environment.
4. Go organic when you can. Follow the link on the left side of the blog to understand why.
5. Turn off the lights and other electronical items. I turn off everything, whenever we leave the room. It's a good habit to get into.
6. Teach your children well. Our kids are learning to respect the earth, share their resources, and learn more about the world around them.
7. Don't waste. Throw your bottles in the recycle bin or use less paper at the photocopier. Even wrongly photocopied paper can be reused as sketch sheets. Save our trees, there are not much left.
Respect the earth and save it before its too late. Money would be worth nothing when everything's gone.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Pancake Weekly #2
Whaaad? Has it been five days since my last post?! Oops, Okay I'm sooo sorry cause the past week had been nothing less than a whirlwind of events and a nuclear explosion in my tummy.
Why, you ask? Because my family was back in Singapore and I had the honor of filling their stomachs (and mine) with good ol Singapore food, to the verge that I'm quite sick of eating out now. Think about it, I finished 2 full tanks of petrol in a week just by travelling around and I gained an unwelcomed 3kg, most of which unceromoniously deposited on my waist. Sad but true.
So I'll definately be introducing a few restaurants over the next few days but for now, lets do a little catching up with pancake weekly alright?
Ham & Cheese! Boy, do they rhyme so well that it can be a brand name by itself.
Welcome to Ham & Cheese inc! We have ham & cheese hamburger, ham & cheese fries, ham & cheese sausages, ham & cheese hashbrowns, ham & cheese brownies... er... sundae ice creams... NEXT!
Mmmm! So Sammilicious! (so delicious~!) It's so tasty, tasty it'll make you crazy! T to da A to da S T E Y girl you tasty, T to da A to the S T E Y girl you tasty! [hands in the air and doing the hurley, yeah babey]
Something my girlfriend goes crazy for, fry some ham/bacon, slap on some cheese and fold them all up in a pancake. Shuuuuuuuuuuuweet! Or salty.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Fish soup for the soul
The sound of fish soup usually yield responses like "ewwwww", or "yuuuck", or "boooooooring!". I understand what you mean, because paying $3 for a bowl of plain MSG-laden soup with a few slices of fish and decorated with a few pieces of lettuce and tomatoes just looks downright well, not worthy of my money. When did lettuce and tomatoes make their way into fish soup anyway? They weren't there in the past and they certainly don't complement the soup in any way.
This fish soup I found at Long House Food Centre though, is different. Its soup is rich! Clear but rich. Slurping down the soup is like drinking some really tasty broth and they have added deep fried egg whites which give the soup extra richness with a very slight, subtle hint of eggi-ness. The bowl soup also contains blocks of tofu, a generous serving of chye sim and bitter gourd, a few pieces of tomatoes and seaweed which enhances the rich taste even further. I still don't stand by tomatoes but the chye sim and bitter gourd gives a nice side to the dish. Plus, they give a very generous portion of fish slices! All these for a reasonable $3.50.
They also have three kinds of chilli. The first is hei bi (dried shrimps) chilli for their handmade noodles, second is simply cut chilli padi in soy sauce and the third is blended chilli which I tried and is haaaaaaaute. The taste is good but don't dip too much because it is super hot!
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Saturday, April 14, 2007
Pancake Weekly #1
I've decided! Due to my undying love for min jiang kueh, I'm going to start a Pancake Weekly which will feature min jiang kueh or any other pancakes in different [read awesomely delectable] styles and fillings. Oh yes, please don't be turned off sometimes though, I have the knack to produce weird stuff. [Hai! Watashi Orihime san!] Oh yes, my brain churns out weird recipes and cravings which normal people [eg. you] find weird but weird people [eg. me] find normal. Geddit? I hooooooope so..
Alrighty folks, I hope you're not sick of min jiang kueh posts because heres another one [it doesn't really matter because I'm going to post them whether you like them or not mwahaha!] Min jiang kueh with caramelized baked banana kueh dadar style! Shuuuweeeeet I say. Ooo I see you babey! Shakin' that ass, shakin' that ass!
Oven-baked caramelized banana; soft, silky, warm, creamy inside without the unhealthy fat which comes with deep frying and wrapped with soft, spongy, awesomely good pancake. You bite into riiight, and you feel the soft banana-ey insides squirt out and next you start to taste the light yet tasty batter. Mmmm umamai.. Mmmm sedap! You see, good food can cross language barriers, like how superman can.. wear his underpants inside out! [Okay, that was lame and unrelated]
Heres how you do it, which you should because its good.
Simply wrap bananas (I like to use the small ones [not Del Monte] as they are much sweeter) in an aluminum foil and baked at 200 degrees for 10 minutes or till bananas are soft and mashy.
Carefully place them on the pancake which you should make thinner this time round, and fold the sides of the pancake inside. Next, fold the bottom up and roll. Its like making poh piah, if you still don't geddit, go order some poh piah and watch how they make it k?
Friday, April 13, 2007
Do you know the taste of heaven?!
I made min jiang kueh yesterday.
[enters state of nonsensical madness]
Oooooooooooh yesssssssssssssssss, min jiang kueeeeeeh. Mah salvation! Oooh the hunger, the joy, the sponginess, the taste! The.. the.. awesomeness. Oh yeah babey, this is what I call the haute-ness uh huh uh huh. I see you babey, shakin' that ass!
Aaaahahaha I'm crazy. Yeah I'm a crazy dude who have the hots for that hot mama [points above, and below, and above again.. and above and below] Oookay, I shouldn't do anymore posts on min jiang kueh. I can feel everyone closing this window, deleting their bookmarks.. BLOCKING THIS SITE! Nooooooooooooooooooooo!
But min jiang kueh is good! It makes you high without the need for estacy! That soft, spongy, porey pancake with the taste of sweet, baked flour and oooh, that fragrant goodness. [I really think this must be what its like to be in heaven] When you slap on some peanut butter, its goodness X 3. Slap on some kaya and O MY GAWD its like food porn woohoo!
Sorry, I shall stop now.
Recipe:
150g All Purpose/Self Raising flour
10g Tapioca/Potato flour
1 cup water
5 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
Instructions:
1. Mix well and heat non-stick pan on medium heat
2. Lightly oil pan and pour batter depending on how thick you want it to be (I personally use 2 ladle full for a 12 inch pan)
3. Cover the pan
4. Remove approximately 1-2 minutes or after pancake is fully cooked and bottom is lightly browned
5. Spread on kaya or peanut butter and grow some angel wings
6. Don't you know min jiang kueh gives you wings?
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Miss Clari-who?
It rained cats and dogs yesterday [not literally because that would be scary.. and freaky.. and kind of dangerous], which kinda spoiled our day since we decided to get off our butts and shop a little. So we ended going to Raffles City where we passed by the famous donut shop. And I HAVE to say, anyone queuing up for those donuts.. gotta be nuts. Look at the darn queue! Are any donuts THAT GOOD to command such a queue?!
Maybe yeah, but I wouldn't queue up for 2 hours for my favourite min jiang kueh.. [or maybe I wooould..] I'm quite amused at the insanity of people and the see-queue join-queue syndrome which is especially prominent here in Singapore. But who am I to say right? [Predicting the flight of many donuts to his face]
Raffles City has got quite a few new restaurants, none of which interested us so Miss Clarity it was! Previous good experiences led us there again and again but alas, this time they missed.
For one, the restaurant was quite deserted, considering they were just featured on a foodie TV show just the week before, something smells fishy.
I like the $3 add-on for set meals which can get you a salad/soup, drink and a dessert. Its really quite worth it. We had the escargot which I have never eaten in my entire life. Served on a bed of sea salt, it reeked strongly of butter and it was damn oily. I'm sure escargots taste good, if cooked correctly, but I plonked 1/2 into my mouth and I thought I was gonna get hypertension. Where did those snails come from, the Dead Sea?! It was seriously salty to the max and there wasn't much flavour in it.
I ordered chicken ballotine before and it was quite good so I had it again. This time though, it wasn't stuffed with shitake mushrooms which was such a disappointment. I feel cheated. The chicken was also overcooked and was baked to almost rock hard at the ends (imagine the mushroom turned crunchy and crispy) but the sauce was the same ol good sauce was goes well with the vegetables and meat and taste a little like braised sauce. Okaaaay, I suck at this. I'm sorry I failed all my compositions okay! Just kidding. MOVING ON!
The baked rice looked unappetizing the minute or second it landed on the table. The rice looked dry and there wasn't enough cheese and sauce. To give it credit, the rice had been fried with butter. The sauce, to put it frankly, tasted horrid and sourish and was just like canned tomato sauce. The chicken, although served a generous portion, wasn't that good and had the frozen chicken taste (read: not fresh). So BIG thumbs down for this dish.
Alas, the bread and butter pudding was still Miss Clarity's saving grace. Its heavenly and thats all the description you need [but you JUST want more don't you]. The bread is soft and soaked with some kind of altered carnation milk which isn't cloyingly sweet and has a subtle taste of cinnamon. throw in a few soaked, juicy raisins in it and you've got a damn good dessert. Its just soft, warm, sweetly soaked bread with raisins that just mushes in your mouth and releases the slight milky and cinnamon-ey flavour and slides down your throat into the dark abyss called your tummy. Good enough? I thought so.
Miss Clarity attracted us in the past because it served good food at reasonable prices. It USED to be cheap but after its prices increased, I don't find it particularly cheap compared to other restaurants. In order to get back its customers (namely us), it has to start working on the quality of its dishes and people (us again) will start coming back. So, till then, Adios!
Maybe yeah, but I wouldn't queue up for 2 hours for my favourite min jiang kueh.. [or maybe I wooould..] I'm quite amused at the insanity of people and the see-queue join-queue syndrome which is especially prominent here in Singapore. But who am I to say right? [Predicting the flight of many donuts to his face]
Raffles City has got quite a few new restaurants, none of which interested us so Miss Clarity it was! Previous good experiences led us there again and again but alas, this time they missed.
For one, the restaurant was quite deserted, considering they were just featured on a foodie TV show just the week before, something smells fishy.
I like the $3 add-on for set meals which can get you a salad/soup, drink and a dessert. Its really quite worth it. We had the escargot which I have never eaten in my entire life. Served on a bed of sea salt, it reeked strongly of butter and it was damn oily. I'm sure escargots taste good, if cooked correctly, but I plonked 1/2 into my mouth and I thought I was gonna get hypertension. Where did those snails come from, the Dead Sea?! It was seriously salty to the max and there wasn't much flavour in it.
I ordered chicken ballotine before and it was quite good so I had it again. This time though, it wasn't stuffed with shitake mushrooms which was such a disappointment. I feel cheated. The chicken was also overcooked and was baked to almost rock hard at the ends (imagine the mushroom turned crunchy and crispy) but the sauce was the same ol good sauce was goes well with the vegetables and meat and taste a little like braised sauce. Okaaaay, I suck at this. I'm sorry I failed all my compositions okay! Just kidding. MOVING ON!
The baked rice looked unappetizing the minute or second it landed on the table. The rice looked dry and there wasn't enough cheese and sauce. To give it credit, the rice had been fried with butter. The sauce, to put it frankly, tasted horrid and sourish and was just like canned tomato sauce. The chicken, although served a generous portion, wasn't that good and had the frozen chicken taste (read: not fresh). So BIG thumbs down for this dish.
Alas, the bread and butter pudding was still Miss Clarity's saving grace. Its heavenly and thats all the description you need [but you JUST want more don't you]. The bread is soft and soaked with some kind of altered carnation milk which isn't cloyingly sweet and has a subtle taste of cinnamon. throw in a few soaked, juicy raisins in it and you've got a damn good dessert. Its just soft, warm, sweetly soaked bread with raisins that just mushes in your mouth and releases the slight milky and cinnamon-ey flavour and slides down your throat into the dark abyss called your tummy. Good enough? I thought so.
Miss Clarity attracted us in the past because it served good food at reasonable prices. It USED to be cheap but after its prices increased, I don't find it particularly cheap compared to other restaurants. In order to get back its customers (namely us), it has to start working on the quality of its dishes and people (us again) will start coming back. So, till then, Adios!
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Glennan, my kind of girl
Potato chips are definately not for a health freak like me. Come to think about it, I haven't eaten any for years! They are deep fried in oil which has been reused for god knows how long, plus anything thats deep fried is NOT GOOD at all [Dad, if you're reading this, PLEASE TAKE NOTE!]. Its almost equivalent to trans fat and they promote your chances of getting heart disease and adding inches to your waistline.. your thighs.. a little cellulite perhaps.. Do I see something hanging underneath your chin there?
As an alternative I've tried baking potato chips, which often fail miserably. Plus, they still need oil, although lesser and I try to use olive oil. So I finally gave up on chips [Nooo dear Lord!]. Until.. I found Glennan! [Hallelujah!]
Glennan is you're typical girl-next-door kind of chick. She's sweet looking, got a killer smile and a pretty hot bod, except that I'm only fantasizing here. Glennan is actually a company which makes apple chips. [Whuuuut?] Yeah apple chips, you heard me right and BAKED not FRIED. That's what it says.
10 packets of apple crings equals one packet of chips! Go figure.
I LOVE THIS STUFF! It's made of 100% pure apples and yeah, you can pretty much read everything on the label and its only 16 calories! GAWD! 16 calories! [enters state of chips-eating frenzy]. And it tastes awesome! No sugar added but it's shuuuuuuweeeet! Sweet and slightly tart and crunchier than potato chips. [You lose this time fat-laden chips! Mwahaha!]
I'm telling ya, this thing is my salvation and my savior to my sweet tooth. In fact, I just ate two packets today morning.... and I hope Qin doesn't read this post. I tend to go overboard with healthy things. In fact, this morning I was starving and I ate 2 bananas, an avacado, a apple cinnamon rice cake, some rice milk [damn my dairy allergy] and two packets of apple chips. Isn't is good that healthy stuff don't give you love handles? Unfortunately they do Sam, if you eat too much.
So I bought this apple chips from Caltex at $1.20 per packet and I bought LOADS of them. Guess what? The distributor is in Canning Vale WA 6155. That's my poster code dammit! I'm gonna get this chips over in Perth as well, YAY!
Sigh, I just finished my pack of chips. Can't they like pack more into one packet?! Is that TOO MUCH to ask?! Darn..
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Duck soupie
Rocher Duck Rice is one duck rice stall I just HAVE to introduce to everyone. Now many people may slam me for this and some already did [eg. MY girlfriend, who INSISTS that their duck rice are nothing special and not even nice]. But shhhhhh, come in closer and I'll tell you a secret because the gem in this stall is not the duck rice, nor the duck meat, but the soup. [Aaaah, enlightenment!]
Frankly speaking, their duck rice is at most average and so is their duck meat and I wouldn't give a hoot about them if not for their soup, which is also coincidentally and thankfully available in a claypot duck version.
The soup is one of the best herbal soup I've ever drank; the second best coming from a damn good duck rice stall in Bukit Timah Plaza which I will cover in another post (hopefully, if I get the chance to go down there). The soup is really rich and full of herbal goodiness yet not to the point of being bitter at all. It's so concentrated with herbal essence (not the shampoo) that I think theres got to be a thousand herbs squeezed into the pot. Just kidding, I wouldn't drink it if it were a thousand.. or a hundred cause I'll probably splurt blood from my nose and die on the spot.
Back to the soup! Hey, this is soup is really good and I would gladly drink it on its own and dunk it in rice and slurp it up like porridge. Hey teochew duck porridge! Now thats an idea..
The meat though is a little on the tough side and nothing much to write about.
Oh yeah they have an assortment of side dishes too like tau kwa, kiam chye, pork intestines, pig skin, stir-fry cabbage and some other stuff.
The kiam chye was not bad but not exceptional and could be a little more sourish.
Heres a pic of the duck rice. Its funny too that their duck meat come in chunks rather than slices. The pig skin ordered by my friend is covered in a layer of fat which apparently is not very good for health.. and your waistline since it sends you into a state of jelly bellyness. Ya know.. jelly bellyness? [Just pretend that you know]
Okay! I can't believe that I wrote so much for a bowl of herbal soup from a duck rice stall, but I did. SO GO AND TRY IT NOW!
Address:
Rocher Duck Rice
[Shucks, I forgot to note the actual address but its directly opposite Concord hotel along Beach Road]
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